Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Have you heard of TOI 700 e

TOI 700 e is in the news.  What is it?  Meghan Bartels (SPACE.COM) reports: 

NASA's leading planet-hunting spacecraft has spotted its second planet that matches Earth's size and may be able to retain liquid water — and both worlds orbit the same star.

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in April 2018; since then, the mission has discovered 285 confirmed exoplanets and more than 6,000 candidates. One of the most intriguing of the confirmed planets is a world dubbed TOI 700 d, which is about the size of Earth and located in its star's habitable zone. Now, scientists have determined that the planet has a neighbor that's just as tantalizing, thanks to an October 2021 alert that the Earth-orbiting telescope had seen something interesting.

"We first started looking at it and we're like, 'Is this real?'" Emily Gilbert, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told Space.com. Gilbert and her colleagues are presenting the research at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society, being held this week in Seattle and virtually

 That's pretty big news.  Ashley Strickland (CNN) notes:

The planet, named TOI 700 e, is likely rocky and 95% the size of our world. The celestial body is the fourth planet to be detected orbiting the small, cool M dwarf star TOI 700. All of the exoplanets were found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS mission.

Another planet in the system, discovered in 2020 and named TOI 700 d, is also the size of Earth. Both of these exoplanets exist in their star’s habitable zone, or just the right distance from the star that liquid water might potentially exist on their surfaces. The potential for liquid water suggests that the planets themselves could be, or might once have been, habitable for life.

The discovery of the fourth planet was announced Tuesday at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, and a study about the exoplanet has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

That's really interesting.  





"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, January 10, 2023.  The persecution of Julian Assange continues, a 'beloved' American male  conservative appears to have forgotten his wife when he was groping a man, Iraqis celebrate a strong performance in the Gulf Cup, and much more.


Starting with Julian Assange.



US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian and, for those who've forgotten, Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.


In the video below, Kevin Gosztola speaks with Lee Camp discuss the spying on Julian Assange.




In 2010, Chelsea Manning used her position as a United States Army intelligence analyst to copy hundreds of thousands of documents related to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, saving them on a CD labelled “Lady Gaga” as a disguise. Manning then sent the files to WikiLeaks, including the famous Collateral Murder video showing US troops laughing after shooting dead a group of Iraqi men, including two journalists. (All the men were civilians but some were armed.) Manning was later sentenced to 35 years in jail for America’s largest-ever leak of classified information.

Today, Manning is a free woman and celebrated transgender icon who recently published a memoir and spins tracks ranging from Britney Spears to a remix of the Succession theme song for Brooklyn ravers in her spare time. Barack Obama commuted Manning’s remaining jail time on compassionate grounds in one of his last acts in office, allowing her to return to civilian life in 2017.

Meanwhile, the man who published Manning’s leaked documents, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is languishing in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, surrounded by notorious murderers and rapists. For the past four years, the US Justice Department has been attempting to extradite the Australian to face trial on 17 counts of breaching the Espionage Act plus a separate hacking-related charge. It’s the first time the act has ever been used against someone who received and published classified information, as opposed to leaking it.

Julian Assange needs to be free.

Did Matt Schlapp free himself?

Who?

WIKIPEDIA tells you that he's "an American political activist and lobbyist who is chairman of the American Conservative Union.[1] He leads the lobbying firm Cove Strategies, which had strong ties to the Donald Trump administration.[2] He is also a Fox News political contributor.  Schlapp was President George W. Bush’s deputy assistant and political director during Bush's first term.[3] He is married to Mercedes Schlapp, who was President Donald Trump's Director of Strategic Communications."  Those are the credits Schlapp wants the world to know about.  Is he also a groper?


Christian Walker, the gay son of failed GOP Senate candidate and retired NFL player Herschel Walker, has called on influential Republican Matt Schlapp to resign as the lead organizer for the far-right Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after Schlapp’s alleged sexual misconduct with a male staffer who worked for Herschel Walker’s campaign.

In a video rant posted to Twitter, Christian Walker said, “Matt Schlapp — head of CPAC, big ‘family values’ conservative guy, married to a woman, they have five children together — Took one of my dad’s campaign staffers out for drinks … and when the staffer was dropping Matt off at his hotel, Matt reached over, inappropriately grabbed the staffer, but here’s the kicker: The staffer is a man married to a woman… and then, when they get to the hotel, Matt Schlapp invites the staffer up to his hotel room.”

Walker notes that the staffer reported Schlapp’s alleged behavior to other officials in Herschel Walker’s campaign.

“Matt pulls a typical predator move,” Walker continues. “Texts the guy back when the guy is not answering his calls. He texts him, ‘If you can find it in your heart to, give me a call,’ because Matt knows he’s been caught now. So when he’s on campaign trips away from his wife and children, he’s trying to hook up with men??!”



The bombshell allegation, first reported by The Daily Beast, focused on Schlapp allegedly making “sustained and unwanted and unsolicited” sexual contact with the staffer while the staffer drove Schlapp back from a bar in October. The staffer alleged Schlapp “groped” and “fondled” his crotch without consent in the car.

An attorney for Schlapp called the claims an “attack” and said Schlapp “denies any improper behavior.” It is unclear if Herschel Walker was made aware of the allegations at the time.

But his son is adamant that action must be taken.

“Honestly, it’s just disgusting that someone as powerful as Matt Schlapp is [preying] on campaign staffers,” Walker said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “I feel terrible for his wife and children.”



"He reached in between my legs and fondled me," the former Walker staffer told NBC News in a telephone interview Thursday night. "To my shame, I didn’t say anything" to stop Schlapp. NBC News is withholding the staffer’s name at his request because he fears the allegations against a powerful Republican could harm his own career in GOP politics.

Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, is married to former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp. His organization hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference, a crucial proving ground for Republican presidential hopefuls.

Schlapp did not respond to text messages seeking comment, including one detailing each point of his accuser’s story. His lawyer, Charlie Spies, did not immediately return a call from NBC News seeking comment on the allegations. But Spies did tell The Daily Beast, which first reported on the staffer’s story, that Schlapp had denied them.


It appears Schlapp, a fifty-plus year old man, assaulted a young man.  That is very likely to take place when you live your life in a closet.  It's not that shocking to most of us.  It is shocking to the homophobes.  Maybe if they'd address their own issues, they'd stop hurting others and stop persecuting the LGBTQ+ youth of this country.

That is what they are doing.


 In our recent analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey, we found that the odds of being a violent hate crime victim for LGBTQ people was nine times greater than it was for cisgender and straight people from 2017 to 2019.

There were an average annual 6.6 violent hate crime victimizations per 1,000 LGBTQ people during this three year period.

In contrast, there were 0.6 violent hate crime victimizations per 1,000 cisgender and straight people.

A hate crime is an attack or threat of an attack that’s motivated by the victim’s perceived race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender or religion. Or it could include someone’s association with any of the previous categories, such as an anti-Muslim hate crime committed against someone who is Sikh.

The National Crime Victimization Survey is a nationally representative survey that asks over 200,000 people about non-fatal crimes that happened to them in the past year.


 Andres Gutierrez (Detroit's CBS NEWS) adds:

A recent survey reveals almost half of young people in Michigan's LGBTQ community have considered taking their own lives. 

The data comes from the Trevor Project, which is calling for increased support and resources.

To Brenden Bell, the care manager at Affirmations, an LGBTQ center in Ferndale, it's not surprising to hear of a staggering statistic: 45% of kids and teens in Michigan's queer community have seriously considered suicide in the past year.

"The LGBTQ+ community, especially the youth, are not feeling safe right now," Bell said. 

The study shows another 15% have attempted suicide.

It's time to stop pretending.  Like the people who work with Schlapp who keep coming forward insisting "Matt would never do this."  You should consider the assault a possible cry for help.  If you're really his friends you might make it clear that it's okay for him to come out.

But how could homophobes do that?  They'd have to be caring people.  And caring people are not people who go out of their way to make children's lives more difficult.  They pretend that they want to 'save' the children.  That's not what they're trying to do and that's not what they're doing.  They're hurting LGBTQ+ youth across the country and they need to be called out for what they're doing.


Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) will lead the Congressional Equality Caucus — formerly known as the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus — in the 118th Congress, the group announced Monday. He will succeed outgoing Chairman Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who will continue to serve as one of the caucus’s six openly LGBTQ co-chairs.

Pocan, who as chairman of the Equality Caucus is responsible for setting the group’s agenda for the next two years, wrote in a statement on Monday that one of the caucus’s top priorities will be combating anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric that have perpetuated a cycle of violence against LGBTQ people.

“We are witnessing a dangerous increase in anti-LGBTQI+ hate, legislation, and violence that we must forcibly push back against and defeat,” he said. “The Equality Caucus will do everything in our power to defeat anti-LGBTQI+ bills and amendments proposed by extremist anti-LGBTQI+ politicians this Congress, especially those targeting our transgender and nonbinary community members.”



Moving over to Iraq, they have been hosting the Gulf Cup in Basra.  Julian Bechocha (RUDAW) reports:

The Iraqi national team prevailed over Saudi Arabia during a Monday contest at the 25th Gulf Cup held in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, with the Lions of Mesopotamia winning 2-0. 

A first-half goal by midfielder Ibrahim Bayesh and another by Kurdish forward Aso Rostam during the dying moments of the fixture ensured Iraq a much-needed win in Group A of the tournament. 

“We wish our Iraqi national team more victories in the Gulf Championship 25, which bears a special character, as it is held on the lands of Basra,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said following the victory. 

“Congratulations to the Lions of Mesopotamia,” Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi tweeted, using the moniker referring to the Iraqi national football team. 



Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia 2-0 on Monday evening at a near-waterlogged Basra International Stadium to go top of Group A after two games in the Arabian Gulf Cup.

 Despite conditions that bordered on the farcical, Ibrahim Bayesh’s first-half goal put the hosts in control before Aso Rostam sealed the win just before the end.

It means that in the final round of games in the group on Thursday, a point for Iraq against Yemen will be enough, while Saudi Arabia will probably have to beat Oman to progress.










New content at THIRD:



The following sites updated:






Posted by at

Monday, January 09, 2023

They're both crazy!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB -- THE KOOL AID TABLE    

WHEN PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN LEARNED OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HAVING TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS AT HIS HOUSE, JOE DECLARED, "HOW THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN?  HOW ONE -- ANYONE COULD BE THAT IRRESPONSIBLE?  AND I THOUGHT WHAT DATA WAS IN THERE THAT MAY COMPROMISE SOURCES AND METHODS?  BY THAT I MEAN NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO HELPED OR, ET CETERA. . . . TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE."

AND NOW?


THAT FLIP-FLOP IS ON THE OTHER FOOT AS IT'S LEARNED THAT JOE BIDEN MISHANDLED CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS.


THE HIGHLY EMOTIONAL DRAMA QUEEN LARRY TRIBE EXCLAIMS IT'S NOT THE SAME THING!!!

HE'S RIGHT.  DONALD REMOVED PAPERS AS PRESIDENT.  JOE DID SO AS VICE PRESIDENT.  IN NO WORLD DOES DONALD'S ARGUMENT THAT HE HAD THE RIGHT AS PRESIDENT TO DO SO APPLY TO JOE BIDEN.

ALSO, DONALD WAS PRESENT WHERE THE DOCUMENTS WERE.  JOE LEFT IN AN ABANDONDED OFFICE.


WHEN REACHED FOR COMMENT, JOE BIDEN TOLD THESE REPORTERS -- MUST CREDIT  BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB -- THAT IT WAS "NOT THE SAME THING, MAN, I DIDN'T DO THE SAME THING."


RIGHT.  DONALD TRUMP HAD DOCUMENTS FOR LESS THAN TWO YEARS BUT JOE HAD THEM FROM AT LEAST 2016 UNTIL NOVEMBER OF 2022.


"MAN, YOU'RE GIVING ME FACTS.  I DON'T NEED FACTS. WE CHOOSE TRUTH OVER FACTS, MAN.  TRUTH OVER FACTS. WHERE AM I?"


THE OVAL, WE EXPLAINED, HE WAS IN THE OVAL OFFICE.  


"WHAT AM I DOING HERE?  WHAT A STUPID SON OF A BITCH. THAT POLL SAID THAT 92% OF THE DEOMCRATS SAID THEY'D VOTE FOR ME AGAIN IF I RAN AGAIN." WHERE AM I, MAN?  WHERE AM I?" ASKED JOE BEFORE NODDING OFF IN HIS CHAIR.


REACHED FOR COMMENT VIA HIS PLATFORM 'TRUTH SOCIAL,' FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP 'TRUTH SOCIALED' THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE, "I WAS RAIDED!  RAIDED!  BECAUSE I'M HUGE!  AND I WAS FIRST! I WAS THE FIRST ONE CAUGHT! COME TO 'TRUTH SOCIAL,' WE DON'T HAVE CHARACTER LIMITS! OR ANY KIND OF LIMITS! LOCK JOE UP! LOCK JOE UP! LOCK JOE UP!"


WE AGREE WITH RYAN GRIM, "THEY CAN SHARE A CELL AND THE DEAL IS IT ALL GETS FILMED AND TURNED INTO A REALITY SHOW."

 


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


YEAR IN REVIEW PIECES: Community year-in-review pieces:  Cedric's "They really believe this," Ann's "Trump and his snowball chance in hell," Wally's "THIS JUST IN! 1 MORE WTF MOMENT!" and Betty's "I'm guessing Elvis Presley wasn't available?," THIRD's "2022: The year of bad 'documentaries' (Ava and C.I.)," Isaiah's "2023 arrives, 2022 be gone," Ann's "Worst films of 2022" and Stan's "10 Worst films of 2022," Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "THE PEW loses it," C.I.'s "2022: The Year of WTF," Kat's "2022 in music," Ruth's "Ruth's Report: Networks and Streaming," Martha and Shirley's "2022 in Books (Martha & Shirley)," Stan's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" and Ann's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" Trina's "Labor story of 2022," Mike's "Idiot of 2022," Marcia's "The Most Disgusting Person of 2022" and Elaine's "What album am I looking forward to most in 2023?."


RECOMMENDED:  

"Why did BREAKING POINTS delete the J.F.K. video?"

"Whoopi Goldberg spreading hate again"

"Violent attacks on transgender persons"

"NY nurses strike"

"Beef Stew in the Kitchen"

"Will Lehman"

"Matteo Lane"

"If your life was so awful, you shouldn't have shared it weekly on TV and pretended otherwise"

"this will be glenn greenwald at some point"

"the carol burnette show"

"Important report on violence against the transgender community"

"2 paths, which will our country take"

"RAYE makes it to number one"

"My Grammy wish"

"Chase Rice"

"The Crazy (lowest standard in the world)"

"Graham Elwood, Mickey Z, and Idiot of the Week"

"Graham Elwood, David Stockman"

"Graham Elwood, White House visitor Sam Bankman-Fried"

"Why isn't Piatt fired?"

"Idiot of 2022"

"Oh, Sabby Sabs"

"Trump and his snowball chance in hell"

"Carbonara in the Kitchen"

"Worst films of 2022"

"What the hell is M3GAN?"

"James Cameron reigns supreme"

"They really believe this"

"THIS JUST IN! 1 MORE WTF MOMENT!"





Posted by at

Sunday, January 08, 2023

Violent attacks on transgender persons

 C.I., Marcia and Rebecca have all noted that important report on violence aimed at the transgender community and I want to join them.  It's an important report.  

I also want to note C.I.'s "Mafia Wives (Susan Williams' WHITE MALICE)" that just got completed.  She posted it as she was working on it -- she tries to do that once a year because people are always asking (in the community) about how she writes so once a year (at least) she'll post a draft with a note that this is not final and when it is final the note will disappear.  And you get to see how she starts out and then she reworks it and rearranges it and it's really fun to follow along. 

I'm excited about it because it's good writing but also because it's a book review and, this year, we're going to again be doing book reviews at community sites.  The goal is one review a week.  


Simha Haddad (LA BLADE) reports:

Calif. State Senator Scott Wiener is an openly gay champion for queer rights, who represents San Francisco’s Senatorial District 11 in Sacramento, and constantly suffers from a tsunami of hatred directed at him by right wing-extremists and homophobes.

The most recent example occurring on December 6th, when San Francisco police responded to a bomb threat at the Senator’s home. This also marks the second time this year that a bomb threat targeting him resulted with police searching his residence and professional workspaces. Both times the threats were laced with profanities that denigrated his sexuality. 

“Early this morning, I was informed by the San Francisco Standard and the police that someone had issued a bomb threat against me, listing my specific home address and also threatening to shoot up my Capitol office. The email said ‘we will fucking kill you’ and called me a pedophile and groomer,” Wiener wrote in an emailed statement to the Blade.

“I will always fight for the LGBTQ community — and for the community as a whole — and will never let these threats stop that work,” Wiener added.

“I’ve been targeted and attacked for being gay my whole life,” the 52-year-old lawmaker said in a lengthy phone interview with Blade earlier this month.  Indeed, Wiener’s lifelong prolific progressive political work has often cost him his sense of safety.

He has received death threats from QAnon adherents, those associated with far right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and has been made the subject of numerous homophobic and anti-Semitic messages and posts on social media platforms.


It's appalling what's happening in this country -- how that Mother Tucker encourages hatred and self-loathing gay people like Glenn Greenwald provide him with cover.  Disgusting.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, January 6, 2023.  Iraq hosts the Gulf Cup, Moqtada entertains the troops, Donald Trump is not going to be handed over to Iraqi authorities, and much more.


Let's start with nonsense.

It doesn't matter.  That's why we've ignored it all week.  Again, they want to arrest Donald.  So what?  The first time we noted it.  They know it's not happening and anyone with a brain knows it's not happening.  The US government will never turn a former president over to another nation.  We won't even turn Henry Kissinger over.  They won't turn Donald over, it would set a precedent.  They also won't do it because it's the US government which thinks it owns and controls the world.  It's not happening.  It's a non-starter.  It's not going to play out.  It's not going to happen.  We went with RedVicking's Tweet on the subject because it's not insane as so many of the Tweets about this are.  

Why do we have such a screwed up government here in the US?  Because we have stupid adults who think they can weigh without knowing a damn thing.

Anyone telling you that US President Joe Biden might turn Donald over (or will turn him over) to Iraq is either a liar or the biggest idiot of them all.  Bill Clinton bombed Sudan in 1998.  Bully Boy Bush invaded Iraq illegally, ordered the toture of Iraqis and go down the never-ending list.  Barack Obama droned people to death -- he was judge and jury as well as excutioner.  

If you're that stupid, let me break the news to you slowly.  The US government.  That represents We the People of the United States.  Is loathed around the world.  For various actions taken. Actions that we see as illegal when other nation-states act in the same manner.  

Tony Blair will likely never be brought to justice. 

What world leaders get brought to justice?


Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (Panama), Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević (Serbia), those sort of people.  They are leaders but they aren't leaders of western countries.  

The US government will not allow it to happen and for many reasons including they will not allow their government actions and decisions to evaluated by a legal jury of anyone's peers.

It's a waste of time to focus on something that's not going to happen.  Take that garbage to the Rachel Maddow message boards and continue to drag the nation down further into stupidity, if you must.  But grasp that endless focusing on these demented fantasies are why we have the government we do.  When you don't even know the basics, maybe just continue to focus on your 'reality' TV shows.  You'll be doing the world a huge favor.


There are things worthy of coverage and there are things that aren't. 

This morning, for example, I've gone back and forth over one story -- do we include it, do we not.  We're not going to include the video or the young lady's name.  That's all that's different right now.  Otherwise, it's the attack in the suburb of Sulaimani that we covered on Saturday and in Monday's snapshot.  We've covered it.  In the news cycle right now, the survivor's name.  Is she being quoted?  No.  So I'm not sure she wants her name known.  It's public record and anybody can look it up but a 17-year-old girl who was attacked by a mob of men should be the one who decides if her name is known or not.  What else emerged?

Video.  You've got delighted men running after her to attack her.  It is offensive.  If it had been out -- the video -- on Saturday or Monday, we would have included it as part of the story.  But it's days later and I don't see the point today in including video of an assault we've already noted.  The video turns my stomach but it would have been included in Monday's snapshot if it had been released them.  Gruesome and disgusting?  Yes.  And also a crime.  So my argument then would have been that we shouldn't turn away from it.  The difference now is the crime has been discussed and addressed so, at this point, it's kind of like the footgage in THE ACCUSED -- where Jodie's character's being gang raped and some audiences are getting off on that (see Susan Faludi's BACKLASH).  We know what happened, we've covered it.  Days after that, the video footage is of no use to illuminating anything, my opinion, so we're not including it here.

Another issue in the e-mails, why aren't we covering George Santos.  Uh, what does he have to do with Iraq?  I especially enjoy the other e-mails to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com), the drive-bys that tell me I'm attacking George Santos and don't realize that Joe Biden lies too!

George Santos name is appearing in something I've written here for the first time.  I've never written about him before.  So I don't know what you think you're reading but it hasn't been anything I've written.  

Those of you sending the drive-by e-mails need to grasp an important point.

Joe Biden has a history of lying.  It got him kicked out of one Democratic Party primary.  He lies, he mistates, he mixes things up.

Here's the difference, when he ran for the presidency, that was known.  The American people knew (or should have) what they were getting.  So you're going back to 1988 or some other nonsense?  It doesn't matter.

If he lied regarding business dealings with his son Hunter, that would be different.  And he may have and he may not have lied on that.

But exposed lies that were known before election day in 2020 are not the same as discovering that a newly elected member of Congress (he's not been sworn in yet) lied throughout the election and decieved people (and the press was asleep on the job) -- it's completely different.  

I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to play it out as to what should or shouldn't happen.  But I will note that there is a world of difference between people choosing to vote for a known liar with years and years of public examples of deception and voting for a fresh face who apparently lied about everything.

Oh, I'll note one more thing.  I'm not going to name her.  But there was a Democrat who got caught, as she ran for re-election, in a lie.  She'd lied about being a college graduate.  And this became a big deal.  This is how the Democratic Party dealt with that.  She was already running for re-election when this came out.  They humiliated her.  Every day, they found a way to humiliate her.  One day, they were thrilled that when she visited _____ they had her picked up at the airport . . . in a Pinto -- a badly banged up Pinto that reeked of cigarettes.  The Pinto was decades old and the paint was off in spots.  It wasn't even the car of the person who was driving her.  They looked for the worst car they could borrow in each city she visited and in that city it was a Pinto.  And they took pictures and they faxed all over.  They lived to humiliate her.  That's how the Democrats played it.  I have no idea how the Republicans will handle their problem.



+ A week after Bush launched the War on Terror Bob Woodward asked Cheney how long it would last. Cheney replied: “It may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.” The wet-dream of weapons contractors had materialized. The Pentagon Budget in 2001 was $287B. Now it’s $857B & rising.

+ Contracts with Raytheon and Lockheed to blow s**t up followed by contracts with BlackRock to “rebuild.” What are the Minsk Accords compared to this kind of deal?

+ According to an analysis by the intrepid Stephen Semler military contractors are set to pocket around $20 billion out of the $47 billion in the last Ukraine aid package.

In the room the arms lobbyists come and go
talking of how they just added another zero…

+ Apparently the Russian military is blaming cell-phone usage by its troops on the frontlines for the recent spate of Ukrainian missile attacks on Russian outposts, attacks which may have killed more than 1000 Russian soldiers. If so, those soldiers in rural Donetsk Oblast get better cell service than I do here in the sprawl of Greater Portland, where I barely get a single bar here in the house. If Russia really wanted to protect their troops they’d force them all onto an AT&T plan…

+ According to an analysis by Max Berger, more than 75% of the $40 million crypto-conman Samuel Bankman-Fried contributed to Democrats in 2022 went to groups that dumped nearly all their money on competitive primaries, largely to neoliberals facing off against more progressive candidates. Not that it would have mattered much in the end, since nearly all of the progressives end up voting with the neoliberals when the chips are down…and even when they aren’t.

+ Life expectancy in the US continues to plummet. The response of Congress and the Biden administration in the omnibus spending bill is to end emergency Covid funding and raise the age of mandatory retirement account withdrawals by three years. Someone’s making out, but it sure ain’t us…

+ Biden campaigned to expand Medicaid. Now he’s signed a bill to sharply curtail it, ending coverage for millions of people in the middle of a pandemic he pretends is over…

+ The Social Security administration continues to deny thousands of disability claims a year, in part because it continues to rely on a 45-year-old list of outdated job titles. We live in a System that is eager to help the people who least need it and quick to ignore, chastise and punish the weakest, sickest and poorest among us.

+ 54% of Mississippi’s hospitals are running out of operating funds and at risk of closing. This “looming disaster” is largely a consequence of Gov. Tate Reeve’s stubborn refusal to accept expanded Medicare funding offered to state under ObamaCare.

+ Our book, An Orgy of Thieves: Neoliberalism & Its Discontents, which the great historian Peter Linebaugh says is written “in acid prose cutting through the machine’s wicked fabrications,” is now available on Kindle…



Excitement in Iraq today with the Gulf Cup.





            Today, Friday, the Gulf Arab Cup kicks off its 25th session (Gulf 25) which will be hosted by Iraq in Basra until January 19 with 8 teams from the Gulf, and the eight teams have been divided into two groups where in the first includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, and the second – the teams of Kuwait, Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held, after which the opening match between Iraq (the host) and Oman will take place, after which the match of our team with the Yemeni counterpart took place.

Competition in the group is expected to be fierce. In order to qualify for the semi-finals first and then the title, in light of host Iraq’s ambition to win the missing title for 34 years while Al-Akhdar hopes for a fourth title while Oman wanted to win a third title, and finally, Yemen is looking for its first title in the tournament.




In a series of tweets, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani expressed his happiness for the opening of the Gulf Club 25 tournament in Basra, Iraq. 

He congratulated the people of Basra and all Iraqis for hosting this significant event, especially since it’s been over 40 years since Iraq has hosted these games. 

“I’m overwhelmed with great happiness and a wonderful feeling on the occasion of the launch of the Gulf Cup Football Championship,” he wrote in one of his tweets.

He welcomed all the attendees to the event and the “guests” from Arab countries.



In other news, cult leader Moqtada al-Sadr emerged from his public retreat long enough to entertain the fellas.




And check out this Tweet.


You know what's not 'adorbs'?  This is plundered.  It belongs in Iraq not in a British musem.

Where does Hillary Clinton belong?  As REUTERS journalist Kanishka Raj Singh notes, she thinks she belongs on a campus.


The only thing supporting the Iraq War ever cost Hillary was the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nomination.  Barack used her support for that war as a club to beat her with throughout the primary season.

Let's wind down with LGBTQ+ issues.  Kevin Bolling has an important column at NEWSWEEK.  I don't know how to excerpt it.  So here's the link.  It's about how homophobes are trying to use schools to carry out attacks on LGBTQ+ students.

Attacks on students?


A man from Central Florida is accused of threatening to kill 100 LGBTQ people in a mass shooting at Florida State University, federal investigators said. Sean Michael Albert, a 19-year-old from Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, is accused of posting the threat to a Discord channel Dec. 13, according to the federal criminal complaint. Discord is a social media instant messaging platform popular with gamers. The post included a photo of an AR-15 style rifle, along with a caption that included Florida State University’s main address and referred to his intended targets with an anti-LGBTQ slur, the complaint said.
[. . .]
At a hearing Wednesday, Jan. 4, U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd ordered he be detained until trial, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

 

John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) adds, "Albert, who is being held in federal detention in Orlando, allegedly posted that “a genocide … NEEDS to happen not even a question,” along with an anti-LGBTQ+ slur, as well as another threat to “tear gas a synagogue” and what is believed to be a coded threat to kill all Black people."


The following sites updated:



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