Monday, July 17, 2017

Panic nation?

"TV: On HOOTEN & THE LADY and the Emmys" (Ava and C.I., THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW):
Samantha Bee is neither fresh nor funny.

She's an ugly woman who thinks screeching is what the world needs.

The same way John Oliver thinks Americans have been waiting for a thumb-up-his-ass smug Brit whose selective editing is comical.

Neither have anything to offer.

Jon Stewart?

He was an original who paved a road at least.

But, reality, even his best days at THE DAILY SHOW don't make for good TV or TV that COMEDY CENTRAL reruns.


If you're not getting how far from excellence -- what the Emmys are supposed to celebrate -- the nominations were this year, think of one program: TONY BENNETT CELEBRATES 90: THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

That special featured performances from Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Lady Gaga, k.d. lange, Bob Dylan and several others -- including Tony Bennett.

Somehow this didn't qualify for a nomination for best variety special.

Instead we got crap like FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE PRESENTS NOT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT'S DINNER and STEPHEN COLBERT'S LIVE ELECTION NIGHT DEMOCRACY'S SERIES FINALE: WHO'S GOING TO CLEAN UP THIS SH*T?

Who's going to clean up this sh*t?

That's actually the question the Emmys should be asking.

We have no quarrel with NETFLIX's two variety nominations -- LOUIE C.K. and SARAH SILVERMAN: A SPECK OF DUST.

Those are comedy concerts.

From celebrated comedians who offer their look at life.

Not a bunch of sexual put downs of a politician.

Stephen Colbert has always had the problem that he comes across like a child molester.

It's why his acting career never took off.

And Samantha Bee?  How that woman ever snared a man (let alone a semi-attractive one) is beyond us.

They don't deserve to be nominated as they wind up their rants and their hysteria preaching to PANIC NATION in their attempts to alarm us all.

If you're not getting how bad it is, Bill Maher got an Emmy nomination this year: Outstanding Variety Talk Series.


Bill Maher.

Bill Maher who used the n-word again this year.

Bill Maher who preaches hate of Arabs.

Bill Maher who is sexist.

Bill Maher who is racist (his offensive Tweet about Asians being yet another example).

But, see, that's okay.

He puts down Trump.

And, for the voters on the coast of Panic Nation, that's enough.

They're not left, they may be 'liberals' with air quotes, but they're not left.

They're uninformed and uneducated little idiots.

They can't offer anything but comic book versions of reality because they're so stupid.

They applaud Barack Obama, for example, these Meryl Streeps (talk about another ugo) as though he didn't kill people with drones, as though he didn't save the banks while failing the home owners, as though the largest transfer of wealth didn't take place on his watch.

They're not left.

They're dumb idiots who couldn't hold a political conversation but let Stephen Colbert say Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are same-sex lovers and suddenly the homophobia gets ignored so they can hoot and holler.

And then they look down on the residents of so-called fly-over states?

They don't know the first thing about art which is why these disposable programs are nominated for excellence awards.




Ava and C.I. have written another must read.




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, July 17, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue -- as does The Mosul Slog.



  1. Army soldier showcases just what ‘liberation’ in looks like



That passes for 'liberation' in Iraq.

And The Mosul Slog continues.

IRAQI NEWS reports today:

An Iraqi security member was killed on Monday during clashes with remnant Islamic State militants in western Mosul’s Old City, a security source was quoted saying.
Shafaq News quoted the source saying that a soldier was killed and another was wounded during operations targeting the remaining havens in Shahwan neighborhood in the Old City. 


Looks like that announcement last Tuesday that The Mosul Slog was ended was premature.

As was the victory parade over the weekend.

Checking Elise Labbot's Twitter feed for her response and there is none.  Elise infamously yelled out "NO!" in a State Dept press briefing when another journalist dared to suggest that Mosul was a slog.


Elise does offer this nonsense.

Bush and Clinton stress value of humility in Oval Office


Humility?

Neither offered anything but hubris.

Bill destroyed the safety net.

That's the safety net, note, that held up his ass.

But he didn't give a damn about single mothers when he was president.

He was raised by one who depended on the safety net.

But his hubris was unbound.

There's also the Iraq sanctions which killed at least a half million children in Iraq.

That's not humility.

Then there's War Criminal Bully Boy Bush who started the Iraq War -- the one that's never ended to this day.

Bully Boy Bush was never one to show humility.

He was a vengeful, angry child.


As bad as Donald Trump is, he's not Bully Boy Bush.

He may become him.

But, at his worst, Donald's a petulant adult.

Bully Boy Bush was (and remains) a petulant child.


INTELLIGENCE POST offers a look back at Iraq which includes:


In 2011, it was clear that Iraq was repeating its history, with slight modifications. Corruption was deeply entrenched in all institutions, from security and political establishment, to bureaucratic and service providing sector, relying on political, sectarian, and ethnic identities and allegiances. The government continuously interfered with the judiciary, while institutions in charge of checks and balances were either never formed or faced pressure and violence. Key elements of the power-sharing agreement reached in 2010 were never carried out. After Vice President, Tareq al-Hashimi was arrested (many believe for publicly criticizing al-Maliki), his opponents among Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites grew dissatisfied. The standoff with the Kurdish government continued well into 2012.
As Al-Iraqiya, a secular cross-confessional movement, fell apart due to internal rivalries and a lack of an assertive stance in fighting al-Maliki’s growing authoritarianism, numerous Sunni Arabs who identified with their ideology started peaceful protests. On top of the stand-off between al-Hashimi and al-Maliki, the triggering event was the arrest of the bodyguards of a prominent Iraqiya member. The government responded with bureaucratic procedures, refused to negotiate directly and ultimately deployed security forces in Sunni neighborhoods.
In this stand-off, coupled with the Syrian civil war escalation spilling over to Iraq, radical voices gained prominence, giving the government an excuse to storm a camp in Hawija, killing more than 50 people and injuring 110 more. At the same time, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, alarmed by developments in Syria, recruited young people and ex-insurgents into militias, which were deployed to Syria. Retaliatory sectarian violence soon spiraled out of control, with 2012 ending with more than 4,600 civilian deaths, mainly in terrorist attacks claimed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda. In 2013, the death toll doubled, with more than 9,800 victims, according to ICB. Al-Maliki was ultimately unseated and replaced by Haider al-Abadi after newly elected president Fuad Masum nominated him for that position.


That's when the Islamic State took root in Iraq.

And none of the conditions that allowed ISIS to rise have been addressed.

Mosul's not liberated but it is destroyed.

Today from : Widespread devastation following Iraqi forces' 9-month fight to reclaim Mosul from the Islamic State



That's how a lot of Iraq will look if the conditions are not dealt with.


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