Thursday, December 7, 2017


THE INTERCEPT was supposed to be this wonderful outlet.  Grossly overfunded, it would do important work.

That is not what has happened.

Not one bit.

Danny Haiphong (BLACK AGENDA REPORTS) reports:

The Intercept emerged during the Obama era to provide a service to whistle blowers. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, for example, helped form the Intercept in the aftermath of the corporate media backlash to Edward Snowden's leaks about the massive surveillance machine possessed by the National Security Agency (NSA). The Interceptprided itself as a trustworthy source tailored to those interested in making state secrets a matter of public record. Then Donald Trump was elected and subtle changes to the content of the Intercept’s work became evident. By this time the Intercept was neither a safe source for leaks nor a reliable source of journalism.
On November 15th, the Intercept attacked WikiLeaks , the most well-known publisher of Washington's dirty laundry. The attack centered around WikiLeaks's communication with Donald Trump Jr. According to the Intercept, WikiLeaks has "given ammunition" to detractors of the group through its direct contact with Trump Jr. over Twitter. The tweets, which revolved around the release of Trump's tax documents, are supposedly proof that WikiLeaks "advised" the Trump Administration and is thus in cahoots with it. However, sources such as MSNBCNew York magazine, and The Atlantic do not give the Intercept’s claims much credibility.

WikiLeaks' request for Trump Jr. to release tax information could be seen as a strategic move to pressure the Administration to respond to the broader attack on WikiLeaks. The fact remains that at the time of the accusation (October 2016), Trump's tax history was already being scrutinized by the corporate press. WikiLeaks was also being attacked by the corporate press for releasing Podesta's emails, many of which revealed key policy blunders of the Obama-Clinton machine. The emails revealed that the DNC had in fact rigged the Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders among a sea of evidence of Clinton's servitude to Wall Street. The author of the Intercept article fails to mention this context at all.
Omitting the importance of the information leaked by WikiLeaks regarding the Clinton machine lays bare the partisan character of the Intercept's attack. And this is not the first time that the Intercept has damaged its journalistic reputation with partisan politics. The Intercept was implicated in the exposure of Reality Winner's identity in the insubstantial leak regarding Russian interference in the 2016 elections. It also published an anti-Syria hit piece comparing President Assad to fascists. Most recently, the Intercept was found to have withheld important Snowden leaks that may have changed the course of the war in Syria.
These instances of the Intercept's alignment with US imperialism raises many questions. First, what is it that prompts the media source from publishing articles that do nothing but aid the Democratic Party wing of the empire? And furthermore, how do the Intercept's recent journalistic blunders fit into the broader historical moment? These questions are vitally important as they point to the necessary approach to handling contradictions. This particular point in history is characterized by a crisis in every facet of US imperialism, making independent journalism that much more important to the development of a movement that can seize the time.

THE INTERCEPT has only demonstrated how the media continually fails We The People.


Thursday, December 7, 2017.  Connecting the craven.

If you ever think the party of the self-righteous doesn't have its own flaws, look around at all the jerks offering excuses for Al Franken.

I’m not wild about what Al Franken did. Fine if people wish for him to step down. But make no mistake, he’s not on the scale of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore. How Trump got elected after the Access Hollywood tape is still beyond my comprehension

"He's not on the scale of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore."

Collectively or individually?

There we have it.  That's the level that Anne Brooks is willing to hold accountable.

Anything less and there doesn't need to be any consequences, she'll just note that she's "not wild about" it.

There's your answer.

You can assault a woman.  You can put your hands on her.  You can make her live in fear and Anne Brooks will come along and tell you that she's "not wild about what" you did but it's "not on the scale of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore" so you don't have to suffer consequences.

There have always been those who assault.

Sadly, there have always been those -- like Anne Brooks who excuse away assault.

Does Anne have kids?

Does she tell them that no one has the right to touch them?

If she does, does she quickly qualify, "Unless it's a Democrat in Congress!"?

There are laws and you either hold people accountable -- everyone, especially the powerful -- or you don't.

I'm not in the mood on the Al Franken subject.  We have long documented his evil ways here.

He's guilty and he needs to resign.

Will he?

He doesn't have the character to do so gracefully.

Which is why he said he would yesterday and then, after that, announced he was still thinking about it and would let them know.

Guilty or innocent (and he's guilty), he's harmful to the Democratic Party and that's not going to change.  For the good of the party, it was argued, he should resign.  He agreed.  Then, hours later, it became, "Wait, I'm going to think some more."

Al has no character.

Nor does Anne.

What he did was wrong.  He's done it repeatedly.  He's done it for years, decades.  And there have been excuses and weasel words.

What he did is against the law.

He needs to go.

It's not a mistake -- you don't make a criminal mistake repeatedly.

It's this willful disregard for reality that allowed Abeer not only to be gang-raped and murdered but to be ignored by so many during the US trial.

A 14-year-old girl.

Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is the 14-year-old Iraqi girl who was gang-raped and murdered March 12, 2006. US soldiers Paul Cortez and James Barker began raping her while  Steven D. Green was in the other room murdering Abeer's five-year-old sister and her parents.

February 18, 2014,  AP's Brett Barrouquere reported   the 28-year-old Green was found dead in his Arizona prison cell on Saturday and that, currently, the operating belief is that it was a case of suicide.

Steven D. Green



Evan Bright reported on the verdict:


From the September 4th, 2009 snapshot:







Steven D. Green was convicted of War Crimes.

But most Americans don't know who he was, let alone what he did, even today.

The impulse to look away is always there.

The refusal to demand justice.

The reluctance to demand the right thing be done.

After all, we're just talking about girls and women, right?

They don't matter.

Didn't the US government make that repeatedly clear in Iraq as one occupant of the Oval Office after another put women's rights on the chopping block and sold out Iraqi women repeatedly to install fundamentalist thugs?

Right now, in Iraq, they're attempting to lower the marriage age for girls to 9.  President Donald Trump hasn't said one word.  And this is a second attempt.  They tried it in 2014 as well.  And then-President Barack Obama didn't say one word.

Women and girls don't matter, their actions explained.  As do Anne Brooks' words.

She doesn't deny what Al Franken did.  She even says she's "not wild about" it.  But, in her 'big picture,' it's important that Al stay in Congress, not that women are safe.

Time and again, this civilization sells out women and girls (and male survivors as well).  Don't pretend this isn't related to the impulse of war and endless war.

Remember when Hillary was screaming for war on Libya and Barack agreed?

Look where the led.

Bruce Dixon (BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- text and audio):

If the news that black Libyans and black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were being sold as slaves in Libya was a surprise to you, then you were not reading Black Agenda Report during the 2011-2012 NATO intervention in that country. We covered it. Almost everybody refused to question US foreign policy in Africa during the reign of our first black president. Many US news outlets, many otherwise reasonable people with access to foreign news, and countless others around the world averted their eyes and their ears to the anguish of hunted, lynched and massacred black Africans in Benghaz, in Tripoli, in Sirte and Bani Walid. But as the US Navy and US Air Force unleashed thousands of tons of bombs and missiles on innocent civilians and the military forces of the Libyan government, without which Uncle Sam’s and Barack Obama’s racist rebels could never have toppled Muammar Gadaffi, you heard and read about it each week in Black Agenda Report.
That is, if you were listening to or reading Black Agenda Report.
This kind of unflinching coverage is the reason Black Agenda Report has been targeted by Google, which now suppresses the appearance of our content in its search results alleging that we are so-called “fake news" or tools of the Russians. Of the roughly two dozen leftist publications singled out in this manner Black Agenda Report is the only one owned by blacks or oriented toward a black audience. There are slicker and prettier web sites with far larger audiences peddling other kinds of black experience and consciousness, profitably delivering black eyeballs to corporate marketers. These outlets do not challenge cherished beliefs. They neither question nor contradict the lies our corporate masters tell us, lies which some of us repeat to each other.

Anne Brooks whores out her beliefs and maybe feels that all women can be whored since she whores out her beliefs?

That's not justice.

Stand with Sen. Al Franken (D) MN! He is not a rapist, a pedophile, a sexist, a Right Wing Republican... Likely, most of his actions were, well, stupid. However, the last accusation is fraudulent. He has taken responsibility. Has Trump or Roy Moore? Franken, do not resign!

Adam B. Bear needs to take "women rights activist" out of his profile.

He's not.

Al Franken is a criminal who has assaulted women repeatedly.

The last woman to come out?  Tina Dupuly (the eighth woman to step forward).  She wrote at THE ATLANTIC:

The author Kate Harding, shortly after Tweeden published her account, wrote a piece for The Washington Post, headlined: “I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign.” In it, she rehashes what Steinem wrote 20 years ago: These are our guys, we must protect them especially if there’s a risk one could be replaced by a Republican. “If we set this precedent in the interest of demonstrating our party’s solidarity with harassed and abused women, we’re only going to drain the swamp of people who, however flawed, still regularly vote to protect women’s rights and freedoms.”
Maybe, just maybe, it’s only good for the men.

In Iraq, the war drags on, months away from the 15 year mark.


No one can answer.

But they're suddenly and momentarily interested in the region -- because Donald Trump's talking of doing what Hillary wanted to.

Replying to 
It's not always clear what exactly to when the problem is thoroughly bipartisan

As Donald rushes to make Hillary's desired US embassy move to Jerusalem, many call him out (but not the Prime Minister of Canada who is strangely silent).

The Iraqi government Tweets:

The rejects the decision by the United States to relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. We urge the United States to reconsider this decision which undermines the historical status of Jerusalem and threatens the peace & stability of the region.

A rather strange Tweet since they responded with hostility to President Emmanuel Macron of France making suggestions regarding Iraq.

But, if nothing else, the push by Donald Trump has had one effect.

The last time I can remember this many embassies issuing identical security alerts about possible violent protests over a presidential policy decision was in March 2003 at the start of the Iraq war.

That's right, it's gotten Matt Lee to remember the Iraq War.

Day after day, he ignores it.

And he doesn't have the excuse he once did -- that it wasn't a topic he and Victoria Nuland discussed ahead of time in e-mails.

Yes, he and Vicky did a cute little performance daily where they pretended not to have scripted out each day's performance ahead of time.

But the e-mails tell the true story, don't they, Matt?

It's all this corruption that needs to be called out but is repeatedly tolerated.

Brian Ross is still at ABC.  He lied about WMD in Iraq.  And he's still there.

Al Franken counseled Democrats to vote for the Iraq War -- it was the "smart" thing to do.

Once on Air America Radio, he repeatedly justified the Iraq War.  And attacked guests -- such as Meg Ryan -- for saying the war needed to end.  Of course, Al is such a piece of s**t, he'd wait until they left the studio to inform listeners that the guests weren't as smart as he, Al Franken, was and they didn't understand the complexities.

Now his freaks like Anne Brookes insist that those of us who feel criminals should be held accountable don't get the complexities.

It's not that complex.  He broke the law.

The Iraq War?

It's not that complex, the world was lied into it.

And we remain lied to.  As we noted at THIRD, the question should be: WHY?

It's almost 15 years so why is it still dragging on?

We were promised it would end but it hasn't.


New content at THIRD:

The following community sites updated:


  • Jay Jeffries needs to step into the 21st century
  • Senator Gillibrand's Facebook post on Franken
  • I support Senator Gillibrand
  • Barnyard animals, though, are to be expected with Lizz

  • Lizz Winstead 'runner' of Air America where harassment and assault were the norm!