Sunday, July 02, 2023

They trick the Iraqi people the same way they trick people around the world

Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) notes:

Iraq pocketed over $7 billion in crude oil sales during the month of June, bringing the country’s total revenue in the first half of the year to over $44 billion.

The Iraqi oil ministry in its preliminary monthly report on Saturday said that the country had exported over 100 million barrels of crude oil in the previous month, at a rate of 3.3 million barrels per day and an average price of over $71.

June’s exports generated a total revenue of $7.1 billion according to the early numbers, down from May's $7.3 billion.

The country has brought in an estimated revenue of $44.4 billion in the first six months of 2022, which is a significant drop from the oil revenue of the first half of 2022 which was placed at $61.3 billion.

Pay attention to what's taking place.  Various leaders are trying to complain about Sweden where an Iraqi refugee burned a holy book.  They're distracting from their oppressive and corrupt governments by insisting that this is a real issue and something they should have control over -- Saudi Arabia, Iraq, et al.  

But the reality is: $44 billion dollars in the first six months.  Iraq's population, per the World Bank estimate, is 43 million.  That's a billion to care for each Iraqi person.  Where's the money going?

It's not going to the people.

It's not going to fix the electricity or the water issues.

That's what they need to be protesting.  Now what someone did in Sweden.  But their government officials -- even in the Kurdistan -- make monkeys out of them, laugh at them as they whip them up against Sweden.  

Six months from now, when they found a new outrage that some other country did?  The Iraqi people are still going be broke and still in living in sub-human conditions.  They'll be dealing with rain and the flooding from it because no money has gone into the infrastructure to create drainage and sewage.  

But, hey, let's all scream and yell at Sweden and pretend like that's why life in Iraq is so hard and pathetic.  So very kind of you to focus all your rage on another country -- that has nothing to do with you -- and yet again let your leaders off as they steal from you year after damn year.

There's pathetic and then there's program pathetic.




 Mushrooming funding for the Tehran-backed Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary movement in Iraq has almost doubled their size to 238,000 personnel and nearly $3 billion of the budget, according to the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee.

When the Hashd movement’s institutional structure was established by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in mid-2014, it had one specific purpose — to combat [ISIS]. [ISIS] today scarcely exists in Iraq beyond a smattering of attacks in a handful of localities. Yet Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani has resolved that the Hashd needs to double in size.  Why?

While Iraqi MPs were debating the budget, they undoubtedly had one eye on news footage of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and the Wagner uprising in Russia -- showing the catastrophic destruction wreaked when militias are allowed to expand and outgun the regular army. Yet still they raised no objections to this monstrous diversification of public money.

This immense expansion was approved with so little objection because the Hashd has consolidated its hold over Iraqi institutions at all levels. It would probably have made its share of the budget share even larger, if it thought it was possible to expand any faster.

In the post-[ISIS] era, there is no suggestion that the Hashd exists to confront any conceivable threat from Iraq’s neighbors. Consequently, the only justifications for the Hashd’s expansion are, as has been frequently threatened, to combat US forces or to act against Iraqis themselves. Hashd forces have a long record of massacres, atrocities and sectarian cleansing against Sunnis, although in recent years they have more often been used in anger against fellow Shiite citizens.


In the US, House Rep Mark Takano's office issued the following:

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s 303 Creative v. Elenis decision.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to allow anti-LGBTQI+ discrimination under the guise of ‘free speech’ in the 303 Creative v. Elenis decision is horrifying and stunning. Though the scope of businesses that can discriminate is limited, this extreme and unchecked Court has thrown into question the scope of public accommodation nondiscrimination laws protections enacted to ensure that our nation lives up to its promises of equality for all. Today’s harmful decision opens the door for unimaginable legal discrimination against marginalized people. This radical Court continues to demonstrate its unwillingness to rule in line with democratic values or the will of the American people. We must expand the Supreme Court immediately.”


Ava and I covered the awful court and its harmful decisions in "Media: Corrupt Court, Corrupt YOUTUBE" which Jim posted this morning at THIRD.  The following sites updated:









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