Saturday, November 20, 2021

The View remains awful

"The View panel is perfect now." So hissed Joy Behar on The View in a remark aimed at Meghan McCain. I didn't work with Meghan and I don't know her. I didn't find her to be an appealing TV personality. That said, Joy needs to go. The show already comes off as an embarrassment and a stereotypical cat fight. And Joy just makes it worse.

I'd hold Whoopi accountable if it was her doing this nonsense right now But it's Joy. And she thinks it's cute to act this way. And mature.

She really needs to go. There should, in fact, be a limit on age. You should have 1 who is under 30, 1 under 40, 1 under 50, 1 under 60 and 1 under 70. They need to spread it out so that more views can be offered. The show suffers from a sameness and it's about as tired as Joy's make up.

Marcia's "Diana Ross vinyl" notes her Diana Ross albums on vinyl and Betty's "The albums in my Diana Ross collection" notes her vinyl and CD albums by Diana Ross.  I have ten albums by Diana on vinyl (three more on CD).  Besides Diana Ross, who else do I have in my vinyl collection? A ton. Too many to list. Sade, of course. I probably have the most of Stevie Wonder.

1) Talking Book

2) Innerverisions

3) Songs In The Key Of Life

4) Hotter Than July

5) Jungle Fever

6) In Square Circle

7) Characters

8) Down To Earth

9) Signed, Sealed & Delivered

10) Music of My Mind

11) Up-Tight

12) Someday at Christmas

13) Fullingness' First Finale

14) For Once In My Life

15) My Cherie Amour

16) Original Musiquarium

17) Where I'm Coming From

18) Greatest Hits

19) Live

Stevie was one of my favorites growing up -- and still is. Who else did I love? Diana, Stevie, Ray Parker Jr., the Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, Chic, Donna Summer, and the Commodores among others.

I really miss the Pointer Sisters, by the way. I'd see them today with one of the daughters or granddaughters but it wouldn't really be the same without June Pointer in the group (she passed away). Even so, I'd still see them. Ruth and Anita are still alive and they can still sing like crazy.

My top ten favorite Pointer Sisters' songs? I'll list all my favorites. It may be over ten.

1) "Jump For My Love"

2) "Automatic"

3) "Slow Hand"

4) "I Need You"

5) "Goldmine"

6) "American Music"

7) "Dare Me"

8) "I'm So Excited"

9) "Twist My Arm"

10) "Pound Pound"

11) "Neutron Dance"

12) "He's So Shy"

13) "Fire"

14) "Freedom"

15) "Baby Come And Get It"

16) "Should I Do It"

17) "If You Wanna Get Back Your Lady"

18) "Hey You"

19) "Bring Your Sweet Stuff Home To Me'

20) "How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)"

You know what? I could actually go on and on. I love every track on the Break Out album and on the Contact album.

 


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


Friday, November 19, 2021.  Prior restraint -- a trademark of the Biden era?, Joe continues to misuse the FBI to protect his daughter, Mosul remains scarred, the media works hard to let the officials in the KRG off scott free and much more.


Starting in the US, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued the following statement:


Today, a state court in New York entered a prior restraint at the request of Project Veritas against the New York Times ordering it to “refrain from further disseminating or publishing any of Project Veritas’ ‘privileged materials'” in its possession, pending a court hearing next week. The order also bars the Times from “further efforts to solicit or acquire” Project Veritas’ “attorney-client privileged materials.”

The following may be attributed to Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

“This is the first prior restraint entered against the New York Times since the Pentagon Papers, and it is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment.

“Prior restraints — which are orders not to publish — are among the most serious threats to press freedom. The trial court should have never entered this order. If it doesn’t immediately vacate the prior restraint, an appellate court must step in and do so.”


The Reporters Committee regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs and its attorneys represent journalists and news organizations pro bono in court cases that involve First Amendment freedoms, the newsgathering rights of journalists and access to public information. Stay up-to-date on our work by signing up for our monthly newsletter and following us on Twitter or Instagram.


That is a huge overstep.   Prior restraint.   


It's getting a lot of attention.  IN fact, it's getting more attention than a related -- and much more important -- matter.  Joe Biden's misuse of the FBI.



Joe's abusing the power of the office and that is a high crime.  Who is he protecting by the way?  


His drug using daughter who apparently kept a sex diary and then, high and stoned, lost it.


Joe's using the FBI and the Justice Dept on this matter.


That's an abuse of power.  It's a misuse of the government.  Should, heaven forbid, the US suffer another 9/11 tomorrow, he would need to answer to the American people why he used government resources illegally to protect his daughter and how that harmed the safety of the nation since these misused resources should have been focused on issues pertaining to the safety of the American people.


That's not what the president does.  It's an abuse of power.


Your forty-year-old daughter's an adventurer (or slut, whatever you prefer) who documents her drugs use and extra-marital sex?  That's your personal problem.  Stop abusing government resources and misusing the taxypayers' money to try to protect your daughter.  Maybe buy her some condoms out of your own money (or whatever you've forced Hunter to grift for you) but stop misusing the US Justice Dept.


Your daughter's slutting around is not a national security matter.  It's an embarrassment but, sadly, your whole family's become that.  Your misuse of the power of the office is an abuse and does qualify as a high crime.  You should apologize immediately.  If the House flips, as history suggests it will and as polling predicts it will, in the mid-terms, your actions are begging the GOP to bring impeachment charges against you.


The move is as dumb as AOC.  And apparently that's what we're currently stuck with: Idiotic statements and moves from what passes for the Democratic Party. From MEDIAITE:


Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent target of outrage and derision by her GOP colleagues, but she gave as good as she’s gotten in this clip. She “complimented” the House Minority Leader for managing “to speak for over an hour with one of the lowest vocabularies I have ever seen, coming from a member of House Leadership.”


She did not give good.  She embarrassed herself yet again.  Seh's still the same corporatist airhead that I said she was before she was sworn in.  Seh's a fake ass and one of The Fraud Squad which most people now get.  But she's also an idiot.  Read the above and grasp that she crafted it with the help of three people and she still comes off as an idiot.  Referring to what someone said, what was spoken, she states it was "one of the lowest vocabularies I have ever seen."


She can't even do bitchy right, she's that stupid.  You don't see someone use a low vocabulary, you hear them use it.  What a stupid moron.  Instead of all the time she spends on her makeup -- far too much for someone in Congress -- she should try to work on her comprehension skills and on her word usage.  In fact, someone should gift her with a thesaurus.


And, no, Alexandria, that's not a sex toy.

  

Turning to Iraq, THE DAILY SABAH reports:

Turkish contractors and consultancy firms can be a part of projects involving infrastructure, hospitals, schools and public buildings in Iraq. This cooperation can be further facilitated by a reversal in discrimination regarding the conditions of fair competition as well as the easing of processes required to do business, a Turkish trade official said Friday.


Oh.  Now it makes sense.  The government of Turkey is terrorizing Iraqis in northern Iraq and dropping bombs and starting fires to create jobs?  Oh, that makes it alright then.  Let's stop calling them terrorists


No.  They're terrorists and it's past time that they were treated as such.

And people have fled from that region due to the violence.

Instead of defending the people, the KRG is blaming others.


That's beyond nonsense and it's shameful.  Various politicians are inventing lies to cover up for their failure to protect the citizens of the KRG from Turkey.


Liar Aydin Maruf is only one KRG official lying to the press.  


He insists that people are fleeing because of the PKK.  


Huh?


How is that?


The PKK is not new to the KRG.  The PKK is a pro-Kurdish body -- extremely pro-Kurdish -- that took up arms in the 80s in what they saw a response to the never ending attacks -- physical attacks -- on Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere.  There have been many deahts since -- innocents as well as those two main groups engaged in the struggle PKK members and members of the Turkish military.


The PKK isn't burning down forests in the region, that's the Turkish military.  They claim that they have to burn things down -- it's that old 'to save the village, we had to burn the village' crap -- insisting that without burning things down, the PKK will be able to hide.


The region has various small villages and farmers.  They are the ones being harmed by the actions of the Turkish military.  A military, please note, that's not even supposed to legally be in Iraq.


Two days ago, AFN NEWS explained:


Soran Omer, who was elected MP in the Iraqi elections in October, released information on the Kurdistan Regional Government's attitude towards the Kurdish migrants who have been stranded at the Polish-Belarusian border.

In a post on his Facebook page, the Kurdish parliamentarian revealed that the regional government sent letters to the European countries on the matter.

According to Soran, the regional government designated the Kurdish migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border as terrorists and criminals and accused some of them of being human traffickers who abducted women and children.

COMMUNIST PARTY: INJUSTICE IS THE CAUSE OF MIGRATION

In the meantime, the Kurdistan Communist Party held a demonstration in Hewlêr (Erbil) to express their concerns over the migration from the region.

A statement was read out by Raber Mexdîd, head of the youth wing of the party’s Hewler branch.

“The lives of migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border are in huge jeopardy because of the cold weather and hunger. We call on the United Nations and other international organizations to fulfil their responsibilities and address the precarious conditions of the migrants,” the statement said.

The statement added that the erosion of freedoms and lack of justice, basic services and job opportunities are the reasons for migration.


Let's stay with reality.  Mosul has not been rebuilt all this time later.  That shouldn't be a controversial observation.  Yet whenever we make it there are people (Americans) who just know that they know better. One e-mailer insists, "Everything's fine, people are fine, it's all rebuilt and everyone has gotten on with their lives.  There are no scars and no healing necessary.  You spend too much time watching MSNBC."

MSNBC doesn't cover Iraq.  Why would I watch that channel?  RT covers Iraq.  Regularly.  At any rate, the scars remain and the healing is not complted.  Let's note Doctors Without Borders:


“I still remember the exact moment I understood what it means to be neutral and impartial,” says Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq. “This was 2017; I had only been with MSF for a short time then. We were working in a makeshift hospital in the Nablus neighbourhood, in West Mosul, close to the front line. And injured people were arriving at our hospital every hour.” 

Between the fronts

Between 2016 and 2017, the Iraqi Security Forces, supported by a US-led international coalition, launched a military offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, who had been occupying the city for three and a half years.  

“The situation was chaotic,” Dhannoon recalls. “One day, we received a wounded child in the MSF makeshift hospital. The six-year-old was being interrogated on the suspicion that his father was a member of the Islamic State group. We put ourselves in front of the boy and protected him. The only thing that mattered to us was that he needed medical help.”


Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq “One day, we received a wounded child in the MSF makeshift hospital. The six-year-old was being interrogated on the suspicion that his father was a member of the Islamic State group. We put ourselves in front of the boy and protected him.”
 

“In the end, it turned out that he and his parents were civilians,” continues Dhannoon. “They tried to flee the city but did not manage to escape the fighting. They were swept away by the battle and got stuck in the old city - a maze of small streets and historic houses, until the neighbourhood was liberated. In the chaos, the young boy was separated from his parents.”

Now, more than four years later, the devastating effects of the war are not only still visible, but also still strongly felt in Ninewa governorate, northwest Iraq, and in its main city, Mosul. Many people are still displaced; people’s psychological trauma remains largely untreated, and many of the damaged health facilities are not yet fully functional again. 

Hope for the future

“I was here when the Islamic State group took the city in 2014 up until the end of the war. It is impossible to explain what that was like,” Dhannoon remembers. “There are simply no words for it... It was like being tortured from the inside. There was no future... nothing.”
 
“The things we have experienced put a heavy burden on us. Nobody talks about that though,” says Dhannoon. “Yes, the war is over, yes, the city is safer, but you can still see a lot of anger and pain in people’s eyes wherever you go.” 

Yes, the war is over, yes, the city is safer, but you can still see a lot of anger and pain in people’s eyes wherever you go. Abdulrahman Dhannoon Khaleel, MSF Project Coordinator Support in West Mosul, Iraq 

“People here want to look forward,” Dhannoon continues. “Many would say that they are happy, but in reality, we have seen a lot of misery, really a lot of misery.” 

Just like its people, Mosul is fighting to get back on its feet. The traces of the war still shape the cityscape, but reconstruction efforts are progressing. 

MSF teams are trying to heal both the physical and psychological scars of the war by providing access to much needed healthcare for the heavily affected people of Mosul. We run a hospital offering free neonatal, maternity, and paediatric services in the Nablus neighbourhood, on the west bank of the Tigris River.  

Further east, in Al-Nahrawan, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Mosul, another similar project is run by our teams. At both locations, an average of up to 1,000 children are born and cared for each month. In eastern Mosul, MSF also offers reconstructive surgery and comprehensive post-operative care at the Al-Wahda Hospital. There, our teams provide much-needed care for people injured by accidental or violent trauma. 

From January to October 2021, we provided 1,029 surgical interventions, 4,494 and 1,351 inpatient and outpatient consultations respectively. Psychological support and health counselling services are also available at all three locations.

 

A recovering health system

“People tend to think that when a battle is over, things naturally go back to normal,” explains Esther van der Woerdt, Head of Mission for MSF in Iraq. “But the truth is that recovery takes years – not to say decades.” 

“Many of the basic infrastructure were destroyed or damaged during the battles and many of them still need to be rebuilt or rehabilitated,” says van der Woerdt. “Public healthcare structures in Mosul are struggling to cover the needs, and some people still cannot afford healthcare, either because they have lost everything in the conflict and/or are hardly making ends meet after they lost their livelihood. In that sense, the free healthcare services that we offer are quite essential for the people.”

“People tend to think that when a battle is over, things naturally go back to normal. But the truth is that recovery takes years – not to say decades.”  Esther van der Woerdt, Head of Mission for MSF in Iraq 

Besides providing healthcare services, we are also helping the city’s health system to get back on its feet and are providing the required support to ensure it can cope with new emergencies. In 2019, MSF rebuilt a hospital dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases in the east of Mosul, to improve access to health services for the local community. 

And between March and December 2020, we supported Mosul’s health system in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, by temporarily transforming our 62-bed post-operative care centre (known today as Al-Wahda Orthopaedic Hospital), in the east of the city, into a COVID-19 isolation and treatment centre for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases.

From the time MSF transformed the hospital into a COVID-19 facility until returning to our regular activities, our teams cared for 975 COVID-19 patients. To further extend the support to the COVID-19 response in the Ninewa governorate, MSF also ran a 16-bed intensive care unit between November 2020 and April 2021 to offer advanced care for severely and critically ill COVID-19 patients, where 14 patients were cared for.

“Our activities in the city are evolving with the context,” says van der Woerdt. “And we’re trying to adapt to the best of our ability to people’s medical needs, guided solely by our medical ethics and neutral and impartial principles.” 

 
Video

No matter who you are – we are here for you

Peter Bräunig 




The following sites updated:



  • Thursday, November 18, 2021

    We lack real leaders in our government

    Time is running out for the earth.  We're destroying it with each day and we are very close to the point of no return.  Yet our politicians do nothing and don't seem to care.


    The Green Party issued the following about a recent farce:


    Green Party of the United States
    www.gp.org

    For Immediate Release:
    Tuesday, November 16, 2021

    Contact:

    Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager, meo@gp.org, 202-804-2758
    Diana C. Brown, Co-chair, Media Committee, media@gp.org, 202-804-2758
    Philena Farley, Co-chair, Media Committee, media@gp.org, 202-804-2758


    “The world’s political leaders in Glasgow paid lip service to the need for effective climate action while working behind closed doors to protect the profits of fossil fuel companies and their own campaign contributions. Led by President Biden, the industrial polluters most responsible for the climate crisis continued to refuse to accept their responsibility for climate reparations to the countries most damaged by burning fossil fuels. The U.S. worked with China and India to weaken the language related to moving away from coal plants and subsidies for fossil fuels,” said Green Party National Co-Chair Chris Stella.

    With over 25 years of COP gatherings failing to produce real climate solutions, the Green Party said direct action by climate organizers is needed to halt fossil fuel use. “We have no reason to believe corporate-funded politicians — especially from the U.S. — will voluntarily act to provide future generations with a chance for decent lives,” said Green Party National Co-Chair Margaret Elisabeth.

    Media coverage called Glasgow the “Last Chance COP”, referring to the scant years left to prevent global heating from exceeding 1.5 C (2.7 F). The most optimistic reading of the Glasgow pledges have the world on track for 2.4 C (4.3 F) of heating (though prior pledges have almost never been fulfilled). The climate crisis is already happening and getting worse, as extreme weather events become more frequent with massive hurricanes, flooding, drought, wildfires, and heatwaves.

    As the COP26 coalition pointed out, "the needs of poorer countries have been kicked to the curb", in favor of appeasing the hugely over-represented fossil fuel lobbyists. The Climate Justice Alliance said the final COP26 statements showed “an utter disregard of the science and equity, false ambition and disdain for justice, and a license to pollute with NetZero and carbon markets.” False climate “solutions” such as carbon trading and offsets, carbon capture and storage, and market-based mechanisms were included.

    "This mix of costly, unproven, and even non-existent technologies provide political cover for big polluters to continue business as usual at the expense of the world's most vulnerable people," said Green Party of Florida Co-Chair and candidate for Florida State Representative (District 46) Robin Harris.

    “Solving the climate crisis requires wholescale system change: a Green New Deal that combines a rapid transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100% clean renewable energy with investments in social programs such as health care, living wage jobs, education and housing. We need to create a different world where the focus is on meeting the common needs,” said Mark Dunlea, co-chair of the Green Party’s EcoAction Committee.

    The Green Party’s outline for meeting the challenge presented by the climate crisis includes:

    • short-term, mandatory actions with timelines and goals targeting the next five to ten years, not 2050 or later
    • include military greenhouse gas emissions, which account for 6% worldwide, in accounting and mandates for cuts
    • creating an energy system that embraces the concept of public ownership and democratic control
    • immediate declaration of a climate emergency by the president, following the type of leadership provided when President Roosevelt took control of the American economy after the attack on Pearl Harbor

    The Green Party, as the only national party in the United States that does not accept corporate funding, has called for Congress to fund a $2.7 trillion annual investment in climate action instead of Biden's Build Back Better plan. Biden’s plan has shrunk to $55 billion per year in climate investments after corporate-funded members of Congress have killed many of the most important parts of the bill.

    Green Party of the United States

    www.gp.org
    202-804-2758
    Newsroom | Twitter: @GreenPartyUS
    Green Party Platform
    Green New Deal
    Green candidate database and campaign information
    Facebook page
    YouTube
    Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
    Green Papers

    ~ END ~

     

     

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

     

    Thursday, November 18, 2021.  Virtue signaling replaces real action.


    Starting with a do-nothing administration in the US.  Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) documents the pretense on addressing climate change:

    The 26th Conference of the Parties, COP26, climate summit ended with its president fighting back tears. Alok Sharma came to Glasgow, Scotland hoping for an agreement to end the extraction of coal. Instead he said this, “I apologize for the way this process has unfolded. I am deeply sorry.”

    The international climate conferences are a perennial disappointment to anyone who understands the depth of the world wide catastrophe. Every year the rich capitalist nations find a way to undermine the process and consign millions of people to misery and devastation. Activists from all over the world gather in an effort to have an impact on the process, but they are literally outnumbered by fossil fuel lobbyists who always get what they want.

    This conference ended with an agreement to “phase down” the use of coal instead of phasing it out altogether. Phasing down is deliberately ambiguous and makes a mockery of the 2015 Paris meeting which ended with an agreement to allow a temperature increase of no more than 1.5˚C. The fact that climate agreements allow world temperatures to rise is but one indication that the process falls far short from what the world needs.

    Yet the seemingly small 1.5˚C will have devastating consequences, with droughts and storms bringing catastrophe to millions of people. The can is always kicked down the road and the final agreement is a sham.

    The political duopoly in the United States behaves as it always does with phony heroes and phony villains as in professional wrestling. Republicans refuse to participate in climate agreements, democrats show up for the cameras, but only to fool the rubes into thinking that something important is being accomplished.

    It doesn’t matter if democrats show up at COP26 if they refuse to respond to elephants in the room. The United States military is the world’s biggest polluter but its carbon production, and that of other nations’ forces, are exempt from climate goals. When a journalist asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders about military spending and its role in climate change, it was clear they had never considered the issue at all. They were shocked to be asked a question which showed a direct relationship between their actions and global warming and then responded with nonsense. They said the military, which contributes to climate change, needs money to respond to the climate change it causes by its very existence. Why does it matter that George W. Bush and Donald Trump withdrew from previous climate agreements if democrats follow in their footsteps and ignore even the flimsy goals it asked the U.S. to meet?

    Joe Biden appeared in Glasgow but no one should be impressed. Like his predecessors he has opened public lands to oil drilling. Keeping temperature rise to 1.5˚C requires that carbon emissions be cut in half. If the United States were serious there would be no fossil fuel extraction on public lands. It would have to end altogether.


    Political fake assery isn't just annoying, it's life threatening.  


    Maybe next time, if you want to save the planet, don't elect someone with one foot -- and four toes on the other foot -- in the grave.  At 78, it doesn't matter to Joe Biden what happens to the earth.  He knows he'll be gone shortly, after all.


    Ajamu Baraka Tweets:


    Since election of Joe Biden representing most militaristic factions of the ruling class, the world is more dangerous. Threats of war in Europe & Asia, actual wars in Africa, & stepped up destabilization campaigns throughout Latin America. It is clear democrats are party of war.


    Happiness, Cher insisted, is a thing called joe.  We now understand why the film career went no where.  It all makes sense now, an Academy Award winning performance at the end of the 80s and then nothing.  I've never minded a celebrity using their power to advocate for an issue.  I've forever had a problem with celebrities whoring their names for politicians.  It rarely ends well and, honestly, it shouldn't.  


    Joe's a threat to the planet at this point.  As his fortunes sink, so should the fortunes of those who whored for him.  


    We all knew his legislative history.  We all knew he hid behind Beau Biden, trotting out dead son forever and a day.  Why's he dead, Joe?  Why did he go to Iraq?


    There are many days when I pull something from the snapshot before it posts.  I'll dictate it and move on but then say before it posts, "Take out the paragraph on Joe Biden and the abortion" or some other detail.  Beau is key to understanding the family and I don't like Hunter but I do know that certain things would look differently if Joe were ever honest about Beau.  Or about Nancy.  Huh -- who said that?  Will it go in the snapshot?  Will I pull it?  No, it'll stay and let them sweat it.  


    Point being, unlike Cher, I actually know Joe.  And I didn't support him.  I believe Tara Reade, absolutely.  I do know Joe's history with women.  Many in the press do as well.  But even before Tara emerged to shine a much needed spotlight there, I had already made clear that if Joe couldn't be honest about Iraq, I wouldn't support him.


    Joe can't be honest about Iraq.  He, sadly, can't be honest about much.  

    And, he really needs to get honest about Beau.  That crying is not a natural response and it is not grief.  It is guilt.  Understanding Beau and the way he was used would actually create some sympathy for Hunter.


    I don't like Hunter.  I never have.  But because I knew the family and knew reality, I did understand that Hunter didn't just emerge from the womb -- or the childhood car accident -- fully formed.  Hunter was actively shaped into what he has become and that falls on Joe as much as it does on Hunter.


    Joe's actions regarding Iraq in 2019 and 2020 made it clear that he would never be able to confront reality and that he wasn't fit for the presidency.  It's a real shame so many celebrities flocked to him and whored for him.  May history hold them accountable.


    And that's especially true if they also pimped Russia-gate.  


    Let's join Elaine in noting that Jonathan Turley covers Russia-gate in an easy to follow manner.  Here's an excerpt of his most recent coverage:

    The famous philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once declared that “the only shame is to have none.” The problem with shame is that it requires a sense of guilt over one’s actions. In the age of rage, there appear fewer and fewer actions that are beyond the pale for politics. Take Adam Schiff and the Steele dossier. While even the Washington Post has admitted that it got the Russian collusion story wrong in light of the findings of Special Counsel John Durham, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is still insisting that he was absolutely right to promote the discredited Steele dossier. Schiff’s interview on NBC’s Meet the Press may be the final proof of the death of shame in American politics.

    Schiff was one of the greatest promoters of the Steele dossier despite access to briefings casting doubt about Steele and the underlying claims. However, Schiff recently has attempted to defend himself by claiming that Steele was a respected former spy and that he was lied to by a Russian source.

    Schiff told host Chuck Todd:

    “I don’t regret saying that we should investigate claims of someone who, frankly, was a well-respected British intelligence officer. And we couldn’t have known, of course, years ago that we would learn years later that someone who is a primary source lied to him. [Igor] Danchenko lied to Christopher Steele and then lied to the FBI. He should be prosecuted. He is being prosecuted. And I’ll tell you this, if he’s convicted, he should not be pardoned the way Donald Trump pardoned people who lied to FBI agents, like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn. There ought to be the same standard in terms of prosecuting the liars. But I don’t think there ought to be any pardon, no matter which way the lies cut.”

    Schiff’s spin is enough to cause permanent vertigo.

    Some of us have spent years being pummeled for questioning the obvious problems with the Steele dossier, including the long-denied connection to the Clinton campaign. Schiff was the main voice swatting down such criticism and his endorsements were treated as dispositive for media from MSNBC to the Washington Post. After all, he was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and assured the public that our criticisms were meritless and the dossier was corroborated.

    Schiff’s spin, however, continues to deny the obvious about the Russian collusion scandal.

    First, many would guffaw at the claim that Steele was and remains a “well-respected British intelligence officer.”  Soon after the dossier was shopped to the FBI, British intelligence flagged credibility problems with Steele. The FBI severed Steele as an asset. Even his own sources told the FBI that Steele wildly exaggerated information and distorted intelligence. Most recently, Steele went public with a laughable claim that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former counsel, was lying to protect Trump despite spending years trying to get Trump charged criminally.

    Second, Schiff ignored repeated contradictions in Steele’s dossier as well as evidence that the dossier was paid for and promoted by the Clinton campaign. In 2017, even fired FBI agent Peter Strzok admitted that “we are unaware of ANY Trump advisors engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials” and “Steele may not be in a position to judge the reliability of his subsource network.” Schiff would have had access to some of this intelligence. Indeed, while the Clinton campaign was denying that it funded the dossier, American intelligence knew that that was a lie.  Indeed, until the Durham indictments, Schiff continued to defend the Russian collusion investigation and the Steele dossier.

    Third, Schiff attempts to portray the sole problem with the Steele dossier as Russian analyst Igor Danchenko. That is simply not true. Schiff was long aware that there were allegations of misleading or false information given by the FBI to the secret court. Indeed, the first Durham conviction was of Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI agent who pleaded guilty. Schiff was aware that President Barack Obama was briefed in 2017 that Hillary Clinton was allegedly planning to manufacture a Russian collusion scandal — just days before the start of the Russian investigation. The dossier was riddled with disproven allegations.


    Don't worry, we're tying two threads together -- the deeply stupid celebrities and Russia-gate.  From Ava and my "MEDIA: Male norms, Russia hate and lots of excuses -- it's the 90th Academy Awards" in March 2018:


    What an awful and awkward event it was.  Male driven, women seeking male approval, females pretending that tokenism and boobs on display qualified as progress.

    Oh, it was horrible.

    As Isaiah noted, "Oscars So Full Of It."


     


    As Isaiah's comic explains, generic film maker Bryan Fogel -- of JEWTOPIA non-fame -- won for BEST DOCUMENTARY -- a newbie with no style or art defeating Agnes Varda, a true artist who's been directing since 1955 and who influenced the French New Wave -- it was robbery.


    Of this hideous moment, WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD's Melissa Silverstein gushed . . .

    Greta Gerwig and Laura Dern walking out holding hands is everything.







    Oh, keep it in your pants, Melissa.

    Greta was sporting breasts, not displaying, sporting.

    Way to be taken seriously as a director, dear.

    Were you at the Academy Awards or a photo shoot for the cover of SPORT'S ILLUSTRATED swimsuit issue?

    [. . .]

    Learn a little self-respect and grasp that for every Melissa Silverstein drooling over your tits, there are plenty of us wishing that, as you posed as a role model, you'd conducted yourself as one.

    Also, probably not the moment to talk about the need to be real, Greta, while sporting a necklace on loan worth more than most viewers will make in ten years of hard work.

    Not every woman was an embarrassment.

    Notice that Sandra Bullock, presenting Best Cinematography, did not sport boobs or embarrass herself with loaned out 'bling.'  She just looked classy and also managed to garner a few laughs.


    Take a lesson, Greta, take a hard lesson.

    As a nominee whispered to us while Greta was on stage, "Bitch be frontin'" -- and she wasn't the only one.


    Apparently, Greta has no real ethics -- that was kind of clear when she was talking about being real while dripping in diamonds.

    Keep it whore, Greta, keep it whore.

    And trust that the media will be right there with you, Greta.



       Retweeted
    Even though "Faces Places" didn't win in the Documentary (Feature) category, Agnès Varda was awarded an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards:








    Late in the game, Melissa got called on her sexual longing for Greta and how it allowed her to miss that one of the few living women veteran directors got overlooked for a Let's-all-hate-Russia victory.

    So Melissa did that Tweet and we're all supposed to pretend like an honorary Academy Award is the same as a competitive one.

    It's not.

    Even Melissa knows that.

    Hate Russia?

    You were in the right place for it.

    Hate those damn Commies -- that could have been a theme of the night.

    Bryan Fogel won for his stupid and facile documentary attacking Russia.

    Doping in sports!

    Damn, Russians!

    Uhm, golly, we remember Lance Armstrong.

    We remember that Lance was doping and threatening people and destroying the lives of people who called him out.

    But let's express our outrage at Russia, right?

    And that wasn't the worst of it.

    Oh, Rita.

    How could you?

    That's what we puzzled over as Rita Moreno used the night to salute "the great" Frank Capra.

    What was so great about him?

    That from at least 1947 forward, he was an FBI informant?  Ratting out people he suspected of being or having once been members of the Communist Party?

    Was that what was so great about Capra?

    Or that he pushed for the loyalty oath in the Directors Guild?

    These awards are about the arts.

    Writers and directors lost work because of Frank Capra.  (Ironically, he'd be grey-listed which is somehow fitting after all the people he ratted on lost work.)

    Seriously, Rita Moreno, what the hell were you thinking?

    Or did you just want to celebrate hate of Russia by taking it all the way back to the witch hunts of the HUAC?


    This was the entertainment industry at its most revealing.  Claiming things had changed, time's up, that women were valued.  And yet ignoring the chance to give a ground breaking female director, Agnes Varda, a competitive Academy Award.  So hollow, so unfair.  


    Agnes had a body of work and she was on up there age wise -- and is now dead.  Everyone knew this was her last chance at the award.  Everyone knew at the time that she would not make another film, that her health was too poor.  


    If women were truly valued, this groundbreaking auteur of the French New Wave would have walked off with the statue.


    However, it was more important to 'strike back' at Russia.


    So a piece of garbage documentary attacking Russia over sports -- a documentary no one remembers today -- wins instead.


    It wasn't about art and it rarely is.


    What we see today that is so damn annoying in our society was promoted by people like -- well, by Cher.  It's virtue signaling.  It replaces any real efforts at actual work.


    Why try to end a war?  Why try to fight for the rights of workers?  Why do anything when, in fact, you can virtue signal instead.  It's so much easier.


    And it's why crap like CHARIOTS OF FIRE or THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES or FOREST GUMP wins Best Picture.  The last was never a better film than PULP FICTION.  But it was virtue signaling.  Pick a film that says this is how we, the Academy, see ourselves.  And shove that down the throats of the American people.  


    The bulk of the names in the industry are a bunch of idiots -- uneducated (either lacking in a formal education or lacking in the ability to be self-taught).  And all that hate and all idiots who 'indicate' in their acting and in their supposed activism.  Their minds are as 'styled' by others as their wardrobe and hair.  

    Russia-gate didn't just happen.  It was the culmination of years of work on Barack Obama's part.  If, by the time Ed Snowden landed in Russia, you hadn't noticed that Barack had been trying to turn the American people against Russia, you weren't paying attention.  All that hate culminated.


    Russia-gate couldn't have existed without it.


    And in 2018, we saw one member of the Academy after another use the international broadcast and whatever was left of their image to whore.  


    A dumb and poorly made documentary versus Agnes' film and, yes, her entire body of work and it was  Let's embrace hate-Russia and do our part!


    The virtue signaling isn't free speech or a discussion.  It's often used as a ploy to attack others.  And it is rooted in the entertainment industry and in the public relations industry.  It's a way to 'freshen' up your own image without having to actually do something.


    The US government has perfected that feat.  Which is why you get a climate change summit that offers no real change.


    And this as the world is under attack.


    That's especially true of Iraq.

















    MEMO notes:

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    The Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources yesterday warned Turkey that its plan to build a new dam on the Tigris River would affect Iraq's share of the river's waters.

    Ministry spokesperson, Ali Radi, said Turkish authorities had been contacted via the Foreign Affairs Ministry to warn them of the new project's impact on Baghdad's share of the river's water in terms of quantity and quality.

    "Negotiations with the Turkish or Syrian sides are very important to reach understandings for the supreme goal of ensuring Iraq's water rights," he added.

    The Tigris is a 1,750-kilometre-long river with its source in Turkey, it travels through Syria before finally reaching the Shatt Al-Arab River and the Gulf.



    The following sites updated: