Monday, April 20, 2020

Iraq snapshot

Monday, April 20, 2020.  NPR can't be bothered with facts obviously, an Iraqi woman who was set on fire by her husband has passed away, and much more.



On NPR's WEEKEND SUNDAY, Asma Khalid filed a . . . something about Tara Reade's allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her.  On the pro side, NPR found Tara -- something PBS' THE NEWSHOUR could not do on Friday (see Ava and my "MEDIA: The blame pie has many slices -- does it have enough to go around?").


Let's note the whoring passed off as reporting.


Lulu Garcia-Navarro says in the introduction, "Biden has not personally responded."  That is true.  So why does she later ask, "How is Biden's campaign responding?"

Who gives a f**king s**t what the campaign says?  Tara hasn't accused the campaign of assault.

This is a matter that Joe Biden needs to speak to.

Instead we get that from Lulu as well as this, "You've also been speaking to former staffers in Biden's office . . ."  The story is the assault.  She never said she told co-workers about it.  Or her superiors.  So why is Lulu asking that question.

And if Joe doesn't feel the matter is important enough to speak to, he needs to speak.

Otherwise?  We don't need to hear this from a woman with the campaign:   "It is untrue.  It absolutely did not happen."

I'm not remembering Harvey Weinstein's supporters -- and he did have them -- being included in the response to accusations against Harvey. 

And Tara herself notes what the NPR interview elected to leave out:


 I am avid NPR listener. Super disappointed NPR editor decided not to air recorded interview of my friend (who is verified)that I told at the time that Joe Biden sexually assaulted me & corroborated 2 interns confirmed my duties stripped abruptly as well

The big takeaway from the story, NPR, is this b.s. from a dumb, stupid idiot:

KHALID: Well, it reminds some people of allegations that Biden faced just before he started his presidential campaign. At that time, women recounted how he would rub their shoulders, smell their hair, kiss them on the head. And Lulu, I should be very clear that while many of them described this behavior as demeaning, they said it was not sexual.

It was not sexual.

Does that dumb ass think rape is sexual?

It's not.  Rape is not about sex.  NPR needs to immediately send Khalid and every other staff member into training classes on rape and assault.  Khalid, herself, is clearly neither mature enough nor informed enough to report on assault or rape.  I'd like to know why that is?  I hope the answer has nothing to do with what NPR friends who've worked with Khalid say is her "conservative religious positions."  Yes, it does matter if Khalid has denigrated rape survivors in the past and explained to co-workers that her belief system holds the women accountable.

If you're wondering why Khalid dragged Tara through the mud on Russia but not on Tara changing her name, that's because Lulu -- who anchored the segment -- changed her own name.  When she covered Iraq for NPR in 2008, she was Lourdes Garcia-Navarro. 

Now she's lah 'Lulu.'

So many liars.  Take Lenny Pitts.  Always a centrist dumb f**k throughout the years, he now wants you to know you have to vote for Joe.  Don't you love opinion columnist who can't think beyond a bumper sticker?  Imagine if real thinkers had been promoted over the years and not these party organs who just spew talking points?

If you never got how bad Lenny Stink Pitts wrote, check out the opening to his latest garbage:

"Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Surely, some variation of that plea rose from a million lips last week. And Joe Biden complied. His presidential campaign forcefully denied the account of a California woman who says Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she worked in his Senate office. As reported by the Washington Post and New York Times, Tara Reade says Biden pinned her against a wall, put his hand under her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers.
“It is untrue,” said Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield. “This absolutely did not happen.”


"Say it ain't so, Joe!" is how Stink Pitts opens his column.  His third sentence is "And Joe Biden complied."  No, he did not. 

How stupid is little Lenny Pitts?  How stupid?

"Say it ain't so, Joe!" he has American demanding.

Joe has never said that.  Joe has not said a word.  No one in the press has asked him to go on the record about the charge and he hasn't volunteered a statement himself.

Lenny Pitts is a professional idiot and it needs to be stated that when Joe can't bring himself to talk about this issue, it sends a message that the issue isn't important.  If it were important, surely the man would speak up.

Women are damn tired of men who think they can pretend to be 'friends' but fail every time we expect anything from them.  Joe failed Anita Hill (betrayed her, actually) and he's failing now. 

Lenny, high off sniffing his own smelly pit, tells America:
If Reade were sacrificed to the cause of preventing that, it would be painful and unfair, yet arguably defensible. Because if there are two evils here, Biden is much the lesser.
But let us at least admit, if only in the silence of individual conscience, that this is the calculation we’ve made, the terrible choice forced upon us by the exigencies of a fraught moment. We live now in paradox and emergency where, heaven help us, principle may have become a luxury too costly to afford.
So yes, Joe Biden stands accused of sexual assault and that’s truly appalling.
Vote Joe Biden for president.

That's what passes for justice?

That's Leonard Pitts speaking on behalf of rapists and pedophiles everywhere. 

Turning to Iraq, where women are attacked as well while men are protected.  We've been covering the story of Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi -- a name Leonard Pitts never wrote about.  She was the second wife to a spoiled ass whose father is a colonel in the Iraqi military.  She was prevented from seeing her own family for over eight months.  Some have said she was 19, some have said she was 20 -- she would have been 20 this year at some point, whether she'd reached that milestone or not is not established.

Per Malak's sister, her husband sent her to the hospital after he burned her alive.  He and his family immediately joined local authorities in a hush-up of the scandal -- one of those moments Leonard Pitts says where "principle may have become a luxury too costly to afford."  Remember, women's lives are nothing but 'luxuries.'  Our lives don't matter.

Outrage prompted the province's governor to get involved and a real investigation -- or what passes for one in Iraq -- began.

On Saturday, we noted the news her sister had posted on social media: Malak had died.  Sunday afternoon, ALJAZEERA reported:
An Iraqi woman has died of severe burn wounds after she was hospitalised in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf following alleged torture by her husband, her family members said.
Local media reported late on Saturday that 20-year-old Malak Haider al-Zubaidi died days after the alleged abuse and being set on fire, in a case that has stirred outrage on social media.
[. . .]
There is no law criminalising domestic violence in Iraq, although the country's constitution bans "all forms of violence and abuse in the family".
Among those speaking in solidarity with al-Zubaidi is United Kingdom's ambassador to Iraq, Stephen Hickey.
In a Twitter post published in Arabic, he said: "We feel a great deal of sadness about Malak al-Zubaidi's case, and we hope the investigation is quickly completed. We would like to remind that domestic violence, whether it is phycological or physical abuse, is a prevailing problem around the world."
Malak's story is far too common in Iraq.  (Domestic abuse exists across the globe including in the US.)    Miriam Jackson (UNION JOURNAL) reports:

Numerous UN workplaces in Iraq yesterday urged the federal government to expedite Anti-Domestic Violence Laws amid stories of an increase in such assaults in the course of the coronavirus lockdown.
In a joint assertion, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) cited a number of current circumstances of domestic violence in Iraq together with the rape of a girl with particular wants, suicide due to domestic abuse, immolation and self-immolation in addition to self-inflicted accidents due to spousal abuse, sexual harassment of minors and different crimes.
The assertion added that the alarming rise of such crimes highlights the pressing want for parliament to endorse the Anti-Domestic Violence Law in Iraq.


Malak's death demonstrates just how much an Anti-Domestic Violence Law is needed in Iraq.  MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE notes this morning:

The case has sparked outrage on social media, with several activists calling for new laws in Iraq criminalising domestic violence.
[. . .]
British Ambassador to Iraq Stephen Hickey joined calls for justice, writing in Arabic on Twitter: “We feel a great deal of sadness about Malak Al-Zubaidi’s case, and we hope the investigation is quickly completed. We would like to remind that domestic violence, whether it is psychological or physical abuse, is a prevailing problem around the world.”


Also this morning, Oliver Mason (RIO TIMES) notes Malak's passing.



The whole world is hit with coronavirus.  XINHUA notes, "The Iraqi Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed 26 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 1,539 in the country. The 26 new cases during the past 24 hours were five in the capital Baghdad, 17 in Basra, one in each Najaf, Wasit, Babil and Dhi Qar, the ministry said in a statement."  It is an undercount to be sure.  A few weeks ago, when REUTERS attempted to report reality on the numbers, the Iraqi government responded by suspending REUTERS for three months.  Today, not even a month into the suspension, REUTERS was informed the suspension was lifted.  Let's hope that was due to the embarrassment on the part of the Iraqi government and not some hidden agreement that the news agency brokered with the government.  RUDAW notes the economic effects on the coronavirus:


Millions of Iraqis are reliant on informal employment and have little job security, their situation already precarious before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
As news of confirmed COVID-19 cases rolled in, national and provincial authorities instituted a series of movement restrictions from March 13 in a bid to keep the virus as at bay as possible and prevent strain on Iraq's already struggling healthcare system. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, and former customers told to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.
Baghdad's poorer residents have been hard hit as their income dries up.
A young Baghdad resident named Huda lives in cramped conditions, sharing a small house with six other family members.
Once selling tea, rice, and chicken steak to hungry customers, her family no longer has anyone to sell to. Huda needs medication for a skin condition, her mother said, but the family can't afford to pay for it.



Sunday, Kat's "Kat's Korner: Fiona says free yourself" went up as did Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Are They Scared Of Joe Biden?" 


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