Roseanne' Canceled at ABC Following Racist Tweet

[American Dream]

She is a "complicated" person- I wouldn't trust her with a houseplant that I cared about.

Roseanne Barr's most controversial moments



Recanting sex abuse claims

Barr shocked fans in 1991 when she claimed she had been sexually abused as a child.

"My name is Roseanne and I am an incest survivor," she reportedly told an audience gathered at a church in Denver.

In 2011 she recanted and told Oprah Winfrey, "I think it's the worst thing I've ever done. It's the biggest mistake that I've ever made."

"I think what happened was that -- well, I know what happened was that I was in a very unhappy relationship," Barr said. "I was prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs. Incredible mixtures of psychiatric drugs to deal with the fact that I had, and still in some ways, have and always will have some mental illness. And the drugs and the combination of drugs that I was given, which were some strong, strong drugs, I totally lost touch with reality in a big, big way.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/entertai ... index.html

[American Dream]

Michael Moore: Roseanne Is ‘Totally Nuts,’ But Trump’s an ‘Evil Genius’



I have known Roseanne Barr for over 25 years. I’ve known her as Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold, just “Roseanne”, then back to Roseanne Barr. I’ve spent time in her home, criss-crossed the country with her to help remove George W. Bush from the White House, appeared on her shows, been there for her when she needed something, and connected her with one of my producers who did an insightful, one-of-a-kind documentary into the genius and the tragedy that is Roseanne Barr.

On Tuesday Roseanne posted hateful, slanderous tweets directed at four people: George Soros, Valerie Jarrett, Chelsea Clinton and me. A few hours later, she was fired by ABC.

For the past few years, Roseanne has been posting the craziest stuff on Twitter, like claiming Hillary was part of a child sex abuse ring being run out of a DC pizza place. She’s claimed that the Clintons have murdered people. And anyone who criticizes Benjamin Netanyahu is a “nazi.”

Roseanne seems to be suffering from some sort of madness. It’s more than just saying she’s a racist. She operates in the same sewer of lies, conspiracy theories and bigotry that’s been rising in America for years and that has now succeeded in electing our current president. Totally nuts.

Here’s who’s not crazy: Donald J. Trump.

Trump, though he shows all the signs of being absolutely bonkers, is not insane. He’s the real deal. His racism and hate is real, it’s well thought-out, he’s the true master of manipulation, a brilliant performance artist, and an evil genius. He outsmarted a nation of liberals and Democrats and won the White House by losing the actual vote of the people. He neutered and then destroyed the Grand Old Republican Party. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Roseanne, on the other hand, is a person who long ago broke through and brought an authentic voice of working women and men to television via one of the greatest TV series of all time. It was groundbreaking because the TV industry had historically either ignored, ridiculed or patronized those of us who grew up in the working class. Roseanne changed that.

But she is also a damaged soul. Most people don’t know that she has suffered her entire life from a massive head injury she received during a serious car accident when she was a child. Her brain injuries were immense and she spent months in the hospital struggling to recover.

I also have no idea what it was like to grow up, as she did, as a Jewish girl in Salt Lake City. Not a tolerant state, to be sure. She told me how her parents, who owned an apartment building, were asked by the U.S. government after World War II if they would be willing to house Holocaust survivors who had come to the U.S. as refugees. Her parents took dozens in, and Roseanne’s childhood was spent with these survivors as her “family.” “The stories they told me,” she said, “were filled with unimaginable horror. I’ve always wondered what effect that had on me as a little girl.”

Now, sadly, for the past few years, Roseanne has been in a downward spiral, ranting like crazy on Twitter, spreading conspiracy theories, attacking the people she used to love, supporting Trump, and being just an outright hateful and racist person. It has been a difficult decline to witness. She has repeatedly attacked me, and on Tuesday, after calling George Soros a “Nazi” (he’s a Jew and a Holocaust survivor), Valerie Jarrett an offspring “of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes,” and saying that Chelsea was “married to” a Nazi relative of George Soros, she then retweeted a disgusting new word for me because I have spoken out against the Netanyahu government and its killing of Palestinians — “#JewHater”. Nonstop insanity and sickness.

I guess there might be 20 million Americans (out of 320 million) who probably agree with her. She has thrown down with the lowest of the low, and who knows if she’ll ever recover from this descent into her own personal hell.

https://www.thewrap.com/michael-moore-r ... il-genius/

[American Dream]

Don't Forget Roseanne's Transphobia



The comedian has written some deplorable remarks about transgender people — and there's no reason to believe her views have changed.

BY DANIEL REYNOLDS
APRIL 17 2018

One of the highlights of the Roseanne revival has been a storyline involving Mark, the gender-nonconforming grandchild of Roseanne Conner. On the ABC series, the matriarch is an advocate for Mark and even visits the 9-year-old's school to warn his classmates against bullying him.

In the real world, however, Roseanne Barr has a history of bullying behavior when it comes to transgender people. Notably, in 2012, the actress went on a Twitter tirade about Colleen Francis. The transgender woman made headlines after using a women's locker room at Evergreen State College in Washington State, an act that sparked a call of complaint to campus police.

Barr, who was an unlikely presidential candidate at the time, used the occasion to challenge Green Party candidate Jill Stein on her support for trans rights. Barr had no empathy for the harassed woman — and took it upon herself to be the gender police. "If she has a penis, she’s not allowed in," Barr wrote of Francis, adding, "I’m sorry, but a dick means you’re a man to me. Maybe I’m old and out of it, but I can’t go there, sorry."

"Women do not want your penises forced in their faces or in our private bathrooms. Respect that FACT," she declared.

This is not the only time Barr has made anti-trans remarks. Over the years, there have been several reported hateful tweets and retweets, including a meme supporting the myth of the transgender bathroom predator.

As noted by Into, the comedian also dedicated a passage of her 2011 book, Roseannearchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm, to describing divisions within the LGBT community — or as she termed it, the "Transgendered versus the Butch dyke wars." Barr stated, "You haven’t lived until you have seen a huge guy with boobs talking about female hormones and deciding to keep his penis, and how that was a feminist issue."

Barr's associates are also worrisome. The comedian has a large following of trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs — a term describing those who do not believe in transgender identity or the legal/societal recognition of transgender people. Barr, who called TERF a "slur" in response to a critical tweet from Black Lives Matter in 2014, has defended this group on social media and even invited some on her radio show, giving them a platform to their views.

Continues: https://www.advocate.com/people/2018/4/ ... ransphobia

[Belligerent Savant]

How come no one in the media is talking about her ideological flip flopping? Why is no one bringing up her past statements about having DID? She’s become everyone’s scapegoat and whipping girl. No one has even a shred of compassion for her as a survivor and human being and no historical memory of her a few short years ago.

I hope at least here at RI we try to figure out what may be going on here.

A hint at what may be going on here, at least in part, is presented in the chart SLAD offered in a prior posting:

Sensationalism overrules nuance. "News" that maximizes the Consumer's potential to Re-TWEET or SHARE is what drives content.

There is no room for compassion in the cost/benefit analysis performed by our media barons.


Side-note: no mention in Current Events of Samantha Bee's "Feckless C#nt" comment, I see... it's very much a relevant piece to the current Carnival Spectacle, though it'll make its way to the memory hole by month's end, so we better hurry.

[seemslikeadream]

the day the story came out about babies being torn from their asylum seeking mothers arms Ivanka posts this photo



that's what Samantha was commenting on....a member of the trump administration


Roseanne's comment was racist .....two very different things

[Belligerent Savant]

.
Yes. 2 very different things -- that's not the point, however.

Do you find Bee's language (specifically, calling another woman a c#nt - a person she does not know personally) acceptable? Are you implying there are circumstances where such language is 'fair game'?

Rhetoric aside, the larger point is this: The Barr and Bee incidents (interesting alliteration) are dog whistles, pandering to emotions of respective subcultural (or perhaps not so "sub") mindsets. In short: more examples of 'Information Managers' capitalizing on events, amplifying certain noise in an effort to further distract, divide, and entrench opposing views.

I can appreciate how this sort of honeypot operation may ensnare the masses. I would presume (foolishly, it seems) frequent visitors of this forum would be better positioned to look beyond the (perpetual) attempts at manipulation, however.

[seemslikeadream]

one is allowed to use any word they want and anyone is allowed to be a racist if they want and anyone is allowed to criticize a government official but the White House called for Bee to be fired....that is not allowed

a discussion about this and it's effects can not even happen until the event is acknowleged.......hence the thread

[Belligerent Savant]

.

...the White House called for Bee to be fired....that is not allowed

Well, it's surely not unprecedented. All part of the theatrics.

A quick google search yields the following:

HuffPost

Obama Calls For Imus Firing

03/28/2008 02:44 am ET Updated May 25, 2011

ABC News

In an interview with ABC News Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., called for talk radio host Don Imus to be fired, and said he would never again appear on his show, which is broadcast on CBS Radio and MSNBC television.

“I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus,” Obama told ABC News, “but I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

Don't recall the context for the above clip, but it matters not. Point is, "All Is Permitted" has been the M.O. of American Leadership for some time (one can argue the same, increasingly, for any other 1st World Leadership), resulting most egregiously in scores of lives lost domestically and abroad. Calling for the firing of a civilian is very low in the sphere of importance; the purpose is to distract and provoke, incrementally altering perceptions and levels of acceptance.

Our current figurehead thrives in these theatrics, and we've yet to approach the nadir of his tenure.

Stay tuned.

(Despite it all, he remains a viable candidate for re-election, due in part to antics such as this, galvanizing one segment of the population while alienating another. The opposition has yet to develop a formidable plan of attack, other than similar/same tactics that failed in 2016. Buckle up.)

[seemslikeadream]

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., called for talk radio host Don Imus to be fired

he was not the president...there is a difference


it was an ugly racist comment made by Imus about black women on a basketball team ...again not the same as Bee comment but whatever


nappy headed whores I think was the phrase

why didn't you provide a link....and the date is wrong Obama was not president....that date was when an update was done not when the original article was posted


but your false equivalency and off topicness is still lovely

[Belligerent Savant]

.


A link is unnecessary as it was a small part of a larger point (and anyway: simply enter the headline in Google, and there it is -- surely you know that as well as anyone).

Obama was en route to the White House as a Presidential Candidate at the time.

But this is not about Obama vs. Trump or "Left" vs. "Right" (quotes are necessary -- those words are increasingly meaningless descriptors). Look beyond your current focus.

"There is a difference" . One can say the same about both political parties, right? Two different teams playing on the same field under the same rules. The only real difference is in execution of directives and respective fanbase.

Yea, there is a difference.

And bear in mind: you took this off-topic (and continued to do so with each response). Scroll up. I simply played along in your game of 'selective focus'. But it's time for me to get off that train now.

Enjoy the rabble.

(It can be argued that all of this is actually quite ON-topic -- this is not an isolated event, as I suggested in my prior responses.)

[seemslikeadream]

Obama was NOT president when that remark was made that is the difference

trump WAS president when he demanded Bee be fired

and this has nothing to do with him anyway ...and you posting something that made it look like he said it when he was president was silly

can't make a point if you are deceitful about a quote

just following your off topic ramblings....you made it about Obama not me

[Belligerent Savant]

.
The quoted except referred to Obama as "Sen." as in SENATOR and included the initial posted date of March 2008. As a Senator and Presidential Candidate, he absolutely qualified as a Leader in Public Office. No deceit there.
How's it change the fact they both act(ed) as Primary Figureheads in Crimes Against Humanity?

There is a larger point that you are (glaringly) ignoring.

[seemslikeadream]

Primary Figureheads in Crimes Against Humanity?

oh is that the name of this thread?

I was here for the racist tweet

[Belligerent Savant]

.

My initial responses, before you interjected, were ON-TOPIC. I regret indulging in the silliness that followed.

Back to the topic at hand, an article that -- though participating, naturally, in the distractions I alluded to above -- touches on the Barr/Bee debacle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 78fe33b91a

By Ruth Marcus
Deputy editorial page editor, columnist

Excerpts:

What Barr said was racist and unforgivable. ABC was right to fire her. President Trump, having been Barr’s cheerleader in chief, was wrong to have suddenly found himself, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, too busy to comment. He was even more wrong, once he turned out to have some time on his hands, to have transformed the episode into a Trump pity party, wondering about his missing apology from ABC. Trump can never forgive or forget a slight, even as he can never seem to summon an ounce of outrage over racism.

But we can, and should, which is why we must acknowledge: What Barr said was worse than what Bee, the host of TBS’s “Full Frontal,” said on Wednesday’s show. One was racist, the other was offensive. Barr had no conceivable point, other than to comment on Valerie Jarrett’s supposedly simian and Muslim lineage. Bee had a point, made in a way that went far across the line of civility, about Ivanka Trump’s hypocrisy over the joys of motherhood and her complicity in her father’s cruel anti-family immigration policies.

At the same time, we must also acknowledge — we being people who, like me, were vocal in expressing outrage about Barr — that what Bee said was also, as she acknowledged, and without any of Barr’s smarmy Ambien-made-me-do-it takeback, “inappropriate and inexcusable.”

Think about what would have happened if her name was Samuel, not Samantha. A male host would have been out the TBS door, immediately, for using that vulgar term about the female anatomy. Feminism and being female are not a license for demeaning another woman. And Bee’s less-noticed addition — “Put on something tight and low-cut” — was almost as repugnant, insinuating some kind of sexual, or at least sexualized relationship between Ivanka Trump and her father.

What is worse is that, unlike Barr’s impulsive tweet, Bee’s commentary was a premeditated group effort. It would have been one thing for Bee to use the word she chose, instead of a less-offensive one, carried away on the spur of the moment in front of a cheering live audience. That’s not what happened. That word was in the script . Someone wrote it. Someone edited it. Someone approved it. And after it was said, before the show aired, no one associated with the whole enterprise apparently thought better of it, at least not enough to excise the remarks.

...

Which leads to twin questions: Given that double standard, given the outrage machine waiting to pounce, what is the right and honorable response on the other side to Bee? What consequences, if any, should she and her colleagues face?

The impulse not to be bullied into reacting is understandable, as is bristling at being ordered to mete out equal penalties for unequal conduct — especially by those whose outrage meter was turned off for Barr. “Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show?” Trump tweeted on Friday. You know what? In my book, he’s forfeited any right to be heard on this subject.

But, but, but. The risk of liberals underreacting to Bee is similarly ceding any moral high ground. That one side has a double standard does not excuse the other from failing to live up to its own.

[more at link]

[seemslikeadream]

I also regret indulging in the silliness that followed.