The Common Ills: The half and unreported

Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They'd like to slam free choice behind us
-- "The Three Great Stimulants," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her Dog Eat Dog

While the hucksters and frauds who self-present as peace leaders wait for Barack Obama to leave the White House before doing anything or speaking out, the forces for war are pressing for more troops in Iraq.

The Canadian Press reports retired Canadian General Rick Hillier is publicly insisting that "military intervention" is needed in Iraq.

Because it's worked so well in the past?

Military intervention will not defeat the Islamic State.

The bombs dropped by war planes have not defeated the Islamic State.

That was the whole point of the recent report by RAND which noted the recruitment factor (the bombings actually serve as recruitment).

You want the Islamic State out of Iraq then you'll need to get a functioning government that recognizes all, not one led by Shi'ites which persecutes all (including Shi'ites they disagree with).

Iraq does not have a functioning government.

The press lies for Haider al-Abadi constantly.

Case in point, the protests in the Kurdistan region.

Teachers and others are on strike because they have not been paid.

Why is that?

Isabel Coles (Reuters) offers a curious take on it which includes:

The Kurds have sought to cover those costs by ramping up independent oil sales since early June, effectively annulling a deal with Baghdad whereby the region agreed to contribute 550,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Iraqi exports in 2015 in exchange for the reinstatement of budget payments.

The Kurds nullified the deal?

The deal announced last fall?

The one that KRG President Massoud Barzani has spent all of 2015 discussing publicly -- specifically that no payments are being made by Baghdad?

That's not reporting.

That's whoring.

That's lying.

It's creating a false starting point.

It's deceiving readers.

And she got away with it.

Reuters ran that crap.

And people will read it and think it must be true.

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