Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): Ted Rall

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Ted Rall

I was pissed at Ted Rall when I read this article.

I'd never found him so smug and worthless.

I was really shocked.

I usually agree with him but I sometimes do disagree.

However, even when I disagree with him, I can see his point.

This was just nonsense.

And I felt depressed by it.

Then I was pleased.

I'd clicked on the wrong link.

That wasn't his article.

This is his article.

He points out the marches over the weekend were a "moment" and not a "movement."

Thank you, Ted.

He's exactly right.

And he deserves a standing ovation for this passage:

A good indication that the Women’s March got coopted into a Democratic boo-hoo Hillary/Cory Booker-in-2020 pep rally was that the speakers were limited to celebrity millionaire liberal Democrats like Michael Moore, Ashley Judd and Gloria Steinem and defanged ex-radicals like Angela Davis. Had this been a militant action (i.e., one that might frighten Trump and the GOP), or a coalition of liberals who welcomed and respected their leftist allies rather than merely wanting to vampirize their righteous anger and energy into midterm votes, the roster of speakers would have included people calling for revolutionary change and action outside of the existing system. There would also have been some radical activists you’d never of who do important work.
Celebrity liberalism and pleas to vote Democratic are where the Left goes to die.

I also enjoyed this Tweet about the nonsense as well.

‏@consent_factory

Inspired by historic #WomensMarch, affluent liberals offer oppressed minorities protection in their homes in their segregated neighborhoods.

2 replies2 retweets3 likes

At THIRD, we covered the nonsense with "Celebrity Lives Matter!!!"

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, January 24, 2017. As the never-ending war continues, we look at the Sammy Powers and the 'change' they've brought as well as a few other claims (including the xenophobia that renders all Arabs as one group with one belief).

What did neoliberalism bring to war?

We were asked that yesterday when we were speaking.

A student cited the "hideous Samantha Power" and she noted how Samantha was a blood thirsty monster. "But we're supposed to be okay with that because she does it for the left," the young woman said rolling her eyes.

The Samantha Powers are a bunch of raving War Hawks.

But they try to put a 'caring' face on their lusts.

So their big contribution has been "Hitler."

Not the person Adolf Hitler.

In earlier times, we demonized the population.

If we were going to steal, for example, land from Native Americans, we would attack them as "godless" and other terms intended to demonize them.

War was good because we were taking on these evil creatures.

Kinder War Hawk Samantha Power means we no longer attack the people we go to war with.

Instead, we lie and say we are liberating them.

Liberating them from who?

Hitler, of course.

WWII defeated Hitler (and it before neoliberalism) but apparently that so-called Greatest Generation was just a bunch of lazy goats.

All they did was defeat one Hitler.

Thankfully, today we have the Sammy Powers all over the place, ready at a moment's notice to tell us how this person (possibly considered a friend of the United States only five or ten years prior) is actually Hitler.

Apparently, someone must have cloned Hitler.

In WWII, there was only one of him.

Today, he's trotting all over the globe.

So, the Sammy Powers insist, we must be all over the globe to stop him.

Melanie once sang "There's a chance peace will come."

Not on Samantha Power's watch!

Individual preference will vary but, myself, I think I preferred it when the War Mongers were openly hating a people instead of pretending that they were saving a group of people from a monster.

I also see it as good news that so many people -- young people -- have caught onto the con that Samantha Power works.

Awareness goes a long, long way.

There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one
There's a chance peace will come, in your life please buy one

For sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land
With the velvet hill in the small of my back
And my hands are playing the sand
And my feet are swimming in all of the waters
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

Well sometimes when I am feeling so grand
And I become the world
And the world becomes a man
And my song becomes a part of the river
I cry out to keep me just the way I am
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan, according to man
According to plan
-- "Peace Will Come (According to Plan)," written by Melanie Safka, first appears on her album LEFTOVER WINE

The Sammy Powers are helped by buffoons like Neal Rogers.

Gracey_Knoll ‏@gracey_knoll 17 hours ago

@Climberruss @MarcSnetiker @nealrogers Gentleman! Yeah, setting up ISIS makes you such a "gentleman". When did you get your brain removed?

32 replies1 retweet47 likes

@gracey_knoll @Climberruss @MarcSnetiker Nice try, but we can thank Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld's Iraq invasion for ISIS

RETWEETS35
LIKES500

1:08 PM - 23 Jan 2017

7 replies35 retweets500 likes

@nealrogers @Climberruss @MarcSnetiker Obama literally armed ISIS when he blundered into Libya and Syria. The cretin,

19 replies4 retweets26 likes

@gracey_knoll @Climberruss @MarcSnetiker Al-Qaida in Iraq, which became ISIS in 2013, dominated Iraq insurgency by 2006.

6 replies5 retweets211 likes

@nealrogers @gracey_knoll @MarcSnetiker I'm not sure that's quite right Neal. I will check my reasearch first before arguing this one.

4 replies1 retweet7 likes

@Climberruss @gracey_knoll @MarcSnetiker Start here?

3 replies3 retweets87 likes

I don't care how many times you cite the crap ass GUARDIAN newspaper.

You're still a xenophobe.

The Iraq invasion led to the rise of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

We can shorten that to "al Qaeda in Iraq" if that's too much for your sheltered and immature mind.

People came into Iraq to fight the occupation and the occupiers.

The Islamic State was not created by imprisoning Iraqis.

And it's strange because when the blowhards talk, they usually mention how the League of Righteous grew stronger in Iraq due to imprisonment of leaders.

But that's not a part of the Islamic State.

That's a Shi'ite militia.

One carrying out War Crimes in Iraq currently.

Xenophobia allows a White person to group the Islamic State and al Qaeda in Iraq together.

For many years, you saw this play out at the US State Dept.

But the two are not the same and were never the same.

They have some similar motives and they have some opposing motives.

Which is why the two work separately in Syria -- they also do in Iraq but a lazy (and, yes, xenophobic) press just attributes all actions in Iraq to the Islamic State.

al Qaeda in Iraq remains. And they have been responsible for some recent bombings.

Even some that the Islamic State has taken credit for.

But that's another difference between the two groups.

An informed dialogue would benefit all.

But, sadly, we're not getting it these days.

War Crimes.

Iraqi army crimes 
يامسلمين ياعرب
عاجل 
الجيش الشيعي الارهابي يحفر القبور لشيوخ المساجد السنه العراقين بالموصل ويرميهم بها 
افضحوهم ياناس

99 replies661 retweets148 likes

#Breaking 
Iraqi Sunni Civilian tortured , killed & his grave dug in front of his eye
by Sectarian Iraqi army in #Mosul 
#IRAQ 
#Warcrimes

14 replies172 retweets38 likes

As Kat noted about the above:

We are paying for War Crimes in Iraq.

I don't mean karma -- though that will no doubt come.

I mean we are paying with our tax dollars for War Crimes.

Does mean old Donald Trump as president mean that a lot of Americans will finally have to wake up and take a look at what's been going on for the last years?

Good.

Wake the hell up.

Iraqis haven't had a choice.

And thanks to Donald, some Americans are now concerned.

‏@HayesBrown

Iraqis fighting ISIS are, somewhat unsurprisingly, super pissed about POTUS's comments about taking Iraqi oil 

5 replies147 retweets137 likes

We could have gone with Rachel -- attacked that idiot.

But fate dictates we take on the BUZZFEED reporter.

He certainly has moved through a lot of outlets, hasn't he?

Of course, we encountered him all those years ago . . . when he was e-mailing us.

We didn't go in search of him.

And I'll note that I know how he spins (and lies).

You need to read his 'report' with a careful eye.

He's pulling some Judith Millers.

More importantly, who gives a f**k?

I can remember in the last years when this same group was outraged and threatening US officials -- including Barack.

Didn't get much press play in the US, did it?

Let's also stop pretending that the Iraqi forces are God.

They're not.

They've carried out abuses nonstop repeatedly over the years.

They're also not seen as representing the people of Iraq.

How telling that the Rachel Maddow crowd wants to support a military and not a people.

Lastly, Donald could probably take the oil -- I doubt he will -- and he could actually turn some of the profit over to the Iraqi people. The people would love that. Their own government, since Saddam was toppled, has refused to provide for them.

The corruption in the Iraqi state is another thing the Rachel Maddow crowd has long ignored.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated: