Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Isaiah, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "What Motivates Nancy To Run"


jancys motive


Nancy's family doesn't want her around at home?  That would explain her refusal to retire.


Now here's Jimmy Dore.



Hillary Clinton's another one who needs to go away.  But she's too damn greedy.  Good for the Hatians for standing up to her.  Hillary's always been against fair pay.  Buess she figures sinc her ugly daughter gets money handed to her, everyone should be able to.  


Now this is from Lee Camp (MPN):


This past weekend I was sitting in my hot tub that’s really just a bathtub that’s really just my neighbor’s bathtub that he lets me use when he’s out of town and doesn’t know I found his apartment key — and it occurred to me: I don’t think most Americans are happy with our political system. I don’t know why not.

I’ve got it! I just remembered. It’s because both mainstream parties are owned by corporate America, stand for the same shit, and they haven’t actually been face-to-face with a regular blue-collar human being since they fathered the first of their 14 children and the surrogate mother happened to bring her boyfriend to the birth (or as the rich call it, “the human baby transfer to its rightful owners”).

And sure enough, a new survey verifies that most Americans are not happy with the false choice between two political parties. The new poll from NBC News found that the Democrats and Republicans are about as popular as the horseback hemorrhoid clinic located near where I live.

“According to the poll, 44 percent of participants said they viewed the Republican Party negatively, 34 percent that they viewed it positively and 21 percent said they were neutral. … The Democratic Party’s ratings in the poll were fairly similar, with 48 percent saying they viewed the party negatively, 33 percent saying they viewed it positively and 18 percent saying they were neutral.”

Plus, I imagine those positive numbers are actually higher than they should be, because anyone willing to take an NBC News phone poll is already not the sharpest tool in the insane asylum. That poll doesn’t count the vast number of respondents who did not answer but instead graphicly described what the pollster could do to themselves given the right kind of genitalia, lubricant, and a Posturepedic adjustable bed (but you have to burn the bed afterwards).

There are a lot of reasons so many people hate the two corporate parties, but one of the biggest ones might be just how thoroughly they are bought off by the “One Percent.” (And no, I don’t mean the percentage of people who like Trident’s new Indian Curry Explosion™ chewing gum.) I’m referring to the One Percent who are disgustingly wealthy — people who own ponies for their children to play with and children for their ponies to play with. Those individuals essentially own all our politicians. (Also for their children to play with. … Which explains why Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand were forced to dress up like Snorks for an entire month. Or maybe they just needed the snorkels to be able to breathe while under an avalanche of bullshit?)

But yes, our politicians are more bought-off than ever before. A new analysis from Americans For Tax Fairness found that total billionaire contributions have soared over the past few years. The cycle before the Citizens United decision only saw $16 million worth of donations from billionaires to campaigns. This past cycle saw $2.6 billion worth of donations.


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


Monday, February 21, 2022.  Nils Melzer calls out the continued persecution of Julian while Moqtada tries to play off his failures to form a government as him being the victim ("Stop theatening!" he cries).



While the US government repeatedly lied about Iraq and War Crimes committed there, Julian Assange told the truth.  The publisehr of WIKILEAKS is targeted by US President Joe Biden for that reason.  Build Better Back?  What is that but coded --and racist? -- signaling similar to Make America Gret Again?  At any rate, Joe's BBB fell apart.  He has no powsitiv legacy and owon't.  LBJ, a vice president who became president, knew from his years in the senate how to work with Congress.  Joe never learned a thing.   His administration is one of steady failure, non-stop.


His ownly legacy, it appears, will be his persecution of Julian Assange.


Yesterday on RT's JUST PRESS PLAY addressed the continued imprisonment of Julian.



(13 minutes in, Roger Waters speaks with Lee Camp about Julian.)


As Nils Melzer notes, the attack on Julian Assange is an attack on the press.



Thomas Scripps (WSWS) notes:


UN special rapporteur on torture Professor Nils Melzer gave a Q&A to the Foreign Press Association (FPA) last Friday, discussing his book, The Trial of Julian Assange: A Story of Persecution .

Melzer’s answers provided a devastating indictment not only of the treatment of Assange, but of contemporary capitalist society and its claim to democratic rule based on “checks and balances”. His efforts to secure humane and legal treatment for the WikiLeaks founder have been met with a “wall of silence. This was the untouchable case.”

[. . .]


 The response in the media has been equally “alarming,” said Melzer. “The silence is deafening.” Citing the BBC, he told how the broadcaster released a televised interview with him when he first issued a statement on the Assange case. “The next hour, it was gone,” taken “offline, so there’s no trace of it.”

Melzer contacted the BBC to argue, “What I’m claiming is so outrageous, that either I’m wrong, and then I have to resign, or I’m right, then someone else has to resign. There is no way that an actor like the BBC can be indifferent to this… But they responded to me that ‘right now this is not newsworthy’.”

Criticising its coverage of Assange’s extradition hearings, Melzer said, “Yes they’re reporting on the court hearings, but they’re just saying, ‘the judge said this; Julian Assange said that’. They’re not really looking at what’s happening, what this is really about… The UK courts are systematically violating this person’s rights.”




Two months ago, a number of personalities came together to highlight Julian's plight -- that included Katie Halper, Marianne Williamson and Krystal Ball.  Julian must have been freed because now the three women focusing on stealing your money for candidates that theyre vouching for.


That's what they're doing.  These same geniuses told you to support this or that member of The Squad and now they're back to reach in your pockets once again.  Briahna Joy Gray expressed just how inept she was last week when she joined the three and wanted to express her disappointment in AOC -- coming from a supporter,you understand, not a hater.


Excuse me, what's to support?


If she won't do what she said she would -- a typical move for a member of Congress, what is there to support?


According to Bri-Bri, the thing to support is Cynthia Nixon.


Listening to her blubber about being in a Queens bar that was "empty" (she then adds there were 20 people present, so not empty, but if Bri-Bri had to depend upon facts, she'd be in even more trouble) and then, BOOM!, AOC won and people streamed into the bar and OMG that included Cynthia Nixon!!!!  


The very minor Cynthia Knixon who has no career beyond the reboot, right?  I don't know why you'd gush over a minor celebrity but, hey, it's Bri-Bri's way of pretending AOC was 'transformative,' right?


The only thing funnier was watching, earlier this year, Bri-Bri devote her program to trying to justify AND SO IT GOES -- that bad reboot of SEX AND THE CITY that even Candice Bushnall has disowned.  

Maybe they're so ineffective because they're so stupid?


That webinar/fundraiser last week was embarrassing enough to warrant an apology from all that participated.

Julian risked his life to tell the truth about Iraq and his life continues to be at risk as a result.  But, hey, Marianne and the other 'gals' just want you to dig in your pockets -- and not just to donate to them for the 'service' they provide (which for some reason they believe is worth taking your money for -- these slightly to the left of MEET THE PRESS takes -- but also to fund candidates they tell you too.


As Ava and I noted:


Give your money to them and, now, give your money to them still but also give your money to these candidates they are telling you to vote for.


Give, give, give.


It's a one-way street, you may notice.


Worst of all was Marianne who was telling everyone they could give, even a little helps or give the maximum donation possible.


Is this the same woman who was decrying the Democratic Party as out of touch with the working class back in September of 2020?  Who's out of touch now?  It's a pandemic and people are still struggling economically but Marianne wants you to give 'till it hurts.


Even more worthy of scorn?  The women's notion that we need big money campaigns.  In what world is the most important act during an election the money donated?


Yes, big money elects awful candidates.  You need big money for that.  But if you have good candidates, ones who'll represent the people, what you're looking for is creating enthusiasm and the most important thing anyone can do for those candidates is to talk them up to their own circle, to increase the awareness of these candidates and their runs for office.  


How sad that not only did the women accept the duopoly, they also accepted the corrupt system that the duopoly promotes.


Everyone participating endorsed corruption.  That's the reality.  


Last month, Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher served up "Democrats Decried Dark Money.  Then They Won With It in 2020" at THE NEW YORK TIMES.  aND IT WAS WRONG And it was wrong and it was a threat to democracy up until the Democrats could use it to win.  Grasp that.  


And Marianne and company are endorsing big money campaigns.  They want you to funnel all you can -- all the money you can -- itno campaigns.  You're apparently not smart enough to figure out on your own who to support.


I remember Larua Falnders pimping Tammy Duckworth and being a little offput, onher AIR AMERICAN RADIO program, when a guest pointed out to her that Christine Cegelis was the progressive in that race.  Time and again, these 'broadcasters' want you to support this or that person but usually they don't know what the hell they're talking about.  They didn't know AOC or her life.  They presented a fairy tale that was not true.  


But, hey, trust them this time arounad.  Just because it's a pnademic, just because we have inflation, that shouldn't prevent you from digging in your pockets and donating to their candidates.  You can always just eat Ramen, right?  What's that?  You're already surviving on Ramen?  Well, Marianne would likely tell you, our nation is grossly overweight so cut back on your Ramen to give more money, it will benefit you in the long run.


They don't care about the poor.  How dare those women (a) try to steal your money and (b) tell you that the only way you can participate in democracy is by giving money.


It's disgusting and it's corruption and it's embracing everythign that's wrong with our system.


St. Barack walked away from public financing of presidentail campaings and it appears we're the only ones who noticed it.  We called it out in real time but we were alone and we're still the only ones raising the issue.  PUblic financing of all campaigns should be the push.  


But we won't push for that when we're under the assumption that if we steal enough pennies from the working class, we can win races.


It's digsuting, it's appalling and those women owe their audience an apology.


Alan Jones (INDEPENDENT) reports on Nils Melzer's battle to bring attention to the persecution of Julian:


“There is no serious crime he is being accused of. There is no legal basis for keeping him in a high security prison,” Mr Melzer told a media briefing organised by the Foreign Press Association.

He said he declined to become involved when he was first approached, shortly after Mr Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but acted after receiving medical reports.

Mr Melzer visited the WikiLeaks founder in prison, saying: “I did not expect to find torture. What I found shocked me.”

He claimed “mass violations” of Mr Assange’s human rights, which he added have not been properly addressed.

Facts surrounding the case have been “deliberately distorted”, claimed Mr Melzer, adding that the governments of the UK, US and Sweden have refused to engage with him constructively.

He claimed there was a “wall of silence” surrounding the treatment of Mr Assange, saying he has been shocked by the lack of response from the public.


Turning to Iraq, the country that the US government destroyed and that the women reaching in your pocket ignore, the political stalemate continue.  Elections were held October 10th.  It's the middle of February, past the Constitutional deadline for a president to be named, and Iraq has no president.  They have no prime minister.  Elections were four months ago.  


Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:

The head of the pro-Iran Coordination Framework on Sunday rejected claims made by the Sadrist led tripartite alliance on Friday saying they had faced threats.

“What we have seen and heard recently in the media about threats to the lives of some political figures, we categorically reject them,” Nouri al-Maliki said in a tweet, adding that they found frequent talks about threats without evidence “surprising”. 

“If the threat is true, we demand that these personalities present their evidence before the judiciary, and we will be in solidarity with them,” Maliki added.


I agree with former prime minister and forever thug Nouri.  It's not the Shi'ite militias attacking.

Over the weekend, RUDAW reported:


Shiite influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Friday that the members of his tripartite alliance for the formation of a new government in Baghdad have been threatened again. 

“Once again some people threaten our allies and partners who have called for a national majority government … Stop threatening. I reaffirm that we will not give up and will not allow terror and corruption to control us,” said Sadr in a tweet without providing information about the alleged threats and those involved. 

Hours later, Mohammed al-Halbsousi - who leads Sunnis in the tripartite alliance with Sadr and the largest Kurdish bloc, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - said that they will not accept such threats.   

“There are some incomplete attempts to violate the sovereignty and dignity of the state. We are not afraid of their weapons and do not accept their threats,” he said in a tweet. 


Stop threatening, hiss Moqtada.  MEMO noted, "Al-Sadr did not mention the names of the sides threatening him over his plan to form a majority government, but he confirmed that the threats were reccurent."  MEMO also noted, "A bomb attack targeted the party headquarters of Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi in the western Anbar province, according to a local security source on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reports."  That would the head of the group of Sunnis that have joined with Moqtada.  It appears that they aren't very popular with their own.  In fact, that's what the earlier attack suggested as well but a head-up-the-ass western press wanted to blame that on the pro-Iranian militia groups.  For them to carry that out in Baghdad was possible but not likely.  For them to carry it out in western Anbar not possible, not without drawing attention to themselves.  

In calling out the nonsense of Marianne and others last week, I noted that the women in Iraq are suffering and that violence against women there is only increasing.  Despite being women, Marianne and the other 'gals' have nothing to say bout that.  Today, Layal Shakir (RUDAW) reports:


Iraqi top court on Sunday rejected a plea by a women’s rights group to end the legal justification of a man beating his wife days after at least five women were knifed to death, burnt alive, and shot by their husbands or male relatives across the country.

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by the Iraqi Women's League that deemed Article 41 of the Iraqi Penal Code unconstitutional. The article allows violence as “it gives a husband a legal right to punish his wife within certain limits prescribed by law or custom.”

In a statement published in Tareek al-Shaab newspaper on Monday and seen by Rudaw English, the court stated that the article the organization appealed against “stipulates the right to discipline within the limits established by law, Sharia, or custom.”


Thanks for doing nothing Marianne, Katie, Bri-Bri, Krystal and Julianna Forlano.  I'm sick of it.  I was part of an earlier wave that grasped if we (women) didn't raise the issue no one was going to.  We (the US) destroyed Iraq.  It was the most advanced country in the Middle East for women before the US-led invasion.  WE destroyed it.  And women are suffering but let's all ignore it?  Outrageous and shameful.


Don't give me any of your 'girl power' because you're f**king ridiculous.  If you're not amplifying the fight for their rights that Iraqi women are having to make (and having to make it because of what our country did to IRaq), then you're not about women.  You may be a gender traitor, a queen bee, a stupid bitch.  But you're not a feminist and I'm not going to allow you to pretend otherwise.



Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "What Motivates Nancy To Run" and the following sites updated:







  • Saturday, February 19, 2022

    Jimmy Dore, Jeffrey St. Claire and the Idiot of the Week

    First up, Jimmy Dore.



     I don't think Jimmy Dore's being 100% fair there because, if you looked like Joy Behar, wouldn't you want to wear a mask forever too?  I mean, c'mon, she's hard on the eyes.  Even she knows that.  Of course, she would want to wear a mask -- COVID or not, she'd want to wear a mask.


    :D


    Seriosly, I love the clip and am thrilled when Jimmy exposes these hypocrites and snake oil salespeople.


    Now this is from Jeffrey St. Claire (COUNTERPUNCH):


    + Biden’s military budget request for FY 2023 is reportedly $773 billion, $60 billion more than the average amount Trump requested and $150 billion more than the average amount Obama wanted during his second term.

    + The NYT was never this explicit about what really motivated the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan…

    + “Germany sends tanks…” is not a phrase the world ever needs to hear again.

    + You have to hand it to Biden and Blinken. For the past 50 years, US foreign policy has been dominated by the Kissinger doctrine of playing Russia/USSR against China. It took Biden to bring them together. Take a bow, Joe.


    Now it's time for Idiot of the Week.  There are four idiots of the week.  They worked in unison -- a chain gang of stupidity, if you will.   Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Coquette Campaigners" captured them in all their embarrassing non-glory.



    campaigncoquettes



    Krystal Ball,   Marianne Williamson, Katie Halper and Briahna Joy Gray along with a fifth woman not as well known (Isaiah said she'd have to find a way to attention other than his comic, he wasn't building her name) held a little elitist and class-ignorant webinar to tell you to vote for this candidate and donate to that one.


    I'm sorry, bitches, who died and put you in charge of my vote and my wallet?


    Do your damn job and that is not campaigning for politicians.


    If it's too much for you to do your job then stop bilking people of money, stop begging for money for your shows.


    What a bunch of whores.


    Unthankful ones, as C.I. points out in the snapshot below.  and she's right.  She's famous.  She didn't get there by begging for money or by ordering people around about who they should vote for.  She's got a real fanbase (I'm speaking of offline, not as "C.I.") and she built that up with years of hard work.  She doesn't abuse her fans by begging for money or telling them how to vote.  Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


     Friday, February 18, 2022. Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange, Iraq's still in a political stalemate, Iraqi children are targeted, Iraq's LGBTQ community continues to flee the country for safety and much more.


    Starting with Joe Biden's ongoing persecution of Julian Assange.  Is it cofusing to some?  Julian is being persecuted for telling the truth.  The US President is going after Julian for telling the truth.  


    Apparently, Jo ewishes Julian were more like his son Hunter -- a non-stop liar.  A lair who who lies about everything, his money, how he leeched it, whether or not he's the father of a child -- In fact, that last one?  The woman who had to go to court to get him to admit the baby was his and to get him to pay child support?  As Ruth notes in "Hunter's baby mama testifies before the grand jury,"Lunden Roberts testified before a grand jury this week in the ongoing criminal probe of Hunter.


