I've always gotten along with Stan. He's just seemed familiar, like someone I'd known for a long time. Reading "Fall TV in 2022," I got why that is. He's like one of my brothers (I have three, he's the third oldest). Like Stan, he lived for that fall preview TV GUIDE each year. He'd go through it and talk about it with anyone who'd listen. And I always listened. He'd predict what show would be the best and plan out what we'd watch in our room. I really loved his enthusiasm and it made fall TV a lot of fun.
Stan's post reminded me of that. Sadly though, I agree with him about this coming fall season. I really don't see much of anything I'm really excited about. THE CW is importing these mediocre sounding programs from Canada (and Canada and Italy in one case). Generic crime shows is what they sound like. ABC has taken their tired show THE ROOKIE and decided to make a spin-off. CBS thinks we need three hours of the FBI. NBC thinks we need three hours of LAW AND ORDER to go with Chicago shows.
The only thing news that's announced that I want to watch is LOPEZ V LOPEZ. That I want to see (it's a sitcom starring George Lopez). I will watch Susan Sarandon's show but it's on FOX so we still don't know when it will be on. FOX hasn't announced their schedule. But her show is called MONARCH and it's one of six shows that they've announced will debut in the fall but they have not announced what's airing what night or anything -- the live sports will air on their usual nights, of course.
SUPERMAN AND LOIS was renewed by THE CW but they're destroying that show with all the air one new episode and then three or four repeats in a row. This week's episode ("SUPERMAN AND LOIS") wasn't the lowest of the season but it was lower than the last new episode they aired (which was four weeks ago). It was the second lowest of the season and the drop off from last season -- or even just the first few episodes of this season -- should be alarming.
Above is a screenshot of a self-righteous Bernie Sanders tweet from April 2012.
And here’s what the anti-war [sic] icon said the other day as he voted to send $40 billion of your money to support the war efforts of Neo-Nazis and transhumanists in Ukraine:
“We should always have a debate, but the problem is that Ukraine is
in the middle of a very intense war right now. I think every day counts,
and I think we have to respond as strongly and vigorously as we can.”
And I was going to write more but somebody's cooking something that's amazing. About ten minutes ago, I started smelling it and wondering what it was. Now it's got my stomach growling. So I'm going to wrap up here and go downstairs to see what's in the kitchen that smells so great.
Thursday, June 2, 2022. As the US economy continues to suffer, Joe /Biden wants to again give more money to Ukrainel
The website BREAKING DEFENSE asks, "Iraq says its spending big on artillery and jets. Can it afford them?"
With so few jobs to be found that protests have already started this
time of the year, with so many Iraqis living in poverty, even more
living in poverty conditions because of the lack of basic public
services (potable water especially this time of year), there are many
reasons to ask that question.
Sadly, BREAKING DEFENSE's only concern is whether or not the US defense industry is going to get paid on time.
Rest
assured, provided the crooked politicians don't steal everything --
the way they usually do -- payment should not be an issue.
The Iraqi Ministry of Oil revealed on Wednesday the initial statistics of its exports of crude oil and the revenues of May 2022.
In a statement issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, the State
Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) which is the Iraqi national
company responsible for marketing Iraq’s oil, exported more than 102.3
million barrels of crude oil with revenues exceeded 11.43 billion US
dollars.
The statistics indicated that the exported quantities of crude oil
for May from oil fields in central and southern Iraq exceeded 98.9
million barrels. Moreover, the quantities produced from Kirkuk oil
fields and exported through Ceyhan Port exceeded three million barrels.
So
excited about $100 barrel oil, they're gearing up for two new wells as
well as speculation that they might overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's
largest oil producer.
An yet the people live
in poverty. The month of May saw oil revenues of $11 billion in US
dollars and yet the government cannot take care of its own people. The
World Bank estimates that there are 40 million people in Iraq. There is
no reason, when you factor in the oil revenues, that every Iraqi
shouldn't be living high on the hog. But that is not the case.
The corruption is so immense that Iraq still can't pay its bills. THE NATIONAL explains:
Iraq has failed to pay $1.6 billion owed to neighbouring Iran for gas imports, which is needed to guarantee further supplies and prevent worsening power cuts, Baghdad authorities said on Wednesday.
Payment
of the debt was a vital requirement to ensure energy supplies were
available for Iraq's power plants during the intense heat of the summer
months, when electricity demand surges as people seek to keep cool.
The
failure to pay comes as Iraq’s oil revenue imports reached another
record high. Iraq's revenue reached $11.436 billion in May and has
surpassed $10bn every month since March.
Let's stay with oil for a moment because record prices impact not just the seller but also the buyer. Nick Beams (WSWS) reports:
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of America’s largest bank, JPMorgan
Chase, has warned that an economic “hurricane” is about to hit the US
because of the war in Ukraine and the tightening of monetary policy by
the US Federal Reserve.
Two weeks ago, Dimon warned of “storm
clouds” gathering over the US economy. He escalated that assessment at a
financial services conference yesterday.
“I said they’re storm
clouds, they’re big storm clouds here. It’s a hurricane. That hurricane
is right out there down the road coming our way,” he said.
“We
just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy [the devastating
hurricane of 2012] … And you better brace yourself,” he told investors
at the conference.
He warned the Ukraine war would continue to put upward pressure on
oil prices, which could go to as high as $150 or $175 per barrel. At
present oil is over $120 after a spike following the decision by the
European Union to ban seaborne oil imports from Russia as part of its
tightening sanctions regime.
Dimon warned that oil prices would continue to rise over the longer term.
“We’re
not taking the proper actions to protect Europe from what’s going to
happen to oil in the short run. And we’re not taking the proper actions
to protect you all from what’s going to happen to oil in the next five
years, which means it almost has to go up in price.”
On avocados -- a super food. Thanks, Joe Biden. That's sarcasm. Have
you seen how much the price of an avocado has sky rocketed.
Joe sent all our money to Ukraine and now we suffer. You know what,
Joe, you pay your own bills first before you dig into the family funds
for charity.
What an idiot.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says we are now paying 7.6% more food than this time last year. Thanks, Joe.
For
months, as Americans have suffered, US President Joe Biden has been
giving money to Ukraine. He just did a forty million dollar package.
But it's another month and it's time for Joe to give away more American
tax dollars while the American people continue to suffer. From the US Defense Dept:
Attributed to Pentagon Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Media) Todd Breasseale:
Today, June 1, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the
authorization of a Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued
at up to $700 million, tailored to meet critical Ukrainian needs for
today’s fight. This authorization is the eleventh drawdown of equipment
from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
Capabilities in this package include:
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and ammunition;
Five counter-artillery radars;
Two air surveillance radars;
1,000 Javelins and 50 Command Launch Units;
6,000 anti-armor weapons;
15,000 155mm artillery rounds;
Four Mi-17 helicopters;
15 tactical vehicles;
Spare parts and equipment.
The United States has now committed approximately $5.3 billion in
security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden
Administration, including approximately $4.6 billion since the beginning
of Russia’s unprovoked invasion on February 24. Since 2014, the United
States has committed more than $7.3 billion in security assistance to
Ukraine.
The United States also continues to work with its Allies and partners
to identify and provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its evolving
battlefield requirements.
Barack,
Joe, Victoria Nuland and others overthrew the duly elected leader of
Ukraine in 2014 and they've been stealing US tax dollars to keep the
Nazis they backed in place. Alexander Rubinstein (MP) notes:
As the United States undergoes a national mourning process over a
spate of mass shootings, American white nationalists with documented
histories of violence are attaining combat experience with advanced
US-made weapons in a foreign proxy war.
That’s according to the Department of Homeland Security, which has
been gathering intelligence on Americans who have joined the ranks of
the more than 20,000 foreign volunteers in Ukraine.
The FBI has indicted
several American white nationalists associated with the Rise Above
Movement after they trained with the neo-Nazi Azov Battaliion and its
civilian wing, the National Corps, in Kiev. But that was almost four
years ago. Today, federal law enforcement has no idea how many US
neo-Nazis are participating in the war in Ukraine, or what they are
doing there.
But one thing is for certain: the Biden administration is allowing the Ukrainian government to recruit Americans
– including violent extremists – at its embassy in Washington DC and at
consulates across the country. As this report will show, at least one
notorious extremist fighting in Ukraine has received extensive promotion
from mainstream media, while another who is currently wanted for
violent crimes committed in the US was mysteriously able to evade FBI
investigators looking into war crimes he previously committed in Eastern
Ukraine.
According to a Customs and Border Patrol document released thanks to a
May 2022 Freedom of Information Act request by a nonprofit called
Property of the People, federal authorities are concerned about
RMVE-WS’s, or “racially-motivated violent extremists – white supremacy”
returning to the US armed with new tactics learned on the Ukrainian
battlefield.
“Ukrainian nationalist groups including the Azov Movement are
actively recruiting racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist
white supremacists to join various neo-Nazi volunteer battalions in the
war against Russia,” the document states.
“RMVE-WS individuals in the United States and Europe announced
intentions to join the conflict and are organizing entry to Ukraine via
the Polish border.”
The document, which was drafted by Customs and Border Protections,
the Office of Intelligence, and other Homeland Security sub-agencies,
contains write-ups of interviews conducted by law enforcement with
Americans en route to Ukraine to fight Russia.
On May 24, 2022 a gunman entered a school in Uvalde, Texas and killed
19 children and 2 teachers. The cycle of thoughts, prayers and pretend
action continued but was even worse because of the short span of time
between the two events and revelations about police action, or rather
inaction, in Uvalde.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy
of Connecticut won kudos for his particular act of pretense on the
senate floor. Murphy’s performance was a bit over the top but that is
probably why it garnered so much attention. The senator seemed to be on
the verge of tears as he made an impassioned plea to his colleagues.
“What are we doing? … Why are we here? …This only happens in this
country and nowhere else. … Nowhere else do kids go to school thinking
they might be shot that day. … I’m here on this floor to beg - to
literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a
path forward here.”
Those are fine words from Murphy until one considers that on a
regular basis he advocates U.S. violence all over the world. In December
2013 he joined his colleague John McCain in Ukraine. They attended a rally
hosted by the neo-Nazi Svoboda party which was dedicated to
overthrowing the elected president. The ensuing violence after the coup
killed 14,000 people in the region that opposed the U.S. backed
government.
Murphy has been particularly vicious in his efforts to undermine the elected government of Venezuela.
“Maduro is evil, and the U.S. should pursue a strategy to undermine him
and prompt new elections. No one can defend what he has done to
Venezuela. But it’s quite a different thing for the U.S. to incite a
civil war with no real plan for how it ends.” Sound(Ssound familiar?).”
Murphy supports the sanctions that have killed thousands of Venezuelans
and very publicly defended overthrowing that government too, just as he
did in Ukraine. The overly dramatic senator should be asked hard
questions about the violence he espouses.
Let's wind down with this from The Green Party of Michigan:
THE OFFICIAL GREEN PARTY OF MICHIGAN NEWSLETTER!
Volume Two
June 1, 2022
Welcome
to EARTHFLOWER, the official newsletter of the Green Party of Michigan!
Find out what Greens are doing all across the state and in your
community! Here's your chance to participate! National, State and Local
meetings and events, press releases and official statements on relevant
issues, fun games, Green Party trivia and more! Look for this
informative newsletter on the first day of each month!
From
solid policies like the Green New Deal and single-payer improved
Medicare for All, if you're reading this, you probably realize that the GOP and the Democratic Party are
either unwilling or unable to bring about the positive change necessary
to turn things around in our communities. Either way, when they win, we
continue to lose.
The
purpose of this newsletter is to keep you abreast of the efforts of the
Green Party of Michigan, and inform you on how you can help our Green
Movement grow. If you haven't already, take a few minutes to join our
organization and help us continue to build a better choice for the
people of Michigan.
Green Party of the United States Annual National Meeting!
Registration NOW OPEN The
2022 Green Party Annual National Meeting (ANM) will be held virtually,
as the world's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic was not yet ready to
guarantee a safe, in-person meeting during the planning process.
We
will miss the opportunity to share space with Greens from across the
country but we can take this virtual gathering as an opportunity for
national work on some of the most pressing challenges for this party. We
hope you will join us from July 22-24.
Important information for ANM Participants All
ANM Participants MUST REGISTER to receive instructions on how to
convene with us online. Please register by Friday, July 15th.
Registration
fees will include admission to all workshops and plenary sessions. Your
fees also provide for the infrastructure and staff necessary to produce
an online national meeting from multiple locations, plus online
workshops, news conferences and more.
We
will also dedicate resources to accessibility assistance, such as for
the vision-impaired, hearing-impaired, and lack of access to a computer
or Internet connection.
If you have other registration questions, email office@gp.org.
Introducing, the Green Party of Michigan 2022!
* Co-Chairs: Robin Laurain and John Anthony La Pietra:
THE GREEN PARTY OF MICHIGAN IS GROWING! DUE DATE, TWO WEEKS!
The
Cadillac, Ludington and Manistee Green Party (CLaM) will be launching,
June 14, 2022 @ 2pm! This event will be Zoom accessible. For more
details, contact Co-Chair Tabbi Krause. Look for them on social media here! Make sure to comment, like and share their content. Let's spread the word!
(Clinton/Eaton/Ingham counties) Monthly meeting: Third Monday of each month Contact person: Jim Becklund [white_dog_man@yahoo.com] Website: None Social media: Facebook
Co-chair/Contact,
Jim Becklund announced, with a unanimous vote, the Capitol Area Greens
have officially brought Shiawassee County into their fold! Adding
Shiawassee County will help increase numbers and strengthen their Local.
If you are a Green living in Shiawassee County, make sure to let Jim know you're ready to get involved! We are super excited to see this local grow and look forward to their continued success!
The
Capitol Area Greens say, "the United States Government has not done
nearly enough to combat the ongoing climate crisis." The Capitol Area
Greens and the Union of Concerned Scientists, encourage you to push for
the immediate transition to 100% renewable energy in the state of
Michigan! Contact Governor Whitmer and
state lawmakers today! Also, you can look for them among those marching
to the capital alongside the GPMIBC, on Juneteenth (June 19, 2022)! If
you see them, join em'!
(Kent/Allegan) Monthly meeting: Fourth Sunday of each month Contact persons: Charlotte Aikens/Gerard Akkerhuis [charlottesweb3210@gmail.com] Website: None Social media: Facebook
Exciting
news! The Local know as Kent County has now added the Greens in Allegan
County into their flock! With several registered Greens interested in
running for office in their local group, the Kent/Allegan Greens have
just announced an upcoming Nominating Caucus! Contact Charlotte for dates and details!
The
Greens in Wayne County are officially in recruitment mode and have
recently restarted in-person meetings for 2022! As the weather clears,
the WC Greens have a slate of social and tabling events planned
throughout May and June! Be sure to honk your horn or stop by and say
hello when you see them! They are also looking to elect new officers
next month! If you are a Wayne County resident and a Green Party member,
you already qualify! Give Co-Chair/Contact, Lou Novak a shout and let him know you're insterested!
(Calhoun/Hillsdale/Jackson counties) Monthly meeting: Fourth Saturday of each month Contact person: Monika Schwab moni.schwab@icloud.com
Co-Chair/Contact
Monika Schwab has reported, the South Central Michigan Greens have a
lot on their plate! Fresh from their recent MLK Dream Speech reading by
Co-Chair John Anthony LaPietra and the second annual May Day 2022 labor
history walk, tabling events are planned at the Jackson County Fair,
along with projects with the Jackson County animal shelter, a webinar
and much more! Contact Monika for more details and join the South Central folks at their next meeting or event!
(Macomb County) Monthly meeting: Second Sunday of each month Contact person: Sherry A. Wells/Jeff Sparling [sherwells@tm.net]
Social media: [Coming Soon!]
Exciting news out of Macomb County per Contact Sherry Wells! Macomb Green Party Co-Chair, Jeff Sparling is
running for Michigan House District #14, which includes most of Warren,
Centerline and 30 precincts in Detroit--the Macomb Greens are all on
board! A joint effort of election support with other Detroit area Greens
for that campaign is sure to create a lot of buzz! So be sure to look
for Jeff, Sherry and the Macomb Greens when you're out and about. If you
live in the area and want to volunteer, contact Sherry or Jeff! And make sure you're registered to vote!
Our newsletter space is limited. No updates from the local in your area in this newsletter? Let us know and we'll get em' directly for you!
CAUCUS NEWS: A Grassroots Resurgence!
BLACK CAUCUS
*The Green Party of Michigan Black Caucus will be in our state capital for the Juneteenth Celebration! The Black Caucus next
meeting will be on Saturday, June 18, 2022 @ 12:30pm (eastern). The
agenda will include affordable housing, police reform. black voter
registration drive and a proposal to restructure our system of public
safety
LATINX CAUCUS
*Due to scheduling conflicts, The Latinx Caucus relaunch has been rescheduled for July 13, 2022! Let us know if you're interested or plan to attending!
WOMEN'S CAUCUS
*The Women's Caucus will be relaunching with a membership drive on June 25, 2022 via Zoom. Want to join? Sign up when you see the notice!
YOUNG ECOSOCIALISTS
*The Young EcoSocialists of
the Green Party of Michigan (YESGPMI) relaunched on May 28, 2022!
Thanks to all who attended! Expect results from representative elections
next month. We're on a mission to begin training young Green Party
candidates for office and looking for mentors! Want to join us? Contact
us at: youngecosocialistsgreenpartymi@gmail.com for more details!
LAVENDER CAUCUS
*We are looking for volunteers to help launch a Green Party of Michigan Lavender Caucus! What is the Lavender Caucus?
NOTE: WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR AN AAPI, DISABILITY AND VETERANS CAUCUS. INTERESTED PARTIES CONTACT: membership@migreenparty.org
The Ministry of Disinformation is dead for now. Ruth covered it in our community. But the woman who was tasked to lead it keeps going around lying to friendly media types who treat her as someone with honesty and character. She has none. Kit Klarenberg (MPN) reports:
The Washington Post revealed
Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s highly
controversial “Disinformation Governance Board,” launched with much
fanfare just three weeks earlier, was to close, and that its director,
Nina Jankowicz — former fellow at the quasi-state Wilson Center think
tank, and Ukrainian foreign ministry communications adviser – had
resigned.
The exclusive report, authored by Taylor Lorenz, went to enormous
efforts to frame the Board’s dissolution as resulting from egregious
sabotage by right-wing activists, who engaged in “coordinated online
attacks” on its “well-known,” “well-regarded” chief, subjecting her to
an “unrelenting barrage of harassment,” which served to “derail” the
Biden administration’s benevolent efforts to tackle the “urgent and
important issue” of disinformation.
In reality, public backlash against the Board, which erupted
immediately following its official launch on April 27, was wide-ranging,
and anything but partisan or personal. Prominent rights groups and
lawmakers expressed grave concerns about its constitutionality and the obvious risk of its serving as a state censorship mechanism, with many comparisons drawn to the infamous Ministry of Truth conjured by George Orwell in “1984.”
Many legitimate, vital criticisms of Jankowicz were also raised, including her history of slandering independent news outlets, such as The Grayzone, as “Russian disinformation”; frenzied attacks on WikiLeaks and its imprisoned founder, Julian Assange; and enthusiastic advocacy on behalf of former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, author of the utterly discredited “Trump-Russia” dossier that produced countless wholly fictitious stories in the mainstream media, many of which have since been significantly rowed back or retracted outright.
While in Kiev,
Jankowicz hosted the YouTube channel of U.K. and U.S. government-funded
“fact checker” StopFake, which has endlessly whitewashed the issue of widespread fascism in Ukraine. Jankowicz herself is directly implicated in this shameful, misleading output. In January 2017, she presented an on-camera report extolling the virtues of four national paramilitary units, including the openly neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, linked to serious human rights abuses and brutal war crimes.
Lorenz’s friendship
with Jankowicz notwithstanding, it’s rather extraordinary that one of
America’s leading newspapers – which in 2017 adopted the slogan
“democracy dies in darkness,” inspired by famous quotes
in defense of the First Amendment, and condemning official secrecy – is
lamenting the demise of a shadowy government unit concerned with
determining what constitutes “fake news,” let alone was so
enthusiastically supportive of such an entity’s existence in the first
place.
Wednesday, June 1, 2022. US President Joe Biden continues to
persecute Julian Assange though some hope a new government in Australia
may mean the end of that, Iraq continues to be hit hard by climate
change and much more.
US President Joe Biden continues
to tank in the polls leading to the chatter that, after the mid0terms,
he'll be getting a new chief of staff and making other changes. After.
In the meantime, while over 50% of Americans think he;s doing a bad
job, he continues to persecute Julian Assange in his never-ending war on
the First Amendment. Julian's 'crime' remains reporting the truth.
It's a sad country that goes after someone for telling the truth. Joe
needs to drop his demand that the UK turn Julian over to US
authorities.
Julian did not commit treason -- as an
Australian citizen, he cant carry out treason against the United
States. Australia's recent election has some hoping that Julian's
ordeal might come to an end. Last week, Brendan Mounter and Adam Stephen (Australia's ABC) reported:
The family of Julian Assange is hopeful the election of a federal Labor
government will pave the way for the WikiLeaks founder's eventual
release and a return to Australia.
It has been almost a decade since Mr Assange, who originally hails from Townsville in north Queensland, has been a free man.
For
the past three years, he has been in high security detention at
Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom, after seven years of asylum
within London's Ecuadorian embassy in a bid to avoid arrest.
United
States authorities have sought Mr Assange's extradition from the UK so
he can stand trial on charges of espionage and computer misuse relating
to hundreds of thousands of leaked cables from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
His brother, film producer Gabriel Shipton, said Mr Assange had been persecuted for publishing the ugly truths of war.
"Julian
is accused of what investigative journalists do all the time, which is
sourcing and publishing materials from a source, Chelsea Manning," Mr
Shipton said.
Free Julian Assange activists took action outside Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese's Marrickville office on May 26 and asked him to “Make Julian
Assange’s freedom top priority”.
While in opposition, Albanese told a Labor caucus meeting in February last year that “enough was enough” and “I don't have sympathy for many of his actions but essentially I can't see what is served by keeping him incarcerated”.
Government MP Julian Hill has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
to stick to his principles and encourage the United States to drop its
extradition of Julian Assange.
When opposition leader, Albanese
declared Assange’s incarceration in the United Kingdom – pending his
extradition to the United States, where he faces spying charges – had
gone on long enough and he wanted him freed.
Asked during Tuesday night’s press conference if he would match his
rhetoric as opposition leader now he is prime minister and encourage the
United States to drop the charges, Albanese said “my position is that
not all foreign affairs is best done with the loud hailer”.
Government backbencher Julian Hill, a member of the bipartisan Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, on Twitter attacked the use of “weasel words”.
“I
hope one of the first acts of our new cabinet will be to speak up for
our fellow citizen and demand the US government drop the shameful
prosecution of Julian Assange,” he wrote.
The US charges are thus an attack on journalism, done by a non-US
citizen, not on US soil, and published, after months of cooperative
work, on US soil by The New York Times, whose editors and publishers have not been charged with anything.
The Morrison government made no objection at all to extradition,
trusting in “the British justice system”, and implicitly supporting US
prosecution through silence. Albanese Labor looks like it will be little
better.
“As an Australian citizen, he is entitled to consular assistance,”
Penny Wong stated in April. “We also expect the government to keep
seeking assurances from both the UK and US that he’s treated fairly and
humanely … Consular matters are regularly raised with counterparts, they
are regularly raised and this one would be no different.”
This is pathetic and gutless. Labor should honour the basic
commitment to free speech and the investigation of hidden power that was
an essential task of the labour movement in establishing its right to
exist, and its capacity to succeed. The government is not required to
stand with every citizen in trouble abroad, but this case is clear: an
Australian citizen is being threatened with decades of prison for
activities that are essential to the sort of journalism that is
constitutive of a pluralist and open society, built on free speech and
free inquiry.
Labor is being completely hypocritical in its silence on Assange. In 2018 and 2019, it was very happy to
use the leaks-based story by Annika Smethurst on the increased
surveillance of Australian citizens by reorganised spy agencies to
attack the Coalition government, and then to attack them for the federal
police raid on, and threatened prosecution of, Smethurst, calling it
the mark of a “tin pot autocracy”.
Will Australia
continue to be the lapdog of the US and UK or will it find the courage
to stand up for one of its own citizens? Looks like the new prime
minister will have his defining moment early in his term.
In
Iraq, still no new government. Elections were held October 10th. In
nine days, it will be eight months since those elections took place. Trevor Filseth (THE NATIONL INTEREST) states:
Although Sadr’s faction, the Sadrist Movement, won
73 out of 329 seats, making it the largest party in parliament, it has
been unable to expand its coalition to include two-thirds of the
parliament, the number required to elect a president and therefore to
form a government. Sadr’s bloc, the Saving the Homeland alliance, now
includes the Sadrist Movement, the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance, and the
Kurdish Kurdistan Democratic Party; its cross-sectarian nature has given
it significant support in each of Iraq’s regions and a majority of 180
seats in parliament, but it remains well short
of the 220 needed for a presidential election. Most legislators not in
the Sadrist camp or the pro-Iran camp have boycotted legislative
sessions, waiting for concessions from either Sadr or the CFA in
exchange for their support.
Under Iraq’s post-2003 governing system, the country’s ceremonial
presidency is typically given to a Kurd, while the prime minister is
normally a Shia and the speaker of parliament a Sunni. Sadr’s alliance
has placed its support behind Rebar Ahmed, the current interior minister
of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, for the presidency, while the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the main competing Kurdish party,
has supported the re-election of current president Barham Salih. Outside
commentators have suggested that Sadr’s alliance might partner with the
PUK, which has not aligned with the pro-Iran bloc, if the question of
the presidential nomination could be resolved.
Although the parliament should have been dissolved after the
initial failure to elect a president, some legislators have opposed the
dissolution out of concern that they could lose their seats in a
rematch, and have raised concerns that a second election with similar
results would simply lead to a recurring failure to form a government.
Last fall, the western press (espeically the US press) insisted Moqtada was a "king maker." Oops.
A "new initiative" to end the political impasse in Iraq will be
announced in June, said Arafat Karam, the official in charge of the
government and parliamentary file at Barzani Headquarters, on Tuesday.
In an interview with Kurdistan 24, Karam revealed that a new
initiative is expected to be announced on June 11 to end the political
deadlock in Iraq.
He added that the Iraqi situation is "very complicated" without a
president. Iraq has failed to select a new president and prime minister
even though it has been seven months since the last parliamentary
elections.
In a few days, Iraq will probably break a record. But it's not necessarily something for the country to be proud of. Iraq has now been without an official government for just over 200 days.
Although
the Middle Eastern nation isn't close to breaking the world record for
the longest period without an elected government — that's held by
Belgium, with well over 500 days — the last time this happened in
Baghdad was in 2010, and the record for Iraq back then was 208 days.
The
outlet, apparently in the midst of a nasty bender, then goes on to
speculate that this might be a good thing. In essence, it states,
"Don't think of the car as totaled, think of it as just pulled out of
the race."
On 5 May, a powerful desert storm passed through most of Iraq, with
the dust turning skies orange over many of the country’s major cities.
By the end of the following day, it had sent 4,000 people to hospital
with breathing problems.
Government offices and schools were shut, and airports in Baghdad and
several other cities suspended flights for hours as a thick sandstorm
blanketed the country.
It was the fifth powerful sandstorm to engulf Iraq within a month,
with the storms occurring on an almost weekly basis and totalling ten by
the end of May with more expected.
Sandstorms usually hit Iraq in the spring and scour large swathes of
the country, flood the streets of major cities with sand, hamper
visibility, blow down electricity poles, uproot trees, and reduce air
quality.
But a typical spring would see only about one to three storms per month.
This year, as well as their frequency, their impact has also been
more severe, particularly in health terms, with more casualties caused
by plummeting air quality generated by wind thick with sand and other
particles.
While sandstorms are common at this time of year in Iraq, they are
now more powerful, sweep across larger areas, and occur with
unprecedented frequency.
Iraq’s Environment Ministry has warned that over the next two decades
the country could endure an average of 272 days of sandstorms a year,
rising to above 300 by 2050.
Oh, c/an't we all be like DW and ignore the suffering and look for that silver lining (that really doesn't exist)
Sure, people are suffering in the drought but, hey, ancient city revealed, right? :
An Iraqi-German archaeological team raced against time to excavate and document a Bronze Age city in northern Iraq before it disappeared underwater.
As
drought caused water levels to recede in the Mosul Dam's reservoir last
winter, the remains of a 3,400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once
located on the Tigris emerged, an Iraqi official told The National on Tuesday.
The Mittani Empire was a kingdom that ruled parts of Syria and northern Mesopotamia,
modern day Iraq, from the 15th century to the 14th century BC. The
city, known as Zakhiku, is at Kemune in the northern Kurdistan Region of
Iraq.
The
team started excavating the city in 2018, when they revealed what was
probably a palace with large walls, Dr Hasan Qasim, chairman of the
Kurdistan Archaeology Organisation, said.
Fifteen clay tablets with cuneiform writing were also unearthed at the time, Dr Qasim said.
On May 8, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture warned
that 90 percent of Iraqi agricultural land has been desertified or is
at risk of desertification in the near future, due to climate change and
water disputes with Iran and Turkey.
In 2020, the ministry had warned
that the rate of desertification in Iraq had risen to 53%. This poses a
great danger not only to the environment, but also to food security,
which has become threatened after the harvest of strategic crops such as
wheat, barley, and rice has dropped.
The ministry has also stated that Iraq ranks fifth in the world in severity of climate change effects.
Rawya Mazal, the official in charge of the desertification dossier at
the Ministry of Agriculture, told Al-Monitor that issues contributing
to the problem include global warming, drought, excessive use of water
by farmers and citizens, in addition to wars and military operations.
“Iraq urgently needs to negotiate with Turkey and Iran to release
water, reduce water consumption and eliminate excessive use, and
establish a canal to harvest rainwater, with desert oases,” she
explained. Also, reducing air pollution would mitigate the rise in
temperatures.
Mazal stressed that if urgent measures are not taken, the Iraq
scenario will be the worst in the region. She said that 92% of Iraq
suffers from desertification or is at risk, and that Sawa Lake in
Samawah has completely dried out.
Adel al-Mokhtar, Adviser to Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, told
Al-Monitor that Iraq’s water reserves amount to 20 billion cubic meters,
and the country may consume all of it this year. Turkey, Iran, and
Syria are also suffering from a water crisis, which will require
cooperation to overcome.
Next Wednesday, there may not be a snapshot. Or it might go up earlier or later than usual. Just giving a heads up.
AMAZON is teasing out season three of THE BOYS. I will be watching but the promo leaves me cold, sorry. There are certain things that interest me -- a battle between two heroes over who will be the face of the team doesn't interest me. If that's the best that season three has to offer, that's not much. We finally got a new SUPERMAN AND LOIS tonight. I wonder how many people bothered to tune in? The last new episode was four weeks ago. That's ridiculous. It's as though they are trying to run off viewers.
How was the episode?
I'll praise Lana. Remember, the last new episode ended with Clark revealing to her that he was Superman.
She had it out with Lois this episode. Clark was still a boy when he realized what his life was going to be and that the world rested on his shoulders. (Lana and Clark were high school sweethearts.) She is not going to be mad at Clark or hold this against him. But Lois just moved into town and Lana thought they were friends but Lois was lying to her about everything. She didn't see how they could continue to be friends.
Lois later visited her and told her she was sorry and that Lana was right. She also shared some more details with her. Eventually, that would include that Jordan had super powers.
Kyle notices Lana id distracted and never has time these days. He thinks Lana's got a new boyfriend and has moved on beyond him.
Clark came up with a plan to confront Bizarro World and it involved getting his brother out of the prison and using him. Lois was the only one who stood up for Clark. Clark was right -- although his brother did escape after he had helped Clark destroy the amulet.
At the end, Lana explained she needed time away from Clark and Lois because she needed to sort things out and still wasn't sure what to tell her girls.
raqis are still waiting for the country’s politicians to form a government, almost eight months since parliamentary elections took place in the country, with political elites unable to find an agreement.
Popular Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist Movement
emerged as the biggest party in the October elections with 73 out of
329 seats, has been working to try to put together a coalition, but is
still unable to do so.
In al-Sadr’s way is a rival Iranian-backed bloc, the Coordination
Framework Alliance (CFA), which is the political umbrella for the
largely Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces militia.
The CFA has boycotted parliamentary votes for a new president a
number of times, on the basis that an agreement with the Sadrists that
ensures the CFA will have a say in who is nominated for the presidency
was needed first.
To be clear, it's not just that
group standing in Moqtada's way. The Shi;ite cleri has managed to pull
together only 180 MPs. He needs 220 to form a government.
That
clause was included in Iraq's Constitution because it was thought that
if you weren't able to pull together enough MPs to form a government,
if you weren't able to cajole, horse trade, swap, make deals, etc, how
would you ever be able to govern if your slate claimed the post of prime
minister.
October 10th elections were held. The
western press quickly rushed to hail Moqtada as a "king maker" when he
was no such thing, when nothing in his past indicated he could be any
such thing and when all events have demonstrated that he's not any such
thing.
Some day the western press might admit they were
wrong. More likely not. Accountability is a feature of a functioning
press and we don't have that.
THE DAILY BEAST, for example, has apologized to a store owner. They said they made a mistake.
No,
they didn't make a mistake. They lied. In October and November of
2020, we repeatedly pointed out ("Harped on" -- one or two e-mails
claimed), that Hunter Biden's laptop was not stolen.
We
repeatedly went over how a repair shop was not a storage business. How
if you did not pick up your item -- let alone pay for it -- it became
the property of the store. We cited case law and we went over this
repeatedly.
Didn't appear that anyone else wanted to
touch it. Not even Glann Greenwald who cvered the laptop repeatedly
wanted to cover it. I have no idea why.
Yes, I do, Glenn's not trained in journalism.
That's his excuse.
Anyone who knew journalism knew how important this detail was.
The laptop needed to be covered.
If it was stolen property -- it wasn't -- then outlets would refrain from covering it. They can't cover it.
THE
DAILY BEAST underrstood that point. So they intentionally lied and did
so repeatedly to confuse the issue and to keep the laptop from being
covered.
There was never anything in case law that made
the laptop stolen. I don't believe THE DAILY BEAST respects the law
but I do know they understand it.
It was not a mistake, it was a lie.
And
now that they're being sued, they want to, all this time later, amend a
two-year-old report to claim that they were mistaken.
No.
They lied.
They
made unfounded charges against the repair shop owner and they should be
punished in a court of law. They have attorneys on retainer and they
knew what they were doing.
Another attack took place yesterday on a base in Iraq with US troops.
US
President Joe Biden knows it took place and he knows what he is doing
-- putting the lives of US troops in danger by keeping them on the
ground in Iraq while pretending the Iraq War is over.
How
much is the country willing to pay to keep Joe in office? At present,
it appears he's leading the nation into a recession with some economic
experts fearing it might be the equivalent of the Great Depression.
Are we willing to go along with that?
He
was never fit for the presidency. Even if you ignored (or more likely
wrongly slimed) Tara Reade, he was never fit. And now his mental
dceline is taking the entire country down with him.
Maybe
Nancy Pelosi can help us? Oh wait, she's busy with her drunkard
husband who was so stupid that he thought he could still drive at 82 and
that he could drive drunk.
As Iraqi politicians dither
about forming a government, that country suffers. The Crimean-Congo
hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has been showing up in Iraq for weeks now -- in southern Iraq and the Kurdistan. NDTV notes:
This year Iraq has recorded 19 deaths among 111 CCHF cases in humans, according to the Word Health Organization.
The
virus has no vaccine and onset can be swift, causing severe bleeding
both internally and externally and especially from the nose. It causes
death in as many as two-fifths of cases, according to medics.
"The number of cases recorded is unprecedented," said Haidar Hantouche, a health official in Dhi Qar province.
A poor farming region in southern Iraq, the province accounts for nearly half of Iraq's cases.
In previous years, cases could be counted "on the fingers of one hand", he added.
Transmitted
by ticks, hosts of the virus include both wild and farmed animals such
as buffalo, cattle, goats and sheep, all of which are common in Dhi Qar.
WION adds, "According to medics, the virus causes severe bleeding both internally
and externally and especially from the nose. As many as two-fifths of
the cases die." Gillian Duncan (THE NATIONAL) notes the virus first spread to Iraq in 1979 and "There is currently no approved vaccine for this disease." Jay Hilotin (GULF NEWS) notes that the World Health Organizations has identified the most likely people to get infected as "farmers,
slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians — people mainly get infected
via ticks on livestock" and quotes WHO stating, "Human-to-human
transmission can occur resulting from close contact
with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected
persons." AFP states that death will be the outcome in two-fifth of all cases. RUDAW notes
that the Iraqi government allocated 1 billion Iraqi dinars on Saturday
to address the virus -- that's approximately $683,000 in US dollars.
No, that's not a lot of money. Regarding northern Iraq, RUDAW reports, "Health committees were formed in three Kurdish cities to combat the
Congo fever, officials from the areas told Rudaw on Sunday amid an
outbreak of the virus in Iraq’s southern provinces. Formed in Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja, the committees are advised to
quarantine suspects of the virus and to send their blood samples to
Baghdad to confirm their infection."
Congo Fever is not the only problem facing Iraq. NEWS.AM reports:
At a time when
global wheat prices have risen sharply because of the conflict in
Ukraine, Iraqi farmers say they are paying the price for the
government's decision to cut irrigation of farmland by 50 percent, AP
reported.
The government took this step amid severe water shortages caused by
high temperatures and drought, as well as continued water withdrawals by
neighboring countries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. All of
these factors have resulted in severe water shortages for wheat
production.
Iraq is losing a staggering 100,000 donums (about 10,000 hectares)
of agricultural land per year, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture
announced on Saturday.
The Director-General of Forests and Desertification Directorate of
the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture Rawiya Al-Azawi announced on Saturday
that Iraq has been losing approximately 100,000 donums of agricultural
lands per year to desertification for the past decade.
She warned that this phenomenon would hugely impact the ministry's
agricultural plan and revealed that the ministry has proposed
establishing a special fund for combating desertification.
Al-Azawi pointed out that increased desertification is due to global
warming and climate change, which has reduced rainfall. She added that
Iraq's geography makes it more vulnerable to global warming.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/thenational/8561a50f-2395-4f92-8dcd-786210936b5e.png)
