Friday, June 16, 2023

The Vanguard becomes the new Donald Trump

I am not reposting the video I am commenting on.  You can find it on YouTube and find the video there by the title "Glenn Greenwald Exposes RFK Jr / Jimmy Dore & Chris Hedges REACT to Cornel West's Green Party Run" or by going to The Vanguard's YouTube channel.

 

The Vanguard is two White boys named Zac and Gavin.  Boys.  Not men.  I don't believe that their sacks have even dropped.  Gavin is the one more prone to being calm.  Zac's the hysterical one who is always shrieking and yelling.  


Both are big supporters of con artist Marianne Williamson.  In fact, like most of her supporters, they attended her wedding.  Zac's gift was probably crotch-less, lace, pink panties -- probably a pair of his own, I doubt he went shopping.


I hope Zac and Gavin realize how much their little tantrums harm their candidate.  


Today, they had a tantrum about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  If you have missed it, Robert F. Kennedy is in double digits in terms of support.  Marianne can't get that high.  No one likes her.  No one wanted her in 2020.  No one wants her today.  


I am not supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  Anyone here for the first time, let me tell you I'm a Green.  I'm not supporting any Democrat.  Well, I'll support Cedric.  He's a Democrat -- and he's also my husband.  But in terms of politicians, I am not supporting any Democrat. 

And let me go off on something else real quick.


The Vanguard boyz are supporting Marianne.  They want her to get the nomination for the Democratic Party.


Is that why they're promoting Cornel West for the Green Party nomination?  To support Marianne?  On the off chance that she gets the nomination, they want to be sure that she doesn't have any real competition?  I am sick of non-Greens pimping who our candidate should be.  And, as an African-American woman, let me be clear I don't need a Stepin' Fetchit stereotype like 'Brother' Cornel West.  He needs to sit his gap-toothed and scraggy ass on down.  


He's a snake oil salesman that's an embarrassing stereotype and that's why White people worship him. 


The Black community was tired of Cornel long before he did his 2008  speaking tour against Barack Obama.  Please grasp that tour cost Tavis Smiley his spot on The Tom Joyner Show.  That's what the Black community thinks of Cornel.  


White people love him because he's such an Amos and Andy stereotype.  Most of us find him embarrassing -- like the 'uncle' hanging around your grandma's house that's not an uncle but was friends with your actual uncle 20 years ago and can't keep a job now so he's always sponging off your grandma, saying he'll help by sweeping the porch and, say, does she have anything on the stove, he's a little hungry.


That's Cornel.


Back to The Vanguard boyz.  


So to promote Marianne in their latest, Zac decides to attack RFK Jr. Not only attack him but mock the way he speaks. From ABC News in 2009:


In truth, Kennedy has a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, a specific form of an involuntary movement disorder called dystonia that affects only the voice box.

Requests for comment and calls to Kennedy's press representative at his Pace Environmental Clinic office were not returned.

Although the condition is by no means life-threatening, it is life-changing for the few who have it. Spasmodic dysphonia experts estimate the condition affects only .02 percent of the population. It often strikes in midlife between ages 20 and 50, and it appears in women twice as often as in men.

Do you remember when Donald Trump mocked the disabled/challenged reporter?  That was outrageous.  It's just as outrageous for Zac to mock RFK Jr.'s speaking voice.  It's like when that hideous Bully Boy Bush thought it was funny to mock Karla Faye Tucker.


That's who Zac is now -- the bastard child of Donald Trump and Bully Boy Bush.


Zac went too far today.  It was not just his yelling -- who thinks that is the way to talk on camera to your audience?  He's a bully.


 

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


Friday, June 16, 2023.  Julian Assange is closer than ever to be brought to the US where he'd face a kangaroo court and be imprisoned for life, is self-censorship something we need to protest -- has it really come to that, we've checked off everything else, Cornel West is out of touch, Chris Hedges lies as a journalist and will probably get away with it as everyone looks the other way, all that and Barbra Streisand.

A lot to try to cover.  Let's start with the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange.



As Brian Becker notes above, Julian's appeal to stop extradition to the US has again been denied and he's looking at, if tried in the US,  a lifetime sentence in prison (a sentence of up to 175 years).

Julian is being persecuted for the 'crime' of journalism.  Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.



The 2022 Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka recently remarked: “Julian Assange, divisive figure that he may be—he is a hero to many writers in South Asia because freedom of speech is not something we take for granted… Journalism has been criminalised in our parts of the world and so we are looking to the west to see how this case is prosecuted and how it ends up.” 

There is little doubt that Karunatilaka’s description is representative of the prism through which most of the world views the case against my husband. And that concern does not just exist outside the west.
At Unesco’s World Press Freedom Day event this year, held at the UN in New York, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said: “It is not just what is happening in Iran or in Russia that should worry us, it is also what is happening here. Who is imprisoning Julian Assange? Sadly, the playbook of autocracy, the playbook of control over conscience, or control over speech, has been well learned by our so-called democratic leaders.” The president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, noted that the US case against Julian “if brought to fruition could effectively criminalise journalism anywhere, for journalists everywhere”.

Russia’s trumped-up “espionage” charges against Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for his newsgathering activities mirror those brought against Julian for his newsgathering and publishing. The last US reporter to be prosecuted by Russia for “espionage” was Nicholas Daniloff in 1986. The playbook did not originate in America, but America has sunk to Soviet standards and revived it. It won’t stop there. That is why the Assange case is the greatest threat to press freedom worldwide.

Julian’s US accusers use “espionage” as shorthand for “journalism”. They do not allege that Julian was acting on behalf of—or colluding with—any foreign power. The WikiLeaks publications expose the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan; document evidence of torture and assassination squads; and reveal at least one potential war crime involving the slaughter of Reuters employees in Baghdad. The facts of the case are well-known and uncontested: the source, Chelsea Manning, was a US army whistleblower who acted on her conscience. She was sentenced to 35 years. The sentence was commuted by Barack Obama on his last day in office. 

Julian acted for the public’s benefit, and he is accused—of conspiracy to publish, and of receiving, obtaining, possessing and communicating “national defence” information—under a statute from 1917. The classification system was only invented 35 years after that law was written. There is no US “Official Secrets Act”. “National defence” information is whatever the US government says it is. 


Journalist and professor at Open University of Catalonia Patricia Simon tells Virginia Fernández and Dale Zaccaria (PRESSENZA):


I don’t know if he will be released, but it would be vitally important to free him. Firstly, because Assange’s freedom means the defence of democratic values and the right to information and freedom of the press, secondly because it is a recognition that we owe him, because thanks to him, everything we sensed about the illegal invasion of Iraq and the intervention in Afghanistan, we know to a large extent what the United States and its allies, including Spain, did. And thirdly, it is the least we can do, bearing in mind that for us defending human rights does not mean any risk. To defend Assange is to defend the rest of the journalists who daily face persecution, imprisonment and murder in most countries of the world.



ALJAZEERA offers an illustrated history showing the links between The Pentagon Papers and Julian Assange with a story by Danylo Hawaleshka, art direction by Mohamed Dris and artwork by Midjourney AI.

And let's use that to knock out one of the topics coming up in e-mails in the last 48 hours.  Matt Taibbi is in a tizzy.  Censorship!  Censorship!  

And why am I not weighing in?  Wasn't really following.  Not a fan of trash novels.  To me a trash novel is a fake ass novel.  Jackie Collins was a friend but even if she hadn't been, I wouldn't have accused her of writing a trash novel -- she created her own worlds in print, fully committed to them.  These poser writers like Elizabeth Gilbert?  Their work never interests me.  So I don't know why I'm being asked about it to begin with.  Wasn't following it.  So she's written another presumably bad book and it was supposed to be published and she was promoting it on her Twitter account where she now has a pinned Tweet explaining that it's not coming out.

Censorship!

Cried Matt Taibbi.  I don't know maybe he's jonesing for another EAT PRAY LOVE fix -- someone must be, right?  Well this novel was going to be set in Russia but because of Ukraine the small town US gal doesn't feel it's appropriate to publish right now.

Most of us could just take the win from knowing that the world was safe from at least one bad book for the moment but Matt wants to scream censorship.

As it's been explained by the author, she made the decision.  In which case, it's self-censorship.

So presumably . . . we're all supposed to meet Matt this afternoon outside Gilbert's home where we will march and carry signs declaring "FREE ELIZABETH GILBERT!"  and  "STOP ELIZABETH GILBERT FROM SILENCING ELIZABETH GILBERT!" 

It's self-censorship.  

Let's all relax.  Is it a stupid move on her part?  Completely.  But it's not shocking.  Her books are nothing but poses.  Why are we now surprised that she's struk yet another pose?

Now let's talk real censorship.  A friend has a YOUTUBE video and wants me to post it.  No. I don't post stupidity unless I'm going to mock it.  And they're talking about how the world has gone to pieces (possibly) and how you can trace it all through the last ten years and . . .  No.  Our current state has been a long time coming.  The friend notes the media conglomerations among other things.

Daniel Ellsberg was censored.  Like Julian Assange, Daniel tried to bring the truth to the people.  Richard Nixon persecuted Daniel Ellsberg.  Tricky Dick is a dirty joke and a criminal and he's forever remembered for Watergate, for his enemies list and for what he did to his enemies like Daniel Ellsberg.

Daniel is, sadly, dying.  He's lived a life to be proud of.  Joe Biden should realize that he can end up the next Richard Nixon in history or he can do something heroic and stop the persecution of Julian Assange.

Daniel Ellsberg was on Nixon's enemies list.  Plural.

Another person on that list was Barbra Streisand.  In May of 1973, Barbra did a fundraiser for Daniel.  It was held at the home of film producer Jennings Lang and those present could hear Barbra sing whatever requested song they pledged money for and she also sang over the phone at the benefit as well (also for donations).  She did a lot of standards like "You're The Top" and "Someone To Watch Over Me."  She even sang a duet with Carl Reiner.  Barbra was signed to  COLUMBIA RECORDS.  

COLUMBIA needed Streisand product always.  They were constantly churning it out.  In 1971, for example, she released two best selling albums -- one platinum, one gold -- studio albums STONEY END and BARBRA JOAN STREISAND.  That's 1971.  1972, it was LIVE CONCERT AT THE FORUM -- the concert she did for the George McGovern presidential campaign.  It was now May 1973 and no product.  Not even a greatest hits or compilation.  COLUMBIA needed product.  

Barbra had her performance at the benefit for Daniel recorded.  COLUMBIA wanted product.  Barbra singing torch songs live?  They loved the idea.  But Barbra also wanted the money the album raised to go to Daniel's defense fund.  

Problem.

COLUMBIA was part of CBS.  CBS was already facing 'issues' with the Nixon White House over their coverage of Watergate and over Walter Cronkite's THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT documentary that they had done.  The corporate order came down that they didn't need any more pressure and the album was killed.   It's still in the vaults by the way, it could be released now as a way to honor Daniel Ellsberg while he's still with us.

But the point is there is censorship that is imposed from outside and we can and should protest that.  Self-censorship? I've real problems and issues to deal with.  Second point is, our current situations have evolved for decades to bring us to this point.

Now let's turn to the hot mess that is Cornel West.



The video above has a little bit of a discussion of the interview that we included last time where BLACK POWER MEDIA interviewed Cornel West. The video below is Renee Johnstone sharing her take on the interview.



For those who missed it, despite last week announcing he was a US presidential candidate for The People's Party, Cornel is now one of potentially many candidates for The Green Party's presidential nomination.  He's gone from candidate for president to someone seeking a presidential nomination.  It is a downgrade but they're still giving frequent flier miles.  Or at least a lot of fluffing.

He went on Bri's show yesterday and was hysterical.  If you miss the 90s, that is.  I said it before, he can't adapt.  He's stuck in the past.  RFK Jr.'s must be on the crack pipe.  Didn't he just say that about Joe Biden?  Yes, he did.  It's his same, crusty old joke.  That's never really funny.  But he can speechify and we're supposed to all chuckle like idiots.  Grow the hell up.

And for those of you who really want him to win the Green Party nomination, buy a damn clue.  You're not helping him with your attacks on Howie Hawkins or your other efforts.  You're not of the Green Party.  It is a political party.  You've sneered at it for years and years.  

That's all of left media. DEMOCRACY NOW! -- as we've pointed out since 2008 -- gives a headline -- if they're lucky -- to the Green Party's national convention.  They do a week for the Democratic Party, a whole week.  They do a week for the Republican Party.  And Amy Goodman's one of the few people that does cover it. 

You're not of that party.  Stop White-manning-it into a foreign country.  You are not of that party, you do not control that party.  When you start attacking a Howie Hawkins or anyone else, as a non-Green, you're not helping Cornel West.  

Ann has  been a Green her whole life.  Her parents are Greens, she was raised a Green.  While you've spent decades now ignoring that party -- or hurling abuse at it insisting it's stealing votes from your candidate on the Democratic ticket -- the party has emerged.  And it's not going to take bullying or insulting so you're trying to do so on behalf of Cornel is only going to hurt his campaign because, unlike you, the Green Party turns out to support the Green Party.  You're temporarily fascinated but people have spent their lives building this party and they're not going to take kindly to outsiders telling them what's going to happen and who they're going to support.

Okay, let's note Paul Rudnick and then we'll return for the climatic closing where we explain Chris Hedges' latest bit of journalistic malpractice.



Chris Hedges.  Chrissy Lynn.  "Why does it matter that he lied about Iraq?"   An e-mailer asked that.

Honestly, I think the answer is that it doesn't matter to you.  

Why that is, you'll have to ask yourself.  I don't know you.  And seriously doubt that I'd want to at this point.

Over a million Iraqis are dead because of an illegal war.  I don't fake ass.  I'm not Tulsi Gabbard lying to Joe Rogan and then revealing her real colors on the debate stage when she's finally standing next to Joe Biden and can call him out but chooses not to and goes even further by excusing his vote for the Iraq War and then spending the following days repeating that excuse to anyone who will put her on camera.  With that face -- she might consider a chemical peel -- she's never going to get many chances to be on air.  FOX "NEWS" needs her so they ignore her cult membership and the fact that the cult is extremely anti-Christian.  Remember that the next time FOX tries to pose as though they're devoted church goers.

Over a million Iraqis are dead.  



In the desert sun
Every step that you take could be the final one
In the burning heat
Hanging on the edge of destruction, oh
You can't stop the pain of your children crying out in your head
Oh, they always said that the living would envy the dead




Tina Turner singing her hit "One Of The Living" written by Holly Knight.

And it's the truth.  The dead are the luckier ones of the two, they're gone.  It's their children and friends and family that are left behind to suffer the loss.



Or they don't matter as much as your need to fan-boy Chrissy Lynn?  "Friend of the show," Katie Halper calls him.  Do journalism ethics not matter to Katie Halper?


His lies are not to be overlooked.  

For example, look at the following which he wrote last week:



I have known Cornel for many years. We drove together, leaving at 3:00 am from our homes in Princeton, New Jersey, to attend the trial at Fort Meade of U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. I was in the visitors room at the prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania, as Cornel gripped the shoulders of the political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and told him “You have Frederick Douglass in you, brother!” Tears streamed down Mumia’s face. Cornel and I held a People’s Hearing of Goldman Sachs in Zuccotti Park during the Occupy movement where those who were evicted and bankrupted by big banks testified against the heartlessness and greed of corporate capitalism. We have spoken together at rallies in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Israeli-apartheid state. We walked three miles on a sweltering July day in Philadelphia with thousands of homeless people to the Wells Fargo Center during the 2016 Democratic National Convention, because housing is a human right. 

I was with Cornel when Bernie Sanders delegates, disgusted by the machinations of the Democratic National Committee against their candidate and his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, walked out of the convention. Cornel turned to me and said presciently, “Bernie lost his political moment.” 

We have taught classes together in East Jersey State Prison. We have spoken on stages at universities where Cornel has demanded reparations for Black people and called for a guaranteed income for all citizens. I have heard him denounce the prison industrial complex as “a crime against humanity.” I have listened to him call for  universal health care, canceling student debt, free university education, freedom for Julian Assange and heard him thunder against those who deny women access to abortion.

Cornel officiated, along with the theologian Dr. James Cone, at my ordination as a Presbyterian minister. We spoke, and wept, at James’ funeral in 2018 at Riverside Church. James wrote that we must stand, no matter the cost, with the crucified of the earth. 


  


Check my math but I believe the column that's from is 30 paragraphs long.  Those are the only paragraphs in the column -- about Cornel West being the People's Party's presidential nominee where Chris talks about knowing Cornel.  And the comments are from "when we spoke about his decision" on that car ride he mentioned in the above excerpt.



Do you see the problem?

Maybe not.  But it's a lie.  It's a full on lie.  When Chrissy published his lies, he thought he could get away with it.  I mean the garbage we just quoted from SCHEER POST -- but actually, he thought he could get away with it at THE NEW YORK TIMES as well.  He got away with it at THE TIMES.  It was years before Jack Fairweather at MOTHER JONES and FAIR's COUNTERSPIN noted Chrissy's Iraq lies.  Then it was circle the wagon and protect the creep.

Which is why everyone knows Judith Miller's name today but no one knows Chris Hedges in regards to pimping a war on Iraq.  Judith Miller wasn't the co-author of the piece Dick Cheney waved around on MEET THE PRESS -- Chrissy was.

Chrissy lies.  It's a pattern he cannot break.

And he lied at SCHEER POST.  Oh, he shared how they were friends and all the times they did this and that.

So people think he told the truth about Cornel and about the nomination.  They think he did.  But he lied.

And he might have gotten away with it if the nomination from The People's Party hadn't blown up in Cornel's face. 

We noted it yesterday, refer to that interview with BLACK POWER MEDIA.  Stream it.
[Video added below for those who had trouble finding it on their own.]






Then go back and read Chrissy Lynn's lies.  Grasp that Chrissy is just a detached observer in his 'report' on the news.

But the reality is that it's Chris who recruited Cornel for that nomination.

It's Chris who planned to be his running mate -- but Chris' wife said no at the last minute.

That's not in the 'report,' is it?

A backroom deal took place and Chrissy, in 'reporting' on the news, leaves all that out.

Again, he didn't expect to get caught or, rather, outed.  He thought he'd get away with lying yet again.  What happened though was Cornel made a huge mistake -- huge -- and wasn't ready to sink with the ship by himself.  Or, if we're being charitable, maybe he just saw Chrissy as a life preserver.

Floatation device or not, Chrissy lied.  If he'd done that at THE NEW YORK TIMES, he would have been fired on the spot.  If this column had been published by THE NEW YORK TIMES when he worked there, he would be fired.  Not warned.  Not written up.  Fired.

You do not get away, as a journalist, with writing about a campaign that you instigated when you're not revealing that detail.

Why didn't he?

Is it somehow damaging?

Doesn't let him present himself as just an observer, no, but he flat out lied.

Robert Scheer is a huge disappointment and has been to most on the left since at least the mid-seventies -- which is why when THE LOS ANGELES TIMES dumped him, no other paper came forward.  Then he had TRUTH DIG until he didn't.  Now he has SCHEER POST -- however much longer that lasts.   It shouldn't last a day more since it won't correct Chrissy's lies -- there will be no needed note such as :"We were disappointed to learn -- after publishing this column -- that Mr. Hedges was actually active in seeking and securing the presidential nomination for Cornel West.  At SCHEER POST, we take disclosure seriously and would never knowingly attempt to deceive our readers."

Oh, well, Chris survived his plagiarism scandal, he'll probably survive this as well.


My favorite quote in that article about Chris plagiarized for a piece on poverty that he submitted to HARPER'S?  The HARPER'S fact checker explaining, "Hedges not only used another journalist’s quotes, but he used them in first-person scenes, claiming he himself gathered the quotes. It was one of the worst things I’d ever seen as a fact-checker at the magazine. And it was endemic throughout the piece."


Remember that when you're reading Chrissy Lynn or when you see him on a YOUTUBE program.  Remember that he's a liar.  Not just Iraq, not just Cornel but a serial liar in print.  Over and over.  





I don't like being hustled.  I don't like being lied to.  And Cornel only squealed because he was on the spot and trying to save his own ass.  Do you really think a journalist has a right to write about a presidential campaign and not to disclose that he is the one who brokered the nomination and, that when he did, he was planning to share the ticket with Cornel, to be his running mate?

Those aren't minor details.  And Robert Scheer, if he doesn't issue a correction to that column, just flushed whatever was left of his reputation down the drain.  (And he already knows a number of people are biting their tongues until he passes at which point they plan to talk loudly about Scheer's journalism issues.)  So it's win-win for me.


Big brave truth teller exposed as a liar?  I'm loving it. Read that linked to article and love it when the fact checker explains how Chrissy tried to hush the whole thing down after he was caught by rushing off to Rick MacArthur (owner of HARPER'S).   You really need to read the article.  I'd forgotten how good it was.  Chris even ripped off the writer's wife.  I'd forgotten how bad the plagiarism was and how he went off on a UT professor for catching his plagiarism of Hemingway.  He's a nasty little thing, that Chrissy Lynn.  Marvel over how he lies that the stuff he stole from the wife's reporting was supposed to block quoted:


But he never addressed why he made so many small changes to the original text: the tweaking of some sentences and lines but not others, the adding of a hyperlink not in the original, the changing of phrases such as “my local reporter” to “a local reporter.” 



He even tries to lie about how his piece was rejected, blaming it on one person, when it was an editorial decision that involved the publisher.

But mainly note how Robert Scheer, Katrina vanden Heuvel and others deny that plagiarism.  At least Naomi Klein, whom he also stole from, just said "No comment." 


I can't stop laughing at that article.  It really should be required reading for all of Chrissy Lynn's accolades.  


The following sites updated:





on No comments:

Thursday, June 15, 2023

DeSantis is a threat to democracy and education

People better wake up to Ron DeSantis. Don't fall for Cornel West's claims that Ronnie's a revolutionary.  He's a criminal.  He's already robbed K-through-12th of a real education and now he's moving towards college.  He's already attacked African-American studies in college and now he's going after AP Psychology insisting that they "Don't say Gay" as well:
The final version of the African American studies course stripped out much of the material that DeSantis and other conservatives had objected to, generating another backlash from those who believed College Board was censoring its content.

The firm position now being taken by College Board against revising its courses to conform with Florida law was informed by its earlier experience with the African American Studies course.

"We are resolute in this position, in part, because of what we learned from our mistakes in the recent rollout of AP African American Studies," the College Board wrote. "In developing the framework for AP African American Studies, we tried to create a course that could be available in states across the country and accurately represent a college-level course on the subject."

"We learned that both of those objectives could not be achieved if state policies prohibit content that is essential for a college-level course," the letter continues.


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


Thursday, June 15, 2023.  Cornel West tries to change the narrative, Robert Pether remains a prisoner in Iraq, Republican House members try to stuff anti-LGBTQ+ bills into a military spending bill, and much more.


Later today, professor, film bit player, out of touch old man and the best damn rapper since Maya Angelou did BEEN FOUND (with Ashford & Simpson) Cornel West may announce that he's seeking the GOP presidential nomination.  And Chris Hedges may go around telling everyone that Cornel already has the nomination!

Make about as much sense has already happened, right?

THE AIRHEADS were back yesterday, crowing that they were right.  They told us earlier this week that Cornel had the Green Party's presidential nomination.  

He didn't.  

But if THE AIRHEADS could get it together, they wouldn't be the airheads, now would they?

Cornel is one more person seeking the Green Party's primary nomination.  As we told you yesterday, he and Chrissy Lynn Hedges tried to secure the nomination but were informed there are rules.  He's welcome to run for it but they're going to follow their rules -- like a real political party.  

It's amazing how stupid the YOUTUBERS are.  It truly is.  This is where we parted with Jimmy Dore, you may remember.  He had a hard on for Jesse Ventura and, even after 2020, he couldn't let it go that Jesse was not the Green Party's 2020 presidential nominee.

Now, in case you're like THE AIRHEADS and you talk about the Green Party without ever doing the actual work, let me note that Jesse didn't run for the party's nomination.  There were eight candidates in the primaries -- CRAPAPEDIA will tell you nine -- and Jesse was not one of them.  He did get 2% of the vote at the convention.  So he Jesse didn't run.  Why was Jimmy Dore angry?

Because Jimmy Dore -- a non-Green -- was furious that the Green Party didn't just give him the nomination.  Jesse had even said, he wouldn't campaign but he'd gladly take the gift.

Jimmy's one of the ones who's appalled when the Democratic Party breaks the rules or rigs their primary.  But he doesn't see the hypocrisy in holding that belief and still slamming the Green Party for not ignoring their rules, ignoring their candidates and just handing their presidential nomination to someone -- to someone to lazy to run for it.

They don't matter.  They need to do what he says.

And that attitude explains how the start of this week was one lie after another about how Cornel was The Green Party's presidential nominee!

It takes a lot of outsiders sneering at The Green Party for years without ever doing the basic research to think that their big name is going to get a party's nomination over a year before the political party's even had their nominating convention.

The entitlement wafts off these people, reeks.

But, hey, Chrissy Lynn Hedges told them so it must be true.  Just like when Chrissy Lynn Hedges showed up on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES in October 2001 'reporting' Iraq had WMD and they trained pilots to crash into buildings and . . .  

You know all those lies that Dick Cheney and Bully Boy Bush cited to start the illegal war on Iraq.

So if Chrissy Lynn Hedges says it, they're on board.

If you're late to the party, last week Cornel West announced he was the presidential nominee of The People's Party leading many to wonder if dementia had set in at the age of 70.

The People's Party is not a party.  Not a fun one.

It emerged from the tatters of the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign.  It was going to be the new party that was going to rescue us all.  Yet they fielded no candidates ever.  They had no party convention.  They just Tweeted a lot and talked a lot publicly.  At one point, they had their push to get Jimmy Dore to be their nominee.  That's when you should have figured out that they weren't a real political party.  

And I don't mean that as an insult to Jimmy.  I mean that real political parties put nominees before their members and let their members pick the nominee.


Donald Trump was a celebrity and supposedly that was the worst thing in the world and we should all learn from it and experience matters and blah blah blah.

Reality, celebrity lets a lot of people make shortcuts and if you can't do the work required to build a political party, hava an  Insta-Political Party -- step one, just add a celebrity!

While flapping their gums, the party made racist statements.  And held a small 'rally' in February attended by invited right-wing racists -- the push back against the convicted pedophile they wanted to put on stage did receive enough negative commentary that they were forced to remove him.  

Along with embracing racism, they also encountered one sexual harassment or assault allegation after another.

These are not new developments and they were not unknown.  We weren't the only ones to note these things and the Green Party itself had to issue an announcement back in February that they were not a part of the People's Party or the 'rally' the People's Party was staging.
 
So last week, Cornel West proudly announces he is the People's Party's presidential nominee.


BLACK POWER MEDIA interviewed him yesterday (later this morning, Renee Johnston will offer her analysis on the exchange -- offer it at BLACK POWER MEDIA). 



What did we learn?

When any rock's kicked over expect to find Chrissy Lynn Hedges underneath.

So, as Cornel tells it in the video above, Chrissy Lynn talked up the People's Party to him and then he and Chrissy decided -- with Chrissy touching base (and genitals?) with the People's Party -- that he and Chrissy would be the presidential ticket for that party.  Cornel the top, Chrissy the bottom -- the power bottom, if you will.   But then, their two wives learned that the two men had been sneaking around and put their feet down.  Chrissy immediately pulled out leaving Conrel in a spot -- the wet spot? -- but Cornel talked his wife into it and so he became a solo ticket.

Cornel explains he's an innocent.  No one ever told him about the People's Party and all its issues and problems.

No one ever told him?

If someone walked up to yuo and said, "HI, I'm the People's Party.  Will you be our presidential nominee?"  -- don't you think you'd ask, "What's the People's Party?"  Don't you think you'd do a little homework before announcing to the world that you were running as their nominee?

Especially if you're so wise and scholarly.

But he's not.  He's not wise and he's not in touch with the world.

That clearly emerges in the interview when Cornel begins speaking to a young child about how he's in California right now and then starts (repeatedly) citing some Tony! Toni! Tone! song.

Because.

You know.

How those kids today are into Tony! Toni! Tone!

Repeatedly.

Cites them repeatedly.

As though encouraging the young kid to catch on and go, "Oh, yeah, Tony! Toni! Tne!"

They release their last studio album in 1996.  For those doing the math, that's 27 years ago.  But, sure, Tony! Toni! Tone! is what all the kids must be talking about today.  Forget Lola Brooke or Bad Bunny or anyone else that kids are actually listening to this year, let's go back 27 years -- an eternity for them -- and talk that.

He's so deeply out of touch.


The other big news?



He can speechify.

He can't answer questions.

Repeatedly, they put questions to him involving what would you do.  Repeatedly, he offers a critiue.

There's nothing wrong with being a critic.  It's how you can identify problems.

But Cornel can't offer any solutions.  He repeatedly identifies a problem and gives his take on it.  If you're being generous (you shouldn't be, he's trying to become president of the United States so he should be able to speak for himself) , his 'plan' is stop spending on bad things.  That's the closest to any 'solution' or 'plan' he ever got.

Is he running for fourth grade president or president of the United States because, you understand, one requires that you actually do work.


So Cornel, 'the intelectual,' refutes the People's Party and claims he never knew what they stood for and it was all a mistake.  Is that his version of "I didn't inhale?" (Bill Clinton reference -- during his run for president he admitted to smoking pot  in college but insisted he didn't inhale.) Or is he just saying, "The Chrissy Lynn made me do it!"

I have no idea.

He doesn't come off as a leader.

Jared Ball presses him on his glorification of Ron DeSantis with that opinion column for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and the issues regarding testing -- and how the company that Cornel's a part of is pushing for a more restrictive scope.  I haven't read the column.  If I were to, my big concern would be if he disclosed his ties to that company in the piece he wrote or co-wrote?  


They did a strong segment, not a fluff segment.  Cornel was an embarrassment.  I look forward to seeing Renee's take later today.


If you're late to the party, be sure to stream this video -- the best one on Conrel representing the People's Party.

















An international tribunal has found Iraq’s central bank was to blame for a contractual dispute with an engineering firm that led to the jailing of Australian engineer Robert Pether, prompting his family to make a renewed plea that he be freed from the Baghdad prison cell where he has spent two years.

Pether and his colleague Khalid Radwan were arrested and jailed in 2021 over a contractual dispute between their employer, Cardno ME (CME), and the Central Bank of Iraq, which had hired the firm to help build its new Baghdad headquarters.

[. . .]

A recently published decision reveals the contractual dispute at the heart of their arrest was taken to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s International Court of Arbitration, which ruled in February in favour of CME. The decision found the bank was in breach of its contract with CME and ordered that it pay the engineering firm US$13m, which covers the outstanding invoices, compensation, legal costs, and the release of a performance bond provided by CME.

The decision has only just been made public.


Why are Robert and Khalid still being held?

In the US, Leeja Miller addresses the hate merchants in the US and they're attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.




Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) is sounding the alarm on how Republicans added a plethora of anti-LGBTQ+ measures during a markup of the Fiscal Year 2024 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill on Tuesday.

He said that his GOP colleagues adopted an amendment “to deny access to medically-necessary care to transgender veterans, prohibit pride flags from being flown at VA facilities, and even allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ people” as the bill was being discussed in the House Appropriations Committee this week.

“Most of the other provisions in this amendment have very little to do with a MilCon bill,” he said during the committee meeting, and are instead “about abortion and gender-affirming care, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and apparently the fear of some cloth, banning pride flags at our veterans’ facilities across the country.”



 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tough Guy Tulsi The Parent Expert" and the following sites updated:


 

on No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)