Trina's Kitchen

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Pan Bake Salmon With Potatoes and Green Beans in the Kitchen

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Baby Stacey Wants On The Ticket." Want to make the Joe Biden ticket even more laughable? Put never accomplished anything Stacey Abrahms on it.

Let's do a diabetic recipe. Salmon. I love fish. We usually grill it. Otherwise? If I'm really ambitious I will bake it with a coating. Otherwise, I put one fish in a small bit of aluminum with a stick of celery cut four ways lengthwise, 3 or so spears of asparagus and some squash. I add lemon juice to each individual portion, put it on a baking sheet and bake.

Here's a pan bake recipe.

Ingredients
4 (5- to 6-oz.) skinned salmon fillets
1 pound red potatoes, halved
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
Tzatziki Sauce
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 lemon, halved

How to Make It
Step 1
Preheat oven to 425°. .

Step 2
Add potatoes to a large, 12x17-inch rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with ¼ tsp. each salt and pepper; toss to coat. Arrange potatoes cut-side down and roast until potatoes are fork-tender, 20-25 minutes.

Step 3
While potatoes are cooking, prepare Tzatziki Sauce and place in the refrigerator to chill.

Step 4
A few minutes before the potatoes are done cooking, trim green beans and place in a large bowl. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with ¼ tsp. each salt and pepper; toss to coat.

Step 5
Remove potatoes from the oven and preheat broiler.

Step 6
Season salmon with remaining ¼ tsp. each salt and pepper. Carefully place salmon in center of baking sheet and arrange potatoes and green beans in a single layer around salmon. (Move potatoes to edges of pan with a spatula so that salmon can be placed in center of the pan.)

Step 7
Squeeze lemon halves over entire sheet. Slice lemon halves and add to baking sheet, if desired.

Step 8
Broil salmon, green beans, potatoes, and lemons 10 minutes, or until salmon is no longer translucent but still moist in center and green beans, potatoes, and lemons are lightly browned. Serve with Tzatziki Sauce.

That's a great recipe and it's one that is also a diabetic one. Lynn e-mailed to note it.

Real work going on in North Carolina. Jonathan Michels (LABOR NOTES) reports:

Nurses in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina filed a petition in March to form a union with National Nurses United. Roughly 1,600 nurses are expected to be eligible to vote.
Despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and a relentless union-busting campaign that has delayed the election, nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville say they are on the brink of a historic labor victory in the country’s second least unionized state.
“If it happens in North Carolina, it can happen anywhere,” said Trish Stevenson, an emergency room nurse.
The union drive pits workers against HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital corporation with 184 hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. In February 2019, HCA paid $1.5 billion for Mission and six other nonprofit hospitals in the bucolic mountains of western North Carolina.
NNU currently represents about 10,000 nurses at 19 HCA facilities across the country. The union drive at Mission is NNU’s largest campaign ever undertaken in North Carolina.

TAKEOVER = DETERIORATION

In the wake of the takeover by the multinational corporation, nurses saw patient care standards and working conditions quickly deteriorate. Four nurses initiated the union drive in May 2019 over cuts in staff, poor communication, and lack of access to basic supplies and personal protective equipment.

“I am one of the older people on the unit,” said Kelley Tyler, a trauma care nurse. “A lot of the nurses at Mission are younger and new. They were taking it as this is how the job is supposed to work and this is how nursing is.”

As a newly graduated RN in 1985, Tyler was told not to talk about unions at Mission, or face firing. Now she tells her co-workers that the union is their best chance to take back control over their practice or have any kind of voice in how things are run.
“Once I got a hold of the younger girls and fellas and explained, ‘You're allowed to eat during your shift,'” Tyler said. “'You're allowed to go to the bathroom during your shift. You shouldn't be made to feel guilty over your basic needs being met as a nurse. No, you shouldn't have to choose one patient over another to give care.’

“They just had no idea that things weren't supposed to be the way they are running right now.”

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

**Wednesday**, May 27, 2020. We all wake up grumpy these days.

I had a nightmare. And then realized it was no dream.

Joe Biden is a hideous candidate by any standard. But some in the DNC are determined to have him as the presidential candidate.

Accused of assault, his campaign pretends to be standing back and letting events unfold when in reality they are feeding 'reporters' information to attack Tara Reade's character. Despite their best efforts at embracing rape culture, nothing has changed the fact that Tara's accused him of assault and that her accusation is credible.

Whores like Katha Pollitt insist it's vote Joe or else. When what they should be insisting is that a senile War Criminal drop out and be replaced.

Joe Biden showed up last week for one of those rare appearances. He appeared on Charlamagne tha God's program and insisted that "You ain't Black" if you voted for Donald Trump. An elderly, White man telling others who was and wasn't Black -- an elderly, White man with a history of racism -- including his crime bill, including his praise for segregationists . . .

In the aftermath last Friday, Joe Biden 'apologized.'  Chris Freind (THE MERCURY) points out:

What isn’t a joke is how racist, arrogant, condescending, obnoxious, tone-deaf and patronizing Mr. Biden’s statement is. About the only thing worse was his non-apology apology: “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy…perhaps I was much too cavalier.” Perhaps? That’s the best he could muster? “Perhaps?”

Joe never really apologizes, he's a sociopath. When nine women came forward to complain about his inappropriate behavior he did a video 'apology' and then, a few days later, made fun of the women at a predominately all male event.

So no surprise, he's taken back the apology.

From "I shouldn't have been such a wise guy" to now insisting that someone else was the "wise guy."  Fionnuala O'Leary (THE SUN) explains:

The presumptive Democratic nominee acknowledged the statement he made on "The Breakfast Show" was a "mistake" last Friday, but Biden claimed the radio presenter was also being "a wise guy."

"He was being a wise guy," Biden says of Charlamagne, "and I shouldn't have responded in kind."

Way to take ownership, Joe.

Charlamagne was right to doubt the sincerity of the words -- which were never an apology.

It's always someone else' fault and he never takes real accountability. That's the problem with a career politician and Joe is everything America stands against.

Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) observes:

Joe Biden was always an intellectual light weight and he always had poor impulse control. He was always in the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. Now he believes the hype of the black misleadership class charlatans who make his case by claiming that he has some sort of special relationship with black people. The combination of all these attributes makes his presidential campaign one long train wreck.
A recent interview on the Breakfast Club  radio program was the occasion of his latest bizarre statement. This time he famously said, “... if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black." He seemed to think that being overly familiar and using bad grammar gave him some sort of credibility.

Symone Sanders, his most prominent black campaign staffer, was left to clean up after him yet again and defend his stupidity by saying that he spoke in jest. The damage was bad enough that Biden had to apologize himself and said that he shouldn’t have been “a wise guy.”
Biden is like Donald Trump, in that he is thoroughly unqualified to be president. Yet black people are desperate to see anyone other than Trump in the White House and that is how the party establishment got away with foisting him upon them. When they aren’t trying to minimize his shortcomings, they admonish anyone who points them out. “But he’s better than Trump!” is their rallying cry lest anyone think for themselves and point out the many reasons why Biden is so problematic.
Any words of doubt or well deserved humor are frowned upon and even attacked. There is a strange magical thinking afoot that equates acknowledgement of Biden’s faults with support of Trump. A joke at his expense can lead to foolish argument. The Democratic Party propagandists and their friends in the black misleadership class are to blame for this sad state of affairs.

Allegiance and subservience to their donor class requires them to lie to the party rank and file. Their scam depends upon convincing voters that they work on their behalf when they do nothing of the sort. They had to explain away Hillary Clinton’s defeat with tales of Russian intrigue and blame directed at the left. Trump’s awfulness makes him the perfect foil. They can pretend to oppose him with an impeachment charade which satisfies their base but when he proposes a space force or $700 billion in defense spending they go right along with whatever he wants.

He is not qualified to be president. He doesn't know where he is, he tells people to vote him into the Senate, he is just not fit.

And his team knows this and has begun the process of lowering expectations. So they whisper to the press that Joe will have a solid team behind him, the team will be running things, the team . . .

Sorry, that's not what the US Constitution defines.

He qualifies right now, before the election, as incapacitated. If he were president right now, there would be a solid case for removing him from office.

The interview with Charlamagne was Joe's first real appearance in months. Coronavirus was a gift to Joe. He was getting tired and the eyes were starting to water and he was snapping at people. Along came coronavirus and the man who can't handle the campaign trail was handed a gift. But all the resting he did while 'sheltering' (instead of campaigning) did not do him any good.

He is unfit for the office and he really can't handle the campaign.

This is America's nightmare.

The Democratic Party refuses to nominate a candidate that inspires or even one that's just competent. Instead, they go with Joe.

Katha Pollitt, Norman Solomon and other whores have already begun the roll out of attempt to bully people into voting for Joe. That sort of behavior usually takes place in the fall, after the DNC has their convention. But Biden's so weak that they're having to start it months earlier.

Let's go back to Chris Freind:

A joke making the rounds shows a Wheel of Fortune puzzle missing one letter. It reads: “JOE BIDEN IS A RA_IST.” Underneath, two choices: “C” and “P.”

Tommy Virgl (THE DEPAULIA) explains:

If the Democratic party actually wanted to beat Trump, they would replace Biden. Not only is he dishonest and an alleged rapist, but he does not represent the moral high ground that the Democratic establishment touts him as — it would make sense to have a candidate who can contrast Trump’s corruption as an effective strategy.
The logical replacement, if Biden were to withdraw from the race, would be the next person on the ballot with the most delegates, which would be Sen. Bernie Sanders. Not only is Sanders backed by grassroots support, but his clear record would be a great way to contrast Trump’s corruption.
“Standing with survivors doesn’t have a political agenda,” Blenck said.

While the election this November is critical, so is applying a consistent standard of believing sexual assault victims. I believe Dr. Ford. I believe Tara Reade. I don’t believe in a party that’s only willing to defend women and sexual assault survivors when it’s convenient for them.

Bernie Sanders and the media keep talking about my/his supporters. Bernie Sanders had very few supporters. The issues he ran on had a ton of supporters. Bernie is trying to sheep dog everyone which is offensive enough but every time he speaks of 'my supporters,' I cringe. He's a fake ass and his war on delegates, reported by Genevieve Leigh (WSWS), is very telling.

And the lack of concern of what Biden on the world stage would mean? Very scary. He did not just vote for the Iraq War. He repeatedly destroyed Iraq -- most infamously by overturning the votes of the Iraqi people in the 2010 election. He is not asked about that, the press ignores it. It is a very key issue and maybe instead of bullying people to vote for him supposed independent writers should be pressuring him to speak to that.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Congress betrayed us

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Rest Assured, Judge Tootie Is Here" went up Sunday.

Meanwhile, thanks Congress for doing nothing.

Trevon Austin (WSWS) reports:

With nearly 40 million officially unemployed in the United States, state and local governments are preparing to throw workers and their families out of their homes and into the street. Across the US, moratoriums on eviction proceedings and home foreclosures, set in place during the onset of the pandemic, have either been lifted or are set to expire early next month.
Nationally, there has been a patchwork of temporary safeguards for renters and homeowners invoked as tens of millions of workers lost their jobs in the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Some states, such as South Dakota and Wyoming, never had any protections in place. Others, including Florida, Mississippi, California, and Illinois are set to allow evictions to resume in early June.
Cities are spending millions on rent assistance, only to see funds quickly drained by overwhelming demand. According to NPR, a rental assistance program in Houston, Texas ran out of funding in 90 minutes.
Texas paved the way for other states after it lifted bans on evictions in place since March. On May 19, Texas courts were opened for landlords to file eviction proceedings against tenants. A mixture of emergency orders from cities and counties protect renters in metropolitan areas such as Austin, El Paso, Dallas, and San Antonio, but Houston—the fourth largest city in the US—and Fort Worth have issued no additional protective measures.
Accordingly, Fort Worth and Houston will now be among the first major metropolitan areas in the country that will see a sharp rise in evictions, despite significant job losses. According to state figures, more unemployment claims were filed in Harris County, which accounts for about 98 percent of the Houston metropolitan area, than Dallas County and Travis County combined: 184,281 claims in the Houston area, compared to 92,380 in Dallas and 42,623 in Austin.
Houston’s City Council and Democratic mayor, Sylvester Turner, have done nothing to extend protections and have simply called on the state to extend protections. When asked about issuing orders like those in other Texas cities, Houston’s attorney’s office suggested it was not possible from a legal perspective. When local media reached out to city officials, they declined to offer any explanation.
Many of the country’s largest cities are still under state moratoriums but have not passed local eviction measures. In Chicago, evictions have been halted until Illinois lifts its state of emergency, which is currently slated for the end of this week. In states like Florida, landlords have filed hundreds of eviction cases, waiting for the state’s moratorium to expire. In Hillsborough County alone, the home of Tampa, 250 cases have already piled up in courts waiting to be processed. Neighboring Pinellas County already has 190 cases pending.

Thanks, Nancy Pelosi. Your ability to nothing at all for the American people brought us to this point.

Congress betrayed us, there's no reason to pretend otherwise.

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

Tuesday, March 26, 2020. So many things Joe Biden should be answering for.

Starting in the US . . .

Fiorella Isabel and Tina-Desiree Berg initiate a conversation on sexism among the left. It's an important conversation that addresses the attacks on Tara Reade, the hypocrisy of so many and the embrace of rape culture as some rush to bury Tara Reade. Tara has accused Joe Biden of assault.

"He's going through every victim shaming trope that ever existed," Tina-Desiree Berg notes of the hideous Michael Tracey.

It's an important conversation. It's one the press could have contributed to but instead the bulk of them chose to attack the victim and the small number who did originally want to report walked away the minute Joe Biden's campaign to make Tara 'toxic' was put in place.

They can't shut up about Ronan Farrow -- these same people. I don't think Ronan's in danger of losing his post at THE NEW YORKER. I don't believe people are rushing to return their copy of his book. Ronan's journalism stands or doesn't. But these people, these same people, want to rush forward to spend time defending Ronan while acting like Tara no longer exists. Ryan Grim and Rich McHugh, I'm especially looking at you two.

It's especially bad for Ryan Grim. He's with THE INTERCEPT which already has a bad image for the treatment of sources. Ryan's the one who broke this story. And now that the source is being beaten up by the corporate media, where's Ryan's reporting?

Ryan's standing by while Tara is victimized by the media after he set the whole thing in motion. Don't think I'd ever choose Ryan for any story I wanted to break.

Still on Tara, Justin Vallejo (INDEPENDENT) reports:

Democrat "squad" member Ilhan Omar says she believes sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden but would vote for him anyway to defeat Donald Trump.
In a Tweet defending her support of accuser Tara Reade, the Minnesota congresswoman said that "believing survivors is consistent with my values".
"With that said, in this interview I did on 6 May, we talked about that and quotes aren't always in context. I will vote for him and help him defeat Trump," she said.

Rose McGowan notes:

BREAKING NEWS: New York Times ‘journalist’ sent these questions to Joe Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade. The public needs to see how

@llerer

and the #NYT plan on twisting their minds. Now you can all see their tactics & how far they will go.

Lisa Michelle Eu Tweets:

There’s an imbalance btw the amount of scrutiny happening around #TaraReade truthfulness vs that of #Bidens. Biden’s history of untruthfulness is documented, recorded. Undeniable. But is never brought up for review in light of this accusation. That’s the process of rape culture.

Turning to Iraq . . .

Ibrahim al-Zobeidi (THE ARAB WEEKLY) does more to address Joe's record on Iraq than any US outlet has done in the last year:

A Biden victory will launch a new episode of the American-Iranian romance. His administration will soon lift or reduce the sanctions against Iran and may even release its frozen assets in the US worth billions of dollars, and perhaps in Europe as well. That’s when Iran completely recovers its former capacity to finance its proxy armies of mayhem, kidnapping and embezzlement, and move them according to its plans.
When Joe Biden was just a senator for the state of Delaware in 2006, and not yet vice-president, he proposed dividing Iraq into three semi-autonomous entities for the Shia, Sunnis, and Kurds.
Following his presidential victory in 2009, Obama made this same Biden vice-president and charged him with the Iraqi file. The latter stuck to his stupid, short-sighted and poisonous proposition for Iraq and happily became a close connection between his boss, Obama, and the Iranians in Iraq and their proxies and militias, openly and unabashedly.
Biden’s vision became reality in 2010, when he managed to impose Nuri al-Maliki as prime minister, despite the crimes the latter committed and the disasters he caused during his previous term as premier. Maliki made it possible for ISIS to invade and occupy one third of Iraq and, with Iran’s precious help, persecuted all Iraqis opposed to Velayat e-faqih.

Joe has a great deal to answer for but you'll apparently never find the American media demanding answers.

We noted the United Nations report on the way protesters were treated in Iraq, noted it on Saturday. IANS notes that the report found 123 protesters were kidnapped. Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) notes that the UN "has verified the death of 490 activists and the injury of 7,783 others since October." Hiwa Shilani (KURDISTAN 24) explains:

On Saturday, the United Nations published a report on the abduction of multiple demonstrators in Iraq since late October that detailed the experiences of some, including the circumstances in which they were taken and their subsequent interrogation and torture.
The Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) documented 123 cases of people who disappeared between October 1, 2019, and March 21, 2020. A total of 98 individuals have been found while the other 25 are still missing.
“Absence of accountability for these acts continues to contribute to the pervasive environment of impunity in relation to demonstration-linked reports of violations and abuses,” the UN report highlighted.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, stated, “The establishment of a high-level fact-finding committee by the new Government to investigate casualties and related harm is a crucial step toward justice and accountability.”

On the kidnappings, THE NEW ARAB adds:

In every incident, those targeted for abductions had either participated in the protests or provided support to demonstrators, UNAMI said. Nearly all of the abductees were either activists prior to the protests, played significant roles in the demonstrations, or criticised authorities or armed groups on social media, it added.
Abductees were forced into vehicles by masked and armed men close to demonstration sites, according to UNAMI. Many described being blindfolded and driven to locations where they were detained.
All of them were "interrogated" by their captors, with questioning commonly focused on their role in the demonstrations, allegations of links to foreign states - particularly the United States - and their political affiliations.
All male abductees described being subjected to torture such as severe beatings, electrocution, hosing or bathing in cold water, being hung from the ceiling by their arms and legs, being urinated on, being photographed nude, death threats and threats to their families, UNAMI reported.
Female abductees said they were beaten, threatened with rape and touched in their "private areas".

The United Nations is calling for a real investigation -- not the nonsense that passed for an 'investigation' last year. Omar Sattar (AL-MONITOR) reports:

The new Iraqi government has begun procedures to reinvestigate the violent acts during the popular protests that broke out in October and killed more than 700 people and injured over 25,000. The decision was greatly welcomed at home and in the international arena. The United Nations Security Council called for “transparency during the investigation.”

Following the first meeting of his government May 9, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi announced the formation of an investigation committee, whose members have not been disclosed so far. He said that the committee will work on uncovering the names of the parties responsible for killing hundreds of protesters who have been calling for reform and the trial of corrupt politicians.

The committee is currently being formed and its members will be announced at a later stage. This is the second committee of this kind, following the one that was formed by Adel Abdul Mahdi, former prime minister who resigned at the end of November 2019, which did not yield satisfactory results for the protesters and failed to indict any party behind the bloody events that took place in central and southern Iraq.

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Rest Assured, Judge Tootie Is Here" and his "Baby Stacey Wants On The Ticket" went up yesterday.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Zucchini Pizza Casserole in the Kitchen

Note: My sister called me a few seconds ago saying, "I thought you told me you posted today?" I did, I responded. No, I didn't. I thought I had. I wrote. I just didn't post apparently. Thank you to my sister for catching that.

Laraine e-mailed asking if it's possible to plan ahead with meals because "I just don't have the time to do everything at once -- meaning once I walk in the door from work and everybody's hungry right then."

Sure. You can do that.

I've got rice cooking in the rice cooker right now and the chicken defrosted for a late lunch. (I actually asked my husband to take the chicken from the freezer and move it to the fridge when he got home yesterday because -- again -- I had a double yesterday.) That's for a late lunch today. I'm doing chicken and rice in the oven. My husband opened up a salad bag yesterday as well and put it in the fridge in a covered salad bowl. I peeled and then sliced some cucumbers for the salad and chopped some radishes as well. We'll have the salad with the chicken and rice.

Right now, I'm also getting tonight's dinner ready -- and it will likely be left overs for tomorrow as well. I have some navy beans soaking in water. I got home from work about 3:15 this morning (I was at the clinic and then moved to the hospital for my second shift -- this isn't for morning, this is because we're short staffed). When I did, I put a bag of dried navy beans in water to soak. I'll cook those for dinner. (In about an hour, I'll start.) I have an onion, garlic, flour, okra and tomato mixture in a dutch oven on a low heat allowing it to simmer. It's my roux for the gumbo we're having tonight. I'm using cooked shrimp and some summer sausage for the meat and we'll add it in about two hours. I like the roux to really have a taste to it. Any left overs from the gumbo will become shrimp and summer sausage cocktail for tomorrow. That's why I never put the rice into my gumbo sauce, I always use the leftovers for shrimp cocktail.

There used to be this huge bucket of ice cream at the stores. There may still be. But I used to buy the bucket all the time. It was cheap and it was generic ice cream. We had eight kids and they were thrilled to have ice cream -- no Nancy Pelosis in our house insisting on $20 ice cream. My point is that on Saturdays, I would do a bit of cooking for the week ahead. I would make my pasta sauce ahead of time and then put it in the freezer in an ice cream bucket (that no longer had ice cream and had been cleaned). This bucket was plastic and a bucket with a plastic lid.

I would do a pasta salad ahead of time, a lasagna ahead of time and they and the pasta sauce would go in the fridge.

If you're okay freezing and then popping into the oven, you could do a meatloaf. I did that sometimes. I'd cook it on the weekend. Let it cool and then cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze it.

Here's a recipe that the point is your prepare it ahead:

Ingredients

4 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (15 ounces) Italian tomato sauce
1 medium green or sweet red pepper, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°. Place zucchini in colander; sprinkle with salt. Let stand 10 minutes, then squeeze out moisture.
Combine zucchini with eggs, Parmesan and half of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Press into a greased 13x9-in. or 3-qt. baking dish. Bake 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook beef and onion over medium heat, crumbling beef, until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add tomato sauce; spoon over zucchini mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; add green pepper. Bake until heated through, about 20 minutes longer.
Freeze option: Cool baked casserole; cover and freeze. To use, partially thaw in refrigerator overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350°. Unwrap casserole; reheat on a lower oven rack until heated through and a thermometer inserted in center reads 165°.

Test Kitchen Tips

Italian sausage or ground turkey sub well in this casserole.

Make it vegetarian by skipping the meat and increasing the veggies. Mushrooms or finely chopped cauliflower (or a combination of the two) taste great.

This packs up nicely for weekday lunches.

As I've noted repeatedly, we are not all in this together. When you hear that garbage grasp that it's just a p.r. slogan to keep people from rioting in the streets and lull them into a false sense of security. They should be in the streets. We The People are being ripped off during the pandemic. Niles Niemuth (WSWS) reports:

The coronavirus pandemic continues to exact a devastating toll on the American population. The death toll will surpass 100,000 over the weekend, with nearly 1,300 new deaths recorded yesterday. At the same time, mass unemployment is at levels not seen since the Great Depression, with 40 million filing for unemployment benefits since March.
US billionaires, however, are doing fabulously well. The Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness reported Thursday that since mid-March, America’s billionaires have added $434 billion to their net worth. Collectively, the richest 630 Americans now control $3.4 trillion in wealth, a 15 percent increase in two months.
“The top five U.S. billionaires—Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison—saw their wealth grow by a total of $75.5 billion, or 19%,” the report states. “Together they captured 21% of the total wealth growth of all 600-plus billionaires in the last two months. The fortunes of [Amazon CEO] Bezos and [Facebook CEO] Zuckerberg together grew by nearly $60 billion, or 14% of the $434 billion total.”
This rise has been fueled by the implementation of unlimited “quantitative easing” by the Federal Reserve, which is pumping $80 billion a day into the stock market and the trillion-dollar CARES Act bailout passed unanimously by the Democrats and Republicans in Congress. The Fed now holds $7 trillion in assets on its balance sheet, and the stock market has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.

While the oligarchs receive unlimited handouts, the broad mass of the population confronts an earthquake that has triggered a tsunami of social devastation. The official jobless figure of 40 million vastly understates the level of unemployment. Millions of people are either ineligible for unemployment benefits or have still been unable to get through overwhelmed state systems.

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

Friday, May 22, 2020. No attack is too far when the press wants to discredit a woman's voice and corruption continues in Iraq.

Let's start with Ely Kreimendahl's hilarious parody of Women for Biden:

Let's note Pig Boy Michael Tracey who loves to attack women (especially women of color -- Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, etc -- there's a reason Margaret Kimberley's rebuked him online).

Antioch University emphatically denies that Tara Reade ever received a degree. Unless they're lying for some bizarre reason, Tara Reade falsified her credentials in court. Again, congratulations to everyone who promoted this complete fiasco of a story

If true, what does that have to do with her allegation of assault?

More to the point -- who the hell cares?

They are throwing everything they can at her. Have you had a problem with a landlord? Guess what -- not a crime.

Have women ever lied about the academic history? Yes. It is not uncommon (or for men too). It is so not uncommon that it was a story for Mary Richards. Yes, on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, Mary reveals to Lou that she didn't actually graduate college as she had stated in her long ago job interview.

I didn't believe Christine Blasey Ford and I still don't. Find anything here where I ripped her apart. You won't. First off, I could be wrong. Second off, I'm not going to rip her apart for this or that event in her life that has nothing to do with her assault charge. I'm not interested in shaming or silencing women who say they were assaulted. Blasey Ford may be telling the truth, she may not. But I'm not going to rip her life apart to try to pretend that proves a point about whether she was assaulted or not.

It proves nothing.

Nothing is what Asama Khalid offered on NPR yesterday. That includes her justification for Joe Biden supporting the Hyde Amendment. She insists that Joe has evolved and "the Democratic Party has evolved on it." As Li Zhou (VOX) noted last June "until a few weeks ago , former Vice President Joe Biden was a staunch supporter of the Hyde Amendment."

Asama felt it was important to note that PBS spoke to 74 people who worked for Joe Biden but with Tara's corroborating witnesses, "these are people, I should point out, that we were connected with through Tara herself." As Ava and I noted Sunday in "Media: Lies and liars all around," PBS spoke to 74 employees the Biden campaign steered them to -- that's written in the actual report. That would be the report everyone keeps mentioning but fails to have actually read it.

Failing is all Asama has done on NPR with this story from day one.

The NPR segment offered a Patty in a soundbye insisting "we would have heard about it during the vetting" and demanding "Give me a break!"

Rebecca Traister, who was one of the panelists, rightly noted that the country has evolved on this issue since 2008. More to the point, Barack's vetting? He let one of his daughters intern for Harvey Weinstein. Are we really trusting Barack's vetting?

Democrat Hannah James is running for Congress out of California's 19th district and she Tweets:

Hey

@JoeBiden

, Why did you sexually assault Tara Reade? #AskBidenAnything

Here's another question: When is Joe going to be vetted? These attacks have been organized by his campaign and yet he's repeatedly allowed to go on camera stating Tara has every right to tell her story and act as though he's not doing anything. He is running a campaign to trash and destroy her. When will the media get real about this?

Probably never. Ever.

When do Joe's actions in public impact the way this story is covered? When is he ever asked why did you say you apologized and days later make jokes about consent when you appeared before a largely male audience? How is that funny? How does that make it appear you took the complaints from women seriously?

When is he asked about his many lies about Anita Hill? That goes to Tara's assault charge. Joe has lied about Anita repeatedly. He has lied that he supported her. He then went to Republican senators and told them Anita was lying. When is he going to get honest about that? How many Republican senators have to talk about that before the media asks him? He has a long history of dismissing assault and harassment. That goes to this issue.

The Iraq War? It doesn't. His past lying about everything else? It really doesn't have to do with Tara. But if the media wants to dig through a citizen's life, they damn well should be digging through a public servant's life -- a public servant who somehow ends up with millions and millions of dollars. No, that's not how public service is supposed to work.

On Iraq . . .

Joe has spent 2019 and 2020 citing his being in charge of Iraq during Barack's presidency. So if he was responsible, when is he asked the tough questions?

There are a ton of tough questions that need to be asked. That interview has many lies in it.

Even to the idiots, it should be obvious that the rise of ISIS -- which Joe is responsible for -- raises the issue of how US troops left.

We were and are for all US troops out of Iraq. We argued for that to take place immediately. We argued that to Barack's transition team -- Ava and I did -- long before Barack was sworn in. Our argument was: Pull all troops now and the reason is: This is what the American people voted for.

Why does that matter?

Iraq's government was and is propped up by US troops. The US installed the government. It is not popular with the people. When US troops leave, the government most likely will topple.

Good. Let the Iraqi people determine the government that they want and need -- that is democracy.

So pull out immediately and when asked you reply: This was the will of the American people.

Fail to keep your promise of ten months and dicker around with Iraq and you own it. It's no longer Bully Boy Bush's problem, it is your problem.

And that's how it became Barack's problem. He did not keep his campaign promise. Samantha Power and Joe Biden and Susan Rice, among others, just knew they were smart to fix things. They were idiots.

And they made Bully Boy Bush's war into Barack's war. If he had kept his promise, it wouldn't have happened. But he didn't.

Hassan Ali Ahmed (ARAB NEWS) reports this morning:

After about two months of quiet due to pandemic concerns, Iraqi protesters returned to the streets soon after the formation of the new government.

The protests that erupted last year in October resulted in Adil Abdul Mahdi’s resignation and withdrawal of the last two prime ministers. After the approval of Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government, the new prime minister announced plans to tackle corruption and address the protesters' demands.

Baghdad, Wasit, Dhi Qar, Al-Muthanna, Babel, Al-Qadisiyyah and Karbala provinces have been rocked by protests since last week. There have been several clashes between the protesters and the security forces. On May. 18, four activists were arrested in Diwaniya, the capital of Al-Qadisiyyah. Security forces also attacked protesters at the Ahdab oil field in Wasit province, burning their tents and damaging their vehicles. On May. 19, security forces fired live ammunition at protesters in Diwaniya, killing at leat one and injuring many others.

Protesters still complain about activists and paramedics being abducted. Prominent activist Haidar al-Lami was abducted on May. 18 when he was returning to Tahrir Square in Baghdad. Though those arrested and abducted were released by direct order from the prime minister, the protesters have not only reduced their activities but have stepped up the protests and raised their demands.

As summer approaches, the protests are expanding in the southern provinces over a lack of electricity and clean water. Hundreds of protesters gathered May. 16 in front of the governor's office in Basra, which has suffered salinity problems for last few years.

Iraq's government does not serve the Iraqi people. The hope of US war mongers originally was the Iraqi people would be stunned -- shocked and awed -- into submission. Naomi Klein wrote about that in "Baghdad Year Zero" which originally appeared in HARPER'S.

That has long since changed. They no longer want to shock into submission, they just want to keep the Iraqi government in place until the Iraqi people are too exhausted to argue or fight back.

The US-installed Iraq government is corrupt and it does not serve the Iraqi people. Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) reports:

When 752 tons of wheat went missing from a state grain silo in Najaf this year, the site manager claimed it had been pilfered by flocks of hungry birds. Anti-graft officials aren’t convinced.

Iraq’s integrity commission, parliament, and provincial officials in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf have launched a probe into the alleged avian antics, which seem a little farfetched.

As the missing grain is said to be worth at least $350,000, investigators believed it was stolen by corrupt officials.

On Thursday, Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity (FCOI) said its officials completed an audit of the silo’s stocks between May 4, 2019 and April 1, 2020.

“The Office confirmed that there was a shortage in wheat material that amounted to (752 tons and 498 kg), and that its total value reached (421,120,000 IQD) [$353,744],” the commission said in a statement.

Investigators have submitted their findings to the Najaf Investigation Court and called for legal action against those deemed responsible.

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