Andrew Perez (JACOBIN) reports: Senate Democrats’ political machine has spent more than $15 million to
help more moderate Senate candidates defeat progressive primary
challengers in the 2020 election cycle. With the help of the party, its major donors, and the Senate Majority
PAC (SMP) — a super PAC funded by labor unions, corporate interests,
and Wall Street billionaires — candidates endorsed by Senate minority
leader Chuck Schumer’s Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)
have won contested primaries in four battleground states. While the DSCC’s chair, Nevada senator Catherine Cortez Masto, said last year
that the party would support progressive incumbent Massachusetts
senator Ed Markey if he faced a primary challenger, he hasn’t seen any
outside help yet from the DSCC or SMP in his tough battle with Rep. Joe
Kennedy III. Colorado was the most emblematic example of the party putting its
thumb on the scale against progressives: There, former governor John
Hickenlooper cruised to a primary victory over former Colorado House
speaker Andrew Romanoff. In the final weeks of the race, SMP spent $1 million
to boost Hickenlooper, after he spent his failed presidential campaign
attacking key tenets of progressives’ legislative agenda, including
Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. At the time of the cash infusion, Hickenlooper was losing ground in the polls and engulfed in scandals: he had just been fined by Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission for violating state ethics law as governor, the local CBS station uncovered evidence of his gubernatorial office raking in cash from oil companies, and a video
that was circulated showed Hickenlooper comparing his job as a
politician to a slave on a slave ship, being whipped by a scheduler. With the help of SMP and the endorsement of the DSCC, Hickenlooper
held off the more progressive Romanoff to win a 17-point primary
victory.
That's the reality.
People keep saying, "You have to learn to work with them, then you can take over the party."
Do you realize how many years, the left has been trying to take over the Democratic Party?
It never has. It is not going to happen. We are Sisyphus. Every morning, we try to push the rock up the hill. By the end of the day? It has rolled back down. We do the same thing every day, never learing from the experience.
That is what happens when we fool ourselves into thinking we can 'take back' our party.
It's not going to happen. Corporations are not going to let it happen. We need to be having serious conversations about what we can do now because pushing this rock up the hill is not helping. If we can grasp that, maybe we can start to build a strong and independent political party that serves the American people.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Julian Assange remains persecuted, Toby Dodge
insists one death in Iraq matters -- at least one, and much more.
Starting with this video from CONSORTIUM NEWS>
That's
the documentary film NOT IN OUR NAME: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE OF
JULIAN ASSANGE and then Reporters Sans Frontieres' Rebecca Vincent
moderating a discussion with the filmmaker John Furse and the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer.
Julian
continues to be persecuted and, yes, tortured. He became a target of
the US government when he released video regarding Iraq. Monday April 5th, WIKILEAKS released US military video
of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the
assault including two REUTERS journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed
Chmagh.
The video was news. Publishing it was a
public service. The US government had repeatedly lied about what took
place. It had denied REUTERS requests -- official and unofficial -- for
more information about the deaths of their reporters.
This week, Dean Yates discussed that issue with Chris Hedges on Hedges' program ON CONTACT..
"In
terms of the significance of this tape, Chris, I think it will be --
It's easily as significant as the photographs that came out of the Abu
Ghraib detentions," Dean Yates tells Chris, "because it showed the world
what the war in Iraq really looked like. It showed for the first time,
it showed the American public what the war in Iraq really looked like."
Dean
states that the video Julian published was as significant as the photos
that emerged of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal -- torture of Iraqis
overseen by -- and carried out by -- the US government.
Dean Yates was the head of REUTERS' Baghdad beureau when the July 12,
2007 attack took place killing REUTERS journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and
Saeed Chmagh -- the attack carried out by the US government. Last month, Paul Daley (GUARDIAN) quoted
Yates stating, "What he did was 100% an act of truth-telling,
exposing to the world
what the war in Iraq looks like and how the US military lied … The US
knows how embarrassing Collateral Murder is, how shameful it is to the
military – they know that there’s potential war crimes on that tape."
Whistle blower Chelsea Manning was serving in the US military. She
turned the material over Julian Assange. She has been persecuted
repeatedly -- the most recent attempts have been carried out to attempt
to coerce her into testifying against Julian.
Julian
Assange remains persecuted by the US government. His crime is that of
journalism. In another article last month, Daley focuses on Dean Yates:
Yates, shaking his head, says: “The US assertions that Namir and Saeed
were killed during a firefight was all lies. But I didn’t know that at
the time, so I updated my story to take in the US military’s statement.”
[. . .]
Reuters staff had by now spoken to 14 witnesses in al-Amin. All of
them said they were unaware of any firefight that might have prompted
the helicopter strike. Yates recalls: “The words that kept forming on my lips were ‘cold-blooded murder’.” The Iraqi staff at Reuters, meanwhile, were concerned that the bureau
was too soft on the US military. “But I could only write what we could
establish and the US military was insisting Saeed and Namir were killed
during a clash,” Yates says. The meeting that put him on a path of destructive, paralysing –
eventually suicidal – guilt and blame “that basically f**ked me up for
the next 10 years”, leaving him in a state of “moral injury”, happened at US military headquarters in the Green Zone on 25 July.
A
"fatal blow" will have been dealt to Iraqi government control if Prime
Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi does not catch those who ordered the killing
of scholar Husham Al Hashimi, experts said. The Iraqi political and security expert was shot dead at point-blank
range by unknown assailants as he parked his car outside his house on
July 7. Mr Al Kadhimi pledged to hold a transparent investigation into the killing and said no one was above the law. A week has passed and the government has not announced any developments.
Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert and friend of Al Hashimi, said failure to
bring to justice those responsible for his assassination would be a
challenge to the state’s authority.
That death was important. So are other deaths. I'm so sick of the Toby Dodges who speak up for the friends but not others.
The September 8, 2011 murder of journalist Hamdi al-Mahdi. That didn't matter?
No
one's ever been held responsible for that murder. Hamdi was a
journalist who reported on the protests. That alone made him a target
of the government.
Toby's up in arms over the death of his friend. Who bothers to remember the murder of Hamdi?
From the September 8, 2011 snapshot:
In Iraq, a journalist has been murdered. In addition to being a
journalist, he was also a leader of change and part of the movement to
create an Iraq that was responsive to Iraqis.
Al Mada reports
Iraqi journalist Hadi al-Mahdi is dead according to an Interior
Ministry source who says police discovered him murdered in his Baghdad
home. Along with being a journalist, Al Mada notes he was one of the
chief organizers of the demonstrations demanding change and service
reform that began on February 25th -- the day he was arrested by Iraqi
security forces and beaten in broad daylight as he and others, after the
February 25th protest, were eating in a restaurant. The New York Times didn't want to tell you about, the Washington Post
did. And now the man is dead. Gee, which paper has the archives that
matter to any real degree. Maybe it's time to act like a newspaper and
not a "news magazine" with pithy little human interest stories? (That
is not a dig at Tim Arango but at the paper's diva male 'reporter' who
went on NPR to talk of an Iraqi college this week.) So while the Times
missed the story (actaully, they misled on the story -- cowtowing to
Nouri as usual), Stephanie McCrummen (Washington Post) reported: Four
journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after
they had left a protest at Baghdad's Tahrir Square. They said they were
handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by
soldiers from an army intelligence unit. "It
was like they were dealing with a bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a
group of journalists," said Hussam al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet, who
was among a group and described seeing hundreds of protesters in black
hoods at the detention facility. "Yesterday was like a test, like a
picture of the new democracy in Iraq."
A picture of the new democracy in Iraq, indeed. And now one of the four is dead. But back to that roundup, from the February 28th snapshot:
Over
the weekend, a number of journalists were detained during and after
their coverage of the mass demonstrations that took place in central
Baghdad's al-Tahrir Square. Simone Vecchiator (International Press Institute) notes: ["]During
a news conference held on Sunday, four journalists -- Hussam Saraie of
Al-Sabah Al-Jadid newspaper, Ali Abdul Sada of the Al-Mada daily, Ali
al-Mussawi of Sabah newspaper and Hadi al-Mehdi of Demozee radio --
reported being handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened by
security forces. They also claimed they were held in custody for nine
hours and forced to sign a document, the contents of which were not
revealed to them. Aswat al Iraq news agency reported that the
journalists will file a court case against the executive authority in
response to the alleged violations of their civil rights. This
episode is the latest in a series of repressive measures adopted by
security forces in order to stifle media reports about the current
political and social
unrest.["]
NPR's Kelly McEvers interviewed Hadi for Morning Edition
after he had been released and she noted he had been "beaten in the
leg, eyes, and head." He explained that he was accused of attempting to
"topple" Nouri al-Maliki's government -- accused by the soldiers under
Nouri al-Maliki, the soldiers who beat him. Excerpt:
Hadi
al-Mahdi: I replied, I told the guy who was investigating me, I'm
pretty sure that your brother is unemployed and the street in your area
is unpaved and you know that this political regime is a very corrupt
one.
Kelly
McEvers: Mahdi was later put in a room with what he says were about 200
detainees, some of them journalists and intellectuals, many of them
young protesters.
Hadi
al-Mahdi: I started hearing voices of other people. So, for instance,
one guy was crying, another was saying, "Where's my brother?" And a
third one was saying, "For the sake of God, help me."
Kelly
McEvers: Mahdi was shown lists of names and asked to reveal people's
addresses. He was forced to sign documents while blindfolded.
Eventually he was released. Mahdi says the experience was worse than
the times he was detained under Saddam Hussein. He says the regime
that's taken Sadam's place is no improvement on the past. This, he says,
should serve as a cautionary tale for other Arab countries trying to
oust dictators.
Hadi
al-Mahdi: They toppled the regime, but they brought the worst -- they
brought a bunch of thieves, thugs, killers and corrupt people, stealers.
Madhi
had filed a complained with the courts against the Iraqi security
forces, noting that they had now warrant and that they kidnapped him in
broad daylight and that they beat him. Mohamed Tawfeeq (CNN) adds,
"Hadi al-Mehdi was inside his apartment on Abu Nawas street in central
Baghdad when gunmen shot him twice with silencer-equipped pistols, said
the ministry official, who did not want to be identified because he is
not authorized to speak to media." Mazin Yahya (AP) notes
that in addition to calling for improvements in the basic services
(electricity, water and sanitation), on his radio program, Hadi al-Mehdi
also used Facebook to get the word out on the Friday protests in
Baghdad's Tahrir Square.
Al Mada notes
that Hadi has been killed on the eve of tomorrow's protest. The youth
activists took the month of Ramadan off and announced that they would
return to downtown Baghdad on September 9th (tomorrow). And tomorrow
they'll now be minus at least one. Al Mada quotes Hadi writing shortly
before he died on his Facebook page about the demonstration, noting that
it would herald the emergence of real democracy in the new Iraq, an
Iraq with no sectarian grudges, just hearts filled with tolerance and
love, hearts saying no to corruption, looting, unemployment, hearts
demaning a better Iraq and a government for the people because Iraqis
deserve the best and they deserve pride and dignity. The Great Iraqi Revolution notes,
"The funeral of the martyred jouranlist Hady Mahdy, who was killed
earlier today will process from his Karrad home where he was
assassinated to Tahrir Square. The funeral procession will commence at
around 9 A.M."
Reporters
Without Borders roundly condemns the well-known journalist Hadi
Al-Mahdi's murder in Baghdad today, on the eve of nationwide protests
that he supported. His body was found at around 7 p.m. in his home in
the central district of Al-Karada. He had been shot twice in the head. There can be no doubt that his murder was politically motivated.
Offering
its sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,
Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to quickly investigate
this murder and to assign all the necessary resources to ensure that
those responsible are identified and brought to justice. This crime
cannot go unpunished.
Aged 44, a Shiite and married to a Kurd, Mahdi hosted a talk show called "To whoever listens" on Radio Demozy
(104,01 FM). His irreverence, his well-observed criticism that spared
no one, neither the prime minister nor his detractors, and his readiness
to tackle subjects ranging from corruption to the deplorable state of
the Iraqi educational system made it one of the most popular talk shows
in Baghdad.
It was
clear from the messages that Mahdi had sent to relatives that he knew he
was in danger. He had received many warnings and had told friends two
days ago that something terrible could happen (http://alalemya.com/alalemya_news/0_2011_5_/11_/11_9_1/8-9/hadi-al-mahdi.html). But he was determined to tough it out, regardless of the risks.
After covering a demonstration in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on 25 February, he and three fellow journalists were arrested, threatened and beaten.
Shortly
after graduating from Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, Mahdi
fled to Syria and then to Sweden and did not return until 2007, after
nearly a decade in exile. He began hosting "To whoever listens" for
Radio Demozy, an independent station, a year later. (A New York Times profile of Mahdi)
He
was the seventh Iraqi journalist to be murdered since the start of 2011
and the 12th since the United States announced the withdrawal of its
combat troops in August 2010.
Nouri
al-Maliki's forces beat Hadi. They are under Nouri's command. Nouri
demonized the protesters all along. He has repeated the slurs in the
last weeks that the September 9th protests are organized by Ba'ahtists,
are out to topple him, are out to turn Iraq into a lawless state and
much more. Did Little Saddam aka Nouri al-Maliki, thug of the
occupation, order his forces to murder Hadi?
Husham
al-Hashimi's murder is awful. I'm not denying that. But when Toby
Dodge blusters as he does, he not only renders all the other murders
unimportant, he encourages others to do so as well.
Hadi gave his life for freedom in Iraq. It's a real shame that so many have rushed to forget him.
Toby knows who Hadi was. To make a point in a Twitter discussion last December, Toby Tweeted:
In September 2011, a high profile activist in the protest movement, Hadi al-Mahdi, a journalist and theatre director, was murdered on the eve of another big demonstration he helped organize
It that the only time to remember Hadi? When you need to make a political point?
Security forces fired upon a group of demonstrators in southern Baghdad
on Sunday lunchtime, killing two and wounding over a dozen, according to
a protest spokesperson.
Thousands of people travelled from several southern Iraqi provinces to
Baghdad in the early hours of Sunday morning, protesting an end to
monthly, government-allocated compensation as part of an economic reform
package announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
“They fired on us upon direct orders from Kadhimi and killed two of us,”
protester spokesperson Sheikh Amer Shalan Rafawi told Rudaw.
Peaceful protestors standing outside Baghdad geen zone in protest to PM policies forced to evacuate after a violent crackdown by security.
No european or American media.
These are #IraqProtests too but pro-US occupation activists are on holiday!
#Iraq
0:11
811 views
1:32 PM · Jul 12, 2020
This
attack took place after Mustafa al-Kadhimis public promise that he
would bring those who attacked protesters to justice. Bring them to
justice? He can't even prevent them from being attacked today and, in
fact, he may be the one ordering the attacks. His response to Sunday?
To deny that anyone was shot at, that anyone was killed.
Baghdad: Medical school graduates have demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Health building; To protest the government’s neglect, and to demand their appointment, amid the deteriorating health sector in Iraq.
Quote Tweet
هيئة علماء المسلمين في العراق
@amsiiraq
·
الهيئة نت| بغداد: خريجو المجموعة الطبية يتظاهرون أمام مبنى وزارة الصحة؛ احتجاجًا على إهمال الحكومة لهم، وللمطالبة بتعيينهم، وسط تدهور القطاع الصحي في العراق.
للاشتراك في قناة الهيئة على تطبيق (تيليغرام): http://t.me/amsiiraq
Coronavirus -- our new visitor that's overstayed its welcome. And it's apparently not leaving anytime soon. CBS NEWS reports:
The World Health Organization warned Monday that there could be no return to normality any time soon as too many countries were bungling their response to the coronavirus pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that if public health guidelines are not followed, the crisis will get "worse and worse and worse."
After a daily record of 230,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the WHO on Sunday, the U.N. health agency said the pandemic was only going to get worse unless people stuck to the basics of physical distancing, handwashing and wearing masks.
Tedros warned that countries that were easing their way out of lockdowns were now witnessing a resurgence of the virus because they were not following proven methods to reduce risk.
"I want to be straight with you: there will be no return to the 'old normal' for the foreseeable future," Tedros told a virtual news briefing.
"Let me blunt: too many countries are headed in the wrong direction.
"The virus remains public enemy number one, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this."
That's disturbing and sad. I am thrilled with what C.I. wrote in today's snapshot -- reposted below when I finish raging. We have no leadership from the Republicans or the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are doing -- and have done nothing. Yes, Donald Trump has screwed up. But is this really the Democratic response? Do nothing? Just try to coast until the November election? How many people will die from that strategy?
Do they even care?
There is no leadership. The American people have been left to fend for themselves.
We need new leaders. Whether you're voting an alternative to the Democrats or voting for them and hoping that we'll get new leadership, I hope you can agree with me that the Democratic Party has offered nothing to the American people in this time of crisis.
Coasting to November is not leadership. It's abdicating. Why are they in Congress if they're not going to lead?
I'm not a Joe Biden fan but there's little he can do besides words. He is not the president, he is no longer in Congress. But while I will not fault him on this, I do fault Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in leadership in the Congress.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020. Secret prisons exposed in Iraq, Kanye's run or
'run' for president, the lack of leadership in the duopoly parties, and
much more.
Starting with this video regarding Iraq.
For any with streaming issues, here is the transcript of the video:
In
Iraq, there are 60,000 detainees including 1,000 women in 13 government
prisons and dozens of secret prisons by militias and political parties
based on testimonials collected by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights
Monitor. Some prisons of armed groups are repurposed houses where
detainees are kept in the basements and their families are blackmailed
to pay money or have their children killed. Some prisons are . . .
increasingly overcrowded due to the escalation of arrests and mostly
lack hygiene. Thus prisons become a fertile environment [for] the
spread of diseases. However, the Iraqi government did not take serious
measures during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Iraq.
Tariq
al-Liwa, legal advisor in the Euor-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor:
Detainees should be released if there is no clear legal basis for their
detention, or if the Iraqi government is unable to address the inhumane
and degrading conditions in which they are held.
An
Iraqi policeman . . told/said that Brigade 30 has a secret prison in
the Nineveh Governorate where 1,000 people are detained on sectarian
grounds and based on fabricated charges
Geneva – Testimony documenting inhumane conditions in Iraqi
prisons have been collected by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights
Monitor, which warns of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus is a particular threat to the
thousands of detainees, since the prisons are overcrowded, unsanitary
and lack even minimum health care. More than 60,000 people, including about 1,000 women, are detained in
13 government prisons. In addition, there are dozens of secret prisons
run by militias, political parties, and various tribal and other
factions. Iraqi authorities refuse to disclose the number of detainees, their
health condition or recorded deaths, although multiple testimonies
report poor health overall, rapid disease spread and medical neglect. A
basic lack of hygiene makes the prisons a fertile environment for the
spread of diseases such as asthma, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
Inadequate ventilation exacerbates the crisis, along with an absence of
sanitizers. At the same time, Iraqi prisons are increasingly overcrowded due to the escalation of detention and judicial delays. Testimonies collected by Euro-Med indicate that these and other
government practices are systematic and deliberate, not merely
individual or random. For example, A.A. is an Iraqi policeman who told Euro-Med about a
secret prison in the Tahrawa area in the Nineveh Governorate that is run
by a unit known as Brigade 30. It houses about 1,000 detainees arrested
on malicious, sectarian charges. Leaders of Brigade 30 force families
of the detainees to pay large sums of money in exchange for the release
of their relatives. K.TH.F., another Iraqi policeman, told us that Brigade 30 has other
secret prisons in Nineveh. These prisons are mainly repurposed houses,
in the Al-Qaraj area of the Kokjali neighborhood, where civilians from
Mosul are kept in the basements. Their families are blackmailed for
money. On June 2, Jassem al-Samarrai, a resident of the Mukeshefah area of
Samarra, reported that 50 civilians had been arrested by the Saraya
Al-Salam militia, run by movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The arrests
continued for three days, without any interference from government
security services. Homes were raided, with militia members blasting
doors open with bombs and live bullets—terrorizing children in the
process. “Authorities should allow detainees to hire lawyers, including during
interrogation,” says Tariq Al-Liwa, Tariq Al-Liwa. “Authorities also
should transfer detainees to facilities where government inspectors,
independent observers and lawyers have unimpeded access to them.
Detainees should be released if there is no clear legal basis for their
detention, or if the government is unable to address the inhumane and
degrading conditions in which they are held.” Al-Liwa adds that Iraqi authorities must control the actions of their
forces to ensure the legality of their practices, as well as prevent
illegal armed militias from kidnapping and hiding people in secret
prisons. Finally, he concludes that the ministries of justice and the interior
should expedite investigations, assure that everyone in pretrial
detention has a speedy and fair trial or is released, improve detainees’
living conditions and provide them with all necessary health care. Background Over 60,000 people are detained by Iraqi authorities in prisons that
do not meet the minimum requirements guaranteed by international
conventions. These prisons are over-crowded and unhealthy. Last June,
Euro-Med Monitor launched a petition signed by 30 human rights
organizations, calling on the authorities to put an end to enforced
disappearance and arbitrary detention.
Secret
prisons -- just like when Nouri al-Maliki was in charge. Instead of
being punished for running secret prisons, the US government rewarded
thug Nouri. The Iraqi people voted him out as prime minister in March
of 2010. But Nouri refused to step down. For a little over eight
months, the government came to a standstill -- this is known as the
political stalemate. Instead of insisting that Nouri step down and
honor the wishes of the voters, Joe Biden (who Barack Obama put in
charge of Iraq) gave Nouri a second term as prime minister via the legal
contract known as The Erbil Agreement. This second term led to the
rise of ISIS in Iraq.
The notion of Joe Biden's 'accomplishments' are a joke -- if you're an Iraqi citizen, they're a dirty joke.
And now secret prisons again.
There is no progress in Iraq.
The
US military remains there to prop up an unpopular and unresponsive
government. Now I mean unresponsive to the Iraqi people. It is an
illegitimate government. But equally true, for all those War Hawks who
just knew the Iraq War would be a success, the puppet government in Iraq
has been unresponsive to US demands as well.
There
are no measures for success. The US military just remains in Iraq,
year after year, to prop up the illegitimate government. At one point,
there were measures for success. The so-called benchmarks that never
were met. Remember Nancy Pelosi, the newly installed Speaker of the
House, in 2007, insisting that if these benchmarks were not met, no more
US tax dollars would go to support the Iraq War. That never happened,
did it? They didn't meet the benchmarks but, to this day, US tax
dollars continue to flood into Iraq.
Nancy
Pelosi has okayed billions in Iraq but she didn't believe that, in the
midst of a global pandemic, US citizens didn't deserve a $1200 a month
stipend?
That tells you where her priorities are.
Raising
big money. That's all she cares about. When Iraq was the way to raise
money, she was all in on end the war! end the war! end the war! When
she couldn't raise money off it anymore -- failure to actually do
anything goes a long way towards why she could no longer raise money --
she lost interest. The story of her life, the story of her political
career. David Dayen explains all about Nancy in the RISING video
below.
Nancy Pelosi was upset. Her blitz of cable news appearances as a
high-profile counterpart to Donald Trump had taken her to CNN in late
April. And Jake Tapper had the temerity to question that which is not
typically questioned: Pelosi’s legislative acumen. Congress had just passed its fourth bill responding to the
coronavirus crisis. Republicans wanted more money for forgivable loans
for small businesses. Democrats had a host of liberal priorities left
out of prior legislation that could have been paired with the extension.
But Pelosi and her Senate colleague Chuck Schumer chose to go along
with the Republican framework, leaving everything else for later. Immediately afterward, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hit the pause button on future legislation. It felt like the Democrats were played.
And governors were sounding alarms about the lack of federal aid to
cover massive state and local government revenue shortfalls, which
triggered a loss of 1.5 million jobs in April and May alone.
“Was this a tactical mistake by you and Senator Schumer?” Tapper asked Pelosi. “Just calm down,” she replied sternly, pivoting to tout getting more
small-business money than McConnell even wanted. (As of mid-June, about $130 billion in authorized funding had not been claimed, and a May survey
found that half of all small businesses expected to fail, even with
federal support.) Pelosi vowed to obtain state and local fiscal relief
eventually. “There’s no use going into what might have been.” It was an interesting exchange, because it highlighted a Pelosi
critique that rarely makes it into conventional accounts. Molly Ball’s
biography Pelosi emphasizes more-common narratives, which
throughout her accomplished career the Speaker has been able to
surmount: whether a woman can compete in the typically male terrain of
high-stakes politics, or whether she can withstand the caricature of a
“San Francisco liberal.”
Ball, a national reporter for Time, also tries to make the case that
Pelosi, underestimated by official Washington, constantly fleeces her
foes at the negotiating table. Much of this is true. She stopped a newly
re-elected George W. Bush from dismantling Social Security, a strategic
masterstroke. Willing the Affordable Care Act forward when Democrats
wanted to pull back was a signature achievement. During the interregnum
between speakerships when John Boehner and Paul Ryan ran the House, she
was consistently relied on for votes when they faltered, protecting
liberal social programs and obtaining additional funding. And Pelosi
always did it with remarkable caucus discipline, bringing together a
disparate set of legislators to strengthen her hand. But the past few months of hurried legislative output, long after
Ball completed her draft, frustrate that analysis. In our endlessly
gridlocked politics, real governing occurs mainly in the crucible of
crisis, which forces urgent action beyond the usual game of inches. What
you do in those moments matters infinitely more than how sassy you look clapping during the State of the Union address, or how you rip up that address after it’s read.
Nancy
is eighty-years-old. And she's failed to deliver anything --as House
Minority Leader or as Speaker of the House. When the politically
uneducated -- I'll be kind, you know which celebrity I am especially
refer to -- take to Twitter hissing as AOC or anyone else that calls out
Nancy, they only flaunt their lack of intelligence. Nancy has achieved
nothing.
Take covid. She and her kind --
unethical Democrats (not all Dems are unethical, I'm referring to a
certain group) -- did nothing. Not one damn thing. They're thrilled
that Donald Trump's polling numbers are harmed currently but, let's be
clear, they haven't done a damn thing. The American people need a
monthly stipend during this pandemic. It would help mental health, it
would help general health (allowing stress levels to drop). It would
certainly help the economy. But even with Bernie Sanders giving lip
service to this idea (he wouldn't fight for it, of course), Nancy
delivered nothing.
She doesn't plan to. The
average American cannot see any benefit from Donald or from Nancy.
(Some might quibble on that and if they're citing the one time $1,200,
fine. Donald Trump has taken credit for that. )
We
need leaders and we don't have them. Not on either side. I would
agree The Squad, for example, are leaders. But they do not have the
power that they should. Nancy needs to retire and we need Democrats who
are going to fight for We The People.
Currently, leadership in both of the duopoly parties is a failure.
So let's all vote Kayne?
There are e-mails from people telling me I'm anti-Kanye.
You
don't know me. I know Kanye. I've known Kanye for years. That's been
noted here repeatedly for well over a decade. I didn't call out Kanye
for his support of Donald Trump.
I did do a blind item right after the election calling out a mutual friend who was attacking Kanye.
Do I agree with Kanye regarding his support -- sometime support -- for Donald? No.
But I don't have to agree with everyone I know nor do they have to agree with me.
Kanye could make a very interesting president.
I am not noting his 'run' currently because I don't see it as one.
The Greens, the SEP and other political parties are fighting for ballot access across the United States.
Do we grasp that?
So how is Kanye planning to run? I haven't spoken to him about it.
You
can write in anyone you want on a ballot. But for the vote to go for
whomever you wrote in, most states have requirements. Kanye hasn't met
them and I don't know that he can at this late date.
Especially
if we move towards vote by mail due to the pandemic, I don't know that
he can because ballots will soon have to be printed. The SEP has had to
go to court in Michigan in their attempt to get on the ballot.
So I'm not understanding how Kanye runs for the White House.
If
he's serious, he may just want to be a protest vote. If so, that's
fine. And if that's what people want to do with their vote, that's
fine.
The only 'wrong' vote is a vote you don't believe in.
You can make a mistake, we all can. But if you're voting in a way you don't believe, that's a wrong vote.
You
own your vote, no one else. Though Debra Messing forgets this is a
democracy and thinks the 'democratic' and 'Democratic' thing to do is to
bully people into voting her way, she's wrong. Your vote is your vote.
You give it meaning by how you use it.
That
may be voting for Biden or voting for Trump or voting for Kishore or
voting for La Riva, or voting for Hawkins or voting for Jorgensen or
voting for Kanye or some other candidate. That may be by not voting.
That may be your statement or your choice.
Whatever your choice is, as long as you believe in what you are doing, it's not a 'wrong' choice.
And it's your vote and it's really no one else's business how you choose to use it.
No matter what a balding idiot like Debra Messing says.
While we're on the topic of covid and politicians, let's note two Tweets from SEP presidential candidate Joseph Kishore. First:
The #coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control. A social crime has been committed. Those responsible are the representatives of the rich, Democrat and Republican. Their motive is defense of capitalism. The working class must respond through socialist revolution.
A social crime is being committed. However, in the countless hours devoted to discussions of the #pandemic in the news programs, no one seriously asks: Who is responsible? And what social interests have dictated policy?
James and Noah Kulwin are the creators and cohosts of a new podcast on the war and the pathologies that emerged in its wake, aptly titled Blowback.
Over the course of ten episodes, the two sketch out what they describe
as a “counter-history” of America’s forays into Iraq. Listeners working
their way through the series will hear clips from CNN and MSNBC
broadcasts, and anecdotes drawn from the reportage of mainstream
journalists, like George Packer and Bob Woodward. What emerges from the
synthesis constructed by the hosts is a criticism of these conventional
secondary sources. James and Kulwin paint a portrait of a deluded and
venal elite convinced that the exercise of American power today will
solve the problems created by the exercise of American power in the
past. The hosts include liberals among that elite, taking aim at Democratic
politicians who voted to authorize the use of military force against
Iraq, as well as celebrities and media figures who supported the
invasion. Kulwin, whose essays on foreign policy and technology appear
in the gaggle of young or revivified publications associated with the
Bernie Sanders left, is a contributing editor to Jewish Currents. James also writes for publications like the Baffler and Jacobin, but he is perhaps most well known for his past role as the producer of the sardonic podcast Chapo Trap House. It is no surprise, then, that the comical tone of the aforementioned program finds its way into Blowback —
an episode describing insurgents in occupied Iraq is titled “The
#Resistance,” and the historical narrative is occasionally interrupted
by the voice of Saddam Hussein, played by comedic actor H. Jon Benjamin,
renowned for his roles in Archer and Bob’s Burgers. But in spite of these occasional fits of humor, Blowback
is not frivolous. The writing, facilitated by James’s deft scoring,
shifts registers where appropriate. For example, the trauma and tragedy
of the civil war unleashed by the invasion of Iraq is imparted to
listeners by an account of a father searching for his missing son among
the corpses in Baghdad’s overflowing morgues. The podcast’s levity comes
at the expense of the unaccountable political and military figures that
either negligently enabled or perpetrated atrocities in Iraq. Faced
with epochal crimes for which there may be no redress, laughter becomes
“a kind of sovereignty, a triumph over one’s own powerlessness.” The substance of Kulwin and James’s critique of conventional
histories of the war in Iraq is also serious. To begin with, there is
the matter of chronology. Typically, the start of the war is dated to
George W. Bush’s invasion in March 2003. Barack Obama’s troop withdrawal
in December 2011 marks its conclusion. In Blowback, the start
and end dates are hazier. They fold into a broader history of
Anglo-American marauding in Mesopotamia from the 1920s to the present.
Special attention is paid to the inconclusive first Gulf War and the unprecedentedly severe
sanctions regime of the 1990s, both of which hollowed out Iraq’s
economy and political institutions long before Bremer began issuing his
ruinous decrees. Accounts of the war with wider historical lenses often bring into
focus the sectarian polarization that marred Iraq in the aftermath of
the invasion. But James and Kulwin do not dwell on the topic of
sectarianism. Instead, they pay an unusual amount of attention to
another social cleavage that runs through both Iraq and the United
States today: class. This shift in emphasis has its downsides. Blowback fails to convey the malleability of sectarian identity,
and to record the myriad of ways in which American interventions in
Iraq reified and exacerbated communal tensions along this axis. The
widespread view, echoed by even Barack Obama, that contemporary
sectarian conflicts “date back millennia,” absolves American policymakers of responsibility for destructive decisions, like creating a quota system on the Iraqi Governing Council. On the other hand, the authentically socialist portrayal of Iraq as a
flash point in a global class war casts the beneficiaries and victims
of empire in a fresh light. In the first episode, the hosts explain that
the British Empire’s exploitation of Iraq’s oil resources weakened
restive coal miners’ unions back in the UK. In the final episode,
listeners learn of Iraq’s extensive poverty — around 20 percent of the
residents of the oil-rich country lived off of $2.20 a day for many
years after the invasion — and of the vast fortunes of the architects of
the war — Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney are all
multimillionaires. The inchoate suggestion borne by these snippets is
that somehow global inequality and perpetual interventions in the
politics of the Middle East are bound together.
