6/11/2022

dynasty, cleaning, the gay gaston - it's a grab bag

'dynasty'?  i went to my cloud at 'youtube tv' and no new episode.  i went to 'the cw' app and no new episode.  so i looked it up.  we won't get another new episode until the end of the month, june 24th.  14 episodes have aired and they filmed 22 so we've got 8 more to go.


only 8 because, if you missed it, 2 weeks ago, 'the cw' announced that they weren't renewing the show.


okay so it's 11 when i started typing.  i'm going slow and relaxing.


i am not a cleaner.  no 1 who is with me should ever make that mistake.  flyboy tidies up but i am not a cleaner.  my daughter tidies up as well.  and i have a guy who comes in twice a week and actually cleans - does a great job.  he's been doing that for about 4 years now.  


but ever so often, the mood does strike me.  it did today.  i cooked breakfast - a major event - and while flyboy and my daughter ate, i attacked the fridge.  i took out the drawers and washed them, i took out the shelves and washed them. i scrubbed the inside of the fridge, used vinegar, used water.  it hasn't been this clean since we got it in 2019.  while i was doing that, i put some root vegetables (the frozen bag trina's been recomming for weeks now) in the air fryer and added them to breakfast - brunch?  and then i cooked some more stuff, put in tupper ware and we should be good for a few days.

 'are you dying?' that's why flyboy asked.  i am not a cook and i'm not a cleaner.  i mean, i vacuum all the time.  but that's only because we have the rhumba and i've got the app for it on my phone.  i don't mind laundry either.  it's saturday so i've already done 2 loads and hung them outside to dry - i love laundry that dries outside.  it always smell so clean and fresh.


linda pointed out i hadn't noted 'the gay gaston' in a while so let me do that and wind down.








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


 Friday, June 10, 2022.  The fake assery of what they are trying to tell us is independent media as they continue to act as Jimmy Dore's fan club and try to do yet another pile on of women.


I don't know what woman hurt Kit with HARD LENS MEDIA but he needs to get over it.  If that's not too triggering for him, of course.  He has championed -- and he's not the only one -- the hideous David Weigel.  The fact that he's now noting David is hideous, isn't good enough.  Nor is his limited knowledge base that doesn't go beyond 2015.  Grow up, get a f**king education.  I'm sick of your stupidity and you should be ashamed of it


He says David's reTweeted joke was just dumb and nothing offensive.  To which I say let's use parallel therapy on David's 'joke,' , "Most Black men are bi -- bisexual or bipolar."  Is that funny from a White man?  Is that just dumb?  I think it's racist.  But it's not sexist or offensive when it's about women?


Kit's too stupid and uninformed to grasp that THE WASHINGTON POST has a long, long history of sexism in its institution and he's too stupid to know that 'jokes' are how WP 'reporters' keep getting in trouble.  It's not all hushed up.  It comes out from time to time.  Was it Mad Dog Bitch Beer?  Is that what Dana Milbank served up in 2008?  The paper should have fired him for it (for those who weren't paying attention or just plain stupid, that was among the sexist attacks launched at Hillary Clinton in 2008).  The paper didn't fire him for it because they taped it and they posted it and they thought it was funny.


It took the publisher to inform them -- rightly -- that no one was expecting Jon Stewar at THE WASSHINGTON POST and that the next time the paper confused itself with THE DAILY SHOW, they could pack their stuff and move on over to COMEDY CENTRAL,  This year is only half over and 'jokes' about women have been circulating non-stop through the newsroom and offending many men and women who work for the newspaper.  I'm sorry Kit's too stupid -- and, yes, out of touch, face pressed against the glass watching his betters live a more exciting life -- to know the climate at THE POST.


All he does know is that he hates Felicia Sonmez.  


He wants to connect her to Amber Heard.  I have no idea why.  And I really don't care.  Just like I don't care who wrote the VANITY FAIR article.  Actually, it's not that I don't care on that, it's that I know the problems VANITY FAIR's having and I don't want to know which piece of trash wrote it because that would be a whole other snapshot.


But Kit wants you to know that WP staffers are onto Felecia and, to prove it, let's quote this great article from VANITY FAIR.


Pause.  Have they had a great article since they lost Tina Brown?  Nope.  They haven't.  It's been one long drive down the hill for them since that.  They used to have one great article or column an issue.  Graydon Carter was a bigger joke than his hair style and we all loved to laugh, in the industry, as they'd put any gay actor on the cover and insist he was catnip to women and the next big thing and then he wouldn't live up to that promise -- but, hey, he slept with the male director that Grayden liked to party with so Graydon was always happy to put that flavor of the month -- that no one really knew -- on the cover and insist that they were a star.  They never really were.  I was reminded of that again as one of them to decided to do a social statement this week.  I just shook my head sadly and thought, "Is he ever going to come out of the closet?"


Because that actually would be a brave thing for him to do.  Right now.  Pretty soon, there will be no impact all all -- like when Richard Chamberlain finally came out and the world said: Richard who? 


Radhika Jones is a joke and has no idea how to present VANITY FAIR.  First thing you do, get out of your NYC bubble.  There are already enough magazines trying to represent New York (THE NEW YORKER, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, etc).  Tina Brown didn't revive the corpse of VANITY FAIR by making it a clone of every other NYC magazine.  (And that's what the pissy response to her at THE NEW YORKER was about -- her attempting to expand the magazine beyond that limited focal point.)


But if, like Kit, you're too stupid to realize VF made a huge mistake by printing what they did, let's walk you through slowly.


This idea that she's fighting for sexism or gender, while that might have been true at some point, now just feels disingenuous, even for people who want to give her the benefit of the doubt.


Kit's a f**king idiot who needs to stop clapping his hands together and stop crowing with delight.


I know who VF spoke with.  I know it because they made the mistake they make when always speaking.  They're known for their Freudian slips and, goodness, didn't they have one.  It flew by VF and despite reading it out loud to the camera, it flew by Kit as well.


Felicia might be fighting for gender but, no, she's not fighting for sexism.  The unnamed WP-er put his own preference in their, just slipped out of his mouth.  Again, I know who it is because he has a long, long history of doing that.


Kit knows nothing and he sure enjoys demonstrating that.


Kit declares, "I'm smelling BS here."

Well, sweetie, get your head out your ass.


You'll find the smell will lessen and a good shower will wash it right off you.


We did the roundtable from hell for the gina & krista round-robin.  It went on past 1:00 EST.  Most people went to sleep after -- not Gina and Krista who are assembling the round-robin and not Ava and I who had to write our piece for this week's edition.  I then thought I'd go to sleep.  But then I saw e-mails about Kit's video.  Looking at the title, I thought, "Oh, he's going to take on THE WASHINGTON POST."


No, he wants to attack Felicia.  And he wants you to know that Jimmy Dore has too.


You know what Jimmy did to Ana of THE YOUNG TURKS wasn't harassment.  And we said that in real time, we said it here and we said it at THIRD.  But Jimmy is a sexist.


Bob Somerby is as well.


And the reason they're sexists is because they love to attack women.  Nothing gets them more excited than ripping apart a woman.


Sadly, it's true of Kit too.  Watch him smack his hands together in glee.


Amber Heard lied.  I said that here.  I said that long ago.  Before the marriage fell apart, I stated it was a mid-life crisis on Johnny's part that he would live to regret because she would try to destroy him.  I told him the marriage was a mistake to his face.  When she started her garbage, I noted online that she abused him not the other way around and I pointed out that there were recordings that would back that up. 


I don't know what Kit feels is  Felicia's connection to Amber Heard but --


Okay, let me say this very clearly, F**k you, Kit.  You and HARD LENS MEDIA need to get your crap together.


This snapshot is not dictated.  I paused after "--" to get on the phone and thank you to three friends at WP who took my early morning calls and walked me through.


And the F you to Kit is because I had surgery on both eyes on Wednesday.  I was just supposed to have surgery on the right eye.  But the retina detached again on the left eye.  My doctor I was supposed to see performed the surgery on the right eye.  And then, as I was coming to (which was as the surgery was ending -- it never knocks me out hard enough to make it through the entire surgery), I was asking him questions and when he finished he noticed the left eye and asked about pain.  I'm always in pain these days.  I'm on eight different prescribed eye drops.  I have pressure issues in both eyes.  I just push on through the pain.  But he said the retina looked detached and he called my retina doctor who ended up doing a second surgery that day because it was.


Every now and then, I try to pause to grab the magnifying glass that I'm using right now.  


This is not fun for me.  This is not something that I want to do.  But Kit has to be a dumb ass and so I'm stuck doing it.


I watched thinking the video would be of import and about something that mattered.


It wasn't.  It was about trashing a woman.


Why was David suspended for a month?


The joke was judged offensive and, as I noted earlier, THE POST is under orders, their reporters especially, to grasp that they are not comedians.  They are not be 'edgy.'  If they repost a joke it better not be anything more than a mild knock-knock.


David's reposting of that joke offended the staff.  


And there are four previous Twitter issues that THE POST has discussed with him this year.  Four.  He got past strike three.


That's why he was suspended.  He had repeatedly been cautioned about this and he also has another HR issue that I'm going to leave alone but that those defending him should be very wary how far out on the limb that they want to crawl.


David has serious problems with his co-workers.  With regard to his reTweeting that joke, it was his fifth social media incident this year -- and we're only at the half year mark.  He was warned four times already.  When he pulled this one, the staff was appalled by the joke and management had enough.  That's why he was suspended.


It's going to be difficult at THE POST for the man who spoke to VAN FAIR because I did bring that up and they agreed, due to his slip-up, that it was him.  So it'll be an interesting day for him in a few hours.  


Felicia's not a saint.  The three I spoke with didn't think she was.  She has come to Amber Heard's defense, by the way.  I asked about that and they walked me through that.


Felicia's an idiot when it comes to what happened with Johnny Depp.  She's far from the only idiot.  Michelle Goldberg is who Ava and I chose to focus on in "Media: Justice for everybody.''  These women are confusing feminism with matriarchy.


They're also trying to pimp Amber as a feminist (though that failed and Amber's pr team is now trying to pimp Amber as a bisexual being discriminated against because of her sexual orientation -- see Marcia's "Amber Heard does not speak for this L").  Amber's done nothing in her life or work to qualify as a feminist.  The term is not elastic.  


She wants to help herself.  That doesn't make her a feminist.


And Michelle Goldberg, I'm not forgetting your attacks on Tara Reade.  Tara told the truth.  Tara has more supporting incidents than anyone victim that's ever come forward.  That includes -- but is not limited to -- her divorce papers and her mother's call to Larry King.  Amber lied repeatedly.  Her  make up artist testified to the fact that she didn't have any black eye when she was made up for the talk show and that Johnny couldn't have beaten her on a day she claims because he wasn't in the country.  Her former assistant testifies to what a liar she is (and we have two disputing her claims re: the dog in Australia).  She lied when she said she was giving the 7 million to charity.  Amber's spent most of that.  She's got a little less than two million left -- and that's before the current fees from her trial.  Supposedly, she's about to shut up because her p.r. team is demanding some form of payment.


When she got the 7 million, she might have planned to give it to charity (I don't think she ever planned to) but a friend of Amber's insists (to me) that she dipped in "just a little."  She was convinced she'd be making so much money as an actress that she could refill it.  Then she dipped again.  And again.  And . . .   Now she's got a little less than two million.


What a stupid fool.  Now I've been there.  And I'll never be there again.  Back in the day, believing a lot of whores, I gave my money away.  There was a little from my career and there was a lot that was family money.  I'm not the only person who did that but I will own it -- unlike a friend of mine -- and I will own that I was stupid to do so.  I ended up with nothing and had to rebuild and was lucky to be able to do so.  But I honestly believed that we were building a strong media that would cover reality and that would defend the people.


Nope.  Nope. 


Amy Goodman's the best example of today's grifter but before Amy there were many others.  Amy is making millions from PACIFICA RADIO thanks to her friendship with members of the board.  She was given a contract she did not deserve for a program she is not the sole creator of.  Anyone ever going to point out that if she's worth the millions she's getting -- if the program is -- that Amy needs to stop ripping off, for example, an African-American man?  More to the point, PACIFICA RADIO never had and never should have a million a year to give any one person.  It's public radio.  All that money and they don't even own DEMOCRACY NOW! -- she keeps ownership of the programs.  


I don't give to PACIFICA currently.  I got damn tired of giving to KPFA and seeing our money go out to save WBAI and the others who don't know how to fund raise or, honestly, how to program.  


If PACIFICA had a functioning board, they would cancel the contract with Amy Goodman immediately.  She has stolen enough dollars and I'm not giving money that's going to cover her  fake ass.


But I did give before she started broadcasting, to many outlets, and I watched the Watergate glory be replaced with the timidity.  I watched the sell outs.  I watched a wonderful and brave Latina being trashed by these outlets because she dared to hold Jimmy Carter accountable.  They had redefined their purpose.  They weren't about the people, they were about defending powerful Democrats who held elected office.


That's what I wasted my money on: helping to create and continue fake media that betrayed the people.


And that's why I don't give today.  


I did give to PACIFICA and when I did they were not fake media.  After they became it, I only gave to KPFA -- my local PACIFICA station.  Since our money we give to KPFA is forever being funneled elsewhere to pay Amy and to save garbage, I don't give anymore.


And, yes, WBAI was garbage.  Unlike Jeff Cohen and his lies, we told the truth about WBAI.  It was The Winter Soldier hearing.  The Iraq War veterans were telling their stories.  A number of us donated big to PACIFICA ahead of that.  I worked overtime reaching out to friends in the media to get coverage for these hearings.  And KFPA covered it.  PACIFICA on their national stream covered it.  WBAI?  Saturday they were more interested in playing their canned programming.  Bad music shows and Grandpa Munster.  Winter Soldier held hearings March 13th through 15th of 2008.  Al Lewis, Grandpa Munster, died February 3, 2006.  But it was more important to WBAI that crap like Grandpa Munster be played.  It was old and had been played years before.  But instead of carrying the live feed of Winter Soldier, they reaired old programs -- bad music programs and Grand Pa Munster -- dead for two years but more important to WBAI then what Iraq War veterans wanted to share about the Iraq War.  That's why I say WBAI is garbage and that's why I call out the ridiculous Jeff Cohen because he wrote that hideous column praising people and stations that did not do the actual work -- KPFA did.  WBAI -- and other PACIFICA stations -- did not.

I'm not giving now.  They can screw themselves -- they're certainly going to screw over their supporters. 


And, as someone who made the costly mistake of giving everything to these con artists in the past, I do now look for warning signs.


Jimmy Dore is a warning sign.  Not by himself.  He may well stick to his guns and not sell out.


But this need of the others who are around him to promote him non-stop.  I don't think Kit could show more support for Jimmy Dore than he does now even if he dropped to his knees in front of The Bean and blew Jimmy Dore as everyone looked on.


When you're hearing stuff like "Jimmy Dore" over and over from other so-called independent programs, you're seeing that they aren't independent. When I made that point earlier this week, someone e-mailed the public account insisting that I don't object when it's Glenn Greenwald.


If Jimmy hadn't brought on the child molester -- the convicted child molester -- I wouldn't have stopped including his videos here.  But he did.  


And when I noted Rachel Maddow and the disgusting fawning over the Iraq War vet who beat his wife, three e-mail came in insisting that she didn't know.  And two others wanted to cite PTSD.  I had to wonder on the two, was one of them Rachel's daddy.  Rachel's father was her sock puppet on the message boards for the radio program UNFILTERED.  He would lie for her constantly. When Rachel had the man on the first time, it was posted to the board about him beating his wife -- who, by the way, he was speaking of on the program -- and Rachel's dad -- posing as the woman he always posed as -- rushed in to insist that it was just once and PTSD caused it because he'd just returned from Iraq.


No.


He beat her before he ever left the US.  He beat her and he was arrested for it.  That may be why he enlisted.  He beat her, got arrested.  Went off to Iraq.  Came back.  Got inside her home and, when he returned, he beat her again.  Got arrested again.  While out, Rachel tried to make him a star.  And she knew while the show was airing.  And her father was there trying to lie that it was because of PTSD.


And while it was airing, Rachel invited him back for Friday's show.


That's why I don't care for Rachel.  You'd think a lesbian would be the last person to glorify a man who beats up women.  You'd think that.  But then I never would have thought a lesbian would do to a former lover what Melissa Etheridge did to Tammy Lynn Michaels.  Deadbeat dads and pigs?  They can also be women.


Melissa proved it and she's not the only woman who has.


A matriarchy defends Melissa.  Feminism doesn't defend her.


So we move back to Felicia and feminism.  


She's being misrepresented.  by VANITY FAIR and by idiots like Kip who repeat VF.  The e-mail the rag criticizes?

She is not ridiculing people who need help or discouraging them from getting it.


That's THE WASHINGTON POST's talking point to discredit her.  


When they sent out their e-mail about if you need help . . ., she replied sharing what happened to her in 2018.  She is questioning the sincerity of their claims.


These are not Felicia-stans, by the way.  Two (in management) don't  like her.  The third says she's "indifferent'' to Felicia personally.


Felicia was taking on the power structure of WP and the response from 'independent' media was to attack her.  One in management at WP this morning pointed that out and also told me that Michael Tracey was part of the bandwagon attacking her online this week.


Ah, it makes sense doesn't it.


Let's jump back to Glenn Greenwald.  I don't particularly care for Glenn.  This predates Snowden and predates THE GUARDIAN.  I have valid problems with Glenn.  But I did give him credit for breaking the news about the spying (thanks to Ed Snowden).


And when he refused to go along with Betsy Reed and other well known liars -- not well known people, but well known for being liars -- I defended and praised him here.  


He sacrificed a lot to do that and I respect that.  I noted here that I was tabling criticism on him and noted that on Naomi Wolf as well.


Historically, I am Naomi's biggest critic online.  I'm also not that cozy with her in real life and that goes back to the 90s.  But the attacks on Naomi that popped up around 2020?  I wasn't going to be a part of that and I will stand by her right to say what she wants to say and against efforts to attack or silence her.  If I didn't have the current eye problems, I would be reading her book and offering an evaluation -- hopefully positive.  


Krystal and Saagar talk about how cable 'news' is destroying the country.  Some group, I'm sure connected to David Brock, is working to defund FOX NEWS -- or as NPR wrongly stated "FOX."  FOX is an entertainment network now owned by WALT DISNEY.  


I marvel over that.  With all the real problems in the world, some think the need is to take down FOX NEWS?  


Interesting because I lived through times where the left actually did stuff -- broke into the FBI, for example, revealed real lies from the government, forced the end of the war on Vietnam -- and we never said, "Oh, we've got to stop THE NATIONAL REVIEW" or any other magazine.  We weren't that stupid or that lustful for censorship.  We believed in free speech. That's not the case today.


Kit has every right to say what he wants to say -- even when it's stupid and idiotic.  But that doesn't mean he should say it.


Not when he's silent on Iraq.  Not when he's silent on the ACLU.  Felicia's stupid enough to defend Amber Heard.  Well the ACLU wrote Amber's column.  The ACLU refused, in the London trial where Johnny sued a newspaper (Amber Heard was not a party to that lawsuit so Matriarchs in the Media need to stop speaking of her 'victory' in London -- it was Johnny Depp versus NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS), the ACLU refused to answer whether or not Amber had kept her promise and donated $3.5 million.  (The answer was NO and they knew it.)  And it is the ACLU that's being vindictive trying to bill Johnny for almost $90,000 for the 'work' and 'research' they had to do to testify at his trial and produce documents.  The op-ed libeled him -- that is what the court found -- and yet the ACLU is trying to charge him?


He could sue them.  He could sue them for their ghost writing of the op-ed for what it claimed.  More to the point, the ACLU is a legal organization.  Johnny was very kind.  He did not go after Amber for breaking the contract that they signed.  He could go after the ACLU for their work that violated that contract, that broke that contract.  They're lawyers, they should have known better.


He's not going to sue the ACLU-- I say that as someone who knows him -- but he should.


But the point here is, Kip and the gang want to go after a woman -- any woman will do.


They don't want to go after the ACLU.  They don't want to go after legacy media and call out THE WASHINGTON POST -- Bob Woodward should have been canned long ago.  His harassment in the workplace is not a secret.  


But, hey, go after Felicia because she called Kobe a rapist!!!! Oh, the horror.  And she got David suspended!!! He got himself suspended and he may get himself fired.  (Again, defenders of David, you have been warned.)

From what I'm told Felicia can be exasperating and that doesn't surprise me.  Most people who go up against a Goliath are.  


There may be reasons to call her out -- again, I'll call her stupid for ignoring reality and defending Amber -- but to attack her -- as Kip has, as Jimmy Dore has, as Michael Tracey has -- as all the little dicked boys have -- is to side with the system. 


That makes it clear that you're not independent media.


I am independent.  I side with April Oliver to this day.  She reported the truth on CNN and just because a source gets some heat from the Pentagon and wants to change what he said on air?  That doesn't make April a liar.  He's on tape saying it.  


It's amazing that -- as I type that -- I know Jimmy Dore has no idea who April Oliver is nor does Kip nor does Michael.


Because they're really not about taking on the power structure.  They're about getting cash and when they do this circle jerk with one another then they make it really clear.  


That's your warning sign.  Don't be stupid like I was decades back and ignore it.  Take them for what you can get from them but don't give them a cent.  They're going to betray you.  The signs are there.


Jimmy?  Jimmy's pissed that the Green Party didn't give Jesse Ventura the nomination. That's a warning sign.  He's furious that the DNC rigged the primaries against Bernie.  Yet he thinks that the Green Party should have ignored the people who declared to run for the party's nomination and instead have given it to Jesse who is not a Green -- or left -- and who didn't declare a campaign for the nomination.  He's angry that they didn't do this.


That's not just the height of hypocrisy  That's also your warning sign that he's not who he presents as.  Someone who truly believed in fair primaries wouldn't be arguing that Jesse should have been gifted with the nomination.


It's not that DNC rigged the primaries that has Jimmy upset, it's that his candidate ( Bernie) didn't benefit.


I'm telling you that's a warning sign.  


Right now he rails against this and that but if the same tactics were used for what he wanted, he'd be all for them.


That's who he is.


And that doesn't mean he's awful and mean.  I have many friends who are exactly like that.  They are wonderful in other ways.  But I am always aware not to ever take them at face value.  It may be a long con, it may be a short con, but they're always running something.


Is Jimmy Dore going to run for president?  Is that what this is all about?


I have no idea.  But the constant drumbeat of Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy is a turn off.  I refused to meet George Michael back when he was in Wham and when he was putting out his first album.  When I did meet him, he wanted to know why.  We became good friends.  But as I explained, when people hype someone all the time, it turns me off.  And I'm not alone in that.  Nora Ephron wrote a classic essay about that and how Liza and other cover stories at that time could never, ever live up to the hype these outlets were churning out.


You're hyping him only makes me not want to like him and not want to like you.  Why in the world is your program constantly mentioning him when you are ignoring so many realities in the world?  Is he click bait?  I have no idea what your obsession with him is.  But there are real stories and real issues out there and what mean thing someone said about a comic doesn't really interest me.  And it certainly didn't interest you when the comic was Roseanne Barr and when a corporation stole her life's work.  


I don't see any greatness in Jimmy as a comic.  At THIRD, Ava and I called out Joan Rivers for comments she made on WBAI.  Joan was furious with me over that and made it known with a loud and long phone call.  I bring that up because in the midst of a lengthy, screaming monologue at me, she stopped and laughed.  "I hate everyone," she said.  "That's an idea I can run with."  And she did.  That's what made her a comic genius.  From her yelling over the phone, she developed a book that was a best seller and she went edgier than she'd ever been before.  That's comic genius.  


Jimmy's a third-rate comedian who does a show that celebrates White people.  And, Kit, you're the reason I have to say that because you won't stop pimping him.  That's how my brain works.  I have serious issues to address.  I've never really thought about Jimmy until right now when you're hype has forced me to figure out where Jimmy falls on the scale of greatness.  He falls off the scale.  And that's reality.  


You remind me of a really kind actress I know who is also very dumb and she went on and on about ROOSTER TEETH -- I may not have that title right.  In 2014, she was obsessed with them and their greatness.  They weren't great.  This is the Jimmy Dore Bandwagon.  It's not going anywhere just like ROOSTER TEETH didn't.  She got me to watch and it was a lot like Jimmy Dore.  I watched about three hours with her and then I asked her, "Did you not notice the lack of women?  Did you not notice every man was White? Are they trying to create content in the 21st century or do they think this is 1957?"


ROOSTER TEETH has never achieved.  They've wasted a ton of money and are in danger of being dropped (DISCOVERY sees them at having had millions of dollars poured into them but having produced nothing of quality and having never expanded their initial, limited reach).  


I'm really bothered by the pile on of Felicia for many reasons.  Again, there are worthy targets.  It reminds me of a 'woke' comedy special that Ava and I'll probably rip apart this weekend.  It's cute how we have a 'woke' comedy special and we're all supposed to ignore, for example, the woman on stage -- Jewish -- who uses the N-word all the time in the past (not in this special of course) and who went to town on Britney Spears (not in this special of course).  


Ava and I didn't go off on Britney Spears.  We were covering the media when it took place.  And we noted that we wouldn't be joining in the public stoning, we noted that the dogpile was offensive.  


It's called "Bash The Bitch" and Ava and I publicly called it out long ago:


Who knew it was a war crime? Katie Couric was a cheerleader and an army of Beate Klarsfelds are on her trail in an attempt to warn America of this dangerous contravention of the law. We imagine it's only a matter of time before the tribunal is held. The cheerleader as Eichmann, no doubt, sends shudders through the hearts of many women on the left, center and right, since they too may be charged.

Couric's apparent crime, for some on the left, is saying that Navy Seals "rock." That moment was immortalized in Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and seems to be the chief piece of evidence that will be introduced when the commentators gather at the Hague.

For some of the left, though not all, that's at the root of their pursuit of Couric. It's the gift of impunity that allows them to operate in a fact-free environment as they compose the charges against Couric. But those who hear such a statement and nod agreeably are also engaged in the national pastime of bash-the-bitch.

Bash the bitch is as American as apple pie and rush to judgement, so who are we to complain?
If it makes us "America haters" to say "Just a minute now" then so be it. Let all the ones partaking in bash-the-bitch wrap themselves in Old Glory, we'll call it the way we see it.

Here's what we see. A woman's trashed. For what she did?

Oh cookie, please, it's for being a woman. Read the commentaries. "Cheerleader" is a trumped up charge -- as usual, the true crime is gender.


The zeal with which Kit goes to town on Felicia makes it clear this is about bash the bitch, the zeal and the glee  Watch his smirk, watch him clap his hands in delight.  And the pile on that he's part of makes that clear as well.  They need to take a look at themselves and how they critique women.  They won't, but they need to.  They rage against Felicia  as though she started the Iraq War. 


That's not a fair statement.  


I apologize. 


They've never raged on Bully Boy Bush as much as they rage on Felicia.  



And that really is part of the problem.  


You can start an illegal war as a man and these same voices will coddle you or laugh humorously about you.  The real hatred only comes out from this crowd if you're a woman.


I have no problem with tone, I don't police word choice.  But I do expect that you critique fairly and consistently.  What I see is that a kinder approach is used for male criminals (including child molesters) than is used for a woman.  



YOUTUBERS need to stop pimping Jimmy Dore and start covering reality.


It's June 10th?  What does that mean in Iraq?  That the political stalemate is now eight months long.


AP has an article, please read it.  A friend at AP called to ask if I'd be including it?  I told him to e-mail me the link.  Here for the report by Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Samya Kullab.


He read parts of Qassim and Samya's article to me over the phone.  I have not read it myself nor am I able to.  I'm actually supposed to be resting my eyes.  But I will note that we finally have a US news source noting Nouri al-Maliki and his large role in the stalemate.  We've covered him from the start, covered him before the election, because he's one of the biggest political players in Iraq.  Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri was underestimated by the western press -- especially the US press.  What was read to me -- not the Nouri parts -- I had a quibble or two with but what was read was also a strong report.


Again, this is now eight months since the election and no prime minister, no president.  And no moving forward per the Court for that reason.  


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.  And typos are what they are, my vision is almost gone completely, I have got to go rest my eyes.


ADDED: The following sites updated:


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    6/10/2022

    15 bean soup in the kitchen (to steal from trina)

    marcia called to say she'd just posted and noted that no 1 posted last night.  no, because that roundtable for the round-robin went on forever.  i was exhausted.  it was good and there were great topics but i just wanted to go to bed.

    marcia's post, by the way, is 'Tina Fey, that typical Karen'


    i really did think/hope others were going to post.  if' i'd known we were all going to sleep, i would've posted.


    i'm posting now at least.  about what?

    15 bean soup.


    i'm making that for a late lunch and for the weekend for us (our daughter and my husband) to eat when we need to snack over the weekend.


    some people make it with ham.


    i don't.


    i buy the bean package when possible.  when i can't - say it's bad weather and i'm not going into boston on a ferry, i'll just grab dried beans i ahve hear and make 10 or more.  i always have dried beans.  they store.  they keep well and you never know when it's going to be a hard winter.  so i've always got: lentils, black eyed peas, lima beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, split peas, black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, cranberry beans, great northern beans and red beans on hand.  i'll use those if i don't have the pacakge of 15 bean soup.


    but anyway, i'll soak the beans for at least 8 hours.  then i will rinse them.  you do these 2 things to avoid having bad gas from eating dried beans.  (although i think lentils, maybe because they aren't beans proper, do not require pre soaking.)  


    i then put them in afresh water in a dutch oven on the stove and bring them to a boil.  after it comes to a boil, i reduce the heat, add a chopped onion, a 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and add meat.


    most people use ham and that's what the recipe on the bag calls for.  but i like to use smoked sausage instead. and i don't like the 'skinless' smoked sausage, by the way.  so i'll cut up the smoked sausage to slices about an inch thick and drop that in the pot.  then i'll cover it some (i tilt the lid for steam to escape) and cook that for 30 minutes to an hour.  (and if i'm using a pot and not my dutch oven and ic an't find the lid that fits, i'll gab a pizza pan and cover 2/3 of the pot with that.)


    it's good and nutrious.  it's economical if you're watching your money.  it's good fiber if you're watching for that - and we all should because fiber slows down our ability to absorb sugar and most of us have more than enough sugar in our diets (myself included).  


    it's tasty an it's warm on a cold day but you can enjoy it all year long.  


    i'm stealing from trina for the title of this post.


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


    Thursday, June 9, 2022.   We look at a local election in the US and a consensus appears to be building in Iraq on how to end the political stalemate that hits the 8 month mark tomorrow.


    Patrick Martin (WSWS) writes:

    The most significant results Tuesday were in two municipal contests in California. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled in a special election, by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. In Los Angeles, real estate mogul Rick Caruso and Congresswoman Karen Bass finished as the top two candidates in the mayoral primary and will face each other in the November runoff.

    Boudin, a left liberal backed by the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party along with its pseudo-left supporters, was first elected in 2019 campaigning against police brutality and excessively long jail terms. He clashed repeatedly with the police unions and real estate and other business groups and became a focal point for a right-wing law-and-order campaign, aimed particularly at whipping up fears in the Asian community over a sharp rise in anti-Asian violence.

    Once enough signatures had been gathered to force a recall, with support from both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party establishment, business interests, including hedge funds and venture capitalists poured in more than $4 million to promote the vote to remove Boudin.

    Like the recall of three members of the San Francisco school board earlier this year, right-wing forces took advantage of the political bankruptcy of identity politics with its incessant emphasis on racial divisions. Boudin and his supporters presented police violence as the product solely of racism, concealing the class role of the police as the defenders of capitalist property against the working class.

    The complete failure of the Biden administration to improve the conditions of life for working people, to say nothing of the Democratic Party-run state government in Sacramento and the administration of Democratic Mayor London Breed, created widespread popular anger and disgust and indifference to the fate of Boudin. 

    The result was an election in which there was a sizeable turnout only in the wealthiest areas of the city. Overall voter turnout plunged: from the huge 449,866 anti-Trump vote in 2020, to only 123,926 votes in the recall. Tuesday’s vote was only half as large as the 251,032 votes cast in the special election for mayor in 2018 which put London Breed in office.

    The vote will be seized on by Democratic politicians to use as a shield against Republican attacks seeking to link the Democrats to the calls to “defund the police” that arose after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which led to massive worldwide protests against police violence.


    I agree with Patrik that the establishment Dems will use this to justify further sell outs.  But on the race . . . The race could have been closer and could have gone Chesa's way -- see Elaine's "Chesa defeated Chesa" for her thoughts.  


    I love Roseanne Barr.  That doesn't mean I agree with her on everything.  We disagree regarding Palestinians, obviously.  But Roseanne described San Francisco a few years back.  Two?  Maybe three?  It was an ugly description of a place I've made my home.  


    But it was also a valid description.  It predated Chesa.  Chesa was supposed to bring in a new approach.  That's why he was elected.


    But he refused to sell his approach.  He should have been on all the public affairs programs talking about what was happening, what he was doing to address things and assured people that things were changing.

     


    It's also true that crimes against Asian-Americans have increased in the city -- hugely.  Some would argue this is a result of communities competing -- or feeling they are -- aginst one another for limited resources.  Chesa's programs were supported by a greater percentage of African-Americans than by Asian-Americans.  And a lot of high profile cases that the media covered were African-American attacks on Asian-Americans.  Chesa needed to communicate with the Asian-American communities and he failed at that.  Let's not pretend that the opposition invented a division and used that successfully.


    They took a very real division and they amplified it.  


    Chesa should have long ago addressed that division.  His faltering support in the Asian-American community was clear as far back as 2020 and he failed to seriously address that issue.  You were left with a community that felt targeted (and statistics would bear out that they were) and felt the district attorney was blowing this off and ignoring them.  They may not have supported his policies if he'd done any real outreach but they would have known he was at least aware of them.  I don't think Chesa ever got the make up of this city.  I think he came in with some interesting ideas about ways to make things better but I don't think he knew this city.


    There are serious issues and a new approach was needed.  But Chesa didn't sell the approach.  He didn't explain how we might take a temporary hit due to X program but there is a long range benefit.  He believed in his programs but he wouldn't sell them.   A friend said he acted as though we were a collective and would just support him.  No, because a collective works together and everyone is informed of what's taking place.


    Was he afraid he'd be giving people ammo to use against him?


    I don't know.  But he didn't make a case for what he was doing.


    Before he assumed office, we already had huge problems and his new tactics did not stop those problems -- they might have if given more time and we might have been willing to stand with him (I voted to keep him) but we needed to be on the same page.  


    Like every other major city, we need to be addressing the homeless problem.  Like every other major city, we need to be addressing crime.  And it's not right to dismiss some store owners' concern.  Those owners include Asian-Americans, they include everyone.  And people were struggling before the pandemic and it only got worse after the pandemic started.  


    Chesa can speak very movingly but he didn't find his voice once elected.  He refused to use it.  


    So we were left with the results of life post-Chesa winning office and it wasn't what people wanted.  The results.  If Chesa believed in his program  and had spoken of how they were and would be addressing these issues, he would have done better and possibly might have held on to his offic

    And he should have been speaking all along.  He should have people sharing their own stories of how this or that change did help them personally.  He didn't want to sell his policies.  Hopefully, he'll learn from this.  40% of the vote was amazing.  San Francisco needs massive improvement and that does include people feeling safe.  When Rosanne made her statements in an interview some years back, they weren't kind.  But they also weren't false.  And they weren't of one class the way some are trying to portray it.  The shoplifting is not just a business owner's issue.  The shop lifting effected a lot of people including those struggling who would say they felt like idiots because they were paying for things in a city that some didn't have to.  They wanted a level playing field.  This is a transitional time for San Francisco and we did need someone like Chesa who cared about more than Big Business.  


    The opposition to Chesa were on message.  And they also had reality on their side as well because this is not the San Francisco that the city needs to be.  But if Chesa had sold his programs, had spoken out about where we were headed with these programs, I do think the vote would have been closer.

    I don't know where our city goes now, but I hope that Chesa learns from this because he still has a lot to offer.  And I would argue against simplistic readings of thie results -- especially, if you haven't been in San Francisco and you don't know our issues.

     

    Elections.  Iraq held elections October 10th.  Still no prime minister.  Still no president.  The llatest development?

    Iraqi influential Shia cleric and the leader of Sadrist Movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, has asked the members of the Iraqi parliament from his bloc to “write their resignations” and wait for his instruction. #Iraq | #Baghdad


    So if he carries this out, he's attempting to dissolve the Parliament and trigger new elections?


    If so, that's not that far from what Ayad Allawi proposed over the weekend.  Shafaq News explains,  "The National Iraqiya coalition led by Iyad Allawi called on Sunday to form an interim government to run the country’s affairs and rerun the parliamentary elections."  INA reported:


    Allawi said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), "After the political process has reached a state of stagnation and halt, which portends dire consequences, and after numerous appeals from national political and social figures, our national and moral duty prompts us to put forward an initiative and develop an appropriate solution for the country's current crisis."

    He indicated that "in order to preserve the unified homeland, achieve the people's hopes and aspirations for growth and prosperity and ensure a decent life for their them, and in order to restore part of the confidence in the political process after the great upheavals, getting out of the crisis requires taking a number of steps and in a period to be determined during an unconditional patriotic meeting for national political leaders, the date of which will be determined at a later time.

    He explained, "The steps will contribute to stopping violations of constitutional timings, and is represented in choosing an interim government that works to achieve security and stability in Iraq, that takes upon itself the holding of fair elections, and the selection of a new commission to organize the upcoming elections that enjoys the confidence of the Iraqi people and works with transparency and high integrity, as well as achieving  a new electoral law that fulfills the requirements of the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court in a manner that guarantees a fair representation of the Iraqi people.

    He noted, "The position of the Prime Minister is the actual conflict, and therefore the Prime Minister-designate in the interim government must be given the freedom to choose his ministerial (cabinet) provided that its standard is efficiency and integrity, and he manages the affairs of the country and implements a government program that works to meet the needs of the people and provide what is needed. ,” noting that the initiative also included “strengthening the state, the government, and the three presidencies and supporting them in facing external and internal challenges and pressures, in addition to discussing during the meeting (the conference) other important issues that are included in the conference’s agenda, and that the forces, national political figures and parties that  It has seats in the parliament , as well as representatives of federations and trade unions, and an open meeting to approve the proposal’s formula and choose the figures for the three presidencies in the interim government.


    DRAW MEDIA Tweeted:


    Allawi calls for forming a temporary government and holding a new election Former Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi during a meeting with the Iraqi Nationalism bloc, called for forming a temporary government to run the country and hold a new election
    Image


    If a consensus is emerging, it appears to be that new elections are required.


    In other news, AFP reports:

    Three people were wounded Wednesday evening after an armed drone struck a road in the suburbs of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Irbil, security services said.
    “Several vehicles were damaged” in the attack, the Kurdistan Autonomous Counter-Terrorism Agency said in a statement, which took place on the road that connects Irbil to Pirmam to its northeast.
    The attack, which was not immediately claimed, took place three kilometers from the construction site of the new US consulate on the outskirts of central Irbil.


    Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) adds:                                                                             

    Iraqi President Barham Salih also voiced his condemnation of the attack, calling it "criminal" and saying it is a violation of the country's safety.

    "The attack on the city of Erbil is a condemned and reprehensible criminal act targeting national efforts....We must stand firmly against attempts to plunge the country into chaos and undermine security and stability," the president tweeted, urging for a strengthening of security services against "outlaws."

    Reber Ahmed, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) interior minister, told reporters at the hospital that one of the three injured civilians is in critical condition due to the explosion.

    The UN Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) described the attack as "reckless" and said "Iraq does not need self-proclaimed armed arbiters," calling on the state to solidify its stance and hold those responsible accountable.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but such attacks are often attributed to Iran-backed militias who have launched a spate of attacks against Kurdish land in recent months.

    Hossein Dalirian, affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was one of the first individuals who described the attack as a drone strike, at a time when the Kurdistan Region's authorities had not specified the means of the attack.



    The following sites updated: