Guess what? THE NATION's already feeling the pushback for the racism that led to their 'coverage' of Kamala Harris. Let's make sure everyone knows. Ava and C.I. wrote what I'm about to cross-post early this morning for THE COMMON ILLS. Let's get the word out so people the true story about Katrina vanden Heuvel and how her racist family made their money.
Like Natalie Cole said . . . (Ava and C.I.)
The results appear to be in so, being good sports, let's say congratulations to our next president . . . JD Vance. Yes, Miss Sassy is the new president. You can't be as grossly overweight as Donald Trump and as old as he is without the health issue coming in to play and then there's the senility.
It's very likely we may see him removed from office due to the senility at which point JD would have the title of president but, make no mistake, JD is the new president.
Donald didn't do any work the first time. He didn't like briefings. He was lazy when he was four years younger.
So congratulations to JD, our youngest president ever.
Let's say thank you to two people. Thank you to Joe Biden for stepping aside. As bad as the results have turned out to be, they would have been even worse if Joe had been on the ticket. After the debate, the media was not going to change their narrative. Thank you to Kamala Harris who ran a strong campaign and did so in a very short manner of time.
Our sympathies for the nation.
It would be great if some last minute development exposed voter fraud on the part of MAGA but that's probably not going to happen.
So we're all screwed.
And let's be clear about who screwed us.
No, we're not talking about MAGA or other elements of the right wing. Certainly, FOX "NEWS" lies and they are a danger. But they're actually far less of a danger then the cheap whores like Glenn Greenwald, Megyn Kelly, et al.
But again, we're not talking about them.
No, we're putting the blame where it rightly goes: The left media.
Now stop your nonsense if you're a right winger and thinking we mean THE WASHINGTON POST, CNN, THE NEW YORK TIMES, et al.
That's not the left media.
The left media is the beggar media who always asking for a hand out, for a donation, pretending they're serving the left.
We're talking about IN THESE TIMES, we're talking about DEMOCRACY NOW!, THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE and oh so many more.
We had the votes to win. Where were they?
The grifter Jill Stein got some.
Cornel West got some. Claudia De la Cruz got some.
If you're unfamiliar with those last two, unlike Jill Stein, they were real candidates.
You didn't hear about them because our supposed left media didn't want you to.
It was Jill wall to wall.
They pimped her like crazy.
No surprise, she got less votes than she did in 2016. Because she's a con artist and a grifter. She's opposed to the genocide . . . except for her stock in Lockheed Martin. The American Friends Service Committee notes:
The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company’s C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza.
Lockheed Martin manufactures AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for Israel’s Apache helicopters. One of the main weapon types used in aerial attacks on Gaza, these missiles have been used extensively in 2023. Some 2,000 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Israel sometime between Oct. 7 and Nov. 14.
Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky manufactures the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter, used to transport Israeli soldiers into and out of Gaza. On Jan. 8, Sikorsky was awarded $18.3 million from U.S. taxpayers' money for continued work on the CH-53K aircraft it has provided to Israel.
On Dec. 28, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $10.5 million contract for continued support for Israel's fleet of F-35 warplanes.
On Dec. 11, the Israeli Air Force used a Lockheed Martin C-130-J Super Hercules aircraft to drop approximately seven tons of equipment to Israeli soldiers engaging in ground attacks in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip. This was the "first operational airdrop" that Israel has carried out since the 2006 Lebanon War.
On Nov. 9, an Israeli missile hit journalists sitting near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The missile was reportedly a Lockheed Martin–made Hellfire R9X missile, a version of the Hellfire that was developed by the CIA for carrying out assassinations. Instead of exploding, the missile shreds its target using blades, allowing for a direct hit without collateral damage. The target in this case was not a military one.
The Israeli military also uses Lockheed Martin’s M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). Used to fire Elbit Systems’ high-precision AccuLAR-122, the weapon was used by Israel for the first time, since the 2006 war in Lebanon, on Oct. 6, according to the Israeli military.
On an Oct. 17 call with investors, Lockheed Martin CEO, Jim Taiclet, “highlighted the Israel and Ukraine conflicts as potential drivers for increased revenue in the coming years.”
Lockheed Martin is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and has key production sites in Denver, Houston, New Orleans, and San Diego. For more locations, see this map.
For more information on this company (not including these latest developments), see our company profile on the Investigate database.
Josh Fox, at THE NATION last Friday, noted:
Stein says she’s against fracking, but Stein has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the oil and gas industry. Did you know that? Did you know that she actually profits off of the oil and gas industry, that she has had investments in the Keystone XL pipeline and multiple fracking companies?
Did you know that she has investments in Raytheon, that she’s had investments in ExxonMobil? Did you know that she has investments in Home Depot—one of the most rapacious companies in the world, guilty of horrific deforestation throughout the world?
How is it that the Green Party candidate hasn’t divested her own personal fortune from fossil fuels? It’s sheer hypocrisy. And so is the strategy of running for president every four years but never showing up for battles like this.
In 2016, Stein defended these investments by saying they are mutual funds and indexed retirement funds.
But that, plainly speaking, is bunk.
Her claims are a slap in the face to the entire fossil fuel divestment movement. It is easier now than ever to have investments that are fossil free; doing so is a huge plank of the environmental cause. Hundreds of real activists were arrested this summer in New York City calling for Citibank to divest as part of the Summer of Heat campaign. For Stein to ignore all this and still attempt to call herself an activist is beyond hypocrisy, it is political malpractice. Shame on you, Dr. Stein! Shame on you for profiting from fracking and oil drilling.
That some of you voted for that whorish grifter is bad enough but that's not the real damage that was done.
The real damage was in suppressing the vote.
In 2008, when Barack Obama ran for president, the same beggar media did everything they could to build him up. FAIR embarrassed themselves after the Hillary Clinton and Barack debate during that year's Democratic Party primary by slapping one of the moderators for asking about Barack's friendship with activist/terrorist Bill Ayers. Ayers -- a nobody, he was arm candy for his wife -- had been underground and, more to the point, when his friendship with Barack came to light, everyone rushed to lie that they knew each other because their kids were friends. No. That was a damn lie. And beggar media knew it was because, although they can't get real jobs, they can do simple math. Bill and Bernardine turned themselves in as Jimmy Carter was finishing his presidency and Ronald Reagan was due to be sworn in. They thought they'd get a better deal under Carter. Their children were already born by that time. ( We're not referring to Chesa but even he was born in 1980.) Barack and Michelle's oldest child was born in 1998. No, the two Ayers boys were not friends and playmates of the Obamas' daughters.
But that's what the beggar media did -- that and a whole lot more.
For a Black man, that's what they did.
And we saw in July, August, September and October what they'd do for a Black woman -- not a damn thing.
While running for the nomination, Barack did many things that went against what he stated he stood for (putting homophobes on stage at campaign rallies, telling Michael R. Gordon of THE NEW YORK TIMES that any US troops he might pull out of Iraq he would send back in based on the security situation, changing his timeline for withdrawal, his advisor Samantha Power telling the BBC that the promise of a withdrawal really wasn't a promise, etc). But that didn't result in beggar media attacking him the way they did Kamala.
Kamala was attacked from day one. Oh, sure, THE PROGRESSIVE or COMMON DREAMS might do a puff piece on . . . Tim Walz. But they considered Tim to be one of their own. Supposedly, that was due to him being a progressive, but speak to Black women and they were wise to the fact that the real difference was that these outlets could get behind a White man but not a Black woman.
Day after day, they could and they did rip her apart.
Naomi Klein thought she was doing a favor going on DEMOCRACY NOW! and declaring that you hold your nose to vote for someone like Kamala.
Huh?
That's how you build enthusiasm? After one guest, in July, was allowed to praise Kamala and be excited about Kamala running, DEMOCRACY NOW! never offered that again until October 31st.
People weren't allowed to be excited about Kamala, no, beggar media wouldn't let them be.
Beggar media wanted to hang Gaza around Kamala's neck.
She wasn't the president. She didn't get to make policy. Most of us knew she wanted a cease-fire and was the first to call on Joe to move towards that. Most of us knew what her family -- including her niece -- thought.
But that didn't matter.
It didn't matter that the Supreme Court was at stake. It didn't matter that reproductive rights were at stake.
Nothing mattered but the Palestinians.
Amy GoodWhoreman brought on, the day before the election, the Mayor of Dearborn.
His city, he insisted, had to think about Palestinians first.
We think a real interview would have required asking this American citizen exactly where on his list of priorities this country landed? We further think inviting on that man, mayor of a city of homophobes, also required asking him: How much is this opposition to Kamala based on her defense of the LGBTQ+ community?
But we're not supposed to ask those question. No, we're just supposed to fetishize an entire population segment despite the fact that this community in question only stopped voting majority GOP due to the Muslim backlash in the US following 9/11. That detail was never passed on to readers and viewers and listeners of beggar media. There are progressive Muslims in Michigan. There are many more homophobic and conservative Muslims in Michigan which is why the first city council in the state to have an all Muslim composition promptly went around destroying LGBTQ+ rights.
But we didn't get told about that, we only got told about these wonderful Disney-like animated creatures who woke up signing and smiling and sniffing the flowers while the birds landed on their shoulders.
How different would reactions have been if the truth had been told?
Again, we didn't get the truth, not from beggar media.
'Ava and C.I.! You just noted THE NATION's piece about Jill!"
We did and that was published only after the groundswell of Katrina vanden Heuvel being called out for her racism. In fact, for a few days there, she shut down all comments to her Twitter feed unless you were pre-approved -- so much for free speech. We were among the ones leaving comments about the racism -- we did that a full week before Josh's piece. We did it when we learned that THE NATION has just published an editorial opposing Kamala Harris -- by their 'interns.'
We don't give money to that rag to hear from their 'interns.' Sorry, but you're learning a trade, you're not in the position to be writing editorials. And what position you'll have in the future is open to debate because we're vengeful bitches.
Norman Solomon knows that. Learned it the hard way this year. That's when the Democrat who was a pledged delegate for Barack in 2008 announced -- COMMON DREAMS carried the crappy column (others did as well) -- that he would be voting for Jill Stein.
He later pulled that back because he learned real quick that those of us who have helped keep beggar media afloat weren't going to do it for racists.
All the lip service in the world to the importance of Black women in US elections. But when a Black woman ran for president, these same outlets wouldn't take a moment to allow joy over this. Kamala is the first Black woman to be presidential candidate for one of the major parties. And, yes, that was historic, and, yes, it did matter to many Black women.
Katrina and Amy are both racists. Sadly, they're not equally blamed because few people even know who Katrina is. Don't worry, Katrina, we plan to increase your public profile. But they knew Amy and they knew her program and they were shocked by the garbage she offered day after day.
Again, they all offered it. All of the beggar media offered insults and put downs of Kamala day after day.
When they weren't being racist, they went with sexist.
This was not our first presidential election to observe and comment on. So it stood out to us that Barack, Joe, John Kerry, whomever didn't have columns (plural) every day telling them what they needed to do. And columns, mind you, written by men.
A reflective left media would have taken several pauses over the three months to ask, "What are we doing? Are we being fair?"
But apparently begging everyone for money takes a huge toll so they don't have time for reflection.
Good news, bums, we plan to help you there, we plan to make sure you have a lot more free time.
By repeatedly trashing Kamala, by refusing to ever feature the people who were excited by her, they worked overtime to defeat enthusiasm for the candidate. Amy Goodman, as we pointed out repeatedly at THIRD, was damn happy to have a Civil Rights pioneer (who was also the widow of another Civil Rights pioneer) on DEMOCRACY NOW! over the years. But when this woman, Myrlie Evers-Williams, endorsed Kamala in September and spoke of how excited she was by Kamala's campaign, Amy couldn't even note the news in a headline.
We weren't the only ones commenting on the racism from leftists. The YOUTUBE program TABITHA SPEAKS did a great segment on it. And Tabitha noted a Latina who was also dismayed by the attacks on Kamala and on those who supported Kamala. In fact, if you were avoiding the White beggars, you'd find many women online lamenting the way Kamala was being treated. And, as we noted for weeks, we heard about it pretty much every time we spoke.
Jill Stein is a con artist. But they could get behind Jill and pretend that she was an answer and an ally. Which is why they didn't report on 'Butchy' Ware -- her little running mate -- being a transphobe and calling for restricting abortion.
These very real issues didn't matter.
Well, Gaza Freaks, we hope you're happy. We hope as the blood continues to be spilled, that the screams of the dead haunt you. That's their blood on your hands. Trump and Netanyahu are good buddies. He's made clear what will happen: A bigger green light for Netanyahu to continue the slaughter.
We can't work with people we can't trust so lots of luck stopping the Trump genocide.
You've already, Gaza Freaks, alienated many people who were on your side. It's only going to get worse for you. Students protesting on campus? Under Trump. Oh, this is the man who wanted to attack non-violent Black Lives Matter protesters.
And Hamas? It's a terrorist organization per the United States government.
We defended the Palestinian people. We never made the mistake that the Gaza Freaks did in defending Hamas. We point that out for a reason: In January, Joe Biden is not the president, Donald Trump is. You do get that, right? You do get that he will probably be exploring what kind of legal consequences he can impose for those openly supporting a terrorist organization.
Might be time to start recalculating your speeches and articles and programs.
What will we be doing?
Probably our usual role: Cleaning up the messes of lazy White people.
We're tempted to walk away. We actually could. We're fortunate in ways that many other Americans aren't. And we've more than put in our time.
But instead, we'll probably stick around online a little bit longer. Probably focus on important issues like climate change, opposing homophobia, fighting for reproductive rights, fighting for real free speech (which includes opposing book bans), fighting for reparations and --
Wait. That last one.
Oh, Katrina vanden Heuvel. We're back to her. She never made a penny herself but her grandfather left her a ton of money -- money she went to court over because she didn't want to pay the estate tax., What a great liberal, right?
That money she has? Her grandfather made it off the backs of Black people. Lena Horne, to name but one, was always clear to us what trash Katrina's grandfather was and how he undercut the pay of Black artists -- he was an agent working on commission -- to get better money for club performances from his favored White artists.
Lena would tell us tales in person and in writing.
Katrina, we're going to be circulating those letters to people who might be thinking about donating to your garbage rag.
But that's not all we'll be doing. We'll spend a lot of time in your state just to make sure everyone knows that your racist grandfather made money off the backs of Black artists and that's how you afford your mansion in Harlem.
Do you get that, Katrina? Do you get how insulting that is to Black people? The money you have is from their work and you use it to live in Harlem. Do you get how bad that looks?
Give us a year or two and see how much worse we make it look as we get the word out on you.
Reparations should start with people like you. You live a rich life thanks to racism. And you can move over to the right wing and they'll embrace you. But do you really think the left's going to embrace you as they realize what and who you really are?
And don't, as you did in 2007, send us an e-mail from you or your assistant, offering us a bribe to shut us up. It didn't work in 2007 when were exposing the sexism at THE NATION under your leadership -- see "The Nation featured 491 male bylines in 2007 -- how many female ones?" -- and it won't work now. And probably after we're done with you, will get to work circulating the #MeToo realities of THE NATION.
Again, we've vengeful bitches.
We're also smart and informed bitches. And we knew all along that enthusiasm was needed for Kamala to win and we registered it when so many left and 'left' outlets pissed on Kamala to avoid praising her, who did hold-your-nose-and-vote-for-her articles and segments. The whole country will now suffer because of your actions, so we believe it's only fair that you suffer as well.
We've got a Friday call, post-election analysis, with other donors you've depended on in the past. How do you think that's going to go?
The following sites updated:
