Thursday, January 24, 2019

Tulsi on Venezuela

I support Tulsi Gabbard for president for many reasons.  Here's one:


The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don't want other countries to choose our leaders--so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.






It is not our right to overthrow an election.  The people of Venezuela made their voices heard and that's a duly elected leader so the US government needs to stop butting in.


Does anyone remember the last big time when the US refused to respect election results?


Barack Obama was president.  The year was 2010.


Thug Nouri al-Maliki had been imposed as prime minister of Iraq.  Back in 2006, Bully Boy Bush had installed him.  And thug Nouri was attacking everyone, running secret prisons and detention and torture centers.


And the Iraqi people voted him out.  They sided instead with a brand new political party, Iraqiya.


But Nouri refused to step down.


They voted in March of 2010 and Nouri refused to step down.  Month after month.  And Barack decided Nouri should be prime minister for a second term -- the Iraqi people be damned.


Barack spat on democracy, on free elections, on the Iraqi people.


He ordered the negotiation of a contract, The Erbil Agreement.  This gave Nouri a second term.  Why did Iraq even hold an election?


Do you know what happened next?  In his second term, Nouri was even worse and that's what allowed ISIS to take hold in Iraq.




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




Thursday, January 24, 2019.  The Iraq War continues and embracing someone who lies about Vietnam is not going to end it any sooner.

We haven't spent time on the rorschach test -- others have -- especially as media criticism, and good for them.  But we are going to weigh in on one aspect.  Nathan Phillips is a liar and is not worthy of support from the true left. Elaine made that clear in "Nathan Phillips is a disgusting attention whore" where she quoted his declaration of how he was called a "baby killer" and spat on by a "hippie girl" when he returned from Vietnam.  First the nonsense of the spitting.  Jerry Lembcke has addressed a lie for years, repeatedly debunking it, over and over.  For NYT on October 30, 2017, he wrote:


 Acknowledging that I could not prove the negative — that they were not true — I went on to say there is no corroboration or documentary evidence, such as newspaper reports from the time, that they are true. Many of the stories have implausible details, like returning soldiers deplaning at San Francisco Airport, where they were met by groups of spitting hippies. In fact, return flights landed at military air bases like Travis, from which protesters would have been barred. Others include claims that military authorities told them on returning flights to change into civilian clothes upon arrival lest they be attacked by protesters. Trash cans at the Los Angeles airport were piled high with abandoned uniforms, according to one eyewitness, a sight that would surely have been documented by news photographers — if it had existed.


And some of the stories have more than a little of a fantasy element: Some claim the spitters were young girls, an image perhaps conjured in the imaginations of veterans suffering the indignities of a lost war.
Listeners, I speculated, are loath to question the truth of the stories lest aspersion be seemingly cast on the authenticity of the teller. The war in Vietnam was America’s longest war at the time, and its first defeat. The loss to such a small, underdeveloped and outgunned nation was a tough pill for Americans to swallow, many still basking in post-World War II triumphalism. The image of protesters spitting on troops enlivened notions that the military mission had been compromised, even betrayed, by weak-kneed liberalism in Congress and seditious radicalism on college campuses. The spitting stories provided reassuring confirmation that had it not been for those duplicitous fifth-columnists, the Vietnamese would have never beaten us.






We betray Jerry and his work when we side with liar Nathan.  Nathan was not in Vietnam.  There's a rush of publications -- including THE NEW YORK TIMES as Elaine notes in "Nathan Phillips kept the US safe from the Maytag Repair Man" -- who are covering for Nathan and doing corrections with 'he didn't claim he was a Vietnam veteran' type b.s.  In some instances, he has claimed to be a veteran of the Vietnam era or Vietnam times.  That's misleading and he knows it.  More to the point, before he learned to fudge, he resorted to outright lying.


New conversation



  • 🚨Nathan Phillips, January 3, 2018🚨

    "I'm a Vietnam Vet. I served in Marine Corps 72 to 76. I got discharged May 5, 1976. I got honorable discharge and one of the boxes shows peacetime or, what my box says is that I was **in theater**.  I don't talk much about my Vietnam times."





    0:31

    90.8K views











    Phil Kerpen has several videos on his Twitter feed and a friend -- an actual Vietnam veteran -- asked that we note that and that we note that GATEWAY PUNDIT has the story here.  They're covering the story from the right and that's fine.  But we're covering it from the left.

    I have no problem with someone who chooses to resist war and I will defend their right to anytime.  But let's be very clear that Kerpen's multiple stints of going AWOL were not about war resistance -- he wasn't in Vietnam and he was never going to be in Vietnam.  He's someone who is troubled.  And that was his problem for years and years -- you can see the toll on him when he speaks -- but then he went after kids and then tried to use his 'Vietnam veteran' status for his bullying.

    I won't deny that he needs help.  He does and I strongly urge him to seek professional care.  His attack on kids is an issue for this community because we don't tolerate that here.  But his attack on the peace movement?  He needs to be kicked to the curb.

    He's a tiny, powerless man who thought he could harness lies and make himself look better.  As Elaine said, he's an attention whore.  He begged to be in the spotlight.  It's about time the press showed how liars get treated -- especially liars who claim combat service that they do not have.  His lies about his service in Vietnam are so vile that it's one thing that we on the left and the right should agree deserves to be called out -- one thing we should easily agree on.

    Again, Nathan's AWOL was not about war resistance.  And his repeating lies to smear the peace movement are disgusting.


    Let's note a real war resister: Jeremy Hinzman.






    I followed the link and what did I see? A more recent photo of Jeremy Hinzman, Nga Nguyen, and Liam ! Their photo from their time at Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC, is still on our wall. Loved seeing the newer photo.











    Jeremy remains in Canada after self-checking out.  Near the end of 2015, John Hagan (NOW) reported:


    Beginning with Hinzman in 2004, U.S. war resisters chose to make Canada their home because of our reputation for fairness and compassion and our history under another prime minister named Trudeau of welcoming 50,000 resisters during the Vietnam War.


    Hinzman, a soldier in the 82nd Air-borne Division, was the first American Iraq War resister to seek refugee status in Canada. He served in a non-combat role in Afghanistan in 2002-03 after applying for conscientious objector status. 




    Denied that status and told he was to be deployed to Iraq, Hinzman, his wife and young son sought asylum here in 2004. He was granted a last-minute stay of deportation in 2008. But his request to stay in Canada on compassionate grounds is still wending its way through the courts.


    Rodney Watson, who spent a year deployed in Mosul, Iraq, could not stay silent about unnecessary violence he witnessed by the occupying troops. He has been in sanctuary for over half a decade, inside a Vancouver church to avoid deportation after the Harper government ordered him returned to the U.S.


    Kimberly Rivera refused further deployment after witnessing mistreatment of Iraqi civilians. She carried an empty rifle while in Iraq because she could not stand the thought of killing a human being. 


    Despite the support of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and a petition signed by more than 20,000 supporters, Rivera was forced from Canada in 2012 into the custody of the U.S. Army and a military prison, where she gave birth. Conservative MPs cheered in the House of Commons at news of her prosecution.


    The Harper government targeted about 50 American veterans living in Canada, directing that their cases for entry be treated as potentially “criminally inadmissible.” 

    I see the War Resisters Support Campaign hasn't Tweeted in a while, here's the most recent Tweet:



    These American deserters from the Iraq war may finally get refuge in Canada:











    Two years and five months ago.  It is difficult to write the same story over and over or Tweet the same thing over and over, I grasp that.  Maybe some people can find a way to cover today's War Resisters?  They have not been granted asylum and they still remain at risk.


    Like their struggle, the Iraq War goes on and goes with little press coverage. Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERS) notes a new development, the Parliament has passed their 2019 budget. It should read "has finally passed their 2019 budget."  Rasheed also writes, "Iraq’s infrastructure is wrecked after years of war against Islamic State and alleged corruption that has left thousands of people without power and water."  That's in need of an addition as well -- unless the destruction from the war itself is no longer counted.  Are we now blaming the 2003 US-led invasion on the Islamic State?  Well serves us all up some 'freedom fries' with that whopper.




    Replying to 



    US intervention in Iraq transformed the country into a modern day utopia? NO. It started a cycle of violence that claimed a million lives. Spare us your nonsense please.









    When it comes to the media, the war resisters who took brave stands are as forgotten as the war itself.



    Silent wars: Why we don’t pay attention to the world’s worst violence














    The following community sites -- plus PACIFICA EVENING NEWS -- updated:



































  • Wednesday, January 23, 2019

    Rami Malek is a f**king liar and Chris Evans is dead to me.

    Note this:

    In a recent interview, the star of the Oscar-nominated film, Rami Malek, said that he was so engrossed with getting into character as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury that he was never even aware of the numerous sexual misconduct allegations against Singer.
    “As far as I knew, I was considered before Bryan was even attached,” he told the Los Angeles Times Wednesday. “So I had my head down preparing for this for about a year ahead of time, and I never really looked up.”
    What?  What a liar.  He'll do anything for an Oscar. 

    WIKIPEDIA:

    In April 2014, Singer was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual assault of a minor. According to the suit filed by attorney Jeff Herman, Singer is alleged to have drugged and raped actor and model Michael Egan in Hawaii after meeting him at parties hosted by convicted sex offender Marc Collins-Rector in the late 1990s.[52] Singer's attorney called the allegations "completely fabricated" and said Singer planned to countersue.[3] Singer denied the allegations in a statement, calling them "outrageous, vicious, and completely false."[53]
    On May 22, 2014, Singer's attorney presented evidence to Federal District Judge Susan Oki Mollway stating that neither Singer nor Egan were in Hawaii at the time.[54] In early August 2014, Egan sought to withdraw his lawsuit via a Request for Court Order of Dismissal, and asked that it be granted "without prejudice or an award of costs or fees, in the interest of justice."[55]
    In May 2014, another lawsuit was filed by attorney Jeff Herman on behalf of an anonymous British man. Both Singer and producer Gary Goddard (who was also named separately in the first case) were accused of sexually assaulting "John Doe No. 117."[56] According to the lawsuit, Goddard and Singer met the man for sex when he was a minor and engaged in acts of "gender violence" against him while in London for the premiere of Superman Returns.[57] The charge against Singer in this case was dismissed, at the accuser's request, in July 2014.[58]
    Singer was cited in the 2014 documentary film on child sexual abuse in Hollywood, An Open Secret, although the film makes no specific allegations against him.[clarification needed][59] Author Bret Easton Ellis alleges that two of his former partners have attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and fellow director Roland Emmerich.[60]

    2017 lawsuit[edit]

    On December 7, 2017, Cesar Sanchez-Guzman filed a lawsuit in the state of Washington against Singer, alleging that he had been raped by the director in 2003, when he was 17 years old.[61] Singer denied the allegations and removed himself from the public eye.[62] After the lawsuit was announced, the USC School of Cinematic Arts removed Singer's name from its Division of Cinema & Media Studies program,[63] which had previously been called for by students of the school.[64]



    "I'm going to be working with Bryan Singer!"  And no one said back to him, "The molester?"  This is beyond stupid that he thinks he can get away with that.

    And if indeed his life is that sheltered, that would be another argument to not give him the award.  Hollywood's supposed to be paying attention to abuse and rape now, decrying it.  But Rami, as late as 2017, thought nothing of working with a man who was repeatedly accused of rape and, he wants us to believe, thought nothing of working with a man who was repeatedly accused of rape because he was so out of touch, so sheltered in his masculine priv, that he never had to think about people who suffered.

    Someone like that is so out of touch that they deserve no award.

    I liked MR. ROBOT.  Probably won't watch it now.  I'm disgusted with his nonsense. 

    Be honest, you wanted the role, you thought you'd make a lot of money and have a good career.

    I can respect that.

    But this nonsense of, "I never knew about it, my head was in the clouds, I was focused on my portrayal."

    I have no respect for him and this after I've already decided Chris Evans is dead to me. 

    He's not that good of an actor -- clearly, he's had one flop after another except when he plays Captain America.

    This is appalling. The ignorance. The gall. The disrespect. It’s shameful. And sadly on brand. When something like this isnt even surprising, it’s evidence to our place in the cycle of recreating our darker chapters. That Native American man showed incredible strength and dignity



    Sniff some balls, Chris, maybe that'll make you happy.  You're a grown man trashing children.  Shame on you, you're pathetic.  At least your brother's out of the closet.  You're a 37-year-old, unmarried man.  You saving it for marriage, bro?  Get real.  And grow up.  Maybe don't hide in a closet while you attack kids.

    The video snippet was never accurate but let's pretend for a moment it was.  Let's pretend a 16-year-old boy mocked/made fun of some stranger who got in his face.

    So F**KING WHAT?

    There was never a need to attack the kid.  Oh, no, a kid was a smart ass, oh, no, it's the end of the world!

    Grow the hell up.

    Chris Evans is a little bitch who hides in a closet and thinks attacking a 16-year-old online makes him a man.

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


    Wednesday, January 23, 2019.  Let's look at the Kurds.


    This morning, REUTERS reports, "A car bomb killed one soldier and injured at least two in a northern Iraqi town near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, the military and a security source said. The military said in a statement that a member of the security forces was killed. A security source told Reuters that at least two others were wounded."

    Oil-rich Kirkuk is a dsiputed region.  Both the Baghdad-based central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government claim it.  Article 140 of the Iraq Constitution offers the measure to settle the dispute.  But Article 140 has never been implemented -- despite the Constitution stating it must be implemented by the end of 2007.  The Rand Corporation noted that the kick the can approach was creating more problems and that was over 12 years ago.


    The war never ends and there are no victors -- though the recently released military report has resulted in non-stop stories noting that Iran is declared the winner.  They've gone on and on about that in the last few days -- once the BUZZFEED 'report' on impeachment exploded Friday night.  Friday morning, we were noting the reality of the report: It makes clear that puppets are put in place, which we knew, but that the debate then goes on about whether or not to keep them in place.  The Bully Boy Bush administration talked repeatedly of whether or not they should remove Nouri from office -- and they installed him and they were in power only during Nouri's first term (2006 to 2010 -- May 2006 to November 2010).




    "An American consensus across the political spectrum seems to exist that the 2003 Iraq War was a disaster, with no redeeming results. But what this consensus ignores is Iraq’s Kurds. Where would they be today without the US intervention?"
     
     



    What would it be like for the Iraqi Kurds today without the US led war that began in 2003 and continues to this day?

    Probably things would be a lot better.  The US would be giving the Kurds financial support and military aid -- doing that to counter Saddam Hussein.  It's doubtful that the US government would have gotten as in bed with the Turkish government as they did.  They certainly wouldn't have needed the land for the CIA base in southern Turkey so they wouldn't have made as many concessions as they ended up doing to get that base.

    Had an attack on the Kurds been carried out by Saddam Hussein, you can be sure that Kurds in the region would have poured into Iraq to defend their own -- and done so quicker than the US could have moved military units in to Iraq to aid the Kurds.

    History demonstrates that the US government -- going back to the days of Richard Nixon, at the very least -- promises much to the Kurds but only delivers when they need the Kurds.  They used them to antagonize Iran, for example, under Nixon.  They never stand by the promises to the Kurds, they never truly support them.  They even had them listed as terrorists -- still listed -- as late as Barack Obama's terms as president.

    The Kurds have given a great deal over the years, they have received very little.  Based on that, the Kurds would probably be better off today without the US-led war stating back in 2003.

    That shouldn't be confusing.  It's an opinion but the question was  asked and, when we respond, we do well to base our call on what has taken place in the past.

    It shouldn't be confusing but, for some people, many things are.


    I will be paying close attention to Iraq. The Kurds, Sunni, Shia, Jews are all a continued threat to Christians & Christian land. They all want to steal more land & while Shia have been great allies thus far, we'll see if it's all an act there or not. Leave Christians alone
     
     



    I'm confused by this so-called Angel.  A person can be Sunni, Shia or Kurd and be a Christian -- even in Iraq.  The Shia crackdown on Sunnis who were alcohol vendors -- we do realize that those were Christian Sunnis, right?  And we do realize that when Christians had to flee Baghdad due to violence, they tended to resettle in northern Iraq -- the Kurdish region?  Do we not get that?  Do we not know that there are many Kurds who are Christians?

    Angel is creating a world where you are on this side of a line or you are on this other side of a line -- it's not that simple.

    Let's go to the simple (WIKIPEDIA) so that the simple-minded might understand:

    Kurdish Christians (KurdishKurdên Mesîhî or Kurdên Xirîstiyan[3][4][5]) are Kurds who follow Christianity. Though the majority of Kurds adopted Islam in the Middle Ages, there were Kurdish converts to Christianity even after the spread of Islam. In recent years some Kurds from Muslim backgrounds have converted to Christianity.[6][7]

    History[edit]

    In the 10th century AD, the Kurdish prince Ibn ad-Dahhak, who possessed the fortress of al-Jafary, abandoned Islam for Orthodox Christianity.[8] In return, the Byzantines gave him land and a fortress. In 927, he and his family were executed during a raid by Thamal, the Arab governor of Tarsus.[9]
    In the late 11th and the early 12th century AD, there were Kurdish Christian soldiers in the army of fortress city of Shayzar in present-day Syria.[10]
    The Zakarids–Mkhargrdzeli, an Armenian[11][12]–Georgian dynasty of at least partial Kurdish[13][14][15][16][17] origin, ruled parts of northern Armenia in the 13th century AD and tried to reinvigorate intellectual activities by founding new monasteries.[18] At the peak of Kingdom of Georgia the family led the unified Armeno-Georgian army. Two brothers of this family, Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli led the army to victory in Ani in 1199.
    Kurds who converted to Christianity usually turned to the Nestorian Church.[19] In 1884, researchers of the Royal Geographical Society reported about a Kurdish tribe in Sivas which retained certain Christian observances and sometimes identified as Christian.[20]
    One of the most prominent Kurdish leaders in Iraqi KurdistanSheikh Ahmed Barzani who was a brother of Mustafa Barzani, announced his conversion to Christianity during his uprising against the Iraqi government in 1931.[21]

    Contemporary Kurdish Christians[edit]

    The Kurdish-Speaking Church of Christ (The Kurdzman Church of Christ) was established in Hewlêr (Erbil) by the end of 2000, and has branches in the SilêmanîDuhok governorates. This is the first evangelical Kurdish church in Iraq.[22] Its logo is formed of a yellow sun and a cross rising up behind a mountain range. Kurdzman Church of Christ held its first three-day conference in Ainkawa north of Arbil in 2005 with the participation of 300 new Kurdish converts.[23] According to one Kurdish convert, an estimated 500 Kurdish Muslim youths have converted to Christianity since 2006 throughout Kurdistan.[24] A Kurdish convert from the Iraqi military who claims to have transported weapons of mass destruction also stated that a wave of Kurds converting to Christianity is taking in northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan).[25] Part of the English-language New Testament was first available in the Kurdish language in 1856.[26]

    See also[edit]

    References



    Christianity is a religion.  It's not an ethnicity.



    On the Kuridstan Region, ALJAZEERA offers a video report today.





    They note:

    The first notable, historical mention of the Kurds is widely thought to be the Sharafnama, or The Book of Honour, by the medieval Kurdish poet Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1597. Written by a Kurd about his own people, Sharafnama arguably put Kurdish culture and history on the map.
    A people who saw themselves on a par with Persians and Arabs had announced themselves to the world.
    The Kurds originate from the mountain regions of the northern Middle East and currently number between 25 million and 35 million and occupy an area spanning the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They are the fourth largest ethnic group in the region - outnumbered by both Arabs and North Africans - and have a difficult relationship with other ethnic groups and countries in the region. 

    The Kurds have anticipated, negotiated, warred and waited to establish their own permanent state since the First World War and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. But they have been constantly disappointed, not least when Asia Minor was given to the new state of Turkey in 1923.




    Staying with the Kurds for a bit more:

    Imagine the man who was responsible to crush in & admits that has helped terrorists & jihadists inside , while the world is still silent, & leaving the Kurds who has given 12,000 martyrs in fighting to be invaded by Turkey
     
     



    Who's he speaking of?  Brett McGurk.  Old Blue Balls himself.  He always had time to cheat on whomever was his wife at the moment.  He did a for-show stunt as the year wound down and some idiots applauded him.  Because, apparently, the now 'left' thing to do is to praise the Bully Boy Bush minions that managed to hang on in government.


    Former US Envoy Brett McGurk Admits Most ISIS Support Came Across Turkey-Syria Border. No Kidding Sherlock! It came into Incirlik NATO airbase in Turkey. Map from October 2015
     
     



    If you don't get how vile he is, Christiane Amanwhore.


    Watch my full interview with , former special presidential envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition:
     
     



    She used her position at CNN to repeatedly insist that the US go to war with Syria.  This was advocacy journalism -- which CNN is not supposed to engage in.  She's always been a nightmare which is why Nora Dunn played a parody of her in the film THREE KINGS.  That was the real Amanwhore.  She's a War Hawk married to a War Hawk.  And America rejects her.  That's why she's on PBS and CNN.  When she had a job that depended on delivering viewers, ABC's THIS WEEK, she was quickly fired -- she couldn't deliver viewers.  People, when they grab their remotes, didn't want to endure her.



    The following community sites -- plus DISSIDENT VOICE -- updated: