dan cohen has a strong article at 'mpn:'
On the afternoon of December 20, Harris County, Texas’s top elected official, Judge Lina Hidalgo held a press conference to announce
what she claimed was the county’s first death from the Omicron variant
of COVID-19. It was a moment in the national spotlight for the
30-year-old Democrat, who, since her teenage years, has been rising
through elite institutions and forging ties with the national security
state. Those connections, and her close ties to a highly-sophisticated
billionaire influence operation, revealed in detail in this
investigation, would prove to be vital in shaping Hidalgo’s formulation
of COVID-19 and other policies.
“We just had our first Omicron related death,” she announced as
groans and gasps erupted from behind masks. Hidalgo then declared she
was once again raising Harris County’s COVID Threat Level – a color-coded system borrowed from the Bush-era Terror Alert Warning System
– to Orange, the second highest level of alarm. Despite Omicron’s mild
symptoms, Hidalgo urged the public to get booster shots, portraying them
as the only way to prevent a surge of hospitalizations that would break
the back of the healthcare system. “We don’t know how many of those
breakthrough cases will end up turning into hospitalizations. We do know
that the vaccine and the booster will keep that number very low, and
that is truly our solution,” she said.
Hours later, Hidalgo blasted out a tweet claiming that the dead man hadn’t merely died with Omicron, but that the recently discovered variant was the cause of his death.
The tweet from one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars sparked a
frenzy in mainstream news outlets and on social media. With the Centers
For Disease Control and Prevention having announced
hours before that Omicron had replaced Delta as the country’s most
common variant, Hidalgo’s statement appeared to confirm rampant
speculation that the newly detected and far more contagious variant was
at least as deadly as its predecessors. Across the United States, lines
for COVID tests wrapped around blocks as worried Americans pondered
canceling holiday plans with a long winter of isolation, anxiety, and
death lurking around the corner.
However, as this investigation will show, Hidalgo’s deceptive claim
that Omicron caused the Texas man’s death is not only false – it served
to generate fear in the general public. It is the latest chapter in the
restructuring of Harris County according to the desires of power-hungry
billionaires and armies of corporate consultants from New York City and
Washington, D.C., with Hidalgo’s progressive image as a fig leaf.
the national security state is spawning and reproducing and lina hildago is proof of that.
now for something much more pleasant, 'the gay gaston.'
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Tuesday, January 11, 2022. The new year is young but Medea
Benjamin has already spouted more stupidity than a person should have a
right to. First . . .
Hassan Ali Ahmed (AL-MONITOR) reports that Speaker of Parliament Mohammed al-Halbusi has the approval of Moqtada al-Sadr.
Huh?
How is that news?
It
was already clear on Sunday. That's when, as things got out of hand
and Moqtada was being challenged and Mahmoud Daward al-Mashhadani staged
his fainting spell. Mohammed played along with it. That was all you
needed to know.
It was interesting to read the
write-ups on that fainting spell. First, they never noted how fake it
was. Second, they never noted the fake it was coming from. Mahmoud was
once a prisoner of US forces. Much later, when he was Speaker of
Parliament, he would call Iraqis who killed US troops "heroes" and he
would be eased out of the Parliament because his bodyguards attacked a
Shi'ite MP.
Bringing Mahmoud in
to rule over Sunday's session let you know it had all been planned ahead
of time. As for Mohammed al-Halbusi, he's a made man in Anbar. And,
yes, that is what it sounds like. Construction was very good for many
criminal elements and Mohammed was just one example. He used his
influence to become governor of Anbar Province in 2017 -- this was after
the sitting governor was removed (Suahaib al-Rawi) when he began
dismissing officials as part of a corruption clean up. No such concerns
with Mohammed who feels he's among friends when he's elbow to elbow
with the corrupt.
Crooks in the Iraqi government? Why not, they're in every other government as well.
A petition to strip former British prime minister Tony Blair of his
knighthood due to his role in the Iraq War has gained more than 1
million signatures and the backing of at least one Labour MP.
The petition, posted on Change.org
a week ago, accuses Blair of causing “irreparable damage to both the
constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the
nation’s society.”
Blair “was personally responsible for causing the death of countless
innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts,” the
petition claims. “For this alone he should be held accountable for war
crimes. Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honor,
particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.”
On January 1, Buckingham Palace announced that Blair
had been made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter,
the oldest and most senior British order of chivalry. The knighthood
given to Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was
decided by the queen and made without government advice.
Crooked Tony.
Tony Blair claimed £7,000 in expenses for a new roof on his second home, just 2 days before leaving office.
While
criminals like Tony Blair walk free, Julian Assange is imprisoned for
telling the truth. Part of the reason he's impisoned may be his helpers
or 'helpers.' Courage Foundation Tweets:
What do you think is going to happen from that? Merrick's going to feel pressure? Not at all.
Why are you so damn scared to drop this where it belongs?
Joe
Biden. He's the one overseeing things. He's the one Merrick answers to
directly (ultimately, Merrrick will answer to the people but that's a
ways off -- they usually have to be out of office before they grasp
that). So put it on Joe's doorstep.
Let him know just how many people are watching. He's not accomplished anything.
Can
we all just be honest? He's accomplished nothing. If history holds,
he will lose at least one House of Congress in the mid-terms. If
history holds, his first year was the year to be bold and pass bold
moves. That time is now over.
He's a useless
figure. And if you'd grasp that, you might grasp how much power a real
movement to free Julian could have on Joe who has no legacy to speak
of.
2021 was his best year as
president. There's no imporvement. Not even some break through
stem-cell research is going to turn 79-year-old Joe into a charasmatic
and powerful leader. It's over.
The White House staff realizes that. The mood there is dour.
Smart
people are updating their resumes and planning to bail soon because
they know it's only going to get worse. And they grasp that, at some
point, news outlets are going to stop trying to prove they're 'tough'
and 'independnet' by going after Kamala and finally have to go after Joe
himself.
Merrick?
You're not accomplishing anything.
Joe
makes the call. If history tries to land it at Merrick's doorstep, all
he has to say is he tried privately. When you have no real power, you
can't take the real blame.
Joe's the one with
the power and attempts at holdin gthe US government accountable are
laughable until they start being directed at the president of the United
States and not an underling.
The US Embassy in Baghdad released a statement on Monday welcoming the
fifth Iraqi parliament, congratulating the newly elected officials, and
expressing hope in the quick formation of a new government.
In the statement,
the embassy highlighted the role and significance of the parliament,
calling it an integral and inseparable component of Iraq’s democratic
process and its national sovereignty.
Hoping for a quick formation? Hmm. October 10th elections and it's January 11th right now. Hmmm.
Several roadside bomb attacks have targeted convoys carrying
logistical equipment belonging to the US military south of the Iraqi
capital of Baghdad and in the country’s southern province of Muthanna,
amid strong public opposition to the prolonged presence of American
occupation forces on Iraqi soil.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi
anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi,
reported that an explosion hit trucks belonging to US forces
in Baghdad’s southern Hur Rajab area at 7:30 a.m. local time (04:30 GMT)
on Tuesday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Shortly afterward, a bomb attack targeted a logistics convoy of US forces in the town of Adwaniyah.
But
remember, Jibberish spouting Joe insists that the combat mission ended
for US troops. Someone please advise the various bombs and drones of
this change.
The good news is that U.S. bombing of those 3 countries has
significantly decreased from the over 12,000 bombs and missiles it
dropped on them in 2019. In fact, since the withdrawal of U.S.
occupation forces from Afghanistan in August, the U.S. military has
officially conducted no air strikes there, and only dropped 13 bombs or
missiles on Iraq and Syria – although this does not preclude additional
unreported strikes by forces under CIA command or control.
"The
good news"?? Dumb bitch, when you're talking about civilians being
bombed, there's no "good news" and you look more stupid than ever when
you try to pimp that the US "only dropped 13 bombs or missiles."
That
Medea is what passes for a peace leader in the US goes a long, long way
towards explaining why there's no real peace movement in the US.
I wonder if the victims of the bombings feel Medea's spreading "good news"?
The following sites updated:
