Ruth's Report: Edna Wright

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Crazy Lady"

That is her leading her group the Honey Cone and performing their hit "Want Ads" on SOUL TRAIN. In the seventies, if you waned to watch music on TV -- outside of variety shows like SONNY & CHER, THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, CHER, THE FLIP WILSON SHOW, DONNY & MARIE, THE JACKSONS, THE BARBARA MCNAIR SHOW, etc. and outside of specials by artists like Diana Ross and Julie Andrews, if you wanted to watch music on TV, you really just had three choices. Saturday mornings/afternoons were for SOUL TRAIN and AMERICAN BANDSTAND and late Friday nights were for THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL.

BILLBOARD notes:

Edna Wright, best known as the lead singer of The Honey Cone, the girl group that went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 with the song "Want Ads" in 1971, has died.

Wright's sister, singer Darlene Love, confirmed the news of her passing with a statement posted on social media Saturday night (Sept. 12).

"I’m in complete shock and so heartbroken by the sudden loss of my beautiful baby sister," Love wrote on Facebook. "Please keep me and my family in your prayers during this very sad time for us."

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS adds:

In her early days, Wright sang backup for numerous artists, including the Righteous Brothers and Ray Charles. Under the stage name Sandy Wynns, she recorded the 1960s single “The Touch of Venus,” according to 24-7.

In 1969, Wright formed Honey Cone as a trio comprising herself, Carolyn Willis and Shelly Clark.

“Working together with Edna was magical,” recalled Willis on Saturday. “My heart is broken and my love and thoughts go out to her family and daughter Melodye.”

In 1971, the group topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the melodically funky hit “Want Ads" from the album “Soulful Tapestry.” The song spent one week at No. 1, bumping off The Rolling Stones' “Brown Sugar.”

The single also spent three weeks atop the R&B chart.

Playing guitar during the recording was a 16-year-old Ray Parker Jr., who would later hit No. 1 in 1984 with his signature song “Ghostbusters.”

SHOWBIZ 411 notes, "Edna was the lead singer of the Honey Cone, a smash pop girl group of the early 70s. Their hits “Want Ads,” “Stick Up,” and “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” are classics, played over and over on oldies stations and classic R&B. I didn’t know Edna, but I do know Darlene, and I am so sorry for her loss. It’s out loss, too. Edna had pipes! Holland Dozer Holland signed the Honey Cone to their Hot Wax/HDH Records when they left Motown, sensing a Supremes for a new generation. For about four years, from 1971 to 75, the Honey Cone permeated pop radio."

Darlene Love is an amazing singer but Phil Spector gave up quickly on turning her into a star. There was nothing unique about Darlene's voice. It is why Phil could put her lead vocal on a song credited to the group the Crystals and no one questioned whether it was the same women who sang "Da Doo Run Run" or "Uptown." It was a very powerful voice and a beautiful voice but it did not have a uniqueness to it that allowed Darlene to become a star. She tried for years and years and never achieved it. Her sister Edna's voice was not as impressive in terms of range or power but it had a unique quality that stood out and that is why Edna and The Honey Cone ended up musical stars. You heard one note from Edna and you knew who it was automatically.

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

Friday, September 11, 2020. An opinion journal makes the call for US troops to come home (it's not THE NATION) and we look at the non-duopoly presidential campaigns.

"Bring Them Home." A column by Michael Brendan Dougherty. It runs at THE NATION? Nope. At the conservative NATIONAL REVIEW. Over at THE NATION, they continue to flounder and wallow in a cesspool. We've got British Jew Sasha Abramsky explaining the US to Americans because, gosh, isn't that what everyone needs? Elie Mystal frets over 'poor' E. Jean Carroll. She was the topic of Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Crazy Lady" that went up last night. You may remember Carroll, she was elevated to hero status for claiming that Donald Trump raped her -- in some year, she's not sure of which year it was, but it was a department store, she knows that. As the latest in a long of questionable characters was embraced by the faux resistance, they realized that they had another character issue on their hands like with Michael Avenatti. Of course, it took Carroll going on CNN live with Anderson Cooper for them to realize there was a problem with Carroll. While an open mouthed Anderson stared in shock, Carroll went on to 'educate' the American public that rape was (her exact word) "sexy."

Anderson quickly cut to commercial It was too late to save Carroll.

Rape is not "sexy" and once someone makes a statement like that on live TV, I don't really think they can be defamed at that point. She's a lunatic and she was always seen that way in the industry. She never had her head on straight and she had no real support from her peers. She floundered from one job to another, burning bridges repeatedly.

Can someone like that be raped? Absolutely. Anyone can be raped.

But there are survivors out there who can use our help and someone who claims she was raped and also wants the world to know that she finds rape "sexy"? That's someone who needs to fight her own battles. She clearly has issues that go beyond whatever did or did not happen to her in a department store and she's not allowed to insult the survivors of rape and also expect us to all rally around her at the same time. She's on her own as far as most of us are concerned.

But that desperate, in-bred group which calls itself the 'resistance' won't let her case die because they've got no real issues to address. Either they lack the mental abilities to do so or they just don't see the world around them.

Which goes a long way towards explaining why the week that it's announced 2,200 US troops will be leaving Iraq (only 3,000 remaining -- CORRECTION, this sentence has been fixed to note 3,000 remaining -- at least 3,000), THE NATION has nothing to offer on its front page about that.

Grasp that they have three articles about Vietnam. Babyboomers are aging and apparently the WWII trough has been gone to one time too many so THE NATION is ready to pivot to . . . Vietnam.

There was a time when THE NATION announced -- in an editorial that ran on the cover of the magazine -- that they could not support anyone who voted for the Iraq War. That was so long ago that many have forgotten and most never knew about it. The tiny number of people who continue to read THE NATION may have no idea that US troops are in Iraq. The rag certainly doesn't encourage them to acknowledge it.

War and peace? Not a concern for THE NATION. In fact, it stopped being a concern the minute Democrats were no longer the minority party in the House and the Senate. It's a rag of misfits who can't be employed anywhere else. That's why SALON and MSNBC reject Joan Walsh writes (badly) there currently.

It was a success in terms of circulation and web views when they pretended to be interested in the Iraq War. Even then, it made itself a joke. Naomi Klein had a column there. It also ran at THE GUARDIAN. She did a two-part column on people profiting from the war and THE NATION gladly ran the one on Republican James Baker and gladly refused to run the one on Democrat Madeline Albright. Things like that started to get attention. Or rolypoly Katha Pollit who presents as a feminist but refused to write about one of the biggest US crimes in Iraq -- when a group of soliders plotted to leave base, break into the home of an Iraqi family, gang-rape the 15-year-old Abeer and kill her, her parents and her younger sister. They then attempted to make it look as though 'rebels' had committed the crimes. That is a horror all on its own. And maybe if the ring-leader Steven D. Green hadn't been given the choice of going behind bars or going to Iraq, it wouldn't have happened. An attack on US troops took place in response to this. There were so many ways to cover it.

So THE NATION elected to ignore it. And fat girl Katha chose to ignore it. After months of being publicly rebuked, Katha put down the fork and spoon and wrote about Abeer -- she wrote a single sentence. Thanks for the 'sisterhood,' Katha.

We covered it here. We covered it the minute the news emerged. We covered it the minute Green was arrested on US soil. We covered the article 32 hearing for those who were still in Iraq. We covered the civilian trial in the US for Green. There were many, many times anyone could have picked up the ball and run with the story.

Katha didn't. And Elie Mystal, so nervous today over 'poor' E. Jean Carroll, never gave two s**ts about an Iraqi girl who was gang-raped by US troops while she heard her sister and parents killed, an Iraq child who had to know that the gang-rape would also end with her own murder.

But, hey, privileged Carroll thinks that in some year -- she's not sure which -- she was raped by Donald and, golly, gee, rape is "sexy."

Die on that mountain, Elie -- but die quickly because we don't need you.

Hey, if Abeer had been a British Jew, would THE NATION have cared? This is the magazine that's been repeatedly called out not just for its anti-Palestinian coverage but for its running of hate speech in the form of ads against the Palestinians. Free speech claimed Katrina vanden Heuvel -- chief s**t stain at the magazine (are we surprised? her family money comes from stealing from Lena Horne and many other African-American entertainers). It's a funny sort of defense -- free speech that only allows the Palestinians to be portrayed in an ugly light, one attack after another, either in columns or in advertisements.

If you're late to the party, this is not: Why isn't THE NATION applauding Donald Trump!!!!

We've spent the week noting that this is a drawdown, not a withdrawal. A withdrawal? I'd applaud Donald for that. Even I would applaud him for that. But that's not what's taking place.

It's a shame that THE NATIONAL REVIEW can weigh in on the news but THE NATION can't. Don't worry, in 40 more years, Joan Walsh will write a bad column about what was on TV the week of 9/11/2020 -- and she'll bungle those facts too -- like she does in her latest. No one fact checks at THE NATION.

The US is headed towards a November presidential election. The press -- including THE NATION -- focuses on the duopoly refusing to educate or inform the public that there are other choices. One such choice is Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential candidate. His campaign issued the following:

Nineteen years after more than 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, there remains a bipartisan commitment to fight an endless “war on terrorism,” instigate regime change coups, increase military spending, enhance US nuclear weapons, deport undocumented residents, curtail civil liberties, and militarize the police.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the US have obscured “The Other 9/11,” the US attack on Chilean democracy in the US-backed coup on September 11, 1973. The two 9/11s are connected by what the CIA calls “blowback.” The CIA first used the term in describing the unintended negative consequences of the US and UK sponsored coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. The September 11, 2001 attacks were blowback from decades of US intervention in the Middle East. That doesn’t justify the terrorism, but it does explain it. If we want peace and security for our nation, we should respect the peace and security of other nations.

Contrary to Trump’s lies about ending the endless wars, his administration has escalated the “Long War” in the Middle East and North Africa with increased troop deployments, drone strikes, and Special Operations.

Trump is also morphing the War on Terror abroad into a war against dissent at home. He encourages and uses law enforcement to attack nonviolent protesters, calling them “thugs” and “antifa terrorists.” He encourages white racist vigilante militias that show up armed to menace Black Lives Matter demonstrators and to intimidate local and state governments in armed protests against climate action (Oregon) and COVID-19 public health measures (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin).

Trump encourages these actions with statements that amplify paranoid far-right fantasies that call climate change and COVID-19 hoaxes perpetrated by secret elite conspiracies. Trump has instructed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) and Border Patrol to violate immigration laws and subject immigrants and asylum seekers to unspeakable brutality, including separating children from their parents and internment in concentration camps where COVID-19 is running rampant. He stokes racial fears and civil strife to justify authoritarian rule. He calls the news media “fake,” the elections “rigged,” and promotes conspiracy fantasies on Twitter. Trump is sowing confusion and demoralization so people will not be able to resist repression by sections of law enforcement and the racist militias should Trump decide to resist a peaceful transfer of power. The ultimate blowback against US coups and wars abroad against democracy threatens to be a coup against democracy at home.

End the Wars on Terrorism Abroad and Dissent at Home

One of my first steps as President would be to end the wars on “terrorism” abroad and at home. Neither major party calls for ending the endless wars against “terror” abroad even though the top priority in the official National Security Strategy of the United States has changed to “Great Power Competition” with the goal of preventing the emergence of strong regional powers in Eurasia, namely China, Iran, and Russia. This New Cold War, like the War on Terrorism, is about the profits of US-based global corporations abroad, not the security of the people of the United States at home.

The nuclear modernization program initiated under Obama and continued under Trump with bipartisan support has destabilized the nuclear balance of terror and kicked off a new nuclear arms race. The nuclear threat, coupled with inaction by the great powers on the climate emergency and the proliferation of disinformation propagated by state actors on all sides that makes it difficult for publics to come to agreement on what to demand of their governments, has prompted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to move their Doomsday Clock the closest it has ever been to midnight.

I would end the saber rattling against Russia, China, and Iran in the Great Power Competition strategy and focus on diplomacy. We need to partner with other major powers to address our common problems, notably nuclear arms, climate, and cyberwar.

I would also end the bipartisan repression of dissent at home. With Trump’s encouragement, law enforcement is using militaristic tactics to suppress peaceful protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Both major parties are united in suppressing whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and publishers like Julian Assange, whose real crimes in the eyes of the National Security State is that they exposed its secret wrongdoings.

The US should speak out against violations of human rights and democracy wherever they occur, but that should not preclude also working with authoritarian governments to resolve life-or-death global issues like climate change and nuclear arms. War and threats of war are the most powerful destroyers of civil liberties, democracy, and human rights. Military threats, economic sanctions, and covert meddling in the politics of other countries only reinforces the nationalist rationalizations of authoritarian governments for repression at home in order to ward off threats from abroad.

The most powerful way to promote human rights is to set a good example. If the US wants its advocacy of human rights to be credible and effective, it must set the right example at home, where police killings of Black people are seen on social media around the world. A country where there is mass incarceration in the largest prison system in the history of the world, and from where the US military is deployed in some 800 foreign military bases for its endless wars, making the US the nation that the world’s people consider the biggest threat to peace.

The Other 9/11: Chile

Thirty years before the United States’ 9/11, the CIA orchestrated the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected socialist government of Chile on September 11, 1973.

It is a tragic coincidence of the US bloody intervention history in Latin America that President Salvador Allende was overthrown and pushed to suicide on the same date that decades later would affect US soil by a terrorist attack. The same feelings that American felt of being violated by the first foreign attack since Pearl Harbor were felt in Chile that September 11 in 1973. The sin of Salvador Allende in the eyes of Nixon, Kissinger, and CIA Director Richard Helms was to advance deep socialist reforms that would create a more equal society, a just distribution of incomes, real freedom of expression, and a truly democratic framework that could allow, finally, the participation and voices of all sectors, specially the impoverished workers of Chile.

Sound familiar? These are exactly the challenges that the US faces today, problems that have riddled the US throughout its history and become worse in the Trump era – the authoritarian duopoly of Republicans and Democrats, voter suppression, third party suppression, deep inequality from coast to coast, and chronic poverty. It is the same kind of repression that Chile suffers today under the conservative millionaire Sebastián Piñera when people again advance the same reforms that Allende worked for and paid for with his life. It is the same social, economic, and political oppression that the two countries share on this anniversary of 9/11.

Aid, Not Arms – Make Friends, Not Enemies

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the Green Party of the United States warned against the danger that the two major parties and the corporate media would turn this horrific crime into a rationale for destructive wars abroad and political repression at home.

Instead of treating the 9/11 attackers as criminals to be brought to justice, the US used the attacks as a pretext for a long series of regime change wars in the Middle East and North Africa. The foreign policy leadership of the Bush administration had already written about the need for a “new Pearl Harbor” in order to provide the pretext for an invasion of Iraq to seize its oil fields. They wasted little time in getting started after 9/11.

The Authorization To Use Military Force (AUMF) against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks passed Congress on September 18 with only one dissenting vote. The US invasion of Afghanistan started on October 1. The AUMF legislation is still the legal basis for today’s endless wars.

The Patriot Act, which gave the federal government broad new intrusive surveillance and investigatory powers that weakened civil liberties, was overwhelmingly voted through Congress by October 25.

The Bush administration, joined by the Democratic amen corner led by Senator Joe Biden, lied about weapons of mass destruction and about Iraq’s alleged role in 9/11 to start a second war in Iraq by March 2003.

After 19 years, US combat troops are now engaged in 14 wars. At least 37 million people, and as many as 59 million people, have been displaced by these wars, creating the greatest refugee crisis since World War II.

The annual observation of 9/11 has been turned by politicians into a militaristic celebration of American power that is used to garner public support for US military spending and imperial aggression abroad. Right after 9/11, the world was united in its grief for our country. It was a moment that should have been used to build peace based on mutual cooperation and respect.

Let us remember 9/11 this year by demanding that the US withdraw from its endless wars, prioritize diplomacy to resolve conflicts, end arms sales to belligerents, and provide humanitarian aid for war refugees, including reopening immigration to the US from these countries.

Let’s turn the US into the world’s humanitarian superpower instead of its global military empire. Providing aid instead of arms is the best way to promote peace and security. It is time for the US to make friends instead of enemies.

This week, he and his running mate Angela Walker took questions.

Joseph Kishore is also running for president. He represents the Socialist and Equality Party. This week, he reTweeted David Vine's Tweet:

Very happy to see our estimate of 37 million displaced by the US Post-9/11 Wars picked up widely in the press. Thank you to everyone who is helping to remind people of the catastrophic damage caused by 19 years of war. We must demand the US repair the damage + end endless wars.

Jo Jorgensen is running for president on the Libertarian Party's ticket.

Earlier, her campaign issued the following:

GREENVILLE, S.C.; Sept. 5, 2020— Libertarian presidential nominee Dr. Jo Jorgensen today begins a four-city tour of Alaska to rally supporters, meet with local business owners, and take media interviews. She is resuming her duties as candidate following a respite to mourn the recent passing of her mother.

Tonight campaign staff will kick off her Alaskan outreach with a meet-and-greet event in Anchorage. Speakers will include Jon Briggs Watts, chair of the Libertarian Party (LP) of Alaska, and two of Jorgensen’s down-ballot colleagues: Scott Kohlhaas, candidate for state house (Dist. 16), and Carolyn “Care” Clift, running for state senate (Dist. N).

Clift’s campaign includes a call for fair elections with more choices, and a demand that Alaskans be permitted to go back to their normal work. She appreciates Dr. Jorgensen’s pledge that “a Libertarian administration wouldn’t put everybody under house arrest, but instead would step aside and let private medical research flourish. Government bureaucrats and politicians have no place treating Americans as children with their intrusions such as quarantining healthy people.”

Clift said, “While I support Alaska Gov. Dunleavy’s handling of the CoVid-19 crisis statewide—for example, encouraging the wearing of masks without mandating it—I feel that local mandates are costing precious tourism dollars, at the expense of Anchorage’s small businesses.”

Jorgensen has garnered support throughout her nationwide tour for her platform of creating a truly free market in health care—optimizing people’s chances against a virus during a pandemic—ending the war on drugs, recalling U.S. military men and women home to defend America’s own shores, and protecting the Second Amendment.

If elected, she plans to abolish the ATF: “I am dedicated to the unalienable right of individuals to keep and bear arms, and I will work to repeal every federal law passed in the last 100 years that infringes on this fundamental right.”

Dr. Jorgensen’s campaign stops in Alaska feature down-ticket candidates, include media availability, and are scheduled as follows (subject to change; times shown in local time zone):

Saturday, September 5; Anchorage
7:30–9 P.M.: Mixer & rally: 49th State Brewing, 717 W. 3rd Ave., Anchorage
Sunday, September 6; Anchorage
4–5 P.M.: Private meet-and-greet (selected media availability by appointment),
Sunday, September 6; Wasilla
6–7:30 P.M.: Meet & greet, rally: Iditapark (Green Pavilion), 500 W. Nelson, Wasilla
Monday, September 7; Ketchikan
11:30–12:30 P.M.: Panel discussion with local business leaders: Stoney Moose, 127 Stedman St., Ketchikan
1–3 P.M.: Meet & greet: Bar Harbor Ale House, 55 Schoenbar Ct., Ketchikan
4:30–6:45 P.M.: Veterans’ barbecue and town hall: American Legion Post 3, 631 Park Ave., Ketchikan
Tuesday, September 8; Juneau
1–2 P.M.: Pick-up hockey game with Jo: Treadwell Ice Arena, 105 Savikko Rd., Lena Beach, Juneau (Douglas)
6 P.M.: Meet & greet: Lena Beach (Lena Point Park Shelter), Juneau

Jorgensen’s vice-presidential running mate, Jeremy “Spike” Cohen, is in the Pacific northwest campaign on a bus tour, this Labor Day weekend. For a full list of the candidates’ upcoming campaign events, visit Jo20.com/events.

Media advisory: Rain or shine! The candidate will have media availability at most tour stops. A mult box will be available at the rallies, although no risers. Personal distancing protocols will be followed; hand sanitizer and masks will be provided.

For questions or to schedule an interview with Dr. Jorgensen during her visits, contact:

Sat., Sept. 5; Anchorage: Jess Mears, Jorgensen-Cohen 2020 deputy campaign manager, via e-mailat JessMears@Jo20.com or by phone at (727) 262-8061
Sun., Sept. 6; Anchorage & Wasilla: Jess Mears, Jorgensen-Cohen 2020 deputy campaign manager, via e-mailat JessMears@Jo20.com or by phone at (727) 262-8061
Mon., Sept. 7; Ketchikan: Paul Robbins, Jr., MPS, Alaska LP communications chair, via e-mailat AK@Jo20.com or by phone at (760) 586-8065
Tues., Sept. 8; Juneau: Jess Mears, Jorgensen-Cohen 2020 deputy campaign manager, via e-mailat JessMears@Jo20.com or by phone at (727) 262-8061

Gloria La Riva is running for president as well. She represents the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Earlier this week, Gloria Tweeted:

These are the people of Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city devastated by Hurricane Laura. We know that the government has plenty of resources because the working class produces all that wealth. Federal relief for Lake Charles NOW!

1:40 PM · Sep 6, 2020

And the Minneapolis chapter of the PSL Tweets:

Thanks to the hard work of many committed organizers in the PSL, we've succeeded in getting Gloria La Riva on the ballot in Minnesota! #VoteSocialist! The need for a socialist transformation of society has never been more urgent!

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