Monday, March 14, 2022

Not sure if I believe Marlee Matlin now

William Hurt died.  I bring it up because I don't know if I believe Marlee Matlin anymore.


The Oscar winning actress had an affair with Hurt.  She wrote about it in her book.  He beat her and abused her, she stated in the book.


He has now died and she has nothing but praise to offer?


No.  


I don't know that I believe her anymore.  That's not how I would react and it's not how most would react.  Makes me wonder if she made it all up to sell books or if she was so drugged out that she actually instigated the physical altercations.  (She was a drug addict when she lived with Hurt.)


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


Monday, March 14, 2022.  The persecution of Julian Assangec ontinues, truth tellers continue to fight back against the corporate media, and , in Iraq, Moqtada appears to be reaching out to Nouri.



Starting with the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange.  US President Joe Biden wants to attack the free press and the First Amendment which is why he continues the government's atack on Julian Assange for exposing War Crimes -- such as in Iraq.  Joe will never punish the War Criminals (he'd have to punish himself) but he will go after Julian Assange.

Kristinn Hrafusson is the editor-in-chief at WIKILEAKS and he speaks about the persecution of Julian in the video below.






Jamse Bradford has a question:


If Britain has a free press why is Julian Assange still in prison for publishing the truth?
1:32 AM · Mar 13, 2022



Luke Rudkowski Tweets:

Julian Assange of
@wikileaks
had a pretty good approach at trying to prevent WAR, too bad the U.S illegally locked him up, tortured him and threw away the key as he is still rotting away in jail RIGHT NOW for the crime of journalism!
12.9K views
0:32 / 1:58
11:42 AM · Mar 10, 2022


In other news, THE GUARDIAN notes:


The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will get married in Belmarsh prison on 23 March, with just four guests allowed to attend.

Vivienne Westwood is designing a wedding dress for the 50-year-old’s fiancee, the lawyer Stella Moris, and a kilt for Assange, whose parents have links to Scotland. The designer has been a staunch supporter of Assange.

Moris, who met Assange when he was living in London’s Ecuadorian embassy seeking political asylum, will marry the WikiLeaks founder in the high-security jail nearly three years after his arrest. The couple have two children.

Moris, who spoke to her fiance on Sunday, told the PA news agency they were both “very excited” despite restrictions on the ceremony.


Meanwhile, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is set to fund al Qaeda with US tax dollars.  What are talking about?




If you're late to the party . . .  Not Woke Enough Tweets:


Just your family reminder that
@SpeakerPelosi
rammed through the #OmnibusBill from 12 am to 130 am. Included..... 14 BILLION dollars to Ukraine. Because sending 14 BILLION to Ukraine helps the U.S. government operate. WAKE. UP. PEOPLE.
5:09 AM · Mar 11, 2022


While Sasha Tweets:


Why are sending so much aid to Ukraine over 14 billion dollars but you can’t help out Americans by cancelling student debts? You could do it but you expect Americans to just take crumbs while paying for everything else! AMERICANS FIRST we can’t afford new cars food or gas!
10:12 AM · Mar 10, 2022


A certain Swedish government has been in the news for possibly funding ISIS.  There's no question that Nancy's $14 billion gift would fund al Qaeda.  


She wont help the American people.  Chris Floyd Tweets of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelsi:


Pelosi is perhaps the most inept, ineffective political leader of our time. I won't attribute it to her age, because I know several people older than her who are sharp, insightful, vigorous and wise. I will, however, attribute it to her wealth, which has separated her from even

the slightest understanding of the lives of ordinary people in this godforsaken century. She's lived in this golden circle of riches and power for 50 years and is utterly tone-deaf to anything outside of it.
7:40 PM · Mar 13, 2022


Margaret Kimberley observes:


And she is Speaker precisely because she is rich and well connected and tone deaf.
9:10 PM · Mar 13, 2022


The editorial board of WSWS notes:


As the conflict develops, the US and NATO are involving themselves ever more directly in the proxy war against Russia. The imperialist powers provoked the conflict with the idea that they could bog down Russia in an Afghanistan-like conflict, using the fact that Ukraine is not officially part of NATO to pursue the war without provoking a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.

However, as the war has developed, the fiction that NATO is not directly involved is increasingly impossible to maintain. Over 20 countries, including most members of NATO, have poured missiles, anti-aircraft systems, aircraft, vehicles and other weapons into Ukraine. The United States, having transferred over $350 million in weapons to Ukraine in the span of just two weeks, authorized another $200 million in military equipment over the weekend.

[. . .]

The escalating war between the US-NATO and Russia over Ukraine is at the same time a war against the entire working class. With surging prices causing real wages to plummet, workers are simply told to grit their teeth in the name of defending “freedom”—that is, the right of Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance. “NATO Needs More Guns and Less Butter,” demanded a March 7 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, calling for Social Security and Medicare to be gutted.

In just a matter of weeks, the war has set the stage for a massive realignment of government expenditures around the world. Last week, the United States passed the largest military budget in history, while slashing remaining funding for the COVID-19 pandemic. Germany has utilized the crisis to triple its military budget.

The war will, in other words, become the occasion for a massive reduction of living standards for the working class, in which real wage declines caused by runaway inflation are accompanied by social austerity and court-mediated injunctions against strikes in the name of “national security.”



Cindy Sheehan offers the following:


I have lived through the Domino Theory in Southeast Asia;  “WMD” in Iraq and the demonization of many world leaders, including, but not limited to: Fidel Castro; Saddam Hussein; The (fill in the blank) Terrorist Group; M. Qaddafi; Hugo Chavez; Evo Morales; etc, etc. Some of those leaders stayed strong, but most met the final solution fate of Empire. Under Republican and Democrat regimes alike, the crapaganda has been strong and their voters very weak and gullible. Today, the current "bad guy" is Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Back before my son was KIA in Iraq (after Saddam was hung and beheaded), I remember Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina (since, opposed the war; now deceased) changing the name of “French” Fries to “Freedom” Fries in the Capitol’s dining room. At that time, I would have considered myself proudly liberal, and I thought the Republicans were being the biggest xenophobic drama queens on the face of the earth. It was hilarious. There was a frightening aspect to the fearporn on steroids, though: many Sikh were attacked because dopes thought they were Islamic. Today, we are seeing an increase in attacks on Russian business owners here in the states. Most of these people have said that they are not pro-Russia invading Ukraine, but the attackers also don’t get the irony that the neo-Nazi regime in KIEV has been murdering Russian speakers in east Ukraine for eight-years; so not only do they “stand” with Ukraine, but they are doing its dirty work, as well.

Now, over 20 years later, I am not liberal, in fact, they terrify me. Ever ones to jump on the newest cause célèbre, liberals, who I am sure, couldn't name the president of Ukraine two weeks ago, are pledging devotion and love to the U.S. puppet Zelenskyy (displacing the now mostly forgotten Anthony Fauci) (READ ABOUT THE REAL ZELENSKYY HERE).  Liberals are the ones dumping out their Russian vodka (many brands here are NOT made in Russia) and boycotting Russian dressing: A product of Vermont. The weirdest thing to me is that they don’t see how truly preposterous they are being with their double-standards. Most democrat faithful still believe the now discredited lie that Putin stole the election from the horrific Hillary Clinton and that somehow Trump is pulling his strings to this day. Currently with this vilification of Putin, a Democrat is steering the War Ship of state in DC.  So, falling easily into the trap of the imperialists,  "antiwar" liberals are now demanding no-fly zones over Ukraine; increased funding for NATO; more armaments for Ukraine; and eliminating Putin all together (okay, that was an anti-Trump conservative, Lindsey Graham). I said it after the 2016 election when they were screaming for increased sanctioning of Russia, that these liberal Democrats would rather have World War III than admit their shitty candidate lost on her own demerits. With their cries for increased hostility and not diplomacy, their allegiance to the bloodiest Empire in human history is despicable and dangerous for all life on planet Earth.

No one has to gaze across the miles to Russia to look for the reason the world is on the brink of another World War—they just have to look at the criminals in WashedUp, DeCeit and their stenographers in the legacy media. Dopey Joe Biden is the spearhead of this latest crisis.

"Garland Nixon
@GarlandNixon
BREAKING NEWS: Anonymous US officials report that Russian troops are taking babies out of incubators and throwing them on the floor in Kuwait."

In 2014 (not ancient history), the U.S. poured millions of dollars to promote and support a “color” revolution in Ukraine. Of course, many times these protests begin with legitimate grievances from the people; but as the diminutive Democrat, Rahm Emanuel famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The State Department’s apparatchik on the ground at the time was the notoriously belligerent Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt did everything in their power to depose the leader and install one more friendly to the US, and, as it happens, more friendly to neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine.


In Iraq, who's back in the news?  Nouri al-Maliki.  Jawad Bashara Tweets:


Après la dernière manœuvre de Muqtada al-Sadr pour contacter Nouri al-Maliki et arriver en principe à sortir de l'impasse et du blocage politique, il annoncera très bientôt une alliance politique qui se considérera comme le plus grand bloc au Parlement sous le nom [Alliance pour
5:05 AM · Mar 14, 2022


October 10th, elections were held in Iraq; however, all this time later, still no president, still no prime minister.  Farhad Alaaldin (RUDAW) reports:

As political stalemate continues in Baghdad, rumours are swirling around the leader of the Sadrist movement’s nomination for prime minister. In recent days, Muqtada al-Sadr has made rounds of phone calls to Iraqi leaders, including his arch-rival Nouri al-Maliki, to discuss his choice of potential candidate. Sources suggest he is keen to nominate his cousin for the post: Iraq's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Mohammad Jaafar al-Sadr (MJS).
 
Little is known about him, but MJS is the son of the revered Shiite leader Sayeed Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, the founder of the Islamic Dawa Party, and movements such as the Sadrists and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, who follow his ideals.
 
MJS worked at the Ministry of Foreign affairs for some time, and was elected as a member of parliament in 2010 with the State of Law, led by Maliki, whereupon he resigned a few months later.
 
In a rare interview published in Elaph in 2010, MJS discussed his ideals and shared his hopes for Iraq and its future.


Last week, KURDISTAN 24 Tweeted:


According to the Shiite cleric’s office, before speaking with KDP President Barzani, al-Sadr called Mohammad al-Halboosi, the Iraqi Speaker of Parliament, and his long-time rival, Nouri al-Maliki.
kurdistan24.net
KDP President Masoud Barzani and Moqtada al-Sadr discuss government formation on phone
The alliance has called for a majority government, while the opposition favors maintaining the consensus-based formation, a political institution since 2005.
4:03 AM · Mar 11, 2022


Whether this will move the stalemate towards resolution is anyone's guess.  Though the US press ignored it, the two met -- along with others -- back in December in a meet-up organized by Hadi al-Amiri.



The following sites updated:




on No comments:

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Call Me Kat

Call Me Kat airs Thursdays on Fox. I preferred this week's episode -- especially when compared to last week's episode. Oscar actually spoke to Kat and, since she was sick, visited with her. It's like they remembered Kat and Oscar are supposed to be a couple. I still say she belongs with Max but . . .

So Kat was getting ready for some changes. She was about to be interviewed by a local TV legend from her youth. And Randi was about to move out. She'd found the perfect place. She's been living on Kat's couch since the end of last season when she broke up with her previous boyfriend. Kat was going to miss her and pointed out that they still had episodes of The Property Brothers to watch but that was okay since Randi didn't know who the cute brother was. Oscar and Randi both said "Jonathan." Kat said Drew. I agree with Kat.

When Randi was telling Carter about it, the move, he wanted Max to move and said he needed to follow Randi's lead. He was also not pleased that Randi didn't want to call him her boyfriend.

Max tried to find something with no luck forever. Then found a two bedroom place so Carter was trying to find him a roommate.

Kat got sick. Max warned them -- only Max and her mother had seen her sick before -- that Kat is angry and short tempered when she's sick. He wasn't lying as Randi and Carter and Phil learned. Kat's mother Sylvia ended up doing the interview since Kat was sick. After the interview, Sylvia and the news guy were going to go for drinks but instead he had to rush off to cover a story about a burning building.

Randi's apartment by the way.

Kat was upset that Sylvia gave the interview. Randi and Phil told her to watch it first. Randi put it on her phone and Sylvia said very nice things about Kat. She's never said any of that to my face, Kat noted.

At Carter's bar (The Middle C), Sylvia explained that she didn't believe in praising children because then they don't need you. Meanwhile, Randi wants her own place. Max wants a roommate. Yes, they're going to move in together. Carter was upset and Randi said she calls him her boyfriend and look how he's acting. (At the end of Sylvia's interview, Randi plugged Carter's bar and mentioned he was her boyfriend.)

It was a funny episode.

 This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, March 11, 2022.  The White House spin collapses due to Victoria Nuland's remarks being caught on film, as the Ukraine media narrative begins to bite the dust the 'kingmaker' Moqtada one appears to also be dead on arrival, and much more.



Yes, Virginia, Ukraine has a US funded bio-weapons lab.



THE CONVO COUCH has been reporting on it this week.



And who are we to believe?  Jen Psaki who is paid to lie or Victoria Nuland on camera testifying to Congress?


MINT PRESS NEWS is also reporting on it.



Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:


The Biden administration and the corporate media are continuing to cover up the acknowledgment by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland that biological weapons laboratories have been operating in Ukraine under US direction.

During her testimony before a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, when asked by Senator Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida), “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?,” Nuland responded that there are “biological research facilities” in the country.

While she did not discuss prior US government involvement in these facilities—and Senator Rubio also did not ask her about this—Nuland said that the State Department is “working with the Ukrainians on how we can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.”

As the scripted exchange continued, Senator Rubio said reports that Russia had, “uncovered a plot by the Ukrainians to unleash biological weapons in the country, and with NATO’s coordination,” were propaganda. Then Nuland went on to say that “it is a classic Russian technique to blame the other guy for what they are planning to do themselves.”

As numerous international news outlets began reporting Nuland’s comments as confirmation that US-backed biological weapons labs did in fact exist in Ukraine as the Russians have maintained, the State Department was forced to issue a denial on Wednesday in an official statement by department spokesperson Ned Price.

Price did not confirm or deny or even refer to the statements by Nuland. Instead, he wrote that the Kremlin is, “intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine.” He called the Russian reports “disinformation,” and “total nonsense,” that had been “debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years.”

Price then repeated the claims made in a lengthy tweet on Wednesday by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, stating that the US, “does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine” and is in full compliance with both the Biological and Chemicals Weapons Conventions of the UN. Price also said that Russia has a “track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating.” None of these assertions were backed up with substantiating facts or evidence.

[. . .\

It is very clear that the exposure of US-sponsored biological warfare operations in Ukraine explodes the entire narrative concocted by the Biden administration and faithfully propagandized by the corporate media that Russia is solely responsible for the present war crisis.


Glenn Greenwald (SUBSTACK) adds:


Self-anointed "fact-checkers” in the U.S. corporate press have spent two weeks mocking as disinformation and a false conspiracy theory the claim that Ukraine has biological weapons labs, either alone or with U.S. support. They never presented any evidence for their ruling — how could they possibly know? and how could they prove the negative? — but nonetheless they invoked their characteristically authoritative, above-it-all tone of self-assurance and self-arrogated right to decree the truth, definitively labelling such claims false.

Claims that Ukraine currently maintains dangerous biological weapons labs came from Russia as well as China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry this month claimed: "The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone.” The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that “Russia obtained documents proving that Ukrainian biological laboratories located near Russian borders worked on development of components of biological weapons.” Such assertions deserve the same level of skepticism as U.S. denials: namely, none of it should be believed to be true or false absent evidence. Yet U.S. fact-checkers dutifully and reflexively sided with the U.S. Government to declare such claims "disinformation” and to mock them as QAnon conspiracy theories.

Unfortunately for this propaganda racket masquerading as neutral and high-minded fact-checking, the neocon official long in charge of U.S. policy in Ukraine testified on Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and strongly suggested that such claims are, at least in part, true. Yesterday afternoon, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), hoping to debunk growing claims that there are chemical weapons labs in Ukraine, smugly asked Nuland: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?”

Rubio undoubtedly expected a flat denial by Nuland, thus providing further "proof” that such speculation is dastardly Fake News emanating from the Kremlin, the CCP and QAnon. Instead, Nuland did something completely uncharacteristic for her, for neocons, and for senior U.S. foreign policy officials: for some reason, she told a version of the truth. Her answer visibly stunned Rubio, who — as soon as he realized the damage she was doing to the U.S. messaging campaign by telling the truth — interrupted her and demanded that she instead affirm that if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it. Grateful for the life raft, Nuland told Rubio he was right.

But Rubio's clean-up act came too late. When asked whether Ukraine possesses “chemical or biological weapons,” Nuland did not deny this: at all. She instead — with palpable pen-twirling discomfort and in halting speech, a glaring contrast to her normally cocky style of speaking in obfuscatory State Department officialese — acknowledged: “uh, Ukraine has, uh, biological research facilities.” Any hope to depict such "facilities” as benign or banal was immediately destroyed by the warning she quickly added: “we are now in fact quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to, uh, gain control of [those labs], so we are working with the Ukrainiahhhns [sic] on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach” 


For those paying attention, the official narrative just got exposed as a fraud and the whores who've pimped should be hanging their heads in shame -- but we all know that they're incapable of shame.


Meanwhile never understimate how greedy, craven and corrupt politicians can be.  Can be and so often are.



In related news, David Sirota Tweets:


House Dems passed a bill to hand $52 billion to 5 tech CEOs to boost their pay, then they eliminated $15 billion of pandemic aid for millions of Americans, and now they're running off to a retreat in Philadelphia to try to figure out why most people can't stand them.
1:33 PM · Mar 10, 2022


And as Jimmy Dore said in the video above, "If you think some other country is more blood thirsty, is more imperialistic and is more of an oppressor to their people than you've been propagandized."Not everyone's walking around dazed and confused.  Tony Bramble (RED FLAG) observes:


The US is using the opportunity created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to promote itself as a champion of national sovereignty, democracy and human rights. In his State of the Union address on 2 March, US President Joe Biden was cheered by both sides of Congress as he set out the US’s claims to higher purpose: “We fought for freedom, expanded liberty, defeated totalitarianism and terror. We built the strongest, freest and most prosperous nation the world has ever known”. In relation to the invasion of Ukraine:

“Now is the hour. Our moment of responsibility. Our test of resolve and conscience, of history itself ... I know this nation will meet the test. To protect freedom and liberty, to expand fairness and opportunity. We will save democracy.”

It’s nice that large countries invading small countries is now self-evidently morally outrageous. Pity that wasn’t the case before the US launched the two largest invasions so far this century, first in Afghanistan in 2001 and then in Iraq in 2003. Just like Russia, the US is up to its elbows in the blood of its innocent victims, their lives destroyed by brutal invasions and occupations justified by lies.

Within weeks of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the George W. Bush administration had invaded Afghanistan, despite the Taliban offering to hand over Osama bin Laden. As Biden is doing today, Bush cloaked the US mission in democratic rhetoric: “Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us”.

Unlike the moral outrage in response to Russia’s invasion today, there was widespread support for the invasion of Afghanistan. The Democrats backed it, as did many US allies, including Australia. The media, both populist and “serious”, such as the New York Times, threw their full support behind it. Small-l liberals also backed up the propaganda. Many prominent American feminist organisations supported the war on the basis that the US could liberate Afghan women from Taliban rule.

The invasion was overwhelmingly popular within the US, and in Australia too. The few opponents of what the White House called the “War on Terror” were accused of being terrorist sympathisers. It was left to small groups of socialists and other committed anti-imperialists to forcefully carry the arguments against the build-up to war.

On 7 October 2001, the US Air Force conducted the first air strikes, followed by deployment of US ground troops in what the White House called “Operation Enduring Freedom”. Within weeks, the Taliban had been overthrown and its leaders killed or forced to flee to rural hideouts or neighbouring Pakistan.

The invasion and eight-year occupation of Iraq came soon after. The White House claimed that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein represented an existential threat to the world because his regime possessed weapons of mass destruction: anthrax, nerve gas and nuclear weapons. The administration also sought to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11, saying that the Iraqi president was in league with al-Qaeda. The enemy was clear, Bush argued: “States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world”.

The media took Bush’s cue, and newspapers in the US, Europe and Australia were filled with articles calling Hussein “the new Hitler”, listing his crimes against his own people and describing in great detail the supposed threat he posed to the world. General Colin Powell, US secretary of state, argued that it was only a matter of time before Hussein used his weapons of mass destruction against the world.

The US was much less successful in convincing the US population and the rest of the world that it was justified in invading Iraq. Claims that the US was bringing “freedom” and “democracy” to the Middle East were being increasingly exposed by the reality of the US occupation in Afghanistan.


Jimmy Wike Mesquite writes to the editors of THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL:    


Is it lost on everyone that the same politicians who insisted that our military invade Afghanistan and Iraq to effect regime change are now aghast at what Russia is doing to Ukraine?

Talk about a lack of self-awareness.


Meanwhile, at FOREIGN POICY,  Renad Mansour and Benedict Robin-D'Cruz write:


Many observers predicted that Iraq’s elections last October would be a potential turning point in the country’s long struggle to find stability since 2003. Instead, the protracted government formation process has featured political violence against opponents, including tit-for-tat assassinations in the south, bombings of political offices and linked businesses, and even an attempt on the prime minister’s life. It has seen the judiciary weaponized to target opponents with lawsuits and disqualify candidates. Foreign powers, including Iran, have also directly intervened to prevent a change to the system of government.

All of this suggests that change is not on the horizon for Iraq. The country is still stuck in familiar cycles of violence with no clear path out.

Some experts have found this especially disappointing because the election results had initially hinted at change. Shiite populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr defeated his competitors by a significant margin, winning 73 seats. His rivals from the previous election, the Iran-allied Fatah Alliance, lost 31 seats and now only has 17 seats. His other rival, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition, has only 35 seats. Sadr was widely predicted to play the role of kingmaker.

Sensing an opportunity for fundamental change, Sadrists called for an end to the consensus government system, where all parties divide the state among themselves at the expense of corruption and stagnation. Sadr instead insisted on a majoritarian government. The key was to exclude longtime rival and Iranian ally Maliki. In its own change of policy, the United States now backs Sadr, seeing his rise as an opportunity to push out Iranian influence and change Iraqi politics.


Hey, Renad and Benedict, wlecome but the party's over.  You can come back tomorrow and clean up, just hit the lights on the way out, will ya?


Is it a surprise?


It's not to me.  None of this is surprising.


I believe this is sexactly where we said the situation woul dbe.


A lot of whores wanted to pretend that Moqtada was a king maker.  We questioned that press narrative from the beginning.  


We stood alone in doing that.  We'll stop and rest while the rest of you struggle to catch up.  All these months later.


There was never a reason to believe that Moqtada was a king maker.  There was never a reason to believe he was a leader.  Even his cult sees defections.  


Maybe if outlets had told the truth, so many people wouldn't have been fooled.


moqtada's bloc in the 2021 election?  It got more votes in the previous election.  Support was down for all existing parties (with the exception of the KDP in Kurdistan).  While the press was spinning and whoring, analytical minds rightly saw the depressed turnout for Moqtada as something worthy of exploration.  


The elections were held October 10th.  Five months ago.  Still no president, still no prime minister.  The country's Constitution has been violated and ignored.  The already politicized court system got even more politicized.  None of thsi is good for Iraq.


The Speaker of Parliament?  Same person it was before the election.  It's the only power position filled, by the way.  President?  The current president wants to retain his spot as does the current prime minister.


So it is possible that Iraq could see the election results resulted in no change at all.


What was the point of holding elections if the people the people wante removed from office just continue to hang on?


In 2010, Joe Biden taught the Iraqi people that voting did not matter.  That's whent hey voted out Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister and when Joe Biden oversaw The Erbil Agreement that tossed the votes aside and gave Nouri that second term anyway.


He was vice president then.  Now he's president and Irais may have another example of just how useless voting is under their current system.


Omar Sirri and Belkis Wille  explore realities in Iraq at Human Rights Watch:


An abusive legal complaint has been filed against a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) who sought to investigate allegations of torture of detainees.

The complaint was filed on February 3 against Dr. Ali al-Bayati, a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR). Three days later, al-Bayati was interrogated by Rusafa Investigative Court personnel in Baghdad over his discussion about an investigation the IHCHR had begun into the work of Iraq’s anti-corruption committee, which Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi established two years ago.

The legal action stems from comments al-Bayati made in an interview on Alahad Television in December 2020, that the IHCHR had received allegations some detainees arrested under orders from the anti-corruption committee had been tortured. The IHCHR sought to investigate these allegations and requested from the anti-corruption committee to interview detainees being held on charges related to the committee’s work.

Al-Bayati said the anti-corruption committee refused the request, one that falls within the legal mandate of the IHCHR and directed the IHCHR to seek permission from the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers. Rather than grant the IHCHR’s request, the secretariat instigated the legal complaint against al-Bayati. The complaint refers to article 434 of Iraq’s penal code outlining the “insult” or imputation of another, a crime punishable by up to one year in prison.

“It is very humiliating and painful to be a doctor and human rights defender in a democratic country, and then enter a court accused not because of a crime you committed, but instead because you defended the rights of fellow citizens and fulfilled the duties you swore to perform,” al-Bayati told Human Rights Watch.

On March 2, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled the establishment of the anti-corruption committee itself unconstitutional, stating the committee violated separation of powers articles in Iraq’s constitution.

While the legal and political wrangling over Iraq’s anti-corruption efforts continues, the Iraqi judiciary and the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers should take immediate steps to drop this abusive complaint against Ali al-Bayati. Criticizing state authorities, or conducting human rights investigations, should not be criminal acts. They also should commit to granting the IHCHR access to all detainees alleging abuse and torture. That individuals tasked with investigating basic human rights abuses are themselves subjected to legal sanction simply for doing their work is both deeply ironic and bodes poorly for Iraqis in far more vulnerable circumstances.


The following sites updated:






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