Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Greedy Bruce, Greedy Bruce

We're again talking about greedy Bruce Springsteen.  From THE WASHINGTON POST:





Longtime Bruce Springsteen fan Susan Avery raised her daughter to believe the Boss was the one rock star who could do no wrong. “He doesn’t tear up hotel rooms,” points out Avery, a fan since the ’70s, who has seen every Springsteen tour for decades. “You don’t see him on drug binges. He’s just a really, really solid, wonderful guy.”

In late July, tickets went on sale for Springsteen’s first run of U.S. shows with the E Street band in six years. Like tens of thousands of others, Avery went online to try to purchase tickets. By the time she made it out of the virtual Ticketmaster queue, the only tickets priced at face value for the show she wanted at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino were in the nosebleed sections. As Avery went to purchase a slightly better seat, she watched the price of the ticket in her cart rise vertiginously. She wound up paying $800, several hundred dollars over face value.

[. . .]

Fans say they are upset not just at ticket prices but at the lack of transparency. Outrage has been plentiful on Twitter and other places people like to be upset all the time, but also, more surprisingly, on Springsteen’s own Instagram and fan Facebook groups. “So this is what a crisis of faith feels like,” beloved fan resource Backstreets magazine tweeted, almost unthinkably. Words like “betrayed” and “gut punch” were frequently used. “I would expect this stuff from the Eagles,” a fan tweeted, witheringly.

And they know who to blame:

It’s been a long time since Springsteen faced this sort of widespread public condemnation, and he seems to have been caught flat-footed. He has yet to address the issue publicly, which is another sticking point with fans who are in an unusually unforgiving mood. “I think whatever mistake or oversight they made in terms of allowing those tickets to come out at $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 last week, they deserve this,” says podcaster McLean. “Not a lot of Bruce apologists at this point.”



And just a reminder, it was June 13th that Bruce was in Berlin talking about "greedy bankers" and how about when he was trying to get people to buy WRECKING BALL and went on Jon Stewart's show talking about "class solidarity" and how bad greed is and how bankers are "greedy thieves" and it's us against the "robber barons"?

And he's the one doing the gouging -- and after he sold his songs in December for $500 million.

By the way, Madonna has said no so far.

She's the only one who has.

And she's the only one with common sense.  Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, CSN, Steive Nicks, go down the list.  What idiots.

Madonna knows money.  She's the only one of her peer group who took on the industry and their label and survived.  Label wars killed George Michael, Michael Jackson and Prince.  She's never had to beg for money or plead with her label.  She handled it as business and stayed in control.  So I think if she's realizing there's much more money to be made in holding onto your publishing, that they have made a mistake.  History has been on Madonna's side.  

But what greed Bruce has.  He really is disgusting.  Ticketmaster only does what they did if they get the artists' approval.  He gave his approval for this and that's why he still hasn't spoken -- he realizes what a hypocrite he looks like.


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


Wednesday, August 3, 2022.  Moqtada's calling on his goons to leave the building, oil giants are getting rich while the people suffer, the FBI's targeting activists and much more.



Over the past week, the six major multinational oil giants—ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and Eni—reported combined profits of over $64 billion in the second quarter alone. The orgy of profiteering is not limited to the six major oil companies. The smaller US companies Valero, Phillips 66 and Hess posted a massive combined quarterly profit of $8.62 billion.

In total, these nine companies reported over $72 billion in profits over three months. The oil companies, by and large, have refused to increase production, driving gas prices in the United States earlier this summer to an average of $5 a gallon and siphoning billions from working class families into their coffers. While the price of a gallon of gas has dipped somewhat in the last month to a nationwide average of $4.19 a gallon, this is still over a dollar more than the $3.17 recorded at this same time last year.

Every day during this period, the oil companies made $800 million in profit, or about $33.3 million an hour.

An analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental lobbying group that tracks the profits of the 15 largest oil and gas companies in the United States, found that compared to the same period in 2021, oil company profits grew “a staggering 242 percent.”

The largest private oil company in the United States, ExxonMobil, reported a second-quarter profit of nearly $17.9 billion, which represents a year-to-year increase of 226 percent, according to the NRDC. Overall, ExxonMobil has reported over $23.3 billion in profits this year alone.

Chevron reported a second-quarter profit of $11.62 billion, a 277 percent year increase from a year ago. The United Steelworkers union played a key role in the company’s massive profit increase through its isolation and betrayal of Chevron workers’ struggles for improved wages and working conditions, including its sellout in June of a strike by 500 oil workers in Richmond, California.




:

As working class families the world over struggle to afford basic necessities amid historic inflation, driven by the pandemic and the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, the world’s largest multinational oil corporations are announcing record profits.




Depending on the western outlet, Iraq is currently in a crisis, a power struggle, an "explosive political crisis" or something similar.  I think I enjoy THE ECONOMIST's use of "plague" best.  But here's the thing,as Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye once sang,  "nothing's changed and it's the same as it used to be."


Moqtada's loon goons are occupying an empty building that no one's using.  And?

I guess that's the twist that finally caught the interest of the western press.  We are seven days away from ten months since the elections were held and still no prime minister, still no president.

That's what the struggle is about and the western press didn't see it as an issue months ago or even last month.  

The occupying has apparently awakened them.

Most of us were aware of the struggle months ago.  

And Iraq has passed 2010.  That's the year it set the record for the longest time between elections and forming a new government.  The world record.  The following year, Belgium took that record and, more recently (2020), Belgium's broken its own record.  But Iraq has now gone longer than it did in 2010 and no one noticed or cared in the western press until last week when Moqtada's cult began occupying an empty building -- as if that's what's important.  There's no budget, for example, no government budget and I'd argue that's a lot more important.  


In normal times Iraq’s parliament can be a desolate place: many mps do not bother to show up for work. Today it is full--though far short of a quorum. On July 30th supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric and politician, stormed parliament. They have settled in for what they promise will be an open-ended sit-in. Volunteers have been bringing meals and tea; juice vendors roam the aisles. For once, mps have a legitimate reason for staying at home.

Iraq has been without a proper government for almost ten months, the longest period of paralysis since 2005; Mustafa al-Kadhimi has been hobbling along as the caretaker prime minister. Such deadlocks are nothing new. But the events of the past week have pushed the country in an ominous direction. 



I'm sure that they're quite proud of that first paragraph - it would explain how they overlooked their mistake in the second.  2005?  Parliamentary elections were held twice in 2005.  The first, held in January, resulted in the group that wrote Iraq's Constitution.  By April 5th, three months later, they were naming a president and a prime minister-designate.  The second, held in December, resulted in a long delay between the elections and the naming of a prime minister-designate (who then has 30 days to create a Cabinet and then can become prime minister, per the Constitution).  It would be six months before a prime minister-designate was named (one picked by the US government).  That was long.  But it was not eight months and a few days which was what took place in 2010 and is "the longest period of paralysis."  That was the political stalemate.  Nouri al-Maliki had lost and refused to step down and, despite insisting initially that the votes would be respected, the votes were tossed out by the US government which brokered a contract, The Erbil Agreement, that gave Nouri a second term.  In exchange, Nouri agreed to various concessions in this contract.  Despite Barack Obama telling Ayad Allawi over the phone that The Erbil Agreement had the full backing and support of the US government (he told Allawi that to get Allawi to order his MPs back into Parliament), Nouri used the contract to get his second term and then refused to honor any of the promises made in exchange for that and the US government acted like The Erbil Agreement never existed.

Even without bringing in tubby Jalal Talabani into the story, there's a lot there and it's surprising that THE ECONOMIST forgot it was 2010 that Iraq had previously gone the longest between elections and the formation of a government.

Previously.

And now it's a crisis, to the western press.  Now.  Not when they hit the eight month mark.  Not when they passed the previous political stalemate.  

But now.

As Moqtada's cult occupies an empty building and apparently is served catered meals.


Journalist Rasha al-Aqeedi offers this take:

The chaos in Baghdad created by Sadrists is the biggest service to the Coordination Framework and Nouri al-Maliki. Images of livestock grazing in Iraq's parliament,the cooking,littering, and destruction of facility will cause social amnesia at the crimes committed by the militias
10:47 AM · Jul 31, 2022



While THE NEW ARAB insists:



No one's talking about the leaked audio anymore.  And the western media pretty much ignored those leaks.  They were meant to destroy Nouri -- and the consensus on Arabic social media is that the US provided the recordings -- but they didn't.

Moqtada initially dismissed them until he was egged on to say something more and then started screaming that the courts must hear these recordings, the courts, the courts!!!!

The courts?  Nouri's always had the support of the judiciary.  So that's one.  Two, the recordings aren't that bad.  More were supposed to come.  They never did.  Nouri trashed Moqtada in the recordings.

And?

The two have never gotten along.  Moqtada used to run like the coward he is from Iraq to Iran at just the possible chance that Nouri might arrest him.  The two hate each other.  

What's Nouri saying in the recordings?

Basically, that things are tense and Moqtada's causing tension.

And these were released before Moqtada decided to have his goons occupy Parliament.

The recordings don't make Nouri look out of touch the way some had hoped.  Moqtada's latest actions have ensured that.

That's not an endorsement of Nouri.  He's a thug and always will be.  But, no, the tapes, and Nouri's concerns that Moqtada's actions could lead to strife and war in Iraq do not look that extreme now -- if they ever did, even before Moqtada's latest public relations move to get more attention for himself.

Moqtada's not at the protest.  Like many a cult leader, he sends his followers off to places he's too scared to go himself.

Five days Moqtada's goons have remained in the empty building -- even though Parliament's not due to hold any sessions.  And somehow this compares to nearly ten months without forming a government?  To the western press it does.

Moqtada's goons are being catered to by more than just those bringing them meals.

And a message is being sent by Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the 'caretaker' prime minister.  If you occupy Tahrir Square, you will be attacked by Iraqi forces, you will risk your life.  But if you occupy a government building, for days, we will just look the other way.

Mustafa is supposed to be the outgoing prime minister and he doesn't want to be.  Presumably, that's among the reasons he's backing Moqtada currently.  Equally true, he hates Nouri and the militias  because they have publicly called him a coward and a traitor.  That's why he disenfranchised so many of them when he changed the rules at the last minute and refused to let them vote in October's early election.  

Is there a legal reason that Mustafa's refused to eject the squatters from inside a government building?  

Mustafa is only prime minister because of The October Revolution.  And yet all he did for that group was offer some insincere words.  He didn't prevent them from being attacked.  And, again, they were protesting in the square, they hadn't seized a government building.

Mustafa's allowing Moqtada's boys to stay in the building and he's allowing the press to visit.  That wasn't the case for The October Revolution.  He barred journalists from entry into those protests.  He used COVID 19 as his excuse for destroying their camp sites.

COVID hasn't gone away.  Not around the world, not in Iraq. 

Per The World Health Organization, Iraq had 1000 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours.  That's been the average, more or less, for the last two weeks.  COVID was concern enough to destroy the property of the protesters who were protesting outside but now you have people in an indoor building and there's no social distancing taking place but the government's okay with it?

That says a great deal to Iraq's young Shi'ites who took to the streets to try to make a better Iraq in 2019.  


Between that reality sinking in and the images harming Moqtada's 'movement,' Moqtada's made the call to get his embarrassing goons out of the building.


Senior #Sadr supporters were urged to abandon the sit-in inside the parliament, but they were encouraged to keep protesting inside the Green Zone. #Iraq #Iraqprotest
Image
5:17 AM · Aug 3, 2022





Moqtada has always been more of a press creation.  He is not revered.  He has a cult following.  He is not the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.  



Senior Sadr supporter Mohamed Saleh al-Iraqi instructed hundreds of his followers through tweet to leave the capital city of Baghdad’s parliament building within 72 hours and join other Sadrists at a “encampment in front of and around the building.”

“The pursuit of the sit-in is very significant because it will solidify your demands,” al-Iraqi said in the tweet on Tuesday, recommending that protesters take it in turns to remain at the protest site.
The protestors will stay inside the Green Zone, which contains Iraq’s parliament, government buildings, and foreign embassies.

He added that there would be a sizable prayer gathering on Friday in the Green Zone.

The declaration led to confusion inside the parliament building, where some authorities said demonstrators could stay in the main chamber and a conference room despite the directives to remove them.


So they'll remain in the Green Zone?  The Green Zone has been breached -- something that was never supposed to happen.  The US has civilians and military personnel in the US Embassy in the Green Zone and has always insisted it was a safe area.  Yet no one in government is commenting on this development, not the White House, not the State Dept and not the Pentagon.  I guess Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin doesn't know anything about Iraq?  Sudden case of amnesia?


We'll wind down with this from Peter Symonds (WSWS):

In a reckless provocation that deliberately heightens war tensions with China, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan late last night aboard a military aircraft accompanied by her congressional delegation.

Despite concerns over the potential for a military clash or conflict with China, the Biden administration came together with the entire US political and military establishment in backing Pelosi’s trip. As Pelosi landed in Taipei, an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan, with its full complement of fighter aircraft, attack helicopters and other weapons systems, was positioned in waters off Taiwan’s east coast.

The USS Ronald Reagan was accompanied by a guided missile cruiser USS Antietam and a destroyer USS Higgins. The US Navy also reported that the amphibious assault ship, the USS Tripoli, was also operating in the area. Two US Air Force planes were reportedly sent to Malaysia, where Pelosi held talks yesterday as part of the military preparations for her trip to Taiwan.

US officials, the American media and Pelosi herself promoted the lie that her trip and the accompanying military operation was “routine,” and her presence in Taipei did not deviate from decades of American policy and diplomacy.

Pelosi’s trip is anything but routine. She is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in more than a quarter century. Her visit is just the latest in calculated steps taken by the Trump and Biden administrations to undermine the One China policy that has been the foundation of political relations between the US and China since formal diplomatic ties were established in 1979.

Under the One China policy, Washington de facto recognised that Beijing as the legitimate government of all China, including the island of Taiwan. It broke off diplomatic relations with the military dictatorship in Taipei and withdrew its military forces from the island. At the same time, the US Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act to allow unofficial, low-level contact with Taipei and the sale of so-called defensive weapons to Taiwan.

Over the past six years, all that has dramatically changed. Top-level talks and visits have been openly resumed; the US has for the first time publicly acknowledged the presence of American troops on the island; and arms sales, including of manifestly offensive weaponry, has escalated along with the frequency of US warships passing through the narrow Taiwan Strait.

Biden has deliberately ignored repeated Chinese warnings that US actions were jeopardising the relations between the world’s two largest economies and profoundly destabilising the Indo-Pacific region. In a phone conversation with Biden last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the US was “playing with fire,” if it allowed the Pelosi’s trip to take place.

Shortly after Pelosi landed in Taipei, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi again warned that the actions of American politicians were incendiary over the issue of Taiwan. “This will definitely not have a good outcome. The exposure of America’s bullying face again shows it as the world's biggest saboteur of peace,” he said. 



On July 29, 2022, the FBI raided the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Uhuru Solidarity Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The raids were connected with the indictment of a Russian national who is accused of attempting to “cause turmoil in the United States” by engaging with “Unindicted Co-Conspirators” to act as agents of the Russian Federation.

The African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) is the organization targeted by the FBI for a very simple reason. It is a Black organization which has dared to confront and oppose U.S. imperialism. The alleged connection with the Russian government kills two birds with one stone. The Russiagate hoax is continually resuscitated as it gives new life to claims of election and other interference and Black people’s organizations are as always the first to be targeted by the State.

Every individual and organization calling itself socialist, anti-imperialist, Black nationalist, or anti-war should be in support of the APSP at this moment. The APSP has done what they have every right to do, travel anywhere in the world they choose, even to countries said to be “adversaries” of the United States. They communicate with the people they want to be in contact with and they espouse their beliefs freely. As an anti-imperialist organization the APSP vehemently critiques both U.S. foreign policy and its domestic regime, particularly as it engages in continued oppression against Black people. All of these actions put it firmly in the crosshairs of law enforcement and ensure that it will be made an example of as the state cracks down on all those who oppose its actions.

These witch hunts are not new. They go back to the Palmer Raids of the Woodrow Wilson administration, and the anti-communist attacks which persecuted Paul Robeson and Claudia Jones among others. They morphed into the CounterIntelligence Program, COINTELPRO, which destroyed the liberation movement by killing and imprisoning leadership, and creating intra-group dissension.

But now the danger is somewhat different. In 1971 a group of anti-war activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. Would the Washington Post, which was alone in printing the papers they had stolen, and who ended up revealing the existence of COINTELPRO, now analyze the facts in the case of APSP? Now the Washington Post is in the hands of one of the richest people in the world, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who also has contracts with the CIA. The old media wasn't always reliably interested in journalistic investigation, but could occasionally make good on the dictum of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Those days are no more.





The following sites updated:






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Tuesday, August 02, 2022

Broadway Brucie is out of touch with the working class

 I've commented on how outrageous Bruce Springsteen's greed is when it comes to ticket prices for his upcoming tour -- see "Greedy Bruce Springsteen" and "Greedy Old Man Bruce Springsteen."  But this is from Jeffrey St. Clair at COUNTERPUNCH:


+ Working class hero Bruce Springsteen is going back out on tour with a group of musicians deceptively calling themselves the E Street Band, which is impossible because Clarence Clemens has been dead for more than a decade. Like most Springsteen tours for the past 40 years, this one features large venues, the “arena rock” gigs designed by Springsteen’s longtime manager Jon Landau. To attend these performances you’ve got to buy your tickets through the greed-mongers at Ticketmaster, the monopolistic corporation Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails gallantly tried (and failed) to take down back in the 1990s. For the Springsteen tour, Ticketmaster is using a “dynamic pricing program,” which raises ticket prices according on demand with the result that some tickets to Springsteen’s shows are now going for $4000 to $5000 a pop. This makes putting a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac seem downright proletarian.

+ Ticket prices for Springsteen’s Born to Run tour in 1975 averaged about $8 for general admission. ($7.50 in Upper Darby, PA, when he played venues that small.) The minimum wage was $2.10 per hour. So a kid had to work less than half a day to earn enough to go to the gig. Today the minimum wage is a miserly $7.25 an hour. But the price of tickets for this fall’s Springsteen tour ranges from $100 to more than $5000 a piece. The cheapest price I could find for the Portland show was a restricted view seat from behind the stage selling for $136–which means that a Springsteen fan who works at a minimum wage job (assuming he has any left) would have to work nearly 3 full days to buy a crappy ticket. Landau said the absurd ticket prices were “a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation.” They call him the boss for a reason. Now go tell Tom Joad the news.

+ Given the extortionate price of these tickets, it might be fair to ask just how much more money does Springsteen need? Forbes calculated his yearly income while touring at $81 million. And  that was before he sold his entire catalogue to Sony for $550 million.

+ The ticket prices are grossly inflated, but perhaps not as inflated as Springsteen’s ego these days.


Bruce's ticket prices are outrageous and so is Bruce himself.  Go back to Broadway, Bruce.  No one in the real world needs you anymore .

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


Tuesday, August 2, 2022.  Joe continues to persecute Julian, Nancy sews chaos and the international press pretends not to notice that Muatafa al-Kadhimi's government has different responses to protesters.


Another case of COVID or not, US President Joe Biden continues to make time to persecute Julian Assange for the 'crime' of journalism.  Binoy Kampmark (COUNTERPUNCH) observes:


They really do want to kill him.  Perhaps it is high time that his detractors and sceptics, proven wrong essentially from the outset, admit that the US imperium, along with its client states, is willing to see Julian Assange perish in prison.  The locality and venue, for the purposes of this exercise, are not relevant.  Like the Inquisition, the Catholic Church was never keen on soiling its hands, preferring the employ of non-church figures to torture their victims.

In the context of Assange, Britain has been a willing jailor from the start, guided by the good offices of Washington and none too keen in seeing this spiller of secrets released into the world.  Bail has been repeatedly, and inexcusably, refused, despite the threats posed by COVID-19, the publisher’s own deteriorating health, and restrictions upon access, at regular intervals, to legal advice from his team.  Just as some banks are deemed too large to fail, Assange is considered too large a target to escape.  Let loose again, he might do what he does best: reveal government venalities in war and peace and prove the social contract a gross deception and mockery of our sensibilities.

The UK legal system has been the ideal forum to execute the wishes of Washington.  Each legal branch that has examined the extradition case has assiduously avoided the bigger picture: the attack on press freedom, exposing war crimes, illegal surveillance of a political asylee in an embassy compound, the breaches of privacy and legal confidentiality, the encroachments upon family life, the evidence on proposed abduction and assassination, the questionable conflicts of interest by some judicial members, the collusion of State authorities.


ANTIWAR.COM's Scott Horton notes:


On the 8th of August at 3:00 Eastern, Roger Waters will be joined by retired U.S. Army major Todd Pierce in an event to support Wikileaks’ Julian Assange and his resistance to being extradited to the U.S. on bogus espionage charges.

RSVP here.


Meanwhile, in Iraq, thousands turned out.  FRANCE 24 notes, "Thousands of demonstrators opposed to Iraq's powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged a protest on Monday at the edge of Baghdad's fortified government zone, where Sadr's supporters were holding an open-ended occupation of Iraq's parliament."  Thousands.  Thousands to Moqtada's hundreds.


Moqtada controls Sadr City, a slum in Baghdad.  He's controlled it for roughly two decades now.  It was a slum then and it's a slum now.  That's what's peeled off a number of his cult followers.  They're aware Moqtada lives large and, of course, they're aware that they don't.  Year after year, the slum has seen no improvement.  All Moqtada has is his cult and the promise that he can awe the press by turning them out.  But occupying the Parliament?  He only got hundreds to turn out this go round.  


And the Shi'ite opposition to him turned out thousands.  Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) types:


Demonstrators from Iran-backed groups, known as the Coordination Framework, joined the fray as concerns grew of spillover violence among the country’s Shia communities and even deeper chaos for a country battered by a series of socio-economic crises.

The unpredictable Sadr performed strongly in a national election held last October, but ordered his MPs to resign and has recently begun rallying his formidable numbers on the Iraqi streets – posing a mounting threat to the political establishment.

Iranian-linked groups on the other hand performed poorly in the poll and have since been trying to claw back losses, refusing attempts to name a president, or prime minister and insisting that their influence remains strong in the 329-seat parliament.


All these months later, Martin, is still too difficult to be honest.  Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is very unpopular with the Coordination Framework (they openly accused him of treason ahead of the elections and did so outside Mustafa's home), made a decree right before the election that these militia members would not be allowed to participate in early voting.  Since they were required to guard polling stations the day of the election, this disenfranchised many.


Why can't you be honest about that, Martin?  Why do you have to lie?  Once upon a time when Nouri went after you, we defended you here.  I don't think I'd defend you today as you go out of your way to mislead your readers.


And please note what happened when these people protested, "The demonstrators gathered near the fortified government zone with clashes breaking between the protestors and security forces, who set up roadblocks, firing a water cannon at the crowds to keep them away from the parliament."

Oh, so they will still use force.


Just not on Moqtada's cult.  


So it does back to the issue of a stand down as Arabic media has noted since Sunday.  Mustafa is currying favor with Moqtada and he's refusing to have the security toss Moqtada's cult out of the Parliament.  Just like he refused to order them to follow basic procedures and disperse Moqtada's cult when they began dismantling barriers around the Green Zone to enter it.  The normal response to that, tearing down the barriers, is to open fire.  That has been the standing response since the summer of 2006 when Iraqis first attempted to get into the Green Zone.  Somehow, when Moqtada's supporters try to tear down the barricade and actually manage to enter the Green Zone, the standing response is tossed aside.  


I see REUTERS also reports that a water cannon was used on these new protesters but REUTERS also fails to note the obvious: This wasn't done to Moqtada's cult.  


Two different groups of protesters and two different responses.  


Used to be that was exactly the topic that would inspire journalists to produce a lot of copy.  


Here we just get silence.


Let's also note that the counter-protesters were not attempting to enter the Green Zone.  They had been told by their leaders not to and the closest they came was too approaching a bridge.  But they were fired on -- with temperatures over one hundred degrees, they were fired on with hot water.  


But Moqtada's cult was just allowed to break in and enter the Green Zone with no push back at all -- twice allowed in one week.


AL MAYADEEN reports:


Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi called Monday on all parties to sit at the table for a national dialogue in order to reach a political solution to the current crisis.

Al-Kadhimi considered that "Our dear Iraq is witnessing great political tension that may threaten - God forbid if the wise do not interfere - with dire consequences."

"We call on all parties to calm down and reduce escalation, to start an initiative for a solution on national grounds, calling on everyone not to be drawn into accusations, the language of treason, the instigation of hostility and hatred between the Brotherhood in the same country," the Iraqi Prime Minister expressed.


A liar's going to save the country?  Not only is he enforcing one standard for Moqtada's cult and another for others who protest, he's the liar who took Iraq here.  The October Revolution forced the resignation of a prime minister.  Mustafa was then inserted as prime minister and he was supposed to bring early elections -- that did not mean a few months earlier.  He was supposed to bring them about before he had a year in office.  He was supposed to call for elections, make it happen, let the people vote and let a new prime minister take over.


But corrupt Mustafa decided he wanted to stay prime minister.  So he delayed the start of early elections.  He is part of the problem, The October Revolution identified him as such.  


If you think things can't get more absurd, note this from TRT:


Türkiye has urged "common sense and restraint" as opposing demonstrations in Iraq over the nomination of a new prime minister are feared to further escalate tensions.

Türkiye follows the developments in Baghdad with "concern," the Foreign Ministry said on Monday in a written statement, adding that it hopes the current political uncertainty is settled soon.

It urged that "an inclusive and representative government" should be established without delay in line with the expectations of the Iraqi people.


Or what?  The Turkish government will fire on another resort killing people including children?  Yes, events have been extreme in Iraq over the last few days, but, no, Recep, the world has not forgotten that you are a killer and you fired on civilians -- including children.


Yesterday, at ARAB NEWS, Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami pointed out:


The artillery shelling of Zakho, a mountain tourist resort in the Iraqi Kurdistan region of Dohuk, on July 20, which killed or injured dozens of innocent civilians, raised questions about the significance of the timing and the parties responsible.
There are also many questions about the objectives of the attack at this delicate juncture in the Iraqi arena, with tensions already high between various political factions and alliances. Iraqi-Turkish relations are also strained by differences over water and security issues, not to mention an additional layer of volatility from the worsening Turkish-Iranian rivalry in northern Iraq.
The timing of the attack on Dohuk could barely have been worse, coming as it did when the Iraqi arena is mired in a complex and precarious political deadlock involving various Shiite factions and a scandal over a potentially explosive leak. In a leaked recording, Nouri Al-Maliki, the notorious former Iraqi prime minister, secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and head of the State of Law Coalition, is heard remarking on his “good” relations with Qais Khazali, the leader of the controversial pro-Iranian Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq militia, which is designated as a terrorist entity by the US. Al-Maliki also confirms that the Fatah Alliance, the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades and Sayyid Al-Shuhada factions are all affiliated with Iran, among other things. The contents of the recording brought the Shiite factions to the verge of infighting.
The Dohuk attack also took place only a day after the whistleblower who leaked the recording predicted that, if published, Al-Maliki’s supporters would “blow up” the Iraqi arena to distract Iraqis from the contents of the recording. Furthermore, the attack occurred as Turkey was preparing for a new military campaign in northern Syria and just days after a tripartite summit involving Turkey, Russia and Iran, during which Moscow and Tehran attempted to exert pressure on Ankara to dissuade it from the military operation — efforts it vehemently rejected.
The attack also added an unwelcome complexity to Turkish-Iraqi relations, resulting in a new atmosphere of escalatory diplomacy between the two neighbors, which has already had an adverse effect on their trade relations. This quickly became evident from the Iraqi government and people’s rapid and hostile reaction against Turkey. Ankara was immediately accused of involvement in the attack and official Iraqi responses hinted at the possibility of summoning the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad, withdrawing the current Iraqi charge d’affaires from Ankara and suspending measures to appoint a new ambassador there. Iraq also submitted a dossier to the UN Security Council, containing the dates and details of consecutive Turkish attacks against Iraq, with the goal of putting an end to such acts that violate UN norms.
In addition, Iraq rejected Turkey’s denial of involvement in the attack and its allegations accusing the PKK of responsibility, as well as rebuffing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s warnings not to fall into what he insisted was a trap. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein announced that his country has recorded more than 22,700 Turkish transgressions against Iraqi territory since 2018, saying that the country has lodged 296 protest notes as a result of such interventions.


We'll wind down with this from Andre Damon (WSWS):


US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will arrive in Taiwan in the next 24 hours, flanked by a US aircraft carrier, a destroyer, a cruiser and dozens of F-35 aircraft in a deliberate effort to provoke an escalation of the US-China conflict.

Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan is deliberate and calculated provocation against China. The consequences are potentially catastrophic.

Working people in the United States must oppose this deliberate provocation, carried out with the imprimatur of the White House, which threatens to spiral out of control, risking countless lives in Taiwan, China, the Asia/Pacific region and the United States itself.

Figures within the US political establishment have made clear that any Chinese military response would be met with a military response by the United States. Zack Cooper, former National Security Council official, told the Washington Post, “If the Chinese intentionally take action or if there’s some sort of accident that leads to a real clash—ships or aircraft touch each other, or if you get a radar lock on an aircraft or a missile that flies very close over Taiwan—I think that you’d see that the United States feels it has to respond quite forcefully to that.”

“The risks of escalation are immediate and substantial,” warned Evan Medeiros, a former Asia adviser to President Barack Obama, in a statement to the New York Times. “This is an exceptionally dangerous situation, perhaps more so than Ukraine.”

For their part, Chinese officials have said that they see Pelosi’s visit as crossing a “red line.” Famously, U.S. President Joe Biden declared in December 2021, “I don’t accept anybody’s red lines,” leading to the US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “If the United States insists on going ahead, China will have to take firm and forceful measures to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

China’s Global Times newspaper, speaking for significant factions within the Chinese state and military, responded to the planned visit by declaring that the response from China would be “military but also strategic.”

In a phone call with Biden last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Biden that “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” the most open threat of military retaliation by a Chinese president in recent history.  

The claim that the White House cannot stop Pelosi from traveling to Taiwan is a lie. Pelosi will be traveling on a military aircraft, supported by at least a half-dozen warships, and will likely be escorted by fighter jets. As “commander-in-chief,” it is entirely within Biden’s purview to withhold these military assets.



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