Thursday, November 03, 2022

CNN's problems

Jake Tapper has people who hate him.  I don't happen to hate him.  I think, for a mainstream journalist, he tries harder than most to be fair.  So he is in the news:



CNN host Jake Tapper is moving out of the 9 p.m. Eastern time spot he briefly occupied in the cable news channel’s prime-time lineup.

He is slated to exit that post after the midterm elections, which take place Nov. 8. Tapper will continue doing his afternoon program “The Lead,” which he started in 2013.

“As part of a special lineup, Jake agreed to anchor the 9 (p.m.) hour through the midterm elections,” a network spokesman said in a statement to the New York Daily News. “At the completion of that schedule, he’ll be returning to his award-winning program ‘The Lead.’ We will announce post-election plans for that time slot in the coming days.”



Good.  I didn't think that slot was a good fit for him.  He shouldn't be on past 7:00 pm.  He's news focused.  

On that, it's really past time that CNN rethought their night schedule.  For years, Larry King's talk show anchored it.  Larry is dead but it's really past time that they went back to that sort of live talk show.  Sometimes, they can have celebrities, sometimes news makers, sometimes journalists can be the guest to talk about the events of the day.  Also, it should be a call-in show, like Larry did.  

There is way too much political yammering at night.  Excuse me, partisan yammering at night.  An old school talk show would probably be seen as a relief to many viewers.  It is worth a try.  

I do not want a political stooge, no Jimmy Kimmel, or Colbert or other partisan garbage. A talk show where people can relax and maybe learn a little.  

I would not suggest Jake for that.  He's a news person and he needs to continue doing hard news programming.  It's his strength and his gift.  I don't have as many nice things to say about Andrea Mitchell but it would be like wasting her in non-news spot.  






CNN’s new-look morning show needs an early jolt of caffeine. The ratings are in for “CNN This Morning” with Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins, and they got off to a rough start, lagging behind not only rivals like “Fox & Friends” and “Morning Joe” but also its predecessor on CNN, “New Day.”



The problem is Don Lemon.  That is not, "Fire him!" That is talk to him about what he needs to project.  A morning show is not a night show.  People are waking up and they want to like the people they wake up with.  Don can be likeable.  He's got the added bonus that he's attractive.  But he needs to stop thinking he's doing news.  He's not.  He's there to joke and laugh -- generic jokes, jokes that may make viewers grown -- they're fine with that.  He's trying to act like he's hard news and that's not the morning show.

It reminds me of when ABC, CBS and NBC all landed their first interview with Diana Spencer after she became Princess Diana.  She was in the US and she was willing to talk to all the press.  (I don't have C.I.'s memory, watch this turn out to be Prince Charles after their wedding -- Prince Charles being on all three morning shows.)

The rule was not to ask about certain topics.  Two morning hosts followed it.  One did not.  The network let that woman go.  

No one wanted to watch a British princess be grilled in the morning.  But one woman thought she was going to prove her news bonafides and all she demonstrated was that she did not belong on morning network TV.

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, November 3, 2022.  Joe Biden delivers a national address about the state of the economy and -- No, just joking.  He goes on the national airwaves to try to turn out the vote for the Democratic Party.  In Iraq, the stalemate be over but other problems continue -- such as an MP dying in the Parliament building.


Tuesday, Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reported:


A group of 10 congressional Democrats and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday asked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to estimate how many millions of U.S. workers will be out of a job next year due to the central bank's rate-hiking frenzy, which is expected to continue this week as the Federal Open Market Committee meets to discuss further increases.

In a letter led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), the lawmakers point specifically to Powell's "disturbing warning to American families" in August that "they should expect 'pain' over the coming months as the Fed takes 'forceful and rapid steps' to 'get supply and demand back into alignment... by slowing the economy.'"

"You continue to double down on your commitment to 'act aggressively' with interest rate hikes and 'keep at it until it's done,' even if '[n]o one knows whether this process will lead to a recession or if so, how significant that recession would be,'" the letter reads, further quoting the Fed chair. "These statements reflect an apparent disregard for the livelihoods of millions of working Americans, and we are deeply concerned that your interest rate hikes risk slowing the economy to a crawl while failing to slow rising prices that continue to harm families."

The letter, also signed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was sent as Fed policymakers convened in the nation's capital to decide on the size of the next interest rate increase, which is set to be announced Wednesday. A 75-basis-point hike is widely expected, marking the fourth consecutive increase of that size even as a growing chorus of experts and analysts raise concerns about mass job loss.


As expected, the Fed announced a hike on Wednesday. Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) notes:


Accountable.US spokesperson Liz Zelnick noted in a statement that "a chorus of economic experts have warned hiking interest rates again is a recipe for millions of Americans receiving pink slips, yet the Fed has decided to triple down on what is not working."

"Throughout the pandemic, the Fed should have been acting as stewards of the fragile economic recovery but instead have prioritized demands from big banks, hedge funds, and other Wall Street special interests at the great expense of average working families," she contended.


Last night, Joe Biden addressed the nation.  Did the US president finally talk to the American people about the awful economy?  Nope.  Did he explain how his actions were taking us to the brink of nuclear war?  No, he continues to save that conversation for fundraisers.  Eric London (WSWS) explains he talked about 'threats' to democracy, "If only the president and the party controlling both houses of Congress had the power to do more than wish away the threat of fascism! He was in effect telling American voters, send more Democrats to Washington although they can do nothing about the danger of dictatorship."


Remember America, we have nothing to fear but . . . everyone!!!!  


Not exactly FDR but it's Joe after all.  If he's standing and his dentures don't slip in his mouth we call it a win.  


Back to Eric London:


Biden’s speech was riven with contradictions. This is the product of the Democratic Party’s desire to avoid saying anything that might (1) trigger the development of protests from below against the far-right threat or (2) undermine the “bipartisan unity” the Biden administration requires to prosecute US imperialism’s war against Russia in Ukraine.  

He asserted that those who wish to disrupt the vote are a “tiny minority” of American society, yet he stated that they pose a massive threat to the entire country. He twice said that “MAGA Republicans” represent “only a minority of that party” but said that Republicans are running over 300 candidates for office who “question not only the legitimacy of past elections, but elections now and in the future.” He said, “We can’t take democracy for granted any longer” but professed blind confidence that “democracy will prevail.”

But most importantly, Biden’s speech presented a version of American “democracy” that has nothing to do with the social reality confronting masses of people. To the extent that this is the presentation the Democrats make of the current state of American democracy, they will fail miserably to mobilize popular support for it. Polls showing the likelihood that Republicans will win the House testify to this danger.

“America is not a zero-sum society,” Biden said, adding that “America is big enough for everyone to succeed.” But three billionaires have as much wealth as the poorest 160 million people.

“We should leave no one behind,” Biden said, even though hundreds of thousands go homeless every night, a majority of the working class is a paycheck away from poverty and one million people have been left behind to die of COVID-19 so far in the US alone.

America is ruled by “the people,” Biden declared. In America “the aspirations of the many” prevail over “the power of the few.” It is not an “autocracy,” where “one interest” controls society. Who does he think he is kidding? There are two political parties, and both are controlled by Wall Street.

Biden’s concern about election fraud is real. But the truth of the matter is that polls show Republicans might win back the Congress even without committing fraud. The fact that this is even possible shows the Democratic Party has been totally incapable of mobilizing the population against the Republicans’ ongoing plot. Inflation is nearing 10 percent, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates in order to slash real wages, and the Biden administration is working tirelessly with the trade union bureaucracies to prevent the outbreak of strikes and social struggles that might threaten corporate profits.

As for Biden's claims to represent “democracy,” his administration and the Democratic Party-controlled Congress are preparing to override the democratic will of 120,000 railroad workers to block them from striking and threatening corporate profits.


While claiming to stand for democracy, Joe's Homeland Security Dept is moving towards censoring speech.  Jake Johnson (WSWS) reports:

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security should be shut down after reporting shined light on the agency's sweeping campaign to police what it deems disinformation online, an effort that raised alarm among civil liberties groups.

"It's time to talk about shutting down the Department of Homeland Security," Snowden, a former NSA contractor who exposed the agency's illegal mass spying program in 2013, wrote on Twitter.

DHS, formed in 2002 in the wake of the September 11 attacks, "was always a mistake, a costly artifact of the hysteric post-9/11 authoritarianism that left us no more safe, but much less free," Snowden continued. "Its plan to become the Speech Police is the final straw."

Snowden was responding to an in-depth story by The Intercept on Monday detailing secretive DHS attempts to "curb speech it considers dangerous" by trying to pressure and "influence tech platforms" such as Twitter and Facebook. The department's "stepped up counter-disinformation effort" began under former President Donald Trump and has continued under President Joe Biden, the outlet noted.

"According to a draft copy of DHS' Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, DHS' capstone report outlining the department's strategy and priorities in the coming years, the department plans to target 'inaccurate information' on a wide range of topics, including 'the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine," The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Lee Fang reported.

"How disinformation is defined by the government has not been clearly articulated, and the inherently subjective nature of what constitutes disinformation provides a broad opening for DHS officials to make politically motivated determinations about what constitutes dangerous speech," Klippenstein and Fang stressed.

"DHS justifies these goals—which have expanded far beyond its original purview on foreign threats to encompass disinformation originating domestically—by claiming that terrorist threats can be 'exacerbated by misinformation and disinformation spread online," they added. "But the laudable goal of protecting Americans from danger has often been used to conceal political maneuvering."

Fake ass Joe Biden using the national airwaves to do a partisan voter rally.  He's so disgusting and shameful.  At least last night's lies didn't include him claiming -- as he did in Florida -- that he had gone to the historically Black college of Delaware State University (he went to University of Delaware).  

Next up, Joe claims he was briefly on the first season of A DIFFERNT WORLD and dated Jaleesa for two episodes!


In the real world, Turkey continues bombing Iraq.  MEHR NEWS AGENCY reports:

Local Iraqi media including Shafaq have said that the Turkish airplanes targeted several PKK positions in Kani Masi district on Wednesday.

Today's warplanes' attacks came after the Local media in Iraq reported on Saturday evening that Turkey conducted a drone attack on the Sinjar town located in the Iraqi Nineveh province.

The Turkish drones targeted a residential area in Sinjar town in the north of the country near Mosul, according to local Iraq news sources.

Under the guise of fighting PKK, Turkey has deployed its troops in areas of northern Iraq and Syria and is conducting aerial and artillery attacks on parts of the northern areas of these countries.

Turkey's actions are acts of war -- so, of course, Joe Biden's never condemned them.

Iraq held elections October 10, 2021.  Over a year later, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani formed a cabinet.  With that aspect of the political stalemate over, will Iraq's new government finally become responsive to the people?


Some don't see that happening.  One such person speaks with THE NATIONAL:


Haider Al Mirjan says the life-changing injuries he sustained during the October 2019 pro-reform protests were a sacrifice made in vain as the parties he was rallying against solidify their hold under the new government.

Like other protesters, Mr Al Mirjan says he is disappointed and frustrated about the makeup of the new government formed on October 22, in which Iran-backed political factions made a significant comeback.

“The day when this government was endorsed by the parliament was a gloomy and miserable one for all of us,” Mr Al Mirjan told The National from Germany, where he lives as a political refugee.


IRAQI NEWS notes one effort being made towards inclusion:


The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (UN Women) in Iraq signed on Monday a one million USD partnership agreement in Baghdad to support women’s political participation and representation in Iraq, according to a press statement issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The joint project focuses on addressing the constraints on women’s political voice, strengthening women’s decision-making and leadership in elected spaces and increasing leadership in civic spaces, the statement mentioned.

The partnership aims to strengthen elected female leaders and potential candidates’ ability to influence decisions, demand their rights and actively engage in decision-making at all levels, the statement elaborated.

The agreement will increase the use of special measures, such as quotas, to improve women’s leadership and representation within political parties in Iraq, according to the UNAMI statement.  

The partnership will contribute to mitigating obstacles to female participation in public life by addressing violence against women in politics, the statement explained.


Yesterday, Iraq's Parliament lost one member.  Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

A Shiite politician died on Wednesday while inside the Parliament building.

Mahmoud Shakir Al Salami, a member of the State of Law Coalition established and led by former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, was from the southern governorate of Thi Qar.

Mr Al Salami’s health condition deteriorated while he was holding regular meetings inside the parliament building, the Coalition said.

He was later transferred to Ibin Sina hospital inside the Green Zone where he was pronounced dead.

The cause of his death is so far unknown.


RUDAW notes:


Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid on Wednesday said that the country’s new cabinet has a lot of responsibilities to deliver on after a long overdue government formation process.

Rashid attended the 31st Arab Summit in the Algerian capital of Algiers, addressing Iraq’s recent government formation, security issues, and prospects for the future during his speech.

“The Iraqi government has a lot of responsibilities that it will work on to respond to the will of our people for reform, construction, and enhancing Iraq’s interaction with its regional and international surroundings,” said the Iraqi president, expressing his hopes that the efforts of the government would receive “positive interaction” from its regional neighbors.


It's Movember.  What is Movember?  Well it's not a typo:


Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at Movember.com


Here's Billy Eichner noting this yearly event and his film BROS.








The following sites updated:





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Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Penn ruling

Staci e-mailed asking what I thought of this:


The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has banned the counting of undated or misdated absentee ballots in the upcoming midterm election.

In an order issued Tuesday, the court told the Pennsylvania county boards of elections "to refrain from counting any absentee and mail-in ballots received for the November 8, 2022 general election that are contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes."

The court said it was "evenly divided" on the issue of whether failing to count the undated ballots is a constitutional violation, and so it ordered that all the misdated or undated ballots be segregated and preserved by the county boards of elections.

I think the court decided accurately.  I remember 2020, right after the election, the hideous Joe Lieberman went on MEET THE PRESS and let that awful Tim Russert trap him into stating that all military ballots should be counted.  Regardless of whether they were stamped before the election or after.  

No, that shouldn't have happened.  The military has rules and guidelines and its members are supposed to follow them.  If you are on a ship, for example, while the voting is going on, you ask that the envelope be stamped so that it will show it was mailed in in the time frame it's supposed to be.  If you didn't know that, you weren't smart enough to vote to begin with.

An election has a cut off date.  Mail may delay a ballot and that's fine as long as the ballot is post marked being sent on time.  

If you're ballot is sent after the election, it shouldn't be counted.  If you didn't get a postmark on your envelope, it shouldn't be counted.

I think we should move to all mail in -- the way Oregon does -- but there are rules in place and they need to be honored.  

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, November 2, 2022.  Joe Biden stumbles and fumbles in Florida, an Iraqi woman is set on fire by her husband and mother-in-law, and much more.


Poor Joe Biden, if he only he could be an infomercial president maybe they could edit out the mistakes.  He made a number of them in a speech in Florida yesterday.  Too many mistakes, in fact for any outlet to note all of them. Victor Nava (NEW YORK POST) reports:

President Biden claimed on Tuesday that he spoke to the man who “invented” insulin — even though the doctor died before Biden was born. 

The president’s comments came during an event in Hallandale Beach, Florida, during which he touted his administration’s efforts to lower healthcare costs for Americans. 

“How many of you know somebody with diabetes, and needs insulin,” Biden asked the crowd. 

“Do you know how much it costs to make that insulin drug for diabetes? … It was invented by a man who did not patent it because he wanted it available for everyone. I spoke to him, OK?” Biden claimed.

Dr. Frederick Banting and professor John James Richard Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1923 for their 1921 discovery of insulin. Banting died in 1941 and Macleod in 1935. Biden was born in 1942.



Not only did Joe Biden not speak to any of those people but, as SKY NEWS points out, insulin was discovered, it was not invented:


However, insulin, a hormone produced in the body, was never invented, but was discovered by Sir Frederick Banting.

The late physician and scientist died at the age of 49 on February 21, 1941.

Biden was born on November 20, 1942.



President Joe Biden misstated during a speech on Tuesday that inflation was caused by the war in Iraq, before correcting himself to say the war in Ukraine. Biden said he misspoke because his son, Beau Biden, died in Iraq.

[. . .]

"Inflation is a worldwide problem right now, because of a war in Iraq and the impact on oil, and what Russia’s doing … excuse me, the war in Ukraine," Biden said. "I think of Iraq because that’s where my son died."

Biden made a similar statement in Vail, Colorado, on Oct. 12.






Media in Iraq also noted the Biden Blunder.






And then there was this (from official White House transcript):

And, well, look, let me start off by saying I love Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and I make no apologies.  (Applause.)  She is not only one of my best friends in the United States Congress -- I know I don’t look it, but I served 36 years in the Congress.  (Laughter.)  And I spent time working with Debbie.  She wasn’t there nearly that long when I was there.

But my point is we became good friends, because she has enormous integrity.  Enormous integrity.  She has a sense -- a sense of understanding what people are going through, and she plays it out.  She works it out.  And so, she was one of my biggest, biggest supporters in helping me not only pass but draft and move some of the legislation we’re going to talk about today -- a couple pieces of it. 

And I don’t have a greater friend in the United States Senate, and I don’t have a greater friend when I was Vice President nor as President.  So, Debbie, thank you, kid.  I don’t know where you’re sitting, but -- oh, there you are, Debbie.  Thank you.


Did you catch it?  If not, THE DAILY MAIL:

Speaking alongside Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is hoping to get re-elected in Florida's 23rd district, in greater Miami, Biden mistakenly referred to her as a senator.

'I don't have a greater friend in the United States Senate,' he said.

'And I didn't have a greater friend as vice president, nor as president. 


He made many, many more mistakes.  The one I'm not seeing pointed out?  He also read his stage directions off the teleprompter ("Hold for a second").  

Again, if he didn't have to appear live, these things could be edited out -- and certainly many in the press will pretend it never happened -- but he does have to appear in public and these appearances continue to question his mental fitness.

Maybe a man who turns 80 this month isn't up to the demands of being president?  Maybe in 2024, we could support someone who was in their sixties or fifties or forties?  Someone with a little energy left in them?


US Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder acknowledged during an official briefing yesterday that active-duty US military personnel are not only deployed inside of Ukraine, but are operating far away from the US embassy in Kiev.

The day before, an unnamed US Department of Defense official said at a background briefing that “U.S. personnel” had “resumed on-site inspections to assess weapon stocks” in Ukraine.

Reporting on this announcement, NBC News noted that “these inspectors in Ukraine appear to be some of the first members of the U.S. military to re-enter the Eastern European country since the start of the war, outside of military guards posted at the U.S. Embassy...”

During Tuesday’s on-camera briefing, Travis Tritten of military.com asked, “The military has personnel inside of Ukraine, who are doing weapons inspections now. I’m wondering what the rules of engagement for those personnel are if they are fired on by the Russians or they are targeted by the Russians.”

Ryder replied, “We do have small teams that are comprised of embassy personnel that are conducting some inspections of security assistance delivery at a variety of locations.”

“My understanding is that they would be well far away from any type of frontline actions, we are relying on the Ukrainians to do that, we are relying on other partners to do that…. They’re not going to be operating on the front lines.”

He continued, “We’ve been very clear there are no combat forces in Ukraine, no US forces conducting combat operations in Ukraine, these are personnel that are assigned to conduct security cooperation and assistance as part of the defense attaché office.”

To this, Tritten replied, “But this would be different because they would be working outside the embassy. I would just ask if people should read this as an escalation.”

Ryder claimed that the US action was not escalatory, and simply refused to answer Tritten’s question about what the US would do if any active-duty US troops were killed.  


Turning to Iraq, GULF NEWS reports a woman was set on fire:

A heated argument followed when the woman said that she was not good at it [cleaning fish] and her husband interjected and sided with his mother. In a fit of rage, the mother-in-law and her husband poured gasoline on her and set her on fire.

The horrific crime sparked outrage on Iraqi social media, with most of them calling on authorities to take strict action against the culprits. Following the incident, the victim’s husband was arrested, but his mother is still at large.

According to figures from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior for 2021, which were cited by “Sky News,” there were 873 reported incidences of domestic violence, with 786 of them involving abuse against women and 87 involving violence against children.


In other news, AL MANAR notes:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani sacked a number of senior officials appointed by his predecessor, a few days after a vote of confidence in his cabinet.

Al-Sudani’s cabinet was approved by lawmakers on Thursday, after a year of political stalemate.

Sudani, citing the government’s “interim” status, reversed many appointments made by former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi during the October 2021 elections during a cabinet meeting.

“According to the Supreme Court, an interim government does not have the right” to make such senior appointments, Al-Sudani said in his first press conference as Prime Minister.

He also promised to combat widespread corruption, describing it as “a tremendous threat to the Iraqi state, more dangerous than all other threats that have weighed on Iraq.”


In the US and around the world, you can see the comedy classic BROS -- in the US it is now on streaming platforms.













The following sites updated:






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The homophobia thriving in this country

I always loved Joni Mitchell's "Coyote."

 

 

As Mike noted last night, Glen  Hansard nailed that song.


Now this is QUEER NEWS TONIGHT explaining that South Carolina is already announcing that they will ban marriage equality if given the chance.


"BROS: An American Film Classic (Ava and C.I.)" (THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):

 

Our response that Monday was anger.  We were appalled by the box office -- and we knew it was going to be low.  But we were appalled because, over and over, the LGBTQ+ community was there throughout 2022 -- lifting others up and sharing the stage.  That included on that awful NETFLIX special we called out, the supposed PRIDE special, which let Sandra Bernhard take the stage to address . . . abortion.   When ROE was killed by Clary Thomas and others on the illegitimate court, the LGBTQ+ community could have been silent.


Outside of rape, it's not really a pressing issue for that community.  If a lesbian is pregnant, outside of rape, it's pretty much because she wants to be, for example. 


But they didn't take a pass.  As a community, they came out strong and loud about the death of ROE.


And where's the straight community been all year long?


Jonathan Turley?  Our legal expert?  He's said that LGBTQ+s have nothing to fear from this court and that despite Clarry Thomas noting in his concurring opinion in DOBBS that the same right to privacy the Court denies exists for ROE also does not exist for marriage equality or, for that matter, anal sex.  


Jonathan wants you to know that the Court will never, ever, go after these two issues.  This is the same Turley who wanted you to know that the Court would not overturn Roe in 2022.  So, forgive us, we're not really believing Jonathan Turley these days.


YOUTUBE has a host of programs.  REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT, THE KATIE HALPER SHOW, LEFT LENS, RISING, BREAKING POINTS, HARD LENS MEDIA, JACKIE AND HIS TINY HINKLE, THE JIMMY DORE SHOW, THE CONVO COUCH, MINT PRESS NEWS,  and many, many more.

 

Help us out -- which one of them has done a program -- a full segment -- on how DOBBS could threaten the LGBTQ+ community?


Answer: None of them.


Gay activists and gay celebrities did not go silent about reproductive rights after DOBBS was issued.  but we can't say the same for the straight community, can we?


And it was apparently too much for our community to get it off its lazy ass and go to the movies and see BROS. It was just too much for us.  Buying a ticket and all. 

 

Ava and C.I. are exactly right.  On top of that aspect, it is equally true that BROS is an amazing film.  Where was the support from those of us who are straight.

 

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, November 1, 2022.  Old man Joe Biden doesn't worry about the future as evidenced by his ignoring the rates of COVID and his plans to win a nuclear war, meanwhile Iraq continues to see street violence and corporate violence.


At COMMON DREAMS, Jake Johnson notes:

Just weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia's assault on Ukraine has dramatically raised the risk of "Armageddon," his administration on Thursday released a Nuclear Posture Review that nonproliferation advocates say does nothing to pull the world back from the brink of global catastrophe.

While the formal statement of U.S. nuclear strategy pays lip service to the need to limit the spread and prevent the use of atomic weaponry and cancels an egregious Trump-era missile program, the document makes clear that the country will move ahead with dangerous and costly modernization plans—and leaves intact the option of a nuclear first strike.

"Allies must be confident that the United States is willing and able to deter the range of strategic threats they face, and mitigate the risks they will assume in a crisis or conflict," the document states. "Modernizing U.S. nuclear forces is key to assuring allies that the United States is committed and capable of deterring the range of threats U.S. nuclear strategy addresses."

The leading threats, according to the posture review, are Russia and China, which the Pentagon document characterizes as "major and growing" nuclear dangers to the U.S. and its allies.

The review makes clear that U.S. officials considered and rejected "no first use" and "sole purpose" policies that would bar the U.S. from launching a preemptive nuclear strike or using an atomic weapon in response to a non-nuclear attack. The document claims such policies "would result in an unacceptable level of risk."

That position conflicts with Biden's statement during the 2020 presidential campaign that "the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring—and, if necessary, retaliating against—a nuclear attack."

Stephen Young, senior Washington representative at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Biden administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is "a terrifying document" that "not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk."

"Citing rising threats from Russia and China," Young noted, "it argues that the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios."

"Yes, the world is becoming a more dangerous place, but the only military threat to the survival of the United States is a nuclear war with Russia or China," he continued. "Rather than recognizing that threat and seeking to find ways to end it, the Biden NPR doubles down on nuclear deterrence and the status quo approach to security that says we all must be prepared to die in less than an hour."


A crazy old man with a foot in the grave got put in charge of the country and now we're all at risk.  Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) reports:


An Australian television program yesterday revealed advanced plans for the US to station B-52 bombers in northern Australia. The deployment of the nuclear-capable bombers, which are crucial to US strike capabilities, marks a significant escalation of the militarisation of Australia, the Indo-Pacific region and the world.

The target is clear. The representatives of pro-war think tanks who spoke on last night’s episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Four Corners” program, and those who have commented in the press since, have openly stated that the bombers are being dispatched to prepare for a war with China that would threaten a global nuclear catastrophe.

In other words, even as the US and its allies are continuously escalating their war with Russia over Ukraine, they are transforming the entire Indo-Pacific into a powder keg that could erupt at any point.

For the strategists of American imperialism, the war that is already underway against Russia is the necessary prelude to war against China, the chief threat to US global dominance. This was spelled out in the latest US National Security Strategy, released last month, which proclaimed a “decisive decade” of “geopolitical conflict between the major powers.” China, it stated, was “the only competitor with both the intent and, increasingly, the capability to reshape the international order,” something the US would combat with everything at its disposal.

The stationing of the bombers points to the disastrous implications of this program, driven by the long-term decline of American imperialism and the deepening crisis of the entire global capitalist system.

“Four Corners” revealed that the US is preparing to build a “squadron operations facility” at the Tindal air force base in northern Australia. It will include a vast hangar and logistical facilities that can equip six B-52 bombers, which will be rotated out of the facility, likely being based there during the tropical dry season. The US will construct jet fuel tanks at Tindal and an ammunition base. An Australian “upgrade” of the facility is expanding its runways and other capabilities.


Kenny Stancil (COMMON DREAMS) notes:


The Pentagon's plan represents the latest U.S. act of hostility toward China.

Relations between the two countries have only worsened since August, when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress visited Taiwan (the Republic of China, or ROC) despite opposition from Beijing, which—along with most of the international community, including Washington since the 1970s—considers the breakaway province to be part of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

In a departure from more than four decades of "One China" policy—in which the U.S. recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China and maintains informal relations with the ROC while adopting a position of "strategic ambiguity" to obscure how far it would go to protect Taiwan—U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly threatened to use military force in response to a Chinese invasion of the island.

Although Biden warned earlier this month that Russia's assault on Ukraine has brought the world closer to "Armagedeon" than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis, his move to station B-52 bombers in Australia further increases the global risk of nuclear war.

News of the impending deployment comes just days after the Biden administration released a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that nonproliferation advocates said makes catastrophe more, rather than less, likely.


And if Joe Biden doesn't kill us all with a bomb, he just may kill us with COVID.  Benjamin Mateus (WSWS) reports:


Over the past month, the United States has seen a steady rise in the prevalence of the dangerous new immune-evading Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, threatening yet another surge of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks, and potentially millions more cases of Long COVID.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the highly immune-evasive BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 subvariants increased in prevalence from 11 percent to more than 27 percent in just two weeks, or a doubling time of 10 days. By mid-November, these two subvariants will likely be dominant across the country.

The anticipated COVID-19 surge will take place amid a flood of pediatric hospitalizations across the country for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and an unusually harsh beginning to the influenza season. The simultaneous surge of these three respiratory airborne pathogens will severely impact health care systems during the winter months, under conditions in which the industry is already on the verge of collapse three years into the COVID-19 pandemic.

While so far the crisis in children’s hospitals has been most acute, the elderly are particularly predisposed to complications with RSV and flu due to declines in their immunity. Among those 65 years and older, RSV leads to 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths annually.

The typical flu season causes upwards of 16,000 deaths among adults. However, a severe flu season can be far worse. In 2017-18, the US experienced 41 million flu-related illnesses, 19 million flu-related medical visits, 710,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 52,000 deaths. Data from the CDC for the first four weeks of October shows that outpatient medical visits for flu-like symptoms are two to three times higher than the five-year average baseline.

The exact magnitude of the next surge of COVID-19 is impossible to predict, but a number of recent studies indicate that it could potentially be the third catastrophic winter of the pandemic.


And if that happens, how forgiving do you think the country's going to be to Joe Biden who announced COVID was over in September?   It's been a long trail of broken promises from Joe Biden, as Sophie Squire notes at the UK's SOCIALIST WORKER:


Inflation is at a 40-year high, with the price of housing, food and healthcare all rising sharply. Republicans blamed the rising prices on increased state spending and the ­government’s reliance on ­importing fossil fuels from overseas. Of course they don’t object to the military budget of over £700 billion or the money funnelled to war in Ukraine.

But in a poll conducted by NBC News in September, voters favoured the Republicans by 20 points when it came to the economy. With the Democrats ­lagging behind when it comes to the economy, they hope that making promises about abortion rights can win them votes. 

Facing the prospect of defeat, Biden has ­promised that the first piece of ­legislation he will sign if the Democrats increase their seats in Congress is a federal law codifying the provisions of Roe v Wade. He launched the policy ­surrounded by young people and the words “Restore Roe”. But it’s an illusion, ­seizing on a crucial issue and ­directing people’s anger about the attack on abortion rights and directing it into the dead end of the Democrats.

Biden could already have passed such a law if he had been ready to sweep away the filibuster rule that allows a minority to block legislation. But he has not been ­prepared for the upheaval that would involve. And the Democrats will still face a filibuster after the elections, unless all the polls are hugely wrong.

Centring the defence of abortion rights on voting for the Democrats guts the ­campaign on the streets. It takes away from the guerrilla actions to defy the law and defend women. The Women’s March called for a “Summer of Rage” after Roe v Wade was cancelled by the Supreme Court. But there was not a single national action called by the Women’s March. The Women’s March did call for a weekend of action in early October, but only to link action to voting for the Democrats.

The president’s time in power is now littered with broken promises. He has failed to reduce, let alone abolish, the US’s vast nuclear arsenals and has presided over a massive increase in military spending. He has left in place most of  Trump’s brutal immigration policies. 

The biggest assault on abortion rights happened under his watch. He promised trillions would be funnelled into ­infrastructure projects and to fighting climate change. But the money he promised was cut in half. All these retreats opened the door to the Republicans and will strengthen far right forces. 

To defend and improve living standards and abortion rights requires strikes and movements on the streets, not tailing the Democrats. 

     © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.   


Before becoming president, Joe Biden spent years destroying Iraq.  Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reports this morning, "During October, at least 105 people were killed, and 239 were wounded. The number of dead fell significantly from last month. In September, 179 people were killed and 294 people were wounded."  And those are the deaths from violence -- or from some violence.  Those aren't the deaths resulting from the violence of Big Business.  MEDIA LENS notes:


To its credit, in several news reports, and in an hour-long film, ‘Under Poisoned Skies’, the BBC provided news from Iraq that will have shocked many readers and viewers (in truth, it is a shock to read any UK media news on life in Iraq):

‘Communities living close to oil fields, where gas is openly burned, are at elevated risk of leukaemia, a BBC News Arabic investigation has revealed.’

By BBC standards, the report was absolutely damning:

‘The UN told the BBC it considers these areas, in Iraq, to be “modern sacrifice zones” – where profit has been prioritised over human rights.

‘Gas flaring is the “wasteful” burning of gas released in oil drilling, which produces cancer-linked pollutants.’

Some of the worst ‘modern sacrifice zones’ are found on the outskirts of Basra, in the south-east of Iraq, ‘some of the country’s biggest oil exploration areas’. Flared gases from these sites are dangerous because they emit a mix of carbon dioxide, methane and black soot which is carcinogenic.

If this sounds bad, it gets worse when we consider just who has been subordinating Iraqi human welfare to profit in this way:

‘BP and Eni are major oil companies we identified as working on these sites.’

Eni is an Italian multinational energy company. BP, of course, is one of the world’s oil and gas ‘supermajors’, and is British.

In other words, these BBC reports highlighted the rarely discussed fact that a British oil giant is deeply involved in a country that was illegally invaded in 2003, at the cost of one million Iraqi lives, on a pack of bogus claims relating to ‘national security’ and ‘human rights’. The 2003 war was, of course, waged by a coalition led by the United States and Britain. Italy was part of the coalition.

Not only did this US-UK war crime secure substantial quantities of Iraq’s oil for US and UK corporations, but BP has now been accused of creating environmental mayhem in Iraq. The BBC reported:

‘A leaked Iraq Health Ministry report, seen by BBC Arabic, blames air pollution for a 20% rise in cancer in Basra between 2015 and 2018.

‘As part of this investigation, the BBC undertook the first pollution monitoring testing amongst the exposed communities. The results indicated high levels of exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.

‘Using satellite data we found that the largest of Basra’s oil fields, Rumaila, flares more gas than any other site in the world. The Iraqi government owns this field, and BP is the lead contractor.

‘On the field is a town called North Rumaila – which locals call “the cemetery”. Teenagers coined the phrase after they observed high levels of leukaemia amongst their friends, which they suspect is from the flaring.

‘Prof Shukri Al Hassan, a local environmental scientist, told us that cancer here is so rife it is “like the flu”.’

This was a truly shocking comment; no wonder the BBC initially used it as the headline for its report:

‘BP in oil field where “cancer is like the flu”’

The News Sniffer website, which tracks edits made to media articles, found that this headline only lasted a few hours before being toned down to:

‘BP in oil field where “cancer is rife”’

Remarkably, the less dramatic headline and citation was actually fake. The relevant part of the text reads:

‘Prof Shukri Al Hassan, a local environmental scientist, told us that cancer here is so rife it is “like the flu”.’

Professor Al Hassan was not quoted as using the word ‘rife’, nor was anyone else quoted in the article. The edited headline was simply made up.


Reminder, BROS is now available in the US on streaming -- rental and purchase.







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