Obama is not in Kansas anymore, but he does not seem
to know it. Latin America no longer slavishly accepts orders from the
USA; it is no longer the USA’s “back yard”.
The mainstream media has downplayed the fact that President Obama has
just declared yet another country an enemy of the USA –one in the
American Hemisphere. He has issued an Executive Order declaring
Venezuela an “extraordinary and unusual threat to the national security of the United States” [i]
How a nation that spends less than 1% of its GDP on military
expenditures, has no latest state-of-the-art military weaponry, and an
army of merely 120,000 can possibly threaten the security of the mighty
United States, is entirely incomprehensible.
-- Maria Paez Victor, "Why is the US So Frightened of Venezuela?" (CounterPunch).
Sunday, April 05, 2015
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another Sunday. 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.
What did we come up with?
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Another Sunday. 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.
What did we come up with?
One for The Daily Beast which was one of the few outlets to grasp that there was no deal.
Barack's targeting of Venezuela isn't surprising. The silence from so many on the left is surprising.
Saddam's hometown is 'liberated' by Shi'ite militias who quickly burn and loot the city. And we're supposed to pretend this wasn't warned against or predicted?
I (Jim) haven't seen Daredevil. But reading Ava and C.I.'s review really makes me want to. If they're right, this is going to be event viewing.
No deal, despite the lies of so many.
Ayad Allawi.
We watched her speak on the video to get the screen snap. None of us had seen her at that appearance before we streamed it today. We were shocked by how bad she looked and how much make up she was wearing.
Short feature!
Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.
So they fix the error we pointed out last week but fail to note that they've done a correction. Way to go, Mary Sue!
Short feature!
What we listened to while writing this edition.
ACLU press release.
Repost from UK Socialist Worker.
Press release from Michigan's Green Party.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: How was it ever a surprise?
Honestly, who was really surprised?
Iraqi Spring MC Tweeted about the militia looting Tikrit last week and supplied a photo.
Days later, the media began to grasp the looting that was taking place.
By Saturday, Lydia Willgress (Daily Mail) was noting, "Shia paramilitary fighters looting and setting fire to buildings in Tikrit are 'out of control', an official said. Ahmed al-Karim, head of the Salahuddin provincial council, said the fighters had burnt 'hundreds of houses' in the last two days."
And Middle East Monitor reported:
Earlier, the Iraqi governor of Saladin left his own province in disgust over the looting spree being carried out allegedly by the Shia militia.
Ahmed Abdel-Jabbar al-Karim, chief of Saladin's provincial council, told the Anadolu Agency late Friday that he along with Governor Raed al-Jabouri left the province in protest against al-Hashid al-Shaabi's alleged looting and burning spree in Tikrit.
Al-Karim had also blamed the central Iraqi government of not doing enough to stop the militia's illegal actions. "Governor Raed al-Jabouri told Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi about the violations and left the province when no stopped the militia from robbing and burning shops in Tikrit," he said.
According to al-Karim, the Shia militia also clashed with him and al-Jabouri when they tried to stop their rampage in central Tikrit. The militia men allegedly used abusive words, laced with sectarian references, with the senior Iraqi officials, which then quickly turned into a physical clash that left several body guards injured.
These acts were not surprising.
Kenneth Roth and Human Rights Watch warned against them ahead of time.
The editorial board of The New York Times also voiced concern.
Warning bells were going off.
Such as last Monday when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Baghdad.
#UNSG urges Iraq 2 do all it can to ensure protection of civilians & humanitarian access in conflict zones. @UNIraq
Ned Parker and John Stonestreet (Reuters) quoted the Secretary-General, "I am... concerned by allegations of summary killings, abductions and destruction of property perpetrated by forces and militias fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces," Ned Parker and Crispian Balmer (Reuters) offer a longer report here. Rod Nordland covers Ban Ki-moon's remarks for the New York Times here. RTT covers it here.
Again, what happened was not a surprise.
And maybe if what poses as a peace movement in the US had bothered to shine a spotlight on Iraq, the American people might have been aware of what was expected.
As it is, most Americans don't even know what took place.
Thanks, CodeStink. Thanks for nothing.
Iraqi Spring MC Tweeted about the militia looting Tikrit last week and supplied a photo.
#صلاح_الدين:
تكرار حالات السلب والنهب التي تنتهجها القوات الحكومية والميليشيات التابعة لها عند دخولها مناطق النزاع.
Days later, the media began to grasp the looting that was taking place.
By Saturday, Lydia Willgress (Daily Mail) was noting, "Shia paramilitary fighters looting and setting fire to buildings in Tikrit are 'out of control', an official said. Ahmed al-Karim, head of the Salahuddin provincial council, said the fighters had burnt 'hundreds of houses' in the last two days."
And Middle East Monitor reported:
Earlier, the Iraqi governor of Saladin left his own province in disgust over the looting spree being carried out allegedly by the Shia militia.
Ahmed Abdel-Jabbar al-Karim, chief of Saladin's provincial council, told the Anadolu Agency late Friday that he along with Governor Raed al-Jabouri left the province in protest against al-Hashid al-Shaabi's alleged looting and burning spree in Tikrit.
Al-Karim had also blamed the central Iraqi government of not doing enough to stop the militia's illegal actions. "Governor Raed al-Jabouri told Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi about the violations and left the province when no stopped the militia from robbing and burning shops in Tikrit," he said.
According to al-Karim, the Shia militia also clashed with him and al-Jabouri when they tried to stop their rampage in central Tikrit. The militia men allegedly used abusive words, laced with sectarian references, with the senior Iraqi officials, which then quickly turned into a physical clash that left several body guards injured.
These acts were not surprising.
Kenneth Roth and Human Rights Watch warned against them ahead of time.
The editorial board of The New York Times also voiced concern.
Warning bells were going off.
Such as last Monday when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Baghdad.
Ned Parker and John Stonestreet (Reuters) quoted the Secretary-General, "I am... concerned by allegations of summary killings, abductions and destruction of property perpetrated by forces and militias fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces," Ned Parker and Crispian Balmer (Reuters) offer a longer report here. Rod Nordland covers Ban Ki-moon's remarks for the New York Times here. RTT covers it here.
Again, what happened was not a surprise.
And maybe if what poses as a peace movement in the US had bothered to shine a spotlight on Iraq, the American people might have been aware of what was expected.
As it is, most Americans don't even know what took place.
Thanks, CodeStink. Thanks for nothing.
TV: Netflix gears up to explode the limits of the imagination
On April 10th, Netflix unveils its first real series.
Yes, they've already had success with House of Cards and Hemlock Grove -- among others. But the reality is that neither series is particularly visual.
Both are basically radio serials with audio -- that's even more true of Orange Is The New Black.
You get talking heads shots, you get post card scenery, you just don't get a sense of what the camera can do.
In fairness, that's a criticism of many TV shows and Netflix is, more or less, just another TV network these days.
With Marvel's Daredevil, Netflix is set to become something a great deal more.
The character Matt Murdoch explains, "When I was a kid, I used to dream what it would be like to live somewhere far away from Hell's Kitchen. But I realized the city was a part of me, it was in my blood."
And the city is very much a part of Daredevil -- so much so that it's basically a member of the cast.
If the late film director Robert Altman had tackled the super hero genre, it might look something like this show as Hell's Kitchen provides both mood and tension to the proceedings. (Phil Abraham directs the first two episodes and deserves huge credit not only for those two but for the visualization he developed that is carried on throughout the next eleven episodes.)
Over on ABC, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exists in some land but you're never really sure where that is. Some might argue that's due to the traveling on the spy agency jet but the reality is that the series' struggle for an identity has a great deal to do with the reality to root it in a location. By contrast, Fox's Gotham succeeds largely due to its look only (Jada Pinkett-Smith's the only actor consistently delivering a performance).
On Netflix, Charlie Cox is playing the lead role. The blind hero in the red leather was last played by Ben Affleck in the 2003 film that just squeaked over the $100 million box office line in North America. The series doesn't pick up from there. It gives you the origin story but mainly takes place in the time frame after 2012's film Marvel The Avengers.
Cox follows in the footsteps of Andrew Garfield, Henry Cavill, Christian Bale and Gale Gadot -- non-American actors who have been cast to play superheroes from American comics which may cause some to grimace and carp but he really does deliver in the title role.
He uses a speaking manner similar to Affleck's Daredevil but otherwise makes the role all his own and he's surprisingly effective and moves quickly to the mature hero. That's no minor accomplishment. Seventeen episodes into The Flash, Grant Gustin's still acting as though he's playing a wide-eyed Wonder Twin and not Barry Allen.
Daredevil also benefits from a strong cast -- an amazing turn by Rosario Dawson, the always amazing Vincent D'Onofrio, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Wai Ching Ho and Scott Glenn. The entire cast does outstanding work but those actors especially have to be noted.
Daredevil is the show you've been waiting for. The action series about a superhero that's not all starts and stops (the flashbacks on Arrow have been a joke). The action series that is less like The Flash and more like Nikita in that they know how to stage action scenes and how to shoot them.
On April 10th, Netflix changes everything forever. In 13 episodes, it's made clear that TV viewers do not have to settle. Daredevil makes all today's superhero shows -- Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- look like the sub-par crap that they are. In fact, it makes the show's look as behind the times as George Reeves' Adventures of Superman series from the fifties.
By creating textured characters and locating them in an identifiable universe, Marvel's Daredevil makes the super seem real and the scope of imagination limitless.
Yes, they've already had success with House of Cards and Hemlock Grove -- among others. But the reality is that neither series is particularly visual.
Both are basically radio serials with audio -- that's even more true of Orange Is The New Black.
You get talking heads shots, you get post card scenery, you just don't get a sense of what the camera can do.
In fairness, that's a criticism of many TV shows and Netflix is, more or less, just another TV network these days.
With Marvel's Daredevil, Netflix is set to become something a great deal more.
The character Matt Murdoch explains, "When I was a kid, I used to dream what it would be like to live somewhere far away from Hell's Kitchen. But I realized the city was a part of me, it was in my blood."
And the city is very much a part of Daredevil -- so much so that it's basically a member of the cast.
If the late film director Robert Altman had tackled the super hero genre, it might look something like this show as Hell's Kitchen provides both mood and tension to the proceedings. (Phil Abraham directs the first two episodes and deserves huge credit not only for those two but for the visualization he developed that is carried on throughout the next eleven episodes.)
Over on ABC, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exists in some land but you're never really sure where that is. Some might argue that's due to the traveling on the spy agency jet but the reality is that the series' struggle for an identity has a great deal to do with the reality to root it in a location. By contrast, Fox's Gotham succeeds largely due to its look only (Jada Pinkett-Smith's the only actor consistently delivering a performance).
On Netflix, Charlie Cox is playing the lead role. The blind hero in the red leather was last played by Ben Affleck in the 2003 film that just squeaked over the $100 million box office line in North America. The series doesn't pick up from there. It gives you the origin story but mainly takes place in the time frame after 2012's film Marvel The Avengers.
Cox follows in the footsteps of Andrew Garfield, Henry Cavill, Christian Bale and Gale Gadot -- non-American actors who have been cast to play superheroes from American comics which may cause some to grimace and carp but he really does deliver in the title role.
He uses a speaking manner similar to Affleck's Daredevil but otherwise makes the role all his own and he's surprisingly effective and moves quickly to the mature hero. That's no minor accomplishment. Seventeen episodes into The Flash, Grant Gustin's still acting as though he's playing a wide-eyed Wonder Twin and not Barry Allen.
Daredevil also benefits from a strong cast -- an amazing turn by Rosario Dawson, the always amazing Vincent D'Onofrio, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Wai Ching Ho and Scott Glenn. The entire cast does outstanding work but those actors especially have to be noted.
Daredevil is the show you've been waiting for. The action series about a superhero that's not all starts and stops (the flashbacks on Arrow have been a joke). The action series that is less like The Flash and more like Nikita in that they know how to stage action scenes and how to shoot them.
On April 10th, Netflix changes everything forever. In 13 episodes, it's made clear that TV viewers do not have to settle. Daredevil makes all today's superhero shows -- Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- look like the sub-par crap that they are. In fact, it makes the show's look as behind the times as George Reeves' Adventures of Superman series from the fifties.
By creating textured characters and locating them in an identifiable universe, Marvel's Daredevil makes the super seem real and the scope of imagination limitless.
There is no deal with Iran
Oh, how the press loves to lie for a White House.
Take the spin still going on that US President Barack Obama got a deal with Iran over nuclear issues.
The reality is that negotiations for a deal were supposed to end on March 31st.
March 31st came and went without a deal.
Red-faced with shame, Barack then ordered US Secretary of State John Kerry to get something, anything they could waive to the press and call a deal.
So Kerry got an outline for a future deal.
And this outline has been passed off ever since as a deal.
We're getting real tired of Antiwar.com.
Justin's in love with Barack, if you missed it.
And Antiwar.com can't stop slobbering over Barack's knob.
Readers of Antiwar.com wrongly are led to believe there's a deal.
At Information Clearing House, Moon of Alabama notes, "The deal is unfinished. The devil is in the details and those
have yet to be agreed upon. The deal will fail when on June 30 those agreements
will turn out to be unachievable."
MoA also ponders whether the actual outcome will be war since Barack has taken to presenting the non-deal as an either/or -- either there is a deal in June or there is war.
Instead of calling Barack out on that, Phyllis Bennis got giddy with delight and declared the non-deal a deal as she mounted her wall vibrator.
There is no deal.
That's a fact which can't be repeated enough.
How sick is Hillary?
That's Hillary Clinton at the United Nations last month.
You know, the visit where she lied that she had to use her personal e-mail account because a Blackberry only let you use one e-mail account and she only carried around her Blackberry?
AP exposed that lie last week, reporting that she also used her iPad.
Poor Cranky.
She can't stop lying.
And you have to wonder how sick she is because of that UN appearance.
No, not for her lie.
For all the make up she wore.
Did no one notice she's practically covered in bronzer -- she seems to have raided George Hamilton's supply.
And the way her cheeks are painted on.
How sick is she?
There are Miss America contestants that wear less make up.
Hillary's e-mails go to another kind of sickness.
Her defenders insist that all the scandals have made her wary and secretive.
As if that's a good thing?
Her defenders insist that Colin Powell did similar things.
When did Colin Powell run for president?
Here's the sick truth her fan cult won't tell.
In 2009, Hillary became Secretary of State with the hope of running for president in 2016.
Despite that being the plan, she intentionally decided not to use a government e-mail account in order to circumvent FOIA requests and the historical record.
Her cult keeps insisting that she didn't do anything illegal.
Did she?
We have no opinion on that.
We do know she did something truly stupid and unethical.
And we know she did that when she was gearing up to run for the presidency.
The presidency requires a higher level of ethics than what Hillary has exhibited.
At some point, her cult might want to face that reality.
White House Charades
US President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice pass the time on Air Force One with a game of charades.
Having read her phrase, Susan Rice tosses aside the strip of paper and grabs her Blackberry as she begins acting out her secret phrase.
Barack: Is it a person?
Susan: Yes!
Barack: And do we hate her?
Susan: You know it!
Barack: Is it Hillary?
Susan: Bingo!
Having read her phrase, Susan Rice tosses aside the strip of paper and grabs her Blackberry as she begins acting out her secret phrase.
Barack: Is it a person?
Susan: Yes!
Barack: And do we hate her?
Susan: You know it!
Barack: Is it Hillary?
Susan: Bingo!
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