IF WE BREAK is a new book, a memoir, from Kathleen Buhle. I just finished reading the book today and I strongly recommend it.
For a minute, forget that the ex-husband is the notorious Hunter Biden. Pretend it is someone else for a second.
The book is involving and pulls you in. I is well written and there is a lot to cover. It would make several films, in fact.
So if you are to your limit of saturation on Mr. Biden, do not let that discourage you from picking up the book.
Ms. Buhle writes in a way that brings the moments alive and she tells her story in a compelling manner.
Your heart breaks for her when she finds out that her husband, the father of their three children, is having an affair with her sister-in-law. You get the panic and the outrage and how she knows she has to reign it in because her daughters are dealing with it -- dealing with their father sleeping with their aunt. The daughters find out about it before Ms. Buhle and you get the sense of her as aware of how intently her daughters are watching her.
As a parent, you often do not get to be yourself. Yourself might want to just grab a bag of Lays and curl up on the couch. But as a parent, you have to go on some errand or drive the child to some activity or, most importantly, project the belief that everything is going to be alright -- even when you fear everything may be ending.
Ms. Buhle went through some very awful times in her marriage -- and immediately after the divorce with a health issue. In the end, she managed to stay afloat through it all and, reading, you never miss what that was: her most important role was protecting her three children.
I finished the book with a lot of admiration for her and what she has accomplished.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Thursday, June 16, 2022. More billions poured into Joe Biden's latest war of choice while the Turkish government kills a young boy in Iraq and much more.
Starting with this Tweet from Ajamu Baraka:
The quagmire continues and US tax dollars continue to support not the American people but Joe Biden's war of choice. As Betty noted last night, Joe's announced another one billion dollars will go to Ukraine. That will be at least $55 billion since March that Joe's handed over to Ukraine -- $55 billion of US tax payer money.
With the Ukrainian military losing territory and taking hundreds of casualties every day, the United States has made clear that it will only intensify its involvement in the war.
In a press briefing Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said the United States would provide another $1 billion in weapons to Ukraine, including additional long-range missile systems.
The two officials explained that not only are high-end US weapons systems being funneled into Ukraine, but hundreds of Ukrainian forces are being directly trained by the US.
Milley made clear that the US military is training long-range missile crews by the platoon in Germany and added, “By the end of this month, we will transfer HIMARs systems, ammunition and trained crews for operational use in the defense of Ukraine.”
$55 billion because Joe Biden can't admit he was wrong and now feels stuck in this situation because he refuses to face reality. He has a lot of liars helping him spin. Eric London (WSWS) observes:
On June 3, Tempest published an article entitled “Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance!” by Ashley Smith, a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and former leader of the now-defunct International Socialist Organization (ISO).
The article calls for arming Ukraine with heavy NATO weapons and is a tirade against all who question the propaganda of US imperialism. It justifies US escalation by claiming the Ukrainian people are engaged in a democratic struggle for self-determination against Russian “imperialism.”
Smith’s article is an attempt to preempt opposition within the milieu of the Democratic Socialists of America to the prolonged US/NATO-led war, which has provoked widespread shortages of basic necessities all over the world and risks plunging the globe into a nuclear nightmare. As Smith says in a brief preface, the article aims to “review the ongoing Left debates about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continuing need to defend Ukrainian resistance as the starting point for rebuilding international solidarity from below.”
In his article, Smith declares that “the international Left now more than ever must organize solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance” and “defend its right to secure arms.” Smith argues that the Ukrainian military “has waged a national popular struggle for self-determination,” a “fundamentally democratic aim and one that deserves the full support of the international left.”
There can be no talk of NATO expansion, which Smith claims is merely Putin’s “alibi,” because the states of Eastern Europe only joined NATO “out of longtime fear of their imperial overlord, Russia.” The crux of Smith’s argument is that the war is one of popular working class “resistance” to Russia. In this vein, Smith attacks “Faux anti-imperialists” who oppose arming the so-called Ukrainian resistance and thereby “betray Ukraine.”
These are not serious theoretical arguments, they are absurdities. Smith makes no attempt to explain how Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO, a military network run by the world’s largest imperialist powers, constitutes a step toward “self-determination,” nor can he explain why pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk cannot assert the same “right” to leave Ukraine. He praises the Ukrainian “left” for fighting “the government’s oligarchic capitalism,” but he cannot explain how it is that this same government is leading a struggle against imperialism. The subject of the Ukrainian regime’s glorification of Stepan Bandera—the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) that participated in the mass extermination of Jews during World War II—is all but ignored.
Smith’s targets are not those who openly defend Russia, but rather parties and individuals that “might criticize Russia” but “blame the US and NATO for the conflict” and thereby “justify Russia’s war.” “Even worse,” Smith writes, they “back actions” like strikes by workers to “block arms shipments to Ukraine.” He attacks those who “condemn Russia’s invasion” but “also oppose Ukraine’s military resistance as well as US and NATO arms shipments in support of it.”
TEMPTEST is the only one running garbage. COUNTERPUNCH offers some today that wants to call out 'progressive' Bill Fletcher Jr. and others but from a right-wing hawk position that the war is correct. CODESTINKERS are thrilled with this war and they really need to take a look at themselves. Certainly those truly opposed to war are looking with dismay at CODESTINK.
As they find ways to avoid demanding an end to this war, all hopes of future Americans are going down the drain. Not that CODESTINK or Lil' Billy ever pay attention to Iraq anymore, but the US-instigated Iraq War has left the American people with a bill for over two trillion dollars. There's no money for Medicare for all -- we are told -- and there's no money for the school lunch program set up after the start of the pandemic -- we are told -- and there's no money for student loan forgiveness or for any aid to those suffering during Joe Biden's crippling inflation and soaring gas prices.
But he's dropped $55 billion in less than six months on his war of choice.
Iraq is an ongoing war that the CODESTINKERS and other self-appointed 'leaders' continue to ignore.
You won't hear them object to Turkey invading northern Iraq (Kurdistan) and setting up bases there. Using War Planes and drones to terrorize, wound and kill the people who live there. It's not a concern for them despite the fact that they're selling support for Ukaine on the pretense that they care, they really, really care about humanity. What a load of garbge.
AFP reports, "A child was killed on Wednesday in an airstrike on Iraq’s northern region of Sinjar, security sources said, blaming the Turkish air force." As MEDYA NEWS notes:
We'll note this UNICEF Tweet:
Frederikie Geerdink replies to the above Tweet:
And Mirza Dinnayi names the child:
Turkey's actions are -- and have been -- an act of war.. But everyone turns their head and ignores it. The Turkish government carried out a genocide at the start of the last century that many ignored as well. You'd think there be an effort on the part of others to show a little awareness this go round but clearly not.
And we'll wind down with this that went up here last night . . .
The People's Party? They want to be a new independent party. They've been plotting in secret and it's time to reconsider a lot of stuff that they've done. Such as attacks on certain people who they saw as threats. I saw Rebecca's "c.i. raised the jimmy dore presidential run last week" and, no, I am not psychic. She's always said that. I'm not mad at her for posting about it, but it's not true.
And The People's Party is off to a really bad start. Because they're floating a run by Jimmy Dore for president? That doesn't help, does it? But, no, they're off to a really bad start because of the following Tweet.
would be the most popular comedian to ever run for president and the first candidate with his own show and a million subscribers. Here's how a Jimmy Dore campaign and presidency could revolutionize this country! #Dore24
Do you get it?
Do you grasp the racism and the sexism?
Could they be more Straight White Whining Male?
Dick Gregory. A comic legend. Someone you know, if you know comedy. You ask people who Jimmy Dore and they don't know. They have no idea. His YOUTUBE 'fame' doesn't translate in the real world. But Dick Gregory was a comic legend and he ran for president in 1968.
How nice of The (WHITE) People's Party to erase an African-American legend.
Sexist?
Roseanne Barr. She's a comic legend. Last time they let her on TV with her sitcom, she delivered the highest ratings ABC had. They don't have those high ratings without her. She is a comic legend. And she ran for president in 2012.
The whole world knows Roseanne. They've known her since the 80s. She's a legend.
Jimmy Dore's kind of like the eleventh supporting actor in the cast of KING OF QUEENS. On a good day, that's his level of fame.
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