Ann's Mega Dub: 10/18/20

Saturday, October 24, 2020

3 reasons

I am voting for Howie Hawkins to become the next US president. I am voting for him for many reasons but this Tweet from Howie provides three:

Biden and Trump oppose: - Ending The Wars - Green New Deal - Medicare For All #OpenDebate #Debates2020

As a Green Party member (all my life, my parents are Greens, I was raised in the party), I am in it for the long haul. And I cast my vote for candidates who represent my beliefs and concerns. We are part of building a future.

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

Friday, October 23, 2020. The duopoly debates conclude with Joe Biden lying about ethics and doing so as a former business partner of Hunter Biden's makes a damaging announcement to the press.

Last night, the last of the duopoly debates took place. A bi-partisan grift known illogically as the 'presidential' debates takes place every four years. The pretense is that it's a debate between presidential candidates; however, that's not the case. The Democrats and the Republicans control the debates so only their candidates make the stage.

The Libertarian Party has been making steady gains each cycle and, this year, their candidate is on the ballot in all fifty states. However, Jo Jorgensen did not make the debate stage because these are not the presidential debates. If they were, they'd have to include all candidates -- even if it was just the 'serious' ones however you wanted to define 'serious' -- and they don't. Again, Dr Jo Jorgensen is on the ballot in all fifty states and yet she was not on the debate stage last night. Howie Hawkins is the Green Party candidate and he was not on the stage last night. Gloria La Riva, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, was not on the stage last night. There were other candidates not on the stage. We no longer cover Joseph Kishore's campaign because, clearly, he and David North had made the decision to campaign for Joe Biden. This has led to nutty conspiracy articles at the SEP party's website of WSWS in which you've got Donald Trump leading a death and kidnap squad in the US. That is just beyond stupid. WSWS is calling out JACOBIN magazine currently and, in better times, their criticism might stick. But with their nutty, tin-foil hats on currently, they just look like crazy idiots. They realized that this week due to a huge backlash (over the pimping for Joe Biden) which has resulted in a significant loss of web traffic and major complaints from the readers who remain at WSWS so they quickly rushed out Patrick Martin's two-part series on the corruption of the Democratic Party. It's too little, too late for some.

For us? We'll go back to highlighting WSWS after the election. Related, I'm not interested in The Hip-Hop Caucus and feel a little like Jackson Browne when he ad libs during "Cocaine" the following line: "But I wouldn't have been a user, even one more day, if you'd shown me how I was helping turn a profit for the CIA." Indeed.

The Hip-Hop Caucus was highlighted here in the past because of their connection to Rosa Clemente who was on the 2008 Green Party presidential ticket (she was presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney's running mate). So I wrongly thought they were some sort of independent organization -- as they present themselves to be. But at the end of last week, when we stopped noting them, we stopped because I hovered over one of their links in an e-mail. They're raising money for the Democratic Party. Now I know no one enforces the damn law, but in a functioning democracy, they'd be facing charges and be stripped of their current tax status for that little stunt.

After the election, we may highlight them. But I don't approve of that nonsense. NOW's sent things to public account non-stop throughout this election cycle. We've ignored them for the same reason of lack of independence. NOW is legally prohibited from endorsing or campaigning for a presidential candidate. They get around it with NOW PAC but no one even pretends the two are separate anymore. NOW PAC makes the endorsement, NPR brings on the NOW president (not NOW PAC president) and introduces her as the NOW president and then talks about NOW (not NOW PAC) endorsing a president. NOW should lose its tax status. These are abuses plain and simple, flagrant disregard for the law. I'm not going to reward that. Shame on Hip-Hop Caucus Go to ACT Blue currently and you can get in line to donate, for example, to 'progressive' Dianne Feinstein's 2024 campaign.

That's both horrifying and whore-ifying. Dianne shouldn't have run for re-election last time, she's too damn old. And no one wanted to face that reality until this month's Supreme Court nominee hearings. Right before them, Democrats in power finally realized Dianne wasn't all there. Too damn bad. They had no right to remove her at this late moment. No, she shouldn't have been Chair. But all of the problems some people finally discovered? Those were the reasons those of us in California endorsed Kevin de Leon. Maybe if busybodies from out of state had kept their noses out of it, Kevin could have been in the Senate and the Democrats could have had a real chair in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Idiots caused this problem or, as Judge Judy might say, "Don't crap on my carpet and tell me it's a decoration."

I'm not interested in fakery. Which is why we stopped Joseph Kishore's campaign. We do try to cover all campaigns that we can. That goes beyond the presidency. Anyone who sends a press release for their campaign has been noted. By the same token, any member of Congress that sends out a press release gets noted. This year that policy could have been tested.

A pedophile is running for the presidency -- no, that's not a joke about someone's son. There's a third party candidate who's connected with DEN and that means he's probably a pedophile. I believe the documentary OPEN SECRET and several witnesses have established that. He was part of the debate that put forward presidential candidates not part of the duopoly. We did note that debate twice -- once with a partial clip (that's all that was up) and once with the full debate when it was later posted. We quoted Gloria La Riva from that debate. We also posted Howie Hawkins from that debate when his campaign did an edit of just his remarks.

When we reported on it, and quoted Gloria and only Gloria, a few e-mails came in asking why we didn't list everyone who participated? Good question. I was pressed for time and I also didn't feel it was my job to promote the man in that debate who is a pedophile. Had his campaign sent in a press release, would it have gone up?

I say yes. But I'm truly glad it didn't come in.

And goodness knows, we have more than enough to cover.

Such as last night's debate.

Before we get to the clip, when you watch, note Joe's comments about how his children, unlike children of color, didn't have to worry about saying 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir' to the police if pulled over. Note that he elected to cite his daughter Ashley. Okay. He wants to bring her up.

Let's demonstrate the privilege that she's lived with. From WIKIPEDIA:

In 2002, Biden was arrested in Chicago and charged with obstructing a police officer.^[46] She was leaving a club on Division Street when a friend, John Kaulentis, threw a soft-drink can at a police officer who had told him to stay behind a barricade set up to keep club patrons off of the street.^[46] The situation escalated and resulted in another friend, Kelly Donohoe, hitting an officer.^[46] As Kaulentis and Donohoe were being taken in to custody, Biden allegedly "verbally intimidated" an officer and was arrested.^[46] All three were released on their own recognizance.^[46]

In 2009 a friend of Biden attempted to sell a video, reportedly of Biden using cocaine at a party, to the New York Post for $2 million.^[47]^[48] Negotiations brought the price down to $400,000 but the tabloid declined the offer, choosing instead to publish a story about the alleged video.^[47]^[49] After the New York Post published the story, it was revealed that Biden had previously been arrested in 1999 in New Orleans for possession of marijuana, but the charges were dropped and she was released.^[49]^[50]

What is the excuse offered by garbage outlets for Hunter's crack addiction? Oh, yeah, his mother died and his sister died. Are we going to say the same nonsense for Ashley? Because Ashley's Jill's biological daughter. Ashley is from the second marriage.

Addiction is a disease. Krystal Ball, recently, wanted to have sympathy for Hunter and his disease. I don't. I'm not Cher -- who infamously stated, after people used her antique coffee table to snort cocain, that you cease to be a person when you're a drug addict. I'm also not bleeding heart Krystal. Addiction's a disease. And if you're trying to get help, I'm sympathetic. If you're trying to get help. Otherwise? No, I'm not really all that sympathetic. And my sympathy vanishes completely if you're a drug addict -- practicing -- who has had all the breaks anyone could have and who has a father who has actively worked to put other addicts -- not his own children -- behind bars.

That's where my sympathy runs out. And I think the Biden family has exhausted everyone's sympathy at this point when it comes to Joe's posturing on drugs and the reality of the rampant drug abuse in his own family. Remember, America, Joe was happy to 'get tough' on low income children doing drugs he just wasn't willing or able to get tough with his own kids and their myriad of drug addictions.

Maybe the Biden family motto is: Convict as we say, not as we do?

Joe used the term "predator," not "super predator," as CNN noted in 2019:

Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them.

Biden, then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments on the Senate floor a day before a vote was scheduled on the Senate's version of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

His central role in shaping and shepherding the tough-on-crime bill will likely face scrutiny in a Democratic primary should he run for president in 2020. His 1993 comments, which were in line with the broad political consensus to tackling crime at the time, are at odds with a new bipartisan coalition of activists and lawmakers who are trying to undo what they say is a legacy of mass incarceration fostered by that era.

Biden's word choice could also pose a problem with a new generation of Democrats who view the rhetoric at the time as perpetuating harmful myths about the black community.

As for the laptop?

Let's review what was said in the clip above via the transcript USA TODAY is running with:

[1:11:32] Biden: Look, there are 50 former National Intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics-- four-- five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him, his, and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.

[1:11:51] Trump: You mean, the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax? You gotta be--

[1:11:58] Biden: That’s exactly what-- That’s exactly what--

[1:12:00] Trump: Is this where you’re going? This is where he’s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?

First off, let's again note Paul Mulshine (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER):

When the contents of that infamous laptop were revealed they were handed a father-son drama right out of Shakespeare. And they haven’t even followed up an obvious lead on the story’s veracity.

I’m talking about the call that Hunter Biden’s lawyer made to the owner of that Delaware computer shop just a day before the Post broke the story.

That was unearthed by a long-time source of mine, Larry Johnson.

Johnson is a former CIA agent who also happens to be a golfing buddy of Steve Mac Isaac, the father of John Paul Mac Isaac, the guy who runs the shop in Delaware where the computer was deposited for repairs last year but never picked up.

The contract said that if the computer was not picked up in 90 days it became the property of the shop. The FBI later confiscated it but Mac Isaac kept a copy of the hard drive, which he gave to Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the Post.

After the New York Post story broke last week, a lot of people questioned whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

But as Johnson wrote on the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog last Friday, “that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer called John Paul Mac Isaac and asked for the computer to be returned.”

Mac Isaac was not available for comment but Johnson posted a copy of a follow-up email to him from lawyer George Mesires thanking him for discussing the matter.

When I called Johnson, he asked the obvious question:

“Why would you want a computer back if it’s not your guy’s computer?”

Now let's note Larry Johnson on Joe's nonsense about 50 former hacks for the intel committee:

A letter published today (Monday, October 19, 2020) with the signatures of 50 "former intelligence" officials is a self-inflicted wound of comedy and absurdity wrapped in the specious claim of special expertise. Thank God none of these clowns still hold a position anywhere in the national security bureaucracy. Their inability to grasp basic facts and engage in simple reasoning perhaps explains why the Obama team abandoned American military and intelligence officials at Benghazi in September 2012 and why they considered ISIS as "a junior varsity" team.

Basically, this group of mediocrities are sure that the Hunter Biden emails are part of some nasty Rooskie plot:

. . . we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.

There is only one teeny, tiny problem. They have no facts to back up their deluded judgment, supposedly based on years of experience. Just goes to show that experience without real intelligence is no substitute for competence.

Use the link to continue reading. Jonathan Turley notes:

While House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and roughly 50 “intelligence experts” have assured the public that this is just Russian disinformation, both the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence have now confirmed that they do not believe the laptop and its contents are Russian disinformation. Now it appears that the laptop was viewed as sufficiently connected to possible federal crimes to be subpoenaed as evidence by the FBI a year ago.

These disclosures continue to make a mockery of the effective news blackout imposed by virtually every major news organization on the story. Notably, for years the media and legal experts have cited the fact of a secret FISA surveillance order as proof that the Russian investigation was legitimate even though allegations of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign were discredited. They have referenced the fact that the original evidence passed muster with prosecutors and a secret court for further investigation. The same standard does not appear to apply here as many dismiss the laptop as a real story or real evidence. While the laptop has been dismissed as nothing more than a false smear, it is now confirmed to have been treated as evidence in a criminal investigation. Despite intelligence officials rebutting the claims of Russian disinformation and saying the Schiff was given no such intelligence, the media continues to push this narrative or repeat the Biden campaign’s insistence that this is old news.

It is “new” news. The laptop contains emails directly referencing at least one meeting with Joe Biden who long insisted that he never spoke to his son about his business dealings and never met with any of his associates. Hunter Biden himself contradicted his father’s denial and said that he did speak with him about some of his dealings. Moreover, pictures have emerged with Joe Biden and Ukrainian and other figures associated with his son. Moreover, the laptop confirms what some of us have argued for years: Hunter Biden was clearly engaged in an influence peddling scheme. While Biden has insisted that his son “did nothing wrong,” this was clearly wrong even if it was not charged criminally. As discussed earlier, the Biden camp has never denied that this was indeed Biden’s laptop and his emails.

Now, it appears that the laptop was evidence in a money laundering investigation. The serial designation is important: 272D-BA-3065729.

“272” is the bureau’s classification for money laundering and the added “D” indicates “Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program.” The BA indicates that the origin of the request was the Baltimore field office.

The issue of the e-mails only became more newsworthy yesterday evening when Navy veteran Tony Bobulinski addressed the press -- see the clip below from THE HILL.

Bobulinski, one of the business partners with Hunter Biden, states that Joe knew and Joe profited from the deals.

He should have been pressed on that. Instead, the most the moderator did was ask if anything about the deals were improper or unethical. Watch Joe insist no in the clip below:

Joe lies. It was unethical. Joe lies and he then tries to drag Donald into it. Hmm? "When allegations of ethical lapses or wrongdoing surface against people on one side of the aisle, they can always claim that someone on the other side has done far worse. But taken together, all of these examples have contributed to a toxic norm." All have. And that's Sarah Chayes writing, at THE ATLANTIC, about Hunter Biden's scandal in 2019:

Joe Biden is the man who, as a senator, walked out of a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Biden was one of the most vocal champions of anticorruption efforts in the Obama administration. So when this same Biden takes his son with him to China aboard Air Force Two, and within days Hunter joins the board of an investment advisory firm with stakes in China, it does not matter what father and son discussed. Joe Biden has enabled this brand of practice, made it bipartisan orthodoxy. And the ethical standard in these cases—people’s basic understanding of right and wrong—becomes whatever federal law allows. Which is a lot.

Who among us has not admired or supported people who have engaged in or provided cover for this kind of corruption? How did we convince ourselves it was not corruption? Impeachment alone will not end our national calamity. If we want to help our country heal, we must start holding ourselves, our friends, and our allies—and not just our enemies—to its highest standards.

Here's Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins' response to last night's debate.

For eight years, Joe Biden was the US government official in charge of Iraq. Is it any surprise that Iraq remains awash in corruption? Samya Kullab (AP) reports:

Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills.

A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears.

“These delays affect my ability to survive,” Abdul-Amma said.

Iraq’s government is struggling to pay the salaries of the ever-swelling ranks of public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis caused by low oil prices. September’s salaries were delayed for weeks, and October’s still haven’t been paid as the government tries to borrow once again from Iraq’s currency reserves. The crisis has fueled fears of instability ahead of mass demonstrations this week.

The public workers are not the big problem and AP should know that. Millions and millions of public moneys have been stolen by leaders -- Nouri al-Maliki, for example. Back when the US Congress pretended to care about Iraq, they would hold hearings about Iraq -- including corruption in Iraq and witnesses would testify about corrupt officials. Nouri al-Maliki's son -- not unlike Hunter Biden -- lived a rich and racy lifestyle as a result of all the money Nouri suddenly had after he was prime minister.

As we wind down, let's note two more videos. Here's Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen.

And here's Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

The following sites updated:

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Crooked and sad Joe

I felt sorry watching the duopoly debate. As a Green, my candidate didn't even get invited (Howie Hawkins is my candidate), but that might have been a good thing. I'm a Green, I'm married to a Democrat (Cedric). I felt so sorry for my husband as I watched Joe Biden flounder around onstage looking lost and senile. When he did manage to muster a bit of a focus, he just looked like a crook.

Howie wasn't invited to the debate but he did tape the following.

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

Thursday, October 22, 2020. Joe Biden continues to be coddled and protected by the corporate media leading Margaret Kimberley to issue a warning and THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER to have a scoop in the Hunter Biden scandal -- a scoop everyone's trying to ignore.

Vanessa Williams' "Oh How The Years Go By." These days? It's "Oh How The Stupid Goes Round." The latest effort by the press to avoid asking the needed questions of Joe Biden about corruption and ethics regarding Hunter Biden's money making scams and schemes involves the repeated assertion that the e-mails had been 'shooped' in Ukraine.

Oh, you poor, pathetic fools with your faced pressed up against the glass. Of course they were shopped around. That's not a new development. I've noted this here. I buy information (usually letters and journals). So does Rudy G -- he was on a huge buying spree in 2007 and 2008 (the only time I know of that we were competing to get the same information). Information, when shopped, is shopped to the highest bidder. They don't just, for example, notify Rudy G, "Hey, we got some stuff!" They put the word out and the tight circle of buyers then competes -- supply and demand.

The article in question is a questionable article. The always in over his head Simon Shuster wrote the article and it's nothing but allegations. No one is on the record. Is there a reason two people -- if they exist -- in Ukraine can't go on the record with their own names or the name or names of people shopping around information about Hunter?

So you've got anonymice you never met making claims that can not be proved. The press relies far too much on aonmyice period but in the average US report? The justification is that these Americans could lose their jobs or suffer harms as a result but, please understand, this is an FBI official or a this or a that. Not only are the sources unAmerican, they aren't even identified in any way as to give the reader reason to believe them. Are they in Ukraine intelligence? We don't know. We don't know a damn thing about them.

It gets worse. The whole point of Simon's report is to make it appear that the e-mails first reported on last week by THE NEW YORK POST might not be real.

So Simon Shuster is telling readers that the trove THE POST went through was shopped a year ago in Ukraine?

No.

Beyond the headline, beyond the opening paragraphs, you discover that these two 'expert' witnesses who are unnamed by TIME magazine can't tell you if the e-mails THE POST is reporting on were the ones being shopped around.

Oh, so this is two unnamed people (with no credentials provided) who aren't Americans and who don't know anything about the e-mails they're supposedly saying existed and their comments might influence an election? I believe that is the definition of attempted foreign influence.

TIME printed a story that they can't back up to discredit . . . a story by THE POST that they think didn't have enough backing?

Hunter Biden was involved in business in Urkaine. I'm sure there are many people shopping information around with his e-mails or purported e-mails. This is not news. The failure to connect a 2019 possible trove with the one that THE POST is reporting on now makes the article as useless as everything else Simon Shuster has written in his sad and pathetic life.

Let's talk about efforts to discredit. Why did we spend so much time on "hacked" with regards to this Hunter scandal? Because we have a built-in focus group. Kat, Wally, Ava and I still do some limited public speaking but the bulk has been transferred over to online talks. We are interacting and we get how the stories are playing out. Most people only read headlines (TIME knows that and they know Simon's hideous article will be a push back to try to silence this discussion). "Hacked."

Let's give liars the benefit of the doubt and say that they didn't realize that there were two ways "hacked" could go. But one way it went, with one student group after another, was that they felt -- from headlines and brief on air mentions -- was that Hunter's e-mails were 'hacked' from his computer -- that they were private and on his computer and the mean old repair guy had no right to them. Hunter is a notorious deadbeat and that was well established in the public record. He made himself a deadbeat dad and in that court case tried to plead that he was bankrupt and shouldn't have to pay child support. He's a deadbeat who doesn't pay his bills. Not a struggling American, understand, a deadbeat who spent vast sums of money on hookers and drugs -- and if you don't like that, don't blame me, I'm quoting from the divorce papers when he left his wife and the mother of his first children so that he could go shack up with his dead brother's widow: "Kids meet Aunt Mommy!"

The first wife had to fight for the children to be protected -- and these are the kids that Hunter and Joe claim. They refuse to acknowledge the child Hunter had with the stripper -- she got pregnant while he was shacking up with his sister-in-law. I don't know that she's the stripper who used the dildo on him in the club, I don't know that she isn't. We do know, from the other performers present, that Hunter wanted to practice safe sex and insisted on a fresh and unused dildo. He's a safety boy.

Intended by liars like Adam Schiff or not, the "hacked" was creating a false impression among some and that's why we emphasized here what we emphasized. Most of what we talk about comes from those public discussions that we do on a daily basis. It's our focus group that allows me to gauge what to emphasize and what needs correcting and what's not been amplified enough.

The instant take away from TIME's bad 'report' should be: So what? It has nothing to do with THE POST's report. Now grasp that. Grasp that instead of investigating the claims published by THE POST, TIME decided to go off an adventure to try to discredit THE POST report. And grasp that they can't discredit it because the TIME 'report' can't even connect what took place in 2019 to the trove THE POST has.

Wisconsin Public Radio is prepping a story on the media's coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal. Good, it'll air later today. We need media analysis of it. We really need strong analysis which would mean calling out people who are lying or shading the truth.

People like Karl Baker shouldn't be allowed to practice journalism because they refuse to report the truth. The liar for THE DELAWARE JOURNAL offers a story about Rudy G turning the computer hard drive in question over to the FBI and Baker types up the following:

On Oct. 14, the publication ran a story that the hard drive contained emails from 2015 indicating that then-Vice President Joe Biden held a meeting with a high-ranking official at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company company whose board employed his son.

Biden’s campaign said, “No meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”

Is that what they said? How difficult is it to be honest?

David Folkenflik is a whole host of problems but we'll note him from NPR (and his problem would not be going against Joe Biden, it would be lying for Joe):

Biden's campaign spokesman, Andrew Bates, responded, "We have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place." There is some wiggle room in that denial. But that's not proof, either. The New York Post nonetheless asserted, breathlessly, and assuredly, that there was a "never-before-revealed meeting."

Even Folkenflik can include the full quote. And, yes, wording does matter, as well learned when Bill Clinton advised the world, "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

Brent Batten (NAPLE DAILY NEWS) argues that the scandal's a story regardless of whether it's true or not because, if true, it's a story of corruption and, if false, it's a story of a false attack that's an attempt to influence the election. Batten notes:

It seems to me the question of which version of the story is the correct one could be resolved with a few well-placed yes or no questions to Joe Biden or his spokespeople.

Did the laptop computer in question belong to Hunter Biden?

Did he drop it off for repairs at a shop in Delaware?

If it was his, were the contents of the hard drive, as reported by the New York Post after receiving a copy from Rudy Giuliani, altered or fabricated?

To my knowledge, the Biden campaign has not answered those questions, if they’ve even been asked.

Here's Jimmy Dore's take on the whole thing.

Paul Mulshine (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER) reports on a little noted development that gives further credence to the assertion that these are Hunter's e-mails and it was his computer:

I’m talking about the call that Hunter Biden’s lawyer made to the owner of that Delaware computer shop just a day before the Post broke the story.

That was unearthed by a long-time source of mine, Larry Johnson.

After the New York Post story broke last week, a lot of people questioned whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.

Mac Isaac was not available for comment but Johnson posted a copy of a follow-up email to him from lawyer George Mesires thanking him for discussing the matter.

When I called Johnson, he asked the obvious question:

“Why would you want a computer back if it’s not your guy’s computer?”

Indeed. And why isn't that a major part of the story? How is it that we can find that news but THE DELAWARE JOURNAL and others can't seem to?

Related, WISN is burying their own report. They spoke to Joe and got some sort of comment from him.

That video should be available in a basic search on GOOGLE or YOUTUBE but it's not. Possibly, it's not because Joe Biden sounds like he's struggling to speak -- he really is too old to be president, he really is someone who needs to step aside. As for his 'response.' He does not deal with the e-mails. He tries to make it about where's he's already won -- 2019 when the press kept insisting no law was broken. First, they didn't know if any law was broken or not since they showed no interest in the story. Second, the standard by which we judge is not whether or not you're a criminal. We judge ethics. Joe has none. He's refused -- even the clip above -- to address the specifics reported. He's refused to answer to the people. He wants to be their servant but he doesn't think they deserve answers.

Not to Hunter's scandal, not to where he stands on court packing, not to anything really.

Grasp that many of the same people and institutions that want to reward Joe for lying and withholding are the same people and institutions who want to punish Julian Assange for telling the truth.

Looking at the Hunter scandal and the way Joe's many protectors have responded, Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) warns:

The left must beware. The corporate media and their liberal friends may pretend to target the right, but it is leftists who they really want to silence. They are the threat to the fake progressive party which gets support from people who should have abandoned them long ago. The left reveal the plot twists of the kabuki play and must be shut up and shut down.

Joe Biden got protection when he needed it most. The New York Post story revealed what smart observers already know. The Democratic party holds on to support with a shaky coalition of white people who intensely hate Trump, black voters determined to keep Republicans, particularly Trump, out of office, and progressives who won’t vote for what they really want for fear of being “spoilers.” Any scandal that might hurt Biden will be hushed up lest the house of cards falls down.

But all of the people don’t take part in the charade. While Biden uses COVID as an excuse for not holding large events, and lets social media make excuses for him, Trump still draws crowds. Election day in 2020 could potentially be a repeat of 2016, when millions of people defied convention wisdom and put their great white hope into office. Democrats are prepared with excuses, and are already claiming that Vladimir Putin was somehow involved in getting a laptop out of a Delaware computer repair shop.

The public remains at the mercy of platforms that ought to be regulated while the Democrats strive to keep everyone in the dark and prop up one of the worst presidential candidates of all times. If they succeed their friends in Silicon Valley will come to Washington with them and the people will be the losers.

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Howie should be in the debate

Howie Hawkins is the Green Party's presidential candidate. He should be in the debate. But in America we're not allowed choices, we're not allowed information. We are to be bullied and controlled.

It's so bad that USA TODAY has a column written by a Republican telling other Republicans that they have to vote for Biden. Do you get how outrageous this has all become?

Usually, it's my party being hissed at (the Green Party), we're told we can't vote for whom we believe in. Now it's even the Republican Party can't vote for their candidate.

It's past time people backed the f**k off and stopped trying to tell everyone else how to live their lives. But I guess when your candidate is as weak as Joe Biden, you know that you can only win via threats and bullying.

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

Wednesday, October 21, 2020. Mustafa learns how unpopular of a prime minister he is in Iraq while, in the US, Joe Biden goes back into hiding.

Starting with Glenn Greenwald.

We've made many of the points Glenn does and they're strong points. But one point we haven't made that he makes above is the collaboration between journalists and the spy agencies (including former spooks) to spread propaganda domestically.

Joe Biden took himself off the campaign trail on Saturday allowing him to avoid the press and allowing his whores to work overtime. Sam Seder is a damn dirty whore. Janeane Garofalo may forgive his back stabbing but no one else should. A failed comic who flamed out at one audition after another (he even failed at his audition to play Jim's brother on LIFE ACCORDING TO JIM), he got his break finally when he got to be her co-host on THE MAJORITY REPORT and he quickly stabbed her in the back. He had a lot of help with that. Hey, Bill Scherr, you still pretending that you have ethics?

Those of us who listened to the pro-homophobic interview that you and Sam conducted with Simon Rosenberg would beg to differ. Whatever else she's done, Rachel Maddow stood up to Simon Rosenberg. Rosenberg was preaching homophobia and pro-Iraq War and Sam and Bill Scherr just coddled him. The anger? That was saved after the interview when Sam lashed out at the listeners who had openly called him a whore on the show's official message board.

Again, Rachel asked him hard questions and didn't let him spew his homophobia. Sam and Bill were happy to whore for a New Democrat (the new name, at that time, for the DLC-ers). There was no excuse for the soft-balls and whoring that Sam and Bill offered. Not only had Rachel already demonstrated how to stand up to Simon but it's also true that the day before the interview, we posted a series of problems that Simon should address. And Sam got very mad at all the people on the message board posting parts of that throughout his soft ball, hand holding with Simon Rosenberg.

Sam was also "Ad Nags" which goes to what a damn coward he is. Ad Nags was a parody of NYT reporter Adam Nagourney. It was the only thing funny that Sam had ever done. But THE NEW YORK TIMES complained to AIR AMERICA RADIO, threatened to pull their advertising and Sam caved.

Sam's a whore. I have no idea why RING OF FIRE employs him (especially considering the trash he talks about RFK Jr.). But they do or they distribute him. And he's using his tiny post to whore for Joe Biden. It would be sad if it weren't so predictable. Sam won't deal with the e-mails or what they say. He'll just spew lie after lie trying to discredit them. Because he's a whore.

When you see people lying, you shouldn't cheer them on. You shouldn't think, "Oh, this is great for our side." It's not great for our side. It's part of the David Brock-ization of the Democratic Party where we've become as appalling and disgusting as the GOP was in the 80s and 90s.

Sam Seder is continuing his long, long history as a whore for powerful Democrats. He's not there to tell the truth, he's not there to help your life be better. He exists solely to promote centrist Democrats and to lie for them. (He also exists to lie about himself but that's a story for another time.)

There are real issues here. Corruption is a real issue. Joe Biden should be answering basic questions (instead of hiding, yet again). The American people deserve to have those questions asked and answered -- and deserve to have the claims investigated. Instead, whores like Sam Seder run interference to try to bury the issues that should be raised -- while pretending to give a damn about free speech and about democracy and about blah blah blah.

He's just a dirty whore. Not unlike Heather Schwedel who is a sad, sad person. Looking at photos of Hunter in the throes of an active addiction, Heather's rush was to drool online about how 'sexy' he was.

Heather would like to be a feminist. She'd also like to lose weight. Neither is happening. Feminists don't glorify men who refuse to admit that they are a father -- men who have to be taken to court to force them to admit that they are a father, men who are dead beat dads who don't paid child support until the court orders it (and threatens a messy public hearing). Heather's not a feminist.

I hope she finds her type of man in an NA meeting -- keep going back, Heather, he comes if you jerk it.

Sunday night, we noted this:

Back to social media, a big story in Iraq this weekend has been a woman apparently throwing her two children to their deaths off the Imamas Bridge into the Tigris River. Surveillance cameras caught the alleged act and video of it has been all over Arabic social media.

For two drive-bys to the public e-mail account, it's not a made up story. There's the video that was captured by the surveillance camera.

This was a huge story Saturday and Sunday on Arabic social media. It's the sort of story that gets no play from the US media because the US media -- guilty dog that they are -- wants not part in covering Iraq. They helped create the tragedy by promoting the rush to war and the false claims and outright lies of the Bully Boy Bush administration. They continued to lie in the early years of the war to keep it going. They only got honest when public opinion shifted. Now? They act as though Iraq doesn't even exist. To acknowledge Iraq now might mean people noticing that all those promises to go back and look at those stories and to offer something more than those 2004 mini-culpas never took place.

On Iraq, we'll note this Tweet:

@AngelaMerkeICDU
  has met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Berlin, confirming that Germany 
 will continue to support Iraq as part of the anti-IS coalition. 
#germany #Deutschland #Iraq 

Source & Image - Deutsche Welle

5:08 AM · Oct 21, 2020

While he visits Germany, France and the UK, Iraq struggles. THE JORDAN TIMES notes:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi is facing a pressing challenge that threatens to push Iraq once more into a sectarian furnace. He needs the political will and the means to isolate and neutralise tens of renegade pro-Iran militias. Two events that took place this week underline the limited capabilities of the federal government and its military and security arms. The first was the burning on Saturday of the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in central Baghdad by loyalists to the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) while the second was the gruesome execution of 12 citizens in Salahuddin province, also on Saturday, allegedly a pro-Iran militia. Sixteen other victims remain unaccounted for.

The kidnapping and execution of the victims is said to be in retaliation for the killing a few days before of a member of a pro-Iran militia in an attack blamed on [ISIS].

The massacre has focused attention on the presence of pro-Iran militias in liberated Sunni provinces and their refusal to allow tens of thousands of displaced people, mostly Sunnis, from returning to their homes. The case underlines the limitations of the federal government in Baghdad in extending its authority over a number of provinces that the PMU had entered to clear them from [ISIS] terrorist groups between 2014 and 2017.

Mustafa should be at home, in Iraq, addressing the many problems. Instead, as many observers have noted, he's now trying to be more than a one-term prime minister -- despite earlier claims. This trip to Europe is about building up his image. And the Iraqi people suffer. As he realizes how unpopular he is and how so many are opposed to him, Mustafa gets desperate to retain power. REUTERS notes:

It was a series of intercepted phone calls on a tense night in June that made Iraq’s new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fully realise how few friends he had.

During one call, a senior Iraqi leader with strong ties to Iran instructed the security chief for Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which hosts government buildings and foreign embassies, not to stand in the way of militiamen who were storming the area, two Iraqi security officials said.

The militiamen were angry at the arrest of comrades accused of firing anti-U.S. rockets. During the hours-long standoff, the militia detained several members of a U.S.-trained counter-terrorism force, according to the security officials and two militia sources.

On the June 25 call, the leader with ties to Iran warned the Green Zone security chief, Shihab al-Khiqani, that “a clash would open the gates of hell” between the militias and the forces guarding the area, according to one of the security officials, who viewed a transcript of the call. The second security official and the two militia sources corroborated that call and said Khiqani was told by militia commanders in other phone conversations that night to avoid any standoff with the paramilitaries.

In other news, At Human Rights Watch, Belkis Wille observes:

A well-known TV station in Baghdad was torched by protesters after it broadcast a music concert during Ashura, a Shia holy day which was underway at the time. The offices of Dijlah TV station, which has links to Jamal Karbouli, a Sunni politician from Anbar, were badly damaged in the incident, which took place on August 31. But how have Iraqi officials since responded to this dangerous act? Not by investigating those who set the fire, but by issuing an arrest warrant for Karbouli, claiming the broadcast offended religious views under article 372 of Iraq’s Penal Code.

Meanwhile, three Dijlah staffers told Human Rights Watch that they have received numerous threats during phone calls and on social media, and that armed men came looking for them. The threats have now forced all of them to resign from their jobs, via public announcements posted on Facebook. But even that was not enough to stop the threats, and all three have now also fled their homes.

One employee said that after the governor of Diwaniya told government departments “not to deal with” Dijlah staff, he could no longer rely on local security forces to keep him safe. In Wassit, where another of the staffers lived, the governor called on security forces to prevent anyone with a Dijlah badge from reporting from the governorate. A total of six colleagues from Dijlah have now reportedly gone into hiding. The journalists’ fears for their safety are not unfounded - four reporters have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of 2020, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Earlier this month, several weeks after Human Rights Watch released a report on the growing number of prosecution of journalists under defamation and incitement laws in the country, the Iraqi embassy in Beirut finally responded, saying that the government had formed a ministerial committee to “look into cases of assaults against journalists” back in 2016. The committee was still in operation, the embassy said, but did not provide evidence of any reports or other outputs by the body.

Over the last few years Human Rights Watch has interviewed over a dozen journalists who were victims of violent attacks, including by state forces, and not a single one of them knew of this committee or had ever been contacted by it. If it exists, it is clearly not taking its job seriously. After the public torching of a TV station, what more needs to happen for Iraqi authorities to take these attacks seriously?

The following sites updated: