Trina's Kitchen: Agreeing with WSWS to a point

Joseph Kishore (WSWS) writes:

In the person of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats have selected their most unpopular candidate. There is no doubt that the Clintons have been the target of right-wing Republican attacks, but they have provided plenty of ammunition. Their record of self-serving hypocrisy extends back to the launching of Bill Clinton’s political career in Arkansas, where he combined empty rhetoric with the closest ties to corporate titans like Walmart and the Perdue chicken empire. While in the White House, Bill Clinton orchestrated a shift of the Democratic Party further to the right, including an effort to win support among Republicans on the basis of anti-welfare legislation, “law-and-order” prison sentencing rules and pro-market economic policies.
The Clintons’ corruption became even more pronounced after Bill Clinton left office, as the pair amassed more than $150 million through their connections to corporate boardrooms and the operations of the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton cultivated her relationship with Wall Street as a senator from New York and forged close ties to the military-intelligence apparatus as Obama’s secretary of state.
Clinton’s defining actions during this period were her support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which led to the deaths of more than one million people, and her direct involvement in the Obama administration’s decision to invade Libya and stoke civil war in Syria. Behind her carefully crafted political façade, Clinton’s real persona was most clearly revealed in the unscripted cackles of glee with which she greeted the news of the torture and murder of Muammar Gaddafi, exclaiming, “We came, we saw, he died!”

That I agree with.

I'm having problems with his 'identity politics' rant.

Why?

Because it's a little bit hard not to see your publication as sexist when you're doing yet another woe-as-Roman-Polanski piece.

He drugged a teenager and had sex with her -- rape.

In the 70s when this happened, WSWS took the position of 'nookie politics' -- meaning sex for men is always right.

All these decades later, still defending Polanski?

They look like sexist pigs who are unaware of the realities of rape.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:

Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Chaos and violence continue,

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Fallujah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL front-end loader, an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL heavy machine gun and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL staging area and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Haditha, two strikes destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL artillery piece.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL command-and-control node.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL staging area and an ISIL headquarters.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike damaged an ISIL tactical vehicle.

-- Near Rawah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes struck an ISIL modular oil refinery and destroyed an ISIL supply cache.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

The big story remains the abuses. Abdulla Hawez (DAILY BEAST) reports:

The stalled battle to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah from ISIS has given way to another grim development: accusations of human rights abuses against fleeing refugees by pro-Iraqi government forces.

The largely Shia militia group officially known as Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), headed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a U.S.-designated terrorist has, according to the United Nations, committed atrocities against Sunnis in two newly liberated areas of Saqlawiyah and Al-Karmah, are just kilometers from Fallujah city.

Two sources in Saqlawiyah, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of their lives, have told The Daily Beast that hundreds of civilian residents of Saqlawiyah and Karma have been heavily tortured by the PMF. Five dead bodies have been uncovered, but there are an additional 200 to 300 civilians that have been taken by the PMF; their fates are unknown.

Abdulla Hawez has written a strong article (even gets the events of 2013 and 2014 correct). However, most continue to ignore this issue even after the UN statement (see yesterday's snapshot).

Why?

Maybe they fear having to report the law.

Because the law is quite clear about what should be happening now, US law is quite clear.

The US government should be ceasing all operations in Iraq and stopping all aid.

The Iraqi government made the militias part of the Iraqi forces (Haider al-Abadi did that).

Therefore, these abuses are being carried out by the Iraqi government.

#IRAQ شمرية العراق ‏@moonnor27 23 minutes ago

Shia Militias crimes #IRAQ
فديو مسرب الحشد الشيعي الارهابي يقتل عشرات المدنيين العراقيين السنه ويضحك فوق جثثهم

اعلام الربيع العراقي

74 retweets14 likes

The Leahy Amendment, among other laws, requires the backing the Iraqi government be ceased immediately.

When Senator Bob Menendez was reluctant to approve US arms to Iraq, this was exactly what he was concerned about.

If the law were to be followed, Barack Obama would have to cease all financial and military support of the (US-installed) Iraqi government.

This is not minor.

It's the law.

While the western press largely rushes to distract from what's taking place in Iraq, War Hawk Hillary Clinton has her stupid idiots and whores who support her.

Take 'gamer' Brianna Wu.

Yeah, you've fought an important battle in the world of #WHITEGIRLPROBLEMS -- making the sofa world 'safe' for gamers.

See, the issue isn't poverty, childhood malnutrition, education or even just basic survival, no, no, the issue is will Brianna Wu rule the world of gaming?

Self-interest passed off as feminism is really all Hillary Clinton has to offer so it's no surprise Brianna Wu would identify with her.

Liza Featherstone Retweeted

‏@VersoBooks

"If feminism only concerns itself with the women at the very top of our society...It’s just elitism" @lfeatherz

60 retweets64 likes

Brianna huffed on Twitter today:

‏@Spacekatgal

1/ It is intellectually dishonest to blame Hillary for Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. It's not accurate, and it's a sexist double standard.

24 retweets112 likes

5 retweets48 likes

‏@Spacekatgal

3/ I'll tell you something. I've HAD IT with holier-than-thou Puritans lecturing me on militarism. I protested Iraq war EVERY WEEK for years

View conversation

5 retweets48 likes

No, you deeply, deeply, stupid idiot, it is not sexism to blame Hillary for Libya -- which she advocated for the destruction of -- or for Iraq which she's lied about repeatedly.

It's stupidity for a dumb idiot like Brianna Wu to try to weigh in on matters she's far too stupid to know about.

Hillary refused to read the intelligence assessment prior to vote (ask Senator Bob Graham if that's news to you). She wanted the war. She applauded the war for years and only backed away after over 51% of the public (and over 70% of Democratic voters) had turned against it. She would tell former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates (after Barack was elected) that she only opposed the 'surge' because she thought it was the politically popular position to take (see Gates' book if that's news to you -- or if you're just stupid like Brianna Wu). As Secretary of State, she refused to stand up to Nouri al-Maliki (whom she publicly called a "thug" in April of 2008) -- this as he put forward a Cabinet at the end of 2010 with no women in it, when even the Minister of Women was . . . a man. When Nouri al-Maliki used the Minister of the Interior to target gay men (and those suspected of being gay) in Iraq, she managed a single public sentence on the matter (which, granted, was one more sentence than Barack ever managed, but with gay men targeted for violent death, that's really not cutting it).

As Secretary of State, she presided over the US department in charge of Iraq as the US military conducted their drawdown. In this capacity, she refused to present Congress with any plan including a plan of how the billions she was requesting would be spent.

Now if you've been busy stuffing your gamer console up your orifices, like Brianna Wu, you immediately scream, "Republicans!"

No, you stupid idiot. While you were zoning out with one game after another, I was at those Congressional hearings and reporting on them here. And Gary Ackerman was a Democrat from New York and one of the most vocal -- see for example his exchange with the State Dept's Brooke Darby -- about how the Clinton State Dept was not providing basic answers to Congress.

As Secretary of State, she wasted billions on training for Iraqi security forces when, before the training could get off the ground (it never did), Nouri's flunky at the Ministery of Interior had publicly stated that they did not want US training.

[Flunky? The man was called the Minister of the Interior by the press. He was never confirmed by Parliament. He never actually held the office.]

And if that's too much for deeply stupid Brianna Wu, she can refer to the reports, statements and testimony of Stuart Bowen who was the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

I'm sorry that while Brianna Wu was re-fighting The Great Scrabble War of 1932 and attempting to make the world better for Hasbro and Milton Bradley, that she missed all these events and so many more.

I'm sorry that she's confused her hobby with a cause of great political import.

And I'm sorry that one so deeply stupid would choose to flaunt her ignorance so publicly.

Most of all, I'm sorry that she'd dare to apply the term "feminist" to herself and Hillary to defend supporting a woman who has done everything to make life worse for Iraqi women. And we've covered that before in great depth but I honestly don't have time to spoon feed the socially irresponsible and pathetic.

As for Brianna Wu's claim that she protested the Iraq War every week for years?

The Iraq War never stopped.

Apparently, your short attention span grew weary, Brianna, and it distracted from your hobbies so, to feed your never ending lust for self-entertainment, you walked away. That's nothing to brag about but, then again, neither is your life.

‏@lfeatherz

On breaking the glass ceiling

Will she be the first woman president to bomb Syria?

The first to deport children?

to embrace fracking?

161 retweets220 likes

Idiots like Brianna can begin to raise their level of awareness by reading and they can start with the book Liza's editor of:

False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Edited by Liza Featherstone

Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the most powerful women in world politics, and the irrational right-wing hatred of Clinton has fed her progressive appeal, helping turn her into a feminist icon. To get a woman in the White House, it’s thought, would be an achievement for all women everywhere, a kind of trickle-down feminism.

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the mantle of feminist elect has descended on Hillary Clinton, as a thousand viral memes applaud her, and most mainstream feminist leaders, thinkers, and organizations endorse her. In this atmosphere, dissent seems tantamount to political betrayal.

In False Choices, an all-star lineup of feminists contests this simplistic reading of the candidate. A detailed look at Hillary Clinton’s track record on welfare, Wall Street, criminal justice, education, and war reveals that she has advanced laws and policies that have done real harm to the lives of women and children across the country and the globe. This well-researched collection of essays restores to feminism its revolutionary meaning, and outlines how it could transform the United States and its relation to the world.

Includes essays from prominent feminist writers Liza Featherstone, Laura Flanders, Moe Tkacik, Medea Benjamin, Frances Fox Piven and Fred Block, Donna Murch, Kathleen Geier, Yasmin Nair, Megan Erickson, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Catherine Liu, Amber A’Lee Frost, Margaret Corvid, Belén Fernández, Zillah Eisenstein, and others.