Jim's Corner

 

At some point, we'll pack up online.

What's that going to look like?

Well, maybe everyone won't go packing.

There's been talk over the last years of maybe pulling everyone in the community into one site.  

That would allow some who want to blog regularly to continue to do so.  It would also allow some who maybe only want to do so once a week or less to do that.

So, you could go to one site, and during the week have a recipe from Trina, science from Betty, movies from Stan, music from Kat, etc.  

How would that look?

We thought we'd show an example this week.  We're pulling from various sites for this edition.  

Let us know what you think.  (common_ills@yahoo.com or thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com)

We were planning to just note the Iraq and Coke posts but then we figured, let's see what this would look like.

The never-ending Iraq elections

Repost from THE COMMON ILLS:

The never-ending Iraq elections

MIDDLE EAST EYE reports, "Iraq will begin a partial manual recount of votes on Tuesday 3 July of a May parliamentry election clouded by allegations of fraud, a step towards the formation of a new parliament and government."

May 12th, Iraq held national elections.  Ahead of the elections, there had been big hopes -- these hopes included a large turnout.   Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) noted, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and prime minister."  RUDAW added, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs."  AFP explained that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women.  THE SIASAT DAILY added, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers." Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reported, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37 million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi women has declined steadily since 2003.  According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence and sanctions." 


The other big hope?  For the US government, the biggest hope was that Hayder al-Abadi's bloc would come in first so that he would have a second term as prime minister.  It was not to be.  Mustapha Karkouti (GULF NEWS) identifies the key issues as follows, "Like in previous elections, the main concerns of ordinary Iraqis continue to be the lack of security and the rampant corruption."

As we noted the day of the election:

Corruption is a key issue and it was not a topic explored by candidates outside of Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition.  Empty lip service was offered.  Hayder al-Abadi, current prime minister, had been offering empty lip service for four years.  He did nothing.  Iraqis were supposed to think that, for example, Hayder's focus on ISIS in Mosul mattered.  All life was supposed to stop because of Mosul?  All expectations were to be ignored because of Mosul?

Arabic social media today and yesterday was full of comments about the lack of improvement in services.  It noted how the elections had not mattered before and, yes, how in 2010 the US government overturned the elections because they didn't like the outcome. 


So it was probably only surprising to the US government and their press hacks that Hayder wouldn't come in first.  But that was after the votes were counted.  On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote.  NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent."  AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."


Why should they vote?  The US government had repeatedly selected the prime minister -- 2006, 2010 and 2014.  Why should they vote?  The government was corrupt.  Why should they vote?  Safety?  Lip service was given to the claim that ISIS had been defeated but it hadn't.  In fact, Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reported that 16 people were killed and nineteen wounded the day of the election.


Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) captured the mood,  "But as voters trudged towards polling stations, there was none of the euphoria of previous polls – where purple ink-dipped fingers were happily displayed – and almost no energy surrounding the process. Iraqis had done it all before, and elections had delivered little."



Sunday the 13th, votes were counted and the first place winner?  Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

Al Jazeera English‏Verified account @AJEnglish May 14

With over half the votes counted, powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has emerged as the leading contender in the Iraq elections aje.io/drn3n

6 replies64 retweets56 likes

By Monday the 14th, Ayad Allawi was calling for a full recount.  While the US government was working behind the scenes to oveturn the results.  Simon Tisdall (GUARDIAN) explained, "The unexpectedly poor showing of Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, in parliamentary elections has dealt a blow to US influence in the country. [. . .] Put simply, Sadr believes Iraqis should run Iraqi affairs – not Washington, not Tehran and not their proxies."

The US State Dept was still reeling from the results:


QUESTION: I have two more on this, Heather. Do you have any comment on Moqtada al-Sadr, who emerged as the big winner in these elections?

MS NAUERT: Yes. Let me just remind folks that he wasn’t an actual candidate on any of the ballots, but yet his slate of people were candidates. Iraq is still finalizing its election results right now. They’re likely to have to form some sort of coalition government, so I don’t want to get ahead of the process and presume how things are going to look in the end. But I think the overarching theme right now is congratulations to Iraq for holding democratic and free elections.

QUESTION: And on the formation of the new government, Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s commander Qasem Soleimani is in Baghdad to discuss the formation of the new government. How do you view this Iranian role in the formation of the government?

MS NAUERT: We have a good relationship – bless you – with the Government of Iraq, and we believe that we will continue to do that. There have been many – in Iraq and in other countries as well – that have been concerned about Iran’s reach into many other countries. That is certainly always a concern of ours, but we have a great deal of trust and faith in the Iraqi people and whoever ends up governing, whatever the structure is, the governing of that country going forward. 



It's June 30th, recounts are too start on July 3rd.  That will be about two months after the election took place.  Maybe then there will be a government?

Maybe not.  In 2010, it was over eight months after the election before Iraq formed a government.


The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:

SICKOFITRADLZ

Uh, ever heard of Jennifer Beals

2 hours ago 

 Black Agenda Report

On Magical Thinking VS Sober Analysis of the Ocasio-Cortez Victory in NY

11 hours ago 

Ruth's Report

No, Hillary, there is worse

22 hours ago

Ann's Mega Dub

Ajamu Baraka is right

23 hours ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

how to lose voters in 1 easy lesson

1 day ago

The Official Jody Watley Website

Jody Watley June Wattage

1 day ago 

is coca cola homophobic?

Repost from SEX, POLITICS, SCREEDS AND ATTITUDE:

is coca cola homophobic?

have you seen the stupid commercial?

x shares with j, y shares with h ...

the coke commercial where everyone pairs up by two like animals going onto noah's arc?

am i the only 1 bothered by the fact that it is all these couples and not 1 is 2 gals or 2 guys?

2018 and the only way coke can see love is with opposite sex couples?

that's how they try to appeal to 'every 1'?  that's how they try to sell their product?

they don't think lgbtqs drink cola?

here's the commercial i'm talking about.




and finding this on youtube?  pissed me off even more.  because here's the paragraph coke attached to it:

We share all kinds of things with the ones we love. Dance moves. A song. A kiss. But this summer, the best kind of sharing is when you share a Coke made especially for your significant other. After all, it's got their name on it.

apparently gay people have no 'significant others' hence their absence in the stupid commercial.

Beer and the Supreme Court

Repost from MIKEY LIKES IT:

Beer and the Supreme Court

Big news from CNN, Nathaniel Meyersohn reports:

More Americans are putting down Buds and Coors, instead grabbing wine, liquor, Corona and Michelob.

Americans' changing drinking habits have been taking shape for years, but the trend accelerated in 2018. Beer shipments from US breweries are down 3.5% so far this year, according to The Beer Institute, an industry trade group.

The big four US brands — Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Budweiser — have been hit particularly hard.

Do you drink the big four?  I don’t.  I drink Corona and Heineken.  Of the big four, if I drink one, it’s Miller Lite.  If I drink a Miller, and know ahead,I like to add a V-8 to it.  Corona?  I need a lime, of course.  But Heineken?

I love to dip Ruffles in Heineken.  Pour a cold one into a mug and sip on it between dipping Ruffles into it.  The Ruffles taste better to me that way (plain Ruffles, by the way) and the beer too. 

(Yes, I’m someone who adds a pinch of salt to a glass of chocolate milk to make it taste even better.)

Okay, Supreme Court.  The useless Anthony Kennedy is retiring.  Some are acting like it’s the end of the world.  He’s light-right-wing.  I’m not going to lose any sleep.  Joseph Kishore (WSWS) reminds:

The claim that electing Democrats will do anything to alter the trajectory of bourgeois politics is belied by history. In 2006, under conditions of widespread hatred of the Bush administration, the Democrats won major victories in the congressional elections that gave them control of both houses of Congress. In 2008, they won the presidency and expanded their congressional majority.

But what followed was a continuation and expansion of the reactionary policies of Bush. The Obama administration bailed out the banks while ensuring the continued erosion in the living standards of the working class. His signature domestic policy, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has increased health care costs for workers. Social inequality soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Internationally, the administration continued the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while launching a new war in Libya and organizing the CIA-backed civil war in Syria. Its contempt for democratic principles was embodied in the assertion that the president has the power to assassinate anyone, including US citizens, without due process.

The Democratic Party is a party of lies and cynicism, of millionaires and billionaires, whose main fear is of a social explosion in the United States, which would not only negatively impact stock values, but pose a threat to the entire capitalist system. As a result, they are incapable of defending any democratic rights, including the right to an abortion and gay marriage.

 

Amen.

  

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

UFOs and Cary Grant

From THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN:

 UFOs and Cary Grant

Are you interested in UFOs?  I’m in the middle of listening to a program on the topic right now.

 

IN OTHER NEWS, on WBAI.  Monday’s show if you check their archives.

Geoff Brady hosts.  C.I. passed it on since I write about science.  She said I might enjoy it and I really am enjoying it.

Again, if you’re interested in the topic of UFOs, you should check it out, it’s really great.

  

Okay, now let's note this:

Ninety years ago, future screen legend Cary Grant shared a Greenwich Village love nest with an Australian man who went on to win three Oscars.

That’s the provocative claim in “Women He’s Undressed,’’ a new documentary about celebrated costume designer Orry-Kelly (released Aug. 9 on DVD and video on demand) that adds a tantalizing new chapter to decades of speculation about Grant’s sexuality.

Between the film and Kelly’s recently published, long-suppressed memoir “Women I’ve Undressed,’’ a vivid portrait emerges of Grant as an ambitious young immigrant vaudevillian who reinvented himself so thoroughly, he ended up denying his true self in a homophobic industry.

The article goes on to note Cary Grant living with Randolph Scott and the rumors there.  Not rumors, they were lovers.  Cary Grant also had a sexual relationship with Howard Hughes.

By the way, that's why Warren Beatty's Hughes film was so disappointing.  All those years in development and it offered nothing.  Howard Hughes was bisexual.  It's not a crime.  Don't know why we have to pretend like it is or why we have to pretend like Cary Grant was straight.

I think Cary was the best male movie star of the 20th century.  I also believe he was gay.  

I don't know why some of us are unable to reconcile these two realities.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

No, Hillary, there is worse

From RUTH'S REPORT:

No, Hillary, there is worse

The Hill‏Verified account @thehill 10h10 hours ago

Hillary Clinton shreds complaints about civility in politics: "What is more uncivil and cruel than taking children away?" hill.cm/wL1Z6GV

89 replies290 retweets805 likes

What's more uncivil and cruel?

Killing children, killing their parents.  Dropping bombs on them.

All of which are things Hillary Clinton's done.

We should not forget the 500,000 children dead due to the 90s sanctions on Iraq.  That was her husband Bill Clinton and her best pal Mad Maddie Albright.

Hillary is not part of anything but destruction.

And the separation that she is talking about?  Happened under President Barack Obama as well but Hillary Clinton never said one word.

Today, she is up in arms?

Give me a break.

This is exactly why people have such a hard time trusting her.  She really is a fake ass.


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

Judy Garland (the biographies)

From KAT'S KORNER:

Judy Garland (the biographies)

Judy Garland.  She was an incredible actress, yes.  Nominated twice for an Academy Award.  Should have been nominated many times more.  But she was also a singer.

And she's one of the great singers.  A list of the top 20 singers of the 20th century would have to include her -- as surely as Frank Sinatra would have to be included and Billie Holiday would have to be included, Judy would have to be included.

In terms of women of the 20th century, there are countless books on Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.  Judy Garland also has been the subject of many books.  For years, decades even, the best book about Judy Garland was Christopher Finch's RAINBOW: THE STORMY LIFE OF JUDY GARLAND.

In the last years, three strong Judy books have come on the scene.  Gerold Frank's JUDY, Gerald Clarke's GET HAPPY: THE LIFE OF JUDY GARLAND and David Shipman's JUDY GARLAND: THE SECRET LIFE OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND.

I'd rank them in this order -- Shipman (best), Clarke and then Frank.

Shipman's book is really something, zooming through her life but never overlooking key moments.  He keeps your interest and also introduces new details and new analysis that puts him miles ahead of many Judy biographers.

Judy's a legend but Shipman keeps her real.  If any book has truly replaced Christopher Finch's RAINBOW as THE book on Judy Garland, it's David Shipman's JUDY GARLAND: THE SECRET LIFE OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND.

The book's weakest section?  Detailing THE PIRATE.

I really think this is a key film to Judy, as an adult, at MGM and all that followed.

Shipman doesn't.  He writes, "Her paranoia was such that she began to worry that her co-star was having an affair with her husband, even though Kelly was married."

Oh, okay.

So that's just not possible, right?

Minelli, her husband, was gay.  Even though he was married.

And Gene Kelly's long been rumored to have had affairs with several men.

Why does Judy have to be paranoid?

I don't think she was.

I think she saw both her marriage crumble in that moment and her adult career.  Minelli had directed her in the classic MEET ME IN ST. LOUISE and in her dramatic breakthrough THE CLOCK.  Now, on THE PIRATE, as he engaged in an affair (I believe) with Gene Kelly, he failed her as a husband and as a director.

As a director because he catered to Gene.  (And THE PIRATE is a good movie but Gene looks ridiculous with the fake sideburns.)  As a husband because it's one thing for the gay or bi-sexual Minelli to have affairs (Judy had her own affairs) but it's quite another to have an affair with an actor on one of her films.

I think the two betrayals combined to really destroy her.

My opinion.





"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS): 

Ancho-Maple Barbecue Plank-Smoked Salmon in the Kitchen

Repost from TRINA'S KITCHEN:

Ancho-Maple Barbecue Plank-Smoked Salmon in the Kitchen

Okay, Romaine lettuce news.  From Bill Chappell (NPR):

 

An E. coli outbreak that sickened people in 36 states and triggered warnings not to eat romaine lettuce this spring has been traced to water in a canal in the Yuma, Ariz., region – and the outbreak is now officially over, federal officials say.

"Suspect product is no longer being harvested or distributed from this area and is no longer available in stores or restaurants, due to its 21-day shelf life," the Food and Drug Administration says.

Five people have died because of the outbreak and 96 were sent to hospitals, the FDA says in its latest update. Overall, the agency says, 210 people were made ill by the E. coli outbreak.

Again, I do not think we are doing the job we should be to secure the food.  I think we need more and better inspection.  I think we need fines that mean something.  Five people died – many more were sick.  Why did that happen?  It didn’t have to happen. 

We need an FDA that does it’s job.  It needs more employees, it needs to be doing regular inspections and enforcing the laws and regulations.

Okay, now a summer recipe from Diabetic Living – Ancho-Maple Barbecue Plank-Smoked Salmon:

  

Ingredients

·         1 15x6 1/2x3/8-inch cedar or alder grilling plank*

·         1 2 1/2 - pound fresh or frozen Alaskan salmon fillet (with skin), about 1-inch thick

·         2 teaspoons olive oil

·         1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

·         2 cloves garlic, minced

·         1/4 cup no-salt-added tomato sauce

·         1/4 cup reduced-sugar ketchup

·         1/4 cup pure maple syrup

·         2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste

·         1 tablespoon cider vinegar

·         2 teaspoons reduced-sodium Worcestershire sauce

·         2 teaspoons yellow mustard

·         1 teaspoon ground ancho chile pepper

·         3/4 teaspoon salt

·         1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1.    At least 1 hour before grilling, soak plank in enough water to cover. Place a weight on plank so it stays submerged during soaking. Drain well before using. Thaw salmon, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.

2.    Meanwhile, for sauce, in a small saucepan heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook about 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomato sauce, ketchup, maple syrup, tomato paste, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, ground ancho chile pepper, salt, and black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Let cool.

3.    Spread flesh side of salmon with 1/2 cup of the sauce. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Chill the remaining sauce until serving time.

4.    For a gas or charcoal grill, place plank on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes or until plank begins to crackle and smoke. Place salmon, skin side down, on grill plank, tucking under thin edges to fit. Cover and grill 18 to 22 minutes or until fish begins to flake when tested with a fork. Serve with the remaining sauce.

Tip

·         *Test Kitchen Tip: Look for grilling planks in the grilling supplies section of hardware and home supply stores.

Nutrition Facts Per Serving:

Servings Per Recipe: 10
PER SERVING: 202 cal., 8 g total fat (1 g sat. fat), 62 mg chol., 318 mg sodium, 8 g carb. (1 g fiber, 7 g sugars), 23 g pro.

Diabetic Exchanges

Lean Meat (d.e): 3; Other Carb (d.e): 0.5; Fat (d.e): 0.5

I love that recipe.  Andrea e-mailed it on Wednesday and I love salmon so I went out and got some Thursday, made the recipe, it was perfection.   I really need to utilize Diabetic Living more – I did bookmark it tonight – it has so many wonderful recipes.

I also want to note this:

The Democratic Party is a party of lies and cynicism, of millionaires and billionaires, whose main fear is of a social explosion in the United States, which would not only negatively impact stock values, but pose a threat to the entire capitalist system. As a result, they are incapable of defending any democratic rights, including the right to an abortion and gay marriage.

That’s Joseph Kishore (WSWS) and it’s an amazing essay.  Please read it in full.

  

  

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