Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills): Leah Remini and Michael Jackson

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Leah Remini and Michael Jackson

That's a clip of Joe Rogan speaking to Leah Remini about Scientology. Thank you to Ann who e-mailed me the clip. She knows I love Leah Remini. I usually binge Leah's A&E show because watching it weekly can be difficult since we may be speaking at the time and we might be in this time zone or that. So often, I'll just catch three episodes at a time and then have a bit of break due to not being able to watch.

Now let's note Michael Jackson. From SLATE:

It was an ugly rumor that circulated for years, but fans of the great artist were in denial until evidence emerged that seemed impossible to refute. I’m talking about the research that came out last week showing that when Charles Dickens was dumping his wife of a quarter century, the mother of his 10 children, in order to pursue his affair with an 18-year-old actress, he tried to have his spouse shut away in a mental asylum. It wasn’t an uncommon cruelty for men in Victorian England to commit against perfectly sound-minded partners. Dickens only failed in his efforts because the humanitarian-minded doctor friend he approached turned him down. Disgusting as the tale is, it’s hard to believe it will do more than glancing damage to Dickens’ standing. Scholars took decades to come around to the truth about his long-running dalliance with the actress, but once they did, few communities chose to shut down their annual productions of A Christmas Carol. Dickens remains too central to literary culture, while the people he hurt (he was also a crap father) are way back in the 19^th-century London fog. None of which makes what nearly befell Catherine Dickens less awful.

For all the emotions and issues that will come up as HBO broadcasts the harrowing Leaving Neverland documentary about Michael Jackson’s alleged child sexual abuse this weekend, it’s a stubborn, inconvenient fact that Jackson was to modern popular music and dance what Dickens was to the Victorian novel—a parallel you’ll find strange only if you don’t care for modern pop music. Thriller continues today to be the best-selling album of all time around the world, and estimates of between 66 million and 100 million copies sold don’t account for the unimaginable numbers of cassette-taped and file-traded versions in people’s collections, from Boston to Botswana. Nearly a decade after his death, there are weeks when half the acts on the Billboard chart sound like they’re doing MJ imitations. In terms of global reach, recognition, and influence, no one but the Beatles and Elvis can compare. And John Lennon physically assaulted his first wife, and almost beat a man to death for suggesting he was gay. Elvis started dating his wife-to-be when Priscilla Ann Wagner was 14 and he was 24.

I’m not raising these cases to excuse Jackson of the horrifying allegations that are made against him in the documentary, not to mention the charges he evaded in court during his life. The stories of the two alleged abuse survivors in the film are extremely detailed and convincing. They’re especially disturbing if, like me and many others, you once performed Olympian mental gymnastics to sustain some faith in Jackson’s relative innocence.

From CBS NEWS:

Wade Robson met Michael Jackson after winning a dance contest in his native Australia when he was five years old. James Safechuck first met the pop singer while filming a Pepsi commercial around his ninth birthday. In an explosive new documentary set to premiere on HBO this Sunday, Safechuck and Robson claim that Jackson went on to sexually abuse them for years.
In their first TV interview about the film, "Leaving Neverland," the men tell "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King how the pop icon's attention wasn't strange to them at all at the time. It made them feel special.
"It was, again, the feeling was, 'Out of all the kids in the world, here I am and Michael chose me' and he also told me that, you know, 'I've never done this with anybody else.' Yeah. So that was more, too. Wow," Robson said. "He chooses me and he loves me."
As Robson described those feelings, Safechuck nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I mean, it's all the same ... you know, he did the same thing to me, as well," he said.
"Were you frightened or thinking, 'This is weird or wrong?'" King asked.
"No. No," Safechuck said. "It's in the context of a loving, close relationship so … there's no alarm bells going off in your head or any thoughts like that. Really, it's just, 'I love this person and we're trying to make each other happy.' And he said I was his first. But even as a kid, you don't even know what that means. You don't — you don't even question it further than that," Safechuck said.

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

Wednesday, February 27, 2019. Accountability, does it exist at all?

