Wednesday, June 07, 2017

A few things

I don't know what to excerpt from it but go read Peter Van Buren's piece at ANTIWAR.COM about the whole INTERCEPT source thing.

Again, I don't know what to quote.

But it's a great piece.

If you turn off the news and just talk to your neighbors you'll find that our great country is far more harmonious than you're being told.




And that's a nice Tweet.


Here's a video you stream.

My video tour through the depths of manufactured liberal hysteria about Trump and Russia is live at




And before I wrap up, amen to what C.I. says in the snapshot today.

She is so right.

All those politicians who campaigned with talk about ending the Iraq War should be confronted with their words and forced to explain why they are doing nothing to end the Iraq War today.


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


Wednesday, June 7, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue and silence won't end the war.



Day 231 of The Mosul Slog.

Remember when it started and people thought it would be over within 14 days?


It's not over still.

map update. Green= completely liberated. Orange= frontline clashes. White= control.
 
 


Day 231 and counting.

And Human Rights Watch notes:


The civilian death toll from a series of apparent Iraqi Security Force or United States-led coalition attacks between February and April 2017 suggests that the forces took inadequate precautions to avoid civilian casualties and that further investigation is needed, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch documented seven attacks that resulted in at least 44 civilian deaths in five populated neighborhoods of west Mosul controlled by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). 
Human Rights Watch analysis of satellite imagery of western Mosul identified over 380 distinct impact sites in the Tanak neighborhood, where three of the seven attacks occurred, consistent with the detonation of large, air-dropped munitions between March 8 and April 26, when Iraqi forces declared they had regained control of the area. Munitions of this size can pose an excessive risk to civilians when used in populated areas, given their large blast and fragmentation radius. All warring parties should cease using explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated west Mosul.
“Residents and displaced people have sheltered for months in crowded houses, with ISIS sometimes using them as human shields, so any strikes – including the choice of weapons – should take these conditions into account,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “As Iraqi and coalition forces press forward with the west Mosul offensive, they should make sure that civilian casualties are kept to a minimum.”


Arwa Damon files a report on Mosul for CNN.


Mosul survivor: "We are in hell" -- Watch 's exclusive report from inside Iraq
Video
See more at cnn.com
 
 


Arwa Damon appeared on NPR's HERE & NOW yesterday discussing Mosul.

It's a shame that the report doesn't address all the suffering of the people in Mousl.

But then the hallmark of the established western reporters has been to ignore the abuses by the Iraqi forces.


To look the other way.

To Judy Miller their way through the day.

And an apathetic so-called 'resistance' could care less.

How far the US has sunk -- at least in the early years of the Iraq War, we paid attention.

Yes, I realize now that for many it was just so they could rage against Bully Boy Bush.


But it still resulted in Iraq being part of the news coverage instead of buried and forgotten.


Hard footage That's the behaviour in of the popular crowd backed by and supported by int collation leaded by United state
 
 




Which US outlet will report on the above?




Iraq security official: Unit caught torturing captives in 'mainly supervised by US,' has immunity -
 
 



Oh, look, King Punk Ass HoDe (Howard Dean) rediscovers Iraq -- for a second, to attack Trump.


(We dealt with the nonsense HoDe's promoting and screeching about -- dealt with it in yesterday's snapshot.)

Howard Dean's just one more fake ass punk.

Just a piece of crap who pretended to be left.

Remember 2004?

Remember his talk about Iraq?

The Iraq War continues but Howard Dean's not going to call that out.

He's a fake and a liar.

I've made many mistakes in my life but falling for carny barker Howard Dean was never one of them.

Numerous friends supported him so I made a point to catch one of his rallies.

I saw an empty suit who could grab whatever was in the headlines to get some attention.

I don't admire whores.

Senators Patty Murray and Tammy Baldwin work.

They're work horses.

They grab numerous issues and stick to them, working on them constantly.

Some pay off, some don't.

But they work.

I found it very telling that MS. MAGAZINE repeatedly ignored both women to promote chattering heads in Congress who never worked a bill a day in their life.

But that's what the media 'covers' -- what's 'hot.'

Not what's important, not what matters.

We have a superficial country and superficial politicians because we have a superficial media.

Howard Dean's 2004 words should haunt him.  They should be hung around his neck and he should be forced to address Iraq on a daily basis.

In the House, Tulsi Gabbard -- like Murray and Baldwin in the Senate -- works constantly.

She does get press attention -- usually attacks from the press passed off as coverage.


. is right. My bill, HR 1227 would help veterans get the treatment they need.
 
 



When Tulsi's attacked and Howard's not, we live in an upside down world.

Every time he pipes off, some reporter should be asking about his previous statements.  Such as in January of 2004, when he insisted "I opposed the war in Iraq and I'm against spending another $87 billion there."

Then why are you silent today, he should be asked, as the bill is now in the trillions?

He was a fake and remains one.  The media lets him get away with it.  Idiots in the Democratic Party (not all members of the Democratic Party are idiots -- but a small strain of loud mouths regularly flaunt their ignorance) celebrate him as heroic.  He's a joke and, by supporting him, they make themselves jokes.




Glen Ford (BLACK AGENT REPORT and BLACK AGENDA RADIO) notes an upcoming event:


On June 16 through 18, the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) will hold its annual conference, under the theme: “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad: Building a Movement Against War, Injustice and Repression.” For three days, the convention center in Richmond, Virginia, will likely be the sanest building in the nation, the one place where you won’t be subjected to a barrage of warmongering fantasies about Russian threats to a non-existent American democracy. Instead, hundreds of activists from a broad range of organizations will be hard at work building alternatives to the Democrats and Republicans who have plunged the world into endless war and condemned most people in the United States to a dismal future of economic insecurity, the worst health care system in the developed world –- and if you’re Black, the ever-present threat of sudden death at the hands of police.
The all-seeing, eternally-listening, omnivorous data-crunching mechanisms of the national security state that was once justified by manufactured fears of Soviet Russians, then exponentially expanded to cage, kill and contain Black revolutionaries, and then vastly reinforced again to criminalize Black people as a group, creating the world’s biggest mass incarceration police state; this same repressive machinery that, after 9/ll, tracked and entrapped Muslim Americans like hunted prey, now spies upon the electronic communications of the entire world, mapping, profiling and, when possible, actively manipulating every wired person on the planet, as if the whole of humanity is a security risk to the rulers of the U.S. empire.


In 2004, we said we wanted peace.

For far too many, those were empty words just being uttered for partisan purposes.

For those who actually meant them, you need to step up and start calling out these never-ending wars.

The Iraq War started in 2003.

It's now 2017.

Various politicians have stepped into the public square to insist they would end it.

It hasn't been ended.

There needs to be honesty, there needs to be accountability and there needs to be action.

One more time, let's note Rita Ora's new single "Your Song."






New content at THIRD:


The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, BLACK AGENDA REPORT and DISSIDENT VOICE -- updated:








  • Tuesday, June 06, 2017

    Embarrassments on the world stage

    Please read Rebecca's "another proud moment for 'the intercept'" from last night.

    THE INTERCEPT has all this money but accomplishes nothing.

    They finally get a non-Ed Snowden leaked document and they blow it by revealing their leaker.

    1. Replying to 
      12/ That too is something would denounce with contempt if happened elsewhere. Everyone makes mistakes, but this was a bad one.
    2. Replying to 
      11/ Which makes it hard to accept this catastrophic failure of source protection. Reporters & editors didn’t consult experts right at hand.
    3. Replying to 
      10/ Normal people don’t know all this, but journalists should. And does. Has world class experts in and .
    4. Replying to 
      9/ When reproducing online, either retype or take tech steps to strip metadata and identifying micro-images.
    5. Replying to 
      8/ Even without the printer’s microdot fingerprint, a copy can ID source. Good practice is to tell USG title and date, then discuss content.
    6. Replying to 
      7/ It handed USG a color copy of original doc & told a clearance-holding contractor the doc was mailed from Augusta. Where source lives.
    7. Replying to 
      6/ But made egregious mistakes that doomed its source. The FBI affidavit spells them out.
    8. Replying to 
      5/ The source, Reality Winner, would have been lead suspect no matter what. Only 6 people viewed the Russia doc & she had emailed Intercept.
    9. Replying to 
      4/ has redacted before but also harshly criticized WP&NYT for making just that kind of choice. Promotes self as no-compromise.
    10. Replying to 
      3/ Cuts deprived both Russia and US public of details (GRU units, individuals, possibly exploits) that show how NSA knows. It’s a tradeoff.
    11. Replying to 
      2/ They redacted to protect NSA sources/methods. Looks like the right choice, but not ’s self-image.
    12. 1/ About story and role in blowing source: (a) it’s an important contribution to public understanding.



    They hire idiots to work for them when they have all this money in the world to spend and could hire real investigative reporters.

    Instead, they hire silly columnists like Naomi Klein who, if you missed it, was already published by THE NATION and THE GUARDIAN.


    In other embarrassments, check out what the United Kingdom did but doesn't want to talk about:

      Retweeted
    UK government refuses to deny voting to put Saudi Arabia on the UN Women's Commission




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


    Tuesday, June 6, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue, The Mosul Slog continues, Eliza Barclay tries to spit-shine Larry I Killed Glass Steagall Summers with her throat (no gag reflex on her), and much more.


    Self-hating Eliza Barclay showed up at VOX yesterday to treat the disgusting Larry Summers as someone worth listening to.  Elaine had said everything that needed to be said last week with her "STFU Larry Summers" -- but then Elaine's a strong woman and Eliza Barclay's just an embarrassment who can almost -- almost -- handle the topic of 'reporting' on the best snacks to serve at your Super Bowl get together.

    Almost.

    Eliza prattles on like the fool she is in passages like this:


    As I wrote last week, Trump’s decision on Paris was cruel in the message it sends about how America values the environment, and how little it now cares about the risks climate change poses to the planet. Though the doomsayers like Summers could turn out to be wrong, many, many experts believe it is likely to prove incredibly damaging to America’s strategic position in the world, our military’s operations, and our standing in international negotiations.


    Poor little Eliza.

    Somewhere in the world, the menfolk are unhappy and like the good little servant she is, she's going to make them happy.  Serve those snacks, on your knees, serve those men, you little child.



    I wrote this about the farcical Paris climate accord.






    Let's do a video.



    Unlike Eliza, Margaret Kimberley is nobody's child (video is Maria McKee performing "Nobody's Child" from her self-titled solo debut album).

    Here's what Margaret wrote in 2015 about the 'wonderful' Paris Agreement:


    The agreement doesn’t even take effect until 2020. Countries have five years to continue pumping green house gases into the atmosphere as much as they like. In addition, the agreement is not even binding. Any nation can decide to ignore the pledges it made in Paris without repercussion.
    The means of increasing carbon production while claiming to reduce it are numerous. India and China use semantics. They claim they will cut “carbon intensity” which means they will use coal more efficiently, not that they will use it less. Other countries play games because they were allowed to use 1990 as the date to measure carbon reduction. That doesn’t mean much for Russia because its economy collapsed in the 1990s. Going back to the high water mark of 1990 means they can actually increase carbon production over and above current levels.
    The United States and the European Union also choose dates selectively. The United States says it will cut 2030 emissions by 26% as compared to 2005. But emissions now are lower than 2005, so the promise is a hollow one and the actual cut would be just 15%, assuming the U.S. actually lives up to its promise.

    Just as in Copenhagen in 2009, the United States took a lead role in deceiving the world. Once again Barack Obama made a personal appearance and added his usual bizarre diatribe about American superiority. He said nothing about the United States refusing to consider compensating poor countries for damage done by rich countries. The final document states that “any discussion of loss and damages does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation.




    That reality escapes little Eliza -- the overgrown and underbrained child doing the bidding of her masters.

    Read the whole piece and marvel over how Eliza so delicately laps the crotch of Larry Summers.  Eliza really gets off on debasing herself in public.


    No where in her nonsense does she note that Little Dick Larry (a) has no science background, (b) faces charges of racism (for years now), (c) was flat out sexist in his remarks on women and science and (d) had to resign as president of Harvard in disgrace.

    Debase yourself, Eliza, disgrace yourself.

    Nor does she note Larry's so-called column is really a variation of the remarks he gave last week to NPR's HERE & NOW.


    Nor does she ask the tough question that Elaine did: "Question, where does he rank the repeal of Glass-Steagell which removed the protections and created the banking problems -- the ones we had to bail out?"

    Yeah, that was Larry's doing.

    Poor little Eliza, she can't stand up while also going down on Larry in public.


    She should go back to the 'reporting' she can handle, writing things like "Beer and food have loads of flavors in common" -- loads?  She's back to writing about foamy head.  You go, Eliza!


    At VOX, Eliza, still not able to breathe through her nose, spits out, "Pulling out of Paris is also such a failure of moral leadership, he writes, that it 'is probably our most consequential error since the Iraq War'."

    Is it our most "consequential error since the Iraq War"?

    Because if it is, that means the press will ignore it, the same way they refused, in the 2012 debates (and the coverage around it), to ask Barack Obama about the special-ops he'd just sent back into Iraq.


    The morning after the 2012 election, Ava and I wrote "Let The Fun Begin" which opened:


    Lies about Iraq drove the 2008 election and they drove the 2012 election as well.

    The country was transformed to the elephant in the room for 2012 that no one could be honest about.  President Barack Obama  lied that he'd 'ended' the Iraq War, he misled people into believing that all US troops had left Iraq, and he failed to inform Americans that he was negotiating to send even more US troops into Iraq.

    While the uninspiring victory speech last night blended The Hollies "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother" ("The road is long") with Jerry McGuire ("You've made me a better president"), it also made clear that the administration was on fumes even before the second term officially begins in January.

    The administration is as empty as the media.  If you doubt that, September 26th, the New York Times' Tim Arango reported:


     
    Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.




    September 26th it was in print.


    Days later, October 3rd, Barack 'debated' Mitt RomneyAgain October 16thAgain October 22nd.  Not once did the moderators ever raise the issue.


    If Barack's sitting before them and he's flat out lying to the American people, it's their job to ask.  They didn't do their job.  Nor did social menace Candy Crowley who was apparently dreaming of an all-you-can-eat buffet when Barack was babbling away before her about how he wouldn't allow more "troops in Iraq that would tie us down."  But that's exactly what he's currently negotiating.

    Maybe Candy Crowley missed the New York Times article?  Maybe she spends all her time pleasuring herself to her version of porn: Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine?

    That is possible.

    But she was only one of the three moderators.  Bob Schieffer and Jim Lehrer also moderated.  Of course, they didn't foolishly self-present as a fact checker in the midst of the debate  nor did they hit the publicity circuit before the debate to talk about how they were going to show how it was done.



    Some are still lying.

    Some are still lying and are losing loved ones who can't take the lies anymore and hurl themselves to their deaths.

    I've been surprisingly kind on that topic.

    Don't expect my silence on it to continue for long.

    You did more than shame your mother, you appalled her.

    And why wouldn't she be appalled?

    The truth mattered to her.

    She took part in documenting a rock god's bisexual ways -- and did so at a time when homophobia and Anita Bryant (same diff) reigned.

    Yet, you, her child, couldn't even use your power to tell the truth about an ongoing war.

    P.S. I may be the only one who knows where what you're looking for is -- the thing that had you begging the police to let you in so you could try to find.  That's probably one secret -- the location -- that I'll willingly take to my grave.

    Oh, kisses for one and all.

    Feel the love, feel the love.

    So many liars, so many whores, so committed to keeping the human race engaged in wars.





    SHOCKING! Drone footage shows bodies of civilians killed in recent US-strikes on Mosul scattered all over Zanjili neighborhood








    Day 230 of The Mosul Slog.


    And it's Debra Killalea (NEWS.COM) -- and not VOX's Eliza Barclay -- reporting reality:


    HE thought he would be filming heroes in action and recording the work of the good guys. But what unfolded in front of Ali Arkady’s lens was gruesome, dark and not at all what he expected.
    The photojournalist was embedded deep in an elite unit of Iraqi soldiers in the fight against Islamic State.
    But as the brutal and bloody war intensified, the line between the good guys and the bad guys got blurry.
    Mr Arkady said instead of war heroes protecting the innocent from Isalmic State, what he witnessed instead were sickening acts of torture, executions and abuse of suspected militants and civilians by the Iraqi army itself.
    In total he compiled 400 photos and hours of videos and audio recordings revealing what amounts to war crimes committed by American-trained Emergency Response Division soldiers, the group fighting against IS.




    Reality of The Mosul Slog and of Hayder al-Abadi's 'new' Iraq.


    GRAPHIC: Abu Ghraib 2.0? Iraqi army caught torturing captives in



    🔞🔞 In a series of serious violations by US-backed forces, new vid emerge of Iraqi soldiers torturing a man to death:


    Some day The Mosul Slog will be over.
    Not today, though.
    map update. Green= completely liberated. Orange= frontline clashes. White= control.






  • 230 days of The Mosul Slog and counting.
  • The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: