Thursday, September 05, 2024

Ginni Thomas and Jill Stein - 2 corrupt women

 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Texas' Failure To Launch Boyz" went up a little bit ago. 

 

failuretolaunch


If we had a functioning court system in this country, Ken Paxton would be in prison right now.  He is targeting Latino Americans to try to scare them so they won't vote.  He is disgusting and he is trash.  The Civil Rights Movement was all about rejecting trash like Ken Paxton.  We need to stand together now and reject him.

We were talking about Crooke Clarence Thomas and his morbidly obese wife Ginni Thomas yesterday.  Ms. Thomas is sending private e-mails to groups who come before the Court.  That is flat out wrong.  Now Daniel Hampton reports:



Washington Post columnist on Wednesday called it "staggering" that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife tried to prevent reforms to the nation's high court.

Ruth Marcus, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary, appeared floored in her column over a bombshell Pro-Publica report that found Ginni Thomas privately praised the conservative First Liberty Institute, a major religious-rights group, for fighting efforts to reform the Supreme Court. Notably, those efforts were largely initiated due to questions swirling over Clarence Thomas' actions.

The group, Marcus noted, litigates extensively before the Supreme Court on major issues including religious liberty and LGBTQ+ rights.


"And Thomas’s email was not just some generic note of appreciation," Marcus emphasized. "It was to praise First Liberty for its fierce, and deep-pocketed, fight against … wait for it … proposals to reform the Supreme Court and strengthen ethics enforcement against the justices."

[. . .]


"The impropriety here is multilayered — and staggering," wrote Marcus.

She noted that Mrs. Thomas is a political activist who has said in the past her actions — such as attending the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally — are acceptable because she and her husband have their own separate careers.

In this case, Marcus argues she clearly crosses that line.

"Now Ginni Thomas isn’t just lobbying to 'Stop the Steal' — she’s trying to Stop the Reform of her husband’s own institution. So much for separate careers," said Marcus.

She said Ginni is now known as a "behind-the-scenes player seeking to frustrate any changes" and whom is a "grateful" beneficiary of First Liberty’s efforts.

All this is to say, Marcus argues, that the most "persuasive reason" the Supreme Court needs an ethics enforcement mechanism is Ginni Thomas.


We need serious reforms on the Supreme Court and Donald Trump's not going to give you that.  Nor will a wasted vote for Jill Stein deliver that.  I am so sick of that fake ass woman.  She  needs to find a park bench and sit her elderly ass down.  We need to fight for our democracy, for our country and for our courts.  They're all at risk unless Kamala is elected president.  Jill Stein is a predator and she needs to go away with her fake ass.  She could take Ginni Thomas with her. 

As Paul Rudnick notes:



That woman is as evil as her corrupt husband.



Be sure to read Trina's "JD Vance is living in sin with bastard children (plus Vegan Tacos)" and grasp that JD Vance is a liar, a fake and a hypocrite.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, September 5, 2024.  Ken Paxton and Greg Asshole continue to attack voting rights in Texas, Robert Kennedy Junior mocks the way Kamala Harris speaks indicating Junior has never heard himself speak, polio vaccination efforts take place in Gaza, and much more.


Starting with the US presidential election which is sixty days away.  To vote, you'll need to be registered -- check the registration date in your state many require you register within by the first of October.  And, of course, if you live in a state like Teas, the government is actively and illegally attempting to prevent you from registering to vote.  

So that we're all on the same page, let's note Ava from this week's "Roundtable" at THIRD:

I'm in California and I was outraged to learn that the attorney general in Texas, Ken Paxton, was sending armed officers to the homes of Latinos involved in voter registration, barging into their homes at six in the morning, refusing to let them get dressed and treating them like criminals.  It's outrageous and it's offensive.  There was no legitimate reason for it but it was intended to terrorize the Latino population in Texas.  As a Latina, I call it out.  CBS did something Wednesday evening and I'd like to include it.



Ava (Con't): Ken Paxton should be carted off in handcuffs for those raids.  And Texas Latinos -- Democrats, Republicans, independents and non-voters -- need to especially register what happened.  They need to turn out and they need to support Colin Allred for the US Senate and Democrats in every race to send a message to the GOP in Texas and elsewhere that this is not acceptable and we will not ignore it.



Let's note this Tweet from US House Rep Joaquin Castro.
 
 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Asshole are abusing their official powers and breaking the law -- Asshole needs to read up on culling the voter rolls because you can't do within 90 days of an election  -- you can't legally do it.


If they get away with these illegal actions in Texas, rabid MAGA will try to do it elsewhere.  

But I'm not seeing that awareness at left and 'left' sites. 

IN THESE TIMES Has Failed The Latino Reader.  Did you see what we did there?  We took a headline to one of IN THESE TIMES many useless crap-ass stories and switched it around to underscore what was really happening  Oh, and, yes, please bore us with another poem -- Manny was never the favorite on MODERN FAMILY but let's pretend bad poetry with a good heart wins the world. THE PROGRESSIVE's not reported on word on this.  COMMON DREAMS?  I can easily find attacks on Kamala Harris but I don't find ____ on this effort to destroy voting rights.  Sadly, it's that way everywhere you look.  I remember when FREE SPEECH TV couldn't stop promoting their 'diverse' line up of guests for a multi-hour broadcast discussing the state of union during Barack Obama's first term as president.  And I remember there were 30 or so guests and there was not one Latino or Latina among them.  And when their issues were raised, an uninformed idiot would speak 'for them.' 

It's past time that left outlets started realizing American Latinos deserve coverage throughout the year and not just on the day before Cinco de Mayo.



In Texas, the GOP continues to make clear that they will bully and intimidate Latino-Americans.  American citizens have faced Attorney General Ken Paxton's armed stormtroopers who show up at dawn banging on doors, barge in with weapons and refuse to allow people to get dressed as they tear apart their homes and apartments.  It's disgusting, it's outrageous and it's illegal.  And if they get away with it in Texas, you damn well better believe that they will try it elsewhere. 



It seems that Texas Governor Ken Paxton will do anything to prevent Texas from flipping for Kamala Harris—including preventing eligible citizens from registering to vote.

Paxton threatened legal action against Bexar and Harris counties if they proceed with sending out mail-in voter registration forms, which the counties have proposed doing via third-party vendors. Paxton argues that it could encourage noncitizens to register to vote.

Of course, Bexar and Harris aren’t like other counties in Texas. They’re urban and populous, and have a majority or even plurality of Latino voters, according to The Hill. And, in 2020, both counties overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden.

Paxton’s office announced Wednesday that he’d filed a lawsuit against Bexar County Commissioner Court after it approved a proposal that funds the production and mailing of voter registration forms “to unregistered voters in location(s) based on targeting agreed to by the county,” according to KENS-5. Paxton claimed the program was unlawful because it “could induce ineligible people—such as felons and noncitizens—to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote.”


The one committing a crime is Ken Paxton -- no surprise considering his history of corruption.  The crime Paxton is committing is creating an undue burden for Latino-Americans to register to vote.  It is not an equal playing field.  This is not just voter intimidation, it is also a return to the Jim Crow era where only some citizens have voting rights. Maria Villarroel (LATIN TIMES) reports:


The oldest and largest Latino civil rights group, LULAC, says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has actively "engaged in official oppression" of minority voters following a series of raids on the homes of Latino campaign volunteers in the state.

The League of United Latin American Citizens issued a press release asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Paxton and "his agents for abuse of the elderly, children, violations of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and more to be announced."

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting, and it is designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution.

The group also announced it will be hosting a news conference in El Paso to address its allegations. Ray Mancera, national vice president for the Southwest for LULAC will be among the expected speakers. They said that local elected and community leaders, concerned citizens, and get-out-the-vote volunteers will also speak at the event.

The Aug. 20 raids targeted Manuel Medina, chair of the Tejano Democrats, several LULAC members, a state House candidate and a local area mayor, according to the Associated Press.


 I'm disappointed in a lot of people over their silence on this.  This needs national attention.  

This is an assault on democracy.  In the US, we're supposed to believe in voting, we're not supposed to working to prevent Americans from voting.  And yet there is silene from so many.

I get that grifters like Glenn Greenwald who never, ever defend the average American but can't shut up about 'injustice' when the French police arrest a multi-millionaire.  I get that.  But we're supposed to be better than grifters.


We're the party of the people -- All the people.


This is outrageous.  No American citizen should ever be made to feel afraid to vote or afraid to register to vote.  But that is what Paxton and Governor Greg Asshole are trying to do right now.  It needs to be called out loudly and repeatedly and, yes, the Justice Dept needs to open an investigation and to do so immediately.  




As The New York Times reported, some Democratic officials warned that the efforts could intimidate voters so close to Election Day. Mike Doyle, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, told the newspaper, "The message is we're going to do everything we can to discourage voting in Texas. Why else would you announce this as a big victory? This is supposed to be a routine accuracy check that has been going on forever."


Saul Elbien (NEWS NATION) reviews this week's chronology of events:

In a warning on Monday night, Paxton sought to cast the county’s voter registration plan as a means of registering noncitizens to vote — something the right wing of the state and national GOP insist is part of a plan by Democrats to steal the election. 

County leadership defied Paxton on Tuesday when the board of commissioners voted 3-1 to mail out the registration forms, The Texas Tribune reported.


In a lawsuit filed Wednesday morning in Bexar County District Court, Paxton is demanding that state judges block the registration drive.


Chris Walker (TRUTHOUT) points out:

In his statement announcing the lawsuit, Paxton said the program was “blatantly illegal,” despite no state statute saying so, and claimed Bexar County had acted “irresponsibly” in passing the measure — even though studies have shown that the amount of noncitizen voting in the state is effectively zero.

Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores said that encouraging people to vote was at the heart of the county’s decision.

“The word ‘integrity’ was used in a statement by the attorney general regarding our voter rolls and [to] ensure only eligible voters can vote,” Clay-Flores said, referring to Paxton’s initial threat of litigation. “And that’s exactly what we are trying to pass…so we can encourage and make sure Americans exercise their right to vote.”

Texas does have a voter registration problem — not in the sense that fraud is being perpetrated on a mass scale, but rather that more than a third of the state who is eligible to vote isn’t registered to do so. According to statistics compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 65.2 percent of Texans who were able to register to vote did so in 2022, placing the state as 10th worst in the entire U.S. in terms of voter registration rates.

Long viewed as a Republican stronghold, Texas has seen small but noticeable shifts in its voting patterns over the past few election cycles. In the 2012 presidential election, for example, Republican Mitt Romney outperformed then-Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama by 15.8 points. In the 2020 presidential race, however, Democrat Joe Biden was only defeated by Republican Donald Trump by 5.6 points.



Monday, LULAC's national president Roman Palomares issued a statement that noted the way Paxton and his goons attempted to intimidate American citizen and civic duty minded Lidia Martinez (she tells her story in the CBS NEWS video at the start of this snapshot) and Roman pointed out:



Labor Day is not just about the work we get paid for. It's also about your countless hours volunteering and defending our communities. LULAC would not be the largest membership-based Latino civil rights organization in the United States without the passion and dedication of volunteers like you. You are the backbone of everything we do.

Also, take pride in knowing that Latinos contribute tremendously to America, contrary to what some would like us to believe. Latinos added $3.2 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023 alone! We are the driving force in the country's economic engine, and your labor in every area is the reason why.

You help our veterans, seniors, refugees, asylum seekers, and families. Plus, you're fighting for women's rights, supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, and leading voter registration and education efforts. You are making every voice heard, every person valued, and every right protected.

On this Labor Day, know that LULAC sees you, appreciates you, and stands with you in solidarity and gratitude. Together, we are making a difference, one step at a time, one community at a time.


Paxton deserves prison for what he's doing.  Actually, he should be horse whipped in the town square for abusing the powers of his office.  Hogan Gore (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN) reports:


A delegation of congressional Democrats from Texas is asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Attorney General Ken Paxton's actions amid his office's hunt for instances of voter fraud that has largely targeted the state's Latino communities.
[. . .]

"We know very well that the attorney general has used his office historically as a way of pursuing political efforts," U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said Wednesday. "From my perspective, he has a history of misusing his power."

The coalition of Democrats expects to submit a letter to the Justice Department later in the week to formally request an investigation into Paxton's recent actions, Escobar said.



In addition, LULAC and others need to sue him.  When he says that X has done something, he needs to prove it.  He's an Attorney General.  He's saying illegal activity has taken place in the past carried out by these groups.  So where's the proof.  Because it's a libel and a libel is illegal.  There is no proof, it didn't happen.  If it had, Greg Asshole and others in Texas would have prosecuted it.  They didn't.  So they lie in public and they need to be confronted in court for smearing the reputations of various civic organizations with lies which, as government officials, they know is illegal.




 I am a third-generation Texan. I have three degrees from the University of Texas. I have traveled around the country and around the globe and proudly claim my Texas roots.  I have never been ashamed of my Texas heritage until Monday, when I first heard of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s illegal raids against Latino activists, 87-year-old retired teachers and Latino candidates for election. 

Claiming to be the result of an as yet-unfounded investigation into voter fraud, Paxton’s flimsy justification for these predawn raids is straight out of the petite dictator's playbook and has no place in the United States. Paxton should be impeached (again) and his actions renounced in the strongest terms.

Darrick W. Eugene, Austin




Now if you missed it, Little Junior insulted Kamala Harris' speaking yesterday.  Let's note Elaine:




Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed Vice President Harris’s candidacy Tuesday, saying she is not “a worthy president” while defending his choice to instead endorse former President Trump.

“I don’t think that Vice President Harris is a worthy president of this country,” Kennedy told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo. “I think we need to have a president who can give an interview, who can articulate a vision, who can put together an English sentence, who can articulate her and defend her policies and her record and who can engage in a debate with, and regular debates unscripted appearances, president or vice president.”


First off, I understand Kamala Harris when she speaks.  I think most people do.

That said, does Junior not get how he sounds when he's grasping for air and volume?  If we're toing to talk about the way Kamala sounds -- which I say is fine -- then maybe we need to talk about the way Junior sounds -- like he's on a respirator.

I think it's in keeping with his long standing racism -- the same long standing racism that led him to endorse Trump -- for him to attack the way a highly educated woman of color speaks. From the same article:


“What our agreement [is] about, it’s about a unity party, about unifying our party over certain objectives,” he added. “And this will allow me to continue to disagree with President Trump on issues that I don’t agree with him on, and him to disagree with me.”


He has no party, he never has.  But I wonder how he sleeps at night knowing that his father's watching him and shaking his head in disgust.



As Elaine notes, Junior can't speak with that strange voice of his.  

But to help Junior out, let's note things that a president or would-be one should be able to do.  When staring into a news camera, 


1) I can say for the record, "My previous wife did not kill herself because of my non-stop, serial cheating."

2) I did not harass a baby sistter -- not in my 30s, not in my 40s, not in my 50s and not in my 60s.  

3) I grasp that an elderly man like myself should not be propositioning underage baby sitters.

4) I am not doing cocaine in 2024.

5) Any women I have bedded in the last 12 months were not kept secret from my current wife.

6) I realize most Americans think I'm a whiny bitch boi due to the fact that I cried and cried over getting on the ballot and now I'm crying as they won't take me off the ballot.

7) I'm sure if my father were alive today, he would say, "Junior, you're making it so hard for this family.  You need to grow up and shape up."

8) I know my Daddy would not have approved of my dumping a bear cub's corpse in Central Park to stage a fake crime.

9) I don't always cry out "Daddy!" while in bed climaxing.  Not always.  Maybe four out of every five times.

10) My father was a giant of a man and me, I'm just Little Junior.  Wah! Wah! Wah!



Now let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!



AMY GOODMAN: Amidst Israel’s continued military attacks on Gaza, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children to protect them from paralysis, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks in certain areas of Gaza. This comes after health officials recently confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in a quarter of a century, a 10-month-old child. This is Gaza resident Baha al-Arbid.

BAHA AL-ARBID: [translated] We’ve heard about the truce for polio vaccinations, but I want to stay in this area, because I don’t trust this truce that has just begun. We still fear bombing will happen at any moment, as it happened this morning.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering with the polio vaccination campaign.

GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as residents of Gaza are also facing other diseases and chronic lack of food or access to education. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, as well.

KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.

AMY GOODMAN: Just before we went to air today, Democracy Now! received this update from Tarneem Hammad in central Gaza, who’s part of the polio vaccination campaign with Medical Aid for Palestinians.

TARNEEM HAMMAD: We would need at least 95% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its reemergence. However, we’ve been facing many challenges, given the severely disrupted health system, also water system and sanitation systems. Other requirements for a successful campaign delivery include sufficient cash, fuel and functional telecommunication networks to reach communities with information about the campaign, which has been very, very difficult for all of our healthcare workers and social mobilizers who are working on the ground. Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, so the reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last 10 months, is another threat to the children in Gaza and also to the neighboring countries. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in Gaza and also in the region.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US. Its staff is working from Deir al-Balah Primary Health Care Center, a key vaccination site, working there in Gaza.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Janti. Can you explain what is happening, how many people you understand have gotten this vaccine? It’s children that they’re attempting to do.

JANTI SOERIPTO: Thanks, Amy.

Yes, our site, our Primary Health Care Center in Deir al-Balah, is one of the 51 sites where vaccinations are given to children. I’ve understood that on day one we were able to vaccinate 1,825 children already, which is encouraging, of course. And our staff are working around the clock to make sure that people understand, that parents understand where they can go to get vaccinations, that those vaccinations are safe, to make sure that children are prepped and to make sure that healthcare workers are trained in order to do so safely. But, of course, we need much more than just a couple of days to be able to give these vaccinations. Also, you heard the cover rate there between 90 and 95%. But you have to give two doses of these vaccinations, and they have to be four weeks apart. So one dose is not enough.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how these vaccines are being administered? Israel has agreed to certain pauses in the bombing. We’re reporting about children being vaccinated in this area, and children being killed in this area by Israeli bombs. Explain how it all happens and how the vaccines are getting into Gaza right now.

JANTI SOERIPTO: So, the procedure, getting in through the WHO over the road. But I think, look, you laid out so clearly. You can, say, have an eight-hour pause in the window in which you can vaccinate these children in these 51 designated sites. But then, I mean, in practice, yeah, children then have to be moved to a particular site. Then sometimes they have to move back to where they were displaced, because most of the people in Gaza are displaced anyway. They’re not in their homes. Homes are destroyed. So it’s very hard to say. I can’t imagine. You heard the previous person in Gaza talking how worried they were to actually even travel across roads that are destroyed to some of these clinics.

So, there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause. It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day. And then, again, the vaccines are oral drops, two or three drops per dose. You have to give them twice with four weeks in between. That means you have to track and trace these children, as well. They’re all displaced. Whatever happens between the intervening four weeks between those doses then also impacts how effective your campaign can be.

AMY GOODMAN: So, according to the World Health Organization, the Israeli military bombardment of Gaza has damaged or destroyed 31 of 36 hospitals in the area.

JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of this, and also how polio has reemerged after a quarter of a century in Gaza?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Yeah, it’s just unbelievable. Look, I was there end of March, and I thought it was unbelievably dire then. And clearly, it has gotten much, much worse since, because I was there when people were still congregating in Rafah, and since then, they’ve been displaced from Rafah and the south of Gaza, as well.

So, you know, there is very, very limited access to healthcare. We set up that Primary Health Care Center in Deir Al-Balah. If you look at the people who come there every day, over half of them have to walk more than an hour — walk more than an hour — to get even to that site. So that tells you something about the lack of healthcare, adequate healthcare, in Gaza right now.

And the reemergence of polio doesn’t surprise us. Save the Children and many other organizations and doctors have been warning against this for many, many weeks now. If you look at the sanitation, the sanitary conditions there, solid waste is everywhere in the Gaza Strip. There are not enough toilets. There are no showers. This was a situation just waiting to happen.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you talked about how this is a two-dose regimen, and they’re trying to get, what, just under 700,000 children, to inject them with these vaccines. This never was an issue in the past. But if they are only able to get the first dose, is it ineffective?

JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s not the right level of coverage. I think — and we should also remind ourselves, these are oral drops. Children are already — in Gaza, are already malnourished. They’re weakened. Their immune systems are compromised after almost a year of conflict, displacements, lack of food — you heard it here before — lack of clean water, etc. So, to get adequate protection, they would definitely need those two doses. So we’re concerned that even the current setup, we will do what we can — the WHO is doing what they can — but it’s going to be difficult to reach the coverage numbers in the way that you would normally do it in a campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: So, families have — surviving families in Gaza have to trust that as the polio vaccination campaign makes its way, for example, to Rafah, and then there’s a pause there, that they won’t be bombed if they leave their house or wherever they are currently displaced to, to get this vaccination. That’s in Gaza. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis are continuing their protests calling for a ceasefire and a hostage deal from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said no so far. The significance of this? And the position of Save the Children on a ceasefire?

JANTI SOERIPTO: We’ve been calling for a ceasefire since October last year, because we know, as humanitarian operators, that that is the only way to get adequate aid, supplies and services to children and families that need it now. In the current scenario, our amazing staff and volunteers in Gaza are doing what they can at the risk of their own lives. We’ve lost colleagues and partners over these past months. But it’s really difficult to get people to come out, whether to get vaccinated, whether to get food, whether to get some level of mental health support or protection when bombs are falling. And deconfliction, so the safety of your convoys, of sending your own staff on the road with supplies to reach people, is not guaranteed at all.

AMY GOODMAN: In a moment, we’re going to speak with Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of the state International Communities Organization, a back-channel negotiator with Hamas in the past. So I wanted to switch gears just for one minute, Janti, to talk about what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In mid-August, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in response to mpox. This is Nzigire Lukangira, whose child has been suffering from mpox for days in an isolation ward in Kavumu in the eastern DRC.

NZIGIRE LUKANGIRA: [translated] Since my child got this disease and I brought him here, he only received one injection and some pills. The conditions here are very poor. We have no food, and people are forbidden to visit us because we have a dangerous disease. We are suffering a lot and feel like we will die of hunger here.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Janti Soeripto, as chair and as president and CEO of Save the Children US, you were just in the DRC. Can you talk about this outbreak of mpox and what people should understand and how difficult it is to get a vaccination right now?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Right. Thanks. Yes, I was there in May. I was actually in South Kivu, which is now the epicenter, I think, of this particular outbreak, with over 50 — with 50% of the cases. It is an incredibly contagious disease. It is very dangerous for children. So, of the cases, I think two-thirds of the cases affect young children.

And again — and we see a pattern here, Amy, whether it’s Gaza or the DRC or Sudan, for that matter. You know, contagious diseases, whether it’s cholera or polio or mpox, you know, wreak havoc on populations that are already vulnerable, that are displaced, and there is no access to proper healthcare, vaccinations, no sanitation. And these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.

So, we’re doing what we can. Again, we’re working with communities to make sure that they understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of spreading — simple hygiene, handwashing. Again, clean water is in short supply. People are weakened because there was already a food insecurity crisis. We’re trying to ascertain where people can have access to healthcare. But as you heard in the previous segment, it is difficult to get access to medicine. And there is currently no — there are vaccines in the DRC, either.

AMY GOODMAN: Janti Soeripto, we want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO of Save the Children US.

Next up, as tens of thousands of Israelis protest for Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to a Gaza ceasefire, we’ll speak with Gershon Baskin, longtime Israeli back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His new book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine. Stay with us.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 334 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,861, with 94,398 injured."   Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."    Months ago, United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

 


April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 



The following sites updated;

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Wednesday, September 04, 2024

Morbidly Obese Ginni Thomas gets even more corrupt


The Crooked Supreme Court has a lot of filth on it.  Chief piece of garbage? Clarence Thomas.  He and his morbidly obese wife Ginni Thomas are forever in the news:


Ginni Thomas, the far-right activist wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, has thanked a religious liberties group for its efforts to block reforms of the court aimed at reining in the justices’ ethical breaches, including those of her husband.

A new recording obtained by the investigative website ProPublica and the watchdog Documented discloses a July email in which Ginni Thomas thanked First Liberty Institute for fighting to oppose supreme court reforms. She specifically referred to White House proposals from Joe Biden designed to rein in wayward justices on the country’s highest court, of which her husband is the prime example.


“I cannot adequately express enough appreciation for you guys pulling into reacting to the Biden effort on the supreme court. Many were so depressed by the lack of response by R[epublican]s and conservatives,” she said.

Writing in all caps, she added: “YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES. CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”

The email was read out by the head of First Liberty Institute, Kelly Shackelford, on a 31 July call with donors to the group. He said the email had been written by Ginni Thomas that same day.

Two days previously, Biden had called for sweeping changes to the court, including term limits for the nine justices and a code of ethics that would be enforced by an outside body. Under current arrangements, the justices are liable to a voluntary code which they individually police themselves.



Excuse me on so many levels.  The chief level?  First Liberty Institute has cases before the Court all the time.  Should the wife of a Supreme Court Justice really be e-mailing them?  Let alone thanking them and singing their praises?  Seems to me that any case -- even with just a friend of the court filing -- that First Liberty is part of should require Crooked Clarence to recuse himself. 


And let me point out one more thing, every day the lying piece of filth Jonathan Turley invents 'problems' while refusing to cover the corruption of Clarence Thomas.  Jonathan Turley is a stooge and a liar and piece of garbage.





The battle over Supreme Court ethics reform intensified in May after Justice Samuel Alito refused to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 despite reports that the justice had flown flags associated with the movement to overturn the 2020 election results outside of his residences. 

Alito blamed his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, for flying one of the flag's outside of the couple's home. 

Mrs. Alito is by no means the first Supreme Court spouse to invite controversy into the court. Ginni Thomas has plenty of her own links to the 2020 "Stop the Steal" movement, and has been a party in the scandal surrounding her husband's relationship with influential conservative billionaires. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Ginni Thomas was an active voice in efforts by pro-Trump Republicans to subvert the result of the vote. Thomas sent dozens of text messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to stop Democrats from carrying out "the greatest Heist of our History."



FORBES has compiled a reading list of all the ethical scandals Clarence and Ginni have been involved in thus far.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, September 4, 2024.  The press continues to minimize Donald Trump's senility and violence, THE NEW YORKER explores a massacre in Iraq, Harvey Weinstein's play thing joins with others to pretend to be  feminist and to pretend to have a career, and much more.



Donald Trump is no longer running against President Joe Biden.
That's been the case for the more than six weeks since Biden bowed to Democratic pressure and withdrew from the race, weeks after his June 27 debate performance amplified long-standing fears among his own party that he could not defeat the former president.

Well he's 78 years old.  His sentences do not line up and often aren't completed.  It's time for people to grasp that he's senile and much too old to be running for president. 

Instead, we get a craven media that doesn't cover Donald correctly.  John Gallagher (LGBTQ NATiON) explains:

Ever since Donald Trump appeared on the scene, the mainstream media has struggled with how to deal with him as a candidate. At first, they were enchanted by his sheer weirdness, which made for great copy and footage. But when Trump flooded the field with lies, they couldn’t bring themselves to use the term. They used “falsehoods” or “claims without evidence.” Most of all, they treated Trump as if he were just like any other candidate, even when he was anything but.

You would think that by the third time around, the media would have learned its lesson. If anything, the media has gotten worse. This election cycle, reporters at major outlets seem to be going out of their way to treat Trump ever-so-gently, normalizing his most dangerous behavior.

Perhaps the worst offender is the self-appointed paper of record, The New York Times. When the scandal broke about Trump illegally filming for a campaign ad at Arlington National Cemetery last week – while his aides physically assaulted a worker – the Times reported that the “campaign clashed with an official” at the cemetery, which downplayed just how brazen Trump’s actions were. The paper then followed up with another story about how Trump “returns to the politics of forever wars,” as if that was the story instead of how the Trump campaign broke the law prohibiting using the hallowed ground for political purposes.

In short, the politics became the story, not the scandal.

Or look at the paper’s coverage of Trump’s cognitive decline.

Oh, wait. That was just reserved for Joe Biden.

Instead, the Times decided to run a story about Trump’s truly bizarre rantings at his rallies. They didn’t question the stability of someone who worries about being eaten by sharks or praises Hannibal Lecter. Rather, they came up with this humdinger of an appraisal: “It is difficult to find the hermeneutic methods with which to parse the linguistic flights that take him from electrocuted sharks to Hannibal Lecter’s cannibalism, windmills, and Rosie O’Donnell.”

Who are we kidding here? Trump’s inability to think linearly hints at cognitive issues. He is now the oldest candidate to run for president. Instead of a serious look at whether he’s displaying exactly the kind of problems that the Times took Biden to task for, the paper came up with a cutesy little piece that quotes English professors instead of geriatricians.

The Times‘ velvet-glove approach to Trump extends to his allies as well. In a piece about Trump’s appearance before Moms for Liberty, the paper treated the extremist group as a stand-in for “the fired-up suburban women” that Trump is in danger of losing. Moms for Liberty is a far cry from the suburban women demographic, consisting instead primarily of evangelicals who don’t have kids in public schools. The article failed to mention the group’s recent scandals with one howler of an exception: “The Moms for Liberty can get a bit carried away – one of their local chapters once accidentally quoted Adolf Hitler.”

Here’s the problem. It wasn’t an accident. Hitler was actually quoted by name. (The paper had to issue a correction.) Also not mentioned in the “bit carried away” part was the group’s efforts to ban hundreds of books and attack drag queens. 





It’s emblematic of what the political media in this country are doing so badly in covering this race. With dizzying regularity, Trump lies. He says toxic, anti-democratic things over and over again. And he still gets treated like a normal candidate. It’s often the case that the media, presented with another one of his addled rants, will dive in, scoop and separate enough words to make it seem like he’s got enough actual grey matter gooping around in his skull to form a complete sentence, and present their director’s cut of his wandering mind for public consumption. 

The Democrat, first Joe Biden and now Harris, gets called evasive or worse if he-then-she doesn’t respond to Trump’s ridiculous lies. The effect is to legitimize Trump—in this case, to make it seem as if he raised fair and reasonable questions about Harris’s identity.

But this isn’t even the most glaring recent example of the press laying down on the job. That prize goes to the two New York Times reporters who recently gave us this gem, which ran under another genius headline: “Harris and Trump Have Housing Ideas. Economists Have Doubts.”

You can tell instantly what kind of article this is going to be—one of those classic on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand pieces that pretends to weigh evidence in a sober way and absolutely refrains from drawing any conclusions that might give offense to one side or the other. Except that in this case, the conclusion gives offense to anyone with a functioning brain.

It’s worth going into this at a little length. Here’s the story’s second paragraph: “Their two visions of how to solve America’s affordable housing shortage have little in common, and Ms. Harris’s plan is far more detailed. But they do share one quality: Both have drawn skepticism from outside economists.”

First of all: If you’ve been in journalism long enough then you know that you can find economists who’ll say anything, especially when it comes to picking apart a candidate’s plan. More importantly: “Ms. Harris’s plan is far more detailed” is Times-speak, as any veteran reader of that paper knows, for “Harris at least has a plan, while Trump doesn’t have anything close to a plan.”

Which is confirmed two paragraphs later: “Mr. Trump’s plan is garnering even more doubt. He pledges to deport undocumented immigrants, which could cut back temporarily on housing demand but would also most likely cut into the construction work force and eventually limit new housing supply. His other ideas include lowering interest rates, something that he has no direct control over and that is poised to happen anyway.”

Wait a second. Are you kidding me? Trump’s “housing plan” is to deport people? And the most important newspaper in the English-speaking world is taking this idea seriously? What could these reporters—and more importantly, their editor, who is supposed to use his or her years of experience to guide them—be thinking?

This highlights a continuing problem with how the political press deals with a person who a) historically has very few actual ideas beyond schemes to get himself on television, b) whose ideas, such as they are, are often unworkable and unconstitutional and un-American and extremist, c) who lies about them every time he speaks.

 A reality-based article comparing the candidates’ “housing plans” would have gone something like: Harris, who talks about housing all the time on the stump, has a real and reasonably detailed plan that economists say has some good points and bad points; Trump shows no sign of having given even ten seconds of thought to the housing crisis (on Trump’s 20-point platform, the word isn’t mentioned), and by the way, he spent four years as president, during which time he amassed a thoroughly rotten record on housing and never once showed any interest in ameliorating the affordable housing crisis, how about that?


Also on Donald and the media, Sabrina Haake (SALON) reports:


At Donald Trump’s weekend hatefest in Pennsylvania, when he got to the obligatory mainstream-media-is-the-enemy part, a devoted MAGA follower got so inspired he vaulted over the protective barrier surrounding the media in attendance. Sandwiched between the I-am-your-retribution section and God-chose-me, Trump’s anti-media speech inspired the man to jump up, run toward the press barrier, and sail over it, prepared to wale—physically— on members of the media. Hired security fortunately followed the man and tased him mid-assault. 

During the melee, Trump cooed from the pulpit. “Beautiful, that’s beautiful, that’s alright, that’s okay, no, he’s on our side. We get a little itchy, David, don’t we? No, no, he’s on our side.”

Minimizing political violence as "getting a little itchy," even from Trump’s micro-vocabulary, signaled approval, while “He’s on our side” urged us vs. them lenience for the attacker. As in, it’s normal to physically assault reporters because reporters say mean things about me.  

It’s a fool’s game to expect Trump to embrace the First Amendment (or any other tenant of Constitutional law), or the historical underpinnings of protecting the free press. Trump’s inability to hold either nuance or history isn’t surprising, but the mainstream media’s complicity in letting him get away with it is.

Few major media outlets have picked up the story of the assault or Trump’s delight in it, despite videos of the exchange circulating on social media.  


In other campaign news, predator and failure Jill Stein is attempting to get publicity by playing the victim yet again.  Reality, she's a liar and she's a loser and any real leftist would refrain from voting for a millionaire who kept the words "working class" out of this year's party platform.  Jill's nonsense is addressed in Ava and my "Media: The stupid on the right and the stupid on the left will doom us all" that went up last night.

Still on voting, we did a "Roundtable" at THIRD and I'm noting this from it:

Ty: Nope.  One more e-mail.  It's about C.I. and THE COMMON ILLS and I think Ava should be the one to speak to it.  Isla e-mailed to comment on C.I.'s Wednesday snapshot and she writes, "Thank God, she covered it Wednesday morning because it wasn't getting attention, the attacks in Texas on those of us who are Latino.  This is very serious.  The attorney general of our state trying to intimidate us and scare us away from voter registration and voting.  This is an attack on our rights and our freedoms.  And it got local coverage but wasn't a national issue when it should have been.  This Republican attack on Latinos will register with other Latinos in other states but only if they know about it.  And they need to know about it because if they'd do it to us in Texas, the GOP would do it any state that they thought they could get away with it."  Ava?


Ava: For those who don't know, I'm a Latina which is probably why Ty's tossing to me -- that and the fact that C.I. and I write a lot of things together about the media and the fact that C.I. said she didn't want to talk at all in this roundtable. Yeah, Isla is correct.  I'm in California and I was outraged to learn that the attorney general in Texas, Ken Paxton, was sending armed officers to the homes of Latinos involved in voter registration, barging into their homes at six in the morning, refusing to let them get dressed and treating them like criminals.  It's outrageous and it's offensive.  There was no legitimate reason for it but it was intended to terrorize the Latino population in Texas.  As a Latina, I call it out.  CBS did something Wednesday evening and I'd like to include it.



Ava (Con't): Ken Paxton should be carted off in handcuffs for those raids.  And Texas Latinos -- Democrats, Republicans, independents and non-voters -- need to especially register what happened.  They need to turn out and they need to support Colin Allred for the US Senate and Democrats in every race to send a message to the GOP in Texas and elsewhere that this is not acceptable and we will not ignore it.


Jim: C.I., you and Texas community members Sabina and Francisco have been writing a lot about this over the last few days.  Do you know what the last day to register to vote in Texas is?


C.I.:  I didn't want to talk but I'll grab this.  Sabina and Francisco are doing great work in Texas and it's great to talk to them and amplify them in any way possible. One thing not being reported is that Texas has disabled online voter registration.  If you're planning to vote in Texas in November, the first thing you need to do is to check and make sure you weren't purged because Governor Greg Asshole has purged over a million people from the voter rolls.   The next thing you need to know is that Greg Asshole has stopped online voter registration.  You will need to register by October 7th.  That may require you going to your local voter registration officials office.  If you're renewing your drivers license or getting a replacement for it, you can register at the DMV.  Fall means county fairs and there will be people with booths and tables set up to register voters..  You can also print up an application online and mail it in.  You need to move quickly on that because October 7th is the deadline.


I know my state (California) because I live there and I know Texas because voting rights are under assault and community members like Sabina and Francisco keep me updated.  Where ever you live, you need to be aware of if you're on the voter rolls or not.  You also need to figure out how to register in your state and what the deadline is.

Let's turn to the topic of Iraq.  This is from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. A warning to our audience: The following story contains graphic images and descriptions of violence.

The New Yorker has published 10 photographs of the U.S. Marines’ 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Their killings in the middle of the night came in retaliation for an attack on U.S. military convoy as it drove through Haditha. The convoy hit a roadside bomb, an IED, placed there by Iraqis resisting the U.S. invasion. It killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas.

The gruesome images published last week show dead Iraqi men, women and children, many of them shot in the head at close range. One of the victims, a 5-year-old girl named Zainab Younis Salim, is seen with a number 11 written on her back with a red marker. The release of the photos comes 19 years after the massacre and only after producers of the investigative podcast series In the Dark sued the Navy, the Marine Corps and U.S. Central Command to force them to turn over the photos and other records. This is a trailer for In the Dark.

MICHAEL FAY: It’s now about 17:30, and we’re finishing up the day here at an observation post. And right now for about the last 10, 15 minutes, we hear in the background the evening singing from the minarets.

CAP. LUCAS McDONNELL: Believe it or not, sooner or later, we will kill some of these folks, who need to be killed. And that’s the beautiful thing about this world, is that there’s always someone who needs to be killed. And we’re the folks to do it.

MADELEINE BARAN: I spent the past four years investigating a crime, a crime that most people have long forgotten.

INTERPRETER FOR KHALID SALMAN RASEEF: He heard the sound of really strong bombing.

KHALID SALMAN RASEEF: I heard M16, zhzhzhzhzhzh.

MADELEINE BARAN: A crime that for almost 20 years has gone unpunished.

KEVIN PARMELEE: They went into the room, and they were just taking shots.

SAFA YOUNIS: [translated] Me and Noor, we were under the bed. He get his rifle and then start shooting at us.

KEVIN PARMELEE: How did they not perceive that these were children?

ARISTOTELES BARBOSA: I remember I opened a Humvee, and I just see bodies stacked up. And I open another one, the same thing. I’m like, “[Bleep].”

MADELEINE BARAN: A four-year investigation, hundreds of interviews, thousands of documents, all in an effort to see what the U.S. military has kept from the public for years.

COL. GREGORY WATT: You know, I don’t know what’s to be gained by this investigative journalism.

FORMER MARINE: I’m not interested in talking about that. That was a long time ago, and I tried to move past all that. So, no, thank you, on all that.

MARINE FAMILY MEMBER: He was saying it was so traumatic, he couldn’t talk about it.

KHALID JAMAL: You and you and you.

INTERPRETER FOR KHALID JAMAL: And you and you. They pointed at each one to go inside the house.

JEFFREY CHESSANI: Can I help you?

PARKER YESKO: Hi there, Mr. Chessani. My name is Parker. I’m a radio reporter, working on —

JEFFREY CHESSANI: Parker what?

BRIAN WITT: What did I think?

MADELEINE BARAN: Yeah.

BRIAN WITT: I assumed it meant that he had [bleep] shot someone.

FORMER MARINE: It’s not a big deal. [bleep] everyday [bleep]. Normal day in Haditha.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re now joined by Madeleine Baran, head reporter and host of The New Yorker's In the Dark podcast. She traveled to Haditha, Iraq, to meet with family members, the victims of the Haditha massacre. Her piece for The New Yorker is titled “The Haditha Massacre Photos That the Military Didn't Want the World to See.”

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Madeleine. This is an astounding, what, nine-part podcast series and piece in The New Yorker with these photographs. You’ve interviewed hundreds of people, you and your team. First, talk about what these photographs mean now, so many years later, the significance of what they show, and what happened with this massacre, who was charged, who was not held accountable.

MADELEINE BARAN: Well, what these photos show, Amy, are direct evidence of what the Marines did that day in Haditha. I should say I didn’t personally travel to Haditha. We traveled to another part of Iraq, and we did send a reporter with more experience in the region to Haditha. But these photos show, as you can see, men, women, children in defenseless positions — in one case, a mother on a bed surrounded by her dead children; in another case, a mother in the corner of their living room with her arm around her 4-year-old boy, both of them killed, and they’re facedown on the ground, huddled, cowering in a corner. And so, what the photos clearly show is that these were innocent people who do not appear to be doing anything threatening at the time of their deaths.

And what happened with the Haditha case is, is that four marines initially were charged with murder, but all of those murder charges eventually went away. In three cases, the charges were dismissed. And in the final case, the one against the squad leader, Sergeant Frank Wuterich, that case did go to trial, but it ended in the middle of the trial with a plea deal for negligent dereliction of duty. It’s a very low-level charge. Wuterich’s own lawyer described it to me as basically akin to a parking ticket. It didn’t carry a single day in prison or jail.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Madeleine, could you talk about your long battle to get these photos and the resistance that you met and why you persevered for so long?

MADELEINE BARAN: Well, so, this all started in 2020, when a reporter on our team, Parker Yesko, filed the first FOIA request by our team, trying to get not just the photos, but all of the investigative records into what happened in Haditha. You know, at the time when this killing happened, this was described as another My Lai. And yet, you know, we still know very little, at least when we started our reporting, knew very little about what even happened that day. So, we filed this FOIA. The military really barely responded. And so, we worked with a law firm who specializes in FOIA work, Loevy & Loevy, an amazing team, led by a lawyer, Matt Topic, and they helped us sue the military. So we filed suit against the military. And then, at that point, you know, we were still not necessarily getting anywhere. I mean, I don’t think we ever thought it was at all a foregone conclusion that we would receive these photos.

So, we knew from reading the records — I had seen in the past that the U.S. military had made a claim that they wanted to keep the photos private because of concern — in part because of concern for the surviving family members of the dead. And so, anticipating this concern, when I was in Iraq, I talked with one of the survivors and, ultimately, talked to two of the survivors and said, you know, “What do you think about us trying to get these photos?” And they both said — one is a man, Khalid Jamal, who was 14 when his father and uncles were killed. Another is Khalid Salman Raseef, who’s a lawyer who lost 15 members of his family that day. And they both said, “Yes, we want you to have these photos. These photos are important.” And so, then they did something remarkable. Working with a reporter we sent there, they went house to house and talked to other surviving family members, explained our reporting to them, explained what we were trying to do, and had, like, a form with them that we had provided, in Arabic and English, that explained that this form would authorize us to try to obtain the photos, with their permission, from the U.S. military. And ultimately, those two men collected 17 signatures, and then we filed those in court. And then, in March of this year, the military relented and sent us the photos.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to play two clips for you from the podcast series. But start off by walking us through that day, November 19th, 2005.

MADELEINE BARAN: So, early that morning, the marines set off, a squad of marines in a four-vehicle convoy, just a routine supply run. And one of those vehicles was hit by an IED, and it killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas and injured two other marines. In the hours that followed, the marines shot five people by a white car next to the — near the site of the explosion, and then went into three houses, and they killed men, women and children inside. The oldest person they killed was a grandfather in his seventies, and the youngest was a 3-year-old girl.

AMY GOODMAN: So, this is retired Colonel Gregory Watt of the Army. He was — first led a noncriminal investigation into what happened in Haditha. And this is him speaking in this podcast, In the Dark.

COL. GREGORY WATT: Yeah, my experience leads me to believe that this occurred 2006, 2007. Now it’s now 2023. I think they’ve moved on.

MADELEINE BARAN: Why do you think that?

COL. GREGORY WATT: I think it’s human nature.

MADELEINE BARAN: Even if your whole family was killed?

COL. GREGORY WATT: I believe so, especially in that region of the world.

MADELEINE BARAN: What do you mean?

COL. GREGORY WATT: They have different values than we do, OK? They are more concerned about the living than those that have passed.

MADELEINE BARAN: I think, to the — I’ve talked to some of the survivors. And for them, it’s really important to know as much as possible about how their family members were killed and then also why no one was ever punished.

COL. GREGORY WATT: Yeah, I’m not — I don’t have the answers to that.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Colonel Gregory Watt from the In the Dark podcast. This is Khalid Jamal, who you just described, one of the survivors of the Haditha massacre, 14 at the time, his dad and three uncles killed by the Marines in 2005, responding.

MADELEINE BARAN: One day while we were talking with Khalid Jamal, we turned off the air conditioner in the hotel room because it was so noisy. But at one point, it got so hot, we had to take a break.

SAMARA FREEMARK: Yeah, OK, let’s turn on the air conditioning, take a little break.

MADELEINE BARAN: Samara called down to the lobby and ordered coffee and pastries.

SAMARA FREEMARK: Hi. Is this room service? Hi. I wanted to order…

MADELEINE BARAN: While we were waiting, Khalid Jamal asked me a question. He asked me whether I had ever talked to Frank Wuterich.

KHALID JAMAL: Did you meet Frank Wuterich?

MADELEINE BARAN: Not yet, no.

And then Khaild Jamal said something surprising.

KHALID JAMAL: I hope to meet him.

MADELEINE BARAN: He wanted to talk to Wuterich.

KHALID JAMAL: I want to ask him —

SAMARA FREEMARK: Hold up. OK.

KHALID JAMAL: I need to ask him one question only. Just one question. How did he kill them? I want to explain how did he that in our house. How?

MADELEINE BARAN: Khalid Jamal told us that he’s always wanted to know what happened in his father and uncles’ final moments.

KHALID JAMAL: I want. I want that.

SAMARA FREEMARK: Why?

KHALID JAMAL: I want to know what’s happened in home.

SAMARA FREEMARK: Because you don’t know.

KHALID JAMAL: Yes. I saw the bodies only. I want to know how he did this killings of my father.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is Khalid Salman Raseef, 15 members of his family killed by the Marines in the Haditha massacre.

INTERPRETER FOR KHALID SALMAN RASEEF: They kind of gave up on anyone talking about this case again. They didn’t forget. They have been heartbroken every day since that day. But they gave up on someone talk about the case or someone reinvestigate the case.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Madeleine Baran, it is now almost 20 years later, and you have the military, the representative, saying, “Why would they care? They can move on.” Explain what you were most shocked by in what you discovered in these investigations, not to mention another man that they killed that day.

MADELEINE BARAN: Well, of course, you know, the crime itself is shocking. You know, what happened that day is shocking. I think that, you know, as we got deeper and deeper into the reporting, it was also very interesting to see what happened in the years that followed, how — you know, I think, really, one of the big undertold parts of this whole story is the role of the surviving family members, who have been quietly and persistently questing for justice for years now and have done almost everything they can think of to try to reveal this story, to try to get justice for their dead family members, and have been repeatedly sort of left out of the process.

You know, as we show in the podcast, at trial of the squad leader, none of the depositions — you know, the jury never heard any of the depositions of the survivors, the eyewitnesses to the killings who were Iraqi. You know, at trial, the prosecutors had asked to replace the names of the victims with numbers. And so, at trial, the dead were referred to by the numbers that the marines scrawled on their bodies hours after the killings. And so, I think there’s also a story here about how we treat the Iraqi civilians and how we treated these particular Iraqi civilians in this case.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Madeleine, could you talk about the role of General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, who went on to become secretary of defense in the Trump administration?

MADELEINE BARAN: So, Mattis played a very key role in this case. You know, Mattis was the person who, most memorably in this case, dismissed the charges against one of the marines, a man named Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt. Sharratt is the one who killed three members of 14-year-old Khalid Jamal’s family. And Mattis didn’t just dismiss the charges. He also wrote Sharratt a very glowing, full-of-praise letter, saying that, in his eyes, Sharratt was innocent, and praising Sharratt for how he had performed as a marine. And, you know, this is something that Mattis, I think, to this day appears as very proud of. In his memoir, he even published the letter in his book.

AMY GOODMAN: And at this point, no one went to jail, Madeleine. We have 15 seconds.

MADELEINE BARAN: Correct, no punishment, no jail time for the killings to this day. That’s correct.

AMY GOODMAN: And the response of the Iraqis, the family members who survived?

MADELEINE BARAN: What they want is the world to know what happened to their family, to know their family were good people, not insurgents, and they want justice.

AMY GOODMAN: Madeleine Baran, we want to thank you for an astounding podcast series, In the Dark, head reporter and host of the New Yorker podcast, the new article in The New Yorker is “The Haditha Massacre Photos That the Military Didn’t Want the World to See.” We will link to it all.

That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, with Juan González in Chicago. Thanks for joining us.


Where's the video?  We posted it immediately yesterday when it went up knowing that YOUTUBE would censor it later in the day (it took them two hours).  You can use the link and go to the DEMOCRACY NOW! website to stream the report.

Turning to Gaza, while Israelis protested and went on strike after the discovery of six corpses of October 7th  hostages, Bitches With No Careers turned up to let War Criminal Netanyahu off the hook and to flaunt their stupidity.  From THE (always conservative) HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:

“To the families of each hostage whose life was stolen, I have thought of you every day for 11 months, but today I send you my heart,” wrote [Gwyneth] Paltrow, who has spoken out to raise awareness about the hostages’ plight over the past year. In a separate Instagram Stories post, the actor asked, “There are still 17 women being held by Hamas. Where are the feminists?” with the hashtag “#rapeisnotresistance.”

Where are the feminists?  Did that bitch just ask where are the feminists?  Did Harvey Weinstein's little 'muse' just have the nerve to ask about feminists?  Go back to selling your snake oil.  You don't have an acting career and you haven't in years.  Go away, psycho, no one relates to you.  

After the news of Goldberg-Polin’s death broke, ]Debra] Messing posted a tearful response conveying the deep pain she felt over the killings, and placed the blame on those who opposed the IDF’s offensive in Rafah in May — a stance for which she saw major backlash in her post’s comments.    

No career left and she's been going bald for six years now.  Are we surprised that she continues to pretend Netanyahu has no blame for this?  Even as Israelies call him out?  She's such an idiot.

  Israeli actress Gadot also posted a montage of images of the six victims, telling her fans that her heart was broken after learning the news. 

“They survived almost 11 months in captivity and then were murdered by Hamas,” she wrote. “People who became an inseparable part of our hearts, families who waited so long for a different end, the heart is broken into pieces today. 101 more hostages still there.”


Gal's fans?  Gal got fired from the only real job she had: Wonder Woman.  She's got nothing now.  Since being fired, no one wants her.  She can't act.  She's diffident onscreen and, hey, HOLLYWOOOD REPORTTER, aren't you forgetting her chief credit: Israeli soldier.

At any point, it anyone ever going to ask Gal what she did to Palestinians when she served in the Israeli military?

The face isn't again well, the body's gone and her acting ability was never anything to brag about.  She's not a star and the box office for the second Wonder Woman feature made that clear.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 333 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,861, with 94,398 injured."   Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."    Months ago, United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

 


April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."


Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Convicted Felon and Miss Sassy Variety Hour" which went up last night.  New content at THIRD:

 
The following sites updated:

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