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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Lee Camp, Walt Zlowtow, and Idiot of the week

Here's Lee Camp on the spineless 'progressive' Democrats.

Okay, let's do Idiot of the week early because I can pick someone other than Senior Feeble (Joe Biden). It's Pramila Jayapal of the US Congress. On Monday, her office released a statement signed by 29 other members of the House calling for diplomatic efforts with regards to Ukraine. Then they all caved. She lied and stated that the release was issued by her staff by accident and that she was taking responsibility. Get the problem with that? If not, let BUSINESS INSIDER explain:

Some members of Congress give their communications staff leeway and others "micromanage their press operation and scrutinize every word of a tweet and press release. Rep. Jayapal is the latter," the former Hill staffer said.

"You can't blame the staff and then accept responsibility in the next line of your statement," the former staffer wrote in an email. "That's not how that works. And I doubt it was released by staff without vetting. That's just not how she runs her office."

Pramila is the Idiot of the week. She took a brave stand, then backed off, then lied. Idiot. Walt Zlotow (ANTIWAR.COM) notes:

That was quick.

On Monday, 30 House Democrats representing the Congressional Democratic Caucus, sent a letter to President Biden to initiate negotiations to end the Russo Ukraine war. “We urge you to pair the military and economic support the United States has provided to Ukraine with a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire.”

Finally, a tiny contingent, 13% of House Dems, got the message after 250 days of unrelenting carnage in Ukraine, with no end in sight, that only negotiations will end this war. Check that. The other way is nuclear Armageddon. It’s likely the thought of reliving the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago, this time with an explosive ending, motivated their plea.

It did, however, gave those of us in the peace community, a glimmer of hope Democrats controlling Congress would begin an actual debate promoting negotiations which are the only way this war will end short of nuclear confrontation.

But within 24 hours our slim hopes were dashed when the Progressive Caucus rescinded their letter and reiterated lockstep support for no negotiations without Ukraine approval.

They wilted amid of firestorm of criticism from pro war hardliners in government and the pundit class they were abandoning Ukraine by even considering negotiations without Ukraine’s lead, input and involvement. But this maligns the carefully worded letter which promoted negotiations to achieve “a free and independent Ukraine” but that “it is America’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue to support such a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine.”

Mickey Z has a good photo essay at DISSIDENT VOICE.

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

Wednesday, October 26, 2022. Cowards in Congress and homophobes in the court define the US while Iraq has a rare arrest and conviction in the murder of a protester.

Noted homophobe Cathy Miller of Bakersfield, California is being allowed to practice her homophobia and Georgetown homophobe and FOX 'NEWS' 'scholar' Jonathan Turley gets as close to jizzing as a man his age can over her court win.

Turley likes to present himself as a free speech advocate but every year with FOX 'NEWS' takes him further and further away from reality. In his rush to celebrate discrimination, he loses whatever is left of his legal mind.

Idiot Cathy thinks she's an artist and idiots like Turley have encouraged her in that delusion. She's a hateful person who doesn't know anything including her own supposed religion.

Idiot Cathy would be traumatized if she had to make a cake if it were for a gay couple getting married!!!! It would destroy her life.

Reality, she provides a service. That's all she does. This is not freedom of speech.

In the current climate where Jewish people are being attacked and many people have valid concerns about a revival of the KKK, we don't need more discrimination. But Turley's on board with it because he's a homophobe.

You carry this nonsense out to the logical conclusion and you see how damaging it is.

You are stranded because you ran out of gas and the only service station refuses to sell you gas because you're a gay couple and it would violate their free speech rights. And let's expand it because that is what happens with hate. So then some bigot gets to insist that their religion doesn't allow for interracial couples and then they're the ones denied service. Or they insist that their faith means that they only sell to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior so Jews, Muslims, et al will not be served.

No one's asked Idiot Cathy to attend a gay wedding. She's supposed to be baking a cake. That is her job. But she think she can refuse service based upon what the customer does in bed. It's discrimination, it's not free speech. She can worship however she wants. But if she has a business, she can't discriminate.

This is discrimination and lets invoke those two infamous words: "Slippery slope."

You allow her to discriminate against gays and then you allow the next person to discriminate against mixed-race couples, against people based on their skin color, against people based upon their religion or lack of religion.

She bakes cakes. I must have missed -- like she missed the part about the Good Samaritan -- the verse on "Thou shall not bake cakes for those you disagree with."

And on Jonathan Turley, I hope your campus is taking a good luck at what you're inspiring in the comments of your website. I hope they're seeing the effect that you are having. I hope they're registering how you regularly issue cover-your-ass statements regarding January 6th or racism when you write about those topics but that you've fostered homophobia online by never feeling the need to even incldue the weak ass defense of "Naturally, I support the rights of LGBTQ Americans." I hope they're seeing it because it won't be long before they've got a student complaining about your discrimination in the classroom because the two go hand and hand.

Some people are ridiculous and live their later years in fear. Jonathan's made the choice to be one of those people.

From the embarrassment of Jonathan Turley, let's move to another -- Democrats in Congress. Eric London (WSWS) reports:

On Monday, 30 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to President Joe Biden suggesting the US negotiate with Russia to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The letter cited “the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation” and expressed concern that the war is forcing billions of people worldwide to suffer loss of access to food and other necessities.

On Tuesday, with the “catastrophic possibilities” just as great as the day before, the Democratic signatories—including all four congressional members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—withdrew their letter, repudiated calls for negotiation and pledged their full support for the war.

The reversal was immediate and total. In a statement published Tuesday, Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (Democrat-Washington state) called Monday’s letter “unfortunate” and apologized on behalf of the letter’s signatories for causing a “distraction” to the war effort. “The Congressional Progressive Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine,” she stated. Not a single member of the caucus voiced any opposition to the reversal.

Jayapal did not merely withdraw the letter, she also committed the caucus to support the war until Russia is forced to capitulate. “Every war ends with diplomacy,” she wrote, “and this one will too after Ukrainian victory.” But according to the letter issued on Monday, if the Russian government lacks “a realistic framework for a ceasefire,” then the “risk of catastrophic escalation” will only grow. While the signatories wrote Monday that “the alternative to diplomacy is protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks,” on Tuesday they chose “protracted war” and accepted the risks.

Such is the reactionary dynamic of Democratic Party politics. This profile in political cowardice once again demonstrates that the Democratic Party, like its Republican counterpart, is nothing but a political pillar of American imperialism. It is a vehicle for prosecuting Wall Street’s reckless drive for world domination. Its “left” wing, represented by politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat-New York), is no exception.

These heroes of the upper middle class “left” are scrambling over one another to erase their signatures from Monday’s letter asking for negotiations. In a transparently false attempt to blame her subordinates, Jayapal (who claims to be a supporter of the rights of employees against employers) ignominiously said the letter “unfortunately was released by staff without our vetting.”

Many signatories employed the same phrases to explain that they no longer support negotiations, as though they were reading from a common script. Mark Pocan (Democrat-Wisconsin) tweeted, “I have no idea why it went out now. Bad timing.” Sara Jacobs (Democrat-California) said, “Timing in diplomacy is everything. I signed this letter on June 30, but a lot has changed since then.” Ilhan Omar (Democrat-Minnesota), who was endorsed by the DSA, said, “Timing is everything in public policy, letters are written to respond to a moment and in politics moments pass in the speed of light. In this particular case, the letter was a response to intel we were getting on the war and the pathway forward.”

Omar’s allusion to receiving “intel” in briefings from the CIA and Pentagon is further proof that the pseudo-left is an arm of US imperialism which “responds” to the demands of the military-intelligence agencies. The “intel” Omar and the rest of the Progressive Caucus received in the wake of Monday’s letter was that they must immediately withdraw it and reverse course, which they promptly did.

Here are four video reports on this nonsense.

Chris Hedges (SCHEERPOST) offers:

I have covered enough wars to know that once you open that Pandora’s box, the many evils that pour out are beyond anyone’s control. War accelerates the whirlwind of industrial killing. The longer any war continues, the closer and closer each side comes to self-annihilation. Unless it is stopped, the proxy war between Russia and the U.S. in Ukraine all but guarantees direct confrontation with Russia and, with it, the very real possibility of nuclear war.

Joe Biden, who doesn’t always seem to be quite sure where he is or what he is supposed to be saying, is being propped up in the I-am-a-bigger-man-than-you contest with Vladimir Putin by a coterie of rabid warmongers who have orchestrated over 20 years of military fiascos. They are salivating at the prospect of taking on Russia, and then, if there is any habitation left on the globe, China. Trapped in the polarizing mindset of the Cold War — where any effort to de-escalate conflicts through diplomacy is considered appeasement, a perfidious Munich moment — they smugly push the human species closer and closer toward obliteration. Unfortunately for us, one of these true believers is Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated.”

Annihilated. Are these people insane?

You know we are in trouble when Donald Trump is the voice of reason.

“We must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in world war three” the former president said. “And there will be nothing left of our planet — all because stupid people didn’t have a clue … They don’t understand what they’re dealing with, the power of nuclear.”

I dealt with many of these ideologues — David Petraeus, Elliot Abrams, Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland — as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. Once you strip away their chest full of medals or fancy degrees, you find shallow men and women, craven careerists who obsequiously serve the war industry that ensures their promotions, pays the budgets of their think tanks and showers them with money as board members of military contractors. They are the pimps of war. If you reported on them, as I did, you would not sleep well at night. They are vain enough and stupid enough to blow up the world long before we go extinct because of the climate crisis, which they have also dutifully accelerated.

If, as Joe Biden says, Putin is “not joking” about using nuclear weapons and we risk nuclear “Armageddon,” why isn’t Biden on the phone to Putin? Why doesn’t he follow the example of John F. Kennedy, who repeatedly communicated with Nikita Khrushchev to negotiate an end to the Cuban missile crisis? Kennedy, who unlike Biden served in the military, knew the obtuseness of generals. He had the good sense to ignore Curtis LeMay, the Air Force Chief of Staff and head of the Strategic Air Command, as well as the model for General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove,” who urged Kennedy to bomb the Cuban missile bases, an act that would have probably ignited a nuclear war. Biden is not made of the same stuff.

Turning to Iraq where the big story remains the theft of $2.5 billion. Since that story hit the news last week, an arrest has been made of a man at the airport trying to leave the country. Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Iraq's judiciary claims to have traced and seized “most” of the $2.5 billion embezzled from government funds in the latest corruption case that has shocked the country and drawn UN condemnation.

The announcement of the recovered funds was made by a senior judge in charge of the investigation on Tuesday.

The latest scandal, revealed earlier this month by a government minister, has caused a political storm in corruption-plagued Iraq and is being dubbed domestically as “the theft of the century”.

In the embezzlement, an amount of 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars (almost $2.5 billion) was fraudulently paid to five companies by the General Commission of Taxes, an office within the Ministry of Finance.

In other legal news, RUDAW notes:

An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death by hanging for the killing of an activist during the 2019 Tishreen protests, reported the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council.

Prominent activist Thaer al-Tayeb was severely wounded when a sticky device attached to his car exploded while he was on his way back to Diwaniyah from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on December 15, 2019. He was announced dead in hospital two days later.

“The al-Qadisiyah criminal court issued a death sentence against Kifah al-Kuraiti after the assassination in Diwaniyah province which targeted activist Thaer al-Tayeb,” read a statement from the Iraqi judiciary.

The announcement of the activist’s death prompted angry protesters in Diwaniyah to set ablaze offices of the pro-Iran militias of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) and Badr, and further charged the hundreds of thousands of people holding mass anti-corruption protests in most Iraqi provinces.

THE NEW ARAB reminds, "More than 600 Iraqi protesters were killed and tens of thousands wounded during the demonstrations. Some activists died in targeted assassinations, including former government adviser Hisham al-Hashemi who was shot near his home in July 2020." THE NATIONAL adds:

Although departing Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi has repeatedly vowed to seek justice for the hundreds killed, most of the deaths have gone unpunished.

Two people were sentenced to death last year over the killing of a teenager who joined the protests.

Last year, the UN warned that Iraqi activists were being killed with impunity.

“The rights of many victims and their families to truth, justice, redress and reparation have not been fully respected,” it said in a report.

As we wind down, let's note BROS which is now available in the US on streaming. Justin Heo (USC ANNENBERG MEDIA) notes:

From the quick-witted angry comedian, Eichner, who is best known for “Billy on the Street” (2011), and filmmakers Nicholas Stoller and Judd Apatow, “Bros” is a rom-com about two men who fall in love. And not to be dramatic, but “Bros” is literally the best gay film I’ve ever seen.

Eichner plays Bobby Lieber, a successful podcaster and chairman of a committee that is overseeing the creation of the first LGBTQ history museum. Bobby takes on the same charms as Eichner: He’s intense and cynical yet crass and self-deprecating. He’s a 40-year-old gay man who has never been in a serious relationship until he meets Aaron, played by Luke Macfarlane.

“Bros” is an easy watch with some familiar story beats. The jokes are hilarious in both its writing and delivery, with standout performances from Bowen Yang and Jim Rash. The comedy is smart, largely critiquing gay culture without mocking it, and pokes fun at infighting among the LGBT community, impossible beauty standards and the promiscuity of gay men.

[. . .]

At its core, “Bros” is a hilarious movie that packs a lot more heart than expected. When the movie is funny, it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious, and when it’s sweet, it’s tear-jerking. There’s something very emotional about seeing a relatable representation of gay men, and “Bros” makes me optimistic for the future of gay cinema, especially as it stands to impact many more queer adolescents by widening its audience and accessibility.

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Ralph Fiennes is an idiot, DNC isn't much brighter right now

Ralph Fiennes really should shut up. He was the only bad thing about Daniel Craig's Bond films and he's the failure who crashed THE AVENGERS. If he wanted to support his friend J.K. Rowling, that's fine. But that's not what he's doing. He's supporting her transphobia:

“J.K. Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings,” Fiennes told The New York Times. “It’s about how you become a better, stronger, more morally centered human being. The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling.”

Fiennes continued, “I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s not some obscene, über-right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’ And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman.”

The “Menu” star addressed cancel culture as a whole, saying, “Righteous anger is righteous, but often it becomes kind of dumb because it can’t work its way through the gray areas. It has no nuance.”

Hey, King Ralph, JK is the one who "has no nuance."

I really don't care what JK wrote or didn't write, it doesn't excuse the hate she hurls on people. I don't feel sorry for a woman whose made millions and now attacks trans people. They're the victims here, not the rich bitch. King Ralph's an idiot. Keep him in the UK, please.

Meanwhile:

Democrats facing relentless GOP attacks over high inflation appear to be narrowing in on a defense of programs like Social Security and Medicare as they seek -- in the final weeks of the midterm cycle -- to boost their standing with voters who say they are more distressed about the economy.

In recent days, President Joe Biden and top lawmakers on Capitol Hill have boasted that they'll stifle any attempt to cut the programs, seizing on both the rising likelihood that the Republicans wrest back control of at least one chamber of Congress next month and plans from some GOP lawmakers that could curtail the entitlement programs as part of broader government spending changes.

Apparently, today the polls finally registered with the DNC. Despite all of Nancy Pelosi's psychotic ravings, the GOP is probably going to win the mid-terms. If the DNC missed it, this new effort that they just activated? Early voting already started in many places. They really needed this back in August.

A further sign that the geriatrics in charge of the Democratic Party need to step back and let young blood step forward. Sadly, at this rate, people in their 50s would qualify as young blood.

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

Tuesday, October 25, 2022. Pimping a candidate when they aren't worth it, an arrest takes place in Iraq, potable water and farming impacted by climate change, and much more.

The garbage never gets picked up -- it just stays out there and stinks everything up. Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon prove that with the parcel they left by the side of the road at COUNTERPUNCH. They tell you how rotten this Democratic candidate and veteran is and how awful this veteran and Republican candidate is and then, at the end, they offer even more garbage:

To find a veteran willing to challenge the military-industrial complex, one has to look outside the two major parties in this election cycle. In North Carolina, his name is Matt Hoh, a former Marine and ex-State Department official with a very impressive resume and record of anti-war activism. Hoh is campaigning for an open US Senate seat against Democrat Cheri Beasley, a former state supreme court justice, and a Trump-backed Republican, Congressman Ted Budd.

The national Democratic Party invested heavily in a failed legal effort to keep him off the ballot. He’s been excluded from debates and ignored in national press coverage of the race. And if Hoh, as a Green Party candidate, contributes in any claimed way to a narrow defeat of Beasley by Budd on November 8, he will be forced to endure the same lasting opprobrium heaped on Ralph Nader and Jill Stein, past GP presidential candidates.

But, like both of them, Hoh is defending democracy by adding to the range of electoral choices in his own state-wide race, while demanding major election reform that would protect the right to vote and reduce the role of big money in politics. Sadly, that’s a “unique perspective” not shared by most military veterans seeking votes this fall, whether as centrist Democrats or right-wing Republicans.

I don't see him changing a damn thing mainly because I don't see him getting eleected. But I see him as a clear danger to the left. If you don't, you're not paying attention.

Ava and my "TV: The media that begs for criticism" covers some of the media failures last week -- including Joe Biden apparently falling asleep in the middle of an interview with Jonathan Capehart. It also covers a very disturbing segment regarding Matthew Hoh.

Hoh is about defending democracy? We didn't see that. We saw him talking about his buddy Grover SMASH GOVERNMENT Norquist and holding their relationship as a model of what he wants the left to do. Sorry but those who parrot the false talking point of 'welfare queens' should not be our friends unless we despise the safety net. Grover wants to do away with Social Security even. Is Matty Hoh aware of that? Is he also endorsing that?

He may not be aware of it. He's not a very smart person. He decided to tackle media criticism in that video segment and didn't feel the need to know a damn thing. How does media consolidation hurt a society? That's not a new topic. Yet Matty Hoh would probably respond, "Consolawhat?"

It takes a real idiot to argue that what the left needs is to all get in line after they aired their 'problems.' No, you stupid idiot, the answer is never to become more like (how you see) Republicans. And if getting in line is your goal for success, then you get your little ass and drop out of your election race.

It's cute how these men -- and it's usually a man -- think they can tell everyone what is important and what isn't based on their limited lives.

Everything he says in that segment is repugnant and wrong.

Serving in the Iraq War was apparently his grad school and, he believes, taught him everything he knows or needs to know.

It clearly didn't teach him a damn thing or he wouldn't try to do a lengthy segment offering his 'media critique' that only demonstrated he didn't know a damn thing and thought he could bluff his way through a topic that he himself choose to speak about.

The left doesn't need to 'fall in line.' That's never going to be the answer and how appalling that the notion is proposed by a supposed third party candidate. Equally true, the Iraqi people suffer to this day. And Matthew Hoh didn't just go over to Iraq. He was part of the stateside team planning and executing the Iraq War for Bully Boy Bush. How telling that Grover's cock-knocking buddy made a showy resignation . . . months after Barack Obama was president but never felt the need to do so when Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House. Barack was no saint and this site has never pretended that he was. But Bully Boy Bush was one of the great War Criminals of the 21st century. Matthew Hoh could and did work with Bully Boy Bush. It was only Barack that offended Hoh's delicate sensibilities.

And his Afghanistan remarks that he's so famous for? They're not worth being famous for, not in a good way.

Hoh has had a very limited life and he's obviously not reflected on any of it.

Instead of glorifying people who idolize Grover and demand that the left "fall in line" behind whatever he orders -- is that what he took away from his military service? -- I support people with lived lives, some woman who struggled to raise a family and grasp the real realities and the real network that holds this country together.

Next Matthew Hoh feels the need to speak, maybe it can be to take accountability for is part in planning and executing the Iraq War on behalf of Bully Boy Bush. I don't want his simpering 2021 remarks again about how the media is putting so much attention into covering Afghanistan but they will forget it in a few months until he can point out that this long ago happened to Iraq.

Matthew Hoh did serious damage to the Iraqi people.

And shame those idiots who eat up his remarks 'on Afghanistan' -- remarks like, "This war is a living legacy of the cold war. I was born in 1973; that’s the year the king was deposed." He always centers everything around himself, doesn't he? His scope is that limited and that's really sad for a man who's about to be 50.

Turning to Iraq where last week's big story was the discovery that $2.5 billion was stolen by government officials. RUDAW reports this morning:

Iraq’s interior ministry on Monday announced the arrest of one of the main suspects in the theft of $2.5 billion in tax funds as he was attempting to flee the country from Baghdad International Airport.

An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry earlier this month concluded that $2.5 billion dollars in tax funds were stolen from a bank by five companies during the tenure of former finance minister Ali Allawi.

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council issued arrest warrants and travel bans for three individuals suspected of involvement in the colossal theft on Thursday. One of the suspects, Noor Zuhair Jassim, the managing director of an oil services company, was arrested by security forces on Monday evening.

AFP adds:

A security unit "arrested Nour Zuhair Jassem at Baghdad International Airport while he was trying to flee the country on a private jet," Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanemi said in a statement.

The state's anti-corruption agency described the suspect as "the director general... of a petrol services company", according to a separate statement.

Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) offers:

Legislator Mustafa Sanad, who has been following the case, described him as "the main accused" in the case, saying he hired a private jet and planned to head to Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

The businessman is one of four who are sought by the authorities over the case. The whereabouts of the others is unknown.

Trading companies and people who have dealings with the government are required to deposit a specific amount of money, from which taxes will later be deducted.

Afterwards, the companies and people can apply to withdraw what is left from their deposits.

According to the findings of internal investigation conducted by the Finance Ministry, the companies, at least three of them established last year, submitted fake documents for their claims.

The money was paid through 247 cheques between September 9, 2021, and August 11, 2022, from the commission's account at the state-run Rafidain Bank.

In other news, Wladimir van Wilgenburg (KURDISTAN 24) notes:

Farming communities in Iraq have seen their wheat, vegetable, and fruit harvests decline for the second year in a row because of severe drought conditions, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warns in a new survey.

The survey was published ahead of the UN climate change conference (COP 27) in Egypt next month.

A quarter of the 1,341 households surveyed by NRC across five governorates this year said they witnessed over 90 per cent of wheat failure this season, a direct result of water shortages according to those interviewed.

A further 25 per cent said they had made no net profit out of their wheat crop for the entire year. "Prolonged drought spells have forced one-quarter of farming families to rely on food assistance amid a lack of harvest," the NRC said.

“We are seeing the continued damage from Iraq’s climate and water crisis,” said NRC’s Iraq Country Director James Munn in a statement. “People are witnessing their fertile land and crops vanish year after year. The lands that have fed a nation are drying up fast.”

Iraq is battling several years of drought, the governments of both Iran and Turkey are blocking the flow of the two big rivers running through Iraq (the Tigris and the Eurphates), everyone is expected to be effected by climate change; however, Iraq has been named the fifth most vulnerable country in the world. Dust storms are increasing in frequency and in force. Speaking to the United Nations at the start of the month, the US Deputy Rep to the UN, Ambassador Richard Mills, noted that climate change was one of the challenges Iraq is facing, "Complicated challenges face the next government – including passing a budget, developing oil and gas legislation that is acceptable to the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government, improving the provision of electricity, combatting climate change, promoting private sector development and job growth, and increasing women’s participation in the workforce." Also this month, the International Organization for Migration pointed out, "Displaced families are likely to be among the most vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes that can impact livelihoods, food security and social cohesion. Sustainable return and rein-tegration can be determined by many factors but the role of climatic change and environmental degradation in return dynamics is insufficiently understood."

AFP notes:

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an aid group active in the oil-rich but war-scarred country, surveyed 1,341 households in August in five provinces including Basra, Nineveh and Anbar.

“We are seeing the continued damage from Iraq´s climate and water crisis,” said James Munn, the NRC´s country director, in a statement released alongside the survey findings. “People are witnessing their fertile land and crops vanish year after year.”

The NRC study found that “the crisis has had an immediate impact on access to drinking and irrigation water as well as on the production of crops,” causing 35 percent of households to reduce the amount of food they consume.

Turning to the US and the film BROS which is now available on streaming platforms, we'll note this discussion with Harvery Fierstein.

And we'll note this interview with Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane.

The following sites updated:

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Monday, October 24, 2022

Lee Camp, homophobic baker Cathy Miller, Henry Cavill

First up, Lee Camp.

Now for something disgusting. From AP:

The state Department of Fair Housing and Employment had sued Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, arguing owner Cathy Miller intentionally discriminated against the couple in violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Miller’s attorneys argued her right to free speech and free expression of religion trumped the argument that she violated the anti-discrimination law. Kern County Superior Court Judge Eric Bradshaw ruled Friday that Miller acted lawfully while upholding her beliefs about what the Bible teaches regarding marriage.

The decision was welcomed as a First Amendment victory by Miller and her pro-bono attorneys with the conservative Thomas More Society.

“I’m hoping that in our community we can grow together,” Miller told the Bakersfield Californian after the ruling. “And we should understand that we shouldn’t push any agenda against anyone else.”

A spokesperson said the fair housing department was aware of the ruling but had not determined what to do next. The couple, Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, said they expect an appeal.

You're baking a cake. You don't want to bake a cake, close your business. You shouldn't be allowed to pick and choose who you serve. Before LOVING V VIRGINIA, these same jerks would be saying, "My religion doesn't approve of inter-racial marriages." I don't care what you're religion approves of. I am free of your religion because I live in the US. Tastries Bakery should be boycotted. It should be shut down. This is discrimination. No one's forcing the woman to attend a wedding. She makes cakes and someone requested a cake. She's a vile and disgusting person who will rot in hell for failing to show the same compassion Jesus showed. And she deserves that.

Free speech is not the baking of a cake. There's no song that goes, "If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake, baked a cake, it's my free speech, it's my free speech."

Now some Henry Cavill news:

The Man of Steel returns!

Henry Cavill posted to social media on Monday that he is “back as Superman” following his cameo in the post-credits scene of “Black Adam,” which opened on Friday to $140 million worldwide.

“I wanted to wait until the weekend was over before posting this because I wanted to give you all a chance to watch ‘Black Adam,'” Cavill said in a video posted to his Instagram feed. “But now that plenty of you have, I wanted to make it official: I am back as Superman.”

Good. He's the best Superman the movies have had. I wasn't crazy about him in the beginning. Marcia wrote about how it took THE MAN FROM UNCLE for her to appreciate him. That might have been the film for me too (I love that movie). Whatever the film it was, I went back and watched MAN OF STEEL and saw my problem wasn't Cavill, it was the dark nature of the film. He's better than Brandon Routh and better than Christopher Reeves. He's better than TV's George Reeves, Tom Welling and even Dean Cain. Not sure I'd rank ahead of my boy Tyler on SUPERMAN AND LOIS.

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

Monday, October 24, 2022. Oh, look, Emmanuel Macron just noted Iraq more in two days than US media does in three months, ALJAZEERA offers a documentary on the protest movement, and much more.

Yesterday, Emmanuel Macron was in Rome. The President of France insisted that Ukraine should not make people forget "the conflicts in Armenia, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and the Middle East." Forget Iraq? It's forgotten. The only time it gets mentioned on US media is when some idiot -- Joy Behar last Tuesday on THE VIEW -- mentions it back accident -- she confused Ukraine with Iraq before correcting herself.

And Friday, in Brussels, Macron again spoke of Iraq.

Despite all the garbage chat and chews on American television, Macron said more about Iraq in two days than they say in three months. But let's continue to pretend that these failed comedians are informing us.

That's a new documentary from ALJAZEERA. Of the documentary directed by Karrar al-Azzawi, they note:

Tiba joins Iraq’s youth protests where she braves bullets and tear gas with the hope of reclaiming her nation.

After a lifetime of conflict in Iraq, 20-year-old Tiba joins the October 2019 protests. She is amazed to see so many young men and women gathering from across the nation.

Regardless of class and religion, the youth stand side by side in a fight to reclaim their country.

Tiba forms new friendships, ideas and dreams. When the peaceful protests are met with violence, she becomes a medic tending to the wounded. But she could never have imagined the heartache one fatality brings.

Tiba is part of The October Revolution. Two weeks ago, THE NEW ARAB noted this movement:

'Cowards will not create freedom', a slogan from Iraq’s 2019 October protests, can still be seen on a building near the capital’s Tahrir Square.

Three years later, however, those responsible for the killing of Iraqi youths during the nationwide anti-government demonstrations have yet to be held accountable.

On 1 October 2019, thousands of angry Iraqis held large demonstrations in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriyah, and several other provinces in the western and southern parts of the country.

Demonstrators were calling for an end to corruption among Iraq’s ruling elites and the hegemony of Iran and its affiliated political parties and militias in the country.

Soon, the peaceful demonstrations turned violent, with more than 800 protestors killed as Iraq’s security forces and militias used lethal force to silence them. Thousands of others were injured.

Earlier this month, Iraqis commemorated the third anniversary of the protests in two different squares in Baghdad. One group read a statement at al-Nusur Square, while others gathered in Tahrir Square. New protests are scheduled for 25 October.

Zaid al-Asaad, an activist from the October protests, admitted that there is a division inside the protest movement, however, he stressed that the revolution’s goals are still mobilising the different groups.

“Since 2019, the demands of the protestors did not change, including prosecuting the killers and those who were behind the bloodshed, the corrupt people who wasted Iraqi public money, the legislation of a fair election law, and passing a law regulating Iraqi political parties,” al-Asaad told The New Arab.

Demonstrators, mostly the younger generation, had camped out in the capital's Tahrir Square and other public squares from October 2019 until early 2020, decrying endemic corruption, poor services, and unemployment under the former Iraqi government led by Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who was forced to resign and was replaced by Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani is now the prime minister-designate in Iraq. Though not yet prime minister, already he's receiving visitors.

Two more visitors are noted by INA:

Prime Minister-designate Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani affirmed on Sunday, that his work priorities are to form a strong government capable of facing challenges, the most important of which are economic.

"The Prime Minister-designate, Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, received the Ambassador of the European Union to Iraq, Ville Varjola, the head of the European Union Advisory mission (EUAM), Anders Wiberg, and the accompanying delegation," The media office of the Prime Minister said, in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

During the meeting ,They discussed strengthening relations between Iraq and the European Union to achieve the aspirations and interests of Iraq and the European Union countries.

KURDISTAN 24 notes:

Since his appointment as the prime minister-designate on Oct. 13, Al-Sudani has conducted several meetings with members of the diplomatic community.

Following over a year-long political deadlock, Iraq overcame the stalemate when the parties elected a new President of the Republic Latif Rasheed, who later named Al-Sudani as prime minister-designate.

He said he would announce his picks for the ministerial positions after he checks their backgrounds. Al-Sudani has until Nov. 12 to present his cabinet.

On the efforts at formation, RUDAW reports:

Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, Iraq's prime minister-designate, on Sunday said that the names of the candidates for the country’s next cabinet line-up will be announced once they have completed reviewing their legal background.

Sudani was tapped to form Iraq’s next government on October 13, after more than a year of political bickering since the parliamentary elections in October 2021. The PM-designate will have 30 days to name all ministers of his cabinet, or risk losing the position if he fails to do so.

The Running the State Coalition on Tuesday invited MPs of the Iraqi parliament to hold a session on Saturday aimed at voting on the new government's ministers, but the session was ultimately postponed as haggling continued over the allocation of the cabinet’s posts.

A statement from Sudani’s office on Sunday said that the PM-designate continues his talks with the political powers that have decided to participate in the new government, adding that interviewing the candidates for the ministerial positions will be conducted by a “specialized committee” of advisors.

“The official announcement for the candidates that have been selected to take on the responsibilities will be made once the interviews are concluded and the legal background of the candidates is ensured,” the statement added.

Richard Spencer (TIMES OF LONDON) reports:

The giant friezes of the biblical King Sennacherib carved into the sides of a canal in northern Iraq have taken 50 years to reveal. But it has been a disruptive 50 years of invasion, civil war and insurgencies.

In 2014 the fighters of Islamic State came within 15 miles of excavations on the canal. These restarted in 2019 only to pause again for the pandemic.

Now the canal, part of the greatest man-made water management system of the ancient world, has been uncovered. At is heart are reliefs cut into the mountainside showing Sennacherib, the greatest monarch of the Assyrian empire, paying tribute to the seven chief god's of his universe.

Here's a Tweet.

Hyder Abbasi and Khalid Razak (NBC NEWS) explain:

Ancient rock carvings that are believed to be more than 2,700 years old have been unearthed by a team of archaeologists in Iraq's northern city of Mosul.

The marble slabs were found during restoration work on the Mashki Gate, an ancient monument that was partially destroyed by Islamic State militants when they captured the city in 2016.

The relief carvings show scenes of war from the rule of Assyrian kings, in the ancient city of Nineveh, the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage said in a statement Wednesday.

The gray stone carvings date to the rule of King Sennacherib, in power from 705 to 681 B.C., the statement added.

Sennacherib was responsible for expanding Nineveh as the Assyrians’ imperial capital and largest city — siting on a major crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Iranian plateau — including the construction of a palace.

The discovery was made last week by an Iraqi team, alongside American experts from the University of Pennsylvania who are helping to lead the reconstruction effort.

The “discovery consisted of eight marble slabs carved with a relief representing scenes of Assyrian soldiers, in addition to palm trees, grapes, pomegranates and figs belonging to the palace of King Sennacherib,” Ali Shalgham, the director general of Iraq’s Investigations and Excavations Department, told NBC News on Thursday.

And Tiffany Wertheimer (BBC NEWS) notes:

It is believed the relics once adorned his palace, and were then moved to the Mashki Gate, Fadel Mohammed Khodr, head of the Iraqi archaeological team, told AFP.

The Mashki Gate was one of the largest in Nineveh, and was an icon of the city's size and power. The gate was reconstructed in the 1970s, but was destroyed with a bulldozer by IS militants in 2016.

But who will note the reality? That if it were found sooner, it would have been taken out of Iraq and put in some European museum? Like the following that illegally remains in a London museum?

In other news, Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) notes:

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has claimed multiple times that the Turkish forces have conducted chemical attacks against its fighters in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas since April. Turkish authorities denied this on Friday, saying their army follows international laws.

The Turkish army has carried out several military operations against the PKK, an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey, in the Kurdistan Region in recent years, with the latest one being launched in April. Ankara sees the PKK as a terrorist organization. The Kurdish group has recently published several videos which purportedly show Turkish soldiers targeting its fighters with chemical substances.

On Tuesday, the PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) published footage which it claimed showed Turkish soldiers putting chemical substances into a cave in Duhok province’s Warkhal area through a tube. The news outlet added that a couple of PKK fighters, who were in the cave, have been affected by the substances - suffering from memory loss and breakdown of nerves.

The PKK said a day earlier that Turkey had used banned bombs and chemical substances for at least 2,476 times since April. On Tuesday, the PKK also published the identities of 17 of its fighters whom it claimed had been killed in the alleged chemical attacks by Turkey.

ANF adds:

Reactions continue to pour in over the latest images and information exposing the employment of chemical weapons by the Turkish state in the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

Iraqi Parliamentary Security and Defence Commission member Hadi Amirli said they were aware of the reports on the use of chemical and banned weapons by the Turkish state in its ongoing military campaign in northern Iraq.

“We are following the Turkish state’s attacks on civilian settlements in Iraq closely. We have been informed that Turkey has been using chemical and banned weapons, which is against neighborhood principles and international law,” he said.

Reminder BROS is on streaming platforms in the US.

The following sites updated: