Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Avenatti"
That went up Sunday and so did Kat's "Kat's Korner: WANDERER proves Cat Power is still the greatest." I loved Kat's review and I love Cat Power's WANDERER. It is a great album.
I hope you're aware of the march in DC later this month.
Women’s March on the Pentagon Retweeted
Join us at the Pentagon on October 21st. Hear from Mnar Muhawesh and others as we call for an end to the bipartisan war machine. @MnarMuh @MintPressNews #WomenRise4Peace https://www.marchonpentagon.com/march
That's coming up.
Also taking place, Fleetwood Mac's latest tour.
I can't wait to see them on tour but, looking at the dates, they're not coming to Hawaii. We could do Boston with Mike's family but I'm also wondering about Las Vegas.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Who’s the terrorist???
Kurdish people life in Iraq. Iran.Turkey. . Syria In their own home. No justice no peace. Do the Kurds have any rights? No. So what’s the solution? 50 million in their Owen land. Are they going to kill all of them? Is UNHCR and whole world see that?
That's in response to the latest threats from Turkey's government. REUTERS notes, "Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday vowed to 'finish' Kurdish militants in Iraq’s Sinjar and Qandil regions to avenge eight Turkish soldiers killed in a bomb attack in southeastern Turkey earlier this week." He's referring to the PKK. Aaron Hess (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk." Erdogan has gone a holy tear against the PKK -- despite a cease-fire at one point -- in the last ten years or so. While pretending that he's striking only the PKK, the reality is that the populated mountains in northern Iraq contain many villagers and farmers who have been killed. The western press isn't very interested in noting these deaths because they're eager to court the despot that is Erdogan. When his bodyguards attacked American citizens in DC, his ass should have been ejected from the country immediately and informed that the next time his bodyguards violently attacked American citizens on American soil, there would be no 'diplomatic immunity' to get out of the country with. Instead, the May 17, 2017 attack in DC resulted in 'charges' that magically vanished the day before then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was due to meet with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Who attacked you?" the man with the bloodied face is asked. "The Turks," he replies, "the Turks attacked me." This took place in DC.
Bethan McKernan (INDEPENDENT) reported:
Shocking video filmed by
eyewitnesses show several men in dark suits - later identified as
members of the visiting Turkish delegation - rushing at the protesters,
punching and knocking several of them to the ground.
An elderly man holding a megaphone was kicked in the face, and several women were also hit. [. . .]
“All of the sudden they just ran towards us,” demonstrator Lucy Usoyan told ABC News.
“Someone was beating me in the head nonstop, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m on the ground already, what is the purpose to beat me?’”
The US State Dept issued the following in response to the assault on the protesters:
Press Statement
Heather Nauert
Department Spokesperson
Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 17, 2017
We are concerned by the violent incidents
involving protestors and Turkish security personnel Tuesday evening.
Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support
the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful
protest.
We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms.
We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms.
They were 'concerned.' Not concerned enough. Almost a year later, in March 2018, Keith L. Alexander (WASHINGTON POST) reported:
Prosecutors in recent months have
dropped assault charges against several security guards for Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who were allegedly involved in a melee
last May outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington.
Video of the incident, which
showed guards for the visiting Turkish president charging and beating
protesters who had gathered outside the Sheridan Circle residence,
sparked international condemnation.
Fifteen guards were indicted in
July, but federal prosecutors in the District dismissed charges against
four members of Erdogan’s security detail in November. Last month, they
dropped the cases against seven others.
Charges against four guards
remain active, though the men left the country soon after the incident
and experts have said it is unlikely they will ever be put on trial.
That's what happens when you let trash in the country and Recep is trash. There was no apology from him. It was an international incident that his people caused on US soil and yet no apology. Because he's trash. Just as he thought it was fine for his thugs to attack peaceful protesters in DC, he thinks it's fine for his war planes to drop bombs on Iraq and for his Turkish forces to go into Iraq and terrorize northern Iraq.
Turkey out of Iraq - Kurdistan ..
Asked to leave by the government of Iraq, Recep just ignores the request.
He's trash and Turkey's not going to progress until they get rid of him. They will remain a blight on the world as long as Recep remains in charge. [He's been President of Turkey since 2014; prior to that he was prime minister from 2003 to 2014.]
Near the end of Bully Boy Bush's occupation of the US White House, Erdogan agreed to give up land near Turkey's southern border (the one they share with northern Iraq) for a CIA installation and, ever since, the US government has been kissing Recep's ass.
But the US government hasn't been noble -- or even honest -- in the region, so what do we expect?
Reunion of war criminals who starved 500,000 children to death with unjust sanctions, started a war against Iraq on a pack of lies, killing and displacing millions and giving rise ISIS, and turned Libya, a once prosperous country, into a safe haven for slave-selling terrorists.
Instead of the condemning those three deserve, they're celebrated by a hacktress who finally found success late in life by playing imperial tool on CBS' low rated MADAM SECRETARY. She was more believable as a bimbo model playing a detective on the CHARLIE'S ANGEL reboot that never came to pass.
For the record - Arundhati's eloquent statement on Iraq's experience
Arundhati Roy called it correctly.
Turning to the topic of women in Iraq, Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) notes, "In Basra, gunmen killed a woman who owned a beauty shop." The murder continues the series of murders targeting Iraqi women of late. Robin Smith (NEWS.COM) reported Friday:
“I’M not afraid of the one who denies the
existence of God, but I’m really afraid of the one who kills and chops
off heads to prove the existence of God.”
That’s
what Tara Fares wrote on Instagram to her 2.8 million followers in
July. Two months later she was murdered in a brazen, daylight attack.
The model known for her risque posts was shot several times by a man who leaned in to the window of her white Porsche as she drove through Baghdad last week.
Her death is the latest in a string of attacks on popular women and activists who dare to speak up for change in Muslim-majority Iraq.
It follows the death of a woman known as “Iraq’s Barbie”, plastic
surgeon Dr Rafeef al-Yassiri, who many believe was poisoned over her
work offering cosmetic surgery victims of war.The model known for her risque posts was shot several times by a man who leaned in to the window of her white Porsche as she drove through Baghdad last week.
Her death is the latest in a string of attacks on popular women and activists who dare to speak up for change in Muslim-majority Iraq.
Soad al-Ali, another prominent female activist, was gunned down in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in what police described as a “purely personal” attack.
Nishita Jha (BUZZFEED) notes:
“All women entering public life are targets,” Hanaa Edwar, a women’s rights activist based in Baghdad, told BuzzFeed News. “Fares had more than 2 million followers. All of the women killed were courageous, ambitious women with strong personalities.”
As a consequence, Edwar said, many Iraqi women are withdrawing from public life.
“We have seen so many businesswomen in Basra stop their activities; young women in media have gone into hiding; women are deactivating or changing their social media profiles. Some of them have changed homes, are living low-key and under the radar. These killings are spreading fear and terrifying young women and feminists.”
#Yanar_Mohammed interviewed by the German DW about the killings of women in Iraq while in the airport - leaving for safety. This is not about a conservative society, it is about a misogynist Islamic militia rule supported by Iran.
In the US, IAVA issued the following Friday:
New York, NY (October 5, 2018) — Today, as the world watches the Kavanaugh vote, and continues to debate issues relating to women and survivors of sexual assault, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the leading advocacy voice for post-9/11 veterans, after a week of generating headlines for our Big 6 Advocacy Priorities, ended a historic “Storm the Hill” grassroots advocacy activation week in Washington with a focus on women veterans and the groundbreaking #SheWhoBorneTheBattle campaign.
The bipartisan Deborah Sampson Act, sponsored in the House by Representatives Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) and veterans Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Martha McSally (R-AZ), and in the Senate by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and John Boozman (R-AR), is named for a Revolutionary War soldier who disguised herself as a man to fight in the war. The historic bill now has 75 House cosponsors, plus 29 in the Senate.
“After the last few weeks of a national discussion focused on sexual assault, the Deborah Sampson Act for women veterans is more urgent than ever. Plenty of politicians say they support women veterans. If they really support women veterans, they should show it now by signing on to this critical legislation. And any candidate running for office should show they are committed to our community by focusing on the critical moral, social and national security imperatives of this campaign,” said Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA’s Founder and CEO. He continued, delivering a message directly to Members of Congress: “Many of you are stuck in Washington right now waiting for a possible Kavanaugh vote. While you’re still there, waiting, please stop talking and show women troops and vets that you are committed to their health, safety and well-being by signing on to support the Deborah Sampson Act now.”
Over 345,000 women have deployed since 9/11. While the number of male veterans is expected to decline in the next decades, the population of women veterans will increase. Women continue to take on new roles and responsibilities throughout the services. Yet, their service and sacrifice is often overlooked, to their peril. New suicide numbers released last week by the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that in 2016, the suicide rate for women vets was 1.8 higher than for civilians.
Though the quality of care and services provided by the VA for all veterans needs to dramatically improve, this is particularly critical for women veterans. From 2003 through 2012, women’s use of VA health care services increased 80 percent, with women veterans proportionately using mental health services more intensively than men. Not only do women veterans encounter barriers to care and benefits, they do so in a culture that often does not accept them or fully recognize them as veterans. They also face stunningly high rates of sexual assault.
Despite calls from IAVA and dozens of leading allied veterans and military organizations, President Trump has remained silent on calls for the VA to change its motto and support the Deborah Sampson Act.
The time to act is now. Improving access to care and benefits while changing the underlying culture to one inclusive of women is imperative to the success of the VA. This glaring problem is best exemplified in the gendered and outdated motto that greets every person, male and female, who walk into the VA: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”
IAVA’s She Who Borne the Battle campaign is focused on righting this wrong and transforming the landscape for women veterans in our country forever. We need to take the American people to a place where women vets are envisioned just as readily as men. Congress must act to not only bring equality to VA healthcare for women, but also resource-sensible services like childcare. “Access to Quality Care for Our Veterans” should be gender blind, which in the case of supporting single parents, can impact men just as much as women.
OUR GOALS INCLUDE:
- Foster Culture and Leadership Change in the VA
- Strengthen Data and Transparency Through Research
- Support Women’s Peer Programs
- Increase Initiatives to Better Inform on Existing Programs
- Require High Level of Community Care Cooperation
Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Avenatti" and Kat's "Kat's Korner: WANDERER proves Cat Power is still the greatest" went up yesterday.
