6/29/2022

motherland: fort salem

 'motherland: fort salem' is just too unfocused this season.  the 2nd episode aired last night.  


raelle's been swallowed by the ground.  because we need more disconnect from the characters?

in what may be a vision and not an actual occurrence, her mother showed up to tell raelle that she (raelle) was sick.  and raelle looked down at her own hand and it was crumpled up.  

kahlida is an after thought in both episodes and that makes no sense.

her brother attempted to go for help when this group of men that are evil and look like stacey keech showed up.  he had to retreat because they could see him.  they barely escaped in a van before they were caught by the stacy keeches.

at fort salem, is it this is it that is it even interesting?  we spent forever on the possibility that the president was on the wrong side - even though the general's mother told her this wasn't the case -- only to find out, woops, not the case.

it's 1 wasted moment after another.

abigail?  i want to see her get some calm and good moments with her boyfriend.

i can't believe how 2 episodes have aired and nothing has really happened.  nothing to advance a storyline.

they're fugitives!!!!

but every episode they're being sent somewhere.  on orders of the general.  it's as though 'motherland: fort salem" has become 'the a-team.'  and this episode, they even had the van for it.


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


Wednesday, June 29, 2022.  Glenn Greenwald sports his sexism and puts on his sub collar as he rushes to defend his dom Clarence Thomas, Iraq continues to suffer with no leadership, Alec Baldwin interviews Woody Allen and much more.


Let's start with some stupidity.



Glenn Greenwald.  You know I try to bite my tongue because he has been under attack.


But Glenn is a sexist and I say that over and over and people come along in drive-by e-mails insisting that's not the case.  He's a sexist pig.


Everything Hillary Clinton said about Clarence Thomas is no doubt true of herself -- she's one of the great projectionists.  That however does not make Clarence Thomas a nice person.


Glenn is supposedly concerned about something more than the elites.  I don't give two s**ts what Clarence's peers on the Court say about how nice he is.  The reality is that he's an abuser and a piece of garbage.  Ask Anita Hill and the other women who ready to testify before the Senate however then-Senator Joe Biden would not allow their testimony.


Glenn and his buddies all kicked Felicia Somnez because their buddy -- though they never reveal their circle jerk -- remember it was the circle jerk that brought Glenn to prominence as a blogger back in the day -- got suspended.  For making a joke.  Making a sexist joke in an office environment already reeling from sexism and doing so after he had already received multiple warnings this year alone.  Instead of defending the person who was fighting an institution, they made it about Pig Davey -- noted liar who got fired for lying earlier.  It was only after trash like Jeff Bezos -- who has no concept of importance of a functioning press -- bought THE WASHINGTON POST that Pig David was allowed back to the paper.  And Pig David has no self-respect so he tucked his tail between his legs and went running back.  Felicia is not the only woman at THE POST who has complained to HR about David this year.


But Glenn and the Michael Traceys and the Jimmy Dores and all the rest didn't care.


To them sexism in the work place is something they're all for.  Witness Jimmy's behavior towards Ana when they were on THE YOUNG TURKS together and witness his rage at Ana in the years since versus the way he talks about Cenk.  He just calls out Cenk.  He wants to obliterate Ana.


It's going to be funny if Jimmy does try to run for president.  (No party is electing him.  No one apparently would vote for him so he has to be 'drafted' in what they're calling a new political party but most parties have chapters and hold primaries.)


Glenn dismisses what happened to Anita Hill and other women.  He also dismisses Clarence's known record at the EEOC which further goes to the harm Little Clary did to women in the workplace.


No, Glenn rushes to insist, Clary Thomas is a good guy.


What a load of garbage and what a knee jerk response from a sexist pig.


These little boys need to take a look at themselves.  


They're trying to raise awareness on Julian Assange and all they're doing is pissing off people.  A friend at THE NEW YORK TIMES has a bet with me.  He's convinced I'm going to blow their pathetic defense out of the water.  He's referring to the fact that there is a good reason that the press -- corporate -- is not rushing to defend Julian.


We covered it here years and years ago.  And they just lied -- that includes John Pilger.  They lied because a truth was uncomfortable.  


The press does have a reason to ignore him.  And it's not a novel reason that they've just invented.  It's a longstanding reason.  I've tabled that until after Julian's free.  I've bit my tongue on it for several years now.  A friend at THE TIMES is convinced that I'm going to explode with it at any minute.  He's been convinced of that for over two years.  

I don't think I am -- I could be wrong.  But I don't think I am.  If I were going to, I'd probably refer to the court record on this right now.  

To be clear, the person I'm dictating this too just said some are going to think I'm referring to the two women who brought complaints against Julian.  I am not referring to those women or to their complaint.  I'm referring to something else that came up in the case and is a matter of public record and sworn testimony.  


Anyway,  Glenn lying for Clarence like this?


Glenn's a pig and shouldn't be fathering a daughter if he's not willing to address his sexism.  He's aging poorly -- the skin is falling off his face as though his face is a boiled chicken -- so I'm not sure how old he is.   55.  I was just told he was 55..  He looks 60 at least.  He needs to grow the hell up.


He's also wrong about Hillary in this case.  He wants you to know -- because he has a penis so he is the norm, right?  He wants you to know that Hillary couldn't have known much about Clarence at all.  


Really, you're so eager to trash her that you're going to make that stupid comment?


Hillary knows everything about the people around her.  She always has.  Not to help them, not to assist them.  But like The Terminator, she scans the room.  Everyone is a potential competitor for Hillary and that's why she's always made it a point to know as much as she could about everyone around her.  And certainly Clary stood out.  He graduated in 1974.  The first African-American to get a JSD from Yale Law School was Pauli Murray and she did that in 1965 -- not even ten years before Thomas graduated from Yale with his JDS.  


Glenn always does what he calls thinking by reflecting on himself.  He has no idea what Yale was like in the early 1970s and he doesn't have the common sense to grasp that his class of 1994 (not at Yale, of course) wasn't reflective on 1974.  


Our point today was to open with Julian Assange.  US President Joe Biden is persecuting Julian.  Not the head of the Justice Dept.  The decisions are not made on that level and you really do have to be a broken down, failed musician like David Rovics to think otherwise.  Of course, you can also be a coward to scared to call out Joe Biden.


But calling out Joe Biden is the only thing that might get the US to drop the efforts to extradite Julian to the US.  So why aren't people doing it?  


And Glenn goes on FOX NEWS and tosses out Hillary hatred (which is fine, hatred of Hillary is not sexism) and then goes on to offer this ridiculous defense of Clarence Thomas.


Glenn, are you hoping that Clarence gets his way and strips you of the right to marry, strips you of certain legal rights regarding sexual relations?


Are you?


Is that what's going on?


Miles Striker is an Iraq War veteran and we try to be understanding about veterans.  We also call out the loons who deserve to be called out.  Miles is one.


Little Miley came across our radar back in May of last year when Ava and I had to critique the world of fetish porn.  From "Media: Gay Rights and Gay Wrongs:"


He's an Iraq War veteran who makes fetish porn.  He started out in femdom porn (female dominant).  He's done plenty of straight porn.  Sadly, he decided to move over to gay porn.  Even worse, some gay men have embraced him.


They shouldn't have.


Now domination may or may not be your fetish.  If it is, enjoy -- whether as a fantasy or in reality.  And humiliation and shame may be your kink as well.


That's your thing.

 

We have no problem with that.


Where we have a problem is with the garbage he does for the gay community.  Ty brought a particular video to our attention: GAY RIGHTS REVOKED. 

 

This is a POV -- point of view -- video.  He speaks to someone unseen.  


He announces at the beginning, to the f**got (his term), that the US government has revoked gay rights -- something he always knew would happen, he says -- and this was either by the Courts or the Congress -- don't expect to follow his storyline because he never thought it out -- he's a dumb ass -- in real life and in the video.  


And now he is going to burn the brow of this f**got neighbor, someone he burned before.  Back then, Miles had the police knock on his door for the hate crime.  That's over because, as Miles asks, "How can you hate a thing?"  Miles announces that the house is now his house and that he'll be pissing down the throat of the 'thing.'  Won't be screwing him or getting oral sex from him, but he'll piss down the throat of the 'thing' and puts the ash from his cigarette on the tongue of the 'thing' repeatedly.


This performer, Miles Striker, won an award from the porn industry.

 

The LGBTQ community should not be encouraging this, they should be calling him out and they should be joined by many other voices.


Maybe Glenn's one of Miles Striker's biggest fans and has been longing for the day when GAY RIGHTS REVOKED could become true?  I don't know.


I do know that a normal person doesn't go out of their way to defend someone like Clarence Thomas who has put in writing that he wants to overturn marriage equality and to make sodomy illegal again.

That's who Glenn Greenwald wants to defend as a good guy.  

There's nothing to defend there and Glenn comes off like a sub when he does so.  I really would have thought Glenn were the top in that relationship.  But apparently he's a sub (and that's not a bottom for those who don't know -- a sub is more along the lines of the person Striker is speaking to in the video we described above).  


We noted in yesterday's snapshot that a former college student shot two professors in Iraq.  AFP reports:


Two Iraqi university professors were gunned down in the Kurdish regional capital Irbil on Tuesday prompting the arrest of a disgruntled former student, authorities said.
Shootings as a means of settling scores are far from rare in Iraq — its legacy of war and sectarian conflict mean the country’s 40 million people count some 7.6 million firearms, according to figures from the Small Arms Survey.
A Soran University engineering professor was shot dead in his home in the early hours, and the dean of the Salaheddin University law faculty, Kawan Ismail, was killed on campus shortly afterwards, provincial governor Omed Khoshnaw told reporters.
Police believe the shooter did not originally intend to kill the engineering professor, but rather his wife, who is a law professor at the same university and was away from home at the time, Khosnaw said.


On the political front there is . . . no new news.  The political stalemate continues.  AHRAM reports:


“The Iraqi people were waiting for steps to be announced by the strong and popular Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr to form a national and reformist government and not a consensual government,” Jinan Ali, an activist who participated in the Tishreen (October) protests in Iraq in 2019, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The protests forced changes in the Iraqi elections law and Independent Higher Electoral Commission and obliged the government of former prime minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi to resign in December 2019.

“One of the demands of the Tishreen protests was to put an end to the policy of muhasasa [power sharing by sectarian quota] or what they call ‘consensual government’ that has achieved nothing since the first general elections in 2006,” Ali said.

“This policy has led to chaos and corruption and increased the percentage of Iraqis living under the poverty line,” she added.

Ali is not optimistic that the kind of government the protesters wanted to see will now be formed after the resignation of the Sadrist Bloc, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament after last year’s elections, and the formation of the Save the Nation Alliance with the Siyada (sovereignty) Alliance of Parliamentary Speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi, a Sunni Muslim, and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.

The Coordination Framework (CF) led by former prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki includes all Iraq’s Shia political parties and movements except the Sadrist Bloc, and the Sunni Al-Azm Alliance and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of late Iraqi president Jalal Talbani wants to form a consensual government with it.


We're ten days away from nine months since the October 10th elections.

Iraq is still facing the pandemic (as we all are around the world).  In addition, they're facing cholera -- and the country's had their first cholera confirmed death this year.  In addition, there are the issues of climate change -- drought especially.  And there's no leadership at the top.

In this climate, MIDDLE EAST EYE reports:


On the morning of 25 June, three men claiming to be from National Security Service forces, stormed a training workshop on gender-based violence in Iraq’s southern city of Basra.

The men, who were wearing civilian clothes and had arrived in a tinted GXR vehicle, told the organisers of the Advocacy Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence workshop, set up by al-Firdaws Society, that training on such topics is not allowed, both now and in the future.

Fatima Bahadly, founder of al-Firdaws, condemned the attack on the workshop and demanded that the authorities in Basra release a public statement regarding the incident.

“[They need to] clearly explain the circumstances to the media outlets, or we will otherwise go to the judiciary and follow up all the legal means to secure our rights,” Bahadly told Middle East Eye. 

Bahadly, a prominent Iraqi rights activist whose 26-year-old son was found shot dead last year, has received death threats over the years for her work on human rights issues in Iraq and has faced severe social pressure from her own tribe.


In yesterday's snapshot, this appeared:

Two quick notes.  Everyone in the community is depressed regarding ROE.  I don't think there's going to be an edition of THIRD so if that proves to be the case as today unfolds, Ava and I'll post our TV piece late this afternoon (PST).  I believe it's 10:00 am EST that, on INSTAGRAM, Alec Baldwin is going to be interviewing Woody Allen live.  I consider Alec a friend.  I know Woody but we're not friends and weren't when he was with Mia (who was a friend).  I'm sure it'll be an interesting interview and if it makes it up on YOUTUBE we'll gladly repost it.  

The public account got over 60 e-mails insisting I had trashed Woody Allen in the comments above.  As Keesha says, this is a private conversation in a public square.  If you're going to make judgments, try to do a little research.


I don't like Woody as a person.  I never have.  That is up here and at THIRD.  He's a great artist.  We don't connect.  That doesn't make him a bad person.  My comments yesterday was "quick notes" -- I do consider Alec a friend (he's nuts when it comes to Ukraine but, in fairness, he's not as nuts as Jane is -- I am well remember a smarter Jane Fonda than the one we've got today).  Woody and I never got along.  Sometimes people don't.  It doesn't mean that we fought.  It doesn't even mean that we hate each other.  It just means there's never been a connection there.  He is a great artist.  


I have defended him regarding Mia's allegations which I believe are lies and I say that as a former friend of Mia's (I dropped her).  Dylan has doubts about what she's saying.  She should. I believe Woody's innocent -- and that has been the findings in the investigations that have taken place.  Dylan's comments at 7?  You mean when Mia was taping her own daughter nude?  You mean when Mia dropped that tape off at TV news station hoping they would air -- but they didn't want to air kiddie porn?


The HBO documentary was a bunch of lies from a bunch of liars.


Ava and I covered it in "TV: Back into the cesspool" and at the end of that you can see these links:


"The award for best self-created drama goes to Mia Farrow (Ava and C.I.)"


"TV: Another idiot for the idiot box"


"Mia and the meanings for America"


"Mia and her brood drag whatever's left of the name through the mud"


"TV: The gifted?"


"Dylan whines to Maureen Orth who passes it on to Janet Maslin"


"Media: "It's very rude of him," she said, "To come and spoil the fun!""


"He's a criminal (Ava and C.I.)"


"Saint Maria de Lourdes"


"Natalie Wood: The lies that remain repeated (C.I.)"


"Deep Thoughts From Roh-Roh Farrow"


"MEDIA: Hannah Gadsby is the 21st century's Jimmy Swaggart"


Those are only some of the pieces I've written and co-written regarding this issue.


Here's Alec's interview with Woody Allen.





The following sites updated:


Posted by at

6/28/2022

animal kingdom

geezer

 

that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Geezer Rock." 


just an fyi, i would love to go dark and just start publishing.  i haven't really felt that way in years and years.  clearing overturning 'roe v wade' has upset me and outraged me -- just like it has every 1 else.  i just don't feel like blogging.  we did a very long roundtable for 'hilda's mix' last night and it was about midnight when it ended.  i just powered down the computer. was not in the mood to write or blog or really much of anything.  i just want to scream - 1 long, never ending scream.

ok.  let's talk 'animal kingdom' which is in its final season and aired another 2 episodes sunday.

craig has trashed his sobriety - and even he noticed that his brothers prefer him drunk or high.  he tells that to the new guy he's become friends with this season.  last week, they robbed a diner together.  i mention that because the guy may end up being an undercover cop.  this keeps getting raised so i'm thinking maybe there's a reason why?  craig's ex is stoned all the time including when craig visited.  i don't know what's going to happen but i think he may end up trying to take his kid before the show ends.

pope.  that empty lot he owns.  he's made it into a skate boarding park of sorts.  pope is not very smart.  a man gets injured and jay points out that pope better check on him because he could be liable.  why - asks pope - i didn't invite them on to my property.

but you didn't kick them off, jay points out.

pope does kick off a guy the next day.  he and other skateboarders get into an argument.  pope kicks him off and tells him if he can't defend himself he shouldn't be there.

the guy grabs his skateboard and attacks the man he was arguing with.  pope lets him stay.  and stupid pope is now friends with the guy.

stupid pope?

the guy's working for the new woman who's the latest member of the law to be trying to put the cody family away.


jay didn't do anything of note - he went skinny dipping with the woman who is not a lawyer but it overseeing the deal that is putting all the brothers' holdings together.

jay is also working with deran and the others to rip off a fence - but they're going to have to do it at a party because that's the only way they'll be able to penetrate security.

deran's new boyfriend - 4 weeks together, he said in episode 2 of the season - lives in san diego.  

deran put in some effort (not enough) and went up to see him.  they were supposed to relax and talk.  deran wasn't talking.

he did notice this creepy man watching his boyfriend.

deran went to the bathroom.  the creep followed him in.  apparently didn't realize deran was with the guy.  creep started talking about how when things were better in the country, people like that would be beaten up.  i'm assuming the creep's name is clarence thomas jr.  so deran listens to him go on and on and bout how he wants to beat the guy up.  deran says meet him in the parking lot, he'll get that guy to come out with him, then they can jump him and 'don't p**sy out on me.'

deran goes back in and tells his boyfriend to come with him.  they go out to the parking lot and creepy clarence thomas shows up eager to fight.

deran punches him and punches him and punches him ...

and deran's boyfriend - who has no idea what's going on, yells for him to stop.  

after he's done beating up the guy, deran leaves.


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


Tuesday, June 28, 2022.  Iraq suffers from cholera, heat waves and climate change.  Swap a war on individual rights for cholera and it could be the US!


Within days of the reactionary Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to outlaw abortion, seven states have done so, either through trigger laws that took effect automatically, or through certification of the high court action by state officials which activated such laws.

According to Planned Parenthood, the states where abortion is already illegal and reproductive health clinics have ceased operating include: Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Utah, with a combined population of 52 million.

There are 15 states where the procedure is severely restricted and soon to be entirely illegal: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, with a combined population of 93 million.

In four more states, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan and North Carolina, the legal status of abortion depends on impending court decisions or, in Kansas, a statewide referendum in August. Some 26 million people live in these four states, bringing the total number of people living in states where abortion is banned or under immediate threat to 171 million, just over half the US population.

That leaves 24 states where the status of abortion remains on fairly strong legal foundations: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington.

Geographically, the division of the United States is quite stark. Abortion is likely to remain legal in the northeast and Middle Atlantic states, and along the entire West Coast and portions of the Mountain states, and in a few spots in the Midwest. Across the entire South, most of the Midwest, and some of the Mountain states, it will be savagely proscribed.

While the right to this vital medical procedure and fundamental democratic right is being taken away from women immediately, the response of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party as a whole is to view the issue purely as an opportunity to reverse their dismal poll numbers and mobilize support in the upcoming midterm elections on November 8.

Biden made a perfunctory statement Friday in response to the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. White House sources told the press on background that the speech had already been written last month after the draft of the controlling opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to the media. It was only “tweaked” in response to the handing down of the actual ruling.

The administration has convened a series of meetings to discuss what practical response it could carry out to aid women seeking abortions in the affected states, but nothing has happened so far except a joint letter from Attorney General Merrick Garland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, reminding insurance companies that they must continue providing coverage of contraceptive services under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Some 30 Democratic senators sent a letter to the White House over the weekend, urging Biden to take “bold action” and use “every step available to your Administration, across federal agencies, to help women access abortions and other reproductive health care.” Diplomatically, however, they did not actually spell out a single concrete action that Biden should take.

The “left” wing of the Democratic Party has seized on the abortion issue as a means of voter mobilization in November, and rehabilitating the Biden administration in the eyes of millions who voted for Biden in 2020 to oust the hated Trump, but have seen the Democrats abandon their promises of significant social improvements and reforms. This includes such issues as voting rights, relief for student debt, serious protection against evictions and foreclosures, and a real fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been entirely abandoned.


In fairness, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House -- second in line to the presidency (should Joe become ill or decide to retire before the end of his term, the order of succession is the Vice President and then the Speaker of the House) -- has taken 'action' when cameras were around.  She read a poem and she led a sing along.



These are the type of actions activists use to try to influence law makers.  These are not actions for members of Congress.  They are yet again abdicating their power and their responsibilities.  

If they wanted to, they could codify ROE right now.  They have the power.  They will not have it after the mid-terms so when Senator Elizabeth Warren tells you the answer is to vote in the mid-terms or House Rep AOC argues the same, NO.  That' not how it's going to work.

In fact, that's what led to the overturning of ROE -- the Democratic Party using it as a get-out-the-vote mechanism and refusing to codify it.

They used the Iraq War.  Look at that if you're old enough.  They were going to end it, Nancy Pelosi swore, if they were given just one house of Congress in the 2006 mid-terms.  The American people gave them both houses.  And Congress didn't end the war.  They were surprised by the turn out and used the continuation of the Iraq War as a get out the vote tool in 2008 to grab the presidency.

They never did remove all US troops from Iraq.  We've seen multiple on US military convoys in Iraq this month.  And there was just a fire at a US base in western Iraq.   

They did the same with abortion.  They used it to grab votes but they never defended it.  It's been chipped away and chipped away since the ruling.  They criticized the Hyde Amendment, for example.  That chipped away a significant amount of power and access.  That started in 1976 and the Dems railed against it publicly but they never did a damn thing to end the Hyde Amendment.  

Nada Hassanein and Eli Marcel Cahan (USA TODAY) explained this earlier this month.  It started with refusing to allow  Medicaid to cover abortion and then it refused all federal funds.  This prevented access to millions of women who were working class and/or in poverty.  But these same leaders who want to read you a bad, Zionist poem and then play Kate Smith by singing "God Bless America" (apparently Congress can't stop dry humping this same Court's verdict on prayer) did nothing.  1976.  It was one of the first attacks on ROE and it came from Congress.  Nothing overturned it.  The gender quake of the 1992 elections did not overturn it.  Dems being in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House didn't overturn it.


Last month, POLITICO broke the news of the draft opinion the Court had that would overturn ROE V WADE.  In response to that, Margaret Kimberly (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) noted:

Reaction to the news was swift and predictable. Liberals expressed outrage and marched on federal courthouses and even to the homes of Supreme Court justices. Barack Obama released a long winded 700 word statement declaring himself, and his wife, strongly opposed to the court’s imminent decision. The statement is amusing because it gives the impression that Obama had nothing to do with the current state of affairs.

As a presidential candidate in 2008 Obama promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would have codified abortion rights into federal law. But once in office he never pushed congress to pass it. In typical Obamaesque fashion he would claim to believe that women had the right to choose abortion, but that he didn’t want to demonize the opposition, and he wanted to find consensus on the issue. After his usual routine "on the one hand this, but on the other hand that” on April 29, 2009 he finally said out loud what was clear. "The Freedom of Choice Act is not my highest legislative priority." It wasn’t even his lowest legislative priority. Obama never lifted a finger to get it passed, even during his first two years in office when he had majorities in the House and the Senate.

Knowing full well that Roe v. Wade hinged on having a supportive Supreme Court in place, he dithered on doing what he had the power to do. In 2013 he knew that the democrats might lose control of the senate in the 2014 election. He asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, already 80-years old and a cancer patient, to step down. She declined and he didn’t press the issue. In 2016 conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died and senate republicans refused to even hold hearings to confirm Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland. Obama had the option of making a  recess appointment that would have put Garland on the court but he didn’t do that either. Such a move would have been controversial, and perhaps Garland’s presence would have been short, but it would have made clear that democrats were as committed as they claimed to be on the issue of abortion rights.

Instead they play games with democratic voters. Any unhappiness with the democrats is met with the plea to protect the federal judiciary from conservatives. This ploy is nothing but a cynical effort to keep left leaning democrats in the fold and to discredit anyone who questions the party's continued failures to do what the people want them to do.

Now the liars and hypocrites like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who once claimed abortion was a "fading" issue are sending fundraising appeals to brain washed liberals who will again write checks and declare their devotion like Stockholm Syndrome hostages. Hillary Clinton’s foolish appeals to conservatives included choosing anti-choice senator Tim Kaine as a running mate and at times saying she was "ambivalent " about abortion are now forgotten as the supposed left of the party remain lost.

They are lost because they don’t know the most basic rules of political mobilizations. Instead of harassing SCOTUS justices at home, they should be harassing their democratic representatives. Why march to a courthouse instead of to the office of democratic member of congress and demand that they make abortion legal? In particular, senators have the ability to end the filibuster which would give the senate the ability to pass a Freedom of Choice Act with their small majority margin. Every democratic senator should be quaking in his or her boots for fear that they’ll be turned out of office if they do not act to protect abortion rights.


They do nothing.

Over and over, they do nothing.

Even now when they could still save ROE by voting to make it law, they do nothing.

As Ashford & Simpson once sang, "I want to know, is it still good to ya?"








It's not good for me and it shouldn't be good for you.  They have the power now to act and they're taking your money right now and they're asking you to pledge for them in November right now.  But they're not doing anything.  And the November election is not going to find them with more seats.  That's not the historical pattern and Joe Biden has been a highly disappointing president.  There are valid questions about his sanity and the American people want oversight.  The Dems have provided no oversight -- watch them run like roaches when the light's turned on if anyone mentions the words "Hunter Biden."  

So the Dems will lose control of at least one house, possibly two.

They need to act now or they are just stringing us along as they've done over and over.

Hey, a slogan of "Look how we stepped up!" after codifying ROE could get people to turn out in droves and upset expectations.

But do nothing and still asking for a vote?  We should reject that abuse.  They have abused us enough.


The ruling the Court made is out of step with the American people.  Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) explains:

Nine out of 10 Democrats and more than half of independent voters said they oppose the ruling, while only 20% of Republicans opposed it.

"What the court did is clearly outside the mainstream of public opinion, and that is reflected again in the NPR poll," wrote Domenico Montanaro at NPR.

The poll of 941 people, which had a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points, found that only 39% of respondents were left feeling confident in the court after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling—a new low for the survey. As Common Dreams reported last week, a separate poll by Gallup taken just before the ruling found that only 25% of Americans had confidence in the court.


Meanwhile, poor Iraq.  We gave them death and destruction and, possibly worst of all, we gave them a version of our do-nothing government.  Which is why nothing gets accomplished and why the Iraqi people continue to suffer.



As I dictate this snapshot, the temperature in Baghdad is 104 degrees Fahrenheit.  And the people are suffering with power cuts.  And the people are also suffering because it's summer which doesn't just mean heat, it also means the annual cholera outbreaks.  This too could be prevented.  There's no reason with all the millions and millions Iraq makes off oil each month that the government of Iraq cannot provide potable water -- water that is safe to drink.  Instead, a state of emergency has been declared.

And because violence breeds violence, we've exported school shootings to Iraq as well.



Two university professors in the northern Iraqi province of Erbil were killed in an armed attack by a former student on Tuesday, the Erbil governor said.

Kawan Ismail, the dean of the college of law at Salahaddin University in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, succumbed to injuries he sustained in a shooting by a dismissed student, Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw told a press conference.

The student attacked the dean and shot him and killed another engineering professor, the governor was quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency as saying.


Layal Shakir (RUDAW) adds:                                                                              

Four years earlier, Aras Mahdi Qassim started his first year of law at Soran University before he was expelled for his poor grades. He continuously attempted to transfer his studies to Salahaddin University’s law faculty in Erbil in a request that was repeatedly rejected due to his low marks, Himdad Faisal, dean of Soran University’s Faculty of Law told Rudaw of the student.

Qassim, who has previously clashed with law lecturer Nishtiman Osman over his Erbil transfer request, readied his gun early morning and made his way towards her house determined to commit a crime. 

The woman had filed a lawsuit against Qassim and was in the Soran administration on Tuesday to attend the first court session. Her husband, Idris Izzat, who is also a well-known university academic in Erbil, was alone at home when the student arrived. 


Two quick notes.  Everyone in the community is depressed regarding ROE.  I don't think there's going to be an edition of THIRD so if that proves to be the case as today unfolds, Ava and I'll post our TV piece late this afternoon (PST).  I believe it's 10:00 am EST that, on INSTAGRAM, Alec Baldwin is going to be interviewing Woody Allen live.  I consider Alec a friend.  I know Woody but we're not friends and weren't when he was with Mia (who was a friend).  I'm sure it'll be an interesting interview and if it makes it up on YOUTUBE we'll gladly repost it.  

The following sites updated:


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6/25/2022

did dynasty die because of fallon?

 'Today is a story of betrayal -- one long betrayal' is a masterpiece that c.i. wrote friday, be sure to read it if you haven't already.

'dynasty' returned friday night.  'the cw' has announced that this is the final season.  did the show get cancelled because of fallon?


if not, it should have been.


like way too many episodes this season, easily a 30 of it was garbage.  waste of time to do a fallon story that wasn't a story but a series of comic misadventures.


no 1 watches a soap opera for that.  having tied fallon to liam they no longer knew what to do - the writers.  so they gave us cutesy storylines where fallon plants a rare turtle at her father's site to delay construction or where fallon goes on a dig and uses a dino's found tooth (that was this episode).


it's garbage.


we watch to see the drama.  we watch to see the conflict.


if they didn' thave anymore for fallon, then write the character off.


it dragged this season down.  it started last season but some of these stupid plots were long running and had actual impact last season.  this season it was just garbage.


ben is black's brother. he's determined to destroy blake.  blake gives order to the family (except adam who wasn't present) not to talk to ben. dominique (who was present) ignores him and goes to talk to her brother.  he is glad to see her and she tells him she wants no part of her (half) brothers' feud.  he then reveals that blake had her mother fired from carrington oil years ago because he wanted to give the job to his mistress at the time.


dominique confronts blake who finally admits it's true but argues that he didn't know she was his sister then.


oh, blake, dig your hole deeper.


dominique is now willing to help ben.  


being fired from that job destroyed her mother and destroyed their family.


what does ben want?  it appears to be the carrington fortune and he appears to have a will from their father that no 1 knows about.

by the way, blake insists he hates ben because ben was supposed to be watching their mother.  ben says he left a note, blake says there was no note.  ben left and mom died by drowning in the tub.  


how?


do they even think about this?


the carrington's are rich.  where were the servants during this drowning?


sam threw a pride celebration - the big act mouthed to laura branigan's 'self-control.'


a real season would have ditched all these cutesy fallon adventures and focused on the drama and the conflict that are the reason that people watch the show.



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


Friday, June 24, 2022.  War on Russia continues and requires obliterating uncomfortable truths, the persecution of Julian Assange continues, Iraq has a new make up in their legislative house, and much more.



Starting with the war on Russia, Larry C. Johnson looks at all the US intelligence failures in a column at ICH and concludes:


The CIA is learning the hardway the truth of Sun Tzu’s aphorism:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

That is where the United States intelligence community is; it is ignorant of itself and the Russians.

One of the old intel codgers, Graham E. Fuller, who was Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council at CIA back when I was an analyst, has it figured out. He wrote a piece sure to get him removed from woke Washington, DC parties:

The war in Ukraine has dragged on long enough now to reveal certain clear trajectories. First, two fundamental realities:

  • Putin is to be condemned for launching this war– as is virtually any leader who launches any war.  Putin can be termed a war criminal–in good company with George W. Bush who has killed vastly greater numbers than Putin.
  • Secondary condemnation belongs to the US (NATO) in deliberately provoking a war with Russia by implacably pushing its hostile military organization, despite Moscow’s repeated notifications about crossing red lines, right up to the gates of Russia.  This war did not have to be if Ukranian neutrality, á la Finland and Austria, had been accepted. Instead Washington has called for clear Russian defeat.

Contrary to Washington’s triumphalist pronouncements, Russia is winning the war, Ukraine has lost the war.  Any longer-term damage to Russia is open to debate.

Sadly for Washington, nearly every single one of its expectations about this war are turning out to be incorrect. Indeed the West may come to look back at this moment as the final argument against following Washington’s quest for global dominance into ever newer and more dangerous and damaging confrontations with Eurasia. And most of the rest of the world–Latin America, India, the Middle East and Africa– find few national interests in this fundamentally American war against Russia


This war could end today, said Sara Flounders back in March, but that would require reality being addressed.  For eight years, US officials and their military machine have fueled and organized to use Ukraine as a pawn for the war on Russia, have shelled the Russian border for eight years.  This is without a doubt.  There's just no mention in the media that it's US-NATO weapons that are responsible for 1400 civilian deaths . . ."

 


We can't get honest about that.  We can't get honest about the fact that Mila Kunis does not speak for Ukraine that, like any whore of war, she simplifies and pretends Ukraine is filled with people who 100% back a war on Russia.  That's not reality.


The nazi faction does back a war on Russia and separation from Russia.  


Earlier this week, Trina noted:

How stupid is Ben Stiller? He made a point to go to Ukraine and meet his ''hero'' Zelensky -- hero? This week, we learn Ben Stiller's hero is banning books and music. Guess Ben doesn't support the arts. Well, that would explain THE CABLE MAN and so much of the garbage he has appeared in. There was no reason for him to go to Ukraine. In a few years when we all accept the reality that the government of Ukraine was neo-nazis, I don't want to hear excuses from Stiller. No one twisted his arm. He elected to stand with and praise a racist.


At WSWS,  Jason Melanovski reported yesterday:

A Ukrainian court has officially banned the activities of the country’s largest opposition party, the Opposition Platform—For Life party.

The decision was handed down by the Administrative Court of Appeals No. 8 on June 20 in Lviv and effectively upheld President Volodymyr Zelensky’s banning of 11 political parties that Kiev regarded as “anti-Ukrainian” and “collaborationists” earlier in March. The measure was then approved by the Ukrainian parliament in May.

Ten other pro-Russian and left-wing parties were included in Zelensky’s ban, among them the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Shariy led by the popular Youtube blogger Anatoly Shariy.

In addition to legally banning the party’s activities, the court also stated that the party’s property and assets will be confiscated by the State Treasury. 

The banning of the country’s largest opposition party marks the temporary culmination of an undemocratic campaign initiated by the Zelensky government against parties and individuals who could potentially undermine the war that Kiev is waging against Russia on behalf of the imperialist powers.

Led by oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, the party controlled 44 out of 450 seats in Ukraine’s parliament, surpassed only by the ruling Servant of the People party of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Prior to Russia’s invasion in February, several opinion polls showed the Russia-aligned party leading hypothetical parliamentary elections or finishing second.

In eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, Opposition—For Life functioned as the dominant political party at both national and local levels. It was the effective successor to the Party of Regions of former President Viktor Yanukovych. In contrast to his opponents in the oligarchy that, with the heavy backing from US and German imperialism, toppled him in 2014 in a coup, Yanukovich spoke for a faction of the Ukrainian oligarchy that has been seeking to balance between Western imperialism and the Kremlin, and opposed a direct alliance of Ukraine with NATO.

 

You don't ban political parties, books and music if you're all in agreement.  


You don't lie if you have truth on your side.  But it's been one lie after another to keep the war going.  No one can tell truth about the far-right in Ukraine and how the US government is supporting them.  (They did the same in Iraq.  A people under attack internally are less likely to be able to mount to fronts and expel the foreign invaders.)  


Nicholas Paul Pacheco and I are not in agreement on Ukraine and I want that clear so I'm not accused of distorting him.  But a lengthy piece he wrote for INKSTICK MEDIA notes:


The Azov’s success in battle has spanned back to the 2014 Crimean War, and the Ukrainian government has built a reliance on their fierce fighting capabilities in several theaters. Yet, despite dismissals of their danger to stability in Ukraine, several troubling patterns suggest that Azov and its political wing, the National Corps, should not be overlooked, especially in a post-war Ukraine. First, the Azov has increased its number of fighters from 300 in 2014 to between 900 and 2500 in 2022, which is in tandem with the National Corps’ growth in size to a party membership of between 10,000 and 15,000 people. Second, they retain popular support from all spectrums of the ideological zeitgeist, from nationalists to conservatives to neo-Nazis, who are now being conscripted to fight in the war. And third, while the party and the battalion are primarily men, there have been reports of women volunteering for various militias, including the Azov under the National Guard.

Signs of strategic indifference from policymakers and media have been expressed with the US military reversing its ban on training Azov soldiers and Facebook lifting the ban on its social media page. Withstanding the current Russian encroachment is pivotal to ensuring further aggression does not take place across Eastern Europe. But just like in the 1980s, when priorities of the Cold War resulted in policy oversights in Afghanistan, the United States and NATO may find themselves in a quagmire with a potential transnational actor that is not separated by a continent and dense terrain but rather has easy land access to various European states.

The reality on the ground of the far-right’s size in Ukraine cannot be defined by how many fighters are listed as serving under the Azov Regiment. At the start of the year, around two months before the invasion, former FBI agent Ali Soufan estimated that more than 17,000 foreign fighters had come to Ukraine over the past six years from 50 countries, with Azov orchestrating recruitment for a network of extremist groups that spanned from California, through Europe, and to New Zealand. As Soufan explains, consistent with the modus operandi of ideological non-state groups, the spread of far-right extremism is a transnational movement that actively recruits and spreads ideas beyond borders.

While not all of the recruits were confirmed to be neo-Nazis or even considered “far-right” by any kind of ideological litmus test, Azov has had a history of actively communicating with groups across Europe. For example, members of the group utilized the neo-fascist chat forum Iron March to convene with other neo-fascist organizations in Europe, including Italy’s CasaPound, the UK’s Blood and Honour, Sweden’s Nordic Resistance Movement, Greece’s Golden Dawn, and Serbias’ Serbian Action. There was also a confirmed correspondence by members of Azov with US-based Atomwaffen co-founder Devon Arthurs attempting organizing a visit to Ukraine according to monitoring undertaken at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. Arthurs’ correspondence showcases what potential the dichotomy of Azov’s continued growth can result in; the ability for radicals to travel and receive training and/or combat action.

Inquiries by independent researchers and international organizations, including the UN, also suggest assertions contrary to the notion that the Azov has gone legitimate and is now accountable to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as reiterated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In 2016, a report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found that members of Azov were engaged in activities beyond their jurisdiction after the Nov. 11, 2014, date of their assimilation into the National Guard as a unit. These activities included corroborated reports of extrajudicial torture, sexual violence, and politically-motivated subversion of a Ukrainian television channel. In 2017, they proceeded to publicly project themselves as the vanguard of defense for the nation independent of the Ukrainian military, as their official Twitter account at the time tweeted: “When the Ukrainian Army ran, #Azov stood up to fight for #Ukraine” and followed this tweet with unsanctioned artillery shelling of pro-Russian separatist locations.

Even in the current conflict, despite the declaration by the Ukrainian government of a unified nation in this battle, reports on the ground have indicated there are instances of in-fighting between the Azov and Ukrainian military units. For example, independent journalist Patrick Lancaster, who’s been on the ground in Ukraine for the duration of the war, reports claims by locals of Mariupol that Azov fighters were opening fire on Ukrainian soldiers who were attempting to retreat under orders from their command because they wanted to stay and fight.


Again, reality matters.  Truth matters.  If they tell the truth for a losing cause -- like a meaningless war -- leaders lose support.  If they tell the truth about someone they're trying to persecute, leaders lose support.  Peter Osborne (THE NATION) notes:


And it is certainly true that the Wikileaks revelations has shone a horrifying light on crimes casually committed by the US during the so called “War on Terrorism.”

Wikileaks published a video of US helicopter gunmen laughing as they shot at and killed unarmed civilians in Iraq. Fifteen individuals were killed in the attack, including a Reuters photographer and his assistant. 

The US military refused to discipline the perpetrators of this grotesque crime, who remain unpunished. But the US government has thrown the book at the man who revealed their crimes.

Wikileaks revealed that the total number of civilian casualties in Iraq was far greater than previously admitted by the US government. It disclosed the abuse meted out to the inmates at Guantanamo Bay, as well as the fact that 150 innocent inmates were held for years without charge. 


This persecution of Julian is about silencing the press.  Monday April 5, 2010, WIKILEAKS released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh.  That is when the persecution begins.  It was an intimidation carried out by multiple presidents starting with Barack Obama, continuing with Donald Trump and now the baton for killing the press has been handed off to Joe Biden. This has had the effect of scaring off many traditional news outlets.  They once partnered with Julian to report and now they act as though they've never heard of him.  Saving their own asses?  They may think that.  If they do, they're dead wrong.  An attack on Julian is an attack on all.  And if the attack on Julian is not loudly and publicly rebuked, you can be sure that next up will be THE WASHINGTON POST or THE MIAMI HERALD or some other institution -- despite the US Constitution -- the same one that's being ignored in this attack on Julian. 

Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) reports:


Immediately after British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Friday last week that she had approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States, the publisher and journalist was stripped naked and placed in a bare cell of London’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

This latest abuse of Assange’s democratic and human rights was reported by his father John Shipton to a rally in Berlin last Tuesday and at other speaking engagements in Europe. The brutal treatment was meted out on the grounds of preventing Assange from taking his own life.

In reality, it is a continuation of what outgoing United Nations Rapporteur Nils Melzer has branded as the state torture of Assange by the British and US authorities. 

The persecution of the journalist is proceeding along two tracks. On the one hand, there is the pseudo-legal extradition process, aimed at dispatching Assange to the US where he would face 18 Espionage Act charges and 175 years imprisonment for publishing true documents which exposed American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the other is the ongoing brutalisation of Assange, who has been subjected to different forms of arbitrary detention for more than a decade. This includes over three years imprisonment in Belmarsh Prison, a facility dubbed “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay,” the vast majority of that time without conviction.

On Twitter, Assange’s wife Stella Moris also reported that Assange had been denied visitors the entire weekend after Patel’s announcement. The extradition order will be subject to a further appeal through the British courts. But under conditions of a momentous decision, which has vast and potentially dire consequences for his life, Assange was deliberately isolated and left entirely alone.

The clear aim of the British authorities was not to prevent Assange’s suicide, but to intensify his suffering as much as possible. The implications of such treatment being meted out to a man with intense psychological issues, stemming from the protracted US-led persecution, are clear. The British state wants Assange dead.


They want what Joe Biden wants because that's who they're sucking up to.  Argentinian international law expert Beltran Gambier notes that Joe Biden has the power to end this nonsense, that Barack Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning and wonders how Joe can reconcile that while continuing to pursue the extradition of Julian?


The world is watching and it's not like Joe's not already embarrassing himself on the world stage.



From yesterday's snapshot:


The fake assery of Joe Biden.  That included, please remember, backing Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq.  Joe loves to trot out Beau Biden and Beau's service in Iraq.  Didn't stop him from siding with Moqtada who is responsible for the deaths of many US troops.  Didn't stop him from channeling the bribe through the US State Dept last August to get Moqtada to reverse his position on the Iraqi elections and instead announce that he now supported them.  


Those elections took place October 10th.  Over eight months later, still no prime minister, still no president.  Moqtada had a hissy fit recently and took his toys and went home.  He demanded that his MPs resign from the Parliament.  And they did.  


His usual sycophants in the media tried to spin this.  Just a bluff. Or some great move that he's going twist around and . . .

Iraq Parliament swears in new lawmakers to replace 73 members of Sadrist bloc who resigned – Reuters
Image
6:45 AM · Jun 23, 2022


Nope.


They're gone.  They're replaced (by the next highest vote getters from the October 10th elections).


Today, AL-MONITOR observes:


Today, 64 new members took the oath in the parliament, including 40 seats for the Iran-backed Coordination Framework. The other 24 were distributed among the Sunnis and the independent members.

The other 9 members did not attend. Four of them belong to the Hoquq bloc, affiliated with the Kata'ib Hezbollah, and the others are independents.

Hoquq Movement issued a statement shortly before the parliament session, announcing that they will not take the Sadrist seats and they will resign as well, as a sign of solidarity with the Sadrists.

The Coordination Framework has 130 members now, but they need 90 more members to select the president. This requires an alliance with the Sunnis and the Kurds. However, this task is not easy for the Coordination Framework, due to the lack of confidence among those groups.

The Sunni leaders' headquarters and the Kurdistan region have been constantly attacked by the Shiite militias affiliated with the Coordination Framework.

Just yesterday, the Dana Gas company, which operates in the Kurdistan Region, was attacked by rockets around Kirkuk.

Moreover, the Coordination Framework was able to push the federal court to rule against Kurdistan's oil and gas law, creating serious obstacles against the international companies to work in the region.

Now, the KDP is setting terms and conditions on the Coordination Framework to accept the alliance with them —  including nullifying the federal court ruling.

The Sunnis as well see this political change a great opportunity to set terms and conditions in their political interests.

In such circumstances, the negotiations over forming the government  are likely to take time, if an agreement is even possible at all.

 


The following sites updated:


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