If you don't know how to talk, don't do a video. Not in the damn mood for Chris Hedges' whispers and lies being turned into a done deal. I'm furious with some garbage and too angry to even write about it.
Graham Elwood, I'm not your f**king child. Stop trying to lecture me about how to respond and how to vote. Take those videos and shove them up your ass with your nonsense that the Green Party will give Cornell the nomination.
They'll let him run for it. But he'll have to get the votes from Green Parry members in their primaries. They're not just going to hand it to him.
You came off like a stupid idiot. A dumb ass fan boy.
I don't need that crap.
You've already lied to us once based on Chris Hedges. Now you lied again and you did lie because C.I. called a friend in the national Green Party leadership who said, "No, he's not the nominee of the party. We have a primary. We haven't held our primary."
You yap like a stupid idiot. I'm mad, I'm not joking. I don't watch you to see you whore and I don't watch you to see you fan boy.
Most important, I don't need you shoving anybody down my throat. How old is that bitch anyway? He's 70! Wow. That's your idea of young, Graham? Another old man in the race? RBG dies on the bench, Dianne Puddles Feinstein turns 90 this month and won't resign. Trump and Biden are both too old. And you're f**king answer is to fan boy for a 70 year old man?
You have to be 35 to run for president. And Graham's shooting in his shorts over a man twice that age. A man who's done nothing but yack. Yack yack yack -- brother you sister who -- yack yack yack.
We need real candidates not celebrities.
What a f**king fool. Graham is the idiot of the week.
Let me note another idiot and wrap this up. Doo-Doo Ron Ron is in trouble! THE DAILY DIGEST reports, "As
of June 9th, 55% of people who responded to Civiqus had an unfavorable
view of the governor and 9% of people said they were still unsure of how
they felt about him, something that probably won’t bode well for
DeSantis as he moves into his nomination bid." Poor little Ronnie. And
he is little. They say he wears a one inch heel on his shoes because
he's just five feet and six inches tall. Little shrimp.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The reality of the hate merchants war on
democracy and our rights in the US, a special look at hate merchants
Glenneth Greenwald and John Stauber, Iraq cracks down on cults, and much
more.
John
Stauber can't stop attacking transgendered persons. He's not alone.
As Diane Thomas, put it in the screenplay to ROMANCING THE STONE, "But
if there was one law of the west, bastards have brothers." Hence, The
Great Glenneth Greenwald.
Yeah,
I'm going to finish the article I'm working on for this, but it's 100%
true that a large majority of Americans have a "live-and-let-live" ethos
regarding adults. Activist groups need resistance, and they knew where
to drive the debate to ensure it:
Quote Tweet
ObiterDictum
@ObiterDictum13
·
20h
Replying to @ggreenwald
Children, that is what is happening. The indoctrination of children, putting a hand on a neutral scale.
It's worth asking why, fake-ass says in another Tweet.
It
is worth asking why. And it's because of you Glenneth Greenwald. You
hate trans people Don't play. Chelsea Manning rightly nailed you.
What happened to acount for a change from 2016 to now?
You
and your liars like Mother Tucker Carlson attacked trans people and did
so with lies. Over and over and over. You are the people who sewed
this hate. And people like Anya Parampil try to pose as 'left' but
they're too damn pathetic (and bigoted) to defend the ones being
attacked.
Day after day, FOX "NEWS" -- that includes Tucker -- attacked the trans community with lies and hate.
Gender reassignment surgeries were not taking place in the US ** on young children**.
Excuse
me, that's not true. The ones that were taking place at the end of the
20th century (and a bit earlier) were still taking place. But no one
wants to talk about that and FOX "NEWS" certainly doesn't want to.
The
gender surgery that was taking place -- at the same level -- was? I am
pregnant. I give birth. My partner and I see that our child is
intersex -- has both sexes. We make a decision on whether we will raise
the child as a boy or a girl. And the doctor does the needed surgery.
America has been dealing with that forever and a day.
That's not me saying that it should be happening. But it is a parent's decision and we've always recognized it as such.
But for this wave of hate to work, what had to happen was parental rights had to be ignored.
Supposedly,
conservatives believe in parental rights. But check out any of the
hate from "Moms For Liberty" (and Hate) and you'll see that they clearly
do not believe in that.
There
was not a rash increase of young children (ten and younger) having
gender operations. The ones that were taking place were the ones that
had been taking place for decades.
FOX "NEWS" and the other hate merchants then brought forward 'victims.'
Let's
take a moment to note that Caitlyn Jenner has no self-respect because
she's allowed this to go on while keeping her job at FOX "NEWS."
The victims brought forward?
Olie
what's his name. You know that idiot from the UK. He started out
having surgery to look Asian because he was obsessed with some Korean
pop group member. That was your first clue that Olie was nuts. One
year ago, at the age of 32, Oli declared himself "trans." Five months
later, he said, 'Woops." He did not have surgery.
Again,
he'd already had his own face turned to plastic in an idiotic and
obsessive zeal to look like Park Jimin. What he did was disgusting. He
is not a sane person.
But if FOX "NEWS" had to depend upon sanity, they'd never book any guests.
The other one that they like to bring on is at least American. Transitioned to a female and was unhappy and now regrets it.
That
story has nothing to do with children. The man was over 40 when he
went to the doctors. But he came forward, he insisted, because he
wanted to protect children.
Maybe protect yourself you insane idiot.
What
happened with this fool was he found out he couldn't be a teenage
girl. That's what he really wanted, to be a young girl. But he was a
military veteran in his late forties so his chance of being a teenage
girl was zero.
FOX "NEWS" loves to attack doctors -- there are all these doctors, they insist, just trying to flip someone's gender.
In
this case, FOX "NEWS" was attacking the VA. The man was an adult
veteran. He went through the VA. Leave it to 'patriotic' FOX "NEWS" to
attack VA doctors.
Do
some people regret their decision to transition with surgery? I'm sure
they do. Even sane people. As I've noted before, life is about
learning and we learn with regrets.
In
terms of children, I've stated here before, that it's up to the parents. I
can't parent your child for you nor do I wish to. I've stated that if
it were my child (mine are no longer children) and they came to me and
said they were transgender and wanted to have surgery that what I would
do is ask them to speak with a therapist first. Not to change their
mind. But to discuss what this would entail and to be able to have any
questions answered. Our bodies can be embarrassing when speaking to our
parents and we may not share all we need to or ask all we want to ask.
That's why I would want them to see a therapist first. After that, if
they wanted it, that's what we would do. That's how I would handle it
and no outsider should be able to tell me otherwise. I also noted that
this belief means if you're transgender and your parent/s says/say "no,"
then that's what it is. You have to wait until your 18. I'm sorry for
those in that situation but unless you are an emancipated minor, your
parents are in charge.
If
my child came to me after a surgery, five or ten years later, and they
weren't happy, I'd state, "That's why I asked you if you were sure and
that's why you were sent to speak with Dr. ____ before you had the surgery. We all have to own our choices."
The same if they wanted to join the military before they were 18 or anything else.
I
do believe in parental rights and I'm shocked to discover that many do
not. Chris Hayes, by the way, did a great job of making this point on
MSNBC.
According to
Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Glenneth isn't a father. Remember when she
attacked the woman who had adopted a child as not being a mother? In a session of Congress, no less.
I
think Glenneth is a father, a really bad father, I feel so sorry for those
kids. They have one dad in the hospital who's dying and there's the
other dad, Glenneth, telling them he didn't want to be a father.
That's
not really something you share with a child. Especially not when
they're about to lose one parent -- aka the one that wanted them. I
don't care if you follow up with, "But now I'm just so glad we adopted
you!" All the kid registers in moments of stress is, "Dad said he
didn't want kids." It was a stupid thing to say to a child but Glenneth
is a very stupid man.
Guess
what? I can comment on that all I want. Glenneth still the father and
he can raise his kids as he sees fit -- short of harming them. I can't
dictate to him how to raise his kids. He can't dictate to me. But he
and the other transphobes want to destroy the lives of parents and
children and the rights of parents.
So
John Stauber took time off over the weekend from attacking leftists
(THE NATION, et al) and instead reposted a Tweet about America.
Can
I be really clear? I'm damn tired of outsiders wading into our issues
in this country. I'm not joking. Wasn't thrilled when MSNBC and CNN
both gave British men their own prime time shows to talk about our
politics and our lives. Really, police your own.
But
there was the RT freak (RT is RUSSIA TODAY) from Norway who loves
Vladimir Putin (who is a raging homophobe -- a point we don't usually
make because I don't honestly care and leave to Russia to police their
own). Norway idiot was appalled by a Pride Month parade . . . in the US. A child, with a parent,
was seeing the butt cheeks hanging out of a thong.
First
off, he's a correspondent for a non-American country and he's in Norway
(where he's a citizen). How is a Pride Parade in the US his
business?
As Joni long ago sang:
I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence.
A
child has been scarred by seeing buttocks on either side of the back strip of a thong! Oh my goodness! However will the
country cope! Thank goodness for that brave but dangerously unbalanced
man from Norway!
First
off, is he not aware that there are nudists in the US? Is he not aware
that there are families who don't wear clothes in their homes? And who
take trips to nudist beaches? They'd see a lot more than butts. And,
guess what, that's the parent/s decision. That is how they raise their
child. And it is legal.
Second,
though the Christian illiterates seem opposed to all nudity, many of us
would rather our children see a nude body in a film than a ghastly
murder. Or war.
I never
let my kids play with war toys. I didn't go on TV declaring no children
should play with war toys. I left it up to other parents to make their
own child raising decisions.
Imagine that, knowing what was and wasn't your say. A strange concept today.
Third,
the parent/s took the child to the Pride Month Parade. I'm not sure I
ever did. I'd have to check with them. But I wouldn't have been
opposed to it. I have been at Pride with them -- Just remembered. They were
both under 12 and our friend had just come out and we went and marched
to show our support. So, yes, I did take them to Pride when they were
children. And that was my choice. And, Norway Busybody, that was San
Francisco so whatever you saw somewhere in the US didn't compare to what
we saw.
FOX
"NEWS" has brought on what they always do -- liars and extremists --
because the only way that they get ratings is with hate. They preach
hate and they offer all these delusions. They don't offer facts.
Again, FOX "NEWS" 'expert' (liar) Jonathan Turley does the same thing at
his blog. He tells half-truths and uses the half to alarm. If it
bleeds, it leads used to be the saying for network TV and for local
'news.' FOX "NEWS" chases ratings by forever alarming people about some
supposed threat that just does not exist.
FOX "NEWS" has been lying to people for three straight years about transgender people.
That's not an accident.
This
was planned. The Matt Walshes and Ben whatevers (Shapiro? I always
get him confused with the former-POLITICO reporter -- if I don't like
you I tend to block out your name) schemed with others because they were
opposed to the advances that gays and lesbians had made. They knew
that the tide had turned for them on this. But they came up with
attacking transgender people. Attack them, try to repusle Middle
America, and then that would harm LGBTQ+ rights.
Which
is why it's so disgusting that Glenneth joins in these attacks -- but
he's always been a self-loathing gay man (and we'll be talking with his
first sexual partner in the roundtable for the krista & gina
round-robin -- expect a lot of funny stories -- Ava and I have already
spoken to him).
So
the point is to tear apart anything LGBTQ+ related. That's why they
went after BROS. It was the same pattern (and many of the same
people). Attack with lies. Pretend to be doing it for the kids.
Attack over and over and lie and smear.
They did that with Dylan Mulvaney as well.
It's the same pattern.
I
noted last Friday that we weren't noting a show anymore. The host
isn't aware that two of her panelists are part of this movement. I am
aware (and spent a lot of money buying up information on this faux
movement).
They are attacking the very foundation of democracy and should be called out for doing so.
Instead,
they're being presented as 'cuddly' conservatives. And I'm not here to
promote hate merchants. (For those late to the party, I do not call
conservatives "hate merchants." Some conservatives -- most -- are not
hate merchants. And "Christian illisterates" is not a comment on all
Christians -- it's a steal from 30 ROCK where the idiot wanted Liz to
write a 'reality' TV speech for her and couldn't write it herself
because she was, her terms, "a Christian illiterate.")
Instead,
you get pasty faced Uncle Fester thinking he looks
like a cool kid (not with that skin) by cozying up to Matt Walsh and
pretending that Walsh made a 'mockumentary.' Excuse me, Christopher
Guest defined that genre and you can be damn sure that he doesn't see
Walsh having done a mockumentary. Christopher is married to Jamie Lee
Curtis and their daughter Ruby is trans. So watch your filthy
mouth. Walsh didn't make a mockumentary. He made a hate film. That's
all it was.
These people are repulsive.
This
is well-funded movement to destroy the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
And get real because if they're successful, they're next going to focus
solely on people of color.
You
either stand up to these people or you are working with them -- as John
Stauber, Jonathan Turley, Glenneth and so many others are. They could
be brave and speak out. But they're whack jobs who got frightened when
rain hit their window panes and they've been cowering in the bathroom --
is it a tornado!!! -- ever since.
Now in the above, we're talking about surgery.
There
are some children who go on blockers and other things. These are drugs
that have been used on children for some time. They are drugs approved
by the AMA. Not only did FOX "NEWS" promote hate and medical doubt, so
did THE NEW YORK TIMES, among others. And not just in 'opinion
columns' by uninformed idiots. They also did it in reporting which was
why so many employees spoke out.
Instead of supporting them, Glenneth attacked them and mocked them.
But
they knew better than Glenneth. Homophobia has long been ingrained
into NYT -- ANGELS OF AMERICA wasn't the first body of work to call NYT
out.
And as "If you're not sitting at the table, you're being served on the table."
There is no issue at all with blockers, etc. They have been medically tested.
Now
they worry Tulsi Gabbard -- the same way her rough complexion (are
those pock marks) worry the rest of us. Tulsi is afraid to let her
children take them.
Wait.
Tulsi
doesn't have children. So why the hell is that _____ even in this
conversation? Is she on marriage two or marriage three? I know she's
close to being out of child bearing years so, if she wants children,
maybe focus on that and not how other parents choose to raise their own
children.
Again, Tulsi
Gabbard does not have children. Maybe that's why she's so bitter and
feels the need to butt into parents' business?
Just days before communities across the country prepared to celebrate Pride, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
signed a sweeping slate of hate into law, capping off the most
anti-LGBTQ session in state history with new laws restricting health
care for transgender young people and adults, students' rights to use
the bathroom at school, drag shows and more. After months of vitriol and
callous attacks on transgender young people, many parents fear raising
their children in a state governed by extremists. With hate and
misinformation rising across the country, it is time we recognize that
Florida is simply the frontline in a national battle.
Far
too many parents are now being forced to choose between remaining in
the place they have long called home or packing up, selling their homes,
and relocating to another state to keep their families safe. The
extremism that defined our legislative session is not limited to
Florida. It is a national tragedy. Politicians pushing attacks on
transgender people have now spread their approach to otherstates, and to the nation's capital.
Politicians like DeSantis are joining forces with special interest groups to exploit transgender children—and increasingly, adults—as a scapegoat to serve their cynical ambitions. Officials in Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, Montana,
among other states, have spread the dangerous lie that the biggest
threat to the safety of American families is LGBTQ people. As next
year's presidential elections get closer, these purveyors of hate seem
to hope that this lie will be powerful enough to win the White House.
As
a parent and an advocate for LGBTQ people in Florida for years, I know
that targeting kids and marginalized groups to score points with
far-right voters isn't a new strategy. For many families, however, this
year feels different.
Parents
and their children have endured months of sleepless nights and
traumatic political hearings. In the face of these unprecedented
attacks, families in Florida have risen to the challenge with remarkable
resilience. They've shown up with hope and conviction every time
they're called upon to drive long hours or walk through hostile protests
to share heartbreaking testimony at the statehouse. The tearful father
who "didn't plan to speak" at a legislative hearing, only to deliver a
powerful rebuke of the transphobia being spewed from GOP lawmakers. The
mother who courageously shared what the state forcibly outing her young
child would do to their family.
Throughout
the session, the advocates I work with have poured themselves into
organizing to ensure as many families as possible can feel seen,
supported, and safe. We've even taken the extraordinary step of issuing
a travel advisory helping families nationwide weigh risks for their families if they travel or relocate to Florida.
Despite
this outcry, politicians continued to drive legislation blocking
parents and health care providers from connecting young people with
gender-affirming care approved by every major medical association. And
make no mistake, the denial of care is not limited to young people:
adults are effectively being forcibly detransitioned by our state
government. The GOP majority has rubber-stamped every bill DeSantis
prioritized. They passed bills barring children from using bathrooms at
school, turning every school day into a source of anxiety, discomfort,
and shame. They censored teachers and forced them to mislead their
students about what has happened in this country. They even threatened
to break up families and shatter custody agreements.
Florida
advocates and families are still reeling from these attacks. We'll
catch our breath, and we'll keep fighting, but we need more allies to
step up and join us if we're going to turn the tide nationwide. As
DeSantis takes his platform on a cross country tour, we should be aware
of the very real threat his tactics pose to everyone in this country.
It is a real threat, a very real threat.
Crazy
people are all over the world. Tulsi might, for example, feel at home
in Iraq right now as two cults are getting attention. RUDAW notes:
Iraq’s judiciary announced on Sunday that members of a group of Sadrist
followers were sentenced to prison for spreading rumors claiming the
Shiite cleric is a long-foretold messianic figure.
In April, a group called “People of the Cause” started spreading rumors
that the long-awaited Imam al-Mahdi will appear at the Kufa mosque, at a
time which coincided with the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s religious
retreat at that mosque. The claims by the group that Sadr was the
promised one enraged him, prompting him to announce the freezing of his
Sadrist Movement for a year.
On Sunday, Iraq’s judiciary announced in a statement that Baghdad’s
al-Karkh court sentenced 51 of the members of the group to one year in
prison, and the leader of the group to two years.
According to the statement from the judicial council, the leader of the
group recruited a large number of youth and released many statements as
well as speeches to convince his followers that he was the Angel Jibrail
(Gabriel) who came down from the heavens, and that he had been tasked
with announcing the appearance of the long-awaited Mahdi.
According to the judge who issued the
ruling, the man had attracted young people to join his group by issuing
statements, making speeches, and publishing books including one called
"Lights on the Mahdi's Way."
The man created social media accounts to
convince people of his beliefs, and reportedly attracted many followers
by claiming he was the Angel Gabriel, tasked by God with announcing the
coming of the Mahdi.
In Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
Gabriel is believed to be an archangel with the power to announce God’s
will to men, and the Mahdi is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology,
especially revered by Shia Muslims.
One
of the first national political figures to advocate marriage equality
was Dick Cheney in the 2000 VP debate. Biden was one of the next (in
2009).
But even on trans issues, majorities supported legal equality for trans
people. So what happened?
Oh, Glenneth, no wonder your college work was so shoddy. You thought you could bluff and that facts don't matter.
Dick
Cheney didn't support marriage equality in the 2000 VP debate. In
2000, he debated Joe Lieberman. And you know that. You also get that
people have been pointing out that you've lied about your support for
the Iraq War and that you've tried to do a revisionary history on your
support for Bully Boy Bush and the Iraq War.
It
was a 'state's right' issue. No, it wasn't. Cheney's an idiot just
like Glenneth. LOVING V VIRGINIA was a landmark court decision. And
it's why Clarence Thomas can be married to his White wife -- and the
marriage recognized in every US state. It's also the only right to
privacy case that Clarence didn't attack in his DOBBS opinion.
I'm tired of the stupid and I'm tired of the liars.
Sunday, Matteo Lane's latest comedy special went up.
I loved it. And he does a really good Michelle Wolf imitation.. :D I like Michelle. Especially her otters bit.
Michelle Wolf: I love otters, big fan. So, I post about it on Instagram, 'cause that's how you prove that life happens. And then this woman responds to me. She was like, "You know, I used to love otters too… but then my husband told me that otters rape baby seals. I just thought you should know. Be better." Okay. Uh, couple things. What's going on with your marriage? How is that where you're at conversationally? He wanted to ruin otters for you. He had to look up that fact. It's true, by the way. But he had to look that up. That's not something they're just giving away on Planet Earth. He had to do a deep dive. Much like that otter did into the seal. No, don't you start groaning already! But, also, she told me this 'cause she thought she knew me. She's like, "I'm a fan of yours, and you're a comedian, which must mean you're a good person. So I know once you hear this fact about otters, you will change your tune. You'll be on the right side of history. You definitely won't use this in a bit. Otters rape baby seals. I thought you should know." You don’t know me! Maybe that's why I like otters. Maybe I think seals have been getting away with too much for too long.
:D
I think DeSantis just announced his desire to lose in the general election should he get the Republican Party nomination. Taylor Berman (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports:
Trump's top rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination told Hugh Hewitt that Trump did fine with his Supreme Court pick but he could do better by nominating ones who are even more conservative.
"Now
in terms of the judges that you will bring to bear on this, former
President Trump hit three home runs with his Supreme Court appointments.
Are you going to make the same kind of pledge to the Republicans as you
go around the country that your judges will be like the Trump judges?"
Hewitt asked.
"Well,
actually, I would say we'll do better than that," DeSantis said. "I
mean, I respect the three appointees he did, but none of those three are
at the same level of Justices Thomas and Justice Alito. I think they
are the gold standard, and so my justices will be along the lines of a
Sam Alito and a Clarence Thomas."
First
off, Clarence is a crook. Second off, oh, hell no. Women are not
going to go for that. The wrecking crew destroyed ROE with DOBBS. The
notion that this little man -- Do-Do Ron Ron, da Do-Do Ron -- is going
to make things worse? Oh, hell no.
He running to the extreme right and he can't tack back in the general or he'll lose them.
What
a pathetic little man he is. Da Do-Do Ron. Do-do as in crap. C.I.
has been singing that for over a week. Wally kept asking her to put it
into a snapshot because he wants to use it at his site but wants to give
credit. C.I. didn't put it in today's snapshot so Wally asked her to
go in and add it to it, which she did.
Monday, June 12, 2023. Should THE VANGUARD be called THE AIRHEADS, Iraq
finally gets a budget, Julian Assange remains in danger thanks to the
British court's decision, and much more.
A High Court judge in London has denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States, where he faces criminal charges under the Espionage Act.
The decision was dated Tuesday and is the latest in a years-long
legal saga. His camp told CNN on Thursday that they will lodge a new
appeal next week.
In a ruling dated June 6, 2023 and seen by CNN, Mr. Justice Swift
said Assange’s application had been refused stating that “none of the
four grounds of appeal raises any properly arguable point.”
The Wikileaks founder's legal team is to mount a final attempt in
British courts to stop the 51-year-old Australian facing a “political
prosecution” and up to 175 years in jail.
His wife Stella confirmed today that Mr Justice Swift had rejected
all eight grounds of his appeal against extradition, which was ordered
by Priti Patel as home secretary last year.
She said he will make a renewed application for appeal at the High
Court next Tuesday, which will proceed to a public hearing before two
new High Court judges.
And that is why THE WEEK says Julian's "dangerously close" to be extradited to the United States and they note:
If extradited to the US, Assange could spend the rest of his life in
prison for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic
documents, the Guardian reported. A ruling issued on June 6, by Justice
Swift, rejected all eight grounds of Assange’s appeal against the
extradition order signed by then-UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in June
2022.
I didn't see anything about this on
the various YOUTUBE programs this weekend. Did you? They did have
segments on Roger Waters.
72! Had to ask the
person I'm dictating this to if they'd go into the transcript for
THIRD's roundtable that we did yesterday and check to make sure it was
72. Roundtable and other content should go up at THIRD tonight but in
the roundtable Wally
notes that over saturation coverage of Roger Waters that we got instead
of news that actually matters to our lives. That's what happens when
our left YOUTUBERS mistake themselves for Robin Leach and offer up
LIFESTYLES OF THE FADED AND FORGOTTEN instead of covering actual news.
You get 72 hours of Germany's mad at Rogie for this, and his video got
deleted or his Tweet got deleted or some other nonsense that we're all
supposed to pretend is the equivalent of Julian facing torture at the
hands of the US.
It's strange, isn't it, how
Pamela Anderson -- someone the world actually knows today -- managed to
advocate for Julian without ever trying to make it about herself yet
forgotten Roger can't stop making it about himself?
While Roger garners headlines, Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe
Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."
Julian's 'crime' was revealing the
realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the
information to Julian. WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.
And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.
For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War
Logs. Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes. Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the
Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident
US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have
leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters
and civilian killings in the Afghan war. The new logs detail how: •
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse,
torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct
appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a
notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after
they tried to surrender. • More than 15,000 civilians died in
previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no
official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081
non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical
evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or
ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric
shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat
The Biden administration
has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and
vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal
assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.
But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States
under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used
before for publishing classified information.
Whether the US justice department continues to
pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group
put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics
before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether
the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to
protect the press.
Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.
It’s been a dramatic few years for Assange. The WikiLeaks founder was forced out of Ecuador’s central London embassy
and arrested by local police in 2019. Since then, he’s resided in
London’s Belmarsh Prison fighting efforts to extradite him. Assange’s
supporters, as well as a psychiatrist who has interviewed him over a
dozen times in prison, warn
he’s at a “very high risk” for committing suicide if extradited and
subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement. A UK judge actually
cited those concerns and previously rejected an extradition request under the grounds it would be “oppressive” to Assange’s health. Another UK appeals court disagreed with that assessment, though, and overturned the ruling in late 2021.
But let's be a Roger Waters fan club instead.
Yes,
most of us can do more than one thing at a time. Most of us. But
clearly that's not the case for YOUTUBERS -- who appear to think Roger
Waters is in more danger than Julian Assange. They're making the
decision to put Roger first.
The appeal rejection has come as a kick in the guts to the rising
local movement to see the Townsville-born son’s case dropped and for him
to return home, and not only are larger numbers of the community now
rallying, but there’s also bipartisan federal leadership support for his
release.
But that united front to see the Australian citizen set free from the
torture of our closest allies, was already flattened, when it was
revealed that the Biden administration is still sharpening its knives in
preparation, as it’s come to light that the FBI has reopened its investigations into Assange.
As foreign minister Penny Wong notoriously explained in February, her
government has and will continue to express to the US and UK that the
case has “dragged on too long”, but, as for intervening further, she
said, it’s not possible as in “both countries… we’re discussing, the
rule of law prevails”.
Yet, whilst this assertion by the minister for foreign affairs might
be uncontroversial in general, this case is a glaring anomaly to the
rule of law, with the Assange Campaign having pointed this out clearly, on Thursday, as it listed the grounds of appeal that the UK justice system just knocked back.
Assange’s lawyers put to the High Court that Patel’s extradition approval is problematic as it violates article 4 of the UK-US Extradition Treaty of 2003,
which specifically denies extradition for a political offence or if the
extradition is politically motivated, with both these points applying
to this case.
While section 81(a)
of the Extradition Act 2003 (UK), specifically prohibits an
extradition, which purports to be in regard to an extradition-permitted
offence, when in fact the request has been “made for the purpose of
prosecuting or punishing him on account of his… political opinions”.
Further grounds of the appeal were that Assange is “being prosecuted
for protected speech”, “the US has misrepresented the core facts” in the
British courts, the case further violates international law, and the
“request and its surrounding circumstances constitute an abuse of
process”.
A key breach of the rule of law Assange legal advisor Greg Barns SC
has often pointed to is the US claim to extraterritoriality, as
Washington has reached across borders to arrest a foreign national under
its domestic espionage laws, due to journalistic acts carried out on
the soil of another country.
“The extraterritorial reach of the proposed prosecution
is so dangerous because, one day, it could be another Australian
journalist or publisher who finds themselves on an extradition request,”
Barns said in February.
The US arrested Assange by proxy in the UK on 11 April 2019,
on a trumped up computer hacking charge, and by May, a superseding
indictment added an additional 17 charges under the US Espionage Act of
1917, while a further second superseding indictment was released in June 2020.
Assange is being pursued as, much to the chagrin of the White House,
he published thousands of classified US files, leaked by then US army
officer Chelsea Manning over 2010-11, which exposed extensive war
crimes. And despite claims to the contrary, he did redact names to
protect lives.
Five major mastheads joined publishing site WikiLeaks in printing the
same details as it did. But the US has only charged Assange in relation
to this, via offences relating to obtaining and publishing unredacted
materials, with all the charges combined carrying a maximum of 175 years
in prison.
On April 21, Ali Hussein Julood, a 21-year-old living in
the Iraqi town of Rumaila, on the outskirts of one of the world’s
largest oil fields, died from leukaemia.
He was told by doctors that pollution from gas flared in the nearby
field, which is operated by British Petroleum (BP), had likely caused
his cancer.
“Gas flaring” is a low-cost procedure used by oil
companies to burn off the natural gas expelled during drilling. A waste
of valuable natural resources, it also contributes to global warming and
causes dangerous air pollution that has been linked to severe health
problems in nearby populations. Some of the pollutants released during
this process, such as benzene, are known to cause cancers and
respiratory diseases.
Ali, who had been battling cancer for six years when he
died, was only the latest victim of the environmental degradation caused
by international oil companies like BP in Iraq. In towns and villages
near the country’s vast oil fields, thousands of other men, women and
children are still living under smoke-filled skies and suffering
avoidable health problems because company executives insist on putting
profit before lives.
While there is not much publicly available data on the
rates of pollution-related illnesses in areas near oil fields in
southern Iraq, a confidential report from the Iraqi health ministry
recently obtained by the BBC blamed pollution from gas flaring, among
other factors, for a 20 percent rise in cancer in Basra, southern Iraq
between 2015 and 2018. A second leaked document, again seen by the BBC,
from the local government in Basra showed that cancer cases in the
region are three times higher than figures published in the official
nationwide cancer registry.
Iraq's
parliament on Monday approved a 2023 budget of 198.9 trillion dinars
($153 billion) that sets out record spending on a growing public wage
bill and development projects to improve services and rebuild
infrastructure ruined by neglect and war.
The
budget deficit is estimated at a record 64.36 trillion Iraq dinars,
more than double the last budget deficit in 2021, according to a budget
document and lawmakers.
It only took over six months and a scolding from the United Nations' Security Council, but they finally passed a 2023 budget. Sinan Mahoud (THE NATIONAL) adds:
But analysts
said far too much money will be spent on salaries, including
allocations for hundreds of thousands of new jobs. They said Iraq will
not be able to afford this spending outlay if oil prices fall below $70.
The
operational expenditure stands at 133.22 trillion dinars (about $102.5
billion) while investment expenditure will be 49.35 trillion dinars
($37.9 billion). The remainder of expenditure will mainly go to debt
servicing.
It
is based on an assumed average oil price over three years of $70 a
barrel, with an average daily crude oil output of 3.5 million barrels,
including 400,000 from the Kurdistan region.
The
government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is planning to
repeat it next year and in 2025, although parliament will be able to
vote on amendments. Iraq’s fiscal year usually starts on January 1.
So the fun begins again. KURDISTAN 24 notes, "A top Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Baghdad said on
Sunday that efforts to weaken Kurdistan Region as a constitutional
entity in the 2023-2025 budget bill have failed. The remarks by Ashwaq Jaf, the head of KDP’s 5th Baghdad Branch, came
a day after the Iraqi lawmakers passed on the controversial articles of
the budget bill, Article 14, concerning the Kurdish region’s oil
export, management, and distribution of its revenues." AFP adds, "The new budget also sets aside $37.9 billion for investments, with Prime
Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani noting that his 'priority' is to
develop infrastructure in a country where basic services have long been
sorely lacking." Hussain Abdul-Hussain (ALJAZEERA) reports:
Iraq is about to approve a budget that allocates $2.8
billion to the Shia militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Units
(PMU), marking an increase of $600 million from the previous budget in
2021.
The additional government money will allow PMUs, of which pro-Tehran
Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl Alhaq (also known as the Khazali Network)
and the Al Ashtar Brigades are on the United States’ list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations, to nearly double their ranks from 122,000 to a staggering 238,000.
The increase in funding and personnel is inexplicable, given that the PMUs were formed to eradicate ISIS, which is now suppressed. With an annual deficit close to $50 billion and
with Baghdad raising taxes to make ends meet, it is even more puzzling
that Iraq is still funding a paramilitary force, whose budget equals 40
percent of the Iraqi defence ministry and whose size is bigger than
regular armies of neighbouring countries, such as Jordan and Kuwait.
Not
every YOUTUBER was producing fan-boi content over the weekend. For
example, the vanity run of Cornel West was seriously addressed.
What?
You were expecting two White boys b.s.-ing about things they know
nothing about? No, we're not noting that VANGUARD nonsense. For an
outlet that attacks Jimmy Dore constantly, they have no self-awareness,
do they? Joan Walsh is one voice at THE NATION. She's not a voice that
I value and I didn't value her at SALON. But the boys of THE VANGUARD
are a lot like Joan Walsh. The reason I have no use for Joan is that
she generally doesn't know what she's talking about. In the '00s, we
corrected her nicely -- Ava and I -- when, at SALON, she confused Gavin
Newsom and Kamala Harris. It's not easy to do that today and it wasn't
easy to do that back then.
So
I don't like little boy idiots who see their life's goal to be
defending Krystal Ball -- a far worse figure than Joan Walsh -- or
telling lies about Cornel's great big opportunities. The Green Party is
not going to gift the nomination to Cornel West. Nor are they likely
to allow him to share the nomination because they do not want to be
confused -- pay attention -- with a GUTTER PARTY and that's all The
People's Party is. Scandals about where the money went, scandals about
sexual assault, scandals about this, Tweets and efforts to be more
right-wing-than-FOX "NEWS."
The
Green Party has spent years on ballot access. It is very unlikely that
the political party will decide to destroy their work and their image
by getting in bed with a political party with so many issues. Gavin and
Zac need to learn. They need to have an education.
I
don't give a f**k what Chrissy Lynn Hedges whispers. He's a stupid ass
who promoted the false link between Iraq and 9/11 -- and did so on the
front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES. You dumb idiots who refuse to do the
work required and get on board with Chrissy Lynn -- or for that matter
with Oliver Stone and his lobbying for the nuclear industry. Your
stupidity hurts us, grasp that.
Now
if you knew your history, you'd know that the Green Party was offered a
candidate before. No, I'm not talking about the wrestler. And the
candidate was a bigger name than the wrestler and Cornel combined. And
the Green Party said? No.
Because
they are independent party. On the wrestler, he wanted the party to
gift him with the nomination. The Green Party said "no." You want
their nomination, you campaign for their nomination.
Unlike The People's Party, they're a real political party.
Now
The People's Party, please remember, was, like Max Blumenthal's wife,
part of that hideous February action where they got on stage with right
wingers who were racists and who were homophobic and transphobic.
Do
you remember the response from The Green Party? Probably not because
YOUTUBERS don't do a lot of homework. But we posted it here. And their
response was they were not taking part in that 'action.' They issued a
statement to make that clear. They would not go onstage with
right-wingers (and pedophiles -- remember The People's Party planned to
have that convicted pedophile on stage as well).
So, no, you stupid hacks, the Green Party is not gifting Cornel with their nomination.
That's
not a mistake, the video above. We posted Olayemi Olurin's video
again. Because it's informative. Gavin and Zac, do some actual work and
stop whoring. Actually, "whoring" is the wrong term. Whores work.
Gavin and Zac think they can scan the headlines and then bulls**t for 30
or so minutes. I didn't like losers like that in grad school and I
don't like them on YOUTUBE. Know what you're talking about, do some
actual research. I'm just not in the mood.
There
were a hundred other issues I wanted to cover but we don't have the
time this morning. We will note Matteo Lane's new comedy special that
debuted on YOUTUBE last night.
--------------
Added: Wally asked me to add this -- it went up here Sunday night:
In the US and da Do-Do Ron Ron DeSantis saw his people rally for him over the weekend in Florida. Grace Hauck (USA TODAY) reports:
About 15 people with flags displaying Nazi
insignia gathered outside Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando,
Florida, on Saturday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office,
as others displayed messaging in support of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The
Orange County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the
demonstration, which dissipated after about two hours with no arrests.
Two counter-protesters also showed up, the office said.
"We
are aware of these groups that aim to agitate and incite people with
anti-Semitic symbols and slurs. They are also aware of the law," the
office said in a statement. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores
hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to
demonstrate."
Oh, da Do-Do Ron Ron, da Do-Do Ron
Ron. Your people have embraced you. Too bad for you, the rest of
America finds those people revulsive.
