In a column in the Guardian July 5, (“Protest all you like, Susan Sarandon. In effect you work for Trump”), commentator Marina Hyde asserted that American actress Susan Sarandon was an “asset” of Donald Trump. Sarandon’s great crime? Failing to endorse Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and instead calling for a vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party.
The event that immediately occasioned Hyde’s indignation was Sarandon’s arrest June 28 at a protest in Washington against Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies and the brutal breaking up of immigrant families.
According to Hyde, Sarandon had no right to demonstrate against Trump and his policies. In her “droll,” mocking way, the Guardianjournalist noted, “I’m puzzled as to what Susan was doing there in the first place. Didn’t she, in effect, vote for Trump, with her showy endorsement of third party Green candidate Jill Stein? Yes. Yes she did.”
There is no politically coherent or compelling logic to any of the arguments in Hyde’s column, even the most apparently obvious of them. In fact, if Sarandon had actually voted for Trump, she would still have every right to denounce his policies. There are countless Trump voters who are currently shocked and outraged by his administration’s actions.
It is Hyde and the Guardian who are in effect aiding and encouraging Trump’s vicious crackdown on immigration by jeering at and maligning those protesting against it.
In any event, because she opposed both Trump and Clinton, Sarandon has brought down upon her head the wrath of Hyde and the entire upper middle class, “progressive” Democratic Party constituency (including, venomously, the Nation’s Katha Pollitt).
And who the heck is Marina? Oh, she's the daughter of Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams? She's 44 and a failure. The daughter of a man with a "Sir" in front of her name and all she has is a column in what, for England, is little more than a free give away paper?
Maybe that's why she's so mad at Susan? Susan has had a life of accomplishment but Mariana has accomplished nothing.
Katha Pollitt has nothing really either. She's an overweight woman whose man left her for a younger woman and then she went on to stalk her ex. She likes to pretend she's a poet but even if you consider her a free form poet or a prose poet, she isn't a poet.
Katha's a crabby, overweight useless person who has accomplished nothing other than being yet another Jew in 'independent' media who can't call out the Israeli government for its attacks on Palestinians.
In fact, she's such an apologist for the apartheid regime, she wrote a column in 2017 insisting the rights of the Palestinians, the abuse they suffer is not a feminist issue (see "Actually, Not Everything Is a Feminist Issue").
If you've forgotten, she also refused to cover Abeer -- the young girl who was raped by US soldiers while her parents and younger sister were murdered by US soldiers and then they murdered Abeer too. It was only after C.I. and Ava repeatedly slammed her in public -- noting Alexander Cockburn could write about it but THE NATION's 'feminist' couldn't -- she finally wrote a tiny paragraph.
She's useless and her whole life has been. Now it's time to show her the door. She's what, 69? A 69 year old apologist for Israel who can't cover actual feminist issues and whose writing is really bad? It's time to show her to the door.
Susan Sarandon has ethics. She has talent. No wonder crabby bitches like Katha and Marina hate her.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, July 9, 2018. Seems like it's taken forever but, look, slowly
the western press can't begin to point out that ISIS has not been
defeated. First, though . . .
Earlier today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Yesterday in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Makhmur, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIS tunnel.
On July 7, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.
On July 6, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Hawijah, a strike destroyed two ISIS fighting positions.
-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.
On July 5, coalition military forces conducted one strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Basheer. The strike destroyed five ISIS caves.
There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on July 4.
On July 3, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets near Habbaniyah. The strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS vehicle.
On July 2, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Tal Afar. The strike destroyed an ISIS vehicle.
Yes, the war in Iraq drags on.
Australia's NEWS.COM notes:
SHORTLY after the fall of the Syrian city of Raqqa in October 2017 — the centre of the Islamic State (IS) caliphate — US President Donald Trump announced that IS had been defeated and the war was won.
Nine months later it is far from clear that IS is finished and extreme paramilitary Islamist movements are increasingly active in several regions, he [Paul Rogers] writes for The Conversation.
IS had taken over much of northern Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, by mid-2014 leading President Barack Obama to order intensive air strikes to limit its spread and aid the Iraqis and others to push it on to the defensive. For close to four years an extraordinarily intensive air war was fought, principally by the US but aided by France, the UK and some other European and Middle Eastern powers.
According to the latest data from the Airwars monitoring group, over 1,424 days of air strikes, 107,814 bombs and missiles have been used against 29,741 targets in Iraq and Syria by the US-led forces. Pentagon sources speak of at least 60,000 IS paramilitaries killed but Airwars also reported 6,321 civilians killed.
