Mikey Likes It!

Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Graham Elwood, Walt Zlotow, Jake Johnson

Starting with Graham Elwood.

Are you following bitcoin? Using it? I'm not. Every now and then I'll get an Uber driver who'll want to tell me about bitcoin and how it's going to save the world. I don't know about any of that.

I know Joe Biden's destroying the world. Walt Zlotow (ANTIWAR.COM) explains:

It took 60 years but the US finally did something more dangerous to world survival than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last year marked 60 years since the US provoked Russia to sneak nuclear weapons into Cuba to protect it from further US invasion or assassination of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Our humiliating loss at the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion did nothing to dampen America’s lust to oust the Castro government, returning Cuba to rapacious American capitalism and a Mafia playground, regardless of how many might die.

That triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis, which, for 13 days, kept this high school senior on the cusp of nuclear annihilation. But knowing that the US red line against Russia putting nukes just a few minutes from the mainland could trigger nuclear war, both the US and Russia employed negotiations, defusing the nuclear crisis in under 2 weeks.

Contrast the nuclear crisis of 1962 over Cuba to the nuclear crisis of 2022-23 over Ukraine. In 49 weeks, the US has totally rejected negotiations to end the Russo Ukraine war. Instead, we’ve funneled over $100 billion in weapons and other aid to keep it going indefinitely. Worse, we torpedoed Russian, Ukraine negotiations in the first weeks of the war, brokered by Turkey, that could have ended the war early on.

That would be akin to Russia rejecting US negotiations to end the Cuban crisis by steaming full speed through the US blockade to complete its nuclear installations there. Had that occurred, a nuclear dust up between the US and Russia was virtually certain. The fact both Russia and the US sought negotiations instead of war prevented nuclear annihilation 60 years ago.

In other realities that party whores like Krystal Ball won't tell the world about, Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

The Biden administration's Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday published an environmental assessment that recommends partial approval of a major drilling project on Alaska's North Slope, prompting a flurry of calls for the Interior Department to reject the plan outright and prevent any additional fossil fuel extraction in the region.

"Greenlighting the Willow project would banish President Biden's climate legacy to one of irreparable and downright shameful environmental destruction," said Raena Garcia, fossil fuels and lands campaigner for Friends of the Earth. "Big Oil's exploitation of the rapidly warming Arctic has already thrust local communities onto the frontlines of the climate crisis, jeopardizing public health and polluting critical ecosystems."

Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League, implored Biden to "reverse course on this massive climate disaster."

"Our window to act is rapidly closing to avert catastrophic climate change," Miller added, "and this plan only takes us one giant step closer to the edge."

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

Wednesday, February 1, 2023. The Australian government says that they're working to free Julian Assange but where's the proof, another US service member who died in Iraq gets buried, Turkey continues to violate Iraq's national sovereignty and much more

Next month, the Iraq War hits year twenty. US troops remain on the ground in Iraq.

32-year-old Staff Sgt Samuel D. Lecce died in Iraq December 19, 2022. He was a Marine who graduated high school in 2008.

2008. He was 18 years old and the Iraq War was five years old. It was the year Senator Barack Obama was going around lying, "We want to end the war and we want to end it now!" Samantha Power told the BBC it was a lie. You can't make a promise, she told them in March of 2008, right now. You'll figure out what you're going to do, she said, after you're elected.

She gave that interview and another one where she called Hillary Clinton a monster. The monster got headlines and she was eased out of the campaign but not because of the monster remark, she was eased out because BBC was about to air the interview. And we couldn't have the Christ-child questioned. So she was no longer with the campaign and everyone in the US agreed to look the other way and pretend the interview didn't take place. That includes the coward -- the now dead coward -- Tom Hayden. He'd bring it up months later when it didn't matter anymore -- sort of the story of his life.

But think about Lecce in 2008, walking down the aisle, being handed his diploma. You think he expected that the Iraq War would still be going on 14 years later? Or that US troops would still be dying in Ira1 14 years later.

The insipid Krystal Ball wants to hiss "Grow up!" at people who don't want to get behind snake-oil saleswoman Marianne Williamson.

I'm confused, the Iraq War hits the 20 year mark next month and I've never heard Krystal Ball his "Grow up!" at any of the people in government who started the war or who continue it to this day.

Those who did make an effort to deal with reality tend to get attacked. At ARAB WEEKLY today, James Zogby writes:

In advance of the February 2003 meeting of the Democratic National Committee, (DNC) Representative Jesse Jackson Junior and I submitted a resolution to encourage debate on the impending war. Using temperate and respectful language, it called on our party to urge the Bush administration “to pursue diplomatic efforts to achieve disarmament of Iraq, to clearly define for the American people and Congress the objectives, costs, consequences, terms and length of commitment envisioned by any US engagement or action in Iraq and to continue to operate in the context of and seek the full support of the United Nations in any effort to resolve the current crisis in Iraq.”

Polling indicated that the majority of Americans and a supermajority of Democrats supported these positions. And we knew that if Democrats failed to challenge the rush to war, we would not only risk losing the support of voters, but also shirk our responsibility to avert a war that would prove devastating to our country and the Middle East region. 

At the DNC meeting, party leaders subjected me to intense pressure to withdraw the resolution. They argued that we needed to defer to the Democratic presidential candidates. With only one major candidate, Howard Dean, vigorously opposed to the war, they claimed that such a resolution would imply support for his candidacy. And, in their view, opposing the war would make it appear that the party was weak on national defence. 

I refused to withdraw the resolution and insisted on my right to introduce it and be heard. 

In my remarks to the committee, I warned that it was unconscionable that we send young men and women to war in a country whose history, culture and social composition we did not understand. I observed that the administration’s miscalculations about Iraq risked beginning “a war without end” and that going to war without UN authorisation jeopardised US legitimacy. I concluded by noting that "raising the right questions, demanding answers and winning allies to our case is not being weak on defence. It's being smart on defence."

After my presentation, the chair ruled that there would be no vote and the resolution died without debate or discussion.

Twenty years later, it gives me no satisfaction to say that we were right to oppose that disastrous war.

And those who were right get scorned or attacked. Take Julian Assange.

Julian 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

Eric Lichtblau (GUARDIAN) observes:

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.

Late last night, Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) reported:

In response to freedom of information (FOI) requests by former federal parliamentarian Rex Patrick, multiple departments of the Australian Labor government have confirmed that they have made no representations to the US administration of President Joe Biden relating to Julian Assange.

The information, revealed in an article by Patrick on the Michael West Media website, is a damning indictment of the Labor government.

Since it was elected last May, Labor has said as little as possible on Assange. Its representatives, including Albanese, have hinted at backroom discussions with the Biden administration, but their content and purpose has remained entirely opaque.

These purported conferences have been used to justify the refusal to forthrightly defend the persecuted Australian journalist on the grounds that diplomacy is best conducted, in Albanese’s words, without a “megaphone.”

In response to growing condemnations of these claims as a cynical dodge, Albanese made his most explicit comments on Assange since becoming prime minister last November. In response to a question from independent MP Monique Ryan, Albanese restated earlier declarations that “enough is enough” in relation to Assange’s legal plight.

Albanese said: “The government will continue to act in a diplomatic way, but can I assure the member for Kooyong that I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government. My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration that it is time that this matter be brought to a close.”

Contrary to Albanese, many things remained decidedly unclear. What exactly was the government requesting of the US administration? Had it explicitly demanded an end to the US attempt to extradite and prosecute Assange for exposing American war crimes? Were these demands backed by any threats of retaliatory action if they were not met, and more?

Previous FOI documents obtained by lawyer Kellie Tranter in July, had highlighted these questions. Internal talking points from the office of Labor’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus had focussed solely on the prospect of a “prison swap” involving Assange. That would presuppose his extradition to the US and conviction on trumped-up Espionage Act charges carrying a maximum-sentence of 175-years imprisonment.

Also noting that reality is Paul Oboohov (GREEN LEFT) who also notes that Australians protested outside the US Embassy in Australia "to call on US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy to intercede on behalf of Julian Assange." And Latika Bourke (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) reports:

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the rule of law must be applied to Julian Assange, dampening hopes that her government is about to secure the WikiLeaks founder’s freedom.

Assange is being held in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison where he is appealing his extradition to the United States to face charges related to the theft of hundreds of thousands of secret cables from the US government, which WikiLeaks published in full, more than a decade ago.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had raised the matter with the US and British governments, raising hopes among Assange’s supporters that the Australian could walk free from jail without being extradited to the US to face trial.

Asked about the matter during a news conference in London on Wednesday morning (AEDT), Wong said it was “not a decision for the Australian government” and pointed to the legal processes under way.

Will Julian ever be free? Chris Hedges asked that question recently.

Chris speaks with Gabriel Shipton who directed ITHAKA. A transcript of the above interview can be found here.

Gabriel Shipton: Yeah, so this dehumanization of Julian, it really serves the persecution of Julian. It allows the public to switch off. This isn’t happening to a human being. People can say, “Well…” Julian hasn’t been able to attend his own court proceedings since January, 2021. He applies to attend the court proceeding and the applications are refused, not given a reason. And this is really to take Julian from view, take him from view. The classic photos that often appear of Julian are the ones of him traveling to and forth from the prison to the court. And even those moments have been taken away. He’s been dehumanized to that level that those photos inside the prison van have been taken away. He has also, part of that-

Chris Hedges: They blocked the windows, they colored the windows over so photographers couldn’t shoot in, is that correct?

Gabriel Shipton: Well, the photographers hold up the camera and the flash goes in, but they can’t really see, but you can get a photo, that’s those photos of Julian with a long beard, with his hand signs and things like that, they’re from the prison van that goes back and forth from the court. But he hasn’t been allowed to attend his own court proceedings in person since that date. And yet that’s part of this process of dehumanization that it allows for this persecution. It’s one of the elements of this persecution, his dehumanization. So yeah, it was really important for us to really lean into this humanistic side of this story and humanize Julian in that sense. When you talk about the families who are suffering or how the families experience the incarceration of Julian, and Stella talks about going to visit Julian and the procedure that her and her children have to go through to enter the visitor’s area, and it is oppressive. And there’s two little children in this, a three and a five year old whose mouths are searched, who have sniffer dogs sniffing at her hair. A big German shepherd dog comes up to the child and sniffs the back of their hair. So these sort of moments, it has an effect. It has an effect on the family, it has an effect on these children. And I think it’s deliberate, it’s very deliberate that Julian’s being kept in a maximum-security prison. It’s very deliberate that his family has to go through this procedure. They have to feel this persecution as well as Julian, it’s not equal to what Julian’s going through, but as you say, the families of those who are incarcerated are in a way incarcerated as well.

Chris Hedges: There’s a moment in the film where John, your father, expresses the fear that they’re trying to kill Julian. And I know the family has always been very reluctant to speak about the psychological and medical condition of your brother. However, in the court proceedings, there was much that was revealed about his physical and psychological state. And I don’t want to push you too hard on this, but at least if you can relate the information that came out in court, because there’s a clear deterioration and I think many of us feel that’s by design.

Gabriel Shipton: Well, I can describe it how I observe it when I go and see Julian, or I saw him last October. I don’t get to see him that often, obviously our family’s been torn apart. So I live in Australia, so whenever I’m in the UK I make sure that I go to see him at the prison, obviously. But the gradual deterioration over the years that he’s been kept in there is very, very obvious to me. Physical, his physical wellbeing, his mental wellbeing, as well as the expert testimony, expert witness testimony. But yeah, over the years you can see that he is in gradual decline and he obviously had this stroke, minor stroke at the end of last year. And the effects of that, it doesn’t just go away. This minor stroke is evidence that this whole never ending procedure, these oppressive prison conditions are really taking its toll on his body physically, that that has pushed him to have this sort of episode. So that’s how I see it. When I go and visit him, we try and have a laugh, we try and joke and we try and talk about lighter things or I know I do. Obviously we always tell him about what’s going on in the world, who said to say hello, which of his old friends that we’ve met around the place. But those visits are precious times when we can sort of be together as we once were and joke and laugh and try and forget all the troubles that exist around him.

REUTERS notes, "Unidentified attackers fired eight rockets at a Turkish military base in northern Iraq on Wednesday, two of which landed inside, the Counter-Terrorism Group, a security organisation in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said." THE NATIONAL adds:

Shortly after Wednesday's attack, the Free People of Iraq Brigade, or Liwa Ahrar Al Iraq, said it was behind the attack, but gave no details.

The group is known for its attacks against Turkish troops in northern Iraq. It first claimed responsibility for an attack on troops in June 2022.

Yesterday, REUTERS noted:

Looming over the deserted village of Sararo in northern Iraq, three Turkish military outposts break the skyline, part of an incursion that forced the residents to flee last year after days of shelling.

The outposts are just some of the dozens of new military bases Turkey has established on Iraqi soil in the past two years as it steps up its decades-long offensive against Kurdish militants sheltered in the remote and rugged region.

"When Turkey first came to the area, they set up small portable tents, but in the spring, they set up outposts with bricks and cement," Sararo's mayor Abdulrahman Hussein Rashid said in December during a visit to the village, where shell casings and shrapnel still litter the ground.

"They have drones and cameras operating 24/7. They know everything that's going on," he told Reuters, as drones buzzed overhead in the mountainous terrain 5 km from the frontier.

Turkey's advances across the increasingly depopulated border of Iraqi Kurdistan attract little global attention compared to its incursions into Syria or the battle against Islamic State, but the escalation risks further destabilising a region where foreign powers have intervened with impunity, analysts say.

Turkey could become further embroiled if its new Iraqi bases come under sustained attack, while its growing presence may also embolden Iran to expand military action in Iraq against groups it accuses of fomenting unrest at home, Kurdish officials say.

You think?

Returning to the topic of yesterday's snapshot, let's include a few videos.

Also on the topic, please check out Ann's "The ultimate Karen (Krystal Ball) calls 9-1-1." Ann's a Green with Green parents who the hell is Krystal Ball to hector Ann about how she needs to vote? The entitlement reeks, Krystal really needs to check her own ego.

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

SUPERMAN AND LOIS, Greg Berlanti, Graham Elwood

Worst news of the year? This, "In January 2023, the company signed a four-year exclusive overall deal for Berlanti Productions to remain at the Warner Bros. studio for its television operations into the year 2027 with Warner Bros. Television Group." I say that because I've watched a lot of Greg Berlanti shows and liked a lot of them. That includes POLITICAL ANIMALS, ARROW, ELI STONE, NO ORDINARY FAMILY, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, FLASH, TITANS (before they killed off Hawk), BLINDSPOT, PRODIGAL SON and, of course, SUPERMAN AND LOIS. And it's about SUPERMAN AND LOIS.

Rebecca slid this article over to me and for this section of it:

Superman & Lois likely will continue “for one or two more seasons,” according to DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Gunn and Safran spoke about the Greg Berlanti-produced CW series during a press event Monday. “It’s a show everybody likes, so it’s going to keep going for a little bit,” said Gunn when asked about the show.

Gunn and Safran are idiots -- go read Rebecca tonight, she's enraged -- and Greg needs to go somewhere else. SUPERMAN AND LOIS is a hit TV show. It'll go on for "one or two more seasons," you know, "a little bit."

Gunn and Safran aren't all that and GUARDIANS is a really crappy move -- both of them. The cast is likeable but in terms of making an actual film, those two didn't make anything. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is a film. ANT MAN AND THE WASP is a film. The GUARIDANS are just pop corn flicks that you forget a few minutes after seeing them.

Greg has a track record and he's answering to those losers? He needs to end his deal with WBTG and go off to CBS or NETFLIX exclusively. Or AMAZON. I'm sure AMAZON or PARAMOUNT or anyone would be happy to have him.

Who are these two yokels to sound so condescending about SUPERMAN AND LOIS?

Their jerks and . . . Go read Rebecca. I'm not going to touch that other topic until she's posted but I am as angry as she is about it.

Now for Graham Elwood.

Why didn't I note him last night? Della e-mailed asking me that. I honestly was tired and already had Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "THE PEW stinks" to include. If I'd had more time I would've noted Kat's "Kat's Korner: Carly Simon and Diana Ross send thei..." -- a great review of Sam's album and a great commentary on AMAZON and Jeff Bezos. Please read it if you haven't already. And long term COMMON ILLS community members, how great was that? Having an Isaiah comic and a Kat music review in the same weekend? Like old times.

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

Tuesday, January 31, 2023. Krystal Ball has taken it on herself to attack others because she thinks they're not as smart as she is. Reality: Krystal's not smart. Reality: Krystal is advocating for the same logic that led to the Iraq War. Reality: What follows below is not sweet or kind or intended to be.

I'm not in the mood for stupid. Grow up, Krystal Ball snarled at those who don't want to join her sexual fetish with Marianne Williamson.

Grow up?

Okay, Krystal, you first. Are we playing the truth game? I haven't played it on such a large scale since I left Julia Ormond in tears. But, okay, I'll bite. Just don't be surprised by the puncture wounds.

On a scale of one to ten, Krystal Ball, you're a five. You're never going to be better than that because plastic surgery can't do a thing with that pointed head and you have ugly eyes. That's reality. Grow up. You're involved with an attractive man. That's probably not going to work out well. He's good looking and, as evidenced by his recent hair color change, he's ready and willing to do other things to make himself even more attractive.

We're not done with you yet, dear.

MSNBC was your last chance at fame and fortune. You failed. There's not another chance for a woman your age coming down the road. Even if society changes, it will change for future female generations. Your time will have passed and you've aged out of opportunity. You're now on a popular YOUTUBE program where your male co-host is also prettier than you and has a decade or two to prove himself because of the way sexism works. While you're career's winding down, his is just beginning.

Ready to grow up yet?

No real career prospects beyond what you have now. You've reached the highest level you will ever reach and, from here on out, it's all downhill. Grow up. Kids? Well you're forty-one, I don't think you can wait too much longer unless you want people to think they're your grandkids? That'll be fun won't it, Kyle looking young and handsome and you looking like a grandma while other parents assume Kyle's wife passed away and he's got his mother helping him with the kids.

Want to grow up today, Krystal? Want to face just how awful your future is? Marry Kyle and spend the rest of your life wondering if he can really love you and really be attracted to you?

I can play the truth game all day long. It never leaves me in tears.

And maybe next time when you think you have knowledge, grasp that you are a blithering idiot.

Now I don't think I'm all that smart. I work from the belief that I'm the least intelligent person in any room. When people don't know some basic fact, I don't think, "I know it! I'm so smart!" I think, "Wait, I know this. If I know it why the hell don't you?"

And I don't present as an expert. You know that you self-present as an expert despite knowing nothing.

Here's what we learned about Krystal in that video: She has a pointed head and really can't carry off a middle part and has no real friends who'll tell her that to her face. But mainly what we've learned is that she's not a journalist.

She's not a journalist. She's not here to inform. She's a whore for a political party. That's all she is because her tiny little mind can't expand to allow her to become anything else.

So she wants to hector people about how to vote. You know, Krystal, grow up because grown ups don't need you. No one does.

You don't know politics and you don't know history. You're a raving lunatic making fun of others and thinking you sound informed. You don't.

Every election cycle it gets worse. The whoring, yes. But I'm actually talking about the results.

Krystal wants you to know that there's no point to a third party. Grow up. Grow up. People are suffering.

Suffering!

Not Krystal, of course, but you know people. This free floating concept of people -- people she doesn't know, people she's never met and never will. Certainly not anyone she'll bring on BREAKING POINTS -- or RISING before that. Because she doesn't care about the poor, for example. She bare knuckled it through college as an economics major and they may be the only thing worse than a general studies major.

People will suffer!!!

People always suffer, you stupid idiot.

And you do nothing to help them so stop lying to yourself. Hop off that high horse before life knocks you off it.

The idiot she speaks with says -- and she agrees -- we got close with Bernie Sanders. No, that didn't happen. There was no close and this isn't horse shoes. Bernie turned tail and ran which really is the story of his life. He's a con man. I called him out here long, long ago. We've got a VA scandal -- to just give one example -- where people are dying, veterans are dying because they can't get VA care and the VA is using two sets of books to hide the long delays in treatment. This emerges in the mainstream media. And does so hours before a Senate VA Hearing. And yet?

Bernie announces, as chair of the Committee, that they're not going to discuss that. They'll be time for it later. Now let's instead focus on holistic treatments and alternative therapies and . . .

Yeah, he's that pathetic.

He's a con artist from long ago. He conned in the House (I have to run every two years so I can only go so far left) then he finds a new excuse when he gets in the Senate.

Many of Hillary's attacks on him in the campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination came from here because I'd already documented it and because I knew Hillary's team. Years and years ago, once he betrayed veterans, we'd made a point to note how he never accomplished anything.

And that is the reality. In Congress since 1991 and what can he really point to? Naming some post offices?

These same idiots who pimped Bernie (Krystal) are now trying to pimp Marianne Williamson. I know Marianne, I even like her. How's she going to be president? Marianne goes through staff rather quickly. And she's never been a leader outside of her New Age cult of the 80s and 90s. When the press slammed her for her 'answer' of positive thoughts when she was running last time? Let her try to be the front runner and you're going to find out a lot of things that aren't going to be pretty. She's protected by that fact that outside of the cult she built up in the 20th century, few could get through those meandering books. Meaning most people don't know what was in them.

Here's Liz Moore at BUSTLE in July of 2019:

After the Democratic debates, Marianne Williamson quickly became quirky meme fodder across the internet. She has bold ideas regarding reparations, yes, but does that mean we should elect this crystal-loving woman to the Oval Office? Williamson's platform of love and positivity might seem appealing, but abled people would benefit from listening to disabled people, because we can see the dangers Williamson poses to our community.

In Williamson’s 1996 book A Return to Love, she reasoned that when it comes to taking medication, “the healing doesn’t come from the pill. It comes from our beliefs.” Let’s take this to its logical extreme. If a pill doesn’t work, is it because our beliefs are not strong enough? Incorrect? Full of hate? She wrote that “sickness is not a sign of God’s judgement on us, but of our judgement on ourselves. ... Sickness is an illusion and does not exist.” On Twitter, Williamson described depression as a “spiritual disease.” In her 2012 book A Course in Weight Loss, she wrote that men who have AIDS should forgive people in order to heal, comparing it to how a cancer patient would complete chemotherapy.

Should we go on? The woman who wrote that nonsense is the 'answer' per Krystal and others. Kids, that's only two books. Her body of work does not propel her to the top of the ticket. You're an idiot if you think it does. EARTH IN THE BALANCE harmed Al Gore and he was lower on the ticket (vice presidential nominee in 1992).

Elections change very little of what happens. That's reality. FDR was a transformative president. He was called a class traitor. But he made the moves he did to keep the system going. Not out of the good of his heart. He did it to keep factories going and to keep workers working and that is what this system cares about more and more and more.

And that is why we pretend that the pandemic is over. The country had endured as much as it was going to -- or rather, those in charge of industry had endured as much as they were going to so back to work we go, whether it's safe or not.

We have been told, as a people, over and over that voting matters but Emma Goldman was right, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Bully Boy Bush sent troops into Iraq in 2003. Since then? We've had two terms of Barack Obama (Democrat), one term of Donald Trump (Republican) and now Joe Biden (Democrat). Guess what? US troops are still on the ground in Iraq. It'll be 20 years in March.

Now Krystal can never deal with that (Iraq) because it's reality and she's a cheap whore with a cheap product -- she pretends she's doing news but she's not. She's as bad a public affairs host as anyone who ever hosted MEET THE PRESS.

You want change?

The powers-the-be need to be fretting that you'll be in the streets and disrupting production.

Idiots like Krystal are the reason Donald Trump did whatever he wanted. As I noted early on here, We The People held Ronald Reagan in check -- and the media was on Reagan's side. Donald Trump did not have Reagan's communication skills. It would have been easy to circumvent Donald. But instead of doing that we did theater and virtue signaling.

We'll come back to that but let's deal with Krystal's nonsense about the Green Party.

'They didn't win in 2020 so shut up. ' That's her argument.

Well they didn't have all the YOUTUBE programs, did they? They weren't part of an echo chamber, were they?

A bunch of whores told people to vote for Joe Biden -- a huge bunch of whores -- and even doing that Joe only squeaked by. With all that whoring from the large echo chamber, that's all you accomplished.

What if the Green Party had even half that online presence.

They really had none in 2020.

They do now via Howie Hawkins, they have a presence because of him.

I'm confused about which Democrat running for the presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of stealing it?

It wasn't stolen, it was gifted to him, I know. But I'm noting Cindy Sheehan and others were happy to bring on Dario Hunter -- useless piece of crap -- and let Dario tell you that Howie stole the nomination. He didn't steal it from you, Dario, you refused to get off your lazy ass and work for it. Dario was another Princess Hillary who felt he should be gifted with the nomination.

So not only did we not see a 2020 media presence that would not promote the Green Party presidential candidate, we also saw non-Democrats on the left, like Cindy Sheehan, use their platforms to tear apart the Green Party nominee ahead of the election -- to spread rumors and talk -- online -- about what they 'knew' but couldn't share.

Imagine if instead of whoring, people like Krystal actually tried to educate.

The country would be much better.

We'd know, for example, how other countries have better health care. We'd know real issues and not just the talking point that the Democrats want us to repeat this week.

Donald Trump tapped into the reality, that the game is dirty and the rules are rigged. And that's why a large number of people responded to him.

I don't think he's the one who can fix or correct. But he tapped into the sentiment.

And he wasn't wrong.

Year after year, the average American's income gets smaller and smaller while the percentage going to the top gets greater and greater.

And whoring for elections speeds up this decay.

Educating on actual issues could slow the decay, might even turn it around.

But instead of education we get ahistorical claims.

We're going to do it this election cycle, spirit bunnies, this is the one and now we'll take over the party!!!

Do you know how many generations have said in the last 50 years and it's never happened.

I believe that back in 2019, we were being told that Kyrsten Sinema was the answer. She was our left hope, we were told. How'd that work out, help me out on that? Did Sinema become the next Paul Wellstone? What happened to her?

Krystal keeps looking for her savior and then whoring for him/her to try to get votes and it never goes anywhere and it never will.

Krystal's proud that she helped Joe into the White House.

Help me out with what we've got from that.

I'm not seeing serious efforts to address climate change. I see no increase in the minimum wage. I see no rent control efforts (Joe's remarks last week were an insulting joke). ROE could have been codified. LBJ could have gotten it done if he felt pressure.

I don't see much worth bragging about.

And I've seen this over and over in one election after another.

So maybe Krystal can learn history before she next screeches at others to "Grow up!"

People lives are at risk, Krystal, right now. That includes immigrants. Do you know any immigrants to this country because I don't see them on your show. I don't see anything on your show but a lot of whoring.

We are the change. We make change or we don't.

And the only change you help with is the changing of the guard -- each and every hour.

Now more than ever, the needs of the people are not being met and here's Krystal fretting over who's going to be home coming queen.

Before Frank Capra became known for Capra-corn, he actually made some good films, great even. MEET JOHN DOE has a lot to say about the world today. But the one that really angered some at the top was MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON with Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart. It wasn't just movie censor Joseph Breen that objected to the film early on -- how it will damage our system of government. The DC press called it unAmerican for the way it portrayed corruption in the US government. JFK's father Joseph Kennedy, then the US Ambassador to the UK, deemed it "Nazi propaganda" and offered to purchase the negative and destroy the film. We could go and on for hours about the reaction -- of those in power -- to that film -- including the various responses in the US Senate.

Can Krystal speak to that?

No, because she's an uninformed idiot who thinks she can weigh in without having any knowledge base at all. And she can't tell the truth because she's a cheerleader for the system at play. Anything that threatens her must be attacked -- in 1939, she would have been attacking MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.

This week, she attacks anyone who won't do what she tells them to -- this week she's telling them to get on board with kooky, non-scientific Marianne Williamson.

Let's pause for a moment on that.

What did brave Marianne Williamson do in 2020?

Urged everyone to vote for Joe Biden, yeah, I know.

But she did something else. I remember it because Ava and I called out in real time (see September 11, 2020's "TV: Leftists seeking public affairs programming"). Krystal doesn't seem to remember it.

Maybe because Krystal was whoring in real time?

Marianne did it right in front of Krystal on RISING. The general election was around the corner and Marianne was the guest on RISING. Time to churn out -- not turn out -- the vote. And in the segment, Marianne let slip that many dirty things had been done to her by the DNC during her now ended campaign. Such as?

Because ears perked up to that reality.

A real journalist would have pursued it.

But Krystal wasn't trying to inform, she was attempting to churn out the vote. So she let Marianne get away with promising to come back on the show after the election -- we mustn't get distracted before the election, Marianne insisted -- and she'd spill the tea then.

Of course, that day never came. Those days never come with people like Krystal.

She's this cycle's Laura Flanders. And, like Laura before her, she's bleeding out from self-imposed wounds.

Laura got on board with Barack Obama early on in 2007. The semi-closeted lesbian held her tongue when Barack put homophobes on stage and didn't carry that they were proponents of conversion therapy. Never addressing that issue, she did insist about many other issues that we had to get Barack the presidential nomination and then we could hold his feet to the fire.

Barack got the nomination and then Laura was telling us we'd hold his feet to the fire . . . after the general election. We couldn't risk holding his feet to the fire right now.

Barack won the election and then Laura and her ilk were telling us -- for eight years -- that we had to defend Barack.

I kind of thought that was the Secret Service's job.

So instead of making demands, Laura's ilk made every day about defending Barack -- criticism of a tan suit took up nearly a whole week on so-called left websites.

No one would demand that he codify ROE. Remember that? It was his promise. If he had done that, DOBBS would never have happened. He promised he would. Not only did he promise that, he promised it would be the first thing he did as president.

But he shrugged it off and they let him.

That's because they're not about the people. They're about some personality that they latch onto. They're about silencing all criticism of him/ her, getting him/her elected and then continuing to waste time on defending the object of their desire instead of making demands on a public servant.

Their where-else-are-you-going-to-go attitude is not just bad for election cycles. It's also what they do once the person's elected.

And it degrades our rights and our possibilities.

But she wants to lecture others?

And grasp that Krystal is doing that in January of 2023. We're having to endure that garbage in 2023. We're not even waiting for an election year.

It never ends with them.

They suck out all the oxygen in the room.

Real issues can't be addressed because they're always in election cycle mode.

And it's never the time for reality or issues when you're constantly in election cycle mode.

Krystal thinks she's the serious adult in the room and maybe that makes her feel better about her so-so looks -- "I'm serious now, I don't have time to even try to look passable!" -- but it shouldn't. And she shouldn't fool herself that she's working at anything.

All these troubles and problems she insists that people -- ones she never speaks to -- suffer from? Why are we waiting for an election to 'address' them?

We're not addressing them with an election. We're using them as propaganda to churn out the vote.

But if they're so damn important, why aren't we addressing them? Why are we pretending that the answer to immigration is how we vote in November of 2024?

If you think that's a serious issue and that are people are suffering, why are you willing to let them suffer for nearly 21 months more before that election arrives?

You don't care about immigrants or about climate change or about ending wars or about providing children with the food they need or anything else. If you did, that's what you'd be talking about, that's what you'd be putting on your show, that would be your focus.

Instead, you're made your focus hectoring and bullying others to try to force them into joining you in supporting a snake-oil-saleswoman who just know will do everything you need.

And what you know is not based on reality. There is nothing in Marianne's personality or her public record that suggests that she can or will stand up to the DNC. She still can't even tell us how they did her wrong. She was going to tell us after the 2020 election, she insisted, but she still can't go there, still won't go there.

One of the things we popularized with this site and with all the talks on the mainland and Hawaii that we took part in for years and years (from February of 2003 until the pandemic hit and then we moved to zooms) was that you own your vote. You don't owe your vote to anyone. It's up to a politician to earn your vote.

That concept is beyond Krystal's highly limited vision.

It's beyond the limited vision of those Democrats (Al Franken) who sold the Iraq War to others. He was not in the Senate but he was using his connections in New York to meet with various Democrats and tell them to vote for the 2002 resolution. They had to, he insisted, in order to get re-elected.

And that is the most important thing to these people: Not what you do in office, but that you get into office.

It is a disgusting cycle and Krystal Ball is not grown up, is not a person of intelligence and is not worth listening to.

For more on the actual issue of how people see the world, you can see Jim's "Conflict: REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT NETWORK and THE VANGUARD" at THIRD.

The following sites updated:

Monday, January 30, 2023

Look at the record, Pfizer is a threat

Hope you had a great weekend. This is from Saturday night, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "THE PEW stinks"

Sometimes, I forget how many shows I've covered here. Stan has covered a lot. The shows I covered -- that I can remember -- would be MODERN FAMILY, FRINGE, CHUCK, 24, MARVEL AGENTS OF SHIELD and I'm forgetting the other one. Covered means I covered the show repeatedly - every episode from when I started watching. 24 I started covering late in the show's life. And one of my favorite characters was Renee. Annabelle Timsit (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Annie Wersching, the actress best known for voicing Tess Servopoulos in the video game “The Last of Us” and for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the television series “24,” is dead, the Associated Press reported. She was 45.

Ms. Wersching’s publicist told the AP that Wersching died of cancer early Sunday in Los Angeles. It was not immediately clear what type of cancer she had. Deadline reported that cancer was diagnosed in 2020.

Ms. Wersching’s husband, Stephen Full, confirmed her death in a statement to Deadline. “There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today,” he said. “But she left us the tools to fill it. She found wonder in the simplest moment. She didn’t require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you. ‘Go find it. It’s everywhere.’ And find it we shall.”

Tributes to Ms. Wersching flooded social media late Sunday. “We just lost a beautiful artist and human being. My heart is shattered,” tweeted Neil Druckmann, the creator of “The Last of Us” and co-president of the video game developer Naughty Dog.

That's so sad. She was so young and she was really gifted. I haven't seen THE LAST OF US yet but she was so memorable in the 24. She had three kids with Stephen Full. I am so lucky that both my parents are alive. On that, I don't usually note when someone famous has a parent pass but Zachery Levi's father passed away and I'll note that. Zach's my favorite superhero -- Captain Marvel in Shazam movies -- because Zach's one of my favorite actors. I loved every season of CHUCK but the last one. In the last one, Ryan McPartlin, for example, was given way too much time and too many action scenes at the expense of, for example, Chuck's sister. The last thing the show needed was to put another male character front and center. It really damaged season five as did NBC pulling the show from streaming.

Was about to post and saw Levi trending. Zachary agrees Pfizer is a threat. I agree with him. Do you disagree with him? Maybe hold off on that before you read this from WIKIPEDIA:

Illegal marketing of gabapentin for off-label uses[edit]

In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gabapentin only for treatment of seizures. Warner–Lambert, which merged with Pfizer in 2000, used continuing medical education and medical research, sponsored articles about the drug for the medical literature, and alleged suppression of unfavorable study results, to promote gabapentin. Within five years, the drug was being widely used for off-label uses such as treatment of pain and psychiatric conditions. Warner–Lambert admitted to violating FDA regulations by promoting the drug for pain, psychiatric conditions, migraine, and other unapproved uses.^[179] In 2004, the company paid $430 million in one of the largest settlements to resolve criminal and civil health care liability charges. It was the first off-label promotion case successfully brought under the False Claims Act.^[180] A Cochrane review concluded that gabapentin is ineffective in migraine prophylaxis.^[181] The American Academy of Neurology rates it as having unproven efficacy, while the Canadian Headache Society and the European Federation of Neurological Societies rate its use as being supported by moderate and low-quality evidence.^[182]

Illegal marketing of Bextra[edit]

In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of arthritis drug valdecoxib (Bextra) and agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time.^[183] Pfizer promoted the sale of the drug for several uses and dosages that the Food and Drug Administration specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns. The drug was pulled from the market in 2005.^[184] It was Pfizer's fourth such settlement in a decade.^[185]^[186]^[187] The payment included $1.195 billion in criminal penalties for felony violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and $1.0 billion to settle allegations it had illegally promoted the drugs for uses that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) leading to violations under the False Claims Act as reimbursements were requested from Federal and State programs. The criminal fine was the largest ever assessed in the United States to date.^[185]^[186]^[187] Pfizer entered a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General that required it to make substantial structural reforms within the company, and publish to its website its post approval commitments and a searchable database of all payments to physicians made by the company.^[188]

Termination of Peter Rost[edit]

Peter Rost was vice president in charge of the endocrinology division at Pharmacia before its acquisition by Pfizer. During that time he raised concerns internally about kickbacks and off-label marketing of Genotropin, Pharmacia's human growth hormone drug. Pfizer reported the Pharmacia marketing practices to the FDA and Department of Justice; Rost was unaware of this and filed an FCA lawsuit against Pfizer. Pfizer kept him employed, but isolated him until the FCA suit was unsealed in 2005. The Justice Department declined to intervene, and Pfizer fired him, and he filed a wrongful termination suit against Pfizer. Pfizer won a summary dismissal of the case, with the court ruling that the evidence showed Pfizer had decided to fire Rost prior to learning of his whistleblower activities.^[189]^[190]

Illegal marketing of Rapamune[edit]

A "whistleblower suit" was filed in 2005 against Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009, alleging that the company illegally marketed sirolimus (Rapamune) for off-label uses, targeted specific doctors and medical facilities to increase sales of Rapamune, tried to get transplant patients to change from their transplant drugs to Rapamune, and specifically targeted African-Americans. According to the whistleblowers, Wyeth also provided doctors and hospitals that prescribed the drug with kickbacks such as grants, donations, and other money.^[191] In 2013, the company pleaded guilty to criminal mis-branding violations under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. By August 2014, it had paid $491 million in civil and criminal penalties related to Rapamune.^[192]

Illegal marketing[edit]

In June 2010, health insurance network Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for allegedly illegally marketing drugs Bextra, Geodon and Lyrica. BCBS alleged that Pfizer used kickbacks and wrongly persuaded doctors to prescribe the drugs.^[193]^[194] According to the lawsuit, Pfizer handed out 'misleading' materials on off-label uses, sent over 5,000 doctors on trips to the Caribbean or around the United States, and paid them $2,000 honoraria in return for listening to lectures about Bextra.^[195]^[196] Despite Pfizer's claims that "the company's intent was pure" in fostering a legal exchange of information among doctors, an internal marketing plan revealed that Pfizer intended to train physicians "to serve as public relations spokespeople."^[197] The case was settled in 2014 for $325 million.^[198] Fearing that Pfizer is "too big to fail" and that prosecuting the company would result in disruptions to Medicare and Medicaid, federal prosecutors instead charged a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Pfizer, which is "nothing more than a shell company whose only function is to plead guilty."^[197]

Removal of ads after unflattering article[edit]

According to Harper's Magazine publisher John R. MacArthur, Pfizer withdrew "between $400,000 and a million dollars" worth of ads from Harper's Magazine following an unflattering article on depression medication.^[199]

Quigley Company asbestos[edit]

The Quigley Company, which sold asbestos-containing insulation products until the early 1970s, was acquired by Pfizer in 1968. In June 2013, asbestos victims and Pfizer negotiated a settlement that required Pfizer to pay a total of $964 million: $430 million to 80% of existing plaintiffs and place an additional $535 million into a settlement trust that will compensate future plaintiffs as well as the remaining 20% of plaintiffs with claims against Pfizer and Quigley. Of that $535 million, $405 million is in a 40-year note from Pfizer, while $100 million is from insurance policies.^[200]

Shiley defective heart valves[edit]

Pfizer purchased Shiley in 1979, at the onset of its Convexo-Concave valve ordeal, involving the Bjork–Shiley valve. Approximately 500 people died when defective heart valves fractured and, in 1994, Pfizer agreed to pay $10.75 million to settle claims by the United States Department of Justice that the company lied to get approval for the valves.^[201]

Firing of employee that filed suit[edit]

A federal lawsuit was filed by a scientist claiming she got an infection by a genetically modified lentivirus while working for Pfizer, resulting in intermittent paralysis.^[202] A judge dismissed the case citing a lack of evidence that the illness was caused by the virus but the jury ruled that by firing the employee, Pfizer violated laws protecting freedom of speech and whistleblowers and awarded her $1.37 million.^[203]

Celebrex intellectual property[edit]

Brigham Young University (BYU) said a professor of chemistry, Dr. Daniel L. Simmons, discovered an enzyme in the 1990s that led towards development of Celebrex. BYU was originally seeking a 15% royalty on sales, equating to $9.7 billion. A research agreement had been made between BYU and Monsanto, whose pharmaceutical business was later acquired by Pfizer, to develop a better aspirin. The enzyme Dr. Simmons claims to have discovered would induce pain and inflammation while causing gastrointestinal problems and Celebrex is used to reduce those issues. A six-year battle ensued because BYU claimed that Pfizer did not give Dr. Simmons credit or compensation, while Pfizer claimed that it had met all obligations regarding the Monsanto agreement. In May 2012, Pfizer settled the allegations, agreeing to pay $450 million.^[204]

Nigeria Trovafloxacin lawsuit[edit]

Main article: Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.

In 1996, an outbreak of measles, cholera, and bacterial meningitis occurred in Nigeria. Pfizer representatives and personnel from a contract research organization (CRO) traveled to Kano to set up a clinical trial and administer an experimental antibiotic, trovafloxacin, to approximately 200 children.^[205] Local Kano officials reported that more than fifty children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities.^[206] The nature and frequency of both fatalities and other adverse outcomes were similar to those historically found among pediatric patients treated for meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa.^[207] In 2001, families of the children, as well as the governments of Kano and Nigeria, filed lawsuits regarding the treatment.^[208] According to Democracy Now!, "[r]esearchers did not obtain signed consent forms, and medical personnel said Pfizer did not tell parents their children were getting the experimental drug."^[209] The lawsuits also accused Pfizer of using the outbreak to perform unapproved human testing, as well as allegedly under-dosing a control group being treated with traditional antibiotics in order to skew the results of the trial in favor of Trovan. Nigerian medical personnel as well as at least one Pfizer physician said the trial was conducted without regulatory approval.^[210]^[211]

In 2007, Pfizer published a Statement of Defense letter.^[212] The letter stated that the drug's oral form was safer and easier to administer, that Trovan had been used safely in more than five thousand Americans prior to the Nigerian trial, that mortality in the patients treated by Pfizer was lower than that observed historically in African meningitis epidemics, and that no unusual side effects, unrelated to meningitis, were observed after four weeks.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2010, the US Supreme Court rejected Pfizer's appeal against a ruling allowing lawsuits by the Nigerian families to proceed.^[213]

In December 2010, a United States diplomatic cables leak was released by WikiLeaks indicating that Pfizer hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against Nigerian attorney general Aondoakaa to persuade him to drop legal action.^[214] The Washington Post reporter Joe Stephens, who helped break the story in 2000, called these actions "dangerously close to blackmail".^[209] In response, the company released a press statement describing the allegations as "preposterous" and saying that it acted in good faith.^[215] Aondoakka, who had allegedly demanded bribes from Pfizer in return for a settlement of the case,^[216] was declared unfit for office and had his U.S. visa revoked in association with corruption charges in 2010.^[217]^[218]

The lawsuits were eventually settled out of court. Pfizer committed to paying US$35 million "to compensate the families of children in the study", another US$30 million to "support healthcare initiatives in Kano", and 10 million to cover legal costs. Payouts began in 2011.^[219]

Inflating Prices[edit]

In July 2022, UK antitrust authorities fined Pfizer £63 million for unfairly high priced drug that aids in controlling epileptic seizures. The Competition and Markets Authority stated that the company took advantage of loopholes by de-branding epilepsy drug Epanutin, by doing so the price of Epanutin's price was not regulated to the same standards the company are used to and therefore the price of the drug was raised. It was stated that over a four-year period, Pfizer had billed Epanutin for around 780% and 1,600% higher than its standard price.^[220]

Allegations of patent infringement on mRNA technology[edit]

In August 2022, Moderna announced that it will sue Pfizer and its partner BioNTech for infringing their patent on the mRNA technology.^[221]

Environmental record[edit]

Since 2000, the company has implemented more than 4,000 greenhouse gas reduction projects.^[222]

In 2012, the company was named to the Carbon Disclosure Project's Carbon Leadership Index in recognition of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.^[223]

Pfizer has inherited Wyeth's liabilities in the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, a highly toxic EPA Superfund site. Pfizer has since attempted to remediate this land in order to clean and develop it for future profits and potential public uses.^[224] The Sierra Club and the Edison Wetlands Association have opposed the cleanup plan, arguing that the area is subject to flooding, which could cause pollutants to leach. The EPA considers the plan the most reasonable from considerations of safety and cost-effectiveness, arguing that an alternative plan involving trucking contaminated soil off site could expose cleanup workers. The EPA's position is backed by the environmental watchdog group CRISIS.^[225]

In June 2002, a chemical explosion at the Groton plant injured 7 people and caused the evacuation of more than 100 homes in the surrounding area.^[226]

Again, I'd call it a threat.

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

Monday, January 30, 2023.

History is the life that has been lived and information is not static, we learn new things about the past all the time. Starting with news of discoveries in Iraq, Michele W. Berger (PENN TODAY) reports:

When Holly Pittman and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pisa returned to Lagash in the fall of 2022 for a fourth season, they knew they’d find more than ceramic fragments and another kiln. With high-tech tools in hand, the team precisely located trenches to excavate a variety of features of a non-elite urban neighborhood from one of southwest Asia’s earliest cities.

What surprised the researchers most was the large “tavern” they uncovered, complete with benches, a type of clay refrigerator called a “zeer,” an oven, and the remains of storage vessels, many of which still contained food. “It’s a public eating space dating to somewhere around 2700 BCE,” says Pittman, a professor in Penn’s History of Art department, curator of the Penn Museum’s Near East Section, and the Lagash project director. “It’s partially open air, partially kitchen area.”

The find provides another glimpse into the lives of everyday people who dwelled some 5,000 years ago in this part of the world, an area Penn researchers have studied since the 1930s when the Penn Museum teamed up with Leonard Woolley and the British Museum to excavate the important archaeological site of Ur about 30 miles to the southwest. In 2019, the latest round of Lagash excavations began, and despite a short pandemic-necessitated pause, the project has real momentum, with four field seasons now complete.

To excavate most effectively, the researchers are employing cutting-edge methodologies, including drone photography and thermal imaging; magnetometry, which captures the magnetic intensity of buried features; and micro-stratigraphic sampling, a surgically precise type of excavation. To understand the city’s environmental context, they’ve also extracted sediment cores that reflect millennia of ecological development.

“At more than 450 hectares, Lagash was one of the largest sites in southern Iraq during the 3rd millennium,” Pittman says. “The site was of major political, economic, and religious importance. However, we also think that Lagash was a significant population center that had ready access to fertile land and people dedicated to intensive craft production. In that way the city might have been something like Trenton, as in ‘Trenton makes, the world takes,’ a capital city but also an important industrial one.”

The past expands our knowledge of the present -- unless you're an anti-LGBTQ+ lawmaker in Florida -- and helps us appreciate accomplishments of those who came before. Of the latest discovery, Mihai Andrei (ZME SCIENCE) adds:

Some 5,000 years ago, the city of Lagash was one of the best places you could be in the world. Close to the junction between the Tigris and the Euphrates, it evolved and developed in an area we now consider a cradle of civilization. But many of its mysteries are now covered by the shroud of time. Holly Pittman from the University of Pennsylvania is one of the researchers working to uncover that shroud.

Lagash is one of the largest archaeological sites in the region, measuring roughly 3.5 kilometers north to south and 1.5 kilometers east to west. Previous surveys found that Lagash was a bit like Venice — it developed on four marsh islands, some of which were gated. Subsequent archaeological digs have resulted in the discovery of urban neighborhoods, tens of thousands of pottery sherds, and much more.

[. . .]

But perhaps the most intriguing find was a large “tavern”. The building featured benches, an oven, and a type of clay refrigerator called a “zeer.” The zeer used an external clay layer lined with wet sand that contained an inner clay container within which the food or drinks were placed. The evaporation of the outer liquid draws heat from the inner pot and keeps the container cool while only requiring a source of water.

And ANCIENT ORIGINS notes:

According to a 2022 article in Ancient Origins , the city of Lagash, known today as Tell al-Hiba, was located in ancient Mesopotamia, and is believed to have been established between 4,900 and 4,600 years ago and abandoned 3,600 years ago. This makes it one of southwest Asia’s earliest cities.

It has now been more than 40 years since excavations started in Lagash, a city of marsh islands . The latest round of excavations began in 2019, and despite pandemic-induced interruptions, has completed four intense seasons.

In other news, the PRESS TRUST of INDIA notes:

The dreaded terror outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in South-East Asia (ISIL-SEA) has been designated as a global terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council.

The Security Council's 1267 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee added the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in South-East Asia to its list of designated entities last week, subjecting it to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

The outfit, also known as Islamic State East Asia Division and Dawlatul Islamiyah Waliyatul Mashriq, was, according to the UN website, formed in June 2016 “upon announcement by now-deceased Isnilon Hapilon” and is associated with Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, listed as Al-Qaida in Iraq. Hapilon was the leader of Abu Sayyaf, a group affiliated with ISIL, and was killed in 2017.

I guess we could have led into that topic by saying, "Staying with ancient history . . ." Seven years? It took seven years for them to make that designation? Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) notes that the UN has a new post in Iraq:

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, said that the Secretary-General of the United Nations decided to create a new position in Iraq, which is the advisor on climate change and security, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

The announcement of the new decision took place after the Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, received DiCarlo, in Baghdad, in the presence of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, according to a press statement issued by the Iraqi Presidency.

DiCarlo stressed that the United Nations is keen to help Iraq face the challenges of climate change, and emphasized the United Nations readiness to cooperate to reduce the risks of drought and water scarcity.

As climate change damages Iraq, Gaith Abdul-Ahad (GUARDIAN) reports:

Small gangs of buffaloes sat submerged in green and muddy waters. Their back ridges rose over the surface like a chain of black islets, spanning the Toos River, a tributary of the Tigris that flows into the Huwaiza marshes in southern Iraq.

With their melancholic eyes, they gazed with defiance at an approaching boat, refusing to budge. Only when the boatman shrieked “heyy, heyy, heyy” did one or two reluctantly raise their haunches. Towering over the boat, they moved a few steps away, giving the boatmen barely enough space to steer between a cluster of large, curved horns.

On the right bank of the river stood a cultural centre built in the traditional style of southern Iraq, with tall arches made of thick bundles of reed tied together. It catered to a large number of Iraqi tourists and a handful of foreigners who have flocked to visit the marshland region since it was named a Unesco world heritage site in 2016.

A couple of hundred metres past the cultural centre, however, the engine of the boat sputtered, and its bottom scrapped against the mud as the river dwindled into a shallow swamp, where small herons and grebes stood in water barely reaching halfway up their stick-like legs.

The foliage on the two banks also disappeared, revealing a devastating scene: what two years earlier was a great expanse of blue water, a lagoon teeming with wildlife, fish, and home to large herds of water buffaloes, had turned into a flat desert where a few thorny shrubs sprouted.

Under the scorching sun, the hot wind kicked tumbleweed across parched yellow earth, scarred with deep cracks and crumbling into thin dust under the feet. Rising above the ground were mounds of dead reed beds upon which the marsh dwellers had built their homes. A few relics of their former life lay scattered around: broken plastic buckets, some rusting metal pipe, and a kettle.

The Iraqi government is still refusing to seriously address climate change -- even as the impact is evident. Instead, they spend their time with nonsense like taking offense at criticism. For example, the Iraqi courts have always concerned themselves with the actions of others -- even when it meant violating the law. They're now violating the Constitution. RUDAW reports:

A court in Baghdad on Sunday issued a summons order for the second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Shakhawan Abdullah, following a statement he made criticizing the decision from Iraq’s top court to not pay the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against the payment of the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements by Baghdad, claiming it violates the 2021 Iraqi Budget Law.

The decision was criticized by top Kurdish officials, including Abdullah, who accused “a party within the Running the State coalition” of directing the Federal Court to issue the recent decision against the Kurdistan Region, ordering the court to deem the Region’s oil and gas law “unconstitutional” last year, and being responsible for the fluctuation of the Iraqi dinar’s exchange rate with foreign currencies in recent months.

“Rest assured that there will be an end to the overstepping by the Federal Court,” said Abdullah in his statement.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court on Sunday said that Abdullah was being summoned for his “infringement of the judiciary authority’s independence, and his interference in the work of the Federal Supreme Court, his transgression of it, and the violation of the sanctity of its decisions contrary to the constitution and the law.”

Oh, they don't like what a member of Parliament said about them. Boo hoo. They might try referring to the Iraqi Constitution, maybe start with Section 2, Article 36: "The state guarnees in a way that does not violate public order and morality: a) Freedom of expression, through all means. b) Freedom of press, printing advertising, media and publication. c) Freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration. This shall be regulated by law." They could also check out Section Two of Article 38 as well.

They're in violation.

RUDAW also notes:

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Sunday appointed Nima al-Yasiri as his advisor on constitutional affairs, in a step towards amending constitutional articles that hindered the formation of a new government in the country for over a year.

The newly appointed advisor will hold meetings with executive and legislative officials, in order to “chart the roadmap for making the required constitutional amendments,” according to a statement from Sudani’s office.

The statement from the premier added that the step is part of the new government’s ministerial program which was approved by the Iraqi parliament in October, in an effort to prevent the recurrence of political deadlocks, similar to the one that plagued the country following the 2021 parliamentary elections.

I don't understand. Why go to all the trouble? Why not just ignore the Constitution the way the Court does?

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