Blow writes: “Some people who are opposed to taking down monuments ask, ‘If we start, where will we stop?’ It might begin with Confederate generals, but all slave owners could easily become targets. Even George Washington himself.”
Blow then proclaims, with the special elegance that distinguishes his columns, “To that I say, ‘abso-fricking-lutely!’”
Early Monday morning, not long after Blow’s column was published, the monument arch in Washington Square Park in New York City commemorating the centenary of Washington’s inauguration was vandalized with red paint. The paint dripped down from the heads of two statues of Washington, one depicting him as the commander of the revolutionary Continental Army and the other as president.
This latest assault on a monument to Washington follows the pulling down last month of Washington and Jefferson monuments in Portland, Oregon, and the toppling of a bust of Civil War general and Reconstruction President Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco, California. Monuments to Abraham Lincoln, who led the Second American revolution and destroyed slavery, as well as monuments to abolitionists such as Robert Gould Shaw and Hans Christian Heg, have come under attack as racist and “white supremacist.”
The attack by the Times on Washington is a part of the effort by the Democratic Party and its operatives to derail the popular multiracial protests against police violence which erupted last month in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Capitalizing on the historical ignorance which they have fostered, Blow and the Times are working overtime to redirect popular opposition along racial lines and behind the Democratic Party.
There is nothing progressive in the destruction of statues and monuments which memorialize the leaders of the American Revolution and the Civil War.
But for Blow, there is nothing to discuss about the contradictory yet progressive legacy of the men who led the first Revolution and set the ground for the annihilation of slavery less than nine decades later.
If one accepts Blow’s definition of those who owned slaves as amoral monsters, beyond the pale, then even those who opposed slavery at the time, such as John Adams, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, cannot be judged innocent. After all, they collaborated with those evil beasts, Washington and Jefferson, in waging war against Great Britain and establishing a Constitution which protected slavery. The whole project to create “A government of laws and not of men,” a precept laid out by Adams, must be thrown out, having been tainted by the irredeemable sin of slavery.
If indeed the American Revolution was made by “amoral monsters,” how is it possible that these wicked creatures, beyond human compassion and unconstrained by any ethical considerations, came to produce such moral and epoch-shaping documents as the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights? How was it possible that Thomas Jefferson could claim, in a world dominated by monarchies and feudal relations, where birth meant everything and hierarchy dominated, that it is self-evident that all men were created equal? Or advance the conception that the people had a right to revolution, to overthrow an oppressive government and establish their own?
Prior to Jefferson the right to life, liberty and property had been clearly outlined, but in the Declaration of Independence he advanced a much more radical conception of the “right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” Such a conception could only have been advanced at a time when questions were being raised about the very nature of property and what it meant to hold any form of property, particularly fellow human beings.
Congratulations to Charles Blow, the Susan Lucci of Idiot of the Week. So many times he came close but now he's finally won.
Here's CI.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, July 3, 2020. Joe Biden, who overthrew the 2010 Iraqi election
results, has the nerve to claim Donald Trump might not honor this year's
US election results, the Iraqi government is considering filing a
complaint with the United Nations of Turkey bombing the country and
sending ground soldiers in, Susan Rice supported the Iraq War but Steve
Chapman smokes a blunt and decides otherwise, and much more.
Here's
a thought: Next time Steve Chapman's on a pot high, how about he just
eat some munchies and not try to write a column for THE CHICAGO
TRIBUNE?
He want to save Susan Rice. He's
convinced not only that he can, but that he should. Why? He just knows
she's the one to be Joe Biden's running mate.
Okay, unlike Steve, I'm not stoned as I'm dictating this.
So
I realize that more than anything, Joe's running mate has to bring
energy to the ticket. That's not Susan Rice. She brings nothing.
Of
the women mentioned, only Kamala Harris -- via her supporters -- brings
passion. If it's not Kamala, the smart move would be to go with
someone not currently seen as a potential running mate because the rest
are all dull and inspire no passion.
That's
especially true of Dirty Rice who carries with her the scandal of
Benghazi. Is Steve trying to re-elect Donald Trump? Because picking
Susan means bringing up Benghazi all over again. And while that might
not matter to Democrats and neocons, I believe they'll need to reach
beyond the group that turned out for Hillary in 2016 if they're going to
win the White House this time.
Before we get
back to Steve Chapman's stupidity, let's deal with the other stupidity
right now. Peter Van Buren addresses it and we'll note him in just a
section. But the stupidity is the conspiracy talk that Donald, if he
loses, will refuse to step down.
That nutty
conspiracy theory did not start last week or last month. Crackpot Bob
Somerby has been pimping that for several years now. Bob's been
projecting his own grand lunacy onto Donald. Donald is many things
(none of which I like) but he's not "grand" in any sense. He doesn't
have big ideas or plans. After three years in the White House, I'd
think that would be obvious to even the most ignorant in this country.
As a business person, Donald never had big ideas either. He copies and
ripped off. He wasn't an original. So this notion that suddenly,
Donald's capable of a grand conspiracy? It only speaks to the crackpots
who repeat these lies.
Peter Van Buren, at ICH, notes
how this nonsense is being pimpec by many -- including Joe Biden.
Ptere misses an important point and we'll get back to that but this is
from his column:
For nearly four years,
the same forces that may declare 2020 invalid tried very
hard to convince us 2016 already was. There are plenty
of Hillary people (including Hillary) who have not
accepted 2016. Has Stacey Abrams really accepted her
defeat yet? Think back to everything that happened
during the last election, the
gaming
by Comey and the FBI to influence results. Remember how
the intelligence community manipulated Russiagate. Why
wait for November 2020 to have a coup? We’ve been in
what Matt Taibbi calls a
permanent coup
for years. They’ve been practicing.
Any of the those things would have been considered crazy talk only a few years ago. None would have ever passed into the mainstream. Compare Russiagate to the Great Obama Birth Certificate kerfuffle. The idea that Obama was ineligible for office festered on right-wing talk radio. It was dismissed as fact-less by just about everyone else. Fast forward to 2016+ and America’s paper of record is happy to front a story claiming the president is subject to a foreign enemy’s blackmail based on nothing but desperate hope that it might be true.
The critical tool for the ending of democracy is people’s conditioned readiness to believe almost anything. The media tells the world what’s important using a very narrow range of truth, or just makes things up if truth is not around to be manipulated.
We are exhausted, neck-deep in cynicism, decline, and distrust. And scared. There are no facts anymore, only what people can be made to believe. That power was not well understood in 2016 and was clumsily applied. Today it is ripe for exploitation, far beyond generating clicks and ad revenue. I don’t think Trump will try to stay in office if he loses. But there are people who will tell us that to manipulate our fears and steal this election. That’s why I am finally scared.
Any of the those things would have been considered crazy talk only a few years ago. None would have ever passed into the mainstream. Compare Russiagate to the Great Obama Birth Certificate kerfuffle. The idea that Obama was ineligible for office festered on right-wing talk radio. It was dismissed as fact-less by just about everyone else. Fast forward to 2016+ and America’s paper of record is happy to front a story claiming the president is subject to a foreign enemy’s blackmail based on nothing but desperate hope that it might be true.
The critical tool for the ending of democracy is people’s conditioned readiness to believe almost anything. The media tells the world what’s important using a very narrow range of truth, or just makes things up if truth is not around to be manipulated.
We are exhausted, neck-deep in cynicism, decline, and distrust. And scared. There are no facts anymore, only what people can be made to believe. That power was not well understood in 2016 and was clumsily applied. Today it is ripe for exploitation, far beyond generating clicks and ad revenue. I don’t think Trump will try to stay in office if he loses. But there are people who will tell us that to manipulate our fears and steal this election. That’s why I am finally scared.
It's
a great column and one that he deserves praise for writing. But, yes,
he missed one point that surprised me. Joe Biden is going around
insisting that Donald may not accept the 2020 election results and, if
he loses, may refuse to step down.
Joe Biden is saying that.
We've covered why that's offensive before.
I guess we'll need to cover it again.
Joe
Biden needs to shut his damn mouth. He has no right to ever talk about
someone refusing to leave when they lose an election. Why is that?
Joe is the mother of ISIS in Iraq. He passed it through his slim birthing hips in 2010.
That's the year Iraqis voted incumbent Nouri al-Maliki out of office.
Remember
that? Iraqis risked their lives to vote that March. They turned out
in record numbers. That really hasn't happened since but why should it?
When you risk your own safety to vote and your vote is overturned why
ever bother again?
Who overturned those votes?
Joe Damn Biden. Robinette. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Miss Priss Instant Coco Biden.
US
Gen Ray Odierno knew giving Nouri a second term he didn't earn was a
mistake. But, hey, Ray was only the top US officer in Iraq, why listen
to him, right?
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was against it as well. So was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was against it as well. So was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But who cares what they thought, Joe knew best.
Barack
decided to listen to Joe who was (along with Susan Rice, Samantha Power
and Chris Hill) of the opinion that Iraq didn't need democracy, it
needed a "strongman" (thug). So Joe called for the election results to
be overturned and Barack, who had put Joe in charge of Iraq, went along.
So
Nouri, who spent eight months after the election refusing to step down,
got a second term. Joe was the lead behind The Erbil Agreement -- the
US negotiated legal contract that overturned the 2010 election. It gave
Nouri a second term. To get the heads of the other political parties
to go along with this theft of democracy, Joe offered bribes. That's
all The Erbil Agreement was -- a bribe list put into a contract. To get
Kurds to go along, for example, the contract said Article 140 would be
implemented.
Kurdish leaders were idiots. The
Iraqi Constitution called for it to be implemented and that didn't lead
to it being implemented. But this legal contract was going to change
everything?
It didn't.
Nouri
went along with the promises going into the contract and used The Erbil
Agreement to get his second term as prime minister and then he refused
to honor it. He kept none of the promises made to get a second term.
And
the US had sworn to all the parties that the contract was something
that they would stand by and demand it would be honored. Barack Obama,
on the telephone, gave his word to Ayad Allawi who had walked out of
Parliament.
But the US government looked the other way.
They
did that over and over for Nouri. He persecuted Iraqis, especially
Sunnis, he ran secret prisons and torture chambers -- the US just looked
the other way.
ISIS rose in Iraq because of
that. No one was sure, at first, what they were. Black masks. They
showed up to defend the protesters against Nouri's attacks -- protesters
blocking the road between Baghdad and Anbar Province.
We covered it here. Not only that, we predicted it here.
The Iraqi people had done everything that they could and they were failed, they were betrayed.
They
went to the ballot box to change things and the US government, led by
Joe Biden, overturned their voices, disregarded the will of the Iraqi
people. What happened next?
Too many in
America didn't pay attention. Next you had the various leaders --
Barzani, Moqtada, al-Hakim and others -- insist that Nouri implement The
Erbil Agreement or they would vote him out via a no confidence vote in
Parliament. They'd given him a year to implement The Erbil Agreement.
He refused. Moqtada al-Sadr said, the whole time they were threatening a
no confidence vote, that Nouri could stop the effort at any point by
implementing the contract (the contract he had agreed to, the contract
he had used to claim a second term). Nouri refused.
The Parliament followed the law as outlined in the Constitution. They gathered the signatures.
Per
the Constitution, the President of Iraq, reads it into the record. At
the time, fat ass Jalal Talabni was the president. Under pressure from
Joe Biden to stop the no confidence vote, Jalal refused to introduce
it. It's a ceremonial task but Jalal created new 'powers.' He said
he'd contacted people who signed it. To ask if they had signed it? No,
to see if they would sign it right now. He then claimed that many said
they wouldn't -- this was all done in secrecy and all anyone had was
Jalal's claims -- so he was refusing to introduce the petition for a no
confidence vote.
He then lied that he had to have surgery in order to save his life and fled to Germany where fat ass had . . . knee surgery.
He's blown out his knee due to his intense girth.
Karma
bit him in his fat ass. Months later, in December, he got into a
verbal fight with Nouri and suffered a stroke. He was care flighted
from Baghdad to Germany. This time it was a life or death issue. Karma
signed off on his earlier lie.
Jalal never
recovered. His family posed him for photos and pretended he could move
his body and speak. He couldn't. 18 months later, he returned to
Iraq. He was a joke. He still couldn't speak. And his lies ensured
that the PUK party he led went from one of Iraq's two dominant political
parties to a weak third party in the next elections.
Joe
destroyed Iraq in so many ways. Most infamously, he destroyed it by
spitting on democracy. The Iraqi people voted and being a racist and a
xenophobe, that didn't matter to Old Racist Joe. Old White Man knew
best.
He gave Nouri the second term and he and Nouri gave birth to ISIS. It's their baby.
I
need to work something in here, following the 2012 elections, Nouri
called the White House to congratulate Barack. Barack, disgusted with
Nouri, refused to take the call and fobbed it off on Joe. We've noted
that here since it happened. Barack and I share a mutual friend who,
over the weekend, told me that one point I got wrong or left out on that
was that Barack did so because Joe was responsible for Nouri. It was
his disgust in Nouri and in Joe that made him refuse to take the call. I
said I'd work that in the next time I discussed 2010 in the snapshot so
there it is.
But the point is, in 2010, Nouri
lost the election and refused to step down. And who called him out?
Not Joe Biden. No, Joe Biden was all about ignoring the vote of the
people.
So he needs to shut his damn mouth and the press needs to be calling out his hypocrisy.
Now
let's get back to Steve Chapman's nutty nonsense. He tries to rewrite
history. Susan Rice didn't support the Iraq War -- despite what
everyone says -- despite what the public record says. She's an
innocent!!!!!
He concludes his revisionary history with this: "A lot of smart, knowledgeable people made the mistake of endorsing the
Iraq War. Susan Rice deserves credit for not being one of them."
She didn't oppose the war. She did endorse it but Steve lies and, even lying, can only offer that she didn't endorse him.
She didn't speak out against it either. (And she did endorse it.)
It's
moments like this that make me wish Steve would stop his pot habit and
switch to heroin in the hopes that an overdose could spare the world
from his hideous writing and his constant need to lie. Or at least
leave him too strung out to write.
We don't need your lies, Steve, we never did. Toke up and pretend the world needs you, Steve.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government continues to terrorize Iraq. Martha Leah Nangalama Tweets:
via
Iraq sets up border posts to try to prevent Turkish advance: Iraq is enforcing positions along the border with Turkey to try to prevent a Turkish military advance deeper into Iraqi territory after two weeks of airstrikes as Ankara…
Iraq sets up border posts to try to prevent Turkish advance: Iraq is enforcing positions along the border with Turkey to try to prevent a Turkish military advance deeper into Iraqi territory after two weeks of airstrikes as Ankara…
Baghdad is taking a look at its trade with Turkey as it considers using
economic pressure to compel Ankara to end its military attacks within
Iraq’s borders, the foreign ministry spokesperson told Rudaw on
Thursday.
“There is a trade balance between Iraq and Turkey in favor of Turkey with a value of more than $16 billion annually, and there are hundreds of Turkish commercial companies operating in Iraq. We put all of these criteria under urgent evaluation,” said Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesperson for Iraq’s foreign ministry.
Baghdad is also applying diplomatic pressure. “We are still communicating and coordinating with the Turkish side on the need to apply international laws, good-neighborly rules, and diplomatic agreements,” Sahaf said, adding Iraq plans to push for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to condemn Turkey’s military intervention.
“There is a trade balance between Iraq and Turkey in favor of Turkey with a value of more than $16 billion annually, and there are hundreds of Turkish commercial companies operating in Iraq. We put all of these criteria under urgent evaluation,” said Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesperson for Iraq’s foreign ministry.
Baghdad is also applying diplomatic pressure. “We are still communicating and coordinating with the Turkish side on the need to apply international laws, good-neighborly rules, and diplomatic agreements,” Sahaf said, adding Iraq plans to push for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to condemn Turkey’s military intervention.
Trade's not all that Iraq's considering. Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) notes:
Iraq said on Friday it might file an official complaint to the UN
Security Council if Turkey does not halt its military operations against
Kurdish fighters in the north.
"We reject any unilateral action that would harm our sovereignty. We started with a statement of condemnation and may resort to gathering support from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and could file a complaint to the UNSC,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Al Sahaf said in a statement.
The “unilateral” action taken by Turkey will not “enhance security nor will it result in joint efforts to combat terrorism”, Mr Al Sahaf said.
Baghdad has requested an emergency meeting of the Arab League meeting to discuss the issue, he said.
"We reject any unilateral action that would harm our sovereignty. We started with a statement of condemnation and may resort to gathering support from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and could file a complaint to the UNSC,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Al Sahaf said in a statement.
The “unilateral” action taken by Turkey will not “enhance security nor will it result in joint efforts to combat terrorism”, Mr Al Sahaf said.
Baghdad has requested an emergency meeting of the Arab League meeting to discuss the issue, he said.
The
government of Iraq better take some serious steps immediately. Not
only are they letting the Iraqi people down, they are also risking
Mustafa al-Kadhimi looking even weaker. He's only been prime minister
since May 7th and he's already becoming a joke. Mustafa Salim and Louisa Loveluck (WASHINGTON POST) report:
But
the response of the powerful militia to the June 26 raid underscores
how challenging it will be for Kadhimi to recast the relationship
between Iraq’s government and some of the country’s armed groups.
After
gunmen in pickup trucks cruised Baghdad’s Green Zone demanding their
comrades’ release, most were let go, then welcomed back to the group’s
headquarters as heroes. Television stations linked to the militias
live-streamed the men burning American flags and stamping on photographs
of Kadhimi’s face.
In the raid against Kataib Hezbollah, Kadhimi’s message was simple:
Shiite militia groups in Iraq can no longer operate with impunity. The
operation was audacious insofar as it could have prompted an armed
response from the group, disrupting the fragile political consensus that enabled Kadhimi’s appointment two months ago.
However, the events that followed the raid have done little to carry Kadhimi’s message. It appears very probable that the operation was carried out in coordination or consultation with Iran and Iran-aligned political actors. For instance — whether out of sheer luck, or prior coordination with Iran or the leadership of militia groups and parliamentary blocs — the group did not respond in a major way. After the raid, Kataib Hezbollah mobilized a force of roughly 150 fighters in nearly 30 pickup trucks around the prime minister’s residence, which was designed to intimidate Kadhimi but avoid escalating the crisis into an armed confrontation.
Moreover, it was telling that the militiamen captured during the raid were placed under the supervision of the security directorate of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the umbrella militia organization that is dominated by Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned groups. The directorate is led by a Kataib Hezbollah commander. Therefore, the group was essentially able to get the prime minister to release the suspects into its own custody and deter the government from escalating the crisis in the process. On Monday, the militiamen were then, unsurprisingly, released by the PMF’s security directorate on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
However, the events that followed the raid have done little to carry Kadhimi’s message. It appears very probable that the operation was carried out in coordination or consultation with Iran and Iran-aligned political actors. For instance — whether out of sheer luck, or prior coordination with Iran or the leadership of militia groups and parliamentary blocs — the group did not respond in a major way. After the raid, Kataib Hezbollah mobilized a force of roughly 150 fighters in nearly 30 pickup trucks around the prime minister’s residence, which was designed to intimidate Kadhimi but avoid escalating the crisis into an armed confrontation.
Moreover, it was telling that the militiamen captured during the raid were placed under the supervision of the security directorate of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the umbrella militia organization that is dominated by Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned groups. The directorate is led by a Kataib Hezbollah commander. Therefore, the group was essentially able to get the prime minister to release the suspects into its own custody and deter the government from escalating the crisis in the process. On Monday, the militiamen were then, unsurprisingly, released by the PMF’s security directorate on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
The following sites updated:
