Friday, August 11, 2017

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE really sucks

There political parodies frequently do not work.

They depend so much on guest stars.

They don't do any funny skits.

I miss IN LIVING COLOR and MAD TV.

It's been forever since SNL was worth watching, sorry.

If you're not committed to nonsense about Trump, they really have nothing to offer.

Certainly nothing we can relate to.

I miss characters like Miss Swan and Blaine and Antoine.

Or the elderly couple that was always trying to kill each other.




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, August 11, 2017.


Elections were supposed to take place in Iraq this year.



First in Mach but they were pushed back.

Then in September but again pushed back.

Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki has used the time trying to look impressive.  That was behind his recent underwhelming trip to Russia.

Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr has also used the time -- he's visited Saudi Arabia and restarted his protests against corruption.


On the former,  Fanar Haddad (WASHINGTON POST) offers:


Though previously known as a “firebrand cleric” with a Shiite populist and militant line in Iraq, Sadr today presents himself as a moderate, nationalistic champion of change. His visit to Saudi Arabia was likely designed with two audiences in mind.
A message to Iraq’s Shiite population
Sadr’s visit was a message to his competitors in Iraq’s increasingly fragmented Shiite political scene. The Riyadh visit and the fact that Sadr was hosted at the highest levels of the Saudi establishment will underline his international relevance and burnish his prestige and credentials as an Iraqi statesman. This kind of political plumage is especially useful as Sadr and his rivals jockey for position ahead of next year’s Iraqi elections.
A message to Iran
Sadr’s visit demonstrated to Iran — and to Iran’s allies and proxies in Iraq/Sadr’s political rivals — that he not only has options, but he can even push back against Iran and has the power to potentially hurt Iranian interests in Iraq. If nothing else, this enables Sadr to present himself as the face of Arab (non-Iranian) Iraqi Shiism.

This is a position that resonates with his base — although the extent to which they will accept a Saudi embrace remains to be seen — and further differentiates him from his competitors. Having already announced a political alliance with Ayad Allawi, an anti-Shiite-Islamist figure, this visit will further polish Sadr’s credentials as a nationalist political figure who can rise above the politics of sect and ethnicity.


Ammar al-Hakim has also appears to be campaigning.  The Shi'ite leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq has formed a new party called National Wisdom; however, he has insisted that this does not mean he's left ISCI.

Ali Nasseri (NIQASH) reports:

The provincial government in Dhi Qar has been unstable for some time, with members of different parties and blocs defecting at will or forming new alliances. The most recent change saw seven members of the Muwatin, or Citizen bloc, join a brand new party created by the cleric Ammar al-Hakim.
 At the end of July al-Hakim, who had led one of the country’s largest Islamic parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, or ISCI, since 2009, announced he was leaving the party to form a new one. Called the National Wisdom party, Al-Hakim has said the new party, which has dropped Islamic from the name, is a project to rejuvenate Shiite Muslim politics in Iraq and to appeal to younger supporters. Al-Hakim had been at odds with older members of the ISCI for years.
As one commentator has noted, al-Hakim’s new party kept all the ISCI’s assets, essentially “stripping [them] of both the symbolism and the assets”.

Politicians in Dhi Qar appear to agree with al-Hakim’s new stand. The new party is about the creation of a new political generation,” said Adel al-Dukhili, the deputy governor of the province, one of those who defected to the National Wisdom party. ” A movement that believes in rapid change and turning challenges into opportunities, by adopting a clear manifesto.”



Will elections come in 2018?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

They've been twice postponed this year with no outrage expressed on the part of the global community.

Maybe Hayder al-Abadi will decide to postpone them yet again, say they'll hold elections in 2019?

Maybe he'll just play kick the can over and over.

He certainly hasn't suffered any outrage -- or consequences -- over the decision.


One election that may take place this year is on the fate of the Kurdistan region.

Will the semi-autonomous region move on to full autonomy?


RUDAW notes a new voice in the debate:

Iraqi Sunni politician and leader of the Ummah Party Mithal al-Alusi says that Iraq has failed its people and that the Kurds are justified in their quest for separation and the establishment of a state of their own.

“This is a cardboard state,” says al-Alusi in an interview with al-Iraqiya state television. “The Kurds have the right to say: I don’t want to be part of such a failed state.”

Al-Alusi, who describes himself as a secular politician from Anbar, cites the interference of regional countries as proof of Iraq’s failure.

“Is Qasem Soleimani entering Iraq on a visa? Does he have residency permit?” he asks. “Iranian intelligence working as advisors is this sovereignty? Saudi money piling up with the Sunnis, is this Iraqi sovereignty and an intact state?”

Soleimani is the commander of Iran’s Quds Force who is said to have been hired by the Iraqi government as an advisor to the defense ministry.

Al-Alusi who has been elected twice to the parliament and is a proponent of good relations with the West, including Israel, believes that Iraq has violated its own constitution which has given the Kurds a reason to seek a path of separation.

“We all voted for and agreed on this constitution that stipulates the unity of Iraq, but where has it got now and what democracy have we Iraqis got?” he says.



The move for self-determination is outlined in the Constitution.

Among the fear if the Kurds attempt it?

Neighbors like Turkey which regularly crush their own Kurdish population fear this will set an example.

The other fear in the room?

That Kurds taking this step might lead other areas of Iraq to do the same.


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    Thursday, August 10, 2017

    The Milky Way

    I found this, by Neel V. Patel, very interesting:

    Sitting at the center of the Milky Way galaxy lies a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), possessing the mass of about 4 million suns. And the primary function of Sgr A* is to be an eternal suck hole for any and all matter that manages to unwittingly find its way into the black hole’s vicinity, new data illustrates. The supermassive black hole has inadvertently become a testing ground for Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
    Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), among other instruments, just completed an analysis of a trove of new data regarding Sgr A*, which demonstrates gravitational effects predicted by Einstein. The new findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, further validate the theory of relativity through the orbit of the stars circling around Sgr A*.

    ZEROHEDGE.COM reports more on Loretta Lynch and her meeting with Bill Clinton and how she came up with a line to feed the press and asked the others below her to pimp it.

    But I find the Milky Way so much more interesting right now.

    When I was a little girl, we'd go over to my grandmothers and she's make a big palette in the front yard and we'd all be on it staring at the night sky while she pointed out various planets and stars.

    Those were magical moments.


    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
    Thursday, August 10, 2017.



    *movie preview voice* from the producers of Iraq War comes a new blood-soaked debacle, this time with *record scratch* real nuclear weapons




    Eli Lake: "Leaving aside means and only looking at outcome, regime change for North Korea would be a great outcome from a humanitarian perspective."

    It's as though the last fourteen years never happened or happened without Eli Lake.

    Iraq had regime change.

    There's been no benefit -- that's across the board but certainly when it comes to "a humanitarian perspective."

    Iraq still lacks a stable government -- forget one that governs fairly.

    It remains one of the most corrupt nations in the world.

    Population wise, it's a young country now with a median age of 19.9 years.

    It's a country of orphans in many respects due to the never-ending violence.

    A country of widows and orphans.



    1. Without an income + often with children to support, Mosul’s war widows are among most vulnerable displaced in :





    Areas of Iraq will produce birth defects for decades due to the weapons used there.  (Used there by foreign forces -- the US-led coalition.)

    Humanitarian includes medical and the US has bombed hospitals throughout the war as has the Iraqi government.  In addition, doctors have been repeatedly targeted and threatened leading to many of them fleeing the country.


    The education system is as frayed as everything else from the war.  In the next 20 years, Iraq needs to build at least 20,000 schools as a result of many things including (a) the destruction of schools from bombings and (b) 'aid' that resulted in faulty construction.

    I'm failing to see any benefits "from a humanitarian perspective."

    And the Iraq War was supposed to be 'quick.'

    Instead, it's 14 years later and still going.


    : attacks army positions in the area of Diyuub in northern , kills several soldiers & burs 4 bulldozers.



    In pictures: sharpshooters sneak up on Iraqi Army checkpoints near Tal Afar




    This is Iraq right now:


    US-backed Iraqi troops and militias assaulting and executing starved civilians found under the rubble in Old




    Confused as to how this qualifies as a 'success' "from a humanitarian perspective."







    Darkest days?

    What a load of nonsense.

    THE WASHINGTON POST can call it the "darkest days" because it's a contractor and further removed from the US military.

    Falluja in April or November of 2004.

    The gang-rape and murder of Abeer by US soldiers.

    The use of illegal weapons by the US-led coalition.

    But Blackwater is the "darkest days"?

    Far be it from THE WASHINGTON POST to ever call out the US government.

    And speaking of which, shame on any US journalist writing about Blackwater today and still not telling reporters who was being protected.

    Remember that?

    Supposedly, a US official was being escorted by Blackwater that day.

    All these years later, we can't even be told (a) if that was true and (b) if true, who it was?



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