Jason Aldean has continued to take heat over “Try That in a Small Town,” a track some have deemed a pro-gun, pro-violence, “modern lynching” song.” Aldean
has vehemently denied those depictions of the tune that challenges
those who would “pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store” or “cuss out
a cop” to, as the title suggests, try those actions in a small town to
“see how far ya make it down the road.” The fall-out from the song
released in May, and its even-more controversial new video, however,
continued to rage on Wednesday night.
CNN’s
Kaitlan Collins spoke with Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones — who
earlier this year was expelled, then re-instated to the House after
leading a gun control protest on the House floor following a school mass shooting in which three children and three adults were killed — who had some unequivocal thoughts on the song.
“As
a Tennessee lawmaker, as a youngest black lawmaker in our state, I felt
like we had an obligation and a duty to condemn this heinous vile
racist song that is really about harkening back to days past,” said
Jones, 27. The lawmaker said in his mind it was “no accident” that the
video was filmed at the Maury County Courthouse, “where the race riot
happened and where as well as the 1927 lynching of a young man who was
18-years-old, Henry Choate, occurred.” Choate was lynched by a mob and
hung from the courthouse’s second floor after accusations that he
sexually assaulted a white girl; in February 1946, the city that houses
the courthouse was the site of a race riot in which two Black men were
killed.
Jones
said he sees the song as an attempt to normalize “racist, violence,
vigilantism and white nationalism,” while “glorifying” a vision of the
South that he said the state is trying to move forward from.
The
song’s video features footage of an American flag burning, protesters
having confrontations with police, looters breaking a display case and
thieves robbing a convenience store. Aldean -- who in the past has
courted controversy by wearing a t-shirt featuring a confederate flag and dressing in blackface as Lil Wayne for Halloween -- denied on Tuesday that the song had any ill intent.
Alleged Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is moaning about Ice T’s 1992 song “Cop Killer” and “sex and violence in hip-hop.” Frequent hatemonger Matt
Walsh whines that “nearly every rap song for the past 30 years has
directly and enthusiastically glorified murder, drug dealing, robbery
and every other violent crime, and these people say nothing.” TV
comedian turned far-right fringe voice Roseanne Barr got in on the act, too, with a salty tweet about “gangster rap” (and furries, for some reason).
This
is a familiar pattern to anyone who’s paid attention to the past few
decades of conservative punditry. When the heat gets too high on the
right wing, they try to change the subject to hip-hop. It’s why, when
shock jock Don Imus was under fire for his nasty, racist remarks about
the Rutgers women’s basketball team in 2007, some people wanted to talk
about rappers’ language instead. (In the immortal words of Jay-Z, “I missed the part where it stopped being about Imus/What do my lyrics got to do with this s***?”) It’s why Bill O’Reilly had Cam’Ron on his show in 2003, and why Geraldo said that a Kendrick Lamar awards-show performance was worse than racism in
2015. It’s why any time a critic today points out something
questionable happening in the Nashville world, their social mentions are
flooded with variations on “but what about hip-hop?” For that matter,
it’s the same reason why former president George H.W. Bush denounced
“Cop Killer” — which is not a rap song, by the way — when he was about to lose his bid for re-election back in ’92.
These
talking heads go after hip-hop because it’s a convenient punching bag.
It’s much easier to appeal to Americans’ latent fear of Black expression
than it is to defend something like Jason Aldean’s video. Never mind
that this is the same ideological movement that’s always talking about
free speech — the hypocrisy is nothing new. Neither is the failure to
consider hip-hop as a serious artform that deals with all aspects of
human life, including the negative ones. In a follow-up tweet, Walsh
took an ugly pot-shot at the late rapper King Von,
who was killed just as his career was getting off to a promising start
in 2020. Has he ever listened closely to King Von’s music, or thought
about what it might mean for an artist to give voice to the people he
grew up alongside in Chicago? It’s doubtful.
He's claimed he's being canceled. He is such a liar. The only thing worse are his idiot fans.
Keep worshiping the girly boy Jason who is fat and can't write his own songs, who's 'curvy' and wears necklaces and ear rings while pretending to want to be a small town boi.
Friday, July 21, 2023. Some crazies in Iraq attack Sweden's embassy,
Marjorie Taylor Greene takes her porn addiction public and distributes
her favorite photos to Congress, Republicans in Congress support every
veteran and service member . . . up until the point they turn out to be
gay or transgender or they want to have an abortion or pretty much
anything, Jason Aldean's racism continues to find a defender in Jonathan
The Turd Turley who refuses to allow his own ignorance to silence him,
and much more.
Iraq has expelled Sweden's ambassador and recalled its top diplomatic
representative from Sweden over the desecration of the Quran in the
Nordic country.
The move came hours after protesters attacked
the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad earlier Thursday, setting fire to part of
the building.
The tensions between Iraq and Sweden began when
an Iraqi national set fire to a copy of the Quran in the Swedish capital
of Stockholm last month.
Yes, the Baghdad chapter of Moms For Liberty remains active.
REUTERS adds, "Seconded staff and operations at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad have
been relocated temporarily to Stockholm for security reasons after it
was stormed by protesters, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said on Friday." CNN notes:
Eyewitnesses told CNN that the protesters withdrew from the
perimeter of the Swedish Embassy after setting part of it on fire “after
delivering their message of protest against the act of burning the Holy
Book of God.”
Several journalists covering the protests were detained by
security forces, and at least one was beaten, according to multiple
organizations.
“Journalists should be free to report the news without fear of
harassment or harm, wherever they are,” Reuters Iraq Bureau Chief Timour
Azhari tweeted Thursday. Two detained Reuters journalists were released
after several hours, the agency said.
Ziyad Al-Ajili, the head of the Iraq-based Journalistic Freedoms
Observatory (JFO) told CNN that three photojournalists working with
international news agencies were arrested and another was beaten by
security forces and his camera destroyed.
These
crazed loons deserve no respect and they shouldn't be coddled and
'understood.' Their behavior is unacceptable and since others are
outraged outside of Iraq? Then those crazies should aim their own anger
at Iraq. Not Sweden.
Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah also called for a
demonstration Friday afternoon. Khamenei and Iran's theocracy serve as
Hezbollah's main sponsor.
In Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
strongly condemned the events in Sweden. He called on the 57-nation
Organization of Islamic Cooperation to play a “historic role in
expressing the sentiments of Muslims and stopping this demonization.”
Meanwhile, Islamists in his country have been pushing Sharif, who faces
an upcoming election, to cut diplomatic ties with Sweden.
So
in your poor pathetic minds this is outrageous and must be addressed?
Then turn that anger at Iraq. It's an Iraqi that's doing it. Hold Iraq
accountable for their own people.
I can't
imagine anything more lunatic than the attack on the embassy because a
holy book was stepped on. But if that's your last straw and sends you
to crazy land, you damn well better grasp that it was an Iraqi person
protesting Iraq in Sweden who's done this.
So Lebanon, Pakistan whomever, take that anger to Iraq.
THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED! OH, WE MUST DESTROY EVERYTHING!
Okay.
If that's your feeling, take it to Iraq. Take it the country where it
belongs. It's an Iraqi citizen doing it. You're attacking the country
of Sweden. They didn't raise the person, Iraq did. Condemn Iraq.
Salwan Momika is not a Swede. He's an Iraqi citizen.
The US State Dept issued the following:
Press Statement
Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson
July 20, 2023
The United States strongly condemns the attack on the Swedish Embassy in
Baghdad in the early hours of July 20. Freedom of peaceful assembly is
an essential hallmark of democracy, but what occurred last night was an
unlawful act of violence. It is unacceptable that Iraqi Security
Forces did not act to prevent protestors from breaching the Swedish
Embassy compound for a second time and damaging it. We are in contact
with our Swedish partners and have offered our support. Foreign
missions should not be targets of violence. We call on the Government
of Iraq to honor its international obligations to protect all diplomatic
missions in Iraq against any intrusion or damage, as required by
international law.
Turning
to US crazy, what's happened to Congress? You've got members of the
House using swear words in hearings and Marjorie Taylor Greene passing
around porn during a hearing. On the latter, here's SECULAR TALK.
And Paul Rudnick notes.
Lindsey Graham really has become the Beverly Leslie of the Senate, have you noticed?
Staying with the ridiculous, the idiot Jonathan Turley took a moment out from
flaunting his transphobia to again weigh in on music in his own
uninformed manner:
Protest songs have long played a critical part of our political dialogue, from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to “War.”
This controversy only helps highlight how the corporate effort to control what people hear or consume is backfiring.
Again, does this man know the English language? A protest song?
Aldean
recorded a reactionary song. That he didn't write. This is not Bob
Dylan's "Blowing In The Wind." Does Turdley not grasp basic concepts? It he
just culturally illiterate? We know he's a sexist. He tried to quote
Carly Simon and couldn't get the lyric right but, even worse, didn't
give her credit for the song she actually wrote ("Anticipation"),
refused to name her because that's just what a piece of filth he is.
Bob Roberts takes place in Pennsylvania in 1990. It depicts a fictitious senatorial race between a conservativeRepublican folk singer, Bob Roberts, and the incumbent Democrat,
Brickley Paiste. The film is shot through the perspective of Terry
Manchester, a British documentary filmmaker who is following the Roberts
campaign. Through Manchester's lens we see Roberts travel across the
state and sing about drug users, lazy people and the triumph of
traditional family values and laissez-faire capitalism
over the rebelliousness and social justice causes of the 1960s. Even
though the Roberts campaign team officially avoids manifestations of
open bigotry, their songs, speech and mannerisms are rife with snobbishdog whistles and racist and sexist innuendos, and Manchester's footage reveals casual use of homophobic slurs.
For
those who weren't paying attention in real time, Turd was egging on a
boycott of Bud Light the same way he's currently egging on one against
CMT with one tweet after another predicting bad things to come.
I
do not have time to educate him on the long history of the lyrics to
"Yankee Doodle" -- I don't feel like wasting my time. This is an idiot
who calls the song -- which is the state song of Connecticut -- "Yankee Doodle Dandy" when its title is "Yankee Doodle."
As
we noted here recently, he ends up writing papers -- such as the one
for Harvard -- where he later footnotes false claims by citing his own
Tweets and blog posts. So, yes, it does matter. It also matters
because he's supposed to be a learned person and yet he continues to
write about things he knows nothing about and never bothers to correct
his errors.
The song is "Yankee Doodle."
Jonathan Turley is a moron who couldn't pass AP English let alone a law course. Here are two responses to his online stupidity:
"MAGA
academic, Jonathan Turley, is now apparently an expert on country
music. Is there nothing this Renaissance man can't do?" -- East Coaster Tweeted that in reply.
George
Washington University, your raving lunatic is wandering around in
traffic. How about you get him back in the home, in front of the TV for
WHEEL OF FORTUNE, and on his meds?
Does
anyone else remembering him defending Dylan Mulvaney when her free
speech rights were at stake? Nope. Because he wasn't interested. He's
a fright-winger -- and, to his credit, as we noted a little while ago,
he did inadvertently come out on that in a Tweet. He's such garbage.
The fright-wing targets Dylan and he's not at all bothered. But go
after his boy singer and he's losing it. That's all Aldean is a little
boy singer. A fake ass who can't write a song. A fake ass who isn't
allowed to play guitar on his albums -- not real guitar, not lead
guitar. Because he can't write songs and he can't really play an
instrument. He's a fake ass singing the words someone else wrote
because he's that inauthentic.
Jonathan Turley does not believe in free speech. He believes in all speech spoken by right-wingers.
He's
like the hypocrites on the right who try to hide behind US troops and
veterans. They support them, they insist. But the reality is that they
only support them if they follow right-wing edicts.
You're
applauded by the fright wing for serving your country . . . until you
need an abortion, for example, or until you're gay or trans.
We
all know of the hypocrite Senator Tommy Tuberville who spent his life
spewing one homophobic comment at students after another. Disclosure:
There's one that I've encouraged to sue Tuberville. What would come of
it? Exposure of what a lousy piece of garbage Tuberville is and put
current educators on notice that you're not going to get away with this
anymore. You are not there to harm the children. Your bigotry is not
what you're paid for, it's not academic, it's not acceptable and you
will be held accountable. It's been a year now, I just realized, since
this issue was raised when we were speaking. There are many gay men
across the country (and I'm sure many lesbians as well) whose lives were
severely harmed and damaged by 'educators' (coaches with no education
and no brains but plenty of hate) who set out to destroy kids on campus,
who egged on other students to torment students.
And
don't say, "Those were different times," because it is never -- NEVER
-- acceptable for an adult employed by a school to scapegoat a student
or encourage other students to harm a student. Never. Full stop.
There's
no excuse for that for any reason and "those were different times" is
unacceptable. Tuberville, for example, was not hired by a school system
so he could attack a student or to encourage others to attack a
student.
If
you're not getting how awful and disgusting Tuberville is, look at Lt
Jnr Grade Audrey Knutson serves in the US Navy and is a member of the
JAG Corps. Supposedly, that's a great thing to Bubba Tuberville.
Supposedly. But Knutson is non-binary. So Tuberville trashes Knutson.
As we noted earlier this week, he's blocking Defense Dept nominees from
getting a vote. Why? Because he does not want service members or
their families to have abortions. So Tuberville 'respects' service
members and veterans . . . as long as they parrot his own beliefs. Talk
about censoring free speech -- which means Jonathan Turd Turley will
never speak of it.
Tuberville and Turley -- talk about the double date from hell -- won't defend Brian Femminella either. At NEWSWEEK, Femminella explains:
"Raise your right hand, and repeat after me," an authoritative voice commanded.
I
was 17 years old, in a room beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, and my parents
had agreed to support my unwavering commitment to serve as a fresh
recruit in the United States Army.
While
a gleaming sense of honor enveloped me, there was an undeniable fear
lingering in my eyes, stemming from the daunting task of standing tall
as a queer soldier.
This
fear was not new, but from past trauma from the experiences I had
growing up. During my childhood, I was constantly reminded that being
queer was not something to be proud of.
Being
overcome with feelings of loneliness and abandonment was normal,
especially when I heard the quiet whispers behind my back. I didn't feel
like a man, but rather a complete outcast for one simple reason: I
liked boys. I never could comprehend how something that seemed so small
led to so much hate.
That was until I saw hate turn to murder.
I
enlisted in the Army in 2017, shortly after the devastating Pulse
nightclub shooting. During this moment, I couldn't help but be consumed
by its harrowing aftermath. The thought relentlessly played over and
over again in my mind.
A profound realization struck me: Love should be inconsequential, for we all wear the same uniform.
As
a proud Army Officer, I have dedicated years of my life serving to
protect the precious freedoms we hold so dear. But as a gay man, I have
been fighting my whole life to enjoy the very privileges I am entitled
to as both a beholder and protector of them.
[. . .]
According to CBS News,
figures reveal there were 35,801 individuals discharged due to their
sexual orientation from 1980 to 2011, and 81 percent of these soldiers
were denied honorable discharges.
These
soldiers were stripped of support systems that should have helped
reintegrate them into society. Instead, these LGBTQ+ veterans have been
abandoned by the very institutions they swore to protect.
Tuberville's a member of the US Senate and he's not defending those veterans. Nor is 'legal' 'expert' Turley.
Dianne
Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco, Texas, refused to perform
same-sex marriages in 2019 on the grounds that officiating the
ceremonies would conflict with her sincerely-held religious belief as a
Christian. Hensley was formally warned by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that she should recuse herself in such matters if she refused to follow the law.
Hensley
responded by suing the commission for burdening her free exercise of
religion and asking for $10,000 in damages. After the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of Lorrie Smith in late June, Hensley’s lawyer submitted a
letter brief that argued his client should prevail just as Smith had.
Hensley’s
attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, acknowledged in the letter that the
Court’s holding in 303 Creative v. Elenis had been grounded in First
Amendment law, but argued that the ruling should still be “instructive,”
because it stands for the idea that wedding vendors should not be
compelled to participate in “same-sex and opposite-sex marriage
ceremonies on equal terms.”
[. . .]
By contrast, Hensley’s objection is more closely analogous to the case of Kim Davis,
the former Kentucky county clerk who refused to grant marriage licenses
to same-sex couples even after the Supreme Court ruled that marriage
equality was a constitutionally-protected right in 2015.
Like
Hensley, Davis cited her personal religious objections to same-sex
marriage as grounds for refusing to follow the law. When a federal court
ordered Davis to start issuing marriage licenses, Davis appealed, lost,
and was ultimately jailed for contempt of court.
You're
not being 'creative' -- even by Jonathan Turdley's definition -- you're
fulfilling the duties of the public office that you campaigned for.
You
don't like it? Too bad. Retire. If it's against your religious
beliefs, retire. And if you're arguing that you can't do your elected
duties -- something as basic as marrying two adults -- because of
religious beliefs then you really shouldn't be on the bench. You're
confessing to everyone -- including those who might come before your
bench -- that you don't believe in equality and that you feel you have a
right to discriminate against gay men and lesbians. I don't understand
how this doesn't require you to be removed from the bench.
Your
religious freedom allows you to worship where you want. It does not
allow you to discriminate -- not even that idiotic verdict in Liar Lori
Smith's case allows public officials to determine what elected job
duties that they will and will not carry out.
You ran for office, you got elected, you do your job or you step down.
It's
not that complicated. And if she's too prejudiced to hear LGBTQ+
issues, then we should also remove from her court any case involving a
child who was born out of wedlock or to people in high school since her
'religious' 'beliefs' also include preaching abstinence -- that's why
she was a director at the McClennan County Abstinence Project for almost
a year in 2004, after all, and a trainer there for the year prior.
justice
of the peace, in Anglo-American legal systems, a local magistrate
empowered chiefly to administer criminal or civil justice in minor
cases. A justice of the peace may, in some jurisdictions, also
administer oaths and perform marriages"
YOU SHALL NEVER PRESIDE IN A COURT OF LAW BASED ON YOUR POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.
YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO BE IMPARTIAL IN CERTAIN CASES.
She
doesn’t have a problem taking the LGBTQ money each month. She’s a
hypocrite on the taxpayers dime. Nothing like taxation without
representation. Sound familiar you bigot.
She doesn't have a lot of comments on her FACEBOOK page but people don't seem to like her. Crackpot Don Dyer of Austin with a "classical Christian school" tries to run interference for her but when you spell bigot "boigot," maybe you should stick to cleaning toilets?
According
to the Texas judicial commission’s 2019 warning, Hensley referred gay
couples who wanted her to preside over their marriage ceremony to other
people who would officiate. The state’s judicial code requires judges to
conduct “extra-judicial activities” in ways that don’t cast doubt on
their impartiality on the bench. The commission issued a public warning,
saying she cast doubt “on her capacity to act impartially to persons
appearing before her as a judge due to the person’s sexual orientation.”
According
to Dale Carpenter, chair of constitutional law at Southern Methodist
University’s Dedman School of Law, the U.S. Supreme Court case has
little to do with Hensley’s case, since one is dealing with private
businesses, and Hensley is a government official acting in an official
capacity.
[. . .]
Johnathan
Gooch, a spokesperson for Equality Texas and a University of Texas at
Austin School of Law graduate reiterated Carpenter’s points on the
differences between the two cases, and pointed to Hensley’s position as a
purveyor of the law.
“The
law of the land is marriage equality. It’s as simple as that,” Gooch
said. “If judges and justices of the peace were empowered to only
enforce the laws that they agreed with, we would quickly descend into
anarchy.”
[. . .]
“I
have nothing to say anymore,” said Verniss McFarland, founder and
executive director of the Mahogany Project, which advocates for LGBTQ+
communities of color. “As a Black trans femme person, we are already on
the margins. When something like this happens, it’s just like: ‘Oh, this
again.’”
With the Supreme Court decision on Creative LLC vs. Elenis, businesses could now be permitted to refuse service to same-sex couples.
In
writing that "our Nation's answer" to "ideas we consider
'unattractive'" is "tolerance, not coercion" in the majority opinion, I
believe Supreme Court Justice Niel Gorsuch essentially enables and
empowers Jim-Crow-era systems of segregation against the LGBTQ+
community on the basis of the First Amendment.
We
cannot sit idly as our hard-fought progress erodes and our fundamental
rights are trampled upon. While exercising our right to vote holds
profound significance, it alone is insufficient.
As a society, if we do not fight back and demand change, we will continue to move backward.
We
must boldly challenge our leaders, celebrate queer jobs, and affirm to
every American that inclusivity knows no bounds. This belief is what
fuels the spirit of our soldiers, including myself, who fight to
safeguard this very freedom that is entitled to all.
+ Under the Florida Board of Education’s newly approved Black history
standards students will be taught that slavery was a kind of
apprenticeship for Western Civilization, where enslaved Black people
developed life and trade skills that “could be applied for their
personal benefit.”
+ Jason Aldean–the
country singer who was on-stage during the mass shooting at a 2017 Las
Vegas concert that killed 60 people and wounded over 400 more–has
recorded a song called “Try That In A Small Town” about how he and his
friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns. The video for this
tribute to the righteous vigilantism of Sundown towns features Aldean
singing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee,
where in 1927 a lynch mob of 300 white men strung up the body of Henry
Coat from the second story window, after dragging his body through the
streets of the town behind a car. According to historian Elizabeth
Queene, around 20 Black men
and boys were lynched, killed by other methods or “disappeared” by
White mobs or the Ku Klux Klan in Maury County. In 1946, the town of
Columbia was the site of a post-WW II “race riot,” where Thurgood
Marshall, who was in town defending two of the black suspects, narrowly
escaped being lynched himself.
+ Jason Aldean: “Try That in a Small Town, for me, refers to the
feeling of a community that I had growing up.” Aldean grew up in Macon,
Georgia population 157,000.
+ This is something a reversal for Aldean, who just a couple of years
ago released a song called “Rearview Town” about how he left a small
town because it was so dull: “I could tough it out, but what’s the use? /
A place that small, it’s hard to do.”
+ South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem: “I am shocked by what I’m seeing
in this country, with people attempting to cancel the song and cancel
Jason and his beliefs.” Uh, the Coup and the Dixie Chicks would like a
word, Governor…
[. . .]
+ Aldean’s lynching “song” is now No. 1 on the charts. I wish someone would “cancel” one of my books.
+ Jason Isbell: “Dare Aldean to write his next single himself. That’s what we try in my small town.”
Always love C.I.'s snapshots but especially loved this part of today's snapshot:
First
off, Jonathan Turley of The Federalist Society -- or are we still
trying to pretend that connection does not exist? He's not a liberal
but he plays one to the media.
And the media let's him get away with it as he dumbs us all down.
Jonathan
the transphobe has his crotchless panties in a wad -- which means he
feels some
conservative has yet again been victimized. Who this time? Human troll
Jason Aldean. Is there a requirement that male singers who are fat
and ugly have to go into country music? Someone needs to ask the
obvious.
So Jonny Turley
Tweets: "Country music singer Jason Aldean's hit single 'Try That In A
Small Town' secured two distinctions this week. It hit number on the
country charts and was pulled by the Country Music Television (CMT)."
Are you brain dead, Turley?
There
is no "the Country Music Television." What language are you trying to
speak because it's not English. The year is 2023 and the channel is
CMT. At their website you will find what they've dubbed popular
articles such as "Where can I watch CMT programming?" and "How do I gt back to CMT?" Not one of the titles includes "Call us the Country Music Television."
What an idiot.
Second,
idiot, it did not "hit number one on the country charts." CASHBOX is
no more. BILLBOARD is the only game in town in the US. The song has
thus far made it to number 35 on BILLBOARD's hot country songs. That
chart is based on airplay, streams and sales. BILLBOARD's country
airplay chart is based solely on airplay on country music stations --
and only coutnry music stations. On that chart, the song has made it to
number 24.
We already know
you can't handle the English language but apparently numbers are also
confusing to you. Neither 35 nor 24 are number one. And don't come
up with, "It's number 19 on the bubbling under chart!" Yes, bubbling
under . . . the hot 100. Which means it's number 119. Get it?
You
really need to STFU. Weren't we just talking about this? About how
you never know what you're talking about when you try to wade in on some
pop culture issue.
Number
one? That's a basic fact you f**king idiot. I can't believe George
Washington University continues to employ such an incompetent fool.
If country music used to pride itself on being about “three chords and the truth,” the increasingly belligerent superstar Jason Aldean has a different idea of what the genre should represent: two chords and a beating, or maybe a shotgun blast.
Aldean’s
“Try That in a Small Town” is close to being the most cynical song ever
written about the implicit moral superiority of having a limited number
of neighbors, which is saying something, given how many attempts to
write the Great American Small Town Anthem are generated in a single
year. At least most of the others at least put up the appearance of
celebrating local pride, not prejudice. But for Aldean, it’s about how
tiny burgs are under the imminent threat of attack from lawless urban
marauders who will have to be kept at bay by any means necessary —
meaning, pretty explicitly, vigilantism.
You
can just see Aldean speaking up at a town council meeting to keep the
interlopers out: First, the outsiders visit your charming
off-the-interstate vintage stores, then they’ll be back with their BLM
protests and Molotov cocktails. Ban antique shops now, before it’s too late.
“Try
That in a Small Town” was risible enough as a single, but in case
anything about its lunkheaded songwriting felt like it was left as
subtext and not made explicit, Aldean has released a music video for the
rising hit. It, too, is in the business of handing out black eyes… to
country music, that is, much more than any imagined invaders.
The
setting, outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee,
has proven upsetting for some who know or learn the history of the
building. It’s where, in 1927, a white lynch mob dragged a young man
named Henry Choate through the streets behind a car before finally
hanging him from a second-story courthouse window. Let’s give Aldean and
video director Shaun Silva the benefit of the doubt and assume they
had not indulged
in a history lesson when they decided the same frontage where a Black
man was murdered in front of a crowd would be a good place to alternate
projected footage of protesters being put down with a draped American
flag. (Hard to blame anyone for thinking that this history did show
up in Aldean’s or the filmmakers’ web search on the location, but
imagining that they knew that and proceeded anyway, as a known dog
whistle, is… just tough to contemplate.)
Do you get it now, you piece of garbage?
It's
past time that the country got it: Jonathan Turley is a member of the
fright-wing. He's been helping build test cases to destroy the rights
and liberties of American citizens. Then he writes about these cases
while failing to disclose the advice he's offered, the moves he's
encouraged.
So now he's
attacking CMT and trying to encourage a boycott against it with his
Tweets (there are two, we only quoted one) while screaming 'Free
speech!' about Aldean. Aldean is a transphobe like Turley. But he's
made a disgusting video --
Let's stop right there.
Jason Aldean is a little nothing. I knew he was. He just gives off that vibe of lying fake ass.
I've had more songs stolen then he's written.
It's
not his song. Real artists -- pay attention micro Jason -- write their own
damn songs. He's had 39 singles (not counting featured artist) and he
didn't write one of them -- or, for that matter -- co-write. He's all
product. He's hollow and fake. He didn't direct the video, he didn't
write the song. He's product that stands where he's told and does what
he's told. He's not an artist and he never will be. As Cass Elliot long
ago said about garbage like Aldean, "They have the money, but we'll
have the legacy."
Oh, my
goodness. He doesn't even play guitar on his albums. They let him play
on a few tracks, not lead guitar. Oh, my goodness. He is such a
fake.
He's not a musical artist. He's pure product, fake ass. Candy. A little sweet. No substance. No integrity.
Before we move on -- his 2021 album only sold 19,000 copies. His 2022 album only sold 13,000 copies.
So
anyway, he didn't write the song and that may explain why he doesn't
understand what he's singing. He didn't direct the video which may
explain why he doesn't understand what the video's promoting. He's a
candy ass, a little piece of sugar, product, no depth, no reality.
His
song and video are offensive. Sheryl Crow has rightly called it out.
That would be Sheryl Crow who has written or co-written over 20 of her
own hit singles. That would be Sheryl Crow who wrote a song so good
that Prince covered it.
See
that's what real musical artists do, they write their own material --
been true since the Beatles. They're the ones who sent the sugar candy
acts packing -- the 'boy' singers and the 'girl' singers. Real musical
artists like Carly Simon, Valerie Simpson, Joni Mitchell, Stevie
Wonder, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, Smokey Robinson,
Maxwell, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Lauryn Hill, Sting,
Mary J. Blige, Jodi Watley, Dolly Parton, Brenda Russell, Chrissie
Hynde, Neil Young, Anita Baker, Bob Dylan, Sade, Debbie Harry, D'Angelo,
Chase Rice, Lionel Richie, Brian Wilson, George Ezra, Usher, Tori Amos,
Van Hunt, Willie Nelson, Janelle Monae, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, etc
write their own material. Diana Ross is an artist with real singing
talent and she could get away with not writing her own material but even
she's been writing songs since 1981. And she co-wrote nine of the 13
songs on her latest album, the Grammy nominated THANK YOU, which also
features "Count On Me," written by Rhonda Ross -- the daughter of Diana
and Berry Gordy. Let's include "Count On Me" here.
Great
job, Rhonda. But little flabby Jason Aldean can't write a song. Good
thing other people can write for him. He's product or, as he would have
been called back in the day, plastic. He's little Mister Connie
Francis. Go try to impress someone else, boy singer, your kind is a
dime a dozen.
Jonathan
Turley frets over Jason Aldean who must be the Fabian of his heart or
at least the Rick Astley. Remember kids, when you're not an artist and
can't write your own songs, you hire others to write them for you.
CMT
has pulled (at least for now) a video. It is not the end of the
world. Videos have been pulled for far less and The Bill of Rights does
not include: "All of your videos shall be and will be played on MTV,
CMT and BET in perpetuity."
Let's also remember this video.
I
love that video, I love that song, I love Cher, I've known her for
years. Decades, actually. And you know what? MTV would only air that
video after midnight. Yes, it's mild today but apparently it was just
too much at the time. You know what else? Unlike candy ass Jason
Aldean, Cher never whined publicly about it. Not once. Again, there
are artists and then there is product.
Previous coverage in this community of the idiot product Jason Aldean includes:
Former President Donald Trump has spoken out in the defense of Jason Aldean and his track, "Try That in a Small Town," calling it a "great new song."
Country
star Aldean, 46, caused a stir when he released the music video for his
track on Saturday. The song compares city life and small-town
lifestyles, and includes the lyrics that if somebody "cross[es] that
line," to "cuss out a cop, spit in his face" or "stomp on the flag and
light it up," to "try that in a small town."
Trump
loves it, that tells you just how bad it is. I didn't realize he
didn't write any of his singles, by the way. Aldean really is a plastic
princess. Singing other people's songs and acting like he wrote them.
Authenticity clearly does not matter in country music if Aldean's had a
career there.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out that Jason Aldean filmed the video for his controversial song “Try That In A Small Town” at the site of an infamous lynching and interviewed Black Tennessee lawmaker Justin Jones, who called the song a “lynching anthem!”
Jones is one of the Tennessee Three disciplined by the state legislature for protesting gun violence. The other two were Rep. Justin Pearson — who is Black — and Rep. Gloria Johnson,
a 60-year-old white woman who participated in the protest. But only the
two Black men were expelled, a disparity that has been flagged by the
Tennessee Three and others as a racist double standard.
On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins,
Collins prefaced her interview with Pearson by laying out important
context for Aldean’s song and picking apart his social media post
defending the song:
That
video and its lyrics getting backlash, in part because it was, one,
filmed at the site of a 1927 lynching in Columbia Tennessee. Aldean did
not address the location in his pushback, but he is defending the
lyrics, but critics say are racist and encourage vigilante behavior.
Aldean responded, and I’m quoting him now, “There is not a single lyric
in the song that references race or points to it. Try That In A Small
Town for me refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up
where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences or
background or belief.”
She then gave Jones the opportunity to respond to Aldean, and Jones torched the “heinous vile racist song”:
COLLINS:You
know, Jason Aldean, as I noted is defending this video, but I wonder
what your reaction was when you heard the song and saw the video?
JUSTIN
JONES: Yes. Well, thank you so much again for having me, Kaitlan. As a
Tennessee lawmaker, as a youngest black lawmaker in our state, I felt
like we had an obligation and a duty to condemn this heinous vile racist
song that is really about harkening back to days past.
There’s
no accident that he filmed this in the site of the Murray County
Courthouse where the race riot happened and where as well as the 1927
lynching of a young man who was 18 years old, Henry Cho occurred. This
song is about normalizing racist, violence, vigilantism and white
nationalism. And it’s about glorifying a south that we are moving
forward from and that we’re trying to move forward from here in
Tennessee.
COLLINS: And Aldean,
obviously he didn’t write the song but clearly sings it and, look, for
some of the lyrics we were looking at them earlier. One of them is,
“cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag and light it up.
Yeah, you think you’re tough. Well, try that in a small town.” Are those
the lyrics that you’re referencing?
JONES:
Those lyrics and the lyric that says see how far you make it down the
road? I mean, this is a lynching anthem! It’s an anthem that reminds me
of the stories of young men like Trayvon Martin, Ralph Yarl, you know,
young man Ahmaud Arbery, who were killed by the white vigilantes. I
mean, this song is not about small towns, because if it was about small
towns, where was Jason Aldean when the Murray County people are fighting
for their clean water?
When Dr. Karlos K. Hill first watched Jason Aldean’s video for “Try That in a Small Town,” he
saw the current conservative American political moment flash before his
eyes. “It’s the narrative of Make America Great Again, of white
nationalism,” Hill, a professor of African and African American Studies
at the University of Oklahoma, tells Rolling Stone. “But it’s packaged in this really nice, seemingly benign package of country music.”
Aldean
released the video for “Try That in a Small Town” last week and, up
until then, the single had received little attention or fanfare: It’s
been streamed less than five million times on Spotify in the few months
since its release. But the reaction to the video was something else.
As
a greatest-hits reel of Fox News scaremongering imagery flickers by —
of protests, police defiance, and urban unrest — the song’s chorus tilts
toward a menacing threat of violence: “Try that in a small town,” it
warns, “See how far you make it down the road.”
But another detail of the music video is less overt. Along with the stock-footage protest scenes filmed in Canada is
a new scene that director Shaun Silva filmed in front of the Columbia,
Tennessee, courthouse — the site of the 1927 lynching of Henry Choate.
For many, the song’s lyrics, combined with the video’s threatening
imagery and filming location, amounted to a suggestion of political
violence that was far out of bounds. CMT removed the video from its
rotation this week, and Aldean was forced to release a statement
defending the song that opened with the words: “In the past 24 hours I
have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song.” (His statement goes
on to insist that this interpretation is “meritless.”)
For
Dr. Hill, who has written books on the history of lynching, the killing
of Emmett Till, and the Tulsa race riots, the video was less a piece of
incendiary hate speech than it was an extremely typical piece of
conservative culture-war messaging in 2023. Rolling Stone spoke with Dr. Hill about the song, its video, and its hidden message.
What was your first reaction to watching the video to “Try That in a Small Town”?It
was dog-whistle politics at play. There are a couple themes: the idea
that rural America is the moral center of America. That’s a very present
theme, because you see images of urban America on fire, with protests,
but then you have the country music singer placed in the rural area
where it’s tranquil and calm and peaceful. You have the rural/urban
divide theme, the “rural America is the moral compass” theme, and the
“urban America is in chaos” theme.
You
also have this veiled threat: “Try that in a small town.” The song is
part of the current rhetoric of the moment. The “us versus them, Make
America Great Again” idea. You have all of that without the artist even
having to touch it. But what’s most concerning is the veiled threats of
violence that, given the Jan. 6 attacks, we should be really alarmed by,
because we know where they can lead.
Thursday, July 20, 2023. Noted transphboe Jonathan Turley just makes
s**t up and publishes it these days (that's what happens when bigotry
seizes the brain) and he's also struggling with the English language and
numbers, thief Shelby White has enough money to keep her out of prison
so it's incumbent upon society to make it clear to her that she's fooled
on one, a right-wing outlet thinks -- like Turley -- that they can say
something's true when it's not (and when you're lying about Barbie, I
mean how low an disgusting are you), and much more.
Hefty, hefty, hefty. I'm so sick of garbage. Let's deal with garbage at the top.
First
off, Jonathan Turley of The Federalist Society -- or are we still
trying to pretend that connection does not exist? He's not a liberal
but he plays one to the media.
And the media let's him get away with it as he dumbs us all down.
Jonathan
the transphobe has his crotchless panties in a wad -- which means he
feels some
conservative has yet again been victimized. Who this time? Human troll
Jason Aldean. Is there a requirement that male singers who are fat
and ugly have to go into country music? Someone needs to ask the
obvious.
So Jonny Turley
Tweets: "Country music singer Jason Aldean's hit single 'Try That In A
Small Town' secured two distinctions this week. It hit number on the
country charts and was pulled by the Country Music Television (CMT)."
Are you brain dead, Turley?
There
is no "the Country Music Television." What language are you trying to
speak because it's not English. The year is 2023 and the channel is
CMT. At their website you will find what they've dubbed popular
articles such as "Where can I watch CMT programming?" and "How do I gt back to CMT?" Not one of the titles includes "Call us the Country Music Television."
What an idiot.
Second,
idiot, it did not "hit number one on the country charts." CASHBOX is
no more. BILLBOARD is the only game in town in the US. The song has
thus far made it to number 35 on BILLBOARD's hot country songs. That
chart is based on airplay, streams and sales. BILLBOARD's country
airplay chart is based solely on airplay on country music stations --
and only coutnry music stations. On that chart, the song has made it to
number 24.
We already know
you can't handle the English language but apparently numbers are also
confusing to you. Neither 35 nor 24 are number one. And don't come
up with, "It's number 19 on the bubbling under chart!" Yes, bubbling
under . . . the hot 100. Which means it's number 119. Get it?
You
really need to STFU. Weren't we just talking about this? About how
you never know what you're talking about when you try to wade in on some
pop culture issue.
Number
one? That's a basic fact you f**king idiot. I can't believe George
Washington University continues to employ such an incompetent fool.
If country music used to pride itself on being about “three chords and the truth,” the increasingly belligerent superstar Jason Aldean has a different idea of what the genre should represent: two chords and a beating, or maybe a shotgun blast.
Aldean’s
“Try That in a Small Town” is close to being the most cynical song ever
written about the implicit moral superiority of having a limited number
of neighbors, which is saying something, given how many attempts to
write the Great American Small Town Anthem are generated in a single
year. At least most of the others at least put up the appearance of
celebrating local pride, not prejudice. But for Aldean, it’s about how
tiny burgs are under the imminent threat of attack from lawless urban
marauders who will have to be kept at bay by any means necessary —
meaning, pretty explicitly, vigilantism.
You
can just see Aldean speaking up at a town council meeting to keep the
interlopers out: First, the outsiders visit your charming
off-the-interstate vintage stores, then they’ll be back with their BLM
protests and Molotov cocktails. Ban antique shops now, before it’s too late.
“Try
That in a Small Town” was risible enough as a single, but in case
anything about its lunkheaded songwriting felt like it was left as
subtext and not made explicit, Aldean has released a music video for the
rising hit. It, too, is in the business of handing out black eyes… to
country music, that is, much more than any imagined invaders.
The
setting, outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee,
has proven upsetting for some who know or learn the history of the
building. It’s where, in 1927, a white lynch mob dragged a young man
named Henry Choate through the streets behind a car before finally
hanging him from a second-story courthouse window. Let’s give Aldean and
video director Shaun Silva the benefit of the doubt and assume they
had not indulged
in a history lesson when they decided the same frontage where a Black
man was murdered in front of a crowd would be a good place to alternate
projected footage of protesters being put down with a draped American
flag. (Hard to blame anyone for thinking that this history did show
up in Aldean’s or the filmmakers’ web search on the location, but
imagining that they knew that and proceeded anyway, as a known dog
whistle, is… just tough to contemplate.)
Do you get it now, you piece of garbage?
It's
past time that the country got it: Jonathan Turley is a member of the
fright-wing. He's been helping build test cases to destroy the rights
and liberties of American citizens. Then he writes about these cases
while failing to disclose the advice he's offered, the moves he's
encouraged.
So now he's
attacking CMT and trying to encourage a boycott against it with his
Tweets (there are two, we only quoted one) while screaming 'Free
speech!' about Aldean. Aldean is a transphobe like Turley. But he's
made a disgusting video --
Let's stop right there.
Jason Aldean is a little nothing. I knew he was. He just gives off that vibe of lying fake ass.
I've had more songs stolen then he's written.
It's
not his song. Real artists -- pay attention micro Jason -- write their own
damn songs. He's had 39 singles (not counting featured artist) and he
didn't write one of them -- or, for that matter -- co-write. He's all
product. He's hollow and fake. He didn't direct the video, he didn't
write the song. He's product that stands where he's told and does what
he's told. He's not an artist and he never will be. As Cass Elliot long
ago said about garbage like Aldean, "They have the money, but we'll
have the legacy."
Oh, my
goodness. He doesn't even play guitar on his albums. They let him play
on a few tracks, not lead guitar. Oh, my goodness. He is such a
fake.
He's not a musical artist. He's pure product, fake ass. Candy. A little sweet. No substance. No integrity.
Before we move on -- his 2021 album only sold 19,000 copies. His 2022 album only sold 13,000 copies.
So
anyway, he didn't write the song and that may explain why he doesn't
understand what he's singing. He didn't direct the video which may
explain why he doesn't understand what the video's promoting. He's a
candy ass, a little piece of sugar, product, no depth, no reality.
His
song and video are offensive. Sheryl Crow has rightly called it out.
That would be Sheryl Crow who has written or co-written over 20 of her
own hit singles. That would be Sheryl Crow who wrote a song so good
that Prince covered it.
See
that's what real musical artists do, they write their own material --
been true since the Beatles. They're the ones who sent the sugar candy
acts packing -- the 'boy' singers and the 'girl' singers. Real musical
artists like Carly Simon, Valerie Simpson, Joni Mitchell, Stevie
Wonder, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, Smokey Robinson,
Maxwell, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Lauryn Hill, Sting,
Mary J. Blige, Jodi Watley, Dolly Parton, Brenda Russell, Chrissie
Hynde, Neil Young, Anita Baker, Bob Dylan, Sade, Debbie Harry, D'Angelo,
Chase Rice, Lionel Richie, Brian Wilson, George Ezra, Usher, Tori Amos,
Van Hunt, Willie Nelson, Janelle Monae, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, etc
write their own material. Diana Ross is an artist with real singing
talent and she could get away with not writing her own material but even
she's been writing songs since 1981. And she co-wrote nine of the 13
songs on her latest album, the Grammy nominated THANK YOU, which also
features "Count On Me," written by Rhonda Ross -- the daughter of Diana
and Berry Gordy. Let's include "Count On Me" here.
Great
job, Rhonda. But little flabby Jason Aldean can't write a song. Good
thing other people can write for him. He's product or, as he would have
been called back in the day, plastic. He's little Mister Connie
Francis. Go try to impress someone else, boy singer, your kind is a
dime a dozen.
Jonathan
Turley frets over Jason Aldean who must be the Fabian of his heart or
at least the Rick Astley. Remember kids, when you're not an artist and
can't write your own songs, you hire others to write them for you.
CMT
has pulled (at least for now) a video. It is not the end of the
world. Videos have been pulled for far less and The Bill of Rights does
not include: "All of your videos shall be and will be played on MTV,
CMT and BET in perpetuity."
Let's also remember this video.
I
love that video, I love that song, I love Cher, I've known her for
years. Decades, actually. And you know what? MTV would only air that
video after midnight. Yes, it's mild today but apparently it was just
too much at the time. You know what else? Unlike candy ass Jason
Aldean, Cher never whined publicly about it. Not once. Again, there
are artists and then there is product.
Previous coverage in this community of the idiot product Jason Aldean includes:
Staying
with garbage, I'm not a Matt Gaetz fan. He and his wife went to the
BARBIE movie.
Apparently, I've now got to buy a ticket. Don't have to
see it and won't. Team Jennifer Jason Leigh here. But I will buy the
ticket to show support at a time when books and films are under attack
by crazy bigots. In the article noting Matt seeing the film -- and the marital discord the film has apparently created -- this shows up:
Movieguide, a nonprofit Christian movie review website, has warned readers not to watch the film,
as it "forgets its core audience of families and children while
catering to nostalgic adults and pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender character stories." The website issues family-friendly movie
ratings based on various content concerns, including language,
violence, and sex.
“Millions
of families would have turned out to the theaters and purchased
tickets, but instead, Mattel chose to cater to a small percentage of the
population who has proven over and over to abandon the box office," one
of its many articles dedicated to the film reads. "Movieguide’s 40
years of research indicate this just isn’t true, and Mattel has made a
grievous mistake.”
Sorry you hagged
out piece of trash, MOVIE GUIDE (FOR BIGOTS AND IDIOTS), but you don't
know Barbie's core audience.
Not every boy who played with Barbie was
gay but a lot of them were and, yes, a lot of boys played with Barbie
growing up and continue to.
When
Betty transferred to California for her company, she and her kids moved
in here. Though her daughter is now in college, she wasn't back then
and we played Barbies constantly. I had Barbie toys from when my
daughter was little. We worked a whole room over, Betty's daughter and
I, so that it was Barbie Village (as she called it). That was the toys
that were my daughters and the toys that Betty's daughter and I shopped
for. And I never need an excuse to shop for Barbie toys -- dolls,
dresses, cars, houses. If anyone I know mentions that their child is
into Barbie, I immediately ask what they have and start suggesting
things to purchase. The 1970s Barbie Dream House, for example, is the
best. It's sturdy and no paper backdrops. You can split it into two
halves while you're playing, just great. If someone tells me their
child is into Barbie, I immediately start hard selling that item. And
if they're doubtful, I'll get on eBay myself and buy it. And I can drop
to the floor and play Barbies with kids for hours. As someone who is
forever buying Barbie things for the kids of people I know, and hunting
down things that are really hard to find (Trina wanted Tuesday Taylor's
Penthouse Apartment for one of her grandchildren and locating one of
those in good condition was a real joy), I know a great deal about
people who collect or have collected Barbie items.
Women?
Yes. And some are straight and some are lesbian -- I'm sure some are
bi. Drag queens? Yes. Gay men. Yes. Transgender people? Yes.
MOVIE
GUIDE is a bigot with no brains at all. They have no idea who plays
with dolls and who doesn't. Barbie, the toy and the company, know their
audience is much more than prigs like MOVIE GUIDE families. I know
those prigs. You meet these women and you say, "Which Ken did you
have growing up?"
And
they say, with their pale faces with sallow skin due to their dead and
sad lives, "My mother wouldn't let us have a boy doll."
Yeah,
I can see that, your life's pathetic.
And those are the MOVIE GUIDE
people.
They buy their poor daughter a Barbie or two over a three year
period, cut some holes in a sock and call it a 'dress' for the doll.
Those are not the people that have made Barbie the huge toy and huge
money maker. It's the people who love the doll that have made it so
big. Again, that's straight women, that's lesbians, that's drag queens,
that's gay men, straight men, transgender persons and non-binary as well. I've come across
them repeatedly. And the only thing more fun than playing Barbie is
talking Barbie with others who love the doll.
So I'll buy a ticket. If I hear it's good, I'll even go see it.
Still on garbage, Shelby White. We last noted that trash June 4th:
Meanwhile, back in April, Adel Fakhir (ALJAZEERA) wondered whee
Iraq's antiquities were? A few more of them have returned home. May
19th, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced:
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., announced today the
return of two ancient stone antiquities, a Mesopotamian limestone
elephant and a Sumerian alabaster bull, to the people of Iraq.
Collectively valued at $275,000, these artifacts were looted from the
ancient city of Uruk, now known as Warka, one of the oldest
civilizations in human history.
The figures were stolen from Iraq during the Gulf War and smuggled
into New York in the late 1990s. The alabaster bull was seized from the
private collection of Shelby White and the limestone elephant from a
storage unit that belonged to the convicted trafficker Robin Symes,
where it had been hidden since at least 1999. The items were returned
during a repatriation ceremony attended by Thomas Acocella, Assistant
Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations New York and
Dhafer Abdulrazaq Jalil, Counselor at the Embassy of the Government of
the Republic of Iraq in Washington D.C.
“Once again, we see historic and priceless antiquities hidden from
the public and sitting in the possession of traffickers and looters. We
will not allow New Yok City to be a safe harbor for stolen cultural
artifacts,” said District Attorney Bragg.
“It is a great privilege and honor to return to the people of Iraq
these two rare and ancient artifacts that reflect their nation’s rich
history and heritage,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo.
“Investigating the theft of cultural property, and illicit
international trade of art and antiquities, is a unique part of our
mission at Homeland Security Investigations, and every repatriation
brings us closer to our goal to remove the incentive of those who pilfer
a nation’s cultural history for profit.
The Sumerian bull was originally given as a religious offering to the
goddess Inanna at her temple at Uruk. This statuette was probably left
together with or in substitution for the living sacrificial animals that
it represents. Although elephants were known to have existed in
Mesopotamia and have appeared in excavations dating to the 4th
millennium, they were rarely represented in art, making this limestone
figure one of the very few examples to have survived to the modern day.
During District Attorney Bragg’s tenure, the ATU has recovered over
800 antiquities stolen from 24 countries and valued at nearly $160
million. Since its creation, the ATU has recovered nearly 4,500
antiquities stolen from 29 countries and valued at more than $375
million. Under District Attorney Bragg, the ATU has also repatriated
more than 950 antiquities stolen from 19 countries and valued at more
than $165 million. Since its creation, the ATU has returned more than
2,450 antiquities to 24 countries and valued at more than $230 million.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the
Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Senior Trial Counsel, supervised the
investigation, which was conducted by Assistant District Attorneys
Taylor Holland and Christine DiDomenico; Supervising Investigative
Analyst Apsara Iyer, Investigative Analysts Daniel Healey and Hilary
Chasse; and Special Agents Robert Mancene, John Paul Labbat, and Robert
Fromkin of Homeland Security Investigations. The District Attorney’s
Office would like to thank Shelby White for her assistance and
cooperation with our investigation.
Authorities seized the bull figurine from Shelby White,
the investor, art collector and board member of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. The expansive collection she accrued with her late husband,
Leon Levy, has come under scrutiny for including many artefacts with
uncertain provenance. The district attorney's investigation into the
collection has already resulted in the seizure of 89 stolen antiquities valued at over $69m and originating from ten different countries. White
cooperated with investigators, according to the district attorney's
announcement.
Shelby White is not a poor widow.
She's 84 years old and sitting on millions. She's used that money to
try to buy herself a life in the last two decades. That money bought her
a seat on a government committee that was supposed to be figuring out
the illegal artifact trade and how to stop it. Yes, Bill Clinton put
the fox in the henhouse. This latest revelation is not a shock. She
and her dead husband profited from looting and illegal trade. Sarah Cascone (ART NET) notes:
One, a Sumerian alabaster bull, belonged to philanthropist Shelby White,
a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s board of trustees. It
joins a significant number of other objects from her collection that the
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized in the past two years.
I'm sure there are many more items to be found in 'their' collection. WIKIPEDIA notes:
The Levy-White collection has been scrutinised for looted objects: in a 2000 article, archaeologists David Gill and Christopher Chippindale stated that 93 percent of the works at the exhibition Glories of the Past: Ancient Art from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Collection had no known provenance.[15]
Upon search warrants issued by the Manhattan District Attorney’s
Office on 28 June, 2021, and April 27, 2022, objects were seized from
White's Manhattan home and were returned to Turkey and Italy, these
objets constituting "evidence of criminal possession of stolen property
in the first, second, third, and fourth degrees, as well as of a
conspiracy to commit those crimes"[16]
The Office of Manhattan District Attorney General seized 89
stolen antiquities, valued at $69 million and originating from 10
different countries, and returned some of them to Turkey[17] and Yemen.[18]
In May 2023, Chinese antiquities loaned to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art by Shelby White were seized and returned to the Chinese
Consulate.[19]
A
prominent trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) has come
under fire after cops recovered numerous stolen artifacts from her
house. According to reports, the confiscated items are worth $69 million
and were collected by Shelby White and her late husband Leon Levy over
several years.
89
artifacts have reportedly been removed from White's possession by the
Manhattan District Attorney's Office Special Antiquities Trafficking
Unit in the last two years. An April statement by Manhattan DA Alvin L
Bragg, Jr said, "Our investigation into the collector Shelby White has
allowed dozens of antiquities that were ripped from their countries of
origin to finally return home."
Following the shocking revelation, The New York Post reported
that the 85-year-old woman's attorney Peter Chavkin has asserted that
his client bought artifacts "in good faith, at public auction and from
dealers they believed to be reputable." Philippe de Montebello, the
Met's former director, defended Shelby by saying she "is a scholar who
bought antiquities in good faith out of a real love and knowledge of the
art."
[. . .]
However,
there were many who were not convinced by White's apparent innocence as
Elizabeth Marlowe, the director of the museum studies program at
Colgate University, reportedly said, "There is no way that someone at
her level of the market and her depth of collecting and her prominence
at the Met - there is no way someone at that level did not know they
should be asking for things like export licenses."
Patty
Gerstenblith, an expert on cultural heritage issues and a professor at
DePaul University College of Law, added, "Her collecting practices do
not fit the model of how a museum should be pursuing knowledge and
preserving the historical record. I don't think the good works, the
support of archaeological work, outweigh the harm that she caused."
She's
a thief and she needs to be called out every day of however many years
she has left on this earth. Crooks like her don't go to prison, so
public scorn's all we can mete out.
Protesters angered by the
planned burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in
Baghdad early Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small
fire and setting off a diplomatic furor.
Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi
Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr ahead of a planned
burning of the Islamic holy book Thursday in Stockholm by an Iraqi
asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Quran in a previous demonstration
last month.
Following the
incident, the Swedish Embassy announced it had closed to visitors
without specifying when it would reopen. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed
Shia al-Sudani convened a meeting with security officials and said in a
statement afterwards that Iraqi authorities will prosecute those
responsible for the arson as well referring “negligent security
officials” for investigation.
No word yet on whether other
Moms For Liberty like 'Dr' Naomi Wolf and Tulsi Gabbard would be rushing
to Iraq to assist mother Moqtada in the mission. AFP notes:
"What has happened is completely unacceptable and the government
condemns these attacks in the strongest terms. Iraqi authorities have an
unequivocal obligation to protect diplomatic missions and personnel
under the Vienna Convention," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said in a
statement, adding that Iraq's charge d'affaires would be summoned to
the foreign ministry.
“It is clear that the Iraqi authorities have seriously failed in their
responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and personnel,” Billstrom
said in a statement.
Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church,
announced Saturday that he is withdrawing from his seat in Baghdad after
Iraqi President Abdul Rashid revoked a decree recognizing him as head
of the Christian Church in Iraq.
Sako said he will be taking up
residence in a monastery in Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq,
where he will continue to lead the Chaldean Church.
In a statement issued
July 15, Sako called the president’s action — which calls into question
his ability to control Church assets in the country — “unprecedented”
and “unfair.”
“It is unfortunate that we in Iraq
live in the midst of a wide network of self-interest, narrow
factionalism, and hypocrisy that has produced an unprecedented
political, national, and moral chaos, which is rooted by now more and
more,” Sako wrote. “Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the
patriarchal headquarters in Baghdad.”
What's going on? A number of things, actually. AFP noted a few days ago a political conflict:
Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church,
announced Saturday that he is withdrawing from his seat in Baghdad after
Iraqi President Abdul Rashid revoked a decree recognizing him as head
of the Christian Church in Iraq.
Sako said he will be taking up
residence in a monastery in Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq,
where he will continue to lead the Chaldean Church.
In a statement issued
July 15, Sako called the president’s action — which calls into question
his ability to control Church assets in the country — “unprecedented”
and “unfair.”
“It is unfortunate that we in Iraq
live in the midst of a wide network of self-interest, narrow
factionalism, and hypocrisy that has produced an unprecedented
political, national, and moral chaos, which is rooted by now more and
more,” Sako wrote. “Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the
patriarchal headquarters in Baghdad."
[. . .]”
Now comes Abdul to further disgrace the Talabani family and the PUK. FARS MEDIA CORPORATION notes:
A
source at Asianews points out that the whole affair turns on this
point: “Someone wants to take control over the assets and properties
held by Christians and the Church.” President Abdul Latif Rashid has
intervened in recent days with the intention of “clarifying” his
decision.
His office issues a statement saying:
“Withdrawing the republican decree does not prejudice the religious or
legal status of Cardinal Louis Sako, as he is appointed by the Apostolic
See.” According to the Kurdish Muslim leader, “the abolition of the
Presidential Decree is intended to correct the situation,” while the
patriarch continues to enjoy “the respect and appreciation of the
presidency of the Republic as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq
and the world.”
“However, the president’s decision
strips the Chaldean leader – the Patriarch – of the right to administer
church assets, which are the target of Ryan 'the Chaldean' and his
Babylonian Brigades. ‘It’s no coincidence that the president’s decision
came a few days after he met with Ryan,’” a source told AsiaNews.
“For
over 100 years, the patriarch, after his papal appointment, had his
office recognized by decree by the king and then the president,
upholding his status as head of the Church and custodian of its
properties.” With the withdrawal of the decree, the primate “will likely
lose control over the [Church’s] assets and properties,” the source
concludes, but Cardinal Sako “is determined to fight and is already
studying ways to appeal in court so that law prevails and justice is
done.”
The controversy surrounding the withdrawal
of the presidential decree is the latest chapter in a series of attacks
that have affected the most respected figure of the Chaldean Church in
Iraq, to the point that in recent weeks there has arisen a backlash
among Christians in response to the “lies”: an attack against the
patriarch and the leadership of the Church by the leader of the
Babylonian Movement, Rayan.otes:
The US ambassador to Iraq will
be summoned by Baghdad over remarks made by a US official about the
removal of the head of the Christian Church in Iraq, the government said
on Thursday.
Ambassador Alina Romanowski
is to be called in after State Department spokesman Matthew Miller
described the treatment of Cardinal Louis Sako as harassment.
He
said he was troubled by Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid's decision
to revoke a decree recognising the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic
Church, as head of the country's Christian Church.
“I
will say we are disturbed by the harassment of Cardinal Sako ... and
troubled by the news that he has left Baghdad,” Mr Miller said on
Tuesday.
“We
look forward to his safe return. The Iraqi Christian community is a
vital part of Iraq’s identity and a central part of Iraq’s history of
diversity and tolerance.”
Mr
Rashid's office said the president was "disappointed by accusations
levelled against the Iraqi government" by Mr Miller and would summon the
ambassador.