We're back to where we were not all that long ago, explaining that we weren't denying credit to US President Donald Trump for defeating ISIS because, in fact, we didn't believe ISIS had been defeated.
While Paul Rogers is right to note that Donald Trump didn't defeat ISIS (and shouldn't be claiming he has), it's equally true that the western press shouldn't have been running with the nonsense that ISIS had been defeated.
It had not been. But, golly, when Hayder al-Abadi was campaigning on the 'defeat' to argue he should be prime minister for a second term, seems like the western press couldn't tell the truth, could they? They kept -- I'm sure by pure accident -- repeating the lie that ISIS had been defeated.
In other violence, PRESS TV notes:
Iraqi police have opened fire to break up crowds of demonstrators who had gathered near the southern oil hub of Basra to protest against a shortage of jobs, electricity, water and a number of other basic services, killing and wounding several demonstrators, local officials say.
The incident occurred at Talha district in the northern parts of Iraq's southern city of Basra on Sunday, when security forces guarding the district’s oilfields shot with live ammunition at a group of protesters who gathered on a highway, the Iraqi News website reported.
Moving on to another topic we've repeatedly cov -- Iraq's legal system is a dirty joke and we noted that fact most recently on June 29th. This week, AP is doing a series of reports on the topic. In one article, AP explains, "Over three days in late May, the presiding judge of the counterterrorism court in Baghdad heard an average of 12-13 cases a day and sentenced to death at least 10 defendants accused of being Islamic State group members." June 29th, we noted:
Iraq's legal system remains a joke. Trials take mere minutes. There are few who receive even adequate defense. Evidence is not required for a conviction. Women whose 'crime' consists of being married to a member of ISIS or someone suspected of being a member of ISIS can be imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Charges -- related to ISIS or otherwise -- are often based on personal grudges and not actual events. The whole system is a mess.
Doubt it?
Any allegation of having taken up arms for the militant group can bring the ultimate penalty, even while the evidence is thin and cursory. The heavy reliance on informants is particularly glaring, given the potential that some are motivated by personal grudges. Informants never appear in court; their claims are passed to the judges in dry, written reports from intelligence officials with no hint of their possible motivation.
Thousands of defendants are rushed through the courts, with trials as short as 10 or 15 minutes and a third of the cases ending in the death penalty. Witnesses are rarely called and no forensic evidence presented, raising the likelihood of innocent people going to the gallows.
The ones who should go to the gallows, never do. Take for example Mad Maddie Albright.
She's pimping a new book and a new look. She looks like she's about to die any moment. Of, if only.
Earlier today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Yesterday in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Makhmur, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIS tunnel.
On July 7, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.
On July 6, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Hawijah, a strike destroyed two ISIS fighting positions.
-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.
On July 5, coalition military forces conducted one strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Basheer. The strike destroyed five ISIS caves.
There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on July 4.
On July 3, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets near Habbaniyah. The strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS vehicle.
On July 2, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Tal Afar. The strike destroyed an ISIS vehicle.
Yes, the war in Iraq drags on.
Australia's NEWS.COM notes:
SHORTLY after the fall of the Syrian city of Raqqa in October 2017 — the centre of the Islamic State (IS) caliphate — US President Donald Trump announced that IS had been defeated and the war was won.
Nine months later it is far from clear that IS is finished and extreme paramilitary Islamist movements are increasingly active in several regions, he [Paul Rogers] writes for The Conversation.
IS had taken over much of northern Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, by mid-2014 leading President Barack Obama to order intensive air strikes to limit its spread and aid the Iraqis and others to push it on to the defensive. For close to four years an extraordinarily intensive air war was fought, principally by the US but aided by France, the UK and some other European and Middle Eastern powers.
According to the latest data from the Airwars monitoring group, over 1,424 days of air strikes, 107,814 bombs and missiles have been used against 29,741 targets in Iraq and Syria by the US-led forces. Pentagon sources speak of at least 60,000 IS paramilitaries killed but Airwars also reported 6,321 civilians killed.
We're back to where we were not all that long ago, explaining that we weren't denying credit to US President Donald Trump for defeating ISIS because, in fact, we didn't believe ISIS had been defeated.
While Paul Rogers is right to note that Donald Trump didn't defeat ISIS (and shouldn't be claiming he has), it's equally true that the western press shouldn't have been running with the nonsense that ISIS had been defeated.
It had not been. But, golly, when Hayder al-Abadi was campaigning on the 'defeat' to argue he should be prime minister for a second term, seems like the western press couldn't tell the truth, could they? They kept -- I'm sure by pure accident -- repeating the lie that ISIS had been defeated.
In other violence, PRESS TV notes:
Iraqi police have opened fire to break up crowds of demonstrators who had gathered near the southern oil hub of Basra to protest against a shortage of jobs, electricity, water and a number of other basic services, killing and wounding several demonstrators, local officials say.
The incident occurred at Talha district in the northern parts of Iraq's southern city of Basra on Sunday, when security forces guarding the district’s oilfields shot with live ammunition at a group of protesters who gathered on a highway, the Iraqi News website reported.
Moving on to another topic we've repeatedly cov -- Iraq's legal system is a dirty joke and we noted that fact most recently on June 29th. This week, AP is doing a series of reports on the topic. In one article, AP explains, "Over three days in late May, the presiding judge of the counterterrorism court in Baghdad heard an average of 12-13 cases a day and sentenced to death at least 10 defendants accused of being Islamic State group members." June 29th, we noted:
Iraq's legal system remains a joke. Trials take mere minutes. There are few who receive even adequate defense. Evidence is not required for a conviction. Women whose 'crime' consists of being married to a member of ISIS or someone suspected of being a member of ISIS can be imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Charges -- related to ISIS or otherwise -- are often based on personal grudges and not actual events. The whole system is a mess.
Doubt it?
Any allegation of having taken up arms for the militant group can bring the ultimate penalty, even while the evidence is thin and cursory. The heavy reliance on informants is particularly glaring, given the potential that some are motivated by personal grudges. Informants never appear in court; their claims are passed to the judges in dry, written reports from intelligence officials with no hint of their possible motivation.
Thousands of defendants are rushed through the courts, with trials as short as 10 or 15 minutes and a third of the cases ending in the death penalty. Witnesses are rarely called and no forensic evidence presented, raising the likelihood of innocent people going to the gallows.
The ones who should go to the gallows, never do. Take for example Mad Maddie Albright.
She's pimping a new book and a new look. She looks like she's about to die any moment. Of, if only.
Mad Maddie, mass murderer of millions of Iraqi children, thinks her past has vanished. No, Maddie, your criminal rap sheet remains.
And most on Twitter are aware of it.
Madeleine Albright: 'Iraq Is the Biggest Disaster in American History' bit.ly/1KVzTjr
Absolutely fantastic that the Rawnsley/Albright interview neither mentions, nor even touches upon, sanctions or Iraq. So nobody's going to be owning that one, are they Andy?
theguardian.com/books/2018/jul…
Ask the people of Iraq a/b what happened in the 90s to 500 000 Iraqi children due to US imposed sanctions.
Or ask Madeleine Albright a/b it since she thinks it was worth it because Saddam attacked Kuweit’s oil fields instead of gassing Kurds and Iranians as he was supposed to do.
Madeleine Albright said 500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth sanctions on Iraq
Missing chapter of the book - The deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it for Iraq's non existent WMD's
Madeleine Albright(All Bleak) a Globalist Sociopath and a willing cheerleader for Mass murder of civilians in Iraq!
Madeleine Albright: ‘The things that are happening are genuinely, seriously bad’ theguardian.com/books/2018/jul… Everthing I have learned in the last 10 years proves to me this woman is dilutions , this woman said killing half a million kids in Iraq was worth it because they have nukes.
That moment I see Madeleine Albright trending on
Madeleine Albright - 500,000 Dead Children Were "Worth It"
binged.it/2MYLm9a
Things that happened in Iraq because of decisions taken from on high by Madeleine Albright and her cronies were genuinely, seriously bad.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCY…
In her interview printed in The Observer today, there was not one mention of Iraq. Do you know why?
60 Minutes, 12 May 1996
Lesley Stahl on US sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died...more children than died in Hiroshima...
Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.
youtu.be/omnskeu-puE
She should know what Facism looks like:
A search for the word 'Iraq' yielded 0 results. I guess the price WAS worth it.
amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul…
From the crypt to the toilet, it's THE YOUNG TURDS' Emma Vigeland trying to reason and failing horribly.
The United States pulled much of Europe into two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) with NATO.
It blows my mind that he has either no memory of that or just doesn't care... or both.
How stupid is she? The US didn't pull England into Afghanistan and Iraq, they didn't pull Spain in. Both countries -- and other European countries -- made their own decision to go to war. France didn't join in the Iraq War. What happened there? The US didn't pull hard enough, Emma?
What an idiot. She gives a pass to War Hawks. That passes for 'informed analysis' on THE YOUNG TURDS. Emma needs to go back to playing Mommy on air, that's really all she's ever done for the show, as we've pointed out before.
