Monday, June 12, 2023

Weekend box office

Let's look at the weekend box office via THENUMBERS.COM:


1 N Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Paramount Pi… $61,045,464   3,678   $16,597 $61,045,464 1
2 (1) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures $55,511,096 -54% 4,332 +19 $12,814 $225,532,074 2
3 (2) The Little Mermaid Walt Disney $23,150,013 -44% 4,320 n/c $5,359 $229,170,352 3
4 (4) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Walt Disney $7,228,004 -32% 3,175 -405 $2,277 $335,600,773 6
5 (3) The Boogeyman 20th Century… $7,152,614 -42% 3,205 n/c $2,232 $24,973,509 2
6 (5) Fast X Universal $5,274,575 -45% 2,822 -645 $1,869 $138,201,970 4
7 (6) The Super Mario Bros. Movie Universal $2,229,620 -34% 1,789 -555 $1,246 $570,272,610 10
8 (7) About My Father Lionsgate $837,482 -59% 960 -1,504 $872 $10,754,291 3
9 (8) The Machine Sony Pictures $576,575 -66% 1,008 -1,401 $572 $10,097,339 3
10 (12) Past Lives A24 $520,772 +124% 26 +22 $20,030 $867,096 2

 

 

They're falling out of the top three quickly these days.  It's because it's summer and you have more movies coming out.  But did anyone think that in it's fourth week the latest FAST AND FURIOUS franchise film would be out of the top five? It's done much better over seas.


I'm surprised how little TRANSFORMERS made.  It's going to be lucky to make $100 million in North America.  It's going to be a real struggle for it to do so.


THE LITTLE MERMAID is not a bomb -- as I've noted -- stop believing liars.  Over the weekend, it crossed $414,000,000 in domestic and international ticket sales. 


Again, they're dropping fast if they're dropping.  This Friday, the three big releases are THE BLACKENING, ELEMENTAL and THE FLASH.

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

 

Monday, June 12, 2023.  Should THE VANGUARD be called THE AIRHEADS, Iraq finally gets a budget, Julian Assange remains in danger thanks to the  British court's decision, and much more.


Starting with Julian Assange.




 A High Court judge in London has denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States, where he faces criminal charges under the Espionage Act.

The decision was dated Tuesday and is the latest in a years-long legal saga. His camp told CNN on Thursday that they will lodge a new appeal next week.

In a ruling dated June 6, 2023 and seen by CNN, Mr. Justice Swift said Assange’s application had been refused stating that “none of the four grounds of appeal raises any properly arguable point.”   



The Wikileaks founder's legal team is to mount a final attempt in British courts to stop the 51-year-old Australian facing a “political prosecution” and up to 175 years in jail.

His wife Stella confirmed today that Mr Justice Swift had rejected all eight grounds of his appeal against extradition, which was ordered by Priti Patel as home secretary last year.

She said he will make a renewed application for appeal at the High Court next Tuesday, which will proceed to a public hearing before two new High Court judges.

And that is why THE WEEK says Julian's "dangerously close" to be extradited to the United States and they note:

If extradited to the US, Assange could spend the rest of his life in prison for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents, the Guardian reported. A ruling issued on June 6, by Justice Swift, rejected all eight grounds of Assange’s appeal against the extradition order signed by then-UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in June 2022. 

I didn't see anything about this on the various YOUTUBE programs this weekend.  Did you? They did have segments on Roger Waters. 

72!  Had to ask the person I'm dictating this to if they'd go into the transcript for THIRD's roundtable that we did yesterday and check to make sure it was 72.  Roundtable and other content should go up at THIRD tonight but in the roundtable Wally notes that over saturation coverage of Roger Waters that we got instead of news that actually matters to our lives.  That's what happens when our left YOUTUBERS mistake themselves for Robin Leach and offer up LIFESTYLES OF THE FADED AND FORGOTTEN instead of covering actual news.  You get 72 hours of Germany's mad at Rogie for this, and his video got deleted or his Tweet got deleted or some other nonsense that we're all supposed to pretend is the equivalent of Julian facing torture at the hands of the US.

It's strange, isn't it, how Pamela Anderson -- someone the world actually knows today -- managed to advocate for Julian without ever trying to make it about herself yet forgotten Roger can't stop making it about himself?


While Roger garners headlines,  Julian Assange remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



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

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

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.



It’s been a dramatic few years for Assange. The WikiLeaks founder was forced out of Ecuador’s central London embassy and arrested by local police in 2019. Since then, he’s resided in London’s Belmarsh Prison fighting efforts to extradite him. Assange’s supporters, as well as a psychiatrist who has interviewed him over a dozen times in prison, warn he’s at a “very high risk” for committing suicide if extradited and subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement. A UK judge actually cited those concerns and previously rejected an extradition request under the grounds it would be “oppressive” to Assange’s health. Another UK appeals court disagreed with that assessment, though, and overturned the ruling in late 2021.


But let's be a Roger Waters fan club instead.  

Yes, most of us can do more than one thing at a time.  Most of us.  But clearly that's not the case for YOUTUBERS -- who appear to think Roger Waters is in more danger than Julian Assange.  They're making the decision to put Roger first.  


The appeal rejection has come as a kick in the guts to the rising local movement to see the Townsville-born son’s case dropped and for him to return home, and not only are larger numbers of the community now rallying, but there’s also bipartisan federal leadership support for his release.

But that united front to see the Australian citizen set free from the torture of our closest allies, was already flattened, when it was revealed that the Biden administration is still sharpening its knives in preparation, as it’s come to light that the FBI has reopened its investigations into Assange.

As foreign minister Penny Wong notoriously explained in February, her government has and will continue to express to the US and UK that the case has “dragged on too long”, but, as for intervening further, she said, it’s not possible as in “both countries… we’re discussing, the rule of law prevails”.

Yet, whilst this assertion by the minister for foreign affairs might be uncontroversial in general, this case is a glaring anomaly to the rule of law, with the Assange Campaign having pointed this out clearly, on Thursday, as it listed the grounds of appeal that the UK justice system just knocked back.

Assange’s lawyers put to the High Court that Patel’s extradition approval is problematic as it violates article 4 of the UK-US Extradition Treaty of 2003, which specifically denies extradition for a political offence or if the extradition is politically motivated, with both these points applying to this case.

While section 81(a) of the Extradition Act 2003 (UK), specifically prohibits an extradition, which purports to be in regard to an extradition-permitted offence, when in fact the request has been “made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing him on account of his… political opinions”.

Further grounds of the appeal were that Assange is “being prosecuted for protected speech”, “the US has misrepresented the core facts” in the British courts, the case further violates international law, and the “request and its surrounding circumstances constitute an abuse of process”.

A key breach of the rule of law Assange legal advisor Greg Barns SC has often pointed to is the US claim to extraterritoriality, as Washington has reached across borders to arrest a foreign national under its domestic espionage laws, due to journalistic acts carried out on the soil of another country.

“The extraterritorial reach of the proposed prosecution is so dangerous because, one day, it could be another Australian journalist or publisher who finds themselves on an extradition request,” Barns said in February.

The US arrested Assange by proxy in the UK on 11 April 2019, on a trumped up computer hacking charge, and by May, a superseding indictment added an additional 17 charges under the US Espionage Act of 1917, while a further second superseding indictment was released in June 2020.

Assange is being pursued as, much to the chagrin of the White House, he published thousands of classified US files, leaked by then US army officer Chelsea Manning over 2010-11, which exposed extensive war crimes. And despite claims to the contrary, he did redact names to protect lives.

Five major mastheads joined publishing site WikiLeaks in printing the same details as it did. But the US has only charged Assange in relation to this, via offences relating to obtaining and publishing unredacted materials, with all the charges combined carrying a maximum of 175 years in prison.


Turning to Iraq, Taif Alkhudary (ALJAZEERA) reports:


On April 21, Ali Hussein Julood, a 21-year-old living in the Iraqi town of Rumaila, on the outskirts of one of the world’s largest oil fields, died from leukaemia. He was told by doctors that pollution from gas flared in the nearby field, which is operated by British Petroleum (BP), had likely caused his cancer.

“Gas flaring” is a low-cost procedure used by oil companies to burn off the natural gas expelled during drilling. A waste of valuable natural resources, it also contributes to global warming and causes dangerous air pollution that has been linked to severe health problems in nearby populations. Some of the pollutants released during this process, such as benzene, are known to cause cancers and respiratory diseases.

Ali, who had been battling cancer for six years when he died, was only the latest victim of the environmental degradation caused by international oil companies like BP in Iraq. In towns and villages near the country’s vast oil fields, thousands of other men, women and children are still living under smoke-filled skies and suffering avoidable health problems because company executives insist on putting profit before lives.

While there is not much publicly available data on the rates of pollution-related illnesses in areas near oil fields in southern Iraq, a confidential report from the Iraqi health ministry recently obtained by the BBC blamed pollution from gas flaring, among other factors, for a 20 percent rise in cancer in Basra, southern Iraq between 2015 and 2018. A second leaked document, again seen by the BBC, from the local government in Basra showed that cancer cases in the region are three times higher than figures published in the official nationwide cancer registry. 


The world needs reparations from the oil industry.  In other news,  Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari (REUTERS) report that Iraq has finally passed the 2023 budget -- finally: 

Iraq's parliament on Monday approved a 2023 budget of 198.9 trillion dinars ($153 billion) that sets out record spending on a growing public wage bill and development projects to improve services and rebuild infrastructure ruined by neglect and war.

The budget deficit is estimated at a record 64.36 trillion Iraq dinars, more than double the last budget deficit in 2021, according to a budget document and lawmakers.


It only took over six months and a scolding from the United Nations' Security Council, but they finally passed a 2023 budget.  Sinan Mahoud (THE NATIONAL) adds:


But analysts said far too much money will be spent on salaries, including allocations for hundreds of thousands of new jobs. They said Iraq will not be able to afford this spending outlay if oil prices fall below $70.

The operational expenditure stands at 133.22 trillion dinars (about $102.5 billion) while investment expenditure will be 49.35 trillion dinars ($37.9 billion). The remainder of expenditure will mainly go to debt servicing.

It is based on an assumed average oil price over three years of $70 a barrel, with an average daily crude oil output of 3.5 million barrels, including 400,000 from the Kurdistan region.

The government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is planning to repeat it next year and in 2025, although parliament will be able to vote on amendments. Iraq’s fiscal year usually starts on January 1.


So the fun begins again.  KURDISTAN 24 notes, "A top Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Baghdad said on Sunday that efforts to weaken Kurdistan Region as a constitutional entity in the 2023-2025 budget bill have failed.  The remarks by Ashwaq Jaf, the head of KDP’s 5th Baghdad Branch, came a day after the Iraqi lawmakers passed on the controversial articles of the budget bill, Article 14, concerning the Kurdish region’s oil export, management, and distribution of its revenues."  AFP adds, "The new budget also sets aside $37.9 billion for investments, with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani noting that his 'priority' is to develop infrastructure in a country where basic services have long been sorely lacking."  Hussain Abdul-Hussain (ALJAZEERA) reports:


Iraq is about to approve a budget that allocates $2.8 billion to the Shia militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), marking an increase of $600 million from the previous budget in 2021.

The additional government money will allow PMUs, of which pro-Tehran Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl Alhaq (also known as the Khazali Network) and the Al Ashtar Brigades are on the United States’ list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations, to nearly double their ranks from 122,000 to a staggering 238,000.

The increase in funding and personnel is inexplicable, given that the PMUs were formed to eradicate ISIS, which is now suppressed. With an annual deficit close to $50 billion and with Baghdad raising taxes to make ends meet, it is even more puzzling that Iraq is still funding a paramilitary force, whose budget equals 40 percent of the Iraqi defence ministry and whose size is bigger than regular armies of neighbouring countries, such as Jordan and Kuwait.


Not every YOUTUBER was producing fan-boi content over the weekend.  For example, the vanity run of Cornel West was seriously addressed.



What?  You were expecting two White boys b.s.-ing about things they know nothing about?  No, we're not noting that VANGUARD nonsense.  For an outlet that attacks Jimmy Dore constantly, they have no self-awareness, do they?  Joan Walsh is one voice at THE NATION.  She's not a voice that I value and I didn't value her at SALON.  But the boys of THE VANGUARD are a lot like Joan Walsh.  The reason I have no use for Joan is that she generally doesn't know what she's talking about.  In the '00s, we corrected her nicely -- Ava and I -- when, at SALON, she confused Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris.  It's not easy to do that today and it wasn't easy to do that back then.


So I don't like little boy idiots who see their life's goal to be defending Krystal Ball -- a far worse figure than Joan Walsh -- or telling lies about Cornel's great big opportunities.  The Green Party is not going to gift the nomination to Cornel West.  Nor are they likely to allow him to share the nomination because they do not want to be confused -- pay attention -- with a GUTTER PARTY and that's all The People's Party is.  Scandals about where the money went, scandals about sexual assault, scandals about this, Tweets and efforts to be more right-wing-than-FOX "NEWS."  


The Green Party has spent years on ballot access.  It is very unlikely that the political party will decide to destroy their work and their image by getting in bed with a political party with so many issues.  Gavin and Zac need to learn.  They need to have an education.


I don't give a f**k what Chrissy Lynn Hedges whispers.  He's a stupid ass who promoted the false link between Iraq and 9/11 -- and did so on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES.  You dumb idiots who refuse to do the work required and get on board with Chrissy Lynn -- or for that matter with Oliver Stone and his lobbying for the nuclear industry.  Your stupidity hurts us, grasp that.


Now if you knew your history, you'd know that the Green Party was offered a candidate before.  No, I'm not talking about the wrestler.  And the candidate was a bigger name than the wrestler and Cornel combined.  And the Green Party said?  No.


Because they are independent party.  On the wrestler, he wanted the party to gift him with the nomination.  The Green Party said "no."  You want their nomination, you campaign for their nomination.


Unlike The People's Party, they're a real political party.


Now The People's Party, please remember, was, like Max Blumenthal's wife, part of that hideous February action where they got on stage with right wingers who were racists and who were homophobic and transphobic.


Do you remember the response from The Green Party?  Probably not because YOUTUBERS don't do a lot of homework.  But we posted it here.  And their response was they were not taking part in that 'action.'   They issued a statement to make that clear.  They would not go onstage with right-wingers (and pedophiles -- remember The People's Party planned to have that convicted pedophile on stage as well).


So, no, you stupid hacks, the Green Party is not gifting Cornel with their nomination.


That's not a mistake, the video above.  We posted Olayemi Olurin's video again. Because it's informative.  Gavin and Zac, do some actual work and stop whoring.  Actually, "whoring" is the wrong term.  Whores work.  Gavin and Zac think they can scan the headlines and then bulls**t for 30 or so minutes.  I didn't like losers like that in grad school and I don't like them on YOUTUBE.  Know what you're talking about, do some actual research.  I'm just not in the mood.


There were a hundred other issues I wanted to cover but we don't have the time this morning.  We will note Matteo Lane's new comedy special that debuted on YOUTUBE last night.




--------------

Added: Wally asked me to add this -- it went up here Sunday night:

In the US and da Do-Do Ron Ron DeSantis saw his people rally for him over the weekend in Florida.  Grace Hauck (USA TODAY) reports:


About 15 people with flags displaying Nazi insignia gathered outside Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, as others displayed messaging in support of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the demonstration, which dissipated after about two hours with no arrests. Two counter-protesters also showed up, the office said.

"We are aware of these groups that aim to agitate and incite people with anti-Semitic symbols and slurs. They are also aware of the law," the office said in a statement. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate."


Oh, da Do-Do Ron Ron, da Do-Do Ron Ron.  Your people have embraced you.  Too bad for you, the rest of America finds those people revulsive.


The following sites updated:

 



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Saturday, June 10, 2023

TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEAST

Should you blow money for a ticket to TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEAST?

If you're thinking about it, yes.  If you already know, without seeing it, that it's not your cup of tea, don't.

This is like the other TRANSFORMER movies in terms of plot and thrills. 

But it's not like the others in that it needs real star power.


It's got no names playing the human characters.  And most are adequate.  Not awful.  Not good.  Just adequate.


The exception to that is Dominique Fishback who brings real presence to the role of Elena.  

It's not a bad movie.  It could use some name actors.  Otherwise, I don't get why you're doing another film that's exactly what's come before.

I enjoyed it.  It wasn't the best movie in the world or the worst.  Dominique's probably going to be a screen presence to watch.

That's about all I can say. 



 

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Friday, June 9, 2023.  A lunatic in Congress claims (lies) that the FBI has stated that they can't protect a witness, no-surprise Tara Always Changes Her Story Reade is yet again changing her story, the heavens open with relief as the angels realized there wasn't a snow ball's chance in hell that Pat Robertson was going to be at the Pearly Gates, and much, much more.

Well Pat Robertson finally did something good for America -- he died.  Too bad he couldn't have done it years ago.  For more see Kat's "Hate merchant Pat Robertson has passed away."  Paul Rudnick notes:

Pat Robertson has died. He said gay people caused hurricanes and wore special rings which spread AIDS, and that gay marriage was worse than murder. He's survived by this poster on the wall of Mike Pence's bedroom pic.twitter.com/Shf5NThGZk

— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) June 8, 2023



Let's go from crazy Pat Robertson to crazy Tara Reade.   TWITTER's had to provide 'context' to a recent reTweet by Tara noting that it's a lie.  Poor Tara, if she were capable of embarrassment or shame, this would be a very difficult time for her.  

But all of her Tweets should come with context since she's so estranged from the truth.  For example, Tara's labeled this piece by Froma Harrop to be "slut shaming."  Is she that stupid or is she now on drugs?  It's not slut shaming.  Froma does not go into Tara's past relationships or even mention them.  She's very clear that she doesn't believe Tara regarding her allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her in the nineties.  I honestly do believe her but that's not "slut praising" anymore than Froma's slut shaming her.   People don't have to believe her.  Ruth went over this in "Tara Reade threatens to sit on George Takei and squash him" when Ruth pointed out George Takei not believing Tara was assaulted is not him slandering her.  No one has to believe her and due to her own credibility issues she's made even more people doubt her.  

That's not what I really want to note.

I also am not eager to point out her latest lie.  Per her 'representative' (a woman who can't practice law in the US or in Russia -- apparently, Tara's such a credit risk she can't get a local attorney in either country), Tara told US Rep Matt Gaetz that she received "intelligence" in Russia.  She hasn't received intelligence -- or common sense -- in any place she's lived or traveled.  But Tara told Matt -- and according to her 'rep' she said so on THE HILL -- that she's received "intelligence" that her life was being threatened and he advised her to stay in Russia.

First off, if true, let me say two words I'll probably never say again: Thank you, Matt Gaetz.  Now if you could encourage some other whack jobs to leave the country . . .

Here's the thing though, Tara's stated already that Matt's the one who warned her.  That seemed suspect but that was her story.  Matt warned her and that's why she's staying in Russia.

Now she's claiming that she got the "intelligence."  

Take a moment to laugh and then we'll pick right back up.

I wish we had time to call out Sabby Sabs and all the other garbage praising Robbie of THE HILL for bringing nut job Tara Reade on.  But we don't.  We will note he's a transphobe and a gay basher and so, Sabby Sabs, we're not at all surprised to see you praising him.

That's not why we bring it up.  Nor to ask why Tara is obviously unable to get shampoo in Russia -- but did get a really bad dye job.

No, we're bringing her up because of the crazy in Congress.  And this time let's zoom in on US House Rep Anna Paulina Luna who Tara can't stop reTweeting -- Tara loves those homophobes.  Anna Lunatic is someone who needs to be brought before the ethics board.  Maybe if Democrats regain control of the House they do that?  This Tweet should never have happened:





The FBI stated "they were afraid the informant would be killed if unmasked"?  So the FBI, you insane lunatic, that has protected many witnesses against the mob, has stated they have a witness that they can't protect?  Goodness that would be front page news . . . if it actually happened.

But it didn't.  And Crazy Lunatic didn't make that statement on the floor of Congress, she did it in a Tweet which means she's not protected from lying.  

That lie needs to be hammered and hammered.  Merrick Garland needs to issue a statement noting that the FBI has said no such thing.

These people just make up crap and then those already struggling with reality -- people like Tara -- hear it and start repeating it as truth.

If the FBI told Congress that they had a witness they couldn't protect, one of two things would happen in the real world:  Kevin McCarthy, as head of the House of Representatives, would be announcing that to the American people or they all wouldn't be saying a word because they were briefed on it in a closed session.  

But Lunatic puts it on TWITTER.  I do feel some sympathy for Anna Lunatic.  If George Santos weren't in this Congress, she'd be getting a lot more attention for all of her lies -- including that "Mexican" grandfather that in fact was German.  She's got her string of lies but George always manages to soak up all the attention.  Your day will come, Luna Lunatic, your day will come.


And, sadly, seriously sad, we will no longer be noting Bonnie Erbe's TO THE CONTRARY.  It has been a great program and has addressed many important issues -- I'm sure it will continue to do so.  But I was informed last night about two panelists and I'm sorry I'm not promoting the program anymore.  I had no problem with their conservative fiscal views or other conservative views.  But there is a difference between conservative views and the views of hate merchants.  Applause to Bonnie for her work over the years and hopefully my walking away will mean some others will be interested in promoting the show -- the longest running show focusing on women still in production.  

Bonnie was attacked in 2008 for refusing to join the dogpile on Sarah Palin.  Bonnie has been a brave face and voice for feminism.  I applaud her.

But there is a war going on in this country, a war against the LGBTQ+ community and I will not have this site, this platform do anything to promote that war.  And grasp that this means anyone can be dropped from getting noted here if I'm dropping Bonnie.

"What could we have done to stop the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community?"  LGBTQ NATION asks that at their site.  I have an answer for that and it's not pretty and probably not anything they want to here.  But in September, those of us who are arm-in-arm with the LGBTQ+ community fled like fairweather friends and a number of LGTBQ+ members -- especially sassy young Twinks -- decided to trash the man everyone was fleeing from instead of standing up.  Every tactic that now works for them when they go after Dylan or whomever, they practiced that back in September and people were too damn stupid to realize what was at stake.  They're using the same tactics -- that they perfected last September -- to attack African-Americans -- and if you're struggling to see that, you are the problem.

I can't go into this right now, it would take hours and hours.  I might write about it this weekend.

But that's the past and I can't change that.  But what I can do to stop attacks right now is not promote or elevate hate merchants.  

 

Let's note whistle-blower Chelsea Manning as we turn to Iraq. Monday April 5th, WIKILEAKS released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7th, the US military announced that they had arrested Chelsea Manning and she stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to [her] personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." Manning had been convicted in the public square despite the fact that she's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements -- despite any claims otherwise, she had made no public statements. Manning was now at Quantico in Virginia, under military lock and key and still not allowed to speak to the press. Paul Courson (CNN) noted [Chelsea] is a suspect and, "He has not admitted guilt in either incident, his supporters say."  She was attacked repeatedly and then convicted and then pardoned.  Alonso Matinez (EL PAIS) notes today:


In an interview with the Financial Times, Manning revealed that she rarely faces hecklers regarding the intelligence leaks, but occasionally experiences attacks related to her transgender identity. She expressed her resilience, stating that she has become accustomed to such criticism and that it no longer greatly affects her.


Turning to Iraq-related issues, MIDDLE EAST EYE notes:

A former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, has officially announced her run as a Democrat for US Congress in California’s 30th District in November 2024. 

Idan currently lives in Los Angeles and is the founder of Humanity Forward, a nonprofit bipartisan organisation “committed to building bridges among Muslims and Jews in order to surpass borders and promote reconciliation, tolerance, mutual understanding, and peace”. 

The seat is currently held by Adam Schiff, who will be leaving to run for the Senate. Schiff, who was the House Intelligence Committee chair in 2021, had welcomed the US administration's pledge to release a declassified report on who killed Jamal Khashoggi, calling for the document to be made public "without delay".


Western oil companies are exacerbating water shortages and causing pollution in Iraq as they race to profit from rising oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Water scarcity has already displaced thousands and increased instability, according to international experts, while Iraq is now considered the fifth most vulnerable country to the climate crisis by the UN. In the oil-rich but extremely dry south, wetlands that used to feed entire communities are now muddy canals.

Mahdi Mutir, 57, worked as a fisher his entire life. For years, Mutir and his wife woke at dusk, sailing along a thick network of canals in Al Khora, a few kilometres north of Basra. The harvest was meagre but enough to provide food for the family of seven.

That changed last year. Now, at the height of the rainy season, Mutir’s boat lies stranded in the mud.

“It is the water station the Italian company built: they need water for their oilfields,” Mutir said, pointing at the black smoke rising from the Zubayr oilfield on the horizon.

To help extract oil, companies pump large quantities of water into the ground. For each barrel of oil, many of which are later exported to Europe, up to three barrels of water are pumped into the ground. And as Iraq’s oil exports rise, its water has dramatically fallen.


The whole world is facing drastic climate change but climate models suggest that Iraq will be among the worst effected.  Back in March, Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) reported:


The United Nations stressed that Iraq is suffering from a real water crisis, calling for collective action to find solutions to this crisis, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The statement was made on Sunday by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, during her participation in Iraq Climate Conference held in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
“There is an urgent need to find solutions to the water crisis in Iraq,” Plasschaert stated.


Urgent and it only gets more urgent each day.  Already problems are evident.  January 10th, Yale's School of Environment published Wil Crisp's article which opened:


Three years ago, the vast marshlands of southern Iraq’s Dhi Qar province were flourishing. Fishermen glided in punts across swathes of still water between vast reed beds, while buffalo bathed amid green vegetation. But today those wetlands, part of the vast Mesopotamian Marshes, have shriveled to narrow channels of polluted water bordered by cracked and salty earth. Hundreds of desiccated fish dot stream banks, along with the carcasses of water buffalo poisoned by saline water. Drought has parched tens of thousands of hectares of fields and orchards, and villages are emptying as farmers abandon their land.

For their biodiversity and cultural significance, the United Nations in 2016 named the Mesopotamian Marshes — which historically stretched between 15,000 and 20,000 square kilometers in the floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The marshes comprised one of the world’s largest inland delta systems, a startling oasis in an extremely hot and arid environment, home to 22 species of globally endangered species and 66 at-risk bird species.

But now this ecosystem — which includes alluvial salt marshes, swamps, and freshwater lakes — is collapsing due to a combination of factors meteorological, hydrological, and political. Rivers are rapidly shrinking, and agricultural soil that once grew bounties of barley and wheat, pomegranates, and dates is blowing away. The environmental disaster is harming wildlife and driving tens of thousands of Marsh Arabs, who have occupied this area for 5,000 years, to seek livelihoods elsewhere.

Experts warn that unless radical action is taken to ensure the region receives adequate water — and better manages what remains — southern Iraq’s marshlands will disappear, with sweeping consequences for the entire nation as farmers and pastoralists abandon their land for already crowded urban areas and loss of production leads to rising food prices.

The Mesopotamian marshlands are often referred to as the cradle of civilization, as anthropologists believe that this is where humankind, some 12,000 years ago, started its wide-scale transition from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement. Encompassing four separate marshes, the region has historically been home to a unique range of fish and birdlife, serving as winter habitat for migratory birds and sustaining a productive shrimp and finfish fishery. 


AP has observed, "Climate change for years has compounded the woes of the troubled country. Droughts and increased water salinity have destroyed crops, animals and farms and dried up entire bodies of water. Hospitals have faced waves of patients with respiratory illnesses caused by rampant sandstorms. Climate change has also played a role in Iraq’s ongoing struggle to combat cholera."  And now action? Or what might pass for it.   Khalid Al Ansary (BLOOMBERG NEWS) reported:

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani on Sunday kicked off an initiative to plant 5 million trees and palms across the country in an attempt to alleviate some of the deleterious impacts of climate change, a statement from his office said.

Iraq has suffered years of drought, and more than 7 million people have been effected or lost their incomes from agriculture and fishing, Al-Sudani’s office said. The war-torn, oil rich country has experienced higher temperatures, persistent drought, an increase in dust storms and a crop area cut by half, all impacts of extreme weather caused by climate change.


Real action would be addressing the use of water by the oil industry -- water that's not going to the people.  



On veterans' issues, Senator Bill Cassidy's office issued the following:


WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. delivered remarks during today’s hearing on examining veterans’ access to long term care.

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today to discuss how we can ensure veterans have access to the long-term care and support they need.

 

Our veterans sacrificed for us, so we owe it to them to work to identify gaps in care and find ways to improve the experience they receive when they work with VA to fulfill their long-term care needs. 

 

Access to quality long-term care is an important part of honoring our commitment to our veterans.

 

It’s an issue that affects the veteran, their families, the caregiver, and the community around them.

 

We must improve coordination between the VA, community providers, and other stakeholders so that veterans and their families do not have to struggle to access the support they earned.

 

As the population of aging and disabled veterans increases, VA will need to ensure high-quality and adequate staffing for VA medical facilities, clinics, and community living centers, while also expanding its footprint in the community.

 

I support VA’s efforts to honor veterans’ preferences for when, where, and how they receive long-term care. Veterans should have ultimate control over their health care decisions from VA.

 

We must also focus on caregiver support and recognize the vital role caregivers play in the well-being of our veterans. We must provide caregivers with the necessary resources, training, and support to ensure they deliver the best care.

 

Our hope is that your testimony will help us figure out how to do that.

 

I thank you again for your testimony.

 

Let us honor our veterans' service and sacrifice by making sure they get the best care we can give them.

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.

 

Watch his remarks here.








Also on veterans issues, we're going to note this from Senator Tammy Baldwin's office:

Baldwin Successfully Pushes VA to Reexamine & Pay Earned Benefits to 600 Veterans After Doctor Misdiagnosed Conditions

Doctor who misdiagnosed veterans was terminated from Tomah VA Baldwin has been advocating for new exams, proper compensation, and an investigation into doctor for 1.5 years

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After more than a year and a half of advocating on behalf of Wisconsin veterans, Senator Tammy Baldwin successfully pushed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to identify and reexamine approximately 600 veterans whose neurological conditions were misdiagnosed by a doctor at the Tomah VA Medical Center. As a result of the misdiagnoses, these veterans had been denied proper benefits, compensation, and treatment. The VA will now work to complete reexaminations and grant equitable relief for impacted veterans. The doctor responsible for the misdiagnosis, Dr. Mary Jo Lanska, MD, has been terminated from the Tomah VA.

Since 2021, Senator Baldwin has been working with multiple Wisconsin veterans who reported that their traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and other conditions were misdiagnosed by Dr. Lanska. Senator Baldwin had been calling on the VA to investigate the pattern of misdiagnoses, ensure misdiagnosed veterans get a new exam, and get the veterans the proper compensation and benefits they are deserved.

After Senator Baldwin successfully pushed the VA to review all of the compensation and pension exams that were done by Dr. Lanska and reach out to impacted veterans, the VA announced today that they identified approximately 600 veterans who received an exam from Dr. Lanska that they plan to order reexaminations of and grant equitable relief.

“Our veterans served us and we have an obligation to serve them when they come back home. Unfortunately, many of our Wisconsin heroes did not get the care at the VA that they deserved," said Senator Baldwin. “I am glad to see that after years of working alongside some of our veterans, hundreds of Wisconsinites who have been wronged by the VA will be getting the care and benefits that they earned.”

In a March meeting, Senator Baldwin pressed VA Secretary Denis McDonough to investigate the pattern of misdiagnosis and shared the Wisconsin veterans’ concerns. In August 2022, Senators Baldwin and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) sent a letter to Secretary McDonough highlighting their concerns about TBI misdiagnosis at the Tomah VA and pushing for answers about the process for veterans who may have been improperly diagnosed and not receiving the benefits they deserve. After hearing from additional veterans, in September 2022, Senator Baldwin called on the VA to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the practices of this doctor to determine whether there is a broader pattern of her misdiagnosing patients’ neurological disorders that are preventing veterans from receiving care or benefits they earned.

###




Senator Tammy Baldwin is an out lesbian and this is Pride Month so I'm going to try to note something from an out member of Congress in each of the snapshots for the rest of the month.  Again, focusing on what we can do.  Again, I recommend LGBTQ Nation's "What could we have done to stop the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community?" which, hopefully, we'll get everyone who cares about equality and fairness brainstorming.



The following sites updated:





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