Neil Sedaka: The man behind the music

 Neil Sedaka: 'I think the songs will outlive me—It's a form of immortality.'

An ACLU lawyer, Lee Gelernt, told the hosts of "CNN This Morning" that people are "overstating what's happening at the border."

"From a public policy, you can’t misuse public health. It was not intended to regulate the border. I also think people are overstating what’s happening at the border. If you close the border for so long, of course, there’s going to be a temporary influx of people, but ultimately, it’ll even out, and the federal government has more than enough resources to deal with this," Gelernt said.

Gelernt also said that Title 42 was acting as a "crutch" and that the Biden administration has "not been great" on the border, adding that it was "troubling." 

MSNBC's Chris Hayes, who also interviewed Gelernt on Tuesday, said during the interview that Title 42 was just a "way of avoiding the issue."

"It just seems like a way of avoiding the issue, and trying to, I don’t know what, strong arm the administration into keeping this Trump policy, but it just seems like a failure in every direction," he said. 

Earlier this year Libs of TikTok‘s identity was doxxed by the despicable Taylor Lorenz and the Washington Post. For that reason I’ve never used her real name on TRS even though it does show up in a few tweets we’ve posted (unavoidable).

Recently she went on Tucker’s show to reveal herself to the world and also revealed something that was absolutely amazing about Governor Ron DeSantis:

Carlson released an interview on Tuesday with Chaya Raichik, the creator of Libs of TikTok, a right-wing Twitter account that aggregates social media videos primarily from LGBTQ users who work in the education system, with the intention of framing LGBTQ acceptance as a symptom of America’s moral decline. It was an unsettling conversation, to say the least. Raichik’s rhetoric during her interview with Carlson — the first major in-person media interview she’s done as the creator of Libs of TikTok — was so extreme one can’t help but feel that the hard-won progress on LGBTQ acceptance is rapidly unraveling.

“The LGTBQ community has become this cult, and it’s so captivating, and it pulls people in so strongly, unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” she told a rapt Carlson, explaining what she thinks motivates gender-affirming surgery for minors. “They brainwash people to join, and they convince them of all these things, and it’s really, really hard to get out of it … it’s extremely poisonous.”

Carlson didn’t respond by asking Raichik if she was, even by the standards of today’s traditionalist right, using too broad of a brush by calling the entire LGBTQ community a cult. Instead he asked her whether she believed there was a “spiritual component” to the issue. 

After some initial hesitation, Raichik ventured a theory: “I think they’re evil. Sometimes we try to break it down a lot and you know we discuss why this is happening ... I think sometimes the simplest answer is they’re just evil, they’re bad people, they’re just evil people, and they want to groom kids.”

Carlson responded affirmatively, with a quiet “yeah.”

Raichik’s language deserves condemnation for a number of reasons. She is demonizing and fabricating dangerous theories about marginalized communities badly in need of protection. She’s conflating alternative sexual orientation and gender identity with sexual abuse. And strikingly, she’s using trans identity writ large as a springboard to launch attacks on the entire LGBTQ community.

Carlson made it plain he was there to assist her in her efforts. He framed her aggregation of videos showing elementary school teachers talking about their personal pronouns as hard-hitting investigative work. His interview as a whole was designed to paint Raichik as a hero who was doing an invaluable job as a dogged, truth-seeking journalist. The goal was clear: to help supercharge her ultra-reactionary attitude toward gay and trans rights. 

And Raichik’s platform was already highly influential, even without a boost from one of the most widely watched cable news journalists in the country. The stories she disseminates have become agenda-setters within right-wing media ecosystems, and have even directly influenced anti-LGBTQ legislation. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary has said that Raichik’s platform was integral to “opening her eyes” and shaping her views on Florida’s homophobic education policy known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. (During the interview with Carlson, Raichik said that DeSantis offered her a place to stay at his guest house after her identity was first revealed by a Washington Post investigation.)

Carlson’s eagerness to give Raichik a platform to spread hatred for an hour on his show on Fox Nation, which is already producing viral video clips on social media, will only help mainstream her further.

 I remember this storm in 1966, I was in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It hit a big swath through Canada and United States. People were tougher back then compared to the scared people today.

 Putin for first time calls Ukarine invasion a"war", aword he has banned and has majar implications.

 President Biden signed a short-term bill Friday intended to ensure the government remains functioning ahead of the upcoming $1.7 trillion spending bill. 

The short-term bill postpones the deadline for funding until Dec. 30, giving the White House breathing room as Biden prepares to sign the much more expensive funding bill in the coming week. 

The more than 4,000-page bill will fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year and includes more than 7,200 earmarks totaling more than $15 billion.

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took the stage on Friday at the Conference of Ambassadors of Ukraine in Kyiv. mmmmppearing in public for the first time since his arrival back from the US, via Poland, Zelensky made the point that his visit to the United States was rare. Saying, “this visit is a very important benchmark, as a set bar. I do not have the opportunity to make foreign visits — I simply do not have it, because there's no time.”

As part of his speech the Ukrainian leader also spoke about the “powerful financial package” the US is preparing for Ukraine and put the figure at $45 billion.