Thursday, August 13, 2020

The fake asses

 First up, Jimmy Dore.


Next?  Abby Martin.


C.I. is right, Tulsi is a fake-ass (see snapshot at the end of my post).  Tulsi Gabbard has to be one of the biggest fake asses of all time.

I would love to tell you that Tulsi never fooled me but she did.  I believed her and bought her con job.  She's a huckster and a fake ass.  


Speaking of fake asses, Joe Biden.  He's found his handmaiden, Kamala Harris.  Branko Marcoetic (JACOBIAN) notes:

We may well look back on the path it took to get here as a preview of what’s to come should Biden win. This year’s VP-selection process was particularly chaotic, with different, opposing factions — from Biden insiders to progressive activists to Democratic officials to groups of major donors — jostling for influence and nudging, even threatening, Biden to make their preferred choice.

Eager contenders would rise to the top, meet privately with Biden, appear on TV with him, fundraise desperately for his campaign, then suddenly fall out of favor. Sometimes he would cruelly dash their hopes live on TV; sometimes they would sink under a hail of leaks meant to undermine them. Through this shambolic process, Biden ultimately blew at least three of his own self-imposed deadlines.

This was far from unique to the VP search. Biden has long had a reputation for lacking discipline and being indecisive, something he carried over to the current campaign, nearly sabotaging himself before he began with a late start that saw him miss out on top hires. Even the Times can barely find the euphemisms to garnish these flaws, referring to his “nonlinear decision-making processes” and “habit of extending deadlines in a way that leaves some Democrats anxious and annoyed.”

To wit, Biden ran a campaign that can generously be described as leisurely, and his eventual comeback and primary victory owed almost entirely to a coalition of centrist media and Democrats working and self-sacrificing to drag him over the line in spite of himself. While we can’t yet know for sure if this process will also characterize Biden’s presidency, we’ve seen how the jockeying among different factional interests in the party has now produced the choice of Harris for his running mate. 

Harris’s possible ascension to the White House solidifies what Biden’s nomination already represented: the defeat, at least temporarily, of the left of the Democratic Party by the party’s corporate faction, and the determination of its elites to barrel ahead with the shallow, corporate politics of the Obama era, a politics mainly concerned with lowering the expectations of ordinary people.

Indeed, one of the reasons it was hard to imagine anyone else but Harris ending up on the ticket is that she so snugly embodies the modern Democratic Party — which also means almost everything you’re about to hear about her has little to do with who she actually is.

Far from the “progressive prosecutor” Harris has been masquerading as since angling for a 2020 run, her record bears no resemblance to figures who might actually fit that description, like Larry Krasner or Keith Ellison. Even in a party that embraced Biden- and Clinton-style tough-on-crime policies, Harris stands out for her cruelty: she fought to keep innocent people in jail, blocked payouts to the wrongfully convicted, argued for keeping non-violent offenders in jail as a source of cheap labor, withheld evidence that could have freed numerous prisoners, tried to dismiss a suit to end solitary confinement in California, and denied gender reassignment surgery to trans inmates. A recent report detailed how Harris risked being held in contempt of court for resisting a court order to release non-violent prisoners, which one law professor compared to Southern resistance to 1950s desegregation orders.


Now that he's chosen Kamala, I think Joe needs to come up with a campaign slogan.  I'd suggest: More Of The Same.


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


 Wednesday, August 12, 2020.  Kamala Harris gets her moment (who remembers Tulsi?), Turkey continues to terrorize Iraq, and much more.


Starting in the US where Senator Kamala Harris has been selected as Joe Biden's running mate.  Kamala brings positives and negatives to the ticket.

On the positive side, she has energy and charisma.  She has held elected office -- District Attorney in San Francisco, Attorney General of California and US senator.  Her campaign for the presidential nomination created the K-Hive -- a group of supporters.  Those are all strengths.

On the negative side?  Her record as DA and AG could hurt the ticket.  Betty's "Kamala isn't Black" makes a solid point.  Kamala's father is Black and her mother is from India.  We've explained before that she doesn't use the term African-American.  She does use the term Black.  At other times, that might be fine.  But she is bi-racial and Betty's right that a message is sent by the Joe Bidens when the "Black" person they choose to embrace is actually bi-racial.  What message does that send to the Black community in this country?  There's not a lot Kamala can do about that. 

For some on the right wing, Kamala's work on the anti-lynching measure is a source of controversy because she embraced Jussie Smollett's lie and then had no real answer when asked about it after it imploded.  She looked at the camera and played dumb.  Some on the right insist she was 'in on it,' knew it was a hoax.  (No, I don't believe she knew it was a hoax, I'm talking about baggage she brings to the ticket.) 

For me, what the choice of Kamala drives home is . . . just how unimportant Tulsi Gabbard was and is.

For those who have forgotten, the last day of July saw one of two Democratic Party debates -- there were so many candidates that they had to divide them into two nights.  Kamala was on stage with Joe Biden and Tulsi Gabbard among others.  

Tulsi -- the fake ass anti-war candidate -- went after Kamala on her record of prosecutions.  She ripped her apart and got media attention because, hey, it's a cat fight and that feeds into the media's ingrained sexism.

Take on Joe and you will be held accountable by the media -- ask Cory Booker, ask Julian Castro -- even ask Kamala.  But if two women disagree, the media will run with it.

In this case, Tulsi did not disagree.  She walked up with a two-by-four and knocked Kamala across the face with it.  

The media loved it and Tulsi got a wave of attention. 

In that wave, she offered lies for Joe Biden about the Iraq War.

In real time, the morning after the debate, we noted that fake ass anti-war Tulsi was given two chances to call Joe out in that debate.  Jake Tapper set her up for it.  She didn't do it.  He then worked his way back to her and gave her a second chance and she took a pass.

Fake ass.

From the August 1, 2019 snapshot:

Joe was an embarrassment and we'll probably come back to him.

But let me now break a thousand and one fantasies and tick a lot of people off.

The other big loser?  Tulsi Gabbard.

Why was she on the stage?

Yes, she was rarely called on and had little time to speak.  That really doesn't make a difference because when she did speak, she repeatedly blew it.

Watching her, with a group of college students, was cringe worthy.  I kept my mouth shut during the debate and I waited until all the students had spoken before I shared my opinion.

The group was made up of people who were supporting Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Tulsi Gabbard (one young man was supporting Mike Gravel).  No one was hostile towards her going into the debate.

No one was impressed with her after the debate -- not even her supporters -- one of which said that she performed like she thought Joe Biden was going to win the nomination and she was angling to be his running mate on the ticket.

She was bad.

How bad?

Jill Stein bad.  In 2012, Jill ran a hideous campaign.  One of the worst campaigns I've ever seen.  Ava and I noted that in our day-after-the-election piece ["Let the fun begin (Ava and C.I.)"].  Marianne Williamson is ridiculed by some as a 'new age guru.'  That's nonsense.  She runs like a real candidate, she speaks to real issues.  Jill, however, ran in 2012 like a new age guru and I found Tulsi last night to be just as vapid.

When I shared a month or so ago that I hadn't decided who I'd support (I thought that was rather obvious by the statements I'd made all along but I guess it wasn't) e-mails poured in -- to the community e-mail, not the public one, these were community members, not drive-bys to the public account -- insisting that if I was against the wars, I had to support Tulsi because she was.

Tulsi speaks a lot of beliefs that I agree with.  In her interviews.  In some of her speeches.

But I'm not 19.  I've seen nonsense before.

And I saw it last night, repeatedly.

If people went to her website today demanding their donations back, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

She's polling slightly higher -- or was before the debate.  Just a tad higher.  And she needed to connect.  But whomever wore that white pantsuit on stage last night -- the real Tulsi or Tulsi on ambien -- didn't connect.

With Mike Gravel and Tulsi, we're told it's important that they're on the stage in the debates because they will raise real issues.  I know Mike and he will -- and did in 2008 when he was on the stage.  But Tulsi didn't.

She was supposed to be the anti-war voice.  She was on stage with the biggest War Hawk running for the nomination -- Joe Biden.

And she didn't touch him.

And she didn't call out the wars in any significant or meaningful manner.

And the wars were an actual issue.  Moderator Jake Tapper brought the topic up and Jake went to more than just two people on this issue.  We're using NBC transcript for this debate, by the way.



TAPPER: Thank you, Governor Inslee. I want to turn to foreign policy, if we can. Senator Booker, there are about 14,000 U.S. services members in Afghanistan right now. If elected, will they still be in Afghanistan by the end of your first year in office?

BOOKER: Well, first of all, I want to say very clearly that I will not do foreign policy by tweet as Donald Trump seems to do all the time. A guy that literally tweets out that we're pulling our troops out before his generals even know about it is creating a dangerous situation for our troops in places like Afghanistan.
And so I will bring our troops home and I will bring them home as quickly as possible, but I will not set during a campaign an artificial deadline. I will make sure we do it, we do it expeditiously, we do it safely, to not create a vacuum that's ultimately going to destabilize the Middle East and perhaps create the environment for terrorism and for extremism to threaten our nation.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Gabbard, you're the only veteran on this stage. Please respond.

GABBARD: This is real in a way that's very difficult to convey in words. I was deployed to Iraq in 2005 during the height of the war where I served in a field medical unit where every single day I saw the high cost of war. Just this past week, two more of our soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.
My cousin is deployed to Afghanistan right now. Nearly 300 of our Hawaii National Guard soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan, 14,000 servicemembers are deployed there. This is not about arbitrary deadlines. This is about leadership, the leadership I will bring to do the right thing to bring our troops home, within the first year in office, because they shouldn't have been there this long.
For too long, we've had leaders who have been arbitrating foreign policy from ivory towers in Washington without any idea about the cost and the consequence, the toll that it takes on our servicemembers, on their families. We have to do the right thing, end these wasteful regime change wars, and bring our troops home.

(APPLAUSE)

TAPPER: Thank you. Thank you, Congresswoman.
Mr. Yang, Iran has now breached the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal after President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal, and that puts Iran closer to building a nuclear weapon, the ability to do so, at the very least. You've said if Iran violates the agreement, the U.S. would need to respond, quote, "very strongly." So how would a President Yang respond right now?

YANG: I would move to de-escalate tensions in Iran, because they're responding to the fact that we pulled out of this agreement. And it wasn't just us and Iran. There were many other world powers that were part of that multinational agreement. We'd have to try and reenter that agreement, renegotiate the timelines, because the timelines now don't make as much sense.
But I've signed a pledge to end the forever wars. Right now, our strength abroad reflects our strength at home. What's happened, really? We've fallen apart at home, so we elected Donald Trump, and now we have this erratic and unpredictable relationship with even our longstanding partners and allies.
What we have to do is we have to start investing those resources to solve the problems right here at home. We've spent trillions of dollars and lost thousands of American lives in conflicts that have had unclear benefits. We've been in a constant state of war for 18 years. This is not what the American people want. I would bring the troops home, I would de-escalate tensions with Iran, and I would start investing our resources in our own communities.

(APPLAUSE)

TAPPER: Governor Inslee, your response?

INSLEE: Well, I think that these are matters of great and often difficult judgment. And there is no sort of primer for presidents to read. We have to determine whether a potential president has adequate judgment in these decisions.
I was only one of two members on this panel today who were called to make a judgment about the Iraq war. I was a relatively new member of Congress, and I made the right judgment, because it was obvious to me that George Bush was fanning the flames of war.
Now we face similar situations where we recognize we have a president who would be willing to beat the drums of war. We need a president who can stand up against the drums of war and make rational decisions. That was the right vote, and I believe it.

TAPPER: Thank you. Thank you, Governor. Vice President Biden, he was obviously suggesting that you made the wrong decision and had bad judgment when you voted to go to war in Iraq as a U.S. senator.

BIDEN: I did make a bad judgment, trusting the president saying he was only doing this to get inspectors in and get the U.N. to agree to put inspectors in. From the moment "shock and awe" started, from that moment, I was opposed to the effort, and I was outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and the administration.
Secondly, I was asked by the president in the first meeting we had on Iraq, he turned and said, Joe, get our combat troops out, in front of the entire national security team. One of the proudest moment of my life was to stand there in Al-Faw Palace and tell everyone that we're coming -- all our combat troops are coming home.

TAPPER: Thank you.

BIDEN: I opposed the surge in Afghanistan, this long overdue -- we should have not, in fact, gone into Afghanistan the way...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I want to bring in...

INSLEE: Mr. Vice President -- I'd like to comment.



That was Tulsi?

Her whole reason for being on the stage is supposed to be about ending the wars.  Get Tulsi on the stage, even her detractor David Swanson has argued, because she's going to be raising the real issues.

Well not only were her remarks above inadequate and, yes, flat out embarrassing -- John Kerry could have made the same remarks in 2004 -- but she blew it.

Not just then.  If it was just then, okay, she didn't think on her feet and realized a few seconds after that she should have spoken to the issues strongly.

Okay but Jay Inslee wanted to speak -- see above -- Jake instead went back to Tulsi, went back to her.

TAPPER: I would like to bring in the person on the stage who served in Iraq, Governor -- I'm sorry, Congresswoman Gabbard. Your response to what Vice President Biden just said.

GABBARD: We were all lied to. This is the betrayal. This is the betrayal to the American people, to me, to my fellow servicemembers. We were all lied to, told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was working with Al Qaida, and that this posed a threat to the American people.
So I enlisted after 9/11 to protect our country, to go after those who attacked us on that fateful day, who took the lives of thousands of Americans.
The problem is that this current president is continuing to betray us. We were supposed to be going after Al Qaida. But over years now, not only have we not gone after Al Qaida, who is stronger today than they were in 9/11, our president is supporting Al Qaida.

Oh, shut the f**k up, Tulsi.

Just reliving that moment is enough to piss me off.

Donald Trump is bad, Donald Trump is evil blah blah blah blah blah.

If you're honestly surprised by how Donald has been as a president, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.  Seriously, you are too damn stupid to be trusted with a ballot.  I'm opposed to Donald and I was before he announced he was running, long, long before.  

Joe Biden voted for the war, he sold the war.  He lied onstage and Tulsi safe little go to -- her bulls**t I'm-just-a-girl move -- was to talk about Donald Trump and al Qaeda.  WTF was that, you stupid idiot.  I'm furious.  We've noted her here.  We've reposted her Tweets on Sunday.  We've never noted much of her from her Congressional office because her press releases are infrequent and disappointing.  I think we've carried two of her Congressional press releases.

There's a reason for that.  And there's a reason that while I could applaud her earlier statements on the war, I did [not] buy a pass to the Tulsi train.

She betrayed everyone last night.  While I was working out this morning, I kept telling myself to be nice when I dictated this.  Sorry, that's out the window.

Joe Biden voted for the war, he supported it.  He used his position to silence dissent.  And it didn't end there, people.  He knew Nouri al-Maliki was a thug.  Unlike Hillary Clinton, he didn't have the guts to say it publicly, but he knew it.  Yet he betrayed democracy and the people of Iraq as vice president by arguing that the Iraqi people's 2010 vote didn't matter and that Nouri should have a second term even though they voted against that.

Joe is a disaster.

Mike Gravel would have called him out.

I'm-just-a-girl-standing-on-a-stage-wanting-Joe-Biden-to-like-me was full of s**t.

Did she choke or is that the real Tulsi?

If that''s the real Tulsi, get her off stage, we don't need her.  We've had enough liars pretending that the wars were wrong and needed to be ended -- hey, Nancy Pelosi, I'm looking at you -- to last a lifetime.  We don't need another.  

Jake Tapper specifically brought her back in after Joe lied about his record, and asked her about Joe's response and she's telling us about Donald Trump.  


Note that Tulsi went on, in her brief media wave after that debate, to lie for Joe.  

Are you among the many unhappy that Joe will most likely be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee?  Lay some blame at Tulsi's door.

She was more than happy to rip apart a woman for alleged wrongful imprisonments but she wouldn't touch the White man who is responsible for the deaths of over a million Iraqis (not to mention all the people in prison because of Joe's crime legislation).


People praised Tulsi for that debate -- people who should damn well have known better.  I'm being kind and not saying, "_____ what were you thinking when you used your radio program after that debate to hail her as 'anti-war'?"  But there was a whole host of people who made excuses for her.

Don't worry, we were told, at the next debate, Tulsi was going after Joe.

They lied to themselves about that.  And, of course, Tulsi's ass never made it on stage again.

She had one shot to call out a War Hawk who was responsbile for so many deaths and she didn't choke, she just refused to do it -- on stage at the debate, on camera with multiple outlets in the wave of attention after.  


About the only one with the guts to call Tulsi out in real time (other than us)?  Adam Kokesh.  He noted the myth of Tulsi, saw through it.  It's a shame others could not.  


When Tulsi dropped out and refused to endorse Bernie, people made excuses for her again.  She dropped out and, in her dropping out announcement, endorsed Joe Biden.  That was March 19th.  Stop pretending that piece of garbage is anti-war.


She is one of the strongest reasons that Joe is the nominee.  

The fools who supported her to the tiny end insisted that she destroyed Kamala.  They took comfort in that.  The Michael Traceys, for example, the sewer of the internet.

Well it's August 12, 2020 and who is destroyed?

Not Kamala.  She's on a presidential ticket.  Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 election, her profile has risen considerably and she is now, to the media, a rock star.

Fake Ass Gabbard?

She's not on a presidential ticket.  She's also not going to be in Congress much longer.  She couldn't win her own district.  The polling showed that.  So she tried to save face and declare that she wouldn't seek re-election.  Fake Ass' Congressional district wasn't about to re-elect her.  Had she not declared that, she would have been embarrassed in the midst of her pathetic presidential run by losing a Democratic primary.  What an endorsement that would have been.


Tulsi: I've been in the US Congress.  Now I'm running for president.  I just got primaried and lost.  My own district won't re-elect me but I'm asking you to make me president of the United States.  I'm Tulsi Gabbard and I fake ass this announcement.


Fake Ass Gabbard achieved nothing in her run and that's no one's fault but her own.  After she endorsed Biden, some people tried to say that at least she took out Kamala.  She never took out Kamala and we said that all along.  

The Iraq War continues -- not that Tulsi uses her Congressional seat to point that reality out.  Nor does she ever try to advocate for the Iraqi people who continue to suffer.  She doesn't speak of them and didn't even when she was posing as the anti-war candidate.  




AL-MONITOR notes:

A Turkish drone strike struck a military vehicle north of Erbil, killing two Iraqi border guard battalion commanders and their driver, the Iraqi military said Tuesday.

According to the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw, the strike in the Bradost area in northern Iraq targeted a meeting between border officials and fighters with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist group. Bradost Mayor Ihsan Chelebi told the Associated Press that the officers killed Tuesday had been setting up new posts in the area.


 The world -- including the US government -- has looked the other way as the brutal and repressive government of Turkey has violated Iraq's national sovereignty.  How much longer is that going to be allowed?  They terrorize the people in northern Iraq -- villagers, farmers -- by dropping bombs constantly.  They violate Iraq's borders by sending ground troops into Iraq.  How much longer are they going to get away with this?


Iraq cancelled a ministerial visit and summoned Turkey's ambassador on Wednesday as it blamed Ankara for a drone attack that killed two high-ranking Iraqi military officers. 

Iraqi officials called the attack a "blatant Turkish drone attack" in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where Turkey's military has for weeks raided positions of fighters it considers "terrorists".


Yesterday's snapshot noted reports of two attacks on US convoys.  Yesterday saw the US government denying both attacks.  Today?  They admit one took place.  AP reports:


An explosion targeted a U.S.-led coalition convoy in Iraq on Tuesday and caused no casualties, just hours after a newly formed Shiite militant group falsely claimed bombing a similar convoy at the Iraq-Kuwait border, the American military said.

The little-known Ashab al-Kahf group claimed in an overnight statement it destroyed “equipment and vehicles belonging to the American enemy” in a bombing targeting a border crossing south of the Iraqi city of Basra.





New content at THIRD:




The following sites updated:

Posted by at

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Andrew Levine is an idiot

 First, Jimmy Dore.



The Young Turks?  Worth watching once upon a time.  But the show sold out and it's just a joke these days.  It pretended to stand for something.


Meanwhile: Andrew Levin is an idiot.  Doubt me?  He writes this at COUNTERPUNCH:


For kindness sake, one of them, Joe Biden, should be put back out to pasture; for the sake of justice, the other, Trump, should be put behind bars.

Biden at least means well; meaning well is beyond Trump’s ken.


He means well when he makes his racist statements?  He means well when he supports the prison-industrial-complex?  He means well when he aids the Israeli government in killing Palestinians?  He means well when he starts the Iraq War and over a million Iraqis die?  He means well when he works to destroy Libya?  

He's never had a well meaning moment in his life.  He has actively worked to enrich his own pockets and his own family while destroying the lives of so many others.


Andrew Levine is either an idiot or a liar.


 

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

 

 Tuesday, August 11, 2020.  Two attacks on military convoys in Iraq (US military says none, Iraqi government admits otherwise), covid continues to terrorize the globe and Joe Biden's got a War Hawk party platform but watch corporate news work overtime to ignore that reality.  



Starting with Iraq where a convoy was attacked.




REUTERS reports:

An explosion near the Jraischan border crossing at the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border on Monday evening targeted a convoy carrying equipment for US forces, three Iraqi security forces told Reuters.

[. . .]

A security source had earlier said that the explosion was caused by an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim militia targeting a US military base near the crossing by smuggling in an explosive device, and that some staff on the base had been injured, but this was later contradicted by other security sources who said a convoy was attacked, not a base.

REUTERS also notes, "Kuwait and Iraq separately denied an attack took place against a convoy carrying equipment for American forces."  The denials come as the attacks increase to two -- one this morning, one Monday evening.  AL KHALEEJ TODAY notes that, while denying any attack took place, "The US said on Tuesday it will investigate claims of an explosion on the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border that was aimed at a convoy carrying equipment for American forces."  While the US military command continues to play dumb, the Iraqi denial has ceased:  "A blast from a planted explosive device hit a convoy of the U.S.-led coalition near the Taji base north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the Iraqi military said in a statement."

In other violence, Lawk Ghafuri (RUDAW) reports:

An Iraqi police officer from a federal police unit was killed and two civilians were wounded in western Kirkuk province on Monday, in what the Security Media Cell labeled a terror attack.

“Security forces repelled an attack by terrorist elements on the village of Al-Majid in Al-Riyadh district in Kirkuk province,” the statement read. “The attack resulted in death of an officer in the Third Infantry Brigade of the Fifth Division of the Federal Police, and the wounding of two civilians.”

The statement also revealed that the attack wounded a member of Hashd al-Ashairy, the Sunni unit of Iraq’s Shiite majority Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi.


In other news, INTERNATIONAL QURAN NEWS AGENCY notes that Iraq, on Monday, "records highest daily coronavirus infections."  Again.  That's been a near daily headline for weeks now.  As Feng Yasong and Gao Wencheng (XINHUA) note, the pandemic is worldwide, "Global COVID-19 cases reached 20 million on Monday, with more than 730,000 deaths worldwide, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.  The global case count reached 20,001,019, with a total of 733,897 deaths worldwide as of 2335 GMT, the CSSE data showed. The bleak number of global infections has doubled in less than two months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the world."  XINHUA also notes, "Iraq has so far confirmed 153,599 coronavirus cases in the country amid a surge in new infections.  It also reported 72 fatalities on Monday, raising the death toll to 5,464, while 2,015 patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 109,790."  At the end of June, Jane Arraf filed a report for NPR:

Jane Arraf: This is a war against the coronavirus, and we've lost the war, a government official tells me. He doesn't want his name used because he's not authorized to speak publicly. It's so difficult getting accurate statistics in Iraq that almost no one believes the official ones. And although on paper there are more than enough intensive care beds in Iraqi hospitals, that's not the reality. Dr. Aizen Marrogi is a former senior medical officer for the U.S. Army and at the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

AIZEN MARROGI: Corruption is No. 1. All the medications get - first, second, third day after they arrive, they disappear. The government pays for a lot of employees that don't exist. They're ghost employees.

ARRAF: He says the health care system lacks proper managers, nursing staff and technical expertise. The crisis is a major test for the country's new prime minister. Mustafa al-Kadhimi took power in May after anti-government protests forced out his predecessor. He's promised to fight corruption and rein in Iran-backed militias. But now he's also grappling with a drop in oil prices and a deepening crisis over the virus.

Iraq can't seem to catch a break.  RUDAW notes:

A large medical warehouse storing medications needed to treat coronavirus in downtown Kirkuk caught fire on Friday. The crucial supplies were destroyed as numbers of new cases rise on a daily basis. 

The fire started place around 6:00 Friday and was extinguished about two hours later. Firefighters had to break through the walls of the building to access the interior. 

The warehouse belonged to Kirkuk’s Great Hospital, one of the main hospitals in the city. It was storing a large amount of medications, but is one of 10 such sites in Kirkuk so the fire may not lead to a major shortage, head of the provincial health directorate Ziyad Khalaf told Rudaw. 


The fire is not thought to have been set on purpose.  Instead, they believe it was an electrical issue.  Iraq's infrastructure continues to crumble as money that could upgrade the infrastructure instead goes into the pockets of various Iraqi politicians.

"The problem is," THE NATIONAL's Mina al-Oraibi observed in a podcast with AL-MONITOR, "the system of corruption that set into the country."  And the possibility of reform as the prime minister insists he wants to carry out?  "The corruption, nepotism, mafia-state that has emerged in the country makes their ability quite limited."  Mina has a clear-eyed view of how things are in Iraq but she also expresses hope and ties that to, among others, the youth of Iraq and their ongoing protests.

The protesters? Since September 30th, they've been protesting.  Nothing has ended the protests -- not covid, not attacks on the protesters, not murder of the protesters.  Iraq's youth -- the bulk of the country is the youth, it's a land of widows and orphans as a result of the never-ending war -- is not backing down in their quest for a better Iraq.  Lawk Ghafuri (RUDAW) reports a new development:


Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi received in Baghdad a group of wounded Iraqi protesters from the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Monday, during which the official promised to aid those injured in the mass demonstrations that began in October.

“Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi directs the formation of a committee to coordinate between the Prime Minister's office and the wounded protesters to monitor their health conditions,” the Iraqi PM’s media office tweeted on Monday.

Kadhimi “vowed” to provide medical treatment to wounded protesters in a separate tweet, saying they would “transfer some of them for treatment outside Iraq if necessary.” 

“The government is determined to fulfill the demands of the peaceful demonstrators, which are among the priorities of its program,” the office stated in another tweet.


As for the mafia-style corruption . . . 



The interview is in Arabic but the closed caption is in English.  MEMRI notes:

Iraqi journalist Hussein Al-Sheikh said in a July 27, 2020 interview on Al-Ahd TV (Iraq) that Iraq is run by gangs and that his situation is as if someone broke into his house, raped his mother and his sister, stole his money, and told him to remain silent. He said that in light of the assassinations of journalist Ahmed Abdul Samad and researcher Husham Al-Hashimi were killed anyone could be next.


Meanwhile, the Democratic Party seems about to put together yet another presidential ticket where at least one of the people on the ticket voted for the Iraq War.  They've never put together a ticket with someone in Congress who voted against the Iraq War but, since the start of the 2003 wave of the never-ending war, the Dem's presidential ticket has always had at least one person who supported and sold the Iraq War.  Joe Biden is expected to be this year's presidential nominee.  He is a War Hawk.  Patrick Martin (WSWS) examines the party platform his people just put together:


The Democratic platform backs a continued US military presence in Iraq “to train our Iraqi partners,” and in Syria to keep up “the offensive against ISIS” while restoring the US alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria that Trump reneged on.

The platform declares “Our commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself” to be “ironclad.” Initially, the platform language referred to the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank, a term that was removed at Biden’s personal insistence. The draft now merely criticizes “settlement expansion” and “annexation.”

Biden pledges to “close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay,” as Obama pledged in 2008. Twelve years later, the prison still stands and not one of the prisoners has been brought to trial.

On China, the Democratic platform attacks Trump from the right, claiming that his trade war policies have not restored jobs in the United States and pledging to “stand up” to China on its trade practices and alleged theft of intellectual property.

There is also this pledge: “We will underscore our global commitment to freedom of navigation and resist the Chinese military’s intimidation in the South China Sea. Democrats are committed to the Taiwan Relations Act and will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan.”

In his interview with the minority journalists referenced in the first part of this article, Biden answered one foreign policy question. He said that Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods had provoked retaliation that had devastated US manufacturing and agriculture. “We’re going after China in the wrong way,” he declared, saying that a Biden administration would review the tariffs and focus on issues such as protecting intellectual property and opposing Beijing’s restrictions on US businesses operating in the Chinese market.


This morning, the 'public affairs' programs are yet again jaw boning about who Joe Biden might pick as his running mate.  They've done that non-stop since June.  It's cheap and easy journalism.  And it doesn't anger anyone.  It also serves no public purpose.  Examining the party's new platform is a public service, it is news and it does have value.  



The following sites updated:







 

 

 

Posted by at

Monday, August 10, 2020

2020 only gets worse

Kicking it off with Jimmy Dore.


 

And this is from Chris Hedges:

The terminal decline of the United States will not be solved by elections. The political rot and depravity will continue to eat away at the soul of the nation, spawning what anthropologists call crisis cults — movements led by demagogues that prey on an unbearable psychological and financial distress.

These crisis cults, already well established among followers of the Christian Right and Donald Trump, peddle magical thinking and an infantilism that promises — in exchange for all autonomy — prosperity, a return to a mythical past, order and security.

The dark yearnings among the white working class for vengeance and moral renewal through violence, the unchecked greed and corruption of the corporate oligarchs and billionaires who manage our failed democracy, which has already instituted wholesale government surveillance and revoked most civil liberties, are part of the twisted pathologies that infect all civilizations sputtering towards oblivion. I witnessed the deaths of other nations during the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and later in the former Yugoslavia. I have smelled this stench before.

The removal of Trump from office will only exacerbate the lust for racist violence he incites and the intoxicating elixir of white nationalism. The ruling elites, who first built a mafia economy and then built a mafia state, will continue under Biden, as they did under Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, to wantonly pillage and loot.

The militarized police will not stop their lethal rampages in poor neighborhoods. The endless wars will not end. The bloated military budget will not be reduced. The world’s largest prison population will remain a stain upon the country. The manufacturing jobs shipped overseas will not return and the social inequality will grow.

The for-profit health care system will gouge the public and price millions more out of the health care system. The language of hate and bigotry will be normalized as the primary form of communication. Internal enemies, including Muslims, immigrants and dissidents, will be defamed and attacked. The hyper-masculinity that compensates for feelings of impotence will intensify. It will direct its venom towards women and all who fail to conform to rigid male stereotypes, especially artists, LGBTQ people and intellectuals.

Lies, conspiracy theories, trivia and fake news — what Hannah Arendt called “nihilistic relativism” — will still dominate the airwaves and social media, mocking verifiable fact and truth. The ecocide, which presages the extinction of the human species and most other life forms, will barrel unabated towards its apocalyptic conclusion.


I started 2020 with so much hope.  I thought Bernie Sanders was going to be our presidential nominee.  I thought we were going to change the world.  

Instead, we've got a pandemic and Joe Biden as a nominee.

My hope is gone.

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


 Monday, August 10, 2020.   Corruption continues in Iraq, the people continue to suffer, Moqtada's 100 day threat is due to expire this week, and much more.



MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE notes:

Hundreds of Iraqi protesters yesterday stormed Dhi Qar Governorate building in the centre of Nasiriyah province to protest against poor public services and corruption, the Anadolu Agency reported.

The agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that tribes in the Al-Fahd district organised the protest, accusing officials of corruption and mismanagement.

Thousands of Iraqis and displaced persons suffer from poor public services, especially access to electricity.

Iraq is not a poor country struck with famine.  It's an oil rich country and, certainly, various politicians have used their office to embezzle money.  While the people suffered, various Iraqi leaders have gotten rich.  Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki is only one example of someone who used the office to enrich himself and his family at the expense of the Iraqi people.  And the corruption has led to the current situation.  All of this comes as Baghdad hit a new record for all time highest temperature on Saturday.   Natalie O'Neill (NEW YORK POST) noted, 

Folks in Iraq aren’t hot on this weather trend.

Temperatures soared to a scorching 126 degrees in Baghdad last week — the hottest ever recorded in the city, according to a report.

The sweltering heat, which comes during the country’s hottest summer ever, sparked power outages that forced locals to endure the weather without air conditioning, Bloomberg News reported.

Shakthi Vadakkepat Tweets:

IRAQ'S HEAT WAVE: Temperatures in Baghdad last week reached 52°C (126 °F). Here's how local kids are keeping cool as power blackouts mean no air conditioning during the #coronavirus lockdown
From



How does an oil rich country struggle with something as basic as energy production?  Supposedly, the US war for oil did not beneift the US.  S&P GLOBAL PLATTS maintains:

Iraq's energy ties with the US, which were supposed to yield oil deals following the 2003 invasion, have been whittled down to waivers to OPEC's second biggest producer to import Iranian electricity and gas, and avoid a political meltdown of the fragile Baghdad government, according to analysts.

US energy companies did not benefit much from the rule of the Coalition Provisional Authority -- the US-appointed entity that governed Iraq post the 2003 invasion until 2004 -- and they seem unlikely to gain a foothold in the oil sector of a country fighting a resurgent Islamic State, grappling with protests and facing financial collapse from low oil prices.

"The expectations of US policy-makers in the early years was that US companies would enjoy competitive advantage in a liberalized Iraqi oil and gas sector," said Raad Alkadiri, senior director at the BCG Center for Energy Impact.

"Iraq's sector has remained state-owned and state-guided, and US companies have been forced to compete in open licensing rounds. Various efforts by US Administrations (including the current Trump Administration) to engineer bilateral negotiations and to promote US company interests have come to naught."


The benchmarks imposed by the US -- and agreed to by Iraq -- included privatizing the oil.  And, it should be noted, the US was never supposed to benefit from the war -- multi-national companies were supposed to benefit -- and many have.  

Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump shortly. Friday afternoon, the White House issued the following announcement:


President Donald J. Trump will welcome Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of the Republic of Iraq to the White House on August 20, 2020.  The visit comes at a critical time for both the United States and Iraq as we continue our collaboration to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and address the challenges from the coronavirus pandemic.  As close partners, the United States and Iraq will look to expand our relations across a range of issues, including security, energy, health care, and economic cooperation.


Saturday,   Omar Sattar (AL-MONITOR) observed:

The heat wave in Iraq has raised the ire of citizens in the central and southern areas, pushing many to take to the streets once again. The popular protests in the squares had settled down due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the searing hot weather and declining hours of electricity supply have forced the new government to once again face the protesters.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government was only formed less than three months ago and is now in the middle of the process of activating electricity interconnection agreements with Gulf countries and speeding up the cooperation agreement with Germany's Siemens AG.

Although he inherited a mess, and is taking action to fix it, there is no quick fix and the political blocs opposed to Kadhimi have tried to harness the protests to undermine his government and drag it into a bloody confrontation with the protesters, especially in Baghdad, Dhi Qar and Basra.

Clashes between protesters and security forces have resulted in three deaths and 21 injuries, according to the Iraqi Human Rights Commission.


The same prime minister who can't protect the protesters is now demanding that Christians return to Iraq.  


Iraqi Prime Minister urges Christians to return to #Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister urges Christians to return to Iraq
BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:20 A.M.) - On Sunday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, called for the return of Iraqi Christian immigrants to


AMN reports:

On Sunday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, called for the return of Iraqi Christian immigrants to their country, especially after the defeat of the Islamic State [. . .].

Al-Kazemi received on Sunday, Patriarch Saint Louis Raphael I Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, and a number of bishops in Baghdad.


While Mustafa insists that the Christians should return to Iraq, it was just last week that Emma Reeves (PERSECUTION) noted:

The defeat of ISIS in Iraq came at the cost of strengthening militias. The pandemic has given many regional governments an opportunity to centralize authority. But Iraq’s militias have resisted similar attempts by Baghdad. For those observing this dynamic, it brings memories of a past filled with hardship and history of increased persecution.

During the early 2000s, these militias were at the forefront of Christian persecution, prompting the first immigration wave. “Christian immigration passed through three main stages,” explained a former resident of Baghdad to ICC. “The first was from 2005-2007, [the] second was in 2010 when some extremists attacked [a] church during Sunday mass and the third stage was in 2014 when ISIS attacked [the] Nineveh Plain.”

Will there be a fourth stage? Many hope not, but recent militia tension brings memories of the early 2000s.

Recently, Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Services conducted an unprecedented raid on a militia in Baghdad. The next day, the militia threatened retaliation. One militia member threatened Prime Minister al-Khadami, who ordered the raid, reportedly saying “you are smaller than attacking an office of our militia.”

The prime minister remains new to his office, after militia interference in the political system delayed the process for months. Untangling the web of militia control is a struggle and dangerous endeavor, but the prime minister’s early policies seem to indicate this is a priority. This has left Christians unsettled and skeptical of the prime minister’s ability to actually break down militia control.

“I can’t believe what al-Khadami is pretending to do. If you look back at previous prime ministers, al-Abadi or Abdul Mahdi, you will find similarity on the decisions, but none turn to actions,” said Ehab, a Christian from Baghdad.

He continued, “both Abadi and Abdul Mahdi took strict decision about militias having weapons, but again [nothing] came to reality. Having that history tells me not to believe al-Khadami and that all he is doing [will] not exceed a show.”

It is well-known across Iraq that the federal government has no power, and that the militias actually control the country with the support of neighboring Iran, a Shia country.


When assaults and massacres targeted Christians in Baghdad, many began moving to what city?  Mosul.  The first seriously targeted by ISIS.  When ISIS was routed out of Mosul, the persecuted were now the victims of the militias.  Last February, Xavier Bisits (AMERICA: THE JESUIT REVIEW) noted:


In the Nineveh Plains, near Mosul, Iraq, some 32,000 Christians live in areas controlled by Iran-backed militias. As tensions between the United States and Iran continue, Nineveh Christians hope for an end to the influence of Iran in their day-to-day lives.

With the liberation of parts of Iraq from ISIS in 2017, Iraq’s Syriac and Chaldean Christians returned home to two unwelcome developments. First, unsurprisingly, their homes had been burned, looted or destroyed by ISIS. Second, Iran-backed groups who helped defeat ISIS—known as Popular Mobilization Forces—now controlled the towns their ancestors had inhabited for more than a millennia.

Today, the largest Christian town, Baghdeda as it is called by Christians—it is also known as Qaraqosh—is surrounded by an Iran-funded militia. The second-largest town, Bartella, is controlled by such a militia. Both are around 20 minutes from Mosul, where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had declared the doomed ISIS caliphate in 2014.

This picture is complicated by a demographic shift also taking place in these communities—once largely Syriac Christian and now Shabak Muslim. The Shabak are primarily a Shiite minority who, like Christians and Yazidis, were persecuted by ISIS.

This demographic shift is most pronounced in Bartella, which sits on the crucial artery road between Erbil and Mosul. As recently as 2003, Bartella was 95 percent Christian. In the space of a decade, it has become majority Shabak, and members of this religious and ethnic community now control the town’s government and checkpoints into the city through their wing of the P.M.F., the Shabak Militia. Today, this militia receives arms, vehicles and money from Iran.

Amjad, 33, a Syriac worker in an electricity shop, complained of treatment as a second-class citizen by this militia. “Frankly speaking, if they had the chance, they’d take everything from us,” he said of the Shabak Militia. “If they have the chance to attack, they’d do more damage than ISIS did.”


Having done nothing to secure the safety of Iraqi Christians, Mustafa now insists that they return.  On the topic of the militias, there's more shameful behavior but this time from a news outlet.  Friday,   THE INDEPENDENT published a major article written by Ghufran Younes.  But?  They only published it on their Arabic website.  They refuse to publish this major report in English.  Younes reports that the area near Falluja is infamous for its number of missing people -- missing as a result of the militias liquidation operations in Anbar Province.  In June of 2016, Faiz al-Rikan explains, approximately 735 residents were abducted.  A man whose three sons, ages 16 to 26, were abducted speaks of his sadness over his missing children.  They are among The Disappeared.  Since 2017, the High Commission for Human Rights has received complaints of at least 8,615 Iraqis being disappeared. Professor Anas Akram Muhammed sits on that commission and states that  a national database is needed to track the disappeared and their numbers.  The Commission works with the United Nations Development Program.  The Iraqi Center for Documenting War Crimes' Omar al-Farhan states that Iraq is the top ranked in the world when it comes to the number of people who have been disappeared by government forces (including the militias).

In other news, ASHARQ AL-AWSAT reports on the escalating tensions between the protesters and one time movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr:

Tensions were high in Iraq’s Nasiriyah city between anti-government protesters and supporters of the Sadrist movement, led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.


According to activists, tensions broke out between protesters, who have been present at Al Habobi square for months, and Sadrists who arrived at the scene.


Activist Raad Mohsen said quarrels erupted between the two sides after Sadrists raised a poster of the movement’s leader during a demonstration demanding to bring the killers of protesters to justice, starting with Gen. Jamil Al Shammari.


Mohsen, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, confirmed that the protesters are used to holding at least one demonstration a week to reaffirm their demands, which include holding the killers of demonstrators accountable.


The raising of Sadr’s poster at the square prompted tensions, with activists explaining that images of party and religious leaders are prohibited at the square.


RUDAW's Lawk Ghafrui Tweeted:


Huge crowd of Iraqi protesters in Habubi Square in Nasiriyah city tonight are demanding justice for the killed protesters. Tonight protesters in Nasiriyah city are chanting “Hey Muqtada [Muqtada al-Sadr] you trash, you are the leader of the Pickpockets”. #IraqProtests #العراق
Full screen
731 views
0:26 / 0:26



Though not noted by the press, or taken very seriously, this week will mark the end of the 100 days Motada al-Sadr gave Mustafa to fix everything.   May 11th, Moqtada gave Mustafa 100 days to implement his promises.  That 100 days ends this week.




Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)