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UPDATE: Organized Thugs Attack Kosovo 2.0 Magazine Launch of Sexuality Edition

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Last night in Pristina, Kosovo, an organized group of thugs, two times in one evening, violently disrupted the launch of a magazine edition dedicated to examining heterosexual and same sex sexuality in the Western Balkans

UPDATE:  Kosovo 2.0 has issued a letter to the public about Friday evening’s events that confirm that the organized violence was predicated on the mob’s intolerance for the LGBT community.  We urge the appropriate human rights organizations and freedom of media organizations to investigate this gross breach of justice as soon as possible.

 In great anticipation, the KOSOVO 2.0‘s magazine staff in Pristina, Kosovo had planned the launch of a ground breaking edition that set out to examine heterosexual and homosexual sexuality and the lives of how people experience the most intimate aspect of their lives in the Western Balkans.

But throughout the day on Thursday and Friday, the magazine received a number of threats from a group of extremist Muslim men, referred to as “Lumpy”, according to a Kosovo News report. The magazine notified the police, who sent over two police to the Youth Center, known as “Red Hall” where the magazine planned its launch with readings by contributing writers.

Around 6 p.m. CET, according to Besa Luci, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, a group of approximately 20 men, brandishing clubs, entered the Center in Pristina and destroyed the set, breaking television monitors, projectors and DVD players.  The mob also beat up a male magazine staff member. His condition is unknown at press time.

“I saw him being beaten,” said Luci.  “But we were running for safety, while the thugs were screaming and breaking up the televisions and projectors.”

This launch, planned since mid-summer was the culmination of considerable work led by Luci and her staff, along with a slew of guest editors, copy editors and freelance writers who joined in the effort.  Indeed, this reporter was the guest editor for the LGBT portion of the magazine.

Although there were about three to four police officers on the scene, they were outmanned, as the mob was able to destroy most of the set.  A video capturing the mob in action was shown on Kosovo television news last night.  View the video below which shows the mob entering the Youth Center and destroying property as an unidentified brave woman who confronts them by continually screaming “stop”.  They fortunately did not physically attack her.

According to Luci, the police were very supportive through most of the day.  Luci said the police used a crowd control agent to disperse the men.  She did not know if there were any arrests.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zjcJBm1jRxc

Despite the violence, Luci and her team continued with the planned readings, amid the destroyed set, attended by about 200 people, who bravely stood witness.  Among the luminaries attending were Sami Kurteshi, the director of the Kosovo Ombudsman Office, as well as an unnamed U.S. Embassy official.

“This is about freedom of expression. We are not going to stop and we are going to keep pushing on discussing sexuality and LGBT issues, ” Luci said.  “We are more committed than ever before.”

The readings featured an exchange of letters between internationally renowned lesbian feminist peace activists Igballe Rogova, founder and director of the Kosovo Women’s Network, based in Prishtina and Lepa Mladjenovic, a founder of Belgrade’s Women in Black and the Autonomous Women’s Center, based in Belgrade.  Rogova read her personal letter, “Love beyond borders:  A letter to Lepa, my feminist mentor” and Mladjenovic read her letter to Igballe, “Notes about lesbian bodies in our different hetero nation states.” Both essays were published in the LGBT section of the magazine, which will be cross-posted here later in an agreement between Kosovo 2.0 and The New Civil Rights Movement.

Following the readings, the magazine planned a dance party that was scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. But it never took place.  A Kosovo 2.0 staff member informed this reporter late last night that “our extremist friends had promised to return at 10:45 p.m. to prevent the party from happening. Special police forces came to the venue to protect us. At 10: 30, over 100 angry men came to protest, and there was only [the special forces], and a small group of us [were present] at the venue. We ultimately ended up cancelling the party and the police evacuated us in groups of four and six [persons]. Now we’re all safe and home, and completely exhausted”.

The region has been wracked by anti-gay violence during the past 12 years, which began in Belgrade in 2000 when the first attempts to hold a gay pride parade there was disrupted in violence.  The 2010 Belgrade gay pride parade has been the only pride march held without  violence in Serbia in the past decade.  Violence has erupted against the LGBT community from Split, Croatia to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past few years.  Just recently in Skopje, Macedonia, a leader of  the advocacy organization LGBT United Macedonia was badly beaten, requiring hospital treatment.

Images courtesy of Kosovo 2.0

Tanya L. Domi is the Deputy Editor of the New Civil Rights Movement blog.  She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and teaches human rights in East Central Europe and former Yugoslavia.  Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi has also worked internationally in a dozen countries on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights and gender issues.  She is chair of the board of directors for GetEQUAL.  Domi is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

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STILL A COWARD

Trump Refuses Debate ‘Rematch’, Says Harris ‘Was Beaten Badly’

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September 11, 2024

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Former President Donald Trump has declined Vice President Kamala Harris’ offer of a second debate. He compared himself to a top boxer, declaring himself the winner and wondering why he should bother with a rematch.

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“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

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Though Trump declared himself the winner, that is not a common belief. Many networks declared Harris the winner, including Fox News. Trump is correct that one poll did have him winning 92% to 8%, but that was an online poll from Newsmax. Newsmax is a far-right media outlet. It came to prominence during the 2020 election when Trump turned against Fox News for becoming the first outlet to declare President Joe Biden the winner in Arizona, a battleground state. Newsmax promoted Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Trump shared a number of other polls on his Truth Social account shortly after the debate, but most were from explicitly pro-Trump outlets like the Daily Caller, or were taken on X, formerly Twitter, which has skewed right following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

Polls from more mainstream outlets, however, told a different story. Newsweek’s reader poll showed Harris ahead nearly 2 to 1. CNN’s poll had a similar spread, with Harris declared the winner by 63% of viewers. In the Washington Post’s poll of 25 uncommitted swing-state voters, 23 said Harris did better. YouGov’s polling was closer, but Harris still pulled ahead 43% to 32%.

Pundits and experts also awarded the win to Harris. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times said Harris “rattled” Trump.

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LOL

Trump Media Stock Price Hits Lowest Point Since Last November Following Debate

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2 hours ago

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September 11, 2024

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The stock price for former President Donald Trump’s company Trump Media has fallen to its lowest point in nearly a year the day following his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

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That high is not quite half of the stock’s peak price this year on March 26, when the stock hit a high of $66.22 per share. That day had the highest stock price since less than a month after the launch of the company, when shares hit an all-time high of $97.54 at close on March 6, 2022. Trump Media & Technology Group was founded on February 8 of that year.

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Given the company’s small portfolio, many have seen the stock like buying stock in Trump personally, according to CNN. The NASDAQ ticker symbol is even DJT after his initials, rather than TMTG, the initials of the company’s full name. And some stock experts have pinned its success on Trump’s own success in November’s election.

“I think if he loses, he has to sell and DJT goes to $1. If he wins, he doesn’t sell and DJT can make a run for it,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO Matthew Tuttle told CNN.

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“It would be all but impossible for Trump to liquidate his whole stake or even a third of it without completely tanking the stock price,” Michael Ohlrogge, associate professor of law at the New York University School of Law, told CNN.

This year has been particularly tough for Trump Media. This April, the stock’s woes led to Trump falling off Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index of the richest 500 people in the world, according to Fortune. The company has also faced lawsuits from the company’s co-founders, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, according to the Washington Post, who were in turn sued by Trump, NBC News reported.

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MELTDOWN

MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

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4 hours ago

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September 11, 2024

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The phrase “Boycott ABC” trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, the morning after the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

ABC News aired the debate Tuesday evening, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis. Though Trump started the debate calmly, as the night went on, he got more and more upset. The moderators pushed back on some of his more bizarre claims, like repeating the debunked conspiracy theory about people eating cats in Ohio or that Tim Walz backs post-birth abortions.

Pundits largely agreed that Harris won the debate. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times described Harris as “sharp” and said she “rattled” the former president. Fox News’ voter panel said the vice president had been the victor.

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Even before the debate, there were claims of bias. On Monday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity predicted that the debate would be “biased” due to the network airing it.

“The one and only scheduled presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take place. You can watch it right here on Fox News Channel. But unfortunately, it is being moderated by ABC-Disney, barring some kind of political miracle, this debate will not be fair,” Hannity said on his show, according to Mediaite. “ABC-Disney is officially a woke, left-wing organization.”

Hannity also called for a boycott of all Disney properties. ABC is owned by the megacorporation.

“Maybe [Disney CEO] Bob Iger and his left-wing heir apparent, maybe they don’t want half the country to attend their theme parks, maybe they don’t care about their tanking stock price, which is their prerogative,” Hannity said. “They’re free to make that choice, but if they are biased against Donald Trump, as they have been leading into tomorrow night, as their nightly newscast is, half the country is not going to like it one bit. They are not going to like ABC-Disney one bit either.”

As Hannity predicted, many Trump supporters came out in droves to slam ABC and Disney.

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“The role of @abcnews and @DavidMuir is to allow Haitian thugs to invade your country and eat your pets while they gaslight you by claiming that it’s not true. Just ask the residents of Springfield, Ohio,” Former Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson wrote. 

“.@ABC is a disgrace. My phone is lighting up with nonstop messages about how extremely biased ABC is during this debate. Kamala Harris is VP RIGHT NOW. People can’t afford anything RIGHT NOW. The border is out of control RIGHT NOW. But ABC is in attack mode against Trump!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote. 

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