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Give A Damn. Part Two.

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A few years ago I started a blog called 365Things.org. The idea was to take current events and issues, and rather than just write about them — um, in a way I guess like many bloggers, including myself, often do these days — actually find small solutions to those issues, in order to, as I’m fond of saying, “make the world just a little bit better.”

The previous piece here, “Give A Damn. Part One,” a video by GiveADamn.org, featuring Elton John, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, and others discussing gay rights and marriage equality, reminded me of the following piece which I wrote a few years ago. I thought, being Good Friday, and given its title was, also, “Give A Damn,” I’d share it with you.

In reading it again, I realize I’m still guilty of some of the things I wrote in the piece. I still don’t listen enough, though I do try harder these days.

In reading the piece again, also, although it was written pre-Tea Party days, the argument does sound like theirs. While anyone who reads this blog or knows me knows how virulently anti-Tea Party I am, there is a valid argument in all of where America is right now: People just want to be heard.

Lastly, you may consider this a plea. Above all the rhetoric, above all the hate, above all the anger, above all else, we’re all “human.” Even dogs.

Give A Damn.

My dog ate through my wall. Seven months old. Cute as hell. I went to the diner for breakfast Saturday morning. An hour and a half later, I came home to a white-nosed black lab. The damage is pretty bad. I know he was just looking for attention. So I blame myself. I promised him I was going to take him for a run a few times a week. Good for both of us, really. I was going to start on Friday, but one thing led to another, and, well, tomorrow’s another day, right?

Well, Saturday was another day. Just not the one I had expected. So we went for a run. Almost twenty blocks, one way, from 44th Street down to 26th Street. We walked back. He’s a better runner than I am. (Do dogs have knees?)

On our way down, we passed that group of protesters chanting about China’s actions in Tibet. They have been protesting for months, in the same spot, on 43rd Street, along the West Side Highway, police on hand, an older Asian man yelling into a bullhorn, which hardly seemed necessary, as they are pretty loud anyway. Honestly, I am sympathetic to them and their cause, truly, but I found the noise, in a language I didn’t understand, irritating after a while. So I tuned them out.

On our walk back, though, they weren’t yelling “Stop China Now. Free Prisoners In Tibet.” They were all turned around, chanting, almost singing, in what felt immediately like a religious or ritualistic way. Text, my dog, and I stopped. I didn’t feel right about not respecting whatever ceremony was taking place.

But here’s the thing. The cops were there. Laughing, slumped over the metal-piping fence. As the ceremony came to a close, just a few minutes later, I looked at the police. Navy uniforms, some with bright yellow polo shirts, stamped “Community Affairs” on the back. So, I thought, these are representatives of New York’s Finest, charged with engaging the community? Simply put: They didn’t care enough. They didn’t give a damn. They weren’t sensitive enough to recognize the difference between a loud, albeit orderly protest, and a symbolic ceremony. To them, it was just another hour on the job. Their arrogance, their lack of respect and lack of interest in hearing the needs of others, was deafening.

I realized, this is how revolutions start. One group feels so passionately about an issue. And their representatives, their government, stands by, arrogant, disinterested, slumped over a fence.

And then I realized I was equally at fault. I hadn’t listened. I hadn’t cared enough. I hadn’t given a damn. And I had to pay the price. The signs had been there. His following me around the apartment. His desperate attempts to play with other dogs on the street. I knew my dog needed more exercise. More attention. More “father-son” time. But I ignored the immediacy of his need. I put our run off until the next day. I made his needs less important than they actually were. So he found another way to communicate his needs. He acted out. And got to eat some tasty sheetrock in the bargain. Sure, he had to face my disapproval when I got home. But in the mean time, he got to enjoy some fun.

So, today’s 365Things.org suggestion? Give A Damn. Listen to the needs of others, however faint they may be said. Look at the people you surround yourself with. Open yourself up. Make a change in how you go about your day. Hear them. Listen to what they’re really saying. Then, respond. Let them know that you give a damn.

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News

Hunter Biden Plans Lawsuit Against Fox News Amid ‘Conspiracy of Disinformation’

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April 29, 2024

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Attorneys for Hunter Biden have notified Fox News he plans to sue the right-wing cable TV network and its digital entities, after lawyers for the President’s son spent more than a year investigating. Among other issues the letter reportedly mentions Fox News citing a now-indicted former FBI informant, and points to “revenge porn” laws.

The letter, NBC News reports, is dated last week and specifically points to alleged bribery allegations as well as “Fox’s airing of ‘intimate images’ belonging to Hunter Biden that his lawyers claim were ‘hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated’,” that they say violate “Biden’s civil rights as well as copyright law.”

CNN, focusing in the intimate images, reports that “Hunter Biden is demanding that Fox News remove from its platforms sexually explicit images that President Joe Biden’s son says are private, according to a letter obtained by CNN, as part of his strategy to publicly fight back against conservative media.”

“The media outlet aired a mock trial of Hunter Biden on the streaming platform Fox Nation in 2022,” CNN also reports, “focused on the unproven bribery allegations, and published ‘intimate images of Mr. Biden depicting him in the nude as well as engaged in sex acts,’ according to the letter, which demands that Fox immediately remove the series from all streaming platforms.”

READ MORE: Noem Doubles Down With ‘Legal Cover’ For Shooting Her Puppy to Death

“’FOX knows that these private and confidential images were hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated digital material,’ Hunter Biden’s attorneys wrote in the letter, which contained several of the explicit images, some of which were blurred,” CNN adds. “Publishing these images, the attorneys said, violated ‘the majority of states’ laws against the nonconsensual disclosure of sexually explicit images and videos, sometimes referred to as ‘revenge porn’ laws.’ ”

In a statement Hunter Biden’s attorney, Mark Geragos, expanded on the apparently pending lawsuit.

“For the last five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked Hunter Biden and made him a caricature in order to boost ratings and for its financial gain,” Geragos stated. “The recent indictment of FBI informant Smirnov has exposed the conspiracy of disinformation that has been fueled by Fox, enabled by their paid agents and monetized by the Fox enterprise. We plan on holding them accountable.”

Media Matters last week reported, “Fox News has mentioned Hunter Biden at least 13,440 times since January 3, 2023, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after promising to use their power to investigate the business interests of President Joe Biden’s son, according to a Media Matters review.”

“Fox’s on-air coverage of Hunter Biden has … plummeted in recent months,” Media Matters added. “Mentions of the president’s son on the network peaked at 2,356 in July, when his federal plea deal on two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes fell apart, and mentions exceeded 1,300 in four other months, most recently in December.”

READ MORE: Peter Navarro’s Latest Attempt to Get Out of Jail Smacked Down by SCOTUS

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Peter Navarro’s Latest Attempt to Get Out of Jail Smacked Down by SCOTUS

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3 hours ago

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April 29, 2024

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Former top Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro, in prison for criminal contempt of Congress, has failed in his latest attempt to be released early, after the U.S. Supreme Court once again denied his request.

Navarro, 74, the first and only former White House official ever to be imprisoned for contempt of Congress, is serving out his four-month sentence in Miami. His efforts to stay out of jail were first denied by Chief Justice John Roberts, before he reported to the prison in mid-March. He was found guilty in September after a short trial. After his arrest he hawked his book and begged for money on national television.

CBS News reports “15 days into his sentence, Navarro renewed his request to halt his surrender to Justice Neil Gorsuch, which is allowed under Supreme Court rules. His bid for emergency relief was referred to the full court, which denied it. There were no noted dissents. Attorneys for Navarro declined to comment.”

CNN called the decision to petition Justice Gorsuch “a procedural maneuver that has not worked in decades.”

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“Gorsuch referred the request to the full court, which considered it during its closed door conference on Friday. The court denied the request on Monday without comment.”

Navarro’s prison sentence is the result of his refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Navarro claims he had executive privilege, but offered no proof, and refused to show up as ordered.

Legal experts accurately had predicted a “quick conviction” after Navarro, called a “conspiracy theorist” who promotes “fringe” economic theories, had called no witnesses. The jury deliberated for under five hours. He faced up to two years in prison.

CBS News adds Navarro “is not the only member of the Trump administration to be convicted of the charge. Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress and sentenced to four months in prison. The judge overseeing that case, however, put his prison term on hold while Bannon appeals.”

READ MORE: Noem Doubles Down With ‘Legal Cover’ For Shooting Her Puppy to Death

 

 

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Noem Doubles Down With ‘Legal Cover’ For Shooting Her Puppy to Death

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5 hours ago

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April 29, 2024

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South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem has been under bipartisan fire since Friday after an excerpt from her soon-to-be published book reveals her bragging about shooting to death her 14-month old puppy, and later that day, a goat. Noem, considered at least until last week a top contender to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, is doubling-down defending herself but now she’s serving up some “legal cover” as well.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned,” she wrote on Sunday, after The Guardian‘s damning report. “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

Law & Crime on Monday reports the governor is “providing herself legal cover for the act.”

Noem “acknowledged that ‘some people’ were upset about the story — and she specified that it happened two decades ago, seeming to place the incident well beyond the statute of limitations.”

RELATED: Noem Defends Shooting Her 14-Month Old Puppy to Death, Brags She Has Media ‘Gasping’

“Noem additionally cited South Dakota law in support of her decision,” Law & Crime adds, noting the “reported book excerpt had said that Cricket tried to bite Noem and attacked her chickens.”

“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down,” Noem wrote, an apparent attempt to preempt any possible legal issues. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

Law & Crime explains that “South Dakota notes that an exemption to animal cruelty laws is the ‘destruction of dangerous animals.’ The law specifies that ‘[a]ny humane killing of an animal’ and ‘[a]ny reasonable action taken by a person for the destruction or control of an animal known to be dangerous, a threat, or injurious to life, limb, or property’ are exempt from prosecution.”

Noting that Noem’s attempt “to lean into the right’s embrace of political incorrectness … didn’t fly with members of her own party,” The Daily Beast pointed to well-known Republicans including former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farrah Griffin and Meghan McCain who publicly condemned Noem’s actions.

READ MORE: President Hands Howard Stern Live Interview After NY Times Melts Down Over Biden Brush-Off

The Guardian’s excerpt from Noem’s book does not state that Cricket bit people, although Noem states Cricket “whipped around” to bite her. It’s possible biting others is in the book but did not make it into The Guardian’s report.

Describing Cricket killing chickens, Noem “grabbed Cricket, she says, [and] the dog ‘whipped around to bite me’. Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check ‘for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime’.”

“Through it all, Noem says, Cricket was ‘the picture of pure joy’,” The Guardian reports. “’I hated that dog,’ Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself ‘untrainable’, ‘dangerous to anyone she came in contact with’ and ‘less than worthless … as a hunting dog’.”

Meanwhile, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Monday said Noem’s pride and decision making surrounding killing the puppy make her unfit to be “in charge.”

Describing how she grew up on a family farm, Brzezinski said they hunted, and “there was absolutely a dense of life and death.” There was “never a joy in killing and there was a respect to it, and a process if you were hunting.”

READ MORE: CNN Smacks Down Trump Rant Courthouse So ‘Heavily Guarded’ MAGA Cannot Attend His Trial

“But this story was more about how she felt killing an animal, and that’s what’s scary about it – the impatience, kind of like a switch flipped in her brain and she decided she needed to kill it? Like this is not someone you want in charge, not someone thinking through the process of life and death.”

“The most remarkable part of it,” Scarborough added, “is that the conservative movement has been so corrupted by Donald Trump and his reached such new lows, that she actually put that in, about the killing of a happy puppy because she thought it would help her with the base.”

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