1/20/2022

victory for u.k. activists

 

that's 'electronic intifada.'  

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


Thursday, January 20, 2022.  Violence in many forms (including whoring for poltiicians) plagues us all.


Starting in the United States where the organization Veterans for Peace has issued its "Nuclear Posture Review" which concludes:



The world is a much more dangerous place with nuclear weapons, particularly given the current confrontations among nuclear-armed nations. The United States military seeks “Full Spectrum Dominance” and the government appears determined to be the preeminent global power, even in the face of diminishing economic power relative to a rising China. It is hard to imagine the US taking serious steps toward nuclear disarmament without a sea change in the thinking among its political elites and real change in its posture toward the rest of the world.
Activist efforts to restrain US militarism and intervention around the globe, to cut the military budget, and to encourage mutual respect and diplomacy among nations must therefore go hand-in-hand with efforts to reduce and eliminate all nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which went into effect January 22, 2021, is an historic and extremely important event. It expresses the clear desire of the peoples of the world to be free from nuclear weapons and the threat of a nuclear war that could end human civilization.
The Nuclear Ban Treaty is a valuable tool for education and organizing. Even though the US and other nuclear-armed states have yet to sign on to the TPNW, many cities in the USxxx have passed resolutions in support of signing. New York City is the latest to sign on to the ICAN Cities Appeal. The US states of California, Oregon, New Jersey and Maine have also passed resolutions in support of the TPNW. Veterans For Peace encourages all of our chapters, members, friends and allies to pursue similar support for the TPNW in their cities.
It is important to build an intersectional movement for peace at home and peace abroad. We are engaged in struggles for racial justice, for non-intervention in the affairs of other nations, and for redirecting funds from the military – and nuclear weapons – to healthcare, education and other human rights. We are making common cause with the burgeoning Climate Justice Movement, proclaiming that climate catastrophe and nuclear war are the twin threats to all life on earth.
Our VFP Nuclear Posture Review provides a stark contrast to the Nuclear Posture Review being prepared for President Biden by the Pentagon, which will continue to justify the discredited idea of nuclear deterrence, while feeding billions more dollars to nuclear weapons manufacturers. We are providing a well-researched and credible alternative that reflects the global desire for nuclear disarmament and peace. We hope that the VFP Nuclear Posture Review will be a guide, a useful tool and an inspiration for all who wish a peaceful future for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come.


Nuclear weapons threaten the planet's very life.  They aren't the only threats.  There's pollution -- pysical pollution.  There's the less noted mental pollution where we all enter into some form of a daying will wherein we agree to lie to ourselves that some worthless politician is going to save us.  They're not even going to address our most basic needs so you have to lie pretty big to pretend they're actually going to save us.


At BLACK AGENDA REPORT, Margaret Kimberley notes the push to distort Joe Biden in order to carry his tired, corporate and corrupt ass into the White House:


“Biden came across as a plantation owner telling the field hands that they have a good life and ought to be grateful.” 

This columnist wrote those words in December 2020 before Joe Biden was inaugurated. His meeting with a group designated as Black leaders was as bad as one could expect, complete with dismissal, rudeness, and outright disrespect. It was vintage Biden, a man who was never the brightest and is now elderly and not fully in command of his faculties.

But the real Biden was always an unreconstructed racist, bragging about the 1992 Crime Bill which he said would, “Do everything but hang people for jaywalking.” Barack Obama chose him as a running mate precisely because of his credentials among conservative, race baiting democrats. Having run as a fake progressive Obama needed someone decidedly in the conservative camp to balance the ticket.

In 2020 Obama and the rest of the party establishment decided to make Biden the nominee, ordering others out of the race and clearing the field for the candidate who had no constituency outside of the wealthy individuals and corporations that keep the democrats afloat. A combination of fundraising prowess and antipathy towards Donald Trump created a large voter turnout and Biden won the popular and electoral vote.

The democrats’ propaganda machine played no small role in dragging Biden over the finish line. They settled on the term “harm reduction” to convince the skeptical that they should put aside their concerns and vote for the man they didn’t want. Biden won with a record breaking number of votes, and in cities across the country democrats quite literally partied in the street when he won.

Biden was propelled by the same propaganda effort when his term began one year ago. We were told that he was “the most progressive president since FDR.” The democrats are still living off their reputation from Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security Act and the creation of Medicaid and Medicare during the Lyndon Johnson administration. No democrat has created anything of the sort in the last 50 years but the memories lingers and scoundrels evoke the past in order to fool the people in the 21st century.

We were told that Biden’s stimulus plan and child tax credits would “cut child poverty in half.” Absent an increase in the federal minimum wage and lacking permanent legislation, it did no such thing. The child tax credit ended in 2021. Unemployment compensation ended three months ago, and republican led states refused to provide the additional payments that congress had authorized. They did so without push back from Biden or from democrats in congress. 

Now Biden’s approval ratings have plummeted and it isn’t hard to understand why. Put simply, he lied in order to get votes. He said he would forgive student loan debt for those who attended public colleges and whose families met income guidelines. He could have done this without congressional approval but he hasn’t acted. It is clear that he never had any intention of raising the minimum wage, using the Senate Parliamentarian as an excuse to avoid doing what he promised voters he would do. 


That politicians lie is not a new or novel observation but grasp this went beyond the candidate.  A lot of whoring was involved in carrying Joe to the White House -- a lot of whores lied and knew they were lying.  They're as deadly to the planet as any run off into our streams and rivers.  They don't just lie for the candidate, they bully people trying to silence critics and trying to drum up votes.


They're dirty whores.  They say things like -- you know who I mean here -- that right now, in 2021, there actually has been an increase in wages because if you look at the stimulus from 2020 . . .


You know the whore I'm talking about.  You know him very well.


They can't stop whoring.  


And, honestly, shame on the people who promote them.


When do we get the reckoning?


How about when do we get the truth about Tara Reade?


I believe her.  Her accusations against Joe Biden are credible.


I don't know her and I'm actually glad I don't because Tara's lied to herself since she came forward.  Shes pretended that certain people were going to help her and defnd her.  That was Tie's Up, that was Ryan Grim and THE INTERCEPT, that awas so many people.

If we knew each other, we would not have had nice conversations.


I don't play.  About the nicest thing I would've said was, "Can you drop the TAR-rah and just pronounce it Tara since this is the US and not the UK and we really don't need to combat charges of pretentious natures as well as everything else."


People were laughing at her, for example, at THE NEW YORK TIMES, over the pronuciation of her first name.


When I spoke to one NYT-er over the phone about how the paper was treating her, they made me first agree that she was asking for mockery with "TAR-ah."  


That would've been our easisest converation.  And she probably would've stuck with TAR-ah since that's how it's been her whole life.


But I wouldn't have played and pretended the way some did -- a lot of people around her just didn't know better but there were some who damn well should have known what was going on.


We noted that Time's Up didn't just refuse her case but they were actually working against her.


Actively.  Not in the past but while the story was briefly being cov ered.


We noted that Alyssa Milano attacking Tara based on what Times Up told Alyssa was outrageous and unethical -- Times Up was not q clearinghouse devoted to attacking women -- that's not why it got money.


But Ryan Grim was not at all interested in that story.  It was put to him.  He didn't see the merit.


Of course, thanks to what happened with Cuomo, the whole world knows what a fake Times Up was.  How it betrayed women and worked with powerful Democratic men to destroy women.


Ryan could have had that story but that would've required some actual work.  A friend tried spoon feeding it to him but he was either too scared or too stupid to grasp what he was being handed.


At any rate, we called out the betrayers here.


And Tara trusted the wrong people.  


SUch as "Mama's boy" who was never going to ride to her rescue because his Mommy was never going to let him -- please, it's only in the last five or so years that she's let him -- yes, let him -- be openly gay.  Mommy was not going to let him go after Joe.    No matter what Rose might have told Tara, Mama's boy was not riding to her rescue.  (And he never did.)


But what has prevented the press in all the time since from re-examing what went down.  Times Up, as we noted here in real time, was feeding NYT and other outlets smears against Tara.  They were treated as trusted sources and got to be off the record.


I don't think that should have happened in real time which is why I called it out..


But now that the world knows that Times Up lied about women who were assaulted, that Times Up lied to protect Andrew CUomo, isn't it past time that those outlets that shaped their coverage of Tara based on smears from Times Up had to go back and actually report?


Mama's Boy is Ronan for anyone who didn't grasp it.  I'm not in the mood in this morning.  I was there when Mia had her freakfest over Ronan wanting to be a girl.  I was there when Mia had her freakfest over Ronan might be gay.  I was there . . . I know what Ronan's allowed to do and what he isn't.  I'm just glad Mommy's not hopping in the bed with him.


pekaing of which, Dylan whatever her name is now --Blaine, Liar, I don't know.  What I do know is that her hugely inventive story doesnt hold up.  And I never would have said that if she and Mia hadnt launched their attacks on others.  Up until the Iraq War, I was Mia's friend of many years.  I knew Woody before Mia but knew him largely through Mia.  I did not like Woddy.  I still don't.  But when Mia conspired to create draama and attack others, she begged the world -- even her friends -- to question the lie she'd put forth for years.


Grasp that HBO has done no multi-part story on Tara Reade.  She's accusing the President of the United States, the sitting president.  And her story is credible.


Dylan's is not at all credible.  You have family members who say "no."


You also have logic.


For the story to be true, Woody molested one child and only one child.  That's not the profile of a pedophile.  


More to the point, as that Bbad HBO mini-series made clear without realizing it, the story is that Woody molested her once.  Once.  That's a pedophile?


All the times they were together.  Many times without Mia.  And he only molests Dylan once?  And he waits until after the media is abuz with the custody battle between Mia and Woody?  


But that nosnense and that garbage is treated as reality by HBO while Tara accusing a sitting president of having assaulted her is ignored?


Dylan gets coverage because of favors and I'm damn sick of it.  I've not just dropped a friend and stopped promoting her hear because of her rallying to Dylan late last year, I'm also preventing her from getting film roles.  She was up for a comedy.  I'm friends with the actor that's already cast in the role.  I spent an evening with him and his wife reviewing how former-freind doesn't just bust up her own marriages but bust ups the marriages of her male co-stars.  Did they really think her so-so talent -- and promise to reduce for a month at a fat farm if she got the role -- justified them risking their own marriage by letting her be his co-star?  Nope.  They didn't.


HBO allowed lies to be told about Woody -- and broke the law by using clips from his films without his autorization, he should have sued -- but Tara is not to be believed?  Tara's story is not to be explored?

Joe and company lied about where the complaint would be and refussed to allow access to his papers.  The phone call of Tara's mother to Larry King was turned up -- the clip of Tara's mother calling in to Larry King's CNN show.  She has friends wh has told about this over the years.  


And this gets ignored.  But the adopted daughter of an acclaimed filmmaker and a celebrity claiming she grew up with a pedophile who molested her once and only once is treated newsworthy despite the fact that two investigations found nothing to support the claims Mia made and coaced Dylan on?  Coached.  We can use that term because that is what the findings suggested in the only actual investigations that took place.


A lot of whores worked the streets to discredit and attack Tara Reade.  One of those?  Times Up and we now know what they really were.  So why isn't the public record being corrected?


There is not even the pretense of a funcitioning press in the US these days.  In fact, refer to Jonathan Turley and the topic of the post is important but especially note things like:


Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor issued a rare joint public statement Wednesday to disclaim the bombshell NPR report by Legal Affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg on the unpopularity of Gorsuch among his colleagues and his alleged refusal to wear a mask despite a threat to the health of Sotomayor. The justices stated that Totenberg’s account on the mask controversy was false.


[. . .]


In one incident, NPR itself expressed regret that Totenberg did not reveal a close personal relationship with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg despite years of coverage.

[. . . ]


Chief Justice John Roberts also issued a statement that it was false, as claimed, that he asked any of colleagues to wear masks on the bench.


[. . .]

The controversy at NPR occurs after the publicly funded company changed its policy to allow its reporters to take active parts in protests for social justice — erasing a long-standing bright-line rule in journalism. The impact of such advocacy journalism is evident in every poll where the faith in the media has plummeted. Indeed, the “Let’s Go Brandon” movement is as much a criticism of the media as it is President Biden. The United States ranked dead last in media trust among 49 countries with just 29% saying that they trusted the media.

We will not be able to restore the trust in the media until these companies abandon reporting “in some form” and return to simple journalism.


Again, where is the functioning press?


VOLTAIRE RECORD maintains:


On 18 November 2021, US Representatives, Peter A. DeFazio (R-Oregon), Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) and Jamaal Bowman (D-New York), wrote to President Joe Biden asking him to specify on which constitutional basis he was bobming Syria and Iraq.

At the end of the two-month regulatory deadline, the White House has still not responded to them. The military actions perpetrated by the United States against these two countries are, therefore, not only violating their sovereignty, but also the US Constitution.


I hadn't heard of that letter and I'm not familiar with the outlet so I'm using "maintains."  (The item was sent to the public e-mail account.)


Violence continues this morning in Iraq. AHLULBAYT NEWS AGENCY reports:


Iraqi media sources reported on Thursday morning that two horrific explosions took place in the southern province of Basra.

The blasts were caused by two improvised explosive devices, Shafaq News quoted security officials.

The first explosive device exploded near the Taiz company belonging to the security defense in the Manawi Basha district.

The second blast occurred near an Islamic bank on Esteghlal Street. 


And we'll wind down with this from THE NEW ARAB:


An Iraqi man shot dead his daughter, his ex-wife and her mother and then committed suicide at the scene in Hillah city in the central province of Babil, the police said on Tuesday, in the latest deadly case of domestic violence in the country.

Security forces blocked the area off and moved the bodies for forensic examination, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister service, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

"The 19-year-old son of the killer was wounded in the attack, and the incident occurred in the killer's ex-wife's house in the Nader neighbourhood in downtown Hillah," Babil Bar Association member Ahmed Abdel Ghani Al-Fatlawi said.

"Initial investigations show the crime was planned by the man, who committed suicide immediately after killing the victims."

Iraq's High Commission for Human Rights previously said it had seen a clear increase in domestic violence crimes, saying that this type of crime disproportionately impacts women and children.



The following sites updated:


1/19/2022

'marry me' is a suck-ass movie

you know what, i'd still prefer armie hammer.


i just saw the garbage trailer for 'marry me.'


it looks like decades old garbage.


jennifer lopez needs an attractive and sexy man.  that's not owen wilson and it never will be.  he's a slight improvement on ben stiller but both men are sexless and unattractive.


jennifer needed a sexy man.  instead she got owen. 


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


 Wednesday, January 19, 2022.  We deal with a number of topics including how it's cute what the press dubs "political violence" and what it doesn't.


Germany's DW is ridiculous today.  They report:


Over the past month, there has been an increase in political violence in Iraq again.

But, instead of the US bases or convoys that are often attacked, there were some less-usual targets. Last week, grenades were thrown at offices belonging to Sunni Muslim and Iraqi Kurdish political parties in Baghdad.

On Sunday, grenades were lobbed at two Kurdish-owned banks in the capital. 

On Monday, the house of a Shiite Muslim cleric in Muthanna province was attacked by gunmen.

And, earlier in January, a senior member of a Shiite paramilitary group was apparently assassinated in southeastern Maysan province.


Has there been an increase in "political violence in Iraq"?


Not really.  If you only count political parties being targeted as political violence, then, yes, there was an increase.


That requires you to ignore the last years of violence aimed at political protesters -- violence that has wounded them and killed them.  Any two month period, Iraq has seen more injured and killed for protesting than they have since the October 10th election with violence aimed at candidates and parties.


But apparently, DEUTSCHE WELLE, like the Iraqi government, doesn't give a damn about the Iraqi civilians who were injured and killed for excersizing their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.


You look at the western press like DW and have to wonder if they're supposed to be a news outlet or the society pages because they have no interest in the Iraqi people.


It's also cute what DW wants to argue was ''political violence:"


Over the past month, there has been an increase in political violence in Iraq again.

But, instead of the US bases or convoys that are often attacked, there were some less-usual targets. Last week, grenades were thrown at offices belonging to Sunni Muslim and Iraqi Kurdish political parties in Baghdad.

On Sunday, grenades were lobbed at two Kurdish-owned banks in the capital. 

On Monday, the house of a Shiite Muslim cleric in Muthanna province was attacked by gunmen.

And, earlier in January, a senior member of a Shiite paramilitary group was apparently assassinated in southeastern Maysan province.


Oh no!!!! Kurdish owned banks targeted!!!! Stop the political violence!!!


There's no proof that the attack on the banks was political violence.  As for the assassination of "a Shi'ite paramilitary group" member?  That's violence.  Not political violence.  That's violence and I'm sorry DW is unaware of how often the militia members do get shot in Iraq. Strange because they include a Tweet noting that the attacsk on the militia members have been taking place "on a monthly basis since 2018."  But I guess DW is too busy churning out nonsense to grasp that the Tweet they include undercuts their highly suspect argument.



 They slide right by the attacks on US bases or convoys, don't they?

This despite the fact that, since Joe Biden said combat missions have ended for US troops in Iraq, there have been at least three attacks a week on either US bases or US convoys in Iraq.


What's going on with DW?  They selected the narrative and then cherry picked -- poorly -- events to try to back it up.  Events do not back it up.

 Deutsche Welle is such a joke but then they all are these days.  DW goes on to insist, "As varied as they are, these targets all have something in common. They all did something to offend the losers in last October's federal elections."


The lies never end when DW decides to take a course in creative writing.  


Really?  The targets had in common that they did "something to offend the losers in last October's federal elections"?  


How did the militia members that were targeted do anything to offend the losers? 


DW does grasp that the big losers were the militias, right?  They were disenfranchised by not being allowed to vote in the early election which meant theyd have to vote on election day but couldn't do that unless the polls they were deployed to protect were also the polling station that they would vote in.  


Who objected repeatedly and repeatedly challenged the results?


That's right the militias.


So, again, DW, explain to me how they -- militia members -- did "something to offend the losers in last Octobers federal elections" when these targeted militia members were the losers in the October 10th election?


Do we just make up any lie and stick it out there?


Apparently, the wester press does.


Today, Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:

Iraq’s top court on Wednesday adjourned the session to review the cases filed against the first parliamentary meeting to January 25. 

The Federal Court decided to adjourn the hearing after the plaintiff claimed MP Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was chairing the first parliamentary session on January 9, was assaulted before being evacuated from the parliamentary hall.

However, the plaintiff failed to provide a medical report at court.

The Iraqi parliament held its first session earlier this month, almost three months after October’s early election.


And his article also notes that Iraq has until February 8th to elect the president.  (They can't do a prime minister-designate until they have a president.)  So that's about 20 days from now.  And -- maybe DW should focus on this? -- they aren't any closer to moving forward politically.


The most interesting thing about the DW article may be its outlandish headline, "Hope for democracy in Iraq as political violence escalates."


There is no democracy in Iraq.



Actions have consequences -- unless it's the US government's actions and then the press wants to ignore the consequences.  If you were an Iraqi who went to the polls in 2010 and, like most did, voted to send Nouri packing and eight months later the US government overturned your vote, why would you believe in voting?  Why would you ever believe your vote mattered?


Some of us -- a handful -- called this b.s. out in real time.  Some of us noted the longterm effects from this move.  Others, like Patrick Cockburn, just lied like a whore.  To this day, Paddy and his burning pee-wee has never once written of The Erbil Agreement.  Because that's what whores do.  Historians have not been silent and it's already part of the historical record.  And we'll make sure that part of the record is that Patrick Cockburn never told the truth about The Erbil Agreement, he was just a cheap liar who lied repeatedly.  

It matters.


History matters.


You can see the fall off in voting after the votes were overturned by the US government in 2010.  The Iraqi people began to stop voting culminating in October's disasterous turnout that was much worse than the press ran with.  It was noted, before the election, that they were going to count turnout differently -- and it was noted that was because they expected the turnout to be low.


The press needs tos top lying.  It's not helping anyone.


In other news, Human Rights Watch notes:


On December 31, Iraqi security forces killed 20 people from a single family in a raid on a home in Jableh district in Babil governorate, south of Baghdad. Security forces carried out the raid after reportedly receiving false information about a suspect purportedly living there. While the Iraqi government swiftly opened an investigation, the authorities should examine how security forces often appear to rely on unsubstantiated, questionable, and/or false information to target suspects, especially alleged ISIS members.

On January 3, the Iraqi judiciary charged 13 people – including 9 state security personnel for their involvement in the Jableh operation and killings. Iraq’s High Judicial Council said in a statement that a relative of one of the victims provided “false information as a result of family disputes.” Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also subsequently dismissed senior officers in Babil, including the police chief in Babil governorate and intelligence chiefs in Jableh and Babil, and formed a committee of senior security officials to investigate the massacre.

The Iraqi government’s quick and high-profile actions are a positive response to these killings. But the authorities have previously formed committees to investigate human rights violations while failing to publicly disclose any findings. There has been little transparency on any measures to sanction those responsible, nor have there been any structural changes to address the root causes of these abuses. The committee should directly address how unsubstantiated information is often used to justify targeting and arresting suspects.

Human Rights Watch has long documented the misuse and abuse of Iraq’s anti-terrorism laws and policies. Iraqi authorities, for instance, continue to rely on unverified information provided to them by secret informants about former ISIS members and sympathizers. Media and Human Rights Watch reporting has shown that some residents and families have exploited security forces’ reliance on often unsubstantiated accusations from informants to settle personal and family disputes.

Reports indicate that in this case, the informant who provided the false information was a police officer himself, raising still more concern about the perversion of anti-terrorism laws and policies among those tasked with enforcing them.

The Jableh massacre is a tragedy. It will be even more devastating if the authorities who claim they intend to prevent another like it fail to address the structural issues that helped facilitate these killings.


In sports news, we'll note this press release from the Kurdistan Presiden Barzani's office:



President Nechirvan Barzani receives medalists in women’s weightlifting

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, January 19, 2022

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani received eight women athletes who won medals in the Arab Weightlifting Championship, in Erbil on Wednesday.

All the medalists are from the Kurdistan Region, representing the Iraqi team in the tournament which was held December 26-31 in Erbil last year, taking home several gold, silver and bronze medals.

The President lauded the medalists and said that their achievements had made their families and him proud and happy. The President also expressed his full support for the contestants and wished them continued success.

The medalists expressed their appreciation and delight over the meeting with the President, and said that they were motived further by the President’s great encouragement and support.


We'll wind down with RUPTLY noting the continued persecution of Julian Assange.





The following site updated:


  • 1/18/2022

    review of 'the dog days are beginning'

    as promised, tonight i'm going to talk about henry wolf's online erotic novel 'dog days are beginning.'


    16KJan 16 18:26dog-days-are-beginning-15
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    17KApr 19 2021dog-days-are-beginning-1


    the 15th chapter went up this week.


    i've noted it before.


    what is should be about is a couple - mark and steve.


    what too much of it was about was way too many characters who didn't really matter.  steve went into a training period and his fellow trainees were not interesting but sure took up a lot of time and a lot of chapters.

    okay, so the story takes place in an alternate time.  in this time, you can choose to be a sub.  there are norms - people with full rights - and there are subs.  subs are like slaves. people might become a slave because they are stressed.  they might do it for any number of reasons.


    steve and mark are a married couple.  they met in college.  mark was a bit ahead of steve and he already has a great job at a corporation.  steve graduates and is depressed because there are no jobs.  mark's going to check in at his job and see if they have any openings.  

    mark comes home and bad news the only jobs are interns.  steve is excited, he can do that and work his way up to a real job there.  yeah, mark allows, but the interns are subs only.


    oh.  steve isn't interested.  mark points out that they've played dom and sub in the bedroom and it wouldn't be forever.


    now i don't get that.  if you become a sub, you lose all your rights.  how do you then go from sub back to norm?  


    for steve, mark is his dom and i guess mark could give him his rights back.  but some subs are subs to corporations.  how do you ever go back to a norm?


    i don't get it.


    well steve decides to go for it and mark tells he's got to be a sub for real.  he can't just say he is.  so steve has to enroll in a training - i think it was 2 weeks (it was a ton of chapters).  and there he's degraded and they try to destroy him.


    when he finally gets out, he's afraid to sit on mark's furniture and afraid to do anything.  mark feels he's suffering pts.


    but he reports to work and the company's just merged and the new boss wants subs at work to dress like they would at home - jock strap and a collar.  he also wants them to act as subs.


    see, before, a sub was just doing all the menial work at mark's company - and dressed normally.  now they're going to be used sexually.


    so this goes on and it at least brings a good supporting character - stan.  stan is a sub determined to show every 1 else up.  he has a reason to be there and he makes the novel better.


    i think the minor character eric does as well - eric is a norm at the job who has to be reminded that steve is mark's sub.


    steve's not doing too well and some  1 tells mark that steve has to start acting like a sub at home.  it's too much of a shock to be norm like at home and then a sub at work and it's why steve can't excel or get with the program.


    so 1st mark tells steve that from now on, steve will wear the collar at home and the jockstrap.  then mark gives him a gold padlock that will be on the collar noting that steve is mark's property.  he's ordering steve around the house more.  then he let's steve have it (sort of, i would've loved it if he'd torn steve a new 1) for interrupting him when mark's speaking and mark makes it clear that sub steve is an inferior and needs to stop interrupting free men.  

    then mark announces that steve will no longer sit on the couch.  he will sit on the floor because steve is just another possession of mark's and mark's been told this will really let steve get into the sub role.


    all of that should have been really sexy.  but it often wasn't.  instead of steve reeling from these changes, he's justifying it in his head and feeling sorry for mark.


    no.


    this is a shock and steve needs to rebel - at least in his head he should stop making excuses for mark.


    if you're doing a dom and sub storyline on a normal couple, you need to have some resistance.  


    and for it to really matter, steve has to not want it and then grow to want it.


    after that, steve did well at work - and blew a guy - then we got a 'christmas' chapter which really went no where - they put sub and dom on hold for the holiday.  now they're finally back and mark's feeling bad and struggling with being a dom.


    i want to see mark take control.  and i really want him to overdo it.  and then steve hates it and struggles and fights which probably turns mark on a bit.  but it also makes mark realize that there are areas where he could go too far and he loves steve so he's not going to go that far.  but he's not going to back off either.  i don't see steve ever becoming a norm again.  i don't think mark would ever let him be a norm again.


    i'll write some more later this week.  i didn't realize i'd have to do so much recap.  


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


    Tuesday, January 18, 2022.  A world thqt makes no sense allows the continued persecution of Julian Assange and tries to pass the continued tragedy that is Iraq off as a 'success.'



    Something's don't make sense and never will.


    That would include Adel's "Can I Get It."



    The songwriting credit on this track from Adele's 30 album gives credit to Adele Adkins, Max Martin and Shellback.


    Is that accurate?  Will it take the courts to make it accurate?


    Not since George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" cribbed from "He's So Fine" have I heard such a bold 'borrowing' or theft.



    That's Oasis' "Wonder Wall" which, for the record, does not credit Adele or any of her co-writers.   But the hook of ADele's song is a direct steal from "Wonder Wall" -- especially notable when the hook is whistled in the song.


    It happens and sometimes it happens purely by accidwent.  but Oasis is not a minor band and "Wonder Wall" is not an obscure song -- especially for a British artist like Adele.  No one in the studio thoughts, "This sounds a lot like a song that was a huge hit for Oasis"?  Right before the Rolling Stones' BRIDGES TO BABYLON was  released, the similiary of "Anybody Seen My Baby" to k.d. lange's "Constant Craving" were noted and lange and Ben Mink were added as co-writers to the song.


    Adele's 30 is the most discussed album of 2021.  Sorry, I didn't listen to it until last night.  First thing I noted was the cribbing from "Wonder Wall."  


    I;ll also never understand how or why Frances Moore Lappe signed off on the recipes that her daughter Anna picked out for the latest edition of DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET (the fiftieth anniversary edition).  As we noted at THIRD, the book was supposed to give working parents the tools they needed to make quick and nutrious food for their family but Anna's bread rccipe in the new edition is for . . . white bread -- garbage bread because it has no real nutritional value -- and this garbage bread takes approximately 22 hours to make.  Grasp that.  A recipe that requires you invest 22 hours into making the bread and there's nothing in the bread of value, it's home made Wonder Bread.  How far from the point of the book and the planet, Anna and Frances have wandered.


    It doesn't make sense that US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange.   The Dissident AU Tweets:


    The minute you believe you should know what your government is doing behind your back is the minute supporting Julian #Assange is no longer an honour. It is a duty. Every effort counts in this once-in-a-generation battle. #FreeAssangeNOW


    CONSORTIUM NEWS' Cathy Vogan has composed a song about Julian entitled "Time To Change The World."



    In Iraq?  It doesn't make sense that the western press has all eyes on Moqtada al-Sadr, but never fails to see anything but glowing moments.  The Shi'ite cleric's slate did not get a majority of the votes and it still can't pull together a coalition all these months after the October 10th election but western outlets keep typing the same damn (fact-free) pieces on Moqtada and pretending that somehow they've covered Iraq and, even funnier, that they've done some actual reporting.


    Reality, he's accomplishing nothing and while the western media produces hagiography on Moqtada, they ignore other players -- and you ignore Nouri al-Maliki at your own peril.  The former prime minister and forever thug does not give up easy.  News outlet IRAN INTERNATIONA ENGLISH Tweets:


    A meeting in Najaf between IRGC Quds Force chief Qaani & Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party holds the majority in Iraq's parliament, has yielded no result, and Sadr still insists on forming gov't without Iran allies Nouri al-Maliki & Qais Khazali, sources told Iraqi newspaper Al Mada.




    Fereshteh Sadeghi offers:


    A meeting in Najaf between IRGC Quds Force chief Qaani & Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party holds the majority in Iraq's parliament, has yielded no result, and Sadr still insists on forming gov't without Iran allies Nouri al-Maliki & Qais Khazali, sources told Iraqi newspaper Al Mada.


    Reports suggest Sadr told General Qaani he rejects participation of former Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki in the new coalition: “if his condition fulfilled, he would form a government with participation of other #Shia political groups”. US withdrawal from Iraq was also discussed. 2/3


    Before meeting with Muqtada al-Sadr, #IRGCQF’s General Qaani met with leaders of various Shia political groups. 3/3 #Iran #Iraq


    Three months and still no progress on forming a government.  


    We'll wind down with this from Black Alliance for Peace's latest newsletter:


    It is January, and in the U.S. this means it is time for the annual ritual of revisiting the white-washed, de-radicalized, pro- “American” M.L. King fairytale as part of the official celebration of King’s birthday. 

    In the official story, Dr. King was not the creation of the movement that was fighting for the democratic and human rights of Black people. No, it was Dr. King who created the movement, according to the colonial white elite and the neocolonial Black misleadership. In this story, the objectives of the movement were not for radical social transformation and Black self-determination but the redemption of the U.S. settler-colonial nation/state and the quiet integration of Black people into the state. In other words, to complete the establishment of a “more perfect nation,” as Obama would put it. 

    But King did not just show up to save Black people. Dr. King was a product of the post-war Black movement. And as such, the King that the movement produced reflected the changing, and sometimes contradictory development of that movement. As a product of the movement, Dr. King’s experiences as the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) evolved. He began to raise criticisms of capitalism, eventually opposed imperialist war and embraced a program of class struggle represented by the Poor People's campaign.

    Positions that created tensions in the civil rights wing of the black liberation movement and make King a target for assassination.

    This is the King that BAP recognizes. The King that in his last few years of activism was finding his way to the Black radical tradition, a tradition that takes an uncompromising position on colonialism, structural white supremacy and war.  

    This commitment to the highest articulations of our people for peace, people(s)-centered human rights and the belief that the Pan European white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchal project can be defeated, is what animates the worldview and actions of the Black Alliance for Peace.  

    And it is why BAP takes an uncompromising position on standing with and defending peoples’ and nations who find themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. and European aggression, no matter the criticism we receive from the social imperialist left and morally bankrupt liberals.

    Below, you will see just some of the courageous positions that our members have taken in opposition to imperialism and war. Despite questions, we proudly accepted the invitation to attend the inauguration of Daniel Ortega as the newly elected president of Nicaragua. BAP’s representative Margaret Kimberley was given a place of honor on the stage along with the heads of states from Cuba and Venezuela.

    As Margaret Kimberley said in her statement following the inauguration, BAP is clear on its mission and responsibility at this critical moment in history. An unambiguous commitment to human rights and anti-colonialism guides our worldview and politics. And for that - we are unapologetic. 

    “As an organization committed to reviving the Black radical tradition, and committed to an anti-imperialist stance, the Black Alliance for Peace is always ready to defend human rights.

    This hemisphere in particular has been viciously targeted by the U.S. government and its vassals in the European Union and United Nations. The Organization of American States should be a platform for discussion and consensus building but it is a U.S. invention and operates under its thumb. The U.S. congress overwhelmingly approved the RENACER Act which legitimizes the regime change effort and makes a mockery of claims that the U.S. acts as a democracy. From Haiti to Nicaragua to Venezuela to Cuba, millions of people in this hemisphere live under U.S. dictates masquerading as democracy in action.

     Black Alliance for Peace is committed to giving voice to the peoples of targeted nations and to providing insights and analysis that people in a supposedly free country are deprived of. Our mission demands that we do no less.”



    New content at THIRD:




    The following sites updated: