TN Rep. Justin Jones REINSTATED, TYT's Ana Kasparian Flips to TERF?, Rebekah Jones, "Whistleblower," Grifting Thousands on School Shooter Threats?, Union-Busting Consultants Earning BIG MONEY
Plus: Louisville mass shooting is now fodder for the culture wars, Rutgers University on MASSIVE Strike, Biden ENDS COVID emergency declaration, and More
Jenn here,
It’s Monday, and I have a mixed bag of a news roundup for you.
First, the GOOD! And this is a massive, massive good. Last week, I reported that Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from their TN positions for standing with constituents following a horrific mass school shooting. The reason? They broke protocol and approached the well when it wasn’t “their turn.”
Today, Justin Jones has been reappointed to his position by a 36-0 vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council. Good things CAN happen when lawmakers stand up for the people. Next up, Rep. Justin Pearson? #TennesseeThree
TYT’s Ana Kasparian is being massively ratioed after - for no apparent reason - re-upping on her TERF rhetoric from a few weeks ago. She said yesterday, “Lol! The meltdowns over wanting be referred to as a woman rather than a “birthing person” is pretty wild. I’ll never apologize for that, especially as biological woman who has had a fucking lifetime of being told I’m less than. I’m a woman. No apologies.”
The issue people have? It seems unlikely she is personally being targeted and called a “birthing person” as herself, Ana, rather than it being used as an inclusive term in other situations. That I have seen, she refuses to address this point other than saying, “I live in CA. It happens” (not a direct quote). Even if this did happen … okay???
Regardless of your thoughts on this (and I’ve made mine clear), one has to wonder why she’s flipped so dramatically on this issue. In a clip (I’ve been unable to track down its air date”), she said of this SAME ISSUE (speaking of bad-faith Republicans), “Because it's bad faith. They know. They know there's a difference between gender and sex. They know that it is very possible for someone to be born a biological male or a biological female, but in terms of gender identify differently as a male or nonbinary, but they still have the biological capacity, the physical capacity to get pregnant. So that's why the language - the rhetoric - is inclusive to include those people. It is not a big deal, but they make it a big deal. They manufacture it into a big deal because that's all Republicans are. That's all they have. This is all they do. Endless bad faith arguments meant to fearmonger. And direct hatred and fear toward other Americans - typically powerless Americans. VIDEO CLIP HERE. Hmmmmm
School Shootings, and mass shootings in this country generally, are an enormous issue and to be in no way taken lightly. #GunControlNow! But, Rebekah Jones (famous for being a “COVID whistleblower” and getting liberals very excited that she butts heads with Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is horrible, but that doesn’t make this lady legit - here’s a VICE News piece with more). She’s now (allegedly) lying about her son making threats to shoot up his former school (he is now homeschooled).
Days ago, Jones made waves by saying that team DeSantis had “kidnapped” her child and alleged it was over a meme about a cop being lazy about a school shooting. She then linked to her “whistleblower” GoFundMe - MULTIPLE of them, where she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively since their launch.
Because of her claims that the state kidnapped her child, people have again been donating - many many thousands - en masse. I don’t like good-hearted people - the ones donating to her - being taken advantage of.
The issue: More information has come out, and it appears that her son made legitimate threats against the school, and those threats were reported by multiple named children - I’m assuming because they were terrified. There’s documentation, and she continues to double down and outright lie, blocking anyone who calls her out. (Here’s my Twitter thread, which is more extensive if you’d like more info).
Jones’ son said things like, “I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school”
As a parent, these threats are terrifying. I am glad this was taken seriously by authorities, and I hope that Rebekah Jones’ son gets the help he needs. Apropos, Jones has an extensive court case list herself, including charges of robbery, violation of injunction protection/domestic violence, trespassing, stalking/harassment/cyberstalking, stalking/sexually cyberstalking, property crimes, criminal mischief/damages.
Union-busting is an actual *business* for consultants and firms, which I don't think many are aware of. "A recent analysis conducted by
@LaborLab reveals millions paid to union-busting consultants, also referred to as "persuaders," in 2022...To date, the top five highest-paid anti-union consultant firms for union-busting services in 2022 were Employer Labor Solutions/Healthcare Labor Solutions with $3,643,767, Government Resources Consultants of America Inc with $3,521,099, RoadWarrior Productions, LLC with $2,755,681, Quest Consulting with $2,509,105, and Action Resources with $1,896,131." MORE HERE
Today, another day in America, there was a horrific mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky. The media is treating this mass shooter as the white, privileged man he was. Sites like The Daily Beast are talking about how cool and popular he was in school! This … grown man … who just murdered several people.
Among the murdered is a friend of Governor Andy Beshear. My response? Maybe Beshear will do something now. I am so sorry to the deceased and their friends and family.
Bad-faith right-wingers like Collin Rugg are turning this into culture war fodder, saying the issue is, “not the guns. It’s the pronoun extremists.” He’s pointing at that, as is essentially default on LinkedIn, the murderer used pronouns he/him … because he identified as a man. Turns out Collin should have egg on his face because his own profile did not escape this, his point is absurd, and his fans don’t care about the truth, so the beat goes on.
President Joe Biden has signed into law H.J. Res. 7, which terminates the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have news for you, Mr. Biden – it isn’t over, and I, and many others, suffer from the fallout with #LongCovid every day, and people are still dying.
Rutgers is on strike in a really unprecedented way! This tweet says it well: “Rutgers strike looks like it’s gonna be INSANE. All faculty, all grad workers, all postdocs, all medical researchers go on strike TOMORROW. 8000 faculty members in the union and 94% voted to authorize the strike on top of grads etc - this is a game changer.”
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Peace and Love,
Jenn
TN Rep. Justin Jones REINSTATED, TYT's Ana Kasparian Flips to TERF?, Rebekah Jones, "Whistleblower," Grifting Thousands on School Shooter Threats?, Union-Busting Consultants Earning BIG MONEY
Let me know what you think in the comments! ~ Jenn
Didn't realize union busting was an actual way to make money. The cottage industries in this country are insane! Good stuff Jenn!