Thursday, October 04, 2018

Poor Alyssa Milano thinks everyone wants to meet her

But everyone doesn't want to meet her.

She was in a bad sitcom, WHO'S THE BOSS, and chiped her lines with no awareness at all.  She grew into an adult but never into an actress.  She flopped on MELROSE PLACE -- audiences hated her.  She can't get a leading role anymore though she tries to pretend she's still in her early 20s. 

Most of us tired of her long, long ago.  Probably around the time she was posing topless in photo after photo for BIKINI. 

So, still in need of attention, she's taken to Twitter where she passes for a 'star' in her own daily reality meltdown.  This is from US:


The 45-year-old Mistresses alum shared a video of her account on Twitter Wednesday, October 3, with the caption: “I told one of my #MeToo stories in @SenatorCollins office. I was with her constituent. We asked to speak with Senator Collins. She hid. Here’s my story through a ‘human microphone.’ I’ll never know if she heard me. *Trigger Warning*.”

Oh, no!  Susan Collins didn't want to meet with Alyssa!!

Like Alyssa, I live in California.  Susan isn't my senator, Susan isn't her senator.

Susan Collins has to serve her constitutents.  She has no reason to take time out of her schedule to meet with some hagged out adult who used to be famous.  Especially not when all Alyssa wants is more publicity.


Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Thursday, October 4, 2018.  Let's look at Iraq's new prime minister today.


Iraq finally has a president and an prime minister-designate.  Possibly the long delay (elections were held May 12th, Tuesday they finally named a president) has left some confused?  Martin Chulov, for example, wrote at THE GUARDIAN:


Under Iraq’s postwar constitution, the president must be a Kurd, the prime minister a Shia, and the speaker of parliament a Sunni. The divisions of authority give the three dominant sects a stake in the country’s affairs. However, power is often bitterly contested along sectarian lines leading to regular governance breakdowns and a long list of grievances – including complaints of rampant corruption, sclerotic services and a bloated, inefficient public sector.


That's wrong.  That's just flat out wrong.

When I saw it yesterday afternoon, I almost posted about it but thought, "Oh, they'll correct it in an hour or two."  They still haven't.  That doesn't speak well for THE GUARDIAN.

The Constitution of Iraq calls for the president to be an Iraqi by birth.

That's it.

There is nothing in the Constitution saying they must be a Kurd.

The president a Kurd, the Speaker of Parliament a Sunni and the prime minister a Shi'ite is something that has been worked out from outside of the Constitution.  It can be argued it is now custom; however, it can not be argued that it is law and you certainly cannot state that it is written into the Constitution when it is not.

Chulov notes that Adel Abdul-Mahdi has been named prime minister-designate and that "Abdul Mahdi, 76, a former oil minister, has been given 30 days to assemble a cabinet to be approved by Iraq’s parliament."


Balsam Mustafa has some issued with Mina Aldroubi's latest for THE NATIONAL:


Some issues in this article: 1st: He was not elected but tapped Second:why there isn't any reference to his previous political alignments as a communist, and most importantly, as a member in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq? (1)





Third: there is no reference to claims of his association with a bank robbery a few years ago. Fourth: I don't think, and this is just my opinion, that Kurds from KDP will be satisfied w 'leftover scraps' from ministries distribution as notes




I can only think of the word 'hypocrisy' to describe someone who spent plenty of time over the past few months criticising the whole political system in to then become key part of it through a deal brokered by many actors





As noted in yesterday's snapshot, since 2006, CIA analysts have argued that Mahdi was the best equipped Iraqi to be prime minister.  It's taken a long time for him to get there.  A long time.  76 years old right now.  A long time.  The Bully Boy Bush White House saw the analysis but they preferred Nouri al-Maliki in 2006 because the CIA write up on him argued that his immense paranoia would make him easy to handle and manipulate.

76 years old.



What lesson do learn of political events yesterday? When things get complicated, don’t be part of it, leave politics for a while, don’t run for election, take off formal suits, enjoy with tourism tour, write morning articles with a cup of coffee, then you will get PM post






Ages of Iraq's post-2003 prime minister when they assumed their functions: Ayad Allawi: 60 Ibrahim Jaafari: 58 Nouri al-Maliki: 56 Haider al-Abadi: 62 Adel Abdel Mehdi: 76 AAM is the oldest by 14 years.




Like the previous prime minister Hayder al-Abadi, Mahdi is a very short man.  Like all the previous prime ministers post-invasion, Mahdi is a flee-er.  He fled Iraq and only returned years later after the US-led invasion.


Mustafa Habib reflects on Hayder in two Tweets:

Which disappointed PM , not political class, Iran, US, or bad luck, but his party "Dawa" which gave up him over 4 hard years, the man forced to based on support of other parties, while he keep loyal to his party even when asked him to leave it to become their hero


When Maliki (leader of the party) lost PM post in 2014 he insisted on take that in personally against Abadi over 4 years!, while Dawa leaders ignored Abadi's achievements & the nice impress of people for him, which could have bring good popularity for Dawa in the future





At NIQASH, Mustafa Habib shares:


There are many challenges in Iraq: a stagnating economy, recovery and reconstruction after the security crisis caused by the extremist group known as the Islamic State, drought, corruption and mismanagement. But to the optimists among Iraqis, all these challenges could also be a historic opportunity to improve the situation, especially as Turkey and Iran, the two neighbours of Iraq, are busy with their own internal problems.

For the first time in years, there is a rare state of national unity brought about because locals had to unite during the security crisis. The sectarian discourse and the exchange of insults between Sunnis and Shiites are not as common any more and it is not strange these days to read friendly and respectful comments, exchanged by residents of Anbar, Basra, Mosul, Dhi Qar, Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan. The ongoing demonstrations have revealed the growing awareness of Iraqis, who now know that the country’s problem is not its people, but its politicians.

Iraqi politicians must respond to these developments before it is too late. There are more protests on the way. And they will be bigger and lead to more chaos, Iraq’s highest Shiite Muslim religious authority, Ali al-Sistani, warned Iraqi politicians last week.

Since the federal elections held in May this year, Iraqi parties have been living in a state of anxiety. Negotiations to form a government are happening under pressure as demonstrators seem to be watching closely. Politicians appear to be afraid of going with Iraq’s long-used quota system to form the government, as it would go against the reform the protestors are calling for.



THE NEW ARAB offers:

Mahdi becomes the first elected prime minister in post-Saddam Iraq not to hail from the Shia Islamist Dawa party.
With a burly physique and a face framed by spectacles and a thin moustache, Abdul Mahdi is an economist by training who has served as oil minister.
He will be able to call on years of experience as a regular on Iraq's diplomatic scene for the balancing acts he is expected for perform.
Abdul Mahdi has the blessing of both Iran and the United States, a required consensus in the country caught between its two major allies who are foes.



Per the Constitution, Mahdi has 30 days to form a government (Cabinet) but this provision has never been enforced.  For all intents and purposes (unless the Parliament suddenly decides the Constitution must be followed), Mahdi is now prime minister of Iraq.





The United Nations Special Representative for , Ján Kubiš, on Wednesday, welcomed the designation of a new Prime Minister, Adel Abdel-Mahdi, and urged political leaders to promote women’s meaningful representation in politics.








In Iraq, UN welcomes new President, and Prime Minister-designate, calls for ‘truly representative’ new cabinet







Here's Cat Power's "Woman" with Lana del Rey.



Cat's album WANDERER is released tomorrow.



The following community sites updated:




  • Wednesday, October 03, 2018

    Cat Power's new album comes out Friday

    Cat Power's new album comes out Friday.

    1. I interviewed Chan Marshall in advance of the new Cat Power album. We talked about Aretha Franklin, Flat Duo Jets, Nick Cave, and lots of other stuff. It was fun. Check it out here:
    2. Decades after her début, the indie rocker Cat Power's interest in soul and blues idioms remains, but she has never sounded more like a folksinger:
    3. Cat Power in the Kitchen



    1. In the past two decades, the musician Cat Power has provided a template for generations of young women coming up in the aggressively male genre of indie rock:
    2. I made a playlist for you🌹
    3. Chan Marshall, a.k.a. is our October cover star! The singer-songwriter opens up about her new album, the cultural hunger for remaking woman artists, and working with Lana Del Rey. Read the full story, by
    4. Cleansing your timeline with my fave pic of Cat Power where you can see her pubes


    Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


    Tuesday, October 2, 2018.

    Don't get taken in by liars.  The problem isn't 'Russian-bots' in the US, it's liars who rework history.


    Bush lied about weapons if mass destruction in Iraq and started a war that has killed thousands.
     
     




    If that's a real person, he's someone who has no life.  "Just some dude" who Tweets constantly.  Mainly he reTweets because the world needs the wisdom of Jon Cryer, for example.  "Just some dude" is a piece of s**t trash.  His Tweet was not even correct in 2003.  But it plays by the neoliberal lie book, doesn't it?

    Bully Boy Bush bears responsibility, no question.  But he's not the only one.  And in terms of lying, we should never forget Colin Powell who lied to the UN.  The neolibs love war and they get all itchy in the groin over a man or manly woman in uniform so they try to reform Colin.  He's a liar and a War Criminal.  As for starting the war, it was bi-partisan.  John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, go down the list for Democrats who supported the Iraq War.

    More to the point, Bully Boy Bush started it in 2003.  It's still ongoing

    I loathe Bully Boy Bush.  He's now been gone from the White House for ten years.  Barack Obama was the president for two terms and Donald Trump is currently.  And the war continues.  Over the weekend, at THE NATIONAL INTEREST, Bonnie Kristian explained:




    The turmoil in Basra may be unsurprising given the living conditions locals face, but it should also be instructive. This is what regime change, fifteen years of intervention, occupation, and reconstruction in Iraq has wrought. This is what trillions of dollars borrowed and spent—and tens of thousands of American and Iraqi lives extinguished—have purchased.
    The protests in Basra are just one moment of ongoing political turmoil in Iraq, with all the security risks and human suffering that entails. They are an indictment in microcosm of Washington’s failed reliance on military intervention and nation-building as a panacea to local political problems in distant lands that don’t threaten America’s security, prosperity, or way of life.
     

    In Basra and Iraq more generally, Americans are presented with years of evidence that U.S. military intervention has failed to achieve strategically important, sustainable outcomes despite Washington’s best efforts. “Some might argue that trying harder, investing more billions, sending yet more equipment for perhaps another 15 years will produce more favorable results,” says military historian Ret. Col. Andrew Bacevich, but this is “a mug’s game.” There is nothing available to America in Iraq that might fairly be called a military victory, and repeating the mistakes of the past will not end differently the umpteenth time around.


    There is no success.  Iraq is a failed state.  Instead of addressing that and the need to end the Iraq War, we've got tools like "Just a dude" attempting to distract us.  Just a dude is the sort of person who, when Mary develops cancer, runs around harping that she smoked cigarettes for three years and he feels self-satisfied as a result.  He never points out that she grew up in Love Canal up in Niagara Falls, New York.  Never mentions that -- even though that's a pretty important detail.

    The Iraq War was started with bi-partisan support and that's why, all these years after Bully Boy Bush has thankfully left the White House, it continues.

    Fifteen years.  That's how long this travesty has continued.  And no matter how many people are injured or die, no matter how much money is poured into the war, it continues and thinking people who should be saying, "Enough," instead avert their eyes or just lie like "Just a dude."

    The failed state of Iraq remains without a president or a prime minister -- this despite elections being held May 12th.  The elections were almost five months ago (ten days shy of five months ago) and still no president, still no prime minister.

    The list of broken promises is many but one of them took place yesterday.  Monday, the promise had been, that Iraq would finally name a president.  But, as Ghassan Adnan and Isabel Coles (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report, that did not happen:



    The presidency is a largely ceremonial position, but the vote begins a two-week countdown until the constitutional deadline, by which time a prime minister must be chosen to form the next government.
    Under the political system that took shape after 2003, Iraq’s presidency is reserved for the Kurds, while the speaker is Sunni and the prime minister is from the Shiite majority. Those positions are typically decided by quid-pro-quo deals among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, but unprecedented division within each of those groups have complicated the process.
    In the past, the Kurds agreed on a candidate among themselves, but this time they have fielded multiple candidates. The two front-runners are Barham Salih, a former prime minister of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, and Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to former President Masoud Barzani. Both have held meetings with Shiite political leaders in Baghdad in recent days to win support for their candidacies and met with the Iranian ambassador, highlighting Tehran’s important role in forming Iraq’s government.
    Monday’s parliament session, at which the president was due to be elected, was rescheduled for Tuesday after a quorum was broken by lawmakers to give the Kurds a last chance to agree on a single candidate. 



    Maybe it will be decided today.  Maybe it won't.  In 2010, it took over eight months after the elections for Iraq to form a government -- or, over eight months after the elections for the governments of the US and Iran to form a government.

    On September 20th, we noted, "Let's turn to the post of the presidency.  The PUK thinks they get to dictate this post.  They don't.  But they are floating Barham Saleh and he's so thrilled to be their nominee that he's rejoined their party after leaving it in 2017. "  That's apparently a sore spot for the pathetic Barham Saleh.  On Sunday, he denied it.  RUDAW reports:



    Salih split from the PUK last year to establish the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ). He officially resigned from his fledging party following his nomination by the PUK.

    “I quit the PUK due to my serious criticisms and thus established the CDJ. After the [May 12 Iraqi parliamentary] elections, the CDJ asked for a national dialogue with all the parties and the PUK responded to our initiative,” he explained.

    “The CDJ with the PUK reached an agreement due to continued efforts from Mr. Kosrat [Rasul Ali] and Bafel Talabani and considering the dangerous situations ongoing in the Region, I deemed it crucial to rejoin the PUK. Although it was not an easy [decision], I am happy with what I did,” he added.

    His return to the PUK is not associated with his candidacy for the presidency, he insisted. 



    He says he didn't rejoin the PUK because they offered him the presidency of Iraq.




    He publicly denounces the PUK and publicly walks from it in 2017, then he forms a new party and runs against them.  But, come September, as he's offered the candidacy of president by the PUK, he rejoins.   And now he wants to insist the two were completely unrelated?  If only the average person was as stupid as Saleh thinks they are -- or as stupid as Saleh actually is -- he might be able to get away with that lie.

    Social media talk today about the presidency includes a lot of regret being expressed by people who believe that Saleh will get the presidency of Iraq.  The rumors are that he's lightly backed by US Envoy Brett McGurk and strongly backed by the government of Iran.

    Parliament is currently in session.


    Parliament is currently in a session to elect a new President of Iraq
     
     
  • Iraqi parliament begins session to elect president
     
     





    If, as many fear, Saleh gets the presidency, the real question should be why?  The PUK has owned the post.  Not via the Constitution, they have no legal right to it.  But they got it with tubby Talabani who held the post for two terms despite being unable to carry out his second term.  And now they get it with Saleh?

    The PUK has lost to the KDP in election after election.  It's even, at times, lost to Gorran.  Sunday, the KRG held their latest elections.  And the PUK will again come in second to the KDP.

    Let's turn to everyone's favorite smack talking bitch Joel wing:

    73% voter turnout last KRG elections Only 58% in 2018 Public increasingly cynical about ruling elite
     
     



    What's Joel's point?  He's such a little bitch.  He's promoting this in his Tweets:


  • Another Frank Miller collection Daredevil Born Again
     
     
  • More Miller and Daredevil with Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Vol. 3
     
     



  • Really?  Frank Miller?  You piece of trash.

    Joel is unfit to comment on Iraq or the Arab world.  Frank Miller is Islamophobic.  Google it.  He issued an apology this year when he was trying to sell crap like what Joel Wing's pimping.  Nobody bought it.  It wasn't one comment and it wasn't one time.  Frank Miller hates Islam and he hates Arabs.  And there's Joel Wing promoting his latest garbage.

    Bitch Joel wants you think, "Oh, Kurds aren't voting."  Well can we bring in all of Iraq for a moment?

    As we've noted of the May 12th election:

     On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote.  NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent."  AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."


    Why should they vote?  The US government had repeatedly selected the prime minister -- 2006, 2010 and 2014.  Why should they vote?  The government was corrupt.  Why should they vote?  Safety?  Lip service was given to the claim that ISIS had been defeated but it hadn't.  In fact, Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reported that 16 people were killed and nineteen wounded the day of the election.


    Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) captured the mood,  "But as voters trudged towards polling stations, there was none of the euphoria of previous polls – where purple ink-dipped fingers were happily displayed – and almost no energy surrounding the process. Iraqis had done it all before, and elections had delivered little."



    58% of Kurds turned out to vote in Sunday's elections.  And on May 12th, 44.5% of Iraqis turned out to vote.  It's a detail left unTweeted by Joel Wing who has serious problems.


    In his blog post, he tries to bring up the referendum in September 2017.  That didn't harm the KDP.  They've come in first.  Barzani promoted the referendum -- a non-binding vote to survey the Kurdish people on whether they should remain part of Iraq or be their own autonomous region.  Barzani is the face of the KDP.  The PUK?  It was opposed to it -- its leadership was opposed.  The referendum past overwhelmingly -- over 90%.  The Kurds favored it.  They were attacked for holding the referendum.  That's external.  Internally, it was popular and it was a smart move politically.  It's not the KDP that's struggling with Gorran not to end up in their place.  No, the KDP appears to have won twice the votes that the PUK did.


    These are realities that bitches like Joel never have time for -- probably because they're too busy pimping their Arab hating heroes like Frank Miller.

    The following community sites -- plus THE GUARDIAN -- updated: