Bringing I Need Attention Benjamin. Susan Benjamin, the tired and old voice of CODEPINK, was who Krystal and BREAKING POINTS thought America needed to hear saying Joe Biden should step down.
Really?
You mean the trash that pimped for Barack Obama in 2008 because her mistress/controller Jodie Evans was a bundler for Barack? So even though was publicly ridiculing Tom Hayden -- who took it like the pathetic loser he was -- for wanting US troops out of Iraq and even though he started wavering on his 'promise' regarding all US troops out of Iraq (something Tom and 'Medea' didn't realize until July of 2008 -- four months the beans had already been spilled on that), she never 'bird dogged' Barack the way she did Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. A nun may give herself to Christ, but Jodie forked herself over for currency. As a result, she had the money so Susan Benjamin did what she was told.
2008 is not minor and the internet can tell you all about it. It's not like the 1990s or 1970s where you might have to go to a library and look up the past on microfiche or microfilm. (Actually, I am wrong. I often am. Later in the snapshot -- this is dictated -- I was going to include much documentation of 2008 with the delegate count; however, the sites that documented that on longer exist except for Riverdaughter's site.)
A lot of 'names' made clear that they were damn dirty whores.
'Medea' is one of them. Even for those who don't know her pathetic past, they should know that she's not a Democrat. That's why she supported Ralph Nader in 2000. And then she was sort-of for John Kerry because of the nonsense of the 'safe state strategy.' Joe Biden?
She's hated him forever.
No one gives a damn what sour grapes Susan Benjamin wants, not in anyone in the Democratic Party. Jodie needs to put her cur back on a leash.
What was the point of the useless segment?
I tapped my own head;
it was a glass, an inverted bowl.
It is a small thing
to rage in your own bowl.
That's all they did, rage in their own bowl. (Lines quoted are from Anne Sexton's "For John Who Begs Me Not To Enquire Further" -- one of my two favorite poems by Sexton -- let's see if I can work the other one into the snapshot also)
Susan Benjamin is not an expert on electoral politics. So was she there to call Joe out on age? That would be hilarious. She hits 72 this fall and she's been the 'face' of CODESTINK since 2003. And when the oh-so-White-White-Whiteness of CODESTINK became an issue in the summer of 2006, Susan vowed they were bringing others in and that she was just a temporary (White) face. 18 years later, she's still the face. And this is the person who's going to say Joe's too old?
She's a known hater of Joe Biden. That is her record. Bringing her on to weigh in that Joe needs to step down? That's raging in your own bowl. It's not going to move the needle. Find a Democrat (which is Susan is not) and you might have someone who could actually reach an audience on this point.
It’s clearly difficult for Democrats
to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities
suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best
understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect
specific policies than as a professional association committed to
protecting its most valued members.
Until now, that included Biden. Years of disdain from the party’s
leadership were set aside after he beat Trump in 2020 – while there was
open conversation that year about the unlikeliness of a second term, no
one in the party wound up pushing seriously for a primary or a
replacement even as his poll numbers slid and questions about his health
emerged. It became clear that Democrats would only topple him in an
emergency. After his debate performance, he finally presented them with
one.
[. . .]
It’s been reported
now that Obama and other party leaders, their initial displays of
support aside, have been harboring doubts about Biden’s viability as a
candidate; the Democratic omertà has only been broken within the last
few days. The critical question is why there wasn’t movement to
encourage Biden to drop out sooner. Leaks have been flooding out about
the Biden team’s extraordinary insularity and insecurity, but what’s
happened with Biden doesn’t outwardly seem terribly different from the
way Hillary Clinton coasted to the nomination with only Bernie Sanders
in opposition in 2016 or the inertia that kept Dianne Feinstein and Ruth
Bader Ginsburg in their posts even as their age became a liability.
It’s clearly difficult for Democrats
to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities
suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best
understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect
specific policies than as a professional association committed to
protecting its most valued members.
Get it? Be the change you want to be. Tired of elderly politicians running for president? Don't be an elderly head of an organization. Susan Benjamin should have stepped down years ago to allow new leaders and new ideas. Instead, she's out of step with CodePink and still can't grasp why the rank-and-file of the organization would not let her speak at that even with Proud Boys and other fright-wing people -- homophobes, racists, xenophobes. Susan Benjamin needs attention constantly. The rank-and-file pressured her so she didn't speak at the event. She just attended. That is offensive and ridiculous and CodePink had already looked far too White for way too many years before Susan pulled that stunt.
As Ava and I have pointed out many times over the years, Gloria Steinem began shoving Betty Friedan out of leadership in the feminist movement in 1972 when Gloria and her supporters insisted Betty was too old. Betty was 51-years-old. So we all know that the minute Gloria hit 51, she was going to step down from leadership, right? No. No. Like Susan, Gloria loved attention. (As far as I know Susan Benjamin has no CIA links though there are a few people she's close to who do.)
No, Gloria stuck around until 2020's election when she was 81 years old. But not, in her mind, too old to lead. Let's see, Betty personally helped torpedo a Nixon Supreme Court nominee (G Harrold Carswell) and where was Gloria leading a charge against any of Donald Trump's nominees or, for that matter, against John Roberts or Samuel Alito? Oh, that's right, like Susan Benjamin, Gloria just showed up for media appearances where she made sardonic remarks. Gloria actually revealed herself in the 1977 DNC convention where she went around imploring women to be grateful for whatever crumbs they got and to not pressure Democratic politicians (HARPER'S was the only left magazine to explore that reality).
Betty was far from perfect but at least she wasn't CIA and at least she got results. And now that we know Gloria's CIA history, it's probably time for Susan Faludi to update her chapter on Gloria and Betty and stop pretending Betty was some crazy nut fixated on Gloria. Gloria was CIA, Gloria did want Betty out of leadership. (Ruth Rosen's THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN remains one of the few feminist history books that was actually even-handed on the Gloria vs Betty battle.)
Susan 'Medea' Benjamin is the wrong person for this topic. Marianne Williamson is as well. We're not posting her videos now. This is a Democratic Party issue and she chose to go on FOX "NEWS" Saturday. That's her right but we're no longer interested in her. This is a family matter to be handled within the Democratic Party. I have no idea whom she thought she'd appeal to from the Democratic Party base going on FOX "NEWS." But she's made her plea to them and we're done with her campaign. Again, family matter. She chose to be the dancing bear making a mockery out of all Democrats by taking that to FOX "NEWS." They were going to cover the story without her, absolutely, it's all they do cover, but she didn't need to give the seal of "a Democrat's saying what we're saying."
So now let's note a video.
That's Kyle, Krystal's husband. I don't blame spouses for their spouses' behaviors unless they sign off on it.
But I'm note the video above for several reasons.
First, I do agree with the basic sentiment. It's not fair, however it goes down, that a person gets selected.
Equally true, this isn't a normal situation. Not only are questions growing about Joe but this is also a media narrative that builds every day. Joe doesn't have it in him to take on the media narrative. How many weeks is he going to let the debate be the story? And I don't think he can change the narrative now. That ABC interview last Friday was his last real shot and he failed -- embarrassingly failed to do so.
So I hear what Kyle's saying and I see his point.
But just as the slaughter taking place in Gaza doesn't really begin on October 7th, Democratic Party nonsense in primaries didn't begin in 2020 or in 2016.
Hillary Clinton was a lousy candidate in 2016. Lousy. And I think it's due to her Barack envy. She was a great candidate in 2008 in the Democratic Party primaries. But Barack, using glib and suave and celebrities, slid right past her. And I think that's why she was so stupid in her 2016 campaign. I think she thought that's how it's done -- the way Barack did it in 2008. If she'd campaigned in 2016 for the presidency like she did in 2008 for the party's nomination, she would have won. She went every where in 2008. She took nothing for granted.
And here's the point, Kyle, that primary was seen as rigged by many as well.
You may not like Hillary but if you're concerned about the process -- as you say in your video -- grasp that 2008 was theft.
We don't have time to rehash everything.
But let's start with the media that was enthralled with him -- look up the clip of reporters on the campaign plane embarrassing themselves when they see him in blue jeans. Let's next note that Hillary was in the lead for months in 2008. How so? She won Michigan and Florida.
Why weren't they counted? The DNC insisted that they had violated rules and that they would not be counted.
Dianne Rehm, then hosting her own show THE DIANE REHM SHOW two hours each day Monday through Friday, made the mistake of noting, near the end of January, that of course Michigan and Florida would be counted at the convention. They couldn't have a national convention without doing so.
Diane spoke reality and for that heresy she faced serious pushback and never brought that reality up again.
We can talk Norman Solomon who lied on one PACIFICA RADIO program after another until he got busted on air six months after the lying started -- busted by a caller, not a PACIFICA host. Norman was on as an analyst, he'd pop in and tell you who was winning and who was losing and what was up and what was down. Just an independent making observations. Except he wasn't. He was a pledged delegate from California for Barack Obama. He lied over and over and he has never apologized for it.
Nor has Melissa Lie Face Harris Lacewell Perry whatever. She was working for Barack's campaign in 2007. Yet there she was on DEMOCRACY NOW! presented as an observer and in her 'reporting' on what she was seeing in New Hampshire? She lavished Barack with praise and ignored Hillary. And then she went on Charlie Rose and attacked the wife of a sitting senator (he's still in the Senate) when she spoke about Hillary's strengths -- it was a panel. And Melissa didn't get honest there either. And that's why PBS pulled the plug on her. And that's why Princeton dumped her. And in both cases, Ava and I took the evidence to the people in charge to ensure that Lie Face suffered for her unethical actions and her non-stop lies.
Now we could talk the Texas vote because Barack's campaign paid people for the caucus. It had never mattered before and most Texas voters didn't even know there was a caucus but to ensure that they won the caucus, they paid and instructed his supporters to tell people there was no point, the vote was over, they weren't voting and go on home. May the best person win.
We have Sabina, we have Dallas, in all we have 100 community members in Texas that experienced this.
Now let's pause for a moment. I didn't plan to go into this much detail about 2008. But I just remembered Patricia Wilson-Smith. She was a liar. Let's pull from Ava and my piece on the DNC convention about Patricia Wilson-Smith
Fact free Patricia Wilson-Smith got caught in an on-air lie. Not that Goody was paying attention:
Can
I just say one thing to the point that you just made? I've heard over
and over again from Hillary supporters that basically the media didn't
treat her very well. I think the argument could be made for Senator
Obama, as well. He definitely took his hits in the media also. But
having said that, you know, nobody's more conflicted about this than I
am. At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at
the very beginning. But the time has come for us to basically--
No,
Barack didn't take any real hits. That's a lie. But it's not the lie
we're speaking of. Read her statement above closely. She was "very much a
Hillary Clinton supporter, at the very beginning"?
Patricia
Wilson-Smith is a questionable character in our eyes and we say that
because she is not a young woman and so her mother is also not a young
woman. That would be the mother she states, on air, just had surgery. A
political convention or your mother who just had surgery? Wilson-Smith
didn't appear troubled in deciding to leave Georgia for Denver. But she
wasn't troubled by the fact that she lied on air.
Patricia
Wilson-Smith was lying to the audience. She was supposed to present
herself as a Hillary supporter who came to Barack and, as such, her lie
is supposed to encourage other women to do the same. She certainly
claimed she supported Hillary early in the broadcast. But when she
couldn't succeed in convincing Hillary supporter Sacha Millstone with
her propaganda, Wilson-Smith grew frustrated and went off script
declaring, "And secondly, of course, because I've been working so
tirelessly over the last year and a half for Senator Obama, I wanted to
make the trip and complete the cycle."
Did you catch it
because Amy Goodman let it slide by. She's "been working so tirelessly
over the last year and a half for Senator Obama." Earlier she asserted,
"At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at the
very beginning." Now people have claimed it was a long primary process
(it wasn't) but it did not last a year and a half. Before the primaries
even began (in January of this year), Wilson-Smith had already logged a
year working on Barack's behalf.
A year and a half, she
states, she worked "tirelessly" to get Barack the nomination. Yet she
wants people to believe she's a former Hillary supporter? And not only
does Barack supporter Amy Goodman (who has turned her show over to the
cause of electing Barack since 2007) avoid confronting Wilson-Smith on
that statement, Goodman does damage control by ignoring it and
immediately declaring:
I wanted to go back to
this issue--although, Sacha Millstone, you say, "I'm not thinking about
this at all"--I think this is shocking like to someone like Jose
Serrano, the Congress member, who is a long time supported Hillary Clinton,
now supporting Barack Obama, the issue of, how could you come out of
the convention and then conceivably, possibly, sort of leave it open to
vote for John McCain? If you could just say whether or not yet you've
decided at this point, which clearly you haven't, what appeals to you
about him?
What?
First off,
listen to the show, read the transcript, Sacha Millstone has never used
the words "I'm not thinking about this at all" so Goody's wrong right
there.
But Goody's attempting to suggest that Sacha is supporting
John McCain. Sacha had already made clear she was at the convention to
vote for Hillary and that's as far as she's decided.
But listen
to Liar Goody as she rushes in to cover up for Wilson-Smith exposing
herself by pulling out of thin air the claim that Sacha has stated or
implied she'll vote for John McCain. (Sacha has mentioned neither the
GOP nor McCain up to that point.) Sacha attempts to reply and gets cut
off at "I never said" at which point Amy jumps in (covering for herself
and Wilson-Smith). Amy Goodman cuts her off and snaps, "So, how could
you vote for him?" "Him" being McCain. Sacha manages to get a response
before being cut off by Goodman again ("I never said I would. I never
said that I was considering voting for John McCain. The question is, am I
going to vote for Barack Obama?").
If you wonder why I don't repost segments from DEMOCRACY NOW! on the election, it's because of Amy Goodman's behavior in 2008. Equally true, when Lie Face showed up on Amy's show and presented herself as just a professor taking some students to New Hampshire, Amy knew it was a lie. Amy had already been on Rev Jesse Jackson's radio program on a panel with Lie Face and on Jesse's show, Lie Face didn't lie, she was all about supporting Barack. So, yes, Amy knew Lie Face was lyign and, no, I'm not interested in Amy or her guests take this election cycle.
If you trick and whore, show yourself to the door.
It was that behavior by The Cult of St Barack that gave us Donald Trump. That's the reality.
They lied and whored in the primaries, they lied and whored in the general election and they lied and whored throughout both terms.
Reality is also that these enablers never held Barack responsible and Susan Benjamin is the perfect example there because when Barack wasn't going to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Susan and Jodie went around insisting that the US troops needed to remain in Afghanistan. All the whores went marching home. Leslie Cagen announced, right after the election, that United for Peace and Justice was now closing shop. US troops weren't out of Iraq, let alone Afghanistan, but they had done their whoring and so they disappeared.
But here's the other thing, Kyle, the convention!!! The convention!!!! You're so worried about the convention and how the delegates have to vote.
What world are you living in? Are you being sincere? If you are, then you clearly don't know the 2008 DNC convention. Not only did IVAW disgrace themselves. The media was ready to see their big protest against Barack but Barack sent out a go-between who shucked and jived and f**ked them over. They were left with their bare asses hanging in the wind before they realized they'd been played. They then went to the GOP convention and took part in whatever (stories differ) when they should have taken their asses home and licked their wounds. So there's that, yes.
But I'm talking about the delegates at the 2008 convention. And I have other things to cover. So let me refer you to Riverdaughter at THE CONFLUENCE and the link goes to August 28, 2008 and there's a calendar on the left side, scroll down to find it, that will let you go day by day through that whole week.
The delegates! The delegates! How will they vote!
Kyle, take off the purity ring, that barrier's already been crossed.
That’s a real question, not a sarcastic
one. Given all that he’s said lately and something Jonathan Last said at
the Bulwark this evening, I’m beginning to think Joe is experiencing
some guilt mixed with fear of humiliation.
Last is one of the few political types who
acknowledges that Hillary had more primary votes in 2008 but that the
party wanted Obama. It was a combo of superdelegates, donors etc who
made the party bend the rules for him, steal some of Hilary’s elected
delegates for him and reduce by half the strength of some of her elected
delegates in two states. It made it look like she couldn’t catch up
when in reality, she had beaten him in the states that should have made a
difference at the convention.
Then, to top it all off, the party didn’t
give her a complete floor vote because it wanted to hide the closeness
of the race from the public. I thought it looked like a gang rape with
Hillary on the convention floor surrounded by a large group of mostly
men as they made it impossible for her to challenge what they were doing
until she surrendered. It was sickening. I am not exaggerating.
Is that what Joe is afraid of? Because he
should know by now that the best way to avoid having the party pick the
nominee in spite of the fact that you’ve won more delegates is to not
fight it. Concede now. You know what they’re capable of. Right at this
moment, they’re lining up the floor vote and have already picked their
preferred candidate.
You don’t stand a chance, Joe. You can go
on your own terms or you can be cannibalized by your own party who will
drag you out on the floor and make you smile while they strip you of any
dignity you have left.
And guess what? We can go back further than 2008. I don't who lied to you, Kyle, and told you that the conventions are fair and free.
So is there time for voting ahead of the convention?
Maybe if Joe dops out in the next two days. Maybe not.
But this needs to be dealt with.
THE NEW YORK TIMES offers "Parkinson's Expert Visited The White House Eight Times in Eight Months." That's just one headline. This not going away. This is now the narrative and everything will be put into that narrative and it will go on and as long as Joe is in the race.
Gaza?
Fourth day in a row of the Israeli government attacking schools. THE NATIONAL reports:
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck a school last night
in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, which it claimed was being used
by militants as cover.
It said the attack was "based on intelligence" and used "precise munition".
"The
Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations systematically violate
international law, exploiting civilian structures and population as
human shields for terror attacks against the state of Israel," it said.
Disputing the repeated claims of Israeli officials and their vehement supporters in the Biden administration, who have scoffed at concerns that the Israel Defense Forces are targeting civilians in Gaza,
in-depth reporting on Monday based on the testimony of six former IDF
soldiers described how they were encouraged to fire their weapons to
relieve "boredom" and felt "authorized to open fire on Palestinians
virtually at will, including civilians."
In their latest investigative report on the IDF's rules of engagement in Gaza, Israeli publications +972 Magazine and Local Call interviewed six soldiers who had been released from active duty.
Medical providers and eyewitnesses have described the shooting of Palestinian women and children by Israeli snipers, and footage has shown
unarmed Palestinians being executed while walking along a road, but the
soldiers confirmed that the IDF has been operating with "total freedom
of action," as one said, since October.
"If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain—you just shoot," said a soldier identified as B.
If
troops see a person approaching and don't know whether they are armed
or pose a threat, "it is permissible to shoot at their center of mass
[their body], not into the air... It's permissible to shoot everyone, a
young girl, an old woman," said B.
So another lie of the right-wing Israeli government exposed. Like their lie that they had proof of UNRWA being involved in terrorism, remember? No proof. But they managed to scare many countries away from UNRWA and they continue to bomb UNRWA. ALJAZEERA notes:
Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi has held a joint press
conference with Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the UN’s
agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Amman.
Here are some of Safadi’s comments:
The ability of UNRWA to carry out its role in Gaza has diminished
due to the obstacles imposed by the [Israeli] occupation on the agency.
UNRWA is a humanitarian agency that cannot be replaced, as no other organisation can do what it is doing now in Gaza.
UNRWA plays a heroic role in Gaza to help people who are subjected to brutal aggression.
UNRWA’s survival is essential amid the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s attempt to assassinate UNRWA politically is part of its attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
Jordan stands with all its capabilities to provide the necessary support to UNRWA.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 277 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." ALJAZEERA notes, "The
ministry has given its daily update on casualties in the Gaza Strip
since Israel began its war on October 7, 2023, with at least 38,243
killed and 88,033 people wounded. Its statement also says that at least 50 people have been killed in
the last 24 hours and 130 wounded, as Israel continues its bombing and
ground operations across the Strip." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
