Tuesday’s Quick Hits

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Hey there! It’s another wonderful day in Big Sky Country and here are the topics for today’s commentary:

  • E-City Beat✓
  • $6 billion transfer to Iran
  • The Great Pumpkin
  • I Like Dreaming
  • One More Thing

E-CITY BEAT✓:

Founding Editor and Publisher Philip Faccenda responded to the attacks on E-City Beat with an article titled, “Columbus Day Is Here To Stay, And So Is E-City Beat✓” with the name of the blog now with a check mark (✓) at the end.

In case you missed what started the skirmish, the WTF406 Blog posted the following on its Facebook page a few days ago:

Turns out, despite making money off of paid advertising, E City Beat was NOT registered as a business in Montana. Don’t worry, we solved that.
What The Funk blog now owns both E City Beat and Electric City Beat. We’ve advised Tryon and Phil Faccenda that they are using OUR registered business name and must immediately desist.

Here is what Faccenda had to say in response:

E-City Beat✓ will neither cease nor desist from exercising our First Amendment rights no matter how hard the clowns at WTF406 (Democrat Jasmine Taylor and Cascade County Democratic Central Committee Chair Helena Lovick) try to squash freedom of speech.

As far as I can tell, Faccenda did not address the addition of the check mark added to the E-City Beat name.

Although I disagree a lot with what the E-City Beat✓ publishes, I’m glad they are sticking around. We need to have different opinions to make our country better.

$6 BILLION TRANSFER TO IRAN:

The attacks on the Biden Administration over the $6 billion released to Iran for five U.S. prisoners heated up again after Israel was attacked.

The Associated Press (AP) and other sources are reporting that former President Donald Trump and other GOP contenders tried to lay blame on the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, citing a $6 billion transfer to Iran that administration officials insisted Saturday had yet to be spent.

The AP reported that although Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, it has a militant wing that has long nurtured close ties with Iran, a source of funding and a Shiite powerhouse. Hamas and Iran are brought together by a shared enmity toward Israel.

In case you forgot, the $6 billion was for a prisoner swap. Five U.S. citizens detained by Tehran were allowed to leave the country in exchange for the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds that had been frozen in South Korea.

Reuters reports that allowing Iran access to those funds under any circumstances improves its budget situation, freeing up money that would be used elsewhere, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said. “Let’s be honest with the American people and understand that Hamas knows, and Iran knows they’re moving money around as we speak, because they know $6 billion is going to be released. That’s the reality,” she said.

It’s kind of like trying to determine which dollar in your bank account was spent for which item.

You can read more about this from the AP HERE and from Reuters HERE.

THE GREAT PUMPKIN:

From the Associated Press…

A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record in California on Monday for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o’-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds (1,247 kilograms). Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota, won the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, with an enormous, lumpy, orange pumpkin that could produce at least 687 pies.

There’s more about the great pumpkin HERE, including photos.

I LIKE DREAMING:

Nobody won the $1.55 billion Powerball Lottery jackpot Monday night, so the jackpot has grown to $1.73 billion.

That’s $1,730,000,000. The next drawing is Wednesday night.

More about the Powerball Lottery can be found HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

Without freedom of speech, we would never know who the idiots are. -Unknown

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6 thoughts on “Tuesday’s Quick Hits”

  1. Everything I know about Italians, Columbus Day, and Indigenous people came from an episode of the Supranos. I think Mr. Phil must have seen the same show.

  2. It’s always such a sublime joke when right-wingers defend their ‘freedom of speech’ in situations where it doesn’t apply. WTF406 pulled a fast one on E-City Beat (heh heh), and Faccenda howls. Sloppy business practices do not give rise to freedom of speech. But WTF406 may have a cogent case for trademark infringement.

    • I didn’t understand the highly emotional (not to mention dumb – e.g., “Columbus never set foot in America!”) apologia for Columbus Day coming from a far right winger. Phil claims to be a 1st generation Italian American. Doesn’t that make him an immigrant? Can’t he just “assimilate” like right wingers always insist more recent immigrants should do? Most real Americans don’t give a flying fig about Columbus Day. Except gummint employees of course.

      • Good points!
        I think I’m pretty well-rounded in the Columbus department – from what I was taught in public schools to what I read in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” in college. 🧐

  3. Six billion? That’s it? That’s a joke, right? We give Israel four billion a year in which they turn around and use for the most powerful lobby in Washington, and to develop their military into the fourth largest in the world. Also, to provide free health care and education to all their people. And for what? So that we can fight more proxy wars for them? I have a very hard time understanding what we owe them. They are a fascist apartheid state, and always have been. It’s no wonder they are hated around the world after what they did in Palestine early on, the slaughter and removal of the original Palestinians. And that has continued to this day. The creation of Israel was one of the biggest mistakes of the twentieth century. It has basically destroyed the Middle East. For example. Lebanon used to be paradise on earth. After the Israelis invaded, it was obliterated.

    But if you criticize Israel, you’re immediately labeled anti-Semitic. Which is nuts. I’m not criticizing Jews, just Israel. There is a difference. In fact, many Jews in Israel are sick of their fascist government and its treatment of Gaza. And many have fled the country rather than participate in another slaughter. Some troops even refused to fight in their last invasion of Gaza.

    Israel, and thus its ally the United States, has lost much support around the world for its blatantly racist policies toward the Arabs. And for good reason. This coming slaughter in Gaza will just add to hate. It’s basically shooting fish in a barrel. Gaza is a tiny open air prison with 2.3 million people who can’t leave, and who have had the water and power cut off. And with the largest military in the world sending aircraft carriers to aid the fourth largest military in the world! It’s another Guernica, only worse. And it will be painted that way.

    They really sad part is that the MAGAs who scream for endless war just might get it now. Every investigation into 9/11 indicated that it occurred as a result of blowback.

    “ September 11 is a classic example of blowback, in which U.S. policies generated unintended consequences that had catastrophic effects on U.S. citizens, New York, and the American and indeed global economy.”

    Now, after this next slaughter in Gaza, we will have no peace in this country. I remember the first Arab/Israeli war. It was said at that time that the Arabs lost because they were cowards, although the U.S. covertly helped Israel. Well, after numerous wars now in which we’ve fought the Arabs, that idea should be laid to rest. Like it or not the MAGAs in this country won’t rest until we’re engaged in endless war.

    A footnote to the first Arab/Israeli war. Our “ally” Israel sank and attempted to slaughter every one of our sailors aboard the USS Liberty. I have not forgotten, nor has any veteran from that time period. Allies don’t slaughter their friends.

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