Monday, October 17, 2022

Iraq snapshot

Monday, October 17, 2022.  Barham Salih has another public hissy fit, $2.5 billion disappears from the Iraqi government, the western press struggles with anogognosia psychosis, and much more.


Let's start off with the press' anosognosia psychosis.


Last week, US President Joe Biden yet again wrongly stated that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq and the press has been itself into pretzels trying to insist that the emperor had clothes on.  No, he didn't.  He has a break with reality and needs to be removed from office.


Beau did not die in Iraq and the more you humor Joe, the more of a whore you look like.  Even if you want to argue that the cancer Beau died of resulted from exposure to burn pits in Iraq, Beau still didn't die in Iraq.  He left Iraq in 2009 and he died in 2016.

 


He came back to the US and won another term as attorney general in Iowa. It was that second term that enraged many when he let a predator walk.  From WIKIPEDIA on Dupont heir Robert H. Richards IV:


In 2009, he entered a guilty plea and was convicted of raping his 3-year-old daughter,[1][5][6][7][8][9] after the girl reported the abuse to her grandmother.[4] Instead of serving out his eight-year prison sentence, the sentencing order signed by Delaware Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden said that the "defendant will not fare well" in prison and thus the eight-year sentence was suspended.[5][7][9][10] Delaware Public Defender Brendan J. O'Neill expressed surprise that Jurden would use such a rationale to avoid sending Richards to prison.[5][7]

In 2010, allegations were made that Richards had also molested his son beginning in December 2005 and continuing for two years.[1][6][4] Police and prosecutors investigated but did not find sufficient evidence to pursue charges.[6] Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden later defended the sentencing of Richards to probation, claiming there was a strong chance of the prosecution losing at trial making a plea bargain necessary.[11] Although Richards was ordered by Jurden to go through in-patient treatment at a Massachusetts facility, he has failed to do so.[12][11]

In 2014, Richards' former wife, Tracy Richards, filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the abuse of his daughter.[1][5][8][9][10] The lawsuit also claims that the polygraph tests Richards took in April 2010 during his probation supported allegations that he had molested his son.[1][6][4][8][9] These reports were provided to Jurden.[11] In April 2014, Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes denied Richards' request to seal the court files, stating that the proceedings were open to the public and this was a First Amendment issue.[12] By the end of June 2014, it was reported that a sealed confidential settlement had been reached on the lawsuit.[13]

Critics questioned if Richards's wealth and prominence led to unfair preference in the legal system.[7][14] The case was compared to Ethan Couch, whose "affluenza" defense infamously earned him probation for killing four people while driving intoxicated.[14]


That's nothing to be proud of.  Wonder where Beau learned that it was okay to let a predator off scott free?  


We're not done with the psychosis of the press.

What can we do with Clemence Michallon?  Not shoot her with a camera -- have you seen that nose and chin/  Like many a looks-challenged person, she sought out print media and now she writes garbage for England's INDEPENDENT newspaper.  It's not really independent.  For all the whoring in the early '00s about that paper, the reality is they weren't calling out the Iraq War. In fact, their leading columnist -- a Tony Blair obsessed writer -- was calling for the war.  Clemence isn't that damaging -- but almost.  Her latest garbage -- and remember, this is a British paper -- includes this:



It remains unclear what part of that call Fox News thought was so richly deserving of a call-out. Was it the very human fact that Hunter Biden, like tens of thousands of Americans, found himself struggling with substance abuse – a fact he and his family have addressed openly multiple times, including when Hunter detailed his road to sobriety in his 2021 memoir? Or was it that Joe Biden – the US president, the commander-in-chief – dared speak to his son with genuine love and sentiment? Or was it a bit of both?
[. . .]

It’s a well known fact in the world of substance abuse advocacy that substance abuse is a disease, not a moral failing – not that you would know it watching Fox News. We’re all vulnerable to it. Almost 92,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US in 2020, and they are now the leading cause of accidental deaths in the country. How could anyone think that a president responding with open love and compassion to his son’s struggles is in any way shameful? If anything, I hope it might make others feel less alone, and possibly provide them with a template to communicate their own support to their own loved ones.


For those of you who feel you can't enjoy it because it's the awful INDEPENDENT (they have a war with the online world -- the US-based DATALOUNGE is only one of many sites fighting back), please note the link goes to YAHOO's re-posting of their bad article.

What do you say to someone as stupid as they are ugly?


'This is mocking people with addiction issues!'

Actually, you stupid idiot, it's not.  First off, accountability.  Rigorous honesty.  Don't write another damn word about substance abuse advocacy until you know something about recovery.
  
Hunter's never gotten honest.  And the press didn't demand that he do so.  I'm not even talking about the laptop and about how he sold access to his father -- which is illegal -- and how Joe knew about it all along (they had shared accounts, buy a damn clue if you're still in denial).  I'm talking about his behaviors.  I'm talking about prostitutes.  I'm talking about illegal activities.  

And not only is Hunter not practicing rigorous accountability, when these issues pop up, trash like dog-face Clemence show up to insist that discussing these details, raising them, is awful and hideous.  I pointed out here how wrong this was years ago and it's still going on and it's still wrong.  

He has nothing to do with his child.  His parents (Joe and Jill) have nothing to do with his child.

It's not Navy Joan's fault that she was conceived during one of Hunter's never-ending benders.  

If Clemence wants to act concerned, how about showing concern for a true innocent.  Navy Joan is a Biden.  She gets nothing from that family.  They refuse to invite her to activities.  Her grandfather is the president of the United States and this family is getting away with slighting her on the world stage.  It's outrageous.  Even with that big nose on her face, Celemence should be able to see that.

But instead she wants to pretend she understands addiction when she doesn't understand a damn thing.  It's outrageous when people like her try to speak to this issue without knowing anything.  See Ruth's "Jill Biden is a lousy grandmother" for more on the topic of Navy Joan but start asking yourself what type of person you really are if you're choosing to pretend that it's normal for this little girl to be rejected by the Biden family?  If you really think that it is, you're sicker than Celemence. 



And, buy a clue, Hunter is still active in his disease.  Any counselor would have made clear to him that he shouldn't get married until he had significant sobriety under his belt.



He is not going to meetings and he's relapsing as we speak.


AFP reports:


Iraqi authorities are investigating the "theft" of $2.5 billion from the tax authority, officials said Sunday, in the latest corruption case to hit the country. 

State news agency INA reported Saturday that an internal probe by the finance ministry found the money had been withdrawn from the agency's account at a state-owned bank.


Iraq has one of the most corrupt governments in the world -- as ranked by Transparency International.  The Iraqi people suffer and the government rips everyone off.  Over and over.  REUTERS notes:

Local media have published a document from the tax authority showing the money had been withdrawn between September 2021 and August 2022.

It had been transferred to the accounts of five companies using 247 cheques, and immediately withdrawn from those accounts.

 “Who are the real owners of these companies?” asked Iraqi political analyst Sajad Jiyad on Twitter. “Who authorised these cheques to be given to the companies? How did it go undetected for a year, and which politicians are complicit?”

Ihsan Ismail, the recently discharged acting finance minister, pointed to a ‘specific group’ in a statement, without elaborating.