that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Set Up" and i love it. :D
over the weekend, there was an article i read about the plight of the palestinians that i planned to highlight when i blogged next. but i can't find it. i thought i saw it at 'dissident voice.'
while i can't find it, i did find a piece by dr. margaret flowers. her partner in activism and in life and love was kevin zeese. kevin recently passed away. i do believe in prayer and dr. flowers is in my prayers. this is from her article at 'dissident voice:'
The current uprising across the nation is a take-off moment for systemic racism in the United States. A take-off moment occurs when awareness about a crisis reaches a level of public consciousness where an event (in this case, the recent high-profile police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd) sparks protests across the country.
Racist police violence has now become part of the national dialog, as has systemic racism, which is a much bigger topic than policing. A national movement to change these systems is growing. It will succeed if we continue to build on this momentum and demand change.
One aspect of systemic racism that merits greater attention is the inherent racism in our healthcare system. Cities across the country are beginning to recognize that racism is a public health issue. On top of that, social determinants such as wealth inequality, access to housing and education and discrimination in the workplace, as well as other factors, also impact health resulting in worse health outcomes and higher death rates for black people.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed this disparity in a stark way – black people are being infected at higher rates, are experiencing more severe disease and are more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people. This is a systemic problem, not a biological one. The Human Genome Project determined definitively in 1999 that there is no genetic basis for race.
To understand why our healthcare system is racist, we have to go back to its roots. The United States was built on a foundation of chattel slavery where black bodies were property, a commodity. European doctors were employed to make sure slaves were healthy enough to be sold and to work, as if they were objects and not human beings.
In the late eighteenth century, being black was viewed as a disease that required a cure. In the nineteenth century, medicine viewed people of different races as different species. This was used to justify differential treatment. Black women were believed to be capable of returning to work immediately after giving birth and black people were believed to be more capable of working long hours in the hot sun than white people.
Black people were also used for medical experimentation. The ‘father of gynecological surgery,’ James Marion Sims, developed his techniques by operating on black women, often without using anesthesia and surely without their consent. In the mid-twentieth century, the Tuskeegee experiment was conducted in which black men were not informed they had syphilis and were not offered treatment, even though it was available, because researchers wanted to study the natural progression of the disease. This went on until 1972. It was only stopped because it was discovered and leaked to the media, generating attention and public outrage.
Racist stereotypes exist in how physicians view their patients today. One study found that when physicians were given the same description of patients that only varied by race, they made different diagnoses. Doctors were more likely to view black patients as ‘violent, suspicious or dangerous.’ Another study documented that racial bias leads to less treatment of pain for black versus white patients.
Systemic racism is embedded in medical treatment protocols. Algorithms that give weight to different factors are often used to make treatment decisions. When race is a factor in these algorithms, it results in less aggressive or lower quality care for black people.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Monday, September 28, 2020. Joe Biden gets caught in another lie while the US government talks shutting down the Baghdad-based embassy.
Is Joe Biden making a mistake in not campaigning? Yes, he is. The lie has been that he's doing this due to the Coronavirus. But if that were true, if Joe were trying to set a good example, wouldn't his wife be off the campaign trail?
Jill's out campaigning. Why isn't Joe?
The idiot on the Democratic Party side needs to be called out. Instead, she gets to spew and spew. RISING really doesn't do a good job of holding people accountable.
Joe Biden does not have firm support and poor debate performances can send 'supporters' fleeing. Liz Peek (FOX NEWS) notes:
Can the Democrat candidate survive 90 minutes of an unscripted, fast-paced presidential debate without claiming to have been in the Senate for 180 years or putting the COVID-19 death toll at 200 million Americans, goofs he has made in recent days? Can he endure the challenges sure to come from President Trump without wandering off into the ether?
That is the question, the elephant in the room.
More problems for Joe? He can't stop lying. Lee Brown (NEW YORK POST) reports:
Delaware State University has denied that Joe Biden has ever been a student there — after the presidential candidate’s claim that he “got started” at the historically black college.
The 77-year-old Democrat made his claim while praising historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) during a town hall event last October before the South Carolina Democratic primary, video shows.
“I got started out of a HBCU, Delaware State,” he told pupils at Wilson High School in Florence, which was founded in 1866 by the Freedmen’s Bureau for Black children seeking an education.
Hmm. Remember when Anita Dunham and Joe Biden tried to weaponize a transcript to discredit a woman who was accusing Joe of assault? Anthony Zenkus Tweets:
Tara is highly credible. I remember when St. Beau Biden shut down the man stating he had sex with Barack Obama -- Saint Beau used his position as an AG. I have no idea whether or not the man was telling the truth. But one man went public with claims and a Democratic AG stepped forward when the press was finally interested -- stepped forward and snuffed interest. Remind you of supposed fallout that was going to come from Tara's previous court testimonies? Interesting how that story went no where after it was used to attack Tara's reputation. It's a pattern. We should all grasp that it's a pattern.
Berkley Brannon announced, as Tara's story was gaining traction, that he was launching an investigation into her credentials. That was May. It's four months later. How long does it take to investigate a resume? It was a nice distraction, an easy way to get an already reluctant press to walk away from a story they never wanted to cover.
Turning to Iraq, Sunday Isabel Coles and Michael R. Gordon (WALL ST. JOURNAL) broke the news regarding a line in the sand -- or threat -- the US government was drawing/making in Iraq, "The Trump administration has warned Iraq it is preparing to shut down its embassy in Baghdad unless the Iraqi government stops a spate of rocket attacks by Shiite militias against U.S. interests, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Sunday, in a fresh crisis in relations between the two allies." Farhad Alaaldin (RUDAW) explains, "Baghdad’s Green Zone, which includes the American embassy, was subjected to 19 attacks with Katyusha rockets and mortars in September alone, some of which reached their targets inside the embassy’s vicinity, in addition to 25 IED attacks on convoys serving international coalition forces and an attack on a British diplomatic convoy in Baghdad on 15th of September." John Davison (REUTERS) notes, "The concern among the Iraqis is that pulling out diplomats would be followed quickly by military action against forces Washington blamed for attacks." Louisa Loveluck, Missy Ryan and John Hudson (WASHINGTON POST) add:
“We hope the American administration will reconsider it,” Ahmed Mulla Talal, a spokesman for Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, said Sunday. “There are outlaw groups that try to shake this relationship, and closing the embassy would send a negative message to them.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified Kadhimi of the plans Saturday night, according to an official familiar with the matter. Two Western officials in Baghdad said their country’s diplomatic missions had been informed of the plan.
It was unclear on Sunday whether the White House had signed off on a possible departure and what might prompt the Trump administration to shelve the plan. If the administration moves forward, closing the embassy is expected to take 90 days, a window that would give Washington the opportunity to reassess the decision, said a diplomat familiar with the situation.
Is it a real possibility or just a weak threat that won't be backed up? How serious is the US government right now? That's open to debate apparently. Justine Coleman (THE HILL) notes:
It was unclear on Sunday whether the White House had signed off on a possible departure and what might prompt the Trump administration to shelve the plan. If the administration moves forward, closing the embassy is expected to take 90 days, a window that would give Washington the opportunity to reassess the decision, said a diplomat familiar with the situation.
And it's not just the US government calling out the attacks. Strangely enough, Moqtada al-Sadr has been making noises about this throughout last week. YENISAFAK notes, "On Friday, al-Sadr called for an investigation into repeated attacks on foreign missions in Iraq and bringing perpetrators to justice." MIDDLE EAST IN THE FIELD Tweets:
Iraqi Shia cleric “Muqtada al-Sadr” called for an investigation into repeated attacks on foreign missions in Iraq and bringing the perpetrators to justice.
On Arabic social media, this has registered and has some wondering if Moqtada is on the US payroll.
In related news, XINHUA reports:
The U.S. embassy in Iraq announced on Sunday that it will conduct a series of emergency tests and drills after a recent series of attacks.
"Over the course of the next two days, the U.S. embassy will be conducting a series of tests and drills of our emergency procedures and equipment," the embassy said in a statement.
The statement did not give further details about the drills, but observers believe such drills are meant to enhance the protection of the embassy to prevent the landing of mortar rounds and rockets.
The following sites updated:
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: The US' buddy Turkey
- Media: The Jane Fonda Horror Show
- Roundtable
- Tweet of the week
- The attacks on Howie Hawkins
- Impeach Pelosi
- This edition's playlist
- Highlights
