Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude: 04/28

5/02/2019

barack blames hillary

turns out even barack knew hillary ran a lousy campaign:

Barack Obama admitted 'this stings' after the 2016 election result and spent the night watching the movie Dr Strange to try and distract himself, a new book claims.

The former president went from being confident that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump to seeing it as a 'personal insult' that she lost.

Obama could not believe the American people had 'turned on him' for a man he had written off as a 'cartoon'.

As the dust settled Obama told his family that 'this hurts' and blamed Clinton who 'brought many of her troubles on herself' and ran a 'scripted, soulless campaign'.

[. . .]

'She brought many of her troubles on herself. No one forced her to underestimate the danger in the Midwest states of Wisconsin and Michigan.

'No one forced her to set up a private email server that would come back to haunt her.

'No one forced her to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other pillars of Wall Street for speeches.

'No one forced her to run a scripted, soulless campaign that tested eighty-five slogans before coming up with 'Stronger Together'.

hillary is so awful. even barack had to blame her for her stupidity.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Thursday, May 2, 2019. A Kurdish judge takes his own life, a member of the US Congress insists the answer in Iraq is for religions to have their own militias and more absurdity.

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE reports:

An Kurdish Iraqi judge from the province of Dohuk in on Tuesday took his own life live on Facebook.

Dohuk provincial police issued a brief statement yesterday morning explaining that Judge Subhi Abdullah from the Akre region died of his wounds in a hospital.

Kurdish media sites reported that the judge has been living alone in the mountains in Dohuk to protest Kurdistan’s referendum held in 2017. He used a gun to shoot himself in the chest.

Staying with the topic of FACEBOOK for another issue, this remains posted at the US Embassy in Baghdad's FACEBOOK page:

U.S. Embassy Baghdad

April 25 at 12:09 PM

يستشري الفساد في جميع مفاصل #النظام_الإيراني، بدءا من القمة. فممتلكات مرشد النظام علي #خامنئيوحده تقدر بـ 200 مليار دولار، بينما يرزح كثير من ابناء الشعب تحت وطأة الفقر بسبب الوضع الإقتصادي المزري الذي وصلت اليه #ايران بعد أربعين عاما من حكم الملالي.
#فساد_قادة_إيران

Corruption is rife in all parts of the #IranianRegime, starting at the top. The possessions of the current supreme leader Ali #Khamenei alone are estimated at $200 billion, while many people languish in poverty because of the dire economic situation in #Iran after 40 years of rule by the mullahs.
#ThecorruptionoftheleadersofIran

See Translation

Image may contain: 1 person, eyeglasses, hat and text

As we covered in last Saturday's "Moqtada floats closing the US Embassy, the Iraqi government demands the US delete a FACEBOOK post," Sunday's "US embassy calls Iran corrupt, Iraq responds with a call for censorship, where's the US media?" and Monday's "Iraq snapshot," that post has enraged the Iraqi government which has asked the US Embassy to delete it. Thus far, it hasn't been deleted. Also thus far, American news outlets have avoided the story.

Last month, the US Embassy in Baghdad -- which still has no ambassador -- announced:

Today in Fallujah, Chargé d’Affaires Joey Hood announced that the United States Government intends to provide an additional $100 million to help stabilize liberated areas once held by the Islamic State. The United States Agency for International Development will provide the funds to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). With this $100 million contribution, the U.S. Government will have provided $358 million to stabilization efforts in Iraq since 2015.
The Funding Facility for Stabilization is supported by the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and managed in cooperation with the Government of Iraq. The United States and the GOI are committed to creating the conditions to allow displaced Iraqis to return to their homes and start to rebuild their lives. Strengthened with new funding, this stabilization program will restore essential services, such as water, electricity, sewage, health, housing, and education.

In his announcement, the Chargé called on Anbar’s elected officials, tribal sheikhs, and residents to protect the project work sites and ‎do their part to re-integrate back into their communities all displaced Iraqis who wished to return home.

Another 100 million. The price tag on the never ending war just keeps increasing, doesn't it? The trillion dollar mark for the costs of these forever wars was passed long ago.

Tulsi Gabbard‏Verified account @TulsiGabbard Apr 30

Homelessness impacts rural areas & urban centers, stemming from medical debt, job insecurity, & lack of affordable housing. Instead of wasting trillions on regime change wars, the new cold war and arms race we must use our precious resources for the needs of the American people.

1:41

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Homelessness and the 'Peace Dividend'

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Basic needs cannot be met while maintaining these wars. That's a reality.

I want my money back
I'm down here drowning in your fat
You got me on my knees
Praying for everything you lack
I ain't afraid of you
I'm just a victim of your fears
You cower in your tower
Praying that I'll disappear
I got another plan
One that requires me to stand
On the stage or in the street
Don't need no microphone or beat
And when you hear this song
If you ain't dead sing along
Bang and strum to these here drums
Till you get where you belong

I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, you're gonna
Know where I stand
I'm living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
"List of Demands (Reparations)" -- The Kills

ONE AMERICA NEWS NETWORK spoke with US House Rep Jeff Fortenberry yesterday and the Congress member was stressing how the US needed to provide more aid to the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq. The Yazidis? Any Yazidis who are in displacement camps, sure. But those who are back home? No. The US government should not provide a dime to those people currently. Many of us are rightly appalled by the separation of parents and children in the current deportations here in the US. There is no reason in the world for our tax dollars to go to a group whose leadership has announced that they will 'welcome' back Yazidi women who were kidnapped and forced into marriage with members of ISIS but they will not allow the children of those forced marriages to be part of the community. They are telling women who were kidnapped, most likely raped, that they can choose their community or they can choose their young child but they can't have both. To return to the Yazidi community, the Yazidi leadership is saying that the women must abandon their children. (See yesterday's snapshot for more on this topic.) No. That is a group of people that should not be receiving US aid. Those are not democratic principles, those are not actions that foster unity and reconciliation. There should be no US aid flowing to that group unless/until the leadership changes that policy.

Fortenberry made many comments but did not address this issue (nor was he asked about it). For some strange reason, he believes that the Yazidis and other groups should have their own armies and then, even stranger, he says this would be "healthy pluralism."

No, it wouldn't be.

How do more militias in Iraq spell healthy pluralism? They don't. The US government has already spent 16 years training and re-training and training again and training one more time and bear with us for another training of the Iraqi military so maybe Fortenberry thinks militias would be more effective -- or at least learn more quickly? Regardless, creating all these militias is not helping anyone and only setting the stage for clashes between them and other existing militias or them and the standing Iraqi military.

If Fortenberry doesn't feel the Iraqi military is defending the Iraqi people, he needs to make that case. As it stands, his proposal of arming Yazidi and Christian militias is not one that will foster "healthy pluralism" in Iraq. It will further divide the country.

In other news, RUDAW reports:

Iraq made more than $7.11 billion trough oil exports in April, the most this year, according to the Ministry of Oil — primarily due to higher international oil prices.

The country exported just fewer than 104 million barrels last month, compared to slightly more than 104 million the month before, according to a ministry statement.

In April, Iraq sold its oil for an average price of $67.419 per barrel — an increase from $63.804 in March.

Iraq is not Ethopia. It brings in billions each years. Where does the money go? Oh, that's right, Iraq has one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Nouri al-Maliki's son couldn't get a real job until his father was prime minister and then his daddy gave him jobs. Corruption jobs like the deal with Russia. The Iraqi people struggle to survive but Nouri's son has homes all over Europe and sports cars and huge wealth. He didn't earn it. His daddy stole it.

OCHA Iraq‏Verified account @OCHAIraq 3 hours ago

A drive through #Anbar province is a snapshot of #Iraq today 

So much destruction dotting the landscape. Yet also, much rebuilding underway. 

#Humanitarian response to address the most urgent needs is part of the puzzle 

But #development actors also play a vital role

1 retweet5 likes

And if a corrupt government didn't siphon off millions yearly, imagine what a rebuilt Iraq could actually look like.

Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reports, "During April, at least 211 people were killed, and 105 others were wounded. Also, 34 bodies were recovered from a mass grave. Last month, 134 people were killed in Iraq, and 45 bodies were recovered; 96 people were wounded. This month’s figures are roughly in line with March’s, with two notable exceptions: Two U.S. servicemembers died, and the number of militants killed more than doubled."

‏ @foranewiraq

Watch and share the story of Manar, one of the many #IraqiWomen who is working hard every day to make our country a better place for all of us. 

#ForANewIraq

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47 views

1 retweet1 like

The following sites updated:

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5/01/2019

shirley bassey

know this song?

He's the man,
the man with the Midas touch
A spider's touch
Such a cold finger
Beckons you to enter his web of sin
But don't go in
Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can't disguise what you fear
For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her
It's the kiss of death from

theme to the james bond film 'goldfinger,' sung by shirley bassey.

shirley bassey is 82.

she also did the theme to the bond films 'moonraker' and 'diamonds are forever.' thus far, no 1 else has even done 2 themes, let alone 3.

'goldfinger' was on starz tonight, fyi.

that's shirley bassey performing her most recent u.k. hit, her cover of pink's 'get the party started.'

let's do another shirley bassey song.

i used to hear that a lot about 10 years ago on w.b.a.i.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Robert Reich and other 'resistance' warriors exist to distract you from not just basic facts but also the events that actually take place -- war, poverty, disease, etc.

In the US, where we set the crazy standard for the world, Robert Reich takes the lead. Robert Reich is a neoliberal and third-way-er who was going to 'reinvent government' by putting it up for sale which is how he teamed up with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to begin with. He's never really found a home since which is a shame but the US, sadly, turns many mental patients out on the street because we do not have enough beds or the money to pay for extended stays in most of our sanitariums.

Which is how Robert gets to take his crazy to the street or, in this case, to NEWSWEEK. Robert's part of the 'resistance' -- a group that exists to Bitch Moan and Whine while doing nothing and never addressing any serious issue. So he's offered another 'solution' where there is none. Arrest William Barr! Barr, for those who don't know, is the Attorney General.

What is Robert proposing, a citizen's arrest?

No, the stupid moron -- who preaches to stupid morons -- is saying Congress needs to arrest Barr. If Barr decides not to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, Reich says that he should be arrested.

Only a liar or an idiot would propose that.

Bodies exist to grab power, that's the reality there.

If you have a clash between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch is going to be the one ruling. And the Court exists -- as most bodies do -- to claim power for itself. That's what it will do. It's ruling will redefine power in a way that favors the Court.

That is how it's always worked.

Now that's the longterm and Reich has no idea about that. He's a stupid man, he has little idea about anything.

Under Bully Boy Bush, there were several times when US House Rep John Conyers (check with him, he'll tell you about it, he and I have spoken about it many times) did want to place someone under Congressional arrest. Why didn't he?

There's the political aspect and how it can swing back at you -- even if it's the right thing -- and harm the party. There's also the practical aspect.

They have no one to monitor a prisoner. To arrest someone and to keep them, they would really have to depend upon the assistance from the Justice Department. Now help me out, who is over the Justice Department?

Oh, right. The Attorney General. The one Robert Reich is saying should be arrested.

He is lying yet again. he and his whole fake 'resistance' exist to lie. Glenn Greenwald (as Rebecca noted in "tweet of the week") got it exactly right.

It's like those who couldn't believe Hillary really lost to Trump & kept waiting for people to come & make it right (ie the Electoral College coup). They can't believe Mueller concluded no evidence establishes Trump/Russia conspiracy so they'll cling to anything that reverses it:

Michael TraceyVerified account @mtracey

How could a 4 page letter "fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of a 400+ page report? What the hell is wrong with you people?

5:07 PM - 30 Apr 2019

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1,324 Likes

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1. Glenn Greenwald‏Verified account @ggreenwald 12 hours ago

This is still what the Mueller Report concluded. This was what it said yesterday and it's what it will say tomorrow. And this reality will never change.

259 replies399 retweets1,055 likes

This fake bunch of people sells one lie after another and their delusional base never catches on. As Glenn pointed out, immediately after the election, this crazy 'resistance' was insisting that the electoral college would vote Hillary into office.

That did not happen.

Nothing they say will happen ends up happening. They are con artists and liars, stooges and whores.

They are in a tizzy over what might happen -- always in a tizzy, always on a maybe.

Focusing on maybes allows them to ignore what actually is. For example, they could be calling out Donald Trump for his hideous actions on Venezuela but that's about war and empire so the Democrats in Congress are all on board with that.

Here's BLACK AGENDA REPORT's Glen Ford on Venezuela:

The 'resistance' cries Trump's evil! Unless he's being war-like and then the party that hates him just can't get enough of him.

Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) points out:

The United States war against Venezuela is fought on many fronts. On April 30, 2019 the U.S. upped the propaganda ante with a photo-op pretend coup attempt made for the cameras. Their hand picked opposition leader Juan Guaido posed with about 70 men in uniform and called on the army to oust president Nicolas Maduro. They didn’t engage the Venezuelan military, attack Maduro physically or do anything else that is traditionally done in such an effort. The goal is to give Guaido credibility in the international media and with politicians in Washington. The staged event is still dangerous though. It is the latest salvo in a years long effort to undo the will of the Venezuelan people.
The troika of tyranny, Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, may have been stymied in their effort to bring down the elected Nicolas Maduro government, but they have not given up. All of their machinations are conducted with the goal of creating as much stress on the Venezuelan state, its economy and on the Venezuelan people as they can muster. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza spoke at a public forum in New York City on April 25, 2019 and explained how his country is suffering due to the United States war waged by means other than military attack.

Back to Barr. He is the Attorney General. A previous Attorney General was Eric Holder. I know Eric. I've known him since the 90s. I like Eric. But these 'resistance' 'warriors seem to forget that only one sitting Attorney General -- so far -- has ever been held in criminal and civil contempt -- that would be Eric.

We bring that up for a reason. What happened there? Per CNN:

The White House and the Justice Department made clear Friday what had been expected all along: Attorney General Eric Holder will not face criminal prosecution under the contempt of Congress citation passed by the U.S. House.

Legal experts noted this week in the runup to Thursday's House vote that President Barack Obama's assertion of executive privilege in the case would prevent a criminal prosecution under a practice dating to the Reagan administration.

The House also cited Holder for civil contempt to give it the option of filing a lawsuit compelling Holder to turn over documents sought by Oversight Committee investigators linked to the failed Operation Fast and Furious weapons crackdown. Such a case was expected to take years to complete.

It took two years for the courts to complete. From POLITICO:

A federal judge has declined a House committee's bid to have Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt of court — and perhaps even jailed — for failing to turn over documents related to the Justice Department' s response to Operation Fast and Furious.

However, in a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson also denied Holder's request for an indefinite stay of her prior order that the attorney general must turn over any "non-privileged" documents the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed as part of an investigation into the botched gunrunning investigation. The judge previously ruled that Holder must give the panel any documents that are not both predecisional and deliberative in nature.

Well what if Barr appears before the Committee but pleads the Fifth!!!!!

Nothing would happen there either -- see Lois Lerner (and her poor grasp of what pleading the Fifth actually means).

Robert Reich and NEWSWEEK have published garbage. They know it's garbage. It'll probably be amplified by MSNBC and other crap outlets. Why?

Because it's garbage. It doesn't cost a damn thing to do that garbage. It allows you to avoid focusing on reality. It allows you to grandstand and pretend to be outraged.

It's garbage. Maybe the small penised boys like Robbie have confused their fantasy football worlds for actual life? Yes, it does let the Robbies pretend they're in a locker room and that's really important to those boys for various reasons. But it's not real life and neither is the garbage that they are serving up.

Speculation of what might happen if Barr takes a certain actions -- that he hasn't taken -- is gas bagging.

Our nation is involved in how many wars? We're deporting how many people? How many people either have no insurance or, for practical purposes, have insurance that they can't use? There are real issues to focus on and address. But here come the court jesters like Robert Reich to distract us all from that sort of realty.

From William J. Astore (ANTIWAR.COM):

People condemn President Trump for his incessant lying and his con games – and rightly so. But few Americans condemn the Pentagon and the rest of the national security state, even though we’ve been the victims of their long con for decades now. As it happens, from the beginning of the Cold War to late last night, they’ve remained remarkably skilled at exaggerating the threats the U.S. faces and, believe me, that represents the longest con of all. It’s kept the military-industrial complex humming along, thanks to countless trillions of taxpayer dollars, while attempts to focus a spotlight on that scam have been largely discredited or ignored.
One thing should have, but hasn’t, cut through all the lies: the grimly downbeat results of America’s actual wars. War by its nature tells harsh truths – in this case, that the U.S. military is anything but “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” Why? Because of its almost unblemished record of losing, or at least never winning, the wars it engages in. Consider the disasters that make up its record from Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s to, in the twenty-first century, the Iraq War that began with the invasion of 2003 and the nearly 18-year debacle in Afghanistan – and that’s just to start down a list. You could easily add Korea (a 70-year stalemate/truce that remains troublesome to this day), a disastrous eight-year-old intervention in Libya, a quarter century in (and out and in) Somalia, and the devastating U.S.-backed Saudi war in Yemen, among so many other failed interventions.

In short, the U.S. spends staggering sums annually, essentially stolen from a domestic economy and infrastructure that’s fraying at the seams, on what still passes for “defense.” The result: botched wars in distant lands that have little, if anything, to do with true defense, but which the Pentagon uses to justify yet more funding, often in the name of “rebuilding” a “depleted” military. Instead of a three-pointed pyramid scheme, you might think of this as a five-pointed Pentagon scheme, where losing only wins you ever more, abetted by lies that just grow and grow. When it comes to raising money based on false claims, this president has nothing on the Pentagon. And worse yet, like America’s wars, the Pentagon’s long con shows no sign of ending. Eat your heart out, Donald Trump!

Niles Niemuth (WSWS) notes:

Global military spending has reached a new post-Cold War high, topping $1.8 trillion in 2018, according to an annual report published this week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This marks a 2.6 percent increase over the previous annual record for worldwide military expenditures in 2017.
Most notably, US military spending increased by 4.6 percent in 2018, to $649 billion, the first annual US spending hike recorded by SIPRI since 2011. This trend is set to continue, with President Donald Trump having signed a $686 billion budget for 2019 and requesting $718 billion for the Pentagon in 2020. The Congressional Budget Office projects that if current funding trends continue, the US will spend $7 trillion on its military over the next decade, equivalent to the amount which will be spent on education, infrastructure and public health programs combined.
[. . .]
With its continued aim of global dominance, even as its economic position continues to decline, US imperialism far outpaces allies and enemies alike in military spending. In 2018, the US spent more than two and half times the amount of economic rival China ($250 billion) and more than ten times that of the supposedly great menace Russia ($61.4 billion). All told, the US spent as much as the next eight countries combined, accounting for 36 percent of the world’s military spending.
This immense military buildup is being carried out with the support of all factions of the political establishment, without even a whiff of protest. In fact, the Democratic Party’s main critique of Trump has been from the right, demanding an even greater military buildup and a more aggressive posture toward Russia.

Robert Reich is a distraction. That's why he exists. He'd rather write about maybes than deal with realities. It's real easy to call out maybes but calling out what is? As we saw with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., calling out what is can get you killed. By your own government.

And the media that feels so maligned today? Remember that they will attack you, as they did Dr. King. They will then all but ignore your spouse's death as they did Coretta. An overrated hack playwright -- but she was a girl! -- Wendy Wasserman dies and it's treated by THE NEW YORK TIMES as the end of everything. Front page coverage, an editorial, columns -- plural. Coretta Scott King dies? She gets a news story -- one. And, after weeks of many of us calling 'the paper of record' out, Bob Herbert does a tiny paragraph on her death -- the only column to note Coretta's passing.

The NEW YORK TIMES worked harder than any outlet to destroy Dr. King in his final years. Decades later, he's a national hero with a day in his honor and his spouse -- who carried on the fight -- dies and the paper pretends nothing of importance just took place. That's what they'd like to do to Dr. King's memory. It's why the assassinate him with pieces that intentionally obscure his actions and words.

That's how the media really is and never forget it. They lie and then they lie again while pretending not to understand why everyone doesn't love and respect them.

The US is engaged in war in Iraq. People pretend otherwise. They lie to themselves and they whore. But the Iraq War goes on regardless of their pretending and regardless of their pretensions. The United Kingdom's DEFENCE BLOG notes:

According to a statement released by the U.S. Air Force on Tuesday, F-35A Lightning II aircraft conducted an air strike at Wadi Ashai, Iraq, in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
“This strike marked the F-35A’s first combat employment,” it said in a statement.
The F-35As conducted the airstrike using a Joint Direct Attack Munition to strike an entrenched Daesh tunnel network and weapons cache deep in the Hamrin Mountains, a location able to threaten friendly forces.

The following sites updated:

Black Agenda Report

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