Thursday, September 03, 2020

Music thoughts (and criticism for Tori Amos)

 Please go read Elaine's "Joni Mitchell's many classic albums" which went up a little while ago.  I really enjoyed it.  And let me note these music posts in the community in the last days:

"Song of the '00s," "What's your favorite Adele song?," "Mellow Gold?," "The Mamas and the Papas' PEOPLE LIKE US," "Diana Ross," "Kim Carnes and Barbra Streisand," "Bright Eyes," "2 Mamas and the Papas videos," "Cass and Michelle -- the coolest of Mamas," "Music: Dua Lipa. Missy Elliott, Madonna, Bright Eyes and Cher," "Rod Stewart's best album and other things," "Usher" and "Haim"


I'm lazy (no!!!) so I grabbed that from THIRD's "Highlights" which just went up.  All the content's up now including Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Who gets represented?"  -- heck, let me note the whole edition:


Again, it just went up.  Back to the music posts, Mike, Betty, Ruth, Elaine and Marcia all covered music -- in fact, Marcia had another post that's not noted "Julian Assange and Toni Braxton" -- that's listed in news on "Highlights" because of the Julian Assange aspect.  But Marcia's covering Toni Braxton's new album.

I wish we lived in a world where we could just listen to music all the time, talk about music all the time, write about music all the time.

I wish we had politicians that knew their jobs and did their jobs, for example, so we could just focus on music.  But we don't live in that world.  We live in a world where we're required to provide constant oversight not just because that's how democracy works but also because we have so many crooks in office.

I really think we've crossed a point.  I think everything either falls apart shortly or we get some sort of reform.  It can't go on the way it is, with politicians ripping off the people to give money away to the rich.  It's so out of control and so far from what the country is supposed to stand for.

I'm getting to the point, also, where I don't have time for some musical artists because they're part of a denial.

I'll give one example.

Tori Amos.  She used to be one of my favorite artists.

I was fine with disagreeing with her politically on her last album.  I praised -- Sorry, her 2014 album.  That was the last one that was really great.  NATIVE INVADERS is a good album but not a great one.  But on her UNREPENTANT album, she's really slamming Ed Snowden in a track and basically defending the NSA.  I didn't trash her for it.  But I thought she'd realize the issues and come to her senses at some point.  Instead, she's just another poser these days.

I don't need your bumper sticker of how you hate Donald Trump, Tori.  I need you to grasp how much trouble the people are in -- not because Donald's in office or Barack's in office, but because of how rigged the system is.

I've been feeling that way about Tori since her book was announced.  I read the book.  I hated the book.  I kept it to myself. 

I'm tired of keeping it to myself.

Tori needs to get back to the piano.  And if she wants to be 'political' then she needs to focus on real issues -- that's war, that's climate, that's the poverty that only increases worldwide.

John Lennon focused on real issues.  Why can't others?

I used to listen to Tori twice a week minimum.

I haven't listened to her since March.


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

 Wednesday, September 2, 2020.  No, a withdrawal of US troops is not taking place (it's a drawdown) and a few of the other lies that have been pimped about the Iraq War in the last 17 years.


Are US troops coming in or going out of Iraq?  That's the forever question no matter who's occupying the White House.  Bully Boy Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump -- no one has delivered a withdrawal.  Barack did a drawdown, not a withdrawal.  The Pentagon refused to call it a withdrawal because they do know the difference.  A withdrawal means all US troops leave (with the exception of Marine staff covering the Embassy).  The late Senator Kay Hagan knew what was what in said so in open hearing.  From the November 16, 2011 snapshot:

Senator Kay Hagan:  But I wanted to talk about our Special Operations Forces.  And, as you know, our Special Operations Forces have engaged with their Iraqi counter-parts in counter-terrorism and in training and advising activities.  And what will things look like in Iraq from a Special Operations Forces stand point going forward.  And what type of engagement would our Special Operation Forces have in Iraq?
 
General Martin Dempsy: Yes, senator the size of the Iraqi operating Special Forces is about 4,500. They're organized into a counter-terrorism section commanded by an Iraqi general by the name of Kanani.  We partnered with him at the head quarters level and will remain so. We're in discussions with Iarq about training -- trainers -- that would stay inside the wire of their places where this counter-terrorism force is located, not go with them on missions but rather train them to continue to go on missions.  And-and as I mentioned earlier, the gap is actually in their ability to kind of identify the network and target it.  We call it the find-fix-finish-asses-and-exploit cycle. They're very capable of fixing and finishing, not so capable as yet in finding, assessing and exploiting so that you continue to keep pressure on a network. But I will tell you, they are extraordinaryly competent individual soldiers. What we've got to do is keep raising the bar with them on their ability to do things at eschelons above tactics.
 
Senator Kay Hagan: Well with the drawdown taking place in less than two months, what is your outlook for the ability to continue this training process to enable them to continue to do this on their own?
 
General Martin Dempsey: Well they will be limited. They don't have the airlift to deliver them to the target that we might have been able to provide. They don't have the ISR target to keep persistant surveillance over the top of the target. So they'll be limited to ground movement and they'll be limited to human intelligence and we'll keep -- But part of the Office of Security Cooperation provides the trainers to keep the training to develop those other areas, but we're some time off in reaching that point.
 
Senator Kay Hagan: We'll, as we continue this drawdown of our military personnel from Iraq, I really remain concerned about their force protection -- the individuals that will be remaining in Iraq.  So what are the remaining challenges for our military personnel in Iraq in terms of managing their vulnerabilities, managing their exposures during the drawdown?
 
General Martin Dempsey:  Senator, are you talking about getting from 24,000, the existing force now and having it retrograde through Kuwait?
 
Senator Kay Hagan:  The ones that will remain over there.
 
General Martin Dempsey: The ones that will remain --
 
Senator Kay Hagan: Their protection.
 
General Martin Dempsey: Yes, Senator. Well, they will have -- First and foremost, we've got ten Offices of Security Cooperation in Iraq bases.  And their activities will largely be conducted on these bases because their activities are fundamentally oriented on delivering the foreign military sales.  So F-16s get delivered, there's a team there to help  new equipment training and-and helping Iraq understand how to use them to establish air sovereignty.  Or there's a 141 M1 Tanks right now, generally located at a tank gunnery range in Besmaya, east of Baghdad and the team supporting that training stays on Besmaya so this isn't about us moving around the country very much at all.  This is about our exposure being limited to 10 enduring, if you will, Offices of Security Cooperation base camps.  And doing the job of educating and training and equipping on those ten bases.  Host nation is always responsible for the outer parameter.  We'll have contracted security  on the inner parameter. And these young men and women will always have responsibility for their own self-defense.
 
Senator Kay Hagan: So we'll have contracted security on the inner-parameter?
 

General Martin Dempsey: That's right.  

No, they didn't all leave.  It wasn't a withdrawal, it was a drawdown -- this was a point that was even made directly in the hearing when Leon Panetta stated, "There aren't zero troops that are going to be there."

But, hey, we've only told the truth here all along while so many Americans have lied repeatedly.  They lied about the SOFA -- we didn't.  We posted on Thanksgiving 2008 because the White House released it that day.  They released it, I read over it and offered an analysis in 30 minutes and got it posted here.  And no one in the press or bloggers agreed with me.  But that's okay, I know contract law and I was right.  Right about the drawdown too.

Then in the fall of 2012, not even 12 months after that hearing, Barack began sending more US forces back in to join those that were already present.  Tim Arango revealed that in a NEW YORK TIMES article.  Not one about Iraq, mind you.  Jill The Whote Abramson ruled that out.  For weeks, Arango tried to get that in print.  He had a military commander on the record for the fact that Barack has sent troops back in.  Jill wouldn't allow it to go into print.

It was fall 2012 and it could 'hurt' Barack's chances of re-election.  Finally, she allowed a single paragraph of that news to appear in the middle of a long article on Syria.  


It's that sort of bulls**t that got her fired as editor of the paper.  

Some people are insisting that Donald Trump's carrying out a withdrawal.  If Donald did that, I'd be the first to praise him.  That would be an accomplishment that neither Bully Boy Bush nor Barack Obama had managed to pull off.  I'd praise him for it.

But withdrawing a few troops is not a withdrawal.

We knew it in 2011, we know it today.  We didn't whore in 2011 and we're not going to whore today.

For a withdrawal to take place, the amount of US troops in Iraq would have to be zero (again, with the exception of the Marines stationed at the Embassy -- Marines are stationed at all US embassies around the world).
 

 Donald's not talking zero.  And we've got other statements as well.  EDU MATRIX notes the US government's latest pronouncement/threat.



ANADOLU AGENCY covers the same story:

                          

The US ambassador to Iraq said Monday that his embassy would push Washington to review its policies in the country due to frequent attacks on American diplomatic missions there, media reports said.

Referring to a rocket attack on Sunday near the Baghdad airport – the third attack on sites hosting US troops and personnel – Matthew Tuller said: "There are extremist voices that prompt the targeting of the US' military and diplomatic presence, and this does not represent the Iraqi people or the interest of Iraq."

"If such attacks continue then it will prompt a review of many issues, not between Iraq and America, rather, between Iraq and the international coalition in general," he added, according to UAE-based news website The National.


Should Donald surprise us all and do an actual withdrawal, I will gladly give him credit for that and I will even applaud him for that.  But it would have to be an actual withdrawal.  That's not what's taking place currently.  A reduction is not a withdrawal.

I need to correct the above.  One journalist did tell the truth in 2011.  That was Ted Koppel.  He appeared on NBC's then-new Friday news magazine ROCK CENTER WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS and on NPR's TALK OF THE NATION to discuss reality.  And?  Both shows were quickly gone.  That happens a lot, by the way.  Tell the truth and you can disappear very easily.  Telling the truth about the evil Bush family turned Houston, Texas into a one-paper town, by the way.  Telling the truth about the Iraq War in the lead up and after the start of the war ended KNIGHT RIDDER.  For years, we used to have to repeatedly point out here that despite bloggers and columnists lying and giving MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS credit for the Iraq coverage, MCCLATCHY didn't do s**t.  They lied like everybody else.  Their papers were around in 2002 and they lied.  MCCLATCHY purchased KNIGHT RIDDER.  That deal was announced in March of 2006.  Three years after the war started.  But for years and years, we had to put with various fools and some liars (such as a certain press 'expert' at THE NATION) giving MCCLATCHY credit for what they did not do.  MCCLATCHY sold the war and did so without questioning one official statement -- they were no better than THE WASHINGTON POST or THE NEW YORK TIMES.  They also began burying Iraq as soon as they took over.  The last real story of major significance on Iraq was published the day before the company was taken over by MCCLATCHY.  That story was written by Nancy A. Youssef and revealed that, despite claims to the contrary by the US government, a number of civilians killed in US actions in Iraq was being kept.  

It was a major story that got no amplification.  In fact, we're the ones who had to make "Iraq expert" Phyllis Bennis aware of the report when, several months later, she appeared on COUNTERSPIN insisting that the US government should be keeping a count of civilians killed in US actions.  

Since Donald's announcement, a lot of e-mails have poured into the public account insisting that we're not being fair to Donald and that I'm trying to be like every other site and just attack, attack, attack.

I don't like Donald.  That predates his presidency.  But I have not let that effect what we do here.  We didn't use dislike for Donald to spread the lie of Russia-gate.  And, again, if withdrew all US troops, I would give him credit and giving him credit would include, yes, praising him for that decision.  As for the 15 Shirley counted who insist that I haven't even noted Donald's announcement at this site, Saturday's "US forces being cut in Iraq (not a withdrawal, sadly) and the UN calls out the attacks on Iraqi civilians" must have been missed because we covered it in that.

George Szamuely, at RT, rightly notes that Donald Trump angers the foreign policy 'elite' in the US by not being as war crazed as they expect a president to be:

          
One reason for the extraordinary hostility of the foreign policy insiders’ brigade toward President Trump is that he has not wasted his time conjuring up new missions to justify NATO’s continued existence.

Instead, he has promised to withdraw 12,000 US troops from Germany and, to add insult to injury, he has demanded that NATO member states increase their financial contributions toward the upkeep of the military alliance ostensibly there to “protect” them. 

This is sacrilege to a foreign policy elite that have spent the last 70 years worshipping at the altar of NATO. 

“US troops aren’t stationed around the world as traffic cops or welfare caseworkers—they’re restraining the expansionary aims of the world's worst regimes, chiefly China and Russia,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., fumed. 

Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice expressed alarm about the “continued erosion of confidence in our leadership within NATO, and more efforts that call into question our commitment, and more signals to the authoritarians within NATO and Russia itself that this whole institution is vulnerable.” 

Trump, according to Nicholas Burns, former US ambassador to NATO and current adviser to Joe Biden, has cast America’s military allies primarily as a drain on the US Treasury, and he has aggressively criticized Washington’s true friends in Europe—democratic leaders such as France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel—even as he treats Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and other ‘authoritarians’ around the world with unusual tact. 

Seventy former Republican national security officials recently issued a statement accusing Trump of having “disgraced America’s global reputation and undermined our nation’s moral and diplomatic influence.” And—horror of horrors!—Trump “has called NATO ‘obsolete.’ ”

[. . .]

Next came Iraq. Despite the vocal opposition of France and Germany to the 2003 invasion, NATO, in no time got involved. In 2004, it established NATO Training Mission-Iraq, the aim of which was supposedly to “assist in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions so that Iraq can build an effective and sustainable capability that addresses the needs of the nation.” One of its tasks was to train the Iraqi police. However, as WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs disclosure revealed, Iraq’s finely-trained police conducted horrific torture on detainees. Neither NATO’s Afghanistan nor its Iraqi mission covered itself in glory.

With the Democrats returning to power in Washington in 2009, NATO was back in the “humanitarian intervention” business. Its bombing of Libya in 2011 destroyed government, law and public order, institutions that before the intervention had ensured that the people of Libya were able to go about their daily lives free from the fear of death, not to mention the spectacle of slave markets. 

The “humanitarian intervention” in Libya having ended in debacle and war crimes (including the execution of Muammar Gaddafi) in which NATO was clearly involved, it was back to the old Cold War mission of “containment.” 

Following the February 21, 2014, coup in Kiev and the reincorporation of Crimea into Russia, NATO’s new mission was very much like its old. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen promised that: “We will have more planes in the air, more ships on the water, and more readiness on the land. For example, air policing aircraft will fly more sorties over the Baltic region. Allied ships will deploy to the Baltic Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean and elsewhere.”


Joe Biden will give them the wars they want if we are to judge by his hideous record.  We'll come back to Joe Biden but, right now, let's note this from Joe Snell's report for AL-MONITOR:

A new investigation committee reporting directly to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will manage major corruption cases and “exceptional crimes,” according to Kadhimi in a speech on Sunday.

The announcement follows a string of attacks in August on anti-corruption activists in Basra, which led to the sacking of the city’s police chief and security officials.

“The fugitive weapons, criminal gangs, assassinations and kidnappings are a dagger in the heart of the homeland and in the heart of every Iraqi,” Kadhimi said.



Corruption continues in Iraq.

And I'm confused so help me out here.

Joe Biden says that, as Vice President, he did not have an official fired in Ukraine because they were investigating his son Hunter Biden and the sweet-heart deal that Hunter got despite his biggest qualifications on his resume being:

1) Will sleep with his own brother's widow
2) Can impregnate stripper and spend years denying it until DNA tests reveal Hunter to be a liar.
3) Crack addict who was kicked out of the reserves for his drug use
4) Only got in the reserves because he was Joe's son -- he didn't do basic, he got a short cut in and couldn't even last two months before he failed a drug test.

But Joe says the official that he bragged publicly about getting fired was ousted for corruption.

So Joe cares about corruption?

Here's the confusing part: Iraq.

Hillary wasn't in charge of Iraq.  She was Secretary of State.  She had a close relationship with her Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari (who was later forced out of office by the Parliament on corruption charges).  Hillary Clinton couldn't be the point-person on Iraq because, in 2008, in an open hearing, she rightly called Nouri al-Maliki a "thug."  He was a thug.  She was correct and too many others who would go into Barack's administration in 2009 -- including Joe -- were deeply stupid when it came to the nature of Nouri.  

So Barack couldn't put Hillary in charge of Iraq.  His point-person?

Joe Biden.

Joe's so concerned about corruption, supposedly, that he threatens to pull funding to Ukraine over it.

How does that make sense?

It doesn't.

Joe's aware of Iraq's corruption.  He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  
 

Oh, look, here's a transcription of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in 2007 on . . . corruption in Iraq.

 

And in 2012, he was Vice President (January 2009 through January 2017).  That's when the minority members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued "Iraq Report: Political Fragmentation And Corruption Stymie Economic Growth And Political Progress."  As Vice President, tasked by Barack with overseeing Iraq, was Joe unaware of corruption in Iraq?  He didn't do a damn thing to prevent or limit it.  



Joe's concern for corruption doesn't ring true.  


In other news, ALJAZEERA reports

French President Emmanuel Macron has landed in Baghdad on his first official trip to Iraq, where he hopes to help the country reassert its "sovereignty" after years of conflict.

Macron is the first head of state to visit the Iraqi capital since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraq's former intelligence chief, formed a new government in May.

The French leader is expected to meet al-Kadhimi and President Barham Salih at the presidential palace during his day-long trip on Wednesday, which comes amid a severe economic crisis and coronavirus pandemic that has put a huge strain on Iraqi economy and politics.


We'll note this Tweet:

Iraqi
Flag of Iraq
 President Saleh and French President Macron shaking elbows in #Baghdad today #Iraq #France
Image
7:30 AM · Sep 2, 2020


Taking a page from American rulers, Macron had to sneak into the country.  AFP notes, "The trip was not publicly announced until Tuesday evening, with officials in Paris and Baghdad keeping a tight lid on arrangements for security reasons."

The following sites updated:



Posted by at

Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Look who's falling off the top 200 selling albums of the week

 I told you when the new album from 'The Chicks' came out that we were all sick of Natalie Maines, that she was tired and trash.  

Go look at BILLBOARD's top 200 selling albums if you didn't believe me.  Albums that sold better than the new one from the Dixie Chicks?


ABBEY ROAD by the Beatles.  NEVER MIND by Nirvana.  Bon Jovi's GREATEST HITS.  Just about everything in fact.  The album's sixth week on the charts and?  It's fallen to 178.

I feel sorry for the other two but Natalie is hideous.  And her attempts to smear her ex-husband are disgusting. 

She's a fat little troll.  And she couldn't read the room.  If she had read the room, she would've stayed out of a recording studio.

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

 Tuesday, September 1, 2020.  Violence continues in Iraq, whoring continues in the US, the American people want US forces out of Iraq (and Afghanistan) but all 'independent' media (Panhandle Media) can offer is whoring and nonsense.


XINHAU reports a northern Iraq car bombing has left 1 woman dead and three members of Iraq's security forces injured.  The war continues.  Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reports on the death toll for the previous month:


During August, 102 people were killed, and 134 more were wounded. The number of deaths dramatically decreased compared to July, in which 230 people were killed. However, the number of wounded was nearly equal to July’s 138 wounded.


The never-ending war continues to claim victims.  Rebecca Kheel (THE HILL) notes a new poll:


About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they support bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan in a new poll commissioned by the libertarian Charles Koch Institute obtained exclusively by The Hill.

In the poll, which surveyed 2,000 U.S. adults, 44 percent said they strongly support bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq and 30 percent said they somewhat support doing so.

For Afghanistan, 46 percent said they strongly support bringing troops home and 30 percent said they somewhat support it.

[. . .]

In Iraq, U.S. officials are negotiating future troops levels with the Iraqi government after Iraqi lawmakers called for a withdrawal. Iraqi opposition to the U.S. presence in their country grew at the beginning of the year after the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Iraqi soil.

There are about 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq helping local forces fight the remnants of ISIS.



Meanwhile, there is the sewer that is the American media.  You honestly shouldn't visit those crap sites until after the election.  All they're doing is whoring right now.  Every day, instead of telling you what's going on, they tell you what to think and how to vote.  They call themselves independent media and alternative media but all they're trying to do is manipulate opinion and, yes, manufacture consent.


Look at COUNTERPUNCH where it's all whore all the time.  Today's crew includes David Lindorff who wants seniors to think before they vote.  Because?  Apparently, without Lindorff telling them to, they wouldn't think?  The smugness is appalling.


By the way, David, do you regret your ridiculous claim that Barack Obama would deliver a better country because, your words, he was a Black man who had done drugs?


Do you remember when you wrote that idiotic statement?  We do.  You wrote to our own community member Martha (who, with Shirley, does our year-end look at books each year).  And we wrote about it at THIRD and quoted you.  And you looked like an idiot in 2008 and you don't look any better today.


You used to write about topics that actually mattered.  Then IN THESE TIMES ran the retraction on your work.  We supported you and defended you here.  But your work since has been the equivalent of a Sunday chat & chew appearance -- surface and superficial.


I scanned his idiotic article which went on and on, looking for something about Joe and Social Security.  I found nothing.  But Joe's got a long and public record of favoring cuts to Social Security.  Somehow Dave missed all that.


This is from Ryan Grim's "Fact Check: Joe Biden Has Advocated Cutting Social Security for 40 Years" (THE INTERCEPT):


As early as 1984 and as recently as 2018, former Vice President Joe Biden called for cuts to Social Security in the name of saving the program and balancing the federal budget. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted Biden’s record on Social Security in prosecuting the case that Biden isn’t the most electable candidate. The issue could be raised again in Tuesday night’s debate.

After a Sanders campaign newsletter continued the attack on Biden’s Social Security record, the Biden campaign complained to fact-checkers at Politifact that his comments were being taken out of context. Placed in context, however, Biden’s record on Social Security is far worse than one offhand remark. Indeed, Biden has been advocating for cuts to Social Security for roughly 40 years.

And after a Republican wave swept Congress in 1994, Biden’s support for cutting Social Security, and his general advocacy for budget austerity, made him a leading combatant in the centrist-wing battle against the party’s retreating liberals in the 1980s and ’90s.

“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” he told the Senate in 1995. “I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” (A freeze would have reduced the amount that would be paid out, cutting the program’s benefit.)



As early as 1984 and as recently as 2018?  Dave, I don't think it's senior that aren't thinking before they vote, I think it's you that's not thinking before you type.  Oh well, maybe you can market Kamala Harris as v.p.?  Insisting that as a 'Black' woman who has done drugs she will transform the country?  


Sadly, Dave's the brightest light at COUNTERPUNCH today.


Let's note Jimmy Dore.




That's Jimmy speaking truths.  He spoke them at a fake-ass convention.

Sorry, that's what it was.  When Cornel West promotes it by telling people, as he did on RISING last week, that they need to vote for Joe Biden?  That's defeating it before it starts.

And let's get honest about Cornel because I'm really at my breaking point here.

I like Tavis Smiley.  I may be the only person in the country who still thinks he may be innocent.  I don't buy claims just because PBS asserts them.  If women have been harmed, I would assume they would have stepped forward with their stories.  

Tavis may well be innocent.

It bothers me that he's assumed guilty.  But if that's the position you're going to take, why aren't you demanding comments from Cornel?  There's not a week that goes by that he's not giving at least two interviews.

Cornel and Tavis were tight.  They hosted joint-events, they gave joint-interviews, they traveled together on and on and on.  This wasn't for one week or one month or one year.  This was for years and years.

Maybe people don't know that because of their own racism that allows them to ignore the work of African-Americans?  

Tavis is not perfect and I have never claimed he is.  But I do like Tavis and I've not seen anything to alter that opinion -- again PBS whispers don't make a case for me even if the media is happy to run with it.  

But, again, that's where I stand.

If you're standing somewhere else, good for you.  But why are you not asking that Cornel respond in some way?  

Instead, he's put up at a convention about where the country needs to go.  

If you think Tavis is guilty, I don't know why you put his roll dog onstage to speak.

I don't think Cornel needs to speak for any organization urging voters to make demands for their vote if he's going to use his fame to go around telling people to vote for Biden.  That's opposed to everything Jimmy Dore was saying.  It's also idiotic because no one's going to work for your vote once you tell them they have it.

Once you tell them that they have your vote, they're going to move to the demographic that they are shaky with and work to get their vote.

That goes a long ways towards explaining why the DNC and Joe Biden are working overtime to court Republicans.  (See Luke Savage's piece at JACOBIN for more on that topic.)

Cornel's very good at creating word gumbo.  But in terms of strategy and analysis, I'm just not seeing it and it was his actions and words, more than anyone else, that resulted in our ignoring that 'convention' over the weekend.  Why promote a Biden rally?

That's all it was.  Yes, Jimmy Dore said some good things and I'm sure Marianne Williamson did as well.  But when others involved saw their role as sheep dogs to herd people over to Joe?  That's not only sad, it's also deceitful.


We need a better world.  I don't see Cornel working for that when he undermines the so-called people's convention before it even starts.  

We need a better world and, to envision that, we need to know what's possible.  


At a time when so much 'alternative' media wastes their time and our time trying to tell us who to vote for, some people deal with actual issues.



That's an important conversation.  Richard D. Wolff's opening about Norway, all by itself, is an important conversation.  When we can talk about how efforts are made in Norway to twist the will and needs of the people, we can grasp how we are connected and we can see that things don't just happen.  

While corporations ensure that the American people do not have their needs met, the 'alternative' media focuses on electing personalities instead of educating the public.

It wasn't independent media in the US that got the word out on Medicare for All, it was nurses.  They worked tirelessly for years on this effort.  

If our 'independent,' 'alternative' and useless beggar media (THE NATION, IN THESE TIMES, COUNTERPUNCH, THE PROGRESSIVE, etc) would do their job, the people would be aware of what was possible, what was at stake and what we could have.

Instead, they turn themselves over to political parties and whore for them.  





The following sites updated:





Posted by at

Monday, August 31, 2020

Rawanda

 AP reports:

Paul Rusesabagina, portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda” as a hero who saved the lives of more than 1,200 people from the country's 1994 genocide, has been arrested by the Rwandan government on terror charges, police announced on Monday.

A well-known critic of President Paul Kagame, Rusesabagina had been living outside Rwanda since 1996 and police did not say where he was apprehended. He had been living in Belgium and then in Texas in the U.S.


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


Monday, August 31, 2020.   Question: Why do we need multiple outlets when they all 'cover' the same story and all miss the topics that are actually news?

Yesterday was an important day globally.  I'm finding only one article in English that was published in the last 24 hours about The International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances and that's at RUDAW -- the English language version of Iraq's Kurdish news outlet. 

That's it for English language outlets.

Why is that?

This is a pretty damn important topic, it's a global topic, it matters.  And yet not one word on it from the US corporate media.  And in the alleged 'alternative' media?  I see the Trump garbage at COMMON DREAMS -- that's really all they offer these days -- that and articles that try (but fail) to excite people about Joe Biden.  Whores like Missy Comley Beattie can show up -- such White privilege -- to wring their hands over how -- in November! -- they're going to have to vote for Joe and you should too.  They can do that in August.  They just can't cover the disappeared.

Can't?

Won't.

They don't give a damn, they don't give a f**k.


Never forget that.  Never forget that when the United Nations was attempting to draw attention to the disappeared, the US's whorish 'left' couldn't offer a single word on it.  We're going to repost all of last night's piece on the disappeared so that it will appear at all community sites today.


The number of the disappeared only increases

 No circumstance can justify someone's disappearance. 

Sunday is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. bit.ly/2Ql9R45
Image
5:01 PM · Aug 29, 2020



The United Nations Tweeted that yesterday.  Today is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances.  In previous years, countries like Argentina came to mind (under the tyrant and criminal Augusto Pinochet) came to mind.  Sting wrote and recorded "They Dance Alone" about the disappeared in Argentina on his 1987 album . . . NOTHING LIKE THE SUN.



The only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces, they scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
They'd go missing, too
Another woman on the torture table
What else can they do?
Dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
Dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance

Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Danzan con los muertos
Danzan con amores invisibles
Con silenciosa angistia
Danzan con sus padres
Con sus hijos
Con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas


The Iraq War, ongoing, is the story of the disappeared.  Ethnic cleansing has taken place (especially carried out by Shi'ite forces from 2006 through 2008).  Nouri al-Maliki's government (2006 through 2014) terrorized the people of Iraq -- everyone was an enemy to Nouri, even Shi'ites.  He had secret torture cells and hidden prisons.  Hundreds of thousands were disappeared in Iraq.  This is part of turning Iraq into a land of widows and children.  It's why the median age in Iraq now is 21-years-old.  Neighboring Iran?  31.3-years-old.  Neighboring Kuwait?  36.8-years-old.  Neighboring Turkey? 31.5-years-old.  Are you getting it?  

Because some days it seems like no one gives a damn except BRussels Tribunal.

The disappeared include the people of Anbar Province, the people of Mosul, the people throughout Iraq.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued the following today:

The crime of enforced disappearance is rife across the world.  We see new cases almost daily, including the disappearance of defenders of the environment, who are often indigenous peoples.  Meanwhile, the excruciating pain of old cases is still acute, as the fate of thousands of disappeared people remains unknown, making the crime a continuous presence in the lives of the loved ones of the lost.

The United Nations Committee and Working Group on Enforced Disappearances have identified additional worrying trends, including reprisals against relatives of the victims and members of civil society, often in the name of security and counter-terrorism.  Enforced disappearance also has gendered consequences particularly affecting women and LGBTI persons.

Impunity compounds the suffering and anguish.  Under international human rights law, families and societies have a right to know the truth about what happened.  I call on Member States to fulfil this responsibility.

With the support of international human rights mechanisms, States have a duty to strengthen their efforts to prevent enforced disappearances, to search for victims, and to increase assistance to victims and their relatives.  It is equally critical to pursue credible and impartial judicial investigations.

On this International Day, let us renew our commitment to end all enforced disappearances. I call on all States to ratify the Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances and to accept the competence of the Committee to examine individual complaints. This is a first, but crucial step, towards the elimination of this atrocious crime.

 

António Guterres

Sadly, the disappeared exist around the world.  Our focus is Iraq so that's what we're zooming in on.

The ICRC in Iraq Tweets:

Thousands of families of missing still live in ambiguity as they seek answers on the fate of their loved ones who went missing in #Iraq as a result of four decades of conflicts. We remember them today on the International Day of Disappeared.
Iraqi Families of Missing: The wounds that do not heal
In Iraq, decades of successive conflicts and periods of violence have led to one of the highest numbers of missing persons in the world. Hundreds of thousands of individuals remain unaccounted for,


Netherlands Embassy in Iraq Tweets:

Each conflict in #Iraq has resulted in a new generation of disappeared, putting Iraq among the countries with the highest number of #MissingPersons. Families of up to a million people are waiting for answers #DayoftheDisappeared #TheSearchMustGoOn


Lovely World Tweets:

More than a million absentees in Iraq don't know their fate, for years. families of disappeared are tired of waiting without hope. state of militias has killed , kidnapped, in the name of religion. human rights and United Nations must reveal the fate of these people. #وينهم
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7:03 PM · Aug 30, 2020


The Baghdad Post Tweets:

#UN mission to #Iraq calls for independent probe to find whereabouts of 1,000 Iraqis who disappeared in #Anbar #BaghdadPost #Iraq
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9:16 AM · Aug 30, 2020


Zuhair Hussain Tweets:

U.N. calls on Baghdad to investigate the fate of 1,000 civilians disappeared in Anbar bit.ly/34Tfy1s #Iraq #forceddisappearances
Iraq: UN calls for renewed efforts to investigate enforced disappearances in Anbar Governorate
BAGHDAD (30 August 2020) – A UN report on enforced disappearances calls for independent and effective




Ahmad al-Almeed Tweets:


Years passed and the file of the forcibly disappeared in Iraq is still being raised from time to time without any government treatment or disclosure of their fate despite repeated requests from the Sunni and popular political forces from their families, #وينهم
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6:38 PM · Aug 30, 2020


Linda Hemby Tweets:

#Iraq: UN report on #EnforcedDisappearances calls for independent/effective investigations to establish the fate of 1,000 civilian men and boys disappeared during military operations against ISIL in #Anbar in 2015-2016 and to hold perpetrators accountable


Human Rights Watch's Belkis Willie Tweets the following thread:

@UNIraq says in Anbar in 2015/16, pro-gov forces subjected at least 1k mostly Sunni Arab men/boys to disappearances, executions, torture, arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention uniraq.org/index.php?opti
Image
12:06 PM · Aug 30, 2020


At the time of the abuses,
@hrw
wrote about the hundreds of men from Saqlawiyah, from al-Mahamda tribe that were tortured, disappeared in 2016 hrw.org/news/2016/07/0
Image
12:06 PM · Aug 30, 2020


And the thousands of other men and boys who armed forces disappeared from 2014-2017 in other anti-ISIS operations Iraq: Secret Detention, No Recourse youtu.be/6YEq_IAsor0 via
@YouTube
hrw.org/news/2018/09/2
Iraq: Secret Detention, No Recourse
Iraqi military and security forces have disappeared dozens of mostly Sunni Arab males since 2014, including children as young as 9, often in the context of c...


Sadly,
@UNIraq
in its newest report concludes limited progress made re establishing fate of the men, boys missing; holding accountable individuals, including commanders, responsible for enforced disappearances; and respecting the right of victims to justice, truth and reparation.
12:06 PM · Aug 30, 2020


Any "@" whatever in a Tweet is taken out by me because otherwise some browsers will show this page with a big, black box covering words.  I've noted before the browsers you can use to avoid that; however, e-mail still come in complaining about those black squares.  For that reason, we remove any @ that I notice.  We also cannot include the Twitter id because the 'blue check' also creates a black square.  


The Committee to Protect Journalists Tweets:

At least 64 journalists are currently missing around the world. Nearly one third have disappeared from #Iraq, #Syria, and #Lebanon
. These journalists are #MissingNotForgotten. #InternationalDayoftheDisappeared cpj.org/missingnotforg
Image


8:15 AM · Aug 30, 2020


If the disappeared of Iraq don't matter to you, you just might be Paddy Cock-burn.  The supposed Middle East journalist -- notorius in the region for his bias against the Sunnis -- did file a report yesterday.  Not on Iraq's disappeared.  No, Ireland's trashy son wrote about the RNC because that's what you do when you are useless trash, you write about a political convention in the US -- as though America hadn't already weighed in on that?  -- the week after it's over -- instead of noting the disappeared.  It's cheap coverage (from a cheap person) and it is forgotten about two-seconds after anyone reads it.  

He tells you that Donald Trump reminds him of Saddam.  Really? I didn't think the CIA installed Donald.  I know they installed Saddam.  



Think of all the outlets in corporate media (including REUTERS, AFP, etc) and all the outlets in 'alternative' media (THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, IN THESE TIMES, COMMON DREAMS, COUNTERPUNCH, etc) and not one of them could offer a single article about the disappeared on the global day of recognition of the disappeared.

"57 channels and there's nothing on," as Bruce Springsteen once sang.

In the US, why are we supporting this crap-ass beggar media that always asks for money but never does anything of value?  Name the last column or 'article' that THE NATION published that made a difference -- and was on a topic that wasn't all over the internet already?  We gave like crazy to PACIFICA in 2005 and 2006 and what did they do with the money?  Nothing of value.  KPFA EVENING NEWS -- which is usually something to applaud -- couldn't even do a story last night.  (It's still THE KPFA EVENING NEWS on Saturday and Sunday when other PACIFICA stations like KPFK and WBAI don't feel that their listeneres need a 30 minute newscast on the weekends.  So much more important to air those dead-on-arrival 'cultural' shows that no one listens to and whose hosts should be forced into retirement.)

As noted above, The Committee To Protect Journalists Tweeted about the day on Sunday.  A few minutes ago, they issued the following:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Attn: Experts of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which holds consultative status with the U.N., is an independent, nonprofit organization that defends the rights of journalists worldwide to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. CPJ reports on and mobilizes against hundreds of attacks on the press each year, such as killings, assaults, restrictive legislation, imprisonment, media closures, online harassment, and other threats.

According to CPJ’s research, at least 64 journalists are missing around the world. Nearly one-third of them disappeared while covering armed conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

Over the past year, CPJ has been searching for updates on the whereabouts and fate of missing journalists in these countries and tracking down their families — many of whom are themselves displaced. Invariably, the families have been pursuing rumors and have relentlessly approached local and national authorities, as well as international and local organizations, in search of help to find their loved ones, but their efforts have yielded no results.

CPJ believes that these families deserve answers, and that authorities in these countries have a responsibility to conduct investigations and use all the tools at their disposal to find the missing journalists. To that end, CPJ has launched a campaign, #MissingNotForgotten, urging governments to do their utmost.

CPJ has also secured consent from relatives of missing journalists to submit their names to the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and request special action. 

In line with the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which affirms the right of any victim to know the truth about the circumstances of an enforced disappearance and the fate of the disappeared person, as well as the right to freedom to seek, receive and impart information to this end, CPJ makes the following recommendations:

The governments of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen should:

  • conduct thorough and credible investigations into enforced disappearances of journalists committed by either state security forces or persons or groups acting with or without the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, and bring those responsible to justice   
  • take the necessary measures to search for, locate and release missing journalists and, in the event of death, to locate, respect, and return their remains to their families
  • update relatives of missing journalists regularly on the progress and results of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances should:

  • request the governments of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen to supply information about the situation of the missing journalists within a reasonable time limit
  • U.N. Special Mandate holders should:
  • Publicly call for credible and thorough investigations into enforced disappearances of journalists
  • Publicly urge the aforementioned governments to step up their efforts to locate missing journalists and treat their relatives with dignity by providing regular updates on the status of their investigations

Today, the International Day of the Disappeared, we must not only heed the uncertainty and the pain that the families of missing journalists endure daily, but also help them find answers. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Courtney C. Radsch
CPJ Advocacy Director



Local Observer Tweets:

My name is Local Observer & I stand with the protesters & activists of the Tahrir Uprising in Iraq who have been disappeared by "unknown" entities. May the torturers and those that make people's homes a living hell be confronted by their own darkness!


In other news, the government of turkey continues to terrorize Iraq with bombings and troops on the ground.  ARMEN NEWS notes:

The Kurdish community of Armenia held a protest today outside the UN Office in Yerevan, trying to draw the attention of the structure to the ongoing Turkish actions against the Kurdish settlements in Iraq.

Head of the Kurdistan Committee Slo Drboyan told reporters that they are asking to prevent Turkey’s operations.

“We are here to present the concerns of our relatives. Turkey’s leadership today is conducting such a policy which is a threat for all peoples of the region. The Kurdish nation in Iraq is almost on the verge of extinction”, the head of the Kurdistan Committee said, adding that they are concerned over the events taking place in that country.

He said they are expecting the UN Office to take measures to prevent Turkey’s genocidal actions.


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