Saturday, February 15, 2020

C.I. replying to a lunatic's e-mail

C.I. here again subbing for Ann.  "Some thoughts on Cher, Carrie Fisher, David Geffen, Bill Cosby and much more" went up Thursday night/Friday morning.  A lot of e-mails came in at common_ills@yahoo.com.

One came in from a person who appears not to like the post.  I figured we could go into that here.


I stared visiting your blog due to our shared dislike for Mia Farrow, but over the time I have noticed how partial you are with the people depending on how much do you like or dislike them.

No, I'm sorry, you haven't noticed s**t.

You don't like what I wrote?  Say so.  I don't care.  But don't distort what I write.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that if I don't like someone, I bend over backwards to be fair.

The internet, for example, is full of people ragging on Donald Trump.  I have known Donald for years, I don't like him.  I factor that in to anything I write about him -- am I being fair to him or am I about to post this just because I don't like him.

You don't know me.



And you apparently don't know how to read very well if you came to that conclusion.




I don’t have an opinion on Bill Cosby’s case, since I don’t know of him that well and he; I seem to recall, was caught on tape admitting that he gave drugs to women.



Huh?  What a stupid thing to say?  You don't have an opinion on a man who clearly assaulted women -- maybe not as many as some claim?  What is that?  You don't live in the world that the rest of us do?

My point in that section was that someone was playing dumb about Bill Cosby.  Does she support him, is that why she's playing like she doesn't know him?  Is she afraid to be tainted by her connection to him?

I have no idea and I know Cher and I like Cher.

 
In Carrie Fisher’s case, well, clearly you don’t like her because you argue that may have damaged Carly Simon’s career and she might be well known in the US but, while I know who she is and how she looks like, I can’t name a single one of her songs, not even the ones you pointed out.

Carrie was a bitch.  She was also a friend.  Shock therapy fried her brain.  WISHFUL DRINKING was that last coherent thing she ever wrote.  She had many nice qualities.  But by the end, Penny Marshall wasn't the only one avoiding her.  She'd burned every bridge and we were all tired of her drug addictions and the excuses she thought they offered.  So the post was not an attack Carrie because of something she did to Carly.  This about, STOP THE BULLS**T SHE WAS NO FRIEND TO WOMEN.

And she wasn't.  And I could give a hundred more examples of how she personally tossed up roadblocks for other women.

There’s no way to tell if the opportunity that you mention would have help her or not, but I don’t understand how can you be surprised that Carrie choose a man (her ex-husband) over her. Women in general prefer men over women.

Maybe don't weigh in when you're so damn stupid.  But on the topic, yes, Carrie often did prefer women.  That's one of the problems with that marriage to Paul and one reason she could marry a gay man who she knew was gay before she married him despite the lie and pretense.

As I noted, Carrie's need to out her affair with Harrison was very interesting.  The bulk of her affairs, most with women, were never outed by her, were they?

I don't like hypocrisy.

Had reality been noted, I would've been fine with it.  Carrie was a drug addict her whole life and that's what led her to death.  She was a complicated person.  She was a lousy actress.  Prior to her shock therapy, she was an amazing writer.  I don't get this nonsense of turn someone into THE GREATEST because they died.  She had her good qualities, she had her bad qualities.  An honest portrait of who she was and I wouldn't have to say anything.

BILLBOARD published a ridiculous piece this past week on Whitney Houston's first album. That was a mediocre album.  That's often the case when the artist is just a singer.  Whitney sang fine on it but let's not pretend that half of that crap qualified as a good song, let alone great songs.  They were shoddy and simplistic.  Whitney's talent was immense and she managed to bring some of them alive but not even she had the talent to turn sheer garbage into art.


And then you went after Michael Jackson. Why? Pure hate, because just this week came an interview with Macaulay Culkin and he said, for the umpteenth time, that  



You're that crazy, aren't you?  The one obsessed with Michael Jackson?  The one who came off suicidal in an e-mail Martha read me so I dictated a reply to you over the phone?   You're that crazy person from awhile back, aren't you?


 Carrie Fisher was a stupid woman at the end.  And her nonsense in SHOCKAHOLIC was hideous.  It was an ugly book that went after one of her step-fathers and only demonstrated how petty she was and how her ability to write had been destroyed by shock therapy -- shock 'therapy.'  There's a reason that 'therapy' had ceased to be used.

In that hideous book, she latches on to new 'friend' Michael Jackson and wants to be an expert on him.

I raised the topic in the context of the lies that she's some feminist heroes -- lies that came up after her death.

I don't have time for your nonsense, in fact, I'm not interested in your fan fiction on Michael Jackson that you try to pass off as fact.  We'll also skip your theory on Phil Hartman and jump back in on your e-mail at this point:



Back to Fisher, I agree that she stopped looking like herself after the ECT, she might have been bitchy but she was right in defending a friend. Weren’t you complaining about Cher not doing it? Like, in the same entry. And after all, isn’t your dear Carly Simon being doing the same by not calling out Mia Farrow (her dear friend) who was accused of violence by two of her kids, with three more already dead (two of them by suicide) and who has spent decades harassing her ex-lover with a false accusation of child abuse, causing harm not only to him, but to all of his and her family, especially to Dylan? And that is only one of her dramas.

Different rules for different people.


No, I wasn't complaining about Cher not defending Bill.

I don't think Bill's actions can be defended.  I was noting that this is a huge story -- what Bill Cosby did -- and has been.  Yet in all this time, Cher has said nothing.  No, "This is appalling" nor "I never would have thought . . ."  Nothing.

Now that's fine if you're Faye Dunaway, for example.  Faye's not on Twitter Tweeting 20 to 30 times a day.  Cher presents as self-aware and political and she's on Twitter chasing every one-sided, partisan story she can.  She's better than that but her Trump Derangement Syndrome has seriously harmed the common sense she's always counted on.  I love Cher but that's reality.  I hope Donald's out of office next year because I'd like my friends back and can't endure the pod people they've been for the last four years.

Cher insulted Bernie Sanders.  It was a rude Tweet and community members e-mailed about it because I know Cher and because I'm supporting Bernie.  So at one or two in the morning where I was, after a day of writing a snapshot, posting multiple press releases from various members of Congress, speaking to at least eight different groups in South Carolina, doing a roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin and, with Ava, writing our column for Friday's gina & krista round-robin, I filled in for Ann.  And needed a topic to write about.  So I went with that.

They were offended by what Cher Tweeted.  My point was, don't take the Tweets too seriously, after all, she owes a huge debt to Bill Cosby but hasn't Tweeted once about him.

Now, for the record, I don't think Cher liked Bill (he and Sonny were friends).  Bill was smug and insufferable and Cher's allergic to pompous.  But my point was don't take the Tweets as gospel.

I could have chosen another tactic, I could've dealt with the latent red-baiting of the Tweet and noting that . . .  No, I didn't want to bring that up then and I don't want to bring it up now.

Back to your nonsense:

And after all, isn’t your dear Carly Simon being doing the same by not calling out Mia Farrow (her dear friend) who was accused of violence by two of her kids, with three more already dead (two of them by suicide) and who has spent decades harassing her ex-lover with a false accusation of child abuse, causing harm not only to him, but to all of his and her family, especially to Dylan? And that is only one of her dramas.
Different rules for different people.

Carly may or may not know about the violence Mia is accused of.

Carly doesn't live near Mia anymore and hasn't in years.

Do you think Mia's calling her up and telling her every bad thing her children tell the press?

I don't know what world you're living in.  There's not a day that goes by when I'm speaking somewhere that someone doesn't bring up something about a friend of mine and I say, "I'd never heard that.  I don't about that," etc.  Because I'm living a life.  I'm not able to watch TMZ and whatever else it is that you're addicted to.

You're the one obsessed with celebrities.  To Carly, Mia is her friend.  Carly doesn't think Dylan's lying.  That's her opinion.  I have my opinion.  We can speak to other and enjoy each other's company without needing to agree on everything.

I don't impose my beliefs on Carly.

I get that you think you can impose your beliefs on others -- that's why you've written again.

Your Michael Jackson obsession is disturbing.  By the way, you do know Michael and Donald Trump were friends, right?

The point of the Carrie Fisher issue that you're so upset about is the one that you don't mention.

It's not natural.  No grown adult brings other people's children into their bed.  No grown adult tries to be friends with children they don't know and then bring them into their bed.

You can live in your fantasy world where no one ever touched anyone in those sleep overs.  But even if that were the God's truth, that wouldn't make it right or appropriate.

 Ann's planning to be back next week.  She does have the flu, the doctor told her that Friday afternoon.  I'll continue to fill in if she needs me to.

 This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Friday, February 14, 2020.  Another day, another series of embarrassments for Joe Biden.



Starting in the US where the biggest train wreck remains Joe Biden.  The former vice president continues his campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and renders the rest of America rubber neckers.  Yesterday, it was ABC's THE VIEW.


. reacts to Rush Limbaugh questioning Pete Buttigieg’s electability because of his sexuality: “Pete and I are competitors, but this guy has honor, he has courage, he’s smart as hell.”
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I'm honestly surprised that they posted the clip.

It's not cute for Joe.  And it's not cute for them.  THE DAILY BEAST had already called this moment out.


"'We get it, we understand,' Goldberg said as the other co-hosts laughed nervously. Did they really?" writes





Joe stops himself in the midst of the homophobia and it's not funny and it's not cute.  But, hear him America, there are gays he likes. It reminds me so much of his remarks -- labeled racist in real time -- about "clean, articulate" Barack.  And shame on THE VIEW for their "we get it, we understand."


You're like Sara Gilbert, you ladies only know how to rip off and steal.  Barbara Walters created that program, not Whoopi Goldberg.  It's a program every network and syndication rip off.  Yet even when Barbara was healthy, 'the ladies' of THE VIEW were pushing her to the curb.

Over at THE DAILY MAIL, Ariel Zibler offers these bullet points on Joe's appearance on the show:

  • Former vice president appeared on The View on Thursday alongside his wife, Jill 
  • He defended son Hunter as a 'good' guy who 'has done nothing but good things' 
  • Hunter Biden agreed to pay child support to Lunden Roberts, a DC-area stripper 
  • Roberts gave birth a child out of wedlock which paternity tests say is Hunter's
  • Hunter Biden was named to board of Ukrainian gas firm when his father was VP
  • Trump and GOP are demanding investigations into alleged corruption by Bidens 
  • Joe Biden expressed regret over Senator Lindsey Graham's insistence on probes
  • Biden said he still considers Graham a 'friend' despite his position on Hunter 




Hunter's done nothing but good things?

Leaving his wife and kids to shack up with his brother's widow.  Hunter's life is a carny sideshow and Joe keeps pretending otherwise.  He left his wife and kids.  And then he couldn't even be faithful to the widow.  He was cheating on her -- which is how he ended up fathering a child with Lunden Roberts.  He destroyed his kids' family and for what reason?  It clearly wasn't love for the widow.

The whole Biden family is a carny sideshow.  Daniel GOlden, Chuck Neubauer and Matthew Malone (PROPUBLICA) report:


Jim Biden was in a bind. An investor had put up $1 million to help Jim and his nephew Hunter buy a hedge fund. Then it turned out that the fund’s assets were worth less than the Bidens had thought. Now the investor wanted its money back.
It was December 2006, not long before Jim’s older brother and Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, then a Delaware senator, would announce his second campaign for president.
Jim and Hunter Biden got a loan from a bank founded by one of Joe’s political backers — William Oldaker, an attorney for the senator’s presidential campaign and Hunter’s partner at a Washington law and lobbying firm.

Oldaker had strong ties to Joe Biden’s political operation, and at the time, the bank, WashingtonFirst, had nearly half a million dollars in deposits from a Joe Biden political committee Oldaker had helped set up.
But WashingtonFirst was less than three years old, and a $1 million loan was large for its size. The bank required that loans be well secured by borrowers’ assets. Jim Biden put up his house in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, as collateral, but he already had $1.5 million in three mortgages against the property, then roughly valued at just over $1.1 million. Hunter offered as security his recently purchased Washington home, for which he had borrowed almost the entire purchase price. Oldaker did not return phone calls, and a source close to Jim and Sara Biden said all of their loans were properly secured.
It was not the first time — or the last — during his long career that Jim Biden turned to Joe’s political network for the kind of assistance that would have been almost unimaginable for someone with a different last name. Campaign donors helped him face a series of financial problems, including a series of IRS liens totaling more than $1 million that made it harder to get bank financing. Jim Biden took out two more loans from WashingtonFirst before its sale in 2018.

These transactions illuminate the well-synchronized tango that the Biden brothers have danced for half a century. They have pursued overlapping careers — one a presidential aspirant with an expansive network of well-heeled Democratic donors; the other an entrepreneur who helped his brother raise political money and cultivated the same network to help finance his own business deals.
Jim Biden, 70, has cycled over the years from nightclub owner to insurance broker to political consultant and fundraiser to startup investor and construction company executive. But the through line of his resume was his bond with his brother, a Democratic Party stalwart in a position to push legislation or make government contracts happen.

“My sense is that Jim really has been trying to peddle himself on the Biden name for some time,” said Curtis Wilkie, who covered the Bidens as a Delaware political reporter.


That's the opening to the long report of corruption and debt left in the Bidens wake.  A long history of unethical trading on Joe Biden's name -- with Joe cooperating.   That's what his brothers do, that's what Hunter did.  Mark Caputo (POLITICO) reports most Americans don't share Joe's innocent view of Hunter:


A majority of voters believe it was inappropriate for Joe Biden’s son to work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father led U.S. foreign policy initiatives in the country, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.
The Biden-Ukraine affair ultimately led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Voters were split 47-47 percent on whether it was appropriate for the Senate last week to acquit Trump, the poll shows. 



In contrast, 52 percent of voters believe it was inappropriate for Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to take the job with the firm Burisma, while 18 percent said it was appropriate. Fifty-seven percent said it was a scandal while 19 percent said it wasn’t. 


Any pile up or wreck is going to attract onlookers and Joe has.  Ben Cohn and Ben Feuerherd (NEW YORK POST) report:


A handful of protesters chided Joe Biden as he walked out of a Manhattan fundraiser on Thursday, urging the one-time Democratic frontrunner to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.
About half a dozen protesters from New York Communities for Change yelled at Biden as he was leaving the Wayfarer restaurant on West 57th Street near Sixth Avenue soon after 8 p.m.
“Drop out Joe! Drop out Joe!” they chanted as he walked to a waiting car.
“Skip Nevada! Skip South Carolina! Go home early!” one of the demonstrators yelled.

“We’re here to mark the death of Joe Biden’s campaign. This is what happens when you stand up for policies that are regressive. We coined Wall Street Pete and now we’re doing the same to Joe,” Alice Nascimento of Communities for Change said.


Here are some Tweets from the group who held the protest.


We found at his 250 person Wall Street fundraiser. We had a message: DROP OUT JOE! You don’t have to do this Joe. You can skip Nevada. You can skip South Carolina. And go straight home to Deleware.
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A moving eulogy on ’s 2020 campaign.


They called the cops on our memorial service for ’s campaign.


We made it to ’s Wall Street fundraiser and brought a coffin to mourn the death of Biden’s campaign. They wouldn’t let us in, but we held a service in the lobby.


On our way to Biden’s Wall Street fundraiser to mourn the death of his 2020 campaign.



On Saturday, al-Sadr said it was immoral for men and women to mix at sit-in protest areas and said protesters were using drugs and alcohol. Gender separation was also recommended in the 18-point code of conduct the cleric issued on Sunday.
On Thursday, ahead of the protests, he again slammed the protests as being rife with "nudity, promiscuity, drunkenness, immorality, debauchery ... and non-believers." He also said Iraq must not turn into the US city of Chicago, which he cited as an example of loose morals.
The statements posted on Twitter quickly became a subject of ridicule on social media.
On Thursday, women protesters waved Iraqi flags and banners in English and Arabic, chanting slogans condemning a recent security crackdown against demonstrators.
Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Parliament’s Saeroon bloc, issued an 18-point code of conduct Sunday for protesters in which he cautioned against the mixing of men and women at sit-in areas.
In response on Thursday, women flooded the streets of Baghdad and the southern city of Nasiriyah.
“Whoever accuses women of being weak doesn’t understand Iraq,” said protester Baan Jaafar, 35. “We will continue to defend our rights through demonstrations and participate in the decision to build a new Iraq after the demonstrations.”
Iraqi women march against the likes of Moqtada Al-Sadr and against the backward system that has tried oppress and shun them for centuries. دومج حره و اصيله يالعراقيه


A million women marched today in as part of the ongoing protests against corruption in the country. The march came as a response against calls by Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr's for protests to be segregated.


After the demonstrators refused him, and the crimes of his criminal militia exposed the blue hats and his subordination to the militant Moqtada Al-Sadr, he describes the demonstrators as immorality, immorality, atheism and homosexuality and vows to defend religious val