Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Tupac

Police searched a home in the Las Vegas area on Monday night in the long-dormant murder case of Tupac Shakur, according to police.

"LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation," Las Vegas police said in a statement. "We will have no further comment at this time."

Las Vegas homicide detectives and prosecutors determined by Monday night they had enough information to proceed with a court-authorized search, an official briefed on the investigation told ABC News. The search was conducted at about 10 p.m. local time, with Las Vegas Metro PD SWAT on hand. The scene was described as loud, with police using bullhorns and lights. Among the items sought by investigators were computers, laptops and articles about Tupac and his death. The evidence in the case is now being presented to a Las Vegas grand jury.

Be great if they could catch his killer. I've pretty much decided the killer will walk -- as with Jon-Benet Ramsey's killer and so many others who were killed in the 90s. Here's ABC's video report.

And you're lucky because I'm stopping there. Tomorrow, I will write about AMAZON's latest attempt to screw me over. I'm still mad, eight hours later. And too made to write about it but, no, I did not receive Nina Simone's HERE COMES THE SUN on vinyl today. I did, however, received a children's record that I did not order. That's the second time AMAZON's gotten the order wrong this week -- the second time they've sent me something other than Nina Simone's HERE COMES THE SUN.

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

Wednesday, July 17, 2023. Where most would either apologize for a huge scandal or run from it, Robert F. Kennedy Jr tries to fundraise off it, the hate merchants continue to swarm across the country (Junior may be the leader they've been waiting for), a recent protest in Iraq is confusing, and much more.

Starting in the US, with the hustle for the money that so many useless campaigns depend upon. Look who dropped into inboxes yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Junior's not been that attentive to the people who signed up for e-mails from his campaign.

Sure, if you called him him out on COVID or his standing with transphobes or whatever, you got the "Thank you for your feedback" e-mail asking you to donate money. But otherwise, they really didn't reach out, now did they?

They ignored you for all of June until June 21st with "This looks like a $100 million campaign." They informed in that e-mail that June 30th was looming and they would be announcing the amount of fundraising so please, please toss in some cash. June 28's "Crucial deadline" reminded you of it again as did June 29's "Join RFK Jr.'s push for strong leadership" and June 30's "Our first million dollar day" and "Just five hours left." Two in one day tired Junior out so bad, he didn't come begging again until July 7th with "We asked, you delivered." And that was it until yesterday -- eleven days later -- with "Let's show them where the power REALLY is."

Contrast that with John Kerry's bid for the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential bid. By spring 2003, his campaign was e-mailing daily sometimes more than once a day. And they were a little bit less obviously whorish. They'd have John or Mary Beth Cahill as the signee and noting this or that issue in the news. They'd rope it someone else with a statement, like John Glenn.

I guess the one area that Junior is on message with is: Gimmie your money. Gimmie.

And he really needs you to gimmie right now because so many have stopped due to the weekend report of his racist and anti-semitic claims. If you're late the to the party, RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE reported:

In retrospect, we should have seen this coming.

Robert Kennedy, Jr., who has presidential ambitions, has long trafficked in conspiracy theories. In particular, he is an anti-vaxxer.

This week, however, he went to the truly dark side:

“Covid-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Mr. Kennedy said at a private gathering in New York that was captured on videotape by The New York Post. “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

So, yes — shocked, but not surprised.

RFK Jr. might take a certain pride in the fact that this antisemitic conspiracy theory has a long lineage.

He refences that body blow to his campaign in the first line of the e-mail, "We deserve a President who's willing to tell the truth, especially when it's difficult."

So you were telling the truth when you said COVID was created by the Chinese or the Jews or both to target White people and African-Americans?

It's hard to follow, Junior. First your response was you didn't say it. Then you were misquoted. Then it was supposed to be off the record.

So now you're saying you told the world the truth?

It doesn't get better as the e-mail goes along.

Last week I sat down for a private, “off the record” dinner, with members of the press in New York. Since then, the media has launched a desperate smear campaign to continue their efforts to marginalize me in the eyes of the public.

No, you didn't sit down for an "off the record" dinner because there is no such thing, you stupid moron. There's a dinner where conversations are "off the record." But there's no off the record dinner.

These attacks are baseless and fly in the face of my own decades-long history of strong support for the Jewish community, as well as my family’s lifelong support for civil rights.

