Monday, July 25, 2022

Look who's hurting the nurses

ugos

 


That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Ugos Against (and jealous of) Drag Queens."


If you missed it, my hometown has a new record.  Cady Stanton (USA TODAY) reports



Boston broke a daily record high temperature Sunday and New York City and Philadelphia may follow suit as an "extremely oppressive" heat wave intensified in the Northeast, leading to at least two heat-related deaths over the weekend.

More than 85 million Americans faced excessive heat warnings and advisories Sunday from the Southern Plains to the Northeast, according to a National Weather Service statement.


100 degrees.  We hit a hundred.


At WSWS, Kevin Reed reports:


Recent events in the months-long contract struggle of 6,200 nurses at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, Michigan have exposed groups such as Left Voice (LV) and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as supporters of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy and the Democratic Party. Far from representing the struggle for socialism, these groups are part of the corrupt union apparatus and the capitalist political establishment.

Both LV and the DSA were present at the rally and informational picket at Michigan Medicine on Saturday, July 16, to which hundreds of nurses and their supporters turned out. The purpose of the participation of these organizations was to give the union—the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) and its locally affiliated University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council (UMPNC)—a “left” cover and assist in the ongoing isolation and betrayal of the nurses’ struggle.

Michigan Medicine nurses are determined to find a way to take forward their struggle. It is critical, however, that they recognize they face a fight on two fronts: against both the hospital management and the MNA-UMPNC.

Since the beginning of contract negotiations, the hospital administration has not budged from its intention to maintain mandatory overtime, excessive on-call hours and the staffing shortage that underlies the intolerable working environment at Michigan Medicine.

But when the previous contract expired on June 30, the MNA-UMPNC leadership took no action. It failed even to demand an extension of the old contract pending rank-and-file ratification of a new one.

The union did not hold a strike vote when hospital management provocatively denied nurses their step pay increases due on July 1. Instead, the union leadership scheduled “informational meetings” and told the nurses that the bargaining team was continuing to negotiate (behind closed doors and out of view of the rank-and-file).

Attempting to contain the growing anger and determination of the nurses, the MNA-UMPNC organized the rally and informational picket on July 16 to let off steam. The union leaders paraded their friends in the Democratic Party such as Representative Debbie Dingell and union bureaucrats like Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber onto the platform to make empty promises such as “We’ve got your back,” and “You are going to win.”

In other words, to do nothing concrete to mobilize the powerful working class of Michigan behind the nurses.

Diverting the struggle of nurses toward support for the Democratic Party has been the union’s strategy all along. 

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


Monday, July 25, 2022.  The Iraqi government sings along with PJ Harvey while Jimmy Dore thinks he's 'educating' -- we will expect the retraction and correction over the next 24 hours, Jimmy, or else expect Sam Seder to have hours of fun laughing at you.


Who will save us from the stupid?  Here's Jimmy Dore telling you that "NPR's turning on Zelensky and Ukraine" -- the pot head comedian says making it clear that he is not fit to run for president.  If you missed it, the People's Party supposedly wants to draft him to run for the president of the United States in 2024 because there aren't enough clowns in politics already.  Here's the video.




Stupid man, stupid man, stupid man.


NPR did not report any such things.  NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO reports many stories on air.  Over the airwaves, it's radio.  They feature those stories -- often with transcriptions -- at their website.  They sometimes do 'digital packages' of major stories or popular stories if they're on science.  NPR did not write the story Jimmy Dore is stupidly insisting is their story.  


Look at the video.  In the left hand corner you have "npr" in colored letters.  In the right hand corner, you have "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS."  NPR, like many other US outlets, published the AP story.  That's what Jimmy Dore stupidly thinks is a report done by NPR.


Idiot.


You can see in the video the page he's displaying but is too stupid to look at or to grasp what he's seeing.  Click here for the page at NPR and here's a section of it to prove the point:


Corruption concerns involving Ukraine are revived as the war with Russia drags on

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on July 8, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, attends a meeting with military officials during his visit the war-hit Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine's history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.

As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine's suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid.


CNBC ran the AP report, BANGOR DAILY NEWS ran it, ARGUS PRESS, FOX NEWS in Memphis, and on and on.  If you GOOGLE just the first paragraph, you will find it ran all over the US and has some 715,000 search results.  This was five days ago.   By the way, the authors are Matthew Lee and Nomaan Merchant.


But there's the tubby boy with the fat head telling you an AP story is NPR.  The only more stupid than Jimmy?  His followers.


Jimmy once again you are speaking the truth.

     50


No, you idiot, for it to be true, it would have to be a report NPR did.  It's not.


Who cares what NPR says. They get one thing right a year, months later than needed.

     344


Do we care if NPR didn't say it?  Because it didn't.


G R E A T show, Jimmy! Thanks for your continued REAL reporting and journalism!!

     30

love your channel,you’re they only American who tell the truth,thank you ,God bless you,

56


Yeah, Jimmy, great show except that what you're claiming never happened.  


Yeah, Jimmy, you're the only American who tells the truth . . . if 'truth' now equals lies.



I guess when you bring on a convicted pedophile and registered sex offender like Scott Ritter and tell your audience how wonderful he is and you see them buy those lies that you decide why not lie all the time?


Maybe that's how you end up proclaiming NPR has done this and reported that when they did nothing.  


Does no one on Jimmy Dore's show know how to read?  Or are they all so sick of his preening ass that they just waive him through so they can laugh at him?


What an idiot.  


All he had to do was take a minute to look at the screen projected behind him.  But I guess when you think you know everything, stopping a moment for basic facts is just too much.

On this topic -- outlets getting facts wrong -- Ava and I wrote our piece yesterday for THIRD and it's on a 'documentary' that can't be bothered with facts.  We worked four hours on it.  THIRD can get the other content together or not, it's posting this evening.  Sorry to be that way but I don't feel good.  I've been throwing up and I'm not the mood to spend anymore time on THIRD this week.


On Ukraine, we'll note what Pedro Gonzalez published at SERVANT OF THE CORRUPT two months ago:


In February 2021, by order of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine shut down three domestic television channels, accusing them of spreading Russian “propaganda.” Three months later, Zelenksky arrested Viktor Medvedchuk, who was at the time leading the second-biggest party in Ukraine’s national parliament, the pro-Russia and Eurosceptic Opposition Platform for Life (OPZZh).

Zelensky didn’t have trouble incinerating vaunted democratic norms well-before Russia crossed the Rubicon into Ukraine this year. So it was no surprise when he did it again amid the war in late March, invoking emergency powers under martial law to nationalize TV channels and ban 11 opposition parties, including OPZZh — all supposedly done in the name of combatting Russian misinformation and Russian sympathizers, even though OPZZh’s then-chairman, Yuriy Boyko, denounced the war and called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Zelensky, however, wouldn’t miss another opportunity to clip the wings of political opposition in his country, certainly not now that Western media rationalizes and glorifies his every move.

But the portrait of the Ukraine President as a democratic paragon whitewashes the real Zelensky and conceals a vast web of corruption and international skullduggery of which Ukraine is situated in the centre. Understanding the real Zelensky, requires seeing him as a creation of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. He is, in truth, a puppet of intrigue.

The Pandora Papers

It might be hard to believe now, but revelations from documents in the Pandora Papers — millions of files from offshore service providers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with partners around the world — sent Zelensky reeling last year, threatening to end his political career. Though the actor-turned-politico campaigned as an anti-corruption reformer, the Pandora Papers showed him to be just as crooked as his predecessors.

Of more than 300 politicians and public officials, including several current and former national leaders, in more than 91 countries and territories to whom the documents were linked, Ukraine was home to more secret offshore holdings than any other, including Russia. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which contributed to the investigation, found that just before Zelensky was elected president, “he gifted his stake in a key offshore company, the British Virgin Islands-registered Maltex Multicapital Corp., to his business partner — soon to be his top presidential aide. And in spite of giving up his shares, the documents show that an arrangement was soon made that would allow the offshore to keep paying dividends to a company that now belongs to his wife.”

As it was with crackdowns on free speech and political opposition, Zelensky’s office attempted to justify the use of offshores by blaming the specter of Russian aggression. An adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff said the offshores were necessary to “protect” the group’s incomes against the “aggressive actions” of the “corrupt” regime of former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in a US-backed color revolution in 2014. The expensive properties acquired by Zelensky associates in the center of London with the offshores, it seems, were but humble havens for persecuted Ukrainians.


You can also check out this Jeremy Kuzmarov report that INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE published July 19th.

Instead of inventing 'facts,' Jimmy Dore should try just amplifying them.  There's more than enough to go around.  At WSWS, Andre Damon notes:


The US military is considering “moving aircraft carriers or sending fighter planes for close air support” as part of a potential trip by US house speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

The discussions about US military actions in support of Pelosi’s trip were first reported in an op-ed by Josh Rogin, who wrote,

The U.S. military is devising options for protecting Pelosi’s delegation, who—as is normal procedure for congressional delegations to Taiwan—would be flying on a military plane. The measures under consideration include moving aircraft carriers or sending fighter planes for close air support. That, in turn, could be misinterpreted by the Chinese side as an aggressive rather than a defensive measure.

The discussions took place amid warnings by Chinese officials that the scheduled trip by Pelosi could trigger a military clash between Chinese and US forces.

In a separate article, the Post reported: “The Biden administration is increasingly concerned that a planned trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan next month could spark a major crisis across the Taiwan Strait, and the White House and an array of national security officials have briefed Pelosi and her team about the risks of traveling now, administration officials said.”

In a separate article, the Post quoted Evan Medeiros, a former top White House China expert in the Obama administration, as saying, “The Taiwan issue … could spark war—including nuclear war—between the two largest economies in the world.”

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said military officials believed it was “not a good idea” for Pelosi to visit Taiwan.

But despite Biden’s public comments, and public warnings to the press made by White House officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Pelosi has not publicly called off the trip. Asked to comment, she said, “it's important for us to show support” to Taiwan. Asked about Biden’s comments, Pelosi replied, “maybe the military was afraid our plane would get shot down or something like that by the Chinese.”


Moving to a different topic . . . 


I've seen and done things I want to forget;
Coming from an unearthly place,
Longing to see a woman's face,
Instead of the words that gather pace,
The words that maketh murder.
These, these, these are the words-
The words that maketh murder.
These, these, these are the words-
The words that maketh murder.
These, these, these are the words-
Murder...
These, these, these are the words-
The words that maketh murder.
I've seen and done things I want to forget;
I've seen a corporal whose nerves were shot
Climbing behind the fierce, gone sun,
I've seen flies swarming everyone,
Soldiers fell like lumps of meat.
These are the words, the words are these.
Death lingering, stunk,
Flies swarming everyone,
Over the whole summit peak,
Flesh quivering in the heat.
This was something else again.
I fear it cannot be explained.
The words that make, the words that make
Murder.
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?
What if I take my problem to the United Nations?

-- "The Words That Maketh Murder,' written by PJ Harvey, first appears on her album LET ENGLAND SHAKE


What if I take my problem to the United Nations?  Iraq's doing just that.


The attack by the Turkish government last week is not going away.  AL MAYADEEN notes, "The Iraqi government sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Sunday saying that Baghdad documented more than 22,740 violations committed by the Turkish armed forces."  And Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss Wednesday’s bombardment in northern Iraq that Baghdad blames on Turkey, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has said.

The attack on a tourist resort in the district of Zakho in Iraq’s northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region killed nine holidaymakers, including a child, and wounded 31 others.

Iraq's government has blamed the assault on Turkish troops, who have launched incursions against the proscribed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, inside Iraqi territory since the 1980s. Ankara has denied it was behind the attack and instead accused the PKK.


Rufus in Toronto Tweets:


Turkey launched rockets into Iraq and killed 9 civilians. The entire west is silent as if this never happened.


Julian Bechocha  (RUDAW) adds:


Turkey has “expansionist” goals behind its repeated attacks on Iraqi territory, an Iraqi official said on Sunday of the complaint filed by Iraq to the UN Security Council following a deadly bombardment in the Kurdistan Region that Baghdad and Erbil blamed on Ankara.

The council is set to meet Tuesday in an emergency session to discuss Wednesday’s bombardment in Duhok province’s Zakho that killed nine Iraqi tourists, sparking national outrage in the country. Iraqi and Kurdish officials attributed the attack to Turkey which denied involvement. 

Turkish violations since 2018 have numbered a staggering 22,740, Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesperson for the Iraqi foreign ministry said, adding that "the number of memoranda and complaints submitted by the Iraqi government to the Turkish side amounted to 296 complaints." 

Sahaf further reiterated Iraq's stance in denying a "security or military" agreement with Turkey, and blamed Ankara for having "expansionist goals behind the attacks it is carrying out."                                                                      


Suhad Talabany Tweets: 

The Iraqi Security and Defense Committee on Sunday stressed the need to put an end to Turkey's "repeated" attacks in Iraq, in response to the deadly bombardment that targeted Duhok earlier this week. #Baghdad #Iraq #Kurdistan #twitterkurds #Turkey



Turkey's response to the outcry?  To establish another illegal military post in northern Iraq:  "The new Turkish base is located in the Amedi (Al-Emadiyeh) district in the north of Dohuk province."  And this as Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) reports:


The Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, revealed new details about the Turkish forces deployed in the Iraqi territories, during a speech in the extraordinary parliament session held on Saturday to discuss the Turkish attacks on Iraq and the recent bombing of Dohuk governorate.

Yarallah explained that there are five main bases for the Turkish forces located in northern Iraq, these bases have more than four thousand Turkish soldiers.

Yarallah elaborated that the Turkish incursion has been increasing lately as the number of sites where Turkish troops are stationed were 40 sites in 2021, increased to 90 sites in the beginning of 2022, and now they are 100 sites inside Iraq. He added that these sites are not far from the areas of Zakho, Amadiya and Dohuk in northern Iraq.

Yarallah renewed his calls to send forces from the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga to these areas in order not to give the Turkish forces an opportunity to advance or deploy artillery.



The following sites updated: