USA Politics (redux)

[MusicTurner]

Manafort and Stone pardoned too. And Charles Kushner.
(Of course ...)

[SimonNZ]

'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons
Joe Biden to be lobbied to reverse decision to pardon security guards jailed over massacre

"Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump's move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.

The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at a central Baghdad roundabout, killing 14 people including a nine-year old child and wounding many more.

The four guards – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people at a roundabout, known as Nisour Square.

The killings were one of the lowest points of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and many Iraqis saw the convictions as a rare occasion where US citizens had been held to account for atrocities committed during the aftermath. Baghdad residents who spoke to the Guardian described the outgoing US president's announcement as a "cruel slap" and an insult.

Adil al-Khazali, whose father Ali was killed in the attack, said he was shocked by the news. "Justice doesn't exist. I ask the American people to stand with us. I lost my father and many innocent women and children also died," he told the Guardian.

"I ask the US government to reconsider, because by this decision US courts are losing their reputation. Trump has no right to pardon killers of innocent people."

Dr Haidar al-Barzanji, an Iraqi researcher and academic, said "Trump has no right to decide on behalf of victims' families to pardon these criminals. It is at odds with human rights and against the law. In Iraqi law they can only be pardoned if the families of victims pardon them. I encourage the families of the victims to request a complaint against Trump when the Biden administration starts."

The Iraqi human rights activist Haidar Salman tweeted: "I still remember my professor of haematology at Baghdad University department of pathology (who was shot during the massacre along with his family) when he returned to life after his two children and his wife were killed in Nisour Square and almost lost his mind.

"One reason for him to survive was to condemn the murderers. The person who releases these criminals is more of a criminal. The Iraqi government should ask the Biden administration to revoke the pardon."

The carnage at Nisour Square came more than four years into the US invasion, which sparked a vicious sectarian war and mass displacement of Iraqis. The long US occupation had left citizens resentful of security convoys that carved swathes through traffic at will, sometimes shooting towards cars that had trailed too closely.

Private security contractors, supporting logistics companies, or in some cases the US military, were a frequent source of complaints about heavy-handed and disrespectful behaviour towards locals.

"We used to be terrified of them, especially Blackwater, who were the nastiest of them all," said Ribal Mansour, who heard the chaos at Nisour Square on 16 September 2007, and ran to the scene. "What I saw there will haunt me for ever. It should have been a red line. For them to be freed by the US commander-in-chief is shameful."[...]

[Karl Henning]

Manafort and Stone pardoned too. And Charles Kushner.
(Of course ...)

He's all about obstruction of justice.

[JBS]

Pardon, but some of the news that I heard today regarding the providing monetary assistance to businesses and individuals included a lot to things doing neither?  It was also providing funding to our government to keep it working which I understand...but it was so much more than that.  I'm trying to understand where a lot of the money is going and also why during these horrible times.  And, I do agree with Pres. Trump that more money should be going to individuals.  Currently, I'm left feeling like people are tacking things onto the bill (like this never happens). 

The normal budget legislation was joined to the relief bill to make sure it passed, since there's about to be a government shutdown. Then Trump decided he hadn't been given enough attention so he threatened to veto it.

He did veto the defense appropriation bill because it changed the names on bases currently named for Confederates and didn't repeal the law that keeps him from suing Twitter.

[71 dB]

He's all about obstruction of justice.

The law and order president of the law and order party. 

[Karl Henning]

The law and order president of the law and order party. 

In a sorry nutshell.

[Karl Henning]

You've dragged this country into this place: more than 323,000 dead Americans, a president plotting to steal an election, whispers of military coups, pardons for crooks and war criminals, a potential constitutional crisis, and a possible government shutdown. And, after four interminable years, a nation that is dumber, crueler, and more divided.

[Gurn Blanston]

You've dragged this country into this place: more than 323,000 dead Americans, a president plotting to steal an election, whispers of military coups, pardons for crooks and war criminals, a potential constitutional crisis, and a possible government shutdown. And, after four interminable years, a nation that is dumber, crueler, and more divided.

Very interesting stuff, Karl. The entire page/blog, that is to say. Thanks! BTW, did you get any messages from me?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The normal budget legislation was joined to the relief bill to make sure it passed, since there's about to be a government shutdown. Then Trump decided he hadn't been given enough attention so he threatened to veto it.

He did veto the defense appropriation bill because it changed the names on bases currently named for Confederates and didn't repeal the law that keeps him from suing Twitter.

Thank you for the info.  From what I recall hearing after my posting, Pelosi was keen to increase the amount to inviduals to $2,000, but at least some republicans were fighting the democrats on that.   

PD

[Karl Henning]

Very interesting stuff, Karl. The entire page/blog, that is to say. Thanks! BTW, did you get any messages from me?

Oui, gentil Monsieur!

[milk]

They tell us that this is art because it makes us uncomfortable. It just seems predictable and boring to me.

Ok, it's Canada. But, on the other hand, it's the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/arts/music/handel-messiah-canada-indigenous.html

Perhaps the most intense intervention is that of Rihab Chaieb, a Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano who has sung often with the Metropolitan Opera. She removed Jesus from her aria altogether, changing "He was despised" to "She is despised," to evoke herself and her Muslim mother.

Quebec recently passed a law banning teachers, and other public sector workers from wearing religious symbols like head scarves while at work. Ms. Chaieb said neighbors in Montreal had called her veiled mother a terrorist, inspiring this singer to use Handel's music to express her estrangement.

In her segment, Ms. Chaieb is portrayed in black and white as a dutiful daughter, drinking tea in her mother's apartment. But when she is shown, in color, under a graffiti-splattered underpass in Montreal, her barely submerged pain gradually crescendos as she sings in her native French.

"My reinterpretation of the 'Messiah' is about me feeling despised and rejected as a first-generation immigrant in Montreal," she said. "Like me, Jesus felt wretched and despised. But by taking Jesus out of the equation and making it more personal, I have reclaimed the 'Messiah' as my own."

[Karl Henning]

They tell us that this is art because it makes us uncomfortable. It just seems predictable and boring to me.

Yes, undermines her ostensible points.

[SimonNZ]

Not that I'm about to tell anyone how to dress, but whenever I see a hijab around town I'm always struck by how elegant they are.

Also: isn't covering any part of your (naughty and sinful) body an extension of ancient religious laws? ("our" great religion, "their" primitive superstitions)

[milk]

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/27/50-year-study-of-tax-cuts-on-wealthy-shows-they-always-fail-to-trickle-down/
50-year study of tax cuts on wealthy shows they always fail to "trickle down"
The left busies itself on fringe issues. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people are losing out?

[Karl Henning]

From the Institute of Studies That Prove What We Already Know to Be True.

[71 dB]

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/27/50-year-study-of-tax-cuts-on-wealthy-shows-they-always-fail-to-trickle-down/
50-year study of tax cuts on wealthy shows they always fail to "trickle down"
The left busies itself on fringe issues. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people are losing out?

This has been known for a long time. At least I knew. Whenever a right-winger says "Sosialism has never worked", left-wingers can say back "So hasn't trickle-down economics." A person genuinely interested in evidence based empirical economics concludes what works is something other than these and in fact it is: Social democracy which is kind of trickle-UP economics and it works, because those who don't have much money have to spend most of it fast to live instead of hoarding it into places where money doesn't circulate in the economic system.

Sorry about this quick intervention. I just couldn't pass this "I told you so" moment.  0:)

[Karl Henning]

Biden accuses Trump appointees of obstructing transition on national security issues

[Karl Henning]

America isn't 'hopelessly divided.' It only looks that way because of our Constitution.

[Karl Henning]

It's the perfect distillation of the dead-end conundrum of Trumpism:

Republicans know that they can't win without the kooks.

Republicans also know that they definitely might lose with them.

And this dissonance has left the GOP too paralyzed to think of any other way forward.

Georgia Is a Quiet Place for Republicans

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I found this article to be quite interesting.  It's about attempts to remove some 4,000+ voters from being eligible to vote in Georgia (due to possible incorrect addresses).

"A federal judge halts a voter purge in two Georgia counties before the runoff."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/29/us/joe-biden-trump#a-federal-judge-halts-a-voter-purge-in-two-georgia-counties-before-the-runoff

PD

p.s.  Today is the last date for early voting in the Georgia senators two runoff races.