Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Wasn't in the mood for the sheepdog

 Do you like music?  I love music.  I love the White Stripes (they need to get back together), I love Jack White solo, I love Dashboard Confessional, Jack Johnson, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, Prince -- you name it.  And I love Kat and all her great music reviews and articles:

  • Haim and women in music
  • Pretenders' HATE FOR SALE
  • Ellie Goulding and Lady Gaga
  • Diana Ross hits the dance floor
  • Bob Dylan ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS
  • Hamilton Leithauser and Ronnie Spector
  • Ricky Martin PAUSA
  • Fiona Apple FETCH THE BOLTCUTTERS
  • Judy Garland's JUDY
  • 2010-2019 the decade in music
  • 2019 in muaix
  • Coldplay EVERDAY LIFE
  • Leslie Odom's MR.
  • Taylor Swift and Tanya Tucker
  • Drake's CARE PACKAGE
  • James Blake ASSUME FORM
  • Judy Garland ALONE
  • Mavis Staple WE GET BY
  • Dionne Warwick SHE'S BACK
  • Rhiannon Giddens THERE IS NO OTHER
  • Mavis Staples LIVE IN LONDON
  • Hozier WASTELAND, BABY
  • Chaka Khan HELLO HAPPINESS
  • 2018 in music
  • Rod Stewart BLOOD RED ROSES
  • Diana Ross WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME
  • Barbra Streisand WALLS
  • Cat Power WANDERER
  • Cher does ABBA - DANCING QUEEN
  • Ann Wilson's IMMORTAL
  • John Mellencamp's SCARECROW
  • Cowboy Junkies ALL THAT RECKONING
  • Sting & Shaggy 44/876
  • Dashboard Confessional CROOKED SHADOW
  • Joan Baez WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND
  • 2017 in Music
  • Diana Ross' DIAMOND DIANA
  • Taylor Swift's REPUTATION
  • Sam Smith's THE THRILL OF IT ALL
  • Tori Amos' NATIVE INVADERS
  • Blondie POLLINATOR
  • Aimee Mann MENTAL ILLNESS
  • Luke Bryan KILL THE LIGHTS
  • Conor Oberst SALUTATIONS
  • 2016 in music
  • Diana Ross' diana and the RCA Years
  • John Legend
  • Bruno Mars 24K MAGIC
  • Alicia Keys' HERE
  • Pretenders' ALONE
  • Chris Brown's Mixed up Mix tape
  • Melissa Etheridge: The lesbian who preferred men
  • Barbra Streisand's lousy encore
  • Nick Jonas LAST YEAR WAS COMPLICATED
  • No one hates Drake more than Drake
  • Ben Harper's Call It What It Is
  • Graham Nash This Path Tonight
  • Diana Ross Sings Songs From The Wiz
  • 2015 in Music
  • Tracy Chapman's Greatest Hits
  • Adele 25
  • Carly Simon's Songs From The Trees
  • The Triumphant return of Janet Jackson
  • Judy Collins plays Where The Boys Are
  • Rickie Lee Jones The Other Side of Desire
  • Wilco's Star Wars
  • Steve Grand
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie's Power In The Blood
  • Carly Simon The Bedroom Tapes
  • Ringo Starr Postcards from Paradise
  • DNR order on Madonna's Rebel Heart
  • 2014 in music
  • Ronstadt and Streisand do duets
  • Neil Young Storytones
  • Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics
  • Stevie Nicks' 24 Karat Gold
  • Prince drops 2 albums
  • Lenny Kravitz' Strut
  • Carly Simon Original Album Series
  • Chrissie Hynde's Stockholm
  • Tori Amos Unrepentant Geraldines
  • Ben Harper and Ellen Harper Childhood Home
  • Livingston Taylor Blue Sky
  • Afghan Whigs Do The Beast
  • Cloud Nothings
  • Pretenders The Isle Of View
  • Ben Taylor's Listening
  • Bruce Springsteen High Hopes
  • Brad Paisley
  • 2013 in music
  • Beyonce's awful album
  • Jack Johnson From Here To Now To You
  • Cher's Closer To The Truth
  • Jackson and His Computerband
  • Sam Phillips
  • Ebony Bones Behold, A Pale Horse
  • Maps (James Chapman)
  • Hanni El Khatib
  • Shannon and the Clams
  • Natalie Maines' Mother
  • Holly Near, Go Away
  • Kate Nash's Girl Talk
  • Devendra Banhart
  • Taylor Swift Red
  • 2012 In Music
  • Rolling Stones GRRR!
  • Heart's Fanatic
  • Alanis Morissette
  • Animal Collective
  • Susanna Hoffs and Joss Stone
  • Carole King Demos, Maria McKee Live
  • What Regina Spektor Saw Playing It Cheap
  • Bonnie Raitt Slipstream
  • Wilson Phillips Dedicated
  • M. Ward's A Wasteland Companion
  • Carole King's Touch the Sky
  • Carole King's Welcome Home
  • Graffiti6 Colours
  • The Sensual Roberta Flack
  • Ani DiFranco Which Side Are You On?
  • Moves Like Jagger
  • 2011 in music
  • Doris Day and Rob Crow
  • Tori Amos Night of Hunters
  • Muppet 'tribute' album
  • Beastie Boys
  • Joss Stone
  • Amy Winehouse vs the Plastic World
  • Death Cab for Cutie's Codes and Silences
  • Ben Harper's Give Till It's Gone
  • Phil Spector's Wall of Sound
  • Stevie Nicks In Your Dreams
  • Emmylou Harris
  • Radiohead The King Of Limbs
  • PJ Harvey Let England Shake
  • 2010 in Music
  • Melanie's Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me
  • Cher's far from over
  • The 80s: Where Cher Proves Them All Wrong
  • Cher and the too far gone 70s
  • Neil Young's Le Noise
  • Heart
  • Cher's 60s recordings
  • Melanie's Crazy Love
  • Sarah McLachlan's Laws of Illusions
  • Tom Petty & Heartbreakers forgot to write some songs
  • Kate Nash
  • Jakob Dylan
  • Natalie Merchant
  • Torch singer Sade
  • Joanna Newsom's triumph
  • The decade in music
  • 2009 in Music
  • Joni Mitchell live on Greenpeace CD
  • Carly Simon Never Been Gone
  • Barbra is the answer
  • Holly Near & emma's revolution
  • Under The Covers Vol. 2
  • Cass Elliot's classic album
  • John Fogerty's White Flight
  • Elvis Costello Goes Country
  • Regina Spektor Far
  • Ben Harper White Lies For Dark Times
  • Tori Amos Abnormally Attracted to Sin
  • David Saw Broken Down Figure
  • Prince LOtUSFLOW3R
  • Stevie Nicks The Soundstage Sessions
  • Joshua Radin Simple Beauty
  • U2 No Line On The Horizon
  • Charity albums
  • india.arie
  • Schuyler Fisk
  • Tracy Chapman Our Bright Future
  • Bruce Springsteen Working On a Dream
  • Best of Janis Ian
  • Phoebe Snow Live
  • 2008 in Music
  • Labelle Back To Now
  • Pretends Break Up The Concrete
  • Aimee Mann @#%&*! Smilers
  • Augustana Can't Love, Can't Hurt
  • Cold Play Vida la Vida
  • The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt
  • Carly Simon This Kind Of Love
  • Jack Johnson Sleep Through The Static
  • Lenny Kravitz It Is Time For A Love Revolution
  • 2007 in Music
  • Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist
  • Ann Wilson Hope & Glory
  • Prince Planet Earth
  • Joni Mitchell Shine
  • Stephen Stills and Ani DiFranco
  • Ben Harper Lifeline
  • Judy Collins Sings Lennon & McCartney
  • Cowboy Junkies at the end of paths taken
  • Mavis Staples We'll Never Turn Back
  • Rickie Lee Jones and Norah Jones
  • Albert Hammond Jr. Yours To Keep
  • Tori Amos American Doll
  • Patti Smith Twelve
  • Bright Eyes Cassadaga
  • Holly Near Shows Up
  • Diana Ross I Love You
  • Lizzie West I Pledge Allegiance to Myself
  • Carly Simon Into White
  • 2006 in Music
  • David Rovic Halliburton Boardroom Massacre
  • Ani DiFranco Reprieve
  • Justin Timberlake Future Sex/Love Sounds
  • Michael Franti & Spearhead Yell Fire!
  • Free Design Kites Are Fun
  • Janis Ian Folk Is The New Black
  • Neil Young Living With War
  • Pink I'm Not Dead
  • Josh Ritter The Animal Years
  • Pearl Jam
  • Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way
  • Bruce Springsteen Seeger Sessions
  • Richie Havens Collection
  • Ben Harper Both Sides of The Gun
  • Etta James All The Way
  • Nina Simone The Solid Gold Collection
  • Cat Power The Greatest
  • 2005 in Music
  • Carly Simon No Secrets
  • James Blunt Back to Bedlam
  • Bright Eyes Motion Sickness
  • Stevie Wonder A Time To Dance
  • Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang
  • Joan Baez Bowery Songs
  • The Complete Cass Elliot Solo Collection
  • Aimee Mann The Forgotten Arm
  • Carole King The Living Room
  • Carly Simon Moonlight Serenade
  • Coldplay X & Y
  • White Stripes Get Behind Me, Satan
  • Judy Collins Portrait of an American Girl
  • Carole King Tapestry
  • Tori Amos The Beekeeper
  • Nirvana With The Lights Out
  • Why Does Music Suck So Bad Pt. I
  • Why Does Music Suck So Bad Pt. II
  • Wilco A Ghost Is Born
  • Almost 41 years later
  • Maria McKee Live in Hamburg
  • Green Day v. Disney Kids

  • If I counted right, that's 245 music pieces that Kat's written.  And look at who she's covered since 2004: Prince, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Green Day, Coldplay, U2, Janis Ian, Judy Collins, Doris Day, Haim, Nirvana, Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin, Bright Eyes, James Blunt, Patti Smith, Smashing Pumpkins, Rickie Lee Jones, Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Phoebe Snow, Josh Ritter, Heart, Stevie Nicks, Cass Elliot, Elvis Costello, the Pretenders, Cher, Melanie, Bruce Springsteen, Drake . . .

    She's covered a lot of artists, a lot of genres.  

    I really love what she's done, her body of work.  And her latest went up Sunday ("Kat's Korner: Haim and how it took a lifetime to get here") and is about Haim's new album and about women in music.


    Did you watch the convention?  I didn't.  I have a life.  I think Ajamu Baraka summed it up best

    Sheepdog Bernie Sanders will cap off his sheepdogging duties tonight. No Medicare for All, no reduction in military spending, no defunding the police, no universal free childcare, no elimination of student debt - nothing - but the people are supposed to shut up & vote Blue.

    Bernie can go play pied piper with others.  I'm not in the mood to be sheepdogged.  


    Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

     Monday, August 17, 2020.  Does Iraq matter in the US, does a virtual political convention matter, an activist is assassinated in Iraq, and much more.


    Is Tony Blair a War Criminal?  PARLA poses the question as the Democratic War Party kicks off their convention online and as the US press tries to play what's-Iraq-never-heard-of-it?

    The war continues, no matter how hard US outlets try to ignore it.  What will they do August 20th?  That's when Iraq's prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi is due to visit the White House.

    In anticipation of that visit, or perhaps to get a few laughs or just to flaunt their stupidity, Aykan Erdemir and Philip Kowalski (NATIONAL INTEREST) offer "Joe Biden Will Be America's Most Pro-Kuridsh President."


    First, "Would Be" is the wording they're looking for unless THE NATIONAL INTEREST no longer wants to be seen as objective journalism and instead wants to model themselves after Sibyl The Soothsayer in the film NETWORK.  The election will take place in November.  

    The laughs never end, though.  Joe Biden the most pro-Kurdish?

    Joe Biden gave lip service to the Kurds as a US senator.  As vice-president, when he was tasked with Iraq by Barack, he did nothing to assist the Kurds.  He repeatedly ignored their interests and their concerns.  

    B-b-b-but he had to do what Barack told him!!!!!  

    Did he?  Even after he was no longer vice president?  From the September 26, 2017 snapshot:

    Yesterday, a historic referendum was held in northern Iraq.  Results above from RUDAW, the official results will be released later-- some day two to three days but Susannah George (AP) reports the results are expected this evening.  .


    RUDAW explained the referendum as follows:

    More than five million people are eligible to vote when the people of Kurdistan head to the polls on Monday, September 25, to decide whether they want to leave or stay with Iraq.

    With an estimated global population of between 30 and 40 million, the Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups without a state. Under the post-WWI Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, Kurdish lands were divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

    Kurds in all four parts of what is known as Greater Kurdistan have faced persecution, discrimination, and genocide, and have fought at times for greater rights, autonomy, and independence.

    In Iraq, Kurds make up 17 to 20 percent of the total population. In the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, Kurds have had a semi-autonomous government since a no-fly zone was established over their lands in 1991 after the first Gulf War.

    The new Iraqi constitution that came into effect in 2005, after the US-led invasion of 2003, recognized the Kurdistan Region as a federal region with its own legislature and armed forces, the Peshmerga. Both Erbil and Baghdad have accused the other of violating the constitution.

    The September 25 referendum will take place in Kurdistan of Iraq only, not neighbouring countries.



    It's worth noting that this vote was put together in about three months.  It's also worth noting that provincial elections were supposed to have taken place throughout Iraq earlier this year, then pushed back to September, then pushed back to next year.

    Read the snapshot.  Two members of the US Congress bucked the Trump White House and issued statements supporting the Kurds.  Where was Joe Biden?


    And isn't that kind of the cry throughout his long, long public servant career: Where was Joe Biden?


    For those who've forgotten the entire US national security establishment trashed and shamed the Kurds -- that's the US State Dept, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORK TIMES, all the official and unofficial elements.  

    And for what?

    A long, overdue non-binding referendum on Kurdish independence.

    They rushed to trash the Kurds.  They rushed to shame the Kurds.  They rushed to hector the Kurds.  Where was 'friend' Joe Biden?

    The Kurds knew Joe checked out long ago.  He lied to them repeatedly.  Jalal Talabani looked like the biggest idiot in the world as he held on to the belief that Joe was going to come through on one of his promises -- at least one.  He never did. 

    The Kurds have been betrayed repeatedly by the White House going back to the days of Richard Nixon -- as The Pike Report revealed.  This was not by accident, this was by design.   For those late to the party, February 16, 1976, The Village Voice published Aaron Latham's "Introduction to the Pike Papers."  Latham explained:



    In 1972, Dr. Henry Kissinger met with the Shah of Iran, who asked the U.S. to aid the Kurds in their rebellion against Iraq, an enemy of the Shah.  Kissinger later presented the proposal to President Nixon who approved what would become a $16 million program.  Then John B. Connally, the former Nixon Treasury Secretary, was dispatched to Iran to inform the Shah, one oil man to another.
    The committee report charges that: "The President, Dr. Kissinger and the foreign head of state [the Shah] hoped our clients would not prevail.  They preferred instead that the insurgents simply continue a level of hostilities sufficient to sap the resources of our ally's neighboring country [Iraq].  The policy was not imparted to our clients, who were encouraged to continue fighting.  Even in the context of covert action, ours was a cynical enterprise."
    During the Arab-Israeli war, when the Kurds might have been able to strike at a distracted Iraqi government, Kissinger, according to the report, "personally restrained the insurgents from an all-out offensive on the one occasion when such an attack might have been successful."
    Then, when Iran resolved its border dispute with Iraq, the U.S. summarily dropped the Kurds.  And Iraq, knowing aid would be cut off, launched a search-and-destroy campaign the day after the border agreement was signed.
    A high U.S. official later explained to the Pike committee staff: "Covert action should not be confused with missionary work."


    That last sentence?  THE NATIONAL INTEREST doesn't comprehend it.  It leaves their thick head confused.  

    There's also the fact that Joe Biden became Vice President in January of 2009.  What are the KDP and PUK, by the way?


    They're political parties in the KRG.  The Talabani family controls the PUK and the Barzani family controls the KDP.  

    While Joe Biden was vice president, these two political parties were also another thing?  


    Any guesses?

    Terrorist organization -- according to the US government.  Joe Biden, friend of the Kurds, was just fine with that. It wasn't until February 2015 that these designations were finally removed.  Grasp that.  Joe's friend Jalal Talabani was the president of Iraq from 2005 through 2014 and, that whole time, the US government considered him the head of a terrorist organization.


    What a friend they have in Joe.

    Blue no matter who?  Not for US presidential candidate Joseph Kishore (Socialist Equality Party) who writes:

    Whatever reservations they may have over the right-wing character of the Democratic Party and its candidates, the argument goes, this is the only way to get rid of Trump. Everything else must be subordinated to this electoral outcome.

    This is hardly the first election in which such “lesser evil” arguments were advanced. In 1988, it was a matter of voting for Dukakis, the right-wing governor from Massachusetts, to finally put an end to the Reagan years. After Dukakis lost to George H.W. Bush, the following election in 1992 became a matter of putting an end to the Bush years by electing Bill Clinton, whose right-wing policies cleared the path for Bush II in 2000. In 2008, the argument became the need to elect Obama, the “candidate of hope and change,” in order to end the disaster produced by Bush II, above all, the war in Iraq.

    Obama continued the most right-wing policies of George W. Bush (with whom, by the way, he has established a close personal friendship), including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the overseeing of the Wall Street bailout following the 2008 financial collapse. It was the right-wing policies of Obama and the nomination of Hillary Clinton on the basis of a prowar program, glossed over with identity politics, that created the conditions for the election of Trump in 2016.

    This act, in other words, has been played out before, and each time the result is a further shift to the right of the entire political establishment.

    In this case, amidst all the hoopla over the “historic” character of the Biden-Harris ticket, attributed entirely to the race and gender of Harris, the nominees have been selected through the machinations of the Democratic Party against the candidacy of Bernie Sanders and even Elizabeth Warren.

    That is, the Democratic Party’s campaign is founded on a repudiation of any suggestion that it will carry out a policy of social reform. The Democrats are not even making the pretense of providing a program to address the catastrophe unfolding in the United States.


    Bill Glauber (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINAL) tries to create interest in the online DNC convention by noting the following will be performing: Billie Eilish, John Legend, Common, The Chicks, Leon Bridges, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Maggie Rogers, Prince Royce and Stephen Stills.

    What an unimpressive line up.  Removed Jennifer Hudson and Common and what's the point?  Billie is not a live performer (so the virtual convention may actually benefit her).  The Chicks?  Their career is over.  And should be, I say that as a friend of Adrian Pasdar.  'B-b-b-but their new album debuted at number three!'  A few weeks later, where's that album?  At number 54.  No one's buying it, no one gives a damn.  It's seen as the desperation move it is, Natalie's solo career flopped so she decided to try to reform the Dixie Chicks -- now called the Chicks, though they're too long in the tooth to be considered to be considered baby chicks.  


    The group did 'bravery' in 2003.  A weak and ad libbed remark from Natalie on a British stage which was quickly followed by trashing themselves and begging for mercy.  Only after it was clear that wasn't going to work did they find enough spine to stand up for themselves.  And Natalie never talked Iraq again?  The Iraqi people have never been a concern of hers, have they?


    They suffer but she didn't give a damn, did she?  All the years after, 'political' Natalie has had nothing to say in defense of the people of Iraq.


     

    Save The Iraqi people posted the above video on Saturday and noted:


    Iraq, BASRAH 15/Aug/2020 Tahseen Osama is a civil rights activist, Father of 4, was assassinated on 14/Aug/2020 with more than 20 Bullets from an Iranian Backed militias members‼️ By the orders of albasrah Governor Asa'ad Alaidani; the Aidani has many crimes files against him: Killing of the ex-governor (Mohammed Al-waieli), Killing The demonstrators in albasrah in 2018, records of him giving direct orders of Killing the demonstrators in 2019, and many other crimes of killing, kidnapping, corruption, theft of money & lands, and more.. 🔴THIS IS THE LAST POST OF THE VICTIM (TAHSEEN OSAMA) AS HE WAS ASKING FOR A TRIAL & JUDGMENT OF ASA'AD ALAIDANI: https://youtu.be/jccD-eZ46ns


    Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) reported:

    Tahseen Oussama was shot 20 times at his internet service company in the city's al-Junaina neighbourhood by "militia" gunmen, according to local media outlet Basra Today. The identity and affiliation of the perpetrators has not been confirmed.

    Oussama had taken part in anti-establishment and anti-corruption protests in Basra that had spread from Baghdad across the country in October of last year. He was a vocal critic of both the government and of militias accused of killing protesters with impunity.

    On July 6, the day of Iraqi security analyst Husham al-Hashimi's assassination  – largely suspected to have been conducted by Shiite militants – Oussama took to Facebook to warn “we will all be slaughtered in the Islamic way one day,” sharing a photo of a gun and its silencer.

    Iraqi activists have been warning of an increasingly threatening environment for those who speak out against the country's current political order. Data provided to Rudaw English from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) last month put the number of protesters and aligned activists killed between October 1, 2019 and March 17, 2020 at 22.


    Let's note some reactions to the assassinations.  Kazthoomy Tweets:

    Tahseen Oussama, an activist and a father of 3, was shot 20 times in his hometown of Basra today. His daughter warned him "don’t go out I’m scared they might kill you", he replied "we have to bring down those who steal and kill your dreams". His name won't be said.
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    Hossain Tweets:

    +40 days after the assassination of , yet the government of is not willing to bring the ones who did it to justice. Today, we've lost another good and brave man, Tahseen Oussama, who was assassinated in Basra. #تحسين_اسامة_شهيد #اربعون_يوم_وقاتلك_حر
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    12:26 PM


    H Tweets:

    Tahseen Oussama posted on his Facebook: I was speaking to my daughter she was saying don’t go out I’m scared if they kill you, I told her we have to bring down those who steal and kill your dreams, she was saying (Alawi, Mastofi, Rathawi and I) will grow up and bring them down +
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    12:35 PM · Aug 14, 2020


    Khaled Sulaiman Tweets:


    An Iraqi activist called #Tahseen_Oussama, was #assassinated by Iraqi militias in #Basra. The victim wrote On July 6th 2020: One day we'll all be slaughtered in an Islamic method. And he wrote 4 days ago: Political parties & militias control Basra city and no one can deter them
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    9:22 AM · Aug 15, 2020



    Journalist Steven Nabil Tweeted:

    Iraqi activist Tahseen Oussama was shot 20 times today in Basra, a horrendous crime. Tahseen is a civil rights figure and an important thinker among the protest movement.
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    5:15 PM · Aug 14, 2020






    The following sites updated: