Like Maria Said Paz

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

THE CONVO COUCH, Ava and C.I., Jonathan Turley

First up, here's THE CONVO COUCH talking about the riot that was never an insurrection.

That's an important video. Fiorella has been upfront and honest in her reporting on January 6th from the start and, unlike many, she was there on the ground.

Now for Afghanistan. Sick of the high drama and over the top performance of the cable 'news' set? Me too. Ava and C.I. take that on.

"TV: Corporate media's motives are simple" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):

To watch Andrea right now, for example, is to see her appear to be obsessed with Afghanistan but if you step back a moment and think -- something the chattering bobble heads never want you to do -- you'll realize just how much Andrea has ignored Afghanistan in 2021 and in 2020. Hell, you might even remember that once upon a time, instead of desk jockeys, MSNBC had an actual reporter, Ashleigh Banfield, who actually went to Afghanistan and other locations to report from them both on A REGION IN CONFLICT and in ASHLEIGH BANFELD ON LOCATION.

Now we're not saying that Alan Greenspan pulled a Lee Majors and insisted it be put into Andrea's contract that she be home at a certain time to cook him dinner, but we will note that she hasn't done actual reporting in years and she failed at reporting when she attempted it.

But she is outraged now. Outraged.

Damn that Joe Biden!!!!!

We believe Tara Reade so you might expect us to join the cry of "Damn that Joe Biden!"

But we're not joining the mob.

That mob is not working in the interest of the people. They are trying to alarm you and scare you.

We may be cold, but we are rational.

Joe is being rational and grasping that there's no 'win' in Afghanistan. 20 years later, there's no win to be won.

If the chattering bobble heads were rational -- and honest -- they'd show the horrors they're showing and explain that's what happens when the US leaves as an occupying force. (Please note, Joe does not plan to end the war, that's a whole other issue, but they're attacking him for the way he's pulled some troops out.) They'd be honest and explain that as messy as this is, it's been messy in Afghanistan for some time and you can talk to the Afghans that have lived under the corrupt system for years and you can talk to them about the drone attacks -- US drone attacks -- that killed people at such 'terrorist' events as weddings. It's long been messy and it's long been ugly.

But the drama the bobble heads are creating goes to one point: Don't leave Iraq.

They want the US occupation of Iraq to continue. Why? Because that's what their masters, the corporations who pay their checks, want. WAR IS A RACKET, Smedley Butler wrote about that decades ago (1935) and nothing has changed. The US is empire, like the Ottoman empire before it or the British empire or . . .

Afghanistan? Has natural resources but the corporations and US government know that they can work with the Taliban. They did so, after all, before 2001. Gore Vidal may be dead but his observations live on in his writing. Sadly, Hillary Clinton lives on. She does love to lie. She showed up on CNN to insist that what Joe was doing might put the Taliban in control!

Oh, Hillary, you need so much more than a podcast. You are an excellent liar to the American people so you really should be in the media. We know your daughter failed spectacularly. But you have a real gift for lying gab and you'd be the perfect new host of an MSNBC program, possibly one entitled TO HIDE A PEDOPHILE or TO HIDE A RAPIST.

When was the Taliban not in charge? Outside of Kabul, it's controlled the country for some time. Hillary leaves that out because it undermined her screeching. We're sure Hillary's heard of the Council on Foreign Relations. They say, that in July 2021, the Taliban controlled 54% of Afghanistan. (And, of course, the US signed a peace treaty with the Taliban in 2020.) So before Joe's actions this month, the Taliban already controlled half the country. To be the red headed girl on KIDS IN THE HALL, it's a fact.

And it's one that the high drama really doesn't convey.

Now here's Jonathan Turley:

We have been following a slew of defamation lawsuits by political figures over the last few years. (See, e.g., here and here and here and here and here and here and here). As a torts professor, it has been a bonanza for my students to see different issues raised in such cases involving public officials and public figures. The latest such case is between two well-known Republican women and commentators: Kimberly Klacik and Candace Owens. Former Republican congressional candidate Klacik is suing commentator Candace Owens for defamation in alleging that she has committed criminal acts, money laundering used drugs, and workers at a strip club. Klacik is seeking $20 million in damages. The filings raise some interesting questions for tort actions between two public figures.

Klacik became a national figure when she ran to finish the term of the late Baltimore-area Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October 2019. She also spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. She lost the special election to Kweisi Mfume in April 2020, who garnered nearly 72% of the vote.

The focus of the Complaint is a June 22, 2021 publication of a forty-four-minute video from Owens’ Instagram account. On the video, Owens states that she carried out an investigation with unidentified sources who alleged that Klacik “used campaign money to do cocaine” and that she may have worked as a “madame” at a strip club. She stated that Klacik may have laundered money and committed other potentially criminal acts. The entire transcript is attached as an exhibit to the Complaint below.

However, Owens expressly noted that she was relying on third party accounts and that she “had no proof” and “cannot possibly verify” or confirm the Criminal Allegations. In a response to a letter from Klacik’s counsel, counsel for Owens also declared that “nothing [Owens] said in [her] video constitute{d] defamation of character,” “fall facts [she] made are backed by truth,” and that Owens had “EVERY right under the law to inquire about campaign finances.” That exhibit is also attached to the Complaint.

What do you think's going to happen? I wouldn't be surprised if Klacik drops her case. If she pursues it, though, what do you think will happen?

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, August 24, 2021. So many 'helpers' so eager to 'help' but with so little damn knowledge.

Let's start with two videos worth streaming.

Two videos to reflect on.

Diving in . . .

Peter Baker. He was a reporter once. Was. Life at THE NEW YORK TIMES has been one long embarrassment for him. Who would have thought he could bottom himself? Somehow he's found a way to sink even lower? He Tweeted this garbage:

The Taliban takeover is the biggest boost to Al Qaeda since 9/11 and a global game changer for jihadism generally,

@Rita_Katz

of@siteintelgroup tells

@wrightr

. There is “universal recognition” that Al Qaeda can now “reinvest” in Afghanistan as a haven.

The Taliban being a big boost to al Qaeda? ("Al Qaeda"? Guess he just loves to flaunt ignorance of other languages.) That's laughable and a conflation but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the old whore Rita Katz.

Did his editors sign off on that promotion?

We don't note Rita who lied to the press years ago, gave a fake name, pretended to be someone else, etc.

Along with that issue, there's also the issue that Rita feeds into Islamaphobia.

It's disappointing, very disappointing. But Peter's used to disappointing. After all, he's woken up next to Susan Glasser for over two decades now -- Susan Glasser, the only one who, by contrast, could make Senator Amy Klobuchar look gamine.

Speaking of marriages, he wanted to be president and, anticipating an easy path to the 2020 nomination, he married to cover what was a non-existent sex drive. Having failed to get the 2020 presidential nomination so spectacularly that he should never try again, will he divorce her? Guess who, don't sue. (Yes, he is jabbering away in the news lately.)

Let's move over to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED where Mary Louise Kelly struggled with journalism yesterday. Context. Disclosure. Two key fundamentals of journalism. Her guest? Bilal Wahab of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. She failed to provide context or disclosures for either her guest or his organization. When you're a Middle East 'think tank,' your audience needs to know what that means. So, for example, you could say, "Whose work has been brought to you by the generosity of AIPAC." That would be one way.

We told you forever ago that Iraq was the prize and that the great fear was that the realities in Kabul would make a US withdrawal in Iraq more likely. (The realities? 20 years down the drain -- no progress, progress can't be imposed. Nor can an authoritarian system -- the US military -- bring about democracy.) So you'd see a lot of lying.

Bilal was first out of the gate with an article entitled "After Afghanistan, Iraqis Fear They Could Be Next" and we'll assume that ALL THINGS CONSIDERED is familiar with that report from last week since they used the same title for yesterday's segment.

It's cute the way Bilal claimed briefly to have spoken to Iraqis in the interview since he failed to do so last week in his long article. But he insisted he had, faceless, unknown people:

That is the perception, and that is the fear of many of the Iraqi leaders and family members and journalists and civil society activists that I spoke to.

Someone forgot to program Mary Louise yesterday which is why she didn't immediately ask the obvious to everyone follow up: If this is the fear of many, as you put it, how do you account for the fact that the majority of Iraqis want US troops out of their country and that this has been a consistent opinion for years and years?

No, Mary Louise didn't want to do journalism. She's tired, you understand. She gets paid a lot of money, yes. But it was a Monday. And she was having a bad hair day and her eyes looked puffy and she just wanted to get home, kick off her shoes and curl up with her cat.

People don't understand, Mary Louise feels, just how hard her life is and they really can't understand how hard her life is, especially now that the CATHY comic strip has been discontinued. For years and years, that comic strip provided people with a semblance of insight into the life of Mary Louise Kelly.

Insight into Cyrus S? I'm not traipsing through that soggy mind, you have at it if you want. But Cyrus seems determined to prove -- as he advocates for the destruction of Iran -- that he doesn't understand much at all:

The #Taliban is already committing #genocide in the areas they captured in #Andarab #panjshir, slaughtering women and children that were trapped It's a repeat of what #ISIS did to the #Kurds and #Shia that resisted in #Iraq

Is that what ISIS did?

Goodness, speak to Iraqi Christians and the Yazidis and others and you'd get a different picture. Maybe next time Cyrus wants to draw analogies, he'll do so with something that he truly understands?

In the meantime, could someone advise him that ISIS also attacked Sunnis? If he needs remedial help -- and he clearly does -- refer him to this 2014 report from Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN):

The bodies of more than 150 men killed by Islamic state (Isis) militants were recovered from a ditch in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday in the latest of a series of mass executions of tribal figures who oppose the group.

Iraqi officials said the men had been captured in the town of Heet, west of Ramadi, over the last week. All were members of the Sunni Albu Nimr tribe, which had faced off against Isis and had played a prominent role in fighting al-Qaida and its offshoots in Anbar province since 2007.

At least 60 more tribal members were killed in Heet earlier this week, in an execution videotaped and uploaded to the internet by the executioners.

Mass killings have become synonymous with the jihadists’ rampage through western Iraq and eastern Syria, in which large numbers of captured soldiers and civilians on both sides of the border have been murdered and their bodies gruesomely displayed.

Over at THE SPECTATOR, Andrew Bacevich offers:

Like the Vietnam war, the Afghanistan war stands as a judgment of the American national security elite and of the military profession. The essence of that judgment is this: given an accommodating adversary — Iraq’s Saddam Hussein is a perfect example — the armed forces of the United States are capable of delivering an impressive performance. If the punching bag stands still, we can deliver a helluva wallop.

But against an adversary that refuses to cooperate, that demonstrates even a modicum of resilience, US forces fare less well. As wars drag on, US military effectiveness diminishes, duration exposing our inability to adjust — put simply, to learn.

An enemy that refuses to fight on our terms baffles us. Yes, the bombs continue to fall and the barrels of shit keep burning, but to little avail. Our side appears to adapt but actually stands still. Eventually, advantage accrues to the enemy.

At that point, defeat is just a matter of time. This is what happened in Vietnam and what is happening again in Afghanistan today. But don’t expect the leaders of the Big Green Machine to learn any more from this failure than they did from the one we suffered a half-century ago.

Hey, Mary Louise, is there a reason ALL THINGS CONSIDERED didn't invite Bacevich on? A colonel in the US Army, a historian, so much experience. What was the one thing he was lacking? Oh, right, didn't receive funds from AIPAC. Gotcha.

Over at COUNTERPUNCH, Patty Cock Burn is pissing his panties again. What will happen to Afghanistan???? What have "the US and its western allies" done????? Oh, Patty panty pad, what can we say, except hold your own accountable and get back to the UK pronto. We don't need any more of your trashy family in this country. Not a one. Go back to the UK and start writing about what the UK did regarding Afghanistan. You're truly pathetic.

Let's wind down with this from RUDAW:

A nasty smell is spreading through eastern Kirkuk and residents are worried about the effect on their health from nearby industries, including oil facilities.

“We don’t smell the nasty scent all the time, but sometimes we do. It smells like burnt crude. Our air conditioners pull the smell into our houses. We breathe it in while we sleep,” said Mohammed Najjar who lives in Kirkuk’s Panja Ali neighbourhood.

An oil refinery is located less than a kilometer away.

“Just try to stay here for one night, especially in the summertime. We don’t even dare to turn on our air conditioners, despite the nuisance of mosquitoes,” said Mohammed Hadi, a neighbor.

The environment directorate in the oil-rich province said they have carried out inspections and industries in the area are meeting regulations.

“We checked the area. According to our rules and regulations, however, the existence of the factories in the area is allowed,” said Mohammed Fatih, head of the Kirkuk environment department.

But the pollution has doctors worried.

“We live in an oil-rich city. The gasses that exist in the air of our city carry most of the heavy [pollutants], resulting in breathing problems and poisoning and asthma, as well as blood and lung cancers,” said microbiologist Dr Pakiza Fuad.

The following sites updated:

Monday, August 23, 2021

The crooked Marc Elias

From Jonathan Turley:

We previously discussed the controversial career of Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins Coie, who featured prominently in the alleged concealment of the Clinton campaign’s funding of the Steele Dossier. Elias later gathered donors in challenging elections for Democratic candidates and fighting voting reform bills, including some controversial comments. Now the role of Elias and Perkins Coie could be raised in the investigation (and expected report) of Special Counsel John Durham. However, he and the firm have finally separated. Elias is now opening a legal group that purportedly will focus on, among other areas, ethics and campaign disclosures. That irony may not be lost on Durham who is looking into the origins of the Russian investigation, including not just the dossier but another controversy linked to Perkins Coie. Durham is reportedly investigating whether individuals or groups knowingly created or passed along false information or tips to the FBI to start the Russian investigation.

I previously described news accounts linking the firm and Elias to the dossier scandal:

Throughout the campaign, the Clinton campaign denied any involvement in the creation of the so-called Steele dossier’s allegations of Trump-Russia connections. However, weeks after the election, journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the dossier made to a research firm, Fusion GPS, as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to the campaign’s law firm. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Clinton lawyer Marc Elias, with the law firm of Perkins Coie, denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

It was not just reporters who asked the Clinton campaign about its role in the Steele dossier. John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was questioned by Congress and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.

The Washington Post also reported that “Elias drew from funds that both the Clinton campaign and the DNC were paying Perkins Coie.”

Maggie Haberman, who called out the Clinton campaign for lying about the funding, was one of those who revealed the departure of Elias from Perkins Coie.

Marc Elias should be questioned, journalists should be investigating him, he perpetrated a fraud on the American people and his actions resulted in time wasted by the FBI and the Congress. I do not plan to vote for any candidate who uses him. To me, using Elias says you have no ethics. I'm not voting for any politician who's admitting that they have no ethics while they're running for office.

"TV? What if . . . the possibilities are . . . limited" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):

Every TV show you could think of is much better than the first episode of WHAT IF?

So what if Peggy Carter became the first Avenger?

Oh, wake us up when the woke era is gone-gone. Honestly, this is an example of all that is wrong with some of the current whining -- yes, whining.

So what if Peggy, and not Steve Rogers, had the serum and became Captain America?

They have no context, they have no understanding, they just have woke on their side.

In the world of TV and movies, women are woefully underrepresented as heroes. When they are part of the film or TV show, they're rarely part of the action. THE GALAXY OF THE GUARDIANS did damn little for the women in the two live action films -- in fact 'stews' flight attendants) did more action on TV and in film in the 70s. THE AVENGERS film franchise did put Black Widow in the action (as did the Captain America films) and it even turned the women of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY into superheroes. But far too often, we're left with women in roles of weakness (the same Avengers franchise refused to ever truly acknowledge Scarlet Witch's power, by the way) or women doing nothing.

So we do get the woke sentiment. It's an anger we share.

But you don't make Peggy Carter Captain America. In fact, you can't. Which is why she's CAPTAIN UK or some sort of nonsense.

Captain America was a comic book character created for propaganda purposes -- that's in the comic and in the real world. The US is still at war but today appears to be beyond comic book characters who can rally support and enthusiasm. (We could be wrong, we hope we aren't.) But Steve Rogers inspired within the comic world. He rallied other soldiers just by being Captain America. Peggy, a British citizen, can't rally American troops the way Steve could based on his citizenship.

So the whole exercise is pointless. And the audience is left bored and detached. That's woke writing for you. There are Americans that they could have used. For example, we've always been huge fans of Hellcat. And we're thrilled anytime she pops up (not very often). But What If Patsy had been the First Avenger? That would have been a better story. Because, honestly, without an American to rally US forces, what do we have? The way the 'history' has been told in the US, you have Nazis in control. Weak Steve Rogers fighting with just heart and soul was every G.I. It's something that Peggy can't pull off.

We're supposed to cheer Peggy on, after she has super powers, when she says to this man that he's lucky to even be in the room. He's said that to her repeatedly before she had the serum.

That's 'woke' writing for you too.

Good writing would be a scene where Peggy saves the sexist and he either immediately realizes (because of action) that he was wrong or she just smirks at him because he'll never learn.

That's Ava and C.I.'s latest. They wrote a new piece Sunday and I think they're posting it tonight.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, August 23, 2021. More problems emerge in Iraq and, try not to notice, all are connected to the Turkish government's actions.

Today, the Norwegian Refugee Council issued the folowing:

More than 12 million people in Syria and Iraq are losing access to water, food and electricity and urgent action is needed to combat a severe water crisis, 13 aid groups working in the region warn today.

Across the region, rising temperatures, record low levels of rainfall, and drought are depriving people of drinking and agricultural water. It is also disrupting electricity as dams run out of water, which in turn impacts the operations of essential infrastructure including health facilities. Higher temperatures caused by climate change increase the risks and severity of droughts.

More than five million people in Syria directly depend on the river. In Iraq, the loss of access to water from the river, and drought, threaten at least seven million people. Some 400 square kilometres of agricultural land risk total drought. Two dams in northern Syria, serving three million people with electricity, face imminent closure. Communities in Hasakah, Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir ez Zour, including displaced people in camps, have witnessed a rise in outbreaks of water borne-diseases such as diarrhoea, since the reduction in water.

In Iraq, large swathes of farmland, fisheries, power production and drinking water sources have been depleted of water. In the Ninewa governorate, wheat production is expected to go down by 70 per cent because of the drought, while in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq production is expected to decrease by half. Some families in Anbar who have no access to river water are spending up to USD80 a month on water.

“The total collapse of water and food production for millions of Syrians and Iraqis is imminent,” said Carsten Hansen, Regional Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “With hundreds of thousands of Iraqis still displaced and many more still fleeing for their lives in Syria, the unfolding water crisis will soon become an unprecedented catastrophe pushing more into displacement.”

CARE’s Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa, Nirvana Shawky, said: “The situation demands that authorities in the region and donor governments act swiftly to save lives in this latest crisis, that comes on top of conflict, COVID-19 and severe economic decline. In the longer term, beyond emergency food and water, they need to invest in sustainable solutions to the water crisis.”

The Danish Refugee Council’s Middle East Regional Director Gerry Garvey said: “This water crisis is bound to get worse. It is likely to increase conflict in an already destabilized region. There is no time to waste. We must find sustainable solutions that would guarantee water and food today and for future generations.”

In Al Sebat, 30 km away from Hasakah, residents have seen scores of villagers leaving to other areas, forced out by the drought.

“This year we have witnessed a wave of intense drought and as a result our lands did not produce any crops and we don’t have any sources of drinkable water either for us or for our animals,” said Abdallah, a tribal leader from Al Sebat. “It is infuriating to think that the current conditions will force us to leave the rural areas and that our lands will be left as ruins.”

Many farmers have spent their savings and gone into debt to keep their animals alive.

“Because of the drought I was unable to harvest any wheat,” said Hamid Ali from Baaj, one of the worst affected districts in Ninewa, Iraq. “Now I am overwhelmed with debt.”

Other aid groups joining today’s warning and call for emergency and flexible funding are: ACTED, Action Against Hunger, Mercy Corps, People in Need, Première Urgence Internationale, War Child, Help, Women Rehabilitation Organisation, VIYAN Organization, Al Rakeezeh Foundation for Relief and Development.

Notes for editors:

Photos and B-roll can be downloaded for free use and distribution.
Syria is currently facing the worst drought in seventy years while Iraq is facing the second driest season in 40 years due to record low rainfall according to the UN.
In Turkey, major cities have suffered severe water shortages as the country’s largest reservoirs quickly became depleted at the end of last year.

The 'success' that is Iraq -- according to War Criminal Paul L. Bremer.

Post-government life as a ski bum apparently didn't work out for Paul so he returned with a column for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL that was filled with lies -- see "A War Criminal Returns."

The media's in a panic that the American people might catch on to reality so they're working overtime to hold on to US control of Iraq. They're in panic mode as they cringe and gasp and cry about what's going on in Afghanistan -- refusing to tell you that this was always the way US military in Afghanistan was going to end.

Fearful Americans might catch on to reality, Paul shows up to insist that Iraq is a success. And to prove that THE WALL STREET JOURNAL has no fact checkers and will print any garbage submitted to them.

On the water issue, Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:

An Iraqi delegation will visit Turkey early next month as water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have decreased by more than 50 percent, spokesperson for Iraq’s water ministry told state media on Sunday.

“This year is a water scarce one and there is a clear decrease in water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, to a point that their water levels have dropped by more than 50 percent. That is in addition to a major drop in the water levels at Dukan, Darbandikhan, Sirwan, and Diyala dams,” spokesperson Ali Radhi told state media.

The Tigris and Euphrates both have their sources in Turkey and pass through Syria before joining together in Iraq and spilling into the Persian Gulf. They are important water resources for all three nations.

“Many meetings have been held with the Turkish and Syrian sides on the water issue, and there is an expected visit of an Iraqi delegation to Turkey at the beginning of next month in order to continue talks on Iraq’s share of water and the situation of the Tigris and Euphrates,” said Radhi.

He said Iraq is also preparing for a tripartite meeting with Turkey and Syria to discuss “the issue of sharing damage in the water scarcity period, completing the discussion on the joint protocol between Iraq and Turkey, and establishing a research team in Iraq” to study the issue.

Staying with that wonderful Turkish government, they're still killing civilians. Yesterday, AFP reported, "Two civilians were killed on Sunday in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region by a Turkish army bombardment as forces battled the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels, local officials said." Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) notes, "A reported seven other civilians have been killed, several injured, and 20 villages emptied this year. " Kamaran Osman Tweets:

Two Iraqi civilians, Ahmed Shakir and Yousif Aamir, have been killed in a Turkish bombardment in Iraqi Kurdistan. 
After two days of bombing by Turkish military forces, the bodies of the two men from Mosul were found in the Batifa sub-district.

#TwitterKurds
#Turkey

1:09 PM · Aug 22, 2021

The crime 26-year-old Yousif Ammar and 40-year-old Ahmed Shukir carried out? Yousif Musa (RUDAW) explains that "they visited the village of Bankie."

Well then, off with their heads, as the Queen of Hearts would say in ALICE IN WONDERLAND, right?

This is a genocide and it should have been stopped long ago.

Musa also notes, "A parliamentary report issued last year concluded that at least 504 villages have been emptied across the Kurdistan Region since 1992, and hundreds of people have been killed. In Duhok alone, 366 villages have been abandoned since 1998."

Again, this is a genocide.

Last Tuesday, they bombed a clinic and killed civilians. RUDAW informs that War criminal Recep Tayyip Erdogan, despot of Turkey, insisted yesterday that they did not bomb a clinic. That's right and Erdogan's thugs didn't attack Americans on US soil either, right? Oh, wrong.

Recep lies about attacking the clinic because that attack met the legal definition of a War Crime. He knows that. And he thinks if he rejects the term, cowed journalists won't use it and will continue to act as though it was an 'oopsie!' and not an actual War Crime that he can be -- and should be -- prosecuted for.

The following sites updated:

Jeffrey St. Clair

Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH) weighs in on Afghanistan with the following:

+ The best thing Biden has done in his life is to pull the US out of Afghanistan. He did it in the sloppy way Biden does everything and that–when combined with the Pentagon’s usual incompetence (some of it, perhaps, even deliberate)–presents the images of chaos the neocons and their press lackeys are now histrionic about. But getting out of this 40-year entanglement, a progressive knotting into as Thomas Pynchon might say, was always going to be messy, bloody and slammed with recriminations from those who had a stake in the war going on forever.
+ It took three months, thousands of airstrikes, hundreds of special ops raids and thousands of civilian casualties for the US to drive the Taliban from power in the fall of 2001. Twenty years later, the Taliban retook control in less than two weeks with, so far at least, a minimum of bloodshed.
+ To hear the neocons yelp and moan, the Taliban entered Kabul like the Wehrmacht rolling into Paris, instead of a peasant army, whose weapons are basically found materials from 40 years of war. As austere and reactionary as the Taliban are, their roots among a war-weary populace must be much deeper than we’ve been led to believe. Indeed, they are likely viewed as the lesser-evil, when compared to the corrupt puppet regime the US has propped up for two decades through the use of torture, drone strikes and bribes.

Now let me note this.

That's Nanci Griffith's "You Made This Love A Tear Drop." Nanci passed away last weekend. Kat wrote about it in "."

I really loved her music. She was immensely talented and I'll never forget the excitement I felt when I first heard her music. She was a great songwriter and she had a one of a kind singing voice.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, August 20, 2021. CNN still struggles with the ethical issue of disclosures while Marianne Williamson believes the best person to speak on behalf of Afghan women is a US service member that invaded the country.

I thought CNN had enough ethical problems currently with the Chris Cuomo scandal but apparently they're attempting to court even more. An opinion piece arguing that the US troops must stay in Iraq was just published by the network and it includes this "editor's note:"

Maj. Gen. Sirwan Barzani is a commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. He is also the founder of Korek Telecom, a telecommunications company in that region. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

Is that who Sirwan Barzani is?

Because, to me, that's a bit like saying Jenna Bush Hager is the cousin of Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

It's truthful, yes. The two are cousins. But the most obvious way to identify Jenna is as the daughter of War Criminal Bully Boy Bush and the granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush.

Sirwan? His uncle is Massoud Barzani who is the former president of the Kurdistan Region and is the head KDP political party (the KRG's most powerful political party). Sirwan is the cousin of the current president of the KRG Nechirvan Barzani.

Why is CNN trying to fool people? And why are they doing it so poorly?

The two most powerful families in the Kurdistan Region are the Barzanis and the Talabanis. The Barzanis passed the Talabanis after the latter family tricked the country for over a year and a half -- pretending that Jalal Talabani was still fit to serve as president when, in fact, he couldn't speak and was not aware of his surroundings. So great was their thirst for power that they lied to the people to hold on to a political position. They harmed the Kurdistan Region, they harmed the Iraqi government. And the family still struggles to recover from that blow. That's the Talabanis, not the Barzanis.

I also find it cute that pro-war CNN is quick to hear from the Barzanis right now as they argue for US troops to remain in Iraq, but they didn't give a damn about him or an of the Kurds in September of 2017 when the non-binding referendum was held on Kurdistan independence. The referendum passed with approximately 95% of the vote. The Barzani family supported the referendum (it was smart to support it -- politically, it was smart -- so naturally the Talabani family were puppets for the West and opposed it.) But now CNN cares what a Barzani thinks? Now?

I like Marianne Williamson. I know her. She's a thoughtful and kind person. Doesn't mean I always agree with her. I do know she always means well. She's come under negative criticism this week for remarks about Afghanistan. I have no idea what she said (I'm sure we posted it here, we generally post Marianne's videos) and neither care enough nor have the time to go back and find out. But we were asked to post a new video on Afghanistan where she's speaking with someone.

We won't be posting that video.

Due to the criticism of her earlier remarks on Afghanistan, I did make a point to stream the latest video.

She praises a film. It's a film I opposed and did so publicly here. It's a cute little CIA fantasy film posing as a documentary. Marianne notes -- as a compliment of the film -- that it doesn't assign blame. I don't see that as something to compliment. Iraq is destroyed because of the US-led war. If you're not going to assign blame, why make a film. It's one of those propaganda pieces that works overtime to clear the guilty by refocusing attention elsewhere.

I don't say that to attack Marianne. Nor am I suggesting for one moment that she is attempting to mislead. She has a kind heart. But we've have trashed that film forever and a day because of what it stands for. So I'm streaming and thinking, "How long of a note will I have to do regarding that documentary to post the video?"

But then the problems just multiply.

Today's women in Afghanistan, we are told, are somehow better ("better" is no the term used -- it's suggested that they are stronger and smarter). Excuse the f**k out of me, but now you're offending me. Who the hell are you -- or anyone -- to spit on or sneer at the Afghan women of the generation prior? Women who suffered. Women who fought. How dare you.

Afghanistan was never my issue here or in offline life. Meaning mainly that I never used them as a prop unlike, for example, Gloria Steinem. One of the worst non-Iraq issues when I first started speaking out against the Iraq War publicly (February 2003) would be encountering Afghan women at a college campus or elsewhere and hear, over and over, their stories of how Gloria Steinem betrayed them. I am not saying that they used her as a symbol. I am saying that they cited her specifically with specific promises she made to them as individual women.

Most of them would note Gloria -- possibly one or two besides Gloria that they had met -- and they were able to be very clear that it was an individual who broke promises.

But they would talk about the broken promise of help, of publicity, of this or that and they would tie it into what they had struggled against before coming to the US and how hard that had been but then the grave disappointment to realize that their 'friend' here in America really wasn't their friend unless cameras were around.

So that group of women has already been betrayed by some US feminists. I'll be damned if I'll stay silent while we're now presented with the myth that today's Afghan woman is superior to the one of the 90s. How insulting. I'm sure today's Afghan women are wonderful and incredible. But guess what? So were the women who came before. And how dare you imply otherwise on a group of women who suffered so greatly.

I don't care that you had good motives, Marianne. And I'm sure you were short handing to squeeze the topic in and would have chosen more wisely if that had been the main topic of the segment. I care that your words are insulting and hurtful. And they are to a group of women who deserve a lot better.

'Okay,' I told myself, 'I'll just link to the article that the guest wrote.'

But if I do that, am I endorsing the conversation? I'm sorry but this is a very sensitive issue for me.

In 2003 and 2004, these were conversations where the woman or women speaking with me, sharing the way they were betrayed were in tears and so was I.

I never, ever want to do anything that could cause them further disappointment and pain.

And the guest was an idiot who was going along with Marianne's take on Afghan women.

And the woman -- the guest -- is an idiot. (I'm disappointed in Marianne, but Marianne's no idiot.)

She's one of those freaks who did a lot of destruction -- I'm not talking about her military service -- and now -- either because she's 'changed' or because the political tides did -- she's now more left than anyone and she's going to save us all.

Save us?

Bitch, can't even tell the truth.

I don't need your propaganda, honey. You want to lie, take it somewhere else because I'm not posting it here.

GI Grunt wants you to know how she joined the military and it was because of FOX NEWS and FOX NEWS and FOX NEWS . . .

A non-friend (who seems to think we're friends) made a film out of a book. I hated the film. I've mentioned it here. Offline, I ripped it apart and actively attacked it. And he knew that and he was so upset and how dare I, ''I guess you just pretend to care about Iraq."

Yeah, that's right. That's why I haven't walked away all these years later.

Caring about the Iraqi people means caring about the damn truth. So when you make a movie that includes the press lying about Iraq, that bases a character on Judith Miller and you make this character a reporter for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL?

F**k you.

You're not interested in the Iraqi people. You're interested in partisanship and in rewriting history.

Judith Miller worked for THE NEW YORK TIMES> That paper actively sold the Iraq War. And Judith was wrong for not being skeptical and buying everything she was told by government officials. But there were many more at the paper who knew better and actively worked to sell the lies ahead of the war. Jill Abramson is the first to really go after Judy. And Jill did that so that no one would go after Jill's own failures and mistakes which were huge and, yes, Jill worked overtime at the paper to sell the Iraq War. And it wasn't THE WALL STREET JOURNAL that then President of Vice Dick Cheney was waving on camera on NBC's MEET THE PRESS to back up his points (lies) about Iraq -- it was the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES>

I am not a fan of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. It did its part to sell the Iraq War. But when you are dealing with Judith Miller and you turn her into an employee of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, you're lying. You're going after them because they're right-wing and you're rewriting history and lying to make others -- who were just as guilty or even more guilty -- appear innocent.

The only innocent corporate newspaper was the KNIGHT-RIDDER chain and it no longer exists. Do not give that sewer MCCLATHCY NEWSPAPERS credit for what KNIGHT-RIDDER did. MCCLATHCY lied about Iraq the same way every other newspaper did.

So now we have GI Grunt or GI Grunta? -- on a video repeatedly invoking FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS . . .

Some people were not alive when the Iraq War was being sold. And they will hear her garbage and think it's true. They will think, "Why couldn't we all stand up to FOX NEWS?"

Because it wasn't just FOX NEWS. It was ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELS TIMES, THE NEW REPUBLIC, . . . .

I don't have time for G.I. Grunta's garbage. I don't trust her and she clearly has issues she needs to work through. I made that call on David BROCK** long before others were realizing, "Lefties, we have a problem." Long before his drug problems and his racism and all the rest were known of.

The right rejected him -- in part because he was gay, in part because he was a nasty party boy (by nasty, I mean he couldn't hold his substances well) -- and he had nowhere to go. So based on an ESQUIRE article we had to embrace him?

All he did was destroy the left. He brought all the garbage he used against Anita Hill over to the left to use against the right. We did not become better by adopting his practice of lying.

G.I. Gurnta needs help. I'm sure some 'woke' warriors will applaud her. I won't. I see a damaged person who needs help and who will, if she doesn't get help, take others down with her.

In the video for Marianne's podcast, Marianne wants us to also know that we're all in tears and . . .

I'm not in tears over what's going on right now in Afghanistan.

I was in tears over the war (which is ongoing). I was in tears -- same is true of Iraq -- over grasping that this was a failure that would turn out exactly as it has.

I don't know what you were doing since 2001 but I would hope many adults, like me, were preparing themselves for the reality.

This is what happens when you try to build a nation via a foreign military.

The government wasn't home grown.

At least with Afghanistan, the US installed leaders like Hamid Karzai. A crook, yes. But unlike in Iraq, he was a crook already in the country. In Iraq, the US installs cowards as prime ministers over and over. One after another, each man fled Iraq years ago and only returned after the start of the US-led invasion. Cowards who fled the country are then put in charge by the US as 'leaders'?

People who are crying need to wipe away the tears and stop the sobbing and grasp that this is the natural outcome. Grow up and face it. I'm always shocked by the experts' getting it wrong. Because they self-present as informed. And yet basic political science theory lets you know these outcomes.

What's going on in Afghanistan right now is horrible.

But that was the outcome. It was always going to happen.

Of Poppy Bush, some insist he betrayed the Kurds or the ones who were told to rise up against Saddam or whatever.

He may have but what he really did was grasp that he better call a victory quickly on the Gulf War because if he tried to make the US an occupying force, he'd quickly see how there was nothing there that he could even pretend to brag about.

Beat the clock appears to be the plan in Iraq, as we've long noted.

The US government seems to believe that they will exhaust the Iraqi people into submission.

The US-installed government has not taken hold, is not taking hold, but maybe if we just keep US forces on the ground for another ten years or so, the government will be so entrenched that it will survive.

Nope.

The Iraqi people are not idiots. They have rejected the system the US has imposed on them. They know what they want as witnessed by The October Revolution which finds them making demands for a responsive government.

If you're crying today for Afghanistan, you need to grasp that this is a logical outcome when a people have a government imposed upon them. The imposed government has no legitimacy.

When US troops truly leave Iraq, it will probably be very messy. Very violent. It will also provide the closest thing to real self-determination for the Iraqi people. Keeping US troops on the ground in Iraq does not help the Iraqi people.

I'm not going to link to the right-wing garbage FOREIGN POLICY published explaining that "Iraqis'' fear that they will be like Afghanistan. Which Iraqis? The majority of the people who have long favored all US troops go home? The Parliament which saw a huge number of members vote to expell US troops?

It's cute who the US media chooses to portray.

Marianne, for example, could have interviewed an Afghan woman, get her to talk about her own country. Some might argue that Marianne bringing on a US woman to talk about Afghan women was deeply insulting. They might also argue that bringing on a US woman who invaded Afghanistan to talk about Afghan women was the height of stupidity and so far beyond insulting that we don't have a word for it.

First, G.I. Grunta invades the country and now she gets to speak for its women? If that isn't empire at its most vile, what is it?

There are real lessons to be learned right now. We're not getting that from our media. Our corporate media is full of deceptive whores and our left media can't grasp that the invader is not the one who needs to be speaking on behalf of the invaded.

Randi Rhodes used to make a great point about how the US didn't know about the countries they invaded. She would talk about life there and the types of jobs and this or that to give you a feeling for the country so you had something other than 'the other' in your head.

20 years ago, the US invaded Afghanistan and we weren't allowed to hear from the Afghan people. All this time later, everyone seems to think they have a right to speak for the Afghan people. It's sad and telling.

[** David Brock. Dictated snapshot originally -- and wrongly -- read David Sirota. I may have said "Sirota" because I was attempting all week to work a Tweet of his in. If I did say it, I was mistaken. Regardless, apologies, I was referring to David Brock and not David Sirota.**]

The following sites updated:

Latino USA

Inside The Writers’ Room Of ‘Pose’ And ‘Gentefied’

2 hours ago

Music

Lorde, Now Fully Adulting, Embraces A Folksy Analog On 'Solar Power'

3 hours ago

Dissident Voice

Children’s Teeth, Collected Decades Ago, Can Show the Damage of Nuclear Testing

6 hours ago

Antiwar.com Original

The Fake Image of ‘Democratic’ Afghanistan Made by the US Collapses With the Taliban Victory