Isaiah's latest THE WORlD TODAY JUST NUTS "Cornel's Crackpot Cracker Parade." Cornel West boasts, "It's me, Brother Cornel. I made it a whole week without switching political parties again. And I got a whole bunch of losers -- White losers -- behind me. Join me and crackers Jill Stein and Chris Hedges in this suicide mission." Isaiah archives his comics at THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS.
So many different kind of people
Trying to be the same
"No way," baby
He said
Baby there's no way
If we could start again
Well who knows
Have we really changed
Some say we have
Reflecting our past
Who can say
Who can say
Races are run
Some people win
Some people always have to lose
-- "Races Are Run," written by Stevie Nicks.
Sadly, two often the people who lose are We The People -- repeatedly. The laughable Cornel West continues his campaign for some reason. We're going to note Joseph Kishore's WSWS piece:
The character of West’s campaign is evident in its beginning. On June 5, West released a video on Twitter declaring himself the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, a decision he said elsewhere had been arrived at in discussions between himself and People’s Party Chair Nick Brana.
The People’s Party, founded in 2017, is largely dominated by Brana, a former Democratic Party operative and staffer for Bernie Sanders. Over the past year, the “party,” which has no real program or policies, has focused its efforts entirely on forging a close political alliance with the far right, in particular, the Libertarian Party with which it co-organized the “Rage Against the War Machine” Rally in February and a follow-up event, the “Independent National Convention” in April. Both were politically dominated by right-wing and even fascistic individuals and organizations, on the basis of the call for a “left-right” political alliance.
On June 13, just over a week after his initial campaign launch, West announced that he was no longer running as the candidate of the People’s Party but rather would be seeking nomination for the Green Party, an organization that has long operated as a pressure group oriented to the Democratic Party. The switch was reportedly made after consultations with journalist Chris Hedges, himself a participant in People’s Party-organized events and someone at least as politically confused as West himself.
Whether the change was made due to unease over the evermore openly right-wing character of the People’s Party, concerns about the sexual scandals surrounding Brana, or pragmatic considerations relating to the Green Party’s access to ballot lines in more states—or some combination of these—is unclear. Regardless, the rapid flitting from one party to another speaks to the absence of any semblance of political coherence to the campaign.
[. . .]
Under conditions of unprecedented capitalist crisis, West is now developing this conception in his proposal for a “United Front” presidential campaign for “truth and justice.” For the ruling elites, such campaigns as West’s play the valuable role of serving as safety valves, hence the professor’s sympathetic treatment in the media.
What one has in the end is a complete pragmatic mess that can serve no other function than to spread confusion and undermine the development of a political movement in the working class. In a word, a muddle.
Joseph's piece would be stronger if he could talk about reality and not theory. By that I mean, the realities that Chris Hedges and Cornel planned to run for the presidency on The People's Party ticket -- until Chris Hedges was informed by his wife that he couldn't be on the ticket. Then when TPP's nightmare of problems -- racism, sexual harassment, flirtation and reach arounds with Nazis, etc -- began imploding on Cornel within days of his announcement, Chris formed a cabal with Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka that attempted to force The Green Party to announce that Cornel was their nominee. The Green Party refused. Cornel is just one person running for that party's nomination. Jill's now heading his campaign, by the way. Good to see the scum step out of the shadows.
The whole thing is corrupt and was back door dealing from the get-go.
Nothing good can come of it.
Let's move over to Iraq. As many of us noted in real time, Mustafa al-Kadhimi was a portrait of corruption and that the disappearances so infamous during Nouri al-Maliki's two terms had returned under Mustafa. It was surprising to those us paying attention to see various individuals in the US play dumb and try to talk of the need for Mustafa to continue his (mis)leadership. They did not want Mohammed Shia Al Sudani to become prime minister. They lost that battle. But while it was ongoing, they echoed the US government in pimping Mustafa and attacking Mohammed. Their real problem -- and the US government's real problem -- was Mohammed had ties to Iran. Ties are not shocking -- Iran borders Iraq, the two countries are neighbors.
Whether Mohammed will be better, I have no idea. But we can look to 2010 to see what happens when a despot is given a second term when it's already known that he's disappearing people and running secret chamber tortures. (Nouri al-Maliki, installed by the US to a second term in November of 2010 which promoted the rise of ISIS in Iraq and all that nearly brought the country to verge of complete collapse instead of just the point of corruption.)
As his months of being out of power add up, more outlets feel free to note just how bad Mustafa actually was.
Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Torture and extortion mired the work of a special government committee tasked with investigating corruption in Iraq under the administration of former prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, the government said on Wednesday.
The government dismissed nine senior Interior Ministry officials as part of its investigation.
Shortly after taking office as interim prime minister in May 2020, former spy chief Mr Al Kadhimi established what is known as Committee 29, granting it special authority to investigate major corruption cases.
The now-defunct committee was headed by influential Interior Ministry official Lt Gen Ahmed Abu Ragheef, who served as deputy minister for intelligence and federal investigations.
It made several high-profile arrests of senior government officials and businessmen accused of corruption. Among them were the former director of the pension fund, the former president of the Baghdad Investment Commission, the former deputy electricity minister and the former director of the privately-owned electronic payment company Qi Card.
Critics of Mr Al Kadhimi, mainly Iran-backed Shiite political parties and militias, accused him of using Lt Gen Abu Ragheef’s committee to target opponents. Mr Al Kadhimi had troubled relations with pro-Tehran factions as he sought to rein them in.
Last December, the current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani ordered an investigation into alleged human rights offences perpetrated by the committee after a report by The Washington Post said it was using forms of torture to extract confessions.
On Wednesday, government spokesman Basim Al Awadi announced that the investigation found “shortcomings and human rights violations”.
"The probe committee recommended sending the file and all investigation papers to the judiciary, as there have been proven shortcomings," Mr Al Awadi said.
The spokesman only mentioned Lt Gen Abu Ragheef, eight other security officials and a police officer.
On corruption, Azhi Rasul (RUDAW) reports:
Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, and official
figures published last year estimated that well over 400 billion dollars
have gone missing from state coffers since the regime of Saddam Hussein
was overthrown in 2003.
The crisis-hit country ranks 157 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.
Last week, Iraq’s Integrity Commission announced that it had conducted
210 investigations on corruption cases across 15 Iraqi provinces,
excluding the Kurdistan Region. Basra province lead the chart with 36
cases, followed by Anbar with 21.
In late April, Iraqi courts sentenced a former local official to six years in prison for corruption-related charges and “wasting public funds.”
An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October concluded that
$2.5 billion in tax funds were stolen from the General Commission of
Taxes’ account at Baghdad’s Rafidain Bank between September 2021 and
August 2022, during the tenure of former finance minister Ali Allawi.
The Iraqi government has repeatedly vowed to retrieve the stolen funds
but has so far only retrieved a small portion of that amount despite
arresting the main suspect in the case over six months ago.
The following sites updated:
Tons of e-mails to the public e-mail account today and one topic has over 100 e-mails. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and abortion. In one e-mail after another, I'm repeatedly told that I hold the other Democratic nominees to a higher standard and that if Marianne Williamson or Cornel West had --
Wait.
The drive-bys e-mailing are that stupid?
Cornel West is not running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Joe Biden is, Marianne Williamson is and Robert is.
Cornel is running for the Green Party nomination.
A media outlet posted a video of Robert discussing abortion in reply to a question (from a woman who does not believe in abortion -- and is apparently waiting for Santa to show up on Christmas morning to convince her).
It's WMUR and they've changed the title to include that he's pro-choice.
WMUR has changed the title. It now includes that he's pro-choice. But did you stream it before the title change because, if you had, you would have heard him say that it's not the government's business and that it's a woman's body and it's her decision. He doesn't personally like abortion, he loathes it.
Now maybe before the title changed, those of you e-mailing were confused but, then again, considering how many of you seem to think Cornel West is running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- Baptist and Marxist Cornel doesn't really have a personal political party i.d. but he did get the nomination from The People's Party and is now competing for the Green Party's nomination . . . Well someone wrong about that may not be all there to begin with.
Robert needs to address the war on LGBTQ+ and that's him. I don't want to hear from Cheryl again. I am not pulling her into the campaign. He is the candidate and he can't hide behind her. Once upon a time GOP candidates would make statements similar to Robert's today on abortion without his qualifier that it was his personal opinion and they would then hide behind their wives who were pro-choice. (Robert offered his personal opinion and his opinion on the right itself. On the right, he's in favor. It is a basic human right and it is not the government's business. I feel that's obvious that he said that but since so many are confused, let me belabor the point.)
Nancy Reagen was never elected president and didn't nominate any person to the Supreme Court. What Nancy thought or Barbara Bush thought was irrelevant.
So Robert needs to address the LGBTQ+ issue and do it quick. Ruth's writing about this right now. For two weeks now, I've stayed away from this topic while she mulled and waited for Robert to make a statement. I called her and she's got a draft of a post that'll go up shortly.
As for calling out? I'm about to call out Robert, wait a paragraph or two.
But it's not my problem that Marianne can't get her act together. Ava and I were planning on just doing a piece at THIRD on entertainment -- just covering an entertainment show or two. But due to the disgusting Chris Hedges and an info dump from Marianne's campaign, we now have more than enough to do a piece focusing just on the news. But Marianne's campaign can't get its act together and that's her fault. She's become a scared little bunny and that's pathetic. As we listened to three with the campaign, Ava and I were exchanging looks and trying not to laugh. This is beyond pathetic. The way she's too scared to take any kind of stand. So it appears we're trapped into covering it.
But for those needing Robert to be called out, here it is.
He's reTweeting a two-part article at his site.
It's a poorly written article -- and how do you talk about Pottinger's kid and the CIA without noting the father's ties to the CIA and the father's ties to Gloria Steinem (again, Gloria's lived past the point where the press indulges her lies which is why THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORKER and THE NEW YORK TIMES have all stopped in the last ten years protecting her and now write the truth, she was CIA, and leave her with nothing but her own angry letters to the editorial board) -- and I don't have time to cover it all. In relation to this site and it's long running scope, we'll note this:
The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal listed Judith Miller as a contributing editor. You might recall Miller as the hawkish New York Times journalist known for her deep CIA connections and for peddling false information about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction in support of the CIA’s expansionist warmongering. (Miller went to jail for her role in illegally outing undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame in revenge for Plame’s husband’s opposition to the Iraq war.)
There are two huge errors there. First off, Judith wasn't plugged into the intel community. Chris Hedges was. That's why the intel community arranged his infamous interviews that led to his lying in print that Iraq was linked to 9/11. Again, the first to get that lie into the paper -- in fact on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES -- in what passed for 'reporting.'
Judith's deep connections were always with the administration. Michael R. Gordon's were with the military (including military intelligence) and Chris Hedges was always tied closely to the CIA.
Rule of thumb, the missionary types will always drift to the CIA --ask Gloria.
But when this was first popping up in the news, we did our parody piece here on "Rudith Miller" tying her to Scooter Libby because, though it was January 2006, all of us in the know knew Scooter was Judith's source on Valerie Plame being CIA.
The CIA doesn't burn their own. If Judith were CIA -linked she wouldn't have gotten the story. If she were CIA-linked she would have done what David Corn did which was explode repeatedly online and scream and try to make this into the biggest story of the century.
Judith ties were to the administration, that's who her sources were, that's who fed her.
Judith's career is not one of supporting the CIA. She sucks up to the biggest, most obvious power and that's the executive branch. So trying to tie her into the CIA is poor reporting. At that, THE NEW YORK TIMES had five well known writers the CIA linked to (that includes Chris Hedges). When you make that mistake you fool the deluded and addled. But the rest of us tend to think, "Wait, does Dick Russell know anything about the CIA?" Because, again, it's a rather obvious error.
But the bigger one and the one that he -- Robert -- needs to be asked about is:
(Miller went to jail for her role in illegally outing undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame in revenge for Plame’s husband’s opposition to the Iraq war.)
I need to know where his campaign stands on press liberty.
First off, it wasn't illegal. Is this an opinion piece by Dick Russell or is this supposed to be hard journalism reporting? Opinion piece, sure you call it illegal. Factual reporting? What legal body ruled the action to be illegal because I didn't see anyone go to prison.
Second, Judith went to jail. She didn't go to jail because of anything she printed. She went to jail for refusing to reveal her source. Judith did many things wrong as a reporter but that wasn't one of them. Her source told her Valerie was CIA. (Judith didn't out her in print, Robert Novak did.) Her source didn't burn her -- if he had, she could have outed him and no one would have blinked.
But what she did in that instance is what reporters are supposed to do: Protect their sources.
She went to jail for refusing to expose a source. And, please note, she's not the one who outed Valerie.
This was a huge overstep by the US government. Had Judith done what they were trying to force her to do, it would have been a huge setback for journalism. People wanted to ignore that. Because they're uneducated idiots. I still get e-mails on this all this time later about how I'm wrong and blah blah blah when I tried to inform on basic facts. No, sorry. Judy Garland was pissed at CBS for what they said about her and she's the one who started this process. She's the one who went after a gossip columnist over a source (an unnamed CBS executive) who had made disparaging comments about her. You don't apparently learn in school -- I don't know if they don't teach it or if some of you just don't know how to listen -- but this a very serious issue.
Judith Miller did many things wrong. But on this, she was right.
And she went to jail for it. She believed in it that much.
So to now find Robert's website carrying a two-part article written by Robert's co-writer (CLIMATE IN CRISIS, for example) that appears to parenthetically call out/trash/mislead on Judith Miller's correct stance of refusing to reveal her sources to the government? And to find Robert Tweeting the article, promoting it?
Oh, hell no. Oh, no. He needs to answer on press freedom.
And this will be poo-pahed and treated as no big thing I'm sure. But it's actually one of the biggest issue's there is: Do we have press freedom or not?
It takes more than just supporting Julian Assange (and I think we should all support Julian) to defend press freedom. It takes standing up to the overreach of government when they try to short-cut their own investigations by forcing a reporter to give up a source.
The disdain that Dick Russell is offering should have been recognized by Robert the minute he read the article. Maybe he didn't read it?
Regardless, he's created a problem for himself that he needs to now clarify: Is he for press freedom or not?
1) He's for it when it comes to Julian.
2) He's for it when it comes to his being allowed to express his beliefs without censorship.
Doesn't mean he's for press freedom.
THE NEW YORK TIMES has hid behind Judith Miller and acted as though their problems were all due to her. Not true. But they walked away from her. Do you know when? When she refused to give up her source.
Why?
Because they didn't like the administration. I didn't either. Bully Boy Bush, I'll never give him the p-title and never have. The worst administration ever in my lifetime.
I would have loved to see Scooter and Dick and Karl rounded up and put in prison leaving Bully Boy Bush with no one to change his diapers or feed him.
But greater than my hatred for Bush is my belief in a free press.
And I'm not going to chop up The First Amendment for political desires.
THE TIMES had been way to close to the Bush administration and now, in the minds of some, Judith could bring down the administration by outing her source. She refused to and that's when the paper turned on her. They wouldn't have run Maureen Dowd's column attacking Judith prior to that (Maureen wrote a good column) and they wouldn't have broken with her.
It's a sad reality that when it was time to stand up for journalism, it was this site, not THE NEW YORK TIMES, that called out the overreach loudly and clearly.
Now Robert has a problem that he needs to address.
There are other problems with the article. And we could do a fact check. I don't feel like it. He wants to be president and he's running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. With those goals in mind, the most serious issue raised by the 'report' is the issue of The First Amendment and his co-writer's desire to misrepresent why Judith went to jail instead of applauding her for it?
Here's Robert's two Tweets:
As CIA historian Dick Russell showed in his Dec 21 series, “The CIA’s Extraordinary Role Influencing the Liberal Media,” Rolling Stone is now the proud possession of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird. #TrollingStone #RollingSmearhttps://t.co/o5BpxVQdJy
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 24, 2023
Russel exposes Rolling Stone’s editor Noah Sclachtman as a shadowy spook with a lifelong fascination with spycraft. Salon founder David Talbot describes Schlachtman as “a creature of the national security apparatus.” #TrollingStone #RollingSmearhttps://t.co/QOKo4fuNeB
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 24, 2023
The public e-mail for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com -- community members use the private e-mail because I doubt I'll go back into the public account until Sunday night and no oen works it on the weekend but me.
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There's a record of trans people dating back 4,500 years so maybe they've just always existed like gay people have you absolute freak https://t.co/59napFNFHc
— Secular Talkš (@KyleKulinski) June 23, 2023
He's graduated to trans people = nazis so at least these idiots have finally dropped the tap dance of "I just care about protecting the kids bro!"
— Secular Talkš (@KyleKulinski) June 23, 2023
He's graduated to trans people = nazis so at least these idiots have finally dropped the tap dance of "I just care about protecting the kids bro!"
— Secular Talkš (@KyleKulinski) June 23, 2023
For those of you who don't know this is just the new version of what conservatives did in the 90s when they argued the nazis were all gay pic.twitter.com/WiUuqzYBtw
— Secular Talkš (@KyleKulinski) June 23, 2023
Harleigh Walker: Thank you for the opportunity to tell you more about myself and what it is like to be a transgender person. My name is Harleigh; my pronouns are she/her; I’m 16 years old, and I am from Alabama. I’m hoping to be able to share with you what my journey has been like and to clear up some of the false information that I’ve heard come out of Congress and state legislatures, including the Alabama legislature. There has been so much misinformation shared around what it means to be a transgender person, and what healthcare looks like for transgender youth like me. Most of what I’ve been hearing is inaccurate at best, or just outright falsehoods and misrepresentations about the healthcare given to transgender youth by qualified medical professionals. The laws preventing people like me from having access to the health care that our doctors and parents agree is necessary to keep us healthy don’t keep us safe; they do the opposite. The horrible things we hear from legislators at the state and federal levels put us at greater risk because of bullying and dangerous harassment. Transgender people deserve to be able to pursue happiness - and I am happy.
Growing up, I had a really great childhood, loving parents, a wonderful big brother, loving grandparents, and friends. As I grew, I just felt like something was different for me, and when I was between ten and eleven years old, I told my parents that I was transgender. No one pushed me to become transgender. No one suggested, forced, or influenced me to “choose” to be transgender. It is not a choice. I just knew that this is who I am.
My parents did the absolute best they could to love and support me, and they took me to our
pediatrician. He sat down with my parents and me and referred us to medical professionals in
our state that could best treat me. He never once “pushed an agenda” onto me. Instead, he
listened to me, his patient, and advised all of us on how I could get the best healthcare for my
situation. I remember going on the first trip to the specialists - we were all so incredibly nervous
- and the team of doctors we saw were incredible. It wasn’t a single doctor but a group of
doctors who were there to help me in whatever way they could. One of the falsehoods I hear all
the time out of those who would keep me from getting my healthcare is that these doctors
pressure or rush you, and they pull you in and start filling you full of hormones, puberty blockers
or wanting to surgeries - and I want to tell you that none of that happened. As a matter of fact,
these doctors advised us that at no point would they talk about any surgeries on a minor; it
wasn’t even something they would discuss. Instead they spent time getting to know me,
understanding my specific case, getting to know my parents, and figuring out how to best care
for me, personally, as a patient. Not only did they never push me, but instead, one of the things
that stuck out as they talked to my parents and me was that if I ever decided to stop, or if this
care wasn’t right for me, it was ok, and they would support me on that, too. This is the opposite
of what I hear in the news or in the legislatures. It makes me wonder why legislatures think they
should get to tell my parents and my doctors that I can’t get the care I need to be healthy and
happy.
I want you to understand something really important. I want all of you to look at me, here and
now, and hear my words. I am a VERY happy 16-year-old. I have wonderful friends who accept
me fully for who I am. I’m active in my school’s debate team and other extracurricular activities. I
love to travel. I enjoy concerts and music like Taylor Swift, and listening to my record collection
way too loud in my room. I get As in school and I'm looking forward to college. I am not
miserable in my life, I’m not depressed. I’m just trying to be a teenager in America. Same as any
other teen, but I keep having to jump through hoops that other people my age don’t have to. I
have had to spend spring break lobbying for my right to exist while my friends are on
vacation. I’m here in front of this Committee instead of enjoying summer vacation, just to try
and ensure that my right to exist isn’t taken away.
I also hear so many lawmakers saying they are writing and passing these laws to protect kids,
yet, in my home state, when these laws were being proposed, not one lawmaker was willing to
sit down with my dad or me to talk through it, so that we could better explain what this looked
like, what it meant to us. From our State Senate, House of Representatives and even our
Governor, we begged and pleaded for an audience - but those writing these laws absolutely
refused to meet with us. Instead, these lawmakers pushed rhetoric and laws that weren’t true
and were unfounded, including that transgender people are being “groomed” by our parents,
which is nonsense!. In support of these laws my Governor has decided to say horrible things
about me and those like me in my state. I would love for you to imagine for a moment if these
statements were made about you or your kids, how would this make you feel? What would you
do to protect your kids from these harmful laws and statements? If you were me, would you
want to stay in a state where the people who are supposed to make sure you have a safe place
to live instead talk about you and your family this way? I live only a few miles from the best
college in my state, but I can’t really even consider going there in this climate, because of the
continued attacks against me.
As I’m looking forward to college though, I have had to rethink where I might go. Alabama was
one of the first states to ban my healthcare, but because of the new laws that have been passed
in states across the nation blocking my ability to just be who I am, and because we don’t have
the Equality Act to help protect me from discrimination,I’ve had to start looking at colleges very
far away from where I was born and raised, away from family and friends. My parents say this
breaks their heart; they can’t stand the thought of their kid being so far away from them where it
would be tough for them to help me If I needed them.
This type of discrimination, which will make me have to move where I live or work or go to
school, is not designed to protect or help me. It is really designed to do two things: one, keep
me from being who I am and being successful; and two, to use transgender people as
scapegoats for increased political capital. I’m here today to tell anyone who would support that
to look out; you will not stop me from being who I am or obtaining my goals, and I will not be
used as a political pawn.
I also want you to understand that discrimination makes me unsafe. This journey isn’t easy; as I
first began my transition, there was an incredible amount of bullying in my middle school. So
much so, that at one point my parents decided I needed to go to online school, not because I
wanted to but because the bullying got so bad that it was getting close to physical violence, and
the school refused to help. I hated online school - I love being around people, and I learn best
in a school environment. The next year, I went back into my old school, and, though there was
still bullying, we worked with the school to make sure they knew they couldn’t shrug their
shoulders anymore. For me, it never escalated to physical violence but that was just lucky. Kids
shouldn’t feel helpless at school against being bullied or discriminated against just because they
are different - this is another way that The Equality Act could really help. Leaders in our state
and country have the ability to help, but instead so many legislators have decided to promote
bullying and discrimination.
Despite all this, despite being called a demon, a monster, or other despicable things, I love my
life, I love my family, I love my friends and I’m happy. I am asking for you to help us stop certain
people from using the transgender community as a political pawn. Please stop attacking our
lives for votes or money. These are our human rights hanging in the balance. Help us
communicate that they are impacting people’s lives and our “pursuit of happiness.” We’re not
people to be feared or villains. We are just like your kid, your neighbor, and you. We also
deserve the ability to be happy.
The Black Commentator Issue #961 is now Online
June 22, 2023
Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com
Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739
