Wednesday, September 06, 2017

She's attacking Joe Biden now?

I was hoping to write multiple reviews over the weekend.

Didn't happen.

I did get one written, "Kat's Korner: Gregg Allman's final secession."


Gregg Allman's album is hideous.

I don't see the point of it and I usually love Don Was as a producer.

I don't see the point of Hillary Clinton or her stupid book, by the way.

From HUFFINGTON POST:

In her soon-to-be-released 2016 election memoir, Hillary Clinton takes on her numerous enemies and opponents — and supporters, including then-Vice President Joe Biden, who criticized her campaign for its supposed neglect of middle-class voters.
CNN was able to buy an early copy of “What Happened,” Clinton’s firsthand account of her election loss to President Trump, which is scheduled to go on sale next week. In one excerpt cited by the network, Clinton disputes Biden’s critique — citing his own role in her campaign.
“Joe Biden said the Democratic Party in 2016 ‘did not talk about what it always stood for — and that was how to maintain a burgeoning middle class,’” Clinton wrote. “I find this fairly remarkable, considering that Joe himself campaigned for me all over the Midwest and talked plenty about the middle class.”
Biden’s office declined to comment on the jab.

Joe is not Hillary.

If you need proof, here it is: Most Americans like Joe.

What Joe said on the campaign trail was right.

But that was Joe.

Hillary is the one who refused to connect with voters.

She refused to address kitchen table issues.

She's an idiot.

Bill told her this was the wrong campaign but she and her team ignored him.

Unlike Hillary, Bill has been a president.

She should have written about that instead of attacking Joe.



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


Wednesday, September 2017.  A hack named Elayne Boosler pretends to be wise.  She's not.  We explain.


It takes a hacktivist.

We're not talking hackers.  We're talking the original hacktivists -- the hacks who pose and preen because they've discovered something -- some tiny bit of a puzzle -- that they don't really understand but, damn it, they want to drop the bone and get scratched behind the ears.

Enter Elayne Boosler.

The comedian was never known for penetrating observations but she did build a fairly routine comedy career by stating the obvious.  Repeatedly.


As this country loses its humanity, heart, intelligence & magnanimity, it loses its soul, & all good things will fall away.. Dreamers
 
 
 


Leave it to Elayne.

The country, the US, had "humanity, heart, intelligence & magnanimity" up until this minute.

Well maybe that's what all those bombs dropped on Iraq from 2003 to today were filled with?  Humanity, heart, intelligence and magnanimity?

I'm pro immigration.

This isn't really the focus of that site but we need to explain some basics since Elayne, like so many others, can't grasp reality.

DACA is not law.  It was never law.

Barack Obama could have tried making it law but he didn't want to get behind that.

First he declared (rightly) that he couldn't do immigration by executive order (fiat!).  Then a few years later, he did just that.  It wouldn't have survived a real court challenge.

You want Dreamers?  Then start demanding Congress pass legislation.

Tell fake ass Nancy Pelosi to stop pretending, get off her lazy ass and work on legislation that can pass both houses of Congress.

If that had happened, as it should have, Donald Trump couldn't do anything about it.

Instead, Donald's overturned an executive order.

It's not a crime.

Unless you're a simpleton like Elayne Boosler.

 Where has she been while Iraqis have been the victims of one War Crime after another?

In denial?

As US-backed Iraqi forces have carried out War Crimes, where's Elayne been?

As this country loses its humanity, heart, intelligence & magnanimity, it loses its soul, & all good things will fall away.. Dreamers
 
 
 


How stupid are you, Elayne?

Or do you just not see non-Americans as human beings?

Maybe idiot Elayne believes Iraq was behind 9-11 and got what it deserved?

Is that her explanation for her looooong silence?

She breaks her silence to go to war on PETA.

Because PETA declared war on Iraq?  Bombed Libya?

No, because easy hacks like Elayne need easy 'causes.'

The incredibly unattractive Elayne has made it her mission to protect dogs.

I'm sure one of her peers could kill for at least ten minutes with an act built around that.

But before Elayne wants to pretend to have global awareness next, we'd recommend she grasp what her country has done to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and more in the last 15 or so years.

Here's Elayne trying to show 'awareness':


Since SCROTUS was 2 busy talking about himself last nite to mention r 7 dead sailors, condolences 2 their families. TY 4 your service.
 
 
 


I don't really get this grandstanding on Elayne's part.

It's her one Tweet on the topic.

5 days after her Tweet, Euan McKirdy (CNN) would report that the remains of all ten sailors were recovered.  The dead jumped by three but 'political' Elayne didn't Tweet on the topic again.  She did one stupid ass Tweet and thought she'd labored.

She's slamming Donald for talking about himself but she didn't even name any of the fallen.  Did you notice that?


From CNN's McKirdy:

-- Nathan Findley, 31Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles, from Amazonia, Missouri
-- Abraham Lopez, 39, Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class, from El Paso, Texas
-- Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, Electronics Technician 2nd Class, from Gaithersburg, Maryland
-- Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, Electronics Technician 2nd Clas,s from Cable, Ohio
-- Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Manchester, Maryland
-- Corey George Ingram, 28, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Poughkeepsie, New York
-- Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Suffield, Connecticut
-- John Henry Hoagland III, 20, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Killeen, Texas
-- Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class, from Decatur, Illinois 
-- Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey



Elayne leaves them nameless.  Their ship collided with another vessel and she wants to use it to trash Donald Trump?  She who can't even mention the names of the dead while trying to mount a high horse?

More to the point, before her August 23rd Tweet, she never noted this:






Sgt. Roshain E. Brooks, 30, and Sgt. Allen L. Stigler Jr., 22, were identified as soldiers killed in Iraq on Sunday
  
  



She who wants to castigate Donald Trump never mentioned those two fallen.

We covered them.  See:




  • Iraq snapshot
  • Sgt Roshain E. Brooks and Sgt Allen L. Stigler Jr....
  • Iraq snapshot

  • 2 more US troops dead in Iraq



  • But Elayne wants to make an issue out of what Donald Trump did or didn't do.

    Elayne may not grasp it but she has no control over Donald.  She does have control over her Twitter account.  She does have control over what she highlights.

    So maybe instead of her insipid attempts at 'cutesy' cat Tweets (Elayne, aren't you 65 -- haven't you really aged out of 'cutesy'?), she should make a point to use her Twitter more wisely?


    Especially if she intends to slam others.

    Remedial work required, Elayne, and you can start by streaming this week's BLACK AGENDA RADIO and paying close attention to all the segments but especially Dr. Francis Boyle discussing US empire.

    Nehal Mostafa (IRAQI NEWS) reports two Baghdad bombings have left 1 person dead and seven more injured while an attack in Salahuddin Province has left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and three more injured.

    PANARMENIA reports:

    The Iraqi military is preparing to launch their imperative operation to liberate the strategic Al-Hawija District that is currently occupied by the Islamic State group, Iraqi officials said on Tuesday, September 5, Al-Masdar News reports.


    Where was the concern for saving Hawija when the slaughter took place -- the government slaughter?

    I'm really sorry, Elayne, that I can't point to cute cat photos all over this website.  But we do have important things in the archives.  Let's drop back to April 23, 2015:


    For all the liars who claim the current problems in Iraq have nothing to do with Barack Obama, let's note this from Iraqi Spring MC.








    I'm sorry who called the above out?

    Not  Patrick Cockubrn.  He waited months to report on it and couldn't even get the numbers right when he finally did 'cover' it.

    Do you know what that is?

    If you're a community member you do.

    You probably looked at today's date, April 23rd, and thought of the event without any prompting.


    Nouri's slaughter.  The April 23, 2013 massacre of a sit-in in Hawija which resulted from  Nouri's federal forces storming in.  Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk)  announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault.   AFP reported the death toll eventually (as some wounded died) rose to 53 dead.   UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).


    And where was the US?

    Where was the White House?

    Did they immediately demand justice?  Or that Nouri step down?  Or express solidarity with the protesters?


    No, they just looked the other way and continued holding hands with Nouri al-Maliki.

    In fact, at that point they pretty much had their hands down Nouri's pants.

    Oh, the Yazidis! Trapped on a mountain top!

    But when Nouri's forces killed protesters -- and Hawija is only the biggest slaughter -- Barack Obama was still thrilled to hold hands with the man he installed in 2010.

    Because Nouri lost the election.

    Despite bribery and bullying, in 2010, he came in second in the elections.

    But Barack Obama overturned the election results.  And, via the US-brokered Erbil agreement, he gave Nouri a second term.

    Liar Patrick Cockburn ignores that as well.

    He wants you to know that Iran decreed Nouri would get a second term in October and that's how it happened.

    Well if tehran is so damn all powerful, than their decision in October should have been immediately implemented, right?

    But that's not what happened is it?

    November 10, 2010, The Erbil Agreement is signed.  November 11, 2010, the Iraqi Parliament has their first real session in over eight months and finally declares a president, a Speaker of Parliament and Nouri as prime minister-designate -- all the things that were supposed to happen in April of 2010 but didn't.

    March 7, 2010, Iraq concluded Parliamentary elections. The Guardian's editorial board noted in August 2010, "These elections were hailed prematurely by Mr Obama as a success, but everything that has happened since has surely doused that optimism in a cold shower of reality." 


    Bully Boy Bush installed Nouri as prime minister in 2006.

    The Iraqi people suffered.

    And in 2010, they went to the polls.

    And they voted for something other than Nouri.

    Despite his bribery, his bullying, the threats and so much more, they voted Nouri out.

    But Barack overturned their votes and insisted Nouri get a second term.

    So, yes, the Hawija massacre is something Barack bears responsibility for.


    While so much of the press ignored it, others stepped up.   BRussells Tribunal carried a translation of one activist who was an eye-witness to what went down:




     


    I am Thamer Hussein Mousa from the village of Mansuriya in the district of Hawija. I am disabled. My left arm was amputated from the shoulder and my left leg amputated from the hip, my right leg is paralyzed due to a sciatic nerve injury, and I have lost sight in my left eye.
    I have five daughters and one son. My son’s name is Mohammed Thamer. I am no different to any other Iraqi citizen. I love what is good for my people and would like to see an end to the injustice in my country.

    When we heard about the peaceful protests in Al-Hawija, taking place at ‘dignity and honor square’, I began attending with my son to reclaim our usurped rights. We attended the protests every day, but last Friday the area of protest was besieged before my son and I could leave; just like all the other protestors there.

    Food and drink were forbidden to be brought into the area….

    On the day of the massacre (Tuesday 23 April 2013) we were caught by surprise when Al-Maliki forces started to raid the area. They began by spraying boiling water on the protestors, followed by heavy helicopter shelling. My little son stood beside me. We were both injured due to the shelling.

    My son, who stood next to my wheelchair, refused to leave me alone. He told me that he was afraid and that we needed to get out of the area. We tried to leave. My son pushed my wheelchair and all around us, people were falling to the ground.

    Shortly after that, two men dressed in military uniforms approached us. One of them spoke to us in Persian; therefore we didn’t understand what he said. His partner then translated. It was nothing but insults and curses. He then asked me “Handicapped, what do you want?” I did not reply. Finally I said to him, “Kill me, but please spare my son”. My son interrupted me and said, “No, kill me but spare my father”. Again I told him “Please, spare my son. His mother is waiting for him and I am just a tired, disabled man. Kill me, but please leave my son”. The man replied “No, I will kill your son first and then you. This will serve you as a lesson.” He then took my son and killed him right in front of my eyes. He fired bullets into his chest and then fired more rounds. I can’t recall anything after that. I lost consciousness and only woke up in the hospital, where I underwent surgery as my intestines were hanging out of my body as a result of the shot.

    After all of what has happened to me and my little son – my only son, the son who I was waiting for to grow up so he could help me – after all that, I was surprised to hear Ali Ghaidan (Lieutenant General, Commander of all Iraqi Army Ground Forces) saying on television, “We killed terrorists” and displaying a list of names, among them my name: Thamer Hussein Mousa.

    I ask you by the name of God, I appeal to everyone who has a shred of humanity. Is it reasonable to label me a terrorist while I am in this situation, with this arm, and with this paralyzed leg and a blind eye?

    I ask you by the name of God, is it reasonable to label me a terrorist? I appeal to all civil society and human rights organizations, the League of Arab States and the Conference of Islamic States to consider my situation; all alone with my five baby daughters, with no one to support us but God. I was waiting for my son to grow up and he was killed in this horrifying way.



    I hold Obama responsible for this act because he is the one who gave them these weapons. The weapons and aircrafts they used and fired upon us were American weapons. I also hold the United States of America responsible for this criminal act, above all, Obama.

     







     And he should hold Barack Obama responsible.  Not only did Barack give Nouri a second term as prime minister, but Barack also ignored the protesters. Even when they carried signs proclaiming "Obama, if you Cannot Hear Us Can you Not See Us?Sunday, April 21, 2013, a State Dept friend called me and said the US was monitoring Hawija closely and considered it a hot spot.  So how did the massacre happen two days later?

    And since they were monitoring it, they clearly knew, at least after it happened, that what took place were War Crimes.

    And yet Barack stood with Nouri, continued to stand with him.




    From Samarra من سامراء

    Iraqis in Samarra with a message for the world (photo via Iraqi Spring MC).

    That's March 15, 2013.  One month later, the Hawija massacre would take place.

    Barack was still pretending not to see or hear the cries of the targeted in Iraq.



    Sorry it's not a cat photo, Elayne.

    But it's what happened.

    And Lt Gen Stephen Townsend alluded to that in last week's press conference:


    In Iraq, for example, I think part of the rise of ISIS was disenfranchised peoples, most of them Sunnis, who looked at Baghdad and they didn't see their government representing them or their interests or their future.

    And I think that's probably the most important thing that the people of Iraq -- the government of Iraq has to do, is it has to reach out, reconcile, bring all Iraqis together and be the government of all Iraqis.



    That's more reality on what took place than even the BBC is prepared to offer today.  Read their laughable piece on Falluja published today which can't even get the length of protest correct (protests took place in Falluja for over a year) or note how Nouri attempted to put them down via Iraqi forces (or that ISIS appears on the highway between Baghdad and Falluja stating they are present to protect the peaceful protesters).


    Go back to your cat blogging, Elayne, you're almost intelligent enough to handle that.


    New content at THIRD:













    iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq Iraq




    Sunday, September 03, 2017

    Aretha

    Brenda notes this:

    Aretha Franklin 1970. Live! A microphone and a piano. To think all the kids have got today is the X Factor. My heart goes out to them!


    What happens when we don't have Aretha, Brenda wondered?

    For those who don't know, Aretha's wrapping up what she says will be her final performances (except in Detroit where she might open a club and perform there from time to time).

    Aretha Franklin, as moving as ever, in what could be her final live performance in Philadelphia



     So if you have a chance to catch her, consider it a don't miss.





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

     
    Friday, September 1, 2017.  Numbers don't convey people and isn't that the whole point?


    Starting with Bill Van Auken's WSWS report on Syria:

    The UN’s chief adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, issued a separate statement condemning the “horrendous situation faced by civilians caught up in the offensive to retake the city from ISIS,” while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein charged that “civilians—who should be protected at all times—are paying an unacceptable price.”
    In other words, a war crime of monstrous dimensions is unfolding in plain sight, while its perpetrator, US imperialism, enjoys complete impunity.
    On its Twitter account, the local monitoring group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, posts photographs daily of babies, children, men, women, the elderly and entire families perishing under the US bombs, missiles and shells, along with the utter devastation of the city’s residential neighborhoods.
    The siege of Raqqa follows close on the heels of the even larger scale war crime consummated this summer in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, once the country’s second largest, where the death toll from nine months of bombing and shelling by the US and its Iraqi government allies has been estimated as high as 40,000.
    All of this carnage is virtually blacked out of the US media, which only last year was engaged—in close coordination with the US government—in a full-throated campaign of feigned moral outrage over the Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian government to retake eastern Aleppo from Al Qaeda-linked and US-armed Islamist “rebels.”

    The western media looks the other way repeatedly, over and over.

    It allows Americans to treat people as numbers.

    And numbers will never have the same standing as people.

    So when someone parrots the US government line, that person gets a profile (brief) in the western media but the Iraqi who is rightly outraged at what is done to his/her land is silenced.


    The United Nations mission in/on Iraq released their latest monthly undercount today:



    Baghdad, 01 September 2017 – A total of 125 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 188 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in August 2017*, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

    The number of civilians killed in August (not including police) was 116, while the number of injured (not including police) was 181.
    Of those figures, Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 180 civilian casualties (45 killed, 135 injured). Ninewa Governorate followed with 36 killed and 18 injured, and Salahadin had 4 killed and 24 injured.
    UNAMI has not been able to obtain the civilian casualty figures from the Health Directorate in Anbar.
    The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Ján Kubiš, condemned the targeting of civilians by the Daesh terrorists.
    “Daesh terrorists have shown absolute disregard for human life. Shamelessly, the terrorists have indiscriminately targeted civilians, most recently in Baghdad earlier this week, to avenge their losses on the battlefield as they lost control of Tal Afar. However, the patience and resilience of the Iraqi people have defeated the terrorists' aim in breaking their unity."
    *CAVEATS: In general, UNAMI has been hindered in effectively verifying casualties in conflict areas; in some cases, UNAMI could only partially verify certain incidents. UNAMI has also received, without being able to verify, reports of large numbers of casualties along with unknown numbers of persons who have died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicines and health care. Since the start of the military operations to retake Mosul and other areas in Ninewa, UNAMI has received several reports of incidents involving civilian casualties, which at times it has been unable to verify. For these reasons, the figures reported have to be considered as the absolute minimum. UNAMI has not been able to obtain the civilian casualty figures from the Anbar Health Department for this month.
    ****************
    For more information, please contact: Mr. Samir Ghattas, Director of Public Information/Spokesperson
    United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Phone: +964 790 193 1281, Email: ghattass@un.org  
    or the UNAMI Public Information Office: unami-information@un.org


    On undercounts, the US government has updated their civilian kills in Iraq.  David Alexander and Bernadette Baum (REUTERS) report, "The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants said on Friday it had confirmed another 61 likely civilian deaths caused by its strikes in Iraq and Syria, raising to 685 the number of civilians it has acknowledged killing since the conflict began."

    So there you have the updated undercount.

    685.

    It's a number.

    It's not a person.

    It's highly impersonal.

    And the government's counting on no one thinking for themselves, imagining what the media won't tell you, these were families, these were friends.

    They're gone now.

    They're all dead.

    "Liberated."

    Lucky them, right?

    So lucky to have the US involved in killing them.

    "Liberation" efforts to a lot of Sunnis in Iraq look like genocide.

    But we're not supposed to talk about that either, are we?

    Next stop on the so-called 'liberation' train?

    Hawija.


    Why might the Islamic State have been able to get a foothold in Hawija?


    How about Nouri's slaughter.


    The April 23, 2013 massacre of a sit-in in Hawija which resulted from then-prime minister (and forever thug) Nouri al-Maliki's federal forces storming in.  Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk)  announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault.   AFP reported the death toll eventually (as some wounded died) rose to 53 dead.   UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).



    Where was the outrage in the US?

    Or do we only care about deaths when they look like us and talk like us and share our experiences?


    8 children dead.

    Where was the world's press?

    Where was the world's attention?

    Barack and Samantha Power were convinced Nouri was the only way to get what they wanted from client-state Iraq.

    So they gave him a second term as prime minister -- after voters rejected him -- in 2010.

    He used that second term to attack reporters and activists.

    And no concern from the world.

    As Sunnis were targeted and slaughtered, it's no surprise that the Islamic State rose up.

    No surprise, and check the archives, we said it would.

    We said that when the people have used the ballot box to try to achieve fairness and that's failed, when they've turned to their elected officials and that's failed (the effort to hold a no-confidence vote -- all measures were met so fat ass Jalal Talabani invented a new one at the request of Joe Biden), when you've turned to peaceful protests and that fails, the options are limited.  Violence becomes one of the options.

    The Islamic State appeared when Nouri's goons were attacking peaceful protesters staging a sit-in on the highway between Baghdad and Anbar.

    The refusal to grasp the rise of the Islamic State is part of the blindness imposed by the press.

    Rule 1: The US can never be in the wrong.

    Rule 2: If we explain that the US caused violence we'll have to also take this plan away.

    Because Hayder's no better tan Nouri al-Maliki.

    Hayder al-Abadi is tolerated by the US government because they hope he will meet US objectives.

    He oversaw War Crimes throughout his tenure.

    Not just the attacks on civilians by the military when 'liberating' various locales.

    He oversaw the bombing of civilian neighborhoods in Falluja.

    That's a War Crime.

    KUNA reports, "Iraqi jetfighters dropped Thursday leaflets over Hawija, informing people to get ready for an imminent operation to drive" ISIS "out of the city. [. . .]  The leaflets urged residents to keep away from the IS militant assembly posts as well as the buildings and areas they control."

    Who can figure out what's missing?

    The leave portion.

    They didn't tell the civilians in Mosul to leave either.

    In what may be an improvement, the leaflets in Hawija do not appear to tell the residents to stay in the city -- that's what happened in Mosul.  They were warned not to leave.



    Let's go to Congress, Adam Schiff.

    I'm introducing an amendment to prohibit payment of funds to Trump businesses. should not profit off of the Presidency





    Hey, Adam, you do realize that each of Hillary's big book tours is made possible because of the Secret Service?  Possibly when people are raking in millions, the US tax payer shouldn't be footing the bill?  So you need to change that proposed bill to president or former president.

    As anyone with even a basic grasp of publishing knows, Hillary's tours are costly -- or would be if either she or the publisher had to arrange for security for every stop on the tour.

    Since she's been paid millions for these books -- that others write and she puts her name to -- the question is why are we paying the Secret Service to protect her on these tours?


    The following community sites -- plus PACIFICA RADIO -- updated:









  • We'll close with this from WSWS:


    More than 3,000 people from at least 80 different countries have signed the petition against Google censorship. Many have left a donation to help expand the campaign. If you haven't yet, please make a financial contribution today.

    As I type, our printers are running non-stop for shipments of David North's Open Letter to campuses and cities throughout the US. The response from workers and young people to our campaign against Google's censorship has been overwhelming. Just yesterday, campaigners in Chicago received nearly 50 new signatures for the petition in less than an hour. From autoworkers in Detroit, to striking telecommunication workers in New York City, to workers in Sri Lanka--there is a widespread understanding that the attack on Internet freedom is an attack on the working class.

    These and other activities require financial resources, and we need to do much more. Help us expand this work! Help us reach new layers of workers and youth around the world.

    Please make a donation today

    Sincerely,
    Joseph Kishore for the World Socialist Web Site

    Donate to fight Internet censorship!
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