12/01/2021

cuomo

in the snapshot (reposted in full after my post), c.i. notes that she hasn't called for chris cuomo being fired.  a few people e-mailed about how c.i. was disagreeing with me.


i'm sure we do disagree from time to time - we've been best friends since college.  but i don't know that we disagreed.  


c.i. was clear that she thought i made a strong case.  she explains that she doesn't usually call for some 1 to lose their jobs.  she's right on that.  there was a guy in college who really liked her and she was trying to figure out what she thought about him when he let slip that his mother was about to fire x.  x was a student worker and some 1 c.i. knew through me.  she told the guy immediately that he shouldn't have told her that.  she said she was going to inform x and that the guy could blame her and tell his mother she's the 1 who told him but that she couldn't be silent.  x needed that job and x needed to know right away what was going to happen.  


in most cases if some 1 ask her about firing some 1, she'll present the positives to the firing and the negatives to the firing but she won't say, 'fire him!'  that's not her style.  now she will fire herself when she has to and she has done it.  but she goes out of her way not to have to do that.  


i do think chris cuomo needs to be fired.  but i do get that there are other sides.  she made a smart analysis of the situation and she's 100% right that if he wants to keep his job, he needs to be out there in the media.  


note this from 'the daily mail:'


Embattled CNN primetime host Chris Cuomo says he is 'embarrassed' after being suspended by the network after it was revealed he provided greater assistance to his brother Andrew over sexual harassment allegations than he previously admitted. 

Speaking publicly about his suspension for the first time on his SiriusXM radio show, 'Let's Get After It, on Wednesday, Cuomo said that he understands why people believe he violated journalism ethics.

'Quick note about the obvious,' Cuomo told his listeners at the top of the program. 'I've been suspended from CNN.'


admitting that he can understand why some people would believe he violated journalism ethics is smart.  then you're not in that fight.  he would need to do that a lot more and stress the brother aspect of the story to keep his job.


c.i. rightly noted how 'cnn' set the stage for all of this.  and she's right about that.


i'm glad she weighed in and hope she'll do so again - per our call tonight, she doesn't plan on it.  i told her she should.  and i mean that.  


dan abrams and eric wemple are of different minds on this.  and that's fine.  we don't need group think.  

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


December 1, 2021.  A final election tally is finally announced in Iraq and we look at the corrupt media system which devours its own in order to protect itself.

Starting with the media.  This site has not called for Chris Cuomo to be fired.  Rebecca's made that call and it's a solid call (see "it's time for cnn to fire chris cuomo" and :"suspended isn't fired").  There are also solid reasons to argue against it.  But those e-mailing the public account -- and noting that it was this site -- need to check their eye sight.  (I can give you the numbers of several wonderful doctors.)   I have not made that call nor am I closely following that story.  It takes a lot to get me to call for someone to lose their livelihood.  I have no idea what's going to happen to Chris.  


He is now expendable.  To CNN, he is now expendable.  They're trying to rebrand.  He is the face of so much that people do not like about CNN -- and CNN executives made him that face and encouraged him to be it -- so it is very likely that he will be fired.  I'm not saying he should be.  I'm not sying he shouldn't.  But I have not made the call for him to be fired.


But, and this brings us to our second topic of e-mails to the public account, Lara Logan.  


Lara appeared on some FOX NEWS program.  She did not -- as the people e-mailing claim -- say Anthony Fauci was Josef Mengel.  


She stated that she had encountered many people who saw him as that.  So get your facts straight.  Second, if that was shocking to you -- the way a number of people see Fauci -- you really are in a bubble.  He is inept and he is hated.  The White House wasted too much time and energy on him.  Had they done what they wree supposed to do -- push Joe Biden's administration wish list -- they'd be more successful -- and Joe would be higher in the polls.  Months ago, I pointed out here that they were expending too much enery on protecting Fauci.  That was their first clue that he had to go.  


And he should go.  What's the difference between a Trump administration and a Biden administration?  Not a whole lot apparently.  He has cost the administration a great deal -- both in terms of defining itself in opposition to Donald's policies and in terms of being able to stay on message and focused.


Does no one have a brain in the administration?


He should have been told long ago, "Thank you for your work, we're going to be making some changes so we'd like your resignation."  And that Fauci didn't grasp that he was an anchor for the administration, dragging them down, and leave on his own goes to Fauci's stupidity and his vanity.


Stupidity?  Lara Logna was stupid and foolish.  For what she said regarding Fauci?  No.  It is a view that many hold of Fauci.  Her job isn't to censor what someone -- Ruth Bader Ginsberg? -- says, her jon is to address what is being said.  If you're that offended by her, I don't understand how you watch television.  Does a nanny come in and watch it with you, hug you after each broadcast?


Lara was stupid with regards to CBS.  


'Lara Logan lied and CBS fired her!'  


She didn't get fired.  She got put on a suspension and, when it was up, CBS eased her out by making it clear that there would be no real duties again.  That's probably the road that CNN will try to tke.  Get them to express their desire to leave and you don't have to honor the contract.  Lara was made the face of problems and Chris will likely be as well.  


Chris did not take an axe to the wall of professional boundaries while CNN execs objected and told him to stop.  He did what he did in full view of everyone.  He should not have been covering his own brother.  Things like that happen but they shouldn't.  When Chris Hayes was with THE NATION, he shouldn't have been allowed to cover the Obama administration since his wife was an attorney for that administration.


Whether Chris gets terminated or not, he did not create the problem.  Nor is he, honestly, the problem.  The problem is the culture at CNN that allowed it to happen.


Lara Logan?  I went to CRAPAPEDIA when Martha told me about the e-mails because there was so much stupidity in the e-mails, I knew it had to be coming from somewhere besides outrage junkies.  Sure enough, the lies are intact at CRAPAPEDIA.


To hear CRAPAPEDIA tell it, Lara Logn did a 60 MINUTES segement that had backlash and she apologized for the inacuracies and was suspended.


Really?  That's what we're going to pretend happened?


Dylan Davies' name is in the entry, but that's about all.  Here are three significant words that are missing:  THE EMBASSY HOUSE.


That's the 2013 book that Dylan Davies wrote, the book that THRESHOLD EDITIONS published -- THRESHOLD is a CBS imprint.  


Claims were made -- I didn't watch the segment.  Lara apologized for them.  That was part of her stupidity.


Lara did end up losing a promising career.  Who else, though?


Louise Burke was the publisher at THRESHOLD.  Did she lose her job?  Well, kind of.  She got promoted.They moved her up the chaing to publisher of Gallery Books Group.  And she stayed there, part of the CBS corporate family, until 2017.  She went on to co-found another outlet (ALL SEASONS PRESS).


Set aside what was true or fale about the book for a moment (we'll come back to that) but CBS published a book.  Publishers are supposed to employ fact checkers.  CBS published a book that made claims that, when repeated on TV, cost Lara Logan a promising career.  But no one involved in publishing the book suffered.


Lara was stupid to have promoted the book.  She should have said that an on air disclosure was needed regarding CBS' involvement in the publishing of the book.  She also should have said that this feels like book promotion and not reporting.  She didn't.  If she had, she might have been ignored, but she should have said that.


Her stupidity continued after the segment aired.  "We're going to let this blow over."  She was told that -- I know from the man who told her those words that she was told that.  I shook my head in real time and said, "You're going to hang her out to dry."  No, no, no, he insisted.


Yes, yes, yes.


And any reporter is an idiot when they believe that garbage.


No matter what you think your value is -- again, think Chris Cuomo today -- it isn't.  You're product and the minute you threaten the brand, you're on your way out.




Karmicallyt Dan Rather got what he deserved when Bully Biy Bush's AWOL story blew up in his face.  It was a long time coming for Dan who was a professional liar and it's sad to watch some uninformed lefties rush to defend him to this day.  Or worse, celebrate him as a hero.  


Dan lied for CBS over and over.  And he was rewarded for that.  And he thought he was untouchable and certainly indisposable.  Nope.  When there was embarrassment and CBS could protect itself by cutting him out, they did so.  They removed him like a tumor.


Mary Mapes?  I feel sorry for her.  But she was stupid as well because she bought the b.s. that CBS was handing her.  Don't.  They have no loyalty to anything but their brand.  She should have learned from what CNN did to April Oliver. You do not matter to them, their corporate bottom line does.  The dumbest mistake you can make is to go silent.  You need to be talking to the media and your employers needs to see the coverage.  It's the only thing that can save you.  When CBS wanted to dump Daniel Schorr, it was the publicity he was taking part in that kept them from doing so.  Because Schorr was a liar, the attitude was, "Let him keep talking, he'll trip himself up."  And he did.  (Yet when he died, many tried to rewrite history and pretend that he was brave and wonderful.)


If youre silent, you're an idiot.  Because they're using your silence by filling the void with whispers about you and they're damaging your credibility to protect their brand.


CBS airs a questionable report based on a CBS book that is also questionable.  And Lara's the only one punished?  No one at the publishing house is punished.  Just Lara.


Was the book true or false? 


I'd argue we don't know.  I know the argument that THRESHOLD made -- which had CBS back off from punishing them.  Davies was a contractor.  Not a merc, but an intellignece conttractor.  Benghazi was a CIA outpost (the embassy -- that came out in the first hearing we attended, US House Rep Jason Chaffetz was having a meltdown in the hearing as different thing were being said and his mike caught enough comments (asides he was making) to make clear that he felt too much was being aired publicly.


So Davies was contracted by the US government as some form of intelligence.  Probably, he was to carry out activities that are crimes for the CIA to carry out.  Probably he, like many others, was just there in case the whole thing blew up -- a patsy.


Daveis was 'exposed' by journalists with CIA ties as having stated that he was not present in an FBI interview.  And?  Did he say it?  You have no idea, I don't either.  If he said it, was he ordered to say it because of the nature of the mission?  Ibid.  They also trotted out an incident report which Davies denied having completed.  


THRESHOLD didn't say, "Sure, thanks, guys, I know we can work this out."  Lara Logan did.  THRESHOLD said, "If you come for us, we're coming for you."


And if you don't get how many work to brand these contractors as liars, you missed Senator Idiot Supreme Dianne Feinstein in her attacks on Ed Snowden which included her claims -- presented as facts -- that he was never employed by the CIA or the NSA.  "High school drop out" was her line of ridicule, for those who missed it.  

 The outrage junkies are after Lara Logan again.  


Are they lying or just so addicted to their outrage high that they can't make sense of what was said?  Lara did not say she considered Fauci to be a Nazi War Criminal.  She said she encounted many people who did.  If that's a shock to you, as Demi Moore says in THE BUTCHER'S WIFE, "Well you ought to get out more."


October 10th, Iraq held elecgtions. They finally have official results.  ALJAZEERA notes:


The political bloc led by Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr was confirmed the winner of the October parliamentary election.

Iraq’s independent election commission announced the final results on Tuesday following weeks of recounting and intensified rejection from the losing parties.

Five seats changed as a result of the appeals and recounting process in the capital; Baghdad, Nineveh, Erbil, Kirkuk and Basra.

[. . .]

The number for the Taqadum, or Progress Party-led by current Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, a Sunni – remained the same, 37 seats. Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law party lost two seats and will have 33 in parliament.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) captured 31 seats, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) received 18.


Some issues have been turned over to the judiciary so there may be changes to come (or not) but those are the 'final' results as issued by the electoral commission.

I love some of the spin, by the way, like this Tweet:


The manual recount of contested ballot boxes in Iraq's parliamentary elections held in October have only affected five seats in five provinces, Iraq's IHEC said.


Really?  Just five seats.  Just?  If five seats flipped in the House, Democrats would not be the majority party.  


Those announced results do not build trust in the system -- nor does the laughable claim of 44% participating -- but as we noted repeatedly ahead of the election, anticipating an extremely low turnout, they changed the way they counted participation.



The following sites updated:





Posted by at

11/30/2021

suspended isn't fired

picking up from last time's 'it's time for cnn to fire chris cuomo,' 'deadline' reports:


CNN said Tuesday that it has suspended Chris Cuomo indefinitely following the release of new information that shed new light on his involvement in his brother Andrew Cuomo’s response to sexual harassment claims.

CNN said in a statement, “The New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s defense. The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions. When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second. However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

'the hollywood reporter' notes:


“The New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s defense,” a CNN spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement Tuesday. “The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions. When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second. However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

'variety' observes:

CNN has defended him for months, even though his actions are viewed as anathema to many practitioners of journalism. Perhaps CNN’s reluctance to discipline Cuomo came because it encouraged his relationship with his older brother in the not-too-distant past. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Cuomo brothers became a popular media spectacle when they started doing interviews during the younger brother’s 9 p.m. show,  despite long-held conventions among journalists that reporters recuse themselves from a news story when they may face a conflict of interest.

so he's suspended - and that is something. it's just not enough.  ken meyer ('mediaite') reminds:


Over the last year and a half, Chris Cuomo has been wrapped up in countless instances of questionable ethics in connection with his brother. CNN threw out rule after rule of journalism, allowing Chris to hold unserious interviews about serious topics with Andrew, shamelessly boosting him, and glossing over the failures of his leadership. All while privately urging his brother not to resign as he began to face intense public scrutiny, and helping him devise a political counterstrategy after multiple women accused Andrew of sexual harassment.

If these conflicts of interest weren’t troubling enough — and they were not, apparently, for CNN — New York Attorney General Letitia James released a trove of documents on Monday with new details regarding Chris’s close involvement with his brother’s scandals.

The documents, which include transcripts of a deposition taken from Chris Cuomo during the investigation into his brother, reveal that the CNN anchor advised his brother and his team to a greater extent than previously believed. In the deposition Chris also admitted that he used his journalistic sources to try digging up information about the women who accused Andrew of harassment.

The new information has prompted prompted a many in the media to raise an important question: how can CNN possibly keep Chris on their payroll? The network says they will conduct a “thorough review” of Cuomo in response to the new developments. Others in the industry say it’s time:


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


 Tuesday, November 30, 2021.  Still no final voce count released in Iraq, still no one arrested for the assassination attempt or 'attempt' on Mustafa al-Kahdimi, don't call it progress.


Hassan Ali Ahmed (AL-MONITOR) emerges from the steno pool to type:


Iraqi national security adviser Qasim al-Araji appeared at a press conference on Nov. 29 to unveil the first report prepared by a special committee tasked with investigating a drone attack on Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's residence earlier this month.

The committee, headed by Araji, was formed a day after the Nov. 7 drone attack to investigate and find the party behind the attack that was widely condemned by the international community.

The members of the committee consist of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah, deputy commander of the Joint Operations Command Gen. Abdul Amir al-Shammari, head of the National Security Service Hamid al-Shatri, deputy of the intelligence service Majid al-Dulaimi and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

The report revealed new details on the attack.

Araji disclosed that two explosive-laden drones packed with Composition C-4 targeted the prime minister's residence in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad in the early hours of Nov. 7. Initially, the first drone aimed its explosives at the flat roof, only to be followed by the second drone immediately targeting the entry of the courtyard. 

This style of attack was intended to strike Kadhimi with the second drone while he was fleeing the scene through the entry, the report noted. 

 

Generally, the only ones who can tell you what was intended are the culprits themselves.  What's Araji confessing to?


This garbage that AL-MONITOR has run is exactly why Iraqis have never bought into the notion that this was a real attack.  Per AL-MONITOR, the investigating body can mind read but they can't figure out who pulled it off?  


It's more garbage.  That's all it is.  It's not making the attack or 'attack' look real.  Everyone's fully aware that this is the last day of November and that the alleged attack took place at the start of the month.  They want high drama and yet the reality is that if an attempt was made on Mustafa's life, ther should have been arrests long ago.  The fact that this didn't happen backs up the beliefs of many that the whole 'assault' was staged and staged to create sympathy for Mustafa.  


Was the 'attack' real?  I have no idea, I wasn't there.  But I do understand people in Iraq rolling their eyes over this nonsense.  Were the attack real, that would mean an assassination attempt took place.  And yet approximately one month later no arrests??  If there was an assassination attempt, that's not the normal response.  


The whole thing has felt suspicious from the start and it's now, as one Shi'ite noted on Arabic social media this morning, just looking desperate.  


Where are those election results?  Still not in.  Can't count ballots, can't catch killers, what can Mustafa's government do?


The electoral Committee is handing complaints over to the judiciary.  That's where it stands now.  


Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert heads the United Nations' mission in Iraq.  She's done a miserable job.  Last week, she spoke to the UN Security Council and lied.  SHe lied.  The October 10th election -- that we still don't have a final tally on -- was free and fair.


She deserves the bad reputation has in Iraq.  We've ignored a lot of her problems because, with that position, we largely cover what they 'testitfy' to while appearing before the United Nations.  But, to recap some of her greatest hits,  she oversees a staff who told a man 'just don't burn yourself in front of our mission.'  He walks in and explains his problems and how the UN is not addressing them and that he's going to set himself ablaze.  And the UN response -- her staff -- is fine, just don't do it in front of our building.


Then there was the man who was assassinated in public and Jeanine's refusal to meet with the mother.  The mother had to protest and more before the press on this got so bad that Jeanine had to get off her lazy ass and meet with the mother.  


Now there's all the issues regarding Israel  that would take multiple snapshots to cover but we'll just note that she's seen as a supplicant to the government of Israel and not a represetnative of Iraq.


With that baggage and so much more, she shows up to the UN Security Council and lies that these were free and fair elections.


No.


When you disenfranchise, they aren't free elections.  And many groups were disenfranchised but let's just note the most obvious one.  A week before the election, on Mustafa's orders, the electoral commssion announced that a segment of the militias -- those publicly opposed to Mustafa -- would not be allowed to vote the Friday before the election.  They couldn't vote on Sunday.  They were being deployed around the country to protect polling stations.  That was the entire reason for the early vote.  And most of the security forces got to early vote.  But not all.  


That is discrimination and that is disenfranchisement.  In addition, Layal Shakir (RUDAW) notes, "Qais al-Khazali, secretary-general of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the pro-Iranian PMF militias, met with the head of the United Nations mission in Iraq earlier this month and said he presented her with evidence of electoral fraud."


Jeanine's a liar.  She's not an honest broker.  


Back to the assassination attempt or 'attempt,'  ALJAZEERA reports:


Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, an Iran-backed armed group under the Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella, had long denounced the blame as well as the election results.

In a televised speech on Sunday, al-Khazali said the investigation committee must “provide tangible and real evidence” instead of “allegations from the media and Facebook”.

Telegram channels affiliated with pro-Iran armed groups charged ahead with their campaign against al-Kadhimi, spreading unsubstantiated claims that the prime minister staged the attack to blame it on the armed groups.


Well when you fail to do the most rudimentary of forensics on the alleged crime scene, apparently all you have for 'evidence' is social media.


In other news, the PUK did poorly in the election.  Hiro Talabani is upping her game after the election and has begun deploying her son Bafel to make public statements calling out 'the government'  for the way protesters in Sulaymaniyah are being treated.  Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:


The head of Sulaimani’s ruling party on Tuesday apologized to students for a violent crackdown on last week’s protests, two days day after he met with a group of students. 

“I am deeply saddened by the unjust violence that has been executed against a number of students. I sincerely ask for pardon from my sons, daughters, sisters, and brothers who walk towards a glimmering future with hope,” read the statement from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) co-chair Bafel Talabani on Tuesday. 

He pledged to make “immense changes” and “resolve the shortcomings,” adding that they “will work closer with the youth and students.”

Student protests began a week ago at the University of Sulaimani and were met with a crackdown as police used electric batons to disperse the crowd. But the protests continued, growing in size every day and spreading to other cities and towns across the Kurdistan Region over the week and security forces used tear gas and water cannons to quell the demonstrations. There were also reports that forces used live ammunition. 


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


Black Alliance for Peace Statement on Venezuelan Elections

The news out of Venezuela related to the elections is that there is no news. All attempts to attack and delegitimize the process failed and the people of that beleaguered nation once again chose independence and dignity over surrendering to the imperialist gangsterism of the United States and their white supremacist, European colonial allies.

For the first time in four years elements of the political opposition participated in elections that saw nearly 70,000 candidates representing 37 national political parties and 43 regional organizations for 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 lawmakers, and 2,471 councilors.

Demonstrating once again that it is committed to open, fair, and clean elections, the Consejo National Electoral (CNE), the governmental body responsible for organizing elections in the country, issued credentials to over 300 international observers from 55 countries and institutions such as the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and the Carter Center.

The result?

The “Great Patriotic Pole” (GPP), a coalition of parties and social movements organized by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), won overwhelmingly including 20 out of 23 key governorships in the sub-national election.

According to BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka, “The support of the Venezuelan people for their process demonstrates once again, like what we just saw in the Nicaraguan elections and the failed revolt in Cuba on the 15th, that the white supremacists do not understand that when a people have tasted freedom, reconnected with their pre-colonial cultural traditions of knowledge production and independence, they become immune to the political, ideological and material attempts to drive them back into subordination.”

The elections in Venezuela and Nicaragua, the abandonment of reactionary forces in Cuba by the Cuban people, and the solidarity from progressive forces globally in support of the struggles for national liberation and self-determination in the Americas, represent the upsurge of popular opposition and the growing weakness and fragility of U.S. and European imperialism.

They all forcefully affirm that the colonial realities are being reversed. It is a victory for all oppressed, colonized, and working-class peoples when a people, working to build a new society for themselves freed from the dehumanizing effects of the colonial/capitalist system, are able to withstand the systematic assaults on their democratic process and national sovereignty. BAP stands firmly with all of these attempts and proudly salutes the people of Venezuela.

No compromise, no retreat! 


The following sites updated:





Posted by at

11/29/2021

it's time for cnn to fire chris cuomo

'cnn' continues to struggle in the ratings and its image has been seriously harmed.  you can look to chris cuomo for a great deal of that.   cnbc reports:

  • Chris Cuomo was actively in touch with a top aide to his brother Andrew Cuomo about incoming reports that detailed alleged sexual harassment by the then-New York governor, new records show.
  • CNN said late Monday afternoon that it would review the documents.
  • Chris Cuomo also lobbied to help the governor’s office as it sought to weather the storm of accusations, and he dictated statements for the then-governor to use.
  • Three days after the New York Times reported in March about how Andrew Cuomo attempted to kiss a woman, Anna Ruch, at a wedding, Chris Cuomo texted DeRosa: “I have a lead on the wedding girl.”


fire him.  he's got to go.  he's broken too many rules and this is probably not the end of it.  he needs to go.  cnn offers:


The documents indicated that the scope of how the anchor aimed to help his brother was more considerable and that he was more intimately involved than previously known, prompting CNN to initiate a review of the material.
    "The thousands of pages of additional transcripts and exhibits that were released today by the NY Attorney General deserve a thorough review and consideration," CNN said in a statement. "We will be having conversations and seeking additional clarity about their significance as they relate to CNN over the next several days."
      It was first revealed in May that Chris Cuomo had participated in strategy calls to help advise his brother. CNN said at the time that it was "inappropriate" for him to engage in conversations about his brother's crisis and the anchor "will not participate in such conversations going forward." CNN stopped short of issuing a suspension.

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

      Monday, November 29, 2021.  Is an arrest about to take place in Iraq and what's the Democratic Party's White House hope in 2024?


      Columbia University's School of International Relations and Public Affairs Tweets the following:


      Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg could agree to run together in 2024 if Biden does not run again, giving the Democratic Party a very strong ticket that would seem like a natural continuation of Biden's first term, writes
      @LincolnMitchell
      .
      @CNNOpinion
      | ow.ly/elwQ50GW4tp
      Image
      10:10 AM · Nov 26, 2021

       

      And gaijinggirl2004 Bronx Progressive responds:


      This is EXACTLY what I predict the Dem establishment is going to try to stuff down our throats. And that Harris will be an incumbent (with PB as Veep) - the primary cancelled, and all opposition deflected with charges of racism, sexism and homophobia. Slightly frowning face


      Pete and Kamala are largely charisma free.  I don't like Kamala personally -- and I've noted that here for years.  Our mutual friend, Willie Brown, tells me I've never given her a real chance -- maybe he's right.  But though I don't like Kamala personally, I've thought she could handle her own in court -- yes, I've known her that long and I thought she projected likeability.  


      And maybe she does for those of us in California.  But for whatever reasons, that has not been the case nationwide.  And that goes back to her campaign for the presidential nomination and through her term as vice president.


      Her image is now established.  Sorry.  Unless you're Tina Turner -- and few of us are -- you get one shot at an image.  She can't be re-invented -- not while in office -- and attempts at image rehab while she's a Vice President are not going to take.  


      People know her.  They have formed their opinion.  And it's not a good one.  To combat that, you'd have to have a nation filled with people willing to admit that they could be wrong.  And I don't think we live in that country.  I could be wrong.


      All known examples and studies would predict that it's too late for her to change her image.


      Pete?


      He didn't connect with voters and he got graded on a curve because the media loved him.


      "Magic Negro"?  Remember that?  When Barack Obama was running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, David Ehrenstein contributed that column to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (March of 2007).  And it ran.  It was satire and it was a critique.  (For the record, I have encountered David and I do not care for him.  I disclose that because I'm not going into too much detail about that column or David's writing because I doubt I will be fair.)  David's 1/4 African-American and he was noting how Barack Obama wasn't presented as an actual person by the media but as the supporting character who does for you what you need.  


      That column ran and ran without huge controversy.  


      I mention that because Dale Peck wrote a piece about Pete in 2020 for THE NEW REPUBLIC that his campaign (Liz, chiefly) immediately jumped upon and sent out the bots leading THE NEW REPUBLIC to disown the column and immediately remove it.


      It was censorship plain and simple.  THE NEW REPUBLIC should be ashamed of itself but considering it's entire history -- especially with regards to the Iraq War -- the publication is clearly not capable of shame or thought.


      Pete is gay.  And his lunatic celebrity supporters (I'm thinking of Jane Lynch especially), gave the appearance that the LGBTQ community was at one in their opinion of Pete and all behind him.  Nope.  Dale Peck was addressing issues with regards to Pete and issues with regards to the LGBTQ community.  


      This was ignored in the bot storm Liz created.  The bot community really came into its own during Barack's run for the presidency.  It was created in 2004 -- I was present -- to address the debate coverage.  They targeted soft commentators -- soft meaning that they could go either way int heir analysis and, if they were Democrats, were likely to lean to the right to be 'fair.'  Dana Milbank was one of the targets and I'm surprised to this day that he has never written about this.  He had triple the e-mails after the first debate that he usually got at his work e-mail account.   He had a snit fit about it.  The e-mails came mainly from 100 people with several accounts who were paid to write them as various people.  In 2007, Barack deployed the bots -- a larger force by then -- and the press was both mute and moot as a result.  I explained to an editor friend at THE NEW YORK TIMES in 2008 what was going on -- again, I was present when this bot community was thought up and budgeted for back in 2004 -- and they started checking the ISPs on, for example, the comment thread to a live debate and found that the 100s of 'people' were usually about 120 people posting as one person and about 100 people posting as 500.  


      When the lies of Russia-gate emerged, I saw a lot of projection from various Democratic activists.  I wasn't at all surprised when they finally went after bots -- insisting Russia was using individuals who posed as multiples to influence on the internet -- something the Democratic Party started paying for in 2004 but that reality was left out.


      The point is that the bot community cannot protect Pete in another go around.  

      Dale Peck's article, if published today, would seem well worth exploring.


      Especially after MAYOR PETE (Ava and I covered it in "TV: You can learn a lot from documentaries -- more than they intend to teach").  


      The larger community is more aware today and the LGBTq community now know Pete and aren't likely to see him as the poor victim of the press again.  You can, for example, look at how Tucker Carlson's commentary against Pete -- one that people tried to create a controversy over -- didn't succeed.  (And as Ava and I argued in "Media: A Little More Conversation     ," it really seemed -- Tucker's 'critique' -- a plea to his own wife to give him more nipple play during sex.)


      To watch MAYOR PETE really should make a lot of the people who bought into the attacks on Dale Peck grasp he was making solid points.  What does it mean to be gay?  What does it mean to be a later0in-life come out?  


      I hope Pete's a better person now than he was in the documentary.  I hope Chasten's had some impact on his life since then.  I think he has and I think Pete's using paternity leave was in response to some demands -- needed ones -- that Chasten made.


      However, that paternity leave is also a problem.  During an ongoing pandemic, you don't take weeks of leave -- maternity or paternity.  And when you do and supply lines become an issue and you are Secretary of Transportation, you have a serious problem that is not going away if you try to seek higher office.


      I know how this works, I've been in that room (no longer, life is too short and I'm not in the mood to fool myself anymore that me insisting that we tell the truth and stop trying to manipulate means I'm fighting for truth).  Pete's gay.  Kamala's half0Black.  They're going to be the dream ticket.  That really never happens.  The Democratic Party honchos have farmed that out over and over and it's never really worked.  At one point, they farmed it out to Texas because they knew they stood no real chance of winning.  So they used Texas as a test ground and ran some idiots -- Ron Kirk among them -- and called it "the dream team."  And?  It didn't work.  They knew it was going to be a loss ahead of time, the point was to see it raise the votes in a way that could be measure.  A closer loss, if you will.  It didn't work out.  They saw a boost in turnout for the groups that the candidates represented -- but just for those candidates.  The dream ticket actually didn't lift anyone.  


      I have no idea if it was why Hillary went with Mr. Bland as her running mate -- Id walked out of that room by that time -- but it's been proven not to not be a winning strategy.


      If you ran actual leaders from those communities, it might work.  Instead, corporate whores are run (hello, Ron Kirk! are you being held accountable yet for the destruction of your city's pension from when youy were mayor or is it still a few years down the line before that's really noticed).  But corproate whores are really all the party has to offer at this point.  


      So Kamala is damaged and there's no real recovery for her.  Pete's not vice president so he's been lower under the radar.  He also distanced himself from Chasten while running for the presidential nomination in 2020 so he might have the opportunity of being rehabbed.  Chasten next to him on the couch as Pete discusses how he's grown comfortable in the fact that he's a gay man and saying he's not there to hide or accept half-measures could rehab Pete.  But Pete can't rehab Kamala.


      That dream team strategy benefitted Kamala once.  Stacey Abrams came awfully close to being Joe's running mate in 2020.  Joe favored her.  It was explained by various honchos in the party, explained to Joe, that she was "too Black."  And, of course, when compared to Kamala who's half Indian (her mother is from India), Stacey is 'Blacker.'  But they thought, the ones advising Joe, that they'd see the rejection of the ticket with Stacey on and that Joe needed to go with a 'whiter' person of color.  Which is why Kamala got the nom.  Up until 16 hours before that was announced, Joe was still saying Stacey would be a better choice.  Would she have been?  I don't know but I think it's fair to say her poll numbers would be higher than Kamala's are.




      "He now has more than 350,00 deaths on his watch.  He used to say that Trump got all these people killed because he didn't know what he was doing.  So now we have 350,000 plus something coming over the ocean  that we don't know anything about.  So in every possible way, Joe Biden's presidency is slipping away."


      Turning to Iraq, MEMO reports:


      The Secretary-General of Iraq's Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq movement, Qais Khazali, warned on Sunday of "attempts" to accuse what he called "resistance factions" of trying to assassinate Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. According to Khazali, such allegations are likely to drag the country into a major crisis.

      In a televised address, he called on Iraq's Supreme Shia cleric, Ali Al-Sistani, to intervene as the situation "has reached dangerous levels" in the country.

      "The targeting of the prime minister's house [on 7 November], if true, is serious and cannot be tolerated at all," said Khazali, adding that Al-Kadhimi refused the participation of two "resistance factions" — militias — in the investigation into the attempted assassination. "We send a message to the committee charged with the investigation… You must provide concrete evidence and real proof, not allegations."


      If true.  And if carried out by Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq.  That's not a slam at the group.  I don't like them -- or the other militias in Iraq.  But there is serious skepticism among the Iraqi people over what happened or didn't happen at the prime minister's home all those weeks ago.  


      Western outlets have wrongly ignored this skepticism.  I have no idea what happened.  I don't pretend I do.  But I do know the skepticism was there from the start and that it has only increased.  All by itself, that's a story.  But when we get into the possible reactions to an arrest, this mood really becomes important.


      Many believe the attempt or 'attempt' was nothing but a stunt to try to make people rally around the inept Mustafa al-Kahdimi.  The current prime minister is reviled and seen as a failure.  They were not moved to rally around him.


      In the weeks since the attempt or 'attempt,' you've seen rallies and demonstrations around the country -- none hgve been by Mustafa supporters.


      The US government backed Mustafa and they were the original suspect in the attempt or 'attempt.'  Most Iraqis on Arabic social media feel it was an attempt carried out by the US government that was never meant to harm but that was meant to provide sympathy for the Iraqi people.  Many compare it to September 2005 when 2 UK soldiers were arrested.   The incident did rec3ive some US coverage (mainly THE NEW YORK TIMES) but the Iraqi people know it well.  Two UK soldiers were arrested when Iraqi police found them acting suspicious and with explosives and wigs in their vehicle.  They were to pose as insurgents and conduct violence to cause unrest.  They were taken to a Basra prison and the UK responded by attacking the prison.


      It was a big deal in Iraq -- and should have been around the world.  Arabic social media has made that incident a major topic since the attempt or 'attempt' on Mustafa's life.


      If someone is charged -- all this time later -- the popular mood willnot surprise those of us paying attention.  


      We'll deal with the UN rep in Iraq tomorrow.  She's worthless and she's amde herself that.


      Kat's "Kat's Korner: Documenting Joni's epic talents live" went up this morning.  The following sites updated:






       

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