The Common Ills: Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Chaos and violence continue but we spend most of our time denouncing the hysterics and their hysteria on Russia and WikiLeaks.

I am the ruler of all.

Apparently.

Who knew?

I didn't know it until the angry e-mail over "IPS and FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS have been removed" from last night.

Turns out, if I don't link to something, I have censored them and denied them an audience.

I am basing my judgment, it is viciously explained to me, on my personal opinion of someone and not on politics.

I really love it when an e-mailer wants to tell me who I am and what I think.

I really love that.

John Feffer, you were delinked last night.

Were I delinking you for personal reasons, I would have done so in March 2008 after your series of e-mails where you BMW-ed nonstop (Bitch Moaned and Whined).

You didn't know what you were talking about -- apparently a factory standard on all John Feffer models -- and you thought you could dictate what I wrote.

Now you learned otherwise back then.

You've gotten links since and both FPIF and IPS stayed on the links -- mainly because of Phyllis Bennis.

Now you got called out a lot here because you are so deeply stupid.

And your FPIF colleagues got called out as well.

Like when you applauded the massive bombs being dropped on Iraq.

Remember that little protege you had?

And you'll published that crap.

I've heard you've since pulled it from FPIF -- doesn't matter, we quoted enough here when we called it out. You forever indicted as an idiot who believes in 'precision bombing.'

I should have delinked you then.

But Elaine's "John Feffer is a damn liar (and don't e-mail, prick, I won't retract)" was where I learned you were now part of Team Hysteria fostering hate of Russia -- the whole country and people, you couldn't even just limit it to their government because that's the kind of trash you are.

We'll get to Russia in a second.

But let's talk the law first because I don't like idiots pretending they know the law.

We went through that with The Status of Forces Agreement on Thanksgiving 2008.

We were right. Others can't say the same.

Watergate was a break-in of Democratic headquarters by a team of 'plumbers' (Republicans with Richard Nixon's re-election campaign).

Even if the government of Russia or a Russian person had broken into John Podesta's e-mails (they were leaked, not hacked), that's not Watergate.

That's as stupid as screaming Julian Assange should be charged with treason.

Treason?

Julian's an American citizen?

No, he's not.

He's Australian.

He might be able to commit treason in Australia (nothing WikiLeaks has done rises to the standard of treason in Australia).

But as a non-American, he can't be guilty of treason in the US.

It doesn't work that way, you stupid idiots.

I'm nice here most of the time.

But when you start talking the law and you can't get it right, you need to stop talking.

You're not just embarrassing yourself, you are contributing to ignorance.

It's not that hard to study law. I did it. Anyone can.

Julian Assange jay walking cannot rise to murder. Julian Assange's WikiLeaks actions cannot rise to treason in the US.

He is not a US citizen.

You can bend the law, you can shade it.

And many do.

But when you start talking nonsense, I think you need to sit your tired ass down and stop speaking.

Do the world a favor.

No evidence proves -- or even indicates -- that the Russian government, the Russian people or some combination of the two hacked Podesta's e-mails.

Even if John Feffer had evidence that offered 100% proof that the allegation was true, it would still not be Watergate.

You stupid idiot.

Watergate was the abuse of power by a sitting president.

Do you not get that?

Are you really that stupid?

What makes me really mad is Feffer isn't that stupid. He's lying and he knows he is but he also knows he's trolling for big Dem monies and this is the way to do it.

Well whore your ass, John, but don't whore the law.

He is a cheap liar and look at the archives and you'll see I do not tolerate liars about the law.

Didn't do it when people were saying no crime was committed by the outing of Valerie Plame.

Didn't do it when everyone was misrepresenting what the SOFA said.

Here's Robert Parry (CONSORTIUM NEWS) on the hysteria:

But the anti-Russian frenzy gained unstoppable momentum with the U.S. election in 2016. The Democrats, liberals and neoconservatives were horrified at the shocking upset of their presidential choice, Hillary Clinton, by the boorish and buffoonish Donald Trump.

After this bitter defeat, the losers looked for scapegoats rather than order up a serious autopsy on how they lost to the “unelectable” Trump, i.e, by choosing a corporate candidate who was associated with neoliberal economics and neoconservative war policies. Blaming Russia became the easy excuse that could unify the various pro-Clinton camps.

Parry is one of the people Feffer attacked.

Robert's right.

Stephen F. Cohen is right. Glenn Greenwald is right.

John Feffer isn't the only hysteric out there. He is the first I've seen to misrepresent the law.

And I'm sure the misrepresentation can be traced back to some attorney that The Debra Messings linked to.

There were idiots misrepresenting the law in Plame Gate as well -- idiots who were attorneys. And there were attorneys who misrepresented the SOFA as well.

The US has too many attorneys while also having too few honest ones.

Watergate was abuse of power.

Here's a clue for you if you're getting this nonsense from Elizabeth Holtzman: Elizabeth Holtzman struggles with the truth.

Ask her about how she saved war resisters of Vietnam.

Oh, wait, that never happened.

Despite her own campaign promises, despite her claims at the start of Jimmy Carter's administration -- I believe they're still available at THE NEWSHOUR, Liz.

And what about all of her great work on Iraq.

Remember those two years where she fueled everyone into voting for Democrats because they would end the war.

They didn't.

And she moved on to other topics, didn't she?

Unlike many, I've never blamed Liz for Geraldine Ferraro's Congressional loss.

I don't believe anyone owns someone else's vote nor do I believe that we need fewer candidates.

But The Debra Messings do -- yet they embrace Liz.

Just another example of their grave hypocrisy.

The Democratic Party elected to run a candidate who was hugely disliked.

Some will whine, "She was running high in the polls in early 2013."

Hillary goes up and down in the polls.

People feel sorry for her -- because she's so pathetic -- and then she'll open her mouth and they'll remember all over again why they loathe her.

That is the history of her polling.

Equally true, the 2008 campaign saw Democrats like Keith Olbermann destroy Hillary in such a way that no way in the world could she run 8 years later and win. He -- and others -- called her a racist, said she was calling for Barack Obama to be killed, etc., etc.

Hillary's e-mails were her own mistake.

And then she made it worse by lying repeatedly about them.

That made it a never ending story.

"I only carried one device."

How many lies did she tell?

Which just reminded people of how they could not trust her.

If the process hadn't been rigged, Bernie Sanders would've won the nomination.

If that had happened, I think there's a good chance he would have won the presidency. (He might not have.)

But instead of addressing Hillary's faults and mistakes, instead of addressing the need to reform the process, hell they won't even call for abolishing the electoral college (while refusing to shut up that Hillary won the popular vote -- doesn't matter as the electoral college is the deciding factor) --

Instead of any of that, they want to deflect to Russia.

They want to defocus on the real issues.

They apparently don't care that they are fueling war.

But then, they don't care that the Iraq War continues -- or the Afghanistan War -- or that more US troops have been sent into Syria -- or what the US government is doing to Yemen.

BLACK AGENDA RADIO is part of BLACK AGENDA REPORT and is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey.

Two weeks ago, they spoke with activist and Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka.

Ajamu Baraka: At a moment when we have an opportunity to actually rebuild an anti-war movement here in this country, yet again -- instead of getting to the point where we can talk about that, begin to talk about what we need to do to in fact to build that movement, we are caught up in these diversionary politics of 'the Russians did it.' So many of us are not caught up in this and we are moving towards trying to put in place new structures. I'm involved in a conversation right now building what we are calling The Black Alliance for Peace which is an attempt to try to revive the Black anti-war movement, the Black anti-war presence. We think that we have a perfect opportunity now -- now that the people are waking up out of this 8 year stupor -- to bring the Black community back to where we used to be at one point as the most consistent anti-war population in this country. But it is difficult to do that, Glen, when our people are getting caught up in this anti-Russian hysteria also. And they are -- some of them also are beating the war drums uncritically.

This week, they spoke with Sara Flounders.

Sara Flounders: Many, many people can see the need for an independent movement. If you're going to in any way oppose the war policy that's going on right in front of you and the 'trade agreements' that send millions of jobs for corporate profit, it becomes clear to a lot of people the need for an independent movement.

The Democrats in Congress haven't ended any of the wars.

We're edging closer to the 14th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

John Conyers, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Where are you?

Did they blackmail you into silence with what they had on your wife? Or did you just stop caring about the Iraq War?

Barbara Lee, what's muted your voice and action on the issue?

The Iraq War continues.

Billions of US tax dollars are spent on it.

Where's the Congressional oversight -- forget outcry, where's the oversight even?

Day 149 of The Mosul Slog.

What can they brag of?

‏Verified account @France24_en

Iraq forces retake Mosul train station: police http://f24.my/2nA7B8K 

10 retweets10 likes

A train station?

Hmm.

We just don't care about the Iraqi people, do we?

IOM Iraq‏Verified account @IOMIraq 2 hours ago

#MOSUL_ALERT: 16,229 families (97,374 individuals), displaced from #West_Mosul in last 19days btw Feb 25 & March 15, as tracked by @DTM_IOM.

3 replies17 retweets7 likes

The World Health Organization noted this week:

According to International Organization for Migration data, since 17 October 2016 to 09 March, 224,298 persons have been displaced from Mosul; refer to graph 1 for the displacement timelines. Of these more than 57,000 persons are displaced from west Mosul alone since 18 February 2017. WHO and other health partners are supporting the delivery of primary health services in the displaced camps by providing medicines and other medical supplies.

UNICEF notes:

Military operations to re-take western parts of Mosul city started on 19 February 2017. The UN estimates that around 750,000 civilians are still residing in the western section of the city. Humanitarian actors are deeply concerned about the situation of civilians, including 412,000 children.
Since 19 February, more than 31,500 people (14,800 children) are newlydisplaced from West Mosul. The majority of people have been directed into new IDP camps in south Ninewa.
Since 17 October 2016, UNICEF has supported the delivery of multi-sectoral emergency response packages for 851,220 individuals (142,847 families) in retaken communities in northern Ninewa, including water treatment tablets, high energy biscuits and hygiene items for adults and babies.
In February, RRM consortium partners reached 79,721 vulnerable people on the move including 37,469 children across six governorates including Ninewa.
UNICEF-supported water trucking of up to 3.6 million litres of daily water ensured continued supply of safe water for East Mosul and the UNICEF supported camps in Dahuk, Erbil, and Ninewa
320 schools have reopened in eastern Mosul allowing 258,000 children to return to school. In February, UNICEF provided learning materials including science and maths kits to 87 of the East Mosul schools, reaching 73,780 children (31,890 girls)

June 19, 2014, Barack Obama, then president of the United States, declared that the only hope, the only solution for Iraq, was a political solution.

But though daily bombings have taken place from US war planes, the US government has done nothing to assist the Iraqis with political inclusion.

The persecution of the Sunni people -- the same persecution that gave rise to ISIS -- continues.

This is not progress.

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