I read some of the e-mails and Martha and Shirley tallied
them up. The feeling is wait until Saturday since I was asking Tuesday
night. So that's what I'll do. Saturday or Sunday, my next album
review will go up. I do have at least one more paragraph to write. Oh,
Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Now the hate mongers come for WOLF PACK" went up last night so be sure to read that.
Some were bothered by my "Fleetwood Mac" -- specifically that Fleetwood Mac should continue to tour.
I
don't know. I disagree. I remember Grace Slick saying -- going back
to the sixties -- that at a certain time, you leave the stage. And she
did do that and I do respect her for it. If Fleetwood Mac is willing to
record another album with new material, great. Otherwise, they haven't
done a full album of new material since 2003 -- twenty years ago.
Lindsey is out of the band (I'm not crying over that) and Christine is
dead. That leaves Stevie Nicks as the only one to front the band. Can
she? Absolutely. But she's got an active and successful solo career.
She's still releasing new albums and she's still touring. I suppose The
Mac could tag along on one of her tours but, make no mistake, it would
need to be her tour.
The
Mac is now just a nostalgia act. And that would be true if Christine
were alive or if Lindsey was back in the band. They need new material
or they're just a golden oldies band.
Next.
Why didn't I write about the Grammys and Beyonce? Maybe because Ann and Marcia already covered it.
Maybe because, like them, I'm not impressed with the limited talents of Beyonce or with her fans stupidity.
But she sales records!!!!
No.
No, she really doesn't. Being married to the owner of TIDAL allows her
to pretend that she's still at her peak but she lost that long ago.
That was obvious with her DISNEY+ special.
I just read another article about 'poor Beyonce.' Beyonce is this and she's that and why oh why won't they give her every Grammy in the world!
Crazies,
you sound like Barry Manilow fans in the 70s. Barry was a popular
singer. He wasn't an artist and neither is Beyonce. She can win in the
smaller field of electronica and dance. But she's not doing anything
important enough to leave that field.
Harry
Styles? HARRY'S HOUSE was a huge step forward for him artistically.
That's what this is about: the art of music. It's not about how big
your butt is or how you shake it or who you married. It's about the art
and Beyonce's lightweight pop songs -- with their six million
co-writers -- do not speak of art or an artistic statement.
That's
why Harry's nominated for album of the year at the Brit Awards and
Beyonce's not. Stormyz, Wet Leg, The 1975 and Fred Again all have
nominations for album of the year. Harry also got a nomination for
Artist of the Year -- as did George Ezra -- a favorite of Elaine and
mine and proof that The Beyhive needs to stop whining. George Ezra got
no Grammy nomination and he made an incredible album. George and Harry
are both also up for song of the year -- as is Sam Smith with his duet
with Kim Petras "Unholy."
Beyonce
wasn't completely overlooked -- she's competing with Burna Boy,
Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo and Taylor Swift for International Artist. And
she and Taylor are competing with others for International Song.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023. The hate merchants will destroy us all
as they target LGBT+ persons, as they target women, as they target
everyone that they can get away with smearing.
At
the end of the day, North Carolina’s so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights
isn’t really about giving parents more control over their child’s
education. It’s about telling LGBTQ kids, especially trans kids, that
they don’t matter. That is the impact, whether Republicans originally
intended it to be or not. But it’s certainly intentional now,
considering they have ignored the many parents, community members,
experts and advocates who have voiced concerns about the bill over the
past week. They voiced the same concerns last year, when Republicans
first brought the bill to the floor.
As GOP lawmakers
fast-track the bill through the Senate and onto the House, they’ve been
careful to frame it as common sense legislation. According to the bill’s
sponsors, the provision that bans instruction on sexuality or gender
identity in most elementary school classrooms only exists to ensure
“age-appropriate instruction.” A requirement that schools notify parents
when a student asks to change their name or pronouns — or if there are
changes in their “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being” —
is supposedly just about communication and transparency. The reality is
far more grim. As experts have pointed out, forcing teachers and school
administrators to out kids to their parents against their will is
dangerous. Oftentimes, students who are questioning their sexuality or
gender identity just need someone to confide in, and school may be the
only place where they feel safe enough to do so. Not every parent is
supportive of their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and
having a supportive teacher or coach who can affirm their identity can
be life-saving.
Yes, in the United States, the war against the LGBTQ+ community continues.
Even US President Joe Biden had to acknowledge it last night in his endless, never-ending State of the Union Address:
Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ
Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and
dignity.
Our strength is not just the example of our power, but the power of our example. Let’s remember the world is watching.
43
words. In a speech of 7, 223 words. Call it an afterthought. I guess
if you're really generous, you can quote Joe using the construct from a
song in YENTYL as 'gay friendly' or 'gay adjacent'?
"Where is it written," Joe wondered, "that Americans can't lead the world in manufacturing again?"
Where?
Just tell him where. It all began, the day Joe found, that from his
Oval Office window, he could only see a piece of sky . . .
You
know, Joe had more to say in that MEET THE PRESS segment when he was
vice president and spoke of marriage equality. In an overly long speech
that cribbed Streisand, Bernie Sanders and so much more while acting as
though policies Joe Biden had actively promoted in the Senate for years
were policies he'd never even heard of, you'd think he could have
spoken of the real horrors facing the LGBTQ+ community today.
GLAAD made sure to highlight it.
Sorry,
GLAAD, but I don't see anything that great about a brief aside to the
attacks on the LGBTQ+ community or using them as an easy applause
getter.
Exactly.
And
around the world, closed minded hate merchants attempt to destroy the
right to thrive. Tiba al-Ali was thriving in Turkey. Was. She was
killed by her father -- again, as I've said before, 'alleged'? No, he
went to the police and confessed. He killed her. Amy Goodman summarized it on DEMOCRACY NOW! as follows:
In
Iraq, human rights groups are demanding justice for Tiba al-Ali, a
22-year-old YouTube star who was killed by her father last week. The two
were reportedly in a dispute involving al-Ali’s decision to live alone
in Turkey. She was visiting Iraq when her father strangled her to death.
Rights advocates are calling on the Iraqi government to enact
legislation against gender-based violence, as no current laws
criminalize domestic violence. This is activist Hafsa Amer speaking from
a protest in Baghdad Sunday.
Hafsa Amer: “Tiba is a famous person, well known on
social media. Just as there are many women who don’t have a voice and
who can’t make their voices heard, we are here to represent the voices
of oppressed women, the victims who don’t have a voice.”
So
why did he kill her? Religion gave him his excuse -- a perverted
belief that he was the judge and jury and the agent of a higher power.
You see that crazy in many religious idiots who confuse hate with love.
It's an 'honor' killing. That's when these psychos kill someone to
protect 'honor.' Of course, Tiba was killed but her rapist wasn't. She
was killed. He killed his daughter. He didn't kill his son -- the man
who raped her. But that's how these psychos behave.
On the Sunday after Ali's death, Iraqi women's rights activists staged a protest in Baghdad. They called upon local authorities to better protect women and to finally enact domestic violence legislation.
"I don't think a law would stop violence against women here totally
but it might reduce it," Kholoud Ahmad, an Iraqi journalist based in
Baghdad, told DW. "If people knew they could be punished for this, or if
women in trouble even had somewhere to go, that would help," she said.
"Right now, it really feels like there is no serious punishment."
Iraq
doesn't have a law dedicated to dealing with domestic violence. In
fact, its current laws offer multiple ways for anyone who does beat or
kill a female family member to avoid prosecution.
Paragraph 398 in Iraq's penal code says that in a sexual assault, the
case will be dropped, if the rapist agrees to marry the victim. Another
part of the penal code, Article 409, says that if a husband kills his
wife because he discovers she committed adultery, the maximum sentence
is three years in prison. And Paragraph 41 says that "there is no crime
if the act is committed while exercising a legal right." Legal rights in
Iraq include "the punishment of a wife by her husband … within certain
limits prescribed by law or by custom."
In a statement about Ali's death, the United Nations in Iraq urged the Iraqi government to repeal some of these articles.
"Iraq lacks a central and effective reporting mechanism for victims
and survivors of domestic violence or sexual and gender-based violence,"
said Razaw Salihy, a researcher on Iraqi issues for Amnesty
International.
To lodge a complaint of this kind, Iraqi women only have two offices
they can report to and both are "not founded in law," Salihy continued.
"Women and girls who report incidents to police stations inevitably have
to go home as there is no referral system, meaning the majority will
not report anything for fear of repercussions at home. There is nowhere
for them to go," she told DW.
All of this is why it is hard to get genuine figures on domestic and
sexual violence committed against women in Iraq. Official statistics on
domestic violence cases that go to court in Iraq hover around 15,000 a
year. But if these are to be believed, then the rate of this kind of
crime per head of population is not actually all that high when compared
to countries in Europe.
The killing has seemingly divided Iraqi social media, with the hashtags #Tiba_AlAli and #Tiba’s_Right in Arabic trending for days.
Twitter user Ali Bey on Feb. 3 wrote that women should “behave or face the same fate as Tiba Al-Ali,” while another user, Aqil Badran, on Feb. 2 criticized those who are “upset over the killing of a girl who abandoned her family…to live with her boyfriend.”
On the other side of the debate, influencer Omar Habeeb on Feb. 1 wrote that “some still perceive women as property whose life they can end.”
Iraqi political activist Hasanain Al-Minshid held police responsible for having failed to stop the killing, “knowing that her life was at risk.”
The context/analysis: Ali is alleged to have on Jan. 31 been strangled to death by her father in his southern Iraqi home over a “family dispute.”
Following her death, a series of unverified recordings of alleged conversations between Ali and her father surfaced.
In the recordings, a man claimed to be her father is heard expressing
dissatisfaction with his daughter living with her partner in Turkey.
The recordings also feature the voice of a woman said to be the victim asserting that she fled
to Turkey after being sexually harassed by her brother. The woman is
also heard accusing her parents of knowing about the harassment and
covering it up.
Ali is not the only female influencer in the country to lose her life
to femicide over apparent “honor” as well as political motivations.
As previously reported
by Amwaj.media, Iman Sami Maghdid—also known as Maria—was in March last
year reportedly shot dead by her relatives. The murder was described in
local media as an “honor killing.”
While seemingly motivated by politics rather than “honor,” prominent female opposition activists Zahra Ali and Reham Yacoub were killed in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Available data suggest that “honor killings” have been a longstanding
and recurrent phenomenon under successive governments in Iraq.
That
last Tweet is from the UK Ambassador to Iraq. The United Nations and
Amnesty International have also weighed in. The US government? Nah.
Blame them and blame the lazy US press that refuses to raise this
killing when attending press briefings.
I'm sure everyone already saw this but I am just now seeing it:
Mick Fleetwood, the drummer of band Fleetwood Mac, offered sobering news on the Grammy red carpet on Sunday. Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, Fleetwood said that in the wake of bandmate Christine McVie's death last year, the band may be "done."
"I
think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with
the loss of Chris," he said. "I'd say we're done, but then we've all
said that before. It's sort of unthinkable right now."
Fleetwood
and the band's bassist, John McVie, started the group in the late '60s.
Over the years, new members were brought in who helped spearhead their
music to the iconic status it has today. Christine McVie, who died in
November at the age of 79 after experiencing a "short illness," joined
the group in 1970 after marrying John McVie, and was a singer and
keyboardist for Fleetwood Mac for nearly 30 years.
I
think they are over. I know Mick's never managed his money well and
has declared bankruptcy at least once. I don't know how you could have
millions pouring in each year and screw up your life so badly that you
have to tour and keep touring due to your debts.
Were
I in his position, I'd buy a home in the English countryside and live
there on a reasonable sum and not have to be touring constantly.
But
with Christine gone, it's very likely the band is over. Now they could
get together and make some great music on a new album and there would
be a reason to tour. But instead of doing that, Mick and company have
just been living off the old material for some time now. Chris is
gone. There's no one to perform her hits. Stevie has a thriving solo
career. Stevie doesn't need the Mac to get back on the road. She's
always on the road herself.
Now a question: Want an album review during the week or should I hold it until Saturday or Sunday? I've got a paragraph that I need to write -- one -- and then I'm done with my latest review. I like doing it on the weekends but if you want it early let me know.
Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Julian Assange remains persecuted, Colin
Powell roams the earth with no consequences, James Zogby remembers
trying to get elected Democrats to stop the Iraq War, and much more
As Americans, we should be angry and disgusted that our government,
and now the Biden administration, has been engaged in the persecution of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange is a political prisoner. He
has never endangered the lives of Americans, and there is no evidence
otherwise. “He went to extraordinary lengths to anonymize the sources
and protect the sources at the same time. He was extremely responsible
in his journalistic approach to this,” says Jeremy Corbyn, former leader
of UK’s Labor Party. When WikiLeaks source Chelsey Manning was tried,
she was acquitted of “Aiding the enemy.” If she’s not guilty of it, how
can Assange be?
Yet, the U.S. security-state crowd vengefully want him punished —
silenced. His “crime” has been to embarrass the powers that be by
publishing accounts — confessions, really — voluntarily given him by
former U.S. military personnel (whistleblowers), who have committed war
crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. By the way, you can’t rape
someone in self-defense, and you can’t rationalize it as “collateral
damage.” You don’t promote democracy, human rights and U.S. national
security by using Black Ops death squads against innocent civilians. You
don’t protect America by recklessly killing dozens of civilians in
mistargeted and then covered-up drone strikes that make the locals hate
us.
We the people, in whose name and with whose tax dollars these wars are waged, have the right to know, the need to know.
Julian remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe
Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."
Julian's 'crime' was revealing the
realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the
information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.
And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.
For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War
Logs. Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes. Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the
Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident
US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have
leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters
and civilian killings in the Afghan war. The new logs detail how: •
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse,
torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct
appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a
notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after
they tried to surrender. • More than 15,000 civilians died in
previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no
official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081
non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical
evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or
ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric
shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat
The Biden administration
has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and
vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal
assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.
But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States
under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used
before for publishing classified information.
Whether the US justice department continues to
pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group
put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics
before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether
the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to
protect the press.
Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.
We
highlight Julian's plight here, we call for his freedom. That doesn't
mean we note all the crazies are all the bulls**t from macho idiots.
Papsmear? We're not interested. You don't know how to make an
argument, not one that wins people over. If you're not the worst person
online making an argument 'for' Julian, it's just because Andrea de
Luca Valerie Myers exists. For those not aware of that crazy, she
regularly attacks Stella Morris as a fake -- a deep state fake --
because, she tells us, she (Andrea) is actually Julian's fiancee. Also
someone who needs to take a look at their work? The Twitter account
entitled Free The Truth: Free Assange Documentary. You're not helping
anyone, you're just pissing people off with your garbage. Taking a
Julian quote and then Tweeting that same quote four times in a row, then
taking another quote and Tweeting it four times in a row over and over
all day does not help Julian Assange, it just makes everyone want to
look at something else because they're looking for news about Julian and
all they're getting your useless crap in their Twitter threads. This
account is the reason the block feature exists exactly for those type of
accounts. But do check out Andrea de Luca Valerie Myers if you want to
marvel over just how insane some people are. She's preserved his CD
Walkman, baby, she's keeping it for you until you return to her!!!! The
Walkman, baby, she saved the Walkman!!!!
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have carried out the most important
investigative journalism of our generation, revealing to the public the
inner workings of power through the release of luminous documents. No
other news organization has come close. This information has exposed the
crimes, lies, and fraud of the powerful, sparking the judicial lynching
of Assange who awaits extradition to the US in a high security prison
in London. It allowed people across the globe to understand what their
governments are doing behind their backs. In this show, we will speak
with the Italian investigative journalist, Stefania Maurizi, author of
Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies, about some of the most
important information provided to the public by WikiLeaks. These include
the US War logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, a cash of 250,000 diplomatic
cables and 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, along with
the 2007 collateral murder video in which US helicopter pilots banter as
they gunned down civilians, including children and two Reuters
journalists in a Baghdad street.
They include the 70,000 hacked emails copied from the accounts of
John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, that exposed the
sleazy and corrupt world of the Clintons, including the donation of
millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation by Saudi Arabia and Qatar,
the $657,000 that Goldman Sachs paid to Hillary Clinton to give talks, a
sum so large, it can only be considered a bribe and her dishonesty,
telling the public she would work for financial reform while privately
assuring Wall Street she would protect their interests. The cash of
leaked emails showed that the Clinton campaign interfered in the
Republican primaries to ensure that Donald Trump was the Republican
nominee, assuming he would be the easiest candidate to defeat. They
exposed Clinton’s advanced knowledge of questions in a primary debate
and a role as the principal architect of the war in Libya, a war she
believed would burnish her credentials as a presidential candidate.
Joining me to discuss these and other revelations and their
importance is Stefania Maurizi, who is an investigative journalist. She
is the only international reporter who has worked on the entirety of the
WikiLeaks secret trove of leaked documents. So why don’t we begin
actually with a phone call you get in the middle of the night. It’s in
the book. And I’ll let you take it from there. And you have one hour. So
they call you, what, at two in the morning or something? Go ahead.
Stefania Maurizi:
Yes, yes. So first of all, thank you for having me, Chris. And I like
your idea to discuss the very first time I work as a media partner with
WikiLeaks. It was back in 2009 and WikiLeaks was not as famous as after
the release of bombshells like the collateral murder video. And it was a
tiny little known media organization. And I was looking at them at
least since 2008 when one of my sources, journalistic sources, suddenly
stopped talking to me. And it was at the point that I realized I needed
better source protection because the old-fashioned techniques that
basically are still at work in these days in newsroom, the use of mobile
phones, emails, are no longer suitable in these days where heavy
surveillance is the rule. So it was at that point that I realized that I
needed good source protection. And since I’m a mathematician, for me,
it was natural to look at cryptography as a tool to protect sources.
And at that time, there was only one media organization in the world
using cryptography systematically. And that media organization was not
the New York Times. It was not The Guardian. It was not the Washington
Post. It was a tiny media organization founded by Julian Assange,
WikiLeaks. And so I started looking at this work, but I had no contacts.
I was just looking at them and the kind of documents they were
publishing and I was deeply, deeply impressed. And I was deeply
impressed, first of all, for the kind of very sensitive document they
were able to get. But also, because of the courage. They were very
courageous people because, for example, when they published the
Guantanamo Manual and the Pentagon asked them to remove the document
from their website, they said no. And in those days, it was not really
common to have a media organization saying no to the Pentagon. Quite the
opposite. After the 9/11, we had media reporting whatever the
intelligence organizations were telling them with very few exception, of
course.
And so I looked at them, but I didn’t know them. I was deeply
interested in them in the work and learning from them. So it was that
night in July 2009, that suddenly, they contacted me. They had my
contacts because I had approached them and it was in the middle of the
night and I was sleeping. And it was very sticky and hot. And the last
thing I wanted to do was to wake up and answering my phone. But my phone
kept ringing. So at the end, I woke up and I was told, “This is
WikiLeaks.” And I could barely understand what was going on. I mean, I
was sleeping. And I understood that I had to rush to my computer and
download the file because I had an hour, just an hour, to download the
file. And after an hour, they would remove it because others could
download it.
So I went to the computer, I downloaded the file, and I started
listening. It was an audio file. And it was very interesting audio file
about the garbage crisis in Naples in 2009. Basically, Naples was
drowning into garbage, into trash. And we had these images of Naples
drowning in trash, which basically hit the headlines all around the
world. So it was a conversation, a secretly recorded conversation by
some people who had a conversation with a counselor discussing the
alleged role of the Italian Secret Services in this garbage crisis. As
many people don’t realize that garbage is a really important resource
for mafia for the mafias. They are trafficking this trash. So this
counselor was discussing the alleged state mafia deals behind this
crisis. And without WikiLeaks, this information would’ve probably never
surfaced.
I remember the morning after I called the counselor and I verified
the files. WikiLeaks had done its own verification process, which, for
me, was really important, because it confirmed that WikiLeaks was
working as a media organization. It didn’t just put online whatever it
received. It did its own verification process. And then, of course, it
was trying to do its verification process in parallel with other
journalists, because of course, no newsroom has the technical and
journalistic skills to verify whatever it receives. And even traditional
media often partner to verify and publish information with an impact.
So for me, it was really important that they wanted to verify this
information to establish whether it was genuine and to understand the
local context. They didn’t just put on the internet whatever they
received.
And I verified in parallel with them. And there was no doubts. The
file was genuine. And at the time, I was working for the Italian leading
news magazine, L’Espresso, which had done important work on the garbage
crisis and the role of the mafias and so on. So I was even able to put
in the context of this information. And that was the first time I work
as a media partner with WikiLeaks before the collateral murder. And
after that, basically after something like six months, WikiLeaks
published the collateral murder video. And they, of course, became so
famous, so well known all around the world. And since then, I basically
never stopped working on the WikiLeaks secret documents. I have worked
on the full documentation and I have worked on this case for the last 13
years.
But you have to realize that while I had no problems, I had some
intimidation. And if you want, we can discuss what kind of intimidation.
I was physically attacked in Rome, stolen important documentation. I
was physically [inaudible 00:10:46] inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and I
had several intimidation, but I was never put in prison. I was never
arrested. Whereas for Julian, he has never gained known freedom. This is
also one of the reason I’m so focused on this case because it’s like
your editors tell you to go out with a colleague and your colleague
falls out of a cliff. And you don’t abandon it. You don’t abandon him.
You try to call people for help. You try to make people realize that
this person is in danger. His life hangs in balance. And this is what
also I’m trying to do. In addition to this, I have been litigating my
FOI case to obtain the full documentation on Julian Assange and
WikiLeaks for the last seven years, which has been very, very intense.
Chris Hedges:
So this leak essentially tied the intelligence services, the Italian
intelligence services, to the mafia in Naples. Would that be a summation
of what you found out?
Stefania Maurizi:
Yeah. I mean, there was a kind of negotiation according to the
source, according to the counselor discussing this crisis. There was a
kind of negotiation between the state and the mafia about this crisis.
Chris Hedges:
I think this is something lost on many US viewers and readers, and
that is the impact that WikiLeaks has had in countries, not just Italy,
but Tunisia and Haiti. Maybe you can talk about the impact in Tunisia,
the impact in Haiti. Because suddenly, countries around the globe were
able to see not only what their governments were doing, but the
interference, especially in Haiti, of the US embassy in attempt to crush
a drive to raise the minimum wage, which, I can’t remember what it is,
$2 an hour or something. But talk a little bit about the global impact
these revelations had.
Stefania Maurizi:
Well, of course, for the first time, if you are referring to the
Afghan war logs, Iraq war logs, or the cables, all these files allowed
for the first time to access to this information which was secret. So I
mean, there was no way to obtain this information unless you got a copy
after 25 years, 30 years, maybe 40 years when no one care anymore. Maybe
the historians, the professional historians, care at that point, but it
was no longer relevant for the public opinion to take informed
decisions, of course.
So that was the explosive part of this secret documentation. For the
first time, we got access to secret information about how the Afghan war
work, about the Iraq war, about the US diplomacy and their deals, their
pressure, the political pressure, their crimes behind the scene. And we
could get access as facts were still very relevant, not after 20 or 30
years or 40 years. And we could get access without the reductions.
Because when you require request these documents using freedom of
information. You often got completely redacted documents to an extent
that they are useless. As a journalist or as a citizen, they have are of
little use. So this information was really game changing, really
allowed to take the public opinion, the decision they need. The
information they need to take informed decision as citizens.
Julian Assange is held prisoner yet Colin Powell walks free. What a world.
Twenty
years ago this month, the U.S. was rushing headlong into war with
Iraq—one of the most consequential travesties in modern American
history. Here’s how one congressman and I tried and failed to get the
Democratic Party on record opposing that war. After 9/11,
neoconservatives began their campaign to invade Iraq. Their arguments
included: that Saddam Hussein was linked to the 9/11 terrorists; that
Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was secretly
buying components to build a nuclear bomb; that the U.S. was attacked
because our enemies saw us as weak, and demonstrated our strength and
resolve we needed a decisive victory somewhere (anywhere); and that a
complete victory in Iraq would be quick, easy, require few troops, be
welcomed by the Iraqi people, and result in the establishment of a
friendly stable democracy.
These outright fabrications or, at
the very least, matters that demanded vigorous debate were not
challenged. The mainstream media largely served as an echo chamber for
the war hawks, and most leading politicians were shy to criticize.
In
advance of the February 2003 meeting of the Democratic National
Committee, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. and I submitted a resolution
to encourage debate on the impending war. Using temperate and
respectful language, it called on our party to urge the Bush
administration “to pursue diplomatic efforts to achieve the disarmament
of Iraq, to clearly define for the American people and Congress the
objectives, costs, consequences, terms and length of commitment
envisioned by any U.S. engagement or action in Iraq, and to continue to
operate in the context of and seek the full support of the United
Nations in any effort to resolve the current crisis in Iraq.”
Polling
indicated that the majority of Americans and a supermajority of
Democrats supported these positions. And we knew that if Democrats
failed to challenge the rush to war, we would not only risk losing the
support of voters but also shirk our responsibility to avert a war that
would prove devastating to our country and the Middle East region.
Since 2015, GLAAD’s annual Accelerating Acceptance study has
measured Americans’ attitudes and comfortability towards LGBTQ
Americans, highlighting the progress we’ve made and the challenges that
still need to be addressed in pursuit of full acceptance for the LGBTQ
community.
Since the study’s inception we have recorded a steady increase in many
key figures of acceptance, but this year we found key changes of note:
Non-LGBTQ Americans feel increased confusion around the letters and
terms used to describe the community, with a majority inaccurately
associating the term LGBTQ with being mostly about sexual orientation.
Most alarmingly, LGBTQ people are reporting an increased incidence of
discrimination, falling in particular on LGBTQ people of color, and
transgender and nonbinary people. These disconcerting results prompted
us to go further to explore LGBTQ Americans’ sense of being unsafe in
America.
A significant majority of the LGBTQ community—a startling 70%—says that
discrimination has increased over the past two years. It is taking place
not in distant, seldom-visited corners of their experience, but in
their daily lives—with family, in the workplace, on social media, in
public accommodations, and in interactions with people at their
children’s schools.
We found that more than half (54%) of transgender and nonbinary people
feel unsafe walking in their own neighborhoods, compared to 36% of all
LGBTQ adults, as well as less safe in various environments, from work,
to social media, or in a typical store. More Gen Z Americans as well are
out as LGBTQ than any other generation, yet a majority (56%) are more
fearful for their personal safety in 2022 than in the prior two years.
These findings are distressing, but not unforeseen. Legislation
targeting LGBTQ people and youth, including censorship in classrooms,
book bans, bans on evidence-based healthcare and access to school
sports, has ballooned since 2020 to nearly 250 bills introduced in
statehouses across the nation. Eight in ten LGBTQ people strongly agree
they wish there was more legislative action at the federal level to
protect them as an LGBTQ person.
The good news is that the LGBTQ community is aligned, activated, and
united. Three out of four LGBTQ adults strongly agree that visibility in
society is essential to gaining increased equality and acceptance. A
significant majority are committed to maintaining their visibility and
supporting everyone in the community. Representation in the media is
more important than ever, and 64% strongly agree to feeling proud and
supported when there is accurate LGBTQ inclusion in the media, a core
mission of GLAAD’s work.
The 2022 Accelerating Acceptance study clearly shows the destructive
repercussions of inaccurate rhetoric and baseless legislation, and
underscores the necessity of GLAAD’s crucial role in the ongoing fight
for full LGBTQ equality and acceptance. The rise in discrimination in
public, political, and private spheres makes it very clear that passing
the Equality Act, legislation which will secure federal protections for
the LGBTQ community in areas of life that have long remained vulnerable,
has never been more critical.
GLAAD remains committed to amplifying stories that present audiences
everywhere with the richness and humanity of our communities, that
challenge harmful narratives, and educate audiences, voters,
journalists, and politicians about our everyday lives. This report is
more information regarding what’s at stake for LGBTQ people and what all
voters need to know.
Yea, Sam Smith's GLORIA is selling well around the world. BILLBOARD notes:
Sam Smith is on top in the land Down Under, as Gloria (via Capitol/Universal) bows at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart.
Gloria is Smith’s fourth consecutive top 10 album in Australia, and second No. 1 after In The Lonely Hour hit the summit in 2014 (TheThrill Of It All debuted at No. 2 in 2017, and Love Goes hit No. 3 in 2020).
The latest LP enjoyed a lift from Smith’s recent visit to Australia, a brief summer break during which the British singer performed for competition winners and VIPs at the d’Arenberg vineyards at McLaren Vale, outside of Adelaide.
It’s not Smith’s first time atop the leaderboard in Australia this year. “Unholy” featuring Kim Petras, the hit song from Gloria, returned
to No. 1 last month on the ARIA Singles Chart for a sixth
non-consecutive week. “Unholy” logs its 17th week in the national top 5
and is now triple-platinum certified (for 210,000-plus combined units).
Here's Sam and Kim performing it at last night's Grammys.
Monday, February 6, 2023. Colin Powell gets remembered for the liar
that he is, an Iraqi woman is murdered by her father (he's confessed,
don't know why the press keeps saying 'alleged') in an 'honor' killing
after her brother rapes her, and an Iraqi activist has been kidnapped.
It's the 20th anniversary of Colin Powell lying to the United Nations. How will you celebrate? Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) reports:
The Speaker of the Russian Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko,
called for re-discussing the matter of ‘Colin Powell’s test tube’ that
led to the invasion of Iraq in the United Nations, noting that this
crime does not fall under the statute of limitations.
“I think it would be correct to bring up the outrageous lie that led to a
terrible catastrophe for discussion very soon in the United Nations,
where these events began to develop 20 years ago,” Matvienko wrote via
Telegram.
“This crime has no statute of limitations. Therefore, it should remain
in the memory of mankind. Our task is to do everything we can to prevent
the erasure of truth about those events and those responsible for this
tragedy,” Matvienko said.
“We should not allow those who made these decisions to escape the court of history,” Matvienko explained.
Matvienko indicated that the deliberate lie destroyed an independent
state, and its ancient monuments, and caused the outbreak of a terrible
humanitarian crisis in the region.
In February 2003, former US Secretary of State General Colin Powell
falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
As
his Chief of Staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson helped write the
speech, but has since renounced it and America's war in Iraq.
In
that same year, Greg Thielmann was a state department weapons expert,
who publicly accused Colin Powell of misleading America by exaggerating
the threat in Iraq.
Colin is a liar and he's long
been a liar. In 2005, he sat down with Barbara Walters and only made it
even more clear that he was liar who learned nothing from lying to the
world. Ava and I covered that September 2005 appearance in "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were" for THIRD:
Powell, like Robert Redford, is shown early on military drag. He
models well, he just lacks Redford's ability to convincingly play a man
torn between doing what others want and what he knows is right. They did
keep the plot point of Hubbell's betrayal. Probably had to because
without the testimony that destroys Hubbell, you have no story.
They've
updated the testimony. Instead of naming names during the McCarthy
period, Powell lies to the United Nations and the world. What they miss
is the heart breaking scene when Streisand explains to Redford that
people are their beliefs. Probably too much a laugh getter if it came
out of Walters' mouth. But if they were worried about unintended laughs,
someone should have spoken to Walters about the three strands of red,
worry beads she's wearing.
Walters says, unable to look at him
while she does -- oh the drama!, "However, you gave the world false,
groundless reasons for going to war. You've said, and I quote, 'I will
forever be known as the one who made the case for war.' Do you think
this blot on your record will stay with you for the rest of your life?" Powell:
Well it's a, it's a, of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who
presented it on behalf of the United Nations, uh, United States, to the
world. And it will always be uh, part of my, uh, my record. Walters: How painful is it? Powell: (shrugs) It was -- it *was* painful. (shifts, shrugs) It's painful now.
Has a less convincing scene ever been performed?
Possibly.
Such as when Powell informs Walters that the fault lies with the
intelligence community -- with those who knew but didn't come forward.
Unfortunately for Powell, FAIR's advisory steered everyone to a Los Angeles Times' article from July 15, 2004:
Days
before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was to present the case for
war with Iraq to the United Nations, State Department analysts found
dozens of factual problems in drafts of his speech, according to new
documents contained in the Senate report on intelligence failures
released last week. Two memos included with the Senate report listed
objections that State Department experts lodged as they reviewed
successive drafts of the Powell speech. Although many of the claims
considered inflated or unsupported were removed through painstaking
debate by Powell and intelligence officials, the speech he ultimately
presented contained material that was in dispute among State Department
experts.
Well movies always rewrite some details to make
the characters more sympathetic and, presumably, that happened in this
remake as well.
Having dismissed the need for facts, the
"reluctant warrior" Powell now wants to weigh in on the
invasion/occupation. Powell explains that we can't "cut and run" with
regards to Iraq. We have to stay. He offers that "I'm not a quitter"
himself -- amidst his stay the course nonsense. All this from the former Secretrary of State.
If
it's so damn important that we "accomplish" over there, that we "stay
the course," are the words really convincing coming out the mouth of the
cut and run Secretary of State? Seems to us if you believe in this war
as much as you say you do, and believe in staying the course, you . . .
stay the course in your job. Powell didn't. There are the Rules for
Powell and there are the rules for the rest of us.
Take Cindy
Sheehan. She's a grieving parent and he feels sorry for her. Walters
actually wakes up for this moment. And, in one of the few times prior to
Powell's wife being brought on, she actually looks him in the eye while
delivering her line.
Walters: But if you feel the war is just -- that's a different feeling than if you feel the war is is not. Powell:
Well, of course, for the person that is effected, it is. If they don't
feel the war is just, they will always feel it as a deep personal loss.
Unlike
Powell, we'd argue that regardless of beliefs on this war, the loss is a
"deep, personal loss" for most, possibly all, who've lost family
members. Maybe if he sent fat-boy Michael over there, he could find out
for himself what it feels like? Till then, by his remarks, he's not
anyone effected. How nice that must be.
But is the war just?
It's
not a moral issue for Powell. He's already informed Walters of that. He
lied. Well if he had to lie, forget the pre-emptive war debate for a
moment, if he had to lie, what does that say about the war? Seems to us
that a just war wouldn't be a war that required you pulling one over on
the public to get support for.
It wasn't a moral issue, Powell states, going to war. Then what does it matter that he lied? If it's not a moral issue, then what does it matter?
Powell's
mea culpa is not only unconvincing, it's illogical. He's glad Saddam
Hussein's gone. So why's he concerned with his "blot?" He's completely
unconcerned that we're in a war that's based on lies. "I'm glad" he
says. Sure he admits that he lied (by proxy -- it's others faults, you
understand, nameless people in the intel community), but there's no
moral concern. He's only worried about the slug line that now
accompanies his name. The "blot." The tag 'liar, liar.'
Colin
Powell lied to the United Nations. Not by proxy, he lied. His testimony.
A testimony he made the decision to give. Despite objections from
people in the department he headed. His accountability pose is hollow
and unconvincing. Shrugs? "What are you going to do?" shrugs? That and
the shiftiness during the exchange (he can't sit still during the
exchange) back up his words. This isn't any big deal to him, that he
lied and we went to war. He's just concerned that he's a known liar. For
the rest of his life.
This is how he wants to be remembered:
"A good public servant somebody who truly believes in his country. . . . Somebody who cared, somebody who served."
Yeah
well, Nixon wanted to be remembered a certain way as well. Liar's the
way many remember him now. Liar's the way many will remember Colin
Powell. Belief in your country doesn't allow you to lie to your country.
Belief in your Bully Boy does. That's something this adminstration
fails to grasp. They all think they're working for the Bully Boy. Powell
makes statements to that effect. He's full of many things including his
"service" to the Bully Boy. The administration is supposed to be
working for the country. Presidents come and go. The nation is what is
supposed to matter. Belief in your country would mean you tell the
people the truth.
Somebody who served?
He didn't serve
the country. He betrayed it. He didn't live up to his office. He didn't
live up to the public trust. He didn't live up to the principles of
democracy. He lied. He lied. He lied.
February 5, 2023, marks the 20th anniversary of US Secretary of State
Colin Powell’s 2003 speech at the Security Council of the United
Nations. In front of a worldwide audience, Powell told lies to justify
the Bush administration’s criminal decision to invade Iraq.
Among the lying statements made by Powell were:
“We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails.”
“Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agents.”
“He
[Saddam Hussein] remains determined to acquire nuclear weapons. … He is
so determined that he has made repeated covert attempts to acquire
high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries.”
“What
I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more
sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network … Iraqi
officials deny accusations of ties with al-Qaida. These denials are
simply not credible.”
The
death of a young YouTube star at the hands of her father has sparked
outrage in Iraq, where so-called “honour killings” continue to take
place.
Tiba
al-Ali, 22, was killed by her father on January 31 in the southern
province of Diwaniya, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said on
Twitter on Friday.
Her murder is prompting numerous Tweets. Here's a sample.
Unverified recordings of conversations between Ali and her father
appeared to indicate that he was unhappy about her decision to remain in
Turkey, according to AFP. In the recording, Ali also revealed to her
parents that she was raped by her brother in 2017. Her parents
acknowledged the assault but told her to forget about the incident.
After strangling his daughter to death, Ali's father surrendered to the authorities, according to Maan.
So
her brother rapes her, her parents know and the response of the father
-- for 'honor' -- is to kill her and not her brother who raped her?
There
is no such thing as 'honor' killings and if that was never clear to you
before, it should be now. He raped his own sister but the one to be
killed was the woman?
Iraq: Action must be taken on gender-based violence after murder of Tiba Ali by her father
Reacting to the horrific murder of blogger Tiba Ali, who was murdered
by her father in a family dispute, Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s
Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:
“Until the Iraqi authorities adopt robust legislation to protect
women and girls from gender-based violence, we will inevitably continue
to witness horrific murders such as that suffered by Tiba Ali,
apparently at the hands of her own father.
“Iraq has failed to criminalize domestic violence despite an increase
in reporting of incidents of domestic violence by national NGOs.
Shockingly, the Iraqi penal code still treats leniently so called
“honour crimes’ comprising violent acts such as assault and even murder.
There is also no effective system in place for reporting domestic
violence nor adequate shelters to protect women and girls.
“The murder of Tiba Ali must be investigated, the perpetrator brought
to justice and the sentence must be commensurate with the gravity of
this terrible crime, without recourse to the death penalty.”
Background
Tiba Ali had, local media reported, been living in Turkey and was
under threat by her family but she had returned to Iraq for a visit,
only to be killed on 1 February 2023. Her father has reportedly
surrendered to the authorities. News of her murder broke on Wednesday
night and social media users began to condemn the killing and call for
accountability under the hashtag ‘We Demand Tiba’s Rights.’
A draft law on domestic violence was tabled and debated in the Iraqi
Parliament in 2019 and 2020 but has stalled since then. In 2020, UN agencies in Iraq expressed their concern at the rising number of domestic violence cases during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to local media, Tiba was sleeping in her room when her father
strangled her to death. After this, he himself went to the police and
confessed his crime. Everyone is surprised about this incident. According
to media reports, Tiba had travelled to Turkey with his family in 2017,
after which he refused to return to Iraq. Some purported recordings of
Tiba going viral on social media suggest that Tiba left her home after
she was sexually abused by her brother.
The United Nations issued the following:
UN in Iraq condemns the killing of Tiba al-Ali and calls on all parties to protect women and girls from violence
05 February 2023
The United Nations in Iraq condemns the abhorrent killing of Tiba al-Ali, a 22-year-old woman.
The
avoidable death of Tiba is a regretful reminder of the violence and
injustice that still exists against women and girls in Iraq today.
So-called honour killing and other forms of gender-based violence
violate human rights and cannot be tolerated. While some efforts have
been taken by state institutions to combat these acts of violence
against women, more needs to be done towards prevention, protection and
accountability. We urge the Council of Representatives to strengthen the
institutional framework, including repealing Articles 41 and Article
409 of Iraq’s penal code, and call for the enactment of a law that
explicitly criminalizes gender-based violence, in accordance with
international human rights standards, together with improved services
for survivors and those at risk.
The United Nations calls on the Government
of Iraq to support laws and policies to prevent violence against women
and girls, take all necessary measures to address impunity by ensuring
that all perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice and the
rights of women and girls are protected, so that they can live a life
free from violence and discrimination.
A prominent Iraqi environmentalist was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen
on the way to the capital Baghdad, his brother told Rudaw English on
Sunday, as his whereabouts remains unclear.
Jassim al-Assadi has been a prominent voice of Iraq’s environmental
civil society for years, raising awareness of the threats facing the
country’s southern wetlands. He is the head of Nature Iraq, a United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) accredited environmental group,
working to preserve Iraq’s endangered marshes.
His brother, Nadhim al-Assadi, told Rudaw English that the activist was
driving from Babil province towards Baghdad, accompanied by one of his
cousins, on Wednesday when they were surrounded by two vehicles carrying
a group of armed men wearing civilian clothing.
