"If I were a lawyer, I tell him he has the Fifth Amendment right to
stuff a sock in his mouth but he's not capable of doing that, and he
continually makes remarks that are frankly incriminating," Conway said
Tuesday on CNN.
-- George Conway quoted in Miranda Nazzaro's "George Conway on Trump’s claim he had 'right' to interfere in 2020: 'Frankly incriminating'" (THE HILL).
Hey --
Tuesday.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
And what did we come up with?
George Conway gets a truest.
Repost from THE COMMON ILLS to offer Iraq coverage and Gaza coverage.
Ava and C.I. wrote three pieces. If we had this edition ready, as Rebecca notes in "another republican name endorses kamala harris," meant that Ava and C.I. kept writing different pieces to try to be timely. This is a really strong piece.
We managed to do this roundtable on Sunday.
Dona talks books with Ava and C.I.
Dona reviews a book. I (Jim) have done so, Dona's done so, Ty's done so -- has Jess?
This resulted from an e-mail asking why we weren't doing more visuals and why we weren't noting Isaiah's comics of late. We scramble to get an edition together. There are weeks when it's only Ava and C.I. that pull something together.
Book coverage in the community.
We dip into the e-mails.
Repost of Kat's review -- also raised in an e-mail.
Paul Rudnick.
What we listened to while writing this edition.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
AP notes, "The United States military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected Islamic State group militants in the country's western desert that killed at least 15 people and saw seven American troops hurt, officials said Saturday." , and CNN) add:
Five of the personnel were wounded during the operation, with one evacuated for further treatment. Two other US personnel were injured “from falls during the operation,” the officials said, with one having to be evacuated “out of theater for follow on care.”
All of the injured personnel are stable.
NBC News was first to report on the injured US troops.
The early morning raid came after months of intelligence-gathering, the Iraqi military said Saturday. It said that the ISIS militants were found in four locations in western Iraq and that following the raid, an airborne unit was dropped into the locations.
A few things. US troops withdrawing? Dropping back to August 14th:
Over the weekend, APA noted, "The foreign minister of Iraq will travel to Washington next month to make a formal announcement about the withdrawal of American military forces from the Arab country, informed sources said, APA reports citing TASNIM." Officially, 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq. The number is actually much higher. Last month, someone at the US Embassy in Baghdad shot a woman in an apartment across the way leaving her hospitalized which has increased the calls for US troops to leave Iraq. As noted in this snapshot, the wife of Dr Abdul Amir al-Hazali was praying in her apartment when she was shot. As we noted then, the shooting resulted in another push to expel US troops from Iraq:
Abdul Amir Al-Ghazali spoke with ALSUMARIA and explained to them that the shooting took place on Friday while his wife was praying. The Badr Organization accuses the US government of converting the US Embassy in Baghdad into a "military base," condemns the action citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, and, citing the Iraqi Constitution (Articles 1, 15, 50 and 109) calls for Iraq's legislative and executive branches to expel the US military from Iraq.
The Badr Organization is part of the alliance that controls the Parliament. Over the weekend, another group began echoing the call. SABA reports, "State of Law Coalition member Ahmed Al-Sudani on Sunday said that Washington is procrastinating in determining the withdrawal paragraph from Iraq, stressing that the withdrawal of US forces is necessary to achieve national security. State of Law is former prime minster and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki's coalition. Arabic social media is showing some excitement about the upcoming September trip to DC with the hope that an announcement will be made that US troops are leaving.
Love to see that happen but don't see it happening.
And, as we noted in the August 16th snapshot, CNN's longterm Iraq correspondent Mohammed Tawfeeq reported:
Iraq has postponed announcing an end-date for the US-led military coalition’s presence in the country due to “recent developments,” raising questions about the future of US military presence in the Gulf state amid heightened tension in the region.
Iraq’s Higher Military Commission had aimed to propose an end date for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military operation combatting terror group ISIS.
“We were very close to announcing this agreement, but due to recent developments, the announcement of the end of the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq was postponed,” a statement by Iraq’s foreign ministry said Thursday, without giving further details on what the “recent developments.”
It's not happening. And one reason may be found in Friday's incident. Where are the Iraqi casualties? Even the Iraqi media isn't reporting any. So a supposed joint-exercise carried out by Iraqi forces and US forces resulted in no Iraqi injuries? But seven US troops were wounded.
Are you getting it because what it looks like is the US didn't provide 'support,' the US military carried out the action. Maybe the Iraqis were part of it from a distance, maybe they weren't. What appears obvious is that, 21 years after the start of the illegal war, US forces remain on the ground in Iraq to do the work that the Iraqi military still can't or won't.
Is this still about 'training'? US forces were clear when Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House that Iraqi troops were not showing up for training exercises. By the time Barack Obama became president, it was left to the US State Dept's Brooke Darby to explain to Congress why the training facility that US taxpayers built in Iraq was not being used but was, instead, being boycotted by the Iraqi military.
This has happened repeatedly over the years and we've documented it here repeatedly. There's no reason for US forces to still be in Iraq. And if the Iraqi military isn't up to defending Iraq, that's really their problem.
From the December 1, 2011 snapshot:
That
was Ackerman's important question yesterday afternoon at the House
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia hearing
on Iraq. US House Rep Steve Chabot is the Chair of the Subcommittee, US
House Rep Gary Ackerman is the Ranking Member. The first panel was the
State Dept's Brooke Darby. The second panel was the Inspector General
for the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
Stuart W. Bowen and SIGIR's Assistant Inspector General for Iraq Glenn
D. Furbish. [. . .]
Gary said that in a 2012 Congressional hearing. And it's still true today.
US forces need to leave Iraq. US taxpayers need to stop footing the bill for wasted training of Iraqi forces.
And it's really past time that supposed 'joint exercises' are leaving US troops injured but not Iraqi troops.
Is there still no buy-in on the part of Iraqi forces into the future of their own country? I have no idea. If there isn't, one reason might by that US forces refuse to leave.
But 21 years after the US invasion of Iraq, US forces do not belong on the ground in Iraq and they should have left long ago. No, they should have never been sent there to begin with. But I do remember a lot of Americans insisting US forces would leave Iraq -- a number of those Americans were in the US Congress and a few still are.
But they dropped the ball. They got distracted. They act as though the Iraq War never happened.
And not just members of Congress but people who ran for president. Jill Stein is on her third run. On her previous two she couldn't (wouldn't) address the Iraq War. But a lot of people think the useless fool is going to be there ticket to ending the assault on Gaza. Some people are born stupid but, yes, some people have to work very hard to remain stupid. All their life.
Speaking of useless trash. NPR had an article on Gaza. We're not noting it. Jane Arraf was The Whore of Baghdad. She never broke a story in her years in Iraq. That's under Saddam, that's throughout. A useless piece of garbage who refused to report because that might mean her getting kicked out of Iraq (see Eason Jordan's infamous 2003 NYT column "The News We Kept To Ourselves" which described the trade CNN made to stay on the ground in Iraq. That's how Jane 'learned' reporting. And when CNN dumped her (finally), it didn't matter where she ended up -- THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONISTOR, ALJAZEERA, NPR, THE NEW YORK TIMES, PBS' THE NEWSHOUR . . .
Since 1991, she's reported badly on Iraq. We used to give her the benefit of the doubt. Then Twitter came along. And Jane, on Twitter, had actual news. It never made it into her reports. That included the Iraqi military attacking protesters. Shooting them dead. But that never made it into her reporting, did it. And when they attacked protesters in Tahrir Square in Baghdad -- one of the most ghastly attacks, Jane could be found on air on NPR stating that it was just tear gas and blah blah blah.
Reality, they fired on the protesters with live ammunition. Did they also use tear gas? Yes, they did and they fired a tear gas cannister into an Iraqi protester's head. That was all over Twitter but there was Jane Arraf on NPR insisting the response from the Iraqi military was careful and controlled.
The Whore of Baghdad.
She earned the title.
She never reported anything bad until every other outlet was reporting it. Why? That's what she learned at CNN (in fairness, some of her colleagues have told me that she did that at REUTERS as well before she joined CNN0.
How do you cover Iraq for decades and never once lead on a story? How do you never once have a scoop?
You do it by being a suck up to the government in Iraq and being too cowardly to report news.
I'm sitting here and thinking of how long the Iraq War has been. And there are some people in the US who can be forgiven because they were too young. So let's note how ghastly the attack on Iraqi protesters was -- this is what Jane Arraf ignored in her supposed 'reporting' on it for NPR. Dropping back to the October 25, 2018 snapshot:
In addition, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "Iraqi police fired live shots into the air as well as rubber bullets and
dozens of tear gas canisters on Friday to disperse thousands of
protesters on the streets of Baghdad, sending young demonstrators
running for cover and enveloping a main bridge in the capital with thick
white smoke. One protester was killed and dozens were injured in the
first hours of the protest, security officials said."
The first one killed is said to have been hit with a tear canister. The
video above is supposed to be of that protester after he was hit.
So, no, we're not interested in Jane Arraf. Her entire career is whitewashing -- it's one journalistic crime after another. And when she does finally cover a story, you can be sure at least five other outlets have already covered it.
We'll instead note this from NPR's WEEKEND EDITION (Saturday):
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Polio, which has been gone from the Gaza Strip for decades, is back as the war there continues. But there is the possibility of good news. Tomorrow, the United Nations will begin to vaccinate children in Gaza against that preventable and highly contagious virus. It'll be an enormous effort, one that NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy will follow from her base in Dubai. And she joins us now. Aya, thanks for being with us.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: Tell us about how this vaccination campaign's being rolled out.
BATRAWY: Well, the U.N. has really big aims here. They want to reach more than 640,000 children across Gaza to give them two courses of the polio vaccine. It will be given orally in droplets, but it needs refrigeration at every step, and pretty much Gaza has no electricity. They're just running on generators and fuel that's in short supply. Another logistical challenge here is that the whole population is displaced, and so it's not easy for them to reach U.N.-run clinics. But the U.N. groups leading this vaccination effort, which is UNICEF and the World Health Organization, they say the most critical factor is a pause in airstrikes so that the vaccines can reach all these children. Now, Israel says it's agreed to short pauses. Basically, it won't attack for about eight hours a day in specific parts of Gaza for the few days that this campaign is being rolled out, and Hames says they'll also cooperate.
SIMON: How did the polio spread there in the first place?
BATRAWY: Doctors tell me this was a combination of factors. You know, you have children, Scott, that haven't had access to vaccines, but also most of Gaza's hospitals have been destroyed or closed. You also have wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants that have been bombed, so people have been drinking dirty water to survive. And we know from the Gaza Health Ministry that more than 40,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire in this war, but we don't have a tally for people who've died from illness. However, we know there's been a huge spike in kids with infections and diarrhea. Children are hungry. They are malnourished. They're living in these overcrowded shelters or in the open in tents and with weak immune systems.
SIMON: And do we know how widespread polio could now be in Gaza?
BATRAWY: Well, there's already been a case confirmed in a 10-month-old baby boy who was active and crawling, and he's now paralyzed in one leg after contracting polio. And he is the first case of polio in a quarter-century in Gaza. Now, it comes after the Gaza Health Ministry and the World Health Organization - they sounded the alarm on this in July when they announced that the polio virus had been found in sewage water flowing in the streets around the tents of displaced people. And there are now at least two other suspected cases as well. Now, the symptoms for polio show in one out of every 100 to 1,000 people. So the doctors I spoke with say this means thousands of people in Gaza likely already have contracted polio. It is spreading, and one doctor called it a powder keg.
Yolande Knell (BBC NEWS) notes, "To be effective, the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 90% of children under 10 must be immunised in a short time frame. It follows the discovery of the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in Gaza, with a UN expert saying more children are likely to be infected and that there could be a wider regional outbreak if the virus is not dealt with." Amr Mostafa (THE NATIONAL) reports, "Teams will be based at the health centres affiliated with the ministry and international organisations, including the UNRWA, in addition to mobile teams that will tour the enclave including the camps of the displaced people, Mr Dahir said. Another round will start on September 17 and will revisit the same areas. Yousef Abu Al Reesh, Gaza's deputy minister of health, said vaccination teams would try to get to as many areas as possible to ensure wide coverage but he said only a comprehensive ceasefire could guarantee enough children are reached." The roll out depends on a level of safety and it's a level that the Israeli government is unwilling to ensure. ALJAZEERA notes that a few children got the vaccine today and that, "On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Defence agency in Gaza said at least three people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli attack in the vicinity of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital)."
In other news, Lawahez Jabari, Rebecca Cohen, Hayley Walker and Sarah Dean (NBC NEWS) report:
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American taken hostage in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, is among six hostages whose bodies were recovered Saturday.
"With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time," a family representative said.
President Joe Biden said the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages held by Hamas were recovered in a tunnel under Rafah.
The other five discovered today are Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Eden Yerushalmi, Oren Danino and Almog Sarusi. Would the six be dead if War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu had worked on an actual cease-fire instead of prolonging the assault on Gaza? It's a question more and more Israelis are asking themselves. , and (CNN) report:
A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza has called for the public to mobilize after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported finding “a number of bodies” in the war-torn territory.
The demands by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came as thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The IDF said in a statement Saturday that it had “located a number of bodies during combat in the Gaza Strip,” but it has not confirmed whether any of the bodies are those of hostages and asked the public to “refrain from spreading rumors.”
However, many Israelis have taken the statement to mean that more Israeli hostages have been found dead and it has amplified calls for the government to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The Hostages Families Forum, which has confirmed their deaths, has organised nationwide rallies and hit out at Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to secure a ceasefire deal.
"Today, the entire nation will stand alongside the hostages' families to protest the cabinet's ongoing neglect if the hostages," it said, calling on the public to join a demonstration "demanding a complete halt of the country and the immediate implementation of a deal to release the hostages."
"If it weren’t for the saboteurs, the excuses, and the spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably be alive,” the forum said on X.
The Israeli government's assault on Gaza continues and they've also upped the assault on the West Bank. No, they aren't the same (as we noted earlier this week). ALJAZEERA explains:
The occupied West Bank is part of historical Palestine on the west bank of the Jordan River.
It measures 5,650sq km (2,180sq miles) of landlocked territory surrounded by Israel, Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Approximately 3 million Palestinians live there, alongside an increasing number of Israelis who built illegal settlements and outposts on land taken by force from Palestinian families.
The West Bank has some 871,000 registered refugees, a quarter of whom live in 19 refugee camps, descendants of the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands to make way for the creation of Israel in the Nakba of 1948.
You can read more here.
Charlie Kimber (UK SOCIALIST WORKER) notes,:
Israel has launched the largest scale assault of the occupied West Bank for more than 20 years.
Some ministers are demanding that Israel spreads the same tactics it used in Gaza in the West Bank assaults. This includes forcing people out of their homes to clear certain areas.
Israel began its fourth day of assaults in the West Bank on Saturday. Troops fired live bullets and tear gas and rampaged through parts of the territory backed by helicopters and drones.
Bulldozers followed, destroying homes and roads. Israeli forces have killed at least 22 Palestinians. Called “Operation Summer Camps,” the Israeli army has deployed three separate brigades to invade the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.
And the same publication's Arthur Townend observes:
Israel has injured thousands of people, and now they want more revenge on the civilian societies in the West Bank.
The Israeli government decided to annex the West Bank. It wants to go on taking over our land, so they sectioned 60 percent of the West Bank right away and put it under their direct control. And they continue to attack other areas with complete silence from the Palestinian Authority.
Now they are focusing on the refugee camps—their existence means Palestinian people still have an opportunity to return.
Israel is preparing to delete a generation’s memory of the Nakba. By destroying and evacuating the refugee camps, they destroy the symbol of the people, of their right to return back.
Site note, I don't usually delete what goes up here. An hour or so ago, "Diana Ross - Say We Can Live @ Workin' Overtime Tour [1989]" went up. When it did, the video was visible. The 'owner' (ha ha, l they don't own s**t, they pirated the video from TV but want to pretend like it's their video) restricted it ten minutes later. While working on this entry, I put up "Diana Ross - Say We Can Live @ Workin' Overtime Tour [1989]" and we'll leave that up. "Say We Can" is from Diana's WORKIN' OVERTIME album and was written by Nile Rogers and Cathy Block.
While we're noting videos, Friday, we posted Stevie Wonder's new video. Stevie's an old friend and I cried hugging him in Chicago last week. It was so good to catch up. Let's note his new video that he released Friday.
The following sites updated:
"You're not telling us anything we don't know." So declared Zac and Gavin on the latest VANGUARD as they . . . repeated the points that we've been making for weeks (and made them during Jill's second run for president and at the end of her first run) -- points that they never made before and that went against the last weeks of their pro-Jill Stein propaganda.
But before we get to that, "You're not telling us anything we don't know"?
You know nothing. The two of you are online idiots. You're as bad as MAGA.
Labor Day brought a live broadcast of THE VANGUARD where they talked politics and 'politics' and football and all the other bulls**t that keeps their male fans and their male-identifying fans happy.
"She is an unlikable person," Gavin declared of AOC.
"She" and "person." That's the first time "person" was used. Previously, the boyz were talking about "men" or "men" -- you know, like the men Zac 'polled' while tending bar.
Rebecca: These protests have been taking place for some time. The difference is that they keep getting larger and larger.
Ruth: I'd add, as a Jewish woman, that this goes to the idiotic nonsense of Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Jerry Seinfeld and so many others. It's bad enough that they believe being an American Jew means you have to act as though you're a citizen of Israel, but there's also the fact that they refused to call out Mr. Netanyahu who is now a War Criminal but was already a criminal before the ongoing assault started in October. He has used the assault to distract from the criminal charges he is facing and the likes of Ms. Silverman, Ms. Schumer and Mr. Seinfeld -- among others -- have allowed him to distract, to remain in power and to undermine any cease-fire.
Jim: Ava and C.I. have talked about how fatigue is setting in on this issue.
Elaine: Any crisis in the news becomes less of an outrage the longer is goes on. That's due to the fact that it's no longer new and that's due to the fact that people don't want to feel powerless. The longer an outrage continues, the more powerless people feel.
Mike: And duped. Don't forget duped. Students of today, take it from someone who was a student when the Iraq War first started, a lot of the people you're listening to are con artists. Norman Solomon, for example, pretends like he's all in on your movement. He did the same with Iraq. Seven US soldiers were injured in Iraq Friday. Why? Among other reasons because they're still there. And Norman was the great pretender on Iraq. He was not going to be silenced! He was not going to stop until all US troops were out of Iraq! This was illegal! Then Barack Obama gets elected and Norman's silent on the topic.
Ty: There are two ways we can go on that topic and, due to an e-mail, I'm going to steer us in another direction and we can come back to Iraq and fatigue in a moment. Cassie e-mailed that she appreciates the need to get Kamala Harris elected and to defeat Donald Trump. "I agree," she writes, "that Trump will destroy this country but I don't know that people will join me in holding Harris accountable after the election."
Isaiah: I can understand that worry but it's directed at the wrong camp. We've held Bully Boy Bush and Trump accountable. We held Joe Biden accountable and we held Barack Obama accountable. So that's a valid fear but you're aiming it at the wrong group.
Kat: I'll jump in because she sure is. We went from Bully Boy Bush leaving the White House to Barack moving in and speaking to college campuses about Iraq and no one wanted to hear it. I would be terrified in January when we went to speak to groups, January 2009, because there was this cult around him and people would boo. C.I. could handle it. She would make a joke, everyone would laugh and the tension would vanish. But I don't have her speaking ability and it was scary. It was probably the start of March 2009 when I stopped being nervous. But it was such a huge change in reception. Bully Boy Bush is in the White House and the crowds were for ending the Iraq War. He's out and Barack's in and no one could handle reality.
Dona: To be clear, those signs were there before he got elected. It's an argument we made here several times ahead of the 2008 election about why Hillary Clinton would be the better choice. As president, Hillary wouldn't be able to charm her way out of accountability.
Jess: Right. And in March of 2008, for example, John Nichols and the other lying whores are writing about Samantha Power leaving the campaign and lying about why. It had nothing to do with her calling Hillary a "monster." It had everything to do with her interviews she'd given in England including one that the BBC was about to air where she revealed that Barack's 'promise' to remove all US troops from Iraq within ten months of being sworn in was not a real promise. She said he'd get to the White House and then decide what he would do. But, at the time, he was winning over voters by lying that elect him and all US troops would be out of Iraq.
Stan: He lied and it was going to come out and that's why Samantha Power quit -- being in the campaign when that interview aired meant the press might have to cover it. So she resigned and liars like John Nichols covered for her. I think THE WASHINGTON POST was the only one who treated the interview seriously by actually reporting on it. And this wasn't an accident. THE NEW YORK TIMES lied for him in their interview. He told them that he'd send troops back into Iraq after withdrawing them. He ended up doing that in 2012. But the paper didn't put that in the interview. It was C.I. who took the time to read the transcript of the interview that got posted online to hip you to that.
Cedric: I want to bring Wally in on that. Wally, you know what I mean -- who I mean, our fan.
Wally: Tom Hayden. Tom was forever writing to object to how we worded something or how we emphasized this and not that. Blah blah blah. But Cedric and I did joint-posts and Tom would always e-mail me and not Cedric whom Tom knew was African-American. That made his already embarrassing speech at his son's wedding all the more embarrassing. And I would reply back, "You know Cedric co-writes these. Maybe e-mail him." I did not know him, had never met him at that point. In 2008, I did meet him through C.I. And I did point out to his face that he was refusing to write Cedric and that looked suspect.
Cedric: And Wally always shared the e-mails with me. But there was Tom acting like he was Mr. Racial Justice but couldn't even write a Black man? What a chicken s**t. So it was no surprise when the March interview was going on, Tom was silent. Then July 4th weekend of 2008, Tom wants to act like this is just news -- Samantha's March interview with the BBC. Tom's mad because Barack is now waffling about the ten months publicly. And so Tom writes this lie filled column for HUFFINGTON POST claiming to just have learned about this and lying that it wasn't covered in real time and lying that Hillary Clinton's campaign ignred it and didn't raise it to the press.
Wally: And Tom knew about it in real time. We had a face to face conversation about the BBC interview about six days after it was aired. He was just a liar. Always a liar.
Isaiah: And a coward. How spineless do you have to be in order to be Tom Hayden? Barack's repeatedly publicly sneering at "Tom Hayden Democrats" and Tom can get his tongue off Barack's nut sack? And Tom refused to call Barack out once he was president. There's one moment when it appeared he might have been but even then he was actually distracting from a more salient point about Barack and Iraq. The big news was that, in 2012, Barack sent US special forces back into Iraq and Tom pulled something else from that NEW YORK TIMES report -- by?
C.I.: Tim Arango.
Isaiah: Thank you. So Tom pulls something else from that report to emphasize. iI was planned distraction and he was useless.
Betty: So the point is, the person e-mailing is e-mailing the wrong people. We've never been afraid to call out. We've never backed away. You need to look at Tom Hayden -- well he's dead now. But look at John Nichols, Leslie Cagen, Susan 'Medea' Benjamin and the many others who refused to hold Barack Obama accountable. That includes Norman Solomon and especially David Swanson. And I want to note that when it was obvious Barack was failing to keep his promises, at the end of 2010, you had idiots refusing to hold him accountable and attacking anyone who tried to -- like Latoya Peterson. From Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Hermetically sealed 'independent' media:"
In DC, Latoya participated in a discussion with Marc Steiner, David
Swanson and Norman Solomon. Only Norman bothered to provide even a
slight push-back to Latoya's nonsense.
Her nonsense?
She noted throughout the evening that Barack and the Democratic Party
were not living up to what was needed nor what was promised. At one
point, she was mocking Gloria Feldt and others for saying that people
had to vote and that they could hold the elected accountable after the
election. That, said Latoya, was like giving your lollipops over to the
playground bully hoping he won't beat you up. Yet Marc Steiner floats
the notion of a progressive candidate challenging Barack in 2012 and
Latoya goes spastic.
After Norman's agreed with Steiner, Latoya is pronouncing the idea
"tantamount to a betrayal." What? Yes, according to Latoya, if Barack
is challenged, it would be a betrayal. At this point, she once again
wanted to speak for Latino voters. It was a thread that just didn't die
throughout the broadcast which should have been billed as For Latino Voters Who We Won't Allow To Speak For Themselves. It would be a betrayal "disappointing us," she said including Latinos in her 'us,' and "you need to give this man a chance!"
While David Swanson tried not to look at anyone and awkwardly sat in
silence, Norman had the good sense to challenge her, "Well where is the
betrayal? Are you saying he betrayed us or we're betraying him if we
don't give him a second term on a silver platter?"
"I don't think we should give him a second term on a silver platter,"
insisted Latoya -- apparently eyeing plastic trays at the Dollar General
instead. "I think we need to hold him more accountable. But I think
if White progressives were to say, 'Okay now we're going to chuck this
Black guy, we're going to get somebody else in, we're going to find an
Edwards that doesn't have a scandal . . .'"
She never came up for air and we don't serve in her court so we'll cut
fat mouth off right there to inject some reality. No one had identified
a potential candidate -- not as male or female, and certainly not the
race, How telling that Latoya automatically assumed it would be a White
man. And how stupid is she? Edwards' run for the presidency wasn't
brought down by a sex scandal. That scandal was covered up and only
exploded long after he'd shut down his campaign. In fact, if he hadn't
hid out in a hotel bathroom, he probably could have gotten away with the
scandal. (Edwards, while married to Elizabeth Edwards, had multiple
affairs. One such affair produced a child.)
Betty (Con't): So to the e-mailer, I'd argue, that's on you. You allowed people like John Nichols to get away with grifting. He's on grifter Katie Halper's program despite all of his lies and all of his whoring. And he's part of a big number of lefties that try to present themselves as our voices in the media. If Kamala gets elected, and I pray she does, I will hold her accountable. Don't worry about me, I do what I say I will do. Take care of yourself and stop frequenting political whores like John Nichols and Norman Solomon and Davis Swanson.
Jim: Okay. Now for the part that Ty was saying, about the fork in the road. There's fatigue on Gaza and fatigue on Iraq allowed Iraq to disappear from our radar. A number of supporters of Gaza are trying to harm Kamala's election. That's the only way to describe it.
Marcia: They're writing one attack on her after another. I can't go to COMMON DREAMS because it reads like a right-wing website. I'm sick of it. And it's getting to the point where I don't respect, like or listen to the 'uncommitted' voters be they in Michigan or wherever. I no longer care because you've argued -- while my rights and my very existence is under threat -- that the most important thing in the world to me and the deciding factor on my vote in a US presidential election should be Gaza. Sorry, I'll argue in favor of the Palestinians but I'm not withholding my vote from Kamala. And I'm not part of your movement, you've made sure of that by telling me that the rights of my wife, that my rights don't matter. The MAGA crowd is calling for overturning my rights. They're even calling for gay people to be shot in the back of the head. So, f**k you. I have to protect myself. I don't slam the Palestinians for protecting themselves so why in the world would you slam me for protecting myself? Too may people are coming off freaks.
Ann: And it's pushing away support for Palestinians. These freaks are harming the cause. And if Trump gets back in the White House, the Palestinians are screwed. But they may not be better if Kamala's elected and that has nothing to do with Kamala but everything to do with Democrats. I'm a Green. I'm voting for Kamala but I'm a Green. She'll be the first Democrat I've voted for. Ralph Nader? He lost everything due to his 2000 run. Susan Sarandon? She's still being punished by Democrats. If the election ends up close, you better grasp that the yellow dog Democrats will work to bury the issue of Gaza because of the way its supporters have behaved in this election cycle. And if Trump gets back in the White House? Not only will he go after them but Democrats won't do a thing to stop him because they'll be ticked off. It was always a stupid strategy but it only becomes more ignorant and more harmful with each passing day.
Dona: Someone's going to claim Ann's threatened them. I'm not joking, I know how the e-mails here are. Ann, are you in charge of the Democratic Party?
Ann: No, I'm a Green. And this is what'll likely happen. I know that as a Green who's observed past elections. Am I right, Jess?
Jess: Yeah, you're right. Like Ann, I'm a Green. Ralph Nader's very successful turnout in 2000 did not make Democrats rethink their platform. No electoral move against them ever does. What will? I have no idea because I'm not a Democrat. But I do know that they respond harshly to efforts to get people not to vote Democratic.
Jim: Jess, who are you voting for?
Jess: Kamala Harris. Like Ann, this will be my first time voting a Democrat for president. And don't give me that: We have to vote Green so we have access on the ballots for president in 2028!!!! What, we're going to run that loser a fourth time for president. I'm a Green. I'm not a member of the Jill Stein fan club. That anti-vax nut should have been sent packing after her 2012 loss. Instead, she's our presidential candidate for the third time. I'm not voting for that losing asshole who pretends she's a doctor while preaching that vaccines cause autism. And she chooses other nut jobs to stand with her, people who insist 9/11 didn't happen or it wasn't an attack from foreigners or no planes hit the Twin Towers. She's a nut job who surrounds herself with nut jobs. She's a disgrace and here's a message we can send with out votes as Greens: Stop running the same loser over and over.
Ann: Amen.
Marcia: Betty whatever happened to that idiot Latoya Peterson who insisted a primary challenge to Barack would be a "betrayal"?
Betty: Like most grifters, she moved on to another grift. Her blog RACIALICIOUS is thankfully no more. She does have a Twitter account with that name but hasn't posted there since 2023. She has at least two other Twitter accounts and, again, no posts since 2023.
Marcia: Good riddance.
Jim: Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe everyone participating plans to vote for Kamala. We've never had that moment before. Whether primary season or doing the general election, we've never all been lined up behind one candidate. This is a life changer of an election. The Republican's not Mitt Romney or John McCain. With those candidates, I had disagreements. If they won, I was prepared to roll up my sleeves and fight the next four years. This is different. This is Donald Trump and it's Project 2025 and it's Moms for Bigotry. This is about destroying the advances of the last 100 years. And I'm sorry but when I see their efforts to push child labor, I'm pretty sure that means they'd gladly bring back slavery as well. I'm probably the safest among those of us doing the roundtable. You know, Mike, Jess, Wally and I are straight White men. People of color and women and LGBTQ+ people are the ones being targeted immediately. Our children are being targeted -- all children. The fright wing behind Trump wants to destroy our education system, wants to ban books. And it's a war on knowledge and history. And they're doing that to our schools and our colleges. The University of Virginia is stopping the tours of Thomas Jefferson's home because they can't handle the tour guides noting reality: Jefferson was a slave owner. That's reality, stop trying to hide it. Marcia's "I'm supporting Kamala -- and noting the non-Blacks on the left who aren't" is so important because she is right, Trump gets a second term and, as a Black person, as a woman and as a lesbian, she is the first one they're coming after. And they want to destroy her marriage and they want to destroy Ty's marriage. All they want to do is destroy, not lift up.
Trina: Marcia, Ava, C.I. and I did a piece for a community newsletter on this topic and we quoted from Olay's latest video -- a roundtable that I'd like to insert here because it was an intelligent conversation and those are in short supply.
Jim: We'll put it in and in that piece you four wrote, one of the points was the housing program and the failure of COMMON DREAMS and other supposedly left websites to explore the benefits of programs she is addressing and proposing.
Trina: I can't go anywhere online. Forget WSWS, I had to drop them because they can't cover LGBTQ+ issues -- even the homophobic attacks and transphobic attacks -- physical attacks -- they won't cover it. I have eight children and love them all. One of my sons is gay. And, sorry, like Ruth, I'm not going out with my country attacking LGBTQ+ people or turning back the clocks on them.
Ruth: I think having a gay grandson, having a great friend like Marcia, having a great friend like Ty makes it very personal to me. I think Mike having the same friends and a brother makes it very personal to him. Knowing someone personally who is LGBTQ+ has helped us progress as a society and we can't go back.
Ty: Which is why it's harder and harder for me to address Gaza, to be honest. I'm Black and I'm gay, I'm married to a man. And when Rania whatever and the other YOUTUBERS start frothing like rabid dogs and pretending that Gaza is at stake in this US election? I just lose interest. I'm sorry. And I'm also sorry that they won't let us be joyful about Kamala Harris. Joe Biden? He would have lost this November. It was over. And now we have Kamala as the nominee and it is joyful. But we're not allowed to fill joy? What the hell is that? A great deal of the attacks on Kamala are about sexism and about racism.
Marcia: I do not hate Joe Biden. He did a lot in his four years and he did a lot in his career. I don't agree with everything he did in the Senate or as Vice President or as President. But I do find stuff to applaud and I'm proud to have voted for him in 2020. I would have voted for him in 2024. But it was over, after the debate, when the media painted that debate as worse than it was and spent every day after questioning his capabilities. And I thought it was over -- I thought for those of us who were women, those of us who were Black, those of us who were LGBTQ+, it was really over. I thought democracy stood no chance. So forgive me if I'm not in the mood to be lectured to by a bunch of self-righteous YOUTUBERS who've done nothing to help anyone but themselves. And, yes, I am glad Kamala Harris is our nominee and, yes, I am excited to vote for her. I'm excited to see what she'll do as president. And you better believe that when she needs calling out -- not if, when, all politicians need to be held accountable -- I'll do it. And I won't pussy foot around it or try to sugar coat it.
Jim: Agreed. Now we need to wind down --
Ty: Nope. One more e-mail. It's about C.I. and THE COMMON ILLS and I think Ava should be the one to speak to it. Isla e-mailed to comment on C.I.'s Wednesday snapshot and she writes, "Thank God, she covered it Wednesday morning because it wasn't getting attention, the attacks in Texas on those of us who are Latino. This is very serious. The attorney general of our state trying to intimidate us and scare us away from voter registration and voting. This is an attack on our rights and our freedoms. And it got local coverage but wasn't a national issue when it should have been. This Republican attack on Latinos will register with other Latinos in other states but only if they know about it. And they need to know about it because if they'd do it to us in Texas, the GOP would do it any state that they thought they could get away with it." Ava?
Ava: For those who don't know, I'm a Latina which is probably why Ty's tossing to me -- that and the fact that C.I. and I write a lot of things together about the media and the fact that C.I. said she didn't want to talk at all in this roundtable. Yeah, Isla is correct. I'm in California and I was outraged to learn that the attorney general in Texas, Ken Paxton, was sending armed officers to the homes of Latinos involved in voter registration, barging into their homes at six in the morning, refusing to let them get dressed and treating them like criminals. It's outrageous and it's offensive. There was no legitimate reason for it but it was intended to terrorize the Latino population in Texas. As a Latina, I call it out. CBS did something Wednesday evening and I'd like to include it.
Ava (Con't): Ken Paxton should be carted off in handcuffs for those raids. And Texas Latinos -- Democrats, Republicans, independents and non-voters -- need to especially register what happened. They need to turn out and they need to support Colin Allred for the US Senate and Democrats in every race to send a message to the GOP in Texas and elsewhere that this is not acceptable and we will not ignore it.
Jim: C.I., you and Texas community members Sabina and Francisco have been writing a lot about this over the last few days. Do you know what the last day to register to vote in Texas is?
C.I.: I didn't want to talk but I'll grab this. Sabina and Francisco are doing great work in Texas and it's great to talk to them and amplify them in any way possible. One thing not being reported is that Texas has disabled online voter registration. If you're planning to vote in Texas in November, the first thing you need to do is to check and make sure you weren't purged because Governor Greg Asshole has purged over a million people from the voter rolls. The next thing you need to know is that Greg Asshole has stopped online voter registration. You will need to register by October 7th. That may require you going to your local voter registration officials office. If you're renewing your drivers license or getting a replacement for it, you can register at the DMV. Fall means county fairs and there will be people with booths and tables set up to register voters.. You can also print up an application online and mail it in. You need to move quickly on that because October 7th is the deadline.
Jim: And on that note, we do wind down. This is a rush transcript.
