Monthly Archives: June 2017

On Friday morning, President Trump partook in one of his favorite rituals this side of hitting the links or avoiding Tiffany: a bill signing. The commander-in-chief, surrounded by ornamental backers, inked the Veterans Affairs Reform Acta measure that will make it easier to terminate VA employeesbefore soaking up camera flashes and cabinet applause. Among the admiring spectators was Al Baldasaro, a military veteran and New Hampshire state representative. The presence of Baldasaro, who introduced candidate Trump at a number of campaign stops and served as his adviser on veterans issues, would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that he once called for Hillary Clinton to be killed.

This whole thing disgusts me. Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason, said Baldasaro. He was discussing Benghazi, a tragedy wherein the Republican House found no evidence of wrongdoing on Clintons behalf, during a July 2016 radio interview. The incendiary remarks triggered a secret service probe, but Baldasaro never received any significant repercussions. And Baldasaros cameo at Trumps recent bill signing received precious little coverage on cable news. You see, they were too busy upbraiding Johnny Depp.

Depp attracted the ire of the news media for disgusting comments he made about the President at Englands Glastonbury Festival Thursday evening. Can we bring Trump here? Depp asked the crowd. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? The Pirates of the Caribbean star was, of course, referencing John Wilkes Booths assassination of President Lincoln. He added, I want to clarify: Im not an actor. I lie for a living. However, its been a while. And maybe its time.

The actors incredibly poorreprehensible, reallyattempt at humor received swift condemnation from the White House, which responded with the following statement: President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and its sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr. Depps colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official. The Depp imbroglio also, as expected, sent right-wing media into a tizzy, with everyone from Fox News and Breitbart to Rush Limbaugh tying Depp to a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar featuring a Trump-like protagonist; a photo of Kathy Griffin posing with a severed mannequin head of Trump; Madonnas idiotic womens march crack about how shes thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House; and lastly, the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise by an unhinged Bernie Sanders supporter.

There is causality, some on the right are arguing, between the antics of Depp, the Caesar play, Griffin, and Madonna and acts of violence perpetrated against those on the right, such as the recent shooting of Rep. Scalisea baseless claim, given that there is no evidence the shooter was influenced by any of these factors. There is also the idea that these celebrity outliers represent not only the views of Hollywood as a whole, but the base of the Democratic Party.

Now, lets give credit where its due: the right are very good at this. Every time a lefty celeb like, say, Lena Dunham opens their mouth and says something stupid, they will throw TV tantrums and sling fiery op-eds for an entire week, milking the outrage teat to the very last drop. Of course, those on the right, especially in the right-wing media, dont really care what Lena Dunham thinks. Their rationale behind this is simple: Hollywood celebrities are out of touch, therefore all of Hollywood is out of touch; and, since most of Hollywood is comprised of coastal liberal elites, then this one rogue celebritys views represent the whole. Its part of the ongoing culture war fomented by the right, pitting these coastal liberal elites against Middle Americas working classan opera that Trump, with his faux-disdain for Hollywood and faux-championing of blue-collar folks, is all too willing to conduct.

Forget the fact that Trump, who has spent his entire career exploiting the working class and cozying up to celebrities, is an outrageous hypocrite. His supporters dont care. Heck, they cheered when he trotted out a former Goldman Sachs executive at a rally this past week in Cedar Rapids. So, given the elements at play here, Hollywood celebrities like Depp, Griffin, and Madonna must stop feeding chum to the right-wing ragemonster. Theyve proven themselves to be far better than the left at exploiting this so-called cultural divide. For evidence, look no further than the race for Georgias sixth congressional district, where the opposition issued attack ads that tied Democrat Jon Ossoff to the Kathy Griffin stunt (because she had endorsed him two months earlier on Twitter). You wont see nearly the same kind of vitriol from the left over the Baldasaro appearance, or that time Trump invited rocker Ted Nugent, whos called for the deaths of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, over for an Oval Office visit. That unfortunate episode was treated as nothing more than a late-night punchline.

Lets talk Hollywood for a second. The notion that Johnny Depp, Kathy Griffin or Madonnaor really any celebrity with significant name recognitionsomehow speaks for the entire industry is absurd. According to the 2016 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of California, the entertainment industry there employs some 166,300 people. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported that, as of May 2016, there are 48,620 actors employed nationwideincluding 14,840 in California. The vast majority of these actors are struggling, working multiple jobs to pay the bills. And a great many of them were not born in California to wealth, but migrated there from different parts of the country. Johnny Depp, for example, grew up poor in Owensboro, Kentucky. The average crew size for a Hollywood film production, meanwhile, comes out to around 600 people (Marvels The Avengers had 2,718), and most of these crew members have jobs like key grip, security, catering, low-level assistant, etc. Not exactly the elite.

All of this does not excuse what Depp, Griffin, and Madonna said or did. Those actions deserve widespread condemnation (Depp deserves far greater scorn for other reasons, although thats a different story). If these Hollywood liberals want to truly make a differencethat is, make any sort of dent in 2018then they need to realize theyre easy targets, knock off the outrageous antics, and stick to the issues. And if liberals in general want to start winning elections again, then they must start holding things like Trumps Baldasaro and Nugent visits to account. Otherwise the Democrats have about as much chance of succeeding as Johnny Depps next movie.

Read more:

How Hollywood Celebs Like Johnny Depp Are Hurting the Liberal Cause - Daily Beast

Support has beencoming in from high places: With uncharacterisically clear language, the federal government has defended the new, liberal Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque against criticism from the Islamic world . In Berlin, Germany's Foreign Ministry, as well as the Interior Ministry, has rejected criticism leveled by the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate, Diyanet, pointing to protection of religious freedom.

German Interior Ministry spokesman, Tobias Plate, said the issues of religious freedom and the Berlin mosque will be raised with counterparts from Ankara at their next bilateral meeting. Diyanet, a religious authority in Turkey, operates under the aegis of the country's prime minister.

The German government's promise to address the issue brings the debate over the new mosque to the highest political level. One week ago, Berlin attorney and women's rights activist, Seyran Ates, opened the liberal mosque. Situated in Berlin's Moabit neighborhood, itis housed within a local Protestant church and is open to men and women of every sexual orientation.

Ates herself is an imam and chooses not to wear a headscarf while carrying out her duties. That has caused anger in the Islamic world. She said she has been overwhelmed by a flood of hate mail and has also received death threats. Authorities said it remains to be seen if the house of worship will require police protection.

Diyanet has claimedthe new mosque is connected to the Gulen Movement operated by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government claimed was behind last July's failed coup attempt.

Imam Seyran Ates prepares prayer rugs at the mosque

'A threat to social harmony'

Interior Ministry spokesman Plate called the Turkish criticism bewildering and "unacceptable."

"It cannot be ruled out that such statements have the potential to threaten social harmony within German society," he added.

According to media reports, Ankara has been aggressively pursuing and threatening alleged members of the Gulen movement, as well as institutions connected to it, such as schools- even in Germany.

The German Foreign and Interior ministeries emphasized that their own criticism was not only directed at Diyanet, but also at the supreme authority on fatwas in Egypt. That authority sharply criticized the Berlin mosque for violating Islamic religious responsibilities.

Peace activist, womens' rights activist and attorney, Seyran Ates, stands for Islamic reform

'The state has to protect religious freedom'

Martin Schfer, spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, said such statements were, "clearly intended to deny people in Germany the right to exercise their religion and limit their right to freely express their opinion."

He went on to say that the German government summarily rejected any such attempts. "When, where and how people choose to express and live out their religious beliefs is not the government's business. Rather, the opposite is the case: It is our understanding that the state has no authority tointerpretreligious issues, but instead, has the responsibility toprotectfreedom of religion, just as it does freedom of speech and freedom of the press."

He went on to remind those present that Turkey is also a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees religious liberty.

The liberal mosque's opening caused a great stir in Germany and has also received international attention. It is named after one of the most important figures of enlightened Islam, the Arab scholar, physician and philosopher Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known as Averroes outside the Islamic world, as well asthe German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whose "West-Eastern Divan" is one of the most important German-language books ever written on the exchange of ideas between the Occident and the Orient.

Men and women will pray side by side at the new mosque, and women allowed to preach. The Quran will be interpreted in a "historically critical manner," and organizers say they do not welcome fully veiled women. Seyran Ates started the mosque initiative because she is convinced that the interpretation of Islam must not be left to religious conservatives.

Read this article:

Liberal mosque debate turns political in Germany - Deutsche Welle