Earlier this week, I wrote "
Donna Summer" and one person was very angry with me. He wrote to say I should have mentioned the alleged remarks Donna made regarding people with AIDS.
Why?
Why should I mention them? I wasn't writing about Donna the person. I don't think I detailed her marriage(s) or her children.
I was writing about her music.
I believe Donna did say that AIDS was God's vengeance or revenge of gay people.
I believe she said it.
It was a stupid and hateful thing to say. And she paid for it. She never had another top forty hit after 1984 when that was first reported. Radio stopped playing her.
She released album after album that didn't sell.
In 1989, she suddenly showed up insisting it was a lie, she never said it.
Bulls**t.
She said it.
The Blow Monkeys called her out in their remarks as well as in a song.
She said it.
And she meant it.
If she'd said something in real time, it would be one thing. I'd say, "Well, she loved Jesus and for some people that was a problem so they made this up about her." Because to go from moaning through "Love To Love You Baby" to born again was a problem for some of her fans. (I didn't and don't have a problem with that.)
But she waited five years to say anything and her excuse was that no one told her about it.
Damn lie. ROLLING STONE wrote about it repeatedly -- including in an article about the Blow Monkeys in 1985. And as 1984's CATS WITHOUT CLAWS started bombing after some initial promise, no one at GEFFEN said a word to her? As ALL SYSTEMS GO bombed like nothing she had ever released before, no one said, "Hey, Donna, you might want to apologize for your whole God hates gays remarks."? GEFFEN drops her after that album and she's shopping for a new label and finally lands on the worst (ATLANTIC) for a two album deal and no one at CBS or WARNER BROS or any of the other labels that passed on her said, as they passed on her, "Donna, you lost your gay fans with the insults you made"?
Bulls**t.
As she ended up on ATLANTIC and realized her career was over because of what she said, she finally tried to address it by pretending she didn't say it.
She said it.
She was wrong to say it. She should have apologized. She should have said, "I said a very stupid thing. I apologize for it and for the hurt that it has caused. It was stupid and I'm sorry."
Instead, she thought she could pretend she'd never said it and that only made it worse.
Donna was a great singer. She said a stupid and hurtful thing and should have apologized for it. She didn't. I still enjoy her music but I'm talking about her music, not her life. I'm not asking to be friends wit her.
"
Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, July 5, 2019. Justice in Iraq? About as likely as justice for Iraq.
What's she talking about?
Late Wednesday,
Human Rights Watch issued an alert which opened:
Nineveh’s extremely overcrowded detention facilities are holding thousands of prisoners in Iraq,
most on terrorism charges, for extended periods in conditions so
degrading that they amount to ill-treatment. The authorities should
ensure that prisoners are not held in inhuman conditions and that there
is a clear legal basis for detentions, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Iraqi government urgently needs to rebuild and rehabilitate its detention facilities,” said Lama Fakih,
acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iraq has a duty to
ensure that detainees are housed decently, in line with international
standards.”
Tal Kayf, Faisaliya, and Tasfirat
(in the Faisaliya compound), the three pretrial detention facilities in
the northern Iraq governorate, have a combined maximum capacity of 2,500
people, according to a senior Iraqi penitentiary expert who requested
anonymity. As of late June 2019, they were holding about 4,500 prisoners
and detainees. Of that number, 1,300 had been tried and convicted and
should have been transferred to Baghdad prisons. The authorities had yet
to take the steps needed to transfer them, the expert said, even six
months after some were convicted.
The expert shared photos taken in
May of female terrorism suspects with their children in one cell in Tal
Kayf prison, and juvenile terrorism suspects in another. Two other
people who had visited the prison corroborated the conditions of extreme
overcrowding seen in the photos and their location. The expert said the
cells at Tal Kayf prison holding detainees on other charges are less
crowded because of lower numbers.
The expert said the detainees have
no space to lie down in their cells or even sit comfortably. Prison
authorities have not provided mattresses because there is no room for
them in the cells, he said. “These prisons are meant to be a place for
rehabilitation but if authorities house detainees in these kinds of
conditions, I can only imagine what will happen to them after they are
released,” he said. Lawyers do not have access to the prison to visit
their clients – among other reasons, because there is no space for
meetings.
The evidence shared with Human
Rights Watch strongly suggests that conditions at the Nineveh pretrial
detention facilities are unfit to hold detainees for extended periods of
time and do not meet basic international standards. Holding detainees
in such conditions amount to ill-treatment.
International norms regarding prison conditions, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
(the “Mandela Rules”) require that “[a]ll accommodation provided for
the use of prisoners and in particular all sleeping accommodation shall
meet all requirements of health, due regard being paid to climatic
conditions and particularly to cubic content of air, minimum floor
space, lighting, heating and ventilation.” The Mandela Rules state that
“sanitary installations shall be adequate to enable every prisoner to
comply with the needs of nature when necessary and in a clean and decent
manner” and that “[a]dequate bathing and shower installations shall be
provided.”
The Interior and Justice Ministries
should, as an urgent priority, improve conditions and expedite the
investigative process, guaranteeing everyone in pretrial detention a
speedy and fair trial or release. Authorities should transfer all
detainees from these facilities to official prisons built to accommodate
detainees and equipped to meet basic international standards.
Of course, working with the Ministry of the Interior can be problematic
since there's no one in charge of the ministry. September was really
the last time there was a Minister of the Interior. Though the current
prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi was supposed to nominate someone back in
October, all these months later, he still hasn't. All these months
later -- nine months, for those keeping track -- few are bothering to
note this reality so I'll assume very few are keeping track.
Tamara Qiblawi and Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) report:
An Iraqi rights group has corroborated
the findings. "Unfortunately it is true," Ali Akram al-Bayati, a member
of the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq told CNN.
"(It is) because of the large number of detainees and imprisoned
persons, poor Iraqi infrastructure ... corruption at the level of
administration or staff in such places."
The
unnamed Iraqi penitentiary expert cited by HRW said Niniveh's three
pretrial detention facilities -- Tal Kayf, Faisaliya, and Tasfirat --
had a combined maximum capacity of 2,500 people.
But
one senior security official, who declined to be named because he is
not authorized to give statements to the media, told CNN Thursday that
two of these facilities alone currently housed at least 5,400 people.
ALJAZEERA adds:
Nearly one-third of detainees had already been convicted and
should have been transferred from the three northern prisons to the
capital, Baghdad. Some were supposed to have moved as long as six months
ago.
Legal advocates have no access to their clients partly because the
prisons have no space for meetings, according to a senior Iraqi
penitentiary expert who visited the prisons and provided HRW with the
photographs.
Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIS or ISIL)
in late 2017, and has continued to carry out arrests of suspected
fighters, including in Nineveh province and its capital, Mosul - once
ISIL's main Iraqi bastion.
The Iraqi government does not provide figures on detention centres or
prisoners, but some studies have estimated 20,000 are being held for
alleged ISIL links.
Staying on the topic of legal issues . . .
Publisher Julian Assange remains persecuted. As Sarah notes, the ones
who started the Iraq War do not. They roam freely when they should be
behind bars. But Julian exposed the truth so the likes of Hillary
Clinton have long been demanding his arrest and worse.
On the topic of Julian,
Jean Shaoul (WSWS) reports:
The Frontline Club, bringing together journalists and photographers
with an interest in war reporting and international relations, organised
a meeting in London Tuesday night, Julian Assange: The Debate.
The Frontline Club has a long connection with Assange. In December
2010, one of the club’s founders Vaughan Smith stood surety for Assange
to the tune of £20,000 along with eight others, hosting him for more
than a year in his home after a two-month stay at the Club. Since then,
Smith has faced a barrage of criticism for speaking in Assange’s
defence.
While the ticketed event for around 100 was publicised as a debate,
it took the form of a series of questions by the chair, veteran
journalist Robin Lustig, to former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, Times
columnist and broadcaster David Aaronovitch, Index on Censorship chief
executive Jodie Ginsberg, Assange’s barrister Jennifer Robinson, as well
as Smith.
Arguably the most despised among the advertised speakers, Guardian
columnist Suzanne Moore, pulled out at the last minute. Moore famously
tweeted of Assange, “He really is the most massive turd.” It was left to
Aaronovitch, like Moore a former member of the Communist Party who has
lurched ever further to the right, to take up the role as the event’s
most vitriolic and unprincipled critic of Assange.
In 2012, Aaronovitch likened Assange’s “celebrity backers” to Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
“swinging down from a flying buttress to scoop up the doomed and
swooning Esmeralda and swinging back, shouting ‘Sanctuary! Sanctuary!’”
He had declared that Assange “should be arrested the second he steps
outside the Ecuadorean embassy,” and headlined another article with the
claim, “It’s Sweden that Assange fears, not America.” In November 2017,
he proclaimed that “Assange isn’t a dreamer, he’s a destroyer,” in “the
same destructive club as Putin and Trump.”
Lustig opened the meeting by asking whether Assange “deserved”
solidarity and support. He declared his own passive and deliberately
evasive position, “I hope the award-winning journalist is not be
extradited, but that if he is, he would be acquitted.” This was a
position the despicable Mr. Aaranovich was happy to sign off on, given
the fact that Assange faces a kangaroo court in the UK whose verdict in
favour of extradition is a foregone conclusion.
Rusbridger followed. His role in betraying and defaming Assange during his period as Guardian
editor is a matter of public record. Yet he used his appearance to
airbrush history, emphasising he was opposed to Assange’s extradition to
the US. He cited 10 articles he had written in Assange’s defence and
spoke of journalists’ obligation to defend Assange’s release of
documents exposing US war crimes. He recalled the Guardian’s early collaboration with Assange —
stressing his newspaper’s careful editing of the Wikileaks documents as
“responsible” journalism. He had promised to stand by Assange if he
faced prosecution for his work with the Guardian, a pledge he relayed to the audience without any evident shame.
When questioned about the Guardian’s failure to retract its
long-discredited report that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
manager Paul Manafort met with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in
2016—a claim flatly denied both Assange and Manafort—Rusbridger washed
his hands of the issue, replying the article was written after his
departure from the Guardian in 2015. He said nothing of the
anti-Assange campaign begun under his own editorship and was not pressed
seriously on this by Lustig.
Aaronovitch was far more explicitly hostile to Assange. When he
referred to the Swedish allegations of sexual misconduct as “charges,”
the pro-Assange audience shouted, “allegations not charges!” But he
dismissed their protests, claiming, “I have to say that for most people,
such distinctions are pretty small” and repeatedly referred to
“charges” throughout the remainder of his venomous contribution.
While he did not name Assange, he insinuated that there are people in
the media who are working with Russia—not as spies but as “agents” —who
are manipulating the news and seeking to sway elections.
Vaughan Smith spoke with considerable feeling for the persecuted
journalist, who he said had been “smeared on an industrial scale” to
divert attention from the crimes he had exposed. Citing UN rapporteur
Nils Melzer, he said that there was a well-funded attempt to demonise
Assange, whom journalists had a responsibility to defend.
Following the Swedish allegations of sexual misconduct, Smith said
there was a marked shift in the way Assange was treated in the press. He
was smeared as a rapist. Facts were misrepresented. Crucially, the
allegations were used not to prosecute Assange, but to defame and
demonise him. He pointed out the ugly way the media had gloated over his
illegal and brutal removal from the Ecuadorian embassy. He added that
Assange had been sent to Belmarsh jail, dubbed Britain’s Guantanamo, in a
bid to portray him as a danger to society.
In other legal news,
Julie Watson and John Antczak (AP) provide an update on Edward Gallagher:
A decorated Navy SEAL acquitted of murder in the killing of a wounded
Islamic State captive in Iraq but convicted over posing with the corpse
was given a demotion by a military jury Wednesday after the Bronze Star
recipient acknowledged making ethical and moral mistakes.
Special
Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, 40, was also handed the maximum
penalty for the offense of four months in confinement, though he will
serve no jail time because it is less than the time he spent in custody
before the trial.
Kevin Reed (WSWS) offers:
Gallagher’s record of murderous behavior goes back further than 2017.
He was investigated for shooting a young girl in Afghanistan in 2010
but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. During his eighth deployment
at the battle for Mosul, Gallagher was reported numerous times by
fellow Navy SEALs for actions that were not in keeping with the “rules
of war.”
Meanwhile, the prosecution’s case was thrown into a
tailspin on June 20 when the medic, Special Operator First Class Corey
Scott, who had been granted immunity, testified that Gallagher’s stab
wounds did not kill the ISIS captive. Instead, Scott said that he placed
his finger over the captive’s breathing tube until he died as an act of
mercy.
The prosecution also suffered from the last-minute removal
of its lead military lawyer one week before the trial was to begin.
Navy Judge Captain Aaron Rugh removed prosecutor Cmdr. Christopher
Czaplak for secretly attempting to track the communications of the
defense team and a journalist covering the trial. The judge also ordered
Gallagher released from custody while awaiting trial.
The
military jury of five Marines and two sailors, including one SEAL,
deliberated for eight hours over two days before they returned their
decisions. The one conviction on the least serious of the charges
carries a sentence of four months for which Gallagher will get credit
for time already served. He will be released on Tuesday.
The court
martial lasted for two weeks and the lead up to it became the occasion
for right-wing US political figures to advocate for Gallagher and
support his family’s campaign to “Free Eddie.” Republican Representative
Dan Crenshaw of Texas, a former Navy SEAL who deployed to Afghanistan
in 2012, sent a letter to the Secretary of the Navy demanding that
Gallagher’s detention circumstances be improved. On March 30, President
Donald Trump ordered Gallagher transferred to “less restrictive
confinement” following complaints from his supporters.
If Reed is correct about past actions, why is the rage at Edward
Gallagher and not at a system and the higher ups who would have not only
covered up the alleged crimes but also sent someone like that into
further battles?
I'm all for accountability. But if Reed is correct, the guilt goes much
further than Edward Gallagher. If Reed is correct, Gallagher was just a
pawn and he was deployed with the knowledge on the part of the brass
that he would break rules and laws and commit War Crimes. At best,
Edward would be the low hanging fruit. Is there a reason that so many
are scared to aim higher when calling people out?
It's like the attacks on Judith Miller. As we've repeatedly noted, she
did not write articles in the paper, edit the paper, take it to the
printers, put content online and deliver print copies each morning.
It's funny how history has made one person, a reporter, responsible for
all the lies THE NEW YORK TIMES printed -- both in her articles and
outside of her articles -- and allowed so many others -- including those
in actual power over what made it into the paper (yes, Jill, we're
talking about you again) have largely been allowed to skate free.
Accountability is always needed. Scapegoating one person for the crimes of many? Not so much.
Meanwhile
Nick Meyer (ARAB AMERICAN NEWS) reports:
Iraq is in a fragile state and its great rivers including the iconic
Euphrates and Tigris are dying, scientists say, as the country works to
rebuild itself after thirty years of near constant war.
Iraq is now in the process of running out of water, which is sourced
from the two mighty, historical rivers. Both run the length of the
country supplying drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectricity to a
booming population.
But recently, the Euphrates has been reduced down to a quarter of its
normal flow. In 2018, the Tigris sunk so low that people in Baghdad
could wade across it.
The two rivers combine in a central point called the Shatt Al-Arab,
but this area became so poisonous last summer that 100,000 people were
hospitalized, sparking riots in the city of Basra, which was once
nicknamed the “Venice of the Middle East.”
And that's going to be it for today.
As Rebecca noted Monday, I've got other things to focus on today.
The following sites updated:
