Thursday, September 30, 2021

Lil Nas X again



That's Lil Nas X's "Jolene." I posted it last week ("Lil Nas X") but I'm noting it again because the song writer, Dolly Parton, has weighed in:

 
Dolly Parton heaped some praise on Lil Nas X after finding out about his recent cover of her song, "Jolene."
The 75-year-old country music icon took to Twitter on Wednesday evening to share a kind note with the 22-year-old artist after he performed a cover of her single last week at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.
"I was so excited when someone told me that Lil Nas X had done my song #Jolene. I had to find it and listen to it immediately…and it's really good," Parton tweeted. "Of course, I love him anyway. I was surprised and I'm honored and flattered. I hope he does good for both of us. Thank you @LilNasX."


Lil Nas is in the news a lot these days. People magazine notes:

 
Lil Nas X has revealed that he's currently on the market, but content with being single!
The "Sun Goes Down" singer, 22, video chatted with Andy Cohen for Radio Andy on Sirius XM on Tuesday, and the Watch What Happens Live host couldn't help but ask about his love life.
Cohen, 53, said he heard Lil Nas X was in a relationship, to which the rapper responded, "I was seeing someone, [but] I kind of decided I don't want to anymore."


And Billboard notes:

 
Lil Nas X's life changed when he released "Old Town Road" -- which spent a history-making 19 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 -- in 2019. Two years after the release of "Old Town Road," the 22-year-old rapper reflecting on coming out in the midst of the song's massive success.
“I don’t think I would have ever came out,” Lil Nas said while discussing his decision to come out in June 2019 during an interview in XXL's fall issue, published Tuesday (Sept. 28). “I honestly felt like it was kind of my duty. Especially if I wanted to move forward. And what I was doing, because authenticity is very real, and I feel like people can see right through that. And that’s a part of me.”
The "Industry Baby" rapper also explained that after coming out, he felt as if his sexuality sat like a cloud over his music and his public persona. “For me, I felt like [my insecurity with my sexuality] was my fear of people judging me for how I would act post-coming out. I used to ‘like’ comments where people were like, ‘Oh, I like him, because he’s not all in your face about it,’” Lil Nas said. “And then I realized kind of what that was. It’s kind of like when people say, ‘Oh, I have a Black friend,’ and that kind of sits on everything that have to do with their Black history and culture, whatnot. I’m kind of like, I'm not that person, you know?”


He's making news because we like his music. Like "Industry Baby."



But, yes, I do follow him because of his coming out. I honestly would not have known who he was. We're more of a quiet storm home and when we stray from that it's for someone we really, really like. Little Nax X came onto our radar when he came out and that's why we listened to his music. We continue to listen to it because we love his music.

 

 

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

 Thursday, September 20, 2021. Iraq gears up for elections as the US seems determined to destroy free speech.


IANS reports, "The Iraqi ministry of health reported on Wednesday 2,254 new COVID-19 cases, raising the nationwide caseload to 2,000,869."  It's a world wide pandemic.  In the United States, the number has passed 43 million.  The pandemic hasn't ended.


But a bevy of corporations that need to leech out more money and a Congress that doesn't give two s**ts about the people contribute to a false sense of safety, a belief that the pandemic has ended or is winding down.  No one knows what's happening next. That means, yes, it could be winding down.  It also means that we may be a masked society this time next year or even longer

It's a world wide pandemic.  It's a time that we really should be grasping the need for Medicare For all (which, actually, most Americans favor) and our so-called representatives should be working to create.  It's also a time when we should feel a need to help one another.


Instead, we get the hateful Amanda Marcotte.  How much does one awful person get to survive?  Her racism hurt her book but didn't silence her.  Her toxic hatred of anyone religious hasn't seen outlets turn away from her.  I know she poses as a Hillary Clinton supporter but I also remember what she said in 2007 and 2008 and I also remember that her choice was the well known womanizer Grabby Hands Edwards.  We all know how that went down.  


Nothing stops that awful Amanda.  She's making hateful statements and it may seem new to some people.  It's not new.  We look back now and we remember things much more fondly than they really are/were.  A friend has a documentary that'll be airing on PBS next month.  It's on a topic we've long discussed here.  The reality of the way gays and lesbians were treated.  I'm not referring to LGBTQ because back then the understanding wasn't expansive enough to include all.  But it did acknowledge gay men and lesbians.  And it deemed them sick, mentally ill.  Readers of THE NEW YORK TIMES were told that over and over.  Educated people were told by their news media that lesbians and gay men were sick.  The struggle for rights and recognition was much harder than we sometimes remember.  And I also remember the hatred similar to what Amanda's currently spewing when the 'gay disease' began emerging in the 1980s.  AIDS wasn't a gay disease but that's how it was covered by many news outlets.  And the hatred was out there publicly.  Amanda should be ashamed of herself for offering hatred at the masses.  History, if it remembers her at all will not judge her kindly.


Her hatred, please note, can be expressed.  It's always allowed.


And I am fine with that because I do believe in free speech.  But fear and hatred are now targeting our basic rights -- including free speech.  Big Tech continues to attack our rights and they are urged on by Congress.  


Jonathan Turley notes:


YouTube continued the expansion of corporate censorship on the Internet with the encouragement of leading Democratic leaders. The company has banned channels associated with anti-vaccine activists like Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once again, rather than rebutting or refuting claims made by others, many sought to silence those with opposing views. YouTube will not allow people to hear views that do not comport with an approved range of opinions.  The move magnifies concerns that we are seeing the emergence of a new type of state media as private companies conduct censorship operations barred by the Constitution for the government to conduct directly. This move comes days after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) asked Amazon to steer customers to “true” books on subjects like climate change to avoid their exposure to “disinformation.” It also follows YouTube censoring videos of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before Russia’s parliamentary elections. The move helped Putin and his authoritarian government crack down on pro-Democracy forces.
The Google-owned site is now openly engaged in viewpoint regulation to force users to view only those sources that are consistent with the corporate agenda. Facebook banned misinformation on all vaccines seven months ago and Twitter regularly bans those questioning vaccines.

These companies are being encouraged by many on the left to expand censorship.


As Elaine noted last night, "It's outrageous.  In the name of 'safety,' they're destroying free speech.  This will not end people's suspicions or doubts.  Censorship never does.  It's appalling.  Shame on people who support this.  Today it's this group, tomorrow it's another.  Pretty soon, there is no free speech. "


Exactly.


Go back a few decades and my calls for equality would be censored.  Hell, in college, I was censored for calling out apartheid in South Africa.  Censored and attacked by the campus newspaper.  Not once, but an entire semester.  It only raised awareness on the reality of apartheid, it only taught students how damaging and out of control the press could be.  They were in the wrong, running a feature on a student from that area and quoting the student on how "good" Blacks had it and how "fair" and "caring" the system of apartheid was.  It was an offensive article.  The paper should have never run those quotes.  And could easily have done a profile on the asshole without printing (and endorsing) his views on apartheid.  But they chose to run it -- that's free speech.  I chose to respond with a letter - caustic, yes.  The thing about a biting wit is that some feel the bite more than others.  Free speech meant that they could air their offensive views and that I could respond with an indictment of apartheid.  That was the start of the semester.  Instead of letting it die, they (the newspaper students) spread rumors about me (I was sleeping with the editor of the paper which makes it even more disgusting) and every new edition all semester carried letters attacking me.  Letters that the paper urged the writers to write, that in three cases, the staff wrote for the letter writers.  


Because there is some fairness, there was pushback.  Huge.  And the paper had a ton of letters that they hadn't run.  I learned of that as did others and the paper was under pressure as the semester wound down to publish this huge response that they had hidden and ignored.  They tried to get out of it by asking me to instead write a column for them on the issue.  I insisted they run the letters.


Speaking out about the rights of people with HIV was not a popular position and those of us who did speak out were attacked.  In today's climate, we could be censored.  Throughout my life I've taken positions which, right now in 2021, are popular but when I took them in real time, were positions you got attacked for.  


That semester in college, I don't think most students on campus -- at least the ones I knew -- had thought a great deal about apartheid.  If we didn't have free speech, they never would have thought more about it.  I was never bothered by the various attacks from the paper and its staff. It wasn't about me.  It was about an important issue.  And we need to discuss and debate important issues.  We need to be willing to disagree.  


We won't progress without it.  Joe Biden rightly talked about how the TV show WILL & GRACE did a great deal to change attitudes about LGBTQ people.  It did.  Representation in media matters.  A nation that used the media to 'educate' people that LGBTQs were sick and needed mental care owed the people better representation so that we could move beyond that sickness.  The sick were never the gay men and the lesbians, the sick were the people who swallowed hatred from the media.


I know it's hard to stand up and I know it's hard to question.  But that's what we need to do.  We need to consume the media while asking what this story is really about.  If we'd done that with the claims of WMDS, a lot more people would have been opposed to the Iraq War.  The media says it so it must be true?  That's a stupid opinion.  You may be the most educated person in the world but if you accept what the media tells you unquestioningly then you are a stupid person.  


Harvey Weinstein's actions were known for years and years.  And people covered for him.  Favors were called in to protect him.  He was done in not by a brave press.  He was done in because he had alienated so many people.  He wanted Academy Awards and went overboard at best.  It's amazing that Berry Gordy may have cost Diana Ross the Academy Award with an ad campaign that some tsk-tsk-ed looked like he was trying to buy an Academy Award when, a few decades later, Harvey would turn the Academy Awards into a blood sport.  He would work overtime paying people to help him destroy Ron Howard's film or this person's film.  He made it blood sport.  And he amassed one enemy after another.


That's what did him finally.  No more favors left to call in because too many in the industry had turned against him.


I don't see a lot of bravery in Harvey's takedown -- no bravery in the press (I see bravery in Rose McGowan) -- I see them finally filing stories that were always known but weren't told because of what happened behind the scenes.


We need free speech.  We're not a democracy without it.


Our country took a huge hit after 9/11.  Fear was used to turn people against 'others' -- Arabs, Muslims, foreigners, truth tellers, you name it.  Now the pandemic is being used to attack free speech.  As someone who has often been ahead of the curve on issues, I do not support censorship.  If what YOUTUBE Is doing right now had been in place in 1961, I wonder how much attention the brave leaders of the Civil Rights Movement would have received.  The answer is never to silence others.  Let them say what ever they want.  Let Amanda be as hateful as she wants to be.  Let that idiot promoting apartheid make the hideous remarks he did.  But let us have free speech so that we can counter it.  Don't play the judge of what we can say or what positions we can hold.  Let us make the case and sort it out in the public square.



That's Jimmy Dore addressing the CIA's plot to assassinate WIKILEAKS publisher Julian Assange.  


Defending Julian from persecution is not a popular position with some in the US.  There's an idiot who keeps e-mailing me hateful e-mails about how Julian "hacked the 2016 election" and she means he hacked the voting machines, she honestly believes that.  Blame it on a crazed media and MSNBCers who whisper and insinuate.  Julian didn't hack the voting machines.  Hillary lost because Hillary ran a lousy campaign.  If she'd campaigned in the 2016 general election like she did in the 2008 primaries, she would have won.  Her loss is on her.


Julian's blamed for many things.  And defending him means you get attacked.  Comes with the territory.  I was asked during a meet-up with students a week or so ago why I loved Julian?


I don't love him.  I don't hate him.  I don't know him.  I don't need to know him to know that what's being done is wrong.  And we don't just defend the people we like if we believe in freedom and fairness.  I get that WSWS plays that game.  But that's not how you ever bring about real change.  


What has been done to Julian and what is being done to Julian is wrong.  We need to be calling out our government.  We should also think about how much money -- our tax dollars -- is being spent on this continued persectuion?


Julian Assange came on everyone's radar for publishing the truth about the Iraq War.  He has been a casualty of the Iraq War.  If you don't speak out and demand justice, it's very likely that Julian could end up a fatality of the Iraq War.  I'm not willing to let that happen.  Are you?


Whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg Tweets:


Biden should drop his appeal to extradite Julian Assange and dismiss all charges against him, on the new disclosures that Assange has been subjected to the same governmental crimes that led to the dismissal of my own prosecution half a century ago. 1/


Changing topics, we'll note this Tweet:


A top cleric in #Iraq is urging people to vote in the parliamentary #election. Take a closer look:


Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani on Wednesday called on the public to head to the polls on October 10 and vote for a new government.

The country will hold early elections – a key demand of the protesters who have taken to the streets since October 2019 – which will allow the politician who secures the most support from parliamentary blocs to form a government.

“The supreme religious authority encourages everyone to participate consciously and responsibly in the coming elections,” said Mr Al Sistani’s office.

“Although it is not without some shortcomings, it remains the best way to achieve a peaceful future and avoids the risk of falling into chaos and political obstruction,” it said.



AFP observes:


Initially expected in 2022, the vote was brought forward in a rare official concession to autumn 2019 protests, when tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to demonstrate against crumbling public services and a government they decried as corrupt and inept.

Hundreds died in months of protest-related violence.

But the ballot has generated little enthusiasm among Iraq’s 25 million voters, while the activists and parties behind the uprising have largely decided to boycott the ballot.

The early elections have only been scheduled because of the brave protesters. The October Revolution  kicked off protests in the fall of 2019 and forced the prime minister to step down and early elections to be announced.  As ARAB WEEKLY notes, "Tens of thousands of Iraqi youths took to the streets to decry rampant corruption, poor services and unemployment. Hundreds died as security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds."  This is what forced the resignation of one prime minister and has led to national elections which are supposed to take place October 10th.  (Members of the Iraqi military will vote October 8thTwo election simulations have been carried out by the IEC and the third and final one will take place September 22nd.)    that the candidates for Parliament include 951 women ("close to 30% of the total number of candidates") who are running for the 329 seats.  Halgurd Sherwani (KURDISTAN 24) has reported Jeanine Hannis-Plasschaert, the Special Representiative in Iraq to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, declared that Iraq's "Female candidates face increasing levels of hate speech, violence, and blackmail intended to force them to withdraw their candidacy." 









Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) counts 3,249 people in all seeking seats in Parliament  BROOKINGS notes this is a huge drop from 2018 when 7,178 candidates ran for office.   RUDAW is among those noting perceived voter apathy, "Turnout for Iraq’s October 10 parliamentary election is expected to be a record low, with a recent poll predicting just 29 percent of eligible voters will cast ballots." Human Rights Watch has identified another factor which may impact voter turnout, "People with disabilities in Iraq are facing significant obstacles to participating in upcoming parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, due to discriminatory legislation and inaccessible polling places, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Without urgent changes, hundreds of thousands of people may not be able to vote.  The 36-page report, “‘No One Represents Us’: Lack of Access to Political Participation for People with Disabilities in Iraq,” documents that Iraqi authorities have failed to secure electoral rights for Iraqis with disabilities. People with disabilities are often effectively denied their right to vote due to discriminatory legislation and inaccessible polling places and significant legislative and political obstacles to running for office."  And Human Rights Watch Tweets:


“Every election day is the most depressing day for me,” said Suha Khalil, 44, who uses a wheelchair said she has never participated in an election. “Everyone goes to vote and I am stuck at home waiting for the day to end.” #IraqElection Take action: bddy.me/3optQAG
Image


Another obstacle is getting the word out on a campaign.  Political posters are being torn down throughout Iraq.  Halgurd Sherwani  (KURDiSTAN 24) observes, "Under Article 35 of the election law, anyone caught ripping apart or vandalizing an electoral candidate's billboard could be punished with imprisonment for at least a month but no longer than a year, Joumana Ghalad, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told a press conference on Wednesday."  And there's also the battles in getting out word of your campaign online.  THE NEW ARAB reported weeks ago, "Facebook is restricting advertisements for Iraqi political parties and candidates in the run-up to the country's parliamentary elections, an official has told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site."

THE WASHINGTON POST's Louisa Loveluck Tweeted: of how "chromic mistrust in [the] country's political class" might also lower voter turnout.  Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) also notes, "Experts are predicting low turnout in October due to distrust of the country’s electoral system and believe that it will not deliver the much needed changes they were promised since 2003."  Mistrust would describe the feelings of some members of The October Revolution.  Mustafa Saadoun (AL-MONITOR) notes some of their leaders, at the recent  Opposition Forces Gathering conference announced their intent to boycott the elections because they "lack integrity, fairness and equal opportunities."  Distrust is all around.  Halkawt Aziz  (RUDAW) reported on how, " In Sadr City, people are disheartened after nearly two decades of empty promises from politicians." 


How to address apathy?  Ignore it and redo how you'll count voter turnout.  RUDAW reports, "raq’s election commission announced on Sunday that turnout for the election will be calculated based on the number of people who have biometric voter cards, not the number of eligible voters. The move will likely inflate turnout figures that are predicted to hit a record low."  As for the apathy, John Davison and Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERS) convey this image



Iraq’s tortured politics are graphically illustrated in a town square in the south, where weathered portraits displayed on large hoardings honor those killed fighting for causes they hoped would help their country.

The images of thousands of militiamen whose paramilitary factions battled ISIS hang beside those of hundreds of young men killed two years later protesting against the same paramilitaries.


After the election, there will be a scramble for who has dibs on the post of prime minister.  Murat Sofuoglu (TRT) observes, "The walls of Baghdad are covered with posters of Iraq’s former leaders, especially Nouri al Maliki and Haidar al Abadi, as the country moves toward its early elections on October 10. Both men however were forced out of power for their incompetence, and yet they are leading in the country’s two powerful Shia blocks."  Outside of Baghdad?  THE NEW ARAB explains, "However, in the provinces of Anbar, Saladin, Diyala, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Babel and the Baghdad belt, candidates have focussed on the issue of the disappeared and promised to attempt to find out what happened to them."


Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has 90 candidates in his bloc running for seats in the Parliament and one of those, Hassan Faleh, has insisted to RUDAW, "The position of the next prime minister is the least that the Sadrist movement deserves, and we are certain that we will be the largest and strongest coalition in the next stage."  Others are also claiming the post should go to their bloc such as the al-Fatah Alliance -- the political wing of the Badr Organization (sometimes considered a militia, sometimes considered a terrorist group).  ARAB WEEKLY reported, "Al-Fateh Alliance parliament member Naim Al-Aboudi said that Hadi al-Amiri is a frontrunner to head the next government, a position that can only be held by a Shia, according to Iraq’s power-sharing agreement."  Some also insist the prime minister should be the head of the State of Law bloc, two-time prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki.  Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters do not agree and have the feeling/consensus that,  "Nouri al-Maliki has reached the age of political menopause and we do not consider him to be our rival because he has lost the luster that he once had so it is time for him to retire."


In one surprising development, Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) has reported: "Iraq’s electoral commission aims to announce the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 10 within 24 hours, they announced on Thursday following a voting simulation."

 

A new endorsement may get some attention.  Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) notes:

A senior official from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Tuesday said they endorse the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Iraq’s October 10 parliamentary elections and called on people to vote for the party. 

Cemil Bayik claimed to PKK-affiliated Sterk TV that the Turkish government is trying to weaken Sulaimani’s ruling PUK by targeting PKK members in the province.

Voters in Sulaimani “have to abolish this plan. No matter what ideology they have - whether they are affiliated to the PUK or not - everyone should want the PUK to emerge strong in these elections so that the games of the enemy do not work,” he said. 

The PKK has enjoyed good relations with the PUK for two decades, but its relationship is thorny with the PUK’s main rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which enjoys strong economic ties with Turkey.

The KDP dismissed the PKK's endorsement of the PUK. Jaafar Imniki, a member of the party's politburo, told Rudaw's Shaho Amin on Wednesday that Bayik "has no business in Iraqi elections at all."


The following sites updated:





Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Kindred and Respect

This is from DEADINE:

 
FX has rounded out the series regular cast for drama pilot Kindred, based on an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s influential novel. Joining newcomer Mallori Johnson, who stars, are Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and David Alexander Kaplan.
The project hails from writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen), Courtney Lee-Mitchell (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Darren Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures (Black Swan, The Wrestler), Joe Weisberg (The Americans) and Joel Fields (Fosse/Verdon). FX Productions is the studio.
Johnson plays the central character Dana, a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can get settled into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time to a nineteenth-century plantation with which she and her family are most surprisingly and intimately linked. An interracial romance threads through her past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront the secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind.
Character descriptions are being under wraps for now. Stock is believed to be playing Dana’s love interest and Kwanten is believed to be playing Tom.


Ryan Kwanten we know from True Blood (Suki's brother) -- we being sci fi fans. I don't know the others but Mallori Johnson is very pretty. Kindred is, of course, Octavia Butler's most famous work. I can't wait for this. I love Octavia's writing and a huge number of us have been waiting for an adaptation -- TV or film.

Speaking of films, I ordered Respect on Amazon and it was a huge disappointment. Jennifer Hudson is magnificent but the script is awful. I had read Ava and C.I.'s review,  so I wasn't expecting much. They praised Jennifer but that was really all. This is from their review last month::

During COVID-19, what counts as a bomb? RESPECT has made 18 million worldwide in ticket sales since August 12th and we think it can at least be called a disappointment. What happened?
The answer can be found online at AMAZON where you can rent the film while it's still in theaters. Jennifer Hudson gives an amazing performance. But it's just not a movie.
If that sounds harsh, sorry. RESPECT is 2021's second Aretha project. GENIUS ARETHA was the earlier project, a dramatic mini-series. It probably hurt ticket sales for RESPECT. It's natural for dueling projects to undercut one another -- Carroll Baker's HARLOW was undercut by Carol Lynley's HARLOW (or vice versa) in 1965. But GENIUS ARETHA also put fans in a spot. Some of Aretha's family very vocally objected to the mini-series. Do you honor the wishes of the survivors?
RESPECT appears to have done just that and, as a result, there's no movie there. A camera, a director and actors don't make for a movie. "It starts on the page," as too many performers have noted at too many Academy Award presentations. And, sadly, RESPECT dies on the page.
Aretha had a very event-filled life and there is more than enough there If you were going to be honest.
Emphasizing: If you were going to be honest.
But RESPECT isn't honest. Not about Aretha's life before Ted Williams, not about her life after the divorce from Ted White.
It's not even right about her album sales.


So I knew I wasn't getting a real film like, say, Lady Sings The Blues. But I had no idea it would be this bad. Eileen Jones also panned it in a review for Jacobin this week:

 
Respect, the new biopic of legendary singer and “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin is, unfortunately, weak and forgettable. But it’s not the fault of Jennifer Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself to play her. Hudson works hard in the role, though her doe-eyed prettiness and softer vocal style take the edge off Franklin’s persona. The main problem is, even in a genre that’s long since become numbingly formulaic, this biopic plods through a rote narrative and makes Franklin’s life story seem somehow standardized, though it was anything but.
There’s the strangest kind of pussyfooting around the more shocking aspects of Franklin’s young life that one would assume would be the foundation of this movie. We get timid hints, such as the way ten-year-old Aretha (Skye Dakota Turner) is gotten up out of bed by her father, C. L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), to belt out a song for the entertainment of rowdy (and frisky) party guests. This tame first scene hints at the notoriously orgiastic partying of Aretha’s father — the charismatic celebrity Pastor Franklin of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. Even Ray Charles, quite a player himself, called the congregation “a sex circus.”


 



Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


 Wednesday, September 29, 2021.  Elections loom in Iraq, WSWS forgets to zip up and leaves its bias dangling in the wind, and much more.


The US government continues to persecute Julian Assange, the publisher of WIKILEAKS.  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent death.


News on Julian leaked out over the weekend.  Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

Under the leadership of then-Director Mike Pompeo, the CIA in 2017 reportedly plotted to kidnap—and discussed plans to assassinate—WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, who is currently imprisoned in London as he fights the Biden administration's efforts to extradite him to the United States.

Citing conversations with more than 30 former U.S. officials, Yahoo News reported Sunday that "discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred 'at the highest levels' of the Trump administration."

According to Yahoo:

The conversations were part of an unprecedented CIA campaign directed against WikiLeaks and its founder. The agency's multipronged plans also included extensive spying on WikiLeaks associates, sowing discord among the group’s members, and stealing their electronic devices.

While Assange had been on the radar of U.S. intelligence agencies for years, these plans for an all-out war against him were sparked by WikiLeaks' ongoing publication of extraordinarily sensitive CIA hacking tools, known collectively as "Vault 7," which the agency ultimately concluded represented "the largest data loss in CIA history."

President Trump's newly installed CIA director, Mike Pompeo, was seeking revenge on WikiLeaks and Assange, who had sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape allegations he denied. Pompeo and other top agency leaders "were completely detached from reality because they were so embarrassed about Vault 7," said a former Trump national security official. "They were seeing blood."

Yahoo's reporting makes clear that Assange is not the only journalist U.S. officials have attempted to target in recent years. During the Obama presidency, according to Yahoo, "top intelligence officials lobbied the White House to redefine WikiLeaks—and some high-profile journalists—as 'information brokers,' which would have opened up the use of more investigative tools against them, potentially paving the way for their prosecution."

"Among the journalists some U.S. officials wanted to designate as 'information brokers' were Glenn Greenwald, then a columnist for The Guardian, and Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker, who had both been instrumental in publishing documents provided by [NSA whistleblower Edward] Snowden," Yahoo reported.


PRESSENZA adds:


According to the Yahoo! News investigation, the agency’s plans for Assange and WikiLeaks – which would have begun as early as Barack Obama’s tenure with the definition of some of the website’s journalists, including Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, as “information agents” – allegedly led to fierce debates over their legality and some officials were so concerned that they felt the need to brief members of Congress on the former service director’s suggestions.

It adds that it was a campaign that “bent important legal constraints, potentially jeopardized the Justice Department’s work to prosecute Assange and risked a damaging episode in the UK, America’s closest ally”.


That is part of the story.  But you don't know about it if you read WSWS.  Despite claiming to be a news outlet, despite all their whining about how they're independent and fair and mean old GOOGLE came after them with an algorithm  and they lost readers as a result and it's all so unfair, WSWS doesn't play fair at all.  They don't like Glenn Greenwald.  Like that idiot Paul Street (Paul's an idiot and anyone who remembers summer and fall 2008 knows what a desperate liar Paul Street is), they have an intense hatred and an intense desire to be unfair.  


Last night, Mike noted how Thomas Scripps is 'covering' the story -- by omitting Glenn.  Monday night, Mike noted how Oscar Grenfill covered the story for WSWS by . . . ignoring the Glenn aspect.


Two stories and they can't mention Glenn but have the nerve, as Mike notes, to call out other outlets for their silences. 


They want to whine when they feel that they have been targeted or victimized but they don't care enough about attacks on the press to cover Glenn Greenwald.  Or maybe they're just saving up all their energy for another fake run for the presidency in 2024?  Really, after Joseph Kishore's laughable campaign for US president, you'd think WSWS would realize that they need to get serious.


And, let me be clear, it wasn't laughable because he had no chance of winning.  He may or may not have had a chance of winning.  We'll never know because he didn't run a real campaign.  A video about once a month in a general election?  An inability to Tweet?  You're a third party candidate so you are shut out of corporate media.  If you can't even use your own social media to advance your campaign, you shouldn't be wasting people's time with your fake run for president.  Joseph is a fake ass and that's what made him campaign laughable.


Trina's broken with them over their refusal to call out Barack Obama's birthday bash -- an event where the 'help' had to wear masks but the guests didn't have to, an event of greed and avarice that corruption provided Barack with the money to pay for -- per Michelle Obama, they entered the White House owing student loans.  But they really cashed in on the office, didn't they?  Little whores who used the office and the American people to become millionaires.  In the midst of a pandemic, a gala celebration.  There's not been a better "Let them eat cake" moment in US history.  And WSWS couldn't -- wouldn't -- say one word -- despite claiming to be Socialists.


And remember, no one's more Socialist than WSWS -- as they constantly insist.  JACOBIN's not really Socialist according to them.  This group isn't really Socialist, that group isn't Socialist . . .  But it appears, based on their own actions, time and again, WSWS isn't Socialist.


I was asked in an e-mail about a war I have on WSWS.  I don't have a war on them.  I've continued to include them when they had something worth noting -- it's not my fault that they've only had about two articles in the last weeks worth noting.   Barring some development (a friend making a case to review their series), Ava and I will be taking on WSWS in the next edition of THIRD.  And it will go to how hollow their politics are and their poor analysis and how they only exist to toot their own horn.  Somehow that's supposed to pass for news.  Don't get that but I also don't get how that passes for Socialism either.  But then, I don't get how they've gotten away with their rank sexism all these years either.  Now if we end up writing that piece, you might be able to say we have a 'war' with WSWS and be credible.  I don't think so, but to each their own.

It's like Ava and I said of Aaron Mate:


But Aaron did some good work on Russia-gate. We'd like to leave him alone. But when he opens his uninformed mouth and starts wanting to tell the world that corruption doesn't matter, we can't afford him.

We care about We The People. We care about the truth. That puts a fence between Aaron and us, we're on one side and Aaron's on the other.

He's the one causing the problem. All we're doing is calling it out.
  


Yousif Kalian Tweets:


Election season in Nineveh and Duhok #Iraq
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National elections are supported to take place October 10th in Iraq.  RUDAW is currently doing a survey on voter preferences.  We'll note two Tweets from Joel Wing regarding the elections.


Iraq govt talks about free & fair elections and will be monitoring on election day Little being done beforehand with tons of reports of cheating going on Complicated by several members of Election Comm being accused of cheating musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2021/09/more-o


And:


After Oct election likely claims of fraud but in the end results will be certified and parties will continue to run Iraq because none of them really believe in democracy musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2021/09/more-o


The early elections have only been scheduled because of the brave protesters. The October Revolution  kicked off protests in the fall of 2019 and forced the prime minister to step down and early elections to be announced.  As ARAB WEEKLY notes, "Tens of thousands of Iraqi youths took to the streets to decry rampant corruption, poor services and unemployment. Hundreds died as security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds."  This is what forced the resignation of one prime minister and has led to national elections which are supposed to take place October 10th.  (Members of the Iraqi military will vote October 8thTwo election simulations have been carried out by the IEC and the third and final one will take place September 22nd.)    that the candidates for Parliament include 951 women ("close to 30% of the total number of candidates") who are running for the 329 seats.  Halgurd Sherwani (KURDISTAN 24) has reported Jeanine Hannis-Plasschaert, the Special Representiative in Iraq to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, declared that Iraq's "Female candidates face increasing levels of hate speech, violence, and blackmail intended to force them to withdraw their candidacy." 









Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) counts 3,249 people in all seeking seats in Parliament  BROOKINGS notes this is a huge drop from 2018 when 7,178 candidates ran for office.   RUDAW is among those noting perceived voter apathy, "Turnout for Iraq’s October 10 parliamentary election is expected to be a record low, with a recent poll predicting just 29 percent of eligible voters will cast ballots." Human Rights Watch has identified another factor which may impact voter turnout, "People with disabilities in Iraq are facing significant obstacles to participating in upcoming parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, due to discriminatory legislation and inaccessible polling places, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Without urgent changes, hundreds of thousands of people may not be able to vote.  The 36-page report, “‘No One Represents Us’: Lack of Access to Political Participation for People with Disabilities in Iraq,” documents that Iraqi authorities have failed to secure electoral rights for Iraqis with disabilities. People with disabilities are often effectively denied their right to vote due to discriminatory legislation and inaccessible polling places and significant legislative and political obstacles to running for office."  And Human Rights Watch Tweets:


“Every election day is the most depressing day for me,” said Suha Khalil, 44, who uses a wheelchair said she has never participated in an election. “Everyone goes to vote and I am stuck at home waiting for the day to end.” #IraqElection Take action: bddy.me/3optQAG
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Another obstacle is getting the word out on a campaign.  Political posters are being torn down throughout Iraq.  Halgurd Sherwani  (KURDiSTAN 24) observes, "Under Article 35 of the election law, anyone caught ripping apart or vandalizing an electoral candidate's billboard could be punished with imprisonment for at least a month but no longer than a year, Joumana Ghalad, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told a press conference on Wednesday."  And there's also the battles in getting out word of your campaign online.  THE NEW ARAB reported weeks ago, "Facebook is restricting advertisements for Iraqi political parties and candidates in the run-up to the country's parliamentary elections, an official has told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site."

THE WASHINGTON POST's Louisa Loveluck Tweeted: of how "chromic mistrust in [the] country's political class" might also lower voter turnout.  Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) also notes, "Experts are predicting low turnout in October due to distrust of the country’s electoral system and believe that it will not deliver the much needed changes they were promised since 2003."  Mistrust would describe the feelings of some members of The October Revolution.  Mustafa Saadoun (AL-MONITOR) notes some of their leaders, at the recent  Opposition Forces Gathering conference announced their intent to boycott the elections because they "lack integrity, fairness and equal opportunities."  Distrust is all around.  Halkawt Aziz  (RUDAW) reported on how, " In Sadr City, people are disheartened after nearly two decades of empty promises from politicians." 


How to address apathy?  Ignore it and redo how you'll count voter turnout.  RUDAW reports, "raq’s election commission announced on Sunday that turnout for the election will be calculated based on the number of people who have biometric voter cards, not the number of eligible voters. The move will likely inflate turnout figures that are predicted to hit a record low."  As for the apathy, John Davison and Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERS) convey this image



Iraq’s tortured politics are graphically illustrated in a town square in the south, where weathered portraits displayed on large hoardings honor those killed fighting for causes they hoped would help their country.

The images of thousands of militiamen whose paramilitary factions battled ISIS hang beside those of hundreds of young men killed two years later protesting against the same paramilitaries.


After the election, there will be a scramble for who has dibs on the post of prime minister.  Murat Sofuoglu (TRT) observes, "The walls of Baghdad are covered with posters of Iraq’s former leaders, especially Nouri al Maliki and Haidar al Abadi, as the country moves toward its early elections on October 10. Both men however were forced out of power for their incompetence, and yet they are leading in the country’s two powerful Shia blocks."  Outside of Baghdad?  THE NEW ARAB explains, "However, in the provinces of Anbar, Saladin, Diyala, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Babel and the Baghdad belt, candidates have focussed on the issue of the disappeared and promised to attempt to find out what happened to them."


Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has 90 candidates in his bloc running for seats in the Parliament and one of those, Hassan Faleh, has insisted to RUDAW, "The position of the next prime minister is the least that the Sadrist movement deserves, and we are certain that we will be the largest and strongest coalition in the next stage."  Others are also claiming the post should go to their bloc such as the al-Fatah Alliance -- the political wing of the Badr Organization (sometimes considered a militia, sometimes considered a terrorist group).  ARAB WEEKLY reported, "Al-Fateh Alliance parliament member Naim Al-Aboudi said that Hadi al-Amiri is a frontrunner to head the next government, a position that can only be held by a Shia, according to Iraq’s power-sharing agreement."  Some also insist the prime minister should be the head of the State of Law bloc, two-time prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki.  Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters do not agree and have the feeling/consensus that,  "Nouri al-Maliki has reached the age of political menopause and we do not consider him to be our rival because he has lost the luster that he once had so it is time for him to retire."


In one surprising development, Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) has reported: "Iraq’s electoral commission aims to announce the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 10 within 24 hours, they announced on Thursday following a voting simulation."

 

Throughout the year, RUDAW has attempted to be a fair news outlet.  We'll close with this statement from the outlet regarding an attack:


The following is a statement from Rudaw Media Network on the attack on its office in Qamishli:

Last night at 12:05 a.m. three masked individuals attacked Rudaw Media Network’s office in Qamishli, Western Kurdistan. Two of the attackers who were young men, threw Molotov cocktails into Rudaw’s office while the other was recording the attack, as it appears in the security cameras. As a result, the ground floor of Rudaw’s Qamishli office alongside some equipment was burned and damaged.  
 
This is the sixth attack on Rudaw Media Network’s office in Qamishli. So far, no arrests have been made regarding previous attacks, though they happened during the daytime and with the presence of security forces. The last five attacks were done by the Revolutionary Youth Movement, an organization belonging to PYD, where threw rocks at Rudaw’s office in Qamishli. To this moment, no group or organization has claimed responsibility for these attacks, and the attackers wore masks, to keep their anonymity. 
 
This attack is a very serious threat to the work and lives of Rudaw Media Network’s team in Western Kurdistan. While it is also a very dangerous assault on the freedom of journalism in the area. 
 
Rudaw Media Network is asking the relevant departments within the democratic autonomous administration not to remain silent regarding the attacks. Rudaw is also asking the civil organizations and all the advocates for freedom of journalism to break their silence and make efforts to protect our colleagues and office in Western Kurdistan.
 
 
Rudaw Media Network
28/09/2021


The following sites updated: