Sept. 9: Unnamed hero finally asks Mamdani whether Giuliani should attend the 9/11 ceremony … Netanyahu was warned before Oct. 7 attacks, making it exactly like 9/11 … Amazon sued for delivering more prime fraud than all the U.S. Somalis put together … EXCLUSIVE: The prayer breakfast war is over just like the Iran War, which means it might not be …
TFN stuff: Podcast | Merch | Other TFN
Support: Venmo | BuyMeACoffee | PayPal
Take action: Your representatives
Maybe I’m talking about 9/11 too much this week. Tuesday’s TFN about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani saying that better Mayor Zohran Mamdani should skip the 9/11 25th anniversary ceremony actually lost me subscribers. Free subscribers! Only four, but still. Newsfuckers, that never happens!
Maybe people don’t want to hear about Giuliani? I feel you, my sisters and brothers!
Maybe people don’t want to hear about 9/11, or they want to do what Mamdani says, focus on the dead and those who loved them, the first responders and those who survived. I get that, too, and if this were USA Today or Parade magazine, I’d be right there with you.
But TFN is political journalism. And since everything is politics, so is 9/11. And I will be fucked if I won’t shout to the rooftops that are taller than any of Pres. Donald Trump’s buildings any time 9/11 is used to divide rather than unite us, or to unite us in fear and militarism.
Especially when the lyin’s share of corporate media are feeding us an unthinking narrative due to lack of thinking.
The issue isn’t whether there are enough petition-signing randos to justify keeping Mamdani from Friday’s ceremony. The issue is whether the ceremony should include the former mayor, now disgraced, now disbarred, who botched disaster preparedness, tried to subvert democracy — exactly like al Qaeda wanted — by pushing back mayoral elections so he could stay in power longer, and then went on to do far worse on a national scale by spreading the casshole bellie that drove the Jan. 6 attempt to overturn democracy exactly like al Qaeda wanted.
On Tuesday, Mamdani released documents showing that previous mayors, starting with Giuliani, covered up toxic air conditions at and around ground zero for years, leading to more deaths than the attacks themselves.
But a search for “Giuliani” among corporate news sites today shows wall-to-collapsed-wall coverage of his Islamophobia, and virtually none of his responsibility for the deaths of first responders that I thought we were never-forgetting.
So, God — Allah or YHWH or Jesus or physics — bless what’s left of the New York Daily News for focusing on Tuesday’s important news about the toxic coverup. Here’s their headline, which a just god would have plastered everywhere today:
Does it, though? Does it ratchet up scrutiny?
It’d be nice! TFN is on board!
But I haven’t seen any scrutiny-ratcheting yet. The only hints of it came from local news outlets reporting on Tuesday’s Mamdani press conference.
“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said. “When they began to contend with the symptoms of the illness that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm’s way was nowhere to be found.”
The number who died as a result of exposure to carcinogens is estimated at between 6,000 and 9,000 people, at least twice as many as al Qaeda killed.
“I wish there was a limited number of people who misled the public that I could describe them in just a few names, but the truth is that, as we have heard, this goes across a multitude,” the Muslim mayor said, without embarrassing by name any of the Christians responsible.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who’s Jewish and yet somehow managed to attend Tuesday’s press conference with Mamdani, said he had pushed Giuliani to release more information about how Giuliani was lying about the air.
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs to protect our communities, my constituents, but officials like EPA [Environmental Protection Administration] Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Mayor Giuliani denied claims like mine, saying the air was perfectly safe,” Nadler said. “Blasphemous!” he added, not understanding what “Blasphemous!” means.
The released documents included Giuliani Deputy Mayor Robert Harding in October 2001 predicting decades of “toxic tort cases” while the city was still saying the air was safe.
Referring to the Harding memo, Daily Show host Jon Stewart, another Jewish guy at the Mamdani press conference, said, “The city began covering their ass three weeks in.”
The dust was in the air for months. And on my windowsill, more than five miles uptown.
SHOULD GIULIANI GO? I mean, New Yorkers have said for decades that Giulini should go, but should he go to Friday’s ceremony, specifically? That’s what Mamdani was finally asked on Tuesday (and cheers to the anonymous journalism hero who finally asked the obvious question about the guy who lied to New Yorkers and first responders about the danger).
Here’s what Mamdani said:
“I think that the focus of memorial services should be on the New Yorkers who were killed that day, their families, the survivors, the first responders. I don’t think it should be on politicians.”
Here’s what Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said about Mamdani attending:
“On this 25th anniversary, we should honor those we lost by coming together again as New Yorkers and Americans.
“The Mayor of New York City will be there, as he should be.”
LACK OF INFO One thing I tried to dig into Monday was whether Mamdani has really denied, as Giuliani claimed, that the 9/11 hijackers were Muslim. They were.
I couldn’t find anything one way or the other, but even if Mamdani really has refused to acknowledge this, that just places him in a long Christian tradition of denying that Christians who do bad things are really Christian.
Like the crusaders. Or the Inquisition. Or witch hunts. Or Jan. 6.
ADVICE FOR ISLAMOPHOBES The Gothamist has a fascinating look at how post-9/11 Islamophobia led a generation of Muslims to get involved in politics. Like patriots.
Netanyahu Totally Ripped Off 9/11
Less than two weeks after the horrific Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Pres. Joe Biden counseled Israel:
“[W]hile you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
As we know too well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crafted a response strategy apparently designed to include every single 9/11 mistake the U.S. made. And now, thanks to Haaretz, we know that Netanyahu even made the first 9/11 mistake: Ignoring warnings.
Haaretz reports that in September 2023, United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed warned Netanyahu that Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was planning an attack big enough to upend relations between the region’s nations, who usually get along so well.
An advisor to bin Zayed who was on the call told Haaretz, “He told Netanyahu that Israel should be ready” and “he recommended trying to find an economic solution for the [Gaza] Strip and calming the West Bank to prevent escalation.”
Netanyahu dismissed the Gaza threat and said Hamas was focused on the West Bank. And, besides, Israel could handle whatever. How bad could it be?!?
Netanyahu was so cocky — like, Pres.-George-W.-Bush-in-August-2001 cocky — that he didn’t even tell his own security chiefs about the warning.
So, after ignoring bin Zayed’s warning, Israel was attacked less than two weeks later, losing 1,200 people killed by Hamas and hundreds of hostages, some of whom died in captivity.
Netanyahu then ignored Biden’s warning and did just what Hamas wanted just like the U.S. did just what al Qaeda wanted.
On Tuesday, Israeli opposition leaders demanded a commission to investigate, ignoring the U.S. failure of doing a 9/11 Commission instead of jailing the motherfuckers who twisted their 9/11 failure into the existential failure of the Global War on Terror and Also on Us.
Jesus Farting Christ, Let America Hate Amazon the Way Republicans Hate Somalis
The Amazon crime cartel is responsible for exponentially more crime and fraud and theft than every Somali and Haitian in the country, according to new allegations that I better fucking call allegations if I don’t want Amazon suing me off the face of the Earth.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 22 states that actually give a shit about people and real law and order sued Amazon last week for ALLEGEDLY stealing more than $20 billion (that’s “billion” with a Bezos) from, well, anyone forced to buy crap from Amazon because Amazon and neo-liberalism and capitalism destroyed Main Street retail stores like Pres. Donald Trump destroyed the East Wing as part of Osama bin Laden’s plan to destroy America.
According to the FTC, Amazon stole from third-party sellers on the site, using hidden fees, the weapon of choice for white-collar criminals, in the form of ad auctions that advertisers could bid on. Amazon allegedly totally used shill bids to jack up the bidding.
Third-party sellers then passed those extra costs on to the fourth party: You, the trapped consumer.
How many third-party sellers did Amazon (ALLEGEDLY) fleece? One million, two-hundred thousand. How many customers paid the cost? One million, two-hundred thousand times a number that is large.
Amazon denies the alleged allegations even though an Amazon manager allegedly said in an internal alleged document that Amazon was “hoping that advertisers don’t notice and decrease bids or ad spend.”
GOP Candidates Got Rich Helping Corporations Fuck Over You
Former Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) just won his party’s nomination to try to get his old job back. But The Lever has news voters might want to know about his other old job.
Back when Sununu was a lobbyist — of course — he led Boston Scientific efforts to keep the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning sales of Boston Scientific’s unscientific pelvic mesh for abdominal conditions. And to prevent tighter approval processes.
The mesh grafts allegedly caused pain and bleeding, immune-system problems, and permanent damage, for questionable health benefits and unquestionable capitalist benefits.
After years, the FDA finally banned it. Too late, Public Citizen said, to prevent “thousands of women” from being “irreparably harmed.” By Sununu.
Sununu’s opponent is Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), whose campaign site is here.
Then there’s Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who sent poor people to prison.
Now, that may not be scandalous since that’s his party’s platform. But Marshall was an ob-gyn, and it turns out he not only sued more than 700 patients over their medical debts, he had 81 people arrested for missing court dates.
Marshall used the courts to garnish the paychecks of patients too poor to pay him on time, and charged the ones who could pay 18% interest per year. Some of them couldn’t pay because they were uninsured, in accordance with Marshall’s congressional votes to make insurance and health care unattainable.
Marshall’s opponent, pastor Adam Hamilton, responded:
“In Washington, Roger Marshall votes to strip healthcare and raise costs.
“In Kansas, he sued more than 700 patients who couldn't afford the bill. Dozens were handcuffed and jailed.”
Marshall is a Christian. He has co-chaired the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, tied to the secretly partisan Fellowship Foundation, and spoken at the not-at-all secretly partisan National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance.
Marshall did not repent for charging interest, even though The Bible says, “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him,” among dozens of times God and then Jesus forbadethed charging interest on loans.
Hamilton’s campaign site is here.
Prayer Breakfast Is Served Just Desserts
EXCLUSIVE For more than two years, the two National Prayer Breakfasts have been fighting over the name “National Prayer Breakfast.”
That’s because each event wants to be known as the real, legitimate national prayer breakfast, an event that proves the unifying power of prayer, even though it didn’t unify them in their battle over the name.
Longtime readers of me will know I’ve been tracking the National Prayer Breakfast for years, as corporate media haven’t, because it’s a nexus for global, right-wing political networking, secretly changing the geopolitics around Ukraine, Guatemala, Uganda, and even countries without the letter “U.”
In 2023, to stanch the flood of Democrats fleeing this right-wing Christian crusade with pancakes, the group behind it — the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family — spun off a new, re-virginized National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill.
The two events immediately began fighting over the name. But last month, as federal filings I found show, the new breakfast surrendered its claim on the name. What we still don’t know is whether this means the “new,” holy, virginal breakfast has been fucked out of existence, will reunite with its evil poisoned tree, or transition its identity now that it can no longer use its deadname. Stay tuned!
Three Quickies
Seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen were murdered by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in April 2024 because they had been seen “mixed together” with members of Hamas who later turned out not to be members of Hamas, The Guardian reports. The association with the non-Hamas Hamas members consisted not of secret coordinating emails, but being “near them, talking, playing, hanging out and so on,” the IDF said.
The U.S. pivot from military conflict with Iran to economic conflict with Iran expanded Tuesday to include military conflict with Iran. The U.S. destroyed five Iranian oil tankers after warning the crews to get off, but casualties could include multiple GOP House seats in November. The strikes were retaliation for Iran’s attempt to hit a U.S. Navy ship, in retaliation for… :::insert rewind noise::: …Trump started it.
Federal prosecutors wanted to charge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro with civil-rights violations for shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis in January, ProPublica has discovered. But political appointees blocked the prosecution, deciding to charge Castro only with lying about the shooting, which is weird, because why would he lie about a legal shooting?
Taking Action
Indivisible and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are holding a call on Thursday that you Newsfuckers can join for information about how you can help get more people voting early and protect the integrity of our elections from the threat of people whose claims that there’s a threat to the integrity of our elections are the only actual threat to the integrity of our elections.
Oct. 17 will be a nationwide day of action, No Kings: Vote Early. 50501 has more information here.
Recommended Viewing
Martha Previte and Jim Earl have gifted us another fake Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) video. How fake? She says she’s pro-choice!
TCB
SUPPORTING TFN You can help make TFN happen by sharing it on social media, telling your friends, and, if you can afford it, by upgrading to a paid subscription. TFN is still growing, but between normal attrition and American Express canceling subscriptions, the number of paid subscriptions is falling, so your support is especially important now.
If you wanna support TFN but not Substack, you can do so via cash apps: Venmo | BuyMeACoffee | PayPal.
Thank you. E pluribus fuckem.
Go get ‘em, kids! Never forget that most of what we’re told never to forget is bullshit.
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks. He is a member of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation advisory board.
I upgraded my subscription to make up for those four you lost 💗 I appreciate what you do for us!
"Maybe I’m talking about 9/11 too much this week."
Jonathan, I knew Rudy Giuliani. Sir, you are no Rudy Giuliani.