One minute and thirty seconds into the clip above, from the weekend broadcast of THE NEWSHOUR (PBS), they note the passing of longtime contributor Mark Shields.
For years on THE NEWSHOUR he debated another man.
He started appearing on the program in November of 1978. Ten years later, in 1998, he began participating in the Friday debate that the program still airs where a (centrist) Democrat and a (centrist) Republican offer up talking points from their respective political parties. In the days when TV was very limited, this was a big deal. Cable, back then, meant you did not have good reception in your area from a TV antenna so you paid for a cable connection which delivered whatever over the air stations broadcasted in your area.
That tended to be ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. If you were lucky, you might also have some independent UHF station that broadcast old movies and/or old sitcoms.
Mr. Shields was part of the template for convincing Americans that two very limited opinions were, in fact, a full range of the political spectrum.
At the age of 85, he died Saturday from kidney failure.
This is C.I.;s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, June 17, 2022. Is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stuck in an eternal senior moment, Iraq remains without a government when it really needs one and look what political figure emerges to speak out against Turkey's continued attacks on Iraq?
ADDED: Charley Adams (BBC NEWS) reports, "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the US has been approved by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel. Mr Assange has 14 days to appeal over the decision, the Home Office said."
Maybe it should have been: Nancy, are you okay? Are you okay, Nancy?
Talk about a smooth criminal. The Speaker of the House is attempting to pin inflation on COVID 19 and the Iraq War.
Maybe Nancy's trying to live out a Bee Gees' song? "I started a joke, which started the whole world crying . . ."
Dinosaurs of analytics. In the US, they finally found the reason for record inflation.
Covid and the war in Iraq are to blame, says 82-year-old Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
At a certain age, people should retire. Nancy passed her expiration date.
THE ECONO TIMES notes, "This week, Shia leader and leader of the Sadrist Movement in the Iraqi parliament, Muqtada al-Sadr, announced that he would be stepping down from the political process. Al-Sadr cited that he does not intend on getting involved with politicians deemed 'corrupt'."
Oh, Moqtada's such a sweet little boy, far too pure for politics. Murder? Murder he's down with. Politics are too dirty for Moqtada. (Maybe he knows Nancy Pelosi?) ANHA offers:
After 8 months of political wrangling and failures to form a new government and choose a president for the country, Iraq today stands at a foggy crossroads with the resignation of the Sadrist bloc’s deputies from parliament, in a move that raised several questions about the immediate political future of Iraq and the expected changes in alliances between parties and blocs.
Last Sunday, the representatives of the Sadrist movement submitted their resignation to the Speaker of Parliament after they received an order from the leader of the movement, Muqtada al-