Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, April 19, 2023.  YOUTUBERS (those making YOUTUBE content for the left) seem not to grasp that sugar rots the teeth and the brain. 



What matters?

More and more, it's apparent that most YOUTUBE political posing is just posing.  That's if they're left or just 'left.'  That's whether they are grifters or sincere.  Spencer Ackerman would have been good to work in here so let me back up to an e-mail.  An e-mailer to the public account wanted me to know that I ripped off Spencer and just mouthed what he has said about the leaker -- mouthed it in yesterday's snapshot.

I did not rip off Spencer, I don't know what he said.  I wouldn't be surprised if we held a similar point of view on the leaker.  It wouldn't be the first time.  Our positions are often the same.  Our tactics are different.  

His tactic for getting Barack Obama the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination when Jeremiah Wright was a clear problem for Barack (and would have been for any candidate) was to advise others not to engage on Jeremiah just to bash anyone who criticized Jeremiah -- bash them as a racist.  Here's the quote and shame on the MSM because they covered it and you go to find out and you find out that they messed up -- most left the first paragraph off.  That's why this link is to the original DAILY CALLER report:

I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.

And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.




Smash through a plate-glass window.

So back to the point we were starting with.  Garbage.  That's what most of you are offering.  You think your conspiracy talk is moving the needle?  You think your nonsense is?  Some of you are already wasting time pimping a candidate (Marianne Williamson, for some of you).

The war on the LGBTQ+ community matters.  That should go without saying.  But most of you can't even mention that or maybe you spent this week going over a man yelling -- a joke in his mind -- that women need to do this or that and you just had to talk about how funny this year old thing was.  Maybe you were one of those two men and you didn't grasp that if a man is yelling something at a woman, when a woman says it's not funny, LISTEN.  You stupid idiots. You never get it.  'We yell at each other all the time' -- well, good for you, go swing your dicks at each other.  And then when you're done with that, go watch episode 5 of THE POWER where Toni Collette's character asks her daughter what it's like to be able to shoot electricity out of your fingers and she talks about how she can go home after dark by herself, how she does this or that now as a result.  And then you  might actually grasp why a woman is not entertained by a man yelling at her.  And you might understand that when you admit something is misogynist, you then adding that it was done "ironically" does not change that it was sexism.

And, shame on you for that because, while you were still marveling over your newly sprouted hairs, young boys, so-called lefties were getting away with racism by insisting it was done ironically.

Sometimes I'm just appalled and I wasn't planning on even talking about this, but here we are.  I did post a video and thought it might have something of value.  I got a call from a friend almost an hour later.  "You didn't watch, did you?"  No.  How bad is it?  "You're going to want to stream it yourself."

Not only did the two young men feel the need to school women on a statement a pig on the left made a year ago -- what a waste of time -- they then wanted to talk entertainment.


I don't think the two even saw ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA.  What's awful about the film -- that damn title.  It is hideous and never should have been the title to begin with.

Otherwise?

I get why right wingers didn't like the film -- and I got it when I read the script, before a single scene was shot.

Yes, they were going to have a problem with strong women and they were going to have a problem with a multi-ethnic cast.  But most of all, they were going to have a problem with a film that questioned who is the terrorist (it's not Janet) and who stands up and how do we stand up -- how do we work as a collective?  I loved the final film.  I also knew it was going to be trashed.  It'll live on and most MARVEL films won't.  But what surprised me was no one -- I thought at least WSWS would try to offer some insight -- wanted to tackle some of the issues being raised by the film.

Wrong.

So the young men trash that film -- that they've clearly not seen -- and isn't that really appalling.  That's what they're using their time on.

And then one of them wanted to explain how dumb their sister was because the whole Red Scare was just about Hollywood unions.  

Stop.

For the love of all that is holy: Stop.

Get an education before you speak.

McCarthyism didn't start with McCarthy, it actually started on the Democratic Party side of the aisle.  The Hollywood Ten are endlessly covered in films and other things which leads people to think that's all it was.  No the State Dept was targeted, to name just one other, and gays were targeted and it's so much more than you know.

But, please, stop with the stupidity.  'Scripts are worse today because no one cares about writing'?

You don't know what you are talking about.  The studios have never cared about writers.  And writing by committee is not a recent fad.  If you want to see really bad writing, read through the drafts on MILDRED PIERCE -- and really savor Faulkner's version -- yeah, him -- with all its racist touches including Mildred serenaded with a spiritual.  

Just stop.

So back to the main point.  

There are two other stories that should really have gotten traction on YOUTUBE but didn't.

Clarence Thomas.  Some are whining that we have so much MSNBC content now.  (So much that I'm posting here.)  You know what, find me the lefty YOUTUBER talking about Clarence.  We''ve pretty much posted all that I can find.  I'm sorry that his corruption doesn't interest the bulk of people making YOUTUBE programs.  But it's corruption and it matters.  And it's a story that people care about.  

Then there's Duncan Hunter Jr.  Junior got pardoned by Donald Trump.  

Some of you YOUTUBERS insist that you don't want to see Donald back in the White House.  

Where is the Spencer Ackerman on this?  (I don't mean Spencer himself. I'm not aware of him having a YOUTUBE program.)  Where's the person saying smash Clarence  over the head with the pardon and a get a bloody corpse from it and put it on a pike in the town square?

Because Duncan Jr. has hurt Donald with the people who might have voted for him.  


Duncan Hunter Jr should have suffered a major media set back but YOUTUBERS didn't want to amplify, they had too much more to cover, too much more important things -- more important that Duncan is responsible for the deaths of 2 US service members in Iraq and that he got off because he had a powerful Daddy.  Now Donald pardoned him for another crime.  But there are people recoiling to learn that Duncan is responsible for two deaths and walked away without criticism or jail time.  This is the type of person that their stand-up guy Donald Trump would pardon?   No, it can't be so!!!!

Now it's not just YOUTUBERS that are messing up that story.  Tom Bowman's messed up from day one.  And continues to.



Former U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. is making national headlines again, this time for a 

deadly, friendly-fire incident in 2004 during the Iraq war.

Hunter is the focus of a new, NPR podcast, Taking Cover, a seven-part series of investigative reports.

NPR investigative producer, Graham Smith, and NPR pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman, spent three years chasing down information in the case.

Bowman said it all began as a tip he received from a reliable source, who told him about a friendly-fire, mortar strike that killed two marines and an Iraqi interpreter inside a schoolhouse in Fallujah.

“We’re sitting in a whiskey bar in Washington, DC and he said there was this friendly-fire incident back in 2004, during the first battle of Fallujah, and it was covered up because the son of a powerful politician was involved. That politician was Duncan Hunter Sr., then chairman of the Armed Services Committee,” recalled Bowman.

Duncan Hunter Sr. and Duncan Hunter Jr. are both former U.S. congressmen from the East County.

In 2004, Duncan Hunter Jr. was a Marine lieutenant in Fallujah, Iraq, stationed in a control center, involved in making decisions on where to fire mortars at enemy positions, the podcasters said.

“We have the investigative report that we got from the widow of one of the men who was killed. It has a statement written by Duncan Hunter [Jr.], where he says he plotted this target on the map, he pushed in a yellow pin at the spot of the target near the schoolhouse,” said Smith.

For three years, the families of the men killed didn't know the incident was the result of friendly fire.

Tom Bowman's the sassy senior who just discovered podcasts.  And since his feeble brain can only hold one thing at a time, he can't also remember journalism.

In the above, and below the excerpt as well, Tom makes the story about him.  The way he and G-Dawg did in their first report, nearly fifty minutes long and they never bothered to identify Duncan.

If you think I'm being picky, the reason I know about the CBS 8 story is two NPR friends.  I don't watch San Diego news.  They're the ones who called me to complain that he's still making it about himself, that's he refusing to be a journalist and cover the story.  

The story is Duncan Jr. and how Daddy got Junior off.  And it does impact on Donald supporters because Donald is so true and so this and so that.  Some of the shine coming off right now is people grasping that Donald pardoned a man who is responsible for the deaths of 2 US service members and what does that say about Donald's fabled brain and judgment and his claim to 'drain the swamp'?

Now it's not as fun as all the other crap you're covering, I'm sure.  (The two young men called out above at least have been covering serious issues at other times in the last two weeks.)

You offer a lot of nonsense.  While pretending you're doing serious work. 

You're not.  

Clarence Thomas should be front and center on left coverage, showing just how out of control the Supreme Court is right now, showing just how illegitimate it is.  Rallying calls for accountability, rallying calls for resignation.  Calling for mandatory retirement and term limits. 

DOBBS was a gut punch but so many on the left are ignoring Clarence. 




That's a real issue.  Jacqueline Luqman is dealing with a real issue.  On THE REMIX SHOW yesterday, talking about what she saw taking place in Venezuela on her recent trip there, that's a real issue too.



Any segment from BREAKTHROUGH NEWS is addressing real issues.




This segment of DEMOCRACY NOW! is a real issue.




John Stauber chose to mock that segment but it's a real issue.  Too many of you are not dealing with real issues.  You're taking up a lot of time and space and you're wasting it.  

If you're someone working to make the medicine go down, mixing in some sugar for that reason, fine. But some of you are not doing anything but sugar.  Yet you're applauding yourselves over and over in each YOUTUBE broadcast.  

You might want to take a look at that.

On Corrupt Clarence, Barry Grey (WSWS) notes:

On April 6, ProPublica published a damning exposé of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ corrupt relations with billionaire Republican donor and Hitler-lover Harlan Crow. Since then, ProPublica and other news outlets have published further revelations of financial dealings with Crow and other sources of income either omitted or falsified on Thomas’ disclosure filings.

The Democrats have responded to the exposure of boundless personal corruption and political reaction on the high court with an effort to effect a cosmetic tightening of ethics rules, so as to shore up collapsing public confidence in the court and every other institution of the state. But the entire senior leadership in both the Biden White House and Congress has steered clear of demanding either the resignation of Thomas or his impeachment. It is well known that Thomas is by no means alone in accepting “gifts” from the ultimate paymasters of the robed defenders of capitalism on the high court.

ProPublica’s initial article documented the fact that for more than two decades, Thomas and his wife, Ginni, have been taking luxurious vacations on Crow’s super yacht and private jet to far-flung destinations, as well as Crow’s private resorts in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York and in East Texas, often mingling with corporate oligarchs, the heads of right-wing think tanks and anti-democratic judicial groups. The total cost of these annual junkets, absorbed entirely by Thomas’ benefactor, adds up to the millions.

Since his elevation to the Supreme Court in 1991, Thomas has been on the extreme right wing of the court. He was among the five Republican justices who voted in 2000 to halt vote-counting in Florida and steal the election for George W. Bush, the loser of the popular vote. He signed onto a concurrent decision authored by Antonin Scalia asserting that the American people did not have a constitutional right to vote for the president. (Scalia died in 2016 at a luxury compound in Texas owned by John Poindexter, a wealthy businessman and national security adviser under Ronald Reagan. Poindexter was convicted in 1990 in connection with his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, but the conviction was overturned on appeal the following year.)

An arch-reactionary, Thomas was part of the Republican majority that overturned Roe v. Wade last year. In his opinion he argued for extending the overturn of the constitutional right to abortion to attack birth control and same-sex marriage. He is presently conspiring with his fellow Republicans on the court to restrict or eliminate access to the most widely used abortion pill, a major step toward criminalizing abortion nationwide.

A sadist, he has joined in rulings rejecting appeals by prisoners, including death row inmates, who were deprived of basic due process rights, leading to hundreds of state murders. He routinely votes against all restrictions on corporate exploitation of workers and limitations on corporate money to buy elections and politicians of both parties.

Thomas has refused to recuse himself from cases related to Donald Trump’s attempted overturn of the 2020 election, despite the prominent role of Ginni Thomas in the conspiracy that culminated in the fascist storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Crow, a Texas real estate billionaire, has given millions to the Republican Party and supports far-right think tanks and organizations, such as the Federalist Society, that work to push the courts ever further to the right. In his mansion, he boasts a copy of Mein Kampf signed by Hitler, paintings by the author of the Holocaust and linens that carry the Swastika. He has said that his greatest fear is Marxism.

Following the April 6 ProPublica article, Thomas dismissed the allegations of corruption and violation of ethics laws, saying his forays with Crow were entirely innocent personal gatherings with a “dear friend,” adding that he had been advised by someone on the court that he was not obliged to disclose such activities.


We'll wind down with this from South Central Michigan Greens:


South Central Michigan Greens
=============================
Calhoun, Hillsdale, and Jackson Counties Local
People and planet over profit.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  April 16, 2023


For more information:
--------------------
Monika Dittmann Schwab, Local Contact/SCMiGreens

John Anthony La Pietra, Co-Founder/SCMiGreens


"Mayday for Railroad Workers" Labor History Walk April 29 in Marshall
=====================================================================
Area Greens Invite All to Join Walk Starting at Noon EDT Saturday


The South Central Michigan Greens local is sending out a "Mayday for
Railroad Workers" by sponsoring a Labor History Walk starting across
from the VFW Hall on East Michigan Avenue at noon EDT on Saturday, April 29.

Local co-founder John Anthony La Pietra of Marshall will lead the Walk
between two American Labor Landmarks in the city.  The route also links
other sites of special significance in this time of trials for working
people.

The Walk starts at the site of the founding of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLE-T), one of the first labor unions
in the US, in 1863.  Nearby stands a monument to the 1847 Crosswhite
Incident -- in which townspeople protected an escaped slave and his
family from agents of his former owners.

Walkers will proceed to and through downtown, cleaning up as they go.
The route passes the city's historic 1932 Greek Revival sandstone Post
Office, which also features the nation's second-largest postal museum.
Also on the route are the Marshall Peace Park, City Hall (refurbished
from a livery stable almost 100 years ago), and the Brooks Memorial
Fountain.

The Walk ends at the place where union founder J. C. "Yankee" Thompson's
home now stands, at 633 West Hanover Street.

Weather and other circumstances permitting, local Greens hope to gather
with visitors for lunch or coffee somewhere along the way back toward
the VFW Hall.  The location will be decided by all participants.

A rough map of the route is available at:


The Walk is posted as a Facebook event, at:


"Michigan has a total of fifteen entries in the Inventory of American
Labor Landmarks, and two of them are right here in Marshall," notes La
Pietra, who has been making the walk for over 20 years.

"Attention must always be paid to the everyday workers who are essential
to all of us, especially when the respect and honors paid to them a
little while ago have slipped back into lip service.  This year, it is
especially important to recognize railroad workers -- who, as we've
seen, are fighting for our health and safety as well as their own.

"It is up to us to walk this Walk, and talk the talk -- to support each
other, our communities, our lives, and our livelihoods -- to stand
together against the intense economic and political pressures facing us
all," La Pietra concludes.

Local Greens are proud to have an endorsement for this spring's Walk
from the grassroots group Railroad Workers United (RWU), whose call for
public ownership of railroads was recently backed by the Green Party of
the United States.  La Pietra has invited members of RWU and BLE-T to
join in the event if their schedules permit.


* * * * * * * * * *


WHO:
The public at large; sponsored by South Central Michigan Greens local.

WHAT:
Labor History Walk.

WHEN:
Starting at noon EDT on Saturday, April 29.

WHERE:
Starting at the intersection of Michigan Avenue, East Drive, and East
Mansion Street in Marshall -- across from the VFW Hall; through downtown
and to the current site of the J. C. "Yankee" Thompson House, 633 West
Hanover Street.  (Weather and other circumstances permitting, there will
be a lunch or coffee meeting afterward -- on the way back to the
starting point.  The location will be decided by all participants.)

WHY:
To celebrate Marshall's historic connections to labor, both Labor Days,
and working people locally and worldwide; consider the dire problems
faced by working people today, and what we can do about them; and help
clean up the town.


* * * * * * * * * *


RESOURCES:

The homepage of Railroad Workers United is at:


The Inventory of American Labor Landmarks, a project of the Labor
Heritage Foundation, can be found at:


The South Central Michigan Greens local serves Calhoun, Hillsdale, and
Jackson Counties.  Anyone in the area who is interested in discussing
and supporting Green Party platform is welcome to take part.  For more
details and news about the SCMiG local, please visit its Facebook page:


For more information about the Green Party of Michigan, its platform,
and its values, please visit:




#  #  #


The Four Pillars of GPMI:
    Grassroots Democracy
    Social Justice
    Ecological Wisdom
    Non-Violence
For our Ten Key Values, add:
    Community-Based Economics
    Decentralization
    Feminism
    Future Focus/Sustainability
    Personal and Global Responsibility
    Respect for Diversity





The following sites updated: