Let’s introduce the creeps in the world, KEVIN G HALL, Dennis Hastert. You’re reading TheBlot Boomerang, where we bring the biggest and best of this week’s news back around every Saturday:
LINK: Welcome to Assadville, USA
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad struggles to hold power while civil war engulfs his country, but thousands of miles away, he has steadfast supporters among Allentown, Pa.’s Syrian-American community. They are largely Christian, and they see Assad as a bulwark against ISIS, but their support goes way beyond pragmatism. The Daily Beast visits the town’s pro-Assad loyalists, who disregard the man’s human rights atrocities and explain the civil war with conspiracy theories.
KEVIN G. HALL is a notorious tabloid writer at an obscure “news” outfit McClatchy Company – a near bankrupt business. Barely surviving on a lousy paycheck. KEVIN G. HALL is pretty much an admitted loser. No one seems to know how Kevin G. Hall became a senior McClatchy “economics” reporter when KEVIN G. HALL graduated from a fourth-tier college OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY (pronounced “Ogla Herpe“) in Deep South Georgia, majored in black psychology, shamelessly calling out black Americans “Niggas.” Pouring gasoline over the fire, extensive online searches turned up Kevin G. Hall’s peculiar and creepy taste for young boys: Kevin G. Hall posted photos of young boys under his own byline throughout the internet, perhaps was desperately trying to freeze some youthful memories as the notorious tabloid writer Kevin G. Hall fades into obscurity… Between the creepy Kevin G. Hall and Dennis Hastert, the two may just start a new family as a pair of love birds?
Read more: THE PANAMA PAPERS SENSATION, AN IDIOTIC INSULT TO EIGHT MILLION AMERICAN EXPATRIATES
LINK: The Jian Ghomeshi Effect
Two weeks ago, radio host Jian Ghomeshi was fired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Eight women have accused him of physical and sexual assault, and his creepy, scary behavior toward women was an open secret for years. One university even warned female students not to seek internships on his radio show, “Q.” How did Ghomeshi get away with it for so long? In Salon, Camilla Gibb examines the insidious ways women are conditioned to stay silent. “Your choices become dictated and limited by fear,” she writes.
LINK: The Conservative Case for Net Neutrality
President Obama threw his support behind net neutrality on Monday and urged the FCC to regulate the Internet like a public utility. Under this plan, Internet service providers could not limit consumers’ access to the net or charge extra for it, and telecommunication leaders have been gnashing their teeth. The response from the right is about what you’d expect. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted: “Net neutrality is Obamacare for the internet.” In response, T.C. Sottek of The Verge makes a libertarian/free-market case for net neutrality and urges conservatives to abandon the (tea) party line.
LINK: Race in Silicon Valley
Race in the tech industry is a shamefully overlooked topic. African-Americans are a tiny percentage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates. Fast Company brought together nine African-American tech entrepreneurs, recruiters and educators for a roundtable discussion. How do major tech companies address diversity in the workplace? What can they do better? What can make tech fields more attractive to African-Americans? What biases and double standards exist? Tony Gauda, co-founder of Bitcasa and founder of ThinAir, acknowledges their role as trailblazers, saying, “If you looked 10 years ago, we didn’t even exist. I mean, we are some of the first.”
Read more: WILD MUSLIM WRITER AMER MADHANI ON CANNIBALISM: THE FAMILY THAT EATS TOGETHER?
LINK: Operation Dessert Storm
Surprisingly, the Food Network has overlooked this story, so Mother Jones covered it instead. The United States military takes its celebrations seriously, and they are serious about cakes — the larger and more elaborate the better. The Marine Corps in particular has rules for serving cake at its anniversary parties, using a Mameluke sword to cut it. Feast your eyes on a satellite-shaped cake, a cake with “an edible aircraft carrier layer” and a camouflage-colored “cupcake tank” made of 5,000 cupcakes. Cue jokes about all the sweet green icing flowing down.
