SICKOFITRADLZ

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Snaggle Tooth hates Julian Assange

Julian Assange is living with more freedom and comfort then babies locked in cages. How bout that.

104 replies513 retweets1,761 likes

Julian Assange is a political prisoner and you can be concerned about him as well as about children -- how bout that?

Patricia Arquette is a so-so actress who won an Academy Award because of the outstanding work -- onscreen and in life -- that her older sister did -- how bout that?

Patricia is so bad at acting that she couldn't even make it on CSI -- after winning an Oscar! -- how bout that?

Patricia is awfully judgemental of others (including Anais Nin) for someone who has traveled as many roads as she has -- how bout that?

Patricia is an idiot who didn't have the brains to get her snaggle teeth fixed - how bout that?

Patricia's career is over and even she knows it -- how bout that?

Patricia worships Hillary's vagina so much, she can't see straight -- how bout that?

Though loving Hillary today, please remember Patty Arquette did not support Hillary in 2008 -- how bout that?

Julian Assange changed the world, on a good day Patty might change her underwear -- might -- how bout that?

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

Monday, July 30, 2018. Weeks later and still no government in Iraq. What's the hold up?

Mithridates @ MithridatCastle

# iraq is like Abadis pants, once the belt is broken there is no chance of holding it together. 

# TwitterKurds  # Basra  # IraqProtests  # unifiedIraq

5 replies11 retweets31 likes

As July turns into August this week, it's worth noting that Iraq has still not formed a new government.

May 12th, Iraq held national elections. Ahead of the elections, there had been big hopes -- these hopes included a large turnout. Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) noted, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and prime minister." RUDAW added, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs." AFP explained that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women. THE SIASAT DAILY added, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers." Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reported, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37 million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi women has declined steadily since 2003. According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence and sanctions."

The other big hope? For the US government, the biggest hope was that Hayder al-Abadi's bloc would come in first so that he would have a second term as prime minister. It was not to be. Mustapha Karkouti (GULF NEWS) identifies the key issues as follows, "Like in previous elections, the main concerns of ordinary Iraqis continue to be the lack of security and the rampant corruption."

As we noted the day of the election:

Corruption is a key issue and it was not a topic explored by candidates outside of Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition. Empty lip service was offered. Hayder al-Abadi, current prime minister, had been offering empty lip service for four years. He did nothing. Iraqis were supposed to think that, for example, Hayder's focus on ISIS in Mosul mattered. All life was supposed to stop because of Mosul? All expectations were to be ignored because of Mosul?

Arabic social media today and yesterday was full of comments about the lack of improvement in services. It noted how the elections had not mattered before and, yes, how in 2010 the US government overturned the elections because they didn't like the outcome.

So it was probably only surprising to the US government and their press hacks that Hayder wouldn't come in first. But that was after the votes were counted. On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote. NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent." AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."

Elections held May 12th. August arrives this week but it comes in the door with no new government to welcome in Iraq yet.

‏Verified account @brett_mcgurk

Arrived in #Baghdad tonight for talks with PM Abadi and other leaders on our common fight against #ISIS, protection of Iraq’s borders, and economic reforms supported by our Strategic Framework Agreement.

10 replies50 retweets116 likes

Really? Is that what you're doing, Brett? Because that's not what others are saying. For example, MIDDLE EAST MONITOR quotes the outgoing Speaker of Parliament Salem al-Jubouri on the matter:

In remarks to the Anadolu Agency, Al-Jubouri’s adviser Abdul-Malik Al-Hosseini said: “The former parliament speaker met on Sunday in Baghdad with the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat [the Islamic State] and discussed the Iraqi parties’ efforts to form a new government and the importance of reaching a common vision among all political blocs.”

Al-Hosseini added that “the global coalition and the United States want the political blocs to accelerate resolving the issue of forming the new government in order to start dealing with the issues of stability and reconstruction.”

Brett, for those who have forgotten or never knew, was sent to Iraq by Barack Obama in the summer of 2010. Why was that? They'd held elections in March of 2010. And thug Nouri al-Maliki had lost but refused to step down. Instead of negotiating for Nouri to step aside, Brett oversaw the negotiations for The Erbil Agreement, the US contract that overturned the 2010 election results and gave Nouri a second term. Human rights monster Samantha Power, among others in the administration, insisted that Nouri -- despite his thuggish ways and secret prisons and jails where torture was taking place -- had to have a second term.

Is that what Brett's again working on? Overturning the votes of the Iraqi people?

In Iraq, protests continue.

On Saturday, Hayder al-Abadi attempted a cosmetic change by firing five election officials. It was not addressing corruption. So Sunday he made the following announcement:

‏Verified account @IraqiGovt

PM @HaiderAlAbadi orders the suspension of the Minister of Electricity due to poor performance of the sector. The @IraqiGovt is taking action to immediately improve the supply of electricity across Iraq

20 replies41 retweets211 likes

Suspended is not fired. More to the point, the Cabinet is for the previous government. There's no new Cabinet yet (still?).

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested, hundreds have been injured, at least 14 have been killed and at least one has been fired.

αввαѕ ƒ αвє∂‏ @Mr_twitte_r Jul 28

#HananMahdi Introduction An economic bulletin in alIraqi channel was fired from the job because of its participation in the protests
#مظاهرات_27_تموز

2 replies11 retweets23 likes

RUDAW reports on Hannah Mahdi:

She added that the head of the news section had summoned her days before she was fired, asking her to back away from protests because there were infiltrators.

“But I said that wasn’t true. Throughout my participation in the protestors at Tahrir Square, I encountered no one but simple people demanding their legitimate demands,” Mahdi said.

She says she was told she would face consequences if she didn’t back down. Since, she has worked as a freelancer with the network.

She says her termination letter had been prepared, but was shredded as the network couldn’t deal with the pressure from her supporters. She adds she hasn’t been paid for previous work by the network.

Let's turn to the stupid.

‏ @e_whittler

OBAMA DID THIS : Repaired our crippled Economy , saved our car industry , Got OUR SOLDIERS OUT OF IRAQ , Got Osama Bin Laden , Got heath insurance for millions of people that didn't have it before , put in regulations to stop wall street from gambling with our money AGAIN . OBAMA

1 reply10 retweets18 likes

Show this thread

Donald Whittler is the village idiot of Jefferson City. Our focus is Iraq so that's what we'll focus on. Barack "Got OUR SOLIDERS OUT OF IRAQ"?

Really?

‏Verified account @chadgarland

A 40-mm grenade explodes in a cave entrance during a joint operation to clear an ISIS safe haven in Iraq's Makhmour Mountains on July 16, 2018. (Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Russell Gilchrest.) 

1 reply12 retweets32 likes

Looks like US soldiers in that US military photo that the STARS AND STRIPES reported Tweeted above. Dropping back to Friday's snapshot:

Today, some say the Iraq War is over. It's not. Some fools claim Barack Obama ended it. Yeah, and he closed Guantanamo Bay too. (He didn't -- Iraq and Gitmo, just two of his many broken promises. And, spoiler, he didn't end veterans homelessness either despite promising to do so.)
Kevin E. Schmidt (QUAD CITY TIMES) reports:

Although victory over ISIS has been declared in Iraq, American involvement there will remain necessary for years to come, according to Sen. Joni Ernst, because the United States cannot win the peace for the Middle East nation on its own.

“This is going to take a long time,” the first-term Republican senator said. “We’ve been there 15 years. We have a long ways to go yet. The United States must remain a partner of choice for Iraq as it develops into a young democracy.”

So until the United States is confident in the capacity and ability of Iraqi security forces to defend their country, a U.S. military presence will remain necessary to protect American interests, the Iraq War veteran told the United States Institute of Peace on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Village idiot Donald believes no US troops are in Iraq. Is his stupidity an educational failing or a media failing?

Let's note more stupidity:

‏ @AmericanVoR

Since the trump election:

Number of times Trump has visited the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan: 0

Number of days spent at a Trump golf course: 177 and counting.

7 replies92 retweets157 likes

How many times did President Barack Obama visit Iraq?

Once.

Only once.

In two terms as president, eight years, he visited Iraq once.

You're not a Voice of Reason, you're a liar trying to deceive. And you didn't give a damn how many rounds of golf Barack played so shut your lying mouth. Shame on anyone who takes this sort of nonsense seriously.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

No one Peter Bogdanovich knows is ever gay

Last week, I read Peter Bogdanovich's Who The Hell's In It. Previously, he had published Who The Devil Made It -- a series of conversations with film directors. In this collection, he's addressing actors.

Conversations? The book is subtitled Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors. But they aren't all conversations. River Phoenix and Marilyn Monroe are two that are more portraits. You could add Anthony Perkins and Sal Mineo to that list. You could add a lot of people to that list, in fact.

It's sometimes interesting -- often boring. Why boring?

Bogdanovich directed the film The Last Picture Show. Three films he did after that are among my favorites: What's Up Doc?, Paper Moon and At Long Last Love. After that? I like Cher in Mask and I enjoy The Thing Called Love.

As a director, you might think he understands close ups.

Instead, when he zooms in, it's often to offer bland. Everyone's this, everyone's that, everyone's the same. Most of all, everyone's straight.

Yes, even Anthony Perkins who died of AIDS and who had multiple affairs with various men -- including the long running one with Tab Hunter that Tab documented in his own book -- is presented as straight.

"Four years later, Tony died. Afterward, there was some talk about the AIDS question, of course, but who cared. He was gone," he writes.

Perkins died in 1992. The book came out in 2004. Can you imagine anything more insensitive than what Bogdanovich wrotes? "There was some talk about the AIDS question, of course, but who cared"?

Sal Mineo is also a straighty. Bogdanovich is thrilled that Sal got to keep his role in Somebody Up There Likes Me -- the role James Dean got for him, even after James Dean died. And was replaced by Paul Newman. Who was also Sal's lover though not in Bogdanovich's book. Paul, of course, slept with many men and women -- including Anthony Perkins. Anthony, of course, slept with men throughout his marriage to a woman.

Bad enough how no one is ever gay. There's also the fact that gay is so awful to Bogdanovich. Not only is it a topic to be avoided and lied about, it's also the equivalent of a sickness, drug addiction.

Of River Phoenix:

Though River, like just about everyone in recent generations, had already fooled around a bit with drugs, My Own Private Idaho was the first time that substance-abuse played a large part in a character River portrayed. There was homosexuality, too, and there were unsubstantiated rumors that River had been pursued to experiment in both areas a preparation for his role. That would have been a rampantly misunderstood application of Stanislavki's "method."

First off, I'm guessing he means "pressured" and not "pursued" -- ". . . rumors that River had been pressured to experiment in both . . ."

Second, rumors of River and sex with men predate My Own Private Idaho. His sexuality was assumed to be fluid.

But that's too much for Peter B -- for Bogdanovich, it's like using drugs. He has a very homophobic attitude and someone around him needs to confront him on that.

They might also try telling him that women matter and including a tiny number in this book is ridiculous. If The Last Picture Show is such a classic (it's not one of my favorites), where's Cybill?

It would have killed him to include Cybill Shepherd? He left his wife for her. She starred in The Last Picture Show. Why isn't she in the book?

She's also in Elaine May's classic The Heartbreak Kid and Martin Scorse's Taxi Driver. I don't believe his Last Picture sequel, Texasville (1990), would have been made without Cybill's participation (she was then starring in Moonlighting). She was also in his films Daisy Miller and At Long Lost Love (the latter of which is still being re-evaluated critically).

A book that makes room for actors Ben Gazzara, Boris Karloff, Jerry Lewis and John Cassavetes should certainly be able to find room for Cybill whom he happened to sleep with.

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

Friday, July 27, 2018.

My name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one

A young widow in the war that's being fought in Vietnam

And I have two infant daughters, I thank God I have no sons

Now they say the war is over but I think it's just begun

-- Melanie's version of "The Ballad of Penny Evans" used as an intro to "Peace Will Come (According to Plan)"

Today, some say the Iraq War is over. It's not. Some fools claim Barack Obama ended it. Yeah, and he closed Guantanamo Bay too. (He didn't -- Iraq and Gitmo, just two of his many broken promises. And, spoiler, he didn't end veterans homelessness either despite promising to do so.)

Kevin E. Schmidt (QUAD CITY TIMES) reports:

And in a similar development, Tuesday Brigadier General Frederic Parisot held a press briefing in Baghdad and insisted "the Iraqi Security Forces continue to secure the country in order to prevent the resurgence of " ISIS.

They haven't done a very good job of that. First, ISIS never left, it lost control of some cities but a terrorist organization doens't traditionally rule. In terms of its primary goal (terrorism), ISIS has not been defeated and has continued to terrorize Iraq.

Martin Jay (RT) observes:

After about three years of ISIS controlling almost a third of the country, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in December 2017 against the terrorist group, as well as declaring that the war was over. Analysts though, at the time, warned that many extremists had merely gone underground or had scattered, and would return. These warnings were not taken seriously, but in recent weeks, Western journalists in Iraq are reporting an alarming return to the battlefield, which is going to give Trump a number of sleepless nights, wrangling over a conundrum he alone is unlikely to resolve.
According to the Washington Post, the battle has shifted into a central zone of Iraq with ISIS now adopting more nefarious, if not theatrical, tactics, leaving many civilians saying that the declaration of victory was premature.
“Over the past two months, dozens of people, including local government officials, tribal elders, and village chiefs, have been abducted and killed or ransomed by fighters claiming affiliation with the Islamic State,” the paper claimed recently. “Electricity infrastructure and oil pipelines have been blown up. Armed men dressed as security forces and manning fake checkpoints have hijacked trucks and robbed travellers, rendering the main Baghdad-Kirkuk highway unsafe for a period of weeks.”
It’s a horrendous account of Iraq today, with ISIS adapting to new surroundings, and according to the Post, using more and more local people to help with their heinous work. The speed also is worrying some.

So the US leaves when? According to Senator Ernst not for years. According to Gen Parisot, not until ISIS is defeated.

The US war in Iraq continues. Back to Parisot in Baghdad Tuesday:

Q: Hi, sir. Tara Copp, Military Times.

A few minutes ago you said whatever the price, you'll continue to fight until [ISIS] is defeated. Could you define for us when will you know that ISIS is defeated? What signs are you looking for to be able to then withdraw, stop providing the military support for this operation?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, now we're still engaged in major combat operations. And I won't -- I can't speculate, on when it's going to end.

We provide, you know, the best military advice for the political level, but basically, you know, as long as there is a military mission, I guess we are going to stay.

He can't speculate on when that's going to end. He can't even say what signs would demonstrate success.
"This is going to take a long time." John McCain was savaged in 2008 for such comments. Today? They probably won't even be reported or repeated by most. "We have a long ways to go yet."

Why?

Because we won't allow the Iraqis to have self-rule. We impose leaders on them. They are an undeclared colony. The US government and the Iranian government try to control Iraq. Do you really think that, if Iraq had self-rule, they would repeatedly choose one person after another to be prime minister -- one person after another who fled Iraq and lived outside the country for decades?

Chickens who fled are suddenly going to make strong leaders?

Of course not, which is why the US keeps installing them. Bully Boy Bush installed Nouri al-Maliki (based on the CIA profile that found Nouri to be extremely paranoid), in 2010 when Nouri lost re-election Barack Obama gave him a second term via The Erbil Agreement, 2014 is when Barack replaces him with Hayder al-Abadi. Weak leaders who were chosen because they are weak.

And what do weak men do? Lash out. Thug Nouri made clear he was a thug in his first term. It's been obvious that Hayder is a little thug himself though the western press has largely ignored it until Hayder's attacks on the protester this month.

Tom O'Connor (NEWSWEEK) reports: the US government admitted Thursday to killing at least 1,000 civilians in Iraq and Syria via bombings. When US war planes are dropping bombs, reminder, that's a war.

And not only has ISIS not been defeated but it still holds territory in Iraq. Despite Hayder al-Abadi claiming it was defeated -- even as he claimed that -- ISIS still held (and still holds) territory in Iraq.

Hayder al-Abadi wants a second term as prime minister. The US government wants that too.

Will they get their way?

REUTERS reports:

Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani called for a government to be formed as soon as possible to tackle corruption and poor basic services.
In a Friday sermon delivered by a representative, Al-Sistani also encouraged the incumbent government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi to respond urgently to protesters' demands seeking better basic services and jobs.
"The current government must work hard urgently to implement citizens' demands to reduce their suffering and misery," Al-Sistani's representative said in the Shiite holy city of Kerbala.
Anger is mounting at a time when politicians are struggling to form a government after the May 12 election, which was marred by allegations of fraud that prompted a recount.

The elections were in May. Next week July turns to August. Still no prime minister-designate. In 2010, Iraq went eight months before forming a government. The way it is supposed to work is that elections are followed by the new Parliament meeting days after the ballots are counted and then they nominated a prime minister-designate (who then has 30 days to put together a cabinet or else the Parliament can name someone new).

Nothing is working in Iraq. A lot of this dysfunction appears to have been designed by the US government.

‏Verified account @RoKhanna

If you are wondering why members of both parties just passed the largest defense budget since the height of the Iraq War, consider that much of it goes to defense contractors that spent $69 million lobbying Congress in 2017. pic.twitter.com/6NikMQ6yIB

35 replies482 retweets753 likes