Wednesday, April 07, 2021

Music video to check out

First up, a video to check out.  This is Chase Rice with Florida Georgia Line and their song "Drinkin' Beer.  Talkin' God. Amen." 


I think I've noted Dolly Parton and Nanci Griffith only when it comes to country music. 

C.I. and I were working out when her friend called her and asked if she could include the video at THE COMMON ILLS.  She put it in this morning's "Iraq snapshot" but I said I'd note it here too.


Here's Jonathan Turley on Joe Biden's continued lying:


It appears that President Joe Biden did not repeatedly “misspeak” as suggested on CNN.  Yesterday, Biden not only did not correct his false claims about the Georgia election law but doubled down that the law is a “Jim Crow law.” Indeed, he has repeatedly said it is worse, “Jim Crow on steroids.” That is why yesterday’s press conference (with only three questions) moved from the inaccurate to the incoherent. Biden is now saying that Georgia is a Jim Crow state with laws worse than the segregationist laws following the Civil War. However, he is saying that it is ok to play the Masters in the state (and for CBS to carry the Masters) after supporting a boycott of baseball. In deciding whether to do business in what Biden calls a “Jim Crow” state, Biden declared  “That’s up to the Masters.”

The press has not had any apparent inclination or (in the case of Fox News) an opportunity to ask Biden for a full answer on why the Georgia law is worse than the Jim Crow laws.  As previously discussed, states like Colorado have voter identification provisions and many of the same provisions as Georgia.  States like New York and Delaware have some harsher provisions. One would think that, given Biden’s widely discredited comments on the change in voting hours, the media would press Biden on an answer.  That however is only true if the media wanted such an answer.

Jim Crow laws were a “cradle to grave system of racial segregation.” The State of Afro-American History: Past, Present and Future 60 (Darline Clark Hine ed., 1986). Those laws embodied separate textbooks, separate schools, separate seating, separate access, and a wide array of limitations that treated African Americans to second-class citizens. That certainly included barriers on voting.

To say that the Georgia law is worse than a Jim Crow law is a chilling conclusion from a sitting president and worthy of explanation.


Again, Joe's lying. 



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, April 7, 2021.  Oh look, another idiot who never can be bothered with what's going on in Iraq is treating the Iraq War like a football to play another round of xenophobic partisan superbowl.



In yesterday's snapshot, we noted CNN's nonsense regarding Senator Josh Hawley and his college stance on the Iraq War.  ALTERNET is and always will be garbage.  They don't just steal the writing of others and post it, they also condoned staff harassing a young teenage boy.  It was the latter issue that led me to insist to them that they delink from us (we had been on a list of blogs that their site linked to, a blogroll or something).  So it's no surprise that they would worm their way into this discussion.   One of their bad 'articles' is reposted by SALON.  Meaghan Ellis types:



Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., may be critical of the Biden administration nominees' support of the Iraq War, but a newly-uncovered blog post shows that at one point he too supported the same war he is now opposing.

According to CNN, 


She has nothing to offer on her own.  She's just retpying what CNN already offered -- and that was bad on their bad part.


If sweet, stupid Meaghan can jump down from her high horse, could she note for a moment the crackdown on LGBTQs in Iraq?  Oh wait, that would require actual work.  She can't note anything because she doesn't care enough about the ongoing Iraq War -- or the Iraqi people who continue to suffer -- in order to ever write about the topic.  


But she wants to bash Hawley over the head for supporting the Iraq War.  In 2005.  When he was in college.  


When Hunted Biden's many problems started breaking in the news in 2019, the media tried to cover for him repeatedly with them forever insisting it was youthful indiscretions.  He was 49 years old at the time -- and his daddy still called him "baby."  Now it's time to have a fit over a college kid's opinion from 16 years ago?  


As we noted in yesterday's snapshot:



It's cute the way CNN goes after some and not others.  It's cute the way they lie to.  Hawley was 22 or 23 when the war started.    Pieces that written in 2005, when he was 24 or 25, are big news to CNN.  That would be the same CNN that let Joe Biden slide repeatedly over his Iraq War claims -- including his claim to regret his vote -- he doesn't, listen and he'll tell you his regret is that he trusted Bully Boy Bush would get the numbers right, etc.  Bully Boy Bush tricked him!!!! Wah!! Wah!!!  

Now Joe wasn't a college student when the Iraq War -- that he voted for and supported -- started.  He was a grown man who had already been in the Senate for decades.  He was on year thirty in the Senate when he voted for the Iraq War.

So there's that.

It's also nonsense because I've yet to see CNN do the opposite -- point out an anti-war critic who changed their mind.  The Iraq War is still going on and you can ask Senator Mike Gravel about how one member of Congress can make an impact -- if they choose to do so.


Third, we're talking about CNN which allows Christiane Amanpour to advocate for war on a regular basis.  

Fourth, huh????????

Unlike CNN, I was opposed to the Iraq War.  I started speaking against it one month before it started.  So I don't have any apologizing to do.  CNN ignores its own past which allows it to pretend it doesn't owe any apologies.

But we were not all on the same page in the US.

The country turned against the Iraq War in 2006.  So Josh's experience tracks with that of the majority of Americans.  Does CNN not get that?  How stupid are they?

It's hard to believe that this isn't a slam at a member of Congress for being opposed to forever wars.  Especially when you consider how little CNN noted the 18th anniversary of the Iraq War just last month.

I don't know if Hawley's for real, I don't know if he isn't.  But Josh's actions are not the indictment CNN seems to believe they are.  If he rethought his position, he did so while the rest of the country was doing so.  (Which is why I don't get why Glenn Greenwald can't cop to what he did in terms of supporting the war at the start.) CNN did a very poor job.  It reads like advocacy -- bad advocacy on the part of some idiots who can't take the time to first do the work required -- not like journalism.

Again, Hawley's view was not my view.  I was opposed to the Iraq War.  But his view of support in 2005 is in keeping with the majority of Americans at that time.  


Joe supported the Iraq War as did the bulk of his Cabinet -- many of them did so, like Joe, from positions of power.  Meaghan's yet to write about that and, no doubt, never will.  She's not a reporter.  Check her past articles, she only writes to attack Republicans.  She has no ethical stance, she has no interest or expertise in any topic.  But when something's been posted elsewhere online at a US site that paints a Republican in a bad light, she grabs on to the work of others to play attack poodle.  Someone please get her spayed.  We can't afford her reproducing a littler of attack poodles.

Again, she has nothing to add to anything.  No expertise, no "at a hearing a year ago . . .," no context, no analysis.  But, hey, she typed it up, she can sleep easy that if her life wasn't wasted -- if her entire goal in life was to be a propaganda engine.  


I don't have time for this garbage.  Stop pretending you give a damn about how someone felt about Iraq in 2005 when you don't care enough to cover Iraq today -- and that goes for SALON which reposted the story.


Rayan Tweets:


#LGBTQ people were ARRESTED and IMPRISONED in SULAIMANIYAH #Iraq for their SEXUAL ORIENTATION!! WHY ARE WE SILENT? #Queerkurs #TakeAction
@UNHumanRights
@IKRPresident
@Kurdistan
@masrour_barzani
@qubadjt
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Why are you being silent, Meaghan?  Oh, that's right, you can't use the attacks on LGBTQ for partisan purposes.  But keep pretending you give a damn about the Iraq War or the Iraqi people.  Maybe you'll fool some people.  


Dana Nawzar is a noted homophobe and is whining that Twitter restricted his account for several hours.  He did nothing wrong, he insists, but tell the truth.  No, he called the LGBTQ community pedophiles.  More to the point, he's so stupid that he called them pedophiles and prostitutes.  Prostitutes, please note Stupid Idiot Dana, are paid money to have sex with people.  How many seven-year-olds does Stupid Idiot Dana think have enough moeny to pay for the services of a prostitute.  Seems like someone's mistaken Melanie Griffith's MILK MONEY for a gritty documentary.


MEHR NEWS notes:


According to Al-Alam Al-Maqawim Network, the American convoys were targeted in the cities of Hillah and Jableh and the Al-Nile region on Wednesday.

The Qasim Al-Jabarin group has claimed responsibility for all three attacks.


But that's okay with Meaghan.  She's not going to cover that.  She's just going to pretend like she cares from atop her horsie named Hypocrite.  

Joyce Karam and Bryant Harris (THE NATIONAL) report:


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein will tackle security and economic co-operation on Wednesday in the first strategic dialogue between Baghdad and Washington since President Joe Biden entered office.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi was the first Arab leader to receive a call from Mr Biden in February.

The dialogue, which will happen online because of Covid-19, was prompted by a request from Iraq to clarify critical issues in the relationship.

The White House said that trade, culture and climate are on the agenda, as well as security and the role of US forces in Iraq.

Perhaps more urgent for Iraq is discussing the US military role amid increasing attacks by pro-Iran militias on joint bases and in the Green Zone, home to the American embassy.

“The meetings will further clarify that coalition forces are in Iraq solely for the purpose of training and advising Iraqi forces to ensure that ISIS cannot reconstitute,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

James Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Iraq, told The National that Baghdad and Washington disagree on how to counter these militias, which are calling for US troops to be withdrawn.



The discussion will be about the continued presence of US troops on Iraqi soil.  Despite the continued attacks targeting US troops.  Despite the Iraqi people wanting the US -- and all foreign troops -- out of their country.  


Meaghan Ellis, you going to tackle that issue any time soon?  No? 


Journalist Renwar Najm Tweets:

More than two months have passed since the arrest of journalist Qaraman Shurkri, still his family has not heard anything from him, his whereabouts are unknown. His brother says even lawyers are not able to defend him because firstly "they should know his whereabouts."
Quote Tweet
Renwar Najm
@RenwarNajm
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Security forces just arrested another journalist in Duhok's Shiladze town. Earlier this morning masked forces raided the home of journalist Qaraman Shurki and after insulting his mother and brother, they arrested Qaraman and took his phone and laptop, according to his brother.
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9:19 AM · Apr 3, 2021


How about that topic, Meaghan?  Going to cover that anytime soon?


Probably not.  You haven't covered the continued persecution of Julian Assange, have you?



Sarah Abdallah Tweets:


11 years ago today, Wikileaks released the Collateral Murder video, exposing US forces in Iraq shooting unarmed civilians, including journalists. To this day, the killers still have not been held accountable. But Assange, who revealed their crimes to the world, sits behind bars
2:46 PM · Apr 5, 2021



Monday April 5, 2010, WIKILEAKS released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two REUTERS journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. 


Meaghan going to cover that?  Nope.  Okay, keep pretending you do anything of value and keep using Iraq as your partisan football any weekend you decide you want to play.  May you get the sports injury you deserve.

It's more important to Meaghan that she attacks someone over their opinion from years and years ago when they were in college.  Why is that again?  Oh, right -- Joe Biden.  



Attack poodles have to work really hard to protect War Hawks.  Maybe Meaghan will be out in your drive next, digging through your trash?  Probably not.  She'll just wait until CNN does and then rewrite CNN's work.  She's not just a hypocrite, after all, she's also lazy.


Lt Col Daniel L. Davis writes at THE INSIDER:


The United States will engage in a "strategic dialogue" with Iraq this month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week. The key agenda item, she explained, was the US combat deployment there.

How or whether to extend the operation should not be part of the discussion. Nailing down details of the withdrawal should.

The 3,500 US troops currently in Iraq serve no purpose related to American national security. They don't have a militarily attainable mission which could be recognized and signal the end of the deployment. The only benefactor is the government in Baghdad and even they are ready to show America the exit.

[. . .]

Whatever incremental security benefit may exist with US troops being deployed in Iraq and Syria, they are dwarfed by the strategic risk we incur every minute we remain on the ground there.

We are in a sea of civil conflict in Syria and in danger of semi-regular rocket attacks in Iraq. Our military presence cannot influence the political outcome in either country.

The best thing Biden can do for the security of the United States and to preserve the lives of our service members from unnecessary risk at the security dialogue with Baghdad is to withdraw our troops, in full, from both Iraq and Syria as soon as possible.



I'm known to do a favor or two for a friend.  A friend at a music label asked me if I could please note the following video.






I don't know Chase Rice -- not an insult, I'm not an expert on country music.  I do know Florida Georgia Line.  The song is entitled "Drinkin' Beer. Talking God.  Amen."  It's a well written song -- melody and lyrics and Chase Rice wrote it with Hunter Phelps, Cale Dodds and Corey Crowder.




The following sites updated:




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