Saturday, January 07, 2023

Graham Elwood, Mickey Z, and Idiot of the Week

First up, Graham Elwood discussing government secrets with Lee Camp.



Mickey Z (DISSIDENT VOICE) has a new column:

We begin this long and winding ode on August 7, 2012 — a classic hot-and-humid Big Apple summer day. I was taking part in a demonstration called “Occupy Saks” and I came within an eyelash of being arrested by seven cops. I’ll get to that shortly.

For now, I’ll explain that the protest was ostensibly against a man named Carlos Slim who, despite such a cinematic moniker, is not a James Bond villain.

Slim is one of the world’s wealthiest humans with a fortune amassed by exploiting the poorest of the poor in Mexico through his telephone monopoly. For a short while, he was the only “richest man in the world” ever from a developing nation.

Slim was born in Mexico but is of Lebanese descent. He loves baseball, possesses at least 12 mansions across the globe, and owns part of the New York Times. At the time of the aforementioned protest, Slim was also the largest shareholder in Saks Fifth Avenue.

So, there we were. Occupy Wall Street, working with groups like Two Countries, One Voice, to spread “awareness” about Slim’s crimes. We had music and chanting and costumes and puppets and all that. We followed the well-worn script. This included handing out fliers to “educate” the masses.

Needless to say, most passers-by justifiably treated us as if we were just another NYC sidewalk nuisance. This brings me to reason #1 why current modes of street activism are counterproductive:

1. Street activism reinforces the negative public perception. To the average person, an activist is a fringe character. A fanatic. A wild-eyed zealot who sees the world in black-and-white terms. This perception exists for two primary reasons. Firstly, the corporate media works relentlessly and effectively to portray activism in a negative light. Secondly, many dissidents are wild-eyed zealots who see the world in black-and-white terms.

For example, I can remember (several times) standing out in sub-zero temperatures with a handful of others, protesting something or other. We’d felt so proud of ourselves. It was so dedicated of us to be risking our own health “for the cause.” When I’d share photos later (see reason #2) I’d use self-serving and self-deluding captions like: “This is what commitment looks like.”

Meanwhile, the people walking past such “protests” would look at us like we were, well, wild-eyed zealots. Some even yelled stuff like: “Get a life!” and “What’s wrong with you people?” I can see now how ridiculous we must’ve looked and how grandiose it was to assume we were doing anything even remotely productive. Multiply my experiences by thousands of events for thousands of “issues” across the country every single day and you have a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.


It's an interesting column with a lot to think about.  Are we putting off people when we try to recruit and inform?  If street activism isn't working (I'm not saying it's not), then what are we left with because online 'activism' is a joke.  


So what is the answer?


Or are we doomed to learn and die, learn and die, never getting information shared with those that follow us?


Isn't that the point C.I.'s always made regarding people like Bob Somerby who think they're doing something unique and have no idea of all the media critics that came before?  


I don't know.


Oh, idiot of the week.  Forgot about it completely.  Sorry.


Let's go with Matt Taibbi.  He's done some strong stuff over the years.  The Twitter Dumps aren't part of them.  This week, he went on THE ZERO HOUR to explain "why I reported on The Twitter Files."


But, idiot, you didn't report on them. 

If you had reported, there would have been real impact because you can write amazingly well.


But you Tweeted.  And it's not worth it for most people.  Trying to follow various dumps without an overview or analysis is just too much.  You want to have impact with The Twitter Files?


Sit your butt down and write an actual report.


But then again, maybe you prefer going around making your transphobic remarks instead, right?  


Either way, he's the idiot of the week.

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


Friday, January 6, 2023.  Iraq hosts the Gulf Cup, Moqtada entertains the troops, Donald Trump is not going to be handed over to Iraqi authorities, and much more.


Let's start with nonsense.

It doesn't matter.  That's why we've ignored it all week.  Again, they want to arrest Donald.  So what?  The first time we noted it.  They know it's not happening and anyone with a brain knows it's not happening.  The US government will never turn a former president over to another nation.  We won't even turn Henry Kissinger over.  They won't turn Donald over, it would set a precedent.  They also won't do it because it's the US government which thinks it owns and controls the world.  It's not happening.  It's a non-starter.  It's not going to play out.  It's not going to happen.  We went with RedVicking's Tweet on the subject because it's not insane as so many of the Tweets about this are.  

Why do we have such a screwed up government here in the US?  Because we have stupid adults who think they can weigh without knowing a damn thing.

Anyone telling you that US President Joe Biden might turn Donald over (or will turn him over) to Iraq is either a liar or the biggest idiot of them all.  Bill Clinton bombed Sudan in 1998.  Bully Boy Bush invaded Iraq illegally, ordered the toture of Iraqis and go down the never-ending list.  Barack Obama droned people to death -- he was judge and jury as well as excutioner.  

If you're that stupid, let me break the news to you slowly.  The US government.  That represents We the People of the United States.  Is loathed around the world.  For various actions taken. Actions that we see as illegal when other nation-states act in the same manner.  

Tony Blair will likely never be brought to justice. 

What world leaders get brought to justice?


Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (Panama), Slobodan Milošević (Serbia), those sort of people.  They are leaders but they aren't leaders of western countries.  

The US government will not allow it to happen and for many reasons including they will not allow their government actions and decisions to evaluated by a legal jury of anyone's peers.

It's a waste of time to focus on something that's not going to happen.  Take that garbage to the Rachel Maddow message boards and continue to drag the nation down further into stupidity, if you must.  But grasp that endless focusing on these demented fantasies are why we have the government we do.  When you don't even know the basics, maybe just continue to focus on your 'reality' TV shows.  You'll be doing the world a huge favor.


There are things worthy of coverage and there are things that aren't. 

This morning, for example, I've gone back and forth over one story -- do we include it, do we not.  We're not going to include the video or the young lady's name.  That's all that's different right now.  Otherwise, it's the attack in the suburb of Sulaimani that we covered on Saturday and in Monday's snapshot.  We've covered it.  In the news cycle right now, the survivor's name.  Is she being quoted?  No.  So I'm not sure she wants her name known.  It's public record and anybody can look it up but a 17-year-old girl who was attacked by a mob of men should be the one who decides if her name is known or not.  What else emerged?

Video.  You've got delighted men running after her to attack her.  It is offensive.  If it had been out -- the video -- on Saturday or Monday, we would have included it as part of the story.  But it's days later and I don't see the point today in including video of an assault we've already noted.  The video turns my stomach but it would have been included in Monday's snapshot if it had been released them.  Gruesome and disgusting?  Yes.  And also a crime.  So my argument then would have been that we shouldn't turn away from it.  The difference now is the crime has been discussed and addressed so, at this point, it's kind of like the footgage in THE ACCUSED -- where Jodie's character's being gang raped and some audiences are getting off on that (see Susan Faludi's BACKLASH).  We know what happened, we've covered it.  Days after that, the video footage is of no use to illuminating anything, my opinion, so we're not including it here.

Another issue in the e-mails, why aren't we covering George Santos.  Uh, what does he have to do with Iraq?  I especially enjoy the other e-mails to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com), the drive-bys that tell me I'm attacking George Santos and don't realize that Joe Biden lies too!

George Santos name is appearing in something I've written here for the first time.  I've never written about him before.  So I don't know what you think you're reading but it hasn't been anything I've written.  

Those of you sending the drive-by e-mails need to grasp an important point.

Joe Biden has a history of lying.  It got him kicked out of one Democratic Party primary.  He lies, he mistates, he mixes things up.

Here's the difference, when he ran for the presidency, that was known.  The American people knew (or should have) what they were getting.  So you're going back to 1988 or some other nonsense?  It doesn't matter.

If he lied regarding business dealings with his son Hunter, that would be different.  And he may have and he may not have lied on that.

But exposed lies that were known before election day in 2020 are not the same as discovering that a newly elected member of Congress (he's not been sworn in yet) lied throughout the election and decieved people (and the press was asleep on the job) -- it's completely different.  

I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to play it out as to what should or shouldn't happen.  But I will note that there is a world of difference between people choosing to vote for a known liar with years and years of public examples of deception and voting for a fresh face who apparently lied about everything.

Oh, I'll note one more thing.  I'm not going to name her.  But there was a Democrat who got caught, as she ran for re-election, in a lie.  She'd lied about being a college graduate.  And this became a big deal.  This is how the Democratic Party dealt with that.  She was already running for re-election when this came out.  They humiliated her.  Every day, they found a way to humiliate her.  One day, they were thrilled that when she visited _____ they had her picked up at the airport . . . in a Pinto -- a badly banged up Pinto that reeked of cigarettes.  The Pinto was decades old and the paint was off in spots.  It wasn't even the car of the person who was driving her.  They looked for the worst car they could borrow in each city she visited and in that city it was a Pinto.  And they took pictures and they faxed all over.  They lived to humiliate her.  That's how the Democrats played it.  I have no idea how the Republicans will handle their problem.



+ A week after Bush launched the War on Terror Bob Woodward asked Cheney how long it would last. Cheney replied: “It may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.” The wet-dream of weapons contractors had materialized. The Pentagon Budget in 2001 was $287B. Now it’s $857B & rising.

+ Contracts with Raytheon and Lockheed to blow s**t up followed by contracts with BlackRock to “rebuild.” What are the Minsk Accords compared to this kind of deal?

+ According to an analysis by the intrepid Stephen Semler military contractors are set to pocket around $20 billion out of the $47 billion in the last Ukraine aid package.

In the room the arms lobbyists come and go
talking of how they just added another zero…

+ Apparently the Russian military is blaming cell-phone usage by its troops on the frontlines for the recent spate of Ukrainian missile attacks on Russian outposts, attacks which may have killed more than 1000 Russian soldiers. If so, those soldiers in rural Donetsk Oblast get better cell service than I do here in the sprawl of Greater Portland, where I barely get a single bar here in the house. If Russia really wanted to protect their troops they’d force them all onto an AT&T plan…

+ According to an analysis by Max Berger, more than 75% of the $40 million crypto-conman Samuel Bankman-Fried contributed to Democrats in 2022 went to groups that dumped nearly all their money on competitive primaries, largely to neoliberals facing off against more progressive candidates. Not that it would have mattered much in the end, since nearly all of the progressives end up voting with the neoliberals when the chips are down…and even when they aren’t.

+ Life expectancy in the US continues to plummet. The response of Congress and the Biden administration in the omnibus spending bill is to end emergency Covid funding and raise the age of mandatory retirement account withdrawals by three years. Someone’s making out, but it sure ain’t us…

+ Biden campaigned to expand Medicaid. Now he’s signed a bill to sharply curtail it, ending coverage for millions of people in the middle of a pandemic he pretends is over…

+ The Social Security administration continues to deny thousands of disability claims a year, in part because it continues to rely on a 45-year-old list of outdated job titles. We live in a System that is eager to help the people who least need it and quick to ignore, chastise and punish the weakest, sickest and poorest among us.

+ 54% of Mississippi’s hospitals are running out of operating funds and at risk of closing. This “looming disaster” is largely a consequence of Gov. Tate Reeve’s stubborn refusal to accept expanded Medicare funding offered to state under ObamaCare.

+ Our book, An Orgy of Thieves: Neoliberalism & Its Discontents, which the great historian Peter Linebaugh says is written “in acid prose cutting through the machine’s wicked fabrications,” is now available on Kindle…



Excitement in Iraq today with the Gulf Cup.





            Today, Friday, the Gulf Arab Cup kicks off its 25th session (Gulf 25) which will be hosted by Iraq in Basra until January 19 with 8 teams from the Gulf, and the eight teams have been divided into two groups where in the first includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, and the second – the teams of Kuwait, Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held, after which the opening match between Iraq (the host) and Oman will take place, after which the match of our team with the Yemeni counterpart took place.

Competition in the group is expected to be fierce. In order to qualify for the semi-finals first and then the title, in light of host Iraq’s ambition to win the missing title for 34 years while Al-Akhdar hopes for a fourth title while Oman wanted to win a third title, and finally, Yemen is looking for its first title in the tournament.




In a series of tweets, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani expressed his happiness for the opening of the Gulf Club 25 tournament in Basra, Iraq. 

He congratulated the people of Basra and all Iraqis for hosting this significant event, especially since it’s been over 40 years since Iraq has hosted these games. 

“I’m overwhelmed with great happiness and a wonderful feeling on the occasion of the launch of the Gulf Cup Football Championship,” he wrote in one of his tweets.

He welcomed all the attendees to the event and the “guests” from Arab countries.



In other news, cult leader Moqtada al-Sadr emerged from his public retreat long enough to entertain the fellas.




And check out this Tweet.


You know what's not 'adorbs'?  This is plundered.  It belongs in Iraq not in a British musem.

Where does Hillary Clinton belong?  As REUTERS journalist Kanishka Raj Singh notes, she thinks she belongs on a campus.


The only thing supporting the Iraq War ever cost Hillary was the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nomination.  Barack used her support for that war as a club to beat her with throughout the primary season.

Let's wind down with LGBTQ+ issues.  Kevin Bolling has an important column at NEWSWEEK.  I don't know how to excerpt it.  So here's the link.  It's about how homophobes are trying to use schools to carry out attacks on LGBTQ+ students.

Attacks on students?


A man from Central Florida is accused of threatening to kill 100 LGBTQ people in a mass shooting at Florida State University, federal investigators said. Sean Michael Albert, a 19-year-old from Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, is accused of posting the threat to a Discord channel Dec. 13, according to the federal criminal complaint. Discord is a social media instant messaging platform popular with gamers. The post included a photo of an AR-15 style rifle, along with a caption that included Florida State University’s main address and referred to his intended targets with an anti-LGBTQ slur, the complaint said.
[. . .]
At a hearing Wednesday, Jan. 4, U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd ordered he be detained until trial, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

 

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) adds, "Albert, who is being held in federal detention in Orlando, allegedly posted that “a genocide … NEEDS to happen not even a question,” along with an anti-LGBTQ+ slur, as well as another threat to “tear gas a synagogue” and what is believed to be a coded threat to kill all Black people."


The following sites updated:



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