They're baseless attacks? Really? Because I know you and I know Kerry. And your sister didn't want to call you out publicly. Here is the statement Kerry Kennedy issued:

I strongly condemn my brother's deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting. His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination.

Click here to go to The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Organization to read the statement if you don't believe it.

And Olafimihan Oshin (THE HILL) reports:

Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) Monday joined other family members in publicly condemning Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent remarks on COVID-19, which became public over the weekend and were widely criticized as antisemitic and anti-Asian.

“My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong,” the 42-year-old former congressman wrote in a tweet Monday. “I unequivocally condemn what he said.”

I don't think you can hide behind anything with regards to "my family's lifelong" when your family is publicly calling you out and rejecting your statements. When you've brought real shame to the Kennedy name. The big bet, among your family, was that your outrageous remarks were going to be about LGBTQ+ people. No one in your family was expecting you to go for the gold with racism.

Yet here we are.

Junior insists:

As we all know, the more that my campaign catches on with the American public, the more I will be attacked and smeared by a press whose job it is to marginalize anyone who challenges entrenched interests, such as the military-industrial complex with its endless wars, and Big Pharma with its hijacking of American healthcare.

You don't believe in universal healthcare and you don't believe in regulating pharmacy so this is just another example of you spitting our words without giving them any thought. You know that kind of posing played well in your twenties but when you left your thirties, it just looked sad.

And, excuse me, your campaign catching on. It's done the complete opposite. In your campaign's first e-mail you were trumpeting 20% support among Democrats. But not only have you not increased that number, it actually fell to 16% and that's before you decided to grab a torch and a white sheet as you went around burning crosses on front lawns.

Junior insists:

The intensity of their attacks shows they are taking me — and my chances of winning — seriously. They have stooped to this because their other efforts at silencing me have failed.

No. People are getting tired of you and no one wants to indulge you anymore. You're not John-John in your shorts saluting at a funeral. You're a 69-year-old man named Junior who has disappointed the hell out of so many in such a short time.

Junior claims:

We can show them that these smear tactics won’t work outside the echo chamber of corporate media. They won’t work, because of supporters like you who see through these tactics that have been used over decades to smear one peace advocate after another.

The echo chamber of corporate media? Your sister Kerry and your nephew Joe are the echo chamber of corporate media? Junior, how many steroids are you taking?

And then he goes in for the hook, let's show the country that racism can raise money! He writes:

Imagine what they will think when their vicious smear campaign results in MORE support, not less!

It's not a vicious smear campaign when people are holding you accountable for your own words. And your using those words to beg for money -- when you should be apologizing for what you said, you're instead winding down your e-mail with "Let’s show them where the real power is -- in the millions of Americans like you who support a presidential candidate willing to tell them the truth. "

You really are disgusting. David Smith (GUARDIAN) reports on a study by the Congressional Integrity Project:

But the Project’s document argues that Kennedy’s recent comments about Jewish and Chinese people, which were quickly hailed by Neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers as “100% correct”, were not an aberration but fitted a long pattern.

Earlier this summer Kennedy touted a meeting with Ice Cube, a rapper who issued bizarre antisemitic tweets, and publicly defended musician Roger Waters, who was embroiled in controversy after donning a costume intended to evoke Nazi attire at a concert in Germany.

The report says Kennedy has also repeatedly promoted and praised fringe online broadcaster James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler and the Nazis were 100% completely and utterly set up”.

Kennedy has often allied himself with National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who regularly unleashed tirades about alleged Jewish control of media and government. Kennedy met Farrakhan at his Chicago home in 2015, with Farrakhan later tweeting that they discussed “a vaccine that is designed to affect Black males”.

The Project details how Kennedy himself has frequently invoked Nazi Germany when pushing debunked theories about vaccines. He put out a video that showed infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci with a mustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and used the word “holocaust” to describe children he believes were hurt by vaccines in 2015.

Last year, at a Washington rally organized by his group Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy complained that people’s rights were being violated by public health measures that had been taken to reduce the number of people sickened and killed by Covid-19. He said: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” He later apologised.

For years, the document says, Kennedy has targeted a particularly dangerous form of vaccine denial at Black people. In 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, he released Medical Racism, a film that promoted disproven claims about the dangers of vaccines and explicitly warned communities of color to be suspicious of “sinister” vaccination campaigns.

Several doctors and experts who participated in the film later denounced it and said they felt used and misled about the message of the documentary. Richard Allen Williams, founder of the Association of Black Cardiologists, called Children’s Health Defense “absolutely a racist operation” particularly dangerous to the Black community.

Staying o the topic of hate merchants, Canaan Lidor (TIMES OF ISRAEL) reports:

About 20 protesters in Toledo, Ohio, picketed a festival organized by an LGBTQ advocacy group and later continued outside the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, which called the protesters neo-Nazis.

The events Saturday began outside the Lost Fest event organized by the Equality Toledo LGBTQ advocacy group and continued opposite the offices of the Jewish group.

“Yesterday evening, over a dozen masked neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches attempted to harass attendees at an LGBTQ+ pride event in downtown Toledo before coming to the Jewish Toledo campus in Sylvania to harass Jews,” Laurie Gross, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, wrote in a statement Sunday cosigned by three other Jewish community leaders.

“To members of our Jewish community, there are no known active threats at this time,” read the statement.

The cosignatories wrote that the Jewish community “unequivocally condemns these acts of hate meant to instill fear in our hearts and minds,” adding: “We are stronger than hate. We are united with our partners in the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to be silent in the face of baseless hatred.”

This is not in isolation. If you're a woman of any race, if you're Jewish, if you appear to be an immigrant, if you're Asian-American or African-American, these hate groups are coming for you. They are making no secret of it. As Ava and I noted last night in "TV: The fork is stuck in her ass and, yes, she's done:"

Sidebar, we were sent what is supposedly Glenneth's browser history. If it is accurate, he's even more disgusting than we thought. If it hadn't been sent this morning, we'd be working on that as a story. Not on the Glenneth aspect -- we don't know whether it's really his browser history or not -- but on the issue that Twitter is platforming hate speech. This is much worse than what people usually complain about with regards to Twitter. This is "White power" accounts promoting Donald Trump while ripping African-Americans, gays, trans, Jewish and pretty much everyone. And to be clear, they're not using terms like African-American or gay.

It is disgusting and it is appalling and there's no way in the world that Elon Musk is doing his job yet is unaware of these accounts.

There is a movement to target any group that's a minority.

You've got Twitter accounts that are posting videos of women being punched in the face with Tweets about how they shouldn't have any rights, you've got Twitter accounts pimping "White pride" and attacking African-Americans, you've got them using hate speech against LGBTQ+ people yet with all those options of terms to use -- lesbian, gay, bi, trans or queer -- they're resorting to the f-word.

And this is all over Twitter. And no one's calling out. It makes what has been called out on Twitter look like a joke.

People need to wake the hell up to what's going on and not think that they are in any way safe.

Meanwhile, the federal government comes to a halt as two petty US senators have a hissy fit. Tracy Wilkinson (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports:

A handful of senators is blocking the confirmation of dozens of highly regarded Biden administration ambassadorial appointments over largely partisan issues having nothing to do with the nominees' qualifications, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Monday.

In an unusual head-on confrontation with Congress, Blinken complained that action by some senators is crippling the ability of the United States to project its influence on the global stage, stifling the U.S. voice in critical countries in the Middle East and Europe during the raging war in Ukraine and undermining national security.

The diplomatic delays come as hundreds of U.S. military promotions — including the appointment of the commander of the Marine Corps, leaving an acting leader in charge for the first time in more than 100 years — blocked by a single Republican senator from Alabama, former football coach Tommy Tuberville. He objects to the Defense Department’s efforts to provide reproductive and gender-affirming care to service members.

"By failing to confirm these nominees, a handful of senators are keeping our best players on the sidelines," Blinken said.

Now that's the raving hate merchant Tommy Tuberville. He's not the only one holding up nominations. Everyone's favorite home-perm senator, Rand Paul, is holding up another group of nominees. Patricia Zengerle and Simon Lewis (REUTERS) report:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that a Senate delay in confirming President Joe Biden's nominees for diplomatic positions was undermining national security, echoing similar concerns from defense officials on delays to military promotions.

Blinken told reporters that he had sent a letter to every member of the Senate urging swift confirmation of dozens of nominees for State Department positions.

The nominations are being held back by Republican Senator Rand Paul while he seeks information from the administration on the origins of COVID-19.

Turning to Iraq, at the end of last week, there were two protests in Iraq. One makes sense, the other's a question mark. Let's start with the latter. UNITED NEWS OF INDIA notes, "Hundreds of Shia supporters have taken to the streets of the Iraqi capital Baghdad where an anti-American protest was held on Friday, Shafaq News reports. The protesters gathered at the entrance to the Green Zone, where government buildings and the US embassy are located." SPUTNIK adds, "Supporters of Shia groups voiced protest against US meddling in Iraq's internal affairs, as well as Washington's threats to eliminate the leaders of the formations, Shafaq News said." OUTLOOK INDIA has a photo essay of the protest here. TASNIM types, "Recent reports from US media have suggested that Washington is planning to assassinate leaders of anti-terror resistance groups in Iraq, particularly the Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba. The US claims that the group was responsible for a deadly drone strike on US forces in Syria in March." That's the confusing part.

And it's not just TASNIm repeating it. Recent reports? By US media? I haven't seen any and I just searched THE WASHINGTON POST, AP, THE NEW YORK TIMES, CNN, CBS NEWS and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. Where are these US media reports suggesting the US government "is planning to assassinate leaders of anti-terror resistance groups in Iraq"? They don't appear to exist. Maybe someone just had a slow Friday and needed to get out and get their steps in?

The other protest is easier to follow. KURDISTAN 24 reports:

The demolishment of the Al-Sarai Mosque's minaret on Friday morning in Basra sparked protests amongst the Sunni community in Iraq.
The Al-Sarai Mosque is a Sunni mosque and is one of the oldest historical mosques in Iraq. It was built in 1727 and was renovated in 1902 by Abdulwahab Pasha bin Ahmed al-Qurtas.
The Governor of Basra Asad al-Edani announced that the demolition of the minaret was due to complaints from citizens that the minaret created obstacles to traffic and the implementation of a strategic road project in the city.

Okay, that one is easy to follow X took place leading to Y protest. Again, there have been no US media reports of assassination plans. And if that detail was left out of the Bagdad reports, the story would be less confusing. On Basra, Mina Aldroubi and Holly Johnston (THE NATIONAL) report:

The minaret of Al Saraji mosque in Basra stood 11 metres high and was destroyed at dawn on Friday despite calls by local officials to restore and preserve the site.

"We consider this a crime against humanity and Iraqis," said Mustafa Al Hussaini, director of Basra's antiquities department.

He said they were not informed that the structure would be demolished.

"I am in shock and am getting condolence messages," Mr Al Hussaini added.

"Some officials are even embarrassed to approach me.

Most of last week, we were noting the climate change effects taking place in Iraq. Climate change models predict that Iraq will be one of the worst hit by climate change in the coming years. Shivam Dwivedi (KRISHI JAGRAN) notes:

Iraq is currently grappling with a dire water shortage, putting the livelihoods of many farmers and food producers at risk. Qasem Karam, an Iraqi fish farmer from the southern province of Basra, is one of those affected. Walking across arid land in the blistering midday heat, Karam gestures towards his dried-up carp ponds, which were once nourished by the Shatt al-Arab river.

He lamented that everything was now saturated with salt due to water scarcity and pollution, pointing to nearby patches of white salt crust. He mentioned that the ponds had required significant time, money, and effort to establish, and they had a promising economic plan, but it had all been destroyed.

Most reporting this week has noted the impact on fishing, the impact on farming and the impact on drinking water. As Laure Al Khoury (AFP) points out, it's more than that:

With scorching temperatures and power cuts, Wissam Abed cools off from Baghdad's brutal summer by swimming in the Tigris river, but as Iraqi rivers dry up, so does the age-old pastime.

Near a bridge linking the east of the city to the west, Abed stood in the middle of the river, but the water only came up to his waist.

"I live here in Adhamiya, like my grandfather did before me. Year after year, the water situation gets worse," said the 37-year-old, referring to his neighbourhood nestled along the Tigris in northern Baghdad.

Abed waded through the water to the middle of the ancient river, as temperatures reached near 50 degrees celsius (122 Farenheit) and wind whipped through the city like a hair dryer one July afternoon.

He told AFP he comes to the Tigris "to have fun and feel refreshed".

Summer in Iraq is a prime example of the convergences of multiple crises weighing down the lives of the 43-strong population: a dilapidated electricity sector, rising temperatures and severe water shortages.

Another AFP article we noted last week on this topic has been republished this week after the agency determined it to be one of the best reports of last week, so check that out if you missed it last week.

The water is disappearing. And what's in the water that Iraq still has access to? MEMO explains:

Chemicals and waste materials from various government institutions and power plants are polluting the River Tigris, causing skin diseases and colon cancer.

Sewage waters are also poured into the River Tigris, which passes through the capital, Baghdad, which has a population of approximately 9 million.

Liquids containing toxic and chemical substances coming out of Baghdad City hospitals are also released into the River Tigris. In addition, people living in neighbourhoods along the river also throw their garbage into the river.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Nest time AMAZON gets my order wrong . . .

AMAZON is working my last nerve.

Yes, I am griping about AMAZON again. And I've got a new rule. On Monday, I got a Nina Simone album on vinyl.

Or that's what it said in my notifications and order history. It was not Nina.

It was a wooden box from a label (SOJOURNER?) with a Jason someone doing roots music. The thing clearly cost money. It was multi disc.

Looked it up. It's SOJOURNER LP Box Set - MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.

I did not order it. It's over $120 dollars, I see.

My new rule?

When they send the wrong item -- this is the fourth time in four months -- I am first going to look up the item. If it is $100 or more than what I spent, I'm just going to keep it. And act like I'm ordering a second copy of, for example, Nina Simon's HERE COMES THE SUN.

I am tired of this nonsense. I am tired of having to waste my time going to a UPS store after I print up a return scan. I am tired of wasting my time fixing AMAZON's mistakes.

I'm keeping it from now on. And if they e-mail and say, for example, "We need MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. back. We sent it to you by mistake." My reply will be, "No, sir. You sent me Nina Simone like I ordered." I have to go out of my way to return their mistakes and I'm sick of it. And that wooden box set? That was heavy. I'm sick of it. Now I order a lot of music, yes. Vinyl. But this has been four times in four months where they've sent me the wrong item and I've had to do their job for them.

I'm sick of it. From now on, something $100 or more arrives by mistake? I'll keep it. Even if, like with MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO, I've never heard of them. I'll just spend another $23 to reorder Nina Simone.

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

Tuesday, July 18, 2023. The PUK goes after Cardinal Louis Sako, hate merchant Ron DeSantis laying off campaign staff, RFK Junior a continued embarrassment, Trump plots acts of revenge should he become president again, and much more.

Starting with Iraq, Peter Pinedo (CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY) reports:

Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, announced Saturday that he is withdrawing from his seat in Baghdad after Iraqi President Abdul Rashid revoked a decree recognizing him as head of the Christian Church in Iraq.

Sako said he will be taking up residence in a monastery in Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq, where he will continue to lead the Chaldean Church.

In a statement issued July 15, Sako called the president’s action — which calls into question his ability to control Church assets in the country — “unprecedented” and “unfair.”

“It is unfortunate that we in Iraq live in the midst of a wide network of self-interest, narrow factionalism, and hypocrisy that has produced an unprecedented political, national, and moral chaos, which is rooted by now more and more,” Sako wrote. “Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the patriarchal headquarters in Baghdad.”

What's going on? A number of things, actually. AFP noted a few days ago a political conflict:

Sako said he will be taking up residence in a monastery in Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq, where he will continue to lead the Chaldean Church.

In a statement issued July 15, Sako called the president’s action — which calls into question his ability to control Church assets in the country — “unprecedented” and “unfair.”

Abdul Latif Rashid is the president of Iraq . . . somehow. Mainly because rules aren't followed in Iraq. He's PUK which came in second to the KDP -- came in second, yet again. The PUK insisted that they would have the presidency -- which always goes to a Kurd, regardless -- and so Abdul became president. He's got a long of history of running in and out of Iraq though not quite the coward former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki is. He was a minister in Nouri's cabinet (Minister of Water Resources for seven years -- look around Iraq today and you can see what an awful job he did) and, his really big credit, he's the brother-in-law of Iraq's late fat ass Jalal Talabani.

He's married to Hero Talabani's sister Shanaz. Hero is of course infamous for posing her husband -- post-stroke -- for photos when he couldn't talk and couldn't move his body. Iraqis compared it to WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S on social media in real time.

Let's drop back to May 30, 2013:

Last December, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke. The incident took place late on December 17th (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital. Thursday, December 20th, he was moved to Germany. He remains in Germany currently. At the start of the month, there were new rumors swirling about his health and, this past week, Nouri al-Maliki attempted to have Jalal stripped of his post this month. (Parliament rejected the notion.) Following that, Al Mada ran a photo of Jalal Talabani seated outdoors with his medical team and noted the team states the Iraqi President's health has continued to improve and he will return to Iraq shortly.

Arabic social media has been referring to the photos and the video as having a Weekend At Bernie's type feel to it. (In Weekend At Bernie's, two young men prop up the corpse of dead Bernie to trick people into believing he's alive.) The fact that Jalal's only seen in the video and the photos from his right side have people speculating about what the left side shows -- the after-effects of a stroke? Salah Nasrawi (Al-Ahram) notes:

Rumours have been abundant about Talabani’s health condition as his convalescence coincides with one of Iraq’s most serious political crises and its deadliest period of ethno-sectarian strife since the United States pullout in 2011.
Some reports have suggested that Talabani is clinically dead in the Berlin hospital where he is treated, others said the enfeebled president has handed his will to one of the leaders of his party.
Regardless of the furious speculations among Iraqis about Talabani’s health conditions, his prolonged absence has sparked a debate about whether he will be physically able to resume official duties.
According to various medical studies, persons who had strokes mostly develop serious physical and emotional problems occurring after recovery and they will need prolonged treatment.

Dropping back to the October 18, 2021 snapshot:

In 2012, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke. The incident took place late on December 17, 2012 (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital. Thursday, December 20, 2012, he was moved to Germany. He remained there for a year and a half. He was incapacitated. But the Talabani family lied to everyone so that, as the Iraqi Constitution requires, Jalal wouldn't be removed from office.

They lied to the country. They deceived the Iraqi people. They propped him up and posed him for pictures -- leading Arabic media to mock it as WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S -- but they couldn't offer video because he couldn't speak.

The first time was in May. Jalal was posed for a series of photos that appear to indicate his body was present but that was all.

The second set, months later, also showed Jalal posed with his right side to the camera.

[. . .]

Over 18 months later Jalal would return. They wouldn't be able to use the return to pump up his party in elections because he couldn't speak.

In other words, the Talabani family lied to the Iraqi people, deceived them. Iraq had a non-functioning president who should have been removed from office. But the Talabanis lied to keep Jalal in a post he could not serve.

[. . .]

They lied to the country. They deceived the Iraqi people. They propped him up and posed him for pictures -- leading Arabic media to mock it as WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S -- but they couldn't offer video because he couldn't speak.

He never spoke in public again. Not even when he returned to Iraq 18 months after his stroke.

He was not able to do any duties and he was not able to speak but the Talabani family lied to the press and to the people so that they could hold onto the position and the prestige. They harmed Iraq in the process. Iraq needed a real president. It had none.

The next election showed how much damage the Talabanis had done to the PUK and that's been true ever since. In addition, you've got Jalal's sons showing up to try to tell the Kurds what to do. They love that -- and who wouldn't? One of Jalal's pampered sons who lives in the US and is married to an American woman returning to the Kurdistan to lecture them on how they shouldn't want independence for Kurdistan, lecturing them on how they shouldn't vote for it in a non-binding referendum.

Now comes Abdul to further disgrace the Talabani family and the PUK. FARS MEDIA CORPORATION notes:

A source at Asianews points out that the whole affair turns on this point: “Someone wants to take control over the assets and properties held by Christians and the Church.” President Abdul Latif Rashid has intervened in recent days with the intention of “clarifying” his decision.

His office issues a statement saying: “Withdrawing the republican decree does not prejudice the religious or legal status of Cardinal Louis Sako, as he is appointed by the Apostolic See.” According to the Kurdish Muslim leader, “the abolition of the Presidential Decree is intended to correct the situation,” while the patriarch continues to enjoy “the respect and appreciation of the presidency of the Republic as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and the world.”

“However, the president’s decision strips the Chaldean leader – the Patriarch – of the right to administer church assets, which are the target of Ryan 'the Chaldean' and his Babylonian Brigades. ‘It’s no coincidence that the president’s decision came a few days after he met with Ryan,’” a source told AsiaNews.

“For over 100 years, the patriarch, after his papal appointment, had his office recognized by decree by the king and then the president, upholding his status as head of the Church and custodian of its properties.” With the withdrawal of the decree, the primate “will likely lose control over the [Church’s] assets and properties,” the source concludes, but Cardinal Sako “is determined to fight and is already studying ways to appeal in court so that law prevails and justice is done.”

The controversy surrounding the withdrawal of the presidential decree is the latest chapter in a series of attacks that have affected the most respected figure of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, to the point that in recent weeks there has arisen a backlash among Christians in response to the “lies”: an attack against the patriarch and the leadership of the Church by the leader of the Babylonian Movement, Rayan.

Let's move over to bad American dinner theater or 'politics,' if you like.

Ron DeSantis is creating more unemployment and, this time, not just in Florida:

NBC News reported this weekend that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) had to fire some staff after realizing he hired too many people before securing the fundraising. The report detailed some critical missteps in the DeSantis money machine that predicts a difficult path forward.

Candidates have donors that give them the maximum amount per election, meaning both the primary and general elections. They can't spend the money in the general election. So, of DeSantis' $12 million cash on hand, he can only spend $9 million of it.

To add to his problems, "about $14 million of his second-quarter haul came from donors who gave the maximum legal amount," NBC News explained. "In other words, roughly two-thirds of his early donors will not be able to give directly to his campaign for the duration of the race."

It means DeSantis has already burned through the big donors closest to him, and he's got to figure out how to find more or ramp up a heavy fundraising effort for tons of low-dollar donors. The problem with the latter strategy is that Donald Trump spent the past eight years building an extensive GOP donor list. They hammer the donors through emails and text messages until they stop giving money or unsubscribe.

So, DeSantis would have to find donors that aren't Trump's. Those people are generally more moderate, the so-called "NeverTrumpers" or "RINOS" (Republicans In Name Only). But DeSantis has run to the right of Trump, so he's not going to appeal to those two groups.

Moderate Republicans? They're not going to go with Doo-Doo Ron Ron. They're usually of the opinion that the focus needs to be on the economy and on business. Doo-Doo Ron Ron's war on DISNEY isn't a good look for them nor are his attacks on gay people and on abortion. How does he plan to get money? I don't see Donald Trump supporters moving to him. Wouldn't it be funny if he had to drop out due to lack of campaign donations?

At THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, Amy Glassman writes of how Ron is damaging the lives of so many:

The first time I visited the LGBTQ Center at the University of North Florida as a 20-something undergraduate student, I cried on the shoulder of a complete stranger. That stranger looked like me, loved like me and — as an LGBTQ+ person — understood my anguish. All my walls finally crumbled.

I was only a few short years into my young adult life. I was already struggling to balance working multiple part-time jobs, attending full-time classes, navigating a toxic romantic relationship, dealing with family rejection and facing a serious identity crisis.

Most of the people I had known my entire life wrote me off when I was outed as gay, but when this stranger at the LGBTQ Center told me I was not alone and it would all be OK, I believed them. That single interaction restored my strength to keep going.

[. . .]

But Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, thinks diversity, equity and inclusion programs are just window dressings.

In fact, Gov. DeSantis feels so strongly about centering the Florida education system around his own white Christian values and culture, he has cut funding for all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Florida colleges and universities, a law that took effect July 1.

Under the new law, colleges and universities are not allowed to use federal or state funding for DEI initiatives on campus, which undercuts their ability to replace these resources through other funding opportunities.

One of many problems with his plan is that colleges and universities are not just schools, they are homes. Students live on campus, often without transportation; they rely on the school’s on-campus offerings to help them build community and feel comfortable in their new home.

I have never lived on campus and was not even a UNF student. I attended Florida State College at Jacksonville, but I had access to resources and clubs on both campuses through my participation in the UNF Army ROTC program. The programs I found there were literally lifesaving to me.

If I needed these things living off-campus in my hometown, the students who left their entire lives behind to attend college in a new city definitely need them.

Places like the Interfaith Center offer people from all faiths a community while they are away from their own. It offers them an opportunity to talk about their culture with others and find consensus on how we are all the same, no matter our differences. Diverse programs like these are powerful for bringing people together, which we could all use a little more of these days.

In my experience with the Interfaith Center, I have led discussions with students about the intersection of religion and sexual orientation, shared my journey to finding myself in Judaism and learned about other’s experiences too, which also helped me heal. This space gave me the opportunity to help those who were once like me — lost and trying to figure out if I could fit into my religion while still loving who I loved.

Religious spaces have not been historically welcoming places for me, but that has never been the case at the Interfaith Center. Instead of seeing only my own identity reflected in the people there, I saw a beautiful mosaic of people from all walks of life. It exposed me to different cultures and religions. Even better, I have always been welcomed and fully accepted, no caveat.

Connectivity to people like you and exposure to people different from you are both necessary to growing into a well-rounded member of society. When these two components of life are balanced, you become more empathetic toward others and you feel more empowered with a community around you. According to researchers, social support builds resilience and lowers stress, allowing individuals to tackle adversity while maintaining good physical and mental health.

Ron is fueled by hate. Speaking of, Moms For Liberty. Jen Psaki reported on them Sunday.

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) notes:

Anyone who has been paying attention to the frequent chaos and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric at school board meetings nationwide and efforts to ban books by and about LGBTQ+ people and people of color, you’re already well aware of what Moms for Liberty stands for.

But as Psaki noted on the July 16 episode of Inside with Jen Psaki, the organization claims to be non-partisan. That, along with the group’s misleading and innocuous-sounding name, has left many people confused about Moms for Liberty’s agenda — even after they themselves get involved with the group.

“Moms: great, sounds good. Liberty: awesome, who doesn’t like liberty? ‘Moms for Liberty.’ As the mom of two young kids, that even sounds good to me,” Psaki said. “But it’s vague enough, that even some of its own members are pretty unclear as to what the group is really all about, what they’re a part of.”

“Well, I’m here to help,” she continued. “Because as benign as Moms for Liberty may sound, its agenda is unmistakably extreme.”

She went on to catalog the group’s tactics and causes, including leading the movement to ban books, turning school board meetings into screaming matches, and intimidating both local officials and others in their communities.

“Chapters and members across the country have led campaigns targeting community advocates, school board members, and opposing groups,” Psaki explained. “They’ve repeatedly sent intimidating messages, openly threatened officials, and even baselessly leveled charges of child abuse and sympathizing with pedophilia.”

She also noted that one Indiana chapter infamously included an Adolph Hitler quote in a newsletter. The group apologized but later defended the inclusion of the quote.

Psaki also demolished Moms for Liberty’s claim that it is a nonpartisan organization. “Consider this,” she said. “One of the founders, whose name is notably omitted from its website, is a current Republican school board member who is married to the now-chairman of the Florida Republican Party. In 2021, he told the Washington Post, ‘I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year-old females involved with the Republican Party. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me.’”

She also noted early in the segment that the group recently hosted five Republican presidential candidates, including Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, at its annual summit in Philadelphia.

Yes, they did host five. It was supposed to be six that they were platforming but Democratic Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decided to back out at the last minute for reasons we've covered in real time. In last night's "RFK Jr. is disgusting," Trina covered reactions to Junio's vile and racist statements. I will add that one of his defenses is that, he says, it was supposed to be off the record. Goatha. It's okay to be racist if you're off the record? Thanks for clarifying that.

Patrick Martin (WSWS) observes:

Kennedy’s ravings shed light as well on the bankrupt and reactionary character of the campaign for a “left-right alliance” launched by various figures aligned with the pseudo-left, including author Chris Hedges and journalist Glenn Greenwald. They might personally abhor Kennedy’s remarks about Jews and Chinese, but Greenwald conducted a sympathetic interview with Kennedy after he launched his presidential campaign, which gave considerable attention to his opposition to vaccine mandates and other COVID mitigation measures.

Yes, rounding out the crazy, there is always Donald. Ken Meyer (MEDIAITE) reports:

Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly warned that if Donald Trump is re-elected to the White House, the government will be thrown into chaos by his reported plan to expand his presidential powers.

The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman reported that Trump and his allies seek to consolidate more power and authority into the Oval Office if they can get him re-elected in 2024. The plan would reportedly consist of Trump assuming direct control over independent government entities, easing the process through which he can fire bureaucrats he doesn’t like, and reviving the power to “impound” Congressional funding for programs he may not approve of.

“The two driving forces of this effort to reshape the executive branch are Mr. Trump’s own campaign policy shop and a well-funded network of conservative groups, many of which are populated by former senior Trump administration officials who would most likely play key roles in any second term,” the Times reported. “Some elements of the plans had been floated when Mr. Trump was in office but were impeded by internal concerns that they would be unworkable and could lead to setbacks.”

Kelly was among the Trump veterans with whom the Times spoke, and he said that Trump trying to seize power this way would instigate pandemonium across the three branches of government. This follows the sworn statement Kelly previously gave, claiming Trump wanted to weaponize the IRS against his political foes.