Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Racist Amy Goodman, we see you

You know there a few women that I'd kick in the c***.  One is that disgusting Amy Goodman.  The host of Democracy Now! is a racist and a sexist and that's why she used to publish in Hustler magazine.  She savaged Kamala Harris every day for three months to make sure a Black woman could not be president.  So I loathe her.

But when my wife told me that GoodyWhore was doing a segment today about how since Joe Biden had pardoned Hunter, he should pardon --

Oh, no, f**k you.  You trashed Joe and you trashed Kamala.

You want something now, go suck up to Donald Trump the guy who you helped elect.   Or go beg your grifter Jill Stein to save you.

I hope you get kicked in the c*** bone and I hope it hurts.  You're trash and you're garbage.  You beg for money while pretending to care but you're a racist as you made very clear in your treatment of Kamala.  We see you,

I hope you caught the video below while it was streaming live.


That's the reality of what happened.  Of how racism and sexism worked to go after Kamala and always remember that racist Amy Goodman made it her point to attack Kamala on a daily basis on DEMOCRACY NOW! for three months.  


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


Tuesday, December 3, 2024.  The sad and pathetic go after Joe Biden, Jill Stein declared victory prematurely on election night, THE ATLANTIC pretends to explore Kamala's campaign, a ZOOM tonight will actually explore the race, Trump's already declaring war on Palestinians in Gaza, and much more.


Have the cucks and capons exhausted themselves humping their inflatable mattresses while muttering "Hunter Biden! Hunter Biden!" yet?  


Oh, that wasn't an insult to MAGA.  We may get to those idiots this snapshot, we may not.  I'm referring to Jon Stewart, Jared Polis and all the other nutless men of the left slamming Joe Biden for pardoning Hunter.


Don't you love the nutless boys, we haven't really seen them -- at least not embarrassing themselves so much -- since 1988.



Oh, look, it's the cuck and capon all in one with Michael Dukakis.


That's what they want from Joe.  And that's why they're the joke right now.  I'm not laughing with you, Jon, I'm laughing at you and your ridiculous DAILY SHOW moment that tried to both-sides it -- and failed.


Joe Biden protected his son from Donald Trump's vengeance.  Most people can grasp that and most people would have done the same. Jon, Jared, Michael and the rest of you?  You don't look smart, you don't come off funny, you look like detached idiots without any emotions or human connections -- in other words, you look like Michael Dukakis discussing his own wife's what-if rape and murder with icy detachment.


While they're striking poses and going for chuckles, the rest of us are stuck in the real world.  And noting how few others are here with us.


THE ATLANTIC's Ronald Brownstein files a 6223 word article about Kamala Harris' three month campaign for the presidency of the United States.  He spoke with David Plouffe (senior adviser on the campaign), Jennifer O'Malley Dillon (campaign chair), Quentin Fulks (deputy campaign manager) and Rob Flaherty (deputy campaign manager).  It's a very frustrating article for a number of reasons.  

In terms of Ronald Brownstein, this exchange is outrageous:



How much did Harris’s race or gender affect the outcome? Can a woman win the presidency in today’s America?

Plouffe: I’m really eager for political scientists and researchers to try to get an answer to this, because we certainly picked up some headwinds. Maybe statistically this will be disproven, but I think, given the ’16 experience and this experience, it’s probably a bigger burden to be elected president running as a woman than as a person of color.

I think America is ready to elect a woman president. Running for president and winning is an indescribably hard obstacle course. This throws another obstacle into the field. And that makes me incredibly sad to say that.




Kamala Harris is a Black woman.  She is the first Black woman to run for president of a major party.  

That single question and response is woefully inadequate. 

Tonight, there's a ZOOM -- registration may have closed -- The African American Policy Forum is sponsoring it, Views from the 92%: Black Women Reflect on 2024 Election and Road Ahead.  It will be on The African American Policy Forum's YOUTUBE channel and participants will include law professor Kimberle Crenshaw, THE WASHINGTON POST's Karen Attiah, iONE DIGITAL's Kirsten West Savali, Black Voters Matter Fund's LaTosha Brown, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of Black Women's Roundtable's Melanie Campbell, the National Council of Negro Women's Shavon Arline-Bradley, the Transformative Justice Coalition, Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta's Fran Phillips-Calhoun and Higher Heights' Glynda Carr.


That's a lot of informative speakers.  Hopefully, they can address the reality of the 2024 election with regards to race and gender.  In fact, they will.  Kimberle Crenshaw has made the interaction of race and gender her life's work and every woman listed knows what actually went down even if a number of White people want to pretend otherwise -- often so they can ignore their own sexism and racism.


But for now, just grasp that a 6223 word article about the run of the first Black woman to be the presidential candidate on the ticket of a real national party felt 115 words -- out of 6223 -- covered the two issues and the intersection between the two.  Grasp that and grasp what that tells you about both the author and the respondent -- both White men.  The author, of course, was born in 1958 -- as the Stones said back in the sixties, "Sing the song now."





The second part from the article that we'll note:



This year marked a clear turning point as both campaigns shifted their attention from mainstream outlets to niche media sources aimed at more narrow segments of the electorate. How did these new dynamics shape the campaign, and what do they mean for elections going forward?

Fulks: Republicans have a very good echo chamber regarding how they get their information out. Democrats will need to loosen up and take advantage of a changing media environment.

Flaherty: Trump did 30 podcasts to one audience. We did podcasts to a bunch of different audiences, which meant we never really got that frequency. The other lesson is that the nature of attention is fleeting, particularly in this media ecosystem. That is one of the things we struggled with. We were an attention machine for the first four weeks, then it was an open [competition] for attention—and that’s a cage fight with a guy whose entire life has been about getting attention for himself.

We clean up with the most politically engaged people. For folks who don’t have time to engage in politics, or folks who are just receiving a little bit of information here and there, usually from friends and family, the information environment is much more difficult, much more competitive, and much more tied to culture. If we Democrats want to win, particularly nationally, that’s the space that we’ve got to figure out, and quick.

Plouffe: If you had said two years ago Harris will be the nominee and she’ll do as well with seniors as she did, you might have said no. The reason is [that] those tend to be larger consumers of information. They also tended to be the voters who understood the stakes of the second Trump term more. The threat, whether it was abortion or democracy or rule of law, mattered more to them than younger parts of the electorate.




Let's stop there.  We'll come back.  But as someone who frequently felt like very few gave a damn about seniors in this election, I do have a few things to say.  When Kamala was becoming the nominee, I noted that she had to win seniors.  Democrats don't.  When I raised to Kamala's campaign the senior issue, I was told they weren't important.  I was told they'd gone to Donald Trump in 2020 by such a huge margin, they weren't a focus.  


Well, I didn't do any work on the 2020 campaign.  I hadn't done work on a presidential campaign since 2004.  It appears Trump maintained  his 52% of older voters -- he had the same number in 2020.  But Kamala appears to have gotten 47% which would mean she got 2% more than Joe did in 2020.  Imagine if the campaign had prioritized seniors.  

I noted over and over that they didn't.  I believe the last time I complained about it here, I was noting how the website was not helpful to seniors who were visiting the website.  First off, we get that a campaign needs money -- but does the campaign get that seniors are on a fixed income?  And they have additional issues so your big on the screen -- large -- beg for money that isn't easy for seniors to figure out how to close?  Not helpful.  And that discouraged them from visiting again.  But when they did visit, they were looking for policy papers, for where the candidate stands on the issues.
  

As I noted here, Ava and I made up issue papers.  We based it on facts.  We pulled things from speeches and interviews.  Because there was no way we could speak to seniors without position papers.  They grew up with those, they want something they can review.  I don't have friends in Alaska from any campaign or anti-war work.  But the other 49 states, Ava and I activated chapters. That's what Ava and I worked on and we weren't alone.  Joining us and doing the same outreach was a friend with John Kerry's presidential campaign, a friend since Rev Jesse Jackson's first presidential campaign and a friend who donates and grassroots worked on getting out the senior vote.  Ava and I and those three  ran four national programs to get out the vote and we did this on our own, we strategized and we planned and we had no help from Kamala's campaign staff because the staff wrote off seniors.   Marcia was brand new to this and she did an outstanding job in her city and in cities around her -- Marcia and her wife did a great job.  And it did make a difference.  That's because that's where I started as a high schooler, too young to vote in an election, I'd be old enough the next year.  So to do my part, I phone banked and did everything after school.  And I got asked to debate a seniors' home.  I did.  Didn't think I did well at all -- it had rained, I was soaked, my hair was soaking wet and I was shivering.  But the word back to our Dem Party headquarter was that the seniors loved me.  So I was then dispatched to every retirement home in our area.  And watching how others interacted with seniors (GOPers, for example), I got why I was popular -- it's called kindness.  And that segment became my designated group for years and years and years.  Marcia is a natural at it the same way I was.  And, again, in 49 states, we worked over and over with no help from the DNC -- no money, no position papers, nothing.  Because the DNC wrote this voting group off.  This was one of the few groups where Kamala got a larger percentage of voters than Joe had in 2020.


So F**K you, DNC, and F**K you experts from the campaign who knew everything and didn't need to focus on seniors.  If you had focused, imagine her getting even one more percent of the votes.  You didn't just let her down, you let seniors down.  And that's called reality -- unlike the crap you get on YOUTUBE.  Quoting from Ava and my "Media: Journalistic Malpractice:"


Sam Seder is a comic.  Not a particularly funny one.  He's never had a stand-up career that really paid off.  The DSA is the Democratic Socialists of America.  They aren't Democrats.  They're from a fringe group that, if you go back far enough, were spending the early seventies defending the US war on Vietnam.  DSA comes from that rancid ground. 


Today, JACOBIN is the bible of the DSA.  That would be the same JACOBIN that allowed a podcaster doing a podcast for them to attack Katie Halper.  Katie's got 101 problems and we won't pretend she doesn't.  However, there was no reason for her to be attacked in that segment.  And rational people grasped that.  JACOBIN did not.  They went with the host attacking Katie.  A host who is no longer with JACOBIN and is now known as the grifter she actually always was.  Anahit Misak Kasparian is this century's Jeane Kirkpatrick -- the woman raised Socialist who turned on the Democratic Party to become a neocon and advise Ronald Reagan.  Ana Kasparian's right-wing grift was evident long before she began attacking transgender people, trafficking in racism and become a defender (and member) of MAGA. 

 

Last week, idiot met idiot on THE MAJORITY REPORT's segment "Harris Campaign Had Volunteers 'Knocking On Republican Doors' During Wisconsin Campaign."  What happens when a self-identified DSA idiot calls in?  


Journalistic malpractice.


Sam -- and Emma -- let the idiot spout his crazy.  He had been block walking -- he didn't use the term and we're pretty sure he's never heard of it -- in Wisconsin ahead of the election.  Kamala Harris' campaign, he whined, sent him to Republican areas!!!!  


Emma and Sam tried to console him.


With no adults in the room, the viewers were left with the impression something awful had happened -- that this was proof of bad campaign tactics on the part of Kamala's campaign.


No.


You're a stupid idiot if you bought that crap.


Block walking.  A campaign and/or political party depends upon volunteers to block walk.  We have both done that many times over the years.  Has Sam?  Emma?  


Sometimes, unions will transport people to block walk and actually pay them for it.  (We have never been paid for block walking and one of us, C.I., back in college refused the payment the union was attempting to offer at the end of the day.)  


With block walking, you're going through a neighborhood.  It takes several hours.  You go door to door, you explain you're canvasing for whatever candidate or candidates or party.  You ask if the person has a few minutes to talk?  Some people will say no.  Some people will slam their doors in your face.  Some will want to talk.  Some who do support your candidate, some who do are not supporters of your candidate but are interested in politics and want to have an exchange.


That's block walking.


DSA moron couldn't believe that Kamala's team 'wasted' time and money on this effort.  


It's one of the more effective tools, first off.  Second, it was a general election.  Not every Democrat is going to vote for the Democrat in the race (Jeane Kirkpatrick never voted for a Democrat again after Jimmy Carter beat Scoop Jackson in the 1976 Democratic Party primary) not every Republican is going to vote for a Republican candidate and a lot of people are undecided ahead of an election.


Block walking is a means to try to connect with voters face to face, one-on-one. 


You need to down every street in every state.  


But even more to the point, Wisconsin? It's an open primary state.


We doubt the DSA idiot or Sam or Emma grasps what that means since they all refused to mention -- let alone address -- that reality.


An open primary state?  Anyone can vote in the Democratic Party primary or the Republican Party primary.  States with closed primaries?  You have to be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary. you have to be a registered Republican to vote in the Republican primary.


Meaning?  Ohio political parties have no concrete information on who is what.


There's no "We have 98% registered Republicans in this neighborhood."


You could try extrapolating from who they voted into office in a district.  But that would be a lot of guess work.  And many, many streets make up a district.  


The DSA idiot is a moron whining about a problem that he basically invented.  Learn politics, you damn fool.


And that goes double for Emma and Sam. 


They presented misinformation and signed off on it.  Because they're idiots.


Stop talking and/or writing about things you are ignorant of.  


Your bad media is not helping the left.  You advancing lies are actually harming us all.



Back to the main topic of THE ATLANTIC excerpt, let's finish it out:




Do Republicans have a systematic advantage in reaching lower-propensity voters?

Flaherty: There’s the conservative ecosystem, which is Fox, Ben Shapiro, [Sean] Hannity, Newsmax—all these folks that are politically and ideologically aligned with Donald Trump and the work of electing conservatives. They built and cultivated that ecosystem. They also built and cultivated an ecosystem that was less political but more cultural. You can call it the “manosphere,” but I don’t think the manosphere is inherently partisan. Joe Rogan talked about politics, but that’s not his whole thing. That was an audience that [Republicans] viewed as key to mobilizing, and so they did a lot of work to migrate information, values, and Trump himself between the conservative ecosystem and this culturally aligned ecosystem.

There’s just not an analogous system on the left. It doesn’t exist because our voters don’t have the same demand signal for alternative media to the mainstream press. There just isn’t the same kind of profit incentive for alternative media.



That nonsense goes right along with what the self-proclaimed expert on what it is to be Black has been saying -- yes, I'm referring to White man Tim Wise -- self-proclaimed Black expert -- who's been saying that if Kamala avoided Joe Rogan, that was wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

In his mind, maybe.  Doesn't make it right.

I consider Jane Fonda a friend of many years.  Doesn't mean I don't call her out when needed.  Jane just went on Bill Maher's hideous YOUTUBE program.  That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.  He's a transphobe, he's a sexist pig, he's anti-Arab, go down the list.  I have no idea what stupidity was suffocating Jane's brain when she made the decision to do that nonsense interview.  I consider it a horrible, horrible thing to do.  And there are many who would feel the same about Joe Rogan (who used to be so interesting and I bet I'm not the only one getting tired biting my tongue over the reality of Joe -- a reality that would decimate his MAGA audience numbers).  I'm sick of this nonsense.  Howard Stern was going to save us, Keith Olbermann was going to save us, there's always some man who is going to save us and then doesn't.  I can remember when people wrongly thought Phil Donahue was going to save the Democrats -- by supporting Ralph Nader's 2000 run?

I'm tired of the garbage and the liars.

I'm tired of THE ATLANTIC and everyone else.  We don't need a Joe Rogan.  We do need an effective media system.  I'm not talking corporate media, I'm talking independent media.  If Democrats try to take over PACIFICA RADIO -- as they've been accused of doing in the past -- I'm honestly all for it.  I'm tired of the ones who take our money -- our big money that can go elsewhere and really help people -- who turn around and stab us in the back.  And they did this go round.  Kamala wasn't pure enough for them.  She didn't agree with them on this or that issue.  


You know John Kerry was 'for the Iraq War before I was against it' and ran with no real plan on Iraq but they supported him.  They didn't work day after day trying to destroy him.  Iraqis and Americans (and a lot of other people) were dying in Iraq.

Barack Obama they lied for because his Iraq War plan wasn't what people thought it was -- and Samantha Power told the BBC that 'whatever promise' he might make on the campaign trail didn't matter because you had to figure stuff like that out after you got into the White House.  They buried that information.  Tom Hayden was among those burying it and then wanted my help when Barack was further backtracking on Iraq to the point that Tom was finally acknowledging the remarks from March 2008 on the . . . July 4th weekend.  And I was supposed to give him credit for that and support him -- he told me over the phone.

Really?  He knew about it back in March -- because we spoke of it and I told him he was both a whore and a coward because he'd decided not to say a word about it.

But then, months later (and after the Democratic Party primary was over), he wants to note it and, on top of that, to lie.  He blamed it on Hillary Clinton's campaign.  He blamed his silence on Hillary.  If her campaign had raised the issue back in March?  He would have known it!  Liar on two counts.  First, he did know about it in March -- and I believe this was where he went off on Wally because Wally noted the phone call Tom and I had over this issue in March -- and, second, Hillary's campaign did raise the issue.  They did a press release, they brought it up in press conference with reporters (David Corn dismissed the story in the press conference and actually attacked the campaign for bringing it up). 

But suddenly Gaza became the issue.  And let's all ignore that Michael Flynn visited the Gaza Freaks in Michigan. In fact, Flynn began reaching out on Trump's behalf ahead of the October 6, 2023 incident.  He was there the month before and, among others, met with "Democratic" Mayor Amer Ghalib -- a detail that Beggar Media concealed -- along with subsequent visits.  Money exchanged hands, promises were made and Muslim leadership in Dearborn and Hamtramck got in bed with Donald Trump.  

And then, just by chance, you understand, the trashing on Kamala began.  

She was for genocide! She didn't care about the Palestinians!

That's what they said.  On our 'independent' media.  The money had already bought their attacks on President Joe Biden.  Then he dropped out and they moved the attack over to Kamala.

This depressed and suppressed turnout.  And that didn't bother Amy Goodman of DEMOCRACY NOW!, or THE NATION or THE PROGESSIVE or IN THESE TIMES or . . .

Medhi Hassan confronted Jill Stein -- who received pro bono support -- an in-kind donation -- on the fact that all she did was attack Kamala Harris, not Donald Trump.  But we weren't supposed to notice that these holy truth tellers from Michigan were not in fact pure or particularly honest.  Kamala wasn't president but we were going to hold her accountable for Joe's actions.

And we were going to refute and attack everything she said.

Independent media amplified those attacks.

No one -- MOTHER JONES, this includes you -- wanted to deal with reality so they didn't tell you about the vast homophobia in Dearborn and Hamtramck that emerges only after the Gaza Freaks take control of the cities.  Flynn reached an agreement with Amer Ghalib in September of 2023.  And even when Amer endorsed Donald Trump for president, DEMOCRACY NOW! and all the other fake asses wouldn't tell you reality.  

The beggar media had never -- not even in 2000 -- attacked the Democratic Party's presidential nominee so repeatedly over and over on a daily basis.

No.  I don't think the answer is to flood these beggars with more money.  I think the only real answer is to cut them off.  To send a message that we're not going to ever again accept this.  You beg us for money, we give it to you and then you try to destroy the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. If they'd just treated her fairly, I don't think we would have such a problem.  But there is a problem now.  And why did this happen?  Why did, for example, Amy Goodman decide, in 2024, that she would spend every broadcast attacking Kamala Harris day after day, week after week?  

Racism and sexism.  Kamala was the first Black woman.  And they were going to attack her daily.  COMMON DREAMS sometimes had four columns on their main page attacking Kamala and insisting what she needed to do instead.  Read those columns and grasp that they never did this to a male Democratic Party presidential candidate.  And they did something similar during the Democratic Party primary to Hillary Clinton in 2007 and 2008 led by the elderly gals of CODE PINK.  But not even in 2016 did they do this to Hillary.

No, this was very different as White people and people of color made clear that they weren't going to take anything from a Black woman.  

They didn't want a Black woman to be in charge of the country.

They made that clear just as they made their racism and sexism clear.

Some people are whining and insisting that Arabs are being scapegoated.  No, they aren't.  Not every Arab American attacked Kamala, many voted for her. But in Michigan, racists Arabs and Muslims worked to defeat Kamala because they're racists.  The homophobia's easy to track in both cities.  And it's reported on by the corporate media.  But no one wanted to touch the war on Black history led by Amer Ghalib and others.  

Yeah, you liars in Beggar Media missed that story.  Didn't report on it once.  Amer even has a video online -- or did -- where he and Flynn speak and they're both attacking Black history.

When Governor Ron DeFailure does that, we rightly call it racism but, for some reason, when Arabs do it we don't.  As one of the few sites in the US to actually cover the treatment of Black Iraqis in Iraq, I'm not surprised that an often oppressed people could also be racist towards others.  Basra was an important port in the slave trade, for example.  Yet Blacks in Iraq continue to be targeted with racism to this day.


If you haven't read Betty's "What do you know the racists and homophobes in Dearborn and Hamtramck were also idiots" from last night, you should.

Dearborn and Hamtramck went for Trump and Stein.  They're very proud of it -- we've gotten three press releases on it so far at the public account and how they celebrated election night with grifter Jill Stein who was in Dearborn for that celebration.

They really showed Kamala, right?

No, they showed and sported their stupidity.  As Betty notes, Satan Trump has announced that the Israeli hostages better be released immediately or there will be "hell to pay."  For Satan, it's all Hamas in Gaza.  He doesn't distinguish.  At THE INTELLIGENCER, Ed Kilgore worries how far Satan's prepared to go.


It's what the Gaza Freaks should have been worried about.  But they didn't truly care about the people of Palestine -- even while insisting it was their relatives!!!!!!

Well if the Palestinians mattered to you, then you vote for who's going to help, not for who's going to destroy.  

Clyde Shabazz and Jill Stein did an online segment "Kamala Harris Is Killing Palestinian Children."  Facts be damned, right?  Well the two losers were celebrating their 'victory.'  Clyde tried to get into the US Congress.  And he's proud that he almost got 8,000 votes in that election.  That's 1.8% of the vote in that election.  He lost and he lost big time.

Do you know what grifter Jill Stein said on election night in Dearborn?  I do because, again, they keep sending their press releases to the public account.

Jill declared, "We live to fight another day and we come out stronger than ever."

Really, Jill?

Who's we?  

Are the Palestinians in Gaza that we all suspect Trump's going to start bombing his first day back in the White House if the Israeli hostages aren't release -- are they going to live to fight another day?


I don't have time for these crazies.  Jill's a grifter and so are the people who promoted her and encouraged her.  You all have blood on your hands.

I mentioned the treatment of Blacks in Iraq so let's note two things on that before we wind down.  






Black Iraqis are the descendants of immigrants and enslaved people from Sub-Saharan and East Africa. Their presence in Iraq dates back to the Abbasid empire, starting from the ninth century when some newcomers came to the region as sailors, workers, captured slaves, or enslaved soldiers. They largely originated from the coast of modern-day Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Ethiopia, and other African countries. In the absence of formal statistics, their community leaders estimate their numbers today to be as high as 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants. Black Iraqis are scattered across diverse regions of the country, concentrating in the governorates of Basra, Maysan, and Dhi Qar. There are also a few families in Baghdad, Wassit, and other cities. However, the largest community resides on the outskirts of the cities of Basra and Zubair.

Despite slavery being officially abolished in the nineteenth century and supported by Article 14 of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, which stipulates “equality without racial-based discrimination,” Black Iraqis still endure systematic discrimination, marginalization, and structural racism embedded in historical stigmas and xenophobia against black people in the Arab world, according to activists I spoke to. Iraq is a melting pot of other ethnic, religious, and cultural communities. Yet, many of these groups are “invisible” and can easily fade in the crowd due to similar physical features. In contrast, Black Iraqis are the “visible others” who cannot be unseen or concealed. Hundreds of invisible cultural and social lines segregate the two communities, ostracize Black Iraqis, and reaffirm their otherness in urban design, tribal allegiances, and marriage arrangements.

One intriguing conversation I had with a group of non-black Iraqi academics, opened my eyes to the extent of denial most people feel about the subject. I was told repetitively, “We don’t have black and white in Iraq. We are all equal,” and was asked to drop the appellation black Iraqis or Afro-Iraqis and replace it with asmar or abu samra, which means tanned or brown in Arabic. Little did they know how offensive it is to deny the community its blackness and attempt to dilute it with a drop of whiteness. In contrast, the Black Iraqis I have been working with, including Dr. Thawra Yousif, Dr. Abdulkareem Aboud, and Dr. Abdel-Zahra Sami Farag, all influential figures in their community, proudly claim their blackness and celebrate it.

Structural racism and the absence of a tribal umbrella have relegated most black Iraqis to the margins of the economy and locked them into a number of small manual jobs as domestic help or performers. According to their representatives, the population also suffers from low educational attainment rates, unemployment, and poverty. Additionally, there is not a single Black Iraqi holding a high-ranking position in the government, nor do they have any political representation. Recently, human rights activists from the community have suffered assassination attempts and violence to oppress their demands, according to international reports.



With the ensuing development of an Iraqi civil society after 2003, Jalal Diab Thijeel, an Iraqi-Africans, founded the Free Iraqi Movement in 2007 to represent his community of approximately two million, primarily located in Basra province. 

The movement seeks to overcome their marginalisation, advocating civil rights, government recognition of the community, and anti-discrimination laws to address the racism they endure.

When it was founded, no one from their community served as a cabinet level minister, MP in parliament, or even in a municipal council. The state’s recognition as a minority would entitle them to government-mandated quotas for elected positions.

The 2008 election of Barack Obama served as an inspiration for their community, and Thijeel hung a photo of the president in his classroom, where he taught courses on black Iraqi history, and fostered an Iraqi hip-hop scene to protest endemic discrimination.

On April 26, 2013, Thijeel was assassinated, most likely by political factions opposed to his attempt to run for office. Nonetheless, the Movement survived the death of its founder, and found a renewed rallying point again stemming from the US. While the election of Obama to America’s highest executive post in 2008 served as an inspiration for Iraqi-Africans, so did the grassroots initiatives of the Black Lives Matter movement. 


The following sites updated:

 


  • A real discussion of the 2024 election - streaming live right now

     

    Monday, December 2, 2024

    Tulsi Gabbard called Trump "Saudi Arabia's b**ch" -- even his 'supporters' mock him

    Trina covers Trashy Gabbard, the cult member and homophobe that Donald Trump wants to make the DEI.  But I was reading an article and saw something I wanted to note.  Doyle McManus (Los Angeles Times) reports:



    On the Syrian civil war, Gabbard opposed U.S. aid to the rebels fighting the brutal regime of Bashar Assad, met with the authoritarian leader and defended him against the allegations that he used chemical weapons on his own people. Assad, who is propped up by military aid from Iran and Russia, “is not the enemy of the United States,” she said.

    She defended Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, who were indicted for masterminding two of the biggest leaks of intelligence secrets in U.S. history — a position unlikely to endear her to intelligence community professionals or hawks in the Senate.

    Gabbard also criticized Trump during his first term for military intervention, including for bombing Syrian government forces in 2017 in retaliation for Assad’s use of chemical weapons against civilians.

    She condemned Trump for ordering the assassination of Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, and for imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. She also excoriated Trump for supporting Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian regime in exchange for military purchases — the reason she called him “Saudi Arabia’s bitch.”


    Donald's Saudi Arabia's bitch!  Tulsi said it and he believes in Tulsi so it must be true.

    How pathetic it must be living Donald Trump's life -- surrounded by people like Tulsi and Robert Kennedy Junior and JD Vance -- people who've publicly insulted him over and over again.  They have no respect for him.  He's so pathetic.

     


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


    Monday, December 2, 2024. Let's talk about that pardon.


    Matt Spivey (BBC NEWS) notes:




    It's not an abuse and it's not a miscarriage of justice.  A president can pardon anyone they wish to.  That's the law.  

    A miscarriage of justice?


    The presidential pardon comes with no qualifiers.  It's the power of the sitting president so everyone needs to STFU.  Truly, I am so sick of the state of our media.


    Was it a good look?  I think you can debate that.  For now.  I think Joe wins the argument in the long run.


    Joe Biden took a path 52 years ago this month.  That's when the car accident took place that cost the lives of Joe's first wife and his first daughter.  Surviving that car accident were their two boys Beau and Hunter.  Five years later, he'd marry Jill and they would have a daughter Ashley.  Joe had turned thirty right before the car accident.  At the age of thirty, he lost a wife and a daughter.  His bond and his need to protect Hunter and Beau -- and Ashely, when she was born -- was more than understandable.


    Beau was the above the board Biden.  He'd join the military and ge exposed to burn pits in Iraq -- dying as a result.  Hunter was the younger son, only two years old when the car accident took place.  Joe spent his life protecting all three children and often it was Hunter more than anyone else.  


    In the end, Hunter was convicted of tax evasion and lying on a gun permit.  


    If Kamala Harris had been elected president, as should have happened, I don't think Joe would have pardoned Hunter and I don't think Hunter would have taken it.  Remarks were made when Joe recently met with Satan Trump at the White House and they concerned and worried Joe.


    They worried him enough to make him believe that Hunter might be a political target for the next four years.


    Joe pardoning Hunter is completely understandable but more so when you factor that in.


    The media is trying to make this a scandal.  I don't remember that, however, at the end of 2020 when Satan pardoned the father-in-law of his daughter Charles Kushner who also had tax evasion issues.  In fact, he was convicted of tax evasion.  And illegal campaign contributions.  And witness tampering. 

    Witness tampering? That's such a polite charge when you were setting a family member up with a prostitute so that you could blackmail them.  Let's go to WIKIPEDIA:


    On June 30, 2004, Kushner was fined $508,900 by the Federal Election Commission for contributing to Democratic political campaigns in the names of his partnerships when he lacked authorization to do so.[21] In 2005, following an investigation by the United States Attorney for the District of New JerseyUS Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with him, under which Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.[22][23][24] The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner's retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators against Kushner. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record a sexual encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.[23][22][25][26] Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison.[22] He served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama[27][28] before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.[27][28][29] He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.[30]

    As a convicted felon, Charles Kushner was also disbarred and prohibited from practicing law in New Jersey,[31] New York,[32] and Pennsylvania.[33]

    Republican Chris Christie, who chaired Trump’s first transition team, said Kushner committed "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" he prosecuted.[5]

    In her book Too Much and Never Enough, President Trump's niece Mary L. Trump wrote that Charles Kushner had given a speech in which he claimed that Ivanka Trump had only made herself worthy of inclusion in his family by committing to convert to Judaism, which Mary Trump found "a bit rich" given Kushner's past as a convicted felon.[34]


    When Joe was the vice president for eight years, I weighed in on Hunter only once.  I also noted Jill only once.  That's because I've known Joe for decades (something noted here since this site started).  I like Jill, she's a nice person.  Before Joe took over the role of vice president, I noted here that I would not be commenting on Second Lady Jill Biden because I didn't want to get caught up in the nonsense.  I couldn't imagine her doing something that would be a scandal but that didn't mean the press wouldn't try to turn something innocent into a scandal.  By not commenting on her in a positive way, I didn't have to comment if the press went wild attacking her.  


    And I more or less kept that for eight years.  


    The exception was a veterans issue that she worked on and we had to note it because it wasn't getting enough press attention for the veterans.


    Other than that, I didn't comment.  When Joe began his run for president in 2019, we called out Hunter.  When others were dismissing the behavior in question, we called it out.  


    Hunter had many unethical issues.  

    And we called Joe out here when he tried to minimize it.  Once Hunter was the target of an FBI investigation, we regularly called out Joe for his comments.  We even had to call out Jill twice.  While the Justice Dept did not answer to the First Lady, in that position, Jill had to watch her words.  We noted that. 

    So Hunter's actions are not a new topic for this site. 


    Did he get off light before the pardon?  I personally think he did.  


    But we had Merrick Garland -- the idiot Attorney General who couldn't seem to get a tough conviction on anyone -- including Satan Trump.


    Hunter got a pardon from his father.  


    That's not a surprise.  It's completely understandable. Joe's an elderly man now.  He's 82 years old and the last four years especially took a lot out of him.  He's not going to be able to counsel or protect Hunter much longer and an insane and criminal rival is coming into the White House.  One who may or may not have been joking in their recent meeting.  But it was enough to concern Joe.


    That's all that matters to me because I don't pretend that Satan is anything but a psychopath.  I wish there was a way Joe could do a blanket pardon for all the people Satan sees as "enemies within."  


    But he can't.


    He can protect his own son and that's what history's going to see this as.  And history is not going to be kind to Satan Trump -- even the media sucking up to him right now and jerk off politicians sucking up to him -- hey, Bernie, looking at you, you worthless piece of garbage -- won't last forever.


    The only time I noted Hunter here when Joe was vice president, I wrote what I'd already said to Joe about it: It's not our falls that define us, it's how we dust ourselves off and get back up.


    Hunter, your father has yet again, out of love for you, sacrificed himself.  Appreciate that and use the gift he's given you. 


    Here's The White House announcement of the pardon:


    Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. 
     
    The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.   
     
    No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. 
     
    For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision. 
     

    ###

     
    Executive Grant of Clemency
    Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
    President of the United States of America
     
    To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:
     
    Be It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto
     
    ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN
     
    A Full and Unconditional Pardon
     
    For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No. 2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
     
    IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice.
     
    Done at the City of Washington this 1st day of December in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States the Two Hundred and Forty-ninth.

    ###


    At RAW STORY, David McAfee writes:


    Trump over the weekend announced his appointment of Kash Patel as the director of FBI, leading critics to lash out and causing a pre-emptive strike against Senate Republicans by a top MAGA lawyer who said he would make their political lives hell if they opposed Patel.

    Sophia Cai, senior national politics reporter for Axios, said, "Trump's decision to name hardline loyalist Kash Patel to FBI director amounts to a massive middle finger to the intelligence community."


    Wrong.  From Ava and my "Media: Journalistic Malpractice:"


     Let's stop there because when we read a portion of this back to smart and educated people we know, they told us we were wrong about something: recess appointments.


    We weren't wrong.  It's your crap ass left media -- especially on YOUTUBE -- that has promoted a lie because yet again these uneducated lazy talking heads didn't do the actual work.


    Matt could not been a recess appointment in November or December or even, pay attention, for the bulk of next month.  Why is that?

    Satan is not the president.  That's not talking recounts or anything else spewing across the internet.  That's merely fact.  Learn your Constitution, it is your friend.  Much more so that the bulk of the idiots on YOUTUBE.


    Until he's sworn in, Satan is not president. 


    He can jawbone all he wants -- like a YOUTUBER -- but he's not president.  


    Joe Biden is president.  Until Trump is sworn in, he can't do anything and that would include recess appoint Gaetz or anyone else to a post requiring Senate confirmation.


    Do you get it?  Because RAW STORY doesn't.  Again, they wrote:



    Trump over the weekend announced his appointment of Kash Patel as the director of FBI, leading critics to lash out and causing a pre-emptive strike against Senate Republicans by a top MAGA lawyer who said he would make their political lives hell if they opposed Patel.


    He can't appoint anyone to head the FBI, he's not president.  He won't be sworn in until January 20th.  He's declared he wants Kash Patel to be the head of the FBI?  Okay.  But, no, he has not appointed him.  He is not yet the president.  


    Get your s**t together. 


    The following sites updated:


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