James L. Paris's Blog, page 105
February 13, 2017
The Dark Tactics Of Scientology - Author Tony Ortega
Tony Ortega is executive editor of The Raw Story and former editor-in-chief of The Village Voice. He���s been writing about Scientology throughout his career, and also operates his own website with breaking news about the church at www.tonyortega.org. He lives in New York City. The Unbreakable Miss Lovely is his first book. Will Leah Remini's reality show take down Scientology once and for all? Can Tom Cruise save the organization? Is Tom Cruise moving to Scientology headquarters in Clearwater, Florida?
In 1971 Paulette Cooper wrote a scathing book about the Church of Scientology. Desperate to shut the book down, Scientology unleashed on her one of the most sinister personal campaigns the free world has ever known. The onslaught, which lasted years, ruined her life, and drove her to the brink of suicide. The story of Paulette���s terrifying ordeal is told in full for the first time in The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, published by Silvertail Books. It reveals the shocking details of the darkest chapter in Scientology���s checkered history, which ended with senior members in prison, and the organization���s reputation permanently damaged. 'A thrilling account of a reporter���s duel with a controversial church' - Kirkus Reviews ���A brilliant exposition of how a child who escaped the Nazis grew up to be hunted by the Church of Scientology' - John Sweeney 'A page-turner packed with barely believable facts. The details are worthy of John le Carre' - Jon Atack www.theunbreakablemisslovely.com.
Chicago-Area Summertime Music Event Gets Heat for Scheduling Inauguration Performer Toby Keith
The hyper-politicization of America continues.
Now, an American musician who performs at the inauguration of the President of the United States is subject to vilification and calls for boycott.
Regardless of one���s political leanings, when you hear it put that way, it sounds rather absurd, does it not?
Absurdity aside, this is precisely what is going on with country music star Toby Keith���s scheduled appearance at a summertime music festival in the Greater Chicago area. Keith was booked months ago to play at this year���s ���Ribfest,��� an annual food-and-music event in Naperville that benefits a variety of charities.
Well, according to a variety of media outlets, including Newsmax, because Keith committed the mortal sin of playing at President Trump���s inauguration, some Naperville residents have decided he doesn���t belong at Ribfest.
Newsmax quoted one resident, Amy Kakkuri, who told the Chicago Tribune that ���I vote with my pocketbook. My money will be going to a different charity this year.���
���In the current political climate, it seemed overtly polarizing and political. It would have been short-sighted for them to not expect this reaction.���
When Ms. Kakkuri refers to the ���current political climate,��� do you suppose she ponders, for even a moment, the dubious contribution that has been made by the left to said climate? Not likely.
For its part, Ribfest has said at the official event Facebook Page that not only is Toby Keith staying, but that canceling his appearance was never considered by organizers.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Marco Rubio: America ���Becoming a Society Incapable of Having Debate���
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) appears to have had about enough of Americans��� indecency toward one another when it comes to the matter of political discourse.
As reported by The Christian Post, the day after colleague Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was ���silenced��� via Rule 19 as she was speaking in objection to Sen. Jeff Sessions��� nomination to the position of attorney general, Rubio decided to take to the Senate floor and deliver an impassioned speech on the matter of free and fair debate.
���One of the great traditions of our nation is the ability to come forward and have debates,��� said Rubio. ���But the founders and the framers and those who established the U.S. Senate and guided it for over two centuries understood that debate was impossible if matters became personal.���
Continuing, Rubio cut right to what many people see as the heart of the problem in America today when he said, ���I don't know of a civilization in the history of the world that's been able to solve its problems when half the people in a country absolutely hate the other half of the people in that country.���
���We are becoming a society incapable of having debate anymore,��� the senator continued. ���We are reaching a point in this republic where we are not going to be able to solve the simplest of issues because everyone is putting themselves in a corner where everyone hates everybody.���
During his run for president last year, Rubio actually began slinging some mud himself after deciding he���d had enough of the steady stream of insults hurled in his direction from then-candidate Trump. As The Christian Post article mentions, Rubio addressed that period with regret during an appearance last year on Fox News��� The Kelly File:
���My kids were embarrassed by it. My wife didn't like it. I don't think it reflects ���good.��� That's not who I am. That's not what my campaign is going to be about or will ever be about again. I'd do it differently ��� on the personal stuff. I'm not telling you he didn't deserve it, but that's not who I am and that's not what I want to be.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
February 12, 2017
Kellogg���s to Close 39 Distribution Centers as Its Decision to Pull Ads from Breitbart is Questioned
Years ago, when pro basketball icon and Nike spokesman Michael Jordan was asked why he did not take public political stances, he supposedly answered, ���Because Republicans buy sneakers, too.���
Well, apparently they eat cereal, as well, as Kellogg���s has learned.
The food giant announced last week that it is closing the doors to 39 of its distribution centers across the country as it deals with the effects of a significant deterioration in the sales of its cereals.
As you may remember, the Kellogg Company made a high-profile decision in November to stop advertising on popular conservative news website Breitbart.com, saying that it is company policy to refrain from advertising on sites that are not ���aligned with our values.���
Immediately, the folks at Breitbart organized a social media-based campaign to see Kellogg���s products boycotted. The #DumpKelloggs online petition has reportedly been signed by well over 400,000 people.
According to West Michigan���s Fox 17, Kellogg���s dismissed the idea that the boycott has played a role in the company���s current woes, saying there was no ���discernible��� effect on sales from the effort. CEO John Bryant indicated that while it is difficult to measure just what effect boycotts like the one organized by Breitbart may have, he could not point to any evidence that the boycott has impacted sales.
Reportedly, domestic sales of Kellogg���s cereals were ���flat��� in the last quarter of 2016, and sales of their Morning Foods unit, as a whole, were down. The company is saying that sales of Kellogg���s cereals in 2017 are expected to be no better than flat, and could drop by about one percent.
While Bryant is free to play down the effects of the boycott, Kellogg���s present troubles highlight a distinct problem for companies, celebrities, and anyone else who directly depends on the consuming public to succeed financially: If you assume an obvious political position in one direction or another, you run the very real risk of alienating at least one-half of the entire country.
Had Kellogg���s more quietly ended its advertising relationship with Breitbart and not publicly taken a swipe at the site���s values (and, by extension, those of its readers), the company may not have found itself in quite the jam it does right now.
All things considered, here���s what can be said: Kellogg���s decision to cease advertising on Breitbart in a way that insulted the ���values��� of roughly half of the entire United States���clearly did not help the company. That much is certain.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Columnist: Democrats on Verge of Becoming ���Permanent Minority��� Party
Stewart Lawrence, writing over at The Daily Caller, suggests the Democratic Party is quickly becoming so marginalized that it may well become the ���permanent minority��� party it had once arrogantly claimed the GOP would be in just a relative handful of years.
Lawrence reminds readers of the Democrats��� theory to that effect���that the Republican Party had become so irrelevant to basically every demographic besides white men in flyover country, that there was no way they���d be in charge of anything ever again.
Uh-huh.
Now, an aggressive, ���America first��� Republican president is in charge of the country, accompanied on his political adventures by a Congress that is fully in Republican control.
What���s more, the Republican president stayed true to his word and recently nominated to the Supreme Court a jurist whose values are largely reflective of the base that voted said president into office.
Who, again, is at serious risk of becoming the ���permanent minority��� party?
In making his case, Lawrence, in part, cites an analysis recently conducted by think tank Third Way that illustrates how Democrats are becoming the very ���coastal��� party critics have accused them of being for some time now.
Lawrence offers up Third Way���s data showing that voters in California, New York, and Massachusetts went for Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin of 65% to 35%,while the voters that comprise the other 47 states, as a whole, went for Trump by a margin of 52% to 48%.
Moreover, Lawrence points out, the November defeat has left the Democratic Party bitterly divided and dealing with ���fierce ideological, gender and ethnic divisions��� that seem practically unresolvable for the foreseeable future.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr.
February 10, 2017
Niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. Says Elizabeth Warren Played Race Card by Invoking Family Name
Alveda King, niece of American civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is not very happy with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) right now.
Warren, who was one of the Democrats working hard to see fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions lose out in his bid to become Attorney General, was effectively gagged on Tuesday by Republicans after she began speaking very strongly against the nominee. She was silenced by a vote of 49-43 on the basis of Rule 19, which says, in part, ���No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.���
Warren went after Sessions in part by quoting from a letter written back in 1986 by Coretta Scott King, Alveda King���s aunt and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. The late Mrs. King crafted the letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee when Sessions had been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
���Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge,��� King wrote at the time.
Alveda King sees Warren���s invocation of the King name against Sessions to be bad form, however. Speaking Wednesday to Fox Business Channel���s
Neil Cavuto, she said:
���In that letter, she would be referring to perhaps some of [Jeff Sessions] comments, however, she would agree today that he of course ended some school segregation, he worked to prosecute members of the KKK. Aunt Coretta was a very reasonable women and she, with integrity, would have noted that he had done some great work in fighting against discrimination���she had very strong opinions and concern for all Americans and perhaps people all of the world and I believe certainly that if she could look at the record of Senator Sessions today, with integrity, she would say ���well he has worked to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan, he has worked to desegregate public schools,��� so it���s almost like a bait and switch, stir up their emotions, use the name King, and my name is Alveda King, play the race card.���
Alveda King is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Her father, A.D. King, was MLK���s younger brother and a Baptist minister, as well as a civil rights advocate in his own right.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
House Oversight Leaders Join Forces to Press for Ethics Review of Conway���s Pro-Ivanka Comments
As reported by a variety of media outlets, including The Hill, Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to President Trump, is in some hot water over her comments Thursday morning on Fox News��� Fox & Friends program. In her eagerness to stick up for Ivanka Trump, whose clothing line was dropped by luxury department store Nordstrom, Conway said, ���Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would tell you. I'm going to give it a free commercial here. Go buy it today.���
The well-intended, off-handed gesture may prove to be of some cost to Conway, who raised the hackles of two groups that regularly advocate for the public interest, Public Citizen and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Both groups filed complaints with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
At the core of the grievances is a perceived violation by Conway of federal regulations that read, ���An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.���
Additionally, Conway���s remarks greatly displeased the two top dogs on the House Oversight Committee, Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings (Md.). Chaffetz and Cummings are reportedly planning to send a joint letter to the OGE to request that the agency follow through on an ethics of review of Conway���s behavior.
Speaking with NBC News about Conway���s remarks, Chaffetz said, ���That was wrong, wrong, wrong. It is wholly unacceptable ��� no if, ands or buts about it.���
For his part, White House press secretary Sean Spicer somewhat tersely said to reporters at the daily press briefing that ���Kellyanne has been counseled, and that's all we are going to go with. She's been counseled on the subject, and that's it.���
Whether ���that���s it��� or not, however, remains to be seen.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
February 9, 2017
Former Accused Child Killer Casey Anthony Joins Florida Trump Protest
Remember Casey Anthony, and the highly publicized trial accusing her of killing her daughter? Of course you do (and the incredible not guilty verdict).
Well, the seldom-seen Anthony actually reared her head in public recently, and you won���t believe the reason.
Apparently, she just had to join in on a protest of President Donald Trump.
Yup ��� although wild horses cannot, apparently, drag her into public for practically any other reason, a Trump protest managed to do the trick.
There was an anti-Trump march held in West Palm Beach, Fla. this past Saturday, and, in reporting by Fox News, West Palm���s WPTV-TV shot video of the event that shows Anthony, 30, among the protesters, wearing glowing wristbands and a black cap.
According to WPTV, although Anthony was unwilling to speak on camera, she did say that she was there because she opposed Trump���s policies. She did not, however, specify any in particular.
As anti-Trump protests go, this one was peaceful, with no arrests made���which is probably what you���d expect from a protest held in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Anthony has been staying off the radar since she was found not guilty of the 2008 murder of 2-year-old daughter Caylee. According to the Fox News report, Anthony tried to start a photography business, ���but didn���t seem to get many clients.���
You don���t say?
As for her appearance at the protest, there���s really nothing unusual about that, if you think it through; indeed, she fits right in with leftist rabble. After all, who is a better spokesperson for ultra-late-term abortion than Anthony?
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Trump, Mainstream News Networks Remain in Open Warfare Against One Another
Historically, mainstream news networks advocating for positions that stand in opposition to those traditionally held by Republicans have done so in ways that at least allowed for some plausible deniability on their part as to whether that was, in fact, what they were doing. There remained, usually, at least a shred of subtlety in their bias.
No more.
Case in point: As reported by a variety of media outlets, including Newsmax, Scott Pelley, anchor of CBS Evening News, opened his Monday broadcast with this:
���It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality.���
What?
���President Trump told a U.S. military audience that there have been terrorist attacks that no one knows about because the media choose not to report them. It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality,��� Pelley said.
Pretty bold stuff, even for a news anchor many consider to be a principal part of the current problem with bias in American media.
Pelley was referring to Trump���s declaration on Monday at U.S. Central Command that terror attacks are not being fully reported by the media.
Since assuming office, Trump has seen fit to carry on in his feud with said media that began at the outset of his campaign. Over the weekend, the president fired off a tweet at The New York Times in response to an article that appeared in the Sunday edition of the paper entitled ���Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles.���
���The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!��� tweeted Trump.
And on it goes���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
