Max Blumenthal:
1) Harry Styles' HARRY'S HOUSE.
2) Diana Ross' THANK YOU.
3) Chrissie Hynde's STOCKHOLM.
4) Chase Rice's THE ALBUM.
6) The Cowboy Junkies' ALL THAT RECKONING.
7) Janet Jackson's UNBREAKABLE.
8) Dionne Warwick's SHE'S BACK.
9) Bob Dylan's ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.
10) Judy Garland's JUDY IN LOVE.
This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"Iraq snapshot" -- most requested highlight by members of the community.
"Multiple problems in Iraq," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Another solution to the stalemate," "Leave the kids alone," "Chesa defeated Chesa," "Look who's walking," "If Hunter's name was Roger, he'd be crucified by the MSM by now," "Why Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy Hated Each Other: Mutual Contempt - Feud that Defined a Decade," "Is anyone surprised?," "Larry Johnson," "Green Party news from California, Connecticut and ...,"
"Michele Dauber, let's play your game (Ava)," "A good question," "One more reminder of reality with regards to Tina Fey," "Tina Fey, that typical Karen," "Amber Heard does not speak for this L." "Chris Rock, Judge Joe Brown and Anna May Wong," "The worst groupies ever," "Idiots of the week," "My sympathies are with the Iraqi people," "Isaiah, Graham Elwood, Lee Camp and Mickey Z," "Amber Heard needs to grasp that it's over," "Look, pressure does work," "Look how pathetic Sabby Sabs is being now," "Let's build our community," "Sabby Sabs, leave the plantation already," "Joe Biden responds to the speculation" and "THIS JUST IN! JOE BIDEN RESPONDS TO HIS CRITICS!" -- news coverage in the community.
"15 bean soup in the kitchen (to steal from trina)," "Vegetable Lasagna in the Kitchen," "And you can eat it cold with chips!," "Recipes in the Kitchen" and "Budget-Friendly Stuffed Peppers in the Kitchen" -- Rebecca and Trina serve up some recipes.
"AMAZON PRIME members can stream a James Bond marathon this weekend," "What we watch," "Tallulah," "SUPERMAN AND LOIS," "Fall TV is disappointing (and THE CW is hurting SUPERMAN AND LOIS' ratings)," "dynasty, cleaning, the gay gaston - it's a grab bag," "chrisley didn't know best," "'dynasty' - watching after learning it was cancelled," "try sarah jessica pathetic," "JURRASIC WORLD DOMINION," "Neve Campbell," "The Batman movies," "Weekend box office" and "Grace Randolph is an idiot" -- TV and movie coverage in the community.
"The Moon" -- Betty covers science.
"Rest Assured, Judge Tootie Is here" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.
"Fake ass Bono," "Noah Weiland, Judy Garland," "Chase Rice," "Michael Buble," "Jonathan Turley, George Ezra" and "George Ezra's GOLD RUSH KID" -- Kat and Elaine cover music.
Humility is a value that needs to be taught more. It is very easy to back yourself into a corner. It's not that hard to fix it. You admit you were wrong. But, as we've seen far too many times, too many people box themselves in and then get desperate.
We've long noted that Bob Somerby (DAILY HOWLER) was on the wrong side of reality on the outing of Valerie Plame. And we've pointed out this took place, in part, because of his friendship -- his undisclosed friendship -- with Matt Cooper.
It was embarrassing to watch Bob flail about trying to justify his position -- especially when the logical outcome took place and he was indeed on the wrong side. We felt that cringe again last week after the court verdict in the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard trial came in because immediately we saw a press unable to deal with reality even when it was official.
The public did not have that problem.
We were in a waiting room when the verdict came in. And women were cheering. At first, we thought maybe inflation was going down or maybe Joe Biden had announced the end to a war. We looked around puzzled at the waiting room and one woman explained, "The verdict just came in!"
We had OBGYN appointments and, no, there weren't any male patients in the waiting room. It was all women.
Yet, in the days that followed, certain media elements and certain self-promoted women wanted to insist that only men were happy and that this verdict mean this and meant that.
It was something to watch.
The verdict wasn't a surprise.
But they were still trying to lie for Heard and pretend that she was a reliable witness and a truthful person. In fact, as we learned on Sunday that Amber was even more stupid than we thought and that she was paying over $20,000 to rent the home for the trial, we started wondering if Amber could sue the press for misleading her about the chances on the verdict?
The rental goes to just what a world of lies Amber was living in. She'd been dropped as a spokesperson by Loreal and she'd gotten close to signing with a cosmetic company when that fell through. She had no major film and no major film role due to shoot and she'd been reduced, according to her own testimony, in the AQUAMAN sequel. She was whining on stage that she only -- only -- got $2 million for the sequel.
She had to use home owners insurance to pay her legal fees and she's renting a home for over $20,000 a month? Her lies had removed her that much from reality.
But again, the press enabled and encouraged her.
They had imposed their narrative -- MAN BAD! -- onto their coverage and, despite what took place in the courtroom and what the jury eventually found, they refused to recalculate.
It's not just that they can't admit that they were wrong, it's also that they can't believe that they were wrong.
But they were.
Especially wrong were those self-proclaimed 'femenists' who wanted to paint Amber Heard as a feminist. Because they themselves had never done anything remotely feminist in their lives, they weren't bothered by the fact that neither had Heard.
Feminism is not your personal road to success. Your greed and glory will not suddenly become feminist objectives because you are a woman. Translation, "you do you" may be a waiver of guilt but it is not a feminist message.
Feminism is the collective. The personal is political became a rallying cry not because on individualism but because a group of people (women) were able to see that these things that were passed off as ''individual problems'' were in fact societal issues.
B-b-b-but Amber Heard was the victim of domestic violence!!!!!
Yes, she said that. Like us, the jury didn't believe her. Unlike the jury, one of us (C.I.) knew her rather well and knew she was the abuser -- both with Johnny and with multiple women she'd been with before him. She is an abuser. She's also a user.
Those 'feminists' at high name publications (that no one reads) were quick to step up for Amber against the big, bad man.
When did Johnny become that?
He has no history of violence and his exes were on his side and not Amber's -- by contrast, Amber's violent fits on film sets is well known in the industry. She has a history of violence and she had a istory of violence with her partners and she was caught on tape telling Johnny that no one would ever believe him if he came forward as a victim of abuse and then mocking him and questioning his masculinity.
True feminists would have listened to that recording with horror because that is an abuser speaking.
No one will believe you.
I will destroy you.
That's what abusers say.
Feminism is not matriarchy -- someone tell Michelle Goldberg.
Root for the girl! is not a feminist position.
Amber Heard tried to use her body to get ahead before the camera and out of the camera's view. When she wanted to be a star and thought she was finally on the verge of becoming one, she published a column in THE WASHINGTON POST.
She didn't do anything to help anyone else.
She was about helping Amber, promoting Amber, all about Amber.
But some Michelle Goldbergs wanted to make her the face of feminism. For a ghost written column, no less.
Her failure is the failure of a liar.
Liars are smarter than pedestrian 'feminists' and you saw that because liars didn't step forward insisting that Amber had disgraced all of them and made it that much harder, in the future, for liars to be believed.
No, liars were smart enough to stay in the shadows.
The Michelle Goldbergs stepped forward to insist this was awful and it was wrong and it was going to hurt all women and --
Johnny Depp is the victim here. Of lies, yes. But of domestic abuse as well. And it's about time that the matriarchy stop trying to control feminism. Men are the victims and survivors of domestic abuse. That's true when they're in same-sex relationships and that's true when they are in relationships with women.
What Depp V Heard provided was an opportunity to expand our knowledge.
But the Michelle Goldbergs don't want knowledge.
So they hissed and they bitched and they embarrassed us all because they self-identify as feminists.
Long before Hillary Clinton ever ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, we noted that singular ambition wasn't feminism. "TV Review: Commander-in-Chief aka The Nah-Nah Sisterhood" ran in 2005:
What really frightens us, besides the fact that a backlash only takes
root when people who should know better applaud this junk, is an elitist
attitude that seems to greet this show.
"We got our woman president!"
Consider
us too grass-rooty but we don't see that as an end all be all. We
weren't among the ones saying "At least we still got Martin Sheen on TV"
so maybe we're missing it. But honestly, we'll take an Alice over a Commander-in-Chief. Give us working class women who pull together over a queen bee living a rarefied life.
We've
never doubted that a woman could be president (and at some point will
be). But we've never assumed that gender would be an answer. A woman who
supports equality? Absolutely, that's a great thing. A woman who makes
her way as an exception, backs up an agenda she doesn't believe in and
does nothing to help other women? We don't see the point in applauding
that.
We felt that then, we feel it now.
We need to expand our knowledge of abuse -- we as a society. All the posers and pretenders -- especially those who took their 'expertise' to NPR -- made clear that they need new professions. They are not fit to treat survivors of abuse. Their refusal to grasp that men can be the victims of domestic abuse make it clear that they are in the wrong field and are not helping anyone.
The posers, the women who pretended to be feminists and the press glorified a woman who had accomplished nothing on her own and then advanced her as the face of feminism
There was no proof that she'd been abused and there was no proof that she was a feminist.
During the trial, proof emerged that she was a liar -- repeatedly.
Did you give the money to the ACLU?
That's a yes/no question. But how she did dance around it.
The answer was no. She did not, as she had promised, give the seven-million-dollar divorce settlement to the ACLU and Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. She's a liar. Johnny donated $100,000 on her behalf and Elon Musk donated $500,000. Amber hasn't donated a dime of the seven million -- she spent the money on herself, over five million, we're told, and had less than two-million left.
She lied to the public to begin with. Claiming she was not going to keep the seven million made her look like a better person. But she's greedy and she wanted the money and she didn't donate it.
She lied.
And the thing was, she kept lying and she kept getting caught in one lie after another.
She was violent towards Johnny, she did commit abuse. She lied. She lied about a mobile home being destroyed and when the owner testifies? Amber calls him a liar. Then seconds later, insists she didn't. She lied about WARNER BROTHERS. Over and over, she lied. And the jury saw it.
So did the world which is why the media is out of step with public opinion yet again.
Instead of admitting their mistakes, the media doubled down and wanted to insist, post-verdict, that Saint Amber was the victim.
No. What was she? The reincarnate of Barbara Payton -- she even has Payton's bizarro chin. As the public turned on Barbara and no man wanted her anymore (at least not for more than ten minutes in a motel), she managed to scrape up $1000 for boozing via an autobiography. Leo Guild died in 1997 so a ghostwriter might be a problem but we're sure the ACLU will be happy to step into the sewer for her once again and we're also sure no one will begrudge her borrowing Barbara's book title: I AM NOT ASHAMED. It was laughable with Payton's name attached and will be even more so with Heard's attached. The only thing more laughable is the continued attempt by the press to turn our modern day Barbara Payton into a resident at a nunnery. It's just not going to play. No matter how many times they serve that nonsense up, it's just not going to play.
“Socialism doesn’t work” is repeated like a mantra. We’re told endlessly that capitalism provides jobs, housing, food, and health care in this country when it does a very bad job of doing all these things. The United States is said to be “the richest country in the world,” a strange statement which implies that the people are prosperous even though they aren’t.
Gig work, housing insecurity, medical debt, and student loan debt are all common experiences for people in the U.S. Now, to add insult to injury, the system said to be so superior can’t even keep little babies fed.
There is an historic shortage of baby formula. There are parts of the country where food for infants simply can’t be found at any price. This headline is the most honest about the situation. “America is running out of baby formula because 3 companies control the market and babies aren’t that profitable .” There are only three baby formula manufacturers and one of them, Abbott, had to shut down its plant after a whistleblower revealed their product was contaminated. Two infant deaths may be related to the contamination, which went undiscovered despite Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority.
The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act to increase the supply and now allows formula from foreign countries to be imported. They are making quite a show of their late in the day response to a situation that should have been addressed sooner. But the stop gaps to resolve a temporary crisis should not allow a bigger problem to go unmentioned. Capitalism is the problem. Transportation Secretary and onetime presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg admitted as much even as he tried to defend the failed state. “But let's be very clear. This is a capitalist country. The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula.”
In a better society, a socialist society, baby formula wouldn’t be sold by private interests. It would be provided free of charge to every family and yes, the government would make it.
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Capitalism and Baby Formula" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
One verdict, however, appears to need little deliberation. It concerns the Department of Justice, and particularly the FBI. The trial confirmed what many have long alleged about how top officials eagerly accepted any Russia collusion claim involving Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Special counsel John Durham’s investigation, which led to Sussmann’s trial, is an indictment of a department and a bureau which, once again, appeared willfully blind as they were played by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite the trial judge’s rulings imposing strict limits on the scope of the trial evidence, Durham’s case still revealed new information on how the Russia collusion theory was pushed into the FBI and the media by the Clinton campaign. Perhaps the most ironic moment came when Sussmann’s defense team outed Clinton as personally approving the campaign’s effort to spread a baseless claim that the Trump organization maintained a secret channel to the Kremlin through Russia’s Alfa Bank.
That claim was a real tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory without support. Durham previously disclosed how researchers tasked with supporting the claim were afraid it was so unsupported that they would be mocked. They argued, according to Sussmann’s indictment, that anyone familiar with analyzing internet traffic “would poke several holes” in the theory. One researcher warned: “Let’s assume again that they are not smart enough to refute our ‘best case scenario.’ You do realize that we will have to expose every trick we have in our bag to even make a very weak association.”
Yet, the Clinton campaign did not seem remotely concerned about even minimal inquiries that might expose the lack of proof. The researchers were told to just worry about creating a “very useful narrative.”
During the trial, Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias and campaign manager Robby Mook both said the campaign trusted the media to push the story. They were right: Slate quickly ran it, and then Clinton and one of her aides, Jake Sullivan (now President Biden’s national security adviser), released statements expressing alarm about the claim as if it were news to them.
-- Jonathan Turley, "Friends with Benefits: Sussmann Trial Further Exposes the FBI and Washington Establishment" (JONATHAN TURLEY.ORG).
Hey --
Tuesday.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
And what did we come up with?
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
At one time, women in Iraq had more rights than any women in the Middle East. That was before the US-led invasion of 2003. In order to force the Iraqis to do what the US government wanted, Iraqi thugs and fundamentalists were put in charge. And thus began the long assault on Iraqi women.
The assault continues.
And the US continues to encourage it. For example, if you visit the website of the US Embassy in Iraq and select the option "Ambassador.," you find this:
The United States condemns the criminal attack on civilian targets in Erbil. Iranian regime elements have claimed responsibility for this attack and must be held accountable for this flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and for terrorist attacks on innocent civilian properties.
Matthew Tueller is not the US Ambassador to Iraq, Alina L. Romanowski is. She was confirmed on March 24, 2022. For some reason, she just can't seem to make it to Iraq.
Here's a Tweet:
Iraq has been in a political stalemate for nearly 8 months. Is there a reason the US Ambassador can't get her ass to Iraq?
