Thursday, March 19, 2020

Bye Tulsi (the new bye Felecia)

One of the nicer things on Twitter about fake ass Tulsi Gabbard who just endorsed War Hawk Joe Biden:


I just can’t get behind the idea she is supporting the man who voted and championed the Iraq war and regime change. It just goes against what she stands for. She is a fraud.



She's such a fake ass.  Tim Black notes:

Tulsi endorsed Biden? At least now I won’t have to hear anymore about how brave and gutsy and progressive she is, right?


I don't have time for the zombies who refuse to call her out.

I don't have time for you and I don't give a f**k about you.

I'm thinking on one friend, Donna.  (That's Donna, I'm not talking about Dona with THIRD.)

She's a useless person. During the Gulf War, she protested and put antiwar slogans on her car and seems to think that earns her a pass for the rest of time.

She texted me as the news came out.  "Did you hear about Tulsi?"

I texted back, "Yeah, she's a fraud.  C.I. wrote that at THE COMMON ILLS in the August 1, 2019 snapshot, check it out."

She texted back, "No, I don't think she's a fraud.  I'm about to listen to Matt and Katie [Halper[ and I'm sure they'll explain what happened."

Donna's a f**king zombie.  Tulsi made her statement endorsing Biden and her brother's online trashing Bernie all over the place.  It's clear what happened, quit playing.

I don't need a podcast to tell me what happened.

I put up with Donna until 2019 when she finally realized the 'Russia stole the election for Trump!' was b.s.  I put up with her.

But I'm sorry, Donna supports Bernie and hates Joe Biden.  But she can't figure out how to interpret Tulsi endorsing Biden until she hears a podcast?

She needs to grow the f**k up and she also needs to admit she's an idiot.

I've known her since college but I'm ready to be done with her.  She's too much work.  In college, Maggie warned me she was jealous of me and I denied it because I didn't want to believe it.  But Donna's always thought she was smarter than anyone when she's not smart at all.  She can spit back things that she memorizes but she's never been able to think.  And time and again, she'd have a fit that I made the better grade.  Easy answer: Stop trying to compete with me.  Another easy answer: Stop taking the same classes I take.

In philosophy, she was way out of her field though she pretended she was a philo genius.  I didn't.  I'd never read any philosophy before that college class.  But I can learn and I can think.  She ended up doing so poorly that she bombed the class and ended up on academic probation.

I never brought that up to her.  But if we continue to speak, I will so it's good that I'm done with her.

I just don't have time to deal with zombies.  I don't care if you're a zombie for Trump or one for Tulsi or one for Aaron Mate or whomever.

I don't have time for that s**t.  I'm a grown up.  I think for myself.  I don't think it's hard to think for yourself.

I love Bernie, I hope he's the next president but I can criticize him and I will.  That's about independent though.

I'm tired of the zombies, I'm tired of the sheep.




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


Thursday, March 19, 2020.  Tonight, the ongoing Iraq War will be 17 years old, should Bernie Sanders drop out, am I being revisionary about a 1918 pandemic, and much more.

Tonight, at 9:34 EST, the Iraq War hits the 17 years mark.

Yes, the Iraq War continues despite lies otherwise.  From Andrew Milburn's "The Iraq War is not over yet  (MILITARY TIMES):


 Five coalition servicemen died this past week in Iraq. Capt. Moises Navas and Gunnery Sgt. Diego Pongo, both Marines, were killed in northern Iraq by Islamic State fighters, while a few days later, Army Spc. Juan Covarrubias, Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal Roberts and British medic Lance Cpl. Brodie Gillon died in a rocket attack launched by a Shia militia group.
If media attention hadn’t been fixated on Covid-19, their deaths might have raised the question of what the United States is still doing in Iraq. It’s a fair question. The Islamic State’s physical caliphate is no more, and in the wake of assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Iraqi parliament recently voted to expel U.S. forces. Now, with Iranian-backed militia groups targeting U.S. troops, it’s probably a good time for the administration to assess its policy objectives in Iraq.

To be clear, this isn’t going to be diatribe against military involvement overseas. I have, over the course of a 31-year career, seen my share of wasted effort and lives in pursuit of incoherent policy objectives, but am not of the view that the U.S. can simply retreat behind its borders and expect its national interests to take care of themselves. And there is good reason for continued U.S. military involvement in Iraq: to pre-empt a resurgence of the Islamic State — a threat which, as this recent incident illustrates, has not gone away — and as a check on the malign influence of Iran. The 5,000 U.S. troops currently there might be a relatively small price to pay to achieve those goals, if that is indeed the plan. But at a time when the United States finds itself again at a decision point in Iraq, I am concerned that once again there are no clear policy objectives to guide U.S. military involvement.


While he feels there may still be a role for the US military in Iraq, I do not.

Why are propping up a government with our military when the government has killed protesters and reporters -- not in the distant past but in the ongoing present?

From Amnesty International:

From October onwards, security forces, including factions of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), used excessive force against protesters involved in nationwide demonstrations, killing over 500 and injuring thousands; many of those killed were shot with live ammunition or hit with previously unseen tear gas canisters. Activists, as well as lawyers representing protesters, medics treating injured ones and journalists covering the protests, were subjected to arrest, enforced disappearance and other forms of intimidation by intelligence and security forces. Authorities blocked access to the internet, apparently to prevent the circulation of images of abuses by security forces. Approximately 1.55 million people remained internally displaced; many faced severe restrictions on their freedom of movement. Abrupt camp closures in Anbar and Ninewa governorates forced many families into secondary displacement. Thousands of men and boys remained missing after being forcibly disappeared by Iraqi security forces, including the PMU, while fleeing IS-held territories. There were widespread reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees held by central Iraqi and KRG forces, particularly of those suspected of affiliation with IS. Iraqi courts continued to pass down death sentences, some after unfair trials. IS targeted civilians, carrying out bomb attacks in cities and assassinating community leaders.


From Human Rights Watch:

Unidentified armed forces, apparently in cooperation with Iraqi national and local security forces, carried out a brutal spate of killings in Baghdad’s main protest area on December 6, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today. Estimates range between 29 and 80 dead, and 137 injured. Electricity to the area was cut during the attack, making it harder for protesters to identify the killers and flee to safety. Police and military forces withdrew as the unidentified militia, some in uniforms, began shooting.
The killings come three months into protests in Baghdad and southern Iraq, in which the death toll has reached 511 people, according to the Ministry of Health. Given the level of unlawful killings by the state forces, countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Iran – that provide military and law enforcement training and support to Iraq – should end such assistance until the authorities take effective action to stop the killings and hold abusers to account. The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva should hold a special session into the killings of protesters in Iraq.
“The US, UK, and Iran can’t have it both ways, calling on the Iraqi government to respect the rights of protesters while supporting the Iraqi forces killing protesters or standing by,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “With killings of protesters continuing day after day, they should end this support.”
Five witnesses to the killings told Human Rights Watch by phone that on December 6 about 1,000 protesters were present in Baghdad’s al-Khilani Square, 600 meters north of Tahrir Square, and in al-Senak Garage, a five-story parking garage just off al-Khilani Square they had been occupying since November 16. At about 7:30 p.m., they said they saw seven pickup trucks speed into al-Khilani Square and slow down. As the vehicles drove through the square slowly, gunmen in plain black uniforms and civilian dress opened fire with AK-47s and PK machine guns above the protesters, before lowering and firing directly at them. At the time, the witnesses said the protesters were gathered peacefully and not threatening any violent acts.

The witnesses said they saw about two dozen Federal Police and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), who were manning two checkpoints in the square, leave by car as the gunmen arrived. Some nine hours later, at 4:30 a.m. on December 7, the armed men left, they said, and within a few minutes security forces returned.



Grasp that the above, what the government of Iraq is carrying out on the people right now, that's what leads neoliberals like Samantha Power -- the Cruise Missile Left crowd -- to call for regime change and war.  Grasp that.  The government in place, the one US troops are on the ground in Iraq supporting, is carrying out acts that would lead elements in the US to call for war.

Those of us old enough to remember the start of the ongoing Iraq War should be highly familiar with A Problem From Hell Samantha Power and the others in the Cruise Missile Left.  But let's make sure we're all on the same page.

I'm not sure if Edward S. Herman coined the term or not but he certainly popularized it.  This is from a piece at ZNET that he wrote months before the start of the Iraq War:

A prominent set of commentators claiming to speak from the left
have aligned themselves with the national leadership in support
of an aggressive military interventionism and projection of
power abroad. This is by no means a genuine left—that
is, one that opposes the powerful in the interest of the non-elite
majority. I call them a “cruise missile left” (CML)
because of their alignment with power and their eager support
of external violence, which is a very important component
of their intellectual labors. One of their cohort, Christopher
Hitchens, even explicitly lauds cruise missiles themselves—“precision-guided
weaponry”—which he finds “good in itself,”
but especially admirable when decimating the forces of evil
that are the official targets (“Its a Good Time for War…,”
Boston Globe,
September 8, 2002).


CMLs often designate themselves the “pragmatic,”
“rational,” and “decent” left and they
spend considerable energy attacking their erstwhile comrades
for failing to keep in touch with the U.S. public, for “reflexive
anti-Americanism” (Todd Gitlin), for “genuflecting
only briefly—if at all—to the [9/11] dead”
(Marc Cooper), for “refusing to acknowledge that the
country faced real dangers” and has a right to defend
itself (Michael Walzer), and for not crediting U.S. policy
with successes when it attacks and removes bad men from power
(Michael Berube et al.), among other leftists’ failings.

CMLs are of course welcomed by the mainstream media, because
they not only support the elite political agenda, they attack
its real left critics with great vigor and with the credibility
of alleged leftists who have escaped “the politics of
guilt and resentment” (Walzer, “Can There Be a Decent
Left?,” Dissent, Spring 2002). Marc Cooper recently
published a second article in the Los Angeles Times
that focused on the recent failures of the peace movement,
attributed to the influence of a left faction “steeped
in four decades’ worth of crude anti-Americanism,”
although why he and the “decent left” haven’t
successfully stepped into the breach and revitalized the movement,
Cooper never makes clear (“Protest: A Smart Peace Movement
is MIA,” LAT, September 29, 2002). CMLs even speak
of the “Chomsky-left” as a generic class of leftists
who are extremist, angry, reflexively anti-American, etc.,
and attacking Chomsky is a favorite outing for CMLs. This
helps improve their access to the mainstream media, where
in addition to garnering publicity they are relatively free
from critical response.


One problem with the CMLs is that, not really being on the
left, they have lost sight of what the left is all about.
The left’s criterion of success is not the extent to
which it is listened to or heard, irrespective of message
content; it is its success in getting a left message across
(and on some issues, like “free trade,” and the
merits of overseas military ventures [except in the heat of
battle and under a furious elite propaganda barrage], the
“radical left” is far closer to mainstream opinion
than is the “decent left,” and it is listened to
on those issues by ordinary citizens when they can be reached).
On issues where it is in a minority position, a real left
does not abandon its position in order to be acceptable. Marc
Cooper objects to the left’s “scold mold” and
its “alienation from its own national institutions,”
and Gitlin calls on the left to be “practical—the
stakes are too great for the luxury of any fundamentalism.”
One can readily imagine the Cooper, Gitlin, Walzer, Berube,
and Hitchens equivalents of the 1850s explaining to the abolitionists
that they must tone down their message and alter or even drop
their anti-racist and anti-slavery message given the “political
realities” and public sentiment. But then, as now, a
genuine left focuses on the struggle against basic exploitative
and unjust policies and structures—it does not give up
its radical educational and organizing role in order to win
transitory victories and gain access and approval from the
mainstream. Most certainly it does not join militaristic bandwagons
and support wars against distant small targets on the grounds
of the evil being attacked in some particular case. 


More recently, Danny Haiphong (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) explained:

The cruise missile left has aligned with the Democratic Party and the intelligence agencies against Trump and have dropped any anti-war, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist tendencies in the process.
Nowhere is this clearer than in its position on Syria. The cruise missile left is best represented by the likes of Democracy Now! and The Intercept. Both sources have worked together to subtly forward the agenda of US imperialism. Since 2011, Amy Goodman has never strayed from the NATO line on countries such as Libya, Syria, and Russia. Like the corporate media, Goodman and her staff at Democracy Now! have provided positive coverage of so-called humanitarian groups like the White Helmets which have long been proven to work directly with NATO-armed jihadist mercenaries ravaging Syria . The Intercept and Democracy Now! have refused to invite any guests on their show that deviate from the NATO line on Syria.
These sources have benefited from the corporate takeover of the US media. Democracy Now! and The Intercept act as an escape valve from corporate media lies, which make them more difficult to criticize when they serve the same interests as the corporate media outlets that spurred their formation. In their coverage of the alleged chemical attack in Douma, both Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald joined the imperial chorus that the Syrian government bore responsibility for an attack that had yet to be proven even happened. Even Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis admitted that the US lacked evidence backing up their claims against Assad. The Intercept and Democracy Now! staked their firm position against the Syrian government despite the overwhelming evidence that Syria destroyed its chemical weapons in the OPCW brokered deal between Russia and the US in 2013 and that Syria, Russia, and their allies are the only parties interested in coming to a peaceful resolution to the war.
Cruise missile leftists thus bear much of the responsibility for the US, UK, and French airstrikes conducted against Syria on April 14th. After the strikes, Amy Goodman invited Chelsea Manning and so-called activist Rahmah Kudaimi to her show. Manning was given little time to speak while over seventy percent of the joint interview was taken up by Kudaimi’s assertions that US airstrikes “enable” the Syrian “regime.” Kudaimi practically begged the US to conduct the airstrikes correctly and fulfill the legitimate demand of the Syrian people to overthrow the Syrian government. Nowhere did Amy Goodman challenge such blatant support of US imperial objectives in Syria and beyond.


There is no reason for the US military to be in Iraq.  There never was.  To remain is to prop up the government which is not representative of the Iraqi people and which actively works to attack the Iraqi people.

Grasp how unembraced that government is by the Iraqi people.   They have no real prime minister.

Adil Abdul Mahdi?  In November, he announced his resignation.  In December, he gave his I-really-really-really-mean-it-I'm-resigning notice.  Still no new prime minister.

Iraqi president Barham Salih announced Mohammed Allawi as prime minister-designate.  He wasn't able to put together a Cabinet and he announced that he was resigning as prime minister-designate.  As noted in Tuesday's snapshot, Salih has now named Adnan al-Zurufi prime minister-designate.  THE NATIONAL notes:

Adnan Al Zurfi is a former official of the US-run authorities who took over Iraq after the 2003 invasion to remove Saddam Hussein.
Mr Al Zurfi, 54, is head of the Nasr parliamentary grouping of former prime minister Haider Al Abadi, also a US ally.

He has 30 days to form his cabinet, which must then be put to a vote of confidence in Iraq’s divided Parliament.

CGTN adds:

Hours after Zurfi was nominated, powerful Shia blocs quickly lined up to pose their rejection. Lawmakers told Reuters that President Barham Salih had named Zurfi only after larger rival Shia political parties failed to agree on one candidate.
Some of those same groups rounded on the new candidate, who is head of the small Nasr parliamentary group of former prime minister Haider al-Abadi, a U.S. ally.
"We hold the president fully responsible for the repercussions of these provocative steps," read a statement from the Fatih alliance, which represents mostly Iran-backed Shia militia leaders in parliament.

"He's an American joker and we reject him," said Hassan Salim, a lawmaker from Asaib Ahl al-Haq Iranian-backed group which the United States designated as a terrorist organization in January.

Zurfi lived in the United States as a refugee in the 1990s after fleeing the regime of Saddam Hussein and he later became a U.S. citizen. He is seen as a comparatively secular figure in a country long dominated by sectarian parties.


Turning to the US and the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, there are people calling for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the race.

Bernie should do what Bernie wants to do.

If he's tired of the race, drop out.

But if he wants to stay in, he should.

He has more media coverage while he's in the race which allows his serious attempts to address the coronvirus to get more traction.  He can also highlight other issues.

That's one thing to remember.

Second?  You need 1991 delegates to win the nomination.  Joe Biden doesn't have that.  He has 1132.  That's a long way from 1991.  Bernie has 817.  The race is far from settled.

Third?  In the 2008 Democratic Party primary, Hillary Clinton waited until June 7th to drop out and endorse Barack Obama.  It's not even April right now.

Bernie needs to do what's going to make him happy.

But the race is not over and he gains more media attention for any proposal he makes while he is running for the nomination.

Let's all go to berniesanders.com to donate and volunteer to make calls cuz we have an election to win and our
is really busy dealing with a #F**kingGlobalCrisis.



On coronavirus.  Donald Trump is linking it to China.  China is very populated country.  If he has criticism of the Chinese government and how it handled the outbreak, he should be specific that he's criticizing the government.  A number of e-mails to the public account claim that I have attacked his remarks on that and that I'm part of some revisionary movement.

Wrong and wrong.

I don't follow most of what he says.  I don't mean to mean or cruel but I don't.  I'm not obsessed with him.  I don't follow his Tweets.  He is not my life.  I'm not pathetic like Debra Messing and others who feel the need to respond to everyone of his Tweets and everyone of his remarks.  I have a life and I focus on issues that matter.  I do feel he mispoke and it might have been intentional on the coronavirus.  As I noted in a snapshot last week, being the president means being the national cheerleader on an international stage.  And I noted I wasn't going to hold some remarks against him for that reason -- while also noting that I don't believe you manage public opinion, I believe you share all information.

So, no, I haven't attacked his remarks.

As for revisionary movement, I had to ask Martha and Shirley what the drive-by e-mails are saying on that.

According to the e-mails the 1918 Influenza is 'revisionary.'  It was, supposedly, taught as the Spanish flu for decades and decades.

Was it?

I don't know that.

Ava and I called it the 1918 influenza in "TV: The future is out there" (and in pieces for community newsletters) because that's what the PBS special we saw called it.  Ava's much younger than I am and she wasn't taught "Spanish flu" but allows she doesn't remember it being taught at all.  Me?

I long ago shared I went through a trauma that wiped away my memory.  I've shared that here many times.  I've noted that's why I always operate from the belief that I'm the least intelligent person in the room.  I've shared how I had to start with children's books on various subjects to re-learn all I had lost in my memory.  This isn't new but I understand a drive-by reader isn't going to know everything that's up here.

But it is up here.  I lost everything pretty much.  So what I was taught in school vanished.  I have college and to hold my own in college I had to start with children's books on whatever subject and slowly progress.  I've compared myself repeatedly (here I've done this) to Joey on FRIENDS when he buys the one encylopedia volume and learns that and gets upset when the conversation steers beyond the letter of the volume he bought.


I can't say you weren't taught to call it the Spanish flu back when you were in school.  I can't even say I wasn't taught that.  I can say that I have no idea what I was taught in school.  I had to relearn and that's good because it does allow me to be free of a lot of prejudices that I would otherwise have ingrained into me from the indoctrination that was passed off as education -- an indoctrination that told you gays and lesbians were mentally ill, that told you slavery was noble and the slaves were happy (yes, that was actually taught in some school systems) and so much more nonsense.

I knew nothing of the influenza attack until we watched the PBS special weeks ago.  Nothing.  Couldn't have told you the year or anything about it.  Couldn't have even guessed that it was during WWI.





The following sites updated:


Wednesday, March 18, 2020

David Rovics

David RovicsI reviewed his HALLIBURTON BOARDROOM MASSACRE album.  I still think it's a classic.

Ava and C.I. just noted him in this week's "Media: The hypocrisy and the insanity:"


Early last week, actor Vincent D'Onofrio began Tweeting against Bernie Sanders (such as here -- which he notes later "I couldn't help myself").  Worse, he started telling everyone what to do: Vote Biden.

He lied because he's an idiot, yes, Barack Obama and Joe Biden put children into cages -- FACTCHECK.ORG here.

He's a liar but he's worse than a liar, he's a piece of trash.

He thinks he has standing to tell anyone how to vote?  What has his fat ass ever done?

Jessica Lange spoke out against the Iraq War, Jane Fonda spoke out against the Iraq War, Ani DiFranco spoke out against the Iraq War, Janeane Garofalo spoke out against the Iraq War, Harry Belafonte spoke out against the Iraq War, Susan Sarandon spoke out against the Iraq War, Nas spoke out against the Iraq War, Tim Robinson spoke out against the Iraq War, Gillian Anderson spoke out against the Iraq War, Jay-Z spoke out against the Iraq War, Sean Penn spoke out against the Iraq War, Samuel L. Jackson spoke out against the Iraq War, Danny Glover spoke out against the Iraq War, Sheryl Crow spoke out against the Iraq War, George Clinton spoke out against the Iraq War, Natalie Maines spoke out against the Iraq War, Norah Jones spoke out against the Iraq War, Chris Martin spoke out against the Iraq War, Kim Basinger spoke out against the Iraq War, Sally Field spoke out against the Iraq War, Alec Baldwin spoke out against the Iraq War, Barbra Streisand spoke out against the Iraq War, Laurence Fishburne spoke out against the Iraq War, Angelica Huston spoke out against the Iraq War, Ethan Hawke spoke out against the Iraq War, Uma Thurman spoke out against the Iraq War, Lindsay Wagner spoke out against the Iraq War, Ed Asner spoke out against the Iraq War, Missy Elliott spoke out against the Iraq War, Matt Damon spoke out against the Iraq War, Linda Ronstadt spoke out against the Iraq War, Emmylou Harris spoke out against the Iraq War, Roseanne Cash spoke out against the Iraq War, Busta Rhymes spoke out against the Iraq War, Suzanne Vega spoke out against the Iraq War, Brian Eno spoke out against the Iraq War, Natalie Imbruglia spoke out against the Iraq War, L'il Mo spoke out against the Iraq War, Mobb Deep spoke out against the Iraq War, Lucinda Williams spoke out against the Iraq War, Michael Stipe spoke out against the Iraq War, George Michael spoke out against the Iraq War, Lenny Kravitz spoke out against the Iraq War, David Rovics spoke out against the Iraq War, John Mellencamp spoke out against the Iraq War, Lou Reed spoke out against the Iraq War, Billy Bragg spoke out against the Iraq War, Rickie Lee Jones spoke out against the Iraq War, Neil Young spoke out against the Iraq War, Pink spoke out against the Iraq War, Michael Franti spoke out against the Iraq War, Cat Power spoke out against the Iraq War, Edward Norton spoke out against the Iraq War, Spike Lee spoke out against the Iraq War, Martin Sheen spoke out against the Iraq War, Martin Scorsese spoke out against the Iraq War, Joan Baez spoke out against the Iraq War, Dustin Hoffman spoke out against the Iraq War, Oliver Stone spoke out against the Iraq War, Robert Altman spoke out against the Iraq War, Brian De Palma spoke out against the Iraq War, Annie Lennox spoke out against the Iraq War, Alice Walker spoke out against the Iraq War, Peter Gabriel spoke out against the Iraq War, Phil Collins spoke out against the Iraq War, Emma Thompson spoke out against the Iraq War, Ken Loach spoke out against the Iraq War, Mike Leigh spoke out against the Iraq War, Richard E. Grant spoke out against the Iraq War, Vanessa Redgrave spoke out against the Iraq War, Robert Redford spoke out against the Iraq War, Damon Albarn spoke out against the Iraq War, Richard Gere spoke out against the Iraq War, Don Cheadle spoke out against the Iraq War, David Duchovny spoke out against the Iraq War, Elliott Gould spoke out against the Iraq War, Mark Ruffalo spoke out against the Iraq War, Boots Riley spoke out against the Iraq War . . .


We could go on and on.  You know who we'd never end up noting?  That's right: Vincent.



There are a lot of people who put it on the line and David was one of them.  I know they couldn't mention everyone -- it's a long list -- but I am glad Ava and C.I. made a point to note David.

My point, by the way, is that David has a new article up at DISSIDENT VOICE.  So go read that.

But at this time, anniversary time for the Iraq War -- which still drags on, by the way -- let's take a moment to be glad that we had so many people who were brave like David and spoke out.

I wished they's stayed committed -- a number quickly walked away and many act as though the Iraq War ended.  But I will applaud them for speaking out at the start.

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


Wednesday, March 18, 2020.  Bernie Sanders continues to address the needs of the nation, if we need to address the economic hardships in this country during this troubled time why does the opinion journal THE NATION continue to have a paywall, the Iraq War continues even though Medea Benjamin seems unaware of that reality.



Starting in the US where business-as-usual-Biden went about demonstrating yet again that he drives with his eyes on the rear view mirror, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke about coronavirus and how we go forward.




Senator Bernie Sanders: So this is a moment that we've got to be working together in going forward together.  What I wanted to do tonight, along with you, is to talk about a series of proposals that we are working on right now and that we'll introduce to the Democratic leadership as to how we can best go forward.  And in this unprecedented moment, this will require an unprecedented amount of money and my own guess is that we'll be spending at least two trillion dollars in funding to prevent deaths, joblessness and avoid an economic catastrophe.


John Queally (COMMON DREAMS) notes:

The plan would guarantee that all healthcare needs related to the coronavirus would be free and available to all, including testing, any treatments, and ultimately—when available—the vaccine. The plan also calls for a dramatic investment in the public health system—including an urgent overhaul in terms of testing for the virus—and increased preparedness and support for frontline medical workers, hospitals, clinics, and community health centers. It would also mobilize the National Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, and military resources to build healthcare capacity nationwide.
On the economic front, Sanders' plan would issue direct cash payments, in the form of $2,000 check to every American each month for the duration of the crisis. The plan would also establish what the Sanders campaign calls the "Emergency Economic Crisis Finance Agency," which would be charged with handling the financial downturn unleashed by what is now a global pandemic.


"We must guarantee that everyone who needs care can get it for free, ensure that all workers continue to receive paychecks so they can make ends meet," Sander said, "and stop giant corporations and Wall Street from profiting off the outbreak."


Bernie wants you to visit the campaign site to review the plan and to offer your input.


Senator Bernie Sanders: We want to hear from you not only your ideas about how we can best go forward, talk about your experiences.  In every state, there is a different level crisis in every occupation there is a different level of concern.  Please communicate with us so that we can get the best understanding possible of what's going on in our country and how together we can come up with some effective remedies.


Here's some input, Bernie.  Stop sending floats into clinics when they may have been exposed to coronavirus.  May have been.  A community member in Kentucky is furious because yesterday, at the front desk, she worked with a float who was informed, via e-mail, that the clinic she was at the day before -- a float doesn't have a fixed clinic, they float to various clinics based on need -- had a possible coronavirus patient and they were waiting on the results.  After reading that e-mail and telling the others at the front desk, that float was allowed to stay and remain working.  The only thing that changed is she put on a mask.  It was 2:00 pm.  She'd been there since 8:00 am.  That mask wasn't helping anyone at that point.

Floats are going to spread coronvirus from clinic to clinic.

What, I e=mailed back, would have been the policy if it was known the patient she was around the day before had coronavirus?  She would need to self-monitor for 48 hours, checking her temperature every two hours.  If fever came up, she would not be allowed to work at a clinic.

And if she's one of those who doesn't develop fever?  Everyone at each clinic is just screwed.

There needs to be a better system.

Kentucky community member wanted to share that her clinic was one of those we were noting the other day that has everyone mask up except for the front desk staff.  She said if everyone on the front desk masked up, there would no chance of the float having spread anything before she received her e-mail yesterday afternoon.

At Bernie's website, go to this specific page to read what he's proposing.  At the bottom of that page, it's noted: "To leave feedback, send an email to info@berniesanders.com."

There were primaries yesterday because public health is not a real concern obviously.  Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

Ignoring urgent pleas from medical professionals and other health experts to postpone primary elections amid the coronavirus outbreak, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez late Tuesday encouraged states to go ahead with their scheduled contests, claiming "we can in fact have voting and protect our workers, our voters, our candidates."
"I think it's a false choice to suggest we either have to protect safety or protect and ensure our democracy," Perez said in an interview with NPR late Tuesday as voters in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois went to the polls despite widespread calls for a delay. Former Vice President Joe Biden swept all three states.

Perez urged upcoming states to make vote-by-mail available to all voters, but it is unclear whether such a solution could be implemented in short order.

This isn't a federal election.  This is a political primary.  The DNC controls it.  They could have done that.  What they should have done is postpone the primaries.  Create, at each state's Democratic Party website, a place where you requested a mail-in ballot and a phone number for people to call for a mail-in ballot (not everyone has computers or internet access).  That does not take weeks and weeks to implement.  This could be done by each state in five working days.  The request would come in by phone or computer, the DNC worker would verify that the person was registered, a mail-in ballot would be sent out.

That is what should have been done.

This November, there will be a general election.  It needs to take place.  Even during the Civil War, we did not suspend elections.  We need to be using the primary to implement mail-in voting (which the state of Oregon already does -- everyone votes by mail there) across the US and we need to be prepared to do that in the general if the coronavirus is still an issue then (as it most likely will be).


The myth of electable is why the country's in another crisis.  The press tells us that their favorite, whomever it is at the moment, is the most electable.  In this cycle alone, we've seen them insist that Kamala Harris was electable and that Tiny Pete was though neither ever demonstrated any indication that they were -- at any point in the election.  Joe Biden is supposed to be electable.

He most likely is not.  A group of delusionals -- Cher, Vincent Tiny Penis and others -- have rushed to insist he is.  When is the last time Cher was ever in the majority?  When she recorded "Believe"?  That was last century.  She's not had a true hit since then -- not a hit song, not a hit film and, no, not even a hit fashion show masquerading as a Broadway play.  She's hardly in touch with the masses.





Bernie beats Trump

Bernie Beats Trump
✓ Only campaign with more donations than Trump
✓ Beating Trump in over 60 polls
✓ Fastest campaign ever to reach 1 million donors



Bernie is electable.


And the masses are who will vote.  That means leaving the zombie cult that is the Democratic Party.  Democrats alone will not deliver a victory.  You have to have a candidate who can reach beyond that.  Bernie can which is why he is seen as electable.  Joe, however, tends to run off most independents because he is so problematic, inappropriate with girls and women, unable to string together a coherent sentence, lying non-stop over and over.

The zombies of the Democratic Party will gladly overlook these things.  Voters not addicted to lies and distortions won't be so eager to do so.

And they see Joe's staff as problematic as well.  Anita Dunn, for example, donated her time to Harvey Weinstein as he was facing charges of rape and assault -- he has since been convicted and sentenced to over 20 years.  Maybe the Poster Gal for Rape and Harassment shouldn't be in your campaign?

Anita gets worse.  Jefferson Morely (COUNTERPUNCH) explains:

After Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Anita Dunn, senior adviser to Joe Biden’s campaign, defended the vice president’s performance in a briefing with reporters.
Last year, Dunn, who served as communications director in Barack Obama’s White House, did a similar duty for NSO, the spyware firm founded by former Israeli intelligence officers. The NSO Group created the infamous Pegasus intrusion tool, which has been used to harass and disrupt journalists from India to Mexico to Saudi Arabia—and also to pick Jeff Bezos’ pocket.
As Avi Asher-Schapiro of the Committee to Protect Journalists noted on Twitter, Dunn is “Managing Director at SKDKnickerbocker, a firm that managed the US public relations work for NSO Group.”

Dunn’s work for NSO indicates a willingness to defend private power against the public interest. Her condescending remarks about Bernie Sanders’ performance evoke the arrogance that pervades the intersection of big government and corporate power in Washington. She represents the reasons why some of Sanders’ supporters are reluctant to support the former vice president. She embodies the difficulty of unifying the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party going into the 2020 presidential election.


Let's gripe about trash.  Katrina vanden Heuvel, I'm looking at you.  THE NATION is not reporting.  It's opinion columns which are all over the internet already.  So this nonsense that you have a paywall is pure b.s.  That you would do so during a presidential election year is appalling.  That you would do so while your opinion columns promote the need to grasp the suffering that workers are going through right now is outrageous.

We were going to highlight Katrina's latest column.  I'm sure it's her generic rah-rah but we were going to highlight it.  The person I'm dictating the snapshot to says that the paywall notice tells them they have 2 free articles left for the month (you get 3 from Queen Katrina, "Let them read three!").  But he can't get around the paywall notice to copy anything from the column.

Garbage.  And Katrina for you, in a crisis, to claim to be a journalist and yet have a policy that readers can only read 3 articles a month without paying you?  Greed. You are deluded and out of touch.  You should be ashamed of yourself.  I'm embarrassed for you.


Also needing to take a slice of the shame pie?  Medea Benjamin and the man she writes with.  They give you 12 ways the invasion of Iraq 17 years ago have harmed.  Do we ever put Iraqis front and center?  No, that would require paying attention.  So Medea and her man note that Iraqis have died and been left injured.  That's it for the Iraqi people.  They live in greater poverty today than they did under Saddam but that's not noted.  Iraqi women have seen their rights stripped away but that's not noted by Medea and her man.  Birth defects have increased dramatically due to weapons the west used in Iraq but, again, Medea and her man look the other way.  Iraq is not a land of widows and children but they don't comment on that.  Iraq has a government that regularly attacks the Iraqi people but that's not noted.  It's a really funny way to look at the effects of the ongoing Iraq War -- by ignoring the Iraqi people.

Also strange, they don't seem to get that the Iraq War never ended.

MILITARY TIMES carries Andrew Milburn's column this morning.  It's entitled "The Iraq War is not over yet."  Readers of MILITARY TIMES are better educated about Iraq than readers of 'peace' 'activist' Medea Benjmain's scribbles.  And, hey, Medea, where's that Iran War?

You suddenly remembered Iraq in January, remember?  You ran around like Chicken Little "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"  You told us all that the US would be at war with Iran in a matter of days.  We had to gather, we had to protest!

You couldn't recognize the brave Iraqi people who were already protesting -- had been since the start of August.

But you could scream that war with Iran was going to happen in weeks if not days.  As usual, you didn't know what you were talking about.

The following sites updated: