Fiona Apple has a new album, Fetch The Bolt Cutters and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Fiona says free yourself" is a review of that album. Kat's review went up Sunday and so did the comic above, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Are They Scared Of Joe Biden?"
Joe Biden is disgusting and, if you doubt that, refer to Barry Grey (WSWS):
Over the past several days, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his supporters have released campaign ads that seek to outdo President Trump in blaming the coronavirus crisis on China. The ads attack Trump for “rolling over” to Chinese President Xi and covering up his government’s supposed responsibility for allowing the virus to spread to the United States and other countries.
According to this concocted narrative, the main culprit for the massive social and economic disaster brought on by the coronavirus is China, not the American oligarchy, which did nothing to prepare for the pandemic and has utilized it to hand trillions of dollars to itself.
With these ads, Biden lines up behind Trump’s anti-China witch-hunt, meant to divert attention from the indifference of his administration to the health and lives of American workers, and project mounting social anger outward against an external enemy. Biden merely seeks to turn the chauvinist and war-mongering agitation against Trump himself.
An ad released in battleground states on Friday begins by stating: “As I speak, China is censoring research on COVID-19, making it harder for the rest of us to beat the virus. President Trump is not doing enough about it. The uncomfortable truth is that Donald Trump left America exposed and vulnerable to this pandemic. He ignored the warnings of health experts and intelligence agencies and put his trust in China’s leaders instead. And now, we’re all paying the price.”
Biden continues. “When I’m president, I will put the CDC officials back in China and insist that the Chinese keep their commitment rather than trusting Beijing with the health and safety of the American people. And I will demand an international independent investigation into the circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak and China’s response.” This is accompanied by a clip of an Asian medical technician at work, an appeal to anti-Asian racism.
This video was followed on Saturday by arguably an even more hysterical ad sponsored by American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC. It features a clip of Biden telling China on February 25: “We are going to need to be in your country. You have to be open, you have to be clear.”
The narrator then says: “But Trump rolled over for the Chinese. He took their word for it.”
The ad continues: “Trump never got a CDC team on the ground in China. And the travel ban he brags about? Trump let in 40,000 travelers from China into America after he signed it. Not exactly air tight.” The ad concludes with a shot of Trump holding a joint press conference with Xi.
What is one to conclude from this? That tens of millions of Americans are out of work and tens of thousands are already dead because Trump is a patsy of the Chinese Communist Party regime. Biden, in contrast, will take on the Chinese in earnest, presumably by military means if necessary.
What this twisted and poisonous narrative ignores are the real reasons for Trump’s neglect of the coronavirus threat throughout February and early March. Trump was at that time downplaying the virus because he, along with the entire political, corporate and media establishment, was focused on the threat of the outbreak to the financial markets and the fortunes of the corporate-financial elites.
It is not my job to vote for Joe Biden. I support candidates who work for me. Joe works for corporations. I won't be voting for him. Sorry. He's a corporate whore, he's a War Hawk, he's accused of rape and he's senile. Not feeling it.
Be sure to read Ava and C.I.'s "MEDIA: The blame pie has many slices -- does it ha...."
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:
Monday, April 20, 2020. NPR can't be bothered with facts obviously, an
Iraqi woman who was set on fire by her husband has passed away, and much
more.
On NPR's WEEKEND SUNDAY, Asma Khalid filed a . . . something about Tara Reade's allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her. On the pro side, NPR found Tara -- something PBS' THE NEWSHOUR could not do on Friday (see Ava and my "MEDIA: The blame pie has many slices -- does it have enough to go around?").
Let's note the whoring passed off as reporting.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro says in the introduction, "Biden has not personally responded." That is true. So why does she later ask, "How is Biden's campaign responding?"
Who gives a f**king s**t what the campaign says? Tara hasn't accused the campaign of assault.
This is a matter that Joe Biden needs to speak to.
Instead we get that from Lulu as well as this, "You've also been speaking to former staffers in Biden's office . . ." The story is the assault. She never said she told co-workers about it. Or her superiors. So why is Lulu asking that question.
And if Joe doesn't feel the matter is important enough to speak to, he needs to speak.
Otherwise? We don't need to hear this from a woman with the campaign: "It is untrue. It absolutely did not happen."
I'm not remembering Harvey Weinstein's supporters -- and he did have them -- being included in the response to accusations against Harvey.
And Tara herself notes what the NPR interview elected to leave out:
I am avid NPR listener. Super disappointed NPR editor decided not to air recorded interview of my friend (who is verified)that I told at the time that Joe Biden sexually assaulted me & corroborated 2 interns confirmed my duties stripped abruptly as well
The big takeaway from the story, NPR, is this b.s. from a dumb, stupid idiot:
KHALID: Well, it reminds some people of allegations that Biden faced just before he started his presidential campaign. At that time, women recounted how he would rub their shoulders, smell their hair, kiss them on the head. And Lulu, I should be very clear that while many of them described this behavior as demeaning, they said it was not sexual.
It was not sexual.
Does that dumb ass think rape is sexual?
It's not. Rape is not about sex. NPR needs to immediately send Khalid and every other staff member into training classes on rape and assault. Khalid, herself, is clearly neither mature enough nor informed enough to report on assault or rape. I'd like to know why that is? I hope the answer has nothing to do with what NPR friends who've worked with Khalid say is her "conservative religious positions." Yes, it does matter if Khalid has denigrated rape survivors in the past and explained to co-workers that her belief system holds the women accountable.
If you're wondering why Khalid dragged Tara through the mud on Russia but not on Tara changing her name, that's because Lulu -- who anchored the segment -- changed her own name. When she covered Iraq for NPR in 2008, she was Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.
Now she's lah 'Lulu.'
So many liars. Take Lenny Pitts. Always a centrist dumb f**k throughout the years, he now wants you to know you have to vote for Joe. Don't you love opinion columnist who can't think beyond a bumper sticker? Imagine if real thinkers had been promoted over the years and not these party organs who just spew talking points?
If you never got how bad Lenny Stink Pitts wrote, check out the opening to his latest garbage:
"Say it ain't so, Joe!" is how Stink Pitts opens his column. His third sentence is "And Joe Biden complied." No, he did not.
How stupid is little Lenny Pitts? How stupid?
"Say it ain't so, Joe!" he has American demanding.
Joe has never said that. Joe has not said a word. No one in the press has asked him to go on the record about the charge and he hasn't volunteered a statement himself.
Lenny Pitts is a professional idiot and it needs to be stated that when Joe can't bring himself to talk about this issue, it sends a message that the issue isn't important. If it were important, surely the man would speak up.
Women are damn tired of men who think they can pretend to be 'friends' but fail every time we expect anything from them. Joe failed Anita Hill (betrayed her, actually) and he's failing now.
Lenny, high off sniffing his own smelly pit, tells America:
That's what passes for justice?
That's Leonard Pitts speaking on behalf of rapists and pedophiles everywhere.
Turning to Iraq, where women are attacked as well while men are protected. We've been covering the story of Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi -- a name Leonard Pitts never wrote about. She was the second wife to a spoiled ass whose father is a colonel in the Iraqi military. She was prevented from seeing her own family for over eight months. Some have said she was 19, some have said she was 20 -- she would have been 20 this year at some point, whether she'd reached that milestone or not is not established.
Per Malak's sister, her husband sent her to the hospital after he burned her alive. He and his family immediately joined local authorities in a hush-up of the scandal -- one of those moments Leonard Pitts says where "principle may have become a luxury too costly to afford." Remember, women's lives are nothing but 'luxuries.' Our lives don't matter.
Outrage prompted the province's governor to get involved and a real investigation -- or what passes for one in Iraq -- began.
On Saturday, we noted the news her sister had posted on social media: Malak had died. Sunday afternoon, ALJAZEERA reported:
Among those speaking in solidarity with al-Zubaidi is United Kingdom's ambassador to Iraq, Stephen Hickey.
In a Twitter post published in Arabic, he said: "We feel a great deal
of sadness about Malak al-Zubaidi's case, and we hope the investigation
is quickly completed. We would like to remind that domestic violence,
whether it is phycological or physical abuse, is a prevailing problem
around the world."
Malak's story is far too common in Iraq. (Domestic abuse exists across the globe including in the US.) Miriam Jackson (UNION JOURNAL) reports:
Numerous UN workplaces in Iraq yesterday urged the federal government to expedite Anti-Domestic Violence Laws amid stories of an increase in such assaults in the course of the coronavirus lockdown.
In a joint assertion, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) cited a number of current circumstances of domestic violence in Iraq together with the rape of a girl with particular wants, suicide due to domestic abuse, immolation and self-immolation in addition to self-inflicted accidents due to spousal abuse, sexual harassment of minors and different crimes.
The assertion added that the alarming rise of such crimes highlights the pressing want for parliament to endorse the Anti-Domestic Violence Law in Iraq.
Malak's death demonstrates just how much an Anti-Domestic Violence Law is needed in Iraq. MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE notes this morning:
Also this morning, Oliver Mason (RIO TIMES) notes Malak's passing.
The whole world is hit with coronavirus. XINHUA notes, "The Iraqi Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed 26 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 1,539 in the country. The 26 new cases during the past 24 hours were five in the capital Baghdad, 17 in Basra, one in each Najaf, Wasit, Babil and Dhi Qar, the ministry said in a statement." It is an undercount to be sure. A few weeks ago, when REUTERS attempted to report reality on the numbers, the Iraqi government responded by suspending REUTERS for three months. Today, not even a month into the suspension, REUTERS was informed the suspension was lifted. Let's hope that was due to the embarrassment on the part of the Iraqi government and not some hidden agreement that the news agency brokered with the government. RUDAW notes the economic effects on the coronavirus:
Millions of Iraqis are reliant on informal employment and have little job security, their situation already precarious before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
As news of confirmed COVID-19 cases rolled in, national and provincial authorities instituted a series of movement restrictions from March 13 in a bid to keep the virus as at bay as possible and prevent strain on Iraq's already struggling healthcare system. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, and former customers told to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.
Baghdad's poorer residents have been hard hit as their income dries up.
A young Baghdad resident named Huda lives in cramped conditions, sharing a small house with six other family members.
Once selling tea, rice, and chicken steak to hungry customers, her family no longer has anyone to sell to. Huda needs medication for a skin condition, her mother said, but the family can't afford to pay for it.
Sunday, Kat's "Kat's Korner: Fiona says free yourself" went up as did Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Are They Scared Of Joe Biden?"
New content at THIRD:
On NPR's WEEKEND SUNDAY, Asma Khalid filed a . . . something about Tara Reade's allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her. On the pro side, NPR found Tara -- something PBS' THE NEWSHOUR could not do on Friday (see Ava and my "MEDIA: The blame pie has many slices -- does it have enough to go around?").
Let's note the whoring passed off as reporting.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro says in the introduction, "Biden has not personally responded." That is true. So why does she later ask, "How is Biden's campaign responding?"
Who gives a f**king s**t what the campaign says? Tara hasn't accused the campaign of assault.
This is a matter that Joe Biden needs to speak to.
Instead we get that from Lulu as well as this, "You've also been speaking to former staffers in Biden's office . . ." The story is the assault. She never said she told co-workers about it. Or her superiors. So why is Lulu asking that question.
And if Joe doesn't feel the matter is important enough to speak to, he needs to speak.
Otherwise? We don't need to hear this from a woman with the campaign: "It is untrue. It absolutely did not happen."
I'm not remembering Harvey Weinstein's supporters -- and he did have them -- being included in the response to accusations against Harvey.
And Tara herself notes what the NPR interview elected to leave out:
I am avid NPR listener. Super disappointed NPR editor decided not to air recorded interview of my friend (who is verified)that I told at the time that Joe Biden sexually assaulted me & corroborated 2 interns confirmed my duties stripped abruptly as well
The big takeaway from the story, NPR, is this b.s. from a dumb, stupid idiot:
KHALID: Well, it reminds some people of allegations that Biden faced just before he started his presidential campaign. At that time, women recounted how he would rub their shoulders, smell their hair, kiss them on the head. And Lulu, I should be very clear that while many of them described this behavior as demeaning, they said it was not sexual.
It was not sexual.
Does that dumb ass think rape is sexual?
It's not. Rape is not about sex. NPR needs to immediately send Khalid and every other staff member into training classes on rape and assault. Khalid, herself, is clearly neither mature enough nor informed enough to report on assault or rape. I'd like to know why that is? I hope the answer has nothing to do with what NPR friends who've worked with Khalid say is her "conservative religious positions." Yes, it does matter if Khalid has denigrated rape survivors in the past and explained to co-workers that her belief system holds the women accountable.
If you're wondering why Khalid dragged Tara through the mud on Russia but not on Tara changing her name, that's because Lulu -- who anchored the segment -- changed her own name. When she covered Iraq for NPR in 2008, she was Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.
Now she's lah 'Lulu.'
So many liars. Take Lenny Pitts. Always a centrist dumb f**k throughout the years, he now wants you to know you have to vote for Joe. Don't you love opinion columnist who can't think beyond a bumper sticker? Imagine if real thinkers had been promoted over the years and not these party organs who just spew talking points?
If you never got how bad Lenny Stink Pitts wrote, check out the opening to his latest garbage:
"Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Surely,
some variation of that plea rose from a million lips last week. And Joe
Biden complied. His presidential campaign forcefully denied the account
of a California woman who says Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993
when she worked in his Senate office. As reported by the Washington Post
and New York Times, Tara Reade says Biden pinned her against a wall,
put his hand under her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers.
“It is untrue,” said Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield. “This absolutely did not happen.”
"Say it ain't so, Joe!" is how Stink Pitts opens his column. His third sentence is "And Joe Biden complied." No, he did not.
How stupid is little Lenny Pitts? How stupid?
"Say it ain't so, Joe!" he has American demanding.
Joe has never said that. Joe has not said a word. No one in the press has asked him to go on the record about the charge and he hasn't volunteered a statement himself.
Lenny Pitts is a professional idiot and it needs to be stated that when Joe can't bring himself to talk about this issue, it sends a message that the issue isn't important. If it were important, surely the man would speak up.
Women are damn tired of men who think they can pretend to be 'friends' but fail every time we expect anything from them. Joe failed Anita Hill (betrayed her, actually) and he's failing now.
Lenny, high off sniffing his own smelly pit, tells America:
If Reade were sacrificed to the cause of
preventing that, it would be painful and unfair, yet arguably
defensible. Because if there are two evils here, Biden is much the
lesser.
But let us at least
admit, if only in the silence of individual conscience, that this is the
calculation we’ve made, the terrible choice forced upon us by the
exigencies of a fraught moment. We live now in paradox and emergency
where, heaven help us, principle may have become a luxury too costly to
afford.
So yes, Joe Biden stands accused of sexual assault and that’s truly appalling.
Vote Joe Biden for president.
That's what passes for justice?
That's Leonard Pitts speaking on behalf of rapists and pedophiles everywhere.
Turning to Iraq, where women are attacked as well while men are protected. We've been covering the story of Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi -- a name Leonard Pitts never wrote about. She was the second wife to a spoiled ass whose father is a colonel in the Iraqi military. She was prevented from seeing her own family for over eight months. Some have said she was 19, some have said she was 20 -- she would have been 20 this year at some point, whether she'd reached that milestone or not is not established.
Per Malak's sister, her husband sent her to the hospital after he burned her alive. He and his family immediately joined local authorities in a hush-up of the scandal -- one of those moments Leonard Pitts says where "principle may have become a luxury too costly to afford." Remember, women's lives are nothing but 'luxuries.' Our lives don't matter.
Outrage prompted the province's governor to get involved and a real investigation -- or what passes for one in Iraq -- began.
On Saturday, we noted the news her sister had posted on social media: Malak had died. Sunday afternoon, ALJAZEERA reported:
An Iraqi woman has died of severe burn wounds after
she was hospitalised in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf following
alleged torture by her husband, her family members said.
Local media reported late on Saturday that
20-year-old Malak Haider al-Zubaidi died days after the alleged abuse
and being set on fire, in a case that has stirred outrage on social
media.
[. . .]
There is no law criminalising domestic violence in Iraq, although the
country's constitution bans "all forms of violence and abuse in the
family".Among those speaking in solidarity with al-Zubaidi is United Kingdom's ambassador to Iraq, Stephen Hickey.
Malak's story is far too common in Iraq. (Domestic abuse exists across the globe including in the US.) Miriam Jackson (UNION JOURNAL) reports:
Numerous UN workplaces in Iraq yesterday urged the federal government to expedite Anti-Domestic Violence Laws amid stories of an increase in such assaults in the course of the coronavirus lockdown.
In a joint assertion, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) cited a number of current circumstances of domestic violence in Iraq together with the rape of a girl with particular wants, suicide due to domestic abuse, immolation and self-immolation in addition to self-inflicted accidents due to spousal abuse, sexual harassment of minors and different crimes.
The assertion added that the alarming rise of such crimes highlights the pressing want for parliament to endorse the Anti-Domestic Violence Law in Iraq.
Malak's death demonstrates just how much an Anti-Domestic Violence Law is needed in Iraq. MIDDLE EAST MONITOR ONLINE notes this morning:
The case has sparked outrage on social media, with several activists calling for new laws in Iraq criminalising domestic violence.
[. . .]
British
Ambassador to Iraq Stephen Hickey joined calls for justice, writing in
Arabic on Twitter: “We feel a great deal of sadness about Malak
Al-Zubaidi’s case, and we hope the investigation is quickly completed.
We would like to remind that domestic violence, whether it is
psychological or physical abuse, is a prevailing problem around the
world.”
Also this morning, Oliver Mason (RIO TIMES) notes Malak's passing.
The whole world is hit with coronavirus. XINHUA notes, "The Iraqi Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed 26 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 1,539 in the country. The 26 new cases during the past 24 hours were five in the capital Baghdad, 17 in Basra, one in each Najaf, Wasit, Babil and Dhi Qar, the ministry said in a statement." It is an undercount to be sure. A few weeks ago, when REUTERS attempted to report reality on the numbers, the Iraqi government responded by suspending REUTERS for three months. Today, not even a month into the suspension, REUTERS was informed the suspension was lifted. Let's hope that was due to the embarrassment on the part of the Iraqi government and not some hidden agreement that the news agency brokered with the government. RUDAW notes the economic effects on the coronavirus:
Millions of Iraqis are reliant on informal employment and have little job security, their situation already precarious before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
As news of confirmed COVID-19 cases rolled in, national and provincial authorities instituted a series of movement restrictions from March 13 in a bid to keep the virus as at bay as possible and prevent strain on Iraq's already struggling healthcare system. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, and former customers told to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.
Baghdad's poorer residents have been hard hit as their income dries up.
A young Baghdad resident named Huda lives in cramped conditions, sharing a small house with six other family members.
Once selling tea, rice, and chicken steak to hungry customers, her family no longer has anyone to sell to. Huda needs medication for a skin condition, her mother said, but the family can't afford to pay for it.
Sunday, Kat's "Kat's Korner: Fiona says free yourself" went up as did Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Are They Scared Of Joe Biden?"
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: Take a moment to note the late Malak Ha...
- MEDIA: The blame pie has many slices -- does it ha...
- That disappointing Ellen DeGeneres
- The really big question
- Music video of the week
- Bob Dylan's KNOCKED OUT LOADED
- Debunking The Criticisms of Joe Biden Accuser Tara...
- Our favorite media screw-ups: Believe Biden over b...
- Music audio of the week
- Ava and C.I. write to FAIR
- Extremists Use Pandemic to Terrorize Abortion Clin...
- This edition's playlist
