This week on MARVEL AGENTS OF SHIELD, the episode focused on May and Yo-Yo. It was a good episode -- not as good as last week, but good.
Jemma gave data Coulton a body and then legs. She also communicated with Fitz.
They were still stuck in the 1980s. Yo-Yo still doesn't have her powers. Daisy's recovering still. So Daisy says to fix Yo-Yo's powers, they need to go Jiaying -- that's Daisy's mother -- her evil mother who went to war with SHIELD in the '00s. May and Yo-Yo went to see Jiaying. They eventually discover that Yo-Yo is the problem. She's blocking her powers out of guilt.
We get a flashback to when her uncle was killed. She and her brother were with him, he put them in the closet when a bad guy came over. They watched as the bad guy threatened him. He said he was giving all the money he had. The man spotted a gold cross on a necklace and said he was going to take that. It was a family heirloom and Yo-Yo and her brother didn't want it taken so Yo-Yo snuck out of the closet to grab it. The bad guy noticed it was gone and knew others were present so the uncle got loud and active to make sure Yo-Yo and her brother weren't discovered. As a result, he ended up shot dead.
By the end of the program, Yo-Yo had her powers back.
Jiaying was a good character on the show -- she was good on this episode, yes, but she was a great character when she was on season two.
Dichen Lachman plays the character and she's been good in a number of shows -- including DOLLHOUSE where she was Sierra, the Canadian production of BEING HUMAN, the first season of THE HUNDRED, the first season of ALTERED CARBON and on ANIMAL KINGDOM (which needs to return with new episodes!!!).
Dichen Lachman's return reminded me of all the great characters the show has written off. I miss Ward, Bobbi and Lance, Lincoln, Glenn Talbot, Robbie (Ghostrider) and Raina. All of those characters were more interesting than Coulson and a better show would have ditched him and kept at least one of them.
If the show had any respect for the fans, they'd include those characters in this final season.
There is especially no reason for not bringing Bobbie and Lance back.
For those who don't know, Bobbi and Lance left to save SHIELD. That was the storyline. They were exposed and they left. That was so that the two could be in a spin-off that ABC wanted. Then ABC didn't want the spin-off. They didn't bring Bobbi and Lance back (well, Lance came back for an episode last season or the one before -- just one episode). They should have. Now that they are time hopping, they easily could introduce the characters in an episode that's set in a time before the two left SHIELD.
Thursday, July 16, 2020. The media and the ones who refuse to hold them accountable are the clear danger to democracy.
Starting with US politics, former US House Rep and 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney Tweets:
So, let me get this straight: I'm clean as a whistle, do my job, represent my constituents, and get kicked out of Congress; my colleague, Joe Biden, is corrupt as heck, brags about it, and gets promoted to the White House! What's wrong with that picture??
n 2005, Joe
Biden’s brother bought an acre of land with excellent ocean views on a
remote island in the Caribbean for $150,000. He divided it into three
parcels, and the next year a lobbyist close to the Delaware senator
bought one of the parcels for what had been the cost of the entire
property. Later, the lobbyist gave Biden’s brother a mortgage loan on
the remaining parcels.
The Virgin Islands land deal, reported here for the first time, furthers a pattern
in which members of the Biden family have engaged in financial dealings
with people with an interest in influencing the former vice president.
In
this case, a Biden staffer left the Senate in the early ’90s to become a
lobbyist. Both before and after the land transaction, his clients
benefited from Biden’s support and appropriations requests. A firm the
lobbyist co-founded — which features a testimonial from Biden praising
his “emotional investment” in his work on its website — specializes in
federal contracts for niche law enforcement and national security
programs for which Biden long advocated.
After the land deal, Joe Biden
vacationed elsewhere on the tiny island, which once protected a nearby
submarine base before it became a tropical getaway, on at least three
occasions.
A Biden-Trump Election Is a Loss for Our Democracy https://go.shr.lc/33zrFhF
Corporations and billionaires dominate our political economy through a system of legalized corruption—They purchase the allegiance of politicians and ensure legislation is supported by pro-corporate judges
A Biden-Trump Election is a Win-Win for Wall Street
On the Republican side, the plutocrats are comfortable with Trump.
The problem was the Democratic side of the ledger. The plutocrats did
not like Warren, but they hated Sanders. Their goal was to defeat
Sanders at any cost and to select a Democratic candidate on which they
could depend. Buttigieg rose and then fell. Bloomberg spent a lot of money, rose and then fell. Biden was really their last chance. A Biden-Trump election was the plutocrats’ dream scenario. Biden Is A Product and Supporter of the Plutocracy.
Biden has been and continues to be a willing participant in the system
of legalized corruption. He has always relied on donations from Wall
Street and the billionaire donor class and he has returned the favor by
supporting policies that aide Wall Street to the detriment of Main
Street. (See this article for a detailed analysis of Biden and his relationship to Wall Street and billionaires).
Biden Relies on Wall Street and Billionaires. Wall Street has always supported Biden. According to the Center for Responsive Politics
the entire finance capital sector (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate)
has been the largest business sector contributor to Biden’s various
senatorial and his 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Between
1990-2007, this sector invested $6.87 million in Biden. And that support
has continued for his 2020 presidential campaign. The finance capital
sector’s investment in Biden is just behind its investment in Trump and
much greater than its investment in any other Democratic candidate. In
terms of small donors, Biden has raised $25.3 million or 37% of total
funding from small donors – much less than Sanders.
According to the Center on Responsive Politics,
the Financial Sector as a whole (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate)
has invested $47.2 million in the 2020 presidential election so far. Of
this total, $10.3 million or 22% has gone to Trump; $10.1 million or 21%
has gone to Biden and just $2.8 million or 6% has gone to Sanders. And
it is clear that Biden is due for a massive increase in funding
following Super Tuesday. These figures are just the tip of the
proverbial iceberg and will soon explode; after all, the Financial
Sector invested $338 million in the 2016 presidential election. Biden also relies on billionaires. According to an updated Forbes article
as of January 2020, sixty-six billionaires have given to Biden’s
campaign. Most of these billionaires are from the financial capital
sector. Also, expect Biden to pick up the backing of the 94 billionaires
who previously supported Buttigieg and Klobuchar – the two candidates
who suspended their campaigns and endorsed Biden immediately before
Super Tuesday. In addition, there is a Super Pac that supports Biden
called “Unite the Country.” Super PACs can legally spend unlimited
amounts of money and can buy ads to support or oppose particular
candidates. They are not supposed to be controlled by or tied directly
to campaigns. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Unite the
Country spent $8.9 million as of March 5, 2020. The
finance/insurance/real estate sector accounted for $5 million or 56% of
the total raised by this PAC. All these figures will increase
substantially in the near future
While Biden speaks of change – He literally promised Wall Street
and billionaire donors that “nothing will fundamentally change… if I
win this nomination, I won’t let you down. I promise you.” In his first campaign speech
delivered to a largely union crowd in Pittsburgh, Biden stated “Let me
say this simply and clearly, and I mean this: The country wasn’t built
by Wall Street bankers, CEOs and hedge fund managers. It was built by
you. It was built by the great American middle class.” In an interview,
Biden stated, “It’s high time we helped Main Street.” His website is
full of plans to increase taxes on the wealthy, enhance Social Security,
expand government social services and get tough on Wall Street.
All these statements and plans sound very progressive. But based on
past policies and current statements, it is apparent that Wall Street
does not have to worry much about Biden actually delivering on his
anti-Wall Street rhetoric. As detailed in a previous article,
Biden has supported and often led the fight for legislation that
further consolidated the financial industry, eliminated laws that had
curbed Wall Street’s penchant for excessive speculation, and increased
protections for banks while eroding protections for consumers. And he
supported trade deals that benefitted Wall Street and other big
corporations while eliminating 4 million U.S. jobs primarily held by
union manufacturing workers. Conversely, he is culpable for the failure
to pass legislation that would have helped strengthen unions and protect
the rights of consumers. And Biden even admitted all of this when he gave a wink and a nod to
Wall Street and the billionaires at an elite fundraiser in NY City last
year. Biden stated
“The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in
your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins, but the
truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to
be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would
fundamentally change…I need you very badly. I hope if I win this
nomination, I won’t let you down. I promise you.”
I went to their embarrassing website tonight. It was hate Trump -- story after story.
When you've got nothing to offer, nothing to inspire, all you can sell is 'hate the enemy.'
They don't hold Joe Biden accountable, they don't try to push him to the
left. They just offer story after story attacking Donald Trump -- for
what he said, for what he didn't say, for what his daughter did, for
what some family member says . . .
They're like an obsessed ex. It's frightening.
They should be leading us to a better world, focusing on our needs,
preparing us for what to fight for should Joe Biden win and giving us
the strength to press on should we end up with another term of Donald
but instead they just do the work of the Democratic Party -- whore.
They're a joke.
She's
exactly right. And it's true of BUZZFLASH as well. They don't exist
for any real reason except to promote whatever the leaders in the
Democratic Party wants. They're too scared to be independent, they're
too scared to leave the echo chamber. Yet they present themselves as
brave new media.
How 'independent' is independent media?
Years
ago, Ava and I noted that DEMOCRACY NOW! expanded to two hours a day
for a week -- one week to cover the Democratic Party's convention and
one week to cover the Republican Party's convention. Ten hours of
coverage a week for one and then ten hours of coverage for another. And
what did DEMOCRACY NOW! do for the Green Party convention that year?
A headline.
A single headline was enough to cover the Green Party national convention.
And
we noted then, shame on the members of the Green Party who don't call
Amy Goodman out, who don't pressure her to give real coverage, equal
coverage to their party.
Well, that was many years ago. And things have only gotten worse.
And Amy Goodman's supposed to be the queen of independent media? She's more like the matron in the toilet.
Again,
Greens have allowed this to happen. Shame on you. You need to be
objecting. We've noted Howie's video this week but let's note it one
more time.
Howie's objecting to the corporate media. Why can't his supporters object to what's supposed to be independent media?
The
corporate media has largely ignored the Green Party's convention as
well. We noted that on Saturday night and it's still true. (POLITICO
would be the main exception.)
When you let
so-called independent media get away with this nonsense, then don't
complain when corporate media cuts back on their coverage as well.
Shame
on you all. Get off your ass, if you're a Green or anyone who believes
in fair journalism, and start calling out the likes of Amy Goodman.
When
Goodman shuts out the Green Party convention, she doesn't just shut out
their candidates, she also shuts out their ideas. This year, some
Democrats are promoting the Green New Deal. Howie was promoting a
version of it back in 2010.
Ten years later, some Democrats in office are supporting it.
Imagine
how much larger that number would be if the media had been addressing
the deal when the Green Party was first proposing it.
Independent
media could play a significant role in bettering our world but it
instead whores for the Democratic Party. Instead of addressing what's
needed or what we could have, they throw all their resources into
demonizing whichever Republican is the target.
Joe Biden is a center-right, War Hawk corporatist. And that's the challenger to Donald Trump? That's the difference?
Only in a landscape where the media has abdicated their role.
We
need a better world but we also need a better media. I seriously
wonder if there's a chance for this world. How do we survive climate
change and these never-ending wars (which do impact climate change,
let's stop pretending all these bombings have no effect on our ecozone)
when the most 'radical' action we can imagine is voting for a used up
hack like Joe Biden?
Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party's 2016 vice presidential candidate, Tweeted the following:
The democrats are doing all they can to prevent agreement that would end the 19 year Afghanistan war. What is the difference on issue of war & peace between Democrats & Trump? Answer: democrats might be worst. Make peace a campaign issue. Support Black Alliance for Peace.
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has determined climate change and the interlocking issues of war, militarism, and the now-normalized and still illegal U.S. interventionism pose the greatest threats to humanity.
That is why we have launched a campaign demanding all 2020 candidates for local, state and federal offices in the United States take a position on U.S. interventionism (read our official statement).
In 2019, the Trump administration announced “Operation Relentless Pursuit,” a program that claims to support local "crime fighting" efforts by injecting federal funding for a “surge” of new hires and equipment, as well as coordination of federal agents at the local level.
Of the seven targeted U.S. cities, four are predominantly African:
Baltimore (62.8% African)
Cleveland (50.41% African)
Detroit (79.12% African)
Memphis (63.9% African)
The Nixon-era "War on Drugs” actually was a war on Africans, since it was an aspect of the state's counter-insurgency effort against the Black Liberation Movement. Trump's Operation Relentless Pursuit is an initiative in the same vein, being the latest version of the ongoing war against the African working class.
Operation Relentless Pursuit is the logical extension of the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which is primarily responsible for transferring more than $4 billion in military-grade equipment to local police forces over a 15-year span. Along with “Deadly Exchange”—whereby Israeli Defense Forces train local U.S. police executives—these three programs represent the core elements of the U.S. national security state's repressive strategy to contain the resistance of oppressed communities and peoples in the United States.
Jimmy Dore addressed the issue of Democrats working with Republicans to destroy peace.
Jimmy
Dore: Hey, what did Congressional Democrats do this week? Well, they
prevented Trump from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. What did
Congressional Democrats do last week? They increased Trump's military
spending. What gets bipartisan support in Washington, DC? Endless war.
In August 2018, in the course of
researching a book on the lead-up to the Iraq war, I went to see Powell
at the office in Alexandria, Va., that he has maintained since leaving
the Bush administration in early 2005. Powell, who is now 83, is as
proud and blunt-speaking as he was during his career in public service.
Over the course of our two hourlong conversations, he made clear that he
was all too aware of the lonely turf he was destined to occupy in
history.
It was not the turf that
anyone, least of all Powell himself, would have imagined for him in
2001. He entered the Bush administration as a four-star general of
immense popularity and political influence. He left it four years later,
discarded by Bush in favor of a more like-minded chief diplomat,
Condoleezza Rice. He mournfully predicted to others that his obituary’s
first paragraph would include his authorship of the U.N. speech.
Draper,
it's hard for me to understand everything you're trying to say when
you're speaking at the same time you're juggling Colin's balls in your
mouth.
Colin lied. To the UN, to the world.
It's a little late for you to start pretending otherwise and no one
should believe your lies about Colin being misled. He knew what he was
doing. He exploded at one point that he wasn't going to say that "s**t"
because he knew it was a lie.
I'm
so sick of this garbage and this media environment -- big and small --
that allows the lies not just to be told once but to be retold over and
over.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Julian Assange remains persecuted, Toby Dodge
insists one death in Iraq matters -- at least one, and much more.
Starting with this video from CONSORTIUM NEWS>
That's
the documentary film NOT IN OUR NAME: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE OF
JULIAN ASSANGE and then Reporters Sans Frontieres' Rebecca Vincent
moderating a discussion with the filmmaker John Furse and the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer.
Julian
continues to be persecuted and, yes, tortured. He became a target of
the US government when he released video regarding Iraq. Monday April 5th, WIKILEAKS released US military video
of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the
assault including two REUTERS journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed
Chmagh.
The video was news. Publishing it was a
public service. The US government had repeatedly lied about what took
place. It had denied REUTERS requests -- official and unofficial -- for
more information about the deaths of their reporters.
This week, Dean Yates discussed that issue with Chris Hedges on Hedges' program ON CONTACT..
"In
terms of the significance of this tape, Chris, I think it will be --
It's easily as significant as the photographs that came out of the Abu
Ghraib detentions," Dean Yates tells Chris, "because it showed the world
what the war in Iraq really looked like. It showed for the first time,
it showed the American public what the war in Iraq really looked like."
Dean
states that the video Julian published was as significant as the photos
that emerged of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal -- torture of Iraqis
overseen by -- and carried out by -- the US government.
Dean Yates was the head of REUTERS' Baghdad beureau when the July 12,
2007 attack took place killing REUTERS journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and
Saeed Chmagh -- the attack carried out by the US government. Last month, Paul Daley (GUARDIAN) quoted
Yates stating, "What he did was 100% an act of truth-telling,
exposing to the world
what the war in Iraq looks like and how the US military lied … The US
knows how embarrassing Collateral Murder is, how shameful it is to the
military – they know that there’s potential war crimes on that tape."
Whistle blower Chelsea Manning was serving in the US military. She
turned the material over Julian Assange. She has been persecuted
repeatedly -- the most recent attempts have been carried out to attempt
to coerce her into testifying against Julian.
Julian
Assange remains persecuted by the US government. His crime is that of
journalism. In another article last month, Daley focuses on Dean Yates:
Yates, shaking his head, says: “The US assertions that Namir and Saeed
were killed during a firefight was all lies. But I didn’t know that at
the time, so I updated my story to take in the US military’s statement.”
[. . .]
Reuters staff had by now spoken to 14 witnesses in al-Amin. All of
them said they were unaware of any firefight that might have prompted
the helicopter strike. Yates recalls: “The words that kept forming on my lips were ‘cold-blooded murder’.” The Iraqi staff at Reuters, meanwhile, were concerned that the bureau
was too soft on the US military. “But I could only write what we could
establish and the US military was insisting Saeed and Namir were killed
during a clash,” Yates says. The meeting that put him on a path of destructive, paralysing –
eventually suicidal – guilt and blame “that basically f**ked me up for
the next 10 years”, leaving him in a state of “moral injury”, happened at US military headquarters in the Green Zone on 25 July.
A
"fatal blow" will have been dealt to Iraqi government control if Prime
Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi does not catch those who ordered the killing
of scholar Husham Al Hashimi, experts said. The Iraqi political and security expert was shot dead at point-blank
range by unknown assailants as he parked his car outside his house on
July 7. Mr Al Kadhimi pledged to hold a transparent investigation into the killing and said no one was above the law. A week has passed and the government has not announced any developments.
Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert and friend of Al Hashimi, said failure to
bring to justice those responsible for his assassination would be a
challenge to the state’s authority.
That death was important. So are other deaths. I'm so sick of the Toby Dodges who speak up for the friends but not others.
The September 8, 2011 murder of journalist Hamdi al-Mahdi. That didn't matter?
No
one's ever been held responsible for that murder. Hamdi was a
journalist who reported on the protests. That alone made him a target
of the government.
Toby's up in arms over the death of his friend. Who bothers to remember the murder of Hamdi?
From the September 8, 2011 snapshot:
In Iraq, a journalist has been murdered. In addition to being a
journalist, he was also a leader of change and part of the movement to
create an Iraq that was responsive to Iraqis.
Al Mada reports
Iraqi journalist Hadi al-Mahdi is dead according to an Interior
Ministry source who says police discovered him murdered in his Baghdad
home. Along with being a journalist, Al Mada notes he was one of the
chief organizers of the demonstrations demanding change and service
reform that began on February 25th -- the day he was arrested by Iraqi
security forces and beaten in broad daylight as he and others, after the
February 25th protest, were eating in a restaurant. The New York Times didn't want to tell you about, the Washington Post
did. And now the man is dead. Gee, which paper has the archives that
matter to any real degree. Maybe it's time to act like a newspaper and
not a "news magazine" with pithy little human interest stories? (That
is not a dig at Tim Arango but at the paper's diva male 'reporter' who
went on NPR to talk of an Iraqi college this week.) So while the Times
missed the story (actaully, they misled on the story -- cowtowing to
Nouri as usual), Stephanie McCrummen (Washington Post) reported: Four
journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after
they had left a protest at Baghdad's Tahrir Square. They said they were
handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by
soldiers from an army intelligence unit. "It
was like they were dealing with a bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a
group of journalists," said Hussam al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet, who
was among a group and described seeing hundreds of protesters in black
hoods at the detention facility. "Yesterday was like a test, like a
picture of the new democracy in Iraq."
A picture of the new democracy in Iraq, indeed. And now one of the four is dead. But back to that roundup, from the February 28th snapshot:
Over
the weekend, a number of journalists were detained during and after
their coverage of the mass demonstrations that took place in central
Baghdad's al-Tahrir Square. Simone Vecchiator (International Press Institute) notes: ["]During
a news conference held on Sunday, four journalists -- Hussam Saraie of
Al-Sabah Al-Jadid newspaper, Ali Abdul Sada of the Al-Mada daily, Ali
al-Mussawi of Sabah newspaper and Hadi al-Mehdi of Demozee radio --
reported being handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened by
security forces. They also claimed they were held in custody for nine
hours and forced to sign a document, the contents of which were not
revealed to them. Aswat al Iraq news agency reported that the
journalists will file a court case against the executive authority in
response to the alleged violations of their civil rights. This
episode is the latest in a series of repressive measures adopted by
security forces in order to stifle media reports about the current
political and social
unrest.["]
NPR's Kelly McEvers interviewed Hadi for Morning Edition
after he had been released and she noted he had been "beaten in the
leg, eyes, and head." He explained that he was accused of attempting to
"topple" Nouri al-Maliki's government -- accused by the soldiers under
Nouri al-Maliki, the soldiers who beat him. Excerpt:
Hadi
al-Mahdi: I replied, I told the guy who was investigating me, I'm
pretty sure that your brother is unemployed and the street in your area
is unpaved and you know that this political regime is a very corrupt
one.
Kelly
McEvers: Mahdi was later put in a room with what he says were about 200
detainees, some of them journalists and intellectuals, many of them
young protesters.
Hadi
al-Mahdi: I started hearing voices of other people. So, for instance,
one guy was crying, another was saying, "Where's my brother?" And a
third one was saying, "For the sake of God, help me."
Kelly
McEvers: Mahdi was shown lists of names and asked to reveal people's
addresses. He was forced to sign documents while blindfolded.
Eventually he was released. Mahdi says the experience was worse than
the times he was detained under Saddam Hussein. He says the regime
that's taken Sadam's place is no improvement on the past. This, he says,
should serve as a cautionary tale for other Arab countries trying to
oust dictators.
Hadi
al-Mahdi: They toppled the regime, but they brought the worst -- they
brought a bunch of thieves, thugs, killers and corrupt people, stealers.
Madhi
had filed a complained with the courts against the Iraqi security
forces, noting that they had now warrant and that they kidnapped him in
broad daylight and that they beat him. Mohamed Tawfeeq (CNN) adds,
"Hadi al-Mehdi was inside his apartment on Abu Nawas street in central
Baghdad when gunmen shot him twice with silencer-equipped pistols, said
the ministry official, who did not want to be identified because he is
not authorized to speak to media." Mazin Yahya (AP) notes
that in addition to calling for improvements in the basic services
(electricity, water and sanitation), on his radio program, Hadi al-Mehdi
also used Facebook to get the word out on the Friday protests in
Baghdad's Tahrir Square.
Al Mada notes
that Hadi has been killed on the eve of tomorrow's protest. The youth
activists took the month of Ramadan off and announced that they would
return to downtown Baghdad on September 9th (tomorrow). And tomorrow
they'll now be minus at least one. Al Mada quotes Hadi writing shortly
before he died on his Facebook page about the demonstration, noting that
it would herald the emergence of real democracy in the new Iraq, an
Iraq with no sectarian grudges, just hearts filled with tolerance and
love, hearts saying no to corruption, looting, unemployment, hearts
demaning a better Iraq and a government for the people because Iraqis
deserve the best and they deserve pride and dignity. The Great Iraqi Revolution notes,
"The funeral of the martyred jouranlist Hady Mahdy, who was killed
earlier today will process from his Karrad home where he was
assassinated to Tahrir Square. The funeral procession will commence at
around 9 A.M."
Reporters
Without Borders roundly condemns the well-known journalist Hadi
Al-Mahdi's murder in Baghdad today, on the eve of nationwide protests
that he supported. His body was found at around 7 p.m. in his home in
the central district of Al-Karada. He had been shot twice in the head. There can be no doubt that his murder was politically motivated.
Offering
its sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,
Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to quickly investigate
this murder and to assign all the necessary resources to ensure that
those responsible are identified and brought to justice. This crime
cannot go unpunished.
Aged 44, a Shiite and married to a Kurd, Mahdi hosted a talk show called "To whoever listens" on Radio Demozy
(104,01 FM). His irreverence, his well-observed criticism that spared
no one, neither the prime minister nor his detractors, and his readiness
to tackle subjects ranging from corruption to the deplorable state of
the Iraqi educational system made it one of the most popular talk shows
in Baghdad.
It was
clear from the messages that Mahdi had sent to relatives that he knew he
was in danger. He had received many warnings and had told friends two
days ago that something terrible could happen (http://alalemya.com/alalemya_news/0_2011_5_/11_/11_9_1/8-9/hadi-al-mahdi.html). But he was determined to tough it out, regardless of the risks.
After covering a demonstration in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on 25 February, he and three fellow journalists were arrested, threatened and beaten.
Shortly
after graduating from Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, Mahdi
fled to Syria and then to Sweden and did not return until 2007, after
nearly a decade in exile. He began hosting "To whoever listens" for
Radio Demozy, an independent station, a year later. (A New York Times profile of Mahdi)
He
was the seventh Iraqi journalist to be murdered since the start of 2011
and the 12th since the United States announced the withdrawal of its
combat troops in August 2010.
Nouri
al-Maliki's forces beat Hadi. They are under Nouri's command. Nouri
demonized the protesters all along. He has repeated the slurs in the
last weeks that the September 9th protests are organized by Ba'ahtists,
are out to topple him, are out to turn Iraq into a lawless state and
much more. Did Little Saddam aka Nouri al-Maliki, thug of the
occupation, order his forces to murder Hadi?
Husham
al-Hashimi's murder is awful. I'm not denying that. But when Toby
Dodge blusters as he does, he not only renders all the other murders
unimportant, he encourages others to do so as well.
Hadi gave his life for freedom in Iraq. It's a real shame that so many have rushed to forget him.
Toby knows who Hadi was. To make a point in a Twitter discussion last December, Toby Tweeted:
In September 2011, a high profile activist in the protest movement, Hadi al-Mahdi, a journalist and theatre director, was murdered on the eve of another big demonstration he helped organize
It that the only time to remember Hadi? When you need to make a political point?
Security forces fired upon a group of demonstrators in southern Baghdad
on Sunday lunchtime, killing two and wounding over a dozen, according to
a protest spokesperson.
Thousands of people travelled from several southern Iraqi provinces to
Baghdad in the early hours of Sunday morning, protesting an end to
monthly, government-allocated compensation as part of an economic reform
package announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
“They fired on us upon direct orders from Kadhimi and killed two of us,”
protester spokesperson Sheikh Amer Shalan Rafawi told Rudaw.
Peaceful protestors standing outside Baghdad geen zone in protest to PM policies forced to evacuate after a violent crackdown by security.
No european or American media.
These are #IraqProtests too but pro-US occupation activists are on holiday!
#Iraq
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1:32 PM · Jul 12, 2020
This
attack took place after Mustafa al-Kadhimis public promise that he
would bring those who attacked protesters to justice. Bring them to
justice? He can't even prevent them from being attacked today and, in
fact, he may be the one ordering the attacks. His response to Sunday?
To deny that anyone was shot at, that anyone was killed.
Baghdad: Medical school graduates have demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Health building; To protest the government’s neglect, and to demand their appointment, amid the deteriorating health sector in Iraq.
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هيئة علماء المسلمين في العراق
@amsiiraq
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الهيئة نت| بغداد: خريجو المجموعة الطبية يتظاهرون أمام مبنى وزارة الصحة؛ احتجاجًا على إهمال الحكومة لهم، وللمطالبة بتعيينهم، وسط تدهور القطاع الصحي في العراق.
للاشتراك في قناة الهيئة على تطبيق (تيليغرام): http://t.me/amsiiraq
