What an idiot Karen Tumulty is. THE MIAMI HERALD carries her column in which she ‘counsels’ Elizabeth Warren
regarding Warren’s claims to be Native American. At her most
ridiculous, Karen writes:
Warren
handled it clumsily when the controversy erupted during her 2012 Senate
campaign, but Massachusetts
voters decided it did not matter. Now, there is but one reason it
continues: Trump rarely misses an opportunity to take a dig at her, even
doing it at a White House event honoring Navajo code talkers who were
invaluable to the Marines during World War II.
Karen needs to shut the hell up.
She’s not in Big Mass. I grew up there. I don’t live there any more (I’m in Hawaii now).
I did live there during the race.
And I don’t believe our state voters made a final decision.
53.7% of voters did vote for Warren.
But 46.2% of voters went with Scott Brown. She did not get a majority
of votes so Karen Tumulty needs to stop lying. She’s really a partisan –
as her 2000 reporting demonstrated. And she doesn’t
appear to have learned much.
46.2% of voters is a significant number.
More to the point, even if it had been
100% for Warren in 2012, what does that have to do with her running for
the presidency? Karen talks about that. Well this may be an issue for
voters. If she’s running for president, they would
certainly need to weigh in. Karen’s telling Warren, in the column, not
to take a DNA test. I don’t think she should take one unless she wants
to. But it’s true that a DNA test would lay the matter to rest if she
is Native American. If she’s not, the controversy
will continue.
It’s already been an issue for Native Americans. It’s strange how Karen doesn’t know that.
Jon Keller (Boston’s local CBS station) reported two months ago:
That undocumented
claim has been ridiculed over the years, mostly by conservatives who
insist she used it to advance her career, but also by Native-American
groups and liberals who see the uproar over her story as a political
weakness.
Groups – Native American groups. Karen disappears that reality as well as the reality that many of us liberals are offended.
(I have to wonder if Karen’s even aware that Warren was a Republican for years? My mom has documented that for years.)
Karen doesn’t appear to grasp that
it’s not just that she once said she was Native American – she stated
that repeatedly. It’s also what she has written about – much to her
embarrassment.
Warren’s
central offense dates back to the mid 1980s, when she first formally
notified law school administrators
that her family tree includes Native Americans. Warren said she grew up
with family stories about both grandparents on her mother’s side having
some Cherokee or Delaware blood.
That genealogical claim has zero documentary evidence to back it up, according to a PolitiFact review of news
and newsletter databases back to 1986.
Before this controversy arose in 2012, there is no account that Warren spoke publicly of having Native American
roots, although she called herself Cherokee in a local Oklahoma cookbook in 1984.
There is no dispute that Warren formally notified officials at the University of Pennsylvania and then Harvard
claiming Native American heritage after she was hired.
Her detractors say she deployed a faux Native American connection to improve her chances of landing teaching
jobs at two of the country’s top law schools. However, there is no proof Warren gained any special advantage in her career.
Karen thinks the matter is settled. Annie Linskey (BOSTON GLOBE) didn’t seem so sure back in January:
And,
more telling, there’s also discomfort on the left and among some tribal
leaders and activists that Warren has a political blind spot when it
comes to the murkiness surrounding
her story of her heritage, which blew up as an issue in her victorious
2012 Massachusetts Senate race. In recent months, Daily Show host Trevor
Noah
mocked
her for claiming Native American ancestry and the liberal website
ThinkProgress published a scathing criticism of her by a Cherokee
activist
who said she should apologize.
Robert Fizzuto (MASSLIVE) reported in May of 2012:
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful
Elizabeth Warren
is facing new criticism from Native Americans over her heritage claims
as a nearly three-decades old family cook book called "Pow Wow Chow" has
surfaced.
[. . .]
This week, the "Pow Wow Chow" cookbook, which includes recipes contributed by Warren and family members, was obtained by
the Boston Herald, documenting that Warren has identified with her family lore of Cherokee ancestry as far back as the early 1980s.
The
book is a compilation of “special recipes passed down through the Five
Tribes families,” according to the Herald, which mentions Warren's
recipes for savory crab
omelet and spicy barbecued beans.
For
almost a decade in the 1980s and '90s, Warren listed her Native American
ancestry in a directory of law professors compiled by the Association
of American Law Schools,
a move she said was to meet people "who are like I am," referring to
the stories of Native American ancestry which were passed down by family
members. When the directory proved fruitless as far as networking with
other Native Americans, Warren said she stopped
checking that box on the directory listing.
And
as Harvard University, Warren's employer, was under fire for a lack of
diversity hires in the 1990s, they touted the law professor as the
school's first minority
female hire, a claim Warren said she was unaware of until reading about
the situation in the press.
Earlier this week,
Politico reported
that in a 1997 Fordham Law Review story by Laura Padilla called
“Intersectionality and positionality: Situating women of color in the
affirmative action dialogue,” a news director
at Harvard Law School said Warren was the
university's "first woman of color."
Brown has called on Warren to release all law school applications and personnel files from the universities where she taught.
Warren
has denied using her ancestry to gain an advantage but she has also
faced criticism as to whether or not she is actually Cherokee, even
1/32nd, as a New England
Historic and Genealogy Society researcher had initially claimed. The
organization later retracted its claims as it was unable to produce
copies of original documents, prompting the Boston Globe which
originally reported the development to
issue a correction.
Twila Barnes, a Cherokee blogger and self-described genealogist,
called on Warren to "come clean" recently, saying that she also doubts Warren's heritage claims.
"You
have claimed something you had no right to claim -- our history and our
heritage and our identity. Those things belong to us, and us alone,"
Barnes
wrote on her blog.
"These are not things we choose to embrace when they benefit us and
then cast aside when we no longer need them, but that is what you seem
to have done by 'checking a box' for several
years and then no longer 'checking' it more recently, when apparently
you no longer needed it."
Karen shows up knowing nothing. She really should be ashamed.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Dianne Feinstein embraces a torture queen,
Iraq sees false checkpoints erected on the highway between Baghdad and
Kirkuk, the IMF dictates reality for the US colony of Iraq, and much
more.
Turning to the issue of Iraq, one person stood tall, the other lied and hid his whole life. Let's start with the heroic: Stephen Hawking. He has passed on but his actions and work are remembered.
Turning to the issue of Iraq, one person stood tall, the other lied and hid his whole life. Let's start with the heroic: Stephen Hawking. He has passed on but his actions and work are remembered.
Stephen Hawking condemned the illegal US-UK invasion of Iraq, calling it in 2004 a "war crime" based on "lies."
usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/200…
RIP Stephen Hawking. Nothing but respect for a great physicist who despite a debilitating condition, profoundly expanded science. He also always found time to oppose wars & colonization. Vietnam, Iraq, fundraising for palestinians, supporting their liberation & boycotting Israel.
And then there's the embarrassing Oliver Willis who leaves the Bordello of Brock long enough to Tweet:
2018 taught me that opposing the Iraq war, supporting health care reform and defending social security while believing in climate science is "centrist." Which is the new "I don't like it so I'll call it neoliberal."
What's going on?
CNN's Jake Tapper addressed an issue of hatred. Little Ollie No Balls issued a snarky Tweet because Ollie was offended that Jake might call out racism on the left. In Ollie's world you must never call out the left. Even if you work for a news outlet that is supposed to play it down the middle. So Jake responded and called Ollie "left" and people rushed to point out that Ollie's a centrist. Since being tagged accurately, Ollie's been repeating that nonsense about "opposing the Iraq war, supporting health care reform . . ." nonsense non-stop. We don't need reform, we need Medicare for all. Ollie is a centrist who works for David Brock. As for "opposing the Iraq war" -- when, Ollie?
When?
Iraq remains occupied and the war continues. When did you last oppose it?
You haven't done a damn thing and you need to stop pretending otherwise.
Unless you're trying to tell us that you would be commenting but David Brock won't let you. Unless you're repeatedly asking, "Daddy David Brock, will you pull your dick out of my mouth long enough to let me speak out against the ongoing war?" only to find that David Brock will not pull it out to let you speak your mind.
Just stop trying to use Iraq. You don't write about it, you don't Tweet about it. But every time you get into trouble -- or get smacked around by Jake Tapper (yea, Jake!!!!), you go running to the topic of Iraq. Iraq does not exist to be your get-out-of-jail card -- talk about 'First World' Entitlement. Stop using Iraq. If you've got something to say about Iraq, write or talk about it. But stop trying to pretend like you've ever done a damn thing thus far to help the people of Iraq.
The people of California need help. We need help to move into the 21st century. We won't get there via Dianne Feinstein who, please remember, voted for the Iraq War and has justified and excused it, done everything but to try to end it. (Is Dianne really just Oliver Willis in drag? Shhh, no rumors.) We have a chance to step into the 21st century nationally via Kevin de Leon who has already fought for California in the state but is now running for the US Senate.
Kevin is running against Dianne currently and this has a Canadian woman hiding in New York in a tizzy. Why? This isn't her damn election and she needs to butt the hell out of it. If you can't vote in the election, we don't need your opinions on it. It's that simple. Politics are local and, no, Canadian twit, your thoughts on this election are not needed. Nor is your uninformed and ignorant hysteria. I can't even remember that stupid woman's name right now so let's just call her Idiot. Idiot, Kevin's not going to mean a Democrat won't be in the Senate as you have repeatedly lied. Idiot thinks Kevin's going to hurt Dianne's chances at re-election and allow a Republican to pick up the seat. Why does Idiot think that? Because she's a damn idiot who needs to learn to mind her own damn business.
In my state, we will hold a June primary. All candidates who are running for the US Senate seat will be on that ballot. The two candidates who get the most votes will then advance to the November general election. Were the June primary today, that would be Kevin and Dianne. There will not be a Republican on the ballot. If that's confusing to the Idiot, it's because she doesn't know what she's talking about. She needs to shut her damn mouth because she's an idiot who is misinforming people with her idiotic Tweets. We are not New York, we are not Canada. In California, our election is a little bit different. You need to know these facts to comment even semi-intelligently.
Dianne represents a Democrat if you're living in a centrist state -- maybe the centrist state of Ollie Willis' mind? She does not represent California voters and has not for over two decades. She voted for the Iraq War when there was no confusion on our part, in the state of California, that the Iraq War was illegal and wrong. She repeatedly betrays our state with her efforts to move the conversation to the right.
Don't get it yet?
US President Donald Trump is proposing a new person to head the CIA. Where's Kevin stand? Where's Dianne stand?
I would vote NO on confirming Gina Haspel if elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate. Following orders is a poor excuse to commit torture and tear at the fabric of our great democracy.
Having released a torture report, Feinstein knows better than most how morally and legally wrong torture is. This should be an easy call. Not only should she be a NO vote on Trump's CIA pick, she should also be a leading voice rallying all Dems against this nomination.
It is very concerning Senator Feinstein is ‘open to supporting’ CIA nominee Haspel, who ran a ‘black site’ prison that waterboarded and beat prisoners. Believes she has been a ‘good’ deputy CIA Director.
Dianne has excused away and turned a blind eye to torture.
Those might be values to embrace in another state but they are not California values and Dianne needs to go.
And she can take her violet and blue mornings with her.
So where have you gone
Have you gone so far from the eyes that
Speak trouble and even when the warning is
Overwhelming...
Well it's hard to hide from
Eyes that are all over you
That only some
Make you lose your composure
"Well it's hard on my heart"
Said, "Well open your eyes"
"It gets harder every day"
Said, "I need to know now"
Soon you will be gone
Take your violet and blue mornings with you
-- "Violet and Blue," written by Stevie Nicks, first appears on the AGAINST ALL ODDS soundtrack
Take your violet and blue mornings with you, Dianne.
That, in California, we are having to contact Dianne's office to let her know that torture is not a California value? That's appalling and one more indicator of how out of date and out of touch Dianne Feinstein is.
In Iraq, KITABAT's talking about the hideous torture queen Gina Haspel.
But Dianne's so out of touch she thinks a cute little talk -- over tea, you dottering old fool? -- with Gina makes everything all right. It does not. Gina broke laws. Gina's actions are repugnant and unethical. Gina belongs in a prison. That Dianne Feinstein can't grasp that goes to the fact that her brain has completely decayed and that the woman who turns 85 in less than three months needs to retire and if Great Granny Dianne can't retire on her own, it is our job to retire her. 85 is too old to continue serving in the US Senate. Electing her to another six year term would put her at 91 when it's over. That is disgusting.
Iraq's got elections scheduled for May 12th.
Will Moqtada al-Sadr support a second term for Hayder al-Abadi? ALSUMARIA reports the question was put to the Shi'ite cleric and movement leader who stated he would not be endorsing anyone at this time and noted that he was waiting -- still waiting -- for Hayder to address corruption.
AL MADA reports that Ammar al-Hakim met with Vice President Ayad Allawi and the two spoke of the need for the elections to be carried out in a calm manner. But KITABAT explains that voting buying has already started.
In an effort to look like they do something, the Parliament rushed through a 2018 budget earlier this month. To term it 'problematic' is to put it mildly.
ALL IRAQ NEWS reports that Iraq's president, Fuad Masoum, declared yesterday that he was sending the 2018 budget back to Parliament to rework it and that he would not sign off on it as is. ALSUMARIA notes that Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition is screeching that Masoum has violated the Constitution. No, he hasn't. He's used his veto power over laws -- it's the same power that the vice presidents also have. In the fall of 2009, this right/power was clarified when Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi used his veto on the election law. He didn't feel it properly represented and accounted for refugees. He used his power to veto the law. It was sent back to Parliament and reworked. (This is why the 2009 elections ended up taking place in March of 2010.) ALUMARIA also notes that the leader of GORAN (Change) in the Parliament, Amin Bakr, stated that the Parliament refused to use the legal committee when drafting the budget which accounts for so many of the problems with the budget -- including features that were unconstitutional. Meanwhile NINA reports that the United Kingdom has declared the budget Fuad sent back to contain a large budget deficit and stated that it does little to create jobs. Here's their official statement:
UK welcomes the passage of the Iraqi budget last week, which will allow
Ministries to plan their spending and projects. But the budget deficit
remains high, and we were disappointed that there were no new measures
to improve public finance management, including procurement processes.
Doing more to show commitment to the IMF support package will help Iraq
build its credibility as an economic partner and help tackle corruption
and waste of public money. Of course some decisions are more difficult
in election year, but the UK will continue to work with the Iraqi
authorities and the international community throughout the coming year
to improve the environment for local and international business and
investment. With a million young Iraqis coming onto the jobs market
every year, a better environment for business is the only way to create
enough productive jobs. This will be a big issue in the upcoming
elections, and we are asking all the senior politicians what they plan
to do about it.
Fuad's actions really don't matter though. Regardless of him, the budget has to be redone. That's what happens when you sell your soul to the IMF. For years, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned the government of Iraq not to fall into the trap the IMF repeatedly attempted to lay out for them. For a long time, Iraq's government listened. Under Hayder al-Abadi, it stopped listening.
Saturday, THE FINANCIAL TRIBUNE reported:
The International Monetary Fund,
which controls Baghdad’s access to over $5 billion in international
loans, has come out against Iraq’s recently-passed 2018 budget, in large
part due to the decrease of the share allocated to the Kurdistan
region.
“The budget is not satisfactory
because we think it’s not enough to maintain macroeconomic stability in
Kurdistan, which is an important region of Iraq,” Christian Josz, deputy
division chief of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asian department,
told Iraq Oil Report, Kurdistan24 reported.
Iraq’s adherence to regulations
in the IMF’s Stand-By Arrangement acts to free up $5.34 billion in
international loans. It also indirectly allows Iraq to access billions
more, due to the positive effect on the confidence of investors and
businesses that IMF partnership carries.
If Baghdad fails to reach
specific economic and governance benchmarks laid out in the SBA, the IMF
can cite non-compliance to put the agreement, and therefore billions of
dollars for Iraq, on hold.
Regardless of Fuad, the budget was going to be reworked. Iraq has no choice on the matter because Hayder sold the country to the IMF and now the IMF gets to dictate what happens. The only thing that stopped in Argentina was the people rising up. (See Naomi Klein here.)
In other news, the airports in the KRG are being re-opened.
Some are hailing Hayder.
They don't need to.
No, don't hail the puppet, hail the puppet's master.
Welcome the reopening of international airports in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the result of dogged diplomacy over many months. Important step towards post-ISIS stability, which requires a strong and unified KRG within the constitutional framework of Iraq.
So Hayder finally broke under US pressure?
Is anyone surprised? Iraq's a colony of the US. The war drags on and the colonization continues.
And what's 'liberation' look like?
ALSUMARIA reports an attack last night on a Baghdad cafe that left 1 person injured (a grenade was tossed into the cafe), 2 people were shot dead to the north of Baquba and an armed clash in Samarra left 1 Iraqi military officer dead. In addition, Wael Grace (AL MADA) reports fake checkpoints have been set up on the highway between Baghdad and Kirkuk to carry out violent attacks. So far the deaths include 10 people shot dead and five people burned inside a car.
The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, PACIFICA EVENING NEWS, BLACK AGENDA REPORT and DISSIDENT VOICE -- updated:
90210, BUFFY and NETFLIX
6 hours ago
The flying dino?
6 hours ago
The CIA takeover of everything
6 hours ago
Tillerson, Zurawik, books, etc
7 hours ago
Trump can't quit him
12 hours ago
THIS JUST IN! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE LOVE!
12 hours ago
