Ann's Mega Dub: 2/12/23

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Stan's right -- Marlowe is a great movie

Did you read Stan's "MARLOWE"? We did. And we went this evening to see Marlowe. SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW I'M SURE. It really is as good as Stan said.

It's a mystery. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is the detective of this film. Humphrey Bogart played the character in The Big Sleep and Liam Neeson plays him here with Neil Jordan directing. Neil's films include THE CRYING GAME, MONA LISA, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, THE BRAVE ONE and GRETA. This is a film noir.

The daughter of a wealthy movie star turns up in Marlowe's office and she hires him to find her lover. He's missing. No, she doesn't think her husband's involved.

Is the man missing? Is he dead? There are a lot of questions that keep springing up.

And everyone's interested in Marlowe's investigation -- Jessica Lange (as the movie star), the "Ambassador" (her boyfriend/business manager), the owner of a club the missing man frequented and Eli Cumming who was in business with the man.

It's a moody film. And a strong one. I didn't know a thing about it -- including that it existed -- until Stan posted his review last night.

We both loved the show -- our kids did too. Joking! We left them with grandma. But we did love the movie. I strongly recommend it -- especially to those who need a palate cleanser after a steady diet of superhero films.

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

Thursday, February 16, 2023. Like the US, Iraq has their own crazy Marjorie Taylor Greenes, and the Tara Reade crazies in the US are losing it in front of our very eyes.

Starting in Iraq, Ammar Karim (AFP) reports:

Dancing to Iraqi pop made TikTok personality Om Fahad a hit among tens of thousands of followers, but now she is in prison, caught up in a state campaign targeting "decadent content".

The young Iraqi woman using that pseudonym was sentenced early this month to half a year behind bars for the light-hearted video clips that show her in tight-fitting clothes.

A new government campaign aims to cleanse social media platforms of content that breaches Iraqi "mores and traditions", the interior ministry announced in January.

A specialised committee now scours TikTok, YouTube and other popular platforms for clips deemed offensive by many in the largely conservative and patriarchal society.

THE SAXON adds:

A few days later, another TikTokeuse – under the pseudonym of Assal Hossam – was sentenced to two years in prison, for videos in which she showed off her forms, sometimes dressed in a military uniform.

A total of ten people have been arrested for decadent content, according to an official from the Ministry of the Interior, who wants to keep the Ministry of Interior. anonymity. Via a platform set up by the authorities, 96,000 reports were sent by the general public, according to the same source.

Six verdicts have already been pronounced in these cases, according to justice.

And in Amarah, southern Iraq, an investigative judge recently heard from four minor social media celebrities, suspected of offending the public morals and indecent assault, says a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council.

NET reports:

On Wednesday, February 8, 2023, the Karkh Misdemeanor Court issued prison sentences against content creator Hassan Sajma and content creator Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as "Umm Fahd", on charges of "bad content" by "publishing several films and videos containing obscene and indecent statements and displaying them to the public on social networking sites".

Sajma was sentenced to two years in prison, and Umm Fahd to six months' imprisonment based on the provisions of Article 403 of the Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, as amended, which stipulates that "Any person who produces, imports, publishes, possesses, obtains or translates a book, printed or other written material, drawing, picture, film, symbol or other thing that violates the public integrity or decency with intent to exploit or distribute such material is punishable by a period of detention not exceeding 2 years plus a fine not exceeding 200 dinars or by one of those penalties. The same penalty applies to any person who advertises such material or displays it in public or sells, hires or offers it for sale or hire even though it is not in public or to any person who distributes or submits it for distribution by any means. If the offense is committed with intent to deprave and corrupt morals, it is considered to be an aggravating circumstances."

At the same time, the head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zidan, directed "general deterrence" by taking strict legal measures against anyone who publishes content that "offends public decency and constitutes immoral practices."

Don't they have better things to than try to attack content creators and censor? Aren't there a ton of corrupt officials who should be standing before judges right now for having ripped off millions each year from the Iraqi people?

Or is this what that's really about? Create some nonsense like this to distract from just how awful the elected officials are? Oh, look, it's Tara Reade's little friend Marjorie Taylor Greene. Little? Honey, anyone who Tara stands next to is going to look little. Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Out Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are cosponsoring a bill that could restrict students’ access to books that discuss LGBTQ+ themes.

Santos is one of 11 out LGBTQ+ members of the House of Representatives and the only one advancing an anti-LGBTQ+ equality agenda. The other 10 LGBTQ+ House members are Democrats.

Does Tara not realize that her erotic Putin fan fiction might get banned by her new friend Marjorie -- the woman she can't stop reTweeting?

Tara's too busy snacking between, before and during meals to think about it too much and besides she's about to be on stage shortly at the faux fest that is RAGE AGAINST THE WAR MACHINE. Joseph Kishore (WSWS) serves up some reality about that nonsense:

The demonstration being held in Washington D.C. on February 19, under the headline “Rage Against the War Machine,” is opposed to a socialist and genuinely anti-war perspective. Based on the most shortsighted, pragmatic and opportunistic calculations, this event promotes an alliance and collaboration with the political right and even openly fascistic forces.

The primary organizers of the rally are the Libertarian Party, led by Angela McArdle, and the “People’s Party,” led by Nick Brana.

The platform of the right-wing Libertarian Party is the demand for the full and unrestrained right of the capitalists to exploit the working class. It is virulently opposed not only to socialism, but to all social reforms. One of the main speakers at the rally is the former Libertarian Party candidate for president, Ron Paul, who has advocated the elimination of income taxes, minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance and Social Security.

Angela McArdle is a member of the “Mises Caucus” of the Libertarian Party. Named after the fanatically anti-socialist economist Ludwig von Mises, this faction virulently upholds the absolute right of private property.

Under the direction of McArdle and the “Mises Caucus”, the Libertarians have made a more direct orientation to the fascist right and the anti-Semitic groups involved in the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In early 2021, McArdle defended the invitation of an anti-Semitic provocateur to the Mises Caucus convention in California, writing that a “truth-seeker” who asks “the question about whether or not Jews run Hollywood” is not an anti-Semite.

The “People’s Party” originated in the “Movement for a People’s Party” (MPP), which held its inaugural convention in August 2020. Its purpose, indicated in its name, is to oppose the organization of the working class as an independent political force. The specific social identity and interests of the working class are dissolved into the amorphous category of “the people.” The program of the “People’s Party” is nationalistic and anti-socialist. The WSWS called attention at the time to the MPP’s orientation to the far right, which has in the intervening two-and-a-half years exploded to the surface.

The Libertarians and the People’s Party have, for their own purposes, assembled an assortment of “left” speakers to participate in the rally. They includes comedian Jimmy Dore and the editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal. Both Dore and Blumenthal have previously promoted an alliance with the far right forces that oppose all critical health measures to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. The have downplayed the significance of the January 6 coup. Dore’s response to the coup was to promote an alliance with the fascistic Boogaloo Boys militia.

While oriented to the far right, the rally also draws upon many of the conceptions of the Stalinist Popular Front and the subordination of political opposition to the Democratic Party. This is represented by figures such as former Democratic Party presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and Green Party politicians Jill Stein and Cynthia McKinney. Also speaking is former Democratic Party Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is currently an active lieutenant colonel in the US Army.

The most putrid element of the rally is the direct involvement of fascists. Among the featured speakers is Jackson Hinkle, a supporter of Trump and promoter of “MAGA Communism,” who has said it is his aim to “finish the job of Donald Trump” by “uprooting liberalism from America and getting rid of the globalists out of the MAGA movement.” Another participant is Jordan Page, a libertarian who in 2015 wrote the fascist “Oath Keeper” anthem, entitled “Arm Yourselves.”

Given the far-right element at the rally, several groups refused to participate, including Veterans for Peace and Code Pink.

Pacifist columnist and author Chris Hedges, who will also be speaking at the rally, attempts to legitimize and defend his own participation in a statement published on his Substack this week, “There Are No Permanent Allies, Only Permanent Power.”

Hedges is known as a radical critic of American imperialism. Heavily influenced by Noam Chomsky and substituting middle-class moralizing for scientific political analysis, Hedges rejects Marxism and is implacably hostile to the “Trotskyites,” an element of his politics that has become ever more explicit. His writings are characterized by a demoralized, even obsessive, pessimism, and explicit opposition to the organization of the working class as an independent political force. He is not necessarily opposed to working class participation in a popular movement, but only in a subordinate political role. This has now led him to calling for and legitimizing a completely unprincipled and reactionary alliance with the far right.

According to Hedges, “We will not topple corporate power and the war machine alone. There has to be a left-right coalition, which will include people whose opinions are not only unpalatable but even repugnant, or we will remain marginalized and ineffectual.” Not only is it politically permissible to forge an alliance with the extreme right, Hedges insists, it is a necessity, a “fact of political life.”

Hedges argues that it is possible to build a movement against war in alliance with the far right in isolation from any other social or political issue.

“The rally on February 19 is not about eliminating Social Security and Medicare or abolishing the minimum wage, which many libertarians propose,” he writes. “It is not a rally to denounce the rights of the LGBTQ community, which have been attacked by at least one of the speakers. It is a rally to end permanent war. Should these right-wing participants organize around other issues, I will be on the other side of the barricades.”

How does one begin to unpack all this political nonsense?

Hedge’s assertion that legitimizing the claim of these far-right forces to be opposed to war in no way aids their anti-democratic and anti-working class social and political agenda is a political absurdity. Of course it helps the political right. The presence of Hedges and others claiming to be on the left assists the right-wing organizers in disorienting and deceiving workers and young people and provides a false “progressive” cover for their reactionary politics. Whtever his private intentions, Hedges’ public message is that the right wing Libertarians and the fascists are really not so bad, they have their good sides, and one can find common ground with them.

Hedge’s claim that he would be “on the other side of the barricades” should his far-right collaborators “organize around other issues” is theatrical demagogy pure sophistry. When his present right-wing friends combine their criticism of the Ukraine with American nationalism, anti-Semitism, rejection of even marginal social reforms, promotion of anti-vaccination madness, and other utterly reactionary policies, what are they doing if not “organizing around other issues?”

We took on Chris yesterday and I called him out but also noted he had done many things worth applauding. The failure to offer blind worship has offended a number of drive-by e-mailers. Some think I was much too hard on Chris.

Really?

Because what I could have done -- and maybe should -- is this.

That's from WILL & GRACE, episode "24" written by Gail Lerner, Kari Lizer, Jhoni Marchinko, Tracy Poust, Jon Kinnally and Bill Wrubel. Via DURFEE.NET, here's the part to emphasize from the above.

JACK: You must be dying!

[JACK CLAPS HIS HANDS TOGETHER.]

[KAREN AND WILL LAUGH.]

JACK: Aren't you dying?! Your husband is going to Guatemala with that! I would die!

KAREN: I know! That bod! She could be in a Whitesnake video! Whoo!

JACK: Just! die!

WILL: That is some lucky flesh-eating virus that gets her.

ROSARIO: What is she a doctor of? Foxology?

[EVERYONE BUT GRACE LAUGHS.]

JACK: [CLAPPING] Die! Die! Die!

GRACE: Okay! I get it! She's gorgeous and she saves lives, big whoop. I look good sometimes. And I let people cut in front of me in line at the supermarket. Well, I haven't, but I've thought of it.

WILL: Come on, Gracie. You have nothing to worry about.

GRACE: I know that! I'm very secure in my relationship. I love my husband, and I know that he loves me.

JACK: I would die!

So what I could have said regarding Chris Hedges?

I would die!

If I wrote the November 8, 2001 NEW YORK TIMES cover story "A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SCHOOL; Defectors Cite Iraqi Training For Terrorism" -- later exposed as fraudulent by Jack Fairweather's "Heroes in Error" (MOTHER JONES, March/April 2006) -- an article that was nothing but lies and falsely linked Iraq to 9/11, I would die!

I would die! Realizing that my work helped start the lie, helped start the war, a war that killed millions, I would die!

And, again, over a million did.

And this has nothing to do with Judith Miller.

This is a 'report' that the great Chris Hedges 'wrote' (stenography, that's all he did).

I would die!

Over a million Iraqis dead and it was my fault?

I would die!

So, no, I don't feel I was too hard on Chris Hedges yesterday.

As Mike noted last night, one idiot just keeps trying to defend her actions and gets hit back with a Tweet full of reality:

And one more time, if you're throwing the party, it's incumbent upon you to do the invites. People you haven't invited aren't supposed to be calling you up and saying, "Hear you're having a party is it okay for me to invite myself." The lack of diversity in your guests is a reflection solely on the choices you made. You can't turn around now and blame others. Own your damn actions. Pathetic.

Be sure to read Ann's "Anya, do they give you bathroom breaks on the plantation?" about how the faux test had to deploy the only person of color they could hide behind. Then take a moment to notice that it's not just the faux text. It's also their supporters who are White and hissing and screaming at people of color to fall in line. Screaming that this is identity politics.

As though what they're doing with the White Power rally isn't?

It's always interesting when someone tries to fight for their own dignity and the majority White response is to scream, "Identity politics!" I believe this is called self-repsect. But go to Anya's Tweet and look at all the White bullies attacking people of color in their Tweets.

What they're really expressing is anger that as White people they can't just call the shots and get everyone to fall in line behind them. The planned 'action' in DC is racist but note that the defense they're mounting online for their 'action' is also highly racist as well.

Let's wind down with this discussion on the topic from BLACK POWER MEDIA.

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Thrilled to announce that an under-represented voice has spoken

Because, certainly, the world has not had enough White people telling us what racism is and what life looks like from a White point of view. Right?

A creep named Dar Tweets:

Replying to @anyaparampil
 and @RageAgainstWar_

Well said! I'm white, but if there was a 100% Asian, or 100% black anti-war rally, i wouldn't be angry, but would say "God bless you folks!". And what is stopping other ethnic orgs (BLM, NAACP, Hispanic institute, etc) from doing their own rally? Go for it! the more the better

1:13 PM · Feb 14, 2023

Is that what you would do, White person. Are you race-splaining to the rest of us? Do you think we care to hear how you, a member of the dominant race in the US, looks at other races?

Did you ever think for a moment that your viewpoint has been covered for decades and handed down continuously by the media?

Did you ever think that maybe you need to talk less and listen more?

Probably not because you just know your opinion is the White one -- oops, right one. Yeah, let's pretend that, let's pretend it's the right onw.

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

Wednesday, February 15, 2023. On the 20th anniversary of a global protest, we're supposed to want to participate in an upcoming DC 'action' that would have us link arms with racists and homophobes and a convicted pedophile (supposedly dropped out) as well as the man who first put the false link between Iraq and 911 on the cover of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Starting with some e-mails.

Chrissy Lynn Hedges. Goodness me, didn't realize I'd stepped into a ''hornets's nest'' as 15 e-mails all saying the same thing but supposedly from 15 different people insist I have. Chris Hedges is for the DC action, didn't I know?

Better question: Why would I care?

Honestly, are you that stupid?

I get it, education is hard. Since the system clearly failed you, let's do some remedial lessons.

First off, I called out Chrissy Lynn -- Crazy Lynn? -- on that last book where he was horrified and clutching the pearls over the novel 50 SHADES OF GREY. Oh, the horror.

Talk about someone unable to big picture it.

More to the point, I have been very kind to Chris over the years but when he's nutso, I've pointed it out.

Like, sorry Maxy Pads Blumenthal, when Chris tied Iraq into the attack on 9/11.

What's that? You thought that was Judith Miller?

No, kids, it was Chris. He got that lie on the cover of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

November 8, 2001 believe that's Chris Hedges' name on "A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SCHOOL; Defectors Cite Iraqi Training For Terrorism." You might have to search the title to find out, THE TIMES changes that article's URL from time to time -- as we've been noting since 2006.

The whole article is garbage and Chris typed up what he was fed:

Two defectors from Iraqi intelligence said yesterday that they had worked for several years at a secret Iraqi government camp that had trained Islamic terrorists in rotations of five or six months since 1995.

They said the training in the camp, south of Baghdad, was aimed at carrying out attacks against neighboring countries and possibly Europe and the United States.

The defectors, one of whom was a lieutenant general and once one of the most senior officers in the Iraqi intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, said they did not know if the Islamic militants being trained at the camp, known as Salman Pak, were linked to Osama bin Laden.

They also said they had no knowledge of specific attacks carried out by the militants. But they insisted that those being trained as recently as last year were Islamic radicals from across the Middle East. An interview of the two men was set up by an Iraqi group that seeks the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

The defectors said they knew of a highly guarded compound within the camp where Iraqi scientists, led by a German, produced biological agents.

''There is a lot we do not know,'' the former general, who spoke on condition that his name not be printed, admitted. ''We were forbidden to speak about our activities among each other, even off duty. But over the years you see and hear things. These Islamic radicals were a scruffy lot. They needed a lot of training, especially physical training. But from speaking with them it was clear they came from a variety of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States. The gulf war never ended for Saddam Hussein. He is at war with the United States. We were repeatedly told this.''

Jack Fairweather's "Heroes in Error" (MOTHER JONES, March/April 2006) debunked Chris' article and reminded everyone of how damaging those lies were:

The impact of the article and the concurrent Frontline show, “Gunning for Saddam,” was immediate: Op-eds ran in major papers, and the story was taken to a wider audience through cable-TV talk shows. When Condoleezza Rice, then George W. Bush’s national security adviser, was asked about the story at a press briefing, she said, “I think it surprises no one that Saddam Hussein is engaged in all kinds of activities that are destabilizing.” Vanity Fair and the London Observer elaborated on Ghurairy’s claims; another version of the story appeared in the Washington Post courtesy of defector Khodada. The White House included the story of Salman Pak in its “Decade of Deception and Defiance” background paper prepared for President Bush’s September 12, 2002, speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Along with the tale of Mohammed Atta meeting Iraqi intelligence agents in Prague—another INC-hyped story—Ghurairy’s account helped establish the connection between Saddam and the 9/11 hijackers, making Iraq, like Afghanistan, a legitimate target for Bush’s war on terror.
Unfortunately, the story was an elaborate scam. The purported general had indeed met with American intelligence agents in Turkey, but unbeknownst to Hedges the agents had dismissed his claims out of hand. What the reporters also didn’t know, and what has never before been reported, is that it now appears that the man himself was a fake. According to an ex-INC official, the Ghurairy who met with the Times and PBS was actually a former Iraqi sergeant, then living in Turkey and known by the code name Abu Zainab. The real Lt. General Ghurairy, it seems, had never left Iraq.

Does Chris talk about that? Have you heard him, a speech maker, give a speech and take accountability? Nope. He just tries to sweep under the rug. And he was given two sources. They were both fakes and liars. Jack Fairweather was able to expose one. Chris has never felt compelled to come forward with the name of the other.

The false link between 9/11 and Iraq did more to move support for that illegal war than anything else.

And Chris is part of that lie.

When does he plan to take accountability?

I have no idea but it's been over 20 years now.

So if I'm in a hornets nest -- or as all15 spelled it "hornets's nest" -- because I disagree with Chris Hedges? Honey, I've been in that hornets' nest for decades and I certainly won't make it a point to take advice on how to end war from someone who spread the lie that the 9/11 hijackers were connected to Iraq -- spread the lie and never apologized for it.

Others e-mailing want to tell me that I'm on the side of Ukraine.

Oh, I'm sorry. Is that your talking point today? It's not accurate. I hit back when Ann Wright -- brave Ann Wright -- was sliming and slamming Russia. I called it -- and her -- out.

I'm not a fan of Putin's but the attack on Russia wasn't about that. It was the US demonizing and I don't take part in demonizing a people. Or blaming them for their awful governments -- we have a pretty awful one in the US, for example.

You've got a bad action with bad actors due to take place in DC that Chris and others will be participating in and you've got -- as Ann pointed out last night -- idiots like Anaya Parampil huffing the people of color (she means African-Americans, she's chiding Black Alliance for Peace) should have called up WACK JOBS and said, "I want to be part of your rally." No, that's not accurate. You're the one supposedly trying to build a movement so it was incumbent upon you, as the organizers, to invite people.

And, here's the thing, Anaya, you did invite who you wanted. You just didn't invite any African-Americans.

And now that's supposed to be their problem and a reflection on them and not your problem and a reflection on you.

Trash, tell it to someone who hasn't spent the last years calling out all of your White White White YOUTUBE programs for refusing to bring on African-Americans as guests.

I don't work on the plantation, guys. I don't seek the approval of your White-White world.

I survived the original online circle-jerk -- survived and exposed it -- back in the '00s. I'm the one who killed CJR's 'blog report.' The ultimate circle jerk. It took one phone call. Then it was explained to the CJR kids that CJR does not exist for them to highlight their personal friends and certainly not to do that while not disclosing that is what they are doing. That was the end of CJR DAILY doing their circle jerk.

I survived that original circle jerk so, no, the Jimmy Dore circle jerk doesn't worry me.

And, to be clear, again I'm not sure the problem is Jimmy Dore. The problem is going to YOUTUBE and having to find this program and that program with a YOUTUBE video about poor Jimmy Dore and who picked on him this time.

Maybe Jimmy's not asking for that? Maybe people are just sucking up to him?

But it looks like a cult and it harms him more than it could ever help him.

Contrast that with Katie Halper.

Where's her cult of personality?

No where to be found. And when Ana Kasparian went after her, no one really stood up for Katie.

We did. We immediately stopped highlighting Ana's JACOBIAN podcast. We called her out. And we waited for others to do the same.

To this day, people don't seem to grasp what Ana did to Katie. She didn't just go off on her on the JACOBIAN podcast, she went off on her with Nando Vila right next to her (Ana). One day of the week, Nando's (again) on THE KATIE HALPER SHOW and then, days later, he's on with Ana when she goes off on Katie.

That destroyed a working relationship.

Katie didn't cry. She didn't send out, "Please defend me" distress signals.

She dusted herself off and continued her work.

What Ana did was wrong -- and put JACOBIAN in a bad spot. But including Nando on it was even more wrong.

I have so much respect for Katie over that. And I also have respect for Chris Hedges because he does a lot of work worth praising. But I'm not enlisted in anyone's army and I don't take marching orders from anyone. That is independence.

I wish that you'd make up your mind

I wish that you'd decide
That I should live as freely
As those who live outside

Cause we also are entitled
To the rights to be endowed
And when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now

Ooh, you'd like to be my father
You'd like to be my Dad
And give me kisses when I'm good
And spank me when I'm bad

But since I've left my parents
I've forgotten how to bow
So when I've got something to say, sir
I'm gonna say it now

-- "I'm Going To Say It Now," written by Phil Ochs, first appears on his PHIL OCHS IN CONCERT album.

Somewhere, Caleb Maupin is missing the point of the song, just registering the 'spank me' and moaning as he self-pleasures. Oh, well, whatever gets you through the night, Caleb.

Sorry, I'm independent and I won't be co-opted or silenced. You picked the wrong person to try to intimidate.

And I am on record opposing sending all that money to Ukraine. I am on record opposing the US-installed Nazi regime. I love the people of Ukraine but I'm no fan of their 'leaders.' And I'm not fan of Putin. But we saw from the start that this was not just events mindlessly taking place but a real effort by the US government to force Russia's hand. We saw and called it out when people like Ann Wright -- now aboard the peace train -- were attacking Russia.

So find someone else to hang that on.

I've had my say and now I'm through

I've just got to get myself away from you
You've twisted and you've turned my mind
Because of all the dark I find inside of you
'Side of you, got to let me lie

Burn your hatred out on someone else

I don't need the things you say
You're bringing me down every day
As well as you
We're at the crossroads wet with tears
And I don't want to spend my years hating you
Hating you, got to let me lie

Burn your hatred out on someone else

-- "Burn Your Hatred," written by Graham Nash, first recorded by Cass Elliot for her album DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

I'll never stand with Scott Ritter. A convicted pedophile. That disgusting people like Tara Reade and Chris Hedges and Max Blumenthal and Medea Benjamin did is a reflection of them.

"We need a big coalition." My coalition does not include people who assault others.

If your coalition includes that then you've got a lot to be responsible for.

And personally, I was in single-digit years when I was kidnapped and raped. I'm not Tara Reade. She's so narcissistic that her assault is just about her. Didn't learn a thing about others. The ME in Me-Too. I'm not Tara. I know real hurt and I will never do anything to risk that anyone else go through that.

And if Jimmy Dore hadn't started promoting Scott Ritter, we'd still be noting him (Jimmy) here -- whether I agreed with him or not in whichever video. Didn't set out to be in opposition to Jimmy. And, if you'll remember, my original complaint when they started bringing that convicted sex offender on was only that they weren't disclosing it to their audiences. That shows an extreme disrespect for your audience, to bring on a registered sex offender and present him as a good and rational voice and not as the threat that the courts see him as. And for those of us who have suffered an assault, it's very offensive that you think this type of a person and promoting this type of a person is more important than supporting your audience which does include a lot of survivors.

Male and female.

Since they were so 'triggered' -- these con artists who'd rather stand with a convicted sex offender -- by what Black Alliance for Peace said, let's note it one more time:

The Final Deathblow to Imperialism Will Only Come Under The Leadership of The Organized Colonized Masses

Efforts to marginalize, disregard, and erase the presence of radical Black-, Brown-, and Indigenous-led anti-imperialist organizations, as well as our political positions, is proving to be endemic to the politics of too many who consider themselves radical anti-imperialist and anti-war activists. For this reason, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) reiterates that the peoples who bear the brunt of the brutal and lethal practices of U.S. imperialism are at the forefront of the struggle to dismantle the global system of white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism.

The colonized within the U.S. settler state see more clearly than the privileged the holistic nature of the system as well as the interdependencies between our domestic repression and U.S. wars abroad. Some forces that claim to be anti-war have an unsophisticated understanding of peace.

We understand that peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement, by popular struggle and self-defense, of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament, and unjust war. A condition for real peace is the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy and white supremacy. Anyone with genuine concern for the well-being of humanity and the planet should be deeply concerned that some supposed “leftist” forces consider it easier to find common cause with right wing libertarian forces than with the Black radical movement, as BAP Coordinating Committee member Jacqueline Luqman writes in this Black Agenda Report piece.

And as Chair of the BAP Coordinating Committee, Ajamu Baraka points out:

“The white left in the U.S. is deeply delusional. Elements of the left actually believe a radical movement leading to revolutionary change will be led by white activists with Black & colonized people as backdrops. #AntiWarSoWhite”

We cannot afford any confusion, complicity, silence, or outright collaboration with some “liberal/left” forces on armed intervention into Haiti, the reactionary role of NATO, the intensification of state repression in the United States, the plight of the working class being subjected to an induced recession, and austerity. For BAP, all of these contradictions reaffirm why it is absolutely necessary for colonized people to be organized or face an inescapable subjugation and eventual annihilation. The comfortable will dismiss this as hyperbole.

We—the colonized, the exploited, the oppressed—are in the midst of a war. It is clear that the colonial-capitalist rulers will continue to deceive, mislead and co-opt to maintain their dominance. Our responsibility in opposition is to keep the focus on the imperialists and not be confused by the machinations of their supporters. That task and responsibility will continue to inform our work in 2023.

Tara Reade, if you missed it, is now so far gone that she's reTweeting US House Rep and professional hate merchant Marjorie Taylor Greene. Marjie? Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) reports on MTG's latest hate spew:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) denounced marriage equality as a sign that Democrats have “turned their backs on God.”

She then made comments about how 9/11 proves that an aircraft crashing isn’t dangerous for people on the ground.

“The truth is being canceled, it’s being attacked like never before,” Greene told the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, delivering the keynote speech at the group’s Lincoln Day Dinner on February 11. “And if you don’t love the truth, then you don’t love God.”

She said that “these people in Washington” – a group that includes herself – have “turned their back on the truth and they turned their back on God.”

She then said that House Democrats voted twice to pass a bill legalizing murdering babies “up until the date of birth” as a sign of Democrats turning their backs on God.

“They passed a bill to make it a federal law to protect gay marriage,” Greene then complained. “Marriage is between a man and a woman, and that’s between God and a man and a woman.”

That's who Tara Reade is reTweeting and embracing. She thinks there's a come-back from this? There isn't. You've made your selection and you'll continue to the register and begin paying for your purchase. No one is going to stand with you anymore -- no one who's not a hate merchant. It's over, fatty, no one cares anymore. I happen to think Joe Biden did assault you but I just don't care now that you've used the platform and support people gave you to try to normalize a hate merchant like MTG.

A real action took place 20 years ago today. Lindsey German (GUARDIAN) explains:

No one can say they weren’t warned. Mass opposition to wars tends to emerge only after they have been waged for some time, yet protests against the Iraq war reached unprecedented heights well before it began. On 15 February 2003, the largest demonstration in British history took place in London, attended by an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million people. It was also part of the largest ever international anti-war protest, with perhaps as many as 30 million people demonstrating across every continent.

The march itself was a carnival of resistance. There were people of every age, race, religion and nationality, from huge numbers of school students to members of the Muslim community and other faith organisations and trade unionists. There were tens of thousands of banners and placards ranging from “make tea not war” to “not in my name”. Part of the reason for the sheer size of the march was that people thought that being there in person, as individuals, really could make a difference and convince the government not to go to war.

This turned out not to be the case. The march and the wider anti-war movement did not stop the war. And we still live with the consequences of both the conflict itself, and the rejection of democratic accountability demonstrated by the government.

That was real action. And that didn't end the war -- US troops are still there even though most Americans are unaware and couldn't tell you when the last US service member died there (last December) or who it was (Marine Staff Sgt Samuel D. Lecce). I think protests are important. I don't believe we throw away our ethics to stand with convicted sex offenders who prey on children. Three arrests now. It was patehtic when it was only one known arrest back in the early '00s and you idiots were defending him. It's now been three arrests. He's gone to prison. He's been found guilty in a court of law. He's lied repeatedly about what happened. And yet that's who you want to stand with and you want to ignore his hatred and the threat that he actually is.

You can say you're doing it for peace or 'anti-war,' but you're lying. And it's really nice of the White White White Straight Straight Nothings to decide that it's more important to stand with a pedophile and more important to promote homophobes and those who attack women's reproductive rights. You're 'big tent' has forced most of us out. And that's on you, you planned this party, you invited the guests you wanted.

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Anya, do they give you bathroom breaks on the plantation?

The disgusting Anya Parampil wants to Tweet:

Those attacking @RageAgainstWar_
 for being “too white” are erasing multiple “people of color” (myself included) bc we didn’t build our public followings off idpol

Instead of smearing an antiwar rally they could have asked to be included, like other speakers added in recent days

10:47 AM · Feb 14, 2023·

"Idpol" -- honey, I'm Black. I don't have the option of hiding or pretending the way you do and have.

As for asking to be included, why would I want to be with you racists who elect to stand with a convicted pedophile?

You really are pathetic, Anya. I think it's great that you tried to play the card of token to help your White masters Aaron Mate and Max Blumethal. Tell me, Anya, do they give you bathroom breaks on the plantation? And are you in the same cult that Tulsi Gabbard is in? Do you take orders from Guru Chris?

Woman, you're not impressing anyone with your pathetic life and you're so called 'reporting.' Wah! Wah! Cry some more on the floor.

Token wanted us to hear from her. We did and we were not impressed.

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

Tuesday, February 14, 2023. The 20th anniversary to a massive global protest is tomorrow, a faux action loses their convicted pedophile speaker but still remains too toxic for most people to get on board with, toxic is what Iraq's become as a result of the never-ending wars, and much more.

Dr Gideon Polya (COUNTERCURRENTS) reports:

On the weekend encompassing Friday 14 February to Sunday 16 February 2003 in Australia, coordinated mass protests against the impending Iraq War occurred around the world in over 600 cities. This global mass protest was described as the largest protest event in human history. According to the BBC 6-10 million people protested in a total of about 60 countries. In Italy the Rome protest involved about 3 million people, and in Spain the protest in Madrid involved 1.5 million people.

On Friday 14 February the protesters totalled 150,000 people in my city Melbourne (I and family were there with highly visible black on white STOP WAR placards). On 16 February 250,000 people protested in Sydney, and 100,000 in Brisbane. About 600,000 demonstrated against the impending Iraq War in cities around Australia [1-5]. Between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the world globe participated in some 3,000 protests against the Iraq War [5].

(A). The ongoing carnage anti-war demonstrators unsuccessfully tried to stop in 2003.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq War was conceived by the war criminal Americans as part of the absurdly named post-9/11 US War on Terror that in horrible reality became a genocidal War on Muslims from West Africa to South East Asia. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was presaged by 13 years of crippling Sanctions and US, UK and Apartheid Israeli bombing that devastated Iraq in the period 1990-2003. The US had “greenlighted” the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 but as soon as the invasion occurred the serial invader America and its allies turned on Iraq – 200,000 Iraqis perished in the 1990-1991 Gulf War and an estimated 1.7 million Iraqis (mostly children ) perished under genocidal Sanctions that devastated a formerly prosperous Arab country that had a secular administration.

The “excuses” for invasion of Sanctions- and bombing-crippled Iraq in 2003 were utterly false. No Iraqis were involved in the 9/11 atrocity in 2001 according to the “official lying Bush conspiracy theory about 9/11”. However the US and UK governments presented their people and the world with utterly false assertions about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda terrorists (the opposite was true, with the secular Iraqi regime being opposed to Islamist terrorists), and with falsely alleged Iraqi possession of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMDs) that after the conquest of Iraq were simply not found. The invasion of Iraq by US, UK and Australian forces formally commenced on about 20 March 2003. The already economically and militarily devastated Iraqis having no air force, no navy and no defence industry were quickly defeated by the genocidal US Alliance “shock and awe” tactics.

Nevertheless Indigenous resistance continued. The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain was hunted down and killed (the same fate befell Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after the France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance invaded and destroyed Libya) [6, 7]. The US Alliance mostly left devastated Iraq in 2011 having installed a Shia-dominated government to their liking. The subsequent Sunni revolt gave rise to the Islamist ISIS and thence the excuse for the return of the US Alliance to further devastate Iraq, and to also wreck and Balkanize Syria [6-20]. Fallujah (the City of Mosques) was destroyed in the Iraq War but was again besieged and devastated a second time by the barbaric Americans in the subsequent war on the barbaric ISIS insurgents [17-19]. The western half of the huge city of Mosul was destroyed by the US Alliance together with the lives of 40,000 of the residents (pre-war Mosul population 2 million) [19].

The Iraq War and the Syrian War continue. The US has a large number of temporary military bases in Iraq, mostly a type of forward operating base (FOB), plus 2 major airbases [21]. In January 2020, the Iraqi PM, the Iraqi Parliament and the Speaker demanded that the US Alliance forces leave Iraq. The US, UK, Australia, Canada and Germany rejected the Iraqi Parliament’s Quit Iraq demand, with the US threatening to instantly collapse what was left of the Iraqi economy by a banking freeze if Iraq insisted on US Alliance withdrawal from its territory [22]. Syria is largely held by the Syrian Government with the help of Russia. However Turkiye occupies a northern strip, US-backed rebels occupy a north western enclave, Kurdish forces occupy a north eastern region, ISIS remnants still exist, Apartheid Israel has illegally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights, and the US illegally maintains a major base in Syria. The active and passive killing of Iraqis and Syrians by the US and Apartheid Israel continues. Despite the immense earthquake horrors in north east Syria, the US and its allies maintain deadly sanctions against war- and earthquake-devastated Syria. Apartheid Israel continues to routinely bomb Syria and Iraq. Indeed Apartheid Israel tried to broker a Ukraine-Russia peace deal to bolster Russian cooperation over Israeli warplanes in Syria but this was scotched by the genocidal US [24].

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the massive, worldwide protests against the Iraq War. You had people taking to the streets and making a huge statement. You had people like Janeane Garofalo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Ani DiFranco and many others speaking out and being attacked for it. And Meg Ryan. She got trashed by Al The Pig Franken. His embarrassment of a radio show needed guests because Randi Rhodes was outdoing him daily on AIR AMERICA. So he gets Meg to be a guest while he's doing a show on a college campus. Meg calls out the war and says the troops need to come home. Al grins and chuckles and as soon as she's gone explains on air that she's just too stupid -- unlike him -- to know about stuff like war. He was a piece of filth ahead of the war, by the way, urging Democrats in Congress to vote for the authorization.

Hans Blix, Clare Short and Tony Benn may be names from the past for many people in Britain but the wider world has not moved on from the war they tried to prevent in Iraq, says the filmmaker Amir Amirani, and neither has he.

After spending nine years interviewing such people for his film We Are Many, about the global anti-war marches on February 15, 2003, Amirani is still engrossed in the topic: working on a release in America, thinking of writing a book, and developing an offshoot project he is keeping under wraps for now.

Tim Stickings (THE NATIONAL) reports:

There were many brave people speaking out -- most are forgotten especially by the idiots propping up registered sex offender Scott Ritter. I hit campuses starting in February of 2003, one month ahead of the war, filling in for a friend who got a more prominent campus speaking gig and needed to do that to reach a larger audience. I was asked to fill in and I did that for years and years until the pandemic hit. My point in raising that now is I never even heard of Scott Ritter until long after the war began. He was not the brave voice everyone thinks he was. He wasn't, for example, Katharine Gun -- but don't they try to rewrite history and make him that.

And on the rewriting of history: Sy Hersh. I have a long history of him and I noted that when I reviewed his bad book here. If you're late to the party, you can read Elaine's "Seymour Hersh" for a primer. And, yes, I know it and Coretta knew it, that Sy was feeding information about us and others to his government sources in exchange for tidbits. He's a snitch. And I love how his 'greatest hits' being listed currently never acknowledge the reality that he had many, many 'scoops' implode over the years. He's only as good as his source because he's just a stenographer. The JFK book really damaged his legacy -- but don't expect the political equivalent of twinks to know about that. We should all know that he pimped the narrative that Seth Rich was murdered not in a robbery but for leaking to WIKILEAKS.

Was Seth murdered by the DNC or the government? I have no idea but my guess would be no. Until Sy starts appearing on shows dropping crumbs here and there. The fact that he's doing that means it may be true. Or it could be a bad source. Again, Sy is not an investigative reporter. He writes what he is told. That's all he's ever done. Some sources are solid and some are not.

It's a shame that the shallow are so shallow yet so convinced that they learned something.

Real actions took place 20 years ago today.

The Scott Ritter fan club is not holding a real action in DC.

Black Alliance for Peace issued the following:

The Final Deathblow to Imperialism Will Only Come Under The Leadership of The Organized Colonized Masses

And as Chair of the BAP Coordinating Committee, Ajamu Baraka points out:

At SOCIALIST ACTION, Jeff Mackler also called the faux action out.

It's amazing to look at these people -- THE CONVO COUCH, for example -- and note that they've been willing to spend years now rescuing the right-wingers, defending the hate merchants to build up to this moment. They claim to be left but that time wasn't used to defend transgender people, for example, or to reach out to the left. Mabye tht's because they'd need to do real work for that. And, check out RT when Fiorella's on and you'll see she does no real work. She just goes on air, Russia's own Judith Miller, and 'reports' by saying, "Russian intelligence has learned . . ."

Get your cash however you can, Fiorella, but be a smart whore: Get it up front. Customer's always going to want to pay you less after he shoots his wad.

"Russian intelligence has learned"?

What a propagandist.

And I've defended her. She has every right to work for RT. But when that's what she's 'reporting' -- spitting back out what a government -- any government -- has fed her? She's a propagandist and I look at her with the same disgust I would if she were reporting for a US channel and saying, "The CIA has learned . . ."

They're idiots, this group of people.

They aren't going to sway anyone with her being seen as Tokyo Rose and registered sex offender Scott Ritter being their cause celebre. Yes, at the end of last week, Scott Ritter finally took a hint and dropped out. Though there are rumors that he will show up and speak as a 'surprise guest.' Parents, protect your daughters.

But this is what it came to. Fiorealla and other embarrassments and they're going to do something major. No.

They're bringing on homophobes, on a FOX NEWS personality who FOX fired because of complaints from young men that the judge was harassing them, they're a disgusting group of people.

And no one's going to take you seriously when you're putting on a White man convicted and sent to prison for being a pedophile.

White privilege is what kept Scott out of prison the first two times he was arrested for being a pedophile. He was able to whine to the people he met while working for the UN and they wrote character letters insisting that Scott was wonderful and this was a momentary lapse of judgement.

The third arrest didn't work out for him.

No man of color would have been able to avoid prison on two arrests for pedophilia but White Scott Ritter did.

And maybe that glorification of Scott by the group is really the glorification of White which is why it's a White Power 'action.'

You're putting people on the stage who attack Civil Rights, who attack LGBTQ+ persons, who attack women's right (including with regards to reproductive health) and you want to build that coalition. It's not going to build for you. Even if you hadn't spent weeks promoted pedophile Scott Ritter, it still wouldn't work. Hate merchants are not the answer, they never are.

But the Jimmy Dores can't get accepted among the left so they'll be a face of the left for the extreme right. That's how they'll earn their bread and butter, as trained monkeys doing the tricks that they were taught.

Tara Reade will be there -- in all her girth and non-glory. Marcia noted last night, "In other news, the ultimate Karen -- Tara Reade -- is now reTweeting Marjorie Taylor Greene. Tara, we knew you were ugly and fat, we just did not know you were also a homophobe."

There's a reason that the so-called left speaking at this event don't speak out against the hate campaigns the extreme right launches -- they agree with them. They would rather be around their friends and fellow-thinkers than defend the LFBTQ+ community. Tara has destroyed her own reputation. Some day they should make a movie out of her -- it would be a non-stop laugh riot.

We'll wind down with this from THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL:

The combination of destroyed health care infrastructure, medicine shortages, limited resources, high levels of heavy metal contamination, and poor sanitation is likely to blame, they argue.

Antibiotic resistance, or AMR for short, is rising globally at an alarming rate and is expected to cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050, if nothing is done about it, point out the authors.

Largely attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, attention is now turning to other factors, such as heavy metals and disinfectants containing quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), which are widely used in the health care and hospitality sectors.

War has been implicated in the emergence of AMR as far back as the 1940s, but has received little attention, say the authors.

Iraq is a stellar example of this neglect, as the country has experienced a sequence of conflicts since the 1980s that have coincided with the emergence and spread of pathogens with specific patterns of antibiotic resistance, they highlight.

The following sites updated: