Thursday, March 9, 2023. Will the AUMF be repealed, we note the passing
of Kevin Alexander Gray, Glenneth Greenwald in his rush to attack Jill
Biden attacks all women (no surprise, he's always been sexist), Tulsi
Gabbard's home school education didn't teach her about science, and much
more.
How long does it take the US Congress
to get something done? Based on the AUMF, some might say 20 years.
The AUMF is the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq
Resolution that the Congress approved in 2002, the law that led to the
Iraq War.
Joe Fisher (UPI) reports, " The Senate will soon hold a vote to officially end the authorized use
of military force in Iraq and Kuwait, which could close the books on the
Iraq and Gulf War."
Brad Dress (THE HILL) explains, "The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed bipartisan legislation on
Wednesday to repeal the Iraq and Gulf War military force authorizations,
which are still in effect years after the conflicts ended. The bill, sponsored by Sens.
Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and
Todd Young (R-Ind.), passed on a 13-8 vote in the committee."
So
20 years? That's how long it takes for Congress to get something
done? Well . . . Maybe we need to wait and see if they are indeed
going to repeal it before we say that it only takes them about 20 years
to get something done.
This essay was submitted to the WSWS by Maxim Goldarb, the head
of the “Union of Left Forces of Ukraine - For New Socialism” party in
Ukraine which opposes the NATO war against Russia and has been banned
and persecuted by the Zelensky government. Last month, the WSWS
published a statement opposing the state repression of his and other left-wing parties in Ukraine.
80
years ago, in 1943, Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was liberated from
Nazi occupation by troops of the Red Army, led by General Nikolai
Vatutin.
Shortly after the liberation of Kiev, General Vatutin
died as a result of a wound inflicted on him in an ambush by Ukrainian
Nazi collaborators from the OUN—the Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists. In 1944, he was buried in one of the central parks of Kiev
that he had liberated, and a monument was erected on his grave with the
inscription: “To General Vatutin from the Ukrainian people.”
The general was deservedly considered a hero; flowers from the people of Kiev always lay at his monument.
And
now, in our days, in the year of the 80th anniversary of the liberation
of Kiev, the monument to Vatutin was demolished. With this demolition,
the Kiev authorities also desecrated his grave.
The destruction of monuments to the soldiers of the Red Army, which
liberated Ukraine and Europe from fascism, is going on throughout
Ukraine. In some cities, such as Chernivtsi, Rivne and many others, they
are demolished, and in some places they are completely blown up, as
happened, for example, in Nikolaev.
In addition, many other
monuments are being demolished: monuments to the Russian poet Alexander
Pushkin, to the writers Nikolai Ostrovsky and Maxim Gorky, the test
pilot Valery Chkalov and many others.
Moreover, in recent years, cities, villages, streets and squares have been massively renamed in Ukraine.
Since
February 2014, after the coup d'état during the Euromaidan, more than a
thousand settlements and more than 50,000 streets have been renamed in
Ukraine.
Last
year alone, 237 streets, squares, avenues and boulevards were renamed
just in Kiev, as the city’s authorities, headed by mayor Vitaliy
Klitschko, proudly report. The same government, which for nine years
since 2014, when Klitschko first became mayor, could not build in Kiev, a
city of 3 million people with constant traffic jams on the roads, a
single new metro station, a single new multilevel transport interchange,
a single new medical center, a single new campus, a single waste
processing complex, and so on.
Where did such an insistent desire
to rename everything and everyone come from? Is it because a large
number of local residents wanted this? Because they were suddenly no
longer satisfied with the names of the cities and streets, where they
themselves, their parents, and sometimes grandparents were born and
raised? Nothing of the sort. There were no referendums, no votes of
local residents on these issues, no one asked their opinion.
On
the contrary, in the few cases that polls were conducted, they almost
always showed their overwhelming disagreement with the renaming. For
example, in the case of the renaming of the regional center Kirovograd a
few years ago, which had been named so almost 90 years ago in honor of
the famous Soviet statesman Sergei Kirov, the absolute majority of the
city's population—82 percent—did not support the decision to rename the
city to “Kropyvnytsky”. Only 14 percent supported it.
But neither
in this case, nor in any other of the many cases when monuments were
demolished and streets renamed did the authorities care at all about the
opinion of the citizens.
Why then is all of this happening? The
answer to this question becomes clearer if you look closely at the new
names and monuments that are now being erected.
The avenue of
General Vatutin, who helped liberate Kiev from Nazism, which was
discussed at the very beginning of the article, was renamed to the
avenue of Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian fascist. A the time of the
attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union in June 1941, Shukhevych
served as a member of the Nachtigall battalion, a subdivision of the
Abwehr (the military intelligence of the Wehrmacht), which consisted of
Ukrainian Nazi collaborators.
What was formerly “Moscow Avenue” in
Kiev was renamed to the Avenue of Stepan Bandera—another Ukrainian Nazi
collaborator, and leader of the OUN (b), the Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists, which during the Second World War “became famous” for its
collaboration with the German Nazis, and its genocidal massacres of the
Polish and Jewish population.
There are now many monuments erected and streets named in honor of Bandera in cities throughout Ukraine.
Whenever
this does end, the facts will emerge. Questions will be asked. The
media has done a very good job pimping this war and shutting down
reality but it does come out. And if you think there's distrust in
government right now, wait until this over and people are aware of
everything that's been suppressed and realize that the media, the
government and the Sean Penns have treated them as simpletons as they
ran their con on the American people and depleted the treasury to back a
bunch of Nazis that they installed in 2014.
Kevin Alexander Gray had a massive heart
attack yesterday and didn’t make it. He was apparently out doing yard
work when his wife noticed it was quiet. They called EMS but they
couldn’t revive him.
I had just talked with Kevin last week. He
said he was working on his will, but there was nothing to worry about,
he just wanted to get it done. Kevin, who was 65 when he died, always
felt was living on borrowed time because his dad and uncles had died
young of heart failure—in their 40s and 50s.
Kevin was a great organizer on both local
and national campaigns (Jesse Jackson). He helped James Brown when he
was down. Built black businesses in Columbia, South Carolina. Helped
families who’d lost members to violence, poverty, drugs or prison. He
was a historian of black movements (Waiting for Lightning to Strike,
Killing Trayvons), a gifted polemicist (in CounterPunch, The New
Liberator and The Progressive), and a blast to be around.
Kevin
Alexander Gray was an important voice and an
important writer. I met him through Bruce Dixon. I had
praised him repeatedly to Bruce in 2007 and 2008 and Bruce began
repeatedly saying, "You need to tell him that." So he introduced us and
I did.
There were many
things to love about Kevin and that includes his personality. He was
warm and friendly and he was determined. If he believed in it, you
weren't going to talk him out of it, you weren't going to see him
waffle, you weren't going to see him say 'oh, let's table this for now
and just focus on what everyone else wants.' He had convictions and he
fought for them and I admired that as much as I admired his spirit. If
he had a 'flaw,' it was that he was too forgiving of some people who
deliberately wronged him. It wasn't easy being a truth teller in 2007,
2008 and 2009 as The Cult of St Barack reached fevered heights. He told
the truth and told it so well that it always packed a punch. Some
'friends' on the left turned their back on him as a result. Some of our
more well known institutions were no longer interested in publishing
him. He'd just say that they couldn't handle his independence and leave
it at that. He was far too kind and far too forgiving of sell outs and
he was a much, much better person than I could ever be.
He will be greatly missed. And his honesty, his spirit and his legacy will live on.
Gray was outspoken on civil rights and political issues for decades,
often appearing and speaking at rallies for a variety of causes. He was
also an author, penning the book "Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics."
In 1988, Gray led Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson's
campaign in South Carolina. He also was the head of the Rainbow
Coalition in the state, a civil rights organization founded by Jackson.
He later served on the campaign of Tom Harkin in 1992 and Tom Clements' Senate campaign in 2010.
He often lent his name and time to a number of causes. According to
Spartanburg-Herald Journal article in 1989, he and the Rainbow Coalition
spoke out against the ongoing apartheid in South Africa. He also was a
past president of the South Carolina ACLU.
Gray was also involved in the effort to get the Confederate flag
removed from atop the dome of the South Carolina State House. The flag
was taken down and moved to a nearby monument in 2000 and was eventually
moved to a museum in 2015 following the massacre of nine people at
Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Gray, one of five children, grew up in Spartanburg. His family owned
Gray’s Groceries, a small grocery store, Gray in that 2022 interview. He
described himself as “radical, even back then” and said his father
often feared for his son’s safety in the 1960s South.
“That was my father and his brothers, how they came up... they came up at a time when the Klan was active,” Gray said.
Gray
was good at understanding the needs of the community and even better at
knowing how to articulate that, his longtime friend, Lawrence Moore
said. Moore also said he would tease Gray for his keen ability to
memorize song lyrics.
Gray worked as an editor of Black News, a longtime weekly newspaper in Columbia.
“He
confronted power, rightly — or wrongly, sometimes — in a very public
way,” Eileen Waddell, who worked with Gray at the newspaper said.
“Others organized, worked behind the scenes and ran voter registration
drives. Kevin took it to people in power verbally, to their face, Black
and white, without holding back.”
Preach
Jacobs is a Columbia DJ, rapper and writer who has penned columns for
The State, Free Times and others about issues affecting the Black
community. He said he was frequently in contact with Gray, and one of
their last text exchanges was about the possibility of writing a column
about mercurial rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Jacobs said he
was crestfallen to learn of Gray’s death. “As someone who would write
about the Black experience in the South, I definitely see him as a
mentor, and someone who would give me perspective, give me advice and
give me criticism, when necessary,” Jacobs told The State. “He really
loved his people and he loved Columbia, and that was evident in
everything he did. ... With his talents he could have gone anywhere. For
him to establish a Black-owned business in Columbia, in the community
it was established in, was very intentional.”
Jacobs
added that Gray “spoke on behalf of marginalized people in the
community” and “amplified Black and brown voices that probably didn’t
have someone speaking on their behalf” as much as was needed.
You can read some of Kevin's writing
here at BLACK AGENDA REPORT.
Some. They never published him that often and then when Glen Ford
died, they began their diversification program, you know, where they
tried to publish more White convicted pedophiles like Scott Ritter.
Choices. We all make them.
Again, Kevin will be missed. He was the real deal. His Twitter feed is
here. And Kevin was the author of "
Obama's Big Gay and Black Problem" -- one of the few voices to call Barack out for using homophobia as a campaign tool:
If
Obama doesn't win South Carolina with its large African American voter
base the race may be over for him. His poll numbers in South Carolina
have been up and down. Right now Clinton appears to have the overall
lead in the state as well as with black voters. Clinton also has the
edge with black women who regularly vote at a higher rate than black
men. Oddly, Obama threw a premature haymaker but it
wasn't aimed at Clinton. The target was the GLBT community. Obama's
wild swing involved having four of the most abrasively anti-gay gospel
singers represent his campaign on his "Embrace the Courage" gospel music
tour in South Carolina. The gay bashing headliners included Reverends
Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Pentecostal pastor of Brooklyn
mega-church, the Love Fellowship Tabernacle and Mary Mary (a sister act
duo).
The Mary Mary sisters compare gays to murderers and prostitutes. In an interview with Vibe magazine,
one of the singers said, "They [gays] have issues and need somebody to
encourage them like everybody else -- just like the murderer, just like
the one full of pride, just like the prostitute."
McClurkin's
previous political involvement was performing for George Bush at the
Republican National Convention in 2004. Now he's singing for Obama. And,
while stumping for the candidate McClurkin didn't just "get on stage,
sing, and shut up" as some in the Obama campaign hoped he would do. He
sermonized: "God delivered me from homosexuality" - as though one could
simply "pray the gay away." The predominately black crowd inside the
Township Auditorium in Columbia clapped their approval of McClurkin's
message. Meanwhile a small, predominately white group of gay rights
supporters picketed outside the venue.
Do we have to talk about Tulsi? I guess we do.
She's
not the brightest and she's a fake ass. In fairness to her, she's not
an original thinker so I'm sure she's copying the mistake that I'm about
to have to note. Tulsi believes -- maybe guru Chris told her about it
or maybe during one of the cult orgies it slipped out of someone's mouth
-- that there are only two "constructs." You are either born male or
born female. She and other idiots want to talk about genetics. Heaven
save us from the science lectures of the home schooled, save us all.
XX
and XY? It's not that simple as anyone who actually knows science can
tell you. In the most visible proof of it is not that simple?
Intersexed persons.
They exist, they have always existed. They are a part of humanity.
And I'm wondering how many idiots pushing the various hate laws of late
were homeschooled or cult schooled like Tulsi?
I
know Jill Biden and I like Jill Biden. There's not much about Joe that
I'll praise these days but I do praise Jill offline. Online, I've
tried to be fair meaning we only noted her once when she was Second
Lady. She wrote an important column on veterans and we noted that
here. After her husband left government, I did note that she had done
some strong work on veterans issues and that veterans responded to her
-- as opposed to other members of that administration. (Thomas E. Ricks
also made that observation.)
I've
written more about her as a candidates wife in 2020 and as First Lady.
It's much more than I'd like to write. I almost praised her earlier
this week here. She responded to questions about her son Hunter Biden
and did so appropriately. Hunter's the reason we've had her in
snapshots to begin with -- especially noting that she (and Joe) tread a
careful line and need to respect it.
Yesterday, I saw something that went up on Tuesday and said, "Sleep on it." I have and we're going to note it.
The
great Glenneth Greenwald is and always has been a sexist. Remember how
we were just noting the hypocrisy of him calling out Don Lemon?
Well he went after women again in his attack on Jill.
The spouse of a surgeon isn't qualified to speak on the intricacies of surgical procedures simply by virtue of being married to a surgeon, and nobody would express interest in asking them about it or giving them a media platform to opine on it. Nobody would value that opinion.
Now
I know Glenn doesn't understand how marriage is supposed to work. For
example, most of us with a spouse in the hospital in a very difficult
condition with the possibility of losing their life? Most of us
wouldn't be on Twitter and doing interviews. In fact, that's not how I
handled my marriage in crisis moments or how most people do. If your
spouse is in the hospital, you're there for them. And you don't pretend
like you need money. Yes, Glenn walked away from THE INTERCEPT because
the 'legal genius' was too stupid to have sued them (contract law,
Glenn, it's not difficult, but then you're the one who ran away and I'm
the one who walked away with seven figures on an endorsement I didn't
end up doing because I happen to know contract law). But he made enough
at THE INTERCEPT that he could take time off to be there for his
husband.
Marriage is hard for Glenn.
He
also no longer lives in the United States.so maybe he doesn't realize
we value freedom of speech? (Brazil has freedom of speech as well but
Glenn's like the vacationer that never learned the culture.)
Jill
is married to Joe. She's going to defend him and no one in their right
mind is going to blame her for that. It's not as though she ran
onstage and slugged Chris Rock. She defended her husband in an
interview. If Glenn's truly bothered by that all I can do is note again
that Glenn doesn't understand how marriage is supposed to work.
Then
he really sports his stupidity -- a feat he accomplishes more and more
these days. Let's note the second Tweet above one more time:
The spouse of a surgeon isn't qualified to speak on the intricacies of surgical procedures simply by virtue of being married to a surgeon, and nobody would express interest in asking them about it or giving them a media platform to opine on it. Nobody would value that opinion.
Jill
isn't qualified to speak on surgery? I don't believe she did. And
while the wife or husband of a surgeon might not be "qualified to speak
on the intricacies of surgical procedures," that doesn't mean that they
can't address how the hospital or clinic is run. Jill's an educated
American citizen who's lived many decades and has wisdom from those
years. Exactly what is she not qualified to speak to, Glenn?
He's
such a sexist pig and he always has been. He was that way in college
and he was that with his roll dog in 2007 and 2008 as they went around
trashing Hillary in sexist ways -- not for her actual positions (which
you can object to) but in disgusting sexist ways.
Now
he thinks he's going to say that Jill Biden -- who holds a PhD and who
is a 71-year-old woman who has raised kids, worked outside of the home,
been Second Lady for eight years (emphasizing veterans issues during
that tenure) and who has been First Lady for two years and he wants to
argue she's not qualified to speak?
If he'd smear her like that, imagine what he'd say about the rest of us?
Like his ego, he needs to get his sexism in check.
No
one has to agree with a single word that Jill Biden offers. But to
imply that she lacks the education to speak? She has that education --
both formally and lived education as well.
And, hey, Jill's a good parent. She's not like some people who publicly state that they didn't want to have kids.
Imagine
the self-loving loon who would do that, Glenn. Imagine it, Glenn, and
imagine the damage that would do to a child. And, Glenn, imagine doing
it to a child publicly when their father is in the hospital.
Oh.
That's right.
Glenn doesn't have to imagine.
He did all that himself last year.
One
more thing, Glenn. Jill was not the kid's babysitter while Joe's first
wife was alive. She was not their baby sitter while the first wife was
in the hospital. So allowing your psychopants to post that she was
underage and Neilia Hunter Biden was in the hospital when she and Joe
became lovers? You're garbage and you're trash. And Neila died the day
of the car wreck, how stupid are you, Glenn?
There's no evidence that Jill Biden was ever Joe Biden's family babysitter, nor was she 15 when this photo was taken.
According to a White House biography, Jill Biden was born in June 1951 and met Joe Biden in June 1975 when she was 23 and he was 32.
Both Jill and Joe were married before they first met.
The president was married to his first wife Neilia from 1966 until 1972, when she died in a car crash alongside their firstborn daughter Naomi.
Poor Glenneth.
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