Ann's Mega Dub: Vanity Fair

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Vanity Fair

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS' "Get Her Somewhere, She Wants To Be A Celebrity" and "Ron DumpSantis" went up Saturday night.

There was a great bargain for Vanity Fair a few months back. I wrote about it here and how I subscribed. I hadn't written of it since so Margot e-mailed wondering if I even read the print magazine when it arrived now every month?

Yes, I do. The latest issue is the Hollywood issue. It didn't impress me with the photo essay. Austin Butler looked like a red head and everyone else looked just awful except for Jonathan Majors. He's the only one who came off charismatic. Steven Klein is the photographer and I wish Vanity Fair would never use him again. So many good looking people have never looked so ugly in photographs. They aren't sexy, they aren't impressive (the photographs). I'm surprised Jonathan managed to survive the shoot, none of the rest look as though they did.

I really enjoyed a lengthy feature by a former Vanity Fair editor who was one of the ghost writers on Gloria Swanson's best selling autobiography back a few decades ago. He gives the low down on the competition taking place between two to have control over Gloria. It's a very interesting article.

That's one of the reasons to read Vanity Fair, by the way. These long feature articles that you won't find elsewhere and that you may or may not be interested in the topic (I don't give Gloria Swanson a great deal of thought) but are so strongly written that they hold your attention and make you read all the way through.

When I'm done with the issue, I take it to work and leave it in the breakroom so that the print edition is recycled to at least one other person. I usually talk about the issue with C.I. -- who reads everything -- and I enjoy the print issue very much each month. I also enjoy having digital access online that allows me to read from the archives.

So if you're looking for a magazine to subscribe to, I would strongly recommend Vanity Fair.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III sneaks into Iraq, Glenneth Greenwald loves pretending he knows something but the crazies praising Donald Trump's coded speech apparently haven't let him on their own separation from reality, and much more.

Let's start with Lloyd Austin III, the US Secretary of Defense. He's gone to Baghdad. Colin McCullough (CNN) reports, "Austin, the highest-ranking Cabinet official to visit the country since the start of the Biden administration, according to the press pool, said in a statement that he is in Iraq to 'reaffirm the US-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable and sovereign Iraq'." Idrees Ali and Amina Ismail (REUTERS) note, he visited with Prime Minister Moahmmed al-Sudani and that the the secretary declared, "U.S. forces are ready to remain in Iraq at the invitation of the government of Iraq." Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) adds, "The United States’ only purpose in Iraq is its focus on ensuring the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS), said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following his arrival in the capital Baghdad on Tuesday, as the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq approaches."

Lloyd announced the visit on Twitter.

He announced it after he landed. In fact "unannounced visit" is a detail pretty much all the reports include.

What a glorious moment for a coward.

We've covered Iraq for years now. It's the "unannounced" that's the story this morning. A day or two less than two weeks from the 20th anniversary from the start of the Iraq War, not only are US troops still on the ground in Iraq -- with Lloyd insisting they're going to remain there -- but US officials still have to sneak into the country.

If you don't get the reality of the war and what the Iraqi people think of the US, there it is. US officials have to sneak into the country. Glorious cowards all of them.

The US Ambassador to Iraq Tweets the following nonsense:

Not only had Lloyd been in the country for hours -- with the secretary having posted it on his own Twitter feed over four hours prior -- but he's also meeting with Nechirvan Barzani. When Alina leaves that out of her Tweets it does register and it has. The US has an ambassador currently who is being seen as anti-Kurd. That really doesn't happen for US ambassadors but it's happening with Alina and it's not due to those ugly circles under her eyes -- take some vitamin D -- it's happening because nearly every time she Tweets, she shortchanges the Kurds. It's becoming a very big issue.

There's another issue in the Tweets about the visit -- not her Tweets -- that we'll probably deal with tomorrow. I'm just not in the mood to go into it today.

We'll note that Iran's TASNIM is reporting of the visit:

The Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in Iraq's parliament emphasized the need for expelling all American troops during an unannounced visit by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to Baghdad on Tuesday.

Fatah Alliance lawmaker Karim Aliwi said that the issue of expelling US troops is not a factional decision but rather a "definitive" and "national option." He added that efforts are ongoing at both public and political levels to conclude the case of US forces' presence on Iraqi soil. "There will be no negligence or hesitation in expelling the Americans," Aliwi told Iraq's al-Maluma news agency.

Let's move over to the great Glenneth Greenwald. He's laughing at Don Lemon because Don's a sexist (as though Glenn's not?), he's such an idiot. (That's not a defense of Don Lemon, CNN needs to realize he's harming their ratings.) Glenneth also goes after an art critic because the critic has reached their saturation level with Republicans calling for lynchings and the "eradication" of transpersons. It really is more than enough for this country -- unless you're Glenneth who, of course, chose not to live in this country. Glenneth says a journalist can't do what the critic is doing -- removing all Republicans from his life. Actually, an art critic can do just that, Glenneth, you're just yet again sporting your stupidity. There's not a movement led by Republicans or conservatives in the art world.

But we mention that to lead up to this nonsense from Glenneth.

Does Glenneth have any idea?

No, I don't think he does.

"He had his head chopped off and opened up for some reason or something like that. It is really disturbing what is going on there."

What's that about?

That's a QAnon loony tune show on BITCHUTE called JUSTINFORMED TALK -- a religious extremist program apparently and, for the record, I don't think Jesus needs you to dress like Patty Hearst in her Tania phase. But, hey, you do you and we'll all pretend it's not a form of drag -- even though it is.

When JUSTINFORMED TALK (that is how they run it together) speaks of "He had his head chopped off and opened up for some reason or something like that. It is really disturbing what is going on there," he's speaking of Joe Biden. Is the host a con artist or is that ill in the head that he honestly believes Joe Biden had his head chopped off?

Glenneth wants you to know that he knows why Donald Trump got the reception he received over the weekend at that hate-bash. But really it's because Donald spoke in dog whistles that the other crazies picked up on. And JUSTINFORMED TALK wants to decode it for you so you know that "DeSantis is as deep state as it gets."

If Glenneth truly knows about why Donald got embraced by the crazies, please, write about it. Because I don't need to watch crazy ass QAnon garbage. I'd been lucky enough to avoid it until this morning. Someone e-mailed asking if I'd seen how crazy these people really were? I had no idea.

I thought they had a different take on things than I did. But I didn't know they believed that whatever walks around calling itself Joe Biden is a thing that had its head chopped off -- and yet still walks around. Deep state? Try deep s**t crazy.

JUSTINFORMED TALK wants you to know that Donald is sending out "key information out to everyone" -- you just use your decoder ring, apparently.

"I think Q is great, I think Q is necessary." I think we do need to know about these crazies. I think the more we know about them, the more the majority of the American people will reject these crazies.

"They want us divided!" says the crazy host of JUSTINFORMED TALK. We heard that garbage from RAGE AGAINST THE WAR MACHINE, remember?

And that group hosted transphobes.

And the people like JUSTINFORMED TALK insist that others "wants us divided."

But these crazies get together and there they are dividing -- calling for the "eradication" of transgender persons.

They are deep in their own crazy and rooting on Steve Bannon's speech instead of fact checking it. The KGB isn't even around anymore. Does no one grasp that was the intelligence apparatus for the Soviet Union? How stupid are these people?

Watch DEMOCRACY NOW! below for the reality of that hate-fest.

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