Thursday, June 15, 2023

Stevie Nicks, have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

RHINO RECORDS is a crap-ass outlet/label.  Stevie Nicks is releasing -- or re-releasing some stuff.  This is from RHINO:

Rhino.com Exclusive
Limited & Numbered To 3,000 Worldwide

Pressed On Crystal Clear Vinyl

Free U.S. Shipping

What's Inside:
 
Bella Donna (1981)
The Wild Heart (1983)
Rock A Little (1985)
The Other Side Of The Mirror (1989)
Street Angel (1994)
Trouble In Shangri-La (2001)
In Your Dreams (2011)
24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault (2014)
Stevie Nicks - Rarities (2023)

COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS & RARITIES combines all of Nicks’ solo studio albums in a new, career-spanning boxed set. It comes with eight albums: BELLA DONNA (1981), THE WILD HEART (1983), ROCK A LITTLE (1985), THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR (1989), STREET ANGEL (1994), TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA (2001), IN YOUR DREAMS (2011), and 24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT (2014). The collection also features RARITIES, a new compilation of hard-to-find tracks only available with the set. Several albums were newly remastered from the analog masters for this release, including ROCK A LITTLE, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR, STREET ANGEL, and TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA.

COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS & RARITIES follows Nicks’ musical journey across four decades and features her Top 10 hits, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), “Leather And Lace” (with Don Henley), “Stand Back,” and “Talk To Me.” Other essential hits include “Edge Of Seventeen,” “If Anyone Falls,” “I Can’t Wait,” and “Rooms On Fire.”

Limited and numbered to just 3,000, several albums in the collection are making their vinyl debut, including STREET ANGEL, TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA, and IN YOUR DREAMS. All three – plus THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR and 24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT – will be released as double LPs housed in gatefold sleeves. The new RARITIES collection comes as a 3-LP set in a tri-fold sleeve.

RARITIES collects 23 of Nicks’ best non-album tracks, including numerous contributions to film and television soundtracks like “Blue Lamp” from Heavy Metal and “Free Fallin’” from Party of Five. Several B-sides are featured in the set, including “One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star,” the flipside to her 1985 hit, “Talk To Me.” A trio of songs originally released on Nicks’ 1991 hits collection TIMESPACE also appear, including “Love’s A Hard Game To Play.” RARITIES closes with Nicks’ most recent release, her 2022 cover of Buffalo Springfield’s classic “For What It’s Worth.”


RHINO, please note, can't even list the tracks and that does matter for the RARITIES album.  What's on it?  23 tracks I want to know what they are.


That's from their website where you're supposed to order it.  From their own website.  They want you to pay almost $300 but they won't tell you the songs you'll have.


That's ridiculous.


And I'm sorry, Stevie, but you're ridiculous too.  There is no need for album to cost $30.  Now the greed is so great that they're going to inflate the prices to $299.98?  Talk about a rip off.


And Stevie's always praising Tom Petty.  But I think a lot of us remember the late seventies when the labels kept upping the prices of albums and Tom stood up to it.


$300?  For previously released albums.  


Even RARITIES is previously released stuff.  That's why it's not called NEW TRACKS.


Outrageous.  The greed in all of this.  $100 million.


Please remember Stevie's sold her publishing.  She got $100 million for it.


And now she's going to soak the fans for $300 to buy previously released material.


STREET ANGEL's first time on vinyl!!!!  Does that change the fact that no one bought the album in real time?  That she says it's her worst album and wishes she'd never released it?


I'm sorry this is pure greed.  Stevie's fans are devoted to her and this is how she says thank you?

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


Thursday, June 15, 2023.  Cornel West tries to change the narrative, Robert Pether remains a prisoner in Iraq, Republican House members try to stuff anti-LGBTQ+ bills into a military spending bill, and much more.


Later today, professor, film bit player, out of touch old man and the best damn rapper since Maya Angelou did BEEN FOUND (with Ashford & Simpson) Cornel West may announce that he's seeking the GOP presidential nomination.  And Chris Hedges may go around telling everyone that Cornel already has the nomination!

Make about as much sense has already happened, right?

THE AIRHEADS were back yesterday, crowing that they were right.  They told us earlier this week that Cornel had the Green Party's presidential nomination.  

He didn't.  

But if THE AIRHEADS could get it together, they wouldn't be the airheads, now would they?

Cornel is one more person seeking the Green Party's primary nomination.  As we told you yesterday, he and Chrissy Lynn Hedges tried to secure the nomination but were informed there are rules.  He's welcome to run for it but they're going to follow their rules -- like a real political party.  

It's amazing how stupid the YOUTUBERS are.  It truly is.  This is where we parted with Jimmy Dore, you may remember.  He had a hard on for Jesse Ventura and, even after 2020, he couldn't let it go that Jesse was not the Green Party's 2020 presidential nominee.

Now, in case you're like THE AIRHEADS and you talk about the Green Party without ever doing the actual work, let me note that Jesse didn't run for the party's nomination.  There were eight candidates in the primaries -- CRAPAPEDIA will tell you nine -- and Jesse was not one of them.  He did get 2% of the vote at the convention.  So he Jesse didn't run.  Why was Jimmy Dore angry?

Because Jimmy Dore -- a non-Green -- was furious that the Green Party didn't just give him the nomination.  Jesse had even said, he wouldn't campaign but he'd gladly take the gift.

Jimmy's one of the ones who's appalled when the Democratic Party breaks the rules or rigs their primary.  But he doesn't see the hypocrisy in holding that belief and still slamming the Green Party for not ignoring their rules, ignoring their candidates and just handing their presidential nomination to someone -- to someone to lazy to run for it.

They don't matter.  They need to do what he says.

And that attitude explains how the start of this week was one lie after another about how Cornel was The Green Party's presidential nominee!

It takes a lot of outsiders sneering at The Green Party for years without ever doing the basic research to think that their big name is going to get a party's nomination over a year before the political party's even had their nominating convention.

The entitlement wafts off these people, reeks.

But, hey, Chrissy Lynn Hedges told them so it must be true.  Just like when Chrissy Lynn Hedges showed up on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES in October 2001 'reporting' Iraq had WMD and they trained pilots to crash into buildings and . . .  

You know all those lies that Dick Cheney and Bully Boy Bush cited to start the illegal war on Iraq.

So if Chrissy Lynn Hedges says it, they're on board.

If you're late to the party, last week Cornel West announced he was the presidential nominee of The People's Party leading many to wonder if dementia had set in at the age of 70.

The People's Party is not a party.  Not a fun one.

It emerged from the tatters of the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign.  It was going to be the new party that was going to rescue us all.  Yet they fielded no candidates ever.  They had no party convention.  They just Tweeted a lot and talked a lot publicly.  At one point, they had their push to get Jimmy Dore to be their nominee.  That's when you should have figured out that they weren't a real political party.  

And I don't mean that as an insult to Jimmy.  I mean that real political parties put nominees before their members and let their members pick the nominee.


Donald Trump was a celebrity and supposedly that was the worst thing in the world and we should all learn from it and experience matters and blah blah blah.

Reality, celebrity lets a lot of people make shortcuts and if you can't do the work required to build a political party, hava an  Insta-Political Party -- step one, just add a celebrity!

While flapping their gums, the party made racist statements.  And held a small 'rally' in February attended by invited right-wing racists -- the push back against the convicted pedophile they wanted to put on stage did receive enough negative commentary that they were forced to remove him.  

Along with embracing racism, they also encountered one sexual harassment or assault allegation after another.

These are not new developments and they were not unknown.  We weren't the only ones to note these things and the Green Party itself had to issue an announcement back in February that they were not a part of the People's Party or the 'rally' the People's Party was staging.
 
So last week, Cornel West proudly announces he is the People's Party's presidential nominee.


BLACK POWER MEDIA interviewed him yesterday (later this morning, Renee Johnston will offer her analysis on the exchange -- offer it at BLACK POWER MEDIA). 



What did we learn?

When any rock's kicked over expect to find Chrissy Lynn Hedges underneath.

So, as Cornel tells it in the video above, Chrissy Lynn talked up the People's Party to him and then he and Chrissy decided -- with Chrissy touching base (and genitals?) with the People's Party -- that he and Chrissy would be the presidential ticket for that party.  Cornel the top, Chrissy the bottom -- the power bottom, if you will.   But then, their two wives learned that the two men had been sneaking around and put their feet down.  Chrissy immediately pulled out leaving Conrel in a spot -- the wet spot? -- but Cornel talked his wife into it and so he became a solo ticket.

Cornel explains he's an innocent.  No one ever told him about the People's Party and all its issues and problems.

No one ever told him?

If someone walked up to yuo and said, "HI, I'm the People's Party.  Will you be our presidential nominee?"  -- don't you think you'd ask, "What's the People's Party?"  Don't you think you'd do a little homework before announcing to the world that you were running as their nominee?

Especially if you're so wise and scholarly.

But he's not.  He's not wise and he's not in touch with the world.

That clearly emerges in the interview when Cornel begins speaking to a young child about how he's in California right now and then starts (repeatedly) citing some Tony! Toni! Tone! song.

Because.

You know.

How those kids today are into Tony! Toni! Tone!

Repeatedly.

Cites them repeatedly.

As though encouraging the young kid to catch on and go, "Oh, yeah, Tony! Toni! Tne!"

They release their last studio album in 1996.  For those doing the math, that's 27 years ago.  But, sure, Tony! Toni! Tone! is what all the kids must be talking about today.  Forget Lola Brooke or Bad Bunny or anyone else that kids are actually listening to this year, let's go back 27 years -- an eternity for them -- and talk that.

He's so deeply out of touch.


The other big news?



He can speechify.

He can't answer questions.

Repeatedly, they put questions to him involving what would you do.  Repeatedly, he offers a critiue.

There's nothing wrong with being a critic.  It's how you can identify problems.

But Cornel can't offer any solutions.  He repeatedly identifies a problem and gives his take on it.  If you're being generous (you shouldn't be, he's trying to become president of the United States so he should be able to speak for himself) , his 'plan' is stop spending on bad things.  That's the closest to any 'solution' or 'plan' he ever got.

Is he running for fourth grade president or president of the United States because, you understand, one requires that you actually do work.


So Cornel, 'the intelectual,' refutes the People's Party and claims he never knew what they stood for and it was all a mistake.  Is that his version of "I didn't inhale?" (Bill Clinton reference -- during his run for president he admitted to smoking pot  in college but insisted he didn't inhale.) Or is he just saying, "The Chrissy Lynn made me do it!"

I have no idea.

He doesn't come off as a leader.

Jared Ball presses him on his glorification of Ron DeSantis with that opinion column for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and the issues regarding testing -- and how the company that Cornel's a part of is pushing for a more restrictive scope.  I haven't read the column.  If I were to, my big concern would be if he disclosed his ties to that company in the piece he wrote or co-wrote?  


They did a strong segment, not a fluff segment.  Cornel was an embarrassment.  I look forward to seeing Renee's take later today.


If you're late to the party, be sure to stream this video -- the best one on Conrel representing the People's Party.

















An international tribunal has found Iraq’s central bank was to blame for a contractual dispute with an engineering firm that led to the jailing of Australian engineer Robert Pether, prompting his family to make a renewed plea that he be freed from the Baghdad prison cell where he has spent two years.

Pether and his colleague Khalid Radwan were arrested and jailed in 2021 over a contractual dispute between their employer, Cardno ME (CME), and the Central Bank of Iraq, which had hired the firm to help build its new Baghdad headquarters.

[. . .]

A recently published decision reveals the contractual dispute at the heart of their arrest was taken to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s International Court of Arbitration, which ruled in February in favour of CME. The decision found the bank was in breach of its contract with CME and ordered that it pay the engineering firm US$13m, which covers the outstanding invoices, compensation, legal costs, and the release of a performance bond provided by CME.

The decision has only just been made public.


Why are Robert and Khalid still being held?

In the US, Leeja Miller addresses the hate merchants in the US and they're attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.




Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) is sounding the alarm on how Republicans added a plethora of anti-LGBTQ+ measures during a markup of the Fiscal Year 2024 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill on Tuesday.

He said that his GOP colleagues adopted an amendment “to deny access to medically-necessary care to transgender veterans, prohibit pride flags from being flown at VA facilities, and even allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ people” as the bill was being discussed in the House Appropriations Committee this week.

“Most of the other provisions in this amendment have very little to do with a MilCon bill,” he said during the committee meeting, and are instead “about abortion and gender-affirming care, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and apparently the fear of some cloth, banning pride flags at our veterans’ facilities across the country.”



 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tough Guy Tulsi The Parent Expert" and the following sites updated:


Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Anita Baker, Keith Richards

tulsicluelessbully

 

From a few hours ago, that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tough Guy Tulsi The Parent Expert"



Anita Baker is a one of a kind singer.  There's not an album she recorded that I didn't love.  But my favorite is GIVING YOU THE BEST THAT I GOT because I loved how she really explored the lower range on that album.  She's on the road touring.  Her tour just got a little lighter.  CNN reports:




Anita Baker is continuing her tour solo after she accused supporters of fellow singer and songwriter Babyface of bullying her online.

She announced the news on Twitter Tuesday.

“After Silently, Enduring Cyber Bulling/Verbal Abuse & Threats of Violence from the Fan Base, of Our Special Guest/Support Act,” she tweeted. “In the Interest of Personal Safety. I will continue, The Songstress Tour, alone. Appropriate refunds will be made. Blessings.”

Babyface responded on his own social media accounts, writing ,”I am saddened by the news that Anita Baker has decided to remove me from ‘The Songtress Tour.’”



Good.  I almost wrote about this last night but the whole community exploded over the Cornel West issue -- and people (YOUTUBERS) insisting he was now the Green Party presidential nominee.  No, he is not.  

But I was planning on writing about that -- and Keith Richards' comments on Bruce Springsteen.  

I don't trust Babyface and never have.  Pebbles, Cherelle and too many others got ripped off by LA Reid and Babyface.  

He was supposed to be the opening act for Anita.  He threw a hissy fit when time restraints mean that he was cut one night.  He did "sick" his followers on her.

I'm glad she kicked him off the tour.  

Anita? She's always been upstanding with her fans and her peers.  I have no reason to doubt her version of events.  


I can't find the Keith Richards story but it was noting that Bruce Springsteen used to slobber over The Rolling Stones and say they were the reason he was in the music business.  Keith gave a response that no one needs a four-hour concert.  Agreed

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


Wednesday, June 14, 2023.  Crazy is all around no matter where you look -- some of the left lying that Cornel West is about to be the Green Party's presidential candidate (they'll decide who to pick in the summer of 2024) compete with the crazies like Ron DeSantis, Lauren Boebert and others for the title of most dangerously unhinged.


Let's start with a needed laugh.





Now let's unpack the crazy.

Is there a more divisive figure than Cornel West in the last 24 hours?  Maybe -- maybe the YOUTUBING whores who are pimping him.

They talk about MSNBC, don't they.  They sneer and the idiot Ajuma Baraka is still calling CNN "The Clinton News Network" as though he just coined the phrase when it was a right-wing smear back in the 90s.  He's old and he's gasping for air.  Someone put the old man to bed before he staggers around anymore going "Cornel! Cornel!  If I could get an erection anymore, I'd beat off to you Cornel."

I've held Krystal Ball accountable when she went screeching that everyone had to fall in line behind Marianne Williamson.  No, that's not how you to talk to adults, that's not how you talk to people.  You do not boss people around and tell them how they will vote and who they will vote for.

No one asked Krystal for that and she did real damage to Marianne's campaign when she pulled that stunt.

Now you've got Graham Elwood and others doing the same.

I'm not in the mood.  Not in the damn mood.

Every few months, your new savior comes along and you try to baptise us.  You don't get that we are not your flock.  You better check yourself real damn quick.

Graham Elwood looks like a crazy man in his video yesterday.  His eyes are popping and bulging and the left side of his mouth is a drooping snarl.  Is that his pokerface?  Is he having an orgasm as he blathers on about Cornel?

I have no idea.

It's amazing the lies that a Chrissy Lynn Hedges can promote.  Again, he's very good at lying.  Wasn't it his article on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES that the Bully Boy Bush administration was waiving around after 9/11 to insist on war on Iraq?  They go on the talk shows and they'd insist that it wasn't just them saying it, it was THE NEW YORK TIMES!

THE NEW YORK TIMES!

See this is what happens with stupid people who don't bother to learn or don't care to.  They have no idea the reality of Chrissy Lynne.  They probably don't even know that Judith Miller, years before her war propaganda for THE NEW YORK TIMES, wrote for THE PROGRESSIVE.

These people are not your friends.

Your friends don't yell and scream at you to vote for someone.  That's not a friend.  

They also don't lie to you to try to force you to support someone.

Forget the garbage on YOUTUBE.  Cornel does not have the nomination.

Could he get the nomination?

He could.  

He's not going to be handed it.

I called a friend with Green Party leadership last night because there were e-mails coming in from people freaking out over this issue.  People opposed to the Green Party doing what YOUTUBERS were insisting was happening: Naming Cornel their candidate for president.

And I thought I was seeing a ton of e-mails.  Apparently  nothing like what party leaders are seeing.  After we got off the phone, three hours later, my friend called back because the complaints were streaming to leadership over and over as the hours went by.


The Green Party will have a nominee for president.  And they will pick that nominee at their summer 2024 convention.  They have rules in place, actual rules, that will be followed, rules that they voted on over a decade ago, rules that are in place.

So don't believe the lying YOUTUBERS.  

Don't believe Chrissy Lynn Hedges.


EIGHT WEEKS after September 11, a pair of Americans entered the gleaming marble lobby of Beirut’s Intercontinental Hotel La Vendome, where they were greeted by a group of Iraqi expatriates. The Americans were reporters—New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges, who’d just been put on the Al Qaeda beat, and Christopher Buchanan, an associate producer of PBS’s Frontline—there to meet a mysterious Iraqi defector with information about Saddam Hussein’s secret weapons program. Hedges and Buchanan were ushered to an elegant suite overlooking the Mediterranean, where they interviewed Jamal al-Ghurairy, an Iraqi lieutenant general who had fled Iraq. Ghurairy claimed to have witnessed foreign Islamic militants training to hijack airplanes at an Iraqi terrorist training camp.

Buchanan had been given the assignment just a few days earlier and knew very little about the interview’s subject. “It was all very hush-hush,” he says. “His life might be in danger. I didn’t know much else.” Buchanan recalls the general as thickset, “fierce looking,” and having a military bearing. “He looked the part,” he says. Hedges adds that the general “was definitely Iraqi and struck me as having spent a lot of time in the military.” The general’s entourage—including Nabeel Musawi, the political liaison of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which had arranged the interview—“were all wearing leather coats. They were slick and well organized,” says Buchanan. “Very well organized, very well set up,” Hedges concurs.

The general hadn’t been told he’d be filmed, and it took Musawi almost an hour to persuade him to go on camera. The general himself then spent several minutes making sure his face would be blacked out when the tape rolled. The resulting television interview, for which Musawi acted as translator, was stilted and brief. It would become only a small segment of the Frontline piece, which also featured an interview with another INC-provided defector, Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi captain whose identity was not concealed. Buchanan recalls that “as soon as the lights and camera were switched off, the general began to talk.” He says the general then spent more than an hour with Hedges in an adjoining room of the suite while he left the hotel to transmit the tape via satellite uplink. When Buchanan eventually returned to the empty suite, he found coffee cups and saucers filled with cigarette butts that he felt indicated an intense conversation. Hedges says that after the interview was completed, he “spoke to the U.S. embassy in Turkey”—where the general had fled after leaving Iraq—“and asked if the general was credible. They confirmed he had recently been debriefed.”

Two days later the story that spun out on the front page of the New York Times was as shocking as it was convincing. Ghurairy claimed that as a senior intelligence official, he had witnessed foreign Arab fighters training to hijack airplanes at the Salman Pak military facility south of Baghdad. About 40 foreign nationals, Ghurairy said, were based there at any given time. “We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States. The Gulf War never ended for Saddam Hussein. He is at war with the United States,” the Times quoted Ghurairy as saying. Ghurairy also claimed a German scientist was working in a section of the base that produced biological agents. The report noted the role the INC had in setting up the interview, but no serious questions were raised about the general’s provenance. 


Read the article in full.  But grasp right now, Iraqis are dead because of Chris Hedges.  They're not coming back from the dead.  His writing helped lead to the Iraq War.  So the next time his jaundice and bug-eyed face pops up telling you this or that, just stop a moment and remind yourself that he promoted the Iraq War, he promoted war on Iraq.  He was stupid?  I don't give a damn what his excuse is.  I do give a damn that he has still not taken accountability all this time later.  I do give a damn that the Iraqi people suffer to this day and he can't talk about them or write about them.  I don't give a damn about the moralizing Chrissy Lynn Hedges who looks down on people who read whatever SHADES OF GREY.  They're the ones he calls out in a book.  But, understand, we're all supposed to look the other way about his role in starting the Iraq War.

He needs to get down on his knees in public and beg the forgiveness of the Iraqi people.

Not only has that not been demanded of him but a lot of whores promote him as our sainted Chrissy.

Not in the damn mood for that ever.

Again, the Iraqi people who have died?  They aren't coming back and he needs to take accountability -- publicly -- for his role in that.  He's fine being public about everything else.  So take some damn accountability.  And if you can't, just go away. No one needs to hear from you or see your blood soaked hands.  You're disgusting and I'll say so.  You know I've got no problem calling out those with the blood of the Iraqi people on their hands.

Cornel is the presidential candidate for the Green Party?  No matter what Chrissy says, he's not.  They will not decide that until they hold their convention in the summer of 2024.  

Cornel tried to lie to Katie Halper -- and Katie was far too gullible -- but if you listen to his awful interview -- which will not go up here -- you hear that he had a talk with the Green Party.

Two people with the party told me last night about that conversation.

Cornel wanted to be handed the Green Party's presidential nomination and wanted to make that announcement this week.

He was told he could campaign for it, anyone can run for it.  But, no, there are rules in place and the Green Party is not the Democratic Party.  They aren't going to gift the nomination or rig the nomination.

Cornel was told that.  

He was not happy about that.  And we'll get to the why of that.  But he knows the truth.  So when people start coming around lying, they're cheap whores.  You shouldn't trust them.

Up to the pandemic, I spent February 2003 forward speaking on campuses, speaking to feminist groups, speaking to labor groups about the Iraq War.  In the early days, it was just about the Iraq War and whatever question or issue someone might raise.  But it quickly became, due to our focus in the US on electoral politics, about elections.  

You do not owe anyone your vote.  It is your vote, you own it.  The only wrong vote is a vote you don't feel good about when you're voting.  Candidates do not own your votes, they have to earn it.  Blah, blah, blah.

We planted that seed over and over.  48 to 50 weeks a year, year after year, as we went all over the country speaking on one campus after another.  

Right now, the YOUTUBING whores want to tell you that oh, the Democratic Party's going to make everyone get behind Joe.

Don't say that when you're doing the same thing for Marianne or Cornel or whomever.

The reason we can't move forward is because these would-be leaders are f**king idiots.  All they know to do is the very same thing that they slam the Democratic Party for. 

That's going to lead to change?

Hell no.

When I realized that I was voting Democrat in this election -- barring an independent run by Robert -- I didn't hide it.  I also have not advocated for anyone else to do the same.  That's online, that's in my real life.  But since that is my current plan, I did disclose it so people could factor that in when I'm writing about whatever.

You vote how you want to vote.  Don't let anyone try to push you around.  If they do, they are showing they have no respect for you.

If you're voting in 2024 -- or making the decision to vote by not voting (which is a valid use of your vote if that's what you want to do) -- you're an adult.  You don't need anyone telling you who to vote for.

The amount of nonsense that we're getting from YOUTUBERS -- including Katie's Roger Waters obsession -- note, she had to bring that into the interview with Cornel as well -- goes to how stupid they clearly think we are.  "Don't worry, guys, I got this covered.  I'm going to get them to vote for Cornell."

How about you just do your damn job.  Which is some form of faux media, as clear as I can tell.  

I compare what they do -- 'politics' -- to the Red Cross.  They rush from one disaster to the next, never really accomplishing anything.  But, in earlier decades, these people were called hitchhikers on the highway of causes as they flitted from one cause to another, never seeing any accomplishment because they couldn't stay focused.


The only intelligent discussion on Cornel wanting to be president is the one below.




Later today, Jared Ball will speak live with Cornel on BLACK POWER MEDIA. That might be an intelligent discussion.  I hope it is.  

But thus far, that's the only one.

People who know nothing about Cornel West are insisting you have to vote for him.  Are telling you how great this is.

How is it great, Graham?  Because the celebrity of it all has gripped you?  I'm not hearing about issues.  I'm not hearing about how it's going to improve even one life.  

So how about you stop hyping and whoring and try to inform people instead of trying to order them around or trick them.

These YOUTUBERS don't want to educate the masses.  They don't want to provide them with tools.  They just want to be able to boss them around.  Apparently, that's a built-in feature of the US political process.

I don't know why the hell anyone would want to tell other people how to vote.  To try to boss them around in a free society.

I'm disgusted.

Let's get back to Cornel and reality.

Cornel wanted to make an announcement this week that he would be the Green Party's presidential nominee.  

That is not happening.

But he needed it to.

Why?

Because he's an idiot on the world stage.  People don't take him seriously as it is and now it's even worse.

How so?

He's not the People's Party nominee.  He doesn't want to be because their racism, their sexism and everything else has come up since he was announced as their nominee.

Now to walk away from a political party that just made you their nominee a week ago?  That's embarrassing.

It goes to how unserious you are.  "Wait, you took the nomination without doing any work to research the party you were going to be representing?"

Yes.

Yes, that's exactly what he did. 

He's that damn stupid and/or that damn vain.

And that goes to judgment and clearly he has none.  He's not fit to be president.

'Uh, I didn't know, I didn't really understand them.'

Then why the hell did you announce you would be their presidential candidate?

In the world of YOUTUBE whoring, that goes unasked apparently.  But you better believe that in the real world -- especially in the press -- Cornel West is now a joke.

He looks like the idiot supreme.

He wouldn't have looked a lot smarter if he could have announced he was the Green Party nominee but he would have had a 'happy ending' to his embarrassment and he could try to steer your focus to that and not to the fact that he, an African-American man, was fronting a racist political party.

YOUTUBERS need to find their spines and their brains and need to grasp that their role is to inform, not to tell anyone how to vote, to inform.

As I've said, I intend to vote in 2024 for the Democratic Party nominee -- whether it's Joe or Marianne or Robert.  Or someone who hasn't announced yet.  That's what I intend to do.  I have my reasons and may share them later on.  I may not.  If Robert does an independent run, I will seriously consider voting for him.  I know Robert and I know he's serious about this.  I've known him for many, many years.  I would be hesitant to vote for Marianne if she ran without the Democratic Party because I've also known her for many years.  But Robert's character is such that I would consider supporting him if he ran as an independent. He also has the money to do so.  

I am not opposed to voting third party or independent candidates.  As I've noted, I voted Green in 2008 (Cynthia McKinney).  

But you need to use your vote how you want to use your vote.  It's not wasted if you're doing what you want.  That includes if what you want is not to vote.  That includes if you vote for someone I don't like -- even a hate merchant.  November 2024 rolls around and you use your vote the way you want to, that's all you need to do.

B-b-but two months later!!!!  Unless you're psychic, you can't predict the future.  You can only determine how to use your vote with the knowledge you have leading up to the election.  

Again, don't let people bully you.  When they do that, when they use and misuse you, they are showing contempt for you.  


They're just con artists.  Grasp that.  Grasp that any real journalist looking at Cornel West should be asking him: "WTF!  You're a 70-year-old man who took the nomination from a political party you're now trying to run from because you're embarrassed that they're racists with a record of doing nothing except for sexually harassing women?"  Instead, they're saying "Dr West" in hushed voices and bowed heads -- as though what has just happened before everyone's eyes did not take place.  They're crazy.



The Emperor's got no clothes on
No clothes? That can't be; he's the Emperor
Take that child away
Don't let the people hear the words he has to say

One small voice
Speaking out in honesty
Silenced, but not for long
One small voice speaking with the values
   we were taught as children

So you walk away and say, Isn't he divine?
Don't those clothes look fine on the Emperor?
And as you take your leave
You wonder why you're feeling so ill-at-ease
Don't you know?

Lies take your soul
You can't hide from yourself
Lies take their toll on you
And everyone else

One small voice speaking out in honesty
Silenced, but not for long
One small voice speaking with the values
   we were taught as children
Tell the truth
You can change the world
But you'd better be strong

-- "One Small Voice," written by Carole King, first appears on her album SPEEDING TIME


In other news of crazy, US House Rep Laruen Boebert attempts to change the narrative -- away from the rumors that she was using drugs and "stripping and hooking" mere years ago -- by insisting something took place at Starbucks.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has spread a right-wing claim that Starbucks forced employees to take down Pride decorations. A Starbucks spokesperson denied the allegation and said the company encourages stores to celebrate Pride Month.

On Tuesday afternoon, Boebert re-tweeted the following message from Charlie Kirk, leader of the rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ conservative group Turning Point USA: “Starbucks has banned Pride decorations in its stores halfway through Pride Month, the company’s workers union has revealed. Leftwing Trans activists claim this means Starbucks is ‘caving.’ Good! Keep the pressure on, folks.”

Kirk based his claim on a June 13 tweet from Starbucks Workers United (SWU), a group that seeks to unionize Starbucks employees. SWU said that workers had complained that the “company is no longer allowing Pride decorations in-store.”

Starbucks says none of this is true.

In a statement to LGBTQ Nation, the company wrote, “We’re deeply concerned by false information that is being spread especially as it relates to our inclusive store environments [and] our company culture.”

“There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June,” the company added. “Starbucks has a history that includes more than four decades of recognizing and celebrating our diverse partners and customers – including year-round support for the LGBTQIA2+ community.”

In related news, community member Sabina e-mailed to urge everyone -- who eats candy -- to be sure to get their Pride Month skittles at Wal-Mart and remember skittles will be donating a portion of your purchase price to Pride.

In fact, let's put in Skittles' announcement:

WE'VE GIVEN UP OUR RAINBOW SO THAT THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY CAN SHARE THEIRS.

This Pride Month, we're amplifying stories within the LGBTQ+ community for all to discover. We begin by showcasing the designs of five talented artists on our SKITTLES Pride Packs, each with their own story to tell.

OUR MISSION IS TO SUPPORT THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY BY AMPLIFYING AND CELEBRATING THEIR STORIES. THAT'S WHY WE'VE PARTNERED WITH GLAAD FOR THE FOURTH YEAR TO REWRITE THE SCRIPT FOR LGBTQ+ ACCEPTANCE.

We will donate $1 per every SKITTLES Pride pack sold to GLAAD in support of their ongoing efforts to work through media to combat anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.*

Very good for Skittles.  

Thank you so much to Sabina who saw the display for Skittles and Pride at her local Wal-Mart in Dallas, Texas.  And applause for Garth Brooks who is standing strong against bullies who try to tell him what he can or cannot stock at his bar.  


The hate merchants need to be confronted.  Their crazy and hateful words are impacting others.  We have a very big mental health problem in this country and these hate merchants are inciting violence.  Greg Owen (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Two days earlier, around noon, Abdullah began following the two men, 58 and 40 years old, near the intersection of 18th Street and Hartford in the Castro.

According to the district attorney, the victims say “the unknown male suspect was following them on foot while simultaneously aggressively shouting anti-LGBTQ language. The suspect then threw a glass object at them causing the 40-year-old male victim to sustain a non-life-threatening injury.”

The men called 911 and provided a description of Abdullah, who was spotted a short time later near Mission Dolores Park. After a foot chase, cops apprehended the assailant and booked him into county jail on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of committing a hate crime and one of resisting arrest.



The hate merchants are poisoning our world.  Which lets me note another song, Nanci Griffith's "It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go" (first appears on STORMS).



A cafeteria line in ChicagoThe fat man in front of meIs calling black people trash to his childrenHe's the only trash here I seeAnd I'm thinking this man wears a white hoodIn the night when his children should sleepBut, they slip to their window and they see himAnd they think that white hood's all they need
It's a hard life It's a hard life It's a very hard life It's a hard life wherever you go If we poison our children with hatred Then, the hard life is all that they'll know And there ain't no place in (Belfast) for These kids to go
I was a child in the sixtiesDreams could be held through TVWith Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin LutherOh, I believed, I believed, I believedNow, I am the backseat driver from AmericaI am not at the wheel of controlI am guilty, I am war, I am the root of all evilLord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road
It's a hard life It's a hard life It's a very hard life It's a hard life wherever you go If we poison our children with hatred Then, the hard life is all that they'll know And there ain't no place in (Belfast) for These kids to go 

 Hate merchant Tucker Carlson took a moment out from attacking LGBTQ+ members.  Graeme Massie (INDEPENDENT) notes that Tucker's posted a new rant to Twitter where he's lying that the arrest and current charges against former US President Donald Trump are the result of Donald declaring -- before he became president -- that the Iraq War left the Middle East "destabilized." 

TUCKER CARLSON: Seven years later, they have their revenge!  Cheeto, my Cheeto!  I am here for you and I will fellatiate you -- in a non-gay way -- in the town square because anything that will get me attention is what I'm about, especially now that I'm facing lawsuits and will really need money.  



I'm sure it went something like that, I'm sure.

Let's wind down with the shrimp Doo-Doo Ron Ron Doo-Doo Ron.  


DeSantis apparently has decided on a strategy to cope with the fact that, the more people know about him, the less they like him. The strategy consists of sucking up to every goober in America with sufficient enthusiasm that said goober doesn't notice how much he is coming to loathe Baby Huey Long. From the Charlotte News & Observer:

The presidential candidate was touting Republican successes in last year’s midterm elections in Florida, and in North Carolina, amid disappointing results in the rest of the country, when he brought up the recently renamed installation. “I also look forward to, as president, restoring the name of Fort Bragg,” DeSantis said to raucous cheers from the crowd. He added that he would “thank the people that have served there, and they’re proud of their service there.”
“It’s an iconic name and an iconic base, and we’re not going to let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis said as the crowd continued to cheer.

Sure, Bragg went to arms against the lawful government of the United States. Sure, he was one of the biggest boobs in the history of warfare. Sure, he shot his own men like partridges. Sure, he was such a complete incompetent that he enraged Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was no bowl of strawberries on his best day. The Butcher of Fort Pillow purportedly once threatened to serve up Bragg en brochette.



Braxton Bragg was a slave-owning racist and failed military leader, sometimes described as the worst general of the Civil War. The question should be, why would anyone name a military base after him in the first place? Nevertheless, Gov. Ron DeSantis is defending him.

The governor is upset that the U.S. military changed the name of North Carolina’s Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty earlier this month. He called it “political correctness run amok,” and said he would restore the name if voters elected him president.

But Braxton Bragg is no cancel culture martyr. The military base should never have been named in his honor, not when Camp Bragg opened in 1918, and certainly not now.

[. . .]

By definition, Bragg was a traitor to the United States. He was at best a middling military leader and, at worst, so inadequate that he helped cost the Confederacy the war. Celebrate his failures and treachery? How un-American.


In case the demonstration in Florida over the weekend confused you, racists and KKK types coming out to show their support for Little Ronnie DeSanits, that's what this is about.  He panders to racists.  Grasp also, the base is now named Fort Liberty.  Of course Ron would be against that, he loathes liberty as much as he detests democracy.





The following sites updated: