The primary theme that comes to my mind
when I think of my public life from 2007-today is the absolute treachery
and betrayal of me and my movement by the Democrat Party. I will cover
this is FAR more detail in the heart of the book, but in PM1, I
went through “heartache to activism” and after the betrayal of the
Democrats in 2007 and my subsequent departure from the party of
Jefferson, Truman, war, and disaster, I was thoroughly attacked and
kicked to the proverbial curb by some liberal/Democrat organizations
that I believed were antiwar, but they were only anti-Bush. So, PM2 will take me from "activism" back to "heartache."
As
it turns out, since Trump has gladly continued and expanded Obama’s
destructive wars for profit and power, those same organizations weren’t
even anti-Republican war, I guess. No wars have ended, nothing has
changed, except the liberals have crossed the line to attach a “neo” in
front of their label and now know they cannot criticize a Republican for
war, because if they point one finger at the GOP, four more fingers are
pointing at their own rotten core and the DNC.
-- Cindy Sheehan, "Foreword: Peace Mom II: One Mother's Journey from Activism to Heartache to Revolution by Cindy Sheehan" (CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAP BOX).
Sunday, July 09, 2017
Truest statement of the week II
The United States is at war with the very concept of the rule of law
among nations, and constitutes the most imminent threat to the survival
of the human species. Washington’s outlaw doctrine of “humanitarian”
military intervention, championed by Bill Clinton and elevated to a
defining national principle under Barack Obama, marks the U.S. as “a
rogue state, a state that is completely rejecting international norms,”
says Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace. “There is no legal right for the United States to be in Syria, but yet they are in Syria with no domestic opposition."
Instead, much of what should constitute the “domestic opposition” to Washington’s flagrant crimes against peace is consumed with an obsession to punish Russia for imaginary offenses against a fictitious American “democracy.”
-- Glen Ford, "Black America is 'Pro-Peace,' but Its Politicians Work for the War Party" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
Instead, much of what should constitute the “domestic opposition” to Washington’s flagrant crimes against peace is consumed with an obsession to punish Russia for imaginary offenses against a fictitious American “democracy.”
-- Glen Ford, "Black America is 'Pro-Peace,' but Its Politicians Work for the War Party" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another week.
We are shocked.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
Another week.
We are shocked.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Cindy Sheehan gets another truest.
As does Glen Ford.
Votes. Maybe that will motivate the Democratic Party to actually draw a line between themselves and the Republican Party?
Ava and C.I. tackled season two of QUANTICO and cover a great deal: John Brennan, bad storylines, homophobia, fake liberals and so much more. This is a mammoth piece -- and they edited it severely -- it was twice the current length when they finished it.
We want another Cass album and were talking about that last week. C.I. and Betty said one was possible. We thought they were joking but with the help of Kat, Isaiah and Elaine, they came up with a track list.
CNN has really dug its own hole lately.
Iraq.
What we listened to while writing.
Amnesty International.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Editorial: Another cost of the Iraq War
The Democrats spent the last years -- 2009 through today -- embracing war.
And they're surprised that it cost them the 2016 election?
A new study found that this was a grave error for the Democratic Party. Last week, Justin Raimondo (ANTIWAR.COM) was among the first to note the study:
What hasn’t emerged from the shock and horror of the elites, however, is a reasonably convincing explanation for the Trump victory: the storied “deplorables,” as Mrs. Clinton described them, rose up in rebellion against the coastal elites and delivered them a blow from which they are still reeling. Disdained, forgotten, and left behind, these rural not-college-educated near-the-poverty-line voters, who had traditionally voted Democratic, deserted the party – but why?
No real explanation has been forthcoming. Hillary tells us it was due, in part, to “sexism,” and the rest was a dark conspiracy by Vladimir Putin and James Comey. More objective observers attribute the switch to the relentless emphasis by the Democrats on identity politics, which seems convincing until one examines the actual statistics down to the county level in those key states – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – that gave the party of Trump the keys to the White House.
Francis Shen, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, and Douglas Kriner, who teaches political science at Boston University, have done just that, and their conclusion is stunning – and vitally important to those of us who want to understand what the current relation of political forces means for the anti-interventionist movement. They write:
In an election that gave Trump a razor-thin victory in three key states, this is what gave him the margin of victory.
Ed Krayewski (REASON) also highlighted the study:
When President Barack Obama campaigned for reelection in 2012, he bragged that he'd brought the Iraq war to an end and promised to do the same for the war to Afghanistan. In fact, Obama did not end the war in Iraq, a fact he admittedonly after Republicans blamed the rise of ISIS on the end of the war, and the conflict in Afghanistan outlasted his tenure. His claims nevertheless received little pushback.
Eric London (WSWS) also reported on the study:
In 2004, one-and-a-half years after the Bush administration launched the war in Iraq, the authors point out that although Bush won reelection, “he lost significant electoral ground in states and communities that had paid the heaviest share of the war burden in casualties.”
In 2006, when the Democrats won both houses of congress, Kriner and Shen note that “Republican losses were steepest among communities that had suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in Iraq.” They note, “In both 2004 and 2006, voters in these communities became more likely to vote against politicians perceived as orchestrating conflicts in which their friends and neighbors died.”
Similarly, the authors explain that Barack Obama won the 2008 election in large part as a result of popular opposition to the war in Iraq, which Obama claimed to oppose.
“The electoral punishment suffered by Republicans in the 2000s was a story of both casualty and economic inequality,” Kriner and Shen write. “The communities suffering the most from the fighting overseas were communities with lower income and education levels. These communities, in turn, increasingly turned against political candidates insisting on more combat.”
But while “voters in such communities increasingly abandoned Republican candidates in a series of elections in the 2000s,” their opposition to war expressed itself in a turn away from the Democrats in 2016.
After benefiting from the groundswell of opposition provoked by the Bush administration’s wars, the Obama administration continued the wars and sent tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan. His administration was the first in US history to spend a full two terms at war.
Under Democratic Party leadership, the government launched new wars in Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, and Syria. Clinton ran her 2016 campaign on calls for escalating US intervention in Syria and threatening war with Russia, a nuclear armed power. It is a testament to the record of the Democratic Party that Trump’s jingoistic program could be viewed by many as the more “dovish” option.
Bernie Sanders was a better shot than Hillary Clinton.
He presented a real difference between himself and Donald Trump. (Whereas Donald supported Hillary in 2008 and the Trumps and the Clintons were social friends.)
Hillary represented the wars she supported and the costs they incurred.
But the Democratic Party wanted to deny those costs because they didn't want to confront the fact that they hadn't ended the Iraq War.
They lied to the people and thought they could get away with it.
They were wrong.
It's time to end the wars.
Instead, you've got the always questionable Elizabeth Warren rushing to prolong them.
And they're surprised that it cost them the 2016 election?
A new study found that this was a grave error for the Democratic Party. Last week, Justin Raimondo (ANTIWAR.COM) was among the first to note the study:
What hasn’t emerged from the shock and horror of the elites, however, is a reasonably convincing explanation for the Trump victory: the storied “deplorables,” as Mrs. Clinton described them, rose up in rebellion against the coastal elites and delivered them a blow from which they are still reeling. Disdained, forgotten, and left behind, these rural not-college-educated near-the-poverty-line voters, who had traditionally voted Democratic, deserted the party – but why?
No real explanation has been forthcoming. Hillary tells us it was due, in part, to “sexism,” and the rest was a dark conspiracy by Vladimir Putin and James Comey. More objective observers attribute the switch to the relentless emphasis by the Democrats on identity politics, which seems convincing until one examines the actual statistics down to the county level in those key states – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – that gave the party of Trump the keys to the White House.
Francis Shen, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, and Douglas Kriner, who teaches political science at Boston University, have done just that, and their conclusion is stunning – and vitally important to those of us who want to understand what the current relation of political forces means for the anti-interventionist movement. They write:
“With so much post-election analysis, it is surprising
that no one has pointed to the possibility that inequalities in wartime sacrifice
might have tipped the election. Put simply: perhaps the small slice of America
that is fighting and dying for the nation’s security is tired of its political
leaders ignoring this disproportionate burden. To investigate this possibility,
we conducted an analysis of the 2016 Presidential election returns. In previous
research, we’ve shown that communities with higher casualty rates are also communities
from more rural, less wealthy, and less educated parts of the country. In both
2004 and 2006, voters in these communities became more likely to vote against
politicians perceived as orchestrating the conflicts in which their friends
and neighbors died.
“The data analysis presented in this working paper
finds that in the 2016 election Trump spoke to this part of America. Even controlling
in a statistical model for many other alternative explanations, we find that
there is a significant and meaningful relationship between a community’s rate
of military sacrifice and its support for Trump. Indeed, our results suggest
that if three states key to Trump’s victory – Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin – had
suffered even a modestly lower casualty rate, all three could have flipped from
red to blue and sent Hillary Clinton to the White House.”
While the Trump campaign’s foreign policy pronouncements often veered into
bombastic belligerence – “We’re
going to bomb the hell out of ISIS!” – the candidate also ventured into
territory previously alien to GOP presidential nominees. He denounced the Iraq
war – “They
lied. There were no weapons of mass destruction and they knew there were none”
– and forswore the “regime change” foreign policy that produced the bloody disasters
in Libya and Syria well as Iraq. His “America First” theme evoked the “isolationist”
sentiment that is anathema to the Washington elites – and is the default position
of the average American. And yet he did not take the reflexively anti-military
position so beloved by peaceniks of the left: he praised our veterans at every
opportunity and railed against their neglect by a government that used and abused
them. In an election that gave Trump a razor-thin victory in three key states, this is what gave him the margin of victory.
Ed Krayewski (REASON) also highlighted the study:
When President Barack Obama campaigned for reelection in 2012, he bragged that he'd brought the Iraq war to an end and promised to do the same for the war to Afghanistan. In fact, Obama did not end the war in Iraq, a fact he admittedonly after Republicans blamed the rise of ISIS on the end of the war, and the conflict in Afghanistan outlasted his tenure. His claims nevertheless received little pushback.
Eric London (WSWS) also reported on the study:
In 2004, one-and-a-half years after the Bush administration launched the war in Iraq, the authors point out that although Bush won reelection, “he lost significant electoral ground in states and communities that had paid the heaviest share of the war burden in casualties.”
In 2006, when the Democrats won both houses of congress, Kriner and Shen note that “Republican losses were steepest among communities that had suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in Iraq.” They note, “In both 2004 and 2006, voters in these communities became more likely to vote against politicians perceived as orchestrating conflicts in which their friends and neighbors died.”
Similarly, the authors explain that Barack Obama won the 2008 election in large part as a result of popular opposition to the war in Iraq, which Obama claimed to oppose.
“The electoral punishment suffered by Republicans in the 2000s was a story of both casualty and economic inequality,” Kriner and Shen write. “The communities suffering the most from the fighting overseas were communities with lower income and education levels. These communities, in turn, increasingly turned against political candidates insisting on more combat.”
But while “voters in such communities increasingly abandoned Republican candidates in a series of elections in the 2000s,” their opposition to war expressed itself in a turn away from the Democrats in 2016.
After benefiting from the groundswell of opposition provoked by the Bush administration’s wars, the Obama administration continued the wars and sent tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan. His administration was the first in US history to spend a full two terms at war.
Under Democratic Party leadership, the government launched new wars in Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, and Syria. Clinton ran her 2016 campaign on calls for escalating US intervention in Syria and threatening war with Russia, a nuclear armed power. It is a testament to the record of the Democratic Party that Trump’s jingoistic program could be viewed by many as the more “dovish” option.
Bernie Sanders was a better shot than Hillary Clinton.
He presented a real difference between himself and Donald Trump. (Whereas Donald supported Hillary in 2008 and the Trumps and the Clintons were social friends.)
Hillary represented the wars she supported and the costs they incurred.
But the Democratic Party wanted to deny those costs because they didn't want to confront the fact that they hadn't ended the Iraq War.
They lied to the people and thought they could get away with it.
They were wrong.
It's time to end the wars.
Instead, you've got the always questionable Elizabeth Warren rushing to prolong them.
TV: Child stars and child writers on QUANTICO
In the crash and burn that was season two of QUANTICO, the ABC show delivered one of the strongest laughs on network TV.
Shelby (Johanna Braddy) was discussing emotions with Clay (Hunter Parrish).
Clay insisted, "I have them. I just don't let you know I have them. I'm having one right now. It's a complicated one. It's like ten at once."
You never believed he was having ten emotions at once, you didn't even believe he was having one.
Mainly because the only emotion the human paper doll exhibited in season two waspouting.
A trembling lip and downcast eyes were shown off twice in two different episodes -- both times he was in the midst of addressing the team he was named leader of.
Those two scenes also made a lie out of his claim to have emotions but "I just don't let you know I have them."
In fact, when he shouldn't be letting others know his emotions was precisely when he did.
Back in October of 2015, we'd offered praise for the then-new show QUANTICO.
Then in February of this year, we'd noted in passing: "QUANTICO has proven just how quickly a show can wither away. By episode 12 of season one, the show was struggling in the ratings. And the struggle never ceased."
ABC is doing a major reboot of the series for season three.
They've fired a show runner and brought on someone new.
They've thinned the cast.
They've even limited the season to thirteen episodes under the premise that it would allow the show to be tighter and more focused.
Because of our previous comments (noted above) an ABC friend asked us to look at season two to see what went wrong.
We begged off.
We weren't in the mood to travel the country with script and episodes.
No, we were told, just episodes.
We still made excuses.
Damn NETFLIX.
As our friend pointed out, we didn't have to carry anything around the country, season two had just been made available on NETFLIX.
Sounds easy, right?
If you really think that, you missed season two's first 12 episodes.
Where are we?
That's the question viewers must have been wondering over and over as each episode featured bizarre crosscuts that flashed forward, flashed back and flashed present.
As if that alone wasn't confusing enough, they were still screwing with the characters.
Miranda (Aunjanue Ellis) had stood up to so much in season one. In season two, is she good, is she bad? Is she a terrorist? Oh, look, she's in prison as we flash forward to the future. Oh, look, in the past she's defending Alex (Priyanka Chopra). Oh look, now in the forward again, she's in prison because she tried to murder Alex.
No, none of it makes sense.
In fact, season two's first half really played out like it was attempting to turn the viewer into Tanya. Seriously, it was as though ABC had turned the show over to the Symbionese Liberation Army and we were all being reconditioned.
That would certainly explain what happened in the second half of season two.
Was the tortured confusion of all the came before supposed to make us accept Hunter Parrish as a team leader?
Or ignore his looks.
Parrish isn't repulsive by any means.
But he doesn't look like an adult despite being thirty.
There were far too many shirtless scenes for a man with the body of a toddler.
And those lips?
Honestly, he looked like he'd raided Macaulay Culkin's lipstick stash.
If Parrish was paying tribute to child star Culkin, Chopra got stuck serving up a homage to Shirley Temple.
Alex ceased being a character with complexities and instead became a childish imp able to solve anything and everything.
No longer a bright agent learning a job, she was the master thinker, the one who saw all, the never wrong.
It was beyond irritating.
And to build her up as the ultimate, they ended up emasculating -- not just tearing down -- the character of Ryan.
Jake McLaughlin is a strong actor.
It's why people responded to the pairing of his character with Chopra's Alex.
But when his character is weakened by bad writing, there's nothing McLaughlin can do to save it.
In elevating Alex to mythical Shirley Temple levels, the decision was made to undercut and weaken Ryan.
At one point, he's given advice, dubious advice, that since Alex is so smart, such a leader, and always right, he should head for the shadows. In response, he asked, "So that's my life challenge? Making her better?"
It got even worse.
At another point, Alex is shot and she's in an ambulance as Ryan pleads, "Alex, look at me!"
To which a season one returner says, "Sorry, Alex, I can't watch him cry. He's too pathetic."
Yes, even the other characters on the show were calling Ryan pathetic.
But it was the show runner and the writers that were inadequate.
To their credit, as viewers repeatedly checked out on the show, they realized the plots had to be simplified.
The second half was all about (a) ignoring every storyline that had come before and (b) telling only one storyline without flash fowards or flash backs.
Sadly, the simplified story wasn't worth writing.
It was another 'liberal' attack on Donald Trump.
We say 'liberal' for a reason and we'll get to it.
First though, the dubious and questionable Claire Hass (Marcia Cross) had become President.
Now she did that how?
If you don't remember, it's okay, the writers apparently didn't either.
She did that by assisting Liam (Josh Hopkins) with his crimes.
But suddenly she was our great hope and our great hero.
And she did the right thing repeatedly . . . even though she knew it would take down her presidency and hand it over to someone's idea of Donald Trump.
Which, if you think about it, wasn't the right thing but no one was supposed to notice that.
There was a lot that season two asked you not to notice.
Such as the fact that Harry (Russell Tovey) was the best thing about season two.
So naturally, the wrote him off.
Did it matter that Harry was gay?
We think it did.
We think that the show -- praised for its diversity -- was highly homophobic.
Season one offered two portrayals of gay men -- only to reveal one wasn't in fact gay, bi or even up to a handy j at the stalls.
Simon was posing as gay.
What do you say to that?
'We've all been there?'
QUANTICO certainly had.
Simon was posing as gay in season one and, you may remember, Elias (Rick Cosnett) was on to him.
Elias was actually gay.
Remember how that ended?
From NEWNOWNEXT's "QUANTICO Just Gave Us One Of The Worst Gay Storylines In TV History:"
The final straw (or so we thought) occurred the other week, when a bomb scare tested the recruits, and Elias was the only character to flee the scene, perpetuating the tired trope of the gay coward.
[. . .]
Going completely off the rails, Quantico turned its only real gay character into a simpering basket case and terrorist who kills himself rather than face the music.
That was season one.
Season two saw Harry introduced. He was capable, smart and MI6.
So of course, he would be run off.
And the coward theme continued.
Gays, you understand, are all cowards on QUANTICO.
Harry had a watchful eye on Sebastian (David Lim) who he was both attracted to and suspicious of.
Sebastian is gay but imprisoned in a closet because he wants to appear straight.
Sebastian, it also turns out, may be part of the bad guys -- they never nailed this down in the second half of the second season.
Harry had seen a woman shot dead and goes after who he thinks is the killer -- Sebastian.
Harry ends up kidnapped and drugged.
Then forced to make a call to Alex.
In the call, he bails on the team.
Coward, of course, it's the unrelenting theme of the show when it comes to LGBTQ characters.
So given the chance to help, he flees -- as Simon orders him to.
Two characters -- two gay characters -- are part of season two and they're possibly more offensive than what took place in season one.
Did we say two?
We should have said four.
Will Olson (Jay Armstrong Johnson) turned out to be gay in season two's 12 episode. He also appeared to have Asperger's or some other condition.
And Owen (Blair Underwood) especially, but all the characters except Shelby and Ryan, repeatedly attacked him for it.
Would they have slammed a character in a wheelchair for being in a wheelchair?
They had no trouble telling him to shut up or rolling their eyes when he spoke or, as Owen snarled at one point, telling him "we already know that."
But they didn't know what he knew.
This didn't lead to an apology.
There was no reason for supposedly sympathetic characters to spend episode after episode making fun of the character with Asperger's -- the one who was their teammate.
But ABC allowed it, didn't they?
It gets worse.
Will was used to go after another gay character. This one was a multi-billionaire and part of the eight people making up a conspiracy to install a president.
The other seven were shown frequently.
And talked about.
Only this one, Peter Theo, was talked about more than the others -- because he was gay.
It was as though the team of 'heroes' were obsessed with him because he was gay.
(The character was an attempt to smear Trump supporter Peter Thiel.)
The other seven?
We'll assume they were all straight since their sexuality wasn't a topic of discussion.
Peter's not just gay, he's desperate.
Will shows up at a gay club playing fresh meat and Peter takes the bait, even though Will presents a fellow agent as his girlfriend.
This was beyond disgusting.
As was the thought that Peter would be so desperate to have this supposed straight guy, that he'd take them both home and when the 'straight' guy got the willies, he'd run downstairs for vodka.
Pretty much everything about season two -- even with a simplified storyline -- was offensive.
The whole team together -- and with the help of the president of America -- are unable to defeat the Donald Trump character?
Henry Roarke (played by Dennis Boutsikaris) is the Speaker of the House.
Okay, so now Trump is brilliant and he's able to be repeatedly elected (to Congress) and to rise to the position of Speaker of the House?
To make sure that viewers get that this Super Trump is supposed to be Donald, protesters were those ratty pink hats with supposed ears, you know, those things that actually looked like a pink salsa bowl turned upside down?
And Alex uses terms like "resist" while he's brought down finally as a result of his communications with the Russians.
We're sure that many Hillary Clinton supporters cheered on each lousy episode, but those people are 'liberals.'
They don't believe in anything except the dampness in their panties (or briefs) every time they see the dried up, hagged out Hillary.
It was those sort of 'liberals' that were responsible for the storylines in the second half of the show.
They were so righteous in their outrage and offense and, like their hero Hillary, so damn corrupt.
Which is why the Alex led team tried to alter a vote in the US Congress -- via blackmail.
And the only one who objected to this was Ryan -- who eventually went along because even though he pledged to defend the Constitution, he was now conditioned to dance along to every song Shirley Temple Alex sang.
It was disgusting.
So much these days is.
If you missed it, John Brennan declared Sunday on NBC's always laughable MEET THE PRESS that US President Donald Trump was "dishonorable" to say it was an "honor" to meet Russian President Vladmir Putin.
We bring it up because he was the CIA director -- the last one under Barack Obama -- and he had his own way of dealing with Congress.
In 2014, Conor Friedersdorf (THE ATLANTIC) noted:
When John Brennan assured the country that the CIA hadn't improperly monitored the Senate team that compiled a report on Bush-era torture, he fed us false information. That much is clear from Thursday's news that "the C.I.A. secretly monitored a congressional committee charged with supervising its activities." Either the CIA director was lying or he was unaware of grave missteps at the agency he leads. There are already calls for his resignation or firing from Senator Mark Udall, Trevor Timm, Dan Froomkin, and Andrew Sullivan, plus a New York Times editorial airing his ouster as a possibility.
And in 2012, Micah Zenko (FOREIGN POLICY) documented Brennan's repeated struggle with honesty:
Stephanopoulos: "Do you stand by the statement you have made in the past that, as effective as they have been, they have not killed a single civilian? That seems hard to believe."
Brennan: "What I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian, a noncombatant being killed. Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population.… And unfortunately, sometimes you have to take life to save lives." (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, April 29, 2012)
In his public comments, Brennan is clear that the Obama administration endorses a drone-first eliminationist strategy for dealing with al Qaeda — and any "military-age males" nearby. This requires a tremendous amount of killing. In June 2011, Brennan claimed: "There hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop." He later, however, provided a statement to the New York Times that the newspaper said "adjusted the wording of his earlier comment": "Fortunately, for more than a year, due to our discretion and precision, the U.S. government has not found credible evidence of collateral deaths resulting from U.S. counterterrorism operations outside of Afghanistan or Iraq."
Brennan did not clarify what constituted "credible evidence," but as Justin Elliott and I myself quickly pointed out, there were many public reports — from Pakistani and Yemeni reporters and anonymous administration officials — of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes. Either Brennan did not receive the same reports of civilian casualties as other administration officials did (an implausible notion), he lacks Internet access to read these anonymous comments (equally implausible because Brennan closely responds to critics of targeted killings in his following media appearances), or he was lying. Regardless, his belief in the infallibility of the find-fix-finish cycle defies an understanding of the inherent flaws and limitations of even the most precise uses of lethal force.
Stupid enough to attack Donald as "dishonorable" for those reasons but, more to the point, who the hell is this undemocratic, government subverting piece of filth to call anyone "dishonorable"?
He belongs in prison.
Sadly, so did the gals and guys were were supposed to root for on QUANTICO.
What did Gore Vidal repeatedly say the US needed?
A Constitutional convention.
The team lost the vote in Congress.
Then Henry became president.
And he called for a Constitutional convention.
And the 'liberal' side became very clear: The people were not to be trusted.
A Constitutional convention, we were told by the team, would destroy the country.
Again, can't trust We The People.
So what did the team do?
Back to blackmail.
Or, as Owen put it, "lie, manipulate and blackmail."
So Shelby threatened a politician over "your affair with Senator Davis."
Miranda went after a senator who might lose votes "when they find out that you were part of a White separatist group."
Ryan went after a politician who had a "dominatrix on speed dial."
The team is made up of CIA and FBI members.
And they blackmail to interfere with democracy.
Writers and the failed show runner really thought people would applaud that?
They thought having Alex step forward broadcasting "a phone call with Russian operatives" would have the audience cheering from the edge of their seats.
No wonder viewers were fleeing throughout the second season.
If you're not getting how bad it was, we left out Alex's blackmail for the proposed convention.
She could, she informed the politician, file "charges all the way from corporate fraud to outright treason."
Get it?
This is what passes for 'liberal' when the hicks of Hollywood start preaching.
Alex has proof of corporate fraud but will sit on it.
Even worse, she has proof of treason but will sit on it.
And then she wants to give a speech proclaiming the importance of light and emerging from the darkness?
We weren't surprised she was shot in the middle of that speech -- we were only surprised no one booed the hypocrite.
The audience did, that's why they were fleeing.
After watching season two, we grasped that was the only sane response.
Between that and pulling QUANTICO off of HULU, there was no way the show wasn't going to tank. The only surprise is that after all that, ABC thinks it can now be easily fixed and saved.
Shelby (Johanna Braddy) was discussing emotions with Clay (Hunter Parrish).
Clay insisted, "I have them. I just don't let you know I have them. I'm having one right now. It's a complicated one. It's like ten at once."
You never believed he was having ten emotions at once, you didn't even believe he was having one.
Mainly because the only emotion the human paper doll exhibited in season two waspouting.
A trembling lip and downcast eyes were shown off twice in two different episodes -- both times he was in the midst of addressing the team he was named leader of.
Those two scenes also made a lie out of his claim to have emotions but "I just don't let you know I have them."
In fact, when he shouldn't be letting others know his emotions was precisely when he did.
Back in October of 2015, we'd offered praise for the then-new show QUANTICO.
Then in February of this year, we'd noted in passing: "QUANTICO has proven just how quickly a show can wither away. By episode 12 of season one, the show was struggling in the ratings. And the struggle never ceased."
ABC is doing a major reboot of the series for season three.
They've fired a show runner and brought on someone new.
They've thinned the cast.
They've even limited the season to thirteen episodes under the premise that it would allow the show to be tighter and more focused.
Because of our previous comments (noted above) an ABC friend asked us to look at season two to see what went wrong.
We begged off.
We weren't in the mood to travel the country with script and episodes.
No, we were told, just episodes.
We still made excuses.
Damn NETFLIX.
As our friend pointed out, we didn't have to carry anything around the country, season two had just been made available on NETFLIX.
Sounds easy, right?
If you really think that, you missed season two's first 12 episodes.
Where are we?
That's the question viewers must have been wondering over and over as each episode featured bizarre crosscuts that flashed forward, flashed back and flashed present.
As if that alone wasn't confusing enough, they were still screwing with the characters.
Miranda (Aunjanue Ellis) had stood up to so much in season one. In season two, is she good, is she bad? Is she a terrorist? Oh, look, she's in prison as we flash forward to the future. Oh, look, in the past she's defending Alex (Priyanka Chopra). Oh look, now in the forward again, she's in prison because she tried to murder Alex.
No, none of it makes sense.
In fact, season two's first half really played out like it was attempting to turn the viewer into Tanya. Seriously, it was as though ABC had turned the show over to the Symbionese Liberation Army and we were all being reconditioned.
That would certainly explain what happened in the second half of season two.
Was the tortured confusion of all the came before supposed to make us accept Hunter Parrish as a team leader?
Or ignore his looks.
Parrish isn't repulsive by any means.
But he doesn't look like an adult despite being thirty.
There were far too many shirtless scenes for a man with the body of a toddler.
And those lips?
Honestly, he looked like he'd raided Macaulay Culkin's lipstick stash.
If Parrish was paying tribute to child star Culkin, Chopra got stuck serving up a homage to Shirley Temple.
Alex ceased being a character with complexities and instead became a childish imp able to solve anything and everything.
No longer a bright agent learning a job, she was the master thinker, the one who saw all, the never wrong.
It was beyond irritating.
And to build her up as the ultimate, they ended up emasculating -- not just tearing down -- the character of Ryan.
Jake McLaughlin is a strong actor.
It's why people responded to the pairing of his character with Chopra's Alex.
But when his character is weakened by bad writing, there's nothing McLaughlin can do to save it.
In elevating Alex to mythical Shirley Temple levels, the decision was made to undercut and weaken Ryan.
At one point, he's given advice, dubious advice, that since Alex is so smart, such a leader, and always right, he should head for the shadows. In response, he asked, "So that's my life challenge? Making her better?"
It got even worse.
At another point, Alex is shot and she's in an ambulance as Ryan pleads, "Alex, look at me!"
To which a season one returner says, "Sorry, Alex, I can't watch him cry. He's too pathetic."
Yes, even the other characters on the show were calling Ryan pathetic.
But it was the show runner and the writers that were inadequate.
To their credit, as viewers repeatedly checked out on the show, they realized the plots had to be simplified.
The second half was all about (a) ignoring every storyline that had come before and (b) telling only one storyline without flash fowards or flash backs.
Sadly, the simplified story wasn't worth writing.
It was another 'liberal' attack on Donald Trump.
We say 'liberal' for a reason and we'll get to it.
First though, the dubious and questionable Claire Hass (Marcia Cross) had become President.
Now she did that how?
If you don't remember, it's okay, the writers apparently didn't either.
She did that by assisting Liam (Josh Hopkins) with his crimes.
But suddenly she was our great hope and our great hero.
And she did the right thing repeatedly . . . even though she knew it would take down her presidency and hand it over to someone's idea of Donald Trump.
Which, if you think about it, wasn't the right thing but no one was supposed to notice that.
There was a lot that season two asked you not to notice.
Such as the fact that Harry (Russell Tovey) was the best thing about season two.
So naturally, the wrote him off.
Did it matter that Harry was gay?
We think it did.
We think that the show -- praised for its diversity -- was highly homophobic.
Season one offered two portrayals of gay men -- only to reveal one wasn't in fact gay, bi or even up to a handy j at the stalls.
Simon was posing as gay.
What do you say to that?
'We've all been there?'
QUANTICO certainly had.
Simon was posing as gay in season one and, you may remember, Elias (Rick Cosnett) was on to him.
Elias was actually gay.
Remember how that ended?
From NEWNOWNEXT's "QUANTICO Just Gave Us One Of The Worst Gay Storylines In TV History:"
The final straw (or so we thought) occurred the other week, when a bomb scare tested the recruits, and Elias was the only character to flee the scene, perpetuating the tired trope of the gay coward.
[. . .]
Going completely off the rails, Quantico turned its only real gay character into a simpering basket case and terrorist who kills himself rather than face the music.
That was season one.
Season two saw Harry introduced. He was capable, smart and MI6.
So of course, he would be run off.
And the coward theme continued.
Gays, you understand, are all cowards on QUANTICO.
Harry had a watchful eye on Sebastian (David Lim) who he was both attracted to and suspicious of.
Sebastian is gay but imprisoned in a closet because he wants to appear straight.
Sebastian, it also turns out, may be part of the bad guys -- they never nailed this down in the second half of the second season.
Harry had seen a woman shot dead and goes after who he thinks is the killer -- Sebastian.
Harry ends up kidnapped and drugged.
Then forced to make a call to Alex.
In the call, he bails on the team.
Coward, of course, it's the unrelenting theme of the show when it comes to LGBTQ characters.
So given the chance to help, he flees -- as Simon orders him to.
Two characters -- two gay characters -- are part of season two and they're possibly more offensive than what took place in season one.
Did we say two?
We should have said four.
Will Olson (Jay Armstrong Johnson) turned out to be gay in season two's 12 episode. He also appeared to have Asperger's or some other condition.
And Owen (Blair Underwood) especially, but all the characters except Shelby and Ryan, repeatedly attacked him for it.
Would they have slammed a character in a wheelchair for being in a wheelchair?
They had no trouble telling him to shut up or rolling their eyes when he spoke or, as Owen snarled at one point, telling him "we already know that."
But they didn't know what he knew.
This didn't lead to an apology.
There was no reason for supposedly sympathetic characters to spend episode after episode making fun of the character with Asperger's -- the one who was their teammate.
But ABC allowed it, didn't they?
It gets worse.
Will was used to go after another gay character. This one was a multi-billionaire and part of the eight people making up a conspiracy to install a president.
The other seven were shown frequently.
And talked about.
Only this one, Peter Theo, was talked about more than the others -- because he was gay.
It was as though the team of 'heroes' were obsessed with him because he was gay.
(The character was an attempt to smear Trump supporter Peter Thiel.)
The other seven?
We'll assume they were all straight since their sexuality wasn't a topic of discussion.
Peter's not just gay, he's desperate.
Will shows up at a gay club playing fresh meat and Peter takes the bait, even though Will presents a fellow agent as his girlfriend.
This was beyond disgusting.
As was the thought that Peter would be so desperate to have this supposed straight guy, that he'd take them both home and when the 'straight' guy got the willies, he'd run downstairs for vodka.
Pretty much everything about season two -- even with a simplified storyline -- was offensive.
The whole team together -- and with the help of the president of America -- are unable to defeat the Donald Trump character?
Henry Roarke (played by Dennis Boutsikaris) is the Speaker of the House.
Okay, so now Trump is brilliant and he's able to be repeatedly elected (to Congress) and to rise to the position of Speaker of the House?
To make sure that viewers get that this Super Trump is supposed to be Donald, protesters were those ratty pink hats with supposed ears, you know, those things that actually looked like a pink salsa bowl turned upside down?
And Alex uses terms like "resist" while he's brought down finally as a result of his communications with the Russians.
We're sure that many Hillary Clinton supporters cheered on each lousy episode, but those people are 'liberals.'
They don't believe in anything except the dampness in their panties (or briefs) every time they see the dried up, hagged out Hillary.
It was those sort of 'liberals' that were responsible for the storylines in the second half of the show.
They were so righteous in their outrage and offense and, like their hero Hillary, so damn corrupt.
Which is why the Alex led team tried to alter a vote in the US Congress -- via blackmail.
And the only one who objected to this was Ryan -- who eventually went along because even though he pledged to defend the Constitution, he was now conditioned to dance along to every song Shirley Temple Alex sang.
It was disgusting.
So much these days is.
If you missed it, John Brennan declared Sunday on NBC's always laughable MEET THE PRESS that US President Donald Trump was "dishonorable" to say it was an "honor" to meet Russian President Vladmir Putin.
We bring it up because he was the CIA director -- the last one under Barack Obama -- and he had his own way of dealing with Congress.
In 2014, Conor Friedersdorf (THE ATLANTIC) noted:
When John Brennan assured the country that the CIA hadn't improperly monitored the Senate team that compiled a report on Bush-era torture, he fed us false information. That much is clear from Thursday's news that "the C.I.A. secretly monitored a congressional committee charged with supervising its activities." Either the CIA director was lying or he was unaware of grave missteps at the agency he leads. There are already calls for his resignation or firing from Senator Mark Udall, Trevor Timm, Dan Froomkin, and Andrew Sullivan, plus a New York Times editorial airing his ouster as a possibility.
And in 2012, Micah Zenko (FOREIGN POLICY) documented Brennan's repeated struggle with honesty:
Stephanopoulos: "Do you stand by the statement you have made in the past that, as effective as they have been, they have not killed a single civilian? That seems hard to believe."
Brennan: "What I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian, a noncombatant being killed. Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population.… And unfortunately, sometimes you have to take life to save lives." (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, April 29, 2012)
In his public comments, Brennan is clear that the Obama administration endorses a drone-first eliminationist strategy for dealing with al Qaeda — and any "military-age males" nearby. This requires a tremendous amount of killing. In June 2011, Brennan claimed: "There hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop." He later, however, provided a statement to the New York Times that the newspaper said "adjusted the wording of his earlier comment": "Fortunately, for more than a year, due to our discretion and precision, the U.S. government has not found credible evidence of collateral deaths resulting from U.S. counterterrorism operations outside of Afghanistan or Iraq."
Brennan did not clarify what constituted "credible evidence," but as Justin Elliott and I myself quickly pointed out, there were many public reports — from Pakistani and Yemeni reporters and anonymous administration officials — of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes. Either Brennan did not receive the same reports of civilian casualties as other administration officials did (an implausible notion), he lacks Internet access to read these anonymous comments (equally implausible because Brennan closely responds to critics of targeted killings in his following media appearances), or he was lying. Regardless, his belief in the infallibility of the find-fix-finish cycle defies an understanding of the inherent flaws and limitations of even the most precise uses of lethal force.
Stupid enough to attack Donald as "dishonorable" for those reasons but, more to the point, who the hell is this undemocratic, government subverting piece of filth to call anyone "dishonorable"?
He belongs in prison.
Sadly, so did the gals and guys were were supposed to root for on QUANTICO.
What did Gore Vidal repeatedly say the US needed?
A Constitutional convention.
The team lost the vote in Congress.
Then Henry became president.
And he called for a Constitutional convention.
And the 'liberal' side became very clear: The people were not to be trusted.
A Constitutional convention, we were told by the team, would destroy the country.
Again, can't trust We The People.
So what did the team do?
Back to blackmail.
Or, as Owen put it, "lie, manipulate and blackmail."
So Shelby threatened a politician over "your affair with Senator Davis."
Miranda went after a senator who might lose votes "when they find out that you were part of a White separatist group."
Ryan went after a politician who had a "dominatrix on speed dial."
The team is made up of CIA and FBI members.
And they blackmail to interfere with democracy.
Writers and the failed show runner really thought people would applaud that?
They thought having Alex step forward broadcasting "a phone call with Russian operatives" would have the audience cheering from the edge of their seats.
No wonder viewers were fleeing throughout the second season.
If you're not getting how bad it was, we left out Alex's blackmail for the proposed convention.
She could, she informed the politician, file "charges all the way from corporate fraud to outright treason."
Get it?
This is what passes for 'liberal' when the hicks of Hollywood start preaching.
Alex has proof of corporate fraud but will sit on it.
Even worse, she has proof of treason but will sit on it.
And then she wants to give a speech proclaiming the importance of light and emerging from the darkness?
We weren't surprised she was shot in the middle of that speech -- we were only surprised no one booed the hypocrite.
The audience did, that's why they were fleeing.
After watching season two, we grasped that was the only sane response.
Between that and pulling QUANTICO off of HULU, there was no way the show wasn't going to tank. The only surprise is that after all that, ABC thinks it can now be easily fixed and saved.
Cass Elliot VARIETY
Did you catch the new Cass Elliot album?
All those tracks?
Some of her hits with The Mamas and The Papas, some of her solo hits and Cass performing songs like "The Glory Of Love" and "The Look Of Love"?
This is the Cass album everyone should have because it shows just how incredible her talent was.
Sadly, it's not released.
It's not even compiled.
Here's the track list that could be for a Cass album we'd call VARIETY:
"The Glory Of Love" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1970
"The Girlfriend" -- ED SULLIVAN (segment "Tribute To Richard Rodgers"), 1970.
"The Look Of Love" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1971.
"Heaven Help Us All" -- with Ray Charles, Elton John and Andy Williams, THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW, 1971.
"Welcome To The World" -- GET IT TOGETHER, 1970.
"Lonely At The Top" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 197.
"Monday Morning" -- THE DON KNOTTS SHOW, 1970.
"You've Got A Friend" -- with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters, THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 1971
Medley "One Night," "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," "Love Me," "A Big Hunk Of Love," "Respect," "I Guess I'll Always Love You" -- with Tom Jones, THIS IS TOM JONES, 1969.
Medley "I Dig Rock & Roll Music," "Respect" and "What'd I Say" -- with Sammy Davis Jr., THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, 1969.
"One Way Ticket" -- The Andy Williams Show, 1970.
Medley "New World Coming," "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" and "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" -- with Julie Andrews, THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR, 1972.
Medley "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday" -- THE MAMA CASS TELEVISION SHOW, 1969.
"Make Your Own Kind Of Music" -- THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, 1969.
"California Earthquake" -- THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR, 1968.
Medley "Feeling Groovy," "The Sounds of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson" "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" "Homeward Bound" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" -- with Julie Andrews, THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR, 1971.
"WHEN THE BATTLE IS OVER" -- THIS IS TOM JONES, 1969.
"I'm Coming To The Best Part Of My Life" -- THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON1973.
"I Am Now" -- THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW 1969
"Act Naturally" -- with Johnny Cash, THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW
Medley "Words," "Words Of Love," "The Times They Are Chaning" and "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine" -- with Andy Williams, ANDY WILLIAMS PSYCHEDELIC.
"There's A Lull In My Life" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 1971.
"I Had A King" -- THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW 1968.
"I Shall Be Released" -- with Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers.
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" -- with John Denver (THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL).
"Tell Us Where The Good Times Are" and "Big Yellow Taxi" -- with Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1970
That's Cass singing Joni Mitchell ("I Had A King," "Big Yellow Taxi") and singing with Joni ("Leaving On A Jet Plane"), performing songs she never recorded for an album.
This album could be a real thing.
Judy Garland's 2010 album THE LOST TRACKS: 1927 to 1959 featured Judy's performances on various programs.
All those tracks?
Some of her hits with The Mamas and The Papas, some of her solo hits and Cass performing songs like "The Glory Of Love" and "The Look Of Love"?
This is the Cass album everyone should have because it shows just how incredible her talent was.
Sadly, it's not released.
It's not even compiled.
Here's the track list that could be for a Cass album we'd call VARIETY:
"The Glory Of Love" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1970
"The Girlfriend" -- ED SULLIVAN (segment "Tribute To Richard Rodgers"), 1970.
"The Look Of Love" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1971.
"Heaven Help Us All" -- with Ray Charles, Elton John and Andy Williams, THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW, 1971.
"Welcome To The World" -- GET IT TOGETHER, 1970.
"Lonely At The Top" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 197.
"Monday Morning" -- THE DON KNOTTS SHOW, 1970.
"You've Got A Friend" -- with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters, THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 1971
Medley "One Night," "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," "Love Me," "A Big Hunk Of Love," "Respect," "I Guess I'll Always Love You" -- with Tom Jones, THIS IS TOM JONES, 1969.
Medley "I Dig Rock & Roll Music," "Respect" and "What'd I Say" -- with Sammy Davis Jr., THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, 1969.
"One Way Ticket" -- The Andy Williams Show, 1970.
Medley "New World Coming," "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" and "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" -- with Julie Andrews, THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR, 1972.
Medley "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday" -- THE MAMA CASS TELEVISION SHOW, 1969.
"Make Your Own Kind Of Music" -- THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, 1969.
"California Earthquake" -- THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR, 1968.
Medley "Feeling Groovy," "The Sounds of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson" "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" "Homeward Bound" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" -- with Julie Andrews, THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR, 1971.
"WHEN THE BATTLE IS OVER" -- THIS IS TOM JONES, 1969.
"I'm Coming To The Best Part Of My Life" -- THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON1973.
"I Am Now" -- THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW 1969
"Act Naturally" -- with Johnny Cash, THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW
Medley "Words," "Words Of Love," "The Times They Are Chaning" and "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine" -- with Andy Williams, ANDY WILLIAMS PSYCHEDELIC.
"There's A Lull In My Life" -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW 1971.
"I Had A King" -- THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW 1968.
"I Shall Be Released" -- with Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers.
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" -- with John Denver (THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL).
"Tell Us Where The Good Times Are" and "Big Yellow Taxi" -- with Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner -- THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, 1970
That's Cass singing Joni Mitchell ("I Had A King," "Big Yellow Taxi") and singing with Joni ("Leaving On A Jet Plane"), performing songs she never recorded for an album.
This album could be a real thing.
Judy Garland's 2010 album THE LOST TRACKS: 1927 to 1959 featured Judy's performances on various programs.
Not a good time to be CNN
The CABLE NEWS NETWORK has had an especially bad run of late.
May 31st, they fired Kathy Griffin from their yearly New Year's Eve special.
This was after Kathy's 'joke' that no one really laughed at -- her holding a representation of President Donald Trump's head -- severed.
The next month, CNNMoney.com reported:
And, as Jim noted here last week in "Jim's World," CNN practiced blackmail and bullying.
CNN practiced it.
Go back to that story, we didn't name a reporter.
Lee Fang and other hysterics went into overdrive mid-week about the poor reporter whose name was attached to the story (attached by his employer CNN).
He didn't write it!!!!
That's not the story and simps and fops like Lee Fang will never grasp that.
Instead, they'll Tweet nonsense like this:
The nonsense is from Lee's Tweet, by the way.
Justin Raimondo's questions are quality ones.
And, more to the point, the article was online bullying and online blackmail.
Idiots like the Lee and GIZMODO crowd insist that CNN wouldn't retract the offensive lines because of some blah blah blah.
No, they won't retract because they were intended to be perceived as the threat that they actually were.
Mock us, CNN was saying, and we'll go after you.
That was the message and it doesn't matter who wrote it.
It was published.
And the month's not over and already a scandal CNN thought had died down is resurfacing.
Fake news at its finest, that's the image CNN's spent the last months projecting.
May 31st, they fired Kathy Griffin from their yearly New Year's Eve special.
This was after Kathy's 'joke' that no one really laughed at -- her holding a representation of President Donald Trump's head -- severed.
The next month, CNNMoney.com reported:
Three CNN journalists, including the executive editor in charge of a new investigative unit, have resigned after the publication of a Russia-related article that was retracted.
Thomas Frank, who wrote the story in question; Eric Lichtblau, an
editor in the unit; and Lex Haris, who oversaw the unit, have all left
CNN.
And, as Jim noted here last week in "Jim's World," CNN practiced blackmail and bullying.
CNN practiced it.
Go back to that story, we didn't name a reporter.
Lee Fang and other hysterics went into overdrive mid-week about the poor reporter whose name was attached to the story (attached by his employer CNN).
He didn't write it!!!!
That's not the story and simps and fops like Lee Fang will never grasp that.
Instead, they'll Tweet nonsense like this:
So what? Did the reporter object? Does anyone at CNN have a moral sensibility? Are they all *brain-dead*?
The nonsense is from Lee's Tweet, by the way.
Justin Raimondo's questions are quality ones.
And, more to the point, the article was online bullying and online blackmail.
Idiots like the Lee and GIZMODO crowd insist that CNN wouldn't retract the offensive lines because of some blah blah blah.
No, they won't retract because they were intended to be perceived as the threat that they actually were.
Mock us, CNN was saying, and we'll go after you.
That was the message and it doesn't matter who wrote it.
It was published.
And the month's not over and already a scandal CNN thought had died down is resurfacing.
- Rania Khalek RetweetedCNN Hired Top al-Qaeda Propagandist for Award-Winning Syria Documentary and Wants to Cover Its Tracks
- What would liberals do if @CNN put an alt right or KKK propagandist on its payroll? How is this any better?
Fake news at its finest, that's the image CNN's spent the last months projecting.
Tweet of the week
Not much bandwidth in US media to cover Iraq War 3.0 adequately when there's a Russian behind every bush.