Let me agree with Elaine – see her “F**k Billy
Corgan ” – this is nonsense.
No Darcy, no Smashing Pumpkins reunion.
That
abundance, and the revolving door element to the band's personnel,
outlines a terribly kept secret: Smashing Pumpkins has always been, in
sickness and in health,
largely a container for the music of Billy Corgan. (With some extremely
notable exceptions.) Butch Vig, the producer of the Pumpkins' breakout album
Siamese Dream, noted in
a 2012 interview
that Corgan and the stormy Chamberlin were the creative heart of the
band, with Corgan having done "90 percent of the overdubs."
As
a result, the very idea of Smashing Pumpkins has been, is and will
always be subject to the contradictory, sensitive, insecure and touching
whims of Billy Corgan.
Without being close to him, the best we can do is cast a wide net over
his public history to illustrate how impossible it is to triangulate his
intentions and hope to arrive at a sense of how his band mates must
have felt.
Uh, no. But wouldn’t you know it, a man wrote that.
Darcy’s not important, a man says, because it’s always been Billy.
Billy destroyed the band and we knew that in the 90s. His preening ego destroyed the band.
Though the band jammed somewhat after SIAMESE DREAM, that really was the album. After that it was all downhill.
(Though there was a great cover of “Landslide” on the B-sides and rarities album they did after SIAMESE DREAM.)
The follow up? A waste.
The follow up? A waste.
Two discs and there were maybe 3 good
songs – good, nothing was great and that includes “The world is a
vampire . . . sent to drain you . . .”
By that point, what Billy was then
trying to do – as he shifted the Pumpkins again – was being done better
by Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. He really seemed to suffer from
Trent Reznor envy – the same way he had suffered from Kurt
Cobain envy prior.
Billy is worthless. As his career since 1999 has demonstrated.
His ego is outrageous and his talent is minimal.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
15 years ago today Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the historic protest against the Iraq war
Today is the 15-year anniversary of the largest protest event in history – the Feb. 15, 2003 demonstrations against the imminent US invasion of #Iraq. On this occasion we republish an article detailing concerns that drove millions to take the streets.
Why so little coverage of today?
Well, it's not like the press can call us treasonous -- that is what some of them called us in 2003, remember?
"Treason." To protest an impending war was "treason."
To protest a war being built on lies was "treason."
We knew.
The 'experts' didn't know, but we did.
That's why we turned out in the largest numbers ever around the world.
Because we knew this was an illegal war. We knew we were being lied to.
And the press spat on us, lied about us, called us names.
That same press isn't interested in telling us today about the protests.
They sold the IraqWar.
They sold it with lies as well as with character attacks on us.
Remember, they're about making money, not about telling the truth.
And the truth about what they did 15 years ago doesn't fit with their image of 'truth tellers' today.
Meryl Streep was no where to be found 15 years ago. But today she whores her ugly ass to prop up the press as some wonderful body out to protect us. To do that, she has to appear in a film that lies and that's set in the early 70s which says a great deal -- all bad -- about the press itself.
We stood together 15 years ago and we were a rebuke to the governments wanting war and to the press selling it.
Our actions were evidence that it was obvious all along that the Iraq War was built on lies.
Honoring us, remembering us, today would be to indict themselves.
So they instead they try to disappear us.
Because we did make a difference.
We hoped to stop the war before it started.
That we failed at.
But we were a living testament against the war.
And we were right.
And that doesn't just sting them to this day, it's helped prevent larger wars, it's made them scared to get honest about troops stationed here and there.
15 years ago on this day, millions of people took to the streets across the world to protest against the invasion of Iraq. The Anti-War movement at the time, predicted huge unrest and instability in the Middle East and Iraq if an invasion where to take place. Sadly proven right.
The was very important ad showed large numbers of people in US and UK didn’t accept the lies and propaganda of the warmongers. The movement also politicised a generation of activists such as myself who were outraged by the sheer barbarity of the war in Iraq and the lies told.
The protests 15 years ago mattered and they matter to this day.
To get the war they wanted, they had to lie. They lie to this day.
Take the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The fighting in Iraq is over, but the task ahead is enormous. The UN stands with Iraqis as they build a country that is committed to unity and inclusivity. bit.ly/2suKWlA
The fighting is over?
Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) just reported:
At least 15 people were killed, and two were wounded
in recent violence:
A bomb killed
a cattle rancher in Muqdadiya.
A sticky bomb in Ilam killed
one person.
In Baghdad, a bomb at a market left two
wounded.
Thirteen
militants were killed in airstrikes on Tal Afar, near Mosul.
But, hey, the fighting's over.
Once again, it's don't believe what's happening, believe what we tell you is happening.
Iraq held a fundraiser in Kuwait. They wanted between $88 and $100 billion dollars. They only got $30 billion. Worse, not all of that was a gift/donation -- that figure also includes loans.
REUTERS reports:
Iraq received pledges of $30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment, on Wednesday from allies but this fell short of the $88 billion Baghdad says it needs to recover from three years of war.
[. . .]
“If we compare what we got today to what we need, it is no secret, it is of course much lower than what Iraq needs,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a news conference.
The following community sites -- plus PACIFICA EVENING NEWS, BLACK AGENDA REPORT, GORILLA NEWS and LATINO USA -- updated:
