On numerous occasions the Justice Department under Obama whitewashed rampant abuse and racism in police departments across the US and argued in defense of the use of force by police every time the issue came before the Supreme Court. The Obama administration supported the suppression of protests over police killings in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland, and continued funneling military-grade equipment to police departments throughout the country. It has deported some 2.5 million impoverished undocumented workers.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Obama’s single major legislative achievement, was designed to increase corporate profits by destroying the health benefits won by workers over decades of struggle, while channeling billions of dollars into the coffers of the health insurance companies.
Coates does not refer once to Obama’s foreign policy. The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner will have the distinction of being the first resident of the White House to have been at war every day of his two terms. How many hundreds of thousands of people—or more—have died as the direct or indirect result of Obama’s policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia?
Obama, Coates’ “deeply moral human being,” presided over “kill lists” and expanded the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, to rain death and destruction on far-flung parts of the planet.
That's all it's been about from day one for the last presidents -- you can go back to Jimmy Carter: Destroy the achievements of workers.
Destroy their pensions, destroy their healthcare, destroy their benefits.
Send jobs overseas so that GenX had no real power -- they would have called the shots with employers if jobs had stayed in America because the Baby Boom would be retiring. There would be tons of jobs to fill and employers would have had to made serious concessions to get and keep employees.
Friday casual?
Oh, no, it would have forced employers to offer real benefits.
So ship jobs overseas, increase unemployment and the workers are held hostage yet again.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:
Friday, December 23, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, the Mosul slog continues . . .
The Iraq War was illegal. It was based on lies. It was supported by Bully Boy Bush, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, John Kerry, Harry Reid, the US media and so many more.
Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Then the post-justifcations became (a) Saddam Hussein (ruler of Iraq) was a 'bad man' and (b) democracy will bloom in Iraq.
That really hasn't happened.
The Iraq War was illegal. It was based on lies. It was supported by Bully Boy Bush, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, John Kerry, Harry Reid, the US media and so many more.
Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Then the post-justifcations became (a) Saddam Hussein (ruler of Iraq) was a 'bad man' and (b) democracy will bloom in Iraq.
That really hasn't happened.
MEMRIFormer Iraqi MP and Shiite Scholar Ayad Jamal Al-Din: I Used to Call for Democracy, Now I Wish for a Dictator like Saddam
Transcript of the above for those with streaming issues:
There is a single Islamic rhetoric. Sunni, Shi'ite, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Dawa Party -- all the Islamic rhetoric is the same. It's clearest manifestation is that of ISIS. With ISIS, it is unsweetened, unvarnished. The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood an the Dawa Party appear with red silk neckties, talk their way around it, fabricate a little. But in essence, they are the same. They are against democracy and against human rights. Someone who tells you that there is an Islamic party that believes in human rights is either a liar or an ignoramus. No Islamic party believes in human rights. Human rights mean that an atheist and a polytheist are equal to sayyid Al-Sistani and the Sunni source of authority and they have the same rights and the same duties. This is not just our problem. It is the problem of the entire region and of the Islamic world: You can either have a dictatorship with security or a democracy with disintegration. Saddam was a dictator and the country had all the security of a grave. The minute Saddam was gone, they all wanted to take his place. We now have 20 Shi'ite Saddams, 30 Sunni Saddams, and 40 Kurdish ones. The country has disintegrated. It's gone. We want democracy with security, freedom with security, not with anarchy, militias, slaughter, killing, corruption, and the plundering of the budget. The Arab countries that have security and stability are all ruled by a dictator. Let me tell you, I used to preach for democracy, but after witnessing all the catastrophes I have witnessed, I wish we would get a dictator like Saddam. At least he would protect people's lives. Saddam was a killer, but it was just him. Now we have 10,000 Saddams doing the killing.
Let's drop back to March 2, 2010 for context on Ayad Jamal Aldin:
KPCC offers another report from Quil Lawrence which includes:
The race even includes a prominent cleric running with his own strictly secular party. Ayad Jamal al-Din studied at the world's most famous Shiite religious schools in Najaf and the Iranian city of Qom. The black turban he wears indicates that his family descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. But Jamal al-Din says this doesn't mean he wants an Islamic state.
Iran and the theocracy there have hijacked the Shiite turban, he says, adding that he believes the vast majority -- even among clerics -- thinks that Iranian-style government has been a failure. What people in Iraq want is very simple, he says.
"The Iraqi on the street wants security and services. [He] does not think of a secular or religious government, just services and security," Jamal al-Din says.
Ayad Jamal Aldin is the leader of the Ahrar Party and their most recent press release was:
At
the start of a week that has been dominated by news of the continuing
and expanding 'de-Baathification' programme, Ahrar 374 Leader Ayad
Jamal Aldin noted that the issue continues to distract voters'
attention from the Maliki government's failure to deliver on jobs,
public services and security. He urged voters to send the government a
message and participate in Sunday's election.
De-Baathification is intensifying. Over the past five days, professors at the University of Karbala
and Iraq's Southern Oil Company have been targeted. The level of
fear-mongering has reached such a fever pitch that large numbers of
highly competent professionals that Iraq desperately needs to run
government and industry, are afraid for their lives and livelihoods.
Just yesterday, it emerged that that violence had surged by 80 percent
last month, when compared to January.
Ayad
Jamal Aldin - leader of Ahrar 374 - said today, "It is clear what is
happening here; the government is attempting to bully the people away
from the ballot box. We should not accept it. Where we see these
bullying tactics, we must see them for what they really are: an attempt
to divert the Iraqi people's focus from the government's chronic failure
to deliver jobs, running water and real security."
"The
only answer can be to stand up to bullies. And this week, we have the
best possible response to them - to take part in this election and vote
for change."
For further information, contact:
Ahrar Media Bureau
Tel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942press@ahrarparty.com
Tel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942press@ahrarparty.com
About Ayad Jamal Aldin:
Ayad
Jamal Aldin is a cleric, best known for his consistent campaigning for a
new, secular Iraq. He first rose to prominence at the Nasiriyah
conference in March 2003, shortly before the fall of Saddam, where he
called for a state free of religion, the turban and other theological
symbols. In 2005, he was elected as one of the 25 MPs on the Iraqi National List, but withdrew in 2009 after becoming disenchanted with Iyad Allawi's overtures to Iran.
He wants complete independence from Iranian interference in Iraq. He
now leads the Ahrar party for the 2010 election to the Council of
Representatives, to clean up corruption and create a strong, secure and
liberated Iraq for the future.
So that's background on the person speaking.
He did believe in democracy and that it was possible in Iraq.
He no longer does.
The 2010 elections saw him split from Iraqiya. Iraqiya won those elections. Ayad Allwi should have been prime minister. But Nouri al-Maliki refused to step down. For eight months plus he refused to step down. Instead of sticking with the Iraqi voters, US President Barack Obama overthrew the results with The Erbil Agreement (legal contract giving Nouri a second term).
It's hilarious to watch Hillary's Temple Prostitutes insist -- with no evidence at all -- that Russia 'hacked' the US presidential election. It's also a grave hypocrisy because Barack and Secretary of State Hillary tossed aside the Iraqi people's vote in 2010.
So, nearly 14 years after the illegal war began, there are no WMDs, there is no democracy and the war continues.
#IRAQ شمرية العراق Iraqi Sunni refugee
طفل عراقي سني نزح مع عائلته من الموصل خوفا من جرائم الحكومة الشيعيه الطائفيه
بوجهه تعابير ماجرى لنا من #ارهابهم ضدنا
Iraqi Sunni baby with his family fled from #Mosul For fear ofShia militias backed by Iraqi Gov.
In his face expressions of our tragedy
And that so-called liberation of Mosul continues -- creating thousands of refugees.
It's day 67 of the slog.
No end in sight.
Iraqi Sunni child fled from #Mosul
he says I hope
Warm bed
winter clothes
For Me and my sister's
Our Father dead
#MosulOffensive
Hayder al-Abadi oversaw the liberation of Falluja too.
It's still a ghost town.
How sad that the rah-rah US press is so quick to move on to the newest 'liberation' but so uninterested in what happened last go round.
IOM 
Mohammed Tawfeeq As the United States looks away . . .
W.G. Dunlop Hospitals crowded with people wounded in Iraq's Mosul as battle to retake the city drags on bit.ly/2hs2Ifk by @sarahbenhaida @AFP
This morning, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter, remotely piloted and rotary wing aircraft and rocket artillery conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Bashir, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle.
-- Near Haditha, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb, two vehicles and a supply cache.
-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed two vehicles, a building, two tunnels and an ISIL command and control headquarters; and damaged a supply route.
-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed a building and suppressed a vehicle bomb.
-- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed an ISIL tank.
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 following community sites -- plus THE GUARDIAN and Jody Watley -- updated:
iraq
