Wednesday, April 13, 2022

SUPERMAN AND LOIS,

This is from CBS NEWS.



Joe Biden is destroying the way of life for the American people.  Prices are soaring because he's an idiot.  We could have had Bernie.  That's the slogan.


"Mike," the typical e-mail reads, "you didn't cover SUPERMAN & LOIS." I forget everyone doesn't watch in real time. There was no new episode of AL this week. Just like last week. They really our trying our patience with this 'schedule.' But I did want to ask about that in terms of watching. I've covered a number of shows here including FRINGE, MODERN FAMILY, THE GOLDBERGS and NIKITA. And I was surprised at first to learn that some of you followed the show by what I wrote. You educated me on the fact that what I'm seeing in the US may not be airing yet in your country or might never air there.

But now I'm really learning again and what I'm finding out is that some of you who watch wait until the weekend.

I don't have that kind of patience.

The first time I paid for a streamer was HULU. I was already using HULU for free. FRINGE had switched to Friday nights on FOX. And I'd watch the next day if I didn't catch it live (and I rarely caught it live). Suddenly FOX held it back. They wanted to reward cable subscribers. But, if you paid for HULU, you could get the Friday episode of FRINGE on Saturday. Otherwise, you would wait two weeks for it to go up at regular HULU or at the FOX website.

I can take a one day wait but am not too good beyond that. I would always watch MODERN FAMILY on HULU on Thursday morning. I never think I saw the show live on ABC. I would eat breakfast and watch on my phone.

So thanks for keeping me educated on how you watch. And thanks to Billy who explained that he reads along in real time but waits for his CW shows to pop up on NETFLIX to stream a season in a single binge. I don't know if he can do that with SUPERMAN AND LOIS. I haven't seen them on NETFLIX. And, in like two years, I believe THE CW's contract with NETFLIX ends The talk is that they won't renew.

But I do know that it's on THE CW webpage (stream for free) and I know it's on HBO MAX (which you have to pay a monthly price for).

There's been a lot of good shows on HBO MAX. I'd especially praise THE PEACEMAKER, THE TOURIST and MINX.

To all who wrote, thank you for your support regarding the Scott Ritter nonsense. I'm not about promoting registered sex offenders and I'd feel that way even if I didn't have a daughter. Jimmy Dore can bring whomever he wants onto his show but I'm not promoting Ritter. Not now. Not ever.

I no longer link to CONSORTIUM NEWS because of Ritter. I stopped that about two years ago. I won't stand with Mad Maddie Albright and I won't stand with Ritter. My understanding of ethics does not wllo me to.


 Be sure to read Ava and C.I.'s ""TV: The Myths."  Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

 

Wednesday, April 13, 2022.  The left hurts itself by embracing a registered sex offender and presenting him as a trusted source and friend.


 I thought we'd rogressed.  I hoped we had.  But instead, here we are again, having to discuss Pig Boy.


And maybe that's my fault.  When he started slinking back in, via CONSORTIUM, my attitude was that they just needed to stop lying for him.  Joe couldn't stop lying which is why we no longer note CONOSRTIUM.


Joe did a video where he praised Pig Boy.  Pig Boy was an innocent.  His only crime was that he told the truth a bout the Iraq War and for that the media turned on him.


No.


That's not the truth,


Right now, Johnny Depp is in court with Ambr Heard.  The knee jerk reaction is to believe Amber.  Why?


She's perjured herself in a pre vious court appearance.  She has not been forthcoming about whether or not she donated over #3 million to the ACLU.  She got headlines for doing that.  Several years ago.  The headlines proclaimed that she did it.  But she didn't.  And instead of being honest about it, the ACLU tried to insist some sort of 'private communication' standard.


I'm sorry, ACLU, private?  When she grand standed for publicity, she threw away privacy.  I'm told she didn't donate the money.


Doesn't surprise one bit.


When Johnny decied to marry her, I told her she would ruin his life.  Because she's trash and I knew she was.  When I spoke to Amber after learning of the marriage plans, I asked what she was thinking?


Did she love him?


Was this something that was supposed to last forever?  If so, did that mean that they were going to have an open marriage because she was a declared bisexual.  


How exactly did she a happy marriage?


She couldn't answer the question and she couldn't because she was a user who was about to take Johnny for all she could.


Now you can argue that this is a he-said.she-said issue and that no one can know (the audio clips make it pretty clear she abused Johnny).  You can do that.


And we can disagree based on our own interpretations.  


Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock and some idiot who is not in the industry but got a paper degree barely wanted to tell the press that no one stripped Kevin Spacey of his Oscar.


When was Kevin convicted?


In a court of law, when was Kevin convicted?  He hasn't been.  We have an actor on a STAR TREK show insisting that when he was 14 or 15, he went to a party at the then-20something Kevin Spacey's apartment -- without his parents, without a guardian -- and the kid was bored and went to Kevin's bedroom and got on his bed.  After midnight, when all the normal guests had the decency to go home, Kevin walks into his bedroom and finds the guy on his bed.  He kisses the guy.


The guy does not want to be kissed.  The guy leaves.  Years later, the guy tries to turn it into an assault.  Not by the rules in play then and not by the rules today either.  


Maybe next time, don't go to strenage men's apartments, don't stay there alone after midnight and don't get on their bed.


If you do those things and a man kisses you and you object and that's the end of it, count yourself lucky


You didn't raped.  


You're a drama queen who needs the world's attention.


I don't care bout Richard Dreyfuss' kid, either.  He groped you, did he?  In front of your dad?  What does that say about relationship you and your father have?


Kevin's not ben convicted of anything.


He may hve used his position in London to harass men and I would find that objectionable but where are the results to that investigation>  To that announced investigation?


I believe Michael Jackson assaulted children.  Micaheal wasn't convicted of that.  We can all disagree and argue over that. 


We are thinking beings.  We have a brain.  And we have to look at what's put before us and come to our own conclusions.


I grasp that.  


Except when you try to apply that to convicted offenders.


Pig Boy is Scott Ritter.


He's suddenly become very popular in the last few weeks with  Jackson Hinkle, Aaron Mate, Max Blumenthal, Lee Camp, Richard Mehurst, the so-called 'Socialist' behind ENEMA OF THE STATE, Dan DeBar, Faran Fronczak, Franc Analysis, Comrade Misty, THE CONVO COUCH . . .


Exactly why are you bringing him on?


He's not an expert on Ukraine.  He wasn't even enough of an expert on Iraq to justify Sy Hersh doing that embarrassing tour with him -- a promotional tour that cost Hersh dearly.


You'll want to pay the cost to?

Let's look at that list for a moment.  


Jackson Hinke.  I was surprised when you used your platform to try to pick up women.  Mainly because I thought you were gay.  But also because it was such an abuse of the power you had been given by your audience.  You and your buddy were drunk and you brught on the two drunk women and produced a very shoddy episode and also disgraced yourself.  I don't know how you thought that was journalism or something to share with the world, but you did.


It was sad to watch and it goes to, at the very least, a level of immaturity that you need to address and, at worst, some issues that you have.


Richard Medhurst?  I defended you from the gossip.  I won''t do that again..  I defended you from charges -- whispers -- that you'd assaulted women.  I won't do that again.  You have brought Scott Ritter on repeatedly in the last weeks.


I believe tht goes to your character and I no longer am comfortable defending you.


I think you all need to take a look at your actions.


Scott Ritter was arrested three times for attempting to find underage girls online and have sex with them.  The first time, he largely talked his way out of it and was able to keep it quiet.  The second time, he got a slap on the wrist and, after he began speaking of Iraq, his enemies in the Democratic and Republican parties leaked to the media that he'd been arrested twice for this pedophilia.  And that he was on probation for it.


That's what got him kicked off the corporate media.  


Joe tried to lie on a CONSORTIUM program and claim that Scott was kicked off because he was telling truths about Iraq.


No.  


Kicked off because he was a pedophile.


And yet he was being promoted by Panhandle Media.  And they never noted the arrests.


If Scott's behavior continued, and it tends to do so with pedophiles, we noted that these outlets were putting young girls at risk.  They could say, "I read him at THE NATION so I thought I could trust him!" (Katrina vanden Heuvel, when it was put to her in terms of her own daughter, got it and stopped highlighting him at THE NATION), or "I saw him on DEMOCRACY NOW! so I thought I could trust him!"


No surprise, two times wasn't the end of it for Scott.  After Barack Obama became president (Scott had previously insisted the Bush administration had targeted him and persecuted hm and he was innocent!!!), Scott got arrested again.  He didn't get a slap on the wrist this time.  He got put on trial.  He was found guilty on multiple counts and was sent to prison.


He is now a registered sex offender.


If Twitter bans him, like Mike, I really don't care.  


I think, as a registered sex offender, his Twitter account should note that.  I think it should be dislcosed anytime someone's stupid enough to bring him on as a guest.


Three times.


What does this ay about the way the left sees women and girls?


We're just disposable.  We don't matter.  "Larger issues," you understand.


F**k that and anyone who operates under that.


You are condoing violence against females when you bring him on.  You promote as a victim and as a trusted voice.  Shame on you.


Now we made all these arguments in the '00s and managed to shut down his sphere of influence.  


As he began popping back up recently, I was hoping someone else would step forward and that I wouldn't have to again be the bitch that has to rain on their party and point out the obvious.


But it's not happening.  Monday night, for Hilda's Mix, I noted all the e-mails coming in on this topic asking me to speak to it.  I didn't yesterday morning because I was too angry.  If Hinkle and Medhurst think I was hard on them, they should read the unpublished version of yesterday's snapshot.


I don't get these people.  But maybe their own vanity will save them?


Scott Ritter, convicted sex offender, is not an expert on Ukraine.  


When you bring him on to make your case, ou're making a weak case because anyone watching can say, "He's a sex offender.  Why listen to him?"


More to the point, he's a really dumb sex offender.  In the '00s he was arrested for it three times.  Three.  Most crooks would have gotten smarter, not Scott.


What does that say about his 'great' mind and what he has to offer?


You look like an idiot bringing him on.


And you better believe that women and survivors of assault are notcing.


And it's going to be you who suffers.  Not Scott, you.


You're harming yourself because you're sending out a message that someone convicted is a good guest.  This is not a person done in by a whisper campaign.  This is a man three times arrested, publicly tried, found guilty and sentenced to prison.  A man who is a registered sex offender.


You're making your choices obvious.  Don't be surprised when women decaide you don't have a voice worth listening to.


And don't be surprised that people decide not to listen to you or trust your jdugment when you're big witness is a convicted sex offender.



The following sites updated:


 

  • Not interested, Jimmy Dore, with the plight of a pedophile being banned from Twitter

    Love Jimmy Dore.  He cares a great deal about many things.  One thing though, he's going to have to walk that path on his own.


    I don't care when a convicted pedophile is removed ffom Twitter.


    Don't give a f**king s**t.


    If that maens I don't support free speech, oh well.  


    Scott Ritter is a registered sex offender.  He was convicted.  He went to prison.  


    Jimmy and CONVO COUCH and Jackson Hinkle and all the other people can rally around him.  I find him pathetic and I find them pathetic.  


    I am appalled that they treat him as someone wiase and worth listening to.


    I know C.I.'s going to address this tomorrow and I know she's tired of having to do that.  It shouldn't fall on her every time.  So I'm going to do my part right now.


    Elaine and I have a daughter.  I can't believe, as a father, that these so-called elft programs are bringing on a convicted pedophile.  There's no excuse for it.


    They bring him on and they don't tell their audience what he is.  They just act like he's an expert.  On what?  He's been out of government for two decades.    He's got nothing to offer.  Now he's an expert on Ukraine?  I thought he was an expert on Iraq?  He's just an expert one everythign, isn't he?  Including trying to meet up with underage girls online to lure them somewhere so he can have sex with them.

    I think a lot's being revealed about a number of people right now.


    You can put me on the side of people who don't have a tantrum, don't break a sweat, don't give a damn when a registered sex offender is banned from Twitter.


    Ill save my boo-hoos for the people who deserve tears -- the Iraqi people, the victims of war, the victims of assault, the children whose lives are destroyed by adults.


    Scott Ritter can rot in hell and I wouldn't giave a s**t.  

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


     Tuesday, April 12, 2022.  The continued persecution of Julian Assange, the Kurdish genocide, tiny man Joe Biden and his war lust, all that and even THE THING ABOUT PAM.


    Starting with a reminder, Ruth and Betty have been covering THE THING ABOUT PAM at their sites.  Tonight, NBC airs the last episode of the six episode series.    As Jim has noted, like all broadcast TV fair of recent years, the second episode saw a drop off in the number of viewers but, unique to THE THING ABOUT PAM, viewership then began improving with each episode.  So much so, as Jim notes in his piece posted earlier this morning, episode five (last week) had more viewers than episode one.  NBC, like every other broadcast network, has had to settle for programs that bleed viewers each episode.  So that is rather significant.  The series is based on a true story and, as Ava and I noted, Renee Zellweger is excellent in the lead role.


    Turning to Julian Assange.  US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian for the 'crime' of journalism.  Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

    A coalition of progressive leaders from across the globe demanded Monday that the Biden administration immediately drop all charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently jailed in a high-security London prison as he fights U.S. extradition attempts.

    In a letter to Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), more than 30 progressive advocates, intellectuals, and former heads of state argued that dropping the Espionage Act charges against Assange would "send a strong message to the world: that freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and freedom of the press constitute an instrument that can controvert the interests of any government, including that of the United States of America."

    "The cases where there are reports of serious violations of freedom of expression would also be impacted by the dropping of the 18 charges against Assange," the letter reads. "It would affirm the defense of this fundamental human right and would undoubtedly represent a clear and robust sign that everyone can express their opinion without fear of retaliation; that all the press outlets can give news to all the citizens of the world, with the certainty that the pluralism of thought is guaranteed."

    Signed by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Chilean intellectual Carlos Ominami, and 30 others, the letter was sent on the third anniversary of Assange's forced removal from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019.

    Assange has since been languishing in Belmarsh prison under conditions that human rights experts have characterized as "torture." Last month, the U.K. Supreme Court denied Assange's request to appeal an earlier decision allowing him to be extradited to the U.S., where he could face up to 175 years in prison.


    SCHEER POST adds:


    s his extradition to the United States looms large, Julian Assange completed three years of imprisonment in the United Kingdom on Monday, April 11. Held in a high security prison complex in Belmarsh in the outskirts of London, the Wikileaks founder has been in prison since 2019 when he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London by the police.

    Marking the anniversary, Assange’s supporters held vigils in London and around the world. Last month, on March 14, the UK Supreme Court rejected Assange’s request to appeal against his extradition sanctioned by the High Court in London, making his extradition very likely.

    Later this month on April 20, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which had earlier declined the US extradition request, is expected to issue the order to extradite as per the High Court’s directive. The order is then to be passed on to the UK home office, which will have the final say to sanction the extradition.


    Joe Biden could end the persecution at any point.  The tiny man in the White House refuses to do o.  And history will not look any fonder on Joe than the American people currently do.  He has nothing to offer but maybe, like Barack, he can get millions of dollars from NETFLIX to refurbish his image?  Do nothing to protect, for example, nature while president but pretend to care once out of office?


    What Joe can do, as David North (WSWS) observes, is scream for war:


    In a warmongering speech before a major trade union conference last week, President Biden lined up the trade union bureaucracy to back the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. The speech was part of the administration’s efforts to put together a “labor front” with the AFL-CIO unions to suppress the opposition to the demands for massive sacrifice to pay for American imperialism’s preparation for all-out war against Russia.

    Biden spoke to a legislative conference of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), a federation of 14 national construction unions. The entire first half of Biden’s speech was devoted exclusively to the war in Ukraine. His remarks left no doubt that, far from their hypocritical claims to be defending “freedom” and “human rights,” the US and NATO are using Ukraine as a launching pad for a regime change operation in Russia and the transformation of the country into a semi-colony of the Western powers.

    Biden bragged about the devastation wreaked by sanctions on the Russian economy, citing the fact that its GDP has shrunk by double digits. “Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains,” Biden said. “And because we’ve cut Russia off from importing technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century, we’re going to stifle Russia’s ability and its economy to grow for years to come.”

    Biden said the reason for the military setbacks inflicted by Ukraine against Russia are due to arms and training which NATO has flooded into Ukraine for years. “We’ve trained them, and we’ve given them the weapons.” The announcement of each new weapons system sent to the Ukrainian military and the prospect of the destruction of the Russian economy evoked raucous applause from the assembled union officials.

    The speech demonstrated the staggering degree of recklessness which prevails in the Biden administration. Washington has deliberately incited the war and is risking a nuclear exchange with the world’s second largest nuclear power.

    Biden made it clear that the US was preparing a long, drawn-out war, which would require massive sacrifice from workers in terms of economic and human costs. “This war could continue for a long time, but the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom.  And I just want you to know that.”

    Significantly, Biden added, “If I got to go to war, I’m going with you guys. I’ll tell you. I mean it.” 


    Joe's not going anywhere except to a nursing home.  He didn't serve in Vietnam but he wants to glorify military service now.  And that's not a cue for him to bring up Beau Biden. In fact, probably better not to  because it's getting harder and harder for me to hold my tongue about Beau.  I honestly thought it would come out in Hunter's book.  It didn't.  He elected to keep the family secret -- even when it could have benefited him.


    Joe is perfectly fine with destroying the world, it's not like he plns to live in it much longer.  He's got very few gasps of air left at his age.  Those thinking that, in his ifnal years, he's going to have some soft of transformation are kidding themselves.  He was in the US Senate for decades.  He never served the American people or the world in any noble capacity all that time.


    He's a tiny man who was upstaged in 2008 by Barack Obama and so he had to be president to try to show the world tht he as up to it.  And he's not.  And he never will be.  


    What is he?


    More and more, he looks like a four year, paid advertisement purchased by Donald Trump.  As though his only real purpose is to remind people just how awful a government can be when the idiot in charge elects to harm the American people to pursue war that not only could bring us all to the brink of nuclear war but also is destroying the American way of life -- or whatever was elft of it -- with inflation, soaring gas prices and empty shelves at thee grocery store.  


    No one elected Joe to put their own lives at risk so that he could pursue ssome distant war that the US shouldn't be involved in to begin with.


    At WSWS, David North points out how THE NEW YORK TIMES helps Joe bring on war:

    Yesterday’s New York Times’ editorial, “Document the War Crimes in Ukraine,” draws belated attention to the 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal, which indicted and convicted Nazi leaders. It cites the tribunal’s definition of a war of aggression as an international crime:

    “To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

    In 2004, at a debate at Trinity College, I cited the Nuremberg trial as the basis in international law for the indictment of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, British Prime Minister Blair and many others as war criminals for having launched a war of aggression against Iraq. 

    During the last 30 years of repeated US wars of aggression, the Nuremberg precedent has been ignored by the Times. It now invokes the precedent against Putin, demonstrating again that the media’s attitude to international law is determined solely by US foreign policy interests.

    There may well be a case against Putin, but to hold him accountable for a “war of aggression” while ignoring the far more blatant culpability of numerous US presidents and high-ranking officials (i.e., Hilary Clinton) would be a legal travesty.


    Turning to Iraq, Doctors Without Borders notes:


    Undeterred by the stormy weather, a line of women formed outside the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Al-Amal maternity center, located in the Al-Nahwaran neighborhood of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq

    Maram is three months pregnant. She is expecting her third child, but this is the first time that she’s visited this center. “I came here because my relatives told me about [it],” she says. “My sister-in-law came here before, and she recommended it.” Many other women here also heard about the center through word of mouth, and patient numbers have increased in recent months. 

    Al-Amal offers routine obstetric care, newborn care, family planning, and mental health support. The MSF team also conducts health promotion. Thirty midwives and five midwife supervisors work in the facility, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

    The team assists between 10 and 15 deliveries daily, but a busy day can see up to 25 births. “Unfortunately, we still can’t cover all the needs,” said Rahma Adla Abdallah, an MSF midwife supervisor. “We help most women who come here, but we have to have admission criteria to maintain the best possible level of care within the limits of our own resources.”

    A long road to recovery 

    In June 2014, Mosul fell to the Islamic State group. In October 2016, a military offensive led by an alliance of the Iraqi security forces and an international coalition was launched to retake the city. The battle of Mosul lasted for more than 250 days and was described as one of the deadliest urban battles since World War II. 

    Almost five years after the city was officially declared retaken by Iraqi authorities, many medical facilities damaged in the fighting have yet to be fully renovated and are not fit for use. “What has mainly been done is to [temporarily] install containers next to destroyed facilities until they are rebuilt,” said Adla Abdallah. “But the containers are often not properly equipped for receiving patients. Right now, especially [with] COVID-19, the needs are too big for hospitals in Mosul to handle.”

    On top of this, there are still shortages of medical supplies, and thousands of families in Mosul and surrounding areas still struggle to access quality affordable health care. 

    Filling the gaps 

    In response to the high level of unmet needs after the conflict, MSF opened a specialist maternity unit in Nablus hospital in West Mosul in 2017 to provide safe, high quality, and free health care for pregnant women and newborns. In July 2019, a second MSF team opened the Al-Amal maternity unit within Al-Rafadain primary health care center, also in West Mosul. Last year, MSF teams in both facilities assisted the births of almost 15,000 babies.

    “We first opened this maternity unit because there were significant needs in the city when it came to access to health care in general, and even more so in the field of sexual and reproductive health care,” said Loay Khudur, MSF’s assistant project coordinator. “Three years later, many women still need to come here because the city’s health system is far from functional.”

    “Women in this community not only need access to physical health care, they also need full mental health support,” said Adla Abdallah. “Gender-based violence is an issue we sometimes witness. Some of our patients have experienced it but they very rarely talk about it.” 

    Iraq’s Directorate of Health has set up dedicated health services in the city to provide care for survivors of gender-based violence. But stigma continues to prevent many women from seeking this care. 

    “Most of the time, it’s the people who live with them who bring [the patient] here,” said Adla Abdallah. “The women themselves don’t speak because they feel scared. Gender-based violence is still very taboo and is an additional challenge we face when treating women here.”

    Barriers to accessing care 

    Stigma is not the only barrier women face to accessing care. “The environment is particularly complicated here,” said Bashaer Aziz, an MSF midwife supervisor. “A significant number of women cannot access health care either because they do not have the means to pay for it, or because they face other challenges, such as not having official administrative document due to the recent conflict or being displaced from their homes.” 

    MSF offers free care in all its facilities. “When patients come to our facility, they are generally very grateful to receive good medical and obstetric care,” said Aziz. “They don’t have other places to go, they cannot afford to pay for services at hospitals or private clinics. Our maternity unit makes a big difference to them.”

    “Before this maternity unit existed, nothing was available and we used to deliver at home,” said Mahaya, 50, who traveled more than an hour with her pregnant daughter-in-law to come to the clinic. “A midwife would come, deliver the baby, and that would be it. There wasn’t even a hospital we could go to. This maternity unit is a big improvement in our lives.”

    “There is still a long way to go before proper access to both physical and mental healthcare can be guaranteed in Mosul,” said Adla Abdallah. “But I focus on the little wins to keep on going. One day a patient left us a note to thank us for the services we provide, but also for the human approach we take at the maternity unit. Her thanks meant a lot to me.”



    Meanwhile, in 2020, KRG Prime Minister Masrour  Barzani declared:


    Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the worst genocide against the peoples of Kurdistan. The genocide was a series of massacres which aimed to eliminate the Kurdish identity and wipe out the Kurdistani nation.

    This was an horrific crime, which the people of Kurdistan cannot forget. Thousands of innocent people were killed while the world watched. The profound pain will continue to live on in our memories. But this anniversary should not merely be a commemoration of our past suffering. We must work together to eradicate the evil and racist ideologies that drove the Anfal genocide.

    The Kurdistan Regional Government will continue to strive for a global recognition of Anfal as genocide, and improve the living conditions of the families of the victims. The Iraqi government too should fulfil its moral and constitutional responsibility to compensate victims of this terrible crime and provide reassurances that it will not be repeated in the future.

     

    We bring that up because this Thursday will be the 245h anniversary of the genocide.  


    New content at THIRD:



    The following sites updated:


    Tuesday, April 12, 2022

    Isaiah, Jimmy Dore, William Astore

    First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Joe Biden's Mythical Mid-Term Voters." 

     


    mythical

    Stick that fork in Joe because he's done.  

    If you're looking for some music news, Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dolly Parton still has the touch"  went up over the weekend.


    Now for Jimmy Dore,




    I hope you already checked out Cedric, Wally, Ann and Betty's joint-post that went up Sunday:


  •  

    I like the things that they worked into that humor post.  


    Military spending is no laughing matter.  And it's out of control.  William Astore writes at SCHEER POST:


    I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down?  Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize relations with the West. At the same time, China prudently decides to spend less on its military, pursuing economic power while abandoning any pretense to a militarized superpower status.  Assuming such an unlikely scenario, with a “new cold war” nipped in the bud and the U.S. as the world’s unchallenged global hegemon, Pentagon spending would surely shrink, right?

    Well, I wouldn’t count on it.  Based on developments after the Soviet Union’s collapse three decades ago, here’s what I suspect would be far more likely to happen.  The U.S. military, aided by various strap-hanging think tanks, intelligence agencies, and weapons manufacturers, would simply shift into overdrive.  As its spokespeople would explain to anyone who’d listen (especially in Congress), the disappearance of the Russian and Chinese threats would carry its own awesome dangers, leaving this country prospectively even less safe than before. 



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


     Monday, April 11, 2022.  Joe Biden continues to perseucte Julian Assange while his own corruption gets futher attention and little media needs to be asked why they are glorifying a man arrested three times for seeking sex with underage girls, convicted for it in court, sent to prison for it.


    Starting with the continued persecution of Julian Assange by US President Joe Biden.  Joe wants the UK to deport Australian citizen Julian Asange for the 'crime' of journalism.  Alan Jones (INDEPENDENT) reports:


    The continued imprisonment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a “criminal act”, his wife has said.

    Stella Assange was speaking on the third anniversary of her husband being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

    He has since been held in Belmarsh prison in the capital while the US seeks his extradition on espionage charges, which he has always denied.


    Protests took place yesterday.  BBC NEWS reports:


    Protests are being held to mark the third anniversary of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

    Supporters are escalating demands for his release from Belmarsh prison in London where he has been since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy.

    The United States continues with legal moves to extradite him to face trial on espionage charges.

    Vigils are being held outside the Ecuadorian embassy, Westminster magistrates' court and Belmarsh prison.


    Also yesterday,  Katie Halper used her online platform to steer attention to Julian Assange.

     

    Here's the synopsis of the video:

    A night of comedy and music in support of Julian Assange, featuring Lee Camp, Margaret Kunstler, Katie Halper, Marianne Williamson, Eleanor Goldfield, John Kiriakou, Jaffer Khan, Medea Benjamin, John F O'Donnell, Luci Murphy, Steve Jones hosted by Randy Credico. Presented by Assange Countdown & NYC Free Assange.


    Julian's 'crimes' include informing the public of War Crimes in Iraq.


    Joe Biden wants to persecute Julian.  He wants to kidnap him and bring him to the United States.  Knowing Joe, he probably wants to f**k Julian as well -- or at least sniff him..  Surely he wants to treat Julian as an enemy combatant.  

    Joe has a non-stop war on the First Amendment.   When you have so much to hide, you're no fan of a free press.



    Senator Chuck Grassley (Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Senator Ron Johnson speak in the above  C-SPAN video about the questionable practices of the Biden family.

    Senator Ron Johnson's office issued the following:


    WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the Senate floor for the third time to discuss their investigation into the vast web of financial entanglements of the Biden family. The senators found that the Bidens not only have ties with the Chinese regime, but Russian oligarchs as well. The senators will continue their investigation until the truth about these corrupt business dealings is uncovered and the American people have answers.

    Click here for the video

    Sen. Johnson’s remarks as prepared, below.

    Thank you, Senator Grassley.

    What Senator Grassley and I have shown over the course of six speeches are the actual bank records of financial transactions tying President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, James, to businesses that are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime.  But the Biden business ventures include activities in many more countries than just China. 

    In our September and November 2020 reports we showed a vast web of the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements that were largely ignored by the media, and falsely labeled Russian disinformation by our Democrat colleagues.  As outrageous as the suppression of our reports and the false attacks were, perhaps the most egregious behavior came from 51 former Intelligence Agency officials who lent their names and reputations to an effort designed to convince the American public that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

    Without any evidence backing their assertion, they engaged in their own “information operation” by signing a public letter right before the election.  Their letter was actual disinformation, coming from what are supposed to be trusted former members of our U.S. intelligence agencies. 

    They should all be ashamed and held accountable for spreading this disinformation. By signing that disinformation letter, they reinforced false claims that the records on the laptop were not legitimate. 

    By casting doubt on evidence of the Bidens’ corrupt practices, these former intelligence officials interfered in the 2020 election to a far greater extent than Russia could have ever hoped to achieve.  Their willing accomplices in the press amplified this disinformation letter and by doing so were equally guilty of egregious election interference. 

    In August 2020, I wrote a public letter detailing the history, purpose and goals of my oversight and investigations.  In that letter, I laid out the timeline of Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Ukraine.  The timeline is very revealing.

    • February 2014 – The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
    • April 16, 2014 – then-Vice President Joe Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House.
    • April 21 (Five days later) – Joe Biden visited Ukraine, and the media described him as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.” 
    • April 22 (the very next day) – Archer joined the board of Burisma. 
    • April 28 (Six days later) – British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky.
    • May 13, 2014 (three weeks later) – Hunter Biden joined the board of Bursima. 

    Because of the findings in our reports and the excellent investigative journalism on the part of John Solomon, we also now know that Hunter was involved with Elena Baturina, the corrupt and now-sanctioned wife of the former Mayor of Moscow during the very same time period. 

    On February 14, 2014 Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden.

    Between April 4 and April 5, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer sent emails about meeting with Baturina potentially relating to a business deal in Chelsea, New York.

    On April 13, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer discuss the potential business deal involving Baturina.  Archer wrote that Baturina “confirmed green light to fund deposit.” Archer continued, “Just spent two hours on the phone with Kiev.  I am confident at this point this is a good, if not life changing, deal if the Uk[raine] doesn’t collapse in the meantime.”

    It is quite interesting to see how much significant activity involving the Bidens and corrupt actors in Russia and Ukraine occurred within a six-week period only two months after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity.  It sure looks like they intended to cash in on the turmoil in Ukraine. 

    In my August 2020 letter, I listed a number of questions about then-Vice President Biden’s interaction with Hunter Biden’s business partner and other family members’ foreign financial dealings.  In making this letter public, my hope was that the press would begin to ask then-presidential candidate Joe Biden these important questions. 

    It should come to no surprise that the corporate media was completely uninterested and failed to conduct any investigative journalism.

    Nearly two years after I wrote this public letter, the mainstream media has still not adequately pressed President Biden for answers to these very legitimate questions:

    1. Why did Joe Biden meet with Devon Archer at the White House on April 16, 2014?  What was discussed? Did they discuss anything related to Ukraine, Hunter Biden, or Burisma?
    2. Was Joe Biden aware that Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma six days later?
    3. Does Joe Biden believe Burisma and its owner are corrupt?
    4. When did Joe Biden first become aware that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma?
    5. When did Joe Biden first become aware of how much money Hunter Biden was being compensated by Burisma?
    6. What does Joe Biden know about Hunter or James Biden’s business dealings in China?
    7. What does Joe Biden know about financial benefits his brothers and sister-in-law have obtained because of their relationship to him?

    Investigative reporter John Solomon has added more questions to this list, including:

    1. What, if anything, did Joe Biden know about his son's dealings with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina?
    2. A 2017 series of memos referred to a Chinese business deal that involved Hunter Biden and included a 10% equity for the “big guy.”  What did Joe Biden know about this specific deal and who was the “big guy”?
    3. Emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop, now in the possession of the FBI, refer to shared accounts or bills between Joe Biden and Hunter.  Did Hunter ever give Joe Biden any money, gift or financial benefit from Hunter’s business dealings?

    After a long-overdue analysis, the New York Times and Washington Post have finally admitted that records from Hunter’s laptop are authentic, which means – although they will NEVER admit this – that Senator Grassley and I were right and they were wrong. 

    It is interesting to read how limited and muted their mea culpas are.  My guess is that they learned a lot from their coverage of Nixon’s Watergate scandal cover-up.  They learned that when you’ve been caught in a cover-up – and that is what has happened here – you try to limit the damage by telling a little bit of the truth.  In the Intelligence world, this strategy is called a “limited hang out.”  The Watergate conspirators called it a “modified limited hang out.” 

    Regardless of what it’s called, what the New York Times and Washington Post are doing is not telling the whole truth.  I doubt they ever will.  But just in case they decide to pursue the truth with a bit more rigor, they can use this list of relevant questions as a good starting point for what they should be asking President Biden.

    For our part, Senator Grassley and I will continue to ask tough questions, review more information and records and transparently provide that information to the American public.

    We intend to pursue and uncover the truth.

    I will turn the floor over to Senator Grassley for his closing remarks.

     



    CBS NEWS reports:





    The issues were discussed on MSNBC's MORNING JOE and I was asked to note it. I know the guest on the segment (Dan Abrams) and I was told the segment included a report by Pete Williams. Fine. I was willing to note it. Then I streamed it. Mika is trash and I've never been able to stand her. Her father is responsible for the deaths of so many and that's before we even touch on don't have sex on the job. I find her depraved and disgusting. I don't need her to editorialize before a conversation can begin and I certainly don't need her insisting nothing to see here before the discussion begins. If there's nothing to see here then find another story to cover, dead. That shouldn't be hard, not even for an idiot like Mike. We're not noting it, sorry. I will note Dan Abrams discussing the various issues on NEWS NATION.



    And, in the second segment of the REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT video below, Sabby Sabs addresses situational ethics and hypocrisy with regards to the Biden ethics scandal.




    Miranda Devine (NY POST) offers:


    It is not just the e-mails and other material on Hunter’s abandoned laptop which point to Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s multimillion-dollar global influence-peddling schemes when he was vice president.

    There is also the six-hour interview Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski gave to the FBI last year, along with a trove of documents, e-mails and encrypted messages.

    Bobulinski has publicly named Joe Biden as the “Big Guy,” referenced in e-mails, whose 10% equity in a joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC was held for him by Hunter.

    Now the identity of the Big Guy has become a topic for the Delaware probe. 

    At least one of the witnesses before the grand jury has been asked: who is the Big Guy?

    Sources familiar with the investigation say Bobulinski is yet to appear, but if he does not testify before the grand jury, something is very wrong.

    Perhaps US attorney David Weiss is saving the best for last.

    The pressure on Weiss is immense, as the four-year investigation into the president’s son and his business partners, including his uncle James Biden, Joe’s younger brother, threatens to become an election issue in November.

    Alarm bells are starting to ring in Democratic circles as the White House stonewalls in the face of increasing media inquiries. In two absurd statements in recent days, White House spokespeople said the president stands by his pre-election statement that Hunter never received any money from China, and he continues to deny that he knew anything about his son’s overseas business dealings.

    The White House position is unsustainable.


    When not attempting to coveer for the corruption within his own family, Joe pushes for war with Russia.  Already, in grocery stores across America, the supplies are limited.  Go in, look around.  Notice that, for example, there are huge empty spaces on the chips aisle.  Notice how canned goods is missing major


    Joe is a failure.  And the media doesn't want to call him on it but the America people will in the mid-terms.  Inflation, higher gas prices.  We're not all Joe's sister.  Everyon can get a bribe passed off as payment for work needed for dictating a bunch of lies that make Joe Biden look good.  There's no audience for a book about Joe Biden.  Michelle Obama -- who does have supporters -- did not sell well with her book.  Joe has nothing to insprie.  And his sister has enabled and covered for him for decades.  No one expects truth or anything interesting in her 'book.'  But, hey, she was overpaid and the conglomerate knows Joe recognizes payments (bribes) to his family.


    Jim Lobe (RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT) notes:


    The evening news programs of the three dominant U.S. television networks devoted more coverage to the war in Ukraine last month than in any other month during all wars, including those in which the U.S. military was directly engaged, since the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, according to the authoritative Tyndall Report. The only exception was the last war in which U.S. forces participated in Europe, the 1999 Kosovo campaign.

    Combined, the three networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — devoted 562 minutes to the first full month of the war in Ukraine. That was more time than in the first month of the U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989 (240 mins), its intervention in Somalia in 1992 (423 mins), and even the first month of its invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001 (306 minutes), according to a commentary published Thursday by Andrew Tyndall, who has monitored and coded the three networks’ nightly news each weekday since 1988.

    “Astonishingly, the two peak months of coverage of the [2003] Iraq war each saw less saturated coverage than last month in Ukraine (414 minutes in March of 2003 and 455 minutes in April),” he wrote. “…The only three months of war coverage in the last 35 years that have been more intensive than last month were Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 (1,208 minutes) and his subsequent removal in January and February 1991 (1,177 and 1,033 minutes respectively).”

    That was at a time, however, when the network evening news devoted about a third more time to foreign news than it has in recent years when international news coverage has fallen to all-time lows.

    Last month’s coverage of Ukraine even eclipsed by a wide margin the three networks’ coverage of the chaotic end of Washington’s 20-year war in Afghanistan last summer. Last August, the month with the most intense coverage, the three networks devoted a total of 345 minutes (or only about 60 percent of last month’s total Ukraine coverage) to the war’s abrupt denouement. Once U.S. forces had fully withdrawn by August 31, network coverage of Afghanistan fell precipitously to a total of just 103 minutes between September 1 and the end of year, despite the desperation of the country’s humanitarian situation that followed (and persists).

    While the major cable news networks often receive more public attention, the evening news shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC collectively remain the single most important source of international news in the United States. 


    The push for war certainly received more attention that Iraq did last month.  Last month was the 19th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War -- an ongoing war  NEHR NEWs AGENCY reports:


    According to Iraqi sources, two US military logistics convoys have been targeted in southern and northern Iraq.

    A security source said that a logistics convoy belonging to US troops was hit by an explosion in Salah ad-Din, north of Baghdad.

    Also, a roadside bomb exploded in the path of US military logistics crossing the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar.


    Remember, in 2009, Barack Obama's grandstanding on Iraq, how he knew the US had done everything it could and how it was time to leave and how . . . 


    13 years later and US troops remain on the ground in Iraq.  


    Joe Biden care to explain that?


    I don't like lairs.  I have been kind and I'm tired of it.  There's a Twitter wave now in support of Scott Ritter.  Poor Scotty.  He was banned.  In 2002!!!! Well, he was still on cable then.  That's your first lie, idiots.  Richard Medhurst and others have been making it very clear that they don't care for women or girls.


    Scott Ritter lost TV access when his second arrest for attempting to engage in sex with an underage girl became known.  Most likely, his political enemies -- Democrats and Republicans -- leaked it to the media.  But let's stop the nonsense of his being removed from corporate media because he was telling the truth.


    And let's start asking various outlets -- CONVO COUCH, Richard Medhurst, Jackson Hinkle and others -- exactly what are you trying to do?


    You're bringing on a man convicted of attempting to engage in sex with an underage girl.  A man who sought girls out on the internet for sexual purposes.


    His lawyer got him off on the first arrest.  The second came with a slap on the wrist.  The third happened after Barack was president and it went to trial.  Scott cried to the court, real tears, about how he couldn't control it and he was so embarrassed and . . . 


    Off he went to prison.


    And now Richard and others bring him on their shows without any sort of warning?

    his conviction.  F

    He's a sex criminal.  Convicted.  A convicted felon.  He admitted it in court.  I know he's walked it back since he got out.  I don't care.


    And if that's the best you have to foffer, you need to learn how to make an argument.  A convicted felon who preys on young girls is not someone you should be promoting.


    If you're going to bring him on your show, you need to at least note his conviction.


    In 2004 and 2004, we had to make this case.  People finally got the point allowing them to avoid being embarrassed by his third arrest.  


    I can't  elieve that I'm again having to take time on this.


    Don't pretend you're about equality if you're promoting a man who wants to harm underage girls.  Don't pretend that you're about truth when you lie that he was expunged from the airwaves because he was arguing about the Iraq War when he was tossed from corporate airwaves when they learned of his arrest and that it was his second arrest.


    I don't know why you insist upon bringing on a predator to begin with.  Mayb eyou just don't give a s**t what happens to women and girls?  Maybe you should answer that question.




    Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Joe Biden's Mythical Mid-Term Voters" went up earlier this morning and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dolly Parton still has the touch."   The following sites updated: