Tuesday, February 26, 2019

The creep that is David Brock

A call for civility from the guy who dubbed Anita Hill “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty” and proclaimed that “black lives don’t matter to Bernie Sanders”:


Well said, Aaron.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Tuesday, February 26, 2019.  Violence is on the rise in Iraq and Nouri's plotting and scheming to be the prime minister again.


Today and tomorrow, The Night Foundation Media Forum:





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LIVE February 26-27, 2019

The Knight Media Forum is the most important annual gathering of journalists, funders, information theorists and others interested in the future of the news media in this country.

And this year its mission is more crucial than ever, as trust in the media continues to decline, as local newsrooms shrink, as news deserts expand and as the threat these changes pose for democracy becomes abundantly clear.

The Knight Media Forum will be convening leading experts at both the local and national level to explore solutions to assure that all citizens receive accurate, reliable news and information that serves the needs of their diverse communities.

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Anchoring the coverage is Emmy-winning journalist, Hari Sreenivasan, host of “PBS NewsHour Weekend” and the national public television show “SciTech Now.”




Should any of the above not work, remember to check Detroit Public TV where the forum will be streamed live.


This morning, XINHUA reports, "At least three people were killed and three others injured Tuesday in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial police source said."
This attack takes place as violence is already on the increase in Iraq.  EGYPT TODAY reports:

Fatwa monitoring observatory stated Monday that Iraq topped the countries that witnessed the largest number of terror attacks during the third week of February, totaling nine attacks carried out by IS group.

According to the observatory, the attacks targeted Iraqi security forces in Nineveh city, and ranged between armed attacks, explosions, kidnapping, executions, bombings and landmines. The attacks killed two officers, and 12 Iraqi citizens, including five security personnel.  



CODESTINK, meanwhile, is trying to work up attention over their meeting with an official in Iran (an official who has since resigned).

The useless pieces of trash -- that's what you are ladies.  You fund raised off Iraq.  I'm counting 25 of your Tweets back (not reTweets) and not one focuses on Iraq.  You went to Iran.  Am I supposed to be impressed?  You didn't go to Iraq.  You never do.

Youu do useless hunger strikes which is the last thing women need. All of your actions are useless.  You hate Donald Trump so suddenly you're back.  Where were you when Barack was in the White House?

CODESTINK is a place for worthless whores who do nothing and who lack the fortitude to stick with any cause for more than 30 seconds.  If you want to read what they 'feel' happened in Iran, go for it.  I don't trust them.  I don't trust them to stay with a cause.  I also don't trust their 'feelings' about evetns that take place.  It's a ridiculous and unsourced article.  Oh, 91% supported a deal a few years back now a little over 50% do?  Based on what?  A government official told you that?

Well CODSTINK's now become the Judy Miller Girl Brigade.  What a proud moment.

There's not an honest sentence in their own write up.

What a sad bunch of aging freaks who failed to commit to anything.  Even the Raging Grannies expressed disappointment in CODESTINK and read any of their (in)actions today and you'll see why.

Medea's not getting the attention she so requires.  Maybe she'll return to crying about being pie-ed in what has to be one of the funniest moments of the last ten years.  No one ever deserved a pieing as much as fake ass Medea.

They flew to Iran and apparently couldn't make it over to neighboring Iraq.  What a joke they have become.

At Chatham House, Renad Mansour examines a power struggle:


Earlier this month, Iraq’s paramilitary group raided the home of and arrested one of its own — a prominent and long-time paramilitary leader, Aws al-Khafaji. The Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — an umbrella organization of about 50 predominantly Shia paramilitary groups — has initiated a crackdown on groups.
The purging reveals an emerging reality in Iraq: the paramilitary groups that fought together against ISIS are competing against each other for power, legitimacy and resources. In this process, the PMU is further institutionalizing by centralizing power over the disparate groups that fall within its umbrella. This competition has profound implications for stability in post-ISIS Iraq — and for how we should understand its emerging state.
The PMU was created in response to the rise of ISIS in 2014. While Iraq’s armed forces remained in disarray, the PMU brought together paramilitary organizations that quickly recruited thousands of volunteers to fight ISIS. Groups within the organization hold varying ideologies and sources of emulation, but the senior leadership maintains strong links to Iran.
Recently, the senior PMU leadership has embarked on raids and purges from within its own ranks to consolidate and centralize power and institutionalize the organization. This process is the PMU’s attempt to clean up its image by taking more control over groups that commit violations. In a recent interview, PMU leader Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis said that certain paramilitary groups were committing violations and should be dealt with. The PMU accused Khafaji’s organization of being one of these groups.
During the fight against ISIS, Khafaji remained loyal to the senior PMU leaders and their Iranian allies and often spoke on behalf of the PMU. As that battle wound down, he began criticizing Iranian interference in Iraq. He also stood against the killing of his cousin, Iraqi novelist Alaa Mushthoub, who was gunned down in Karbala. He and many Iraqis believe that the gunman was linked to the PMU. To them, the novelist was targeted for his secularism and sustained critique of Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The PMU’s internal divisions are part of a wider intra-Shia struggle for power that dominates post-ISIS Iraqi politics. Following last summer’s elections, this fragmentation produced two competing Shiite blocs in parliament for the first time since 2003.
On one side of the internal Shia Islamist struggle, a conservative group is led by the senior PMU leadership (referred to as the pro-Khamanei group), with allies such as the former prime minister and a vice president of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki. This camp is close to Iran. On the other side, a reformist Shia Islamist group with leaders such as Muqtada al-Sadr and Ammar al-Hakim seeks to limit Iranian influence and the role of the PMU in politics.
Further exacerbating the divide, a rivalry has emerged from within the conservative camp itself. Following the summer’s elections, factions within this group competed for a limited number of cabinet posts in the new government. The Fateh alliance, the electoral wing of the PMU, was unable to match each PMU leader’s expectations with the ministerial posts available to them.


This development isn't at all surprising.  We repeatedly noted before Iraq liberated or 'liberated' Mosul from ISIS that, for the government of Iraq, it was the best period ever.

The common enemy meant various factions were forced to work together.

We repeatedly noted that during this time, the Iraqi government should be moving towards inclusion.  They didn't.  They wasted that entire period.

Now ISIS is not the threat that it was (ISIS remains active in Iraq and still holds a small are in Anbar).  And it's time for various groups that never got along to explore what their role will be.  Even with non-thugs, this is a natural process.

When the process involves thugs -- like the bulk of the militias -- the process is  much more violent.

And former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki has used the tensions well.  He wants to be back as prime minister and has done all he can do to nullify any progress or movement by the current prime minister.  That said, Adil Abdul-Mahdi is so inept that it's no surprise Nouri and others have been able to render him useless and to do so this quickly.  Mahdi cannot even fill the security posts of Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior.  Nouri has begun making noises about challenging Mahdi this spring.  It would most likely be a Constitutional measure such as a vote of no confidence in Parliament.  Nouri knows all about that because he almost faced that himself until the US government put pressure on then-Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.  Using powers not in the Constitution, Talabani discarded the petition.

Nouri is not dependent upon the US government at present.  His recent remarks praising President Donald Trump and shredding former President Barack Obama (see yesterday's snapshot) indicate that he may be attempting to court the current administration in an attempt to return to power with the help of the US government but, with or without its help, Nouri is plotting his return.

Former PM Nouri al-Maliki (PM: 2006-2014) says the US, especially the administration, played a crucial role in the creation of / terrorism.
 
 


Obama Administration Played Important Role In Creation Of ISIS: Former Iraqi Prime Minister On February 24, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a local TV station that the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama had played a key role
 
 



Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, stated on Sunday that the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama had played a crucial role in the creation of [ISIS] by allowing the terrorist group to occupy Iraqi territories
 
 
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has for the first time divulged explosive secrets about how the United States supported [ISIS] and intentionally allowed the Takfiri terror outfit to gain power in Iraq so that Washington could creep back into the Arab country.
 
 
  • Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, told a local TV station on Sunday that the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama had played a crucial role in the creation of [ISIS] by allowing the terrorist group to occupy Iraqi territories,...
     
     


    Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, told a local TV station on Sunday that the administration of ex-US President Barack Obama had played a crucial role in the creation of [ISIS] by allowing the terrorist group to occupy Iraqi territories,...
     
     



    What US outlets are covering that?

    They devoted themselves to Nouri al-Maliki for over seven years.  They only turned on him when Barack made his June 19, 2014 remarks.  Prior to that, Nouri was a god to them.  He was a thug but very few bothered to let you know that.  The US government was backing him so the US press felt that their job was to do so as well.

    Now this man they treated like a god has declared Barack responsible for the rise of ISIS and the US outlets act as though they never heard of Nouri.

    Before Nouri came to power, there was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.  The Center for Constitutional Rights notes:

    Court hearing Wednesday over torture at Abu Ghraib
    This Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 10 a.m., the Center for Constitutional Rights will argue before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, urging the court to reject efforts by private military contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc. to dismiss the lawsuit filed against the corporation for its role in the torture of prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsel will oppose CACI's motion for summary judgment, motion to dismiss the lawsuit under the state secrets privilege, and motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (Alien Tort Statute). After more than a decade, the case, Al Shimari v. CACI et al., is currently scheduled to go to trial on April 23, 2019.
    Read the motions to be argued Wednesday on the Center for Constitutional Rights' case page.



    The following sites updated:





  • Monday, February 25, 2019

    Poor pathetic Janis Ian

    Be sure to read Ava and C.I.'s "Maybe Cher's right and some women should be called..." and marvel over what a liar Janis Ian can be.  Barbra Streisand called her in 1979 to get her to help write songs for A STAR IS BORN?  Ava and C.I.:

    Well, first off, she didn't work on that major film.  Barbra never hired her to write a song for A STAR IS BORN.

    But there's a more confusing issue, isn't there?

    Why in the world would Barbra call her in 1979 to write music for A STAR IS BORN?

    Does no one else question that?

    Maybe it's just us, but we kind of think that a film -- a musical! -- released on December 18, 1976 would need music then.  Not three years later.

    Call us crazy, but we notice things like that.

    Oh, Janis, you little liar, you.


    Poor Janis.  She poked the bear and they took her down.

    Poor Janis.

    Poor pathetic Janis.


    "Iraq snapshot"
    Monday, February 25, 2019.  We look at Rami's 'big' win, in Iraq we see Nouri al-Maliki blaming Barack Obama and in the US we wonder if it's time to impeach Republican Senator James Risch who refuses to schedule a hearing for Donald Trump's nominee for Ambassador to Iraq.


    Miss Rami Regrets.  Starting with the Academy Awards (we always include the awards the day after).

    His first sentence got an uncomfortable but polite response.  Then he mumbled and stumbled and gave a speech that might have worked at The Grammys where drug induced rambling is less shocking.  It was a speech about what exactly?  No one was sure

    By the time he was talking about "Little Bubba Rami" and "his curly head little mind would be blown," there was a mood that a huge mistake had been made.

    Yes, voters' remorse kicked in before the morning after.

    "Miss Rami" was how he was dubbed at the after-parties.  My name's attached to that and I'm fine with that but it should be noted it was one of his Best Actor nominees who actually came up with it.

    "Miss Rami went straight camp" is how that started.  Miss Rami pretends he played a gay man but a movie about a gay man wasn't what BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY offered.  It was camp -- weak, insipid camp -- the sort of camp you get when straight people do it.  No edge, nothing to really amuse.  Plodding.

    Straight camp also worked because they made Freddie Mercury straight -- except when it was time to doom him.  If you found Jenny's storyline reactionary in FOREST GUMP, you still weren't prepared for what BR offered.

    Miss Rami was nominated along with four actors.  Actors who created actual characters, inhabited them, characters that had something to say about the state of manhood.

    Miss Rami didn't act, Miss Rami mimicked.

    Miss Rami also had nothing to say about masculinity.  Camp can.  It can be subversive.  But straight camp?  It's like Bob Hope mocking Native Americans or gay people.  It offers little of anything.  Frat boy posing maybe, that's about it.


    Where does he go from here wondered one director?  He's just done a straight camp version of Patty Duke's Neely O'Hara, what else is there?  Maybe Bob Hope.

    Barbra Streisand won an Academy Award for playing Fanny Brice.  Many women have won and been nominated for playing stars.  Men?  Not really.

    So was it at least subversive, Miss Rami's win?  No.

    It was reactionary Hollywood apologizing for almost putting homophobe Kevin Hart on stage.  And reactionary Hollywood isn't very smart.  "Oh, he's playing someone who's gay!  This will make up for it!"

    No.

    First, Freddie's whole life was a joke in that film.  No one really expected it to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  We had all heard Michael Jackson's story about the time he walked in on Freddie with a group of people including a young man in a sling that Freddie was in the midst of fisting.

    We knew that wasn't going to be up on the big screen.

    But we didn't realize that a bunch of little nothings, jealous of all their time in the shadows, would sign off on a film that made Freddie straight and treated his gay moments as the cause of his downfall.  A little homophobic morality tale.

    Miss Rami was a joke.  At one of the four parities that I attended last night, Miss Rami was there.  Miss Rami was admiring his own reflection and appeared under the influence.  At one point, he wondered over to the table I was at.  He stood there for about 30 seconds trying to speak.  "Words are hard, aren't they?  When you don't have someone to write them for you, words are hard."

    Everyone laughed but me.  I don't laugh at my own jokes.  Miss Rami did a sort of head nod/jerk and then wandered off.

    Four deserving actors were nominated and the award went to the joke.  I didn't campaign for any of them.  I thought the four were equally brilliant in different ways.  I assumed talent would win out.  Goodness, was I wrong.

    By the second party, the public stated -- not whispered -- consensus was a huge mistake had been made.  The Academy does make mistakes.  A friend, an actress, compared it to when Jill Clayburgh won for AN UNMARRIED WOMAN and her career was all downhill after.  True except for the part about her winning.  Jill lost.

    Miss Rami won and no one knows what happens next.  Well, immediately, what happens is he returns to his USA TV show.  After that?

    His scenes with Lucy Boynton were no more convincing than their 'performance' at the Academy Awards.  So we're dealing with a mimic who can't work well others.  Maybe Bob Hope is the next role for him?

    Miss Rami won for playing a passive celebrity (that is how Freddie Mercury was rendered in that hideous script).  He won for his work with Bryan Singer.  The two did not get along.  It was Faye Dunaway versus Roman Polanski.  Rami didn't mention Bryan Singer in the acceptance speech.  As a general rule, maybe the Academy shouldn't give out awards to performers who can't mention their directors?  (Bryan Singer is thought to be a pedophile.  I believe he is.  Rami chose to work with him but when Singer's reputation finally became too radioactive, Miss Rami insisted he had never, ever heard any of the decades-long rumors about Bryan Singer.)

    Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe and Viggo Mortensen gave outstanding performances in outstanding films.  Miss Rami mimicked Freddie Mercury in a really bad jukebox musical.  As producers and directors debated what, if any, project Miss Rami could do next in film last night, it was clear that voters' remorse had actively kicked in.


    In Iraq, the war continues.



    This video from is chilling. They have kept track of every US coalition airstrike in Syria and Iraq between 2014 to 2018.


    1:38
    1,752 views







    As the war drags on, look who has something to say:



    Maliki reveals how knowingly helped so U.S. forces could return to Iraq




    Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki, biting the hand that fed him, no less.  In 2006, based on the CIA assessment that Nouri's paranoia would make him easy to manipulate, Bully Boy Bush installed Nouri as prime minister of Iraq.  In 2010, the Iraqi people voted him out.  Instead of standing with that vote, US President Barack Obama overturned it with The Erbil Agreement in order to give Nouri a second term.

    Not only is Nouri rejecting Barack, he's praising Donald Trump.  PRESS TV notes:


    The former Iraqi PM said America’s support for [ISIS] did not end there as Washington proceeded to stop all supplies of helicopter parts and other military equipment to Iraq and halted a contract to sell Iraq F-16 attack aircraft even though Baghdad had paid for them in advance.
    Maliki said he couldn’t still fathom why the Obama administration made those decisions, letting the terrorists get away by refusing to attack their positions.
    He agreed with US President Donald Trump’s remarks during the 2016 US presidential campaign that Obama was the “founder” of [ISIS] by fully evacuating Iraq at the wrong time to let [ISIS] take over.
    “We should never have gotten out the way we got out,” Trump said during a rally in August 2016. “We unleashed terrible fury all over the Middle East."

    The idiotic Ben Rhodes was taken by surprise with regards to Nouri's actions in his second term.  One wonders how he'll react now to Nouri's remarks.

    Nouri is the reason for the rise of ISIS.  He persecuted the people, especially the Sunnis.  Barack Obama publicly rebuked Nouri (finally) on June 19, 2014.  Even so, his flunkies have not been very vocal about Nouri since they left the White House.

    On the topic of the US government and Iraq, Nouri's comments are coming for a reason.  He wants to be prime minister again.  Adil Abdul-Mahdi is a failure as prime minister and all these months later still does not have a Cabinet -- the security posts of Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior are among the empty Cabinet posts.  There is talk of a no-confidence vote taking place this spring.  Nouri is positioning himself to take over and that's what's behind his licking of Donald Trump's boots.

    Right now is not the time for the US to be rudderless in Iraq.

    Why is it that when we talk about US influence, we mean diplomacy but our Congress can only see in terms of military?

    Currently, there is no US Ambassador to Iraq.

    If you Google, you will get the lie that Douglas Silliman is the US Ambassador to Iraq.

    Really?

    This Douglas Silliman?

    My thoughts as I depart Baghdad.






    He was the Ambassador.  He left a month ago.

    US President Donald Trump has nominated Matthew Tueller for the post.  November 15th, he asked the Senate to hold confirmation hearings.

    That hearing has still not taken place. Senator James Risch is the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Is he not up to the job?

    Again, November 15th the request for this hearing was made.  As of January 31st, the US has no Ambassador to Iraq.  Is Congress not up to performing their duties?  Do we need to start talking impeachment of Senator James Risch?

    I'm not joking.  Months ago, he was asked to schedule a hearing on the nomination.  He did not.  Now the position is vacant.  And still no hearing is scheduled.  The US government has put US troops on the ground in Iraq.

    And there's no Ambassador there?

    Dereliction of duty appears to be Senator Jame Risch's offense.

    I have no idea whether Matthew Tueller is qualified or not.  That's one thing a confirmation hearing is supposed to determine.  If Tueller is not right for the job (I have no idea -- he speaks Arabic which puts him ahead of a moron like Chris Hill), then a new nominee will be needed.  That happened when Barack nominated the hideous Brett McGruk.  So if it turns out that Tueller is not right, it will mean a new nominee.

    How does Senator Risch think there's time for all of that.  Hold the hearing already.

    US troops are being put at risk while no diplomatic efforts are taking place.  Schedule the hearing.

    If not, maybe it's time to call for Senator Risch's impeachment.  US troops should not be in Iraq.  They are.  They are in harms way.  And Senator Risch doesn't feel any pressure to hold a confirmation hearing to fill the post of US Ambassador to Iraq?



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    The following community sites -- plus Cindy Sheehan -- updated: