The shows may come to life, I should note that. But with what we have to go on? I'm not interested in anything on THE CW. The only thing that sounds worse than THE CW shows? ABC's sitcom ADOPTED. I will be watching ABC's MY VILLAGE starring Kyra Sedgwick. But that's really it for ABC.
Over at CBS, there are the most proposed shows that sound interesting. I like Sarah Rue so I'm interested in her sitcom B POSITIVE. The sitcom about a funeral home run by a brother and sister and starring Becki Newton and Michael Urie, FUN, is one I will be checking out. THE THREE OF US is a show I'll check out because Oliver Hudson stars in it. I hope he's playing an airhead like when he was Adam in RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. He is so much funnier in that type of role. I also like Elizabeth Hurley so I'll be checking out that sitcom (so far no title for the show). UNITED STATES OF AL also sounds interesting. CLARICE will either be great or awful -- it's a series that takes place after SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. And I bet a lot of us will be checking out RAISED BY WOLVES -- it's Julie Bowen's follow up to MODERN FAMILY.
Julie probably has one of the most eagerly awaited shows of the fall. One. The other one is the new sitcom starring Mayim Bialik -- her follow up to THE BIG BANG THEORY that features Swoosie Kurtz as her mother (Swoosie was on MAN WITH A PLAN which just got cancelled last week after four seasons). That will air on FOX. That and BLOOD RELATIVE -- a criminal procedural starring Melissa Leo -- are the only FOX shows that sound worth watching.
Over at NBC, JEFFRIES sounds interesting -- a sitcom starring Jim Jeffries and Betsy Brandt. Also interesting is Shanola Hampton's NIGHT SCHOOL (Kevin Hart's producing and it's based on the film). I'll give Emayatzy Corinealdi's AT THAT AGE a shot, for sure, but it's the only drama on NBC that interests me.
Over all, very little does but CBS is offering the most new shows that sound interesting to me.
Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Let's start with garbage. Specifically, garbage credited to the following:
Signatories of the letter to Biden include the Center for Economic and Policy Research, CodePink, Greenpeace US, Indivisible, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Jewish Voice for Peace Action, MoveOn, Our Revolution, Peace Action, the Quincy Institute, RootsAction.org, and Win Without War.
In October of last year, Iraqis took to the streets to protest a corrupt government and the presence of foreign troops on their soil. In response, they were attacked by their own government. Estimates that the corporate press runs with puts it at over 500 dead. The number is much higher. In addition to the protesters killed, many more were injured and/or arrested.
When during all this time (the protests continue) did any of the above take a moment to support the Iraqi protesters, these young people risking their own lives? Not once. They couldn't even offer a Tweet. But shortly after this year began, you may remember their Chicken Little reaction -- where they mounted protests as they screeched that any second the US government was going to declare war on Iran. That never happened and they went back to not caring about the region.
The letter is mentioned in Jessica Corbett's stenography at COMMON DREAMS. She tells you these groups are pressing Joe Biden to end endless wars and other things.
Why would anyone listen to them?
They've demonstrated that they can't keep their eye on the ball and that they'll grouse for a moment or two and then find a shiny toy to play with.
Why would Joe Biden listen to them?
Sorry, I was in Denver in 2008. Barack was getting pressed, there was going to be a demonstration. They were going to make their voices heard!!! And then? They held off the protest because Barack was going to meet with them. They held off the protest and rubbed their hands together excitedly as they anticipated Barack's arrival but he was already departing and they were left with a lower level flunky who had no power. They got played.
This crowd gets played every time. They never learn.
Now they've issued a public letter that's as meaningless as they themselves are.
For those who don't know, Roots (Non)Action is Norman Solomon's group. That would be the same Norman who has been hectoring everyone for months now that they have to vote for Joe Biden.
If your position is that you and everyone else has to vote for a candidate, the candidate has no reason to listen to you -- he can already count on your vote regardless.
Joe Biden is incompetent and that was the case long before he became the rambling idiot we see before us today. If you care about Iraq, you know Joe destroyed it. I'm not referring to his vote for -- and support of -- the Iraq War. I'm referring to his time as Vice President. Here's how Andrew Cockburn explained it at HARPER'S:
Presumably in
deference to this record, Obama entrusted his vice president with a
number of foreign policy tasks over the years, beginning with
“quarterbacking,” as Biden put it, US relations with Iraq. “Joe will do
Iraq,” the president told his foreign policy team a few weeks after
being sworn in. “He knows it, he knows the players.” It proved to be an
unfortunate choice, at least for Iraqis. In 2006, the US ambassador to
Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had selected Nouri al-Maliki, a relatively
obscure Shiite politician, to be the country’s prime minister. “Are you
serious?” exclaimed a startled Maliki when Khalilzad informed him of the
decision. But Maliki proved to be a determinedly sectarian ruler,
persecuting the Sunni tribes that had switched sides to aid US forces
during the so-called surge of 2007–08. In addition, he sparked
widespread allegations of corruption. According to the Iraqi Commission
of Integrity set up after his departure, as much as $500 billion was
siphoned off from government coffers during Maliki’s eight years
in power.
In the 2010
parliamentary elections, one of Maliki’s rivals, boasting a nonsectarian
base of support, won the most seats, though not a majority. According
to present and former Iraqi officials, Biden’s emissaries pressed hard
to assemble a coalition that would reinstall Maliki as prime minister.
“It was clear they were not interested in anyone else,” one Iraqi
diplomat told me. “Biden himself was very scrappy—he wouldn’t listen to
argument.” The consequences were, in the official’s words, “disastrous.”
In keeping with the general corruption of his regime, Maliki allowed
the country’s security forces to deteriorate. Command of an army
division could be purchased for $2 million, whereupon the buyer might
recoup his investment with exactions from the civilian population.
Therefore, when the Islamic State erupted out of Syria and moved against
major Iraqi cities, there were no effective defenses. With Islamic
State fighters an hour’s drive from Baghdad, the United States belatedly
rushed to push Maliki aside and install a more competent leader, the
Shiite politician and former government minister Haider al-Abadi.
That's a sweet way of putting it. Reality, the Iraqi people voted Nouri out. Reality, Joe and others didn't want that to happen. Reality, The Erbil Agreement was produced to overturn the election results and give Nouri a second term. We've covered this forever and a day. No interviewer has ever asked Joe, "Explain to us your support for The Erbil Agreement?" Nor did anyone supposedly moderating a debate.
The Islamic State appears in Nouri's second term. They're wearing dark clothes and they are on the highway between Baghdad and Anbar Province. Does no one remember that?
I'm sure Joe Biden prays you don't remember.
Nouri was already persecuting people in his first term and it only got worse in the second term -- the term the Iraqi people didn't want Nouri to have, the one that the US government -- with Joe Biden leading the effort -- gifted Nouri with.
Joe argued for a tyrant to get a second term and how did that work out?
Let's see, you had the rise of ISIS, you had US troops officially back in Iraq, you had Barack refusing to take Nouri's calls for two years (2012 through 2014) and then the process finally began of forcing Nouri out.
But somehow, Joe never gets asked about any of this.
Instead, we pretend that Joe's entire Iraq War action was voting for the Iraq War.
He gets to proclaim credit in the debate for removing (some) US troops from Iraq and no one ever notes it was his actions -- demanding Nouri get a second term -- that led to US troops being sent back into Iraq.
Iraq has a new prime minister as of May 7th, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. This was the subject of the most recent episode of CRITICAL MOVES (TELESUR).
The government of Iraq notes:
PM
receives a phone call from
to congratulate him on assuming office, and to discuss bilateral relations, saying that Iraq is a strong nation and has a central role to play in achieving regional and international stability.
The Prime Minister's office also notes the call with US President Donald Trump.
رئيس مجلس الوزراء
@MAKadhimi
يتلقى اتصالا هاتفيا من الرئيس الأمريكي
@POTUS
هنأ فيه السيد الكاظمي بمناسبة توليه رئاسة الحكومة العراقية.
وشكر رئيس مجلس الوزراء السيد مصطفى الكاظمي الرئيس الأمريكي على التهنئة، مؤكدا حرص العراق على إقامة أفضل العلاقات مع الولايات المتحدة .YENISAFAK notes:
Trump
spoke with Kadhimi "to congratulate him on his confirmation by the
Iraqi Council of Representatives," White House spokesman Judd Deere said
in a statement.
"President
Trump expressed the support of the United States for Iraq during the
ongoing global coronavirus pandemic and emphasized the shared interest
with Iraq in achieving the enduring defeat of ISIS (Daesh)," the
statement said.
"President
Trump also encouraged the Prime Minister to address the Iraqi people's
demands for reform and legitimate early national elections," it said.
At FOREIGN POLICY, Shelly Kittleson offers:
Despite an institutional void since widespread protests across Shiite-majority central and southern Iraq forced the previous government to resign late in 2019 and the international coalition’s recent withdrawal from several Iraqi bases, moves are afoot to more fully integrate some Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) factions into government chains of command and structures that existed prior to 2014.
If Iraq’s new government manages to do so, it could reduce the influence of powerful armed groups with questionable loyalty to the Iraqi state.
The PMU were officially formed in 2014 through a fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for volunteers to fight against the Islamic State in order to defend Shiite holy sites and Iraq in general. They played a key role in the country’s territorial defeat of the transnational terrorist group.
Several of the brigades within the PMU belong to armed groups that had existed for many years prior to the PMU’s formation in 2014. These factions have long been supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Others set up in 2014 and loyal to Sistani are known as “shrine units.”
In the United States, Tara Reade continues to tell her story. Megyn Kelly posed her interview with Tara -- posted it on Friday evening.
It's now had over 629,000 streams.
Roger Sollenberger (SALON) reports:
A 1996 filing in a California Superior Court reveals that former Capitol hill staffer Tara Reade
spoke about allegations of sexual harassment with her ex-husband on
"several occasions" while working in former Vice President Joe Biden's
Senate office from 1992-1993.
The declaration, first reported on by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, does not mention sexual assault. Reade's ex-husband, Ted Dronen, said in the document that his ex-wife spoke to him about the allegations of harassment on "several occasions." The statements in the document, which was also obtained by The New York Times, were attributed to Biden's "office," though not the senator himself.
The declaration, first reported on by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, does not mention sexual assault. Reade's ex-husband, Ted Dronen, said in the document that his ex-wife spoke to him about the allegations of harassment on "several occasions." The statements in the document, which was also obtained by The New York Times, were attributed to Biden's "office," though not the senator himself.
"On several occasions petitioner related a problem that she was
having at work regarding sexual harassment in U.S. Senator Joe Biden's
office," Dronen's statement said in reference to Reade.
"Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the senator's office and left her position," he added.
"Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the senator's office and left her position," he added.
Lawyers for Joe Biden sex accuser Tara Reade on Monday demanded that the former veep open up his archives at the University of Delaware and pushed a Senate official to hand over any documents related to the case, too.
Top sex-harassment lawyer Douglas Wigdor told Biden that he must “authorize a search [of his university archives] to determine whether they contain any records related to Ms. Reade” — evoking the former US senator from Delaware’s controversial handling of the Anita Hill controversy in 1991.
The following sites updated:
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