Trina's Kitchen: May 2022

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Food problem in he kitchen

Please read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Death To Twitter -- though the zombies in the Water Cooler Set live on" at Third. I do love their coverage of issues and I'm glad they tackled the topics that they did in that. What am I not happy about? I went to Third with something I could have posted here over the long weekend but thought it would work there and it would give us a feature to work on. As usual, Ava and C.I. and Betty and Elaine and Dona were all on board. I don't think I'll be taking anything over there anytime soon because despite their being support for it, it never even got attempted. I'm not bitter, please understand, but I would have posted over the long weekend if I'd known this wasn't going to take place.

So I wanted to do a feature dealing with questions I get here that are a natural part of life when someone goes out on their own. A lot of people, not all people, see their waist lines thicken and their weight go up.

This happened to some of my children and I get e-mails on it.

Here's what's going on. The adult -- your mother, your father, both, whomever you had been living with -- was making sure that you had a balanced meal. That means that the chicken/pizza/whatever that you love was served with other things. Like? Green beans, beats, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, a salad, etc. So you were getting fiber and you were eating vegetables which were helping to fill you up. When we first get out on our own, it's easy to get into the mode of, for example, order a pizza and eat it when it arrives. You don't pair it with any sides. And so you're not getting that fiber that you need and you're not eating nutritional items that help fill you up.

If that happens and continues to happen, you will see your weight go up, you will see your waist thicken.

It's not hard to turn it around. You're young and have a higher metabolism so you'll probably be able to just bring sides into your meals and the weight you added will drop off.

You can bring sides in with fresh vegetables, frozen vegetables and canned vegetables.

Just pick what you know you will eat.

If you hate corn, don't grab corn. If you like canned spinach, grab that. Maybe you want to pair the main dish with a salad, great. Just make sure that you are eating vegetables at each meal and you'll find yourself returning to your pre-move out weight.

We did do "From The TESR Test Kitchen" and that's nice. We'll be doing it again next time and it will be popcorn that C.I.'s shipped to all of us.

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

Tuesday, May 31, 2022. No accountability from the press, no vision from the politicians.

Azhar Al-Rubaie (ALJAZEERA) reports:

raqis are still waiting for the country’s politicians to form a government, almost eight months since parliamentary elections took place in the country, with political elites unable to find an agreement.

Popular Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist Movement emerged as the biggest party in the October elections with 73 out of 329 seats, has been working to try to put together a coalition, but is still unable to do so.

In al-Sadr’s way is a rival Iranian-backed bloc, the Coordination Framework Alliance (CFA), which is the political umbrella for the largely Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces militia.

The CFA has boycotted parliamentary votes for a new president a number of times, on the basis that an agreement with the Sadrists that ensures the CFA will have a say in who is nominated for the presidency was needed first.

To be clear, it's not just that group standing in Moqtada's way. The Shi;ite cleri has managed to pull together only 180 MPs. He needs 220 to form a government.

That clause was included in Iraq's Constitution because it was thought that if you weren't able to pull together enough MPs to form a government, if you weren't able to cajole, horse trade, swap, make deals, etc, how would you ever be able to govern if your slate claimed the post of prime minister.

October 10th elections were held. The western press quickly rushed to hail Moqtada as a "king maker" when he was no such thing, when nothing in his past indicated he could be any such thing and when all events have demonstrated that he's not any such thing.

Some day the western press might admit they were wrong. More likely not. Accountability is a feature of a functioning press and we don't have that.

THE DAILY BEAST, for example, has apologized to a store owner. They said they made a mistake.

No, they didn't make a mistake. They lied. In October and November of 2020, we repeatedly pointed out ("Harped on" -- one or two e-mails claimed), that Hunter Biden's laptop was not stolen.

We repeatedly went over how a repair shop was not a storage business. How if you did not pick up your item -- let alone pay for it -- it became the property of the store. We cited case law and we went over this repeatedly.

Didn't appear that anyone else wanted to touch it. Not even Glann Greenwald who cvered the laptop repeatedly wanted to cover it. I have no idea why.

Yes, I do, Glenn's not trained in journalism.

That's his excuse.

Anyone who knew journalism knew how important this detail was.

The laptop needed to be covered.

If it was stolen property -- it wasn't -- then outlets would refrain from covering it. They can't cover it.

THE DAILY BEAST underrstood that point. So they intentionally lied and did so repeatedly to confuse the issue and to keep the laptop from being covered.

There was never anything in case law that made the laptop stolen. I don't believe THE DAILY BEAST respects the law but I do know they understand it.

It was not a mistake, it was a lie.

And now that they're being sued, they want to, all this time later, amend a two-year-old report to claim that they were mistaken.

No.

They lied.

They made unfounded charges against the repair shop owner and they should be punished in a court of law. They have attorneys on retainer and they knew what they were doing.

Another attack took place yesterday on a base in Iraq with US troops.

US President Joe Biden knows it took place and he knows what he is doing -- putting the lives of US troops in danger by keeping them on the ground in Iraq while pretending the Iraq War is over.

How much is the country willing to pay to keep Joe in office? At present, it appears he's leading the nation into a recession with some economic experts fearing it might be the equivalent of the Great Depression.

Are we willing to go along with that?

He was never fit for the presidency. Even if you ignored (or more likely wrongly slimed) Tara Reade, he was never fit. And now his mental dceline is taking the entire country down with him.

Maybe Nancy Pelosi can help us? Oh wait, she's busy with her drunkard husband who was so stupid that he thought he could still drive at 82 and that he could drive drunk.

As Iraqi politicians dither about forming a government, that country suffers. The Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has been showing up in Iraq for weeks now -- in southern Iraq and the Kurdistan. NDTV notes:

This year Iraq has recorded 19 deaths among 111 CCHF cases in humans, according to the Word Health Organization.

The virus has no vaccine and onset can be swift, causing severe bleeding both internally and externally and especially from the nose. It causes death in as many as two-fifths of cases, according to medics.

"The number of cases recorded is unprecedented," said Haidar Hantouche, a health official in Dhi Qar province.

A poor farming region in southern Iraq, the province accounts for nearly half of Iraq's cases.

In previous years, cases could be counted "on the fingers of one hand", he added.

Transmitted by ticks, hosts of the virus include both wild and farmed animals such as buffalo, cattle, goats and sheep, all of which are common in Dhi Qar.

WION adds, "According to medics, the virus causes severe bleeding both internally and externally and especially from the nose. As many as two-fifths of the cases die." Gillian Duncan (THE NATIONAL) notes the virus first spread to Iraq in 1979 and "There is currently no approved vaccine for this disease." Jay Hilotin (GULF NEWS) notes that the World Health Organizations has identified the most likely people to get infected as "farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians — people mainly get infected via ticks on livestock" and quotes WHO stating, "Human-to-human transmission can occur resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons." AFP states that death will be the outcome in two-fifth of all cases. RUDAW notes that the Iraqi government allocated 1 billion Iraqi dinars on Saturday to address the virus -- that's approximately $683,000 in US dollars. No, that's not a lot of money. Regarding northern Iraq, RUDAW reports, "Health committees were formed in three Kurdish cities to combat the Congo fever, officials from the areas told Rudaw on Sunday amid an outbreak of the virus in Iraq’s southern provinces. Formed in Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja, the committees are advised to quarantine suspects of the virus and to send their blood samples to Baghdad to confirm their infection."

Congo Fever is not the only problem facing Iraq. NEWS.AM reports:

At a time when global wheat prices have risen sharply because of the conflict in Ukraine, Iraqi farmers say they are paying the price for the government's decision to cut irrigation of farmland by 50 percent, AP reported.

The government took this step amid severe water shortages caused by high temperatures and drought, as well as continued water withdrawals by neighboring countries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. All of these factors have resulted in severe water shortages for wheat production.

The roblems come as desertification is a major problem in Iraq. Dler S. Mohammed (KURDISTAN 24) reports:

Iraq is losing a staggering 100,000 donums (about 10,000 hectares) of agricultural land per year, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture announced on Saturday.

The Director-General of Forests and Desertification Directorate of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture Rawiya Al-Azawi announced on Saturday that Iraq has been losing approximately 100,000 donums of agricultural lands per year to desertification for the past decade.

She warned that this phenomenon would hugely impact the ministry's agricultural plan and revealed that the ministry has proposed establishing a special fund for combating desertification.

Al-Azawi pointed out that increased desertification is due to global warming and climate change, which has reduced rainfall. She added that Iraq's geography makes it more vulnerable to global warming.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Zero Carb Crust Pizza in the Kitchen

ZERO CARB CRUST PIZZA! How to Make Keto Pepperoni Pizza Recipe https://youtu.be/MfT4IcMz_qo Recipe Here: https://lowcarblove.com/blog/zero-car... 🔴 Subscribe for more tips just like this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFVm...

Bree e-mailed to note that recipe and she also reminded me that I had not noted a diabetic friendly recipe in some time. She's right. Thanks for reminding me.

Meanwhile, as you know, we have a baby formula shortage in this country. Yeah, that's how pathetic our government is. Or maybe I should just like a whore and pretend everything's okay? Excuse me, lie like a Bette Midler. I believe that's the interchangeable term.

Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:

On Wednesday, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told a House of Representatives panel that the agency’s inspection of Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Michigan facility, the largest baby formula factory in the US, found conditions that were “shocking” and “egregiously unsanitary.”

During sworn testimony before the House Subcommittee on Oversite and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said, “We had no confidence in integrity of the quality program at the facility,” that produced 25 percent of US baby formula before it was shut down in February of this year for being contaminated with bacteria as well as other violations.

Califf described bacteria growing in multiple sites within the complex, cracks in key equipment, leaks in the roof, standing water and inadequate handwashing by staff. The FDA found five different strains of Cronobacter, bacteria that can cause dangerous blood infections, at the Michigan facility. Beginning in September 2021, four infants who consumed the powdered formula produced by the Abbott factory became sick and were hospitalized with Cronobacterinfections. Two of these babies died.

The commissioner attempted to provide some cover for Abbott Labs, the Chicago-based corporate parent of the pediatric nutrition monopoly, when he said, “This is so far removed from my previous experience with the company that I am very concerned.” With this statement, one would think all the other nutritional manufacturing plants operated by Abbott Labs in the US should be inspected, but no such concerns were raised by the House members.

The focus remained on the baby formula factory which was closed by Abbott Labs in February following a “voluntary recall” of its Similac, Alimentum and EleCare products from store shelves. The shutdown of production at the Sturgis facility immediately exacerbated the baby food supply shortage that had been underway since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

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

Thursday, May 25, 2022. Another attack in Iraq, Jonathan Cook takes on the war propaganda, I take on NPR's hit job against male survivors, and more.

Starting with an attack in Iraq, MEHR NEWS notes:

Local media in Iraq have reported an attack on the US troops in Saladin province in central Iraq on Thursday.

Sources in Iraq told Sabereen News telegram channel that a US military logistics convoy was targeted in Iraq.

The report said that a US Army logistics convoy was targeted in Saladin.

Aren't we all glad that the Iraq War ended? Aren't we all thrilled all US troops left Iraq?

Oh . . . Wait. That didn't happen. Just because CODESTINK and the others walked out on efforts to end the war, the war didn't end. It's not just the hollow words from Barack Obama, it's the hollow words from self-appointed 'leaders' like CODESTINK.

Now we're going to move to something else . . .

I've kept Johnny Depp and Amber Heard largely out of the snapshots. Largely because I've had a blind item or two or three or four since the marriage began. The last was noting what a cold fish she was on screen. No, the WB reaction was not a surprise to me and I actually provided feedback regarding that. I know Johnny and I've known him for years. I do not like her. The marriage was a huge mistake and I said in real time to both of them. To him that it would destroy him. To her that she wasn't fooling me and she was clearly in it for herself (after she responded to my question about how she could promise to stay faithful to Johnny). I don't like her. I don't believe her.

I don't know any woman who believes her that knows Johnny. Ellen Barkin's an honorary man, after all, Ava and I have long noted her toxic masculinity.

But we get to comment on Johnny today because NPR doesn't know how to play by the rules.

I'm not doing news reports. I don't have to play fair. I also don't take money for this site -- let alone get government money -- US taxpayer money.

Anastasia Tsioulcas doesn't seem to grasp the area of public trust and the responsibility that being a journalist for NP requires.

She has written a piece of garbage that should honestly have her fired. But firing her would implicate those immediately above her so watch them pretend not to notice.

A trial is ongoing currently, is there a reason that she's taking sides?

And I'm sorry but her 'expert' is as ugly in the mind as she is and it's just one expert.

There is no blance, read her garbage because it's as ugly as her face is.

Johnny is an abuser to read the article. Amber is a victim to read the article.

I'm not impartial. I don't pretend to be. Anytime I've written about this -- usually at THIRD -- I've noted that I am a friend of Johnny's.

Why is NPR airing a report that argues Johnny is not a victim of domestic abuse, that this is some nonsense offered by men's right activists?

What a load of garbage.

She needs to be fired. She won't be because that this garbage got posted goes to what a cesspool she's standing in.

I am not in the mood for these people. Those of us who spend out lives raising awareness of abuse know damn well that men can be victims. We've encountered them our whole lives. I've detailed here many times that there are days when I just don't want to open a vein because someone in the room's going to have a trauma and need to talk about it and I just can't do that over and over and over and over . . .

But I do it as often as I can. And with male victims, it is so difficult to get them to open up -- prior to me, apparently, I'm the can opener -- because there are so many judgments and so much shame based on societal expectations. We need to stop it. We are short changing survivors and we are short changing equality.

Anyone can be an absuer. I loved Bob Filner tremendously but when women came forward, I said that they needed to be heard. And they did need to be heard and he issued an apology and stepped down.

We never know everything that goes on and I would never have guessed that Bob would assault and harass.

Could I be wrong about Johnny?

Nope.

Because I'm not just basing it on Johnny. I'm also basing it on Amber. I'm basing it on how she used women and had physical altercations with them. I'm basing it on how she forced women to hide in the shadows when she couldn't cop to bi. I'm basing it on the rather infamous 2018 fight she had with a female lover that no one's talking about to the press.

Sorry, Amber is the profile of an abuser. And she has abused women and she's abused men. She's a malignant narcissist. After years of fuming over Lindsay Lohan and Blake Lively (she was especially obsessed with Blake), she thought she found a way to have the fame that they had. Johnny was going to be her meal ticket to fame and prestige. And she wasn't happy because people like that are never happy.

Let me stop a second. Johnny was stupid to marry her and I am on the record, to his face, before it imploded stating that. I told him that sometimes you honestly do meet someone who agrees with you about everything but, more often than not, what you've actually met is someone who's going to kiss your ass to get their grip on you and they don't really agree with you. (And I don't believe that happiness is found in a relationship where you agree on everything in most cases) He was blindly in love and if you want to fault him for something then fault him for that.

In the NPR piece, the 'expert' whines and whines and perfect victim and blah blah blah. If you're a known liar, you're a known liar. Now I've stated here before about the woman who thinks rape is sexy, the loon who told that to Anderson Cooper on air on CNN, even loons can be raped, even lairs can be.

I find it hilarious that the NPR reporter and NPR think they can high horse it on Johnny Depp's back when no one has ever had more supporting facts than Tara Reade and yet she didn't get defended, did she?

It wasn't politically smart to stick up for her. (We did -- community wide. And she told the truth.)

Amber isn't Tara. Amber hasn't told the truth.

And she's lied. Doesn't mean she can't be a victim. Ambition's not a crime either. Some can even justify using someone to get their dreams.

But we have a total portrait of who she is and who she is is someone who is not sympathetic, someone who is on a recording -- that I noted here over two years ago, before it was public and before it was ever brought up in a court -- gloating that no one will believe Johnny was abused.

Amber didn't want the life Johnny offered. She thought she could marry him and make her do this and that and her career would get promoted and this would happen and that would happen. Sorry, boys and girls, only Freddie Prinze Jr is more of a homebody than Johnny. When Amber realized what her life was and that she couldn't nag Johnny into making her into Blake Lively, she turned nasty. And she wanted out and she began to plot how she could exist to maximum effect.

After getting around it and having some people start to call her brave and express sympathy for her, she thought she was enough of an actress to pretend to be a domestic violence survivor and she wrote that absurd column.

Johnny gets falling down drunk. I've seen it with my own eyes. And because of that and his drug use, she knew she could paint him as an abuse and some would believe anything.

What she didn't count on was how this wasn't going to work. Johnny is a weepy drunk. He can be a loud drunk, but he's a weepy drunk. He wants to hug you when he's drunk. He does not want to hit you when he's drunk. I've been around him when he was drunk (or worse) more times than Amber ever has. I know his behavior. This is not Johnny. He is not an abuser in his best moments, he is not an abuser in his worst moments.

I try not to use this as a platform to protect my friends. But Johnny's being accused of things he did not do and I'm not going to stand for it.

It's only going to get worse for Amber.

And she's lying and we know she is -- 'we' being the industry.

He's not Kirk Douglas (who raped Natalie Wood, Dorothy Dandridge and so many other women). He's not James Caan who has a long list of 'explosive' relationships. He's not a predator.

As Kate Moss testified, what Amber claimed -- and what many wrongly repeated -- never happened. That's true of so much that comes out of her mouth so it's a shock to read NPR's disgusting and one-sided piece of garbage.

Does Johnny have benefits on his side?

Yes, he's someone the public feels they know. That is a plus in the court of public opinion. Amber's made herself well known though she's not exactly a civilian.

We live in a sexist society, so gender gives Johnny some benefits. We live in a sexist society, so gender gives Johnny some minuses. Like NPR refusing to see that he can be a victim of domestic abuse because he's a male.

Johnny's movie roles have made him well liked. That's a plus. Amber onscreen is a message to the movie goers to run to the lobby and get some popcorn since nothing's going to happen for awhile. That's a minus.

They both have pluses and minuses.

I'm not NPR. US tax payers are not supporting what I write. Nor am I presenting myself as objective in this case. Nor should I since I know both participants. But NPR does have to be objective and there is nothing objective in their so-called report. It is a hatchet job, a smear and it is not journalism to be proud of.

I think I've now weighed in more on the case here than I have previously combined here or at THIRD (and Ava and I noted the case in this week's "Media: We wonder, We wa wa wa wa wonder").

I am offended by NPR for what they did for so many reasons. One, it's not fair to a friend of mine. Two, it's not journalism worth praising and it's not journalism that tax dollars should be paying for. Third, this is a slap in the face to male survivors.

There were many men with real METOO moments and they got ignored. Some were victims as children. Watch as the bitches at the Academy Awards try to turn it into a wage issue and a this issue and erase all the children -- male and female -- that suffered abuse was appalling. The media went along with it. A friend of mine told a very brave story, came forward and talked about how he was abused as a child actor and instead we're focusing on other issues or pretending that, honestly, Harvey came onto a a sleep around -- verbally -- and didn't get his way and she wants to whine when we all know who she slept with to get her break. No one wants to take responsibility and everyone wants to celebrate the female victim.

(The sleep around slept with a friend of mine for a part. That wasn't the deal. The deal was she pretended to be in love with my friend -- who is a woman -- and slept with her and then, when the contract was signed, dumped my friend. And I think we pretty much know who I'm talking about but if you're not sure, Seth worked a visual joke about this into AMERICAN DAD. She has used sex to build the career she once had and that's why people don't take her seriously -- people outside of the press. But a woman like that gets attention while true survivors do not. That's the press.)

Amber played into that and the NPR article -- which is not journalism -- shows why Amber has been able to get away with it.

If NPR doesn't want to recognize male victims of abuse, I want NPR to return all taxpayer funds. And if NPR thinks one-sides hit pieces qualify as journalism, then they need the plug pulled permanently.

Let's note Cynthia McKinney.

There's the conversation that she and Sabby are having and there's the way you can apply it to almost every other topic. We'll discuss it later this week -- tomorrow or Saturday.

We're going to wind down with this from Jonathan Cook (DISSIDENT VOICE):

It was apparently a “gaffe” of the kind we had forgotten since George W Bush stepped down from the US presidency in early 2009. During a speech in Dallas last week, he momentarily confused Russian President Vladimir Putin’s current war of aggression against Ukraine and his own war of aggression against Iraq in 2003.

Bush observed that a lack of checks and balances in Russia had allowed “one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq… I mean, Ukraine. Iraq too. Anyway… I’m 75.”

It sounded like another “Bushism” – a verbal slip-up – for which the 43rd president was famous. Just like the time he boasted that people “misunderestimated” him, or when he warned that America’s enemies “never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people – and neither do we”.

Maybe that explains why his audience laughed. Or maybe not, given how uncomfortable the laughter sounded.

Bush certainly wanted his mistake to be seen as yet another slip-up, which is why he hurriedly blamed it on his age. The senility defence doubtless sounds a lot more plausible at a time when the incumbent president, Joe Biden, regularly loses track of what he is saying and even where he is.

The western media, in so far as it has bothered to report Bush’s speech, has laughed along nervously too. It has milked the incident largely for comic effect: “Look, we can laugh at ourselves – unlike that narcissist Russian monster, Putin.”

The BBC accorded Bush’s comment status as a down-page brief news item. Those that gave it more attention preferred to term it a “gaffe” or an amusing “Freudian slip”.

‘Putin apologists’

But the focus on the humour of the moment is actually part of the media’s continuing war on our understanding of recent history. It is intended to deflect us, the audience, from thinking about the real significance of Bush’s “gaffe”.

The only reason the media is now so belatedly connecting – if very indirectly – “a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion” of Ukraine and what happened in Iraq is because of Bush’s mistake.

Had it not happened, the establishment media would have continued to ignore any such comparison. And those trying to raise it would continue to be dismissed as conspiracy theorists or as apologists for Putin.

The implication of what Bush said – even for those mockingly characterising it in Freudian terms – is that he and his co-conspirator, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, are war criminals and that they should be on trial at the Hague for invading and occupying Iraq.

Everything the current US administration is saying against Putin, and every punishment meted out on Russia and ordinary Russians, can be turned around and directed at the United States and Britain.

The following sites updated:

Tomato Butter Spaghetti in the Kitchen

Kayla is teaching her daughter and son how to cook. And this recipe from Delish is the favorite recipe of her kids currently:

Ingredients

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 lb. fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp. dried oregano

4 tbsp. butter

8 oz. Cooked spaghetti

1/4 c. Fresh basil leaves, torn

Finely grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add onions and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until beginning to soften, then stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat to let the tomatoes start to break down.
When the mixture reaches a simmer, reduce heat slightly and and stir in butter. Season again with salt and pepper, add oregano, and let simmer about 15 minutes more to allow the flavors to develop. Taste and season as necessary. Serve over cooked pasta and top with basil and Parmesan

Her kids at 10 and 12, by the way. Cooking is great. You're making memories with your kids, having bonding time and you're teaching them a skill that they're going to use throughout their lives.

Are you ready for the next pandemic? At WSWS, Benjamin Mateus reports:

Since the first case of monkeypox infection was confirmed on May 7, 2022, by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in a British citizen returning from Nigeria, the epidemic of community acquired cases has rapidly climbed into the hundreds, spanning multiple countries in Europe, Americas, Middle East and Oceania.

By May 21, 2022, 92 laboratory confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases across 12 countries had been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). By May 24, 2022, the geographic span of monkeypox infections had increased to at least 20 non-endemic countries and at least 300 confirmed and suspected infections. The current epidemic is the largest outbreak of the virus outside of sub-Saharan Africa ever reported. Fortunately, no deaths have occurred up to now.

The monkeypox virus has been endemic to Central and West Africa since the first human infection was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a young boy. The virus was first isolated in 1958 by virologist Preben von Magnus in Copenhagen, Denmark, from macaque monkeys that were used as laboratory animals.

The double-stranded DNA monkeypox virus, one of four human orthopoxviruses that include variola, the virus that causes smallpox, is endemic to 11 African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.

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

Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange, possible plot against Bully Boy Bush, the stalemate continues in Iraq . . .

US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange for Julian's 'crime' of reporting the truth. The world watches as Joe targets Julian and declares war on a free press. At SCHEERPOST, Joe Lauria notes:

At some point during the next nine days, British Home Secretary Priti Patel will decide whether or not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges for publishing accurate information revealing U.S. war crimes.

Pressure is building from both sides on the home secretary. Press freedom and human rights organizations, a Nobel laureate, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, journalists and Assange supporters have appealed to Patel to let Assange go.

While it would be deemed improper for outside influence to be brought on judges, it would not be fanciful to imagine that behind the scenes Patel is getting the message from the U.S. Department of Justice and possibly from U.S. and U.K. intelligence services about what is expected of her.

The home secretary should know without prodding what the U.S. and British governments want her to do. Patel is a highly-ambitious politician who no doubt will calculate how her decision will impact her career.

“Politicians think about their next election, they think about their voters … that’s what makes them tick,” Kristinn Hrafnnson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, told Consortium News at a protest outside the Home Office in London last Wednesday. “For the first time it’s in the hands of a politician, and Priti Patel, if she wants to think about her legacy … she should do the right thing.”

Really, Joe? Then maybe we should all be applying pressure to Joe Biden who faces a huge upset in the mid-terms. Joe Biden is the one who can end it. Joe can drop the charges immediately. The left -- faux and real -- has been so pathetic for years now. With few exceptions, they refuse to make demands. Joe L wants yu to scare a British politician. But Joe L is Americn. And Joe Biden is American. We're getting as pathetic as that blogger Luke back in 2005 and 2005, remember him? An Australian citizen blogging from Australia who spent every day railing against Bully Boy Bush and Tony Blair for the Iraq War yet never calling out John Howard. He was the ruler of Australia. But Luke was too pathetic to call out the politician in his own coutry.

That's how Joe L is looking right now.

Joe Biden can end this. Joe Biden should end this. But when you're doing everything but demanding Joe Biden end it, you're not really doing anything except looking pathetic.

do we want to game this thing out?

Let's say Joe L gets what he wants and the British politician refuses to hand Julian over to the US. That becomes the official position. So they release Julian and allow him to book a flight to Australia. Do you think the US government grabs him at tHeathrow Airport or do you think they wait until he lands in Austraia and they grab him there?

Because that it what would likely happen.

Both the UK and the Australian government would likely be very cooperative with the US government and possibly even assist.

And Julian would be disappeared.

Joe L is trying to plug holes on the sinking boat Julian's trapped on instead of rescuing him.

Joe Biden has got to be pressured to stop this persecution.

And that means some of the timid on the left need to find their voices and use them.

Their voices.

Some idiot e-mailed the public account about how happy I must be that ISIS went after Bully Boy Bush. First off, did they?

I think they have more on their plate and this was probably some wanna-be. I could be wrong.

But, no, I don't want Bully Boou Bush murdered. That's too easy for him. I want him to be shunned, I want him -- and his family -- to know that blood is on his hands and will be forever more. I want him to be haunted by the ghosts of dead Iraqis to the point that he fears sleep.

I wouldn't mind seeing him in prison but I don't want him murdered.

You murder him and you create sympathy and the revisionary nonsense that's already taken place with regards to that War Criminal gets even more intense.

He is an awful man. If you use violence on him, you are helping him. All we need to combat Bully Boy Bush is our voices. We need to boo him when he tries to go out in public. We need to remind him over one million Iraqis are dead because of him. And we need to make it clear to an idiot like him, even him, that it is not a joking matter and we are not laughing.

Killing him is too easy.

And it's also the weakest move you can make. He needs to be Glenn Close t the end of DANGEROS LIASONS.

Alina Romanowski was finally sworn in as US Ambassador to Iraq yesterday. US Vice President Kamala Harris swore her in. Hopefully, she can now leave DC and head to Iraq.

Iraq where the political stalemate continues. Elections were held October 10th and still no prime minister, still no president. Only the foolish observers were shocked by the Iraqi court ruling tht the holdover prime minister does not have the power to implement long range plans for Iraq. Maybe now, observers will start to take the stalemate seriously?

We're 16 days away from eight months since the election and the rulers can't pull it together still. Will every US reporter who hailed Moqtada back in October as a "kingmaker" step forward so we can mock them?

There was never a reason to make that claim. He had no pattern of being a kingmaker. He was an ineffective cleric who ran in and out of Iraq anytime he thought the bench warrant against him was going to be issued.

His hold on his cult has grown less and less. There are very real complaints against him coming out of even Sadr City -- the slum he holds sway over that has seen no improvements despite his so-called rise to power. His voters showed up in lower numbers in the October election.

He's at his weakest. The young Shi'ites mock him publicly.

But ignoring all of this, US observers kept insisting that he was a kingmaker. Still want to pimp that claim today?

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