first amendment – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

“I Can’t Breathe”

David Posnett — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 02:56:16 +0000

“I Can’t Breathe”
The Murder of George Floyd

“The time for endless conversation has passed. We are a nation of differences and this is our greatest strength. It is a time for action in a way that cannot be ignored or denied.”

“I like millions of other Americans watched in horror as the life of George Floyd was taken from him and his loved ones. I watched as those sworn to protect stood idly by and ignored his desperate pleas that he could not breathe. The video depicts police brutality and those images are indelibly imprinted in my mind. The murder of George Floyd seen live by America is another dark episode in our nation’s longstanding history of systemic racism that is still alive and well in our society today.

I found hope and inspiration today in the words of President Obama who commented: It’s natural to wish for life “to just get back to normal” as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us. But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly “normal” — whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park.

This shouldn’t be “normal” in 2020 America. It can’t be “normal.” If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better. It will fall mainly on the officials of Minnesota to ensure that the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death are investigated thoroughly and that justice is ultimately done. But it falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station — including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day — to work together to create a “new normal” in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts.”

My hope was short-lived as I read the words of President Trump. With his usual lack of basic humanity, compassion, and understanding, and in keeping with his moronic tweets, he broadcast that the protesters in Minneapolis could be shot: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The Divider in Chief continues to divert attention from systematic racism in America, which he has done nothing to eradicate, and continues to try to shift the focus and blame on those victimized by it.

I in no way condone the violence and destruction that took place in Minneapolis and other cities after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. It does nothing to improve police behavior or help the African American community. It is impossible to justify, but for me as a Social Worker it is not impossible to understand or to predict. When peaceful protests fail to effectuate meaningful change and people of color continue to die at the hands of racists and police, we as a people cannot expect endless patience from the victims and the community.

The time for endless conversation has passed. We are a nation of differences and this is our greatest strength. It is a time for action in a way that cannot be ignored or denied. The problem is obvious and the solution in our hands. Your power as a voter can elect and hold responsible leaders who will be responsive to the communities they serve and can work toward implementing educational programs to teach our youngsters and adults to embrace our differences.

Trump and those who would hold us back rather than lifting us up must go. We must work together to make sure no person endures economic, healthcare, educational, criminal justice or any other inequity based upon their race. We must enlist men and women of every color and creed to serve together and fight together to ensure every American enjoys equal rights, liberty and opportunity. I firmly subscribe to Dr. King’s vision when he said, “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality” and I will fight with every fiber of my being until it is so.”

Laura Ahearn, STATE SENATE CANDIDATE (SD-1)

Protest in Commack drawing criticism

David Posnett — Sun, 31 May 2020 20:29:29 +0000

Some insightful letters to Newsday:

The behavior of a few unruly demonstrators at the recent Commack protest was shameful [“Trump cheers LI protesters,” News, May 17]. If these few were, say, 4% of the
demonstrators, the other 96% could have and should have shouted them down. That
small group was aggressive, inconsiderate of others, and shameful. They think guns
and shouting and flags and MAGA hats combine to show they are correct. Where were the others with similar opinions who could discredit the shameful actions of those few? Why aren’t President Donald Trump and Fox News condemning what those few did? I hope other readers will react the same way, and I hope Newsday publishes their condemnation of those few.
Jan Huml, Bohemia

Friends from out of state were calling me and asking what’s wrong with the people here who harassed a TV reporter at a rally in Commack. I’m embarrassed by the sheer ignorance and arrogance of these people who don’t care about the coronavirus or who dies from it. Salons, gyms and nonessential business closings were the only thing that kept this virus from even more tragic consequences. These screaming people need to get a clue. As for me, I don’t care if you’re not smart enough to do the right thing. Go catch
the virus but keep it in your own circle. You shouldn’t be allowed to spread it to those
of us who abide by the state mandates.
Carol Galati, Ridge

We read how President Donald Trump worked his magic and people who had apologized for their appalling behavior were suddenly not at all sorry. That’s the president’s special sauce -— bring out the worst in people. On May 15, Trump tweeted, “Fake news is not essential,” with a video retweet of the ‘Setauket Patriots’ protest. The next day, he
tweeted that the TV reporter was an “enemy of the people.” Although the group had
apologized two days before, blaming a “few idiots” and “outsiders unaffiliated with the group” for harassing him, once they got the presidential nod, they reverted back to form, tweeting, “Thank You President Trump.” In November, it’s up to us to send Trump and his enablers packing.
Carol Deistler, Springs

The protesters who want to rush into opening Long Island with no precautions are like Typhoid Mary, who argued she should be free to live her life even if she infected others because she wasn’t sick herself [“We’re all Typhoid Mary now,” News, May 17]. We all want to resume a normal life, but most of us want to proceed with caution to lower the risk for the vulnerable. You can’t do that if you have a herd of people who don’t care if they are infected or if they infect others. Some, egged on by the Rush Limbaughs of the world, think it is no big deal if we cull the herd of the elderly, the sick and the poor. I am
most appalled by those protesters who call themselves Christians. Jesus did not tell his followers to turn their backs on the vulnerable. It is the exact opposite of what he said.
Bill Bence, East Meadow

Newsday’s editorial about the protesters who harassed that News 12 reporter got me
angry all over again [“Protesters behaving badly,” May 19]. To me, this small band of
haters in no way represents the larger majority of Long Islanders, and yet we now
seem to be singled out by President Donald Trump as being his supporters. I’m even
more upset by my local Republican representatives who now choose to just stand by
and do nothing to admonish the president or the protesters for their actions. I need to
remind them that we, the voting public, have very long memories and come November
will hold them accountable for their actions. I was and had been a conservative
Republican for 50 years — but not anymore.
Frank Socci, West Babylon

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in “Trump cheers LI protesters” [News,
May 17], responding to the president’s tweets, that he did not want “to get into any
kind of back and forth on what the president may be saying.” We understand Bellone’s
position as a politician in a county hard hit by COVID-19. President Donald Trump’s remarks aren’t overtly subversive, but I see them that way. He is really calling those who harassed News 12 Long Island reporter Kevin Vesey “great people,” showing Trump supports a fanatical base, the more fanatical the better. When he tweets, “Fake news is not essential,” he shows he understands the power of a free press and will actively undermine it at every turn. We must conclude that his concept of governing is antithetical to our representative, democratic ideals. I have only one question: President Trump, have you read the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to peaceably assemble — and a free press? It’s only 45 words, Mr. President, and it’s a good read.
Katherine Curcio-Payne, Seaford

A Night at the Garden

David Posnett — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 02:33:35 +0000

Trump demonstrates how to deal with a protester at a rally:

Click here to see the video: https://twitter.com/johnpavlovitz/status/1204566486163087360?s=20

Then take a look at this video from 1939: A Night at the Garden (an American Nazi gathering). Note the similar treatment of the protester!

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/542499/marshall-curry-nazi-rally-madison-square-garden-1939/

Bravo East Hampton Star!

David Posnett — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:27:51 +0000

Reprinted verbatim from: https://www.easthamptonstar.com/20191010/shrinking-congressman

This is gutsy. And overdue.

Shrinking Congressman

By Star Staff

October 10, 2019

Here we go again. Representative Lee Zeldin is out front in his support of President Trump, dismissing as phony a serious impeachment inquiry based on credible allegations.

If there is one skill Mr. Zeldin has mastered it is disingenuousness. It is one thing to be partisan. It is another to be so cut off from a sense of right and wrong that he and other outspoken Trump faithful are willing to risk their life’s work and reputation when the facts, at a minimum, demand caution. For Mr. Zeldin there is no middle ground. From the earliest days of the 2016 campaign, Trump was his man, and there has been no going back.

Mr. Zeldin has lashed himself to the mast of the 45th president’s ship come hell or high water. He has never been interested in reflecting the views of a district with wildly diverse opinions. His so-called public appearances have been only in front of friendly audiences, and any give and take with constituents is rarely conducted in the open.

The congressman’s most recent question and answer session was at the annual legislative breakfast of the Suffolk American Legion, an organization that would not have welcomed dissident voices had they tried to be heard. In August, Mr. Zeldin spoke at a Patchogue Chamber of Commerce meeting. His mobile office hours and “Coffee With the Congressman” sessions are carefully managed by his staff. Visits to street fairs and other public events are never announced in advance, nor is it obvious how someone might sign up for “Lunch With Lee”; the last held anywhere near here was at Digger’s Ales and Eats in Riverhead. Nor does he or his staff make any noticeable attempt to reach out to the district’s large Spanish-speaking population. Make note, too, that since he went to Washington he has been on cable television far more than he has been in East Hampton Town.

Had Mr. Zeldin made it out of the air-conditioned comfort of his jet-black sport-utility vehicle and actually taken the pulse of constituents regarding the president’s conduct, he might have a more measured tone. In repeating the White House’s talking points in defense of the president word for word, he makes it clear he values party loyalty over duty to country. A real representative of the divergent views of this district would have reserved judgment until fully reviewing the inquiry’s facts and testimony. Had Mr. Zeldin actually been out and about he might know this.

Trump’s Use of ‘Nationalist’

David Posnett — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 18:46:50 +0000

LTE in the New York Times from my neighbor (!)

A reader says the president is “rolling out the dog whistles.” Oct. 25, 2018

CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

To the Editor:

“‘You Know What I Am? I’m a Nationalist’” (news article, Oct. 24) was sobering. We see that President Trump has enthusiastically embraced words and ideas such as the slogan “America First,” which was used by the isolationists and Nazi sympathizers before World War II, to describe his foreign policy.

He repeatedly calls some journalists the “enemy of the people” despite the association with Stalin’s mass murders.

We need to counterpunch as aggressively as this pugilistic president does. He is coddling up to dictators today and reviving the tactics of dictators from the past. He is pitting people against one another and rolling out the dog whistles.

The time has passed for us to shrug our shoulders and just dismiss the rhetoric as drumming up his base. We must pay heed.

Steven A. Ludsin, East Hampton, NY

…and Lee Zeldin? Complicit. So sad. David Posnett MD

Zeldin’s ‘Kick Out’ Rally

David Posnett — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 14:16:25 +0000

After all, Zeldin’s rally wasn’t a ‘Kick Off’ but in stead, a ‘Kick Out’ rally. Who better to comment as Karl Grossman, in the Riverhead Local:

https://riverheadlocal.com/2018/07/29/assault-on-the-press-hits-close-to-home/

Karl Grossman

Karl is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. Karl lives in Sag Harbor. Email Karl

He writes:

“It was an unprecedented incident in Suffolk County history — two journalists were kicked out of a political rally. It happened last month at a “kickoff” rally for Congressman Lee Zeldin whose district includes Riverhead and the other five East End towns, all of Brookhaven, a slice of Islip and most of Smithtown.

As Pat Biancaniello, editor of Smithtown Matters, one of the journalists kicked out of the rally, wrote in an editorial: “Last night I was ejected from the Lee Zeldin kick-off rally which I was invited to, without cause. Yes, I was invited to attend the rally by the Zeldin campaign and was credentialed by the Zeldin campaign. Upon arrival I was told to go anywhere I wanted to take photos, again by the Zeldin campaign. I stood in the same spot, with my credentials plainly in sight, for roughly an hour and a half before, out of the blue, I was told to leave without an explanation.”

Biancaniello continued: “I was forced to climb over a rope to get to the path leading to a door—(one woman sneered and said ‘bye bye’ as I walked past). Once out the door and in a backyard area, I was mocked by a group of people. A man upset that I was taking photos smacked my camera and I was told by security to leave the Elks Club premises. All the while I was wearing the press badge supplied by the Zeldin campaign and telling everyone I was an invited press person.”

As David Ambro, managing editor of The Smithtown News, wrote in an article: “Without provocation, without just cause, and without a word of explanation, the campaign staff of Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) threw me and a fellow journalist out of his campaign kickoff at the Elks Club on Edgewood Avenue in Smithtown Thursday, June 28. It was the first time in my 40-year career as a journalist that I have ever been thrown out of anything. I didn’t like it.”

“I saw a tweet that said we had been thrown out of a ‘white supremacist fest,’” Ambro went on, “a reference, I suppose, to one of the Zeldin-rally speakers, Sebastian Gorka, who Democrats charge is a ‘Nazi sympathizer.’ I’ve covered a white supremacist rally before — a cross-burning during a brief Suffolk uprising of the KKK in 1998 — and that’s not what this was. I will say, though, that being thrown out was arbitrary and capricious, overbearing and intimidating.”

Ambro declared: “It put us in a precarious situation, singled out in a crowd that was revved up to a fevered pitch by the rhetoric of the speakers and at a time when the president they idolize has declared the media to be ‘an enemy of the people.’ And, in the aftermath, the response by Rep. Zeldin and his campaign was in bad taste.”

The Press Club of Long Island issued a statement last week on what happened in which its board of directors stated: “When reached by the Press Club, Zeldin said in an email: ‘As Americans, we cherish our Constitution, freedoms and liberties, and that includes our sacred First Amendment protecting freedom of the press.’”

“The press,” said PCLI, a chapter (one of the biggest) of the national Society of Professional Journalists, “serves an important role to keep Americans informed of facts that allow us to form our own independent judgement on matters before our community, nation and world. The congressman, who was reportedly not present when the journalists were removed, said Biancaniello and Ambro were confused as protesters, and he invited them back to his events.”

PCLI continued: “While we appreciate Zeldin’s apology and strong statement on the press, we do not believe Biancaniello and Ambro should have been removed from the event in the first place. We see this most recent incident as part of a larger pattern of mistreatment of the press. The Trump administration set the stage in February 2017 when then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer excluded The New York Times, CNN, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed from a press briefing. Around the same time, President Trump began calling the press the ‘enemy of the people.’ It was a phrase often used in the past by communist dictators to refer to dissidents, or political opponents. Trump has repeatedly employed the term to speak of hard-working journalists simply doing their jobs…As a nation, we must afford journalists the protections that we have from the time of our founding, thus allowing them to reveal important truths.”

I am proud that the Press Club of Long Island reacted quickly and strongly to what happened — and proud of the two Suffolk journalists who were put upon.

I founded PCLI in 1974. I was sitting at my desk at the daily Long Island Press reading a story about a reporter jailed for not divulging a source. My recollection is that this occurred in Maryland. I arranged for a gathering of Long Island journalists to form an organization to challenge this kind of thing. At the meeting I was elected president of the club.

Through the years PCLI has taken on various government officials on Long Island for not complying with the Freedom of Information Law and similar behavior — but journalists getting kicked out of a political rally here, this is new — and intolerable. The assault on the media that is underway today in the U.S., led by Donald Trump, is an attack on the U.S. democratic process. It is not acceptable in the U.S.— and on Long Island.”

Press Ejected at Zeldin Kickoff Event!

David Posnett — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 13:30:30 +0000

Editorial – Getting Ejected At Zeldin Kick-Off from Smithtown Matters

I am at a loss for words. Last night I was ejected from the Lee Zeldin kick-off rally, which I WAS INVITED TO, without cause. Yes, I was invited to attend the rally by the Zeldin Campaign and was credentialed by the Zeldin Campaign. Upon arrival I was told to go anywhere I wanted to take photos, again by the Zeldin campaign. I stood in the same spot, with my credentials plainly in sight, for roughly an hour and a half before, out of the blue, I was told to leave… without an explanation. I was forced to climb over a rope to get to the path leading to a door (one woman sneered and said “bye bye” as I walked past). Once out the door and in a back yard area, I was mocked by a group of people. A man upset that I was taking photos smacked my camera and I was told by security to leave the Elks Club premises. All while I was wearing the press badge supplied by the Zeldin campaign and telling everyone I was an invited press person.

I am confident that my behavior was professional. This was not a ‘question and answer’ press event. The press was there as observers. I took photos, and for approximately one and a half hours I listened to guest speakers talk about Lee Zeldin and their impression of his work ethic, his belief in America and his relationship with Donald Trump. This was a rally for supporters meant to energize, create positive thoughts and a “can do” attitude about this candidate.

Here’s what the speakers didn’t say, and you should now know about Lee Zeldin. He, through his staff, will discriminate, try to embarrass, and arbitrarily have the invited press removed without benefit of an explanation and without cause. Another thing the speakers didn’t mention about Lee Zeldin was that his love of country falls short of the 1st Amendment rights of free speech or free press. Was the Press being invited to cover his event and then being ejected, (David Ambro of The Smithtown News was also ejected), for the purpose of showing his disregard for the work journalists do? Was it intended as a preemptive strike against future work? This behavior was an attempt to taint the belief in journalist objectivity – after all, he can say that he had to have the Press ejected. Imagine a news article written about Lee Zeldin now… imagine how the story is perceived by someone who learns that the writer was thrown out of his kick-off rally. Will the writer be seen as a fair source of information?

These are challenging times. Elected officials are taking unique steps to quiet the voices of those who challenge or question them. For our democracy to flourish a strong press is necessary. I will continue to do all I can to maintain a high ethical standard and I call on you to push back on abuses like this.

Pat Biancaniello and this is Smithtown Matters

Friday, June 29, 2018 at 12:44PM

Response from Perry Gershon:

June 29 at 9:30 PM ·

Free press is a quintessential part of our democracy. That’s why I was shocked to hear the reports of a credentialed local journalist being kicked out of Zeldin‘s fundaiser in Smithtown last night. It appears Lee Zeldin is doing everything he can to emulate President Trump’s demonization of the press. Is this tactic now going to be a part of Zeldin’s playbook?

The voters of NY01 deserve a campaign that focuses on the issues that matter to Long Islanders – healthcare, the environment, gun safety and jobs. The role of the Press needs to be respected for this discussion to take place. Here is the link to the Editorial from Smithtown Matters: http://www.smithtownmatters.com/…/editorial-getting-ejected…d

And then there is this from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right provocateur, tells reporters he hopes angry conservatives start assassinating them, and the alt-right ’14/88ers’ love the idea.*

Apparently, Milo Yiannopoulos didn’t get the memo about the need for civility in our discourse.

“I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight,” the far-right provocateur texted a reporter for the New York Observer this week. When the reporter inquired further, Yiannopoulos explained that he had simply issued his “standard response to a request for a comment.”

Lee Zeldin invites these guys as the honor guests to his fund raisers. Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka. Perhaps Milo Yiannopoulos will be next?

Does it feel like 1933? Yet?

*if you are wondering (like I was) what 88ers are, 88 stands for HH (or Heil Hitler), H being the 8th letter in the alphabet.

Remembering Julie Hilden

David Posnett — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:39:08 +0000

A nice tribute to a First Amendment warrior

MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018

by Michael Dorf

Julie Hilden — lawyer, author, and editor — passed away on Saturday. She was my friend for over 30 years. Julie combined a fierce intelligence with incredible kindness. Her work was brutally self-critical even as she was extraordinarily generous to others. I’ll try to paint a picture of her life and work, but this is also a personal remembrance.

I first met Julie in college on the debate team. She was good at it, but debating wasn’t really Julie’s calling. She was more interested in following ideas wherever they led than in taking a side and sticking with it. She was also the sort of person who liked to work through her ideas on the page. Don’t get me wrong. Julie was a terrific debater. It’s just that she seemed less intense about it than most of the rest of us–which, from the vantage of middle age, looks like a virtue.

Perhaps Julie’s intellectual openness and curiosity explain why, after law school, she was drawn to First Amendment work. She was in some ways a conventional free speech libertarian. She was skeptical of rationales for imposing sanctions on speakers, because she worried about line drawing by the government.

However, Julie’s free speech libertarianism was neither absolute nor automatic. Running throughout her numerous columns on free speech (archived here) one finds a focus on what my colleague Steve Shiffrin has argued ought to be the central concern of free speech doctrine: dissent. Julie was especially interested in protecting the free speech of relatively powerless dissenters, as in this column in which she argued that a high school cheerleader ought to have the right not to cheer for a player who she says assaulted her. More broadly, Julie often sided with student activists. Always still a kid at heart, I think she identified with them.

Although Julie made frequent reference to Supreme Court doctrine in her free speech writing, she did not follow it blindly. For example, she praised Justice Alito’s solo dissent in United States v. Stevens. There, the majority struck down a law that criminalized depictions of cruelty to animals. Julie thought Justice Alito had the better argument, partly because of some technical concerns about the difference between as-applied and facial challenges, but especially because she thought the existing categorical exceptions to free speech were less justifiable than the one on offer by the government. As she wrote, contrasting the recognized exceptions for obscenity, defamation, and fraud with the rejected category of depictions of animal cruelty:

obscenity’s only conceivable harm to the viewer is psychological and temporary; the viewer can quickly turn away. Defamation harms reputation, but the target always has the power to reply – either in civil court, while seeking money damages, or in the press or, increasingly, via the Internet. And the victim of fraud can generally be made whole with money, in civil court.

In contrast, the cruel murder of an animal effects damage that is permanent, ineradicable, and uncompensable. Nothing can truly remedy what has occurred, for the pain has been suffered; the death has occurred. There is no justice for the animal, except perhaps in the criminal prosecution of the perpetrator – but unlike a person who is being murdered, an animal does not even have the comfort of knowing that he may die, but at least justice will eventually be done.

And, Julie continued, the government has a sound rationale for banning the depictions of animal cruelty because the sale of such depictions drives their production–the same rationale that the Court has said justifies bans on child pornography.

Julie’s compassion for non-human animals permeated her life. She and her partner Stephen adopted an older dog from a shelter because they thought he wouldn’t otherwise find a home. Julie became a vegan and used her voice to advocate for the voiceless–as always firmly but gently. I’m going to make a donation in Julie’s memory to The Gentle Barn, a farm animal sanctuary she loved. If I weren’t already a vegan myself, I’d take the 30-day vegan challenge. I recommend it to anyone looking for a way to honor Julie’s memory. It’s hard to know what causes what, but I think that editing Sherry Colb’s columns over the years–many of them on animal rights themes–awakened Julie to the plight of non-human animals as a justice issue. I’d like to think that I played a small role in that process too, although I wrote and write less frequently on animal rights.

Julie edited all of us on FindLaw’s Writ, and then after FindLaw decided to go in a different direction, she was instrumental in moving us en masse to Verdict on Justia. I have been in close touch with my fellow columnists in the last several days. To a person, we were and are deeply affected by Julie’s life and death.

Julie was my friend before she was my editor, but that didn’t stop her from gutting my writing when it needed gutting. To this day, I somewhat ashamedly recall that I didn’t actually write what I regard as the best line I ever wrote. It was in a column about the San Remo case in the Supreme Court. A federal judge told a plaintiff to take its case to state court for the adjudication of a tricky state law claim and then come back to federal court afterwards. When the plaintiff did that, the federal court said that going to state court forfeited the claim. The Supreme Court agreed. I wrote that this was unfair. Julie improved my flat prose immeasurably. She crossed out what I had written and substituted: “If the case were a banana, it would have gone from green to rotten–with no time at which it could be deemed edible.”

Julie’s first love was literature. She always had interesting off-beat suggestions for what to read. After a few years as a practicing lawyer, she decided to take a crack at writing full-time. She was already highly credentialed as a Harvard College and Yale Law School graduate, but she felt untrained, so she applied to and then attended Cornell’s MFA program. Out of that came what was first a novel that Julie converted into a memoir by stripping out a fictional plot and leaving in the autobiographical material. The Bad Daughter is an elegant, searing book that was a revelation to those of us who thought we knew Julie.

Julie called herself a bad daughter because, when her mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, she did not drop her career to care for her. Given the nature of the relationship and behavior that preceded the diagnosis, “bad” was grossly unfair. I now think–indeed the book pretty clearly suggests–that Julie was in denial about what her mother’s disease said about her mother’s past behavior towards Julie and, more ominously, what it portended for Julie’s own future. Denial strikes me as a perfectly sensible reaction to the knowledge that a time bomb is ticking inside you–for Julie and, in a real sense, for all of us.

The Bad Daughter also chronicled Julie’s infidelities and sex life more broadly as of the time she wrote the book. She expressed a kind of guilt about the infidelities but not about the sex. Roughly contemporaneous with the run of Sex and the City, Julie’s chronicle of her own adventures as a young single female professional in NYC was both more interesting and more nuanced. She had a feminist sex-positive attitude, but not one that precluded her seeing her inability to sustain a committed relationship as undermining her own life satisfaction. She expressed the same complex feminist erotic sensibility in her novel Three. It’s dark but not a morality tale in any conventional way.

Julie also wrote a book that I confess not to have read yet, The Film Student and Me. We would be better off if we had still more books by Julie. The main reason we don’t, I think, is that after she met Stephen she was just too damned happy with their life together in Venice, California. She was emotionally and intellectually stimulated, but life gave her fewer difficult moments to turn into literature. It’s a tradeoff I don’t begrudge her. I just wish Julie had the good fortune to enjoy the life she deserved for another four or five decades.

Zeldin’s Friend Steve Bannon

David Posnett — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:36:31 +0000

You Are the Company You Keep! “Personal branding is the name of the game these days, and in our age of radical transparency it is informed not just by how you present yourself but also by the people you associate with“. So writes Marian Salzman , Contributor to Forbes. I doubt many would disagree.

Let’s examine Rep. Lee Zeldin of NY Congressional District-1. He has associated himself with Steve Bannon of Breitbart fame. Bannon recently headlined a Zeldin fundraiser in New York City and this has not gone un-noticed! Zeldin has excused Bannon noting that Bannon “gets a bad rap” and is not anti-semitic, but a “friend of Israel”. You can check out the story via various local outlets:

in the East Hampton Star
in Newsday

Dan Rattiner writes in Dan’s papers: “For those that have been living under a rock, Steve Bannon is the chief of Breitbart News, one of the most right-wing, fake-news, dangerous organizations imaginable. His “news” celebrates the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Semites, the wildest of the redneck bigots and the neo-Nazis. If he had his way, Bannon would surely consider the likes of me, a member of the media, as someone who belongs in jail. He is a clear and present danger to the American democracy we all hold so dear.”

But what I would like to do here is expose Bannon. His tactics are devious. He avoids leaving a personal trail of antisemitic or hateful comments. In stead he hires writers for Breitbart News, his Alt-right platform. They then write inflammatory commentaries based on their neo-nazi sources, and an army of alt-right followers and nut-cases leave the most awful and hateful comments. So, lets examine the specifics. They need to be public to expose Mr. Zeldin and the company he keeps.

Breitbart Under Bannon: Breitbart’s Comments Section Reflects Alt-Right, Anti-Semitic Language as exposed by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center). Bannon turned the comment section into “a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”

POLITICO reported, “Bannon said the best things about Breitbart are the comments section and the callers.”

Here is a list of Breitbart contributors, who they are and what they do. It is based on reporting by Breitbart Truth, It covers White Nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists at Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News. This is a great source (screenshots from FB and Twitter etc. )

The Breitbart journalists featured here have collectively written over 17,000 articles for Breitbart since 2010.

Click here and see more! Specially if you want to check the screen shots of tweets and pictures! (The material was too much to include in this post)

Charles Johnson, Breitbart US writer, CJ has written nearly 300 articles for Breitbart between 2010 and 2013. On January 9th, 2017, Forbes.com staff reported that CJ was helping to select Trump administration officials during the Presidential transition. On January 27th, 2017, CJ self described himself as a fascist in a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything. A Holocaust denier, Charles went on the self-described fascist podcast “Fash the Nation” where he talked about the genetic IQ inferiority of blacks and how Jews should not be able to hold top positions.
Milo Yiannopolous, Breitbart US writer: Milo was a senior editor at Breitbart US, and wrote 400+ articles for Breitbart between 2014 and 2017. In leaked emails, Milo praised a Neo-Nazi staff member of the Nazi website The Daily Stormer. Milo said: “He’s one of the funniest, smartest and most interesting people I know.” He also befriended white supremacist Devin Saucier and hired white nationalist Tim Gionet. In emails with Devin Saucier, Milo said he was “easing everyone in gently” to the racial IQ superiority ideas that Saucier supports. In April 2016, he sang for a Neo-Nazi gathering in Dallas, Texas. White nationalist Richard Spencer can be seen in the video.
Jack Hadfield, Breitbart US writer. …frequent Breitbart contributor JH acts as an administrator of the right-wing “free speech” Facebook group the Young Right Society (YRS), which is frequently awash with appalling racist and ‘alt-right’ content. Hadfield has authored over 200 articles for the far-right news outlet Breitbart, itself accused of pandering to the white nationalist alt-right.
Membership of the secret group has included open fascists and nazis, well-known alt-right figures such as Scottish blogger Colin Robertson (aka Millennial Woes), alongside Conservative Party activists and UKIP youth leader Jamie Ross McKenzie. …Hadfield also posted the work of Italian “traditionalist” philosopher Julius Evola, who idolised Hitler’s murderous SS and was admired by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, with the caption “Got me some good new summer reading”. The book was published by Arktos, the central publisher of the racist alt-right.
PJ Salvatore, Breitbart US writer. Twitter handle: @PortosJ81J. Salvatore has written over 750 articles for Breitbart between 2010 and 2012. As of 12-2-17, PJ has deleted nearly all of his Tweets and has removed nearly all of the accounts he Followed, like @DegeneracyKills @DereksCorpse

Virginia Hale, Breitbart London. @Virgehall. Hale has written over 300 articles for Breitbart since December 2014. Hale is currently writing articles at Breitbart London. Virginia Hale “liked” a tweet from @ShabbosShekels (aka FashyGoy). “Fash” means fascist in far right circles, and “goy” is a non-Jew in Yiddish. Followed and communicated with Julius Ebola, white nationalist Twitter user, as well as white nationalists Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach. She also follows Wagner C. Soto. You can read more about Virginia Hale’s views at Media Matters. Update (April 2017): Virginia Hale deactivated her Twitter account sometime in March of 2017, but continues to write for Breitbart London.
John Binder, Breitbart US writer. @Jxhnbider.He has written nearly 300 articles for Breitbart since August 2016. Follows Paul Town, Baked Alaska, InfoWars. Also follows Peter Brimelow, white nationalist who gives speeches for white nationalist groups National Policy Institute and American Renaissance. Follows Based Monitored, Blaqpilled Victor, Brittany Pettibone, Ricky Vaughn, and Brannon. All followers/retweeters of white nationalists. Retweets WND, a conspiracy theorist website, VDare and Vegas4Trump, a self described white nationalist.
Nick Hallett (@NickJhallett) Breitbart London writer. He has written nearly 2,000 articles for Breitbart since February 2014. Nick follows Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson. Infowars believes 9/11 was performed by the US government (inside job), and that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
Nick also follows @ReactionaryTree (aka TrumpenReich Tree)
Ezra Dulis, Breitbart US writer. @ezradulis Ezra has written about 300 articles for Breitbart since 2010. Ezra follows self described “American Nationalist” @RopePusher777 who retweets InfoWars, the 9/11 conspiracy website that says the US government performed 9/11 and killed 3,000 of its own citizens. Ezra follows and communicates with “Saul Townstein“ whose real name is Paul Town. Paul Town’s website, PaulTown.com, has a sidebar that invites people to visit American Renaissance website, a white nationalist group, and Daily Stormer, a neo-nazi group, and Fash, the Nation.com, a white nationalist website and podcast.
Christian Toto, Breitbart US writer. @HollywoodinToto. Mr. Toto has written nearly 3,000 articles for Breitbart since 2009. Mr. Toto follows Mark Dice, Illuminati/NWO conspiracy theorist. And also follows @kaleriley, who believes in the PizzaGate conspiracy theory and that Kanye West is fighting the Illuminati.
Donna Rachel Edmunds (@Donna_R_E). Breitbart London writer. Donna has written nearly 2,000 articles for Breitbart since May 2014. Follows Alex Jones (Info Wars), Info Wars main account, and Paul Watson (Info Wars). Info Wars is a conspiracy website that believes 9/11 was an inside job where the US government killed 3,000 of its own citizens. Also follows @ThaRightStuff, a self described fascist who runs http://www.Rightstuf.biz.
John Nolte, Breitbart US writer. @NolteNC. He has written nearly 6,500 articles for Breitbart since 2009. Nolte follows @velow1 who describes himself as a pro-white nationalist. He also follows “Resist Tyranny” who tweets Muslim American conspiracy theories and also follows “Fash” who tweets Infowars.
Lucas Nolan, Breitbart USA writer.@Lucasnolan_. He has written nearly 270 articles for Breitbart since June 2016. He follows InfoWars. Follows MissPatriarch (aka Becky), who is pro-Assad, pro-RT.com, and pro-white nationalism. Also follows and communicates with Paul Town, white nationalist who runs a website linking to Daily Stormer and Fash the Nation.
Katie McHugh, Breitbart US writer. @k_mcq. She has written more than 500 articles for Breitbart since 2014. She communicates with Paul Town (link 1, link 2) and Richard Spencer supporter @ReactionaryTree (link). Screencapped on 1-12-17. Here, Katie McHugh “likes” a Vdare tweet about John Derbyshire. Derbyshire was fired from the conservative journal National Review after he wrote the following:

“The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black.

(9) A small cohort of blacks—in my experience, around five percent—is ferociously hostile to whites and will go to great lengths to inconvenience or harm us. A much larger cohort of blacks—around half—will go along passively if the five percent take leadership in some event. They will do this out of racial solidarity, the natural willingness of most human beings to be led, and a vague feeling that whites have it coming.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date.
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.”

Source for quotes.

Derbyshire was positively mentioned by Breitbart here
As mentioned above, Vdare hosts white supremacist articles.

Dustin Stockton, Breitbart US writer, @DustinStockton. He has written nearly 150 articles for Breitbart since August 2015. Dustin follows, retweets, and tweets Based Alaska (@bakedalaska), who retweets Paul Town, InfoWars, RightStuff, and Richard Spencer. Dustin also retweets Mike Cernovich (“diversity is code for white genocide” link) and Mark Dice (NWO/Illumunati conspiracist)

Neil McCabe, Breitbart US writer. @NeilWmccabe. He has written nearly 400 articles for Breitbart since June 2016. Neil follows Irma Hinjosa who posts birther conspiracy theories. And Neil retweets InfoWars’ Paul Watson. InfoWars is a conspiracy site that believes 9/11 was done by the US government against its own citizens. Neil retweets Russia Today (RT.com) articles (RT is Russian government propaganda).
Matthew Boyle, Breitbart US writer. @mboyle. Matt has written nearly 2,500 articles for Breitbart since 2012. Mr. Boyle retweets VDARE tweets.Here are some excerpts of VDARE’s work:“America was defined — almost explicitly, sometimes very explicitly — as a white nation, for white people, and what that means is that there is virtually no figure, no law, no policy, no event in the history of the old, white America that can survive the transition to the new and non-white version. Whether we will want to call the new updated version ‘America’ at all is another question entirely.”— Sam Francis, VDARE.com, July 21, 2003“What race realists find most infuriating about the liberalism of the last half-century is not just that it has lost its instinctive appreciation for the culture and people of the West but actively, viciously attacks them. Whites are doing something no other people have ever done in human history. Our rulers and elites welcome replacement by aliens, they vilify our ancestors and their own, they sacrifice our interests to those of favored minorities, and they treat the entire history of the West as if it were a global plague of rapine and exploitation. This is a disease that is killing us, and we must fight it head on.”Jared Taylor, VDARE.com, July 4, 2008

Lee Stranahan, Breitbart US writer. @Stranaha. He has written nearly 900 articles for Breitbart since 2010. Lee follows Haley Claus. also follows Westleigh, and Infowars, also follows Jeremy Nolt, more Infowars / RT connections. Infowars is a conspiracy website that believes 9/11 was a US government attack on its own citizens. RT (Russia Today) is a Russian government propaganda website.

Chris Tomlinson. Chris is a writer at Breitbart London. He has written over 660 articles for Breitbart since January 2016. He follows multiple “Identitarian” Twitter users. Identitarians are far-right activists similar to white nationalists.

Brandon Darby, Breitbart Texas Editor-in-Chief. @Brandondarby. He has written nearly 500 articles for Breitbart since 2010.Brandon follows John Blake, who retweets self described fascist @TheRightStuf, a self described fascist who runs www.Rightstuf.biz.

ASK YOURSELF: Do President Trump and Lee ZELDIN know that Steve Bannon hired multiple white nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists? And that Breitbart News still employs them? Do right-wing media outlets like FOX News know of Bannon’s links to white nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists, but choose to ignore the issue?

Here is an interesting article on Breitbart, racists and the dirty work of laundering the ‘alt-right’. I quote from this article: “the more apparent portrait is of a budding media empire that seems intent on growing its own market share, and political power, by courting some of the coarser and most hateful elements on the American right — or turning a blind eye to the staffers doing the dirty work. It shows its one-time star [Milo Yiannopolous] literally seeking the approval of the farthest of the far right, even as he and they agree that Breitbart risks too much in acknowledging their influence…. That was the conclusion conservative blogger Ben Shapiro reached when he resigned from Breitbart in March 2016.”

And what happened to Ben Shapiro after he left Breitbart? It is a messy story! I quote:

…since his resignation from Breitbart in March, Shapiro, currently editor-in-chief of Daily Wire, has increasingly found himself targeted by the so-called alt-right movement…Breitbart published a piece by an alt-right Twitter personality known as “Pizza Party Ben” …that consisted mostly of a video mocking Shapiro for having complained about anti-Semitism, the alt-right, and Trump…

The nadir came a couple of weeks ago, though, when Shapiro’s wife gave birth to the couple’s second child. As the Daily Wire noted, Shapiro was hit with a wave of vicious anti-Semitic abuse, including multiple Holocaust references and requests that Shapiro and his family be sent to the ovens.

Breitbart News is “the platform for the alt-right,” boasts Stephen Bannon as per MotherJones.

I ask Lee Zeldin, is this the kind of personal brand you want?

Hatemongers without the Robes and Hoods

David Posnett — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 18:31:23 +0000

Letter from Richard Cohen, President, Southern Poverty Law Center

(Photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)Donald Trump addresses the 2017 Values Voter Summit in Washington, October 13, 2017.

As expected, the annual “Values Voter Summit” in Washington this past weekend featured a rogue’s gallery of far-right extremists.

But something extraordinary happened this year.

For the first time ever, a sitting president spoke at the gathering – shamefully lending the legitimacy of the White House to hate groups like the Summit’s host, the Family Research Council, and its president, Tony Perkins.

What’s more, President Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, also addressed the audience and took the opportunity to attack us.

I’m not surprised that Bannon singled us out for his vitriol. We’ve been a thorn in the FRC’s side for years – calling out the group because it relentlessly vilifies the LGBT community with demonizing rhetoric and falsehoods.

We’ve always believed it’s important to take on groups like the FRC that have a foothold in the mainstream. In many ways, they’re more dangerous to our country than hatemongers who wear robes and hoods.

Now, it’s even more important. Trump has brought the FRC closer into the mainstream and has given it a voice in his administration – just as he did with Bannon, a champion of the reemerging white nationalist movement that calls itself the “alt-right.”

No one should be fooled. These are people and groups who harbor extreme beliefs that are antithetical to the very foundations of our democracy.

One of the headliners at the Summit, for example, was Roy Moore – the former Alabama chief justice who suggested in a 2002 judicial opinion that the state would be justified in executing gay men and women to protect children. Moore alsowrote in 2006 that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, shouldn’t be allowed to serve because of his faith. As any judge should know, the U.S. Constitution explicitly bars any sort of religious test as a prerequisite to holding federal office.

We’ve twice had Moore removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for thumbing his nose at the Constitution. The first time, in 2003, was after he defied a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the state judicial building. The second time was after he ordered state officials to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue with its landmark ruling in 2015.

Bannon, however, called Moore a “good and righteous man” during his Summit appearance. It tells you that Bannon has no more respect for the rule of law than does our president.

If the FRC and its allies had their way, our country would return to the days when gay people were in the closet and faced the risk of being jailed for being who they are.

Because we’ve been calling out the FRC and groups like it for their vilification of the LGBT community, they’ve been attacking us in right-wing media outlets like Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and Breitbart News, which is led by Bannon.

Now that Trump has given the FRC unprecedented access to the White House, it will be more powerful than ever and the LGBT community will be at even greater risk.

It’s the reason why our work is more important than ever.

Richard Cohen, President, Southern Poverty Law Center

And Lee Zeldin still supports the bigot in chief, Donald Trump?