This event wraps up today:

Today and tomorrow, The Night Foundation Media Forum:

Stream the Knight Media Forum LIVE on YOUR Website

LIVE February 26-27, 2019

The Knight Media Forum is the most important annual gathering of journalists, funders, information theorists and others interested in the future of the news media in this country.

And this year its mission is more crucial than ever, as trust in the media continues to decline, as local newsrooms shrink, as news deserts expand and as the threat these changes pose for democracy becomes abundantly clear.

The Knight Media Forum will be convening leading experts at both the local and national level to explore solutions to assure that all citizens receive accurate, reliable news and information that serves the needs of their diverse communities.

Detroit Public TV will be live streaming the conference on February 26-27 and providing it to organizations free of charge.

Anchoring the coverage is Emmy-winning journalist, Hari Sreenivasan, host of “PBS NewsHour Weekend” and the national public television show “SciTech Now.”

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Should any of the above not work, remember to check Detroit Public TV where the forum will be streamed live.

Regarding yesterday's snapshot, Martha and Shirley calculate 37 e-mails to the public account from non-community members who don't see the point in calling out CODESTINK. Many of the e-mails, per Martha and Shirley, had the exact same language including "divisive."

No, it's not divisive. If it is, I'm fine with that.

‏ @JohnStauber

You would understand the Dems and #Venezuela better if you knew what happened to the US antiwar movement in 2006/07.  It was hijacked by ⁦@SpeakerPelosi⁩ & ⁦@MoveOn⁩ to serve @theDemocrats AND fund the war in #Iraq.  It never recovered.

1 reply8 retweets13 likes

Exactly.

And if you don't learn, you're going to be tricked again. Yes, I noted in 2004 that all the internet really was doing was beheading Cokie Roberts while thousands of Cokies sprung up in her place (all of which were male).

There were so many promises and so many boasts. Where are they? Where are they opposing plans to overthrow an elected government in Venezuela?

And they certainly aren't bothering to inform you of all the sell-outs.

Leslie Cagan grandstanded on Iraq. We could explore the damage she did to PACIFICA RADIO -- and Leslie's moves back then are part of the reason PACIFICA has had so many financial problems. But the reality is she used United for Peace and Justice as a front group, it's purpose was not to end the Iraq War. It's purpose was to elect Democrats. UFPJ -- and CODESTINK was part of this -- refused to hold DC events after the Democrats were in power of the Congress. Didn't want to "embarrass" them. And, of course, a week after Barack Obama was elected, they shut down their site stating that their goals had been accomplished.

The war didn't end.

But UFPJ didn't care. And you know they weren't going to call out Barack so they had to shut down. Fake asses.

Jill Stein?

I think I've been very fair to Jill Stein. I can't stand her. Ava and I called her out (rightly) in "Let the fun begin" but except for that piece, I've usually ignored any real criticism of her unless it was Iraq.

I'm an adult, I'm in mood for her b.s. She thinks Tweets are actions? She's an embarrassment (and she better not get the Green Party nomination in 2020, they sorely need fresh blood).

In 2012, Jill ran for the presidency. Barack had a flair up in a debate with Mitt Romney, it didn't go well. And Jill could have built on that to get left votes. Instead, she used that moment to attack Mitt Romney demonstrating that she would never really be much more than the little sister to the Democratic Party.

Three real debates took place between Barack and Mitt. Jill participated in at least two mock debates.

I'm sorry her Tweets about how awful the Iraq War was?

Glad you see it in 2019. Where the f**k were you in 2012 or 2016?

In 2012, Barack was campaigning on how he removed all US troops from Iraq and kept his campaign promise. He didn't. The press let him get away with it, whores. Why did Jill let him get away with it?

Ahead of the three debates, September 26, 2012, Tim Arango (THE NEW YORK TIMES) reported:

Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.

But over the next weeks, Barack would go through three televised debates with no member of the press questioning him at the debate or in print after about why he was making claims that were not true.

Nor did Jill ask that question.

Jill ran in 2012 with no mention of war and peace. She was a joke. The Green Party can run serious candidates. And has. Jill is not one.

And it's outrageous when she now does a Tweet 'about' the Iraq War. They are never about the Iraq War. Jill can't even focus on Iraq for 280 characters. She can't -- and hasn't -- given a speech on Iraq while she has twice run for the presidency. But she wants to jump on a no war train that might build so she used Iraq today. It's short hand, it's a reference point.

Iraqis are dying. Iraq is occupied by the US. I can't believe the craven whores who think they can get away with ignoring Iraq excepts as a moment in the distant past.

That's Medea Benjmain. Media has problems. Seriously, there's a disconnect there. She's just not very bright. I grasp that. But I also grasp that she walked away from Iraq in 2006. I grasp that and Joie (a bundler for Barack) used Iraq to destroy Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Why would anyone forgive her for that?

She bird-dogged Hillary, CODESTINK did it as an organization as well. They forgot to note that founder Jodie was backing Barrack and that Jodie was a bundler for Barack's campaign.

That wasn't fair. And we called it out in real time. Every now and then in the last two years, a Hillary cultist will whine in a piece that it's so unfair Hillary was held accountable but this man or that man wasn't.

There are some reasons why Hillary is held accountable when others are not -- some that are valid. But there are reasons that aren't valid.

And if the ones whining want to get serious, they need to blame Medea and CODESTINK. They even teamed up with an African-American woman that they quickly dropped after 2008 -- teamed up to trash Hillary because they needed, in their minds, a person of color to give them 'soul.' How very frat boy of them.

Again, they dropped her -- long before the idiot started sporting dollar store weave in public.

She let herself and her work be used and CODESTINK was happy to use it.

Let's define Hillary cultist. I do not insult the 2008 crew. If you were around then -- Debra Messing wasn't -- you know how Hillary was held to an unfair statndard in order to promote lies about Barack so that he'd get the nomination. You know Hillary experienced real sexism in 2008. If you called that out, you were attacked. The cesspool that is DAILY KOS, for example, began banning women (they would disagree with that statement and if I care what right wingers from authoritarian regimes in Latin America thought, I'd word that differently).

I don't know where Patty Arquette (who I do know but never knew she'd get this f**king crazy) was in 2008 but she wasn't helping Hillary. Nor was Debra Messing.

Rickie Lee Jones was, Cher was, etc. I don't fault them for their support of Hillary in 2016. And they, like so many others, have the scars from 2008. Delilah Boyd and so many other women who were important voices online closed shop because of the attacks that we experienced from men for refusing to lie about Hillary, for refusing to stone her and join in the bash the bitch game.

Even Riverdaughter who I always had problems with is not going to get attacked for supporting Hillary in 20016 because she was there in 2008 and she was there fighting.

We fought sexism. And the bratty boyz of DAILY KOS and elsewhere trashed us, threatened us, tried to intimidate us. That even includes that hideous Lambert of CORRENTE. I had several e-mails from female bloggers about the way he treated them, the way he attacked them, for supporting Hillary (and he was supposedly a Hillary supporter -- supposedly? he encouraged people to write in Hillary in the general election -- that wasn't a vote for Hillary, if those votes were counted they would have gone to Barack Obama, he lied, he's a liar).

Now CODESTINK used Iraq to destroy Hillary in 2008. And then where were they on Iraq in 2009?

No where.

It was important enough for them to stalk her, to show up at campaign events booing her and heckling her.

But a year later? Iraq what?

Medea presents herself as a leader to this day. She's not. She's a huckster -- less so than some because she really isn't intelligent. She has to co-write those pieces (she chooses to co-write with men, she doesn't have to do that). She is just not smart and if you speak with her you will grasp that quickly.

She needs to be called out because she's a fake ass. Right now, she's supposedly against war on Venezuela. Okay, is she going to be there three or four years from now?

No, she's not.

And we saw that in 2006, Medea and CODESTINK left the US -- in the midst of their hideous hunger strike (do not encourage women or girls not to eat -- that is a serious issue in the US) -- to go meet with Iraqis. This was going to be huge, they insisted, and they were going to be writing about it and talking about it and giving intereviews about it and . .

Oh, look, Palestine!

And they immediately stabbed the Iraqis in the back. One who met with them has written a wonderful column for the gina & krista round-robin about what a betrayal that was.

Medea and CODESTINK can't focus, they drop real issues (like the ongoing Iraq War) to instead devote time to whatever's trending on Twitter. And they do this while insisting they are an anti-war group.

They need to be called out. MOVE ON does as well. And I've called them out repeatedly and directly. Unlike Danny Schechter who hid behind me to call them out. He was as furious over their betrayal as I was but could only tell me that on the phone or in an e-mail or (a few times) in person. So he hid behind me and my writing to call them out. Fine. I'll be your sin eater if it gets Iraq covered.

But grasp that there are entire conversations that take place among the left about how far you can go in holding one of our own accountable.

These people need to be held accountable.

Medea's misleading today. She needs to either take publicly accountability or step aside (or be pushed aside). I'm okay with trusting someone even if I'm skeptical about what they might do. But when I know what they have done? When I know that they will drop protesting an ongoing war when they don't think it gets them media attention? No, I'm not going to enter into that situation.

The Iraq War has not ended. BBC NEWS reports:

A soldier has admitted manslaughter by gross negligence after accidently killing his best friend in their living quarters during a tour of Iraq.

L/Cpl Colin Theaker was "playing around" with a service pistol when he accidently fired a fatal shot at L/Cpl Scott Hetherington, from Middleton.
In a statement, L/Cpl Colin Theaker described the shooting on 2 January 2017 as a "terrible accident".

How horrible. And Colin Theaker may have accidentally pulled the trigger but this is a global issue. Why were foreign troops still in Iraq in 2017? (Because the war never ended.) That blood is on all of our hands -- mine included. We have allowed these wars to continue and we have put people in places that they should not be. If Scott Hetherington hadn't been sent to Iraq by his government, he might be alive today.

Let's again note former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki's accusations:

Occupy Schagen‏ @OccupySchagen 4 hours ago

#Occupy: THE #UGLY #NAKED #TRUTH: "#ISLAMIC #STATE":

THE #EMPIRE #CREATED #ISIS.

Former #Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki:

#Obama Administration Played Important Role In #Creation Of #ISIS: 

->shar.es/amvKBH via @southfronteng

The People's Voice | Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has revealed,... iraq.trendolizer.com/2019/02/the-pe…

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has revealed, for the first time, how the US supported ISIS and intentionally allowed the terror group to gain power in Iraq so that Washington could... 

Former Iraqi PM Reveals How Obama Knowingly Helped ISIS. Nouri al-Maliki has revealed, for the first time, how the US supported ISIS and intentionally allowed the terror group to gain power in Iraq... newspunch.com/former-iraqi-p…

Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki agreed with remarks made @realDonaldTrump @POTUS during 2016 US presidential campaign that #Obama was the “founder” of Daesh, since he fully evacuated Iraq at the wrong time to let the terrorist group overrun it.  #QAnon #FactsMatter

Ex-Iraqi PM accuses Obama of helping ISIS seize large parts of Iraq: 
Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki said the administration of #Obama played a crucial role in the creation of Daesh by allowing the terrorist group to occupy Iraqi territories. #FactsMatter #QAnon

2 likes

Again, the US media continues to ignore this. In other news, Alex Williams (PREMIER) reports:

Pope Francis has parted ways with a luxury car, with the money raised by its sale being used to restore Church buildings destroyed by Islamic State in Iraq.

A silver and gold Huracán Coupé presented to the pope by Italian car marker Lamborghini in 2017 was entered into a lottery which raised €200,000.
The sum (equivalent to £171,000) has been donated by the pontiff to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to fund the restoration of a nursery and a community centre.

The following community sites -- plus ANTIWAR.COM and DISSIDENT VOICE -- updated: