Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalTrump's 'dead White farmers' image showed Congo, not South Africa
President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of a Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.
"These are all white farmers that are being buried," said Trump, holding up a printout of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency's fact-check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The blog post that Trump showed Ramaphosa during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.
The post did not caption the image but identified it as a "YouTube screen grab" with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had "misidentified the image."
She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa's "dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government," had "pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans."
The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
"That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in... I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film," Al Katanty said. "Only Reuters has video."
Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.
"In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people," Al Katanty said.
Ramaphosa visited Washington, D.C., this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa's land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.
Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.
Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying "death, death, death, horrible death".
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/22/trump-dead-white-farmers-image-congo-south-africa/83800507007/
Well whaddya know? Raise your hand if you're surprised.
Kim Kardashian graduates law program after 6 years
Kim Kardashian announced she has completed her law program on Wednesday after 6 years of legal studies.
Khloe Kardashian shared photos of her sister's private ceremony on her Instagram stories. The ceremony featured speeches from Kim's mentors, CNN political commentator Van Jones, and the graduate herself.
"All of you guys have been on this journey with me," Kim Kardashian said in her speech. "It did start with Van and I."
The reality television star said she was "dumbfounded" by the state of the legal system when she first began this journey years ago.
Kim Kardashian began her legal studies in 2019, telling Vogue magazine her passion for prison reform inspired her decision to pursue legal education. Although the entertainment mogul never obtained an undergraduate degree, California's "reading law" process allows future lawyers to participate in apprentice-style learning under a licensed attorney instead of attending a formal law school.
In March, E! News reported that the 44-year-old took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), a requirement for admission to the California bar.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/kim-kardashian-graduates-law-program-6-years-rcna208482
Wow. Congratulations, Kim Kardashian, Esq. She can actually lend her celebrity name to causes, much like Paris Hilton, which is not necessarily a bad thing if she picks the right one.
The Diddy trial details are worse than anyone expected. Will it matter?
As Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial continues with its second week of witness testimony, the details of his alleged abuse and violence are disturbing and horrific – and photos and video evidence also back them up. This week, the jury saw videos of the alleged “freak off” parties at the center of the case; and on May 14, prosecutors released the full-length version of a hotel surveillance video that shows Combs’ physically assaulting then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine.
But cases of sexual abuse or domestic violence rarely have a portfolio of photo or video evidence. Abuse can look different in each relationship, and is not always visible, like with emotional abuse and manipulation.
And while people believe Cassie – the reactions aren’t all supportive. There’s been an outpouring of sympathy, but also a slew of victim-blaming. So, what does how we respond to Diddy’s trial mean for victims of sexual violence when the evidence isn’t so plentiful?
The way we respond as a community and society to trials like Diddy’s impacts the decisions that survivors make in terms of getting help, leaving abusive situations and speaking out, says Elizabeth L. Jeglic, a clinical psychologist specializing in sexual violence and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Sociologist Nicole Bedera also cautions that requiring graphic details to believe a victim’s recount of abuse can also set a dangerous bar for what people consider violent or believable enough to extend sympathy to survivors.
In most cases, there are no videos to prove an abuser’s violence. The hard evidence – from photos and videos to numerous witness testimonies – supporting Cassie’s testimony is the “exception, not the rule,” Jelgic says.
Oftentimes, it takes numerous allegations for the public to change their opinion of an alleged abuser. But Jelgic says it shouldn’t have to get to that point, and that graphic details can also be detrimental to some viewers.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/05/22/diddy-trial-cassie-impact-survivors/83753671007/
Why should victims have to produce picture after picture or video after video? Especially underage victims?
Incredible short doc---"Quilters"
This is one of the best, most heartwarming documentaries I've seen in a long time. It's about a group of long-term prisoners, some lifers, who make quilts for foster kids in the Missouri foster care system. I about cried watching these men and the care they took with their projects and with helping each other. It's amazing, and only 33 minutes long. If you want to see what "caritas" in action looks like, don't miss it.
Neighbors shocked by news of deadly abuse case
Details are emerging about the disturbing conditions a young Chesterfield County woman with cerebral palsy was allegedly forced to live in up until her death in late March.
Tina Curtis of Chesterfield has been charged with the abuse and neglect of 24-year-old Secrett Curtis, who had cerebral palsy and autism. Records show that Tina was Secrett’s primary caregiver and her power of attorney.
According to court records obtained by 8News, Secrett was found malnourished — weighing just 76 pounds at the time of her death at Chippenham Hospital on March 31.
“I had no idea,” one neighbor said, reacting to the news.
Neighbors said Tina Curtis had lived in the home for at least ten years and she was often seen as friendly and helpful. However, they did not know Secrett existed.
“She was always kind — her character was good as far as I could see,” said a neighbor who wished to remain anonymous.
Behind the walls of the home, investigators allege a much darker reality. Court documents detail that Secrett “[ate] her own feces, live[d] in a mold-infested basement and [was] kept in a locked room” prior to her death.
https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/chesterfield-county/disturbing-details-alleged-abuse-woman-cerebral-palsy/
This is very similar to a case I encountered the day I worked in the ER in Morristown, TN. That one is still seared into my memory. Ask me about it if you really want to know.
A man let snakes bite him for years. He could be the key to a universal antivenom
What's it like to get bit by a venomous snake?
"It's like a bee sting times a thousand," Tim Friede says.
Friede would know. Over the past few decades, he's let himself be bitten over two hundred times, by all kinds of venomous snakes — black mambas, taipans, cobras, kraits, and more. He calls it his "claim to fame."
The bites have sent him to the ICU, put him into comas and more. But with time, he's gradually built up an immunity to multiple types of venom.
That made him wonder: Could this hobby of his be used for public good? If he survived all these toxins, could scientists share his immunity with other people, too?
The World Health Organization estimates that every year, between one and three million people are bitten by venomous snakes. Of those people, tens of thousands die; thousands more are permanently disabled.
High quality antivenoms are considered the most effective treatment for envenomation. Those existing antivenoms usually come from domestic animals, like horses, that have been injected with small amounts of a specific venom to produce antibodies that identify and neutralize its toxins.
Researchers who studied Friede's blood hope to synthesize a treatment that could be used for multiple different kinds of venomous snake bites — a universal antivenom.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/1252663618/medical-treatment-snake-bite-venom
He is braver than I will ever be.
Trump ambushes South Africa's president in a tense Oval Office meeting
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa walked into an ambush when he met President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
After a cordial beginning, where Ramaphosa was at pains to stress his desire to improve relations with the U.S., things turned hostile. Trump repeated his false claims of a 'white genocide' in South Africa and then ordered the lights dimmed to play videos he said supported his allegation."
Ramaphosa attempted to correct the U.S. leader, but mostly got talked over. He explained the videos of opposition politician Julius Malema singing an apartheid-era struggle song called "kill the boer" – which means Afrikaner – did not represent government policy.
In fact, Malema is a populist who was expelled from Ramaphosa's African National Congress. His Economic Freedom Fighters party won just 7 percent of the vote at national elections last year. Ramaophosa's Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, who is white, also tried to explain the facts for Trump. As did South Africa's richest man and a friend of Ramaphosa's, Johann Rupert, who is also white.
It was exactly what South Africans had been dreading, especially after Trump's televised hostility towards Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskky in the Oval Office earlier this year made headlines around the world.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5404667/south-africa-white-house-visit-ramaphosa-trump-tensions
I think it's time leaders start refusing to deal with the orange slime.
ICE Barbie Offers Her Own Made-Up 'Habeas Corpus' Definition
Kristi Noem gave an egregiously wrong definition of the legal principle habeas corpus while testifying to senators Tuesday.
“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” President Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary said.
She was quickly cut off by the stunned senator who had asked her to define the term, Maggie Hassan. “That’s incorrect,” the New Hampshire Democrat said.
Hassan explained that the well-known legal concept refers to a detained person’s right to know why they are being held so they can challenge their imprisonment in court.
The Trump administration is considering revoking habeas corpus, which is enshrined by the Constitution, allowing it to hold detainees without any recourse to challenge their detention.
“If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan told Noem. “Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-offers-her-own-made-up-definition-of-habeas-corpus/
JHRC, these people really are wantonly stupid!
JD Vance Lashes Out at 'Profoundly Wrong' Chief Justice
Vice President JD Vance ripped into Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for saying the courts are an equal branch of government whose job is to “check the excesses” of the executive branch.
Earlier this month, Roberts responded to calls from MAGA to impeach judges who ruled against Donald Trump’s policies by saying, “In our Constitution, the judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down acts of Congress or acts of the president.”
“That innovation doesn’t work if the judiciary is not independent,” he continued during a fireside chat in Buffalo, New York. “Its job is to, obviously, decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or of the executive, and that does require a degree of independence.”
His remarks drew applause from the crowd.
Less than a week later, Roberts warned a group of graduating law students that the rule of law was “endangered” and called for an end to “trashing the justices” of the Supreme Court. The comments came as Trump and his supporters have attacked federal judges—including conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett—and ignored judicial rulings.
But instead of heeding Roberts’ warnings, Vance—who as a graduate of Yale Law School would be well aware of the separation of powers and the role of the judiciary—responded by accusing the courts of mounting an effort “to quite literally overturn the will of the American people.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-lashes-out-at-profoundly-wrong-supreme-court-chief-justice/
Pillsbury Doughboy says WHAT? Apparently he's chosen to forget everything he learned(?) at Yale Law.
Foster Kitten Shocker!
I took Sumu in for a checkup and booster today and was informed that....she's a girl! Which is fine, since Sumu is a nice gender-neutral name, but her kennel card did say "male" so all this time I've been thinking she was a boy! She is doing well though, weighs 1.5 lbs. Still has lice, so she gets another Dawn bath Friday. She actually seems to enjoy the bath and blow dry, just hates the comb out. Also got a change in wet food since she has refused to eat the turkey kitten food she was sent home with. She got some liver and chicken and was lapping that up this evening. She has gotten considerably more vocal the last few days and is very affectionate. I still can't let her out of the playpen to roam because she's too small. It will be a couple more weeks for that.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA currently
Current location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
Number of posts: 11,949