Saturday, June 10, 2017

All this and Adam West




Hey, if they lock Hillary up, maybe some governor in some state can use her as slave labor?

The way she did when she was First Lady of Arkansas.

I'm sorry, she's disgusting.

Big time.


I found a really interesting article at WSWS by Philip Guelpa.  This is from the opening:

A recent article published in the scientific journal PLOS One, “Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe” (Fuss, Spassov, Begun, and Bohme, 22 May 2017), presents the provocative hypothesis that the earliest human ancestor evolved not in Africa, as all previous evidence indicates, but rather in southeastern Europe.

The article describes two fossil specimens, a mandible from Greece, originally discovered in 1944, and a single tooth from Bulgaria found in 2009, which are both assigned to the genus Graecopithecus. The authors propose that these remains, dating to roughly 7.175 and 7.24 million years ago (mya), respectively, represent a very early hominin species (humans and their non-ape ancestors) that existed shortly after the evolutionary split in the common ancestor of both modern apes and humans. No fossils purported to be from this close to the ape/human divergence have previously been reported.
Genetic dating techniques, which compare the degree of difference between ape and human DNA and estimate the time it would have taken for that amount of difference to have developed, have placed the split between the ancestors of these two lineages at somewhere between 5 and 10 mya, recently refined to 7-8 million. This would place Graecopithecus in the right time frame.
The fossil record contains specimens which have been found across Africa and Eurasia dating to the Miocene Epoch (roughly 23 to 5.3 mya) that could represent the common ancestor of apes and humans. However, remains that have been interpreted as early hominin (i.e., the earliest human ancestors after the split), dating to around 5 or 6 million years ago, such as Ardipithicus, are so far known only from Africa. The more abundant later fossils belonging to the genus Australopithecus, that are clearly hominin, including the famous “Lucy” skeleton, ranging in age between about 4 and 2 mya, have also been found exclusively in Africa.

Furthermore, the earliest known members of our own genus, Homo, are also from Africa, though it appears that they spread rapidly across Eurasia (e.g. the fossil specimens from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia). Therefore, the overwhelming preponderance of existing data support the interpretation that hominins originated and spent much of their early evolutionary development in Africa. The new report seeks to challenge that understanding.


Adam West has passed away.

He was Batman.

The sixties TV show BATMAN went off after 3 years but lived forever in syndication.

My favorite character (superhero wise) was Batgirl and the actress who played her, Yvonne Craig, has also passed away.

After that, I loved Burt Ward as Robin.

Batman?

He was too right all the time.

I preferred his portrayal of Mayor West on FAMILY GUY and felt it allowed his humor to shine (BATMAN only allowed West a glimmer of humor).

Whether you loved Mayor West or Batman or both, West probably impacted your life too.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, June 9, 2017.   The Mosul Slog continues as Iraq is again slammed by violence.


Day 233 of The Mosul Slog and, we are yet again told, victory is just around the corner.

233 days to turn that corner?

Actually, it's longer than that.

Tomorrow is June 10th.

June 10, 2014, the Islamic State seized control of Mosul.

They've still not been driven out of the city -- the same can't be said for the unprotected civilians who've been turned into refugees.


For over two years, the Baghdad-based Iraq government did nothing to help Mosul.

Finally, in October of 2016, they began an operation that was to last weeks.

Months later, that operation still continues.


Yes, it is very embarrassing for the government that tomorrow will be the anniversary of the seizure of Mosul -- the 3rd anniversary -- and Mosul is still in the process of being 'liberated.'

233 days and counting.


And no attempt to protect the civilians.

: "Shooting children as they try to run to safety" in the battle for Mosul
 
 




They were told to remain in their homes throughout the bulk of the 'liberation.'

Then, when finally told to leave in the last weeks, no safe passage was provided.


At least 100,000 are said to remain in the city.


Let's check in on our decade's new Judith Miller: Rukmini Callimachi (yes, that does sound like a figure from the Brothers Grimm):



Replying to 
7. Analysts have long that the ppl running Amaq can't be just in Iraq/Syria bc of how quickly they claim attacks & bc they upload videos:
 
 





Rukmini fancies herself a terrorist expert.

Isn't that cute.

Judith Miller, of course, started with THE PROGRESSIVE.

You may remember that when the magazine was celebrating its anniversary (they said the 100th, but no, it wasn't), they failed to note Judith once in their look back on the past.

Judith Miller ended up a terrorism 'expert' herself.

Remember, that's how Oprah Winfrey presented Judith on her talk show when she brought Judith on to promote the upcoming Iraq War and then Oprah attacked the audience member who dared to point out that Judith was presenting non-facts as facts.


Glenn Greenwald loved him some Judith Miller back then -- part of the reason he supported the Iraq War.

Today?

He loves him some Rukmini.

Rukmini's been hired by THE NEW YORK TIMES mainly to prove that they learned nothing from the Judith Miller fiasco.

Which is how Rukmini was in Mosul (as an embed -- as they say, "embed roughly means 'legs spread'").

And we called out her nonsense.

But there was Glenn Glenn, in love again, reTweeting her because critical abilities are in short supply apparently.

While Rukmini filed her propaganda and Tweeted her nonsense about how wonderful things were, a real reporter did real journalism.


Ali Arkady did not file fluff.

His documentation of what is taking place in Mosul has been covered by RT and ABC NEWS.




"Negative coverage will get you kicked out of Mosul."

They had nothing to worry about with regards to Rukmini, did they?

From Brian Ross' ABC NEWS report:


Officers of an elite Iraqi special forces unit, praised by U.S. military commanders earlier this year for its role in fighting ISIS, directed the torture and execution of civilians in Mosul in at least six distinct incidents caught on tape.

“That's a murder,” retired Green Beret Lt. Col. Scott Mann told ABC News after reviewing the graphic footage. “There should be punishment for anyone doing it. It's reprehensible and it shouldn't be allowed on any modern battlefield."

The alarming footage was smuggled out of Iraq by a prize-winning Iraqi photojournalist, Ali Arkady, who spent months embedded in combat with the elite Iraqi troops leading the fight against ISIS late last year. Since turning over his cache of photos and videos to ABC News, he says he has received death threats from the soldiers he once considered friends and has now fled Iraq to seek asylum in Europe.

"This is happening all the time," Arkady said of the war crimes he documented, which he recounted in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Brian Ross broadcast Thursday on ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir and Nightline.




Am I wrong that Glenn hasn't been eager to promote this story?

I know he's got a lot of problems right now because THE INTERCEPT burned a source -- intentionally or not, it doesn't matter, they burned her.

Nothing is going to change that.

There should be an apology (not a blood letting) and they should announce how they will do their best not to burn another source in the future.

So, yes, he has problems, but so does Iraq and he needs to be Tweeting about that if he can't write about it.

He has found time to reTweet Rukmini.


It's a shame he can't use his Twitter feed to amplify real reporting on Iraq.

But that's a shame many share and part of the reason the Iraq War is on year 14 and counting (more if we backdate to the sanctions, et al).


The violence never ends.




First video of the aftermath of the suicide bomber that detonated inside bus station injuring 4 civilians.
 
 
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest after being surrounded by forces inside bus station injuring 4.
 
 



Four is bad -- one is bad -- but sadly the numbers have been climbing.





At least 22 killed, 31 wounded in a suicide attack targeting civilians in al -Musayab, . Suicide bomber in Karbala wounds at least 10.
 
 




Maher Chmaytelli and Gareth Jones (REUTERS) report, "A woman detonated her explosive belt in a market east of the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala on Friday, killing at least 30 and wounding 35, Iraqi security sources said."

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: