Thursday, October 6, 2016

They do get that Greens exist, right?

I'm a Green.

So I'm not getting all the badgering.

Is it supposed to make me think I shouldn't vote Green?

  1. The liberal push to shame prospective third party voters is officially ON: some things never change
  2. Yawn


Garbage like The Nation editorial?

They do grasp that this country has members of the Green Party, right?

Because these insane editorials are written as if half the country doesn't even exist.

Maybe more than half.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Thursday, October 6, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, tensions between the governments of Iraq and Turkey continue as Iraq rejects the Turkish occupation of their country, the US did use Depleted Uranium in Iraq and kept records, and much more.


If Turkey is not occupying Iraq, what are they doing?  Squatting?

It's a question to ponder as the issue continues to heat up.

Iraq's Parliament has labeled the Turkish troops "occupiers," the Shi'ite militias have done similarly and called for them to leave, the Iraqi Foreign Affairs Ministry has issued a statement declaring them same.  All week this has been building up since, at the start of this month, Turkey's Parliament decided Turkish troops would be staying in Iraq for another year.

ANADOLU AGENCY reports that earlier today Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus declared at a press conference that the Turkish military is not "occupiers" and, not content merely to reject that label, he also throws out an insult insisting, "If Iraqi government officials had to react, where were they when Mosul and Raqqa were occupied by [the Islamic State] in one day?"


Dropping back to Tuesday's snapshot for context:




ALSUMARIA reports that Parliament is calling for the expulsion of the Turkish Ambassador and for Iraq to cut all economic ties with Turkey.  This is in response to Turkey's Parliament voting earlier this month to extend the Turkish military's mission in Iraq by one year.

This move follows Monday's statement from Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his statements that Turkey would take part in the liberation of Mosul.

Turkey shares a border with Iraq, northern Iraq.

Turkey has a history of suppressing Kurds which has led to various groups of rebels/freedom fighters arising over the years.  The PKK is the most famous or infamous.  It's a group of Kurds that have been waging war on the Turksih government since the 80s in a fight for Kurdish rights.


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."



Kurds are throughout the Middle East.

In Turkey, they live under a system of apartheid.

In Iraq, they tend to live in the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government has long feared that the KRG might move from semi-autonomous to autonomous -- the fear being that an independent land for Kurds would inspire Kurds outside of Iraq and fuel independence movements.

Despite this fear, the post-2003 invasion Iraq period has seen the Turkish government being much closer to the KRG than to the central Iraqi government based in Baghdad.

Under Nouri al-Maliki's terms as prime minister (2006 -2014), for example, Turkey was accused of helping to steal Iraqi oil and backing terrorists.

Nouri did approve, however, of Turkey bombing northern Iraq.

Turkey has declared that its war planes bomb PKK terrorists.

The reality is that many farms in northern Iraq have been destroyed and many civilians have been left dead and injured.

In the fall of 2014, Haider al-Abadi became prime minister.

He has objected to the bombings carried out by Turkish airplanes as have various other Iraqi officials; however, the US State Dept has pronounced these bombings necessary and that apparently means the end of the story.

The announcement that Turkey would extend its Iraq mission for another year has kicked off the latest round of disagreements.

Iraq has made clear that it does not want Turkish troops on the ground in Iraq.

The message has not been received by the Turkish government.




And today?



Link to headline article




Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler (REUTERS) notes that Turkey's is calling the reaction "incomprehensible."


Others do not see it that way.

Has Invaded /: There are 18 Turkish Bases. The Iraqi Parliament has voted, asking for them to leave. wants war!






REUTERS reports, "Iraq has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the presence of Turkish troops on its territory as a dispute with Ankara escalates."

Meanwhile ALMASDAR NEWS states, "The Spokesperson for the Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve Council, Lt. Colonel John L. Dorrian, stated on Wednesday that the Turkish Army in northern Iraq is not part the coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) inside the country."  Some are denying the authenticity of the statement (which also calls the Turkish troops "illegal") and noting that it was released to the press not by the Joint Task Force but by the Shi'ite militias.


All this as US President Barack Obama tries to force the liberation or 'liberation' of Mosul in time to get a gold star for his tarnished legacy and in time to save the election for War Hawk Hillary Clinton.


Things are a bit complicated by the issue with Turkey.

But they'll find some way around it just the way the White House has agreed to look the other way at the War Crimes of the Shi'ite militias in Iraq.


report Iraqi Sunni civilians under threat by Shia Militias backed by Iraq Gov. in Iraq's Diyala province









Meanwhile Samuel Oakford (IRIN) has an explosive report which opens:

Records detailing as many as 181,000 rounds of depleted uranium munitions shot in 2003 by American forces in Iraq have been unearthed by researchers, representing the most significant public documentation of the controversial armament's use during the US-led invasion.
The cache, released to George Washington University in 2013 but until now not made public, shows that a majority of the 1,116 sorties carried out by A-10 jet crews during March and April of 2003 were aimed at so-called “soft targets” like cars and trucks, as well as buildings and troop positions. This runs parallel to accounts that the munitions were used on a wide array of targets and not just against the tanks and armoured vehicles that the Pentagon maintains super-penetrative DU munitions are intended for.
The strike logs were originally handed over in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, but were not published on the archive’s website.
Fishing for new information, researchers at the Dutch NGO PAX, and an advocacy group, the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW), obtained the records earlier this year, which were then mapped and analysed. IRIN obtained both the data and analysis, which is contained in a report that will be published later this week.

Confirmation that the munitions were used more indiscriminately than previously acknowledged could renew calls for scientists to look deeper into the health effects of DU on civilian populations in conflict areas. The munitions have been suspected – but never conclusively proven – of causing cancer and birth defects, among other issues.


Lastly, RUDAW reports, "Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is set to appear before parliament on Thursday on charges of corruption, following impeachment of two other ministers since August and the resignation of a third."  al-Jaafari's government corruption goes back many years.  He's also suffered a loss of influence as he's no longer the commanding presence in Iraq he once was (Ammar al-Hakim outranks al-Jaafari in terms of prestige and power these days).


The following community sites updated:










  • Wednesday, October 5, 2016

    A few things about Jill Stein

    The billionaire establishment parties will say anything to remain in power - no matter how untruthful. Don't be surprised. Fight back.


    And you can fight back by voting for a third party ticket.

    Jill Stein is a third party candidate, for the Green Party.

    She's for Medicare for all.

    She's against these never ending wars.

    She believes whistle-blower Ed Snowden is a hero.

    She would not throw Chelsea Manning in a prison (or leave her to die).

    She has actual ethics and actual beliefs she stands by.
    This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


    Wednesday, October 5, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, tensions between Iraq and Turkey continue, would Hillary usher in the "doormat presidency," a look at her history of destruction, and much more.


    Starting with War Hawk Hillary Clinton who voted for the Iraq War, who then championed the Iraq War, attacked those opposed to it and only dropped her support for it a year after the public turned away from the illegal war by a majority.

    Last night, Elaine wrote "Hillary is the destroyer:"




    Hillary Clinton, eyes downcast, stammering: If I talked about droning Julian , "it would have been a joke."







    It was no joke.

    It's who she is.

    It's how she 'deals' with anything.

    Her answer is always destruction.



    How Hillary Clinton helped to crush democracy in

    Reality Check: Hillary Clinton the hawk, and the Honduran coup
    Mehdi Hasan on how Clinton backed regime change in the Latin American country.


     
     
     

    Whether it's Gennifer Flowers or Julian Assange, she only knows destroy.

    That's why she has no legacy to point to.

    She's the little brat who breaks every toy the day after Christmas.

    She would endanger the United States repeatedly.




    Yes, like she tried to destroy Gennifer Flowers and other women.

    Late Sunday night, THE NEW YORK TIMES published a report online (also in the Monday print edition) by Megan Twohey about Hillary Clinton's responses to her husband Bill Clinton's many infidelities.


    Megan's a woman, so naturally Bob Somerby is in a tizzy.

    We're not linking in this post.  We've long called Bob out for his sexism and, of course, his demented and disgusting friend (who really struck Rebecca and I as a closet case when he was making a show of cruising her tits and offering stories about how 'this one time, in college, Bob and me were listening to Joanie Baez as we drove cross country and . . .') is a chapter all by itself -- as is Bob's calling former UN Ambassador Joe Wilson a liar about Iraq -- because Bob's friends with Matt Cooper and Matty was under investigation, it was a sorted affair that never prompted any disclosures from Bob.

    So with all that, but especially his well known sexism, we're not linking to him attacking other women.  You know where his cesspool is if you want to find him, just follow the stink.

    Megan, Bob insists, is wrong to characterize the relationship with Gennifer as an affair.

    It wasn't!!!!

    Bob whines that.  It was one time that Bill admitted under oath to sex with Megan.

    And that doesn't even count -- Bob insists -- because later a spokesperson clarified it was just grabbing breasts!

    No, you stupid moron, it doesn't work that way.

    What is said under oath is said under oath.

    What some paid flack says after the fact -- to the press, not under oath -- is not the same as sworn testimony.

    Public statements always mean less than statements under oath.

    After all, Bill lied to the public about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, didn't he?  ("I did not have sexual relations" -- didn't he wag his finger while saying that?)

    Bill loves to use spokespeople.

    For example, nearly 20 years ago Juanita Broaddrick publicly stated he raped her.  And has witnesses to back up her claims.

    Nearly 20 years later, Bill has still never commented.

    Bob Somerby would insist he had -- he used a spokesperson!!!!!

    No, that's not commenting, that's hiding.

    Let's quote Katha Pollitt's "Re: Juanita Broaddrick" (THE NATION, March 4, 1999):


    Now that the impeachment trial is over, it’s time for progressives to get back to their drawing boards and let Bill Clinton clean up his own mess. If, as NOW president Patricia Ireland said, “There’s no way that Bill Clinton can look into the cameras and deny it and have anybody believe it,” that is a problem entirely of the President’s own making, and it would be a grave mistake for feminists, environmentalists, trade unionists and civil rights and civil liberties advocates to lend him a penny more of their moral capital. For six years too many progressives have given Clinton the benefit of the doubt, whether it was their ill-founded hope that he wouldn’t sign the Personal Responsibility Act or the equally ill-founded skepticism about the existence in an unlaundered state of a certain blue dress. We’ve seen Jesse Jackson hailing “our President” as the bombs were falling on Iraq and Barney Frank defending–wittily, tirelessly–the man who signed the Defense of Marriage Act. As the anti-impeachment slogan put it, enough is enough.



    Gennifer stated she had an affair with Bill Clinton.  Years before he admitted to it, Naomi Wolf went through the tapes of the conversations Gennifer had supplied to the press of her talks with Bill and found the claim believable (and also felt the need to stress she was impressed with how Bill listened to women) in her book FIRE WITH FIRE.

    While Gennifer's accusations were first being made public, Bill and Hillary went on 60 MINUTES in 1992 with him insisting that he had sinned in his marriage -- his way of admitting affairs.

    For Megan or anyone else to interpret all of the above as an affair with Gennifer is a natural response, the truth -- regarding the affair -- is on Gennifer's side.

    Bob wants to insist Gennifer lied in a deposition, years before 1992, she had denied an affair with Bill.

    Bob loves to slut shame -- look at what he does to the woman he derides as a "rock groupie."

    And he, like Hillary, thinks that's acceptable.

    It no longer is.

    In the 90s, you could get away with a lot of discrimination.

    This deposition is one of the ways Hillary insisted she could destroy Gennifer on the witness stand if she had a crack at the woman.

    The same way, no doubt, she destroyed the child who was raped.

    As THE DAILY MAIL reported last August:

    Kathy Shelton was just 12 years old when a 41-year-old drifter raped her on the side of a desolate Arkansas road in 1975.
    Now, four decades later, she has agreed to be named and pictured for the first time in this Daily Mail Online exclusive because she is furious that her rapist's defense attorney - Hillary Clinton - has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail.
    'It's put a lot of anger back in me,' said Shelton, now 54, in an exclusive interview at her Springdale, Arkansas, home in August. 'Every time I see [Clinton] on TV I just want to reach in there and grab her, but I can't do that.'
    In 1975, Clinton served as the defense lawyer for Thomas Alfred Taylor, a 41-year-old factory worker accused of raping Shelton after luring her to his car.
    Taylor pleaded down to 'unlawful fondling of a minor' and served less than a year in prison after Clinton was able to block the admission of forensic evidence that linked her client to the crime.
    In a lengthy interview with the Daily Mail Online, Shelton said Clinton is 'lying' when she claims to be a lifelong defender of women and girls.
    Shelton said Clinton accused her during the case of 'seeking out older men', and demanded that the 12-year-old undergo a grueling court-ordered psychiatric examination to determine whether she was 'mentally unstable'.
    'I don't think [Clinton's] for women or girls. I think she's lying, I think she said anything she can to get in the campaign and win,' Shelton said. 'If she was [an advocate for women and children], she wouldn't have done that to me at 12 years old.'


    Hillary the destroyer.  And that's just what,  three years, before Juanita says Bill raped her?

    For years, many of us who refused to believe that was possible told ourselves, "Well if it could even be true -- even a possibility -- there's no way Hillary could stay with him."

    We were wrong.

    Clearly, Hillary saw her role as coming to the aid of rapists as evidenced by her attack of a 12-year-old rape victim.  (We're not getting into her cackling with glee about her success on this case years later, you can look on YOUTUBE for the video of that.)

    Let's again quote from Joan Didion's POLITICAL FICTIONS -- click here and you can order it instantly on KINDLE for $11.99 or pick up a used copy for one cent (plus postage) via snail mail:

     .


    Apparent accidents, and even some apparent mistakes in judgment, had emerged over time as less accidental than strategic.  There was Hillary Clinton's "gaffe" in complaining to Gail Sheehy, interviewing her for Vanity Fair, that the press was following a "double standard" in dwelling on her husband's alleged friendship with Gennifer Flowers, since Anne Cox Chambers ("sittin' there in her sunroom") had told her about "Bush and his carrying on, all of which is apparently well known in Washington."  This was an "embarrassment," a "mistake," and yet the appearance of the Vanity Fair piece coincided with Clinton strategists issuing the same preemptive warning to the Bush campaign; with Ron Brown suggesting that if the questions about adultery were to persist, he thought similar questions should be put to Bush; and with Democratic consultant Robert Squier suggesting on the NBC Today show that Bush be asked what he called "the Jennifer question."  Nor was just the single point scored: there was also considerable secondary gain in showing Mrs. Clinton as "feminine," a weaker vessel, gossiping with a friend over tea in the sunroom and then retailing the gossip to a new friend -- who, in the "unfrminine" role of reporter, the wife's moment of indiscretion in her husband's defense.  The erring but contrite wife could then be firmly but gently "reprimanded" by the presumptive CINC, her husband ("The main point is, she apologized . . . she made a mistake and she's acknowledge it"), an improved role for both of them.



    Back to Gennifer.  So she's having an affair with Bill.  He's the governor.  She's dragged into a lawsuit and, in that lawsuit, she protects Bill and/or herself by denying the ongoing affair.

    Though I'm sure, had Hillary had her way with Gennifer in court, she would have continued her jihad against women, it wouldn't work today.

    We're more aware as a society.

    And slut shaming no longer can be performed without facing serious outcries.

    Now Carl Bernstein reported on another long term affair Bill had with another woman while married to Hillary and while governor of Arkansas in his book  A WOMAN IN CHARGE (disclosure, I know Carl).  Bob's more than happy to accept that as a reality.  Big difference between Megan and Carl?  Carl has a dangling Y (chromosome).  As we've long noted, Bob gives men a pass, it's women he demonizes (Kit Seeley, Maureen Dowd, etc).

    It's bash the bitch, all the time, with Bob.

    For those unfamiliar with "bash the bitch," let's drop back to the piece Ava and I wrote in April 2006:


    Who knew it was a war crime? Katie Couric was a cheerleader and an army of Beate Klarsfelds are on her trail in an attempt to warn America of this dangerous contravention of the law. We imagine it's only a matter of time before the tribunal is held. The cheerleader as Eichmann, no doubt, sends shudders through the hearts of many women on the left, center and right, since they too may be charged.

    Couric's apparent crime, for some on the left, is saying that Navy Seals "rock." That moment was immortalized in Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and seems to be the chief piece of evidence that will be introduced when the commentators gather at the Hague.

    For some of the left, though not all, that's at the root of their pursuit of Couric. It's the gift of impunity that allows them to operate in a fact-free environment as they compose the charges against Couric. But those who hear such a statement and nod agreeably are also engaged in the national pastime of bash-the-bitch.

    Bash the bitch is as American as apple pie and rush to judgement, so who are we to complain?


    If it makes us "America haters" to say "Just a minute now" then so be it. Let all the ones partaking in bash-the-bitch wrap themselves in Old Glory, we'll call it the way we see it.

    Here's what we see. A woman's trashed. For what she did?

    Oh cookie, please, it's for being a woman. Read the commentaries. "Cheerleader" is a trumped up charge -- as usual, the true crime is gender.



    And it's because of bash the bitch -- and it being deeply woven into the fabric of America -- that rape survivors have had to fight for their rights, that those who have survived rape and other assault find their character attacked in court -- like the 12-year-old girl Hillary attacked in court.

    It's why, as Megan's article documents, Hillary and Bill were able to launch attacks on women who stepped forward to speak of abuse at the hands of Bill Clinton.

    Those days are gone.

    If Hillary gets in the White House, America better be prepared for more women to step forward and for the country to be pulled back into the Clinton's gutter because Bill hasn't changed.

    Whether it's Iraq or the women that Bill has slept with, Hillary knows how to destroy.

    She also has a rather large chip on her shoulder that appears to goad her into war repeatedly.

    So if and when she's called "President Doormat," what facility in Sudan will she bomb?  What war will she declare?

    Or maybe she'll just get honest, "I don't have enough respect for myself to leave a man who has cheated on me repeatedly -- and publicly -- throughout our marriage."

    Or maybe she'll say something like, "We have an open marriage."

    Who knows but let's anticipate what will likely happen because Bill hasn't changed.

    Bob Somerby also attacks Carla Anne Robbins this week.  We can't tie it into Iraq (other than to note that hack Joe Conason pretended to care about Iraq for a book and then lost interest -- well being the public defender for Bill and Hillary Clinton takes up a lot of time), so we'll ignore it other than to note that he's attacking her viciously because she's a woman as well and Carla made her case in her book review of Joe's latest piece of garbage.

    On Iraq, Caitlin Johnstone (INQUISITR) argues that Hillary's efforts in launching and supporting the Iraq War cannot be wiped away:


    There is simply no way that the hopeful heir to the Clinton dynasty had no basic understanding of Iraq’s relationship with oil and the American economy. She also knew what bombs and bullets do to the human body. She knew that tremendous death, destruction, suffering, looting, robbery, rape, chaos, terrorism, and exploitation necessarily come hand-in-hand with any militarily enforced regime change. She knew these things, but she chose to help make the Iraq war happen anyway.
    This remains without a doubt the single most evil thing that Hillary Clinton has ever taken part in during her time upon this earth. I know that those of you who oppose her are all hoping for some magical silver bullet to cripple or kill her campaign in some deus ex machina revelation from WikiLeaks, and who knows? We might even get one. But it is in my opinion virtually impossible for there to be anything in any leak that could be worse than a politician helping to murder thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women and children just because her neoliberal bosses aren’t ready to unplug from their petroleum-based cash cow just yet.
    Children ripped apart by cluster munitions. Women taken as sex slaves by newly-formed terrorist factions. A million dead, millions displaced, unfathomable devastation, and suffering which will reverberate throughout the region for generations. All over some black stuff in the ground that we’re going to have to stop using soon anyway.

    Evil. Pure, unadulterated evil. There is nothing else that you can possibly call it.



    Meanwhile Michael Georgy and Babak Dehghanpisheh (REUTERS) report that Atheel al-Nujaifi is warning that the liberation or 'liberation' of Mosul may result in more crises.  al-Nujaifi was the governor of Nineveh Province until the Islamic State came in and took Mosul.  He tells REUTERS, "The biggest fear is that Iraq will separate if they don’t control this fight in a wise manner and they don’t give the Arab Sunnis real authority."

    Other problems facing the Mosul operation?


    ALMASDAR reports that the US-coalition dropped bombs on the Shi'ite militias -- now a part of the Iraqi forces under Haider al-Abadi -- and killed at least 20.

    Some reaction Twitter:




    1. targeting the in in & the People's Mobilization Forces in in tells you one thing:




    led coalition targeted the fighters of the People's Mobilization Forces in south in , 21 fighters were martyred.







    And distracting from the planned operation in Mosul?  The dispute between the governments of Iraq and Turkey.

    : Iraqi Foreign Ministry summons Ambassador to , demanding withdrawal of Turkish troops in the country.








    REUTERS notes Haider al-Abadi is warning of "regional war" with Turkey.


    And Turkey responds it's only trying to help.

    Does Iraq have sovereignty?

    If it does, if it says get out, thenyou get out.

    It doesn't matter what you want, it's not your country.


    The following community sites updated: