I am so sick of SALON. It was always garbage -- for years, it published Joan Walsh, remember?
"Why They Hate Her: Kamala Harris, Black bodies and the White right." Really?
Because she's Black? She's not, she's mixed. And they might hate her because she's a woman. They might hate her because she's a Democrat. They might hate her because she's from California. In fact, the whole thing reminds me of STEEL MAGNOLIAS.
Maybe she was prayin' because the elastic shot in her pantyhose. Who knows? She prays at the drop of a hat these days.
Dolly Parton talking about Daryl Hannah in that film.
There are numerous reasons to dislike Kamala. I dislike her and I'm Black but that's how it is among the under sixty in the community. We aren't fans of 'criminal prosecutor' Kamala.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020. Republicans hold a convention -- didn't
they do that last week?, Joe has no bounce and the assassination of
Reham Yacoub continues to result in outcry.
Last week,
Republicans got to speak at an informercial passed off as a convention,
this week they do the same. The difference? This week is actually the
Republican convention. Last week was the Democrats convention -- or it
was supposed to be. Instead, War Criminals like Colin Powell traipsed
across the stage as if to say: They're not a dime's worth difference
between the two parties.
Last week, men who would control women's
bodies were allowed to take the stage at the DNC and were applauded and
held up as people to admire. Men who would gut public education were
cheered.
It was appalling and yet you have idiots and liars and whores who wanted to pretend that it was something to see.
If
Donald Trump were to agree to hide out as well, that might work. But
he's not going to. He's going to make efforts to energize his base.
Does
Joe have any surrogates he could utilize? Nope. And celebs aren't
going to be able to help him. Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano have
spent years spewing hate at people from their Twitter accounts. They're
not going to be able to reach the undecided. They're toxic.
The
Covid attacks on Donald are already misfiring. People are noting that
Joe offered nothing during this time and that, as one person we spoke
with yesterday put it, "Now all he does is hide away from the people
sending me the message that Joe will protect himself only. He can't
lead because he won't get outside and lead."
It was comments from
the various groups we spoke to at this time in 2016 that had me issue
the statement that Hillary was going to lose and she was actually in a
stronger position than Joe is right now. Is Joe going to lose? I don't
know. Maybe he'll get off his lazy ass and start trying to give people
a reason to vote for him -- instead of just offering 'vote against
Trump.'
People are already questioning whether Joe's fit for the
job. Having him hide out for the month of September isn't going to
help.
People are rightly complaining that CNN's Brian Seltzer is
fact checking the GOP convention after 'forgetting' to do that for the
DNC. That's a valid complaint. But there's far worse going on.
For example?
A moment: Joe Biden choking up mentioning Beau's service in Iraq, and then saying, "America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise -- voting.” #DNC2020
That's Courtney Norris. She's a national affairs producer for PBS' THE NEWS HOUR
-- meaning, we pay her salary. There is no proof that Russia has a
bounty on the heads of US troops. That claim fell apart as soon it was
published. But weeks later, Joe Biden lies and Courtney presents it as
fact.
I don't really think her garbage should be
allowed at PBS. Next up, Courtney Tweets that Iraq has WMDS!!!! Cites
NYT as her source!!!!
Iraq. The issue everyone wants
to avoid. US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard -- Excuse me, outgoing US House
Rep Tulsi Gabbard has been complaining that she wasn't asked to speak at
the convention last week. She did get delegates, as her fan club
notes. Yes, she got two.
What did Tulsi have to offer that wasn't on display?
She'd
already lied and whored for Joe Biden so what else did she have to
offer? Yes, it must be very hard for her, after lying for him in the
July 31st debate, after publicly trashing the only person to stand up to
Joe (Kamala Harris), it must have really hurt Tulsi that she didn't get
picked for v.p. and she didn't even get to speak at the convention.
But
she had nothing to offer. She ran as an anti-war voice and yet she
used her debate time to prop up a War Hawk. That's on her. Tulsi Fake
Ass.
Can we learn anything by the time 2024 rolls around? Like
don't believe people who say they're anti-war and talk big on Joe
Rogan's show but then refuse to stand up in a debate. If you see that
happen again, have the brains to drop all support for the fake ass.
She
endorsed Joe, not Bernie. Remember that. Tulsi stood for nothing.
She was empty talk. Adam Kokesh called it and he was right.
Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq are cracking down on media outlets
covering anti-government protests, journalists and rights defenders told
AFP, shattering the region's reputation as a liberal refuge.
For decades, Iraqis fleeing pressure by paramilitary groups, tribes
and powerful politicians in the more conservative south sought safe
haven in the Kurdish region.
But public anger at the Kurdish
regional government (KRG) has grown in recent months, prompting protests
over unpaid state salaries and Turkish incursions into border areas.
Demonstrators
and rights defenders say the rallies have been met with a heavy-handed
response from security forces -- with reporters increasingly targeted.
"Despite
laws guaranteeing press freedom in the region, when political and
economic crises intensify, the limits on press reach a point of
strangulation," warned the region's Metro Center for Journalist Rights
and Advocacy.
#ريهام_يعقوب she was a beautiful human she lived great done amazing and died over a terorrist!! what a world!?!
she made a point we love u and thank you for everything you've done to the women in your country you were the screaming voice of the silence unfair RIP #RehamYacoub
7:48 AM · Aug 25, 2020
Reham Yacoub, REUTERS notes, had been active "in the local protest movement since 2018 and had led several women's marches." PERSECUTION.ORG adds, "These events have caused an outcry of alarm by many Iraqis, who remember
the frequency of targeted kidnappings and assassinations during the
early 2000s. The latest series of incidents occur within a similar
environment in that there is an increase of militia tension. In Iraq’s
current domestic landscape, many of these militias are heavily backed by
Iran." Iraq Tweets notes:
Two years ago, they falsely labelled her as a traitor. And today, they ruthlessly killed her along with her friend.
No matter what they say, we all know that her murders and the cowards that they work for are the true traitors of Iraq.
Rest in power, Reham Yacoub.
Demonstrators on Friday set fire to the parliament's local offices in
the city of Basra as security forces fired live rounds in the air to
disperse them. They had gathered to demand the dismissal of Basra
Governor Asaad al-Eidani after two activists were killed and others
wounded in three separate attacks by unknown gunmen last week.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Basra late on
Saturday in an attempt to quell the unrest, pledging to bring those
accountable for the killings to justice.
"Basra will recover again, God willing. This is a message to all
criminals and killers, this is a new government that is working to
establish the prerequisites of security," al-Khadimi told crowds in
Basra.
In Iraq è morta un'altra attivista. Reham Yacoub lottava per difendere e promuovere la parità di genere. Le proteste continuano nel Paese, dove tante donne e ragazze chiedono il riconoscimento dei propri diritti e una società più inclusiva.
I believe Rose. Alyssa's trash. She has never learned to get along with anyone. She's awful and she's an awful actress.
She went after women of color in the CHARMED reboot because she herself couldn't get a job -- and she's racist -- and now her desperation has her trying to kick start a WHO'S THE BOSS reboot.
No one wants to see Alyssa.
No one wants to hire her.
Adkins fired her, NETFLIX cancelled her, THE CW turned her down on not one but two projects and LIFETIME never picked up the series Alyssa announced where she was going to be a mayor.
Monday, August 24, 2020. Joe Biden continues to tell one group one
thing and another something else, protesters remain targeted in Iraq, a
Navy Seal is accused of raping a sailor and much more.
The
story of the platoon being pulled from Iraq has been previously
reported, but documents obtained by The Associated Press through the
Freedom of Information Act and interviews with nearly a dozen people
give the first in-depth view into what led to the rare recall. The
documents and interviews show that women deployed with the SEALs say
they were ogled and sexually harassed during the deployment. Records
obtained by the AP from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service also
reveal a previously unknown reported allegation of sexual misconduct
against the SEAL platoon chief, Special Warfare Operator Chief Nicholas
Olson, two days before the Fourth of July barbecue. Olson denies any
wrongdoing.
The
platoon was withdrawn after the Navy made an unusually public push to
strengthen order and discipline in its secretive elite force amid a
series of scandals involving SEALs. The misconduct has included cocaine
use and tampering of drug tests by members of SEAL Team 10 based in
Virginia, and last year’s conviction of Navy SEAL Adam Matthews, who was
sentenced to one year in military prison for his role in the 2017
hazing-related death of an Army Green Beret in Africa.
The Navy fired
three SEAL leaders in the aftermath of the alleged rape on the Iraq air
base and charged Special Warfare Operator First Class Adel A. Enayat,
an enlisted SEAL, with sexual assault, aggravated assault via
strangulation and assault by battery for allegedly biting the victim on
the face, according to his charge sheet. He faces a court-martial in
November.
A
hearing in the case was held Friday at Naval Base San Diego. At the
hearing, Jeremiah Sullivan, the lawyer for the SEAL, said he was
concerned Enayat, who identifies as “non-white,” cannot get a fair trial
because of systemic racism in the military justice system, pointing out
that there are no Black judges on the Navy bench.
Enayat,
who has fair skin and reddish-blond hair, is “non-White,” Sullivan
said. He declined to specify Enayat’s race or ethnicity when asked by
the Union-Tribune after court, citing his client’s privacy.
Enayat
arrived to court in civilian clothes and, despite a lingering heat
wave, wore a gray hooded sweatshirt upon leaving the courthouse Friday
with the hood pulled up. He wore his dress white uniform during the
hearing.
Assault in the military continues.
Eight years of chatter under Barack Obama didn't change a thing.
Policies might have, empty words didn't. Joe Biden was the Vice
President for those eight years and now he wants to be president. Molly Nagle (ABC NEWS) reports on Joe's interview with David Muir:
“We
saw the president just this week, during the convention, he traveled to
Pennsylvania. He traveled to Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, all of that
while you were making your case to the American people. I understand the
restrictions of COVID and campaigning in this time. But can you win a
presidential election from home?” Muir asked Biden during an interview
Friday in Wilmington, Delaware.
“We will,” Biden said. “We're gonna follow the science, what the scientists tell us."
Then he laughed off a question about his mental fitness.
“Watch me.”
Trouble is, we’ve been trying to watch Biden all year. We don’t ever
get to see him unedited or without a teleprompter, without his wife or
some helper at his side.
Last night’s interview was done alongside running mate Kamala Harris, ready to mop up if he lost his train of thought.
In truth, it was a string of cheap shots and clichés encrusted in saccharine, delivered in a halting, shouty monotone.
Everyone waited with bated breath to see if this elderly man
auditioning to be president could manage to read a 24-minute speech from
a teleprompter. In degree of difficulty, it’s not exactly a triple
pike. But the sense of relief was palpable among Democrats and their
media allies.
Hiding and lying appear to be Joe's campaign strategy. REUTERS notes:
Biden was critical of Trump’s travel. “Look what happened with his
events. People die, people get together, they don’t wear masks, they end
up getting COVID,” he said.
There has been no direct link
between a Trump campaign event and an outbreak of the virus, although
health officials in Oklahoma said a surge in cases there was likely
connected to a Trump rally held at a Tulsa arena in June. Since then,
Trump has staged open-air events with small crowds.
Joe
can't stop lying and wasn't there a direct link to his campaign urging
people to vote in the primary -- despite the pandemic -- and they're
getting ill?
BIDEN: I mean she had the best recommendation she can
get: my son Beau, not a joke. Beau asked me when she was U.S. Attorney
General, they were attorneys general together taking on the banks, and I
got a call and he said, "Dad, I want you to go to California." I said,
"OK honey, what for?" He said, "I want you to nominate Kamala Harris for
United States Senate." I said OK, without asking. And they were good
friends and Beau had great respect for Kamala, knew she was tough. She
has a backbone like a ramrod. She's completely thoroughly honest, and so
I, you know, I'm not joking. You knew my relationship with Beau. So it
was easy for me, it was easy for me.
"Okay, honey"? Okay, honey?
Alright then.
Meanwhile
Joe's campaign attacked Linda Sarsour publicly. It was his Sister
Souljah moment. (In 1992, to assure reactionary voters that he would be
'tough' with African-Americans, Bill Clinton attacked the rapper Sister
Souljah because she was Africa-American and a woman.) So they got a
lot of news coverage from their attack, all framed as 'Joe's a close
friend of Israel.' But in reality? In reality, the campaign was
apologizing in private. Ali Harb (MIDDLE EAST EYE) reports:
Top aides to presidential candidate Joe Biden have apologised to Arab
and Muslim Democrats over an attack on Palestinian-American activist
Linda Sarsour by the campaign, in an effort to quell anger over the
controversy.
In a private call with dozens of prominent activists on Sunday,
Ashley Allison, national coalitions director for the Biden campaign,
said she was "sorry" for the comments that a campaign spokesman made
against Sarsour.
Top foreign policy adviser Tony Blinken also expressed "regret" over the incident during the virtual meeting.
Anger erupted after a Biden campaign spokesman had condemned
Sarsour and suggested that she was antisemitic over her criticism of
Israel.
Allison said she empathised with "the pain" that the campaign had caused to Arabs and Muslims by disavowing Sarsour.
"I am sorry that that happened. And I hope that whatever trust was
broken, that this conversation is one small step to help build back the
trust, but that is not the last time we have this conversation," Allison
told the activists.
Sunday's call was off-the-record, but Middle East Eye obtained a recording of it.
+ Quite a symbolic way to kick off the DNC convention: The DNC quietly excised a call to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies from its platform, saying including the language in the first place was an “error.”
+ This news was swiftly followed by an announcement that the Pipe Fitters Union was endorsing Biden,
despite his pledge to stop the completion of the KXL Pipeline. Pretty
sure the pipe fitters union knows something about Biden’s real
intentions that the Sierra Club refuses to believe…
+ Last month, a new study found that flaring of natural gas wells, from
the fracking operations Biden has vowed not to end, was directly linked
to an increase in preterm births in South Texas. Pregnant Latina women were more likely than white women to give birth prematurely.
That's
a rather important issue. Notice how so many lefties on Twitter have
ignored it -- the same way so many lefty outlets have as well.
Iraq's government on Sunday launched a military operation to track militias blamed for the murder of activists in Basra.
Anti-government protests flared up in the southern oil city last week
after gunmen shot dead protest leader Reham Yacoub in her car.
The killing of Yacoub on Wednesday was the third such attack against campaigners in Basra in a week.
Tahseen Oussama, 30, was gunned down on August 14, and four others were shot at while travelling in a car on Monday.
“We will pursue the criminals and arrest the killers within the next few hours,” Interior Minister Othman Al Ghanmi said.
Mina
seems confused -- militias? Tracked by Iraq's government? Militias
are part of the Iraqi government. Did she forget that reality?
Reham Yacoub, REUTERS notes, had been active "in the local protest movement since 2018 and had led several women's marches." PERSECUTION.ORG adds, "These events have caused an outcry of alarm by many Iraqis, who remember
the frequency of targeted kidnappings and assassinations during the
early 2000s. The latest series of incidents occur within a similar
environment in that there is an increase of militia tension. In Iraq’s
current domestic landscape, many of these militias are heavily backed by
Iran." Iraq Tweets notes:
Two years ago, they falsely labelled her as a traitor. And today, they ruthlessly killed her along with her friend.
No matter what they say, we all know that her murders and the cowards that they work for are the true traitors of Iraq.
Rest in power, Reham Yacoub.
Demonstrators on Friday set fire to the parliament's local offices in
the city of Basra as security forces fired live rounds in the air to
disperse them. They had gathered to demand the dismissal of Basra
Governor Asaad al-Eidani after two activists were killed and others
wounded in three separate attacks by unknown gunmen last week.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Basra late on
Saturday in an attempt to quell the unrest, pledging to bring those
accountable for the killings to justice.
"Basra will recover again, God willing. This is a message to all
criminals and killers, this is a new government that is working to
establish the prerequisites of security," al-Khadimi told crowds in
Basra.
Mustafa headed to Basra shortly after
returning to Iraq. On the 20th, he was in DC meeting with US President
Donald Trump. Among the topics they discussed? Benoit Faucon and Michael R. Gordon (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report, "The Trump administration is urging Iraq to proceed with a project to
connect its power grid with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, among
steps to reduce Baghdad’s longstanding dependency on Iranian energy,
U.S. and Arab officials said. Venus Upadhayaya (EPOCH TIMES) also notes this development, "The Trump administration is trying to support Iraq in developing good
relationships with the Gulf countries to help it meet its energy needs
and to reduce its dependence on Iran. That way the United States isn't only helping Iraq reduce Iranian
influence and build better relationships to meet its energy and economic
needs, but by doing so is also drawing Iraq closer geopolitically,
experts say." The White House issued the following on the 20th:
Oval Office
11:19 A.M. EDT
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s great to have the
Prime Minister of Iraq, a very highly respected gentleman all over the
Middle East, and respected very much by our country, too. I can say
that.
And we will be discussing, today, the obvious: defense — and
offense, I have to say. But we’ll be discussing military. We’re also
involved in many oil projects and oil development within their country,
and I think we’ve had a very, very good relationship since we started.
We’re down to a very small number of soldiers in Iraq now. We
defeated the ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and it’s — that has been
defeated very strongly, and it does have a different feeling to it now
that you’ve got it. We had it at 98 percent, and we said, “Well, we can
leave.” And then, everybody said, “Would you bring it to 100 percent?”
Then we brought it 100 percent.
But the relationship is very good. We have become friends. We
have become, I think, friendly. I think our relationship now is better
than ever before. But we have very few soldiers in Iraq, and — but
we’re there to help. And the Prime Minister knows that. We are there
to help. We’re with some people that also — Mike and Mike — we — and
Robert. We very much feel that if Iran should do anything, we will be
there to help the Iraqi people.
So, that’s where we are. We’re doing big trade deals, we’re
doing military deals, and we’re doing military purchases by them, where
they’re spending a lot of money on purchasing equipment and they’re
building up their military rapidly, and we like to see that.
So, thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister, for being here. I appreciate it. Please.
PRIME MINISTER KADHIMI: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want
to thank you for receiving us in the White House today. I’m grateful
for all the support offered by the United States to Iraq during the war
against ISIS.
This support has built our partnership for the best interests
for our nation. Mr. President, yesterday we signed many contact — many
contracts with American companies — over (inaudible). Iraq is open for
American business and investment and for a better future for Iraq and
Iraqi people.
Thank you very much.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER KADHIMI: Thank you.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very much.
Q Mr. President, what’s your reaction to the indictment of your former campaign aid, Steve Bannon?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I feel very badly. I haven’t been
dealing with him for a long period of time, as most of the people in
this room know. He was involved in our campaign. He worked for Goldman
Sachs. He worked for a lot of companies. But he was involved,
likewise, in our campaign, and for a small part of the administration,
very early on. I haven’t been dealing with him at all.
I know nothing about the project, other than I didn’t like —
when I read about it, I didn’t like it. I said, “This is for
government. This isn’t for private people.” And it sounded, to me,
like showboating. And I think I let my opinion be very strongly stated
at the time. I didn’t like it. It was showboating and maybe looking
for funds. But you’ll have to see what happens.
I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr. Bannon. I think it’s
surprising. But this was something, as you know, just by reading social
media and by reading whatever it is, and by speaking to Mike and Mike
and all of them, I didn’t like that project. I thought that was a
project that was being done for showboating reasons.
I don’t know that he was in charge. I didn’t know any of the other people either. But it’s sad. It’s very sad.
Q But it’s not just Steve Bannon. It’s Roger Stone. It’s
Michael Flynn. It’s Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen. What
does it say about your judgment that these are the kind of people who
you’re affiliated with —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I have no idea.
Q — and the culture of lawlessness —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Yeah.
Q — around people who are involved in the leadership of your 2016 campaign?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, no, there was great lawlessness in the
Obama administration. They spied on our campaign illegally. And if you
look at all of the things and all of the scandals they had, they had
tremendous lawlessness.
But I know nothing about it. I was not involved in the project.
I have no idea who was. But I can tell you: I didn’t know the people;
the three people that were talked about were people that I did not
know. I don’t believe I ever met them.
I don’t think that should be a privately financed wall. I don’t
think — it’s too complex; it’s too big. And we’re now up to 300 miles,
almost. In another week, week and a half, we’ll be up to 300 miles of
wall at the highest level. They were even having construction problems.
I was reading — the little I know about it, I got from you. I
was reading, where they were having construction problems with the wall
that they were — they had a small area just to show people that they
could build a wall, and they were having a lot of problems where it was
toppling over and other things. And I didn’t like it because I didn’t
want to be associated with that.
We built a very powerful wall. It was a wall that is virtually
impossible to get through. It’s very, very tough. It’s very strong,
and it’s everything the Border Patrol wanted. And I didn’t want to have
a wall that was going to be an inferior wall. And I felt this was
going to be an inferior wall.
Q Kris Kobach said you endorsed the wall. Is that true? The project.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So I didn’t — I didn’t know — I didn’t know
that. I didn’t know about Bannon’s involvement, but I didn’t know any —
I didn’t know the other people. And I — but I do think it’s a sad
event.
And, again, Steve has had a great career at Goldman Sachs. He’s
had a career with a lot of other people. I haven’t dealt with him at
all, over years now — literally, years. And I guess this was a project
he was involved in, but it was something that — in fact, you can see I
made statements about it a long time ago. It was something that I very
much felt was inappropriate to be doing.
Okay. Please go ahead.
(Cross-talk.)
No, go ahead, please.
Q Mr. President, the end of the militia roles in Iraq — it’s
one of the very important issues to stabilize the country in Iraq. How
America is going to support ending the militia role in Iraq and —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, you’re — you’re very hard to understand. Could you maybe help me with it?
Q Mr. President —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Wait. Go ahead. Try it again.
Q (No translation provided.)
PRIME MINISTER KADHIMI: (As interpreted.) The United States
helped the — helped Iraq enormously in defeating ISIS and also in
toppling the Saddam Hussein regime. We are working on building a strong
relationship that is based on joint interests between Iraq and the
United States, that is based on economic interest for the better future
of the Iraqi people and the United States people.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: When I got to — when we came into office, ISIS
was running rampant all over Iraq and Syria. And we knocked out the —
100 percent of the ISIS caliphate. But the Obama administration did a
very, very poor job. They were running rampant all over. And we came
in and we did a real job, and we got rid of that, and that was a good
thing.
And now we’re working with Iraq. They use the great American
Dollar, which is the most powerful currency in the world. And they’re
starting to do well. And we are with them. And this gentleman, in
particular, we’ve developed a very good relationship. And hopefully,
it’s going to be very strong for your country.
Please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. There have been 32 attacks —
there have been 32 attacks in the last 10 months on U.S. interests in
Iraq, particularly in the Green Zone and U.S. military bases. How are
you going to help Iraq to halt these attacks by pro-Iranian militia and
to hold these people accountable?
And, sir, if I may also, there was some reporting that the U.S.
troops will withdraw from Iraq totally in three years. Is this true?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, at some point, we obviously will be gone.
We’ve brought it down to a very, very low level. We deal — where there
are attacks, we take care of those attacks, and we take care of them
very easily. Nobody has the weaponry we have. Nobody has the —
anything — of what we have. We have the finest, the greatest military
in the world. When somebody hits us, we hit back hard than they hit us.
So we handle it.
In addition to that, Iraq has been very helpful, where
necessary. But we have been taking our troops out of Iraq fairly
rapidly, and we look forward to the day when we don’t have to be there.
And hopefully Iraq can live their own lives and they can defend
themselves, which they’ve been doing long before we got involved.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President how do you see the role of the Kurds in Iraq?
Q Mr. President, about — about the bounties — about the
bounties: You say you hit back hard, but we haven’t seen any definitive
strike back for bounties upon Americans.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you don’t know about the bounties. I
mean, you’re telling me — if you know something, you can let us know,
but you obviously don’t know very much about it. But if we found out,
that would be true; if we found, that would be a very — it would be a
fact, what you just said. We would hit them so hard your head would
spin.
Go ahead.
Q Mr. President how do you see the role of the Kurds in Iraq?
And how is important relationship between Baghdad and Erbil
(inaudible)?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, the Kurds helped us greatly in defeating
the — as you know, the ISIS, and getting the ISIS — 100 percent of the
ISIS caliphate. So we have a very good relationship with the Kurds, and
we’ve also treated them very well.
Q Mr. President —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, please.
Q — on the bounties —
Q Yeah. The end of the militia rules in Iraq is very
important to — to stabilize the country. How America can help ending
the militia rules? And how can help Iraq in the democracy process?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, what we’re doing is we’re helping where
we can. But again, that’s a country — that’s a separate country. They
have a prime minister, and they have people in office, and they have to
run their country. We’ve been in Iraq for a long time. I won’t say
whether or not I said we should be there, but frankly, I didn’t think it
was a good idea. But I was a civilian, so who’s going to listen to me?
But I made my point pretty clear; I guess as clear as a civilian can
do it.
But we were there, and now we’re getting out. We’ll be leaving
shortly. And the relationship is very good. We’re making very big oil
deals. Our oil companies are making massive deals. And that’s
basically the story.
I mean, we’re very — we’re very happy with the relationship that
we’ve developed over the last couple of years. I thought, before that,
frankly, the United States was being taken advantage of. But we’re
going to be leaving, and hopefully we’re going to be leaving a country
that can defend itself.
Q While you are here in the United States, there were — there
were airstrikes on northern Iraq, in Kurdistan region, killing one
civilian. I know — in your talks, in your meetings here, you talk a lot
about the sovereignty of Iraq. Is that something that you’re looking
for help from the United States?
And Mr. President, if that’s something can — if Iraq is asking
for help, in terms of the interference from the neighbors — not just
Iran, but other neighbors where they’re attacking northern Iraq?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they’ll have to make a specific request,
but certainly, the Prime Minister has my ear. So if he does that, we’ll
take a look. They do have — it’s a very unstable part of the world.
And I’m not talking about Iraq; I’m talking about the — the whole of the
Middle East. It’s a very, very unstable part of the world.
But we’re there to help. And because of the relationship, we
would certainly be willing to lend you the kind of support that you
need.
PRIME MINISTER KADHIMI: (As interpreted.) Definitely the
Turkish attacks are not accepted. On the other hand, the Iraqi
constitution also does not allow Iraq to be — to become used to attack
any — any neighboring — neighboring country. We are entering dialogue
with Turkey to rectify this situation. And I look forward to solving
this problem with Turkey and getting our neighbors, the Turks, to
understand Iraq’s circumstances.
But once again, the Iraqi constitution does not allow Iraqi territory to be used to attack any neighboring country.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I will say this: The United States, and me in
particular, has a very good relationship with Turkey and with President
Erdoğan, and we’ll be talking to him. But we have a very, very good
relationship with Turkey and with President Erdoğan.
Q Mr. President, just to follow up on the troops question,
sir: Do you have a timeframe for the full and complete withdrawal of
U.S. troops from — from Iraq?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Mike, what would you say to that?
SECRETARY POMPEO: As soon as we can complete the mission. The
President has made very clear he wants to get our forces down to the
lowest level as quickly as we possibly can. That’s the mission he’s
given us, and we’re working with Iraqis to achieve that.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re at the lowest level now, Jeff — we’re at
the lowest level in Afghanistan that we have been in many years. We’ll
be down to about 4,000 troops in Afghanistan.
SECRETARY POMPEO: In a couple months.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: And that will be when?
SECRETARY POMPEO: A couple months, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, within a few months. A couple of months.
Q Mr. President — one other thing, Mr. President —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: As you know, in Syria we’re down to almost
nothing, except we kept the oil. But we’ll work out some kind of a deal
with the Kurds on that. But we left, but we kept the oil. And we left
the border. We said Turkey and Syria can take care of their own
border; we don’t have to do it. And that worked out very well. I
remember when I did that, I was scorned by everybody. They said, “This
is terrible.”
Well, I did it. It’s now two years ago. And we did it with —
Mike Pence went over and met with the various parties and very
successfully, and we removed our troops. Nobody was killed. Nobody.
And now they protect their own border like they have been for hundreds
of years. And we’ll — we’ve left. But we did keep a small force, and
we kept the oil. And we’ll make a determination on that oil fairly
soon.
Q And just one domestic question, sir: The Manhattan case
about your taxes has now ruled that you do need to give your — to turn
over your taxes. Do you have a reaction to that?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, the Supreme Court said, if it’s a
fishing expedition, you don’t have to do it. And this is a fishing
expedition.
But more importantly, this is a continuation of the witch hunt —
the greatest witch hunt in history. There’s never been anything like
it, where people want to examine every deal you’ve ever done to see if
they can find that there’s a comma out of place. No President has ever
had to go through this. The Supreme Court shouldn’t have allowed this
to happen. But no President has ever had to go through this.
But what the Supreme Court did do is say if it’s a fishing
expedition, you — my interpretation is essentially, you don’t have to do
it. So we’ll probably end up back in the Supreme Court.
But this is just a continuation of the most hideous witch hunt
in the history of our country. We beat Mueller. We won at every level
in this — in Washington, in D.C. We won at every lev- — level. So,
now, what they do: They send it into New York. So now we have an
all-Democrat state — all Democrats. And they send it into New York.
This should never be allowed to happen to another President.
This is a continuation of the most disgusting witch hunt in the
history of our country — all it is. But the Supreme Court said “fishing
expedition.” This is the ultimate fishing expedition. Nobody has
anything. We didn’t — we don’t do things wrong.
But they’ll say, “Let’s go in and inspect every deal he’s ever
done. Let’s get papers from 10 years. Every paper. Every deal he’s
ever signed. Maybe we can find where some lawyer made a mistake, where
they didn’t dot an “i,” where they didn’t put a comma down someplace.
And then we can do something.” This is a disgrace and this should
never, ever be allowed to happen again.
All right? Thank you very much.
Q Mr. President, on Navalny, the Russian opposition leader:
He was hospitalized, and they think he was poisoned. Is that the U.S.
government’s determination, that he was —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We haven’t seen it yet. We’re looking at it. And Mike is going to be reporting to me soon. Okay?
Donna Brazile wants you to know that, Thursday night, at the convention, Joe Biden showed America what a president looks like. She wants you to know that from the piece she wrote for FOX NEWS.
She wants you to know that from FOX NEWS because she can't work at CNN.
We get that, right?
She can't work for CNN because they fired her in 2016. They fired her during the last presidential election.
Remember why?
She was feeding questions to the Clinton campaign before the debate where Hillary would be asked them on the spot.
That's Donna Brazile.
Why the hell would anyone want her opinion? She's a liar. She's also a closet case. 60 years old and she still can't come out of the closet?
Why the hell would anyone want her opinion? She can't even be honest about who she is.
By the way, Joe Biden?
Four nights. He had four nights to make a case and he didn't. He offered nothing to my family or me and I'm not voting for him. I'll go with Howie Hawkins.
Friday, August 21, 2020. The informercial wrapped up last night.
Did anyone rush to the phones to buy up what was being sold?
Last
night, and the infomercial passed off as a convention came to an end.
It could have come to a noble end or just continued to be a public
embarrassment. Which do you think happened?
Joe
Biden: Thank you. Thank you. I could talk at length tonight about my
experience in the Senate, as Vice President, things like that. But I
want to be worthy of your vote and I want to be worthy of your trust.
So let's get things straight from the start, America. I have made
mistakes in my life. And I am making real efforts to learn from them.
My vote for the Iraq War was a mistake -- a huge mistake. In the past,
I've sounded like a spoiled child as I tried to pass that vote off as
being the fault of someone else. I voted for it, it was the wrong
vote. That's on me and I want to learn from that moment. I want to
grow from it. There are so many Americans and, yes, so many Iraqis who
lost their lives. Earning your trust means acknowledging also my
mistakes after the war started. Instead of demanding accountability and
a strategy and goals that could be measures, up until February 2008, I
repeatedly focused on splitting Iraq up into three parts as though that
was an answer. I finally gave up on that misguided idea not because the
Iraqi people had rejected the idea -- they had long rejected it -- but
because my fellow senators made it abundantly clear that this idea had
no Congressional support. Still, I did not call for all US troops out
of Iraq.
I
talked of the agreement the Bush White House was trying to put together
with Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikki and how it raised "many red flags
with me and other Americans. We've pledged we're not
only going to consult when there is an outside threat, but also when
there is an inside threat. We've just witnessed when Mr. Maliki engaged
in the use of force against another Shia group in the south, is this an
inside threat?" Maliki turned out to be an inside threat. When I was
Vice President, we began a drawdown -- not a withdrawal as promised --
and, the day after the drawdown, Maliki began using tanks to circle the
homes of his political opponents in Parliament He began openly
persecuting his political rivals. Whereas before he had used secret
prisons and torture cells on various Iraqi civilians, he was not
declaring war on elected officials who did not agree with him.
Now
in that April 2008 hearing, I did have the insight or luck to see what
lay on the road ahead. That is why I noted that Bush's proposed
agreement was requiring that we "take sides in Iraq's civil war" and
that "there is no Iraq government that we know of that will be inplace a
year from now -- half the government has walked out."
Let's stop for a moment register that. In April of 2008, I made some very accurate remarks.
In
March of 2010, two years later, when I was Vice President, Iraq held
elections. The big loser? Maliki. And he refused to step down. For
eight months he refused to step down. President Obama had tasked me
with Iraq, put me in charge of Iraq. The Iraqi people, despite threats
and despite violence on election day, turned out to vote for their
future. We, the United States, said we were bringing democracy to them,
gifting them with democracy, if you will. And yet we did not stand by
the results of that election. Instead, we went around those results.
We tossed them aside. I was part of the American group that negotiated a
treaty or contract known as The Erbil Agreement. It gave Maliki a
second term -- a second term the voters did not give him. To get that
second term, we drew up this contract among the various political
parties. To get them to sign on, we had promises written into the
agreement that they wanted -- the Kurds, for example, wanted the
referendum on Kirkuk -- promised in the Iraqi Constitution -- finally
implemented. We swore this was a binding contract. Maliki got his
second term with that contract and then refused to honor the agreement.
What's worse? We didn't demand that he honor it despite our earlier
promise that we would -- a promise that President Obama repeated to Ayad
Allawi, the winner of the election, November 11, 2010,
when The Erbil Agreement seemed in jeopardy, President Obama personally
called Allawi to assure him that we would stand by that contract which,
included for Allawi, becoming the chair of a newly created National
Council On Higher Policy.. As Ben Lando, Sam Dagher and Margaret Coker (Wall St. Journal) reported, "Mr.
Obama, in his phone call to Mr. Allawi on Thursday, promised to throw
U.S. weight behind the process and guarantee that the council would
retain meaningful and legal power, according to the two officials with
knowledge of the phone call."
Throughout 2010, I failed
to step in. I failed to insist that we stop making deals with Maliki. I
failed to insist that we show the Iraqi people the importance of voting
and that their vote matters. Since 2010, the voter turnout in Iraq has
gone down and that's a direct result of the US government, of me,
tossing out their votes in 2010 because we thought Maliki would better
serve the United States.
Not only did that undercut belief
in democracy for the Iraqi people, it also set the stage for the rise of
ISIS in Iraq. It was a disaster, Maliki's second term. As he
persecuted Sunnis, ISIS rose in response. Were it not for his second
term, you can argue that ISIS would not have risen in Iraq.
How
did I, in 2008, realize what Maliki was? Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, while she was a US Senator in 2008, called Maliki a "thug" in
an open hearing and she was correct about that.
So what changed?
What
changed was that 'we' were in charge now. Not the Bush administration,
us. President Obama, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton, myself and
others. We were in charge. Instead of working from what we knew, we
worked on hubris. We were so much smarter that we could do all the
things Bush had tried already and that had failed already but because we
were doing them, somehow they would magically work out this time.
Hubris.
As
I look back on Iraq, my biggest regret is how hubris misled me. It was
and is a hard lesson to learn. But I'm standing here before you --
goodness knows, this is an open setting -- and I'm explaining what went
wrong and what I did wrong.
My belief is that I have
learned from these things. But by sharing this with you, I can make
sure that you will hold me accountable. I can make sure that if I'm
president and start talking war on some nation, you the America people
will say, 'Hey, Joe, reflect for a moment and make sure this is what
your gut is telling you is right and that you're not a victim of your
own hubris again.' Because we are in this together and I want to be
your president. But, more than just wanting to be your president, I
want to be the best president you can have. That requires us working
together: You supporting me when I'm right and you questioning me when
I'm wrong. We can only do that by being honest with one another.
That was a great speech.
In.
My.
Mind.
Sadly, Joe didn't give it.
Joe has never gotten honest about Iraq and, as we learned last night, he probably never will.
Where
is the foreign policy discussion? Many people keep asking that. It's
not at the convention. It's not in the press. They can't talk foreign
policy, apparently, while Joe refuses to honestly reflect on his role in
one of the worst foreign failures of this century. It wasn't just the
vote. It was all that followed after.
It is all the continues to
this day. But we pretend that the Iraq War ended, that the occupation
ended, that all US troops left that country. That's not what happened
at all.
And we certainly did not 'gift' Iraq with democracy.
Instead, we have repeatedly installed one corrupt leader after another
who has refused to meet the basic needs of the Iraqi people -- it's as
though all these despots are cousins of Nancy Pelosi.
Joe was dishonest to his core. He looked like a liar onstage because he was one.
He's
the guy that assaults a girl in high school and then gets his friends
to shut her up so he can accept the honor of class valedictorian and
give a speech that ignores all his vile actions.
And on that? No,
he did not apologize to the various women he made uncomfortable and
groped over the years. I suppose the bar is so low now that we're
expected to be grateful that he didn't make jokes about it -- the way he
did in April 2019 when speaking before a union. He did not apologize
to Tara Reade. He did not take ownership for anything.
He stood
on stage with no remorse and no humility. He pretended he was the
choice of the people when, in fact, he was the choice leaders in the
party enforced upon the people. He pretended the country loved him
when, in fact, if he wins it will only be because the country dislikes
Donald Trump more.
He had no remorse, no humility and no modesty.
Should
he win the presidency, be prepared for a nightmare. His attacks on the
press, for example, are treated as funny or something to be ignored and
not as the actual warning signs that they truly are.
The Democratic National Convention concluded Thursday night with the
formal acceptance of the party’s presidential nomination by former Vice
President Joe Biden, after a final two-hour session that was full of
empty clichés, inane rhetoric and nauseating insincerity.
The atmosphere Thursday was more of a religious revival than a
political event. There was incessant emphasis on the personal moral
superiority of Biden compared to Trump, accompanied by increasingly
maudlin testimonials to Biden’s alleged deep concern for children, the
downtrodden, and virtually anyone who crossed his path. One former White
House official referred to Biden’s “empathy skills,” a phrase which
recalls the old wisecrack: “Sincerity—if you can fake that, you’ve got
it made.”
The sheer contempt for the intelligence of the population and the
viewing audience was summed up in Biden’s acceptance speech. His
speechwriters appeared to have been trying to cram every possible trite
phrase into a single 20-minute address.
He ran through a laundry list of promises, from climate change to
racism to student debt, none of which the Democratic Party has the
slightest intention of actually carrying out. Only two phrases had real
meaning.
Biden reassured Wall Street and the billionaires, “I’m not looking to
punish anyone.” This sent a message to the financial aristocracy that,
while the candidate was compelled to make demagogic attacks on the
wealthy for electoral purposes, these would have no lasting
consequences. “Nothing will change” for the super-rich, he told a Wall
Street fundraiser last year, and that pledge he will keep.
And the former vice president denounced Trump for being too soft on
Russia, threatening to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for allegedly
paying bounties to Taliban fighters who attacked American troops in
Afghanistan. This phony story is just the latest fabrication by the New York Times in its four-year-long campaign to provoke a US war with Russia.
The tone for the convention’s final day was set by the report
Thursday afternoon that a group of 73 former national security officials
from four Republican administrations were endorsing Biden and
denouncing Trump in an open letter to be published in the Wall Street Journal.
The list includes an array of militarists and police-state operatives
who are responsible for the death of millions of people in Latin
America, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Among the most prominent and most deserving of prosecution for war crimes endorsing Biden are:
John Negroponte, with a bloody record from the contra terrorist war against Nicaragua to the occupation of Iraq in the 2000s;
Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991
Persian Gulf War, and secretary of state during the 2003 Iraq War, in
which he played a central role in justifying a war based on lies;
Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and
later CIA director, who oversaw CIA torture programs and domestic
spying;
Robert Blackwill, deputy director of the National Security Council with responsibility for Iraq war policy in 2003–2004;
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center under the younger Bush; and
William Webster, director of the FBI under Reagan and of the CIA under the elder Bush.
The support of these former leaders of the military-intelligence
apparatus only underscores the real character of the conflict between
the Democratic and Republican parties, the twin political instruments of
the American ruling elite.
Howie Hawkins is the presidential candidate from the Green Party. He offered the following response to Joe Biden's speech.
Thursday, his campaign issued the following:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2020
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Kevin Zeese, Press Secretary
KZeese@HowieHawkins.US
RELEASE: Hawkins Calls for Biden to Stand Up to the Fossil Fuel Industry
Charges that the Democrats have weakened his initial Green New Deal Proposal
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for President, said today
that America needed a true Green New Deal, not the watered-down version
that the Democrats have used for branding and from which they are
increasingly running away from.
Hawkins, who initiated the call in the U.S.
for a Green New Deal in his 2010 campaign for Governor of New York,
co-authored an op ed that outlines the history of the proposal. Whatever Happened to the Green New Deal?
Hawkins advocates a ten-year timeline (now 2030) to get to zero greenhouse emissions.
Hawkins and Angela Walker, his VP running mate, challenged Biden and
the Democrats to stand with climate activists to end subsidies for
fossil fuels, to immediately halt both fracking for natural gas and any
fossil fuel infrastructure, and to rapidly phaseout the use of fossil
fuels. The Democrats recently dropped the ban on subsidies from their
revised platform and have always opposed a firm goal of halting fossil
fuels. The Democrats also diluted their restriction on taking campaign
contributions from fossil fuel interests.
“Scientists tell us that we have years, not
decades, left to avoid catastrophic climate change. Already tens of
millions are being negatively impacted by extreme weather and air
pollution. The number of climate refugees are rapidly expanding,
including at our own borders. We need a full-scale emergency
mobilization to confront this crisis, similar to what we did in World
War II, not some tinkering with the all-of-above energy policy promoted
by the Obama-Biden administration,” noted Hawkins.
Hawkins noted that many of the key
provisions of his ecosocialist GND were missing from even Congresswoman
Ocasio-Cortez’ initial proposal, such as the need for public ownership
and democratic control of the energy system and cutting the military
budget by 75% or more to help pay for the program. Many proposals
labeled by Democrats as GND promote a 2050 timeline to get to “net zero”
emissions while failing to include the Economic Bill of Rights included
in Hawkins’ proposal, building upon FDR’s proposals in 1944: a
guaranteed living-wage job, a guaranteed income above poverty,
affordable housing, Medicare for All, lifelong tuition-free public
education, and a secure retirement by doubling Social Security benefits.
Hawkins proposes a
10-year, $27.5 trillion a program to achieve zero-to-negation carbon
emissions and 100% clean energy by 2030. It also includes an additional
$1.4 trillion a year for the Economic Bill of Rights. Hawkins supports
the conversion of industrialized, pesticide-dependent corporate
agriculture to organic farms owned by working farmers that rebuild
carbon-capturing living soils. Hawkins also supports taxing the rich and
making corporate polluters pay to help fund the GND.
“The ecosocialist approach recognizes that capitalism’s destruction
of the climate and exploitation of people are part of the same process.
It recognizes that in order to harmonize society with nature we must
harmonize human with human by ending economic exploitation and all forms
of oppression. It calls for an ecosocialist economic democracy that
meets the basic needs of all within ecological limits,” added Hawkins.
Yesterday's
snapshot led to an angry e-mail from an aged journalist. You know the
three-name I mean. The idiot who attacked me for getting his name wrong
here -- when, in fact, I had pull quoted Bob Somerby and it was Bob
Somerby who got his name wrong but Bob's a man so three-name never
contacted Bob. By the same token, three-name thought he could go to war
on Ruth. That didn't work out for him either.
Is he retired? Does he just show up DEMOCRACY NOW! for a living these days?
At
any rate, three-name wanted to me to know that "there's such a thing as
lead time! You don't understand that we write and then it gets
published. That could take two to three days!"
Old man, no one asked you for a damn thing, certainly not your useless opinion.
My
comments were about alternative media being silent on the conventions.
IN THESE TIMES, COUNTERPUNCH and anyone else does not worry about lead
time. This isn't the world of print journalism. WSWS has been able to
run articles every day about the convention. RISING has been able to do
segments every day about the convention.
Go back to sleep
because maybe, when you wake up next time, you'll be in the 21st
century. But even then, we won't need to hear from you.
(He had time to Tweet about Steve Bannon yesterday, I see. Didn't need lead time for that, did he?)
Gloria La Riva is the US presidential candidate for the Party of Socialism and Liberation. She Tweeted:
Hillary
Clinton, who boasted when Gaddafi was butchered in Libya's overthrow,
leaving so many African refugees subjected to slavery, demonized for
seeking refuge in Europe. Her biggest supporter was Madeleine Albright,
who thought 500k dead children in Iraq was worth the price.
I
saw the genocide committed against the Iraqi people, due to George H.
W. Bush's bombing war in 1991, Bill Clinton's sanctions that killed over
a million Iraqi people and Madeleine Albright's despicable claim that
it was worth those 500,000 dead children by total blockade.
Joseph Kishore is the presidential candidate from the Socialist and Equality Party. He offered the following Twitter response regarding Joe's supporters:
1) War criminals and militarists supporting Biden in the 2020 election: A thread.
2) John Negroponte. Former DNI, oversaw vast expansion of NSA spying. Former US ambassador to Iraq. US Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, overseeing US support for the contras' vicious war of disappearances, torture and mass killings against the Sandinistas.
3) Colin Powell, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff [C.I. note: actually Secretary of State] during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the United Nations, provided the case for the Bush administration, consisting of lies, to launch a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
4) Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA (1999-2005) and the CIA. Implicated in mass illegal surveillance of the American population. Supervised the CIA’s “black site” torture centers under Bush.
5) John Bellinger, national security legal advisor under Bush. Implicated in the CIA torture program.
6) Robert Blackwill, US national security council deputy for Iraq from 2003 to 2004, during the invasion. Leading member of the Council of Foreign Relations, who in 2015 wrote “Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China” advocating confrontation with China.
7) Joseph Collins, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability operations under Rumsfeld during the Bush administration. Key planner for the US occupation of Iraq.
8) Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1981-1989) under Reagan. Architect of the "constructive engagement" accommodation of the Reagan administration with apartheid South Africa.
9) Richard Falkenrath, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor under Bush, instrumental in developing and strengthening the DHS to oversee anti-immigrant policies and attacks on democratic rights within the US.
10) Aaron Friedberg: Deputy assistant for national-security affairs and director of policy planning for vice president Dick Cheney (2003 to 2005). National Security Advisor for the Romney campaign in 2012. Strong proponent of more aggressive action against China.
11) Colleen Graffy, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy under Bush. Said of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who committed suicide: "It does sound like this is part of a strategy... a good PR move."
12) Miles Taylor, intern under VP Cheney during the Bush years, staffer throughout the Bush administration, chief of staff for Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen under the Trump administration.
13) Michael Vickers, longtime defense department official under Republicans and Democrats. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Obama. Under Reagan, a senior CIA agent who helped direct its huge covert war to oust the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
14) Ken Wainstein, Homeland Security advisor under George W. Bush.
15) William Webster, director of the FBI (1978-1987) and director of the CIA (1987-1991). Among those who signed a letter to Obama demanding the quashing of investigations into CIA torture under Bush. (Obama agreed).
16) Dov Zakheim, Defense Department official under Reagan and then part of Bush's foreign policy team during the 2000 elections, along with Condoleezza Rice, Richard Armitage, Robert Blackwill, Stephen Hadley, Richard Perle, Robert Zoellick and Paul Wolfowitz, and Scooter Libby.
17) Philip Zelikow, member of the George W. Bush's transition team. Executive director of the 9/11 Commission, which whitewashed US foreknowledge and complicity in the 9/11 attacks.
18) Barack Obama, president of the United States. Shielded Bush admin war criminals from prosecution. Continued the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Implemented a policy of drone assassination without due process, including of US citizens.
19) Joe Biden... US Senator from Delaware and vice president under Obama. Voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, based on lies. Instrumental in supporting war in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and many other countries.
Jo Jorgensen is the presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party.
Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS' "Ellen's Latest Lies" went up yesterday. The following sites updated:
