Truest statement of the week

We must consider getting back into green spaces to restore our wellness. The stressors of daily life - whether financial, social, racial or otherwise - take a toll on us individually and as a people.

Contact with natural landscapes and green spaces has a restorative effect on our mental and social health and our immune system. Whether we walk or hike in the forest or park, join a community garden and grow greens and okra like grandma and them used to do, or other activities, we will boost our mental health and physical well-being in the process.

And most of all, the data back it up. Studies have shown that access to green spaces has a positive mental and physical impact on us and our children, and therefore our quality of life. Particularly in urban areas, where access to nature may be limited, being in green spaces means less anxiety and depression and better sleep, a greater appreciation of life and an ability to deal with problems, healthier social interactions and less loneliness, and a greater sense of community.

 

 --  David A. Love,  "Green Spaces Are The Key To Restoring Our Bodies, Minds and Soul" (THE BLACK COMMENTATOR).

 

 

Truest statement of the week II

Abdullah makes a practice of tweeting in favor of racial separatism despite the fact much of her family is white. In a July 6, 2019 tweet, Abdullah complained that she was “compelled to step off the sidewalk three times during my 30-minute walk so that White folks and their dogs could pass.” She continued: “Got me feeling like #gentrification is #JimCrow revisited.”

In a June 18, 2021 tweet, Abdullah wrote that “White folks don’t get to come to the #Juneteenth barbecue,” which she clarified in a later tweet was a “CELEBRATION DAY for Black people” and “PAY REPARATIONS DAY for white folks…”

During the 2020 Democratic presidential debates, Abdullah declared, “Nobody White should ever refer to the nation of Niger. Periodt. (sic)”

Just over two months ago, on February 11, Abduallah tweeted, “Why do I feel like it’s slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?” When a user responded that “everything and everyone is racist,” Abdullah responded, “Nope. Only white people can be racist.”

 

-- Jacob Crosse on Cornel West's biracial running mate, "Cornel West selects Black Lives Matter promoter Melina Abdullah as running mate" (WSWS).

 

 

 

A note to our readers

Hey --

Sunday.  Yes, here on the west coast but also when we started posting.

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?

 

• Truest statement of the week
• Truest statement of the week II
• Gaza
• Media: It's the stupidity, it's always the stupidity
• Roundtable
• CRAP CRAP It's CRAPAPEDIA
• Book Talk (Dona, Ava and C.I.)
• THE LESSONS OF MAMA TEMBO (Dona)
• From The TESR Test Kitchen
• 2024 Passings
• Book List
• Video of the week in humor (Janeane Garofalo as Ka...
• I'm done with THE CLEANING LADY (Rebecca)
• Iraq
• This edition's playlist

 

Peace.

 

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

 

 

 

 

Gaza

Repost from THE COMMON ILLS:

 

 

Gaza

NDTV notes, "Iran launched more than 200 drones and missiles at Israel in an unprecedented attack late Saturday, the Israeli army announced, in a major escalation of the long-running covert war between the regional foes."  ABC NEWS adds, "Two U.S. officials confirmed that U.S. forces shot down about 70 Iranian drones headed towards Israel. One official added that one of the U.S. Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean was also able to bring down an undetermined number of Iranian ballistic missiles."  The White House released a statement from US President Joe Biden proclaiming that  " we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles."

At Chatham House, Haid Haid wrote yesterday:

The suspected Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus on 1 April marks an unprecedented escalation by Israel against Iran in Syria. The killing of Iran’s top soldier, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, among other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, is the clearest signal yet of Israel’s determination to shift the conflict’s rules of engagement – moving beyond simply preventing arms supplies to Hezbollah or pushing Iranian-backed groups away from its border, to directly eliminating Iranian leadership in Syria.

There is a real risk that Iranian-backed groups will intensify their targeting of US forces and Israel in response to this latest attack, leading to heightened escalations in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and possibly Jordan. This, along with US President Biden’s promise of ‘ironclad’ support for Israel in the case of a reprisal attack, presents a major risk of even greater escalation.

[. . .]

While Iran deliberates on its response to the consulate attack, its Syrian affiliates have wasted no time in launching retaliatory actions. On 2 and 4 April, cruise missiles and Katyusha rockets were fired towards the occupied Golan Heights. Moreover, since the consulate attack, US forces intercepted two drones in Syria, suggesting that the lull in attacks against them since early February may have ended.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that the attack on the Iranian consulate ‘will be punished’, and that its response will be significant enough to deter Israel from repeating or escalating such attacks. This could mean attacks inside Israel or the targeting of its assets abroad.

Lyse Doucet (BBC NEWS) observes:

In the wars within wars of this grievous Gaza crisis, the most explosive of all is the searing official enmity between Israel and Iran.

It's now at its most perilous point.

And this region, and many capitals beyond, are watching and waiting with bated breath to see what Iran does next.

It's Tehran's move after the airstrike on its diplomatic compound in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus on 1 April, which killed senior commanders in its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Israel never admits carrying out such attacks, but everyone knows it was its doing. 

And since the Israel-Gaza war erupted six months ago, Israel has ramped up its targeting of Iran, not just destroying arms supplies and infrastructure in Syria, but assassinating senior IRGC and Hezbollah commanders. 

In other news, Garrett Hargan (BELFAST TELGRAPH) reports:

A fundraising gig for Gaza featuring local bands and speakers will take place in Derry next month.

Acts include D:Ream, punk rockers TOUTS, Lavengro, ROE, Reevah and Niall McNamee.

Guest speakers on the day are chairman of Palestine Aid and Middle East expert Saeb Shaath, comedian Tadgh Hickey, who has been a prominent voice campaigning against the ongoing onslaught in Gaza, and veteran socialist Eamonn McCann.

Billed as Derry’s “largest fundraising event”, it is being run by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Derry branch, in partnership with Jika Jika and takes place on Monday, May 5 at Unit 8 Warehouse in Pennyburn Industrial Estate.

 Protests took place around the world today.  Bar Peleg, Nir Hasson, Eden Solomon and Adi Hashmonai (HAARETZ) report Israelis protested throughout the country including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as the family members of hostages called out the Netanyahu government for failing the hostages and called for Netanyahu to step down. Rami Amichay (REUTERS) notes, "As concern mounts in Israel for the wellbeing of the 129 remaining hostages, who cannot be contacted, their families and friends have organised increasingly vocal demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist government. They have dovetailed with activists who have long called for Netanyahu's ouster given his trial on graft charges - which he denies - and his attempts to overhaul the judiciary last year."  THE NATIONAL quotes Tel Aviv protester Marva Erez stating, "Our country's near the abyss. We've already started to drive down and we must stop it. I'm here to gather the force to tell the people that they need to come out and they need to tell our government that it's time to stop."

 

In Ireland, RTE reports:

Around one hundred people are attending a protest in support of Gaza outside the US Embassy in Dublin.

The rally has been organised by Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine and Mothers Against Genocide.

It is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for the US government to end its support for the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In England?  UK SOCIALIST WORKER reports:

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters again took over the streets of central London on Saturday—this time for a regional, city-wide demonstration.

Marchers were furious at the way the West continues to back Israel’s genocidal war. And many also expressed their loathing of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

But they were buoyed by yet another big turnout for the march from Russell Square. The protest end point, Parliament Square, was completely packed for a final rally.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that over 80,000 people had joined the march.

 [, , ,]

Seasoned activists and new marchers in London told Socialist Worker the movement must now be ready to fight against Israel’s expansion of the war across the Middle East.

Ayesha, who has been on three demonstrations since January, worries about the “potential of the war to widen” into a fight against Iran. But, she says, “the very vocal support for Palestine from the movement has educated lots more British people”.

David, an administration worker from Edinburgh, took up the same theme. He said that despite Biden’s calls for a ceasefire, he is “still committed to having Israel as a docking station and launch pad for US imperialism”.

He slammed Labour’s complicity in Israel’s genocide, arguing that it’s because “Labour is a political party within a capitalist system”. “The writing is on the wall. It’s not possible to describe Labour as a socialist party,” he said. 

Gaza remains under assault. Day 190 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "The Gaza Health Ministry on Saturday said 33,686 Palestinians have been killed and 76,309 injured in Israel's military offensive there since October 7. The ministry said that 52 people were killed and 95 injured in the past 24 hours."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "n addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."

Today's violence?  MEMO notes, "Within 24 hours, the Israeli army on Saturday once again bombed a UN school housing displaced persons in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports. Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli artillery bombed a school run by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the New Camp area in Nuseirat, causing severe damage to the school."  ALJAZEERA reports, "According to eyewitnesses on the ground in the north of Nuseirat refugee camp, Israeli drones have been opening fire against people. They also said Israel is demolishing houses and destroying agricultural land which could be a sign, according to experts, that Israel is expanding the corridor that it has recently established splitting the north and the south of the Strip."

Yesterday, another aid worker was killed.  THE NATIONAL reports:

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said that a member of its West Bank and Gaza mission was killed on Friday in Jaffa, Israel.

The agency said it was working with the US embassy for "further details about this fatal incident and how it will be investigated".

The most infamous attack on aid workers occurred earlier this month when the Israeli government murdered seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen.  Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) notes a development in that story:

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander who was a senior figure in the execution of the drone strike on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy that killed seven workers last week had previously signed a letter calling for humanitarian aid to Gaza to be restricted — at a time when Israel was already blocking the vast majority of aid at the border.

According to The Telegraph, IDF Colonel Nochi Mandel signed an open letter “calling for [Gaza] to be deprived of aid,” as the Telegraph wrote, and demanding a “siege” of Gaza City in January. Mandel, who The Telegraph identifies as a “religious nationalist” and a resident of a settlement in the occupied West Bank, was one of two IDF officers dismissed after the WCK strike as Israel faced pressure from international leaders over the killing of the workers, one of whom was a U.S. citizen.

The letter asked the Israeli War Cabinet and the IDF chief of staff to “do everything in your power” to block “humanitarian supplies and operations of hospitals inside Gaza City.”

“As far as we understand … it is permissible and legal according to the laws of armed conflict, to impose a siege on a certain area, on the condition that the citizens who are in it are allowed evacuation corridors,” the letter said, according to the Telegraph. The letter was written in Hebrew.

Mandel’s signing of the letter reinforces concerns that the IDF purposefully attacked the aid convoy. Humanitarian groups have been saying for months that the IDF has been attacking them intentionally, with numerous reports finding vast amounts of evidence that targeting aid is a goal of the IDF. The letter signing also potentially undercuts Israel’s narrative that the attack was done in error; notably, the findings of the IDF’s own probe into the strike are riddled with inconsistencies.

Ramzy Baroud (ZNET) notes:

Israel described its clearly deliberate killing of seven humanitarian aid workers on April 1 as a “grave mistake”, a “tragic event” that “happens in war”. 

Israel is, obviously, lying. This entire so-called war – actually genocide – in Gaza, has been based on a series of lies, some of which Israel continues to peddle. 

For some, in the mainstream media, it took months to accept the obvious fact that Israel has been lying about the events that led to the war and the military objectives of its constant targeting of hospitals, schools, shelters and other civilian facilities.

So, it was only logical for Israel to lie about killing the six internationals, and their Palestinian driver, of the World Central Kitchen (WCK). Notwithstanding an event as atrocious as this, it is implausible for Israel to start telling the truth now.

Luckily, few seem to believe Israel’s version regarding WCK, or its continued massacres elsewhere in Gaza. Israel “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza,” the US-based NGO said in a statement on April 5.

At THE NEW YORKER, Keith Gessen has an interesting article entitled "Is This Israel's Forever War?" from which we'll note this section on former US State Dept worker Annelle Sheline:

Sheline had been in government for just six months when the Hamas attacks took place. The killings shocked and dismayed her. With colleagues, she discussed what Israel’s response would likely be. She was encouraged that President Biden had warned Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat America’s post-9/11 mistakes.

She did not have to wait long to see that Netanyahu had not listened. In the first week of Israel’s Operation Swords of Iron, its Air Force dropped more bombs on Gaza than had been dropped by the U.S. in the most high-intensity month of the campaign against ISIS, back in 2017. Civilians were being killed at an astonishing pace—more than three hundred Gaza residents died a day in the first month of the war, many of them children. In mid-October, a State Department official, Josh Paul, resigned. He had worked in the bureau that oversaw weapons transfers to Israel. In the past, he said, citing the example of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the attention paid to how weapons would be used had been “microscopic.” In this case, however, “there was none of that. It was, ‘Open doors. Go.’ ”

Sheline was impressed by Paul’s resignation, but she had no intention of following suit. For one thing, she was far more junior. For another, she had just arrived in government after a long period of trying to do so. She and her husband had a mortgage and a toddler—a little girl.

Sheline has trouble pinpointing the moment she changed her mind. During the next several months, she watched the State Department work on negotiations for a substantial ceasefire, which never seemed to come to fruition. She watched U.S. planes airdrop food packages into Gaza, Berlin Airlift-style, while its ally Israel endlessly inspected trucks that could have delivered far more food at the crossings into Gaza. She watched the Administration leak, over and over, that the President was very frustrated with Netanyahu. “It’s, like, Well, clearly he’s not,” Sheline said, “because he has a lot of power here.” If Biden were genuinely frustrated, she thought, he could demand that the ceasefire happen and that civilians be granted more access to humanitarian aid. “They’re building this stupid pier instead of just insisting on the trucks getting across the border,” she told me last month.

“Often, inside the State Department, there’s this belief in the process,” Sheline continued. “You know, ‘It’s a slow process. You have to just go through the steps.’ But, really, from what I’ve observed, the only thing that seems to be causing any shift is public pressure. I had done what I could. I had tried to do what small things are available for someone in my position on the inside.” In mid-February, citing the Israeli campaign in Gaza, she told her superiors that she was going to leave, though only after she finished a yearlong commitment to the job, and completed her work on the bureau’s annual human-rights reports. Once that was done, she shut down her personal Web site and wrote an editorial for CNN. “Unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities,” she wrote, “I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State.”

The experience was still very raw when we spoke over Zoom a few days later. “I know that I won’t ever probably get to work for the government again, which in D.C. may be tricky,” she said. “It’s hard to even say what a professional impact this may end up having. But, you know, I think about my daughter. I assume that she will learn about this in school. And I just want to be able to let her know that I did what I could on the inside. But then it became clear that that just wasn’t having any impact.”

While I write these posts -- on the weekend, I'm generally writing and not dictating -- I'm bouncing from screen to screen.  I use one browser to write and to read e-mails and another to pull up news articles.  Zach's e-mailed the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) noting that he was reading a brief Gaza post that went up at about fifty minutes ago.  It's this post Zach.  I was writing the Iraq one and this one at the same time and hit "Publish" on this one when I meant to post Iraq (I had finished that one).  When I realized my error, I reverted this post back to draft form and published "Iraq."

Every now and then, on a Saturday, I'll be running late and post with a note that it's still in progress and I'll keep adding to it.  I could have done that tonight but I had already done the Iraq post (and it was complete except for one story I'll try to note in a snapshot this coming week).  

If you read it while it was briefly up, the BELFAST TELEGRAPH story was the first thing noted and I skipped around from there.  I usually write in patches and then move stuff around.  

The following sites updated:

Oh Boy It Never Ends

CIVIL WAR

2 hours ago

Trina's Kitchen

Springtime Noodles Alfredo in the Kitchen

2 hours ago

Mikey Likes It!

That stupid little Junior -- what 70-plus y.o. man is called "Junior"

2 hours ago

Like Maria Said Paz

If Tim Sheehy's not lying, he should have kept his mouth shut

3 hours ago

Ruth's Report

Robert MacNeil

9 hours ago

Ann's Mega Dub

Debra Winger

10 hours ago

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Pet Shop Boys, Lenny Kravitz, Heart

11 hours ago

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

My top ten for greatest Diana Ross solo albums

16 hours ago

SICKOFITRADLZ

Charge the bitch

1 day ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

jill filipovic

1 day ago 

 

 

 

Media: It's the stupidity, it's always the stupidity

Last week, a half-wit crank who works for NPR wrote an attack on the outlet and shopped it to transphobe Bari Weiss.  Maybe because his roll dog Bari published it, media gadfly Glenneth Greenwald was immediately all up in the Kool-Aid.

 

 

Glenneth pimped the article the way he does.  It's all he has to do now.  He writes and speaks opinion.  The only time he ever did journalism was when it was dropped in his lap -- Ed Snowden's leaks.  And he didn't even do that right.  To this day, Glenneth has never reported on the majority of what Ed obtained.  It's disappeared now in the bitch-fest that was the slap-fight leading to Glenneth leaving THE INTERCEPT. 

Self-employed and desperate to Laverne & Shirley it on his own (he's going to do it his way! yes, his way!), Glenneth now chats a lot and hopes people will be forgiving of the fact that he now clearly dyes his own hair at home and has made the strange decision to stick with that bizarre color.  All that hair does is signify him as another middle-aged failure.

Heidi Boghosian co-wrote a column last week that was a full on mess, but it seemed to suggest the need for truth telling.  That's not going to result from praising and linking to racists in Australia who make it their daily job to call out the US while staying silent about their own government.  That's called chicken s**t, for one thing.  For another, the easiest thing in the world is to slam another government and its leaders. If you can't hold your own accountable, just admit you're worthless.  

And the Australian is worthless.  But she's not the only one.

How long is the left going to let Glenneth lie?

Glenneth wants you to know that the NPR employee is a "liberal" -- you can hear Glenneth coughing up his fur ball as he spits out the term.

Really?  We've read the entire dull article.  It's entitled "I've been at NPR for 25 years, here's how we lost America's trust" -- Google it if you want to read it, we don't link to transphobes.

We never see him apply the term liberal to himself.

 

He didn't vote for Donald Trump -- he says that -- not in 2016 and not in 2020.

 

So?

 

We know Liz Cheney didn't vote for Trump either election nor did the Bush family.  And they're not liberals. 

 

Glenneth remains one of the ugliest drama queens online.  He screeches, he finger points and he never gets his facts right and he never cops to the reality that he's just a self-hating gay man trying to cozy up to the right-wing.  

 

There is nothing to praise in Uri Berliner's long whine.

 

He wants to tell you a lie.  All was great at NPR and then came mean old Donald Trump and NPR lost its mind and threw away journalistic standards.

 

Now NPR should have reported on the laptop.  That's the Hunter Biden laptop.  In 2024, Uri wants to whine about it. About how NPR elected to ignore it and to back up his point?  He links to THE HILL.  We covered the story repeatedly in real time -- here we are writing about it October 27, 2020 in "Media: NPR doesn't trust its listeners:"

 

He goes on to note NPR ombudsperson Kelly McBride's Tweet and we're going to ignore the Tweet -- it just links to the NPR newsletter -- and instead quote from the NPR newsletter she linked to where she writes:

Responding to the New York Post

Carolyn Abbott writes: Someone please explain why NPR has apparently not reported on the Joe Biden, Hunter Biden story in the last week or so that Joe did know about Hunter's business connections in Europe that Joe had previously denied having knowledge?

There are many, many red flags in that New York Post investigation. NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik detailed most of them here. Intelligence officials warn that Russia has been working overtime to keep the story of Hunter Biden in the spotlight. Even if Russia can’t be positively connected to this information, the story of how Trump associates Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani came into a copy of this computer hard drive has not been verified and seems suspect. And if that story could be verified, the NY Post did no forensic work to convince consumers that the emails and photos that are the basis for their report have not been altered. 

But the biggest reason you haven’t heard much on NPR about the Post story is that the assertions don’t amount to much. 

“We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions,” NPR Managing Editor for News Terence Samuel told me. “And quite frankly, that's where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”

The handful of stories that NPR has produced about the NY Post investigation have been limited to how Facebook and Twitter are restricting distribution of the story or how families of those seeking treatment for addiction are impacted by the portrayal of Hunter Biden's struggle. — Kelly McBride

What a load of garbage but that is all Kelly McBride is really.  She's supposed to be about ethics.  That's why she's the ombudsperson.  But reading her nonsense about Nina Totenberg and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it was clear that Kelly didn't get Nina's job or her own.  In the column, she repeats Nina's claim that her long friendship with RBG didn't influence her coverage.  Guess what?  That's not Nina's call.  Nina cannot both conceal the friendship in news reports and then be the one who determines that there was no conflict.  Listeners should have known, in every report in which she mentioned Ginsburg, that Nina was close friends with her.  They should have had that knowledge so they could evaluate the report.

Kelly should grasp that as public editor but it's clear that she doesn't.  It's clear not just in that report in Nina but in many reports -- reports where Kelly interjects someone from POYNTER.  Yes, Kelly discloses her relationship with that organization; however, she's there to serve NPR listeners, not to be part of a circle-jerk where she promotes the other organization she works for.  In fact, as public editor, she shouldn't be quoting anyone from POYNTER -- it doesn't come off fair and it doesn't come off impartial.  More to the point, since POYNTER is already helping the helpless Kelly by doing research for any column she writes for the listeners, they're already weighing in.  They don't also need to be quoted.

Circle Jerk.  Remember it, will be circling back later.

As noted in the excerpt above, we linked to the NPR newsletter.  For the same information,, Uri goes with THE HILL.  

Uri's been working at NPR for 25 years.  It's 2024.  That means he started in 1999 (as even our math skills can process).

And America loses its trust in NPR because of the treatment of Donald Trump and things in that era?

Not because of the Iraq War which NPR pimped and promoted.  They were not raising doubts in the lead up the war.  They parroted officials and treated assertions as facts.

And that is the problem with NPR.  

Uri wants to pretend this is a recent development.

Hmm.

Our infamous NPR foe Alicia Shephard insisted that waterboarding was not torture.  And she said it was not torture because the Bush administration didn't consider it to be.  That was long before Trump ran for president the first time.

 

There's a whole host of journalistic crimes that exist and that took place and Uri ignores them because he's one of those butt-hurt babies who can't stand the world around him.  There are pronouns being used!!!!! Pronouns!!! And it's too much for Uri!!!

 

Do you know that NPR is now requiring reporters to document who they interview for stories!  And to document their race, gender, etc!!!!

 

It's a horror according to Uri (and has Glenneth crossing his legs tightly).

Grow the hell up, Uri.

We've got a body of work here where we document the sexism and racism at play at NPR.  

That includes rushing to fawn over Barbra Streisand and speak with her about an album of . . . rejects she didn't think worthy of release in real time but now that the voice is gone and she still has to deliver  product to COLUMBIA, she's releasing it.  Meanwhile, Diana Ross also releases an album of new material.  NPR doesn't even mention the album on air -- not even in their weekly music program that covers new albums --  let alone bother to interview Diana.  In fact, it doesn't appear NPR has ever interviewed Diana.  Not even on FRESH AIR.  This is the kind of bias that needs to be called out (and we have).  THANK YOU, Diana's album, went on to garner a Grammy nomination.

Alicia Shephard got very angry with us in the '00s repeatedly.  At one point, she was mad that we stuck up for Steve Inskeep.  Alicia had fudged some numbers to pretend that NPR was out of balance with whom they interviewed.  (That's why they are now tracking data on who makes it onto their morning news shows in 'reports' -- we can tell you that but Uri can't.)  Now Alicia could have made the point she pretended to.  But not with interview segments from MORNING EDITION, etc.  She could have done it with FRESH AIR and THE DIANE REHM SHOW.  They brought on guests daily.  And while Alicia looked the other way, Terry Gross and Diane Rehm brought on twice as many men as they did women.  There were Fridays that Diane's two hour broadcast would have nothing but male journalists pontificating.

And NPR has historically under-served the Black community in the US.  That's another reality that Uri wants to ignore.  Diversity, he argues is only about partisan views.  Diversity isn't about diverse lived experiences, not in his shuttered world.

The sooner Uri dies, the quicker the world moves on.

But to Glenneth, he's a whistle-blower.

The circle jerk.  That was, is and probably always will be NPR's biggest problem.  Who gets on air is who they know.  

This is the site that exposed the circle jerk that created the blogosphere and how CJR bloggers plugged their friends blogs daily without ever noting to their boss or to their readers that these were personal friends.  Time for a 'blog report'?  Well Candy Perfume Boy's going to do a roundup of what his friends wrote and not tell anyone he selected these bloggers because they were his friends offline, they got in hot tubs together, they got drunk together. And then they just 'accidentally' show up being promoted on CJR's website.  

None of this is new to us.  And to read Uri's half-truths and full on lies is asking way too much.

We also find it telling that when a group of writers at THE NEW YORK TIMES rightly objected to the transphobic coverage the paper was churning out, Glenneth mocked the writers, attacked them and belittled them but he wants to pretend Uri's a whistle-blower.

Uri's a half-wit and a disgruntled employee.  (Disclosure, we've advocated for his firing in our conversations with 12 NPR friends leading up to writing this article.) 

But Glenneth promotes him -- and promotes other crazies like ZNO -- who is all over Glenn's Twitter feed claiming the 2000 election was stolen.  

This is why the circle jerk is so bad.  Glenneth and people like him need to be cut off.  Instead, he and Matt Taibbi and other con artists (most of whom are also transphobes) are platformed by so-called leftist media.  Heidi Boghosian and her co-writer feel Americans are too immature or uneducated or both to know the difference between opinion writing and reporting.  Well if you feel that way, Heidi, why are you linking to an opinion writer in Australia who has applauded The Proud Boys.  Do you really think that link's going to play with those of us on the left -- let alone in The People's Republic of Brooklyn?

 

We need to be asking more of ourselves and we need to be asking more of others.   You can start by asking who did you platform this week?

That's Kat Blaque with an astute critique of how Christian Nationalism is trying to subvert our democracy.  Her work should have earned her a seat at the table.  But for some reasons, two left radicals write an article about the media for COMMON DREAMS last week and don't seem to notice that all their references are White.  Before the two write again, they need to ask themselves how, in their writing, they've welcomed anyone to the table that wasn't already invited?  As Alice Walker has always said, she creates the world she wants in her writing. 

Roundtable

Jim:  Roundtable time and we're focusing on a lot.  Participating our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; 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); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.






  

Jim (Con't): So Gaza.  Rebecca?

Rebecca: Day 190.  Six months and counting.  And Joe Biden still can't tell Netanyahu enough?  This is outrageous.

Ruth: And outrageous is the coverage.  Go to this CNN page and grasp that for over  updates on Saturday all day at what was supposed to , CNN completely ignored Palestinians while pretending to be covering what they call covering "The Israel -  Hamas War," it was nothing but Iran and Israel.  Near eleven p.m. EST, they changed the title on the article but if you hover over the link and read it there or click on it, you'll be taken to page that says "The Israel - Hamas War" in its URL.  And I am not really thrilled with that title.  It is an assault on Gaza and always has been.

Jim: Ruth, you're Jewish.  You've written about this assault at your site.

Ruth: Yeah, I am Jewish.  I am not Israeli.  I am not some idiot in the US who thinks I am Israeli.  I was born before Israel was created in 1948.  It is not my 'homeland.'  I was born in the United States.  I am not an apologist for any thug regime and I look in askance at other Jews in the United States who seem to be conflicted about which country they are a citizen of.  I will add that my late husband and I had four children, four sons, and we raised them Jewish.  We did not raise them Israeli.  They are American citizens.  These American apologists and propagandists for the foreign government that is Israel really bother me.  

Jim: Thank you.  When does this assault end?

Mike: Apparently when all the Palestinians are dead and Israel has sold off all the Palestinian land.

Isaiah: To US Jews, sold it off to US Jews.  At TRUTHOUT, Eleanor Goldfield writes:

"Your chance to own a piece of the Holy Land!” exclaims the cheerful advertising copy on a real estate website aimed at attracting buyers in the U.S. and Canada to purchase land located in Israel and in a number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The site describes five land sale events that occurred this spring in the U.S. and Canada.

Another land sale event held in Baltimore invited attendees to “Buy Your Home in Israel Now!” But, as with the other events, attendees couldn’t just be anyone interested in some freshly stolen land. You have to be Jewish, but not just any kind of Jewish.

Greg Kaplan, a local Jewish community member who wanted to learn more about these restrictive events and who tried signing up for the April 1 land sale event in Baltimore, which was hosted by the Jerusalem-based CapitIL Real Estate Agency, told me:

I got a call from Shmuly Eisenmann of CapitIL. He asked me where I daven, who the rabbi is there, and for the rabbi’s number, seeming incredulous that I wouldn’t just have the rabbi’s number stored in my phone. He said he would check on me with the rabbi and asked if the rabbi would know who I was. I said probably not because I don’t go to shul that much. He asked if there was someone at another shul who could vouch for me.

Kaplan was not allowed into the event, which was scheduled to take place at Shomrei Emunah, “a full-service shul and Jewish center” in Baltimore whose list of speakers and scholars in residence includes an IDF lieutenant colonel.

Stan: That's disgusting.  A law needs to be passed and there needs to punishment -- legal consequences -- for any American who buys stolen land from Israeli developers.

Trina: It is disgusting.  What's amazing is that things have changed and the Israeli government and many of its cheerleaders don't grasp that.  And if you're someone who doesn't grasp the huge ground shift, go back and read "Media: Let's Kill Helen!" -- Ava and C.I.'s piece back on July 10, 2011.  The usual lobby was attacking Helen Thomas for what was -- my opinion -- a very basic point she made.  They were attacking her and attempting to destroy her.  The fight wing loves to whine 'cancel culture' and pretend like they're the victims.  But time and again, throughout the '00s and the '10s we saw people on the left targeted, demonized and attacked.  Read what Ava and C.I. reported.  NPR's omsbudperson goes on KPFA and goes along with the attacks on Helen Thomas.  And the KPFA idiot -- Aimee Allison.  I heard that broadcast after Ava and C.I.'s piece first went up.  I thought, "I know they're truthful but I need to hear this for myself."  And there was Alicia Shephard from NPR and 'resister' Aimee Allison just digging into Helen, just trashing her.  It was disgusting.

 

Ty: I need to inject something here, sorry, Trina.  Alicia Shephard e-mailed this site to complain about that piece.  It was unfair to her because it didn't provide a transcript, she whined.  That was a nine minute or so segment.  It's not -- as I told her my reply -- Ava and C.I.'s job to provide a transcript.  If she wants someone to provide a transcript, Alicia can do it herself.  As it was, in those days, people could and did -- as Trina did -- go to KPFA and listen to the archived broadcast themselves.  And now you can go to THE PACIFICA ARCHIVES and order a copy from them -- they'll send it to you on CD.

C.I.: You can still stream it at KPFA.

Ty: No.  They took down THE MORNING SHOW program now that it no longer airs.  I went to Ann's site because she had it on her blogroll and still does.  You click on the archive for the show and it's gone.  You get a message about the page not being there.

C.I.: The web page devoted to THE MORNING SHOW  may be gone but it is in the KPFA online archives.  I'm sorry to insist on this but it is there.  You have to search for it -- probably "Morning Show" and "June 8, 2010" but the episode broadcast is there -- even if the program itself no longer has its own show page.

Ty: Okay, let me --

Dallas: Jumping in.  C.I.'s right.  Click here if you need to listen to it and sorry to take so long on that but I had to listen until Alicia came on to make sure it was the right episode.  

Ava: And I'm jumping in now. First, thank you, Dallas.  Dallas is always adding links to pieces and doing 100 other things any real edition -- meaning an edition with more than just a piece by C.I. and myself.  So thank you.  Second, I'm ticked.  I'm really ticked.  I think C.I.'s there too.  We don't comment on all the whiners who e-mail to gripe.  And we also get complaints over the phone and face-to-face when we're writing about things that friends work on -- TV shows, etc.  But Alicia Shephard remains one of the worst --

Dallas: Can I interrupt for a moment?

Ava: Sure.

Dallas: I'm sorry but I'm looking up things and just want you to know that she's dead. She died April 1st of last year.  

Ava: Good.  I'll assume she now lies in hell -- not lays in hell, she is lying in hell, telling lies there like she did hear on earth.  She's probably down there denying torture just like she did on earth.  But anyway, she tried to bully us.  That's what this was about.  Ty replied to her and that didn't end it.  She was still whining.  She didn't say this or that.  Okay, I asked her, what didn't you say.  Specifically, what did we get wrong?  Nothing.  At this point, she starts saying that we left out other sentences.  Before it was that we got it wrong.  Now it was that we left out other sentences.  I asked her, "Have you listened to the segment?"  I don't have to, she insisted, I remember what I said.  Clearly, she did not.  And this went on for weeks and weeks.   And we noted it in at least two more pieces -- that she was wanting to argue over this.  I'm sorry, you stupid idiot, that you trashed poor Helen Thomas, but that's on you.  That's not on me.  And I am not required to do a transcript of one minute of an interview -- let alone nine minutes of an interview -- in order to report how you attacked Helen on KPFA.  She's dead?  Good and good riddance.

 

Jim: Okay, Ty, big topic in e-mails?

Ty: BLACK POWER MEDIA, specifically their attacks on African-Americans in film.  I think Quincy's e-mail says it best, "Tell Ava and C.I. thank you for their coverage of so-called BLACK POWER MEDIA which continues to attack every African-American it can.  THE COLOR PURPLE, AMERICAN FICTION, the Bob Marley movie, Sidney Poitier, SHIRLEY.  Nothing is good enough for BPM.  I'm not saying you have to like every film but they attack everything.  Where is the uplift?  This is just like the haters piling onto Amanda Seales."  Sierra e-mailed, "Sorry Dr. Jared Ball, you're not a good judge of film and I intend to support and applaud my brothers and sisters not tear them down.  How dare he attack RUSTIN.  'Too gay'?  He and his two idiots back up singers look like homophobes.'  The RUSTIN comments are noted in tons of comments including by one person who states he had Ball for a professor spring of last year and can't imagine that, as a professor, Bell would have let the comments fly in the class the e-mailer took.   Ava, C.I.?

Ava: We wrote what we wrote.  It's appeared here.  We discussed it, C.I. and I, ahead of the roundtable and how we've linked to Betty and Stan's critiques as well in our pieces here but to let them go first since they've covered this issue at their sites as well.

Stan: Betty, you go first.

Betty: Okay, thank you, Stan.  And thank you Ava and C.I.  I don't hate Jared Ball.  Or maybe I do now, but I didn't hate him at first.  I tried to gently suggest things at my site with regards to him.  But RUSTIN was the turning point for me.  He and those two broke ass idiots who shouldn't be on any podcast because they don't how to speak and if you're trying to uplift us, don't bring in the guy sitting on the concrete outside the barber shop going, "Got a dolla?" to everyone just trying to go in for a haircut.  Are there any real qualifications that have to be met?  Because the women on BPM have to be well spoken -- and are.   But they'll invite any crusty lipped fool on if they're a man.  And let me take this one more place, this all male trio that attacked RUSTIN?  It's the same trio that did a segment after this attacking Olay.  Jared and his backup singers.  Now they couldn't be bothered with actually watching the video Olay recorded -- the one they were slamming her for.  And see Ava and C.I.'s "Media: What's The Point Of A YOUTUBE series?" for more on that because they covered it in real time.  And they couldn't be bothered learning who she actually was -- as they noted, they didn't know her.  But they could and did distort what she said and attack her.  Why?  Because they hadn't beat up on enough Black women that week.  I'm not even watching THE REMIX MORNING SHOW now.  And I love Kim and Jacquie.  But I can't stand to see Jared's face.  I am so damn sick of brothers who want to talk liberation but are subjugating women.  And I will never forget the hostility and hate that Jared went after Kim Brown with on one episode of THE REMIX MORNING SHOW.

C.I.: Jumping in just to note that Stan covered that in "Explaining why I'm taking a break from THE REMIX MORNING SHOW" and Betty covered it in "Shameful."

Stan: He was bullying Kim.  And this was streaming live.  Over an Andre 3000 album.  On air, he decides to expose his inner Ike Turner.  Watch that and watch as Kim tries to defuse him and ask yourself why?  Why should she have to be defusing him?  She didn't start the s**t.  Not only is she being bullied by him, but it falls to her to make the whole thing better.  Ball, be a man and clean up your own messes.  Better yet, don't start them.  And that's not how you ever talk to a co-host.

Betty: Right.  And The Ear Doctor's just sort of like, "What the hell is going on?" on his face -- it was him, Kim and Jared.  And he's probably thinking, "Jared just went off on me earlier this week because of my health beliefs."  And Jared had gone off on him, after all.  It's just too much drama.  And you can dislike THE COLOR PURPLE, for example.  That's not the issue.  The issue, as Ava and C.I. noted in last week's "Media: MARY & GEORGE succeeds, SHIRLEY gets attacked and the Pope is . . . dead?," is that you hate everything with Black people.  And you claim to be uplifting?  You claim to be serving the Black community?  It reminds me of how biracial Barack couldn't stop attacking Black fathers when he was president.  

Marcia: Because Jared is biracial.

Betty: He is.  Do we need to let him host a beer summit to work through his issues?  I don't know but I know I'm sick of it. 

Ann: If it's okay to jump in, another BLACK POWER MEDIA issue -- and it's one C.I. has raised repeatedly -- where are the women?  I see clip after clip with women and men and tons of them with men but there are two African-American ladies who get to come on once a week and only once a week and have their own segment.  

 

C.I.: That's Erika Brown and  Amber Sims who do BROKE-ISH once a week on BPM.

 

Ann: Thank you.  And that's it.  Otherwise it's all men or let's sprinkle one woman in with a man or group of men.  Why the hell do we need Renee Johnston doing her Saturday segment with Jared next to her?  Renee's a grown ass woman.  She can handle the segment all by herself.  They don't let women do that.  From BURN IT DOWN WITH KIM BROWN, we damn well know that Kim could solo on BPM.  But they don't let women do that.  And then they get butt hurt -- the men -- when they're called out for these segments where Jared and two other idiot males start tearing apart Olay, misrepresenting what she said, dismissing her because they've never heard of her --

Cedric: And Renee had praised her for that segment on Twitter.  The same one that the Jared and his two lapdogs were barking about, Renee had praised it on Twitter before the old men decided to dog Olay.

Ann: Exactly.  There is too much toxic on BPM.  They need to chill their jets.  They need to stop doing one segment after another with men, men, men.  I'm an African-American woman and I don't see any reason I should be watching BPM.  Not when Olay's attacked, not when Kim's attacked to her face because she was keeping it light and bully Jared couldn't back the hell off.  And he never apologized. Again, there's no reason for me to watch BPM.  Like Trina, I watch Jacquie's Friday segment.  And that's her old show that she did for years so I'm not faulting her for having a male co-host. But, no, Renee does not need a man sitting next to her.  And I won't watch her Saturday show because Jared's on it.  Supposedly, he's a busy man what with teaching and his family.  So how about he takes his tired ass off Saturdays or at least Saturday mornings and let Renee handle her own SATURDAYS WITH RENEE.

Trina: Which is not called "SATURDAYS WITH RENEE AND JARED."

Marcia: Exactly.  It's disrespectful and, as an African-American woman, I'm tired of the eternal disrespect shown to us.  Ava and C.I., for their column at POLLY'S BREW a few weeks back, wrote about that stupid Drew Barrymore who seems intent upon becoming the ultimate Karen.  She had a -- what she called a -- FACTS OF LIFE reunion on her lousy talk show.  Excuse me?  If Kim Fields is alive and she's not part of the 'reunion,' then you didn't have a reunion so quit fronting.  That was so disrespectful.  As a young girl, Penny, Dee and Tootie were so important to me and I wasn't the only African-American girl who felt that way.  Kim Fields was on every season of FACTS OF LIFE -- something Nancy McKeon can't say for herself -- and you don't have  a reunion of FACTS without Kim being there.  Charlotte Rae?  She's passed away.  Same with Cloris Leachmen.  But Kim's alive and how dare you promote your show having a reunion of the cast when Kim's not part of the reunion.  

Cedric: Kim played Tootie -- and she played Regine on LIVING SINGLE and she currently plays Regina on THE UPSHAWS whose fifth season is about to start on NETFLIX.

 

Ava: Next week.  Starts April 18th.

 

Cedric: She is the only success.  Lisa hawking what amounts to an informercial on METV every Sunday.  She destroyed her career with her freaky and nutty religious views -- this said by a man who is in church every Sunday and Wednesday so don't think I'm hating on Christianity.   No one ever liked Nancy McKeon -- as is pointed out repeatedly on FAMILY GUY.  Her fauxtense of being Brooklyn was always laughable.  Mindy Cohn thinks she's having a renaissance and maybe, for her career, it is one. But Kim's the only one who starred in FACTS OF LIFE and went on to star in two other long running sitcoms.  So Drew and the other White Karens need to stop disrespecting Kim Fields.

Marcia: Agreed.  And, one more time, I'm glad that Ava and C.I. wrote about that.

 

Betty: Me too, Marcia.  And you're right, Penny -- Janet Jackson was later Charlene on DIFF'RENT STROKES -- and Tootie on FACTS OF LIFE and Dee on WHAT'S HAPPENING were big relatables for Black girls who too often did not see themselves reflected on TV shows in the 70s and 80s. 

Jim: Ty, next e-mail topic?

Ty: The election.  E-mailers want to know who everyone's voting for?

Ava: C.I. and I said, before the Democratic Party primaries started that we'd be voting for whomever the Democratic Party nominee was.  We said we weren't telling anyone else how to vote but that we had made our decision and explained why.  So we'll be voting for whomever's at the top of the ballot on the Democratic Party side. 

Marcia: I'll be voting for Joe.  I'm hugely disappointed in him over Gaza but I do see many other things he's done that are praiseworthy.  That includes his Supreme Court nominee, that includes his support for transgender Americans.  There are other things as well.  

Jess: I'm not voting for Jill Stein.  I've been stuck voting for her in two elections already and she's a loser and she's a fool and she's a fake.  I'm voting Joe Biden.  I thought about leaving it blank but as it appears that the Green Party -- my party -- respects me so little that they're going to run a loser for the third time, I'll be voting for Joe.  And I've always voted Green so they could keep their ballot access.  Were they lose it in 2024 they'd deserve to do so for forcing Jill Stein on us once again.  It's a big country the party doesn't need to run the same loser for president three times.

Ann: Agreed.  And this Green will be voting for Joe as well and for the same reasons.

Jim: Is anyone not voting for Joe?

Dona: There's silence but let me ask if anyone is uncomfortable saying who they're voting for?  Okay, no one said anything so we're all comfortable saying who we're going to vote for and it appears we're all voting for Joe Biden.

Jim: Cornel West announced his running mate last week and the two were on THE TAVIS SMILEY SHOW.  Anyone have any impressions on Cornel's running mate Melina Abdullah?

 

Cedric: I was surprised to learn she wasn't Black.  She's biracial.  Jacob Crosse (WSWS) reports:

 

 While presenting herself almost exclusively as a “Black woman,” Abdullah is the daughter of John Reimann, a non-practicing Jewish person born in New York in 1946.

Adbullah’s paternal grandfather, and John’s father, was Günter Reimann (born Hans Steinicke), a German-Jewish Marxist economist who fled Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler. As a teenager, Günter wrote for Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’s Die Rote Fahne (The Red Banner), the press organ of the Spartacus League in Germany. Following the January 19 assassinations of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, the paper continued to be published by the Communist Party of Germany until Hitler came to power in 1933.

Günter died in 2005. John is still a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, with which Abdullah also has close relations. On his personal blog, Reimann advocates US funding for the US/NATO war against Russia in Ukraine.

 

 Marcia: Good catch, Cedric.  Did not know that.  Betty?

Betty: I had no idea. 

 

 

Jim: Thoughts on Robert Kennedy Junior's pick of his running mate?

 

Wally: Before we get to that, let me note that yesterday Junior announced he would not seek the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

 

Mike: Weeks after the Libertarian Party made it clear that they would not be asking him to be their nominee.

 

Wally: True.  And he's a liar so who knows what happens next month but he did declare yesterday that he wasn't going to be their nominee?

 

Trina: Junior's campaign made news for something else on Saturday:

 

The Black voter engagement director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign posted — and then scrubbed — a homophobic attack against the founder of a Black conservative group.

On Wednesday, Angela Stanton King, who has been working with Kennedy’s campaign for months, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram to attack Diante Johnson, who hosted former President Donald Trump at a gala event for the Black Conservative Federation in South Carolina in February.

 

In a screenshot of the Instagram post shared with POLITICO, Stanton King called Johnson “an open flaming Feminine closet Gay.” She then continued in the caption: “How is he gonna lead heterosexual black men to the Republican Party?”

The post, which was on X and then shared as a screenshot on Instagram, was time-stamped April 10 at about 6 p.m. Both have since been deleted.

Stanton King’s post continues a pattern of behavior from Kennedy’s consultants that has drawn negative attention and forced the campaign to respond. These issues could turn off donors and volunteers.

 

 Marcia: I guess that's Junior's idea of classy.

 

Mike: Probably so.

Trina: I'd say it was in keeping with the kind of campaign he's running.  As was his selection of Nicole Shanahan -- someone he apparently selected solely to say, "See, there are people less qualified then me in this election.  There are!!!!"

Jim: We're all laughing at that so let's end on that high note.  This is a rush transcript and we thank Ava and C.I. who took notes and will also type this up.

CRAP CRAP It's CRAPAPEDIA

 Do you know the online encyclopedia CRAPAPEDIA?

If so, you probably realize how sorry ass it is.  Let's just focus on their entry on one of the major music groups of the sixties, The Mamas and The Papas.

 

Or, rather, one aspect. Because we could not begin to correct all of the errors in the post on The Mamas & The Papas. Need one example?  We'll do one example.  This sentence, "The band then traveled from New York to Los Angeles for an audition with Lou Adler, co-owner of Dunhill Records."  We guess the footnote's missing since CRAPAPEDIA knows it's a lie.  Traveling from New York to Los Angeles?  That did happen.

But not "for an audition with Lou Adler." And even "the band" isn't accurate.  Yes, they were vocal group but we're not splitting hairs over that.  All four members -- Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty, John and Michelle Phillips all left the Virgin Islands for New York.  But?  Cass then went off on her own.  The drive from New York to California?  In that car were Michelle, Denny, John and Billy Throckmorton (John's cousin).  Once Michelle, Denny and John arrived, Cass called produceer Kim Fowley to get him to listen to them and was interested in signing them (money was the issue). And he was interested in signing Michelle, Denny and John.  Cass arranged the audition and was at the audition but she wasn't part of the group. Looking for the money to sign them, Kim took them to Nick Venent (MIRA RECORDS) and Nick thought they had a good look -- the four of them: Cass, Michelle, Denny and John. Nick wanted to sign the band.  The next day, before meeting Nick to finalize the deal, the foursome visited their friend Barry McGuire who was recording in a studio.  They sang for him, he called Lou Adler who agreed to listen to them.  Lou would go on to produce them.  They had also tried COLUMBIA RECORDS.  But 'the band' didn't travel together from New York to California.  Cass found her own way west.  And there were no auditions set up before John, Michelle and Denny arrived.  Cass set up the first audition after they arrived and it was not with Lou.  

We could go line by line over the post and how it is one error after another.  But we want to focus on something else, the discography:

Studio albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions				Certifications
		US [6]	CAN [7]	GER [8]	UK [9]
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears	Released: February 1966 Label: Dunhill (D 50006 / DS 50006)	1	–	–	3	US: Platinum[10]
The Mamas & the Papas	Released: September 1966 Label: Dunhill (D 50010 / DS 50010)	4	10	14	24	US: Gold[11]
Deliver	Released: February 1967 Label: Dunhill (D 50014 / DS 50014)	2	3	30	4	US: Gold[12]
The Papas & the Mamas	Released: May 1968 Label: Dunhill (DS 50031)	15	–	–	–
People Like Us	Released: November 1971 Label: Dunhill (DSX 50106)	84	55	–	–

Select compilation albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions					Certifications
		US [6]	AUS [13]	BEL (FL) [14]	NL [15]	UK [9]
Farewell to the First Golden Era	Released: 1967 Label: Dunhill (D 50025 / DS 50025)	5	–	–	–	–	US: Gold[16]
Golden Era Vol. 2	Released: 1968 Label: Dunhill (DS 50038)	53	–	–	–	–
Hits of Gold	Released: 1969 Label: Stateside (5007)	–	–	–	–	7
16 of Their Greatest Hits	Released: 1969 Label: Dunhill (DS 50064)	61	13	–	–	–
20 Golden Hits	Released: 1973 Label: Dunhill (DSX 50145)	186	–	–	–	–
The Best of the Mamas and the Papas	Released: 1977 Label: Arcade (ADEP 30)	–	–	–	–	6
California Dreamin': The Very Best of the Mamas and the Papas	Released: 1995 Label: Polygram (5239732)	–	–	45	33	14
California Dreamin': The Greatest Hits of the Mamas and the Papas	Released: 1997 Label: Telstar (TTVCD 2931)	–	–	–	–	30
Greatest Hits	Released: 1998 Label: MCA (MCAD-11740)	123	–	–	–	–
California Dreamin': The Best of the Mamas and the Papas	Released: 2006 Label: UMTV (9841715)	–	–	–	–	21

Singles

Why'd we stop before "Singles"?  Because we're not interested in that.  We only include "Singles" so those too lazy to use a link will know that we didn't cut off any albums from the CRAPAPEDIA list.

Five studio albums.  Multiple compilation albums.

See the problem?

CRAPAPEDIA doesn't.

But people who actually know music do.

The original foursome also did a live album.  It's MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL.  Here's the cover of that album.

It was released in 1970.  It's from the historic Monterey Pop Festival that Lou, Michelle and John organized.  It's been trashed -- the album -- over the years.

Unfairly trashed.

We're not fans of The Who.  It's not just because Pete Townsend's got a kiddie porn issue.  It's also because the band is a nightmare.  For example, they blew out the speakers at Monterey.  The Mamas and the Papas had to follow that, they were the closer. Michelle didn't realize  -- nor did anyone else -- that her microphone wasn't working due to blown speaker.  

 

She has 'spillover' -- especially when standing closely to Cass -- on Cass' mike but you have to strain to hear her.  This is the case where we would favor AI being used -- and it being noted that AI was being used.  AI could amplify Michelle's non-miked vocals to give the group its sound.

 

They were too ragged!  They didn't sound like they did on the radio!  

That's because they couldn't reach "Harold" with just three vocals, they needed all four.  

Harold?

This is Ty speaking in "Book Talk (Ty, Ava and C.I.)" from earlier this month.

The other is "Harold" and a feature that you want to write about.  Every week, we get together and ideas are pitched.  Ava and C.I. long ago dubbed WIKIPEDIA "Crapapedia" because it can't get facts right.  At The Mamas and the Papas entry, as Ava and C.I. have long pointed out, the original group has an album that's not noted even in the discography.  In the sketch on Cass, the author notes "Harvey."  That's what Denny dubbed the sound of the four of them singing together, saying it took on a fifth voice.  I think it's time to do the Mamas and the Papas piece and Harvey fits into that.

 

Ava and C.I. have long pointed out that the only live album the band released is not listed in the discography.  (The band being Cass, Michelle, Denny and John.  We're not interested in the revivals without Cass and Michelle.) It's a significant oversight.