Saturday, October 24, 2020

5 great tracks from Heart

For tonight, I'm noting Heart -- And and Nancy Wilson's group.  My rule for my choices?  None of my five picks can be a single or an AOR classic.  Heart has a string of hits and they're solid tracks and classics.  But we know them and I want to note a few Heart songs that I love that you may not have heard of if you didn't purchase the albums.  (I'm also pretty sure I've noted my five favorite Heart hits before -- probably more than once since they are one of my favorite bands.  One of my top ten favorite bands, I should clarify.)


First and foremost?  "Nobody Home."



Heart got a lot of crap for HEART, their comeback album.  Oh, they're using outside writers!!! Oh!!! How awful!!! They're selling out!!!! Aerosmith did their comeback two years later with outside songwriters and no one said one word.  But Ann and Nancy get attacked?  "Nobody Home" is a great song and it's one that they wrote with their friend Sue Ennis (who they collaborate with frequently including on "Straight On," "Dog & Butterfly" and "").  It's one of five songs the Wilson sisters co-wrote on HEART -- an album with only ten songs.  But the way they were attacked, you would have thought they didn't write a single song on the album.


"Mistral Wind."



This is a classic that got overlooked.  It's not surprising it was overlooked, it's from DOG AND BUTTERFLY which has the title track and "Straight On'' which were both hits.  This is a song worth checking out.  


"Vainglorious."


 



JUPITER'S DREAM is a really strong album but, for me, the standout track really is "Vainglorious."


"Soul of the Sea."


The first time I heard this, I thought, "This doesn't sound like a Heart song."  It doesn't -- and it does.  It's what's great about the group when they're really cooking: There is no one Heart 'sound.'  The group can handle a lot of genres and doesn't serve up the obvious.  


"Wheels."



RED VELVET CAR was a Heart classic.  I know Kat gave it a deserved rave.  But it didn't seem to get the attention from the music press that it warranted.  Fortunately, Heart has a built-in base and we appreciated the album.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Friday, October 23, 2020.  The duopoly debates conclude with Joe Biden lying about ethics and doing so as a former business partner of Hunter Biden's makes a damaging announcement to the press.


Last night, the last of the duopoly debates took place.  A bi-partisan grift known illogically as the 'presidential' debates takes place every four years.  The pretense is that it's a debate between presidential candidates; however, that's not the case.  The Democrats and the Republicans control the debates so only their candidates make the stage.


The Libertarian Party has been making steady gains each cycle and, this year, their candidate is on the ballot in all fifty states.  However, Jo Jorgensen did not make the debate stage because these are not the presidential debates.  If they were, they'd have to include all candidates -- even if it was just the 'serious' ones however you wanted to define 'serious' -- and they don't.  Again, Dr Jo Jorgensen is on the ballot in all fifty states and yet she was not on the debate stage last night.  Howie Hawkins is the Green Party candidate and he was not on the stage last night.  Gloria La Riva, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, was not on the stage last night.  There were other candidates not on the stage.  We no longer cover Joseph Kishore's campaign because, clearly, he and David North had made the decision to campaign for Joe Biden.  This has led to nutty conspiracy articles at the SEP party's website of WSWS in which you've got Donald Trump leading a death and kidnap squad in the US.  That is just beyond stupid.  WSWS is calling out JACOBIN magazine currently and, in better times, their criticism might stick.  But with their nutty, tin-foil hats on currently, they just look like crazy idiots.  They realized that this week due to a huge backlash (over the pimping for Joe Biden) which has resulted in a significant loss of web traffic and major complaints from the readers who remain at WSWS so they quickly rushed out Patrick Martin's two-part series on the corruption of the Democratic Party.  It's too little, too late for some.  


For us?  We'll go back to highlighting WSWS after the election.  Related, I'm not interested in The Hip-Hop Caucus and feel a little like Jackson Browne when he ad libs during "Cocaine" the following line: "But I wouldn't have been a user, even one more day, if you'd shown me how I was helping turn a profit for the CIA."   Indeed.  


The Hip-Hop Caucus was highlighted here in the past because of their connection to Rosa Clemente who was on the 2008 Green Party presidential ticket (she was presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney's running mate).  So I wrongly thought they were some sort of independent organization -- as they present themselves to be.  But at the end of last week, when we stopped noting them, we stopped because I hovered over one of their links in an e-mail.  They're raising money for the Democratic Party.  Now I know no one enforces the damn law, but in a functioning democracy, they'd be facing charges and be stripped of their current tax status for that little stunt.


After the election, we may highlight them.  But I don't approve of that nonsense.  NOW's sent things to public account non-stop throughout this election cycle.  We've ignored them for the same reason of lack of independence.  NOW is legally prohibited from endorsing or campaigning for a presidential candidate.  They get around it with NOW PAC but no one even pretends the two are separate anymore.  NOW PAC makes the endorsement, NPR brings on the NOW president (not NOW PAC president) and introduces her as the NOW president and then talks about NOW (not NOW PAC) endorsing a president.  NOW should lose its tax status.  These are abuses plain and simple, flagrant disregard for the law.  I'm not going to reward that.  Shame on Hip-Hop Caucus   Go to ACT Blue currently and you can get in line to donate, for example, to 'progressive' Dianne Feinstein's 2024 campaign.


That's both horrifying and whore-ifying.  Dianne shouldn't have run for re-election last time, she's too damn old.  And no one wanted to face that reality until this month's Supreme Court nominee hearings.  Right before them, Democrats in power finally realized Dianne wasn't all there.  Too damn bad.  They had no right to remove her at this late moment.  No, she shouldn't have been Chair.  But all of the problems some people finally discovered?  Those were the reasons those of us in California endorsed Kevin de Leon.  Maybe if busybodies from out of state had kept their noses out of it, Kevin could have been in the Senate and the Democrats could have had a real chair in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Idiots caused this problem or, as Judge Judy might say, "Don't crap on my carpet and tell me it's a decoration."

I'm not interested in fakery.  Which is why we stopped Joseph Kishore's campaign.  We do try to cover all campaigns that we can.  That goes beyond the presidency.  Anyone who sends a press release for their campaign has been noted.  By the same token, any member of Congress that sends out a press release gets noted.   This year that policy could have been tested.


A pedophile is running for the presidency -- no, that's not a joke about someone's son.  There's a third party candidate who's connected with DEN and that means he's probably a pedophile.  I believe the documentary OPEN SECRET and several witnesses have established that.  He was part of the debate that put forward presidential candidates not part of the duopoly.  We did note that debate twice -- once with a partial clip (that's all that was up) and once with the full debate when it was later posted.  We quoted Gloria La Riva from that debate.  We also posted Howie Hawkins from that debate when his campaign did an edit of just his remarks.  


When we reported on it, and quoted Gloria and only Gloria, a few e-mails came in asking why we didn't list everyone who participated?  Good question.  I was pressed for time and I also didn't feel it was my job to promote the man in that debate who is a pedophile.  Had his campaign sent in a press release, would it have gone up?

I say yes.  But I'm truly glad it didn't come in. 

And goodness knows, we have more than enough to cover.

Such as last night's debate.


Before we get to the clip, when you watch, note Joe's comments about how his children, unlike children of color, didn't have to worry about saying 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir' to the police  if pulled over.  Note that he elected to cite his daughter Ashley.  Okay.  He wants to bring her up.


Let's demonstrate the privilege that she's lived with.  From WIKIPEDIA:


In 2002, Biden was arrested in Chicago and charged with obstructing a police officer.[46] She was leaving a club on Division Street when a friend, John Kaulentis, threw a soft-drink can at a police officer who had told him to stay behind a barricade set up to keep club patrons off of the street.[46] The situation escalated and resulted in another friend, Kelly Donohoe, hitting an officer.[46] As Kaulentis and Donohoe were being taken in to custody, Biden allegedly "verbally intimidated" an officer and was arrested.[46] All three were released on their own recognizance.[46]

In 2009 a friend of Biden attempted to sell a video, reportedly of Biden using cocaine at a party, to the New York Post for $2 million.[47][48] Negotiations brought the price down to $400,000 but the tabloid declined the offer, choosing instead to publish a story about the alleged video.[47][49] After the New York Post published the story, it was revealed that Biden had previously been arrested in 1999 in New Orleans for possession of marijuana, but the charges were dropped and she was released.[49][50]


What is the excuse offered by garbage outlets for Hunter's crack addiction?  Oh, yeah, his mother died and his sister died.  Are we going to say the same nonsense for Ashley?  Because Ashley's Jill's biological daughter.  Ashley is from the second marriage.  


Addiction is a disease.  Krystal Ball, recently, wanted to have sympathy for Hunter and his disease.  I don't.  I'm not Cher -- who infamously stated, after people used her antique coffee table to snort cocain, that you cease to be a person when you're a drug addict.  I'm also not bleeding heart Krystal.  Addiction's a disease.  And if you're trying to get help, I'm sympathetic.  If you're trying to get help.  Otherwise?  No, I'm not really all that sympathetic.  And my sympathy vanishes completely if you're a drug addict -- practicing -- who has had all the breaks anyone could have and who has a father who has actively worked to put other addicts -- not his own children -- behind bars. 


That's where my sympathy runs out.  And I think the Biden family has exhausted everyone's sympathy at this point when it comes to Joe's posturing on drugs and the reality of the rampant drug abuse in his own family.  Remember, America, Joe was happy to 'get tough' on low income children doing drugs he just wasn't willing or able to get tough with his own kids and their myriad of drug addictions. 


Maybe the Biden family motto is: Convict as we say, not as we do?





Joe used the term "predator," not "super predator," as CNN noted in 2019:


Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them.

Biden, then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments on the Senate floor a day before a vote was scheduled on the Senate's version of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
His central role in shaping and shepherding the tough-on-crime bill will likely face scrutiny in a Democratic primary should he run for president in 2020. His 1993 comments, which were in line with the broad political consensus to tackling crime at the time, are at odds with a new bipartisan coalition of activists and lawmakers who are trying to undo what they say is a legacy of mass incarceration fostered by that era.
Biden's word choice could also pose a problem with a new generation of Democrats who view the rhetoric at the time as perpetuating harmful myths about the black community.  


As for the laptop?

Let's review what was said in the clip above via the transcript USA TODAY is running with:


[1:11:32] Biden: Look, there are 50 former National Intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics-- four-- five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him, his,  and his good friend Rudy Giuliani. 

[1:11:51] Trump: You mean, the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax? You gotta be--

[1:11:58] Biden: That’s exactly what-- That’s exactly what--  

[1:12:00] Trump: Is this where you’re going? This is where he’s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?



First off, let's again note Paul Mulshine (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER):


When the contents of that infamous laptop were revealed they were handed a father-son drama right out of Shakespeare. And they haven’t even followed up an obvious lead on the story’s veracity.

I’m talking about the call that Hunter Biden’s lawyer made to the owner of that Delaware computer shop just a day before the Post broke the story.

That was unearthed by a long-time source of mine, Larry Johnson.

Johnson is a former CIA agent who also happens to be a golfing buddy of Steve Mac Isaac, the father of John Paul Mac Isaac, the guy who runs the shop in Delaware where the computer was deposited for repairs last year but never picked up.

The contract said that if the computer was not picked up in 90 days it became the property of the shop. The FBI later confiscated it but Mac Isaac kept a copy of the hard drive, which he gave to Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the Post.

After the New York Post story broke last week, a lot of people questioned whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

But as Johnson wrote on the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog last Friday, “that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer called John Paul Mac Isaac and asked for the computer to be returned.”

Mac Isaac was not available for comment but Johnson posted a copy of a follow-up email to him from lawyer George Mesires thanking him for discussing the matter.

When I called Johnson, he asked the obvious question:

“Why would you want a computer back if it’s not your guy’s computer?”


Now let's note Larry Johnson on Joe's nonsense about 50 former hacks for the intel committee:

A letter published today (Monday, October 19, 2020) with the signatures of 50 "former intelligence" officials is a self-inflicted wound of comedy and absurdity wrapped in the specious claim of special expertise. Thank God none of these clowns still hold a position anywhere in the national security bureaucracy. Their inability to grasp basic facts and engage in simple reasoning perhaps explains why the Obama team abandoned American military and intelligence officials at Benghazi in September 2012 and why they considered ISIS as "a junior varsity" team.

Basically, this group of mediocrities are sure that the Hunter Biden emails are part of some nasty Rooskie plot:

. . . we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.

There is only one teeny, tiny problem. They have no facts to back up their deluded judgment, supposedly based on years of experience. Just goes to show that experience without real intelligence is no substitute for competence.



Use the link to continue reading.  Jonathan Turley notes:


While House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and roughly 50 “intelligence experts” have assured the public that this is just Russian disinformation, both the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence have now confirmed that they do not believe the laptop and its contents are Russian disinformation. Now it appears that the laptop was viewed as sufficiently connected to possible federal crimes to be subpoenaed as evidence by the FBI a year ago.

These disclosures continue to make a mockery of the effective news blackout imposed by virtually every major news organization on the story. Notably, for years the media and legal experts have cited the fact of a secret FISA surveillance order as proof that the Russian investigation was legitimate even though allegations of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign were discredited. They have referenced the fact that the original evidence passed muster with prosecutors and a secret court for further investigation. The same standard does not appear to apply here as many dismiss the laptop as a real story or real evidence. While the laptop has been dismissed as nothing more than a false smear, it is now confirmed to have been treated as evidence in a criminal investigation. Despite intelligence officials rebutting the claims of Russian disinformation and saying the Schiff was given no such intelligence, the media continues to push this narrative or repeat the Biden campaign’s insistence that this is old news.

It is “new” news.  The laptop contains emails directly referencing at least one meeting with Joe Biden who long insisted that he never spoke to his son about his business dealings and never met with any of his associates.  Hunter Biden himself contradicted his father’s denial and said that he did speak with him about some of his dealings. Moreover, pictures have emerged with Joe Biden and Ukrainian and other figures associated with his son. Moreover, the laptop confirms what some of us have argued for years: Hunter Biden was clearly engaged in an influence peddling scheme. While Biden has insisted that his son “did nothing wrong,” this was clearly wrong even if it was not charged criminally.  As discussed earlier, the Biden camp has never denied that this was indeed Biden’s laptop and his emails.

Now, it appears that the laptop was evidence in a money laundering investigation. The serial designation is important: 272D-BA-3065729.

“272” is the bureau’s classification for money laundering and the added “D” indicates “Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program.” The BA indicates that the origin of the request was the Baltimore field office.


The issue of the e-mails only became more newsworthy yesterday evening when Navy veteran Tony Bobulinski addressed the press -- see the clip below from THE HILL.



Bobulinski, one of the business partners with Hunter Biden, states that Joe knew and Joe profited from the deals.  


He should have been pressed on that.  Instead, the most the moderator did was ask if anything about the deals were improper or unethical.  Watch Joe insist no in the clip below:



Joe lies.  It was unethical.  Joe lies and he then tries to drag Donald into it.  Hmm?  "When allegations of ethical lapses or wrongdoing surface against people on one side of the aisle, they can always claim that someone on the other side has done far worse. But taken together, all of these examples have contributed to a toxic norm."  All have.  And that's Sarah Chayes writing, at THE ATLANTIC, about Hunter Biden's scandal in 2019:

Joe Biden is the man who, as a senator, walked out of a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Biden was one of the most vocal champions of anticorruption efforts in the Obama administration. So when this same Biden takes his son with him to China aboard Air Force Two, and within days Hunter joins the board of an investment advisory firm with stakes in China, it does not matter what father and son discussed. Joe Biden has enabled this brand of practice, made it bipartisan orthodoxy. And the ethical standard in these cases—people’s basic understanding of right and wrong—becomes whatever federal law allows. Which is a lot.

Who among us has not admired or supported people who have engaged in or provided cover for this kind of corruption? How did we convince ourselves it was not corruption? Impeachment alone will not end our national calamity. If we want to help our country heal, we must start holding ourselves, our friends, and our allies—and not just our enemies—to its highest standards.


Here's Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins' response to last night's debate.



For eight years, Joe Biden was the US government official in charge of Iraq.  Is it any surprise that Iraq remains awash in corruption?  Samya Kullab (AP) reports:

Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills.

A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears.

“These delays affect my ability to survive,” Abdul-Amma said.

Iraq’s government is struggling to pay the salaries of the ever-swelling ranks of public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis caused by low oil prices. September’s salaries were delayed for weeks, and October’s still haven’t been paid as the government tries to borrow once again from Iraq’s currency reserves. The crisis has fueled fears of instability ahead of mass demonstrations this week. 


The public workers are not the big problem and AP should know that.  Millions and millions of public moneys have been stolen by leaders -- Nouri al-Maliki, for example.  Back when the US Congress pretended to care about Iraq, they would hold hearings about Iraq -- including corruption in Iraq and witnesses would testify about corrupt officials.  Nouri al-Maliki's son -- not unlike Hunter Biden -- lived a rich and racy lifestyle as a result of all the money Nouri suddenly had after he was prime minister.  


As we wind down, let's note two more videos.  Here's Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen.



And here's Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation.



The following sites updated:

Friday, October 23, 2020

Oh, Joe, you've got to go

 Jonathan Turley:


A former business partner to Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, has made a bombshell statement that not only are the emails on the Biden laptop authentic but the reference to giving a cut to “the big guy” was indeed a reference to former Vice President Joe Biden. More emails are emerging that show Hunter Biden referring to his family as his asset in these dealings.

The emails that have attracted the most attention refer to an actual meeting of Joe  Biden with these foreign figures and one referring to a proposed equity split of “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” Bobulinski confirms that “H” was used for Hunter Biden and that his father was routinely called “the big guy” in these discussions.

Another email Bobulinski being instructed by James Gilliar not to make any mention of the former veep’s involvement: “Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.”

 Bobulinski said he was brought on as CEO by Hunter Biden and James Gilliar and stated that he believes Joe Biden was lying in denying any knowledge of these dealings, stating Hunter “frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals.”  He added that “The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China.”


Joe Biden is just disgusting and a shameful embarrassment.  We are worlds away from JFK and FDR with Crooked Joe.  Our party deserved better and should have had better.  Joe is a crook and he is not fit to be president.  



I think Robert O'Brien is correct.  


In "All over for Joe?," Ruth offered Joe should resign.  I don't think he can drop out in terms of being taken off the ballot.  But he could announce that, if elected, he would immediately resign due to the huge ethical lapses of the past.  I agree with Ruth that this might provide the Biden-Harris ticket some excitement.


Goodness, knows nothing else has.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Thursday, October 22, 2020.  Joe Biden continues to be coddled and protected by the corporate media leading Margaret Kimberley to issue a warning and THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER to have a scoop in the Hunter Biden scandal -- a scoop everyone's trying to ignore.




Vanessa Williams' "Oh How The Years Go By."  These days?  It's "Oh How The Stupid Goes Round."  The latest effort by the press to avoid asking the needed questions of Joe Biden about corruption and ethics regarding Hunter Biden's money making scams and schemes involves the repeated assertion that the e-mails had been 'shooped' in Ukraine.


Oh, you poor, pathetic fools with your faced pressed up against the glass.  Of course they were shopped around.  That's not a new development.  I've noted this here.  I buy information (usually letters and journals).  So does Rudy G -- he was on a huge buying spree in 2007 and 2008 (the only time I know of that we were competing to get the same information).  Information, when shopped, is shopped to the highest bidder.  They don't just, for example, notify Rudy G, "Hey, we got some stuff!" They put the word out and the tight circle of buyers then competes -- supply and demand.


The article in question is a questionable article.  The always in over his head Simon Shuster wrote the article and it's nothing but allegations.  No one is on the record.  Is there a reason two people -- if they exist -- in Ukraine can't go on the record with their own names or the name or names of people shopping around information about Hunter?  

So you've got anonymice you never met making claims that can not be proved.  The press relies far too much on aonmyice period but in the average US report?  The justification is that these Americans could lose their jobs or suffer harms as a result but, please understand, this is an FBI official or a this or a that.  Not only are the sources unAmerican, they aren't even identified in any way as to give the reader reason to believe them.  Are they in Ukraine intelligence?  We don't know.  We don't know a damn thing about them.


It gets worse.  The whole point of Simon's report is to make it appear that the e-mails first reported on last week by THE NEW YORK POST might not be real.  


So Simon Shuster is telling readers that the trove THE POST went through was shopped a year ago in Ukraine?


No.  


Beyond the headline, beyond the opening paragraphs, you discover that these two 'expert' witnesses who are unnamed by TIME magazine can't tell you if the e-mails THE POST is reporting on were the ones being shopped around.


Oh, so this is two unnamed people (with no credentials provided) who aren't Americans and who don't know anything about the e-mails they're supposedly saying existed and their comments might influence an election?  I believe that is the definition of attempted foreign influence.


TIME printed a story that they can't back up to discredit . . . a story by THE POST that they think didn't have enough backing?


Hunter Biden was involved in business in Urkaine.  I'm sure there are many people shopping information around with his e-mails or purported e-mails.  This is not news.  The failure to connect a 2019 possible trove with the one that THE POST is reporting on now makes the article as useless as everything else Simon Shuster has written in his sad and pathetic life.


Let's talk about efforts to discredit.  Why did we spend so much time on "hacked" with regards to this Hunter scandal?  Because we have a built-in focus group.  Kat, Wally, Ava and I still do some limited public speaking but the bulk has been transferred over to online talks.  We are interacting and we get how the stories are playing out.  Most people only read headlines (TIME knows that and they know Simon's hideous article will be a push back to try to silence this discussion).  "Hacked." 


Let's give liars the benefit of the doubt and say that they didn't realize that there were two ways "hacked" could go.  But one way it went, with one student group after another, was that they felt -- from headlines and brief on air mentions -- was that Hunter's e-mails were 'hacked' from his computer -- that they were private and on his computer and the mean old repair guy had no right to them.  Hunter is a notorious deadbeat and that was well established in the public record.  He made himself a deadbeat dad and in that court case tried to plead that he was bankrupt and shouldn't have to pay child support.  He's a deadbeat who doesn't pay his bills.  Not a struggling American, understand, a deadbeat who spent vast sums of money on hookers and drugs -- and if you don't like that, don't blame me, I'm quoting from the divorce papers when he left his wife and the mother of his first children so that he could go shack up with his dead brother's widow: "Kids meet Aunt Mommy!"


The first wife had to fight for the children to be protected -- and these are the kids that Hunter and Joe claim.  They refuse to acknowledge the child Hunter had with the stripper -- she got pregnant while he was shacking up with his sister-in-law.  I don't know that she's the stripper who used the dildo on him in the club, I don't know that she isn't.  We do know, from the other performers present, that Hunter wanted to practice safe sex and insisted on a fresh and unused dildo.  He's a safety boy.


Intended by liars like Adam Schiff or not, the "hacked" was creating a false impression among some and that's why we emphasized here what we emphasized.  Most of what we talk about comes from those public discussions that we do on a daily basis.  It's our focus group that allows me to gauge what to emphasize and what needs correcting and what's not been amplified enough.


The instant take away from TIME's bad 'report' should be: So what?  It has nothing to do with THE POST's report.  Now grasp that.  Grasp that instead of investigating the claims published by THE POST, TIME decided to go off an adventure to try to discredit THE POST report.  And grasp that they can't discredit it because the TIME 'report' can't even connect what took place in 2019 to the trove THE POST has.


Wisconsin Public Radio is prepping a story on the media's coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal.  Good, it'll air later today.  We need media analysis of it.  We really need strong analysis which would mean calling out people who are lying or shading the truth.


People like Karl Baker shouldn't be allowed to practice journalism because they refuse to report the truth.  The liar for THE DELAWARE JOURNAL offers a story about Rudy G turning the computer hard drive in question over to the FBI and Baker types up the following:

On Oct. 14, the publication ran a story that the hard drive contained emails from 2015 indicating that then-Vice President Joe Biden held a meeting with a high-ranking official at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company company whose board employed his son.

Biden’s campaign said, “No meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.” 


Is that what they said?  How difficult is it to be honest?

David Folkenflik is a whole host of problems but we'll note him from NPR (and his problem would not be going against Joe Biden, it would be lying for Joe):


Biden's campaign spokesman, Andrew Bates, responded, "We have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place." There is some wiggle room in that denial. But that's not proof, either. The New York Post nonetheless asserted, breathlessly, and assuredly, that there was a "never-before-revealed meeting."


Even Folkenflik can include the full quote.  And, yes, wording does matter, as well learned when Bill Clinton advised the world, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."  


Brent Batten (NAPLE DAILY NEWS) argues that the scandal's a story regardless of whether it's true or not because, if true, it's a story of corruption and, if false, it's a story of a false attack that's an attempt to influence the election.  Batten notes:


It seems to me the question of which version of the story is the correct one could be resolved with a few well-placed yes or no questions to Joe Biden or his spokespeople.

Did the laptop computer in question belong to Hunter Biden?

Did he drop it off for repairs at a shop in Delaware?

If it was his, were the contents of the hard drive, as reported by the New York Post after receiving a copy from Rudy Giuliani, altered or fabricated?

To my knowledge, the Biden campaign has not answered those questions, if they’ve even been asked.


Here's Jimmy Dore's take on the whole thing.




Paul Mulshine (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER) reports on a little noted development that gives further credence to the assertion that these are Hunter's e-mails and it was his computer:

When the contents of that infamous laptop were revealed they were handed a father-son drama right out of Shakespeare. And they haven’t even followed up an obvious lead on the story’s veracity.

I’m talking about the call that Hunter Biden’s lawyer made to the owner of that Delaware computer shop just a day before the Post broke the story.

That was unearthed by a long-time source of mine, Larry Johnson.

Johnson is a former CIA agent who also happens to be a golfing buddy of Steve Mac Isaac, the father of John Paul Mac Isaac, the guy who runs the shop in Delaware where the computer was deposited for repairs last year but never picked up.

The contract said that if the computer was not picked up in 90 days it became the property of the shop. The FBI later confiscated it but Mac Isaac kept a copy of the hard drive, which he gave to Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the Post.

After the New York Post story broke last week, a lot of people questioned whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

But as Johnson wrote on the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog last Friday, “that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer called John Paul Mac Isaac and asked for the computer to be returned.”

Mac Isaac was not available for comment but Johnson posted a copy of a follow-up email to him from lawyer George Mesires thanking him for discussing the matter.

When I called Johnson, he asked the obvious question:

“Why would you want a computer back if it’s not your guy’s computer?”


Indeed.  And why isn't that a major part of the story?  How is it that we can find that news but THE DELAWARE JOURNAL and others can't seem to?


Related, WISN is burying their own report.  They spoke to Joe and got some sort of comment from him.



That video should be available in a basic search on GOOGLE or YOUTUBE  but it's not.  Possibly, it's not because Joe Biden sounds like he's struggling to speak -- he really is too old to be president, he really is someone who needs to step aside.  As for his 'response.'  He does not deal with the e-mails.  He tries to make it about where's he's already won -- 2019 when the press kept insisting no law was broken.  First, they didn't know if any law was broken or not since they showed no interest in the story.  Second, the standard by which we judge is not whether or not you're a criminal.  We judge ethics.  Joe has none.  He's refused -- even the clip above -- to address the specifics reported.  He's refused to answer to the people.  He wants to be their servant but he doesn't think they deserve answers.


Not to Hunter's scandal, not to where he stands on court packing, not to anything really.


Grasp that many of the same people and institutions that want to reward Joe for lying and withholding are the same people and institutions who want to punish Julian Assange for telling the truth.




Looking at the Hunter scandal and the way Joe's many protectors have responded, Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) warns:


The left must beware. The corporate media and their liberal friends may pretend to target the right, but it is leftists who they really want to silence. They are the threat to the fake progressive party which gets support from people who should have abandoned them long ago. The left reveal the plot twists of the kabuki play and must be shut up and shut down.

Joe Biden got protection when he needed it most. The New York Post story revealed what smart observers already know. The Democratic party holds on to support with a shaky coalition of white people who intensely hate Trump, black voters determined to keep Republicans, particularly Trump, out of office, and progressives who won’t vote for what they really want for fear of being “spoilers.” Any scandal that might hurt Biden will be hushed up lest the house of cards falls down.

But all of the people don’t take part in the charade. While Biden uses COVID as an excuse for not holding large events, and lets social media make excuses for him, Trump still draws crowds. Election day in 2020 could potentially be a repeat of 2016, when millions of people defied convention wisdom and put their great white hope into office. Democrats are prepared with excuses, and are already claiming that Vladimir Putin was somehow involved in getting a laptop out of a Delaware computer repair shop.

The public remains at the mercy of platforms that ought to be regulated while the Democrats strive to keep everyone in the dark and prop up one of the worst presidential candidates of all times. If they succeed their friends in Silicon Valley will come to Washington with them and the people will be the losers.



The following sites updated:






Thursday, October 22, 2020

Disgusting Adam Schiff

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "Wolf and Nancy" is one of two comics Isaiah did that went up Monday night.


wolfandnancy


Aside from the comics that Isaiah does for all of the community newsletters, he's done six comics at THE COMMON ILLS in the last two weeks.  


Now this is from Jonathan Turley:


Recently, we discussed how House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff stated publicly that the recently disclosed laptop information from Hunter Biden was clearly part of a Russian intelligence operation. Schiff said that “we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.” This morning, John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence, stated categorically that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.  What is most notable is that Ratcliffe has stated that Schiff and his Committee have not been given any intelligence to support Schiff’s conclusion.  The incident has raised lingering criticism of Schiff who previously told the public that he had clear evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after that allegation was rejected in repeated investigations, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Schiff never produced the incriminating evidence and later it was shown that the widely cited Steele dossier was based on a source who was considered to be a Russian agent.

[. . .]

Schiff now finds himself, again, in the position of supporting a claim of evidence of Russian collusion. He will have to show that this laptop discovery was engineered by Russian intelligence.  If the owner is speaking the truth, the computer was dropped off in April 2019 with the intent to be used in the 2020 campaign.

Ratcliffe stated in an interview that

“it’s funny that some of the people that complained the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing intelligence and unfortunately in this case, it is Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who as you pointed out on Friday said that the intelligence community believes that Hunter Biden’s laptop and e-mails on it are part of some Russian disinformation campaign. Let me be clear, the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports and we shared no intelligence with chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It’s simply not true.”

Ratcliffe accused Schiff of politicizing intelligence and stated “Don’t drag the intelligence community into this. Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign and I think it’s clear the American people know that.”


Adam Schiff is an embarrassment and should not be in Congress.  The media should not make him a go-to.  The same media treated Alan Grayson like a raving loon and Grayson had a lot more on the ball than Schiff ever has.    THE HILL notes:


Intercept founder Glenn Greenwald called Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) "the most pathological liar in all of American politics" accusing the House Intelligence Chairman in an interview on Fox News of fabricating "accusations at the drop of a hat the way other people change underwear."

Greenwald, the journalist who in 2013 worked with whistleblower Edward Snowden to published leaked intelligence on the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, accused Schiff of lying about Russia being behind a New York Post story on Hunter Biden's emails. 

“He just fabricates accusations at the drop of a hat the way that other people change underwear," Greenwald, a frequent critic of the media over stories about Russian actions related to the 2016 presidential election, said in an interview with Fox News's Tucker Carlson.

"He’s simply lying when he just asserts over and over that the Russians or the Kremlin are behind this story,” Greenwald said. “He has no idea whether or not that’s true. There’s no evidence to support it.”


That's some strong criticism that took place Tuesday afternoon.  Tuesday morning?  C.I. was already hitting hard on this topic.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Tuesday, October 20, 2020.  Joe Biden dictates to the press which gladly follows orders and Iraq's prime minister takes a stand briefly before fleeing the country to hide out in Europe for a few days.


That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Everybody But Bo Erikson" which went up last night (along with "Wolf and Nancy").  The comic notes how Joe Biden growls and the press goes running.  They don't get the facts, they don't pursue basic questions, they just cower.

Why has Joe never been asked about invading (harassing) girls and women?  Oh, he taped an 'apology' for it and that made it okay and off limits to questions?  Those incidents -- those disgusting incidents -- are on tape, you can find them all over YOUTUBE and, as we all know, the 'apology' was nothing -- it wasn't a real apology and days later he was making jokes about it to a gathering of union workers.  


Any other candidate would have been asked about it.


Then there's Tara Reade.  


We believe Tara Reade notes:

We are so thrilled that is joining us alongside in hosting A Conversation With Tara Reade on Sunday October 25th. Registration is a sliding scale with all proceeds benefiting bit.ly/believetara #IBelieveTaraReade


Tara Reade remains credible.  I believe her.  


The media went out of their way to destroy her.  What are you left with?


You're left with the argument that Tara Reade has a bad credit history therefore she couldn't be assaulted. 30% of Americans have bad or poor credit.  So they can't be victims by the latest 'reasoning presented by the press.'


This is beyond nonsense.  No victim who has come forward has had more supporting corroboration.  That includes her mother calling into Larry King.  And I've called Larry out before on this but let's note it one more time.  For him to join in the attacks on Tara were disgusting.  


He failed his audience.  That's what happened.  Tara's mother was someone who watched Larry King and she called in hoping he could provide help.  He failed her.  Listen to that segment, Larry's not trying to help or trying to seek information even; he's just trying to get her off the air.


And then years later, instead of apologizing for the way he let his audience down, Larry thinks he can attack Tara?  I love Larry.  I've defended him here when he's been attacked for being on RT.  But what he did there was appalling.  The only words he should have uttered on the subject of Tara Reade were an apology to her mother who sought help and/or advise and was left dangling in the wind.


Having failed her mother, Larry then thinks, years later, he can attack Tara?


Shame on you, Larry, shame on you.


Tara Reade did not get a hearing in the press.  She was attacked and destroyed.  It was outrageous.  That's PBS as well -- their nonsense 'report' was an attack.  The press does this every time with Joe.  They have built the loser up.  They cover for him, they protect him.


But it's getting real old.


Yes, there was wrong doing by Joe and Hunter Biden.  Yes, it was unethical and unethical is wrong.  Joe was a public servant.  The standard, for vice president, is not just to avoid a conflict of interest but to avoid even the appearance of one.  Joe didn't do that.  Even the State Dept was worried about Hunter's actions when Joe was vice president.  


And when you add in the rest of the family cashing in, it's not an isolated moment or event.  


Yet Joe has not been asked about the corruption -- that's what it is, corruption.  


Millions of Americans suffer each year because of a corrupt government.  We regularly note how corrupt the Iraqi government (installed by the US) is.  And it is corrupt.  But so is a Congress that enriches itself and so is the Biden family that's done the same.  


It's outrageous.  


October 16th, THE NEW YORK POST published a story.  The response has been outrageous and certainly not the standard for journalism.


THE NEW YORK TIMES, for example, runs an 'investigation' that's nothing but unsourced office gossip about one of their rivals -- conflict of interest.  Not only do they do that, they do it in a matter of days.


Remember their mini-culpa on Iraq?  That ran May 26, 2004.  Over a year and two months after the Iraq War -- a war they sold with lies -- started.  But to cover for Joe, the paper swings into immediate action?


As with the charges made by Tara Reade, the press is refusing to investigate what was revealed/alleged in/by THE POST.  Instead, it's attack anyone who questions Joe Biden.


Conservative Rich Lowry (NEW YORK POST) argues:


Even the lowest common denominator of news — simply being interesting — has been tossed aside. Boring and uneventful is the new newsworthy. This presumably isn’t how they teach it in journalism school, but no one has had trouble adjusting.

The tendency reached a new level in the media’s handling of New York Post reports on e-mails obtained from a laptop that Hunter Biden reportedly left off at a Delaware repair shop.

Here was a story with enough mysteries and plotlines to keep a couple of newsrooms busy. Are the e-mails, putting Hunter Biden’s sleazy overseas business dealings in a more sinister light, legitimate? Did Hunter really take the laptop to the shop and forget about it? And, more important, what do the e-mails say about what Joe Biden knows or should have known about Hunter’s work that depended so heavily on proximity to the vice president?

Instead, the press has been ­uninterested at best and hostile at worst. It’s the opposite of a feeding frenzy. The media have deployed their bomb-disposal unit for fear that a potentially explosive story might detonate.


He's right but he's not even getting to the heart of it.


"She deserves to be heard.'' That was the official line from Joe Biden and his campaign about Tara Reade.  And the press dutifully 'reported' that.  At the same time? They refused to report that the Joe Biden campaign was actively feeding them opposition research and slander on Tara Reade.  They let him appear high minded while he and his campaign were screaming at them to cover this or that about Tara Reade.


Tara's got bad credit.  But Joe Biden's the one with the history of lying.  Joe Biden's the one whose lies forced him to drop out of his first run for president.  Joe Biden's the one who knows his first wife was most likely turned around and arguing with the kids in the backseat or trying to police some matter the kids were having and she lost control of the car and that's why the accident happened.  Joe Biden's the one who knows that but has repeatedly lied to the American people -- in one event after another -- and slandered a man by claiming the truck driver was drunk.  He was not drunk.  Joe lied.  We could go over Joe's lies forever and ever because there's a huge number of them.


Funny thing though, the press never did that.  Instead, they attacked Tara Reade's character.


The Hunter Biden story has gone the same way.


One lie after another, all coming from the Biden campaign, has sought to steer the coverage and the press has allowed that to happen.


They were 'hacked' e-mails!!!!


No, they weren't.  From Ava and my "Media: The Lies Never End:"


Hacked? That was the excuse FACEBOOK and TWITTER gave for censoring the story.

They shouldn't have censored to begin with but what made our blood boil was the lie that it was hacked.

Where did the lie come from? The Joe Biden presidential campaign. We can't believe anyone took that garbage seriously. These e-mails were not hacked and they were the property of the owner who turned them over to the FBI and a copy to Rudy G. They were his property.

We're not inventing case law. We're breaking down reality for you. The press refused to do so and ran with Joe Biden's claim of "hacking."

Let's say you've got a lamp and some other furniture you don't like but you don't want to toss out, okay? You don't have room for it. What do you do? You rent storage. And you put your items there. They are your items. Up until you stop paying for the storage. After you miss your payment, the storage company can -- and usually does -- auction off the contents of your storage unit.

The story on the laptop is that someone (Hunter Biden?) brought it in to be repaired. They were contacted about it. They never picked it up. A computer repair shop isn't a storage facility. If you fail to pick up your item -- and item you haven't paid for -- it's now the property of the store.

These were not hacked e-mails. The laptop was the legal property of the repair store. The owner did what he wanted to do with it -- as was his legal right.

We were enraged and appalled as 'hacked' e-mails were promoted not only by Joe Biden's campaign but also by the media. If you don't know the law, get an expert.

'The owner is pro-Trump!!!!' Who the hell cares? His partisan leaning does not impact the law. It's his shop, equipment was left there for repair, it was repaired, it was not picked up and it was not paid for. At that point, he owns the laptop. As the owner, he can do whatever he wants to and, yes, the includes handing a copy over to Rudy G.

As FACEBOOK and TWITTER are rightly under fire, news outlets need to stop offering the 'hacked' excuse. These e-mails were made public by the rightful owner. This is basic case law and everyone knows it. What's the phrase? All together now: "Possession is nine-tenths of the law." 
              

They were not hacked.  The owner of the computer (Hunter Biden or whomever) stopped being the owner when (a) they failed to pick the laptop up and (b) they failed to pay the bill.  Just one of those would have resulted in the loss of ownership.  A repair shop is not a storage building.  


The e-mails were not hacked.  The laptop's ownership had passed the store owner.


"Hacking" was a lie from the beginning and a sign of just how controlled and corrupt the US media now is.  Who's going to issue the retraction on this lie?


Certainly not the disgusting Adam Schiff.  Used to be, we could all have a chuckle over the lies of a member of Congress.  But when we started this site, 2004, that was largely laughing at Republicans.  How corrupt my party has become is clear by the never ending lies of Adam Schiff.  He's the most dishonest member of Congress.  He lied throughout the Russia-gate nonsense and the media acts like he didn't -- in part, because they lied too.  Adam's immediate reaction to the Hunter story by THE POST?


It's a Russian disinformation scam!  I know this because I've been briefed!

No, he hasn't.  The Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is on the record saying no to this crackpot claim.



This is nonsense.  Jonathan Turley notes:


Recently, we discussed how House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff stated publicly that the recently disclosed laptop information from Hunter Biden was clearly part of a Russian intelligence operation. Schiff said that “we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.” This morning, John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence, stated categorically that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.  What is most notable is that Ratcliffe has stated that Schiff and his Committee have not been given any intelligence to support Schiff’s conclusion.  The incident has raised lingering criticism of Schiff who previously told the public that he had clear evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after that allegation was rejected in repeated investigations, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Schiff never produced the incriminating evidence and later it was shown that the widely cited Steele dossier was based on a source who was considered to be a Russian agent.


Jonathan Turley analyzes the Biden campaign response here.

Meanwhile, professional liar Natasha Bertand (still waiting on the Don Jr. indictment that you 'reported' was coming any day now -- back in 2019) offers in POLITICO that the intel community is stating that it's ta disinformation campaign.  Well . . . Not the community.  It's a bunch of people who no longer are in the intel committee.  A bunch of liars who regularly feed her garbage that she duly spits back up.  (Even she can't swallow it -- much to the boys' regret.)


Let's call out Krystal Ball as well.  Oh, she feels sorry for Hunter, oh.


What a load of s**t.  She's deeply stupid if that's the case.  Did Hunter have it hard in rehab?  Most caught smoking crack would have gone to prison.  Do you think those people had it easy?  Do you think the people thrown in prison because of Joe Biden's legislation over the years had it easy?  Your sympathies with the powerful are misplaced.  A little candy ass who never achieved anything and couldn't pay child support (or admit the child was his) until court ordered doesn't deserve sympathy.  He is the problem with our society.  He had all the breaks in the world and a powerful father to cover for him repeatedly.  My sympathies will be the real victims -- not with the spoiled rotten.

It's also amazing how the press has refused to cover the corruption of Hunter's 'service.'  How he wasn't qualified but got in due to his father.  They used the military to try to paper over Hunter's lack of accomplishments.  Again, spoiled rotten and given a huge break, Hunter can't even complete two months because he's failing a drug test.  

Turning to the Iraq disaster that Joe Biden helped create, Shelly Kittleson (AL-MONITOR) reports:


The specter of a return to sectarian bloodletting in Iraq after the latest killings in the southern part of Salahuddin province has raised alarms in the Sunni-majority province northwest of the capital.

Gruesome photos of the corpses of eight young men from a village in the Farhatiya district near Balad, hands bound behind their backs, appeared in WhatsApp chats and then on social media on the evening of Oct. 17. Twelve men had been kidnapped, but as of Monday morning, it was still unclear what happened to the other four.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi made a highly publicized visit to the area the following day and spoke to residents in an attempt to assure locals that there would be consequences for those who committed the crime.

Many noted, however, that progress has apparently not been made in the cases of several other assassinations of prominent figures in the country in recent months, such as that of well-known counterterrorism expert Hisham al-Hashimi in July, and expressed doubt that the perpetrators would be punished.

The young men killed were Sunnis. Locals immediately pointed the figure at Shiite-led “militias” operating in the area that are officially part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).


 That's not quite what happened.  Mustafa did make "a highly publicized visit to the area" -- it was a brief photo-op and Arabic social media is filled with comments about how he then quickly left and quickly left Iraq.  (He's now in Europe.)  His response is seen as both inadequate and cowardly.


Even THE BAGDAD POST is Tweeting about it:


PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi starts a European tour in #France, #UK and #Germany, 20 hours after the #Salahuddinmassacre committed by the Shiite Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia against Sunni children and their fathers


And here:

Why fake committees formed to investigate #massacres reach nothing? Why PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi is reluctant on arresting the criminals, although he knows them quite well? #BaghdadPost #Iraq



Meanwhile, Jane Arraf has a report for NPR on Iraqi refugees in Jordan which notes almost two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have fled their country since the start of the Iraq War.


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