First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Lady Liberty"went up earlier tonight.
Second, were you a fan of Culture Club? I was born after they flew to fame and then peaked. But I did know their song "Karma Chameleon." My brothers would go around singing that song. So Boy George was the lead singer of the group. ROLLING STONE has a new video (below) of him performing.
Good for Boy George for trying new material. That's something Joe Biden doesn't do. He just sticks with the tried and true -- one more lie, just one more lie.
Joe's a liar, he's a War Criminal, he's a rapist -- and Barack and the DNC think this makes him presidential. Insanity.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Looking at the global pandemic and how Iraq is suffering from it.
Corona, corona.
From her album CHALK MARKS IN A RAIN STORM, that's Joni Mitchell performing "A Bird That Whistles (Corrina, Corrina)."
Starting
in the US and with me. A blogger e-mailed noting that he was
discussing the need for masks at his site and was encouraging others to
do so as well. He doesn't want a link so I won't link to him or name
him -- if he changes his mind, I will note him.
Masks.
It's not my job to tell you what to do. Presumably most of you are grown ups.
I can share what I do.
I wear a mask in public. I wear a mask in private if more than six people are present.
I'm in several at risk groups -- including medical (I'm diabetic and I'm back on chemo).
Do I think a mask is a save all?
No.
I
assume the mask helps others you're around. I also take the attitude
with the masks that we had regarding condoms during the AIDS crisis.
They weren't 100% effective (they can break) but you were safer using
them when you had sex.
What about our rights?
We're
in a pandemic. Traditionally, that means some rights get curtailed.
If the wearing a mask is an infringement on rights, it's an infringement
that I personally can go along with.
Other infringements, I probably would object to.
What should you do?
That's up to you. The numbers are increasing, in the US and in the world.
That's
Najaf in Iraq. It's all around the world, not just the US. If you
have ideas for how to reduce the spread of coronavirus, share them.
Share them online. If you want, you can even send them here and I'll
post regardless of where you stand on the issue -- for the rest of this
week only. It could spark a conversation that we need to have.
The
hope was always that the summer, the warm weather, would send the virus
packing for a few months or at least the warm weather would see a
significant reduction in new cases. That has not happened.
We would all love to see a vaccine but I'm doubtful we'll have that by the fall.
We need to have a national conversation on this issue.
The
president hasn't helped. Congress has outright failed us (refusing to
push for $1,200 a month for every American adult was failure -- and it's
cute how Bernie wanted to lead the charge vocally but didn't do a thing
to make it come true in the Senate).
People who feel the mask is a violation of their rights should especially be discussing what's going on right now.
This
is about public health and public safety. It's a dialogue that, in
this country, every one needs to take part in. That's what democracy is
about.
If you need something noted on cornavirus this week -- e-mail common_ills@yahoo.com and we'll note it.
According to WORLD OMETERS INFO,
Iraq has had 62,275 cases of coronavirus with 2,567 deaths. The CIA
estimates Iraq's population (no census has been done in decades) to be
38 million.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that the COVID-19
pandemic provides new opportunities for the Islamic State extremist
group, al-Qaida and their affiliates as well as neo-Nazis, white
supremacists and hate groups.
The U.N. chief said it's too early to fully assess the implications of
the coronavirus pandemic on terrorism, but all these groups seek to
exploit divisions, local conflicts, failures in governing, and other
grievances to advance their aims.
Guterres told the launch of United Nations Counter-Terrorism Week that
the Islamic State group, which once controlled a vast swath of Syria and
Iraq, is trying to reassert itself in both countries, ``while thousands
of foreign terrorist fighters battle in the region.''
Notable Iraqi security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi was assassinated in Baghdad today, according to multiple reports.
On Monday, Agence France Presse reported that Hashimi was walking out of his Baghdad home when three gunmen on two motorcycles shot and killed him at close range.
Hashimi was a known and respected
commentator on Iraqi affairs who was particularly knowledgable on the
Islamic State. Just about an hour before his death, he tweeted
that division in Iraq was the result of the ethnic and religious quota
system put in place following the 2003 US invasion. The tweet, which
some shared after his death, has now been liked more than 11,500 times.
Horrifying video of the assassination today of #Iraq security expert Hisham al-Hashimi. Washington Post reports about threats al-Hashimi had received from #Iran-backed militia groups recently. 1/2
These pictures today from the funeral of Hisham Al-hashimi in the city of Najaf in central Iraq - there was no official funeral by the Iraqi state, nor a military presence , these are bad signs of the performance of the new Iraqi government.
I strongly condemn the assassination of Iraqi security expert Hisham Al-Hashimi last night in Baghdad. My heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones. Authorities must find the perpetrators of this terror act and bring them to justice.
Condemn of killing 1 man, but not condemn the killing of servals Kurdish people by Turkish Airstrike. Bravo bravo you corrupt politican!
You people deserve to be overthrown and being punished by the law!
Yes, Turkey's assault on Iraq continues. TRINITY CHANNEL offers this report.
Oh, right. Barack Obama and the DNC rigged it for Joe.
We're all screwed now.
I also agree with Jimmy on the above. Judd Apatow has no idea about the real world. That was obvious in THIS IS 40. That wasn't a bad movie and it's very funny in parts (especially Melissa McCarthy). But it was out of touch with the world it supposedly portrayed.
Judd Apatow hasn't lived in the real world in decades.
Jimmy Dore does live in the real world. That's why he doesn't have political crushes. He judges a politician on whether they deliver or whether they just offer meaningless words.
Monday, July 6, 2020. We look at the various people vying to become
president of the US, the prime minister of Iraq suffers a setback in the
Parliament, Iraqi journalists are not being fair in their coverage of
Iraq's LGBTQ community, and much more.
In an exciting development for the Party for Socialism and
Liberation, on July 2 the PSL was officially designated by the New
Mexico Secretary of State as a qualified political party in the state of
New Mexico. This despite the onerous requirement of signature
gathering, made even tougher in time of the pandemic. Now, when New Mexicans register to vote or update their registration,
they can make their party affiliation the Party for Socialism and
Liberation. Also, when they go to the polls in November, New Mexicans
will be able to vote for a grassroots socialist presidential campaign! Karina Aracely, New Mexico PSL organizer, stated, “Soon, the
Statewide Convention of the PSL-NM will be held. There, delegates of the
party will officially nominate our 2020 socialist candidates for the
November 3 presidential election: the national candidates of the Party
for Socialism and Liberation, Gloria La Riva for president and her
running mate, Native activist and political prisoner Leonard Peltier.
Our campaign is raising Leonard Peltier's freedom struggle and in
support of his longtime defense efforts. In reality, he should have
never spent one day of his 44 years in prison. “We are excited about the opportunity to talk with people throughout
New Mexico, of an alternative not only for the election, but the urgent
need for the system we are fighting for, socialism, which puts the
people first, not profits.” In addition to being the PSL candidates in several
states, La Riva and Peltier will be the 2020 candidates for the Peace
and Freedom Party of California, and the Liberty Union Party of Vermont. The U.S. electoral system is rigged to give only the two ruling-class
parties a competitive chance to win. Third-party candidates are subject
to exclusionary and expanding obstacles in every state. For more than
two years, the Democrat and Republican candidates have had non-stop
media coverage, while the people only get realistic exposure to
third-party candidates at their polling place, due to strict media
censorship. Still, the PSL nationally is running an energetic campaign to put forth our 10-point program, while also marching in the streets against racism and police brutality, holding car caravans to Cancel the Rents and more. In New Mexico, candidates of the “major” Democratic and Republican
political parties get to appear on the ballot automatically, no petition
signatures required. On the other hand, in order to qualify as a “minor” party, the PSL
was required to collect 3,483 valid petition signatures from registered
voters. In reality, the number needed is much higher. Any signature where the voter’s name doesn’t match the address on
file with the SOS is struck. That kind of error occurs when people move
around a lot and lose track of the address they used to register. In
states with widespread poverty like New Mexico, people are constantly on
the move because even the smallest fluctuation in household income can
turn into an eviction. When this is accounted for, the real number of signatures needed to
be safe is closer to twice the required amount: 6,966. The task is all
the more daunting because low population density makes it hard to find
large concentrations of people, and the places where people do assemble
are often privately owned and petitioning forbidden. The window to collect signatures was supposed to last from March 1 to June 25, just shy of four months. PSL petitioners hit the streets on March 4. In just 11 days of
petitioning, PSL members collected 4,553 signatures, an amazing feat
powered exclusively by an all-volunteer apparatus! Unfortunately, we had to completely shut down petitioning for more
than three months, due to the necessary COVID-19 “stay-at-home”
instruction, which our campaign strictly observed. Only after the state
had announced a broader reopening mid-June did our campaign leap back
into action, carrying out five more days of last-minute petitioning,
from June 20 to 24. Although the formal petitioning window lasts 117 days, in reality,
the PSL only had 17 days total to ask the public to support our right to
appear on the New Mexico ballot. But in only 17 days of petitioning, our members and friends collected
over 6,000 signatures! This not only speaks to the sheer determination
and will power of PSL members and friends, but also to the widespread
grassroots interest here in New Mexico for an alternative to the two
capitalist parties. Vote Socialist, Become a Socialist! Free Leonard Peltier Now!
That ballot access has
to be fought for goes to how far from a true democracy this country
remains. Another candidate for president is the Democratic Party's Joe
Biden. After 89 days of no press conferences, Biden finally came out of
hiding last week. Debra Saunders (REVIEW JOURNAL) grades the press conference:
The exercise didn’t exactly make my
profession seem fair or remotely interested in any story that does not
confirm the pack’s biases.
Last
month saw the release of a handwritten note by fired FBI Special Agent
Peter Strzok on a Jan. 5, 2017 meeting between President Barack Obama,
Biden, then-FBI Director James Comey and others about an FBI probe into
possible collusion between Moscow the 2016 Trump campaign.
According
to the note, Biden suggested that Justice Department officials might
investigate Mike Flynn, Trump’s designated national security adviser,
for allegedly violating the Logan Act — a little-known 1799 law that
bans unauthorized Americans from talking to foreign adversaries and
never has been used successfully to prosecute anyone — during Flynn’s
talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn supporters see the note as proof that Obama and Biden actively pushed for the probe.
And Biden seems evasive when he talks about the matter.
In
May, the former vice president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he
knew “nothing about these moves to investigate Michael Flynn.” When
Stephanopoulos reminded Biden that he had sat in on the Jan. 5 meeting
on Flynn, Biden responded that he thought Stephanopoulos, “asked me
whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” which
doesn’t quite make sense. Biden then said, “I was aware that they asked
about an investigation.”
So
did any of the reporters in Tuesday’s press briefing ask Biden if he
recommended that federal investigators look into whether Flynn violated
the Logan Act? No, they were too busy asking questions on the same topic
without getting a good answer.
In late June, the Biden campaign announced that Haines, an
attorney who served as deputy director of the CIA from 2013 to 2015,
will helm the foreign policy and national security aspects of a
potential Biden transition team.
To activists, security experts, congressional aides who
are more left than liberal—as well as mainstream human rights
campaigners and at least one ex-senator—Haines’ elevation is worrisome
or unacceptable. She approved an “accountability board” that spared CIA
personnel reprisal for spying on the Senate’s torture investigators, and
was part of the team that redacted their landmark report. After the
administration ended, Haines supported Gina Haspel for CIA director,
someone directly implicated in CIA torture,
a decision that remains raw amongst progressive activists. Until late
June, she consulted for the Trump-favorite data firm Palantir, which emerged from the CIA.
In
other campaign news, THE VANGUARD argues that leftists should vote for
Howie Hawkins (Green Party) and conservatives should vote for Jo
Jorgensen (Libertarian Party).
The Green Party is holding it's national convention from July 9th to July 12th -- click here for details.
Ahead of the convention, where Howie seems a shoe-in for the
nomination, George Galloway has come out to endorse Jesse Ventura.
Ventura
is a former professional wrestler and a former governor of Minnesota as
well as a former Mayor (Brooklyn Park). He has said he will not seek
the nomination but he would accept it if he was offered it.
Another presidential candidate is Joseph Kishore who is running on the SEP ticket.
Would any of them have the guts to end the Iraq War if elected president? To bring US troops home from Iraq? From Afghanistan?
The spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned
Ankara for its ongoing military operation across the north of the
country in a strongly worded statement released Saturday evening.
"We strongly reject and condemn these actions that harm the close,
long-standing relations between the two friendly nations," Ahmed Mulla
Talal wrote in a statement published to Telegram, urging for an
"immediate" halt to Ankara's offensive.
Turkish forces continue to set up base camps in Iraq. ARAB WEEKLY notes:
Iraqi troops are enforcing positions along the border with Turkey to
prevent Turkish forces from advancing deeper into Iraqi territory, Iraqi
security officials said Friday. The move comes after two weeks of airstrikes as Ankara continues to target Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. The officials said Ankara has established at least a dozen posts
inside Iraqi territory as part of a military campaign to rout members of
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who Turkey says have safe havens in
northern Iraq. The airborne-and-land campaign, dubbed “Operation Claw-Tiger,” began June 17 when Turkey airlifted troops into northern Iraq. Since then, at least six Iraqi civilians have been killed as Turkish
jets pound PKK targets, and several villages in Iraq’s northern Kurdish
region have been evacuated.
Will it be enough? And
will it be enough to shore up Mustafa's reputation? Tomorrow, he will
have been prime minister for two months. He is largely seen as weak and
indecisive. Can he turn that around?
He's now facing a rejection in Parliament. MEMO reports:
The Iraqi
Salvation and Development Front led by former Parliament Speaker Osama
Nujaifi on Saturday rejected Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s
decision to assign Shia figures to top security positions, Anadolu reported.
Al-Kadhimi
had appointed a member of the pro-Iran Badr Shia Organisation, Qasim
Al-Araji, as national security adviser and Major General Abdul Ghani
Al-Asadi, the former head of the counter-terrorism agency, as head of
the National Security Agency,
The
Iraqi Salvation and Development Front said in a statement that while
the government is reshuffling security positions and some independent
bodies as part of its reform program, “we would like to remind the prime
minister of the issue of national balance and the necessity for real
participation of the nation’s partners in decision-making and the
management of sensitive institutions”.
Iraqi media outlets are failing to meet basic journalistic standards
when it comes to coverage of LGBT+ people, according to a new study by
Iraq's first national LGBT+ organisation.
“Though Iraqi media outlets have started covering LGBT+ issues in the
last 10 years, they are not yet using their platforms to meet these
responsibilities. Just the opposite,” reads the report published by IraQueer at the end of June.
“The majority of media coverage today is biased against the LGBT+
community, reinforcing discriminatory ideas that LGBT+ individuals are
alien to Iraqi society, and that LGBT+ identities are ailments that must
be treated and eradicated,” adds the report, which references special
effects such as dangerous sounding music being overlaid on most
television programming about LGBT+ people.
The search results from IraQueer’s research reveals that most Iraqi
media continues to use derogatory terms to refer to people of diverse
genders and sexualities or their actions, including but not limited to
the Arabic words for “abnormal”, “shemale”. The organization did observe
a slower positive trend of the more neutral “Mujtamaa Al-Meem”, which
translates to the LGBT+ community, starting to be used.
It was a toughy but NYT columnist Charles Blow managed to eek out a win. Poor Charles. He's deeply stupid and has often been in consideration but he just couldn't pull out the win until this week. What allowed him to win? His call for taking down monuments to George Washingston. That and, honestly, his use of the phrase "abso-fricking-lutely" which, unless you're a teenager, is a phrase you shouldn't go near. For the record, Charles hits the big 5-0 this August. Niles Nieumuth (WSWS) explains:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
A
raid ordered by Iraq's new prime minister on militiamen accused of
planning an attack against Baghdad's international zone could mark a
turning point in his government's efforts to bring Iran-backed groups to
heel.
The
arrest of 14 members of Kataib Hezbollah late last month marked the
boldest move yet by any Iraqi leader against the Iran-linked militias,
which often operate in Iraq outside the law. Prime Minister Mustafa
al-Kadhimi, who took office in May, has vowed to halt their attacks on
foreign forces in the country, primarily U.S. troops.
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.
