Like Maria Said Paz

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Who fact checks the fact checkers?

A question we should all be asking. Jonathan Turley:

The progress of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has led to a great deal of criticism of the coverage of the mainstream media, which continues to downplay the weaknesses in the case. Yesterday, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the sixth charge in the case. I recently wrote a column stating that the sixth count appeared to be based on a factually and legally inapplicable provision of Wisconsin law. I was mystified how the prosecutors could even secure the count in the first place. What is equally concerning is how Facebook intervened early to flag the questioning the charge and how Politifact declared such questions as presumptively “false” worthy.

What is most striking about the controversy is that it was started with just one random Facebook user on Aug. 27, 2020, writing “Carrying a rifle across state lines is perfectly legal, adding “Based on the laws I can find of this area at 17 years old Kyle was perfectly legal to be able to possess that rifle without parental supervision.”

Facebook then flagged the statement “as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.” It went to PolitiFact’s Daniel Funke who declared it as presumptively untrue.

“The Wisconsin Department of Justice honors concealed carry permits issued in Illinois. But Rittenhouse did not have a permit to begin with, and he was not legally old enough to carry a firearm in Wisconsin …. Whether Rittenhouse violated Wisconsin law by possessing a firearm underage is the subject of ongoing litigation. But the Facebook post claimed that it was “perfectly legal” for the teenager to carry an assault-style rifle in Kenosha. At best, that’s unproven. At worst, it’s inaccurate. Either way, we rate the post False.”

The sixth count alleged the possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. Under state law, minors are prohibited from such possession and this can constitute a Class A misdemeanor that carries a basic sentence of up to nine months in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

The problem is that the provision was facially inapplicable to this case.

Please read Ava and C.I.'s "Media: Passing (race and sexuality)." I'll excerpt from it next time.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, November 16, 2021. Joe Biden continues to fail and to blunder, the western press continues to lie about the Iraqi election.

In yesterday's snapshot, we noted that the media was determined to lie and that the American people were not going to buy it. Their lives are being hurt by inflation.

On yesterday's BREAKING POINTS, Krystal and Saagar dealt with the realities that are impacting Americans and how MSNBC can't get honest.

Joe Biden clearly isn't up for the job of president -- and that's only a surprise if you're brain dead. He couldn't handle himself in the debates. He had to be hidden away to keep the country from laughing at him and grasping how out of it he truly is. President George HW Bush gets sick and throws up on an overseas trip and the US press can't stop covering it (and shouldn't have stopped covering it) but Joe farts in from Prince Charles and Camila ("It was looooong and it was foul," is the quote I got) and the US press doesn't even want to go there. They continue to whore for him and lie for him -- they're Samantha Bees, not reporters. That failed wanna be 'comic' announced to Dan Rather that she wasn't going to do jokes about Joe. She needed to 'support' him. Because that's what a propagandist does, not what a comic does. TBS needs to pull the plug on her awful show -- no one is watching anymore, the bad ratings have only gotten worse.

We're not even a full year in and Joe's a failure. The press tries to distract with features on Kamala Harris. Kamala isn't the president of the United States. She's the vice president. But they think going after her makes it look like they're a functioning press. No, it only makes them more pathetic. We all know the vice presidency is a ceremonial office.

Yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following:

Washington, D.C., November 15, 2021 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern about the harmful precedent set by recent Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on the homes of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe and his associates.

According to media reports, the FBI seized O’Keefe’s cellphones during a November 6 raid on his home in Mamaroneck, New York, as part of a court-ordered investigation into the theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, U.S. President Joe Biden’s daughter. In a statement, Project Veritas wrote that authorities also raided the apartments and homes of other current and former members of the organization, and confiscated unspecified materials.

Project Veritas acquired the diary in 2020 but turned it over to law enforcement, those media reports said.

Founded by O’Keefe in 2011, Project Veritas is a nonprofit group that conducts exposés on groups it perceives as left-leaning, and has amplified disinformation on topics including COVID-19 vaccines and alleged election fraud, according to the independent nonprofit fact-checking group First Draft.

“While we do not endorse some of the tactics Project Veritas employs, the FBI’s recent raids on the organization’s founder and his associates represent a concerning overreach by law enforcement,” said CPJ U.S. and Canada Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “The government must provide a clear link between members of Project Veritas and alleged criminal activity before searching their homes for information about source material. Conducting raids without this kind of link sets a dangerous precedent that could allow law enforcement to search and confiscate reporters’ unpublished source material in vague attempts to identify whistleblowers.”

Some pages of the diary were published on a right-wing blog during the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign, according to those news reports, which said that the Justice Department under the Trump administration first opened an investigation into the theft.

On a November 10 letter to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in New York, lawyers representing Project Veritas stated that the outlet had received the diary lawfully, the New York Times reported. On November 11, Torres ordered prosecutors to pause their “extraction and review of the contents” of O’Keefe’s phones, according to Politico.

When CPJ called the FBI for comment, a representative who answered requested that CPJ submit questions via email. CPJ emailed questions to the bureau’s New York office but did not immediately receive any reply.

A representative from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York told CPJ via phone that the office could not comment on the case.

Your tax dollars at waste. Ashley Biden is just a little girl -- a little 40-year-old girl.

Is it a sex diary? That's what DC speculates. Filled with nasty, dirty secrets -- written by a grown woman. The family gets trashier and trashier, yes.

But the reality is that we have clear evidence of Joe Biden's abuse of power.

The diary may or may not have been stolen. That family isn't exactly known for thinking clearly and gathering all their items when doing drugs.

But even if it was stolen? That's not an FBI matter.

That Joe Biden is abusing the FBI right now is alarming. It shows that he does not respect boundaries. It demonstrates that, with regards to his children, he will dictate to the FBI what they will and will not do.

Anyone see the problem there? Or have we all forgotten that son Hunter is under criminal investigation by the FBI. So if Joe's going to misuse the FBI for his daughter's diary are we really supposed to believe that he's not misusing them with regards to the criminal investigation of his son? It really seems like it's time for a special counsel. Joe should probably try to get ahead of that and announce one now instead of waiting for the mid-terms. If current polling holds, there may be a shift of power -- and even without the polling, remember, that is the historical pattern.

Joe Biden is not new to the federal government. He damn well knows that the FBI is not to be misused to find your oversexed daughter's embarrassing diary that she probably lost herself while on a cocktail of various chemicals.

It's an abuse of power. It's a huge overreach. And the use of the FBI to raid a journalist's home qualifies as an impeachable offense.

It is a gross abuse of power.

A high crime.

Maybe it's time for Joe to resign and let Kamala assume the presidency?

Margaret Kimberley Tweets:

"I’m going to eliminate your student debt if you come from a family [making less] than $125,000 and went to a public university.” 

Has this happened or was it just a campaign lie?

forbes.com

Biden Affirms: “I Will Eliminate Your Student Debt”

Biden reaffirmed his commitment to broad student loan forgiveness at a town hall in Miami on Tuesday.

9:14 PM · Nov 15, 2021

Yep, Joe did promise that. Of course, career politician, Joe Biden's promises have always been meaningless.

The American people are in need and Joe Biden refuses to deliver. He had a lot of promises to make before he took the presidential oath. He just doesn't keep his word. Unlike most presidents, there should have been no surprises for Joe who spent decades in the US Senate and eight years as vice president of the United States. Yet he can't accomplish anything to help the people. All the lairs who whored for Joe are as responsible as is Joe himself.

And the press, so quick to 'examine' (discredit) Tara Reade continues to apply that intrusive and biased eye to Joe himself . They refuse to do their job.

They are far from alone.

ARAB NEWS carries embarrassing garbage:

The UN Security Council on Monday praised Iraqis for their commitment to democracy in the face of “dynamic security challenges,” and congratulated the Iraqi government and Independent High Electoral Commission for what it termed “a technically well-managed and generally peaceful election” in early October.

The council’s statement came in the wake of a report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Iraq’s electoral process and the role played by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. The UN mission was praised by the council for its “objectivity” in supporting the government and IHEC in pursuit of “genuinely free and fair Iraqi-led, Iraqi-owned elections.”

Iraqis went to the polls last month to elect members of parliament amid protesters’ calls to stop endemic corruption and improve living conditions.

Is that what the US government said?

"The UN security council said it!" No, don't be an idiot. The US controls the Security Council. If the UN General Assembly issued a statement, I'd love to hear that. It's an independent body. The SEcuirty Council is not independent and it is a joke.

It's cute how they feel the need -- over a month after the October 10th election -- to issue a statement. Were they working the street corners all this time? Too busy with tricks to issue a statement until now?

THE NATIONAL also embarrasses itself but good for whichevber reporter refused to put their name to the piece (it carries no byline).

The elections were not successful. A vast number of people -- security forces -- were prevented from voting. Shame on media whores who can't tell the damn truth.

I don't like the militias. I never have. But I'm not going to lie and pretend like they weren't disenfranchised. You either tell the truth or you don't. The decision the weekend before the elections to refuse to allow most militia members to vote with the rest of the security forces was disenfranchisement. They are part of the security forces. That's not my judgment call. The Iraqi government made them part of the security forces (a move I strongly objected to). That settled it. But they didn't like the prime minister and so the electoral commission barred them form the day of early voting knowing that meant that they couldn't vote. (On October 10th, they would be deployed around the country to protect polling stations. You can't do that and also vote in your own district.)

By lying about this, the western press is just convincing Iraqis that the press is lying about other things.

The disenfranchisement is not in question. It happened. It happened in public. Most Americans probably don't know about it -- such is the US media -- but the Iraqi people do know. And those outlets that are dishonest about this basic fact are not going to be believed about other things.

They know you're lying and you're just sinking deeper into lies. It's no wonder the number of Iraqis who eel the election was fraudulent has grown in the last few weeks.

Instead of reality, we get The Whore of Baghdad herself, Jane Arraf, writing whorish prose about how Afghans have it good in Iraq. You know who has it good in Iraq? A fat American who's managed to whore for decades from Iraq. CNN encouraged her to do so in the 90s -- as Eason Jordan admitted on the pages of THE NEW YORK TIMES, that is how CNN maintained its presence in Iraq throughout the 90s and early '00s. Jane Arraf is in a country on fire and instead of 'reporting' on that, she's writing garbage that no one asked for and that no one needs. She's truly a whore.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Monday, November 15, 2021

Media malpractice

Jonathan Turley:

Even without the unforced errors by the prosecution, this was always a difficult case. Wisconsin has a strong self-defense standard. After a defendant claims to have acted to repel a threat, the burden is on the prosecution to rebut that claim beyond a reasonable doubt.

Instead, the prosecution prompted its own witnesses to create layers of doubt in the case. In doing so, it seems to have reduced the range of possibilities to somewhere between a hung jury and outright acquittal on the major charges.

The problem is that many people may be unaware that the case is collapsing due to such evidentiary or tactical failures. Any hung jury or acquittal will come as a shock, and the level of outrage is likely to be greater. This case began with violent rioting in Kenosha, and the news coverage is fueling the danger of renewed violence.

It is even worse in that some coverage has dismissed the trial as an exhibition of raw racism. Some have criticized Judge Bruce Schroeder after he enforced long-standing constitutional principles and defended the core constitutional right of the defendant against self-incrimination.

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross advocated for Schroeder’s removal and called on columnist Elie Mystal to discuss the matter. Mystal, who stated earlier this month that white, non-college-educated voters supported Republicans in the 2021 races in part because they care about “using their guns on Black people and getting away with it,” not surprisingly, has written that this trial is a sham.

One man – not society – is on trial

MSNBC’s host Joy Reid also attacked the trial and suggested that Rittenhouse’s emotional breakdown on the stand was fraudulent. Her guest, MSNBC legal analyst and Georgetown law professor Paul Butler, concurred and called it “the greatest performance of (his) life.”

Butler declared Rittenhouse “was well-prepared by his defense attorneys to disrupt his image as a trigger-happy vigilante who went on a shooting rampage at a Black Lives Matter protest.”

Butler, who has written that Black jurors should use “jury nullification” to refuse to convict Black defendants in drug cases, insisted in a previous appearance that an acquittal would fuel future violence by white people.

Reid added Wednesday, “If you want to know why critical race theory exists, the actual law school theory that emphasizes that supposedly colorblind laws in America often still have racially discriminatory outcomes, then look no further than the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.”

However, Rittenhouse is not to be judged for society’s historical racism, and such history does not change the underlying facts.

Either Grosskreutz (who is white) was pointing the gun at Rittenhouse’s head or he was not. Either Rosenbaum (who was white) was grabbing the barrel of Rittenhouse’s gun or he was not. Such facts do not change through CRT translations.

Many in the media rightly criticized those who encouraged riots on Jan. 6 with unsupported claims of electoral fraud. However, some of the same media figures offer distorted accounts of this trial. The narrative can overwhelm the facts.

The Iraq War. The lies of Russia-gate. Refusing to cover the Kyle Rittenhouse honestly and in legal terms. We could go on and on but there's a reason so many Americans have such a low opinion of the news media in this country.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, November 15, 2021. As the US economy continues to collapse, Iraq continues to await the release of the final tally of votes for October 10th's election.

Let's start in the US where there's no 'change you can believe in' Things are worse than they were before Joe Biden was sworn in. Abortion rights are under attack, immigrants are still being jailed and taken from their families, the government continues to spy on the citizens (and has increased the spying by sending FBI agents into parent-school conferences), Julian Assange remains persecuted, US troops remain on the ground in Iraq . . . Go down the list. And the economy? Worse, much worse. Inflation hasn't been seen at this rate since 1990. All of this was felt and registered in the Virginia election at the start of this month but people wanted to lie and whore and be blind. Joe Biden is failing as president. Kamala Harris is the vice president. It's not a significant role. But hasn't the press decide to explore her and the way her staff works while ignoring doing the same regarding Joe Biden.

It's time to stop pretending and lying. The media can see its image get even worse or they can get honest. This happy talk nonsense is not working and it will not work as Christmas unfolds. People are suffering and it is registering with them. Where's the stimulus check, Joe?

We need a UBI (Universal Basic Income) but we're led by fools and cowards -- that refers to all the administrations of this century, not just Joe's. The people are suffering. A stimula check is a pittance. But Joe can't even give that, can he.

Ebenezer Robinette Biden?

Yet he escapes questions while Kamala Harris doesn't. Tommy Christopher (MEDEIAITE) reports that she was asked about the suffering of Americans in relation to the upcoming Christmas holiday by both ABC NEWS' Sarah Kolinovsky and BLOOMBERG NEWS' Jennifer Jacobs:

MS. KOLINOVSKY: Thank you, Madam Vice President. A follow-up to Jen’s question on inflation: For Americans at home who are feeling the economic pinch, when do you expect they can expect to feel relief? You mentioned Christmas in your remarks. Will this be the most expensive Christmas in history after the most expensive Thanksgiving in history?

And then, on one of the provisions in the Build Back Better bill: paid family leave. Here in France, women are offered 16 weeks of paid maternity leave; fathers are offered 28 days. Is it frustrating to you that the U.S. can’t secure the same for American parents? And why is paid family leave not a red line in this package for this administration?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, on the inflation piece: We, as I said earlier, fully appreciate the significance of things costing more. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal.

And so, we are doing what we can, making it probably one of our highest priorities — I talk to the President about it often — one of our highest priorities. We need to bring cost down for the American people and, in particular, for working people and working families.

And again — I’ll go back to my previous point — that is why we have been pushing so hard since the beginning for Build Back Better, because it is absolutely and almost uniquely designed to do just that — to make it easier for people to live. And, for most Americans, making it easier for them to live means bringing the cost of living down, especially for essential services.

On the piece about paid family leave: Yes, it’s frustrating. It’s something I’ve been advocating for for years, as has the President, and it was in our initial proposal. And in terms of what we believe will actually address — again, a topic of conversation — the topic of conversation on the mainstage yesterday — inequities, the inequality of systems and structures.

We know that this is an issue that disproportionately affects women and working women. We know that in the United States — and I know around the world — we have seen working women, because of the pandemic, leave the workforce at the rate in the United States; the most recent number I saw is somewhere around 2 million women have left the workforce.

And let’s be clear about this: An issue that impacts working women not only directly impacts the economy of their household, it impacts the economy of our whole society.

When you lift up the economic status of women, you necessarily lift up the economic status of families, and all of society benefits.

So, yes, I’m frustrated. And it is, I think, a shame that we are not yet a leader on this. We have work to do. And that is why the President and I are committed to doing this work. It’s important, and it matters.

And again, I’ll go back to my previous point: You know, there are those of us who have been fighting for this for a long time, and there are many more who perhaps kind of heard about it but really saw it during the pandemic.

I mean, most recently, I had the TV on but I was doing some- — I was in a briefing, I think, so I was doing something else, so I didn’t hear. But it was an image of somebody doing a Zoom, and their — one child came in — (laughs) — and then the toddler came in after that, and then somebody came in and grabbed the two kids. And then, yesterday, we saw a different example of that. But, yeah, it’s a big issue.

Let's be clear, Americans are suffering and have been suffering. As Trina likes to point out -- and has since the early days of this pandemic -- we are not all in this together. Those inane PSAs were supposed to lull the American people into a stupor of acceptance while the 1% stole everything that wasn't nailed down and now they're coming for the things that are nailed down. That's what the strikes have been about -- whether it's the Kellogg workers or the John Deer workers or whomever. The people who make the products, the people who get them there, they're the ones suffering. Profits are huge if you're a fat cat at the top of hte chain. And the fat cats intend to steal even more. They won't pay fair wages, they won't offer the needed benefits. Yet they take in all this money, more than they did before the pandemic. They're robber barons -- plain and simple. And Joe Biden is another useless fool who can't and won't stand up for the American people. He'll pose as a friend to the worker but a real friend wouldn't allow for any of this to take place.

That's Jake Tapper on CNN (STATE OF THE UNION) asking Joe Biden's economic advisor Brian Deese about reality -- the topic the White House has avoided. CNN notes:

Deese acknowledged during his interview that inflation is "high right now," and, when asked by Tapper when inflation will go back below the 2% level considered normal, he pointed to experts estimating it would happen in 2022.

Deese would not directly answer whether Biden was willing to open the US' Strategic Petroleum Reserve or to stop gas and oil exports to address rising crude oil prices, telling Tapper: "We are very committed to do everything we can to make sure that American consumers don't bear the brunt of high gas prices and volatile energy prices and the President has made clear that all options are on the table."

"We're monitoring the situation very carefully," he said.

Biden, like Deese, was noncommittal last week on ordering a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release after the OPEC+ coalition rejected calls from the US and other big oil consuming nations to increase output by more than planned in December.

NEWSWEEK's Xander Landen offers:

CNN host Jake Tapper pressed White House economic adviser Brian Deese on Sunday over comments President Joe Biden made in June regarding inflation, which has now reached a 31-year high.

Biden said at the time, "By the way, talk of inflation, the overwhelming consensus is it's going to pop up a little bit and then go back down."

Tapper also played a clip of Deese speaking about inflation then: "To the degree that people are focused on inflationary pressures in the short term, that really is not the issue," he said at the time.

"Do you think that you and the president were wrong and inflation is not a short-term, pop up a little bit and then go back down issue?" Tapper asked Deese.

Brian Deese's response? "No, I don't think so, Jake."

Oh, you don't? Well as parents struggle to put food on the table and to make a holiday for their children, they can take comfort in the fact that Brian Deese is not merely incompetent, he's also either a serial liar or just flat out living in a land of delusion. How about he uses that wonderful health care plan that he and others officials get -- the kind the American people don't -- to get the mental help he so obviously and so sorely needs.

Sam Raskin (NEW YORK POST) writes:

President Biden in June said that “the overwhelming consensus” was that “it’s going to pop up a little bit and then go back down” — before finally acknowledging publicly Wednesday that soaring inflation was “worrisome.”

The top economist then dodged questions about when inflation will finally cool and instead spent Sunday morning minimizing the commander-in-chief’s role and pushing his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better agenda on a series of TV show appearances.

Deese's answer, by the way, is that we "move forward on the Build Back Better bill that Congress is considering,”"

I guess that response is a little better than the b.s. that Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, provided. We covered it last week but here's the exchange:

JUDY WOODRUFF:

And it took several months, but here we are.

I'm asking you about when Americans are going to see results from this, because we know many Americans increasingly worried about the price of gas, about the cost of goods that are being shipped, the so-called supply chain problems.

And it caught our eye that, over the weekend, the White House said this bill is going to ease inflationary pressures, strengthen supply chains by making these long — these long-overdue improvements.

How exactly is that going to happen? When are prices going to come down in connection with this legislation in a way that Americans can see that, touch it?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM:

Yes, I mean, first of all, we know that a lot of the mismatch between supply and demand is the world and the economy coming out of COVID. The quicker we can ensure that everybody's vaccinated, the quicker we get back to normal, right?

But there's also 17 Nobel economists who said that this bill will, in fact, address inflationary pressures, especially in addressing some of the physical bottlenecks that we have seen, so the investment in our ports and in our airports, in our railway systems. So that's important as well.

There is no doubt there will be some natural evening out of prices and inflation, as soon as we get through this COVID. But it is going to take a few months before that — before that settles out.

Jennifer's answer to what they will do? Force you to take a vaccine. She's pushing her responsibility off on the American people. She forgets who serves who.

As for the mandates, they're most likely illegal and Joe Biden, as a candidate for president, was against them for that reason. It was a government over reach. And now? Now he's all for him.

Fear.

I can understand people being afraid. But you can't be ruled by fear. That's what led to the roundups at the start of this decade of Muslims. It's what led to targeting of Muslims. In the last century, it's what led to the round up and internment of Japanese Americans. In this century, it led to the PATRIOT Act which should have either expired or been overturned long ago.

In the last century? It led ot scapegoating gay men for AIDS. It led to foolish people attacking those with AIDS.

Fear is an emotion. It shouldn't be a ruling device.

Jonathan Turley notes:

I recently wrote a column on the legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate issued through OSHA. Not only is the use of OSHA regulations unprecedented for imposing a national vaccine mandate, I noted that Chief of Staff Ron Klain went to Twitter to herald the use of OSHA as a “work around” the constitutional limitations placed on President Biden. I asked how a court would respond to such an admission. We have to wonder no more. Late Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit cited Klain’s comment in its decision enjoining the mandate.

In the prior column, I noted Klain acknowledged that the use of OSHA was a “work around” in light of the constitutional barriers preventing President Biden from ordering a national mandate directly. The Fifth Circuit also picked up on that glaring admission in footnote 13:

On September 9, 2021, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain retweeted MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle’s tweet that stated, “OSHA doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is the ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations.”

I previously wrote:

Many of us often criticized former President Trump for undermining Justice Department lawyers with damaging comments later cited by courts when ruling against his administration. Now Biden and Klain seem to be competing for the greatest admissions-against-interest, including a prior admission from President Biden that they would be pursuing a presumptively unconstitutional measure simply to buy more time to spend more money. Klain is celebrating a way to evade constitutional limitations — but for courts reviewing the OSHA rule, that is akin to a husband telling a spouse that he has found a “work-around” to his vows by redefining extramarital relations.

The media covered Trump’s ill-advised tweets with great detail and indignation, particularly when those tweets were cited by lower courts. He was mocked for undermining his own case in court. To its credit, the Fifth Circuit did not give the Klain tweet the weight that the Ninth Circuit gave Trump’s tweets in its rulings against his immigration orders. I was critical of how those tweets were used by the Ninth Circuit and those decisions, as predicted, were ultimately reversed.

Yet, the media is virtually silent on this and other cases where Biden and his staff have directly contradicted or undermined the position of the Administration.

There are two world currently: the real one and the one most of the media pretends exist.

Turning to Iraq, AHLUL BAYT NEWS AGENCY reports:

Iraqi sources say the deputy commander of the anti-terror Karbala Operation has been killed in an ambush in Iraq.

Iraqi media outlets reported that Haider Hamoud al-Husseinawy was assassinated on Monday while he was heading from his workplace in the town of al-Nukhib in Anbar Province to his home in Dhi Qar Province.

Baghdad Today cited a security source as saying that he was killed by “unknown” gunmen.

Meanwhile, Shafaq News said al-Husseinawy “died in mysterious circumstances.”

No further details were immediately available.

The assassination was the second of its kind in the past few days.

On Thursday, Abdul-Zahra Nassir al-Maleki, a member of the Iraqi intelligence apparatus, was killed by unknown gunmen.

The assailants, who were riding a motorcycle, opened fire on al-Maleki’s car and fled to an unknown destination.

An Iraqi political alliance on Saturday warned of US plots to assassinate political and military figures in the country and pin the blame on resistance groups, after reports said the drones that recently targeted the Iraqi premier’s house took off from the American embassy in Baghdad.

It's not a surprise to me. If it is to you, maybe you're one of those people sending e-mails to the public account slamming me for "saying" that the us government tried to kill Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

You obviously can type. Can you comprehend words on the screen?

I repeatedly said I had no idea what happened.

I also noted that the Iraqi people on social media were seeing this as a US plot to rally support for their designated choice Mustafa.

The Iraqi people don't support him. They don't want him. He's on his way out. Then Joe gets a hail mary from the militias? It doesn't seem logical and that's why they questioned it.

They continue to questions it. I'm not surprised that officials are now echoing that sentiment publicly.

AVA TODAY Tweets:

More protests by pro-Iran groups over election results in Iraq https://avatoday.net/node/16320

7:46 AM · Nov 14, 2021

There are a few weeks left in November, the month of December and then it's 2022. Will a final count, an official one, be available before the end of this year?

As unrest continues, PRESS TV reports:

An Iraqi political alliance has warned against movements by the US to assassinate political and military officials in the Arab country and pin the blame on the country’s resistance groups, amid reports that the drones that recently targeted the Iraqi premier’s house flew out of the site of Washington’s embassy in Baghdad.

In an interview with al-Maloumah news agency on Saturday, Mohammad al-Baldawi, a member of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, expressed surprise at the government’s foot-dragging in disclosing the facts about a recent drone attack on Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s residence.

He said that the government accused some parties, whose loyalty to the country has been proven in the fight against the [ISIS] terrorist group, while the real culprit behind the attack was left alone and allowed to destabilize the situation.

The American forces are “the first and last culprit” in the incident since the airspace of Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and government offices, is protected by the US Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) systems and American planes are constantly flying over Iraq, Baldawi added.

The unrest isn't going away. I see so-called 'think' pieces from various institutes. No one mentions SABREEN NEWS. Maybe they're like most in the media, ignorant on Iraq? SABREEN NEWS is relatively new (it's one year old) and it's a hugely popular news outlet that most see as a front for the militias. However you see see it, this outlet did offer predictions a month before the elections and people continue to cite those predictions when they note problems with the vote.

If you're going to talk -- gas bag? -- about Iraq and the people's reaction to the vote tally, you might try examining their media landscape and the expectations that were created.

Meanwhile, official count or no official count, outside the focus of the western press, negotiations are taking place. Nouri al-Maliki is talking to anyone in his effort to regain the spot of prime minister or at least prevent Moqtada al-Sadr having the final say. (The two are sworn enemies who have long opposed one another.) Firas Adnan (ALMADA) reports that Sunni and Kurdish politicians are watching the negotiations taking place as various Shi'ite blocs try to come out on top. Saad al-Lami -- a member of the Sunni Victory Alliance -- notes that everyone is in a holding position as they await a final tally of the votes.

The following sites updated: