Monday, September 21, 2020

Howie

I'm voting for Howie. He believes in the issues I do. I need to stand with him and I'm going to.

I'm not telling you how to vote. Do what feels right to you.

But I will be voting for Howie.

Monday, September 21, 2020. The passing of a Supreme Court Justice should be the start of several different conversations.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden just can't stop lying. No, 200 million people around the world have not died fro m coronavirus. If he meant in the US, that's even worse. Yaron Steinbuch (NEW YORK POST) points out, ''As of early Monday, the US death toll from the coronavirus stands at 199,512. The total number of reported cases in the country is about 6.8 million, according to the latest figures."

Joe's dazed and confused -- over and over again. Friday, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away following her long battle with cancer. Joe bungled things so badly, he was being mocked as "sleepy Joe" by Australia's SKY NEWS.

While Joe meandered in his befuddled manner, it was left to Jane Fonda to lay down a marker on Friday calling for Senate Democrats to fight back against any effort to replace RBG before the election. Sunday, Joe spoke again and it was more lies. Daniel Dale (CNN) explains:

Biden argued that it would be inappropriate for him to release a list of prospective Supreme Court nominees, as Trump did during the 2016 campaign and did again this month.

Biden also claimed that the Trump campaign had not asked him to release such a list until after Ginsburg died.

"We can't keep rewriting history, scrambling norms, ignoring our cherished system of checks and balances. That includes this whole business of releasing a list of potential nominees that I would put forward. They're now saying, after they -- after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, they said, 'Biden should release his list.' It's no wonder the Trump campaign asked that I release the list only after she passed away. It's a game for them. It's a play to gin up emotions and anger," he said.

Facts First: This is just wrong. The Trump campaign and Trump himself had repeatedly said prior to Ginsburg's death that Biden should release a list of prospective Supreme Court nominees.

When Trump released his latest list on September 9, the Trump campaign's statement said in its title that "Biden must do the same." The campaign repeated the demand for a Biden list in a statement on September 17, the day before Ginsburg died.

Trump had previously issued the same demand himself. In an August 24 speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump said, "I'm demanding, actually, a list: let Biden put up a list of the judges he's going to appoint." And in a June 22 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump said, "You ought to ask a guy like a Biden or ask his campaign: give a list of judges, see where they stand on pro-life, see where they stand on it."

Dale also notes that Joe claimed the Court would have no session between now and election day. Wrong. The Court goes back into session on October 5th. What's October 5th? FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER -- you know, the title of the hit 1978 Broadway play that became a 1981 film starring Jill Clayburgh as the first female Supreme Court Justice. She was Golden Globe nominated for the role and the film's title is such because, every year, that's when the Court kicks off its term -- on the first Monday of October. Somehow, in all his years working in DC, Joe missed that fact?

On RBG, she should have retired many years ago. Her health was such that, no, she was not giving the job all that she could. (I say that as someone battling cancer myself.) And in the last four years, she did several things that cheapened her image and the Court's image. As a sitting Justice, it is not her job to offer her personal opinions in interviews about issues that will come before the Court. Nor was it her job to offer her take on a presidential candidate.

She was indulged and coddled by a cult that found this behavior charming. It was not charming. It was damaging to the Court and when some future conservative Justice does the same, you can be sure that many who cheered RGB on with this nonsense will finally grasp why some things are just not done. She set a precedent -- and not in a good way.

She has also left the nation in chaos and that should not be forgotten either. Time and again, the egos on these public servants is repulsive. We need mandatory retirement -- we need it for the Court and we need it for the Senate. (The two-year terms of House members allows the voters to have a quick response should they need to retire someone.) She knew she had cancer. She knew about this round of cancer when Barack Obama started his first term as president. She should have retired then or in his second term.

To have her granddaughter announce that RBG would want everyone to wait until after the election to select a new judge? Who the hell cares what she wanted? She didn't do what she was supposed to -- retire when she couldn't function at a high level.

See "Ruth Badger Ginsburg (Ava and C.I.)" for more on RBG's passing. And note, she wasn't hit by a truck, she died of natural causes after a lengthy illness. She should have retired years ago.

Joe shouldn't be running for the presidency. The editorial board of THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL notes Joe's latest flip-flop:

Joe Biden needs to win Pennsylvania, so he’s changed his position on fracking.

In late August, the Democratic presidential nominee emerged from his basement and traveled to the Keystone State. He sought to assure voters there that a Biden administration wouldn’t threaten the fracking industry. Fracking, which is a method of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock, is a vital part of the state’s economy. A study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that outlawing fracking would eliminate 600,000 jobs in Pennsylvania alone.

“I am not banning fracking,” Biden said. “Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking.”

That’s a John Kerry-level flip flop from the position he took repeatedly during the Democratic primary. Many Democratic voters want to eliminate oil and natural gas production under the guise of addressing global warming. Mr. Biden repeatedly told those voters that he agreed with them.

During a debate last year, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Mr. Biden if “there would be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?”

“We would make sure it’s eliminated,” Mr. Biden said.

He can't be trusted. Nor apparently can the prime minister of Iraq. A former member of the press himself, Mustafa al-Kadhimi has been getting easy press in the last days for two arrests on corruption -- but they're minor arrests and they are meaningless. If you're not grasping how meaningless, Deena Kamel (THE NATIONAL) reports:

State-owned Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) appointed Salem Chalabi as chairman and president as the lender proceeds with a three-year expansion plan to diversify its operations.

Mr Chalabi, a Yale University graduate, will replace Faisal Al Haimus with immediate effect following the directive of Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Trade Bank of Iraq said in a statement on Sunday.

"I look forward to implementing a strategy that will allow TBI to achieve sustainable growth and continue building on the strong and solid foundations laid by the bank in the past years," Mr Chalabi said. "We will continue to ... develop the bank’s operations to support our country’s economic development."

Mr Chalabi brings to the role years of experience in business development, strategic planning and forming Iraqi government policies, including involvement in drafting the new Iraqi constitution after 2003. He was appointed General Director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes against Humanity in 2004 and worked as an adviser to former Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Oh, Deena, there's more honesty in the opening paragraph of his WIKIPEDIA page:

Salem Chalabi (aka "Sam Challabi") (born 1963, in Baghdad) is an Iraq-born, British- and American-educated lawyer. He was appointed as the first General Director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, set up in 2003 to try Saddam Hussein and other members of his regime for crimes against humanity. His appointment, by an order signed by Paul Bremer, the head of the occupation authority,^[1] was widely criticized for perceived nepotism (his uncle, Ahmed Chalabi, was critically involved in the US-led war against Iraq and Hussein) and he himself lacked any significant trial experience (he was a corporate securities lawyer). He was ultimately dropped from the Tribunal after an arrest warrant was issued for investigation into his role in the murder of a director-general of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance who was investigating Chalabi family properties acquired in Iraq; the charge was ultimately dismissed citing lack of evidence.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

I love Roseanne

I love Roseanne. I always will. She's not a racist. ABC wanted her off the air and wanted to own her characters -- that's all the attack on her was about.

And I'm Black so let me be clear, Valerie Jarrett doesn't look Black. I knew she was born in Iran and had always assumed she was Iranian until the aftermath of the Tweet.

I also don't think Valerie Jarrett's anyone who needs defending. She's a vile woman.

While she spent her life serving the wealthy, Roseanne lived with the working class, was part of the working class, and when she became famous, continued to champion the working class.

I'll always love Roseanne. I'm glad she's doing videos on her YOUTUBE channel.

I hope she realizes that a lot of us out here still love her and are still with her.

No politician is going to tear me away from someone who truly is a comrade.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, September 8, 2020. With the US presidential elections weeks away, we look at some of the campaigns for president.

In the United States, a presidential election is scheduled to take place in November. Around the world, people vote but only in the 'beacon' of democracy are your presidential choices so limited. The corportae duopoly controls pretty much everything. That's the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They refuse to allow any other party onstage for the debates. The presidential debates are not operated by the media. The two parties operate the debates. That's not a democracy.

More time is spent this year attempting on keeping the Green Party off the ballot in states. But, as Jimmy Dore has noted, Joe Biden doesn't want any of the hundred or so million who have stopped voting to vote for him. Instead, he's all about scraping up one or maybe two Republican voters.

He offers nothing for the people.

This same duopoly is among the reason the illegal war on Iraq started -- and why it continues to this day.

In the either/or system that the duopoly creates and maintains, it was easy for the craven to portray themselves as noble. And that's how you got Democrats in office in 2002 agreeing to support the Iraq War so that they didn't get 'clobbered' with it in the 2002 mid-terms.

The duopoly keeps us from having real choices in our voting and real and needed changes in our lives.

Ann raises a very good point in "Don't talk to me about voter suppression" -- there is no real difference between what we see as voter suppression and suppression of candidates. Howie Hawkins, the Green Party's presidential nominee, addresses that in the video below -- noting how the Democratic Party worked to keep the Green Party off the ballot this November.

Howie's campaign issued the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More information:
Andrea Mérida, andrea@howiehawkins.us

Greens Denounce Wisconsin Supreme Court Decision

(Syracuse, NY – September 14, 2020) Green Party nominees for President and Vice President, Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker, rejected the decision handed down earlier today by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, to deny placing them on the November 2020 ballot. The Green Party has been on the ballot in Wisconsin for every presidential election since 1996.

Several years ago, the workers of Wisconsin occupied the state capitol building with shouts of “this is what democracy looks like.” Angela Walker mobilized her Milwaukee transit workers local union into that defense of workers’ rights. Unfortunately, today, the state Supreme Court demonstrated something completely different from what most people consider to be democracy: a choice on their ballot.

“The court majority failed to recognize the partisan Wisconsin Election Commission’s repeated unlawful actions, said Andrea Mérida, campaign manager.” Mérida continued, “now we have a dangerous precedent where a major party can effectively decide which minor parties can participate in elections, by conjuring up arbitrary requirements on the fly to remove its opposition. Regardless, the fact remains that we met all of the legal requirements for ballot access and followed the WEC’s instructions to the letter with regards to Angela Walker’s change of residence.”

“We were screwed. As the dissenting opinion explains, the actual facts and the law show that we are qualified for the ballot. Partisan hacks should not be running elections for their own parties. They set up the absentee ballot snafu. The decision is a travesty of justice,” said Hawkins.

“Our campaign rejects the idea that we should be punished for what the court majority considers an untimely legal response. As noted in the dissenting opinion, our campaign filed only two days after the Commission certified their list of independent candidates. As a working-class campaign that cannot afford attorneys on retainer, unlike the two major parties, it takes time for us to find legal representation, formulate a response and file documents,” Angela Walker said.

The campaign is currently weighing out its legal options, and Wisconsinites may now have to write-in Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker in order to vote for the only presidential ticket that fights for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and fair elections and ballot access. The campaign vows to continue to fight alongside the Wisconsin Green Party to regain its ballot status, which will require one percent of the statewide vote, or about 20,000 votes.

Joseph Kishore is the presidential candidate for the Socialist Equality Party and he Tweeted:

The SEP denounces the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling barring the Green Party from the ballot, an anti-democratic action that was supported particularly by Democrats. The US political system is not a democracy. The state is an instrument of class rule, controlled by the oligarchy.

And he Tweeted:

In the case of the socialist campaign of the SEP, the courts have ruled that our supporters had to gather tens of thousands of signatures in the midst of the pandemic to get on the ballot, which would mean sacrificing our lives and the lives countless thousands.

Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports on the efforts to keep Howie off the ballot in Pennsylvania:

In the second such action by a state court this week, the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court ruled Thursday the state could exclude Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker from the ballot for the 2020 presidential elections.

In the 5-2 decision on partisan lines, the state supreme court overturned a lower court ruling that supported the Green Party against a decision by the Bureau of Elections to use an obscure technicality to throw out the nominating petitions that qualified their candidates for ballot status.

The ruling, which was endorsed by all five Democratic justices, states, “Because the procedures for nominating a candidate for office by nomination papers were not strictly followed here … the Secretary is directed to remove both candidates’ names from the general election ballot.” The two Republican judges said in a dissenting opinion they agree that the nominating petitions had been filed improperly but that the Green Party should be given the opportunity to fix their paperwork.

As was the case in the ruling by the Wisconsin state Supreme Court on Monday, the political purpose of the Pennsylvania ruling is to keep the Green Party from providing an alternative for voters who might otherwise cast ballots for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump by 11,000 votes in Michigan, 23,000 in Wisconsin, and 44,000 in Pennsylvania. In each state, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein received more votes than Clinton’s margin of defeat.

This led the Democrats, and their media apologists, to blame the Greens for a defeat which Clinton brought on herself by running a right-wing, anti-working-class campaign which allowed Trump to posture as the advocate of coal miners, steel workers, auto workers and others whose livelihood had been destroyed by the policies of big business and the Obama-Biden administration.

One conclusion drawn by the Democrats from the experience of 2016 was that the basic democratic right of third parties to ballot access and of the public to vote for a candidate of their choosing must not be allowed to disrupt the two-party system of Wall Street, the Pentagon and the CIA. Over the past two months, they have blocked the Green Party from obtaining ballot status in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and the Socialist Equality Party from obtaining ballot status in Michigan—the same three states which were the margin of defeat for Clinton in the Electoral College.

Chris Brennan and Jonathan Lai (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) call the Pennsylvania decision "a big win for Pennsylvania Democrats" and not so much a 'victory' for "Hawkins, a retired Teamster from New York, and Walker, a labor activist who drives a dump truck in South Carolina" -- and certainly not a victory for voters. Robert Alft is running for District 46's state senate seat in New York. He writes a letter to the editors of THE ALTAMONT ENTERPRISE:

Howie Hawkins and the Green Party best represent the progressive policies I want. If I add one more vote to Biden, it will signal my approval for a candidate I cannot support.

So, please do not lecture me about “throwing away my vote” or “letting Trump win.” That’s not how democracy works.

Candidates have to bring policies to voters that voters want, so voters will vote for them. Elections are about putting people in office that best represent them.

Imagine a world that really encouraged voting? Instead, you've got voter shaming, voter intimidation and you've got legal efforts to keep people off the ballots. That doesn't sound like democracy.

Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. Unlike Joe Biden (Democratic Party presidential nominee), Jo has been traveling throughout the country and meeting voters. She's addressed the press at every stop -- also unlike Joe Biden.

She won't be on the debate stage in October. That makes no sense at all. Her campaign noted this week:

As of today, the Libertarian Party (LP) has received confirmation that the campaign of Dr. Jo Jorgensen for president and Jeremy “Spike” Cohen for vice president has met all states’ ballot-access requirements, according to the LP’s chair, Joseph Bishop-Henchman. Therefore, the Libertarian ticket is now officially on the ballot in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. American voters — regardless of where they live — will see the Jorgensen–Cohen ticket on their ballots this November.

Dr. Jorgensen advocates free-market health care to bring costs way down, a foreign policy of non-intervention, and an end to the failed and destructive War on Drugs. Her campaign gives voters a viable alternative to Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who will be the only other presidential choices to appear on every ballot.

The year 2020 marks the fifth time the Libertarian Party has succeeded in placing its presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states, having done so previously in 1980, 1992, 1996, and 2016. No other alternative party in over 20 years has achieved universal ballot access in a presidential election.

Jorgensen will be on the ballot in all fifty states -- but she won't be on the debate stage? In what world does that make sense?

Unlike Hidin' With Biden, Jo meets with the press, she takes questions, she speaks without a teleprompter (and hasn't confused Iraq with Iran).

Another candidate for president? The Party for Socialism and Liberation's Gloria La Riva who Tweeted:

These police murders haven't slowed down. The struggle, protests night after night must continue! Every city, every town! #BlackLivesMatter

#StoptheWarOnBlackAmerica

On Iraq and the upcoming US election, Brian Cloughley writes at COUNTERPUNCH:

It is apparent that the Iraq policies of Trump and Biden don’t rest on religious belief or indeed any sort of conviction, and that both are prepared to change course as the voting breezes might blow. Trump’s order of troop withdrawal from Iraq is nothing but a public relations ploy and Biden’s declaration on September 10 that he “supports drawing down the troops” was entirely negated by his follow-up that he would keep a “small force” in the Middle East to “prevent extremists from posing a threat to the United States.” What garbage.

Nobody knows what the long-term U.S. policy might be for the country that Washington destroyed, and neither presidential candidate has the courage, conviction or ability to produce one.

Reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are depressing in their descriptions of the situation in Iraq, and it is obvious that Iraq is going further down the drain while Washington is incapable of preventing the slide that will ruin the lives of even more Iraqi citizens. Whether it’s Trump or Biden in the White House next year, Iraq is doomed.

Meanwhile, Howie Hawkins will be calling for Wall Street to pay its share. His campaign issued the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Howie Hawkins, Green Party for President
www.howiehawkins.us

News Advisory

For More information:
Howie Hawkins, howie@howiehawkins.us
Robert Smith, robert@howiehawkins.us

Hawkins to Hold News Conference Friday, Sept. 18 on Wall Street to Call for Stock Transfer Tax

Hawkins Will also hold fundraiser in the Bronx on Sept. 19 and Join the Sept. 20 March for Climate Justice through Racial Justice

When: 11 AM, Friday, September 18,

Where: New York Stock Exchange, 11 Wall Street, NYC, NY

What: Green Presidential Candidate to call for Stock Transfer Tax

Note: After the news conference Hawkins will speak at noon in front of City Hall, and will join the March for Climate and Racial Justice, Sunday, September 19, 1 PM, Columbus Circle Manhattan

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for President, will speak in favor of a federal Stock Transfer Tax in front of the New York Stock Exchange, 11 Wall Street, at 11 AM on Friday, September 18.

Hawkins, a three-time gubernatorial nominee for the Greens, has long advocated that New York stop rebating the century-old state stock transfer tax to Wall Street speculators and use the funds to invest in domestic needs, such as saving local governments, climate mitigation, workers, small businesses, school and hospitals. Hawkins will march over to City Hall at noon to speak about the state’s fiscal crisis, with Cuomo imposing a 20% cut in aid to local governments and schools. Hawkins will call on de Blasio to support the Stock Transfer Tax and urge Cuomo to do so too.

On Sunday at 1 PM at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, Hawkins will join the March for Climate and Racial Justice. In his 2010 Gubernatorial run, Hawkins called for a Green New Deal that combined a rapid (10-year) transition to zero carbon emissions with an economic bill of rights focused on guaranteed living wage jobs, Medicare for All, housing, and education. Hawkins for decades has advocated for an overhaul of the criminal justice system, starting with community control of the police. He has also advocated for reparations for slavery and to target climate funds to communities of local and low-income neighborhoods.

On Saturday night Hawkins will hold a socially-distanced, backyard fundraiser in the Bronx.

The following sites updated:

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Science post on the sun

First off, swiping this from C.I.'s snapshot (which will be in full at the end of my post):

That's Alicia Keys' "Brand New Me" (the live version from the live album VH1 STORYTELLERS). As Betty noted in "Alicia Keys" earlier this week, Alicia's latest album (ALICIA) drops tomorrow. It's her follow up to 2016's HERE. On Tuesday, community members noted their favorite Alicia songs: Betty went with "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart," Kat went with "In Common," Mike went with "Another Way To Die," Marcia went with "If I Ain't Got You," Elaine went with "Holy War," Ruth picked "A Woman's Worth," Rebecca chose "fallin'," Ann offered two choices "Girl On Fire and . . .," Stan selected "Queen of the Field" and Trina went with "Underdog." Betty picked my personal favorite but I do really love "Brand New Me." (Just realized no one chose "No One." I would've thought that would have been someone's pick.) So, tomorrow, new album from Alicia Keys.

I think it's already Friday on the east coast. Reminder: Alica Keys new album ALICIA out Friday (today if you're in the eastern time zone).

Can't wait to hear it.

Now for some science, Ashley Strickland (CNN) reports:

Every 11 years, the sun completes a solar cycle of calm and stormy activity and begins a new one.

It's important to understand the solar cycle because space weather caused by the sun -- eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejection events -- can impact the power grid, satellites, GPS, airlines, rockets and astronauts in space.

And we just got a bit more information about how the sun's activity could impact us.

The new solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, officially began in December 2019, according to an announcement by the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel of international experts on Tuesday. It can take as long as 10 months to calculate when the new cycle starts, since the sun is so variable, which is why it was announced Tuesday.

Jennifer Franciotti (WBAL) adds:

Young said over the next few years, we’ll see more and more sunspots and huge magnetic fields that release energy like solar storms.

“That stuff travels through the whole solar system, and sometimes the earth is in the way of all that stuff. And when it hits the earth, it creates electrical disturbances and that impacts our technology, our satellites, our ability to communicate -- sometimes it can even impact power grids here on earth,” Young said.

And that’s why predicting solar weather is so important. Technology issues could mean loss of internet or GPS. Severe storms could pose radiation dangers to astronauts on the International Space Station. That’s why NASA is working with scientists around the world and with researchers at NOAH, who also predict solar weather.

That's Diana Ross performing "Blame It On The Sun" from her classic FORCE BEHIND THE POWER album. I like WORKIN' OVERTIME but have always felt like if FORCE had been the return to MOTOWN album, she would have had a stronger return. I know there were high hopes for WORKIN', reteaming Diana with Nile Rogers after their excellent work on 1980's diana album (lowercase title). But "Upside Down," "I'm Coming Out," "Now That You're Gone," "Have Fun Again" and the other tracks didn't just happen with Diana and Nile. There was a third person: Bernard Edwards. He wasn't part of WORKIN'. Maybe if he was, the songs would be better?

The songs were frequently hideous. Catchy music, no question. But were there any stories in the songs, anything you could relate to? The title track was really as deep as it got. Diana invested a ton into the vocals on "This House" but there's not a lot to that song lyrically. In fact, lyrically, the bulk of the album could have been written by your average nine-year-old.

Bernard? He could have changed that. He reteamed with Diana for her R&B hit "Telephone" from 1984's SWEPT AWAY. "Telephone" tells a story. You can relate to it.

"Blame It On The Sun" is a great song (written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright). There were so many great songs on FORCE. It also had her classic ballad "If We Hold On Together" from the film THE LAND BEFORE TIME, the title track (written by Stevie), the beautiful ballad "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" and, among others, the upbeat "You're Gonna Love It."

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, September 17, 2020. Do #OTHERLIVESMATTER! or only the lives of Americans? Interesting question considering a new story in the news.

Starting in the US, Savannah Bermann (USA TODAY) reports:

Federal police asked the National Guard whether they had a “heat ray” officers could use against protesters gathered near the White House earlier this summer,according to a letter sent to Congress from a senior officer involved with responding to the protest.

The inquiry for these tools came just hours before demonstrators protesting on the evening of June 1, following the death of George Floyd, were forcibly removed from the Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. by authorities, some on horseback, using chemical irritants, rubber bullets and shields.

President Donald Trump then walked with members of his administration to historic St. John's Church, and posed with a Bible, drawing wide condemnation.

In written responses to the House Committee on Natural Resources, which were obtained and shared by NPR, D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco said he was copied on an email from the Provost Marshal of Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region who was seeking two things: A device called the Active Denial System, or ADS and a Long-Range Acoustic Device, also known as the LRAD.

ADS is a weapon designed by the military that uses short radio waves that "provides a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin,” according to the written statements. This causes an intense burning feeling, leading to the tool also being called a "heat ray" or the "Pain Ray."

Elliot Hannon (SLATE) adds:

“The technology, also called a ‘heat ray,’ was developed to disperse large crowds in the early 2000s but was shelved amid concerns about its effectiveness, safety and the ethics of using it on human beings,” the Washington Post reports. “Pentagon officials were reluctant to use the device in Iraq. In late 2018, the New York Times reported, the Trump administration had weighed using the device on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border—an idea shot down by Kirstjen Nielsen, then the Homeland Security secretary, citing humanitarian concerns.”

The technology should not be used. If you're a pompous drama queen prone to hiding behind what you did in Iraq, you might want to check yourself -- especially if you're screaming your head off in a video calling for people to be killed. Just sit your ass down, princess, you've got nothing to proud of if you're video and your Tweet is all about how this should never be used on Americans.

#OTHERLIVESMATTER. There were many reports in the early stages of the Iraq War of this very weapon being used in Iraq. So don't hide behind your "I was in Iraq and I wasn't in Iraq so these weapons could be used on Americans! You don't look brave, you look like a thug. Because really bad weapons were used on Iraqis. Depleted Uranium was used on the Iraqi people. It's why birth defects skyrocketed in the country.

There is no justification for that. And fourteen-year-old boys -- or twelve-year-olds who look fourteen -- are not terrorists and should not be hunted as if they were or not allowed to leave Falluja, kept there to be killed and executed by the US military.

That's what happened and I'm not in the mood for your sudden concern over weapons now that they might be used on Americans.

I'm also not interested in, Princess Vet, your use of this for partisan b.s. At this point, the issue appears to be it having been raised, the use of it having been raised. It does not appear to have been used.

It should not have been raised and there should be a loud rebuke -- but not threats of shooting people over this, Princess Vet, calm down -- so that the message is clear that we do not use this technology on humans (I'm not painting an X on the backs of all animals, I'm just focusing on humans). And that's here, that's in Iraq, that's anywhere.

We need to be very clear on this.

We also need a few details. That would include who was in on the discussion. Was the White House party to it? Was Donald Trump aware?

It's really easy to scream and yell into a video like a lunatic with the hopes that you're going to turn out the votes for Joe Biden. But that's not reality. And Joe's Barack's roll dog so some of this outrage on his behalf is a bit much -- Barack remains King of the Drone War. And he did use them on US citizens.

The notion of using weapons -- of any kind -- on peaceful protesters is disgusting.

And yet, Princess Vet, that has happened for almost a full year now in Iraq and you're so quick to manly man your service in Iraq but you're not very quick to defend the Iraqi people.

Oh, right, the illegal war was never about defending the Iraqi people or making their lives better.

Your hypocrisy and much more is showing.

What appears to be not in dispute at this time: Early in the Trump presidency, these weapons were tossed out for possible use on immigrants crossing the border and then-Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen shot down the idea. This summer, the use of the weapons were again raised. Judging by the written document submitted, they were not used. That needs further examination and Congress should pursue the matter in public hearings.

Efforts to attach this to a person without evidence is not a good idea. And it doesn't help the situation. No matter how much a man like Princess Vet screams in a selfie video, it doesn't help anyone.

We actually had an editorial on this ready to go at THIRD -- on Princess Vet -- and the ones who wrote it didn't know about the above. They just tried to stream his video and they noted in the editorial (we didn't publish it) that whatever Princess Vet's message was, he wasn't going to persuade anyone because his presentation was so off putting and because his 'answer' was to call for the deaths of people. It is a grotesque and embarrassing video and a sign that maybe Princess Vet needs some mental help and maybe there needs to be courses before you return to civilian life encouraging to grasp that shoot-and-kill may work in the military but it is not the answer to every political issue.

I'm being nice and not naming Princess Vet. I won't be nice about Keith Boykin who Tweeted:

Trump tried to deploy military heat ray weapon on protesters in Lafayette Square that the Pentagon didn't want to use in Iraq War. Army National Guard major also confirms protesters were never given clear, audible warning to disperse before the attack.

Donald Trump did that, did he? Because that's a fact not in THE WASHINGTON POST article you link to. I'd think whoring would get old. I'd think people would say, "Wait, let me deal with what we know. This is a very serious issue and I want to deal with the facts." Not Keith. It's not about what was 'tried,' it's just about partisan bulls**t.

I'd also be very careful about claiming it wasn't used in Falluja. I remember when Scott Shane got nasty about what weapons were used in Iraq at THE NEW YORK TIMES and then, woops, he had to follow up with an article admitting White Phosphorus was used. I'd be very careful about claims from the Pentagon about what they used in Iraq and what they didn't use because they have been repeatedly caught denying this or that use only for it to be exposed that this or that was used.

In other news, NBC NEWS Tweets about Jon Stewart:

"The only difference between the 9/11 responders at Ground Zero...is that that was caused by a terrorist attack," Stewart said. "Veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering the same illnesses and the same toxic exposure."

Here's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) reporting on Jon:

The burnpits issue is one we've long covered. And Congress has done damn little. It's amazing that we set through a hearing -- and reported on it -- where a US Senator had the nerve to insult Vietnam veterans -- he was one himself -- and state his opposition to the Agent Orange registry.

Centrist Dems are liars and whores. That's why Jim Webb did not seek re-election. He was the US senator at that hearing. And you damn well better believe veterans groups knew what he did and knew what he said. That's why he didn't seek re-election. Yet when he tried to throw his hat in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2016, centrist Dems were gushing over him like he was someone to look up to. No.

BURNPIT360 remains the strongest resource for the burnpit issue.

ADDED: