Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

AMERICAN DAD

Not watching the Olympics? Me too. Monday night, TBS aired the latest episode of AMERICAN DAD.

We got another new character from Roger.

Apothacarrie Bradshaw was the new charactetr. Opening lines? Roger, in a bad blonde wig and with blonde eyebrows and a ridiculous short skirt, "Apothacarrie Bradshaw, Sex Blooger. I couldn't help but wonder: Would Steve be alive if I hadn't accidentally poisoned him? But sometimes that's how it goes when you're SEX IN THE CITY."

Sadly, not that much Apothacarrie in the episode.

Even sadder, too much Steve. They really need to ration him. Especially if he's not doing scenes with Steve or Haley.

Snot and Steve were happy with their mid-week sleep overs that resulted from their mothers having a book club together.

The two women decided that they hated each other. And, as a result, they weren't doing book club anymore. This upset Steve and Snot. With Roger's help, they faked their own deaths. Or did they? Roger was convinced he'd accidentally killed them (he haden't).

The Carrie Bradshaw bit was funny and so was Haley at the dinner table reminding Stan to check out his tattoos when he was forgetting the past.

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

Tuesday, February 15, 2022. One of the reasons the US started the war on Iraq is back in the news and we examine her latest scandal below.

In the video above, Krystal and Saagar discuss the latest in the Durham probe. Hillary Clinton's c 2016 campaign is accused of spying on Donald Trump when he was a candidate and then went on to spy on him after he was president.

It's the Russia hoax that Hillary started. It was the thing that derailed the nation's emdia and kept us from moving forward as a people. Now there's some other distraction that could have been used because the government doesn't serve the people and, no, Nancy Pelosi, you don't even feed the people. The US government leaches off the people and misues all tax dollars as they do everything but serve the American people. That's when it's Democratically controlled, that's when it's Republican controlled. That's the reality that explains why any other western nation offers universal healthcare but the US doesn't. Anything needed is pushed aside and the money ends up going to billionaires and to weapons and to wars.

Hillary, as then-President Barack Obama was informed in the summer of 2016, created the whole Russia hoax because she was trying to distract from her e-mails which she continues to lie about to this day. Someone needs to tell the hag to get off social media. Just last week, Hillary and her cult were trying to say that if Donald Trump destroyed documents it was the same as what Hillary was accused of doing.

No, you stupid f**king idiots, it's not.

If Donald destroyed documents, it may very well be a crime. I'd have to burrow into the documents . It's most likely a civil crime based on existing law, if Donal did it. It may even be a felony.

But Hillary's destruction of property -- after an investigation began -- is not the same thing. There was no ongoing investigation regarding Donald. Hillary destroyed property while she was the subect of a criminal investigation.

Next, Hillary's e-mails were not so outrageous because she destroyed evidence. It was because she was putting people at risk.

The nonsense lie about WIKILEAKS putting people at risk -- a lie Hillary herself has repeated? Didn't take place.

But Hillary refusing to follow security protocols did put people at risk. That's why she wasn't supposed to be using any device that wasn't secured by the US government.

That's why you see members of the US military being charged and imprisoned if they do the same in terms of their e-mails.

I'm just not in the mood for a love cult around an ugly hag who has brought more shame to the US than any other woman. That is the reality.

I like Bill Clinton but I have told him to his face that his childhood has resulted in him needing to create drama that outrages Amreica to prove that he's loved despite whatever he does. That is his childhood and that is his story as a public servant.

Hillary has lied repeatedly about how she's a victim. No, she cuts corners and she does ethically questionable things. She can't seem to help herself. And when she's in trouble for this or that, she's screaming that she's the victim.

The revelations from the probe should be covered and they're not being covered. Jimmy Dore did a segment live last night that is not yet available for streaming in his archives. But notice that Krystal and Saagar are about the only ones covering it. And they do a rather weak coverage and Saagar says that it's 2022 and we've got other things to focus on.

Oh, hell no. This derailed a presidency. This was a massive lie told to the American people. And Hillary pimped it and promoted it and refused to go away. The hag needs to go.

She's a former First Lady who is 74 years old. Go away. She's a one term Cabinet member and a two term US senator. She has no accomplishments to speak of and, honestly, I'm sick of her ever changing hair dos and how none of them work -- nothing can, her ugly insides are now reflected in her face. She's a hag responsible for the deaths of Iraqis. She's a hag who refused to help the Iraqi women. She's a hag who when giving a major speech about women and the way they are treated refused everyone -- even one of her five best friends -- that begged her to include the country of Iraq and help shine a light of the suffering of women there. She's a useless hag who cries 'I'm a feminist vicitm.' No, you're not. You're someone whose actions repeatedly require that you be scrutinized. And feminism is about women. Feminism is not about Hillary Clinton. If your focus is yourself, please stop pretending to be a feminist. Please stop using every tiny criticism aimed at you to try to prove that you're the victim and you're a feminist.

If you're not helping other women, you're not a feminist.

Who does Hillary help? Cheating men. Men who cheat on women. Brett McGurk, Philippe, her own husband, all the men around her are dirty cheats and it's behavior she likes, that she's attracted to. It's why we can all list, easily, five women Bill had sex with -- not attempted to, but had sex with -- and let's make it six because his rape of Juanita Broadrick did happen. I believe her. (I also believe that Bill thought it was just some 'good, rough sex' because he can be a bit of a pig.) I believe Juanita said no and I believe that no was chuckled at by the vanity of Bill which was so great that he couldn't believe the no was serious.

But when a man cheats on you and does so publicly and does so repeatedly, don't tell me you're a feminist. You're a doormat, you're not a feminist.

(Now if you're into some deep sexual humiliation in public, if that turns you on, you could still be a feminist -- male or female, you could be. But Hillary's never been a sexual creature which is why the efforts to paint her as a lesbian never worked.)

She's a doormat and she's titilated by these men who cheat on their wives, she surrounds herself with them.

Did someone say "straying dick"? Oh, look, it's Anthony Weiner.

As MEDIATE notes, he went on Sean Hannity's program as he tries to rehab his reputation. He's a convicted felon and a registered sex offender. WABC radio is giving him a co-hosting job. Apparently radio needs to be hiring registered sex offenders who went to prison for sending pornography to minors? He sent it, plrease remember, while he was attempting to pursue a physical relationship with a minor.

As THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER via THE DENVER GAZETTE reminds, "An investigation into Weiner revealed evidence concerning Clinton's private email server, reopening an FBI investigation into Clinton just weeks before Election Day."

It's always a rampant and a vile sewer around Hillary. After awhile, you have to acknowledge that she's responbile for this because she actively seeks these type of men out.

Why do we have to go into this and more? Because others won't. Right-wing media critic NEWSBUSTERS notes in a Kevin Tober piece:

Just like their broadcast network counterparts, the primetime hours of both CNN and MSNBC completely ignored the bombshell court filings from Special Counsel John Durham showing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign allegedly spied on then-President Donald Trump both at Trump Tower in New York and the White House. In fact, with the exception of a brief segment on Jake Tapper's show in the 5 pm hour on CNN, the leftist media spent the entire day ignoring the revelations.

In the primetime cable news block which is generally defined as running from 8-11 pm EST, CNN and MSNBC decided it was more important to obsess over topics like former President Trump's finances, attacking Texas' voter integrity legislation, and the Democrat's January 6 committee.

Credit where it's due, CNN's The Lead host Jake Tapper did cover the Durham news but he only devoted a measly two minutes and forty-seven seconds to it over halfway through the second hour of his show.

"In our politics lead now, new revelations about the 2016 presidential race by the Special Counsel appointed by former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr," Tapper announced. "In 2019, as you might remember, Barr first assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. And then before Barr left office in 2020, he made Durham a Special Counsel."

"Durham has since indicted Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman as well as a Russian analyst, both of them for allegedly lying to the FBI. Both of them are pleading not guilty," Tapper said, giving viewers the background information before updating them on the latest developments.

NEWSBUSTERS also offers a podcast on the developments here. Where's FAIR?

Oh, that's right, it's Hillary Clinton.

They have no ethics with regards to Hillary. They want to loathe her -- and did so in 2008 openly when she ran for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination. The corporate media offered the most vile and sexist commentary and FAIR was . . . silent. Yes, there was one sentence, I know. Ava and I covered it repeatedly at THIRD over and over. (Here's one example.) One sentence noting the sexism. And they call themselves a critic of the media. They're a bunch of whores who get contributions to whore. And they're silent now because their donor base will not allow them to call out Hillary at this time. They've never had a standard for Hillary. They've gone with whatever donors wanted at that moment.

Tom Winter (NBC NEWS) is one of the few at a corporate outlet who has covered it:

A tech executive “exploited” his access to computer data at the Trump White House to find “derogatory information” about President Donald Trump, a special counsel appointed during the Trump administration said in a court filing Friday.

John Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2020 to probe the origins of the FBI’s investigation of Russian election interference, said “Tech Executive-1,” not named in the filing but first identified by The New York Times as Rodney Joffe, used his access to domain name system, or DNS, data to compile information about which computers and servers the White House servers were communicating with.

By the way, where's AP;s article. I called a friend with AP and he insisted that they must have covered it. He searched while I worked out -- the snapshots are dictated -- I'm on the treadmill right now. All he could find was repeated articles on how A-rod was one of the people purchasing a hotel owned by Donald Trump. And that was an AP reporter who is a defender of his own outlet. That's all he could find.

MEDIAITE has a video of Howard Kurtz offering a critique of coverage. Howard Kurts began his media critique role at THE WASHINGTON POST. He's a centrist and was always to the center of me but we noted him for the Iraq War while he was at THE POST and he did his series on how THE POST miscovered Iraq in the lead up. He's now at FOX NEWS. We'd post the video here but it's FOX NEWS. They don't know a damn thing about videos. They need to get a younger staff and they need to free them from whatever burdens they're putting on them. They think streaming their programs live online is the height of the modern age. They still don't understand a la cart, streaming on demand, all of the changes have passed themm by. If they could get their act together, we'd post the video fo Kurtz discussing this. He's making solid points.

Let's note this list of bulleting points and the headline from THE DAILY MAIL:

Ex-Director of National Intelligence claims Biden and Obama KNEW ABOUT Hillary campaign plot to hack Trump servers: 'Enough evidence in Durham's Russia probe to indict MULTIPLE people'

John Ratcliffe told Special Counsel John Durham that there is 'enough evidence' to indict 'multiple people' connected to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe
The former Director of National Intelligence met with Durham more than once
Ratcliffe's pointed Durham to a declassified CIA memo of Clinton approving looking into Trump's Russia ties as a way of distracting from her email scandal
The report was sent directly to then FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok
New bombshell reports now reveal Clinton paid people to hack servers at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign and White House servers following the election
A poll taken before those reports came out show that now even Democrats want Clinton questioned over her role in the Russian secret server scandal
44% of party loyalists believed she should be interrogated last October, but the number jumped to 66% in a January polling

I'm sorry that this is minor to Saagar but it's not minor to the country. Year after year, we couldn't focus on issues on the left because whores on television were telling this or that whispered lie about Russia and Donald Trump. Climate change didn't get addressed. The infrastructure didn't get addressed.

Donald Trump was not the worst president in the world for leftists and much could have been accomplished. We fought back under Ronald Reagan, for example. We could have done the same under Trump. But we weren't about polciies. We couldn't focus on issues. We were about lies and rumors regarding Donald Trump. We were about an alleged pee tape (that never existed), we were about everything that didnt' matter.

And it hurt us and it put us back and it hurt the world.

To this day, there are idiots who believe the lies that were spread by Rachel Maddow and others. To this day. This is not something, Saagar, that we can just say, "Oh well" and roll our eyes over. Maybe you can because you're a right-winger. But we pointed out in real time that we were abdicating our power and we were betraying out beliefs by embracing this nonsense.

There were real reasons to object to Donald Trump and to actually resist his policies. But we couldn't do that because we were too busy and too deep into personal smears about Donald and pretending that was somehow about politics. It was about partisianship. It wasn't about issues. It wasn't about fighting for a better way.

Hillary Cliton voted for the Iraq War. Senator Bob Graham begged her to go read the actual evidence before her vote. She refused to. And she voted for the war. It's what the bean counters ('experts') told spineless Democratic members of Congress to do. And Hillary did it. (The same way, in early 2004, when 'the experts' told Dems to step away from abortion rights, Hillary stepped away -- so much so that even NYT covered it). She voted for the war. She knew it was wrong? I don't think so. I think she didn't care to know one way or the other. She just wanted to do what 'the experts' said would make her look presidential. by 2004, she knew the war was a disaster.

She didn't come forward with that and explained to people (including me) that she couldn't admit it was a disaster or that her vote was wrong because if she ended up running for president in 2008 (yes, she was considering it that far bafck), it might make her appear weak or soft -- accodring to 'the experts.'

So as a sitting US senator, she refused to acknowledge the disaster and demand accountability. Year after year. In 2007, as she begn her presidential campaign, she got a little more vocal and threw her lot in with MOVEON.ORG -- another entitty whose ethical stand takes place on quick sand. They were the perfect fit. She did everything they wanted. So it was hilarious that they then endorsed Barack Obama -- Barack who had repeatedly called them out and shamed them.

Hillary had some good moments regarding Iraq in Congressional hearings in 2007 and 2008 (though you can't ask Spencer Ackerman -- don't worry he knows his lies and he knows what I'm talking about and you do as well if you read back them when we covered it in real time).

But she wouldn't apologize for her vote.

And I saw idiots I knew like Rob Reiner twist themselves into pretzels to try to defend her. Idiots who I wanted to say to them, "She's not the quack that 'cured' you of homosexuality. She's a politician. A little less worship."

And to some of them, I did say that.

She never would honestly address Iraq. She would get testy. She would snap.

But she never acknowledged what her vote and her actions did to the Iraqi people.

And, as Secretary of State, she betrayed Iraqi women over and over. It was her chance to make up for her vote. It was far too late to change the vote. But she could atone for her actions, she coud make amends. But she chose not to do that. She spent four years as Secretary of State and did nothing but become good friends with Hoshyar Zebari who was the Foreign Affairs Minister of Iraq.

That's the same Zebari, please note, whom Iraq's Supreme Court rules on Sunday could not even run for the presidency because of the corruption charges against thim that they saw as valid and worthy of a trial.

Again, there's a certain type of man that Hillary stands with.

The following sites updated:

Monday, February 14, 2022

Oh, Hillary

Tom Winter (NBC NEWS) reports:

Trump and his allies said the disclosure was proof that Trump was under surveillance while he was in office. “They were spying on the sitting president of the United States,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News on Sunday. “And it goes right to the Clinton campaign.” In a statement Monday, Trump said the alleged spying was “the biggest story of our time, bigger than Watergate.”

The filing does not allege that the content of any communications from the Executive Office of the President, or EOP, or any parties were compromised or read, and there is no indication that data collection went beyond identifying where the internet traffic came from and where it went.

Can she get more disgusting?

I don't think so; however, maybe this will serve to remind everyone that we don't want anything to do with her. She needs to stay out of campaigns and political races.

She is not to be trusted.

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

Monday, February 14, 2022. Forget the grapevine, if you heard it through the US media, you probably heard it wrong.

Dropping back to the February 4th snapshot, we'll note this:

The White House issued the following:

Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will deliver remarks to the American people later this morning. May God protect our troops.

###

Margaret Kimberley rightly Tweets:

This is BS. Poll numbers dropping, Ukraine hoax stalled, 2,000+ covid deaths per day. What to do? Easy. Find an Arab, claim he was an ISIS leader and kill him and his family. Later the story changed to say he blew himself up. Don't believe that either. #Bogus

9:47 AM · Feb 3, 2022

This is how bad things have gotten for Joe Biden, he's aping Bully Boy Bush and hoping that somehow this helps him look good.

ISIS is not followers with one mighty leader. ISIS exists to be a headless snake. Is the White House not getting that reality or are they hoping the American people are too stupid to grasp it?

Today, Steve Sweeney offers his take at MORNING STAR:

Quraishi was detained at the camp after US forces picked him up in Mosul, Iraq in January 2008, although details of the operation are scant.

In a press release at the time, US forces claimed to have captured “a wanted individual believed to be the deputy leader of al-Qaida in Iraq for the network operating in the city.”

It added that Quraishi — known by the alternative name Amir Muhammad Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla — had “previously served as a judge of an illegal court system involved in ordering and approving abductions and executions.”

During interrogations by US intelligence services he gave the names of some 88 individuals, some of whom he said were key figures in Isis. He gave the organisational positions of 64 of them, detailing their responsibilities in the legal, military security, media and administrative branches of the organisation.

In one document he appears to offer an affidavit, testifying against 20 named individuals and identifying illegal activities including kidnappings, assassinations and attacks on coalition forces.

He also gave information about the structure of the jihadist organisation completing “a line and block chart” showing the names and positions of 40 individuals. This information is believed to have led to 39 of them being killed by US forces.

It is clear that Quraishi was useful to the US. The level of detailed information he shared makes him a US asset, or at the very least an informant. The nature of the operation to take him out — which Turkey was not told about in advance — poses more questions than it answers.

Was he killed by US operatives as he had served his purpose or because of fears his role and links to Washington could be exposed?

Is it really conceivable that both he and his predecessor Baghdadi were simply released into the wilds and allowed to find their way to the very top position in Isis without being tracked or monitored by US intelligence services?

It seems highly unlikely.

Just as it stretches credibility to suggest that the attack on the prison in Hasakah province could have been planned and carried out in an area teeming with US soldiers and intelligence without Washington’s knowledge.

It would represent the biggest intelligence failure since the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon if this was also missed.

In other news, "It's not the end of the world." So declared Hoshyar Zebari yesterday as Iraq's Supereme Court issued a ruling on whether or not he could run for president. Feburary 7th, the Parliament was supposed to vote on the presidency per the country's Constituion. Instead, they postponed the vote because they did not have enough members attending the session. Zebari belongs to the KDP party which had teamed with Moqtada al-Sadr to form a coalition. Moqtada's coalition voycotted the session because the 2016 charges against Hoshyar were revived. Back then, he'd been in government forever and a day. He'd served in the Cabinets consequetively since 2016. In fact, in 2011, he held two Cabinet posts. In 2016, charges of corruption brought an end to the career of Hillary Clinton's closet friend and ally in Iraq. Four years later, th KDP foolishly thought he was the one to go with to take the presidency. They didn't factor in that the charges would be brought back up. But theyw ere and they have derailed his campaign. PRESS TV notes:

The court said in a statement that a decision by parliament to accept his presidential bid was incorrect as the 68-year-old Kurdish politician did not fulfill the conditions for nomination stipulated in the country's constitution. It also barred him from running for the post in the future, the official Iraq News Agency reported on Sunday.

“We were surprised by our exclusion from our right to nominate,” Zebari said in a news conference following the ruling.

“We respect the judiciary, but I have the right to say that there has been injustice and arbitrariness in the decision.”

The oint of Hoshyar was to claim the presidency. In the past, it has been held by a Kurd from the PUK party (the prty of the Talabanis). However, the October 10th election saw the continued eroision of the PUK. They are no longer a major political party. So why should they hold the post? The KDP thought Hoshyar would be the easiest way to defeat Barham Salih (PUK member and the current president of Iraq) because Zebari was not just a national figure, he was an international figure. They also assumed that, as a long standing member of Parliament, he would be a safe and popular choice to both Iraq and the international community. They underestimated Nouri al-Maliki.

Former prime miniser and forever thug Nouri is known for his paranoia. It's why Bully Boy Bush installed him as prime minister in 2006 -- the CIA assessment noted his high degree of paranoia and that this could be used to manipulate Nouri for US interests.

We have repeatedly noted the 2010 Erbil Agreement that gave Nouri his second term. The voters didn't want that and made it clear in March of 2010. But Nouri refused to step down. Eight months later, in November of 2010, the voters were tossed aside via the US overseen Erbil Agreement.

Nouri used the contract to get a second term and then he walked away from it claiming it was illegal. The other parties insisted otherwise. Well . . . most of them. The KDP was among those insisting that Nouri honor that contract or face a no-confidence vote in Parliament. Ayad Allawi, Moqtada al-Sadr, Amir al-Hakim and many others insisted the contract be honored. One political group didn't. The same group tha theld the presidency: the PUK. And when the others gathered the needed signatures to hold a no-confidence vote per the Constitituion, Jalal Talabani did what?

Well he didn't follow the Constitution. He created new poers for himself that included the right to toss the petition out. He didn't have that power. He only had the power to introdcue it (read it into the record). Then Jalal high talied it out of Iraq claiming emergency surgery. His life was at risk! It was electibe surgery on his knee. Liar. And karma bit him in his fat ass when six months later, as he had a very loud verbal argument with Nouri, he collapsed from a stroke that he would never recover from.

The PUK has sided with Nouri in the past. And they've sided with him again re: the October 10th elections. While Moatada has claimed victory -- with the press agreeing -- his wins are not enough to put together a government. As he's dithered, Nouri has built his own coaltiion. A war of attrition is how Nouri sees any political battle and he uses old techniques. The issues regarding Zebari? Not all that different from how Nouri tried to derail Saleh al-Mutlaq back in the '00s.

If you don't know (or remember) his playbook, the last months have probably been very confusing. If you do know them, you've seen Nouri launch one counter-measure after another and marveled over how out of it and ignorant Moqtada is.

The shine is off Moqtada, he's no longer a fresh rose. To those watching, he looks like a bumbling fool and that's one of the many points that Nouri's tryied to establish: Moqtada's not up for the power so many are rushing to gift him with. Moqtada, of course, hates Nouri from years back. Nouri was brought to power ty the US governmetn and had the arrest warrant for Moqtada that the US government sought. He repeatedly threatened Moqtada with it. When threatened, Moqtada would usually flee to Iran. In addition, in early 2008, Nouri declared all out war on Moqtada's cult/followers with two battles. (Yes, these battles were supposed to be a joint-US operation but, remember, Nouri jump-started them ahead of the US' planned start date.)

The two are and have been bitter rivals. If that's news to you, you've spent way too much time reading the US press in the last year.

Maybe you caught Jason Beausbien on NPR yesterday with his ridiculous claims:

MARTIN: You know, it's been four months since the elections, but there's still no agreement on a prime minister or a cabinet. Would you explain what's going on?

BEAUBIEN: This is still a young political system. Even today, the supreme court disqualified the leading candidate for the presidency, and that's just for a mainly ceremonial role. Iraq's parliament is divided. That no party got a majority in that last round of elections. The main winner, however, was the populous Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. His party got the largest bloc of votes of anyone. Many people might remember Sadr's militia. It was known for fighting fiercely against U.S. troops. But he's moderated to some degree now, and he's seen as sort of the counterbalance to a lot of the political forces here that are aligned with Iran. And he really looks like the kingmaker at the moment, but he's been driving a hard bargain over sharing power, over how to form a new government.

It's a young political system. Just stop whoring. Moqtada's "moderated"? Stop lying.

Two-bit whores belong on street coerners, not in front of microphones. NEWSWEEK carries a column by Shayan Talabany and Jemima Shelley:

On Feb. 13, 2020, Iraqi streets were awash with pink and purple. In response to influential Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's allegations of "promiscuity" by protesters in popular country-wide protests, women's rights activists donned pink and purple items of clothing to demonstrate their right to be heard in Iraq's male-dominated political arena.

This was two years ago, but today the legacy of the Tishreen (October) movement that precipitated the women's march is as important than ever. It revitalized the history of women-led struggles in Iraq, largely overlooked by the West, and inspired a politically active new generation who are determined to change Iraq for the better.

Despite years of various anti-government protests around the country dating back to 2011, the Tishreen movement that erupted in 2020 was larger than any other protest movement Iraq had seen in recent history. This organic movement represented the sentiments of a large segment of Iraqi society opposed to Iraq's systemic corruption, and sectarian and paternalistic political system that has failed to meet political and economic demands. Iraqi women became integral to its success.

I don't know who the bigger bitch is: Moqtada or Jason?

Moqtada isn't moderate. And his attack on women in 2020 was not a minor thing. Some foolish people e-mail this site about those protesters and tell me that o'of course Sunnis don't like Moqtada.' I'm sorry your media system has failed you and taught you lies about Russia and nothing about Iraq. But The October Revolution had nothing to do with SUnnis. That was Shi'te youngsters. Sunnis weren't a part of it. That was Shi'ites calling out Moqtada. And when he tried to dismiss women, the protesters foguht back and they turned out with signs mocking him. It showed clearly the generational break with Moqtada.

Now the US media couldn't tell you that because they kept turning to Whore of Baghdad Jane Arraf and, as a result, they were ignoring women. In October of 2020, we were pointing out there tha the big story was the number of women at these protests and how the US press was ignoring them.

Moqtada didn't ignore them. He condemened the women for being there and he condemned the men for protesting wit them.

In a previous time, he might have gotten away with it.

But in 2020, he didn't.

And that was a big story . . . unless you were a US outlet.

They never know what's happening because they choose to stay ignorant.

On the presidency, ALJAZEERA adds:

In a separate decision the Federal Court said that President Barham Salih, who is also running for a second term, will continue in his position until a new president is elected.

The court decision is a blow to populist Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who was the biggest winner in the October parliamentary election. He had vowed to quickly push through a government that could exclude Iranian allies.

Sadr, along with the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of which Zebari is a member, and an alliance of Sunni Muslim lawmakers had supported Zebari's bid for president.

Shelly Kittleson (AL-MONITOR) reports, "The deaths of several soldiers in the western Anbar desert and attacks further south in the same province have drawn attention to the vast expanses that were long a hideout for insurgents." ARAB NEWS notes, "The polls were marred by record-low turnout, post-election threats and violence, and a delay of several months until final results were confirmed." And THE NATIONAL points out, "Some members of the Coordination Framework, including MP Alia Nsayyif, who is allied to former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, have warned that violence could break out if government formation did not reflect their claimed electoral gains."

A new slate of candidates will have to be proposed. That's not how it had to be. The KDP quickly came up with an alternate to Zebari last week, should the Court (as they did on Sunday) rule him out of running. But a non-Moqtada-friendly Parliament has said, "Nope, scratch it all, we're starting over." But, hey, let's all be the US media and pretend like Moqtada's running something in Iraq.

New content from THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Lavender Country and Pusha T

Interesting article about Lavender Country, a 70s band that recorded the first known gay-themed country album. From ASBURY PARK PRESS:

Decades before the likes of Brandi Carlile, Orville Peck and Trixie Mattel worked to raise the visibility of LGBTQ artists in the roots, folk and Americana music scenes, Patrick Haggerty gave the world Lavender Country.

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Haggerty's 1973 self-titled LP under the Lavender Country banner is generally considered to be the first openly gay country album.

Nearly half a century later, it still sounds bracingly intimate and modern, the unvarnished musings from a member of the Stonewall generation.

But Haggerty, now 78, said he hears something different.

"Most people talk about how brave it was to make the album, blah, blah, blah, that whole thing," he said. "What I hear in my voice in the original Lavender Country (album) is fear. I was scared out of my mind. I was making an album and I didn’t know what I was doing."

By 1975, Lavender Country had disbanded. Nevertheless, Haggerty and his work found a following in the 21st century.

And they are about to release a new album.

And in other music news, let me note Pusha T's new video ''Diet Coke."

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

Friday, February 11, 2022. NYT decides 19 years of an illegal war is enough. (It's a position many of us reached before the war started and that many more recahced in the first few years of the illegal war, but, hey, NYT is n't noted for its courage or keen intelligence.)

In this morning's NEW YORK TIMES, Trita Parsi and Adam N. Weinstein argue that it's time for US troops to leave Iraq and for US President Joe Biden to set a timetable for that departure:

U.S. troops in Iraq quietly thwarted two separate drone attacks on bases hosting American soldiers in the first week of 2022. The attacks, attributed to Iraqi Shiite militias, are no surprise: America’s presence in Iraq is increasingly unwelcome. More attacks are bound to come as long as the Biden administration decides to keep forces there. With each passing day, the risk of a deadly attack increases.

And for what?

The presence of U.S. troops won’t stop terrorist attacks from happening and they can’t contain Iran, which has cemented its hold on some Iraqi military institutions since 2003. American soldiers are likely to die in vain because, just as in Afghanistan, they have been given the impossible task of acting as an ephemeral thumb on the scale of a foreign country’s politics.

Americans must ask themselves: Is this worth it? The United States withdrew from Afghanistan last year because its presence there no longer served its interests. Neither does staying in Iraq.

The U.S. experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq made painfully clear that there is no magic number of American troops that can eradicate terrorism. The roughly 2,500 in Iraq certainly cannot. While Washington’s foreign policy establishment wrings its hands about the risks of leaving, it appears to be ignoring the clear costs of staying.

An argument for ending the illegal war and occupation -- ongoing war, ongoing occupation --- from the belly of the beast. THE NEW YORK TIMES pimped the Iraq War, they cheerleaded it on. They ran with false links between al Qaeda and Iraq. They did stenography on what turned out to be non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. Bill Keller, Judith Miller, Thomas Friedman, Michael Gordon, those are only some of the names of people who did war proaganda. Don't forget serial plagiarist Jill Abramson who, after the illegal war started and was obviously not the cake walk so many had promised, suddenly had 'objections' to pieces that had been long ago published. Jill, whose grip on reality has always been tenuous, was in a position where she could hae halted the publication of those type of storeis or demanded more background be included as well as more skepitiscm but she waived them through and then pretended to be powerless when it was obvious that the Iraq War would go down as one of the paper's all time worst moments.

They sold the war. Over and over. And as we noted repeatedly during the early years of the illegal war, is was their Go-Go Boys and their lying 'coverage' that kept the Iraq War going. Burnsie and Dexy. A special place in hell for those two? A table for three with Mad Maddy Albright?

The paper sold the illegal war. They sold it and over a million Iraqis are dead as are Americans, British, Australians, . . . They sold the war and its the American taxpayer that is footing the bill. And not just this generation's taxpayer, but many generations to come.

It was cute, when Doanld Trump was in the White House, to watch outlets like NYT -- outlets who had lied the country into war -- get peevish over when exactly Donald Trump turned against the war -- before it started or in the early days after it started?

They wanted to lecture and to fact check. To lecture and fact check Donald Trump, you understand. Not themselves.

Forced into finally issuing some sort of statement after (a) Howard Kurtz had written a major piece on THE WASHINGTON POST's pre-war coverage and (b) NYT public editor Daniel Okrent had done a review on his own (the paper was opposed to that review -- Daniel did it because of The Tonys, I'm not joking, we can give that sotry at another time, we're already lost in parenthetical and we've told it here before), the paper issued a brief statement and insisted that there would be more to come as they looked at that pre-war coverage.

Bill Keller was always a liar. There was no more coverage examining the paper's lies.

So what we learn today is the time line. And it matters. It matters because they're trying to sell war on Russia right now. So, should they get their desire and that war start, we now know at what point they'll allow calls for US troops to leave -- 19 years later. We're one month shy of the 20th anniversary.

So 19 years is their level of 'endurance.'

A hellish amount of damage and destruction has been done in Iraq in those 19 years.

Even now, 19 years later, the column can't be honest. It's sections on the Iraqi government are laughable at best. (We didn't quote them above.) It's not a functioning government. The corrpution index issued annually by Tranparency International makes that clear. Or should. The inability to defend its own citizens make that clear.

Could democracy have taken root in Iraq -- democracy as the US swdinwa ir? I don't know. Anything can happen. But the steps they took esnured that it wouldn't.

And one of the biggest hallmarks of democracy? Voting. One person, one vote.

Iraq's election turnout? It's faltered and decreased steadily since the March 2010 election.

The western press pretends not to notice -- even after the debacle that was the October 2021 elections.

But it was US actions that ensured that Iraqis would not have faith in the ballot box. They went into 2010 with Nouri al-Maliki seeking a second term as prime minister. He claimed he would win -- and he instituted a series of actions (bribes) to try to ensure that -- not limited to his ice giveaway that was mocked by most Iraqis on social media. "We're despearte for potable water," the response went, "and he has a big block of ice transported to our area that qucikly melts. Water for a day! Yea!"

He worked overtime to eliminate his rivals. He'd sought a secret ruling ahead of the elections from Iraq's Supreme Court that he kept in his back pocket in case he lost (he did lose).

Alone among the US government watchers, Gen Ray Odierno could see (a) that Nouri might lose and (b) that if he did lose, he might refuse to step down.

The late general looks like a psychic in retrospect.

His concerns were ignored because Barack Obama nd Joe Biden were appeasing spoiled brat Chrissy Hill, the US Ambassador to Iraq. Little Chrissy was upset that the Sundy chat and chews had Ray on. Chrissy felt it should be him. And the press didn't note him, they went after Ray. Jealous, he had a snit-fit and Ray's role was scaled back.

But Ray was right.

Iraqis didn't want a second term of Nouri -- his secret prisons and torture chambers were already known. They went with Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya.

This was a major moment -- as we noted here repeatedly in real time.

A) It could show the Iraqi people the importance of the ballot box. It could. It could strengthen their belief in voting and in the power of voting. B) Iraqiys was the step forward that both Iraq and the US needed.

Iraq needed it because Iraqiys was about healing. It had Shias and Sunnis and everyone. It wasn't a fundamentalist party. At a time when women were largely invisible, IRaqiya had a female spokesperson. It was about a national identity. It was about coming together, not about divisions.

This really could have helped heal the country and allow it to move forward.

And that would have been good for the US because it would have argued for the departure of US troops.

So much could have been accomplished.

But reality flew out the window. It did so after the election, the day after, in fact. Quil Lawrence showed up on NPR to declare Nouri the winner. He wasn't. There were no tallies ore stimates. But, hey, Quil's a whore and whore's gotta make bank. Deborah Amos was on sabatical from NPR at that time and she used that time to write one of the best studies of the 2010 voting -- including the corruption -- corruption NPR and so many other outlets ignored.

But, hey, Quil called it so it must be true.

Originally, the approach of Joe (tasked with overseeing Iraq by Barack) was that the US stood with the winner. Tht would be Allawi and Iraqiya.

But then Samantha Power and Susan Davis got very vocal and insisted that Allawi would mean US troops had to leave when the current SOFA expired. A second term of Nouri al-Maliki? The insisted Nouri would go for renewing the SOFA. (The SOFA gave US troops the legal right to be on Iraqi soil and carrying out combat missions.)

Nouri refused to step down. Eight months after the election. He refused to step down. The government ground to standstill.

Joe and Brett McGurk were at the top of overseeing The Erbil Agreement. This was the legal contract that gve loser Nouri a second term. Parick Cockburn, the laughable US transplant who needs to go home, loves to play expert on Iraq but he never once, to this day, covered The Erbil Agreement.

This US overseen contract gave Nouri a second term. The heads of the various political blocs signed off on it. Why? They got something in the contract in exchange. So, for the Kurds, Article 140 would finally be put to a vote. Now that was supposed to happen during Nouri's first term. Remember that, we'll be back to it.

Everyone was promised something.

The day after the agreement was signed, Parliament met and finally named Nouri prime minister-designate. It was obvious there were huge problems from that moment, that very moment. Iraqiya walked out. Barac personally called Ayad Allawi and begged him to bring Iraqiya back into the Parliament. He told Allawi that The Erbil Agreement had the full backing of the US government.

He said it.

He lied.

Allawi believed him and Iraqiya returned.

Article 140 would need to be pushed back a bit. That's what the prime minister-designate said. There were announcements of an end of December referendum. Didn't happen. And never would. To this day.

We mocked the Kurdish leaders over this.

Nouri took an oath to uphold the Iraqi Constitution. It specifically called for Article 140 to be implemented before his first term ended. He didn't implement it. Why the hell did they believe his promise that 'this time' he'd implement it?

It was a big mistake.

And not just for the Kurds, for everyone invovled.

Within seven or so weeks, Nouri was announcing -- through his psokesperson (the one who later had to flee the country when Nouri turned on him) -- that the contrtact wasn't legal. Of course, he'd already become prime minister by that point.

He said he wasn't bound by it.

And he never honored it.

And Barack with his promise that the US government was behind it 100%? He refused to take Allawi's calls.

Iraq voted for a national identity, that's why the brand new Iraqiya managed to defeat the incumbent Nouri in the 2010 elections. And the US spat on that choice. And they overturned the votes.

And since that election, you've seen voter turnout in Iraq decrease steadily.

If you're surprised by that, you weren't paying attention.

Cause and effect.

In other news, Amnesty Interantional notes:

Amnesty International and Fat Rat Films have today released a new documentary that highlights the ongoing struggles faced by Yezidi former child soldiers who survived abduction by the Islamic State (IS) armed group.

The 12-minute film, Captives on the Frontlines: Yezidi former child soldiers who survived ISIS, explores the friendship between Vian and Barzan, two young men who were abducted as boys by IS in 2014, indoctrinated into the armed group, and forced to fight. Both escaped and are now living in northern Iraq, where the documentary was filmed last year.

“This film captures the challenges still faced by Yezidi former child soldiers, and also the friendships that have flourished in the most difficult of circumstances,” said Nicolette Waldman, Researcher on Children and Armed Conflict on Amnesty International’s Crisis Response team.

“Former child soldiers are routinely stigmatized, which means their harrowing experiences are frequently kept in the shadows. By bravely sharing their own stories so openly, Vian and Barzan have helped shine a light on the struggles that remain for Yezidi former child soldiers today. Many of these young men, having endured unimaginable trauma, continue to have serious physical and mental health conditions.

“To date, many Yezidi survivors have still not received adequate support for their physical health, mental health or education. Indeed, many have not received support of any kind since they returned to their communities.

“The Iraqi authorities, their international partners, and the United Nations must ensure that Yezidi former child soldiers have full access to the reparations and assistance to which they are entitled under Iraq’s Yazidi Survivors Law (2021).

“They must also work together to establish a National Action Plan mandating that all current and former child soldiers in Iraq, including Yezidi boys and young men, are reintegrated into society and provided with coordinated, specialized and long-term support.”

The documentary was made in collaboration with award-winning documentary production company Fat Rat Films, and will be available here ahead of the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers on Saturday 12 February.

Captives on the frontlines: Yezidi child soldiers who survived ISIS – the new documentary from Amnesty International and Fat Rat Films.

Between 2014 and 2017, IS committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and what the UN describes as genocide against the Yezidi community in Iraq.

In July 2020, Amnesty International published a report that documented how Yezidi children who had returned to their families after being held captive by IS were facing a physical and mental health crisis. The report, Legacy of Terror: The Plight of Yezidi Child Survivors of ISIS, also addresses the urgent need to end the enforced separation of Yezidi women and their children born of sexual violence by IS members.

In November 2021, Amnesty International welcomed new regulations passed by Iraq’s parliament to implement the Yazidi Survivors Law, but warned that more work was still required in order to fully assist survivors of atrocities committed by IS.

We'll wind down with this from Restore The Fourth:

Friend,

We did it—with your help! This week the IRS announced that it had abandoned its plans to partner with ID.me to force some taxpayers to use facial recognition technology in order to access their tax documents. You helped us put the pressure on the IRS and roll back their plans before tax season really took off—preventing potentially millions of Americans from having their biometric data recorded and stored in ID.me's private database.

Let’s keep that momentum up! The IRS is not the only government agency that has contracted with ID.me—other federal agencies that have contracts with this infamous FRT company include Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration as well as 30 state unemployment offices. This is unacceptable. Let’s demand ALL government agencies drop ID.me. We cannot continue to sit idly by while ID.me builds a huge, private database of our personal biometric information.

It's time to dump ID.me!

Consider supporting the work we do by making a donation here.

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