Trina's Kitchen: Swiss Steak in the Kitchen

Nina is doing Swiss steak for Thanksgiving. She doesn't have the time to do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and she asked her family what they'd like to eat instead. Good for Nina. As I've said before, the point is to be together. And your Thanksgiving can be whatever you want. It can be popcorn and grilled cheese sandwiches. So here's the recipe she likes for Swiss steak from Spend With Pennies:

Swiss Steak can also be cooked on the stove top. And you can serve it over brown rice as well as mashed potatoes. You could probably serve it over pasta.

Okay, the United Auto Workers is one of the biggest unions there is. Will Lehman is running to become the president of the UAW. Joseph Kishore (WSWS) reports:

On Thursday, United Auto Workers presidential candidate Will Lehman, a socialist and rank-and-file worker at Mack Trucks, filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan demanding an extension of the deadline for workers to submit a ballot in elections for the UAW leadership.

The case, Lehman v. The UAW, has been assigned to Judge David M. Lawson, who is responsible for overseeing the UAW and the court-directed Monitorship of the union. It will be heard this coming Tuesday, November 22.

The lawsuit is a response to the anti-democratic manner in which the entire election has been conducted. The first-ever direct elections were only held because of a referendum ordered after the massive corruption scandal that engulfed the leadership of the UAW. UAW President Ray Curry and the Solidarity House apparatus opposed direct elections, but the membership voted overwhelmingly in favor, by 63.7 percent.

Having been forced to accept direct elections, the Solidarity House apparatus has conducted it in a manner designed to exclude participation by the overwhelming majority of rank-and-file workers. It has sought to confine the vote largely to the people who control and staff the massive UAW bureaucracy.

For this reason, as the lawsuit documents, the membership has not been properly informed that an election is even taking place. Many workers have not received ballots and have had to endure a protracted and often unsuccessful procedure to obtain one. In other cases, individuals connected to the bureaucracy received multiple ballots and, according to one report, members of management received ballots. The UAW deliberately refused to develop accurate mailing lists for workers to receive emails about the elections and ballots.

Friday, November 18, 2022. Corruption in Iraq, marriage equality and abortion in the US, Will Lehman, BROS and so much more.

Abortion and marriage equality. A number of e-mails have come in about those two topics which are related in many ways. Let's start with marriage equality.

There will be a floor vote in the Senate. Here's Senator Tammy Baldwin's statement on what took place this week:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released the following statement following the Senate vote, 62-37, to advance the Respect for Marriage Act.

“Today, we took a step forward in our fight to give millions of loving couples the certainty, dignity, and respect that they need and deserve. A bipartisan coalition of Senators stood with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support marriage equality. We came together to move the Respect for Marriage Act forward and give the millions of Americans in same-sex and interracial marriages the certainty that they will continue to enjoy the freedoms, rights, and responsibilities afforded to all other marriages,” said Senator Baldwin. “I am proud to have worked across the aisle to earn broad, bipartisan support for this legislation, and look forward to making marriage equality the law of the land.”

And it should be the law of the land. But it's not yet. I'll celebrate when it is.

In the meantime we're getting garbage coverage.

So-called reporters printing lies. I've got four to choose from, they all go with the same lie, but we'll just use one. Playground honor will prevent us from identifying the author of the one we're using but Google will snitch on her if you copy and paste the paragraph below into a Google search:

If you’re wondering why protecting same-sex and interracial marriage is even something that needs to be voted on in the year of our Lord 2022, the legislation was prompted by comments from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who recently said that the Court should reconsider opinions protecting access to contraception and same-sex and interracial marriages. (It’s worth noting that Thomas is also in an interracial marriage, having been married to Virginia “Ginni” Thomas since 1987.)

Do you see the problem? Three other outlets also can't get it right.

And worst of all, she thinks she's cute with her parenthetical.

No, Clarry Thomas did not bring up LOVING V VIRGINIA. That's the case that overturned bans on interracial marriage. He listed marriage equality, he listed sodomy and he listed birth control. LOVING is founded on the same due process aspect. But Clarry omitted it precisely because he is in an interracial marriage -- exposing himself as a hypocrite. Many of us called him out on it when his concurring opinion (what the reporter calls "comments") was issued -- that includes Samuel L. Jackson who was very vocal about the hypocrisy (I would praise anyone for speaking out but, disclosure, Samuel is a good friend of mine).

Now I hope it becomes the law of the land and we'll be thrilled here if it does. But, again, we'll celebrate then, we'll breathe easy then.

We thought ROE was the law of the land until a cabal conspired to shred precedent and overturn fifty years of settled court law.

And during those decades, we watched as Democrats chipped away at it. Our 'friend' Hillary, of course, was part of the attack on abortion rights in the immediate months after the 2004 election. You had a plan by the party -- by leaders in the party -- to push the Democrats away from abortion. They paid various little peons to write non-thought pieces on it. And you had various politicians come forward to move the party away from abortion rights. Hillary took part in that. THE NEW YORK TIMES documented it.

So let's step pretending that We the American People have any groups of friends in Congress when it comes to reproductive rights. As Elaine noted, while people are listing Nancy Pelosi's supposed accomplishments as Speaker of the House, the reality is that she was Speaker of the House when women lost significant rights. Way to go, Nance.

We had ROE and we had years of chipping away at it. Poor women were, of course, the first to suffer. And we can blame men because men were in Congress and women really don't come into Congress in significant numbers until the 1992 genderquake (resulting largely from the country seeing the way the Senate demonized Anita Hill). But the reality is, ROE continued to be sliced and diced.

And when it wasn't being chipped away at, it was being used as a political football.

Codifying it not only would have saved reproductive rights, it would have pulled a get-out-the-vote tool from the Democratic Party not to mention a fundraising tool for the party.

And that, let's be honest, is why Nancy never led on codifying it and why Barack Obama broke his campaign promise that the first thing he would do as president was codify ROE.

If you supported ROE you were held hostage for years by the Democratic Party.

They didn't protect it by making it law, they didn't protect it by ensuring that all women had equal access.

They used it.

And some are e-mailing saying that I'm not celebrating our victory in the midterms.

I don't see it as a victory and I'll explain why.

But we did note WSWS's live coverage blog when they noted the victories in various states in this month's elections.

I've waited and waited -- in vain? -- for the Feminist Majority Foundation to put out some statement. Maybe they're not feeling it -- I'm not feeling it -- and maybe we're both wary for the same reason.

The American people turned out and supported the right to privacy. They did a great job.

But the people usually do.

It's the politicians that don't.

The Democrats lost the House. That's reality. They should have lost it by a bigger percentage, they should have lost the Senate.

Abortion is what saved them.

And as I write that I cringe because they don't have a history of standing up. They have a history of using and abusing.

I'll use an example from this century. As a party, they supported the Iraq War. After the people turned against it, the party began to find its voice. (There were members against the war who were in Congress, they did not steer the party.) Finally, in 2006, Nancy promised us that if the Dems could get control of just one house of Congress in the midterm vote, they could end the Iraq War.

The American people gave them control of both houses.

And they didn't end it.

They didn't end it because no one had expected control of both houses. Despite the fact that the public had turned against the war, the idiots leading the Democratic Party hadn't expected that turnout. So instead of ending it, it was decided to carry it over for at least two more years. If opposition to the war could get them control of both houses, it could also lead to control of the White House.

The dying didn't matter. The Iraqis dead and wounded didn't matter, the US troops dead and wounded didn't matter. The violations of international law didn't matter.

To the party, the Iraq War was nothing more than a get-out-the-vote tool.

And, to this day, we still have US troops stationed in Iraq.

Yes, abortion is probably the biggest reason that Dems were not wiped out in this month's mid-terms.

But why I'm not feeling a 'victory' here is because the party tends to use women and I can see very easily the Democratic Party refusing to address abortion by codifying it so that they can use the issue as a get-out-the-vote and fundraising tool for several more election cycles.

I hope that doesn't happen.

But already Joe Biden's declared this week that ROE won't be codified.

Really.

Because before the election, when he needed people to vote Democrat, he said what?

That he was fine with suspending the filibuster to codify abortion rights. Or does no one remember that?

And Dems may not control the House, but they have 212 seats to the Republicans 218 and there are still five more seats to be called. Let's say that they all went Republican. That would be 223. That's eleven seats.

Isn't Joe the reach across the aisle guy?

He can't get 11 votes in the House from the Republicans?

The Dems can't make deals that would garner the support of 11 Republicans.

Abortion is not a fringe issue, it has majority support.

There's no excuse for not putting this to a vote. There's no excuse for not demanding bipartisanship on this issue. It is what the American people support.

So this nonsense that Joe offered this week of how the results of the election mean nothing can be done is nonsense and garbage and too many of us have seen this over and over. So, yes, I fear abortion is an issue that they are going to string us along on for several election cycles unless we make it clear that we're not playing that game.

That means stop lying, stop spreading lies, stop being silent. It means that we stop pretending that backstabbers like Hillary Clinton are our friends. Again, she used the aftermath of the 2004 election to trash abortion rights -- even THE NEW YORK TIMES called her out on it.

The lines were drawn long ago and if you're not going for our right to privacy, you're not our friend and we're idiots if we pretend otherwise.

Sorry if I took the buzz off the victory. I was biting my tongue. Ahead of the elections and now. I'd planned to address that when we did the year-in-review here. But that is the reality of the way the party is with abortion. We have the numbers, we just don't have the representation in Congress. We would if we'd stop treating them like our wayward spouses and clucking over them and acting like it was okay that they forgot to take out the garbage and aren't they cute. They aren't our spouses. They are our public servants. And we need to remind them of that.

I am very hopeful that marriage equality will be the law of the land due to an act of Congress. And, if that happens, it will be something to celebrate. But I've watched the Democratic Party with ROE for too many years and Joe's remark this week indicates nothing has changed or been learned there.

In Iraq, the people also suffer under their government. At THE FINANCIAL TIMES, Raya Jalabi notes the recent theft of 2.5 billion dollars that was discovered in October (it took place over the previous twelve months). That was the public's money and corrupt officials stole it. They now have a new prime minister (Mohammed Shia al-Sudani) but The Century Foundation's Sajad Jiyad states, "The fault and the liabilities go all the way to the top. It implicates a lot of high-level players, including ministers and ex-ministers, civil servants and well-connected businessmen. So this is a political issue -- we'll see how far Sudani can go."

Talmiz Ahmad (THE HINDU) observes:

Last month, two developments ended the paralysis that has gripped Iraqi politics since the general elections in October 2021. One, the divide between the Kurds ended with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) reluctantly withdrawing its insistence on nominating the country’s President and accepting the claim of its rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to put forward its own candidate, Abdul Latif Rashid.

Once Mr. Rashid was approved as President with majority support in Parliament on October 13, he nominated Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as Prime Minister. On October 27, Mr. al-Sudani obtained parliamentary approval for himself and his cabinet. Thus, after three years of care-taker administrations, there is finally an elected government in Baghdad, though few believe there will be peace in the country.

Peace in the country? Hussain Abdul Hussain (THE QUINT) reports:

Less than a month after being inaugurated as Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is already reneging on promises he made to secure his governing coalition. The longer these pledges go unmet, the longer Iraq’s destabilizing political polarization will persist.

Sunnis traded their support for a promise that, once in power, the new prime minister would withdraw pro-Iran Shia militias, known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), from Sunni-dominated provinces in the northwest.

Al Sudani agreed, and also vowed to issue a general pardon that would open the door for the rehabilitation of the mostly-Sunni ISIS fighters.

Neither of these promises have been kept. Pro-Iran Shia lawmakers have obstructed measures that would undermine the PMUs without disbanding them.

And in the Kurdistan in northern Iraq? THE NEW ARAB reports:

Tensions between the two main Kurdish ruling parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), are worsening in the aftermath of the assassination of a counter-terrorism officer.

Hawkar Abdullah Rasoul, known as Hawkar Jaff, a former colonel in the ranks of PUK's Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG), was killed in the capital city of Erbil on 7 October after a sticky bomb attached to his vehicle detonated. The KDP accuses its rival party, the PUK, of being behind the killing.

Bafl Talabani, PUK's president, during an interview with Rudaw Kurdish satellite channel aired on Tuesday night, said that as a consequence of the killing arrest warrants have been issued by an Erbil court against himself and his brother, Qubad Talabani, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In other news, the Baghdad Airport caught fire again this week -- second time in three days, an explosion in Sulaimani yesterday claimed fifteen lives (currently the explosion is blamed on a technician), and Barak Ravid (AXIOS) notes:

The Biden administration has made it clear to Iraq's new prime minister that it will not work with ministers and senior officials who are affiliated with Shiite militias the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations, two sources briefed on the issue told me.

Why it matters: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani became the prime minister after he was endorsed by the pro-Iranian factions in the Iraqi parliament, known as the Coordination Framework. These factions include some Shiite militias on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.

Still, the U.S. plans to largely work with and give the new Iraqi government and al-Sudani a chance, as Axios recently reported.
Iraq is a key partner for the Biden administration in the region, with many U.S. security and economic interests that need to be preserved.

State of play: The Biden administration has already decided it will not work with the minister of higher education, Naim al-Aboudi, who is a member of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), a Shiite militia that is funded by Iran and was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the two sources said.

The U.S. is also concerned about Rabee Nader, who was appointed to head the Iraqi prime minister's press office. Nader worked in the past for media outlets affiliated AAH and with the Kata’ib Hezbollah — a Shiite militia designated by the U.S. as a terror group.

Behind the scenes: U.S. ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski has met with al-Sudani five times since he took office less than three weeks ago, according to the two sources.

The sources said Romanowski told al-Sudani the U.S. policy regarding engagement with government ministers and officials who are connected to militias. The same message was conveyed to the Iraqi government by other Biden administration officials.
The White House declined to comment on diplomatic engagements with the Iraqi government.

Turning to union news, we'll note this:

Fellow workers,

Today I filed a federal lawsuit against the UAW and the court-appointed Monitor demanding swift action to guarantee the right to vote in the first-ever direct elections for international office.

Just 9 percent of UAW members’ ballots have been received by the Monitor so far because workers don’t know about the elections, and there are widespread reports of workers not receiving ballots.

My lawsuit demands reasonable relief: extend all voting-related deadlines by 30 days and take real action to inform the entire membership that the election is taking place.

The entrenched UAW leadership is not taking real measures to inform members of their right to vote or to provide them with ballots in a timely manner because they don’t want workers to kick them out! This is a blatant violation of our rights as rank-and-file members of the UAW.

This case is about fighting for the rights of all UAW members. This election will not be legitimate unless we get a real voice

Below, I’m linking to the announcement of the lawsuit demanding the elections deadlines be extended. I want to ask you to do three things:

Share the statement about the lawsuit widely with your coworkers and on social media. Make sure other workers are informed of what’s at stake in these elections!
Demand that the election deadlines be extended so that every worker can get a ballot who wants one and can have their votes count.
Lastly, I need your financial support. Filing this lawsuit costs money, as does everything else I’m fighting to do to make workers aware of the elections and my campaign’s call for rank-and-file power. I ask that you donate whatever you can right away.

Donate

THU, NOV 17

UAW Presidential Candidate Will Lehman Sues UAW And Monitor for Violating Members’ Right to Vote in National Officers Election

On Thursday, November 17, Will Lehman filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan demanding that the UAW and the court-appointed Monitor overseeing the election delay all voting-related deadlines by 30 days due to widespread reports that workers are unaware of the election and that the mechanism for mailing ballots has broken down.