    Criminal.


    We all know how Hillary and a whorish media tried to dupe the American pbulic in 2-16 insisting she wasn't part of a criminal investigation -- cirminal investigations are all the FBI does.  By the same token, grtand juries do not do civil cases.  This is an ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden's activites.  


    Cracik whore Hunter, apparetnly laying off drugs at present (though rumors have him partying this week at a strip joint -- they claim he again went to a private room and had a stripper use a dildo on him -- unlike the previous reported time, this go round he is said to have not insisted upon a brand new dildo and just let the stripper use one that was already on hand).


    Seems like Joe should try getting his own house in order.


    But it seems like Joe should have long ago dropped the efforts to extradite Julian to the US to face charges for shining some sunlight onto government crimes.


    The whole world is watching.  Joe Biden is a loser and will go down as such in history.  His continued persecution of Julian goes against everything the US government pretends to be.  And the whole world watches.  They realize it's not "Bad Donald Trump."  That's not hte problem.  Donald's gone.  Joe's the president now.  And the persecution continues.  


    The world sees Joe trying to destroy Julian aand the First Amendement.  This assault is scuccessful.  Already you have a craven US media cowed even more.  Imagine how much worse it woul dbe if Joe succeeds in kidnapping -- let's call it what it is -- Julian and forcing him to stand trial in some US kangaroo court.  Joe is attacking the freedom of the press when he attacks Julian.


    WSWS notes the statement from the Action Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Art and Expression::


    The Action Committee for the Defence of Freedom of Art and Expression (ACDAE) in Sri Lanka will hold an online public meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday February 24 Sri Lankan (Indian Standard) time, as part of the global campaign to release WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is in danger of being extradited the US on bogus charges.

    Assange’s alleged crime was to publish documents exposing the war crimes, mass surveillance and diplomatic intrigues of the US and its allies. The Australian citizen has been the victim of a vicious decade-long witch hunt by the US, UK, Swedish and Australian governments.

    Although Assange in January won the right to a UK Supreme Court appeal against his extradition case, the experiences of the past three years of the award-winning journalist’s detention by the British state, demonstrate that no faith can be placed in the judiciary.

    The World Socialist Web Site condemned the UK December 10 court ruling against Assange as a pseudo-legal travesty to justify his ongoing persecution. If Assange is extradited to the US, he will face espionage charges that carry an effective life sentence and possibly the death penalty.


    The world is watching.  And it's Joe Biden and the US's reputation sinking.  Around the world, support for Julian grows and strengthens.  And Joe gets his way and puts Julian on trial in the US?  You have a martyr the world will never foget.  Julian becomes JFK and Joe Biden is left to play Lee Harvey Oswald.  


    Mike Dalton (BITRATES) notes:


    The cryptocurrency community has set up a DAO to raise funds for Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who is currently imprisoned on various charges in London.

    Assange was arrested in 2019; he was charged with conspiracy after helping former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning access U.S. government secrets and publish that data on Wikileaks beginning in 2010. He currently is imprisoned in London and is fighting extradition to the United States.

    Now, members of the crypto community have formed a fundraising group called AssangeDAO to raise money for Assange's freedom. Because the group is structured as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), those who donate money will receive a governance token and gain input on the DAO's future direction.


    Here's RT reporting more on that story.



    Phil Miller (DECLASSIFIED UK) has noted:

    New figures show Britain’s public prosecutor, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), splashed £151,000 on barristers who failed to convince a judge in January that the US has the right to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher.

    The CPS acts on behalf of the US Department of Justice in transatlantic extradition cases.

    Another £22,000 of British public money was spent on expert witnesses, as well as £5,000 on transcripts. The bill will rise further next month when an appeal by the CPS, at the behest of the US government, reaches the High Court in London.

    A district judge ruled in January that Assange cannot be extradited on health grounds but the US subsequently won the right to appeal the ruling. The appeal was granted despite mounting concerns about the extradition attempt and its wider implications for press freedom.

    A key FBI witness for the US government is a convicted paedophile who admits to fabricating testimony about Assange’s activities. Assange and his defence lawyers were previously spied on by the CIA after he had been granted asylum in the Ecuadorian 


    That's the UK.  How many US tax dollars and tax hours is Joe Biden wasting on persecuting Julian Assange?  And doing so without any real  outcry from the American people for persecution.  Look around, there's noo mob trying to round up Julian, insisting he be thrown in a US prison.  It's the US government standing all by itself.


    The world sees this.


    That's a protest outside a town hall in Australia.


    Again, around the world, people are watching.  Poor Joe Biden.  No one cares engouh about him, no one loves him enough, to explain to him how he is destroying any legacy he might have, how he is ensuring that he will go down in history as a loser and will become one of the most hated persons in future history books.  All around the world.


    PEOPLE'S DISPATCH notes:


    The Progressive International (PI), in collaboration with several like minded organizations, will organize the second Belmarsh Tribunal in New York on February 25. It announced the decision in a press release on February 14.  The Tribunal seeks to hold the US government accountable for its war crimes in the two decades of the so-called war on terror and also push for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s release.  

    The first Belmarsh Tribunal was organized in London during Assange’s extradition hearings in October last year. It is named after the infamous prison in London where Assange has been kept for almost three years.

    The upcoming Belmarsh Tribunal in New York coincides with with the date of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by the US in occupied parts of Cuba 20 years ago. Hundreds of people were imprisoned and systematically tortured in the name of fighting terrorism. Most of them have never been charged with any crime. 


    Julian exposed the truth about the US war on Iraq.  Joe Biden voted to support that war.  Why is he not asked about that?  Not "Do you regret your vote."  Why isn't he asked about what was his foundation for supporting the war?  What was his thinking?  


    Because it goes to why he's such a lousy president now.  He knows what needs to be done, he just won't do it.


    Nouri al-Maliki could become the next prime minister in Iraq.  Joe's fear of that is whispered to be why he forced the US government into bed with  Shi'ite cleric and cult leader Moqtada al-Sadr -- Moqtada, a man responsible for the deaths of how many American troops?  Moqtada responsible for attacks on Iraq's LGBTQ community (and people suspected of being part of that community who were not).  Moqtada who loathes women and tries to strip them of their rights -- most recently during The October Movement when he threw his hissy fit that women were participating and started issuing edicts andf fatwas, caftan a-flapping as he screeched howled that women should not be allowed to protest with men.  


    Moqtada has no redeaming qualities.  But Joe's in bed with him.  Who knew Joe was a chubby chaser? In August, he approved the payment (bribe) to Moqtada to get Moqtada to announce he was now supporting the elections scheduled for two months later.  US tax dollars sent to the killer of US troops.  


    What did the US get in exchange?  Not a damn thing.


    Again, Joe knows right from wrong -- didn't manage to teach it to Hunter, but Joe does know.  


    And Joe knows Nouri's a thug.  Joe was saying in April of 2008 -- we covered that hearing -- that Nouri was a thug and that Iraq had no real government.  He knew that then.  Now maybe he's so senile that he's forgotten it.  But, more likely, this is just another example of Joe knowing the facts but refusing to act appropriately in response to them.  That has been the story of Joe's political life and him getting to put the title "president" in front of his name didn't change that one bit.


    Let's stay on the LFBTQ community in Iraq for a moment.  Azhar al-Rubaie (MIDDLE EAST EYE) reports:


    It was a long and arduous journey for 23-year-old Samir Hassan, but in December 2021 he and his boyfriend finally received asylum status in Lithuania after fleeing from Iraq to Belarus with his boyfriend in July of that year.

    Thousands of Iraqis poured into Belarus last year following a change in the country's visa rules, attempting to find a better life in Europe.

    Among those were many LGBTQ+ people who left difficult lives filled with repression, violence, and loneliness in their home country.

    “After a long story of hardship at home, I succeeded in arriving in Lithuania from Belarus. Such a horrible journey I experienced but nothing comes easily, I and my boyfriend cashed lots of money to settle in a safe place," said Hassan.

    He said that due to his sexual orientation he was regularly facing problems with his family and received abuse on the streets of Iraq.


    Meanwhile, Iraq remains without a president or a prime minister.  Not having a president yet is a vlation of Iraq's Constitution which clearly outlines the steps that must be taken and when.  


    Strange, isn't it?


    The whorish pwestern press told us Moqtada was a "king maker."  The moment Joe Biden slipped into bed with Moqtada, he didn't give Moqtada just the tip, he slammed in balls deep and the media was there to go along with him.  


    All hail king maker Moqtda!


    But here we are, the middle of February and nothing.  Elections took place Ocgtober 10th.


    No president.  No prime minister.



    The king maker appears not to have been as royal 


    Here's the beginning og a critique ASHARQ AL-Awsat has published on the current stalemate:

    Head of the Sadrist movement, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is carefully wading through the Iraqi political ring against his rivals in the pro-Iran Coordination Framework.


    Iraq has witnessed a turbulent past two weeks with former minister Hoshyar Zebari being barred from running for president and the Supreme Court's surprise ruling on the Kurdistan Region's oil policy.


    The ruling by the court on Tuesday cast doubt on the legal foundations of the independent oil policy of Iraq's Kurdish-run region and threatened to drive a political wedge between the two governments. The Supreme Court struck down the legal justifications for the semi-autonomous region's oil policy, effectively calling into question the future of the region's oil contracts, exports and revenues.


    Amid these two developments, it appeared as though Sadr has been luring his rivals into revealing their cards as they grapple with the fallout of these rulings, their impact on the country and the formation of the new government.


    However, the current tussle in Iraq goes beyond these rulings and the formation of a government, but extends to the very heart of the political process that has been in place since 2003.


    The Coordination Framework is meanwhile, trying to exploit the rulings, warning Sadr against forming a government that excludes former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki or of joining the opposition.


    Over the past two days, members of the Framework have mulled what the coming weeks will bring. They believe the rulings have dealt a blow to Sadr, who has been seeking the formation of a "national majority" government. The Framework has been opposed to this and believes the country cannot support the fallout from such a move.


    And Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) reports:


    The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr spoke on the phone on Thursday, reiterating their commitment to their tripartite alliance with Sunnis in Iraq’s parliament. The alliance will meet in the coming days, according to a statement by both figures. 

    “During the phone call, they talked about taking necessary steps and [having] coordination in the positions of the strategic tripartite alliance during the current stage in order to form a national majority government,” a joint statement from the political leaders read.

    Barzani and Sadr agreed that the members of the alliance will meet “in the coming days,” it added. Arafat Karam, head of the Iraqi dossier at Barzani's office, told Rudaw later in the day that the "important" meeting will be held in Erbil without specifying the date.


    Children are persecuted around the world.  This is true in Iraq.  Jo Becker notes at Human Rights Watch:


    Iraqi authorities detained over 1,000 children, some as young as nine years old, last year on national security charges, primarily for suspected links with the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a new United Nations report. Although ISIS attacks have dropped considerably since the group lost most of its territory four years ago, the report finds that the detention of children has significantly increased.

    Many of these children were arrested on dubious evidence and tortured into confessions of ISIS involvement.

    In late 2018, I interviewed boys detained as ISIS suspects in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Some said they had been recruited to fight with ISIS, while others said that they worked as cooks, drivers, or simply participated in a few days of training. One 17-year-old said he believed he was arrested for working at a restaurant in Mosul that served ISIS members. A few said that they had no links to ISIS, other family members had. Regardless of the extent of their involvement, they were all charged with terrorism.

    The majority of the boys said their interrogators tortured them to secure confessions. They described beatings with plastic pipes, electric cables, or rods, sometimes for hours. Nearly all said they eventually confessed to ISIS association, believing they had no other choice.

    International law prohibits the recruitment or use of children by armed groups, yet Iraq is treating these children as criminals, even if there is no evidence they participated in violent crimes. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Iraq to release the children.

    Instead of detaining and prosecuting children suspected of ISIS affiliation, Iraq should work with the UN to set up reintegration programs so that these children can rejoin their communities, get back into school, and resume their lives.


    RUDAW reports:


    A recent United Nations report on children and armed conflict in Iraq shows a “sharp increase” in the total number of children detained in the country on national security charges and alleged links to the Islamic State group (ISIS), although it finds that the number of grave violations committed directly against children has decreased significantly between the summers of 2019 and 2021 as compared to previous years.

    The fourth report of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in Iraq, shared on Wednesday, outlines the progress made in the country so far in addressing crimes against children, highlighting key violations committed between the period of August 2019 to June 2021 and - crucially - naming the main perpetrators: ISIS, Iraq’s security forces, the Turkish Armed Forces’ “Operation Claw,” and the Iran-backed militia, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi).

    During the time frame, the report finds, at least 317 grave violations were committed against 254 children;  four of whom were abducted, 98 of whom killed, and 151 maimed; the explosive remnants of war (121) and improvised explosive devices (46) being the leading causes of these casualties. It notes that the actual number of violations is likely to be far higher than the report can accurately show, but is nonetheless a dramatic decrease on the previous report’s total of 2,114, and the lowest number verified in the country since the UN began monitoring grave violations against children in 2009.


    Lat night, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Coquette Campaigners" went up.
    campaigncoquettes



    This is in response to the four above and one more deciding that in February of 2022 the most important to cover is . . . horse races.  They're not covering candidates.  They're offering the same superficial coverage that the mainstream media gets slammed for.  And they're boring us all and trying to boss around -- vote for ___! Send money to ____!'  It's outrageous.  


    As Jimmy Dore notes repeatedly, we're in a pnadmeic, and people are struggling.  But not only do the women above beg you for money for their programs, they now want to reach into your pockets and take out more moeny so you'll fund the candidates they love.


    It's outrageous.  It's a misuse of fame.  Yes, there fame is limited, but they're misusing it.  I have never, ever been anything but respectful to a fan (unless they got intentionally agrressive -- I'm not talking about the one who grabbed my hand and broke my finger because he squeezed so hard, he was excited and didn't realize it was that tight).  I would have nothing without them.  I've never refused an autograph request or said, "Get that camera/phone away from me!"  I don't hit them up for money.  


    But the ladies above not only want you to support them, now they need you to also support their candidates.


    Talk about a goldigger.


    Isaiah wants to be sure everyone has a chance to catch REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT's three reports on this nonsense.







    The following sites updated:



    Thursday, February 17, 2022

    Jimmy Dore, Alan Macleod, Isaiah

    First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Coquette Campaigners" went up tonight.


    campaigncoquettes


    Love it.  And Katie, I'd like you more if you and your pals weren't trying to tell us how to vote.  I don't need to tell me how to vote or, guess what, wipe my ass.  Mind your own damn business.  Focus on informing us, not on fundraising for politicians.  The whoring never ends witht hat crowd.


    Now, here's Jimmy Dore.



    Fatty Brian Stelter is just disgusting.  He makes me ill to see him.  I'm not joking.  He comes off like a child molester.  Disgusting.


    And more disgusting news, this time about our prison-industrial system, Alan Macleod (MPN) reports:


    America’s largest arms companies are increasingly finding lucrative new ways of profiting from the prison industrial complex; in many cases, weapons of war are directly manufactured using coerced prison labor. A new MintPress News study of the 100 largest private Defense Department contractors found that 37% of them were also profiting from incarcerated Americans, either in prisons and jails, or in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) camps. This proportion rose to 16 of the top 25 largest arms manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. The complete list of top corporations profiting from mass incarceration, displayed in order of value of Department of Defense contracts received, is as follows:

    • Lockheed Martin
    • Raytheon
    • General Dynamics
    • Northrop Grumman
    • BAE Systems
    • L3Harris Technologies
    • General Electric
    • Health Net Federal Services
    • Atlantic Diving Supply
    • Leidos Holdings, Inc.
    • McKesson Corp.
    • Booz Allen Hamilton Holding
    • AmerisourceBergen Corp.
    • Leonardo S.p.A.
    • Textron Inc.
    • AECOM
    • CACI International
    • Jacobs Engineering Group
    • Honeywell International
    • The Walsh Group Ltd.
    • Hensel Phelps Construction Co
    • Express Scripts Inc.
    • FedEx
    • Verizon
    • Carahsoft Technology
    • Cardinal Health Inc.
    • International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
    • Harris Global Communications Inc.
    • AT&T
    • Microsoft
    • Serco Group
    • Cisco Systems
    • Gilbane Inc.
    • CDW Corp.
    • GlaxoSmithKline plc
    • Centene
    • Deloitte

    The list (which can be viewed and downloaded here) was created by compiling data from government website USASpending.Gov. The list of the 100 largest private military contractors over the last completed fiscal year was then compared to a database of prison industry private-sector players curated by prison abolition group Worth Rises.

    When asked to comment on the fact that almost two-thirds of the biggest players in the defense industry were also waist-deep in the prison profiteering racket, journalist and prison teacher Chris Hedges was far from shocked. “The fabric of the defense industry, the carceral state, the intelligence industry, it is all interwoven. And I think these findings prove it,” he said. Hedges’s most recent book, “Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison,” was released in October.


    Disgusting.  People who try to profit off of the misfortune of others are disgusting.  They're the ones who belong in jail.  Maybe someday they will be.


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


     Thrusday, February 17, 2022.  The older I ge (and the more years online I rack up), the tireder I get of dumb bitches -- especially ones who distract from real issues and think we need them to tell us how to vote.


    Liza Minnelli won her Academy Award for the film CABARET.  In the film, she sings "Maybe This Time."


    Maybe this time, I'll be lucky
    Maybe this time, he'll stay
    Maybe this time, for the first time
    Love won't hurry away

    He will hold me fast
    I'll be home at last
    Not a loser anymore
    Like the last time
    And the time before

    -- "Maybe This Time," written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, first recorded by Liza eight years before CABARET on her deubt album LIZA! LIZA!


    It's a song about a fool for love and most of us have been there at one time or another but most of us learn from an expeirence and don't repeat it over and over again.


    As it's pointed out in the video below, how we tell ourselves that this time will be different, there's something more pathetic than being a fool for love: Being a fool for a political party.




    There are some people we're not currently noting -- some of whom we're not noting because of REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT's previous video on this topic.


    I'm a grown up.  I don't need to be told what to do.  That includes being told who to vote for.  I've endorsed very few candidates here.  I endorsed Kevin De Leon in 2018.  We had people sticking their noses in our business, which is bad enough.  I don't endorse in any race I can't vote in.  But, for example, Amy SUskind decided we need her bitchery.  We didn't.  I hope she didn't think we needed her intelligence because she declared that supporting Kevin in the primary would mean that we'd have a Republican running against newbie Kevin  and that Republican might end up the seantor!


    Uh, no, tich.  No.


    Stay the f**k out of races you can't vote in.  Why?  For one thing, you don't what the hell you're talking about.


    Amy's not voting in California so she wanted to share ''knowledge.'' 


    Stupid idiot.


    In California, party id does not determine who gets on the general election ballot for US senate.  


    Amy and other idiots were insisting that it was also age-ist to oppose Dianne.  How did the Brett Kavanaugh hearings go again?


    Was Dianne up for them?


    No, she wasn't.  And many of us were raising that point in 2018 when there was a clear choice and a strong candidate.


    Instead, we now have 88-year-old Dianne in the US Senate.  A dottering fool who the Senate Dems have to manuever out of this decision and that decision because she's not up for the job.  


    I'm really opposed to people thinking their job is to tell other adults how to vote.


    So Katie's bulls**t with Marianne Williamson and others has led to them being  largely ignored and we post other people's videos.


    I'm also not interested in Danny Haiphong currently.  We posted him from Richard Medhurst's show and if that had been other show, we wouldn't have.

    Danny can cool his heels for about a month.

    Logically, I do have to ask why a non-African-American is the focus and host of the podcast/YOUTUBE program from BLACK AGENDA REPORT.


    Sorry, I thought the whole point -- and I believe this was the point of Glen Ford's career long before he co-founded BAR -- was to give African-Americans a seat at the table.


    Since Glen's death, Danny stepped into the spotlight and taken over.  If he has that much energy, maybe he should start his own outlet?  Let BAR be led by African-Americans?  Keep the "Black"  in BLACK AGENDA REPORT?  


    Or is that too much to ask for?


    At any rate.  Susan Sarandon made a comment -- I didn't see it or read it -- and ended up deleting her Tweet.  It offended some people.


    Danny called her out for it.  


    That was last week.


    This week, he blasted her for it again.


    I'm not in the mood, you dumb idiot piece of trash.


    That's what you are if you're going after Susan.


    The impression by the idiots in Danny's crowd appears to be that Susan is a coward -- I'd love to see them stand publicly , even once, just as strongly as Susan has.


    She delted the Tweet that people took offense to.  He assumeds it's because she's a coward.


    As I've noted here many times -- and we did call Susan out over something here publicly -- Susan is not rigid.  If she feels she's wronged soemeone or taken the wrong position, she will give it a lot of thought.  Sometiems, she will realize that it was wrong and she'll make it better.  Sometimes, she'll realize that it really did hurt someone deeply and that, in terms of humanity, it's just not worth it so she'll be the bigger person and move to put it behind her.


    So, first off, Danny, there is a simple and non-trashing her option on why she did what she did.


    Now maybe she did it for 'cowardly' reasons as Danny just knows because he knows everything right.  I eman, I speak to Susan often but I'm sure Danny speaks her to daily, right?  I'm sure Danny's been friends with her for years, right?  I''m sure Danny's shared many a laugh with her -- as I have -- over what an idiot Jay Bernstein was, right?

    but Danny just knows he knows her and just knows that he can peer in her heart and that cowardice made her back off from her Tweet.


    If it did, so damn what?


    How much scorn is she supposed to take?  How much abuse is she supposed to endure?


    She's a highly talented actress, one of her best of her generation, and she doesn't work near as much as she should because she's taken positions that outrage the simpletons.  


    Do you want her to kill her career over a Tweet?


    You know, Danny, maybe she could do like you and cozy up to a man and wait for him to die and then seize control of the empire the man built.


    Is that what she should do?  


    I don't like dDanny.  I said he was an opportunist before Glen died.  When Glen died and Danny had hisTwitter-bitch storm aimed at Jared Ball, I tried to be fair and just note nicely that Jared had every right to share whatever memory of Glen Ford that he wanted to.


    But as Danny gets more and more extreme in his mistaken belief that he knows everything and that he has the power to peer into people's hearts and souls, I think that was a mistake.  I think I really should have called him out.


    And I will stand by my comment that any program from BLACK AGENDA REPORT needs to be centered on an African-American host.  If you're not doing that, then the whole point of Glen Ford's lifetime work in the media is being undermined.


    I'll make that point and I'll be very sad that I'm the one that has to do so because that point should be rather obvious to everyone without anyone having to say it outloud.


    So for four years of Doanld in the White House, we couldn't deal with real issues.  We dealt with partisanship and gossip and nonsense.


    And we wasted, as humans, four damn years.   Maybe you've got more years to waste, I sure don't.  And I'm damn tired of being online as it is.


    I am not in the mood for a bunch of White women with one token person of color showing up to tell us how we need to vote and how we need to be excited about this candidate or get behind that one.


    F**K YOU.


    Honestly and truly, F**K YOU.


    Not one of you wmen bother to cover Iraq.  You can't even do one show a month on Iraq.  For Marianne, that might be a good thing because when she covered Afghanistan she thought the way to do tht was to bring on someone who invaded that country.  Not a woman from Afghanistan.  No, we must not let them speak for themselves, apparently.  So let's instead bring on American to filter all of our knowledge through.  The stupidity and, yes, racisim of that action still appalls me.  And you can read that snapshot -- I'm laughing right now as I dictate this, just from remembering dictating that -- and grasp that the more I go on, the angrier I got about it.


    There are wars that you are not even covering.  There are issues issuges that you are falt out ignoring.  And you bitches think you're time is best used telling adults how to vote?


    Best used for whom?


    For Marianne?  She got an MSNBC appearance out of it so I can see how she benefited.


    I don't see how the public did.


    REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT is raising serious issues on this and how we move forward, how we learn from the past, how we own our power.    You can also stream this clip.



    There are real issues to address and the whoring Katie and the other women involved are doing is embarrassing.


    Now an e-mail wanted t o whine about Tuesday's snapshot and how I said we should have been focused on issues and we should have been fighting issues -- not spreading rumos about false pee-tapes and the other nonsense.  I noted we managed to push back on Ronald REagan -- a very frightening Republican who was popular with a number of Americans as well as strongly embraced by the media.  But we still managed to push back and fight on issues during that.


    The e-mailer took offense to it and wanted me to know that Richard Nixon -- whom I didn't even mention -- was a more educated Rpeublican than what we have today.


    Richard was a crook.  Who should have been in prison.


    John Dean and other whores -- some like John are convicted felons --  have worked overtime to try to lie and reshape Tricky Dick.


    He was vile and evil.  He didn't give a damn about the ecology, for example.


    The reason some can cite his record on that is becaus epeople were in the streets.  People were fighting on issues and Tricky DIck had to find something to satisfy them.  


    Real issues and real opposition does matter.  Faux 'resistance' doesn't and we have four years to demonstrate that.


    WE accomplished nothing to save our planet -- and haven't under Joe.  


    I'm tired of people who keep whoring their time out and pretending that this time will be different, this time, this time.


    We're back to Liza. 




    The world is in danger and idiots waste their time whoring for politicians.  If you're going to get screwed, at least get some satisfcation it -- but, as anyone can tell you, any politician is only focused on their own Big O.  It's no suprise tht the US government -- Dems and Republicans -- set up a government in Iraq that does nothing to protect the Iraqi people.  Nicole Di Ilio (AL-MONITOR) reports:


    Peering beyond the towering reedbeds, Abbas Al-Mousawi watches his buffaloes drink from the putrid waters of the Chibayish marsh. Each sip his animals take raises his anxiety. “It’s almost impossible to find a clean pool here,” says the 45-year-old breeder as he paddles his mashouf – a traditional boat similar to a canoe. “The water is just bad. It gushes out of waste pipes into the swamp. It’s disgusting.” 

    Mousawi and his animals live in the Mesopotamian Marshes, a fabled corner of Iraq known throughout the ages as a waterway that could sustain man and beast and populations across the country’s southern deserts. Until recent decades, it offered a vast and reliable supply of water, the end of the line for Iraq’s two great rivers after their epic journeys through Turkey, Syria and Iraq’s deserts.

    But, perhaps more than any other time in history, the marshes are in peril. Prolonged drought, regional standoffs, political negligence and climate change are combining to create intolerable stress on one of the region’s most important ecosystems.

    What was once a pristine waterway is now a toxic wasteland. Whatever water reaches the marshes is considered a public health risk. The United Nations has classified Iraq as the fifth-most vulnerable country in the world to climate change. The effects have been clear over the past 15 years, with lower rainfalls, and longer and hotter heat waves. In some years, water has barely covered 30 percent of the original wetlands, which were replaced by dry cracking earth that locals had never seen before.

    The shortage was in part caused by dams blocking the flow of the Euphrates before it continued its journey south. Sporadic rains also played a part. But more concerning for farmers like Mousawi was the state of the water when it reached him. “All around the sewerage pipes, most of the fish die,” he says, pointing to the rotting fish floating near the surface. “What are we going to see in the future?” 

     

    A group of American bitches want to waste their own time whoring -- and your time streaming -- about a bunc hof candidates but they don't say a word about the women being murdered in Iraq.  Layal Shakir (RUDAW) reports:


    A woman was shot dead by her husband in Sulaimani province late Wednesday night, a security official told Rudaw as the Kurdistan Region adds another brutal murder of a woman to its never-ending list of honor killings and gender-based violence deaths.

    Maryam Yacoob, 40, was gunned down by her husband, Sulaimani police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmad told Rudaw.

    The husband was also reported dead after he shot himself shortly afterwards, the official added.

    The details of the incident and the reason behind the murder remain unknown for the public, but crimes of this kind are very common in the Kurdistan Region.

    This week alone, four women were killed in different circumstances in a series of gender-based killings across the Kurdistan Region. 

    Yacoob was a lecturer at Sulaimani’s Komar University of Science and Technology and a postgraduate student at the University of Sulaimani.

    Social media in the Kurdistan Region has been overcome with anger and grief as a result of the recent increase in female killings. 


    The following sites updated: