Wednesday, October 5, 2022

The pedophile prince (and a great sale on Vanity Fair)

The pedophile prince is in the news again. Julie Miller (Vanity Fair) reports:

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s heinous saga has already inspired several true-crime docuseries. And now Prince Andrew—their known associate and Queen Elizabeth’s disgraced second son—gets his own streaming close-up in Banished: Prince Andrew, a Peacock documentary debuting today.

The film is not a bombshell exposé but a fascinating origin story about this generation’s most disgraced member of the British royal family. Royal author and editorial icon Tina Brown offers her trademark fizzy analysis about the queen’s coddled son and his downward trajectory. Longtime Buckingham Palace press spokesman Dickie Arbiter recounts his firsthand experiences with the royal and minces no words: “I suppose there’s always one runt of the litter. And Andrew’s it,” says Arbiter, before calling the prince an “idiot” for agreeing to the disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview. Former Buckingham Palace protection officer Paul Page remembers Maxwell’s frequent palace visits, the revolving door of women Andrew entertained, and even the prince’s extensive teddy bear collection, which Andrew reportedly insisted be put in correct order by maids each day. (Page says there was even a laminated diagram of that correct order in the prince’s bedside table so staff did not screw anything up.) Simon Wilson, Britain's former deputy head of mission to Bahrain, describes an almost comically humiliating trip Andrew made to the country in the early aughts.

In a phone call with V.F., Banished director Jamie Crawford explained that he began working on the project in March, shortly after the royal had been stripped of his military titles and settled with accuser Virginia Giuffre for a rumored $16 million, even though he has always insisted he never met Giuffre and has denied all the allegations. Crawford says he sought to work with “people who had worked and lived alongside the royals through the decades” and also “speak to the journalists who’ve not been dabbling in royal coverage recently but have had a whole lifetime of it from the ’80s onward. So these people have had a front-row view of everything that's happened since the ’70s and ’80s. They were an absolute fount of fascinating information.”

The film supplements these interviews with rarely seen archival footage that traces the royal’s life, from his birth in 1960 to the mutually beneficial relationship with Epstein and Maxwell that would be his undoing. (Epstein had the money, Maxwell had the social connections, and Andrew had the status.) Crawford wanted to include Andrew’s voice as well, but unsurprisingly the prince did not respond to requests for comment or interview following his epic fail of a Newsnight interview three years ago.

He belongs in prison.

Now let's talk Vanity Fair. I always liked the magazine. In 1999, I got a subscription as a Christmas gift. And one of the issues was just ruined in the mail. I was mad and angry and fired off a letter thinking it might get an eye roll before being tossed in a trash can. They actually replaced the issue.

Like most people these days, I don't subscribe.

And I no longer run to check out the mail like I used to when I subscribed to about six magazines.

But, when I went to Vanity Fair to read the story, there was an offer. They're doing a year's subscription for eight dollars.

Now I like the magazine. My big thing is going to be making time for it (two kids) but that deal is so great that even there's a month where I don't touch it, it's still more than worth it.

That cost also includes digital access -- that's the regular edition in the mail and you also have access to all the things at the website.

So I'm passing that on in case anyone else used to read Vanity Fair and is looking for a reason to subscribe.

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

Wednesday, October 5, 2022. We mainly focus on the backlash within the US in today's snapshot (and we'll continue on that topic tomorrow).

As we noted earlier this week, we are in a backlash period. With that in mind, THE GRIO reports:

A religious school in Florida delivered a very direct message to students and their parents: Students will only be addressed according to the “gender on their birth certificates” and LGBTQ+ students are not to attend.

NBC News reported that Grace Christian School, in Valrico, used Bible verses in a June 6 email to parents to support its decisions. Students who identify as gay, transgender or gender nonconforming “would be asked to leave the school immediately,” according to the email from administrator Barry McKeen.

That's shocking and disgusting.

But don't worry, Jonathan Turley will shortly tell us this is a 'free speech' issue. (That was sarcasm.)

Let's deal with that before we go further. Jonathan is one of our finest legal minds today. He is not right 100%. He is not even consistent 90% of the time.

He is dead wrong on a case that's about to go before the Court, for example. And he's hiding behind 'free speech.' Unlike, Jonathan, I actually support free speech. By that I mean, I support it. I'm not Jonathan having a freak out because someone leaked to the press a forthcoming opinion from the Court. A free speech advocate doesn't grab the vapors over that.

Jonathan would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQs and he would say it was their free speech right. A baker, he insists, should be allowed to refuse service to a gay couple if the baker doesn't believe in marriage equality. The baker, Jonathan will tell you, is an artist and has free speech rights.

F**K THAT S**T.

Art, as Jennifer Jason Leigh observes in MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE, is not an elastic term.

A baker may make the most delicious cake in the world, the baker is still not an artist.

And Jonathan's idiotic and ahistorical approach here, if applied, would have allowed the Civil Rights Movement to have never progressed. You can't sit at the counter, courts would have ordered, because you're interfering with the artist working there whose free speech rights allow the soda jerk to refuse you service because they're religious beliefs say you are not their equal.

There's a lot of homophobia going around and Jonathan apparently believes he can conceal his by claiming discrimination is allowed because a baker is an artist. I wonder if a museum -- a gallery of art work -- could get away with refusing someone entry based on who they sleep with, the color of their skin, their gender or whatever? Legally no -- unless you're using Jonathan Turley's 'logic.'

Which brings us back to BROS.

BROS is a romantic comedy that opened at theaters last Friday. Billy Eichner co-wrote the screenplay and he stars in the film with Luke Macfarlane.

The filming budget was around $22 million dollars. It made almost $5 million over the weekend. So it's made approximately, during the weekend only, 1/4 of its shooting budget. That's not a bomb.

Nor was it "a meager opening" -- as the liar Sardine puts it at a publication.

It'll make back its budget and then some, turn a big profit, once it goes into home video and everyone knew that going in.

I have no idea why it was hyped to make $10 million in its opening week.

I have no idea why everyone IGNORES the reality that theaters outside the cities it did well were taking actions to hurt the film. If you're showing SMILE two or three times at night but you're only showing BROS once at night and you're the same theater and you're making BROS the last show, you're harming its chances to sell an equal number of tickets. The showings around the country meant BROS was never going to make ten million its opening weekend. And I said that before it opened.

I've had this discussion with THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and they know this. They choose to ignore it because they're a homophobic outlet. They've always been crap, they were part of McCarthyism.

Richard Newby writes a stupid article for them where he wants you to know how offsides Billy is for Tweeting that "straight people didn't show up." This is different, Richard insists, from Viola Davis instructing people to show up for THE WARRIOR KING to support African-American female led films. (No, it's not.) And the marketing, he wants to insist, is different from MARVEL marking BLACK PANTHER as the first Black superhero film.

Hmm.

I'm a friend of Wesley Snipes. Is that why I'm the only one, who for years now, keeps pointing out that BLADE is the first big budget film based on a comic book with an African-American lead?

I'm just so f-ing tired of all the nonsense.

Billy took part in a great movie and he made it happen and he has every right to be upset right now. Just as an artist -- Jonathan Turley, look over at Billy, that's an artist -- he has every right to be upset.

BROS is hilarious and it's a great film and it's one of the year's finest.

I want to address the blaming of Billy for a moment.

'If only it were Channing Tatum, it needed someone who looks like Chan.'

Really?

I sat through the awful FORGET PARIS because Debra Winger's a friend and, sorry, but Billy Crystal is not remotely good looking.

As for the cast of BROS, please check out Guy Branum's Twitter thread.

'If only it had stars.'

Let's go to Billy Crystal again. He wasn't a film star when he made WHEN HARRY MET SALLY . . . Nor was Meg Ryan at that time a star.

People are trying to explain why the film didn't meet the over expectations at the box office and some are blaming Billy. That's stupid and it shouldn't be taking place. (I don't know Billy, by the way, I've never met him. I do know Luke Macfarlane.) He made something really important happen and the last thing people need to be doing is blaming him.

But there's blame going on. Again: The blame goes to the theaters -- and to UNIVERSAL for not grasping what was happening -- with how they showed the film. When you bury it in the evenings by only showing it once and at your last showing, you're sending a message the same way ABC did when they slapped a warning in front of every episode of ELLEN during the show's final season. You're also making it very hard for people to see it. "Let's go see a movie after dinner. I wanna see BROS. Oh, it's not showing until ten. Hmm. Want to see SMILE instead? It's on at seven, eight-thirty and ten."

Alastair and Zachary Patton-Garcia discuss BROS on their latest COFFEE AND TEQUILA.

They have an honest conversation worth streaming. Which doesn't mean I agree 100%. I'm on record about the nonsense of casting and selling LOVE SIMON and LOVE VICTOR. (And since my friend's no longer married to horse face, I no longer have to try to be nice to her.)

But it's an honest discussion and it brings up many issues that are being ignored.

An issue that they don't bring up is at play currently in industry publications. There is a move to slaughter BROS.

That's only surprising if you're unaware of the entrenched homophobia in the film industry.

William Haines is rightly celebrated by some as a strong person who bucked the system. The Tom Cruise of his day,, he made one successful silent film after another, audiences loved him. William was gay. MGM gave him the ultimatum of dump your lover and marry a woman or we dump you. He refused to comply and they dumped him. He and his lover Jimmie Shields went on to have a long relationship that lasted until Haines' death and they also started a successful business that's still alive today.

William was presented with the ultimatum for only one reason: He was a star. He was a money maker.

The same homophobia didn't render 'nelly' supporting actors invisible.

Why was that?

Why were they, in fact, supported?

Hollywood went out of its way to establish that image.

They telegraphed this is what gay is. (Ava and I have covered this at length. If you're late to the party, probably start with our first piece on HAPPY ENDINGS.)

It was about money. It's always been about money.

Rock Hudson can make money, keep him in the closet. You can help him stay a money maker by elevating stereotypical portraits of gays so that people know that's what a gay person acts like and, therefore, there's no way a Rock Hudson could be gay.

MGM continued to employ gay people after William Haines. It wasn't anti-gay in that way. But it wanted to protect its own profits and you either played the game or you were out.

Billy has cast a film with LGBTQ actors and that's an uncomfortable reality for some. Those whining about the marketing campaign, should grasp that UNIVERSAL could have went with, "Not since Nazimova . . ." And cited Nancy Regan's godmother (Naimova's SALOME is supposed to be an all gay cast.) Billy also presented a hugely diverse canvas of what LGBTQ can be and that's uncomfortable for some.

We live in a world where a no-talent can, and did, smear a dead woman who told her the truth about her gay father. The no-talent can then say Oh, it doesn't matter. And in this world no one's going to point out that the entire industry says no-talent is a lesbian and that her marriage to a gay man is a sham and that no-talent, in the 80s, went on a talk show acting as part of a lesbian thruple.

We live in a world where actors and actresses are still told, "Don't come out, it will kill your career."

That doesn't mean the studio doesn't know that Mr. X is gay. That does mean that they need him to continue to play straight in public.

There is a huge homophobia built into the system and it goes back to the start of the industry.

BROS transgressed and now certain elements of the industry are moving in to attack.

That's appalling. They're doing it for profit motive. They're doing it to keep certain things hidden, realities of life. The closet has proven to be very profitable for the industry.

Billy made a great film. He should be proud of himself. People should see the film. It's hilarious. If you doubt it, read some of the community coverage:

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

BROS is the best film of 2022

The World Today Just Nuts

Is BROS amusing?

Like Maria Said Paz

Need another reason to see BROS?

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

The movie you need to see

Trina's Kitchen

Jiffy Corn Casserole in the Kitchen (and go see Bros)

SICKOFITRADLZ

Bros -- are you scared to buy a ticket?

Ruth's Report

Go see BROS!!!

Oh Boy It Never Ends

F**ck THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and its damn lies

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

bros and nick kroll

Ann's Mega Dub

Bros is the film we need

Mikey Likes It!

Best news of the week

We are in a backlash period and we will continue to cover BROS tomorrow.

Turning to Iraq . . .

Alda Mussad (THE NATIONAL) notes:

The UN's special representative for Iraq has urged the country to address a growing lack of faith among Iraqis it its political system.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert urged Iraq to form a government and get moving on critical reforms at the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

“Public disillusion is running sky-high,” Ms Hennis-Plasschaert told the council.

“Too many Iraqis have lost faith in the ability of the political class to act in the interest of the country and its people. A continued failure to address this loss of faith, will only exacerbate Iraq’s problems.”

She stressed "the importance of maintaining calm, of maintaining dialogue, constitutional compliance, respect for democratic principles, the unimpeded working of state institutions, and a functioning government to effectively address the legitimate demands for better public services, jobs, security, an end to corruption, and justice and accountability.

Running sky high, is it? Hmm. Well maybe because today is October 5th and on October 10, 2021, Iraq held elections. Yet there's still no president, there's still no prime minister, there's still no cabinet. Five days from a year later. I think the public is correct to be disillusioned. And ticked off.

Lastly, a friend at IAVA asked me to include this:

IAVA Joins Military and Veteran Leaders to Call on Congress to Pass Landmark Veterans Homelessness Legislation

More than 50 VSOs Ask House and Senate Leadership to Pass Bipartisan Bill into Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 28, 2022
CONTACT: press@iava.org

New York, NY – Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and more than 50 other organizations representing America’s veterans, service members, and their families, recently sent a joint letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, calling on them to expeditiously pass the bipartisan Building Solutions for Veterans Experiencing Homelessness Act of 2021 (S. 2172).

“This critical legislation will send an important message that we can no longer continue to allow those who have served our nation in uniform to live without a roof over their heads,” said Tom Porter, EVP of Government Affairs for IAVA. “IAVA is proud to join so many of our nation’s advocacy organizations to call on Congress to make this a priority to pass this year.”

The bill would preserve and enhance proven effective COVID-19-related program improvements from both the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act (P.L. 116-136) and the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-315), and would strengthen programs that emphasize permanent solutions to housing instability and homelessness experienced by veterans across the country.

IAVA is the voice for the post-9/11 veteran generation. With over 425,000 veterans and allies nationwide, IAVA is the leader in non-partisan veteran advocacy and public awareness. We drive historic impacts for veterans and IAVA’s programs are second to none. Any veteran or family member in need can reach out to IAVA’s Quick Reaction Force at quickreactionforce.org or 855-91RAPID (855-917-2743) to be connected promptly with a veteran care manager who will assist. IAVA’s The Vote Hub is a free tool to register to vote and find polling information. IAVA’s membership is always growing. Join the movement at iava.org/membership.

###

The following sites updated:

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

The FBI and Big Tech

Information is information. It should be available to all. There's a new lawsuit in the news and some are trying to make it a right/left issue. I don't see it as such. Fox reports:

A conservative legal group is suing the FBI for allegedly concealing communications between the agency and Big Tech companies, including Facebook, regarding information posted online about the contents of President Biden's son Hunter's explosive laptop.

America First Legal (AFL), which is led by former Trump White House advisor Stephen Miller, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in a Washington, D.C., federal court Tuesday, stating that the FBI is violating the law by failing to publicize its communications with Facebook and other Big Tech companies that worked with the agency to "censor news and information" about Hunter Biden's laptop immediately before the 2020 presidential election.

In an August 2022 FOIA request, AFL originally requested that the FBI make public its communications with Facebook between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15 2020. In a response last week, the FBI called AFL's FOIA request "overly broad" and did not provide the information requested. As a result, AFL moved forward with filing a lawsuit to receive the communications.

I don't believe the FBI should have been engaged in those conversations. I also don't believe Facebook et al should have concealed the conversations in real time. None of this meets the standard of 'national security' so why was it hidden away and why is it still hidden away?

They over-reached and the Congress must act to correct this and to see that it never happens again.

On the topic of the FBI, be sure to read Kat's "Guess who was spying on Aretha Franklin."

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

Tuesday, October 4, 2022. The 'answer' to inflation is to up unemployment according to 'experts,' Iraq sees more protests and the US State Dept screws up again.

Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

An analysis published Tuesday shows that the top executives of the largest corporations in the United States have seen their pay soar by nearly 1,500% over the past 43 years, helping to fuel a massive surge in inequality as workers' wages lag.

Between 1978 and 2021, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO compensation at the 350 largest publicly traded U.S. companies rose by an inflation-adjusted 1,460%, far outstripping the 18.1% pay increase that the nation's typical worker saw during that period.

The trend of soaring CEO pay has continued during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused mass economic chaos and job loss among ordinary workers. EPI found that "while millions lost jobs in the first year of the pandemic and suffered real wage declines due to inflation in the second year, CEOs' realized compensation jumped 30.3% between 2019 and 2021."

"Typical worker compensation among those who remained employed rose 3.9% over the same time span," note EPI's Josh Bivens and Jori Kandra, the authors of the new report.

The findings come amid mounting fears of a global recession triggered by central banks' attempts to fight inflation via increasingly aggressive interest rate hikes, a strategy aimed at crushing economic demand.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, the world's most powerful central banker, has been forthright about the primary goals of rate hikes: A weaker labor market and lower wages. According to the Fed's own projections, rate increases could throw around 1.5 million people in the U.S. out of work by the end of next year.

And where's Joe Biden. He's president and this all happened under his watch. Now there's a good chance he doesn't know what's going on. That's always a risk for a man of his age.

And right on queue, you have The Brookings Institute offering a podcast this morning calling for higher unemployment:

While President Biden has officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over,” America now faces a new challenge in the form of an overheating economy and high inflation, and the prospect of a Federal Reserve-induced recession is looming. In the latest Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, spoke with Laurence Ball of Johns Hopkins University about his new paper, “Understanding U.S. inflation during the COVID era.” In the study, Ball and his co-authors find that the Fed may need to push unemployment higher than its 4.1% projection to return inflation to the 2% target.

In a world like this, when unemployment is seen as the 'answer,' you need real leaders. Will Lehman is running to become president of the United Auto Workers union. WSWS reports:

On Saturday, Will Lehman, socialist candidate for president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), held an online meeting to bring his campaign to graduate student workers and other university employees in the UAW. The meeting was attended by grad students and tenured faculty, as well as workers and supporters of Lehman’s campaign from around the US.

The meeting took place amid ongoing struggles of university workers in both California and New York. As of September 30, 48,000 UAW members across the University of California (UC) system—including graduate student workers, academic researchers, tutors, postdoctoral scholars (postdocs) and other academic employees—are working either without a contract or under a contract that had been extended. There is also an ongoing strike authorization vote of adjuncts at New York University (NYU), where the UAW extended the previous contract by two months, with the new expiration set for October 30.

At the start of the meeting, Lehman—who is a second-tier worker at Mack Trucks in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and the only socialist candidate in the UAW election—summed up his campaign’s call to abolish the corrupt UAW apparatus and put power in the hands of workers.

The UAW is comprised of two distinct layers, he explained: The rank-and-file workers within the factories and other workplaces who pay dues, versus a bureaucracy sitting on $1.1 billion in assets that enforces sellout contracts and keeps workers divided. The UAW bureaucracy accepts capitalism and is deeply tied to the companies it claims to be fighting against. Two of the last four UAW presidents were jailed as part of a far-reaching corruption scandal, in which large sections of the union’s leadership were shown to be accepting bribes or embezzling dues.

The bureaucrats, Lehman said, “operate within the framework of capitalism and believe they can win that way. They are absolutely wrong. That is why we need to force our own way forward, and that comes with linking up, and it might not be a traditional way.”

As part of the fight to unify and empower workers, Lehman advocated the formation of rank-and-file committees as a means of staying informed and coordinating actions with other workers, whether they are UAW members or not. Workers need a means to share information and unify their struggles, he said, and break out of the isolation imposed by the UAW apparatus.

“I’ll give the example of the HarperCollins workers earlier this year,” Lehman stated. “Their CEO is billionaire Rupert Murdoch. Nobody was informed of the HarperCollins one-day strike by the UAW, and they should have been, we all should have been. They should have been on strike until their needs were met. They’re making $30 an hour, but living in New York City. And I’m sure that workers from the University of California could relate to that, with one of the highest cost of living in the country.”

Responding to a comment from a UC student worker that UAW Local 5810 (which includes postdocs and academic researchers) had reportedly again extended its previous contract with the university for another month to October 31, Lehman said, “They’re being strung out on contract extensions. And this is a typical UAW play. When a contract runs out, they keep workers on the job, while they’re also appealing to the Democratic Party, which has absolutely no interest in advancing anything for the working class. The Democratic and Republican parties both are not representative of the working class.”

He added, “The way forward won’t be found in an appeal to any Democratic Party politician or any politician from either of the two parties of the ruling class. It’s going to be through struggle.”

A graduate student at New York University (NYU), Karsten, spoke during the meeting about the UAW’s betrayal of the NYU grad workers’ strike in 2021.

“Last year, we struck for three weeks,” Karsten said. “And we were not only in a struggle up against the university, but the UAW as well, which isolated the strike and forced through a completely rotten contract, which has been promoted widely as this ‘historic agreement.’ But really, this is an agreement that did not meet any of the demands of graduate student workers. It’s a six-year agreement with a no strike clause.

“There was a big hullabaloo made over the fact that the wage increases for hourly workers went from $20 per hour to $26 per hour for the 2020 to 2021 year. But this is $20 or more under what is a living wage in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and a wage cut essentially, with inflation at over 8 percent.

“Most significantly, the union dropped the demand for ‘unit erosion,’ which would have essentially prevented the university from cutting positions. So any raises in wages that the university made won’t have an impact on the university’s coffers, because they’ll be able to cut positions. And the same was true at Columbia University, which graduate students struck at the same time, but our struggles were isolated from one another by the UAW.”

Worthless Joe does nothing but send the country's tax dollars to Ukraine. He loves supporting racist regimes because it reminds him of the good old days when he'd pull a chain on Cock Roach. While he does nothing but stare into space and drool, people might want to look to see what California is doing.

Kaitlyn Koterbski (FORTUNE) reports:

Qualifying Californians will begin receiving relief payments of up to $1,050 this week to soften the blow of inflation.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $308 billion state budget in June to deliver direct tax refunds to 23 million Californians as they struggle with inflation, which jumped 8.3% year over year.

“California’s budget addresses the state’s most pressing needs and prioritizes getting dollars back into the pockets of millions of Californians who are grappling with global inflation and rising prices of everything from gas to groceries,” said Gov. Newsom, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon in a joint statement.

It's a one time payment which, honestly, isn't enough. But it's still more than Joe Biden's managed to do for any US citizen -- unless he's thinking Ukraine is the 51st state of America. CNN notes:

Several states are sending taxpayers money to help them cope with inflation, but some economists warn that the payments will do little to alleviate the pain of rising costs and could further fuel inflation.

In California, for example, about 23 million qualifying taxpayers are expected to receive up to $1,500, with smaller payments going to higher earners. The payments, which are technically tax refunds, will start going out October 7 and are meant "to help address rising costs," according to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's office.

In Georgia, taxpayers received up to $500 in one-time tax refunds over the summer.

"As hardworking Georgians face rising inflation caused by failed federal government policies, we are doing what we can to provide relief by returning their money back into their pockets," said Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a May statement.

In other places, like Colorado, states are required by law to return excess state revenue to taxpayers. Tax rebates that went out this summer are worth $750 for individual tax filers and $1,500 for joint filers. Labeled as a "Cash Back" program, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said the state moved up sending the refunds out by about a year "because they need it now," according to an interview with Colorado Public Radio in August.

Yet Joe Biden does nothing.

Emma Kinery (CNBC) notes:

Economic issues like inflation are of top mind for midterm voters a month out from Election Day, giving Republicans a slight edge over Democrats in a new poll released Monday by Monmouth University.

For the first time since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturned the constitutional right to abortion, a majority of voters polled by Monmouth say they think Republicans should take back control of Congress.

The poll found 47% of voters want or prefer Republicans to control Congress compared with 44% who want or prefer Democrats. It’s a 4 percentage point gain for Republicans, up from 43% in August, and a 6 percentage point loss for Democrats, down from 50%.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 21 to 25 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

While Democrats care about a variety of issues from climate change to abortion and Republicans home in on inflation and immigration, the poll found independent voters are primarily concerned with rising prices.

Overall, 82% of Americans ranked inflation as an extremely or very important issue, compared with 56% who ranked abortion as a top worry and 32% who said the coronavirus pandemic was a big concern. More broadly, anxiety about the economy and cost of living supersede concerns about losing fundamental rights or threats to democracy 54% to 38% among all Americans.

Yet Joe Biden does nothing.

Mid-term elections are next month, yet Joe Biden does nothing.

Is there a strategy or do they just thinking having a Brit go around endorsing in US elections is a plan. Someone tell pop king Harry that membership in One Direction does not qualify for political expertise and that this country fought revolution to ensure that the British didn't tell us what to do. And no one was waiting for you to release your political opinions. No one thinks you're smart enough -- or that anyone is -- to become an insta-expert on another country's voting system and on various candidates running for election.

If people are kind enough to enjoy the art you produce, you shouldn't abuse the relationship by attempting to tell them how to vote -- especially when you can't vote in this country, you do not this country's system and you're just a visitor.

I will endorse and have -- but only in races I can vote in.

I'm very happy with my non-C.I. fan base and I don't abuse them by telling them to do this or to do that. I don't mistake our relationship for master-servant. Clearly, Harry's under the belief that the British empire continues and that we are his subjects.

If he wants to do his civic duty, he can take his ass back to England which is dealing with a number of issues and problems.

At CNN, Linda Stewart writes:

One year into the pandemic lockdown, I retired from my job of 14 years as program coordinator and academic adviser at the University of New Mexico’s School of Engineering. I loved the work I did, but it was time to move on. I was in my early 60s, and being old enough to retire suddenly made that option more appealing. Finances would be a little tight for a while, but some outside projects would supplement my income, so I felt confident I would be able to handle it.

But by the end of the second year of lockdown, inflation started taking a toll and money was getting uncomfortably tight. Soon I was in the red each month, just trying to keep up. The usual suspects were groceries and gas, which meant cutting back on some of the more expensive food items and cooking meals at home.

I stopped driving for anything other than essentials. And with the continuing drought here in the Southwest, utility bills went through the ceiling. I cut back on watering my garden and turned the furnace down a few degrees in the winter and the air conditioning up a few in the summer. I switched to washing clothes mostly in cold water and only running the dishwasher once a week.

I also take care of my elderly mother, who lives alone, and we are both on fixed incomes. My freelance projects slowed down during lockdown, so my income did, too. The COLA (cost of living adjustment) for our Social Security benefits was very welcome, but it certainly didn’t cover price increases elsewhere.

Everything medical jumped at the beginning of the year. Co-pays went from $35 to $45. Prescription prices rose from $10 for a 90-day supply of medicine to $20 for a 90-day supply. Meanwhile, insurance benefits dropped from covering 90% of surgery costs to 80%.

My mother now hesitates to go to a doctor until it’s really necessary due to her higher co-pays, and I’ve switched all of my medications to generic brands that my insurance fully covers. They only cover the name brand of my asthma medicine.

And Joe does nothing.

When his administration does manage to get around to action, they still manage to screw it up.

Yesterday, the US State Dept issued the following:

Iraq National Day

Press Statement

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

October 3, 2022

On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I offer Prime Minister Kadhimi and the Iraqi people congratulations on their National Day, October 3.

This is a day to reflect on and be proud of Iraq’s achievements and the perseverance of its people. For 90 years, Iraq has endeavored through adversity to foster a more inclusive and equitable society for its citizens and for future generations of Iraqis.

The United States remains firmly committed to its strategic partnership with Iraq and to deepening and strengthening our relations under the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement. I look forward to continuing our work together on our shared priorities and enhancing the bond between our peoples.

I wish the people of Iraq best wishes and prosperity in the coming year.

They issued it at 1:00 pm EST. Which means it was nine p.m. in Baghdad with the workday over. Has there been a more incompetent Secretary of State than Tony Blinken?

You kinda picture Tony's 16-year-old child all excited all day looking around. Then, after dinner, the child gets less excited. Eventually, it's 8:30 and the child turns in. About 20 minutes later, Tony turns to his wife and asks, "Is today a birthday?" They rush to the kitchen, slap a candle on a Twinkie and wake up the kid while singing "Happy Birthday" and insisting, "We didn't forget!"

"Late or never" -- the two speeds he works in.

Meanwhile Haydar Karaalp (ANADOLU AGENCEY) reports:

Protesters set fire to a government building Monday in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, according to security sources.

A group of masked men took to the streets of the city center of Nasiriyah to stage demonstrations, the sources said.

The demonstrators then set fire to the governor's office with Molotov cocktails, they added.

A curfew was declared in the city over the incident.

Nasiriyah, located 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, is mired in poverty and plagued by poor infrastructure and joblessness, especially among young people.

Daniel Stewart (360 NEWS) adds:

Shortly after, the governor of Di Qar, Muhamad Hadi al Gazi, announced a curfew and stressed that "the situation is under control", as reported by the INA news agency.

On the other hand, during the last hours armed clashes have been reported in Basra (south), with no information so far on possible casualties. Witnesses quoted by the Kurdish television channel Rudaw have indicated that hostilities have broken out due to the arrest of several people by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of pro-Iranian militias.

The arrests took place on Monday as part of protests in the province, during which security forces used tear gas. The governor of Basra, Asaad al-Eidani, then tried to meet with the protesters, who refused and criticized the intervention of the officers to suppress the demonstrations.

Iraq has been the scene in recent days of new mobilizations, coinciding with the third anniversary of the October 2019 protests, which resulted in at least 600 deaths across the country due to the reaction of the Iraqi Police and pro-Iranian militias. The protests were active for several months to demand an end to the system of government in place since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, an end to corruption, better basic services and employment.

The protests led to the resignation of the then prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was replaced - after the rejection of several nominees - by Mostafa al-Kazemi, who initiated a series of reforms and called for early elections, held on October 10, 2021.

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