Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Tweet of the week

  15 hours ago
I'm glad I already hated before someone sent me this tweet.
Replying to @JoyAnnReid
Bernie and his followers are like that college friend who stays at your place for weeks, pays $0, eats your food & trashes your aesthetic.
4 replies7 retweets16 likes
 
 


I'm so sick of Joy Reid and so glad that Margaret Kimberley Tweeted that.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Tuesday, June 13, 2017.  The Mosul Slog continues, deportations of Iraqis begin in the US, and much more.



The never-ending Mosul Slog continues.  Day 237.


And the 'accomplishments' just keep rolling in.  As the use of White Phosphorus begins to get coverage, other issues emerge.  James Cogan (WSWS) reminds, "Prior to the allegations of war crimes relating to the use of white phosphorus, evidence had already emerged in Mosul of the torture and extrajudicial murder of alleged ISIS fighters by US-backed forces."


And this morning?






UNHCR issued the following:


Food poisoning incident at Hasansham U2 displacement camp.
Around 800 individuals have been affected by a serious outbreak of food poisoning at Hasansham U2 camp, which houses 6,235 individuals who have been displaced from Mosul and other conflict areas; around 200 people have been taken to hospital. At least one person (a child) has died.
The police authorities are currently carrying out an investigation into the incident.
UNHCR is extremely concerned by events at the camp, which has resulted in at least one casualty, with hundreds of other people falling ill, and more than 200 hospitalised.
Staff have been working closely overnight to coordinate the response with other agencies and the relevant authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Baghdad to ensure that those who have fallen ill were able to receive swift medical treatment and that the seriously sick were provided transport to nearby hospitals.
Extra clean water is now being provided at the camp and additional health agencies have been brought in to help in the response.
We are waiting for the police investigations to understand clearly the chain of events and to draw lessons from this tragic incident which will allow agencies to reinforce public health protocols to prevent such situations in the future.
Staff who were at the camp on Wednesday saw many residents being treated by health staff.
It is understood that families became sick, complaining of stomach ache and vomiting, after eating an iftar meal to break the daily Ramadan fast.
One woman receiving treatment in the camp with her daughter and neighbour, told UNHCR staff : "We felt stomach pains as soon as we ate. We felt we couldnt breathe and then saw that our neighbours were all suffering at the same time".
Another elderly man, who was waiting to return to his tent after being treated said: "We're grateful for the assistance you have provided. You have been very good with us".
PHOTOS: UNHCR/ Amira Abd El Khalak
















Zamira Rahim (CNN) reports, "People began vomiting and complaining of stomach pains shortly after Iftar, the evening meal that Muslims eat to break their fasts during Ramadan."  ALJAZEERA adds, "The food was provided by a non-governmental organisation. Authorities have launched a formal investigation into the incident, officials said. The Kurdish news agency Rudaw, citing Erbil's mayor, said the owner of the restaurant that made the food had been arrested."  AP quotes Ministry of Health spokesperson Seif al-Badr stating, "There are 752 cases of food poisoning and two death, a woman and a child."






  2.   16 hours ago
The tragedy continues Hundreds of people poisoned in IDP camps around , no official statement on what is caused this.
13 replies99 retweets60 likes
 
 





  14 minutes ago
Deadly outbreak of food poisoning strikes Iraqi refugee camp
2 retweets3 likes
 
 





Day 237 of The Mosul Slog.


Still it continues.

It's produced a record number of refugees.

It's produced War Crimes.

And still it continues.


Igor Kossov (USA TODAY) reports:


 The Iraqi military had planned on a big celebration Saturday, the third anniversary of the Islamic State's capture of Mosul, by completing the liberation of Iraq's second-largest city and the militants' last major stronghold in the country. But it didn't happen.
Instead, the military is still struggling to eject a militant group that has shown renewed determination and ferocity than expected despite being heavily outnumbered.




Remember when The Mosul Slog was only supposed to last a couple of weeks?



Meanwhile, in the United States . . .





  1.   12 hours ago
Replying to 
A daughter of 38-year-old Iraqi immigrant arrested Sunday recalled what happened when ICE agents showed up at her Sterling Hts, MI, home:
5 replies183 retweets224 likes
 
 
  15 hours ago
ICE has arrested and is planning to deport dozens of Iraqi Christians
36 replies420 retweets294 likes
 
 




Eric London and Niles Niemuth (WSWS) report:
 
In a series of raids Sunday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested as many as 100 Iraqi immigrants in the Detroit metro area, including Muslims and many Chaldean Catholics, some of whom were reportedly captured while leaving church services.

Family members of the arrestees told the World Socialist Web Site that the detainees were sent to a for-profit prison four hours away near Youngstown, Ohio, from where they face immediate risk of deportation to Iraq.
[. . .]
Relatives say that deportation will be a “death sentence” due to the ongoing war and sectarian strife that has enveloped Iraq since the US invasion of 2003. While ICE claims they are only deporting dangerous criminals, relatives say some of the arrestees were convicted for crimes as minor as marijuana possession and that many of the convictions are decades old.
The decision by the Trump administration to deport refugees to Iraq explodes the claims that the US wars in Iraq and Syria are “humanitarian” interventions aimed at protecting the population. In violation of international law, the US government is sending the arrestees into an active warzone in a region that it continues to bomb. Iraq has been laid to waste by 25 years of permanent US-led war. The death toll is in the millions.





View all

Link to headline article
Protesters block US deportation buses carrying Iraqi Christians (VIDEOS) — RT AmericaAs many as 80 Iraqi Christians and other immigrants were rounded up in a mass deportation in Detroit on Sunday, triggering a large protest that attempted to stop…
Profile image of authorRT
Jun 12, 2017










The following community sites updated:


  • Mikey Likes It!
    That scrubbing of Ani DiFranco -- WIKIPEDIA rewrites history
    12 hours ago
  • Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
    ani difranco's racism will not be erased (f you, wikipedia)
    12 hours ago
  • Thomas Friedman is a Great Man
    Some self-evident truths
    13 hours ago
  • Trina's Kitchen
    Sorry, Bernie Sanders, you lost me
    13 hours ago
  • Like Maria Said Paz
    Still with the Russia hysteria?
    13 hours ago

  • Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
    WIKIPEDIA embraces racism
    13 hours ago 















    • Posted by at

    Monday, June 12, 2017

    Some self-evident truths

    Exactly.

      Retweeted
      Jun 11
    Replying to  
    You must admit during Barry's presidency most black folks bought into his brand of empire. He lulled us to sleep.
    2 replies7 retweets7 likes
     
     



    Barack's out of the White House.

    8 years he was in.

    He didn't do a damn thing for Black people.

    I lost patience with idiots in my own family who would excuse him and insist how lucky we were just because of skin color.

    Uh-uh.

    Not playing that game.

    A dark skinned oppressor isn't good just because he's got dark skin.

    Speaking of fake asses, Lie Face gets called out by Bruce Dixon.

      Jun 2
    Melissa Harris-Perry is Blowing Smoke Again says Bruce Dixon at Black Agenda Report
    1 reply5 retweets4 likes
     
     




    Melissa Lie Face Lacewell Harris Parry.



    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
    Monday, June 12, 2017.  The Mosul Slog continues, Donald Trump still has no new approach for Iraq, and much more.



    We're starting with news from last week


    Poverty and the poor were not addressed in last year's presidential campaign.

    We can't expect the media that ignored the topic or the duopoly candidates who refused to talk about the issue to bring it up now.


    So let's do our part to break the silence by again noting Senator Patrick Leahy's opening remarks at last week's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the proposed HUD budget:



    Senator Patrick Leahy: I am very concerned about President Trump’s budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This budget would leave low-income, elderly and disabled Americans out in the cold.  It would deny shelter to victims of domestic and sexual violence.  It would bring to a screeching halt programs that spur economic development and help ensure that safe, sustainable and affordable housing is available in our communities.
    Bluntly, Secretary Carson, this budget is a travesty.  It slashes $7.3 billion from the work of your Department.  It decimates Section 8 rental assistance grants that help keep very-low-income families, as well as elderly and disabled Americans, in decent, safe housing.  It eliminates the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the HOME programs, which help drive economic development in more than 1,200 American cities, including in Vermont.  Eliminating these programs doesn’t just eliminate a Federal investment; these projects leverage other public and private sources to make them a reality.  For every dollar we invest in CDBG projects $3.65 is leveraged in other public and private resources.  And, while I recognize that this does not fall under the jurisdiction of your Department, the administration’s attack on housing programs is only amplified with the elimination of NeighborWorks, which in one year alone provided affordable housing for more than 360,000 families, created and maintained more than 53,000 jobs, and leveraged its appropriation at a ratio of 91 to 1.  Let me repeat that leverage ratio:  91 to 1.  Under this budget, all of those dollars disappear.  Secretary Carson, where are the people who rely on these programs supposed to go?
    The President’s budget fails to include tenant-based rental assistance for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.  In 2013, Senator Crapo and I worked together to strengthen, expand and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.  Too often, victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking remain in dangerous living situations simply because they have nowhere to go.  That in and of itself is devastating, but all too frequently families have to make the tragic decision between becoming homeless with their children, or staying in a house where either they and/or their children may be subject to physical abuse.  Your Department should be working hand-in-hand with the Justice Department, which administers the successful transitional housing assistance grant program, to find effective ways to support these survivors and ensure they have access to safe and affordable housing.  Secretary Carson, what will you tell these victims since you fail to support these programs in this request?
    Poverty is “no state of mind.”  Housing is not a political issue; it is a moral one. In Vermont, we know that housing people first is key to helping them step out of poverty.  With the help of Federal investments like Homelessness Assistance Grants, states like Vermont have reduced chronic homelessness by 45 percent, but this is only possible with help from your Department.  Communities across the country know that, instead, your budget will close emergency shelters and put people back on the streets.  Secretary Carson, how will this budget help the Department meet its mission?
    Now is the time to invest in our Nation’s affordable housing infrastructure – not to decimate it.  This budget will eliminate the investments and hands-on efforts that help families succeed.   This isn’t a “foundation for greatness.”  This budget is a travesty.


    Poverty's become the forbidden word in the US media (unless they're speaking of conditions in another country).


    Meanwhile, Day 236 of The Mosul Slog.


    2.   Jun 11
    Joint Operations officially announce that Army 9th Division have stormed Bab sinjar district north Old city.
    8 replies81 retweets121 likes
     
     







      18 hours ago
    map update. Green= completely liberated. Orange= frontline clashes. White= control.
    4 replies61 retweets95 likes
     
     




    Yes, the slog continues.

    Maybe today it will be concluded?  Maybe tomorrow?  Who knows.

    But it's been 236 days so far -- an operation that was supposed to take mere weeks has taken 236 days.


    And what comes next?

    Apparently more of the same.



      1 hour ago
    (643)Iraqi men and children have been missed after kidnapping by Hashd Militia one year ago;we ask the PM :where are they?
    8 retweets5 likes
     
     



    643 'liberated' are missing.


    It's exactly this sort of crime that gave fuel to the rise of ISIS in Iraq to begin with.

    Nabih Bulos (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports:

     The corpses had been tossed on both sides of a virtually deserted side road leaving the village of Hamam Alil, 15 miles south of Mosul. Shriveled and discolored by the summer sun, they barely registered a glance from drivers rumbling past.
    But all seven corpses had three things in common: Their hands had been tied behind their backs; they had been blindfolded; and, though they were decomposed, one could still make out the rictus of pain imprinted on their faces.
    The gruesome remains were among at least 26 blindfolded and handcuffed bodies found in government-held areas in and around Mosul, Human Rights Watch said in a report last week, in what it concluded were extrajudicial killings probably carried out by government forces since the start of the operation to retake the city from Islamic State in October. 


    These are the problems that created the platform for ISIS to rise in Iraq.

    These problems have not been addressed to this day.


    In other news, Liam Quinn (DAILY MAIL) reports:
    Donald Trump is yet to meet or speak with his top commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan almost nearly five months in office.
    Military.com, a veteran membership organization, detailed Trump's lack of contact with arguably the two most important US officials in the region. 
    The president does not communicate directly with the commanders - Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend in Iraq and General John W. Nicholson Jr. in Afghanistan - because they are 'three or four echelons below' him, a White House official told the website.
    'The president does respect the chain of command and he gets the vast majority of his information from the top echelons of his national security teams,' the official said.

     

    Oh, goody, a month later the press shows up.  From May 2nd's "Editorial: The conversation that didn't take place..." at THIRD:

     Control will now be placed in the hands of those who are more familiar with the military since they are a part of it.

    But isn't this delegation also thwarting civilian control?

    Isn't that the whole point in the president of the United States being commander in chief and not some general: Civilian control.

    There are pluses and minuses to the issue -- both in terms of a President Donald Trump (who seems to alarm many) and in terms of the power structure itself.

    But, strangely, it was one of last week's least noted and explored issues.

    On PBS' gabfest WASHINGTON WEEK, it didn't even get a mention.

    Worse, CBS' FACE THE NATION had a sit down with Trump yet failed to ask about the above.

    Failed to ask about Iraq at all,

    (Saturday night would bring news of another US military fatality in Iraq.  In fairness, John Dickerson interviewed Trump on Saturday before that news broke.)


    Setting aside that Trump has done this, if any other person in the White House had turned over this power to the military, wouldn't we see it as shirking responsibility?


    Thanks for catching up (finally), DAILY MAIL, and aren't we lucky that MILITARY.COM raised the issue so DAILY MAIL could pretend this was current.

    Let's steer the press to the next place it will be in a month or so.

    Douglas A. Silliman:
      Douglas A. Silliman is the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq. He arrived in Baghdad on September 1, 2016.
    He served as Ambassador to Kuwait from 2014 until July 2016. In 2013-2014, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State in Washington, D.C., working on Iraq issues and the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq from 2012 to 2013 and Minister Counselor for Political Affairs in Baghdad from 2011 to 2012. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Ankara, Turkey from 2008 to 2011. He joined the Department of State in 1984 and is a career member of Senior Foreign Service.
    Ambassador Silliman earlier served as Director and Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Southern European Affairs, as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, and as the Regional Officer for the Middle East in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Ambassador Silliman worked as political officer in Islamabad, Pakistan, in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, as Lebanon Desk officer, and as Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He began his career as a visa officer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and a political officer in Tunis, Tunisia.
    Ambassador Silliman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science summa cum laude from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a Master of Arts in International Relations from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
    He has received numerous awards from the Department of State, including the Secretary’s Award for Public Outreach in 2007 and senior performance awards. The American Foreign Service Association gave Ambassador Silliman its Sinclaire Language Award in 1993 and the W. Averill Harriman Award for outstanding junior officer in 1988. He speaks Arabic and French. 


    Let's review: Chris Hill, James Jeffrey, Robert Beecroft, Stuart E. Jones and Douglas Silliman.

    Those are Barack's confirmed US Ambassadors to Iraq.  Five in eight years -- part of the reason for the instability in Iraq.

    Obama also nominated Brett McGurk but Brett's nomination sunk.

    Trump was sworn in back in January.

    It's now June.

    When does he plan to name a nominee for US Ambassador to Iraq?

    Or is he farming out that duty as well?

    The Mosul operation is going to end at some point.

    And then there won't be anymore excuses for not doing anything about the root of Iraq's problems.

    Where's the diplomacy addressing that issue?

    There's not even a new team in place.

    Is there a strategy?

    As it is, Donald's using Barack's last ambassador as well as special envoy Brett McGurk.

    For someone who wasn't happy with Barack's approach to Iraq, Donald has yet to propose any alternative.




    New content at THIRD:










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