Crow goes home to roost

~ genderdesk ~ Leave a comment

Earlier today I noticed that Crow was having some difficulties over on Sucks. I know, I know, nothing new about that. And I saw there were some people who thought he had Redeeming Social Value and were (once again) willing to try to work with him and were giving him useful advice. And some other people who wanted to read what he had to say, if only he could be restrained a tad.

Of course no one has ever managed to restrain him, at least not in the long run.  It always descends into madness, and then the platform itself is in danger of losing its more mature contributors.

But what if you could break the cycle?  It has taken Sucks a while, but they finally seem to be maturing a bit.  Could Crowsnest be gradually brought into the fold–into the new, more grownup, more stable Sucks?  Could he be coached? Is he a learner? Could he be brought on board as a regular, without upsetting the applecart? Tempting, isn’t it.

Oh dear.


Harsh, but he’s not wrong.

More screenshots:

Oh my.

I guess it’s all over except for the post-mortem.  A shame really.  Maybe this time there was really a chance.  We will never know.

Well, here is what I was going to write earlier.

Dude. Why not just try it? Try working with the moderator.  You’ve got someone who believes in your analytic skills, probably at least three people, people who are not stupid, who think you have some kind of talent. You’ve got a moderator who is willing to coach you.  Every publication has a journalistic style. Everyone needs an editor. Just learn the style and follow it.  It’s not like they are asking you to give up your convictions. Just learn to format, so that people will actually read your stuff instead of scanning ahead to the next comment.  And then trying to scan past all the comments of the people who were annoyed and derailed by your last comment.

What was not working? Long rants. That one is a no-brainer.  But Crow likes to write long rants, not that he can’t stop writing them of course.  Or can he.  Maybe he can’t stop, he doesn’t know how.

The topic was not working.  What topic?  He was already told that the site name was not “Vigilant sucks”.  Sucks has been down that road before, with at least ten different “Vigilant is icky” threads, and it was pretty boring. Flinging poo back and forth with another website may be novel at first, but it gets old fast. People want to read about Wikipedia, not about what homosexual acts Crow wants to perform with some strangers. We get it that Crow has a love-hate relationship with some of the Wikipediocrazies, but we really don’t want to know about all the weird sexual acts he is apparently conversant with. Also it’s like taking a xerox of a xerox of a xerox.  Pretty soon you have to know three or four different websites to even follow the discussion.  Some of them just aren’t worth reading, and you end up dumping the ones that are a time sink, so you can read something you like, something that respects you enough not to waste your time with useless filler. The only reason for reading a small — dare I say “boutique”? — site like Sucks is that it occasionally has unique content.  About Wikipedia.

I know some people consider me to be not worth the time, either, and that’s fine.  At least ninety percent of my traffic now comes from google because of the unique content here that is not available anywhere else. And I don’t really write that much about Wikipedia any more. In some ways Wikipedia has gotten better and in other ways people have discovered workarounds for the things about Wikipedia that will probably never be fixed.  But there are still people–Wikipedians–who do read me, and some who I still look forward to reading — on both Wikipediocracy and Sucks.

Genderdesk has always been a place for people to reconnect after being lost.  Something tells me our lost Crow will circle back here eventually.  This site is not the type of format that works well with Crow’s type of writing style. We tried it before, and it just didn’t work. But we are usually willing to entertain at least two comments from the estranged, as well as the right of reply for anyone we talk about here. And if you use up your comment quota, my email is in the sidebar.

My advice for Crow is to find a place to write, start writing, and I will link to it. WordPress.com is very user-friendly, it would be a good choice, and it is free. The domain name Sharpeningthebeak.wordpress.com is probably available.

Put your “ten things to know about Wikipedia” essay at the top, make it sticky to the first page of the blog.   Then write some drafts in the back room.  You can work on your “Around the Administrators in 80 days….” or something else. Post pictures of your garden.  (I would read that.)  Or your cat. (Do crows even have cats?  I bet he hasn’t got a cat.)  You could even practice writing stuff that might pass muster on another site. You can keep a draft unpublished until you are ready.   And you have complete control over the content, you don’t have to ask a mod to fix a link or change a paragraph. If you get tired of a post you can just take it down. Or write a different one.  Play with it. Have fun with it. Don’t forget that search bar in your widgets, so people can find out about their favorite Wikipedia characters.  I know it doesn’t look like much, but the search function does work.

Or just pass by here and say hello.  There ARE people who miss you, you know.

Martha-Ann and her flag

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“My wife did it”. -Samuel Alito

Martha-Ann Alito or Martha Ann Bomgardner is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samual Alito, who is known for voting to overturn Roe v Wade.  She was involved in a flag controversy after her husband accused her of placing an upside down American flag in their yard after the 2020 election.  The upside down flag is a symbol of the January 6 insurrection. The flag was photographed on their lawn on January 17, 2021.

Personal life

She was born in Ft. Knox, Kentucky.  She received a B.A. in comparative literature from the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, and an M.A. in library science from the Kentucky University’s School of Library and Information Science. She worked as a reference librarian at Neptune Public Library in Neptune, New Jersey, a librarian at the United States Attorney’s Office in Newark, New Jersey, Head of Reference at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Library Director at Congressional Quarterly.

She married Samuel Alito in 1985. They met in the U S Attorney’s Office at the law library in March 1979. They have two children, Laura and Philip.

The couple socialized with prominent evangelical couple Donald and Gayle Wright of Ohio, who were involved with fundraising for the Supreme Court Historical Society. The Wright couple was part of “Operation Higher Court”, led by evangelical clergy Rev. Robert Schenk. Donald Wright died in 2020.

Her husband and his family are Catholic, but her family’s religion is not known.

Martha Ann’s father was Bobby Gene Bomgardner (1930-2012). He had a career in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Germany in the 1970s. He was also assigned to the Azores, Texas, France, Maine, and New Jersey.  Her mother was Barbara-Ann Bomgardner (Auwaerter) (1927-2010). Barbara-Ann graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in library science in 1950. She worked in the Wiesbaden Air Base Library, Germany in the 1970s, and spent 25 years working as a librarian for the Air Force.  In the summer of 1980 they returned from Germany and bought a house in Columbus, New Jersey.

Controversies

The flag

Very little is known about this flag thing.  In fact, we know more about Betsy Ross and her flag, or the Star Spangled Banner flag than we know about the Alito Jan. 6 insurrection flag.

Where did it come from? Who bought it? Was is purchased upside down, or did someone modify it. If so, who and why?

So many questions.

All we have is an email from Alito to Newsweek saying his wife did it, and it was something to do with a feud with a neighbor.  A number of pundits have commented on it, and not one of them says this is a convincing explanation.

Hobby Lobby

The Alitos in 2018

Martha-Ann was accused of leaking the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores case before it was public.  The opinion in the case was authored by her husband. The information was divulged by Robert Schenk who claimed to get it from Gayle Wright, who was claimed to have heard if from the Alitos at a fundraising event. The advance notice gave Hobby Lobby a chance to prepare a PR campaign in advance.

The EPA

Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito owns mineral rights in Oklahoma, inherited from her father. In 2022 she signed an agreement with Citizen Energy III for revenue generated from oil and gas obtained from the property.  In the past Samuel Alito has recused from various cases based on stock inheritances from his father-in-law, however he did not recuse in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency .  In fact, he wrote the majority opinion. The ruling has been considered a setback for the EPA and for water standards, and the Clean Water Act.

Email hacked

Her email was hacked and spam messages sent out under her name. The title was about increasing “document productivity and efficiency throughout your legal drafting workflow.” Presumably she changed her password and now gets periodic reminders claiming her password is on a list of hacked emails and she must change it immediately.

Sources

She is introduced here at 17:20, speaking at a presentation of an award to her husband.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?197300-1/carol-los-mansmann-award

 

Is Alexander Kulakov an ex-commander?

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Everyone says so, nobody denies it.

Not a general though. Air defense commander, and we all know what air defense doing.

Lieutenant Colonel Kulakov Alexander Alexandrovich (Кулаков Александр Александрович), commander of the 3rd Radio-Technical Regiment, killed in a missile strike on an air defense base on the top of Mount Ai-Petri, Crimea.  A secret air defense base.  But probably not that secret now.

 

Hamas vs. Jordan

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“No non-Jordanian faction has the right to come and operate out of Jordan. Jordan is not a hotel you can check into or out of whenever you want.”
-Former Jordanian Information Minister Samih Al-Maaytah [source]

It has just come out that back in March, Jordan made some Hamas-linked arrests.

“Amman said Wednesday that it foiled a weapons smuggling attempt by a militia supported by an unnamed country in late March. …

“The weapons were sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan that has links to the military wing of Palestinian group Hamas, two Jordanian sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The cache was seized when members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, were arrested in late March, they said….

“Most of the clandestine flow of arms into the country has been bound for the neighboring Israeli-occupied West Bank Palestinian territory, according to the Jordanian sources. However, some of the weapons – including those seized in March – were intended for use in Jordan by the Brotherhood cell allied to Hamas militants, they said.

“A senior representative of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood confirmed that some of its members were arrested in March in possession of weapons but said whatever they did was not approved by the group and that he suspected they were smuggling arms to the West Bank rather than planning acts in Jordan.

“Another senior figure in Brotherhood, who also requested anonymity, told Reuters the arrested cell members had been recruited by Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri, who masterminded the Palestinian group’s operations in the West Bank from exile in Lebanon. Arouri was killed by a drone strike in Beirut in January in an attack widely attributed to Israel….

“Last month, after Jordan joined a US-led effort to help Israel in downing salvos of drones and missiles fired by Iran, critics posted concocted images on social media of the king wrapped in an Israeli flag with comments such as “traitor” and “Western puppet”. https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/05/15/jordan-foils-arms-plot-as-kingdom-caught-in-iran-israel-shadow-war

So, Israel (allegedly) takes out the Iranian figure (Arouri) responsible for undermining Jordan’s security, and Jordan shoots down some Iranian drones. Not the first time they have protected each others’ borders and it won’t be the last, but as usual there is a political price.

My prediction is the King will continue to spend a lot of time out of the country.

Yep. Jordanian press: “investigations and operations were ongoing to uncover more [details] related to the plot”. https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-foils-arms-smuggling-plot-state-sponsored-militia-march-%E2%80%94-official-source

Hmm, elections have just been announced for Tuesday September 10.

A couple more local articles from the region:

“The Kingdom of Jordan and Hamas’ Destructive Path”

Hamas was just kicked out of Turkey, and soon may be asked to leave Doha as well. The writer is Kheirallah Kheirallah ( no clue) , translated by Asaf Zilberfarb, an Israeli. Hmm. Byline is “Al Rai, Kuwait, May 1”, again, no clue here is the original.  This obviously references some publication, but there is no link, and even worse, no paragraph structure (the original Arabic did have paragraphs).

The recent remarks by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook regarding the potential relocation of Hamas leaders to Jordan demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of the historical and political significance of the Hashemite Kingdom. This rhetoric not only reflects a disregard for the safety and well-being of both Palestinians and Jordanians … https://themedialine.org/mideast-mindset/the-kingdom-of-jordan-and-hamas-destructive-path/

“Wanted: A New Home Base for Hamas”

Oh, this is good, absolutely scathing, and excellent historical background. The author is Elias Zananiri “former career journalist and a policy adviser to the PLO.”

“Announcing Hamas’ request to relocate to Jordan was senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzook, whose popularity among the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world is next to zero after his unfortunate statement renouncing responsibility for the safety of the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Asked in a televised interview why Hamas didn’t provide the network of tunnels underneath Gaza City for the civilian population to protect them from Israel’s airstrikes, he said Hamas “was responsible for its fighters and their families. It is UNRWA’s responsibility to protect the civilians in times of war.” https://themedialine.org/news/opinion/wanted-a-new-home-base-for-hamas/

The red links:

 

Lauren Handy and the “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising”

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This was the group you always saw at various demonstrations, always with the lurid posters. Lauren Handy is the one arrested with the 115 fetuses in her apartment. She has just been sentenced to 5 years.

They would attach themselves to another demonstration, and maybe pound on the bottom of a bucket, using it as a drum to drown out the speaker. The police would cordon them off, and sometimes move them to another location away from the crowds. Other times they would be joined by even noisier and more colorful demonstrators — there was one in a wheelchair with an amazing sound system and signs protesting everything under the sun, and another guy who would stand next to them with a large poster displaying an anti-circumcision rant with the Greek flag.

I started this post two years ago, with the idea of trying to identify some of the people at the demonstrations. I am putting what I have online now, since links do tend to disappear with time.

Lauren Handy’s co-defendents

Handy’s nine co-defendants were Jonathan Darnel, of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell, of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni, of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty, of Pennsylvania.

Goodman and Hinshaw were sentenced on Tuesday to prison terms of 27 months and 21 months, respectively, according to prosecutors.

Smith was sentenced last year to 10 months behind bars. Darnel, Geraghty, Marshall and Bell are scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. Idoni is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday. Harlow’s sentencing is set for May 31. https://apnews.com/article/lauren-handy-abortion-clinic-blockade-ab461332b6c83d1c4d7f4d6175d04fbc

No longer red links:

~~~~

The Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising

Anti-abortion activist known for fetuses in home demonstrates at SCOTUS after leaked draft of Roe v. Wade ruling https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/leaked-supreme-court-draft-opinion-possible-overturn-roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-activist-lauren-handy-fetuses/65-f2535979-336d-45a9-98c2-4fd725d80f8b

Lauren Handy joined throngs of protesters spanning all political persuasions Monday night encouraging those who would like to see the landmark SCOTUS ruling overturned to “keep fighting.”

Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac planned …

Parents, teachers, and students from Dunbar High School are still upset that anti-abortion activists set up outside of Dunbar High School on Wednesday, confronting students over the topic of abortion and recording their conversations. May 2019 https://youtu.be/HJQCrBvfDIg

PAAU

Anti-abortion group “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising” (PAUU) holds press conference after nine members were arrested by FBI for 2020 activism. The group’s Director of Activism Lauren Handy called police after storing five aborted fetuses in her home, which she says had been aborted unlawfully late in pregnancy.

Links

What Russian 58th army bigwigs doing?

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Someone is trying to google photos of a Russian general of the 58th army — “фото командира 58 армии рф а4”.  This would probably be Denis Lyamin. Wikipedia doesn’t seem to have a picture of that one, so let’s help them out a little.

Ivan Popov

The commander of the 58th army was reshuffled back in July 2023. Major General Ivan Popov was replaced after criticizing Shoigu or Gerasimov or the war or something.

Denis Lyamin

The replacement was Lieutenant General Dennis Lyamin (Denis Igorevich Lyamin) (Денис Игоревич Лямин) who is regarded as a Gerasimov loyalist. He may have been injured in a missile attack in September 2023.

Lyamin was probably replaced or just removed a few months later with/by Major-General Sergei Medvedev, the Army Chief of Staff, and reassigned to the post of Chief of Staff of the Central Military District

Sergei Medvedev

This guy is an almost complete mystery. By googling “Генерал-майор Сергей Медведев, начальник штаба армии” (Major-General Sergei Medvedev, the Army Chief of Staff), we find that Russian Wikipedia does consider him the commander of the Russian 58th army since October 2023, and provides his full name as Медведев Сергей Викторович (Sergei Viktorovich Medvedev).

More.

Dr. Cass NYT interview: “U.S doctors are out of date on youth gender medicine”

~ genderdesk ~ Leave a comment

Gift article (I haven’t read it yet, but I know some of my readers follow the issue)

And what is going on with WPATH and the eunuch child porn thing (and yes these drugs do sterilize children, that is why they are called “puberty blockers”)?  There is no way I am going to create an account in a place like that just to verify the rumors or see what they are doing.

Another creepy video from Senator Katie Britt

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That smile.

You may remember her GOP response to the State of the Union,

and the SNL version by Scarlet Johansson.

Surprising no one has used it as a green screen yet.

Joost at Eurovision

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Dutch performer Joost Klein was a favorite to win the 2024 Eurovision music contest — or at least his video had the most views — until he was suddenly suspended from the contest, pending investigation.

Now it looks like he performed with two Russian acts in St. Petersburg after the Bucha incident. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dutch-eurovision-2024-representative-collaborated-094400678.html?guccounter=1

The Russian musicians are supposedly Ruslan Tushentsov, better known as CrazyMegaHell (CMH) (Russian Wikipedia only) and the rave group Russian Village Boys from St. Petersburg (red link in all languages)

The song is “Jackass” https://open.spotify.com/track/4YudWFElI1fvs8cHgbzslh

Here are the lyrics:

“Привет, меня зовут Йост Кляйн

Я люблю русскую малышку.

Я считаю, что без отрицательного шага России

Я хочу русскую леди.

Я хочу русских детей“

[“Hello, my name is Jost Klein, I love Russian babe. I believe that without a negative step from Russia, I want a Russian lady. I want Russian children”]

Russian Village Boys seems to perform in English and have an English-language name. Here they are performing “Forever Drunk” in English https://vk.com/russianvbspb?z=video-199127147_456239023%2Fvideos-199127147%2Fpl_-199127147_-2 The song recorded with Joost was “Normalje Bass”.

Here’s some more particulars of the politics of Eurovision, in Russian, also available in Ukrainian. None of the videos seem to load for me, but for the uber-curious, maybe they could be located with a google search. https://news.telegraf.com.ua/kultura/2024-05-10/5851298-vystuplenie-v-okkupirovannom-krymu-i-pesnya-pro-lyubov-k-rossii-finalisty-evrovideniya-2024-kotorye-imeyut-svyaz-s-rf

This is Joost’s official Eurovision competition song, the only thing I can figure out is that it must be for dancing.

Who will win? I will go with the Israeli performer, who is said to be holed up in her hotel room with maximum security.  Here is Bambi Thug of Ireland saying she “cried with her team” when she found out Israel was in the finals. There will be some backlash from this type of thing.

Oh my she’s a …what? Isn’t that a slur?  Well, whatever it means, her boyfriend certainly approves.