Sunday, May 15, 2016

Hejira

Let's start with the daily bombings, the US Defense Dept announced today:


Strikes in Iraq
Rocket artillery and bomber and fighter aircraft conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL assembly area and three ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb storage facility and destroyed two ISIL boats.
-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL supply cache, two ISIL rockets, an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL heavy machine guns.
-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions. 
-- Near Waleed, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL mortar system and three ISIL weapons storage facilities.


Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.


Everyone's dropping bombs on Iraq.


And does anyone wonder where they land?




PAINFUL from Fallujah Hospital Iraqi Sunni child Victim of army airstrikes


What is the US doing in Iraq?


1iraq



In this April 16th photo taken by U.S. Army Sgt. Kalie Jones, "U.S. Army First Sgt. Gabriel Montgomery with 524th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 17th Sustainment Brigade, Task Force Battle Born, issues an M16 rifle to an Iraqi soldier assigned to Iraq’s 4th Battalion, 23rd Brigade, during an Iraqi Train and Equip Fund issuing point at Camp Taji, Iraq,"


So the White House plan is to bomb from the air and to train on the ground.

And this has been repeated over and over since August of 2014 -- with very little success.

How bad are things going?

Judith Miller can show up and make solid points.

Judith.

Miller.

Disgraced reporter.


In a piece of THE NEW YORK POST, co-written with Charles Deulfer, these points are made:

In April, the president said the conditions for liberating Mosul from the Islamic State should be in place by year’s end. But Sunni Iraqi tribal leaders and Kurds are quietly warning that “doing Mosul” is likely to result not in military victory but a humanitarian and political disaster.
First, Iraq’s second-largest city is home to 1 million to 2 million people. ISIS, which hasn’t hesitated to slaughter fellow Arabs and flatten cities, has had ample time to prepare to take hostages and booby-trap buildings.
[. . .]
An offensive would spread panic among the city’s beleaguered residents, who would be trapped inside Mosul along with their occupiers. Baghdad’s plans to liberate the city include strangling ISIS by laying siege to Mosul in preparation for a full assault. If Ramadi is any example, liberation could turn Mosul into an uninhabitable ghost town.  


Haider al-Abadi can retake Mosul all this time later.  The city was seized by the Islamic State in June (a few months before Haider was made prime minister) and it continues to be controlled by the Islamic State.

But let's all pretend 'progress' has been made.

Mosul was seized before Barack began sending a 'few' US service members into Iraq in August of 2014.  It continues to be seized as a few US service members has turned into thousands.

Tim Hume and Hamdi Alkhshali (CNN) report, "ISIS has claimed responsibility for an assault on a Baghdad gas plant Sunday, the latest in a series of deadly attacks committed by the Sunni terror group that have claimed more than 100 lives in recent days."  BBC adds that the "suicide attack on a gas factory near Baghdad in which 14 people were killed and 20 wounded, Iraqi officials say."

Meanwhile Saif Hameed (REUTERS) reports on the media crackdown going on in Iraq.




I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name




The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4517 (including 20 in Operation Inherent Resolve which includes at least 3 Iraq War fatalities).

Kat's  "Kat's Korner: No one hates Drake more than Drake" and Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Original Loose Cannon" went up earlier today.  And the following community sites -- plus Z ON TV and Jody Watley -- updated:


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    The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.











    Kat's Korner: No one hates Drake more than Drake

    Kat: Forget just rap, Drake could be one of the most important musicians of any genre today -- of all genres.

    Could be.

    That's clear the more you listen to his new album VIEWS.

    drake

    But he's not.

    And that becomes clear with each listen as well.

    The 29-year-old's biggest problem is the chip on his shoulder.


    Growing up in the 'hood' of Canada and 'suffering' through the 'ghetto' of DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION -- or that's how he tries to self-present.

    Has any male ever come off like more of a little bitch?

    Seriously, stop pretending you're something you're not.

    If Drake could be real or genuine, he might have something to rap about.

    Instead, he's still the child actor playing a role.

    And, thing is, it's not a very attractive role, let alone believable.


    The Jewish, bi-racial man should have a ton of topics to rap about but he's so busy faking and shaking that he has so little to say and what he does say is frequently repulsive.

    "One Dance" is a stand out track -- probably because it doesn't attempt to say anything.

    Elsewhere he comes off as a money obsessed pretender who's actually the tackiest of all.

    What am I talking about?



    In a dis on a woman ("you go to CVS for Kotex" and "don't make me take you back to the hood"), Drake thinks he's reached the height of sophistication "take you to the mall and get you a new outfit."


    You gonna do that, Drake, with your weekly check from Orange Julius?

    He can't stop obsessing/bragging over/about money.

    But he has no idea how to spend it, does he?

    No baller, no real roller, is going to send 'his woman' to the mall for an outfit.

    What is that, one step up from a garage sale?

    Mall culture was 'in' when Moon Unit Zappa charted rapping on her father's "Valley Girl" hit in 1982.  And it was pretty much buried by the real life Robin Sparkels, Tiffany, around 1988.


    It must be really sad to brag endlessly, in track after track, about all the money you've made while your attempts to paint yourself spending that big roll come off like a tiny step above a trip to K-Mart.



    Again, it's really too bad because Drake could be something, a real artist.

    Instead, he's a shallow, little boy.

    Listening to the album is painful, as you hear someone wounded who thinks they're strong, someone who thinks they're high rolling when they're not even Middle America-ing, someone so determined to insist that they're "too good for you, way too good for you."


    Listening to the album from this man who lived well off nine months of the year in Canada and then visited his father during the summers where things weren't so ritzy, I honestly kept thinking of I BLAME DENNIS HOPPER AND OTHER STORIES FROM A LIVE LIVED IN AND OUT OF THE MOVIES.

    That's Illeana Douglas' memoir.

    Unlike Drake, she actually grew up in poverty.

    Year round poverty.

    Not merely sticking her big toe into it during a summer break.

    And her high school boyfriend actually has money.

    And he brags endlessly about this blue Corvette that his daddy's going to buy him.

    Over and over.

    He comes off as spoiled as Drake does on VIEWS.

    Illeana's interested in reality so she explains that the day spoiled prince gets his blue Corvette, he picks her up to take her for a brief and slow ride during which he explains that he's dumping her.

    She acknowledges reality.

    Maybe that's why she's not a whiny little bitch in her book?

    Maybe that's why she's not writing page after page about money and how she's making it and she has it and she's so much better than this or that person because of it?

    I get it, Drake hates himself.

    It's painful to listen to someone with so much self-loathing.

    It's painful and it's embarrassing.

    It's also counter-productive to his career.

    The rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump?

    Rejections of the corrupt status quo.

    The same as the conversation that's been started about the 99%.

    A real artist would be leading that way through this terrain.

    And Drake is certainly artist enough to capture and essay this moment.

    The music, for example, on VIEWS is rich and textured.

    He could be leading the way to a new sound that would influence artists for decades to come.

    But he's far too busy pretending to be something he's not, something he can never be.

    In the end, VIEWS serves up four solid tracks -- out of 20 -- the best of which is probably "Fire & Desire."  But what it mainly does is disappoint.  50 Cent already exists and is a genuine and convincing portrait of Curtis James Jackson III.  Drake pretending to be 50 is just a pale and unconvincing imitation.
















    Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Original Loose Cannon"

    original loose cannon



    Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Original Loose Cannon."  Bill Clinton explains, "Hillary's got a new nickname for Donald Trump: Loose Cannon.  Loose Cannon?  That's what they used to call me when I messed around with Monica and didn't use protection."  Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.