Monday, April 10, 2017

Truest statement of the week

Dr. King spoke of the Triple Evils: racism, militarism and materialism -- meaning, in contemporary society, capitalism.
The sum total of these evils is U.S. imperialism, the global system that was committing the violence he came to that church to oppose; the system of capitalism as it actually exists, that is headquartered in the United States, and whose violence is the greatest obstacle to the construction of a humane civilization.
When Dr. King said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” he was expressing confidence that humanity would throw off -- overthrow -- these evil systems.

That did not sit well with the captains of imperialism, and Dr. King was dead exactly one year later.

-- Glen Ford, "MLK and Obama: Two Diametrically Opposed Legacies" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).















A note to our readers

Hey --


A Monday.





First, we 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?




The stripped down edition.

And we're at a loss.

Another war.

Another press sold war.


See you next week!

Peace.




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











Editorial: When does it ever end?

This site started after the Iraq War began.

And after the Afghanistan War began.

And since, so many more.

So many more.

Again and again in the same situation
For so many years 
-- "Same Situation," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her COURT & SPARK.


More war.

All the time.

And, as with Iraq, we're doing it to 'save' somebody.

And, again, 'chemical weapons' are at issue.


Joseph Kishore (WSWS) noted, "The Syrian government of Assad, whose forces have been on the offensive, had nothing to gain from ordering a chemical attack on his retreating enemies. The United States had obvious political motives. The CIA and military were looking for a justification to launch airstrikes on the Syrian government based on geostrategic considerations."


But try to find that skepticism in the corporate press.


You won't.

Which is why the wars never end these days.


TV: HULU serves up the worst

DIMENSION 404 has none.

Not even one.

The new HULU anthology series is a disappointment from the get go.



tv


For example, 11 minutes into a show before it offers a twist is way too long -- a twist or any indication that it's a science fiction show.

Robert Buckley is appealing enough as looking for true love Adam.  And MOM's Matt Jones is good as the sidekick.

But Lea Michele?

The hour long episode is about a matchmaking service that makes the matches -- including the person you get fixed up with.

For us to give a damn about two characters before we get the syfy angle, we need two characters we can like and relate to.

Unless there's a major John Ford Noonan revival on the repertory circuit, Lea's got no where to go as an actress because she enters every scene as if she's screaming at and playing to the back row of a crowded theater.

The only time she appears natural?

When her character Amanda is speaking directly into the camera for a matchmaking interview.

Grasp that, Lea cannot convincingly act opposite another actor.

Put her on the stage where her grimaces and contortions -- far from a camera -- won't look so freakish.

DIMENSION 404 is completely freakish.

Episode two is even worse.

Patton Oswalt.

How does he keep getting work?

Let alone the lead in an episode.

If Lea is outrageously over-the-top, Patton underwhelms with his one-note performances.

More to the point, who wants to be a five-foot-three, overweight, middle-aged man?

We doubt even Patton wants that.

We can't imagine any viewers want it.

He's like a drummer thinking he can front a rock band.

Sarah Hyland is charming opposite him -- a testament to her talent -- but his role really called for Joel McHale or someone similar.


The whole syfy point of the first episode?

Matchmakers are cloning.

The point of the second episode?

Twelve minutes in, we're closer to the syfy twist -- closer but still not there.

No thought is going into the writing of these scripts.

There's no effort to create good characters.

There's no effort to create twists and turns.

A one line synopsis is fleshed out with dialogue (bad dialogue) and we're supposed to consider that the height of a science fiction anthology series?


Neither episode is worth watching.



They're cheesy episodes that are poorly written and go for camp -- but not gay camp, some sort of dweeb camp.


Which is why we checked out in the middle of the third episode.

A science fiction  show that makes GOOSEBUMPS look like PSYCHO is always going to be a hard sell.

Even more so when it's an anthology series.

AMERICAN CRIME and AMERICAN HORROR STORY are a kind of anthology series.  The ABC drama and FX horror story shows tell a different story each season.

Most anthology shows have told a different story each week.

And most of them failed.


Academy Award winner Loretta Young managed to steer THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW (also known as LETTER TO LORETTA) through eight seasons but many others flopped (THE RICHARD BOONE SHOW, THE O HENRY PLAYHOUSE, THE LLOYD BRIDGES SHOW, THE DANNY THOMAS HOUR, THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW, CBS TELEVISION WORKSHOP, CELANESE THEATRE, etc).


DIMENSION 404 doesn't have enough ambition to be rated a failure.




"Cows don't leave the slaughter house, steaks do," Joel McHale insists in the first episode. "Chew on that."


Sadly, there's nothing to chew on in this series.


It's wafer thin and thought free.

Consider it HULU's worst and, after DEADBEAT, who would have thought the streaming service could offer anything worse?


















It's not that simple




When Randi Rhodes started broadcasting on AIR AMERICA RADIO, she made a point of saying that before the US goes to war with a country, the media should be required to report on it honestly.


No one's done that on Syria.


The assumption is that the Syrian people must want this.

Certainly, 'proud mom' Alyssa Milano thinks so.


But it's not that simple.


  1. Mainstream media won't show us THESE Syrians: Massive rally of Syrian University students denouncing the US strikes on their country.



It rarely is.

Tweet of the week




Expect CNN to break the story imminently.


If you're not getting the joke, it may be because Jake Tapper (CNN) deleted one of his Tweets.  See below.



  1. You know it's an Orwellian world when a CNN personality praises a 7-year old girl being exploited by her parents as a legitimate news source













What has Chelsea Clinton ever done?



Thank you for a wonderful signing last night! I loved meeting so many members of your community!




Besides greet a gathering of White people?


The Iraq War was a defining moment for a generation.

Yet somehow Chelsea Clinton never protested it and never enlisted to serve in it.

For a vapid failure, that's no big deal.

For someone who's floating a run for Congress?


She's never done anything that warrants a seat in Congress.






Thanks, Hillary



Migrants from west Africa being ‘sold in Libyan slave markets’ The end result of Obama's and Clinton's handiwork.








The difference between a partisan piece of crap and a peace activist?

This is a repost of Friday's Iraq snapshot.





Iraq snapshot

Friday, April 7, 2017.  Chaos and violence continue, The Mosul Slog continues, the partisan liars continue and let's learn to tell the difference between a partisan piece of crap and a peace activist.







There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one
There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one

For sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land
With the velvet hill in the small of my back
And my hands are playing the sand
And my feet are swimming in all of the waters
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

Well sometimes when I am feeling so grand
And I become the world
And the world becomes a man
And my song becomes a part of the river
I cry out to keep me just the way I am
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan
-- "Peace Will Come (According to Plan)," written by Melanie Safka, first appears on her album LEFTOVER WINE

There's a chance that peace will come . . . but not as long as people lie.
Take this idiot, "Peace Is Active."

Bush Said Iraq Would Welcome Us As Liberators... Many Lives Lost... Civil War We Sparked Bled Into Syria...

 

 

Where's Barack on that list?

I get that D Cheney smirk when I see orgs quote Dr. King today that said nothing during Obama's 8 years of bombings.


If he hadn't overturned the 2010 Iraqi vote -- talk about foreign interference in an election -- Nouri al-Maliki wouldn't have gotten a second term and Iraq might not have witnessed the rise of the Islamic State.
Where's Bill Clinton?
Do a half million dead Iraqi children not matter?
Or, like Madeline Albright (Bill's Secretary of State and Destruction), do you think killing them was "worth it"?


There's a special in place for hell for Madeline Albright and plenty of spots for those who lie and cover for her as well.
Where's Jimmy Carter?


Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

Brzezinski: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what?
That's  Mika Brzezinski's dirty ass father Zbigniew Brzezinski who served as Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor.
Peace will never come when whores and liars pretend the problem is Republicans.
John Kerry voted for the Iraq War.  John Edwards voted for the Iraq War.  Joe Biden voted for the Iraq War.  Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War. 
What do they hold in common?
They're all Democrats for one thing.
And they were all on presidential tickets after their votes for war.
The 2004 Democratic presidential ticket was Kerry - Edwards (or John and John -- two toilets for twice the flushing).
Joe Biden was the running mate on the 2008 and 2012 ticket.
Hillary Clinton was the presidential candidate on the 2016 ticket.
Before you start cheering on Barack Obama and Tim Kaine for not voting for the Iraq War, remember that neither was in the US Congress -- House or Senate -- in 2002.
And add in that Barack told THE NEW YORK TIMES in 2004, during the national convention in Boston, that he didn't know how he would have voted had he been in the Senate.
And yet someone claiming to want peace, is pimping the wars as the responsibility of the sole Republican Party?
That's a lie. 
And peace will never come while we continued to allow ourselves to be hijacked for partisan purposes.
Grasp that in 2006, Democrats promised they would end the war in Iraq if they were given control of a house of Congress.
At the time, they were in the minority in both houses.
In those November elections, the American people gave them control of both houses.
January 2007 saw that Congress sworn in.
Did the Iraq War end?
No.
Did it end in 2008?
No.
Give us one house of Congress and we'll end the war . . . 
A lie.
Nancy Pelosi, elevated to Speaker of the House, tried to pin the blame on then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
What a load of nonsense.
She didn't say, "Give me both houses of Congress," she said one.
They thought they had a chance at winning back the House.  That was the promise she was making.  So she expected the Senate would obstruct -- that it would be controlled by Republicans. 
Instead, it ended up controlled by Democrats.
And she whined -- the the editorial board of THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- that she only had control of the House herself so she couldn't end the war.
What a lying sack of s**t.
Shame on everyone who provides cover for politicians who start and/or continue illegal wars.
Shame on those who use it as a partisan issue.
This is about human life and you're lying to churn out the vote for a political party?
That includes Peace Is Active who doesn't give a damn about peace -- check out the Twitter feed -- just about slamming Republicans and praising Democrats.
You are the problem.
You are the cause of continued war.
Because you whore.
I'm hoping Chris Hayes is just stupid.
Remember: US re-involvement in Iraq started with humanitarian mission to save Yazidis from slaughter on Mt Sinjar.


No, Chris, it didn't.
You refused to report what happened but Tim Arango reported it, we've covered it here hundreds of times and, in your magazine THE NATION, Tom Hayden even wrote about Tim Arango's report.
So are you stupid?  Are you lying? Or are you whoring?
The drawdown (not withdrawal) was at the end of 2011.  The Yazidi 'rescue' began in 2014.
Where's Barack sending special-ops into Iraq in 2012?  Oh, Chris ignores it.
From November 7, 2012's "Let the fun begin (Ava and C.I.):"
 If you doubt that, September 26th, the New York Times' Tim Arango reported:

 
Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.



September 26th it was in print.

Days later, October 3rd, Barack 'debated' Mitt RomneyAgain October 16thAgain October 22nd.
Not once did the moderators ever raise the issue.

If Barack's sitting before them and he's flat out lying to the American people, it's their job to ask.  They didn't do their job.  Nor did social menace Candy Crowley who was apparently dreaming of an all-you-can-eat buffet when Barack was babbling away before her about how he wouldn't allow more "troops in Iraq that would tie us down."  But that's exactly what he's currently negotiating.

Maybe Candy Crowley missed the New York Times article?  Maybe she spends all her time pleasuring herself to her version of porn: Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine?

That is possible.

But she was only one of the three moderators.  Bob Schieffer and Jim Lehrer also moderated.  Of course, they didn't foolishly self-present as a fact checker in the midst of the debate  nor did they hit the publicity circuit before the debate to talk about how they were going to show how it was done.

Poor Crowley, a heavy weight strutting into a non-competition will always look woefully misdressed.

Barack lied and Americans will face that or not.
Chris Hayes appears to indicate that America will not face that.
Let's all hope he's wrong.
Meanwhile . . .
President Erdogan: It is not appropriate to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi flag.


Must be wonderful to be Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, so few problems that you can stick your nose into other countries' business and do so over issues like whether or not they should raise a flag.
What's that?
Erdogan's Turkey has thousands of problems -- most of them stemming from Erdogan.
And when he's out of office, he will be seen as a butcher for all the civilians he's killed in his so-called efforts to bomb the PKK.  (He's killing Kurds.  He knows it.  The Kurds know it.  He's thinning out the population.  His policies in Turkey are the same only less obviously violent.)
Repeating, when he's out of office, he will be seen as the butcher he is.
And he can shut down every last TV channel, newspaper and blog in Turkey and he still won't be able to silence that truth.
Butcher.
Meanwhile it's day 171 of The Mosul Slog.  
How's that going?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees offers this:

KEY FIGURES
314,268 Iraqis currently internally displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since military operations to retake the city began on 17 October 2016
37,455 core relief item (CRIs) kits distributed to families in camps, assisting some 224,000 IDPs from Mosul and surrounding areas
7,814 family plots currently occupied out of 12,497 family plots (for some 75,000 people) in UNHCR built camps ready to receive IDPs displaced from the Mosul corridor
3 million IDPs since January 2014
250,952 Iraqi refugees hosted in countries in the region, and 14,878 Iraqis received in Al Hol camp in Syria since 17 October 2016
FUNDING
USD 578 million requested for IDPs and Iraqi refugees in the region in 2017


And remember that this week, the civilians in Mosul were again instructed to remain in their homes.  There is no safe passage out.  But we can be sure that when the next civilian massacre gets attention we will suffer through members of the US Congress insisting it's all ISIS' fault.


The war continues in Iraq, Trump's attacking Syria and the thing all the 'intelligent' people are doing?  Mocking Jared Kushner for wearing a flack jacket.
No, your priorities aren't screwed up at all.  (That was sarcasm.)
While flying home to Hawaii, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard issues statement: Trump's air strikes on Syria are reckless and short-sighted. –Team Tulsi




US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard is correct.
By the way, the US State Dept will not have a press briefing today: "There will NOT be a Press Briefing today."  And they haven't held once since March 21st.  The State Dept press briefing is a daily event.  How sad that Donald Trump's people are too scared to face the press.  How sad, but how telling.
So much to work on but so little willing to do the work.


We don't need another war but, by all means, let's not focus on that or Iraq or anything that matters because we can be snotty about Jared!  (Snotty, not bitchy.  It's not mature enough to pass for bitchy.  It's the stuff of 3rd graders.)


Who's for peace?

That should be the question of the day.
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