Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Bye Chuck

Chuck Todd needs to be fired. This wasn't a mistake. They decided to lie about Trump and thought they'd get away with it because so many people hate Trump.

If we can count on him to be honest, we can't count on him to host a public affairs program. Not only did he try to deceive, but this was called out on Sunday. He waited until Tuesday to come clean (MEET THE PRESS, the program, came clean in a Tweet on Sunday).

David Gregory was a flop and so is Chuck Todd.

We need someone new and different.

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

Tuesday, May 12, 2020. Joe Biden remains the worst candidate imaginable -- whether it's Iraq, Tara Reade or what have you.

Let's start with garbage. Specifically, garbage credited to the following:

Signatories of the letter to Biden include the Center for Economic and Policy Research, CodePink, Greenpeace US, Indivisible, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Jewish Voice for Peace Action, MoveOn, Our Revolution, Peace Action, the Quincy Institute, RootsAction.org, and Win Without War.

In October of last year, Iraqis took to the streets to protest a corrupt government and the presence of foreign troops on their soil. In response, they were attacked by their own government. Estimates that the corporate press runs with puts it at over 500 dead. The number is much higher. In addition to the protesters killed, many more were injured and/or arrested.

When during all this time (the protests continue) did any of the above take a moment to support the Iraqi protesters, these young people risking their own lives? Not once. They couldn't even offer a Tweet. But shortly after this year began, you may remember their Chicken Little reaction -- where they mounted protests as they screeched that any second the US government was going to declare war on Iran. That never happened and they went back to not caring about the region.

The letter is mentioned in Jessica Corbett's stenography at COMMON DREAMS. She tells you these groups are pressing Joe Biden to end endless wars and other things.

Why would anyone listen to them?

They've demonstrated that they can't keep their eye on the ball and that they'll grouse for a moment or two and then find a shiny toy to play with.

Why would Joe Biden listen to them?

Sorry, I was in Denver in 2008. Barack was getting pressed, there was going to be a demonstration. They were going to make their voices heard!!! And then? They held off the protest because Barack was going to meet with them. They held off the protest and rubbed their hands together excitedly as they anticipated Barack's arrival but he was already departing and they were left with a lower level flunky who had no power. They got played.

This crowd gets played every time. They never learn.

Now they've issued a public letter that's as meaningless as they themselves are.

For those who don't know, Roots (Non)Action is Norman Solomon's group. That would be the same Norman who has been hectoring everyone for months now that they have to vote for Joe Biden.

If your position is that you and everyone else has to vote for a candidate, the candidate has no reason to listen to you -- he can already count on your vote regardless.

Joe Biden is incompetent and that was the case long before he became the rambling idiot we see before us today. If you care about Iraq, you know Joe destroyed it. I'm not referring to his vote for -- and support of -- the Iraq War. I'm referring to his time as Vice President. Here's how Andrew Cockburn explained it at HARPER'S:

Presumably in deference to this record, Obama entrusted his vice president with a number of foreign policy tasks over the years, beginning with “quarterbacking,” as Biden put it, US relations with Iraq. “Joe will do Iraq,” the president told his foreign policy team a few weeks after being sworn in. “He knows it, he knows the players.” It proved to be an unfortunate choice, at least for Iraqis. In 2006, the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had selected Nouri al-Maliki, a relatively obscure Shiite politician, to be the country’s prime minister. “Are you serious?” exclaimed a startled Maliki when Khalilzad informed him of the decision. But Maliki proved to be a determinedly sectarian ruler, persecuting the Sunni tribes that had switched sides to aid US forces during the so-called surge of 2007–08. In addition, he sparked widespread allegations of corruption. According to the Iraqi Commission of Integrity set up after his departure, as much as $500 billion was siphoned off from government coffers during Maliki’s eight years in power.

In the 2010 parliamentary elections, one of Maliki’s rivals, boasting a nonsectarian base of support, won the most seats, though not a majority. According to present and former Iraqi officials, Biden’s emissaries pressed hard to assemble a coalition that would reinstall Maliki as prime minister. “It was clear they were not interested in anyone else,” one Iraqi diplomat told me. “Biden himself was very scrappy—he wouldn’t listen to argument.” The consequences were, in the official’s words, “disastrous.” In keeping with the general corruption of his regime, Maliki allowed the country’s security forces to deteriorate. Command of an army division could be purchased for $2 million, whereupon the buyer might recoup his investment with exactions from the civilian population. Therefore, when the Islamic State erupted out of Syria and moved against major Iraqi cities, there were no effective defenses. With Islamic State fighters an hour’s drive from Baghdad, the United States belatedly rushed to push Maliki aside and install a more competent leader, the Shiite politician and former government minister Haider al-Abadi.

That's a sweet way of putting it. Reality, the Iraqi people voted Nouri out. Reality, Joe and others didn't want that to happen. Reality, The Erbil Agreement was produced to overturn the election results and give Nouri a second term. We've covered this forever and a day. No interviewer has ever asked Joe, "Explain to us your support for The Erbil Agreement?" Nor did anyone supposedly moderating a debate.

The Islamic State appears in Nouri's second term. They're wearing dark clothes and they are on the highway between Baghdad and Anbar Province. Does no one remember that?

I'm sure Joe Biden prays you don't remember.

Nouri was already persecuting people in his first term and it only got worse in the second term -- the term the Iraqi people didn't want Nouri to have, the one that the US government -- with Joe Biden leading the effort -- gifted Nouri with.

Joe argued for a tyrant to get a second term and how did that work out?

Let's see, you had the rise of ISIS, you had US troops officially back in Iraq, you had Barack refusing to take Nouri's calls for two years (2012 through 2014) and then the process finally began of forcing Nouri out.

But somehow, Joe never gets asked about any of this.

Instead, we pretend that Joe's entire Iraq War action was voting for the Iraq War.

He gets to proclaim credit in the debate for removing (some) US troops from Iraq and no one ever notes it was his actions -- demanding Nouri get a second term -- that led to US troops being sent back into Iraq.

Iraq has a new prime minister as of May 7th, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. This was the subject of the most recent episode of CRITICAL MOVES (TELESUR).

The government of Iraq notes:

PM

@MAKadhimi

receives a phone call from

@POTUS

to congratulate him on assuming office, and to discuss bilateral relations, saying that Iraq is a strong nation and has a central role to play in achieving regional and international stability.

The Prime Minister's office also notes the call with US President Donald Trump.

رئيس مجلس الوزراء 

@MAKadhimi

 يتلقى اتصالا هاتفيا من الرئيس الأمريكي 

@POTUS

 هنأ فيه السيد الكاظمي بمناسبة توليه رئاسة الحكومة العراقية.

وشكر رئيس مجلس الوزراء السيد مصطفى الكاظمي الرئيس الأمريكي على التهنئة، مؤكدا حرص العراق على إقامة أفضل العلاقات مع الولايات المتحدة .

YENISAFAK notes:

Trump spoke with Kadhimi "to congratulate him on his confirmation by the Iraqi Council of Representatives," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

"President Trump expressed the support of the United States for Iraq during the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic and emphasized the shared interest with Iraq in achieving the enduring defeat of ISIS (Daesh)," the statement said.

"President Trump also encouraged the Prime Minister to address the Iraqi people's demands for reform and legitimate early national elections," it said.

At FOREIGN POLICY, Shelly Kittleson offers:

Despite an institutional void since widespread protests across Shiite-majority central and southern Iraq forced the previous government to resign late in 2019 and the international coalition’s recent withdrawal from several Iraqi bases, moves are afoot to more fully integrate some Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) factions into government chains of command and structures that existed prior to 2014.
If Iraq’s new government manages to do so, it could reduce the influence of powerful armed groups with questionable loyalty to the Iraqi state.
The PMU were officially formed in 2014 through a fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for volunteers to fight against the Islamic State in order to defend Shiite holy sites and Iraq in general. They played a key role in the country’s territorial defeat of the transnational terrorist group.
Several of the brigades within the PMU belong to armed groups that had existed for many years prior to the PMU’s formation in 2014. These factions have long been supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Others set up in 2014 and loyal to Sistani are known as “shrine units.”

In the United States, Tara Reade continues to tell her story. Megyn Kelly posed her interview with Tara -- posted it on Friday evening.

It's now had over 629,000 streams.

Roger Sollenberger (SALON) reports:

A 1996 filing in a California Superior Court reveals that former Capitol hill staffer Tara Reade spoke about allegations of sexual harassment with her ex-husband on "several occasions" while working in former Vice President Joe Biden's Senate office from 1992-1993.
The declaration, first reported on by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, does not mention sexual assault. Reade's ex-husband, Ted Dronen, said in the document that his ex-wife spoke to him about the allegations of harassment on "several occasions." The statements in the document, which was also obtained by The New York Times, were attributed to Biden's "office," though not the senator himself.

"On several occasions petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment in U.S. Senator Joe Biden's office," Dronen's statement said in reference to Reade.
"Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the senator's office and left her position," he added.

Kate Sheehy (NEW YORK POST) notes:

Lawyers for Joe Biden sex accuser Tara Reade on Monday demanded that the former veep open up his archives at the University of Delaware and pushed a Senate official to hand over any documents related to the case, too.
Top sex-harassment lawyer Douglas Wigdor told Biden that he must “authorize a search [of his university archives] to determine whether they contain any records related to Ms. Reade” — evoking the former US senator from Delaware’s controversial handling of the Anita Hill controversy in 1991.

The following sites updated:

Monday, May 11, 2020

Betty Wright has passed

Everything that's wrong with the news can be found in this:

Remembering the legacies of Jerry Stiller and Little Richard

CBS Evening News3 hours ago

Three hours ago? That would be 5:00 pm Pacific on 5/11/20.

Do you get the problem?

Betty Wright died. Why isn't Betty noted?

Tyler McCarthy (FOX NEWS) reports:

Betty Wright, a Grammy-winning soul singer and songwriter known for influential hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Where is the Love," died at age 66 at her home in Miami on Sunday.

Steve Greenberg of S-Curve Records told the New York Times Wright had been diagnosed with cancer in the fall.
Wright had her breakthrough with 1971's “Clean Up Woman,” which combined elements of funk, soul and R&B.
Recorded when Wright was just 17, the song would be a top 10 hit on both the Billboard R&B and pop charts, and its familiar grooves would be used and reused in the sampling era of future decades.

Oliver Wang (NPR) notes:

My indirect introduction to Wright's music came in 1990, when L.A.'s Candyman scored a chart-topper with the salacious rap ballad "Knockin' Boots." Though the song's chorus interpolates Rose Royce's 1977 single, "Ooh Boy," the rest of "Knockin' Boots" draws heavily from samples taken from Wright's 1978 live version of "Tonight Is the Night."
Co-written by Wright herself, the studio version of "Tonight Is The Night" appeared on her 1974 album, Danger High Voltage, recorded when she was 20. Finally, it seemed, her actual age and subject matter were now in alignment as the song shares a first-person perspective from a jittery but willing young woman on the cusp of having sex for the first time. As catchy as songs like "Clean Up Woman" were, those could feel like Wright was playing a role others had written for her. By comparison, on "Tonight Is the Night," there's a candor and aching vulnerability that felt more authentically personal. At times, the song could feel uncomfortably relatable, like reading through someone's diary, as when you hear her sing:
Hope you're not impatient after waiting so very long.
A whole year I put you off with my silly hang-ups.
And we're both old enough to know right from wrong.
In fact, on the more popular live recording of the song, released on the 1978 album Betty Wright Live!, Wright tells the audience, "I never intended recording this song. It was a personal poem, that is until the day my producer happened to thumb through the pages of my notebook."
On that live recording, you can hear Wright's maturation as an artist as the now-24 year old tackles her song with a newfound swagger. On the same introductory monologue — one of the greatest of the 1970s — she even jokes about how her mother confronted her over the song: "I like the music, you know baby, the melody? It's really nice, but I know you not gonna sing that song!"
In the 10 years that separated the Betty Wright of "Girls Can't Do What The Guys Do" and the Betty Wright of "Tonight Is the Night (Live)," fans were given a front row seat to her coming of age in real time, growing from a young teen asked to play a grown-up to being an actual grown-up in full command of her artistic persona. Notably, by the time she was 21, she had became a prolific songwriter in her own right, eventually garnering hundreds of credits on her own songs as well as those for others, the most recent coming earlier this year on "Safe In Your Arms," the lead track on R&B artist Judy Cheeks's Love Dancin' LP.

As noted, these three recordings are merely snapshots from the first decade of Wright's expansive career, a span of time many artists would be jealous of by itself. She would go onto have many more acts, including helping both KC and the Sunshine Band and Gwen and George McCrae get their start and directly mentoring a host of younger Miami talents including DJ Khaled and Trick Daddy.

This is from WIKIPEDIA:

In 2001, the compilation album The Very Best of Betty Wright was released, along with Fit for a King, her first studio album for several years. In 2008, Wright was featured on a Lil Wayne track titled "Playing with Fire". However, due to a lawsuit, the song was removed from the album online.^[4]
In 2006, Wright appeared on the TV show Making the Band, appointed by Sean Combs as a vocal coach for new female group Danity Kane. She mentored several young singers and did vocal production for such artists as Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez and Joss Stone. Along with co-producers Steve Greenberg and Michael Mangini, Wright was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award in the Best Pop Album category for producing Joss Stone's album Mind Body & Soul.^[26]
Wright, Greenberg and Mangini also produced two tracks on Tom Jones's 2008 album 24 Hours: a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "The Hitter" and "More Than Memories", written by Stax legend Carla Thomas. The trio also produced the debut album by Diane Birch in 2009. In December 2010, Wright was given another Grammy Award nomination for the song "Go" on the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. The album Betty Wright: The Movie, credited to Betty Wright and the Roots, produced by Wright and Ahmir Questlove Thompson was released November 15, 2011 on Ms. B Records/S-Curve Records.^[27] Betty Wright: The Movie also included collaborations with Joss Stone, Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Lenny Williams.^[28] "Surrender", a track from the album, was nominated for a 2011 Grammy in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category.^[29]
On New Year's Eve 2011, she appeared on the UK's BBC Two television channel, on the Jools's Annual Hootenanny show, backed by the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blue Orchestra. She performed her singles "Clean Up Woman" and "Shoorah! Shoorah!" alongside "In the Middle of the Game (Don't Change the Play)" from Betty Wright: The Movie.^[26]^[30]

One of her last charting singles was "Baby" which she did with Angie Stone.

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

Monday, May 11, 2020. The attacks on Tara Reade continue.

Friday evening, Megyn Kelly posted her interview with Tara Reade on her YOUTUBE channel.

Elise Swain (THE INTERCEPT) notes:

Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, was one of eight women who registered complaints of inappropriate touching in April of last year — before Biden ever jumped into the presidential race. As Biden appeared likely to be the Democratic nominee, Reade came forward in late March and told her story about her former boss. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, Reade said Biden penetrated her vagina with his fingers. She alleges the incident occurred in 1993, while she was an aide in his Senate office. What Reade describes is rape, according to the Department of Justice’s own definition. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Reade has called on Biden to end his presidential bid and “step forward and be held accountable.”
[. . .
The name Lucy Flores may be all but forgotten in an exhausting year of political reporting. Flores was the first to come forward and register publicly that an encounter with Biden made her deeply uncomfortable. In a viral essay, Flores described how, in 2015, then-Vice President Biden made her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused” as she campaigned for lieutenant governor in Nevada.
“I feel him come up close behind me, and that’s when he leans in and he lingers around my head,” Flores recounted on Intercepted. “I hear him kind of inhale. And then he proceeds to plant this low kiss on the top of my head.” (Biden denied that he had acted inappropriately toward Flores.)
Seven more women came forward with similar stories of Biden’s manner of unwanted, inappropriate touching. Descriptions told of how his hands intimately lingered on everything from the women’s necks, shoulders, backs, or thighs. Some say his forehead pressed against theirs. Noses so close that they rubbed together. Breathing in the smell of hair. Kissing the back of the head.

At THE GUARDIAN, Daniel Strauss points out:

A small group of insurgent Democratic congressional candidates have begun to raise concerns that Reade’s allegations are not being taken seriously enough. Rebecca Parson, a liberal Democrat challenging the Washington state congressman Derek Kilmer, said in an interview on Friday that Biden should step down over Reade’s allegations. Parson said she believes Reade and thinks the charges create too much of a vulnerability for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“I want to defeat Donald Trump in November and yes, I’m a progressive and I’m in the left-wing of the party, but something that really unites the people in the centrist wing and the progressive wing is we all want to defeat Trump,” Parson said. “I don’t think we do that with somebody who has all these allegations against him, especially because Donald Trump has assault allegations against him and unfortunately with Donald Trump, Trump doesn’t care about being a hypocrite.”
Parson added: “I think that Biden should withdraw and any one or more of the candidates who aren’t running should restart their campaign because the Democratic primary isn’t over yet.”
[. . .]
But Parson is not alone in arguing that at this point Biden should drop out of the race. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that over a third of Democratic voters surveyed say the party should switch out Biden as their presumptive nominee because of the allegations.

On Friday, Tara Reade was attacked by sexist pig Bill Maher whose own issues with woman go way beyond the trash he tried with Rose McGowan.

Why did Tara Reade wait so long to come forward!!!!!!

Golly, gee, what woman wouldn't want to be attacked and smeared by one attack dog after another? Right? A woman who has been assaulted has to survive the original assault and then the second assault which takes place when she comes forward.

Ryan Grim takes on one of the lies being told about Tara here. Michael Tracey's one of the pigs that's repeated the lie. ("Media: Pig Boys continue their war on women" is Ava and my latest taking on pig boys Michael, Bob Somerby and Bill Maher.) Your whole life is gone through by the media when you come forward so why come forward?

The reality is that Joe has a long history of lying. Joe Biden. It's what derailed his first presidential run. And he's continued to lie over and over. But instead of acknowledging that, people want to smear Tara.

Joe's the one lying in New Hampshire that he graduated top of his law school class when he was 76th out of 85. In our piece, Ava and I include this:

In August of 2008, Alexander Cockburn (COUNTERPUNCH) wrote:

Biden is a notorious flapjaw. His vanity deludes him into believing that every word that drops from his mouth is minted in the golden currency of Pericles. Vanity is the most conspicuous characteristic of US Senators en bloc , nourished by deferential acolytes and often expressed in loutish sexual advances to staffers, interns and the like. On more than one occasion CounterPunch’s editors have listened to vivid accounts by the recipient of just such advances, this staffer of another senator being accosted by Biden in the well of the senate in the weeks immediately following his first wife’s fatal car accident.

I guess before he died in 2012, Alex was plotting with Tara Reade and, according to Bill Maher, Putin about how to take down Joe Biden in 2020. Alex obviously seized on the idea of traveling back in time to 2008 to write the above, right?

Joe Biden's history is ugly and messy. It's one lie after another. Does the fact that he's a politician excuse that long pattern of lying?

Nothing excuses his lying.

But it's not even acknowledged.

RISING is set to address the topic of Bill Maher and other things later this morning.

Hopefully it won't be like NBC's MEET THE PRESS which 'ran out' of time for the topic of Tara Reade on Sunday.

May 7th, Iraq got their latest prime minister. ALJAZEERA reports:

Iraq's judiciary ordered courts on Sunday to release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first decisions of the recently inaugurated prime minister, as dozens of demonstrators burned tyres in renewed protests against the new leadership.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also promoted a well-respected Iraqi general, who played a key role in the military campaign against the armed group ISIL (ISIS) to lead counter-terrorism operations.

THE NATIONAL adds:

The new premier also reinstated and promoted General Abdulwahab Al Saadi, a popular military figure whose abrupt dismissal by previous premier Adel Abdul Mahdi in September had been a main catalyst of the first protests.
[. . .]
Protesters turned out overnight in the city of Kut, setting fire to the
headquarters of the Iran-backed Badr Organisation and to the home of an MP affiliated with another Tehran-aligned faction, according to AFP.
Hundreds more hit the streets on Sunday morning.
And Mr Al Kadhimi called on parliament to adopt the new electoral law needed for early polls as demanded by the protesters.
Still, demonstrators remained sceptical.
"We will give him 10 days to prove himself, and if our demands aren't met, then we will escalate," said Mohammad, a student protester returning to Tahrir on Sunday.
"Today is a message."

In related news, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Police in Basra raided the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia accused of shooting at protesters in the Iraqi city.
In a police statement, cited by the state-run National Iraqi News Agency, said that party members were arrested, weapons and ammunition confiscated and an investigation into the shootings launched.
The militia group, named Thar Allah or God’s Revolution, was establish in 1995 and has been described as a “threat to Iraq’s stability.”
Crowds in the city rallied on Sunday night, days after the formation of a new government last week. People demonstrated outside the militia’s office.

Last night, I noted "The protesters are watching to see signs of change. Declaring Ali Allawi (Ahmed Chalabi's nephew) to be Minister of Oil probably doesn't signal any real change." An e-mail notes that Allawi is the Finance Minister. Yes, he is that. That's not all he is. From S&P GLOBAL this morning:

Iraq's new prime minister has appointed finance minister Ali Allawi as acting oil minister after parliament last week postponed a vote on the oil ministry post in OPEC's second largest producer, an oil ministry spokesperson told S&P Global Platts on Monday.
Allawi, who had served in previous governments following the US invasion in 2003, was appointed finance minister last week as parliament granted its vote of confidence to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, most members of his cabinet and his government program.
Allawi, a former professor at Oxford University, was appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in 2003 as both minister of trade and minister of defense and remained in his post until 2004. He later served as minister of finance in the Iraqi transitional government from 2005 to 2006.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Music

Augustin Hadelich: Tiny Desk Concert
3 hours ago
Dissident Voice

Patriotic Vaccines: The Divided Coronavirus Cause
8 hours ago
Antiwar.com Original

Iraq Daily Roundup: Eight Killed; Protests Resume
8 hours ago
The Official Jody Watley Website

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Like Maria Said Paz

The reaction
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Saturday, May 09, 2020

Legend and pioneer Little Richard has passed away

The legendary Little Richard has passed away. The rock and roll pioneer shaped and changed the face and sound of rock and roll. Along the way, he became a cultural institution -- appearing in films like Jayne Mansfield's THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT and Bette Midler and Nick Notle's DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS.

Chris Morris (VARIETY) reports:

Flamboyant singer-instrumentalist Little Richard, whose high-voltage, keyboard-shattering R&B singles supplied lift-off for the ’50s rock ‘n’ roll revolution, has died. The musician, whose birth name was Richard Penniman, was 87, although some sources say he was older. His death was confirmed by his son, Danny Jones Penniman, who told the New York Times the cause was cancer.
Richard’s manic 45s for Los Angeles indie label Specialty Records — “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Rip It Up,” “Jenny Jenny,” “Keep A-Knockin’” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” — became major crossover hits in the pop sphere and influenced succeeding generations of rockers.
Pompadoured, mustachioed, slathered with pancake makeup and popping his mascara-painted eyes — “Ooh my soul, I’m the prettiest man in rock ‘n’ roll,” he declaimed — and graced with an ego as outsized as his personality and his voice, the daringly androgynous musician established himself as the wildest performer of his musical era.

Anita Bennett (DEADLINE) notes:

Born Richard Penniman on Dec. 5, 1932, the Macon, Georgia native would eventually find fame and inspire generations of musicians including David Bowie and Otis Redding. Little Richard’s catalog of hits is still performed to this day, with his songs recorded by such acts as The Beatles, The Kinks and the Everly Brothers, among many others.

She also notes music legends such as Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones and Keith Richards are among those Tweeting about Little Richard passing. Douglas Wolk (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) adds:

In 1957, Little Richard released his debut album, Here's Little Richard, one of the earliest start-to-finish classic LPs in rock history. The album reached No. 13 on the then-named Best Selling Pop Albums chart. But in October of that year, while on a tour of Australia, the most flamboyant star of his time announced that he was quitting the music business to join the ministry.
When he returned to recording in 1959, it was as a gospel singer, to muted responses; the 16 Billboard chart hits he'd recorded during his initial stint at Specialty would overshadow the rest of his career.
By 1962, though, he started performing his secular material on stage again (and recorded a few singles credited to "The World Famous Upsetters"). The Beatles, enormous fans of Richard's from the start, opened for him on tour; the whooping refrain of "I Saw Her Standing There" was an obvious homage to Richard, who went on to incorporate it into his own repertoire.
He spent the following decade or so hopscotching between labels, recording iffy remakes of his hits, working with soon-to-be-famous musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Billy Preston and occasionally turning up briefly on the charts. ("Bama Lama Bama Loo" in 1964 was basically a "Tutti Frutti" sequel; 1970's "Freedom Blues" made the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100.)
In the mid-'70s, after years of an expensive cocaine habit, he quit rock again and returned to the religious life. "I have rejected homosexuality. I have rejected sex. Now I get my thrills from the ministry," he told his biographer Charles White for 1985's The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock.
He wasn't always so severe, though: a couple of years later, he told John Waters for Playboy, "I love gay people. I believe I was the founder of gay. I'm the one who started to be so bold tellin' the world!" He would also identify as "omnisexual," bisexual and gay in various interviews over the years, telling Penthouse in 1995, "I've been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate."

He was a complicated person. My take? Gay and couldn't deal with it -- or at least not deal with being seen publicly as gay. WIKIPEDIA offers this:

Sexuality

Penniman said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk.^[132] His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing.^[133] The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager.^[134] Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.^[4] In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Penniman explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."^[106]
Penniman first got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat of cars. Penniman's activity caught the attention of Macon police in 1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Penniman was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.^[135]
In the early 1950s, Penniman became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Penniman's look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his.^[27] As Penniman got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was colorful too."^[136] In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to."^[137] Penniman's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers.^[138]^[139] Groupies began throwing undergarments at Penniman during performances.^[140]^[141]
During Penniman's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Penniman later wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Penniman.^[138] Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Penniman left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Penniman withdrew from the college.^[142] In 1962, Penniman was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California.^[143] Audrey Robinson disputed Penniman's claims of homosexuality in 1985. After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur. In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White he was "omnisexual".^[106] In 1995, Penniman told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life".^[106] In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Penniman as "bisexual".^[144] In October 2017, Penniman once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".^[145]

The abuse and condemnation from society at that time would have been bad enough before you added his fath's abuse and condemnation. I hope, at least privately, he found some peace with his sexuality. Legends and trail blazers don't have easy lives, so I hope at least privately he was able to find peace.

Also, be sure to check out Megyn Kelly's interview with Tara Reade.

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

Friday, May 8, 2020. Tara Reade's case against Joe Biden only gets stronger.

Walker Bragman Tweets:

With each new piece of evidence providing corroboration for her story—affirmations from people she told over the years, a video of her mother calling Larry King, and now a court document—it becomes harder to brush Tara Reade aside. This is the real test of the Me Too movement.

In the US, Tara Reade has charged that Joe Biden assaulted her in 1993. More proof emerged yesterday backing up Tara and Megyn Kelly began airing parts of her interview with Tara. First with the latest proof. Matt Fountain (SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE) reports:

A court document from 1996 shows former Senate staffer Tara Reade told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working for Joe Biden in 1993.
The declaration — exclusively obtained by The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California — does not say Biden committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade’s more recent allegations of sexual assault.
Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen wrote the court declaration. Dronen at the time was contesting a restraining order Reade filed against him days after he filed for divorce, Superior Court records show.

Read more here: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/article242527331.html#storylink=cpy

In it, he writes Reade told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”
[. . .]
Dronen, who still lives in San Luis Obispo County, confirmed he wrote the declaration.
“Tara and I ended our relationship over two decades ago under difficult circumstances,” Dronen said in an email to The Tribune on Thursday. “I am not interested in reliving that chapter of my life. I wish Tara well, and I have nothing further to say.”

Read more here: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/article242527331.html#storylink=cpy

By any standards past survivors have been held to, Tara's case has been proven.  Sarah Al-Arshani (BUSINESS INSIDER) adds:

Dronen also wrote that Reade told him she left the position after striking a deal with the chief of staff of Biden's office.
"It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected (sic) by it today," Dronen wrote.

At her YOUTUBE channel, Megyn Kelly has posted two sections of her interview with Tara.

Kelly is expected to post the full interview later today. At THE NATION this morning, Sarah Nesbitt and Sage Carson note:

If Democrats hope to hold themselves up as principled defenders of survivors’ rights and fair process in the post-Kavanaugh era, they must establish a formal, unbiased investigation into Tara Reade’s allegations against the presumptive Democratic nominee.
So far, they’ve fallen far short of this standard. When asked on April 30 about Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi responded, “There is also due process and the fact that Joe Biden is Joe Biden.” In so doing, Speaker Pelosi joins a long line of powerful individuals who have invoked “due process” and “he’s a good good guy” arguments to ensure that their political allies will avoid accountability and scrutiny.
When politicians and other powerful people strategically call for “due process” to defend their political allies, what they tend to mean is “no process.” This strategy has been wielded by liberals and conservatives alike—in schools, in workplaces, and in the media—to avoid confronting the possibility that someone they know, trust, or believe in may have perpetrated violence. It has also been used by powerful men themselves, like Harvey Weinstein, to try to avoid public criticism. Until Pelosi supports a framework through which Reade’s allegations can be given a fair hearing, it is hard to read her statements as anything but a disingenuous attempt to boost an ally, particularly as the evidence corroborating Reade’s claim mounts.
Pelosi isn’t the first to erroneously invoke the legal right to due process. As Alexandra Brodsky has written, the constitutional guarantee of “due process” is a far cry from the baseless notion that “no one can be mad at you unless a judge has donned robes.” The right arises when the state threatens to take away a right to which the accused person is normally entitled. This includes instances where someone faces jail time for an alleged crime, or the possibility of a court order that limits where they can physically go as the result of an alleged assault. Further, the extent of the process due depends on the gravity of the right at stake. The fact that a fair investigation may expose Joe Biden to public shame and potential repudiation does not implicate his due process rights.
Cynical invocations of “due process” are familiar to survivors. Take, for example, the modern campus sexual assault movement. In the 2010s, survivors of sexual violence organized on campuses across the country to demand action from their schools and the Department of Education after their reports of assault and abuse were routinely swept under the rug. This led to critical but incremental change: In 2011, the department released a Dear Colleague letter, a non-binding piece of federal guidance, that clarified for schools that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination means institutions must respond fairly and promptly to allegations of sexual misconduct. But even the mere prospect of accountability activated a backlash from men’s rights advocates invoking “due process” to stack the procedural deck in favor of students accused of sexual misconduct.

As Tara's case grows ever stronger, pig boys panic. For example, Joe Scarborough found time to Tweet against Tara this morning. Hey, Joe, how did that dead intern end up your office again? Also taking a break from sniffing his own ass, Michael Tracey Tweets to the world that he's investigated and he's about to go to town on Tara. Michael, sniffing your own fingers is not investigation and the whole world already knew you were a sexist pig.

Expect more of their nonsense in the days to come because so many have given a pass on smears. So much for everyone having a right to be heard. And if you missed it, Tara's attorneys hare hideous and pure evil. Why? One donated to a Trump campaign, one defended Max Blumenthal or . . .

Krystal Ball Tweets:

Another smear. This lawyer regularly represents victims including Weinstein survivors and Fox News employees. His last donation was to Hakeem Jeffries. Why don’t you do some journalism on all the lawyers who turned Tara down bc of the politics?

The media has done a lousy job. It was C-SPAN who, this week, brought on  RAINN's (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) vice president Heather Drevna to discuss the way survivors can respond to an assault. THE NEWSHOUR didn't do that, NPR didn't do that, MSNBC didn't do that . . . Go down the list. So we get all these outraged statements from fools who don't know the first thing they're talking about -- that would include Senator Dianne Feinstein. Sarah Jones Tweets of DiFi:

she will be in her 90s when her term is up and maybe that's why she's still talking about sexual assault like it's 1965

Ebony Purks (THE PAISANO) observes:

It seems suspicious that news outlets have been relatively quiet about Reade’s story for weeks because, naturally, it is the news’ responsibility to report facts objectively. Whether the allegations against Biden are true or not, the story deserves attention. For a former staffer to come forward with assault allegations against a front-running presidential candidate is major, and for news outlets to blatantly ignore Reade’s allegations sends a harmful message to women.
By not reporting the story, these media outlets are picking a side, and the side they are picking is against the facts, the facts being the existence of Reade’s accusations. It was frustrating to only see the discourse of Reade’s story from Twitter users rather than reporters. I know liberal news outlets are hesitant to report the story because it is somewhat close to November, and they may feel Reade’s story gives Trump leverage over Biden’s presidential campaign. As we all know, the Trump presidency is perhaps the most controversial and messy presidency America has seen, and liberal news outlets do not want to report anything negative on America’s only chance at beating Donald Trump: Joe Biden.

However, it is not the news outlets’ responsibility to decide how people receive the facts; it is their job to report the facts.

Tara Reade tells Megyn Kelly that Joe Biden should drop out of the race but that she doubts he will. His dropping out would be the best thing for the party and for the world. His campaign created no enthusiasm and now he's polling worse than Hillary Clinton did at the same time in 2016. And his policies are disgusting.  Reese Erlich (PROGRESSIVE) examines Joe's foreign policy record and notes:

By far Biden’s most reprehensible stand was his strong support for the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. As documented by Professor Stephen Zunes in The Progressive, Biden forcefully supported the war, but later claimed he opposed it. (Of course, Trump lied about his support for the war as well.)
When the Iraqi occupation failed in the mid-2000s, Biden infamously called for splitting Iraq into three parts along sectarian lines, so the United States could continue imperial control at least in Kurdistan.
Even today, Biden favors maintaining some troops in the region, using the excuse of fighting ISIS. “I think it’s a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS,” he’s said.
Biden hasn’t learned the lessons of the Afghan war either. After nineteen years of failed war and occupation, he still wants to maintain some troops in the country.
“I would bring American combat troops in Afghanistan home during my first term,” Biden tells the Council on Foreign Relations. “Any residual U.S. military presence in Afghanistan would be focused only on counterterrorism operations.”

But whoever wins in November will have to face the new reality: People in Afghanistan and the United States are fed up with the war. All foreign troops will have to withdraw.

In Iraq, as noted yesterday, there's a new prime minister. Omar Abdulkader (CBS NEWS) reports:

After five months of difficult negotiations, Iraq's parliament approved the intelligence chief Mustafa Al-Kadhimi as the country's new prime minister on Thursday. The long-time spy master, who appears to have U.S. backing, will now lead a government to replace the one forced to resign months ago amid widespread protests.
But his biggest challenge may be convincing a fed-up public that he'll act in their interest before he acts in the interest of the U.S. or any other foreign power.
"This government came as a response to the social, economic and political crises our country is facing," al-Kadhimi told lawmakers Thursday. "It is a government that will provide solutions, not add to the crises."
Iraq is facing a coronavirus-fueled financial crisis, crumbling infrastructure battered by years of war and scant investment, ongoing political instability and the threat of a resurgent ISIS testing its beleaguered security forces.
While addressing those issues, Kadhimi must also prevent his country becoming a literal battlefield in the for-now-still-rhetorical war between its neighbor and ally Iran, and its more distant but more powerful ally the United States.

Jean Shaoul (WSWS) offers:

Al-Khadimi, who spent 25 years in exile in the UK and US, is on good terms with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and is viewed as a US spy. He appeared initially to have the support of some of the Shia parties after Iran, which in practice controls parliament and can therefore neuter him, gave the nod.
However, Kataeb Hezbollah, one of militias within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) close to Iran and part of Iraq’s armed forces, accused him of complicity in the January 3 assassination of Iran’s General Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a prominent member of the Iraqi government and PMU leader, aimed at undermining Iran’s political influence in Iraq. Their killings have spawned major disagreements among the various Shia factions, with four PMU units loyal to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani breaking from the PMU, which Washington is seeking to exploit.

Al-Khadimi has still to fill several posts in his cabinet after parliament refused to endorse some of his nominees, including the key oil and foreign affairs ministries. But his line is clear: he said he will uphold the political sectarian system known as muhasasa and work with Washington in the “strategic dialogue” over relations between the two countries scheduled for June.

Amnesty International issued the following today:

The newly-formed government in Iraq must ensure human rights are placed at the heart of its agenda, and reverse course from decades of impunity, Amnesty International said in a new open letter.
Writing to new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhim after the government was sworn in yesterday (7 May), the organization highlighted continuing concerns relating to the lack accountability for the authorities’ violent response to protests last year and early this year; in the aftermath of the conflict against the armed group calling itself ‘Islamic State’ (IS); and also concerns relating to COVID-19 and domestic violence.
“This new government has an opportunity to ensure that the promotion and protection of human rights in Iraq is prioritized after years of appalling violations,” said Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq Research.
“The Iraqi people have paid too high a price for decades of impunity and what have so far been repeatedly hollow promises by the authorities. We welcome the government’s stated commitment to hold those responsible for protesters’ killings accountable, and to prioritize addressing the needs of the internally displaced people.
“It must now translate these promises into immediate and meaningful action, including addressing the Iraqi people’s longstanding socio-economic grievances.”
COVID-19 and domestic violence
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Iraq has been placed into partial lockdown which has led to a rise in cases of domestic violence.
The letter adds: “The uptick in cases of domestic violence reported by media and civil society organizations, in some instances leading to the death of women and the severe injuring of a young girl, demands immediate action by the government to ensure that women and girls can access essential services and protection.”
Response to protests
Protests in the country late last year and early this year were met with a brutal response by authorities, leading to the unlawful killing of hundreds of people and leaving thousands more injured.
According to research carried out by Amnesty International, security forces - including members of the Popular Mobilization Units, as well as unknown gunmen - met the largely peaceful protesters with live ammunition, hunting rifles, live fire consistent with sniper fire, tear gas and water cannons.
Amnesty International is calling on the government to urgently rein in security forces, and initiate thorough and independent investigations into the killings. The letter adds: “The authorities have had months to change course away from violent repression. They must reassure protesters that they have a right to expect that the security forces will protect them and not arbitrarily kill and maim them and that their government will address their grievances, particularly their demands for their social and economic rights to be met.”
Aftermath of ‘Islamic State’ conflict
The letter also addresses several issues relating to the conflict against IS, including the collective punishment of internally displaced Iraqis with perceived affiliation to IS, the fate of thousands of men and boys who were forcibly disappeared by security forces during the conflict, impunity for human rights abuses committed by all parties to the conflict, and crimes committed against ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq.

The full text of the open letter can be read here.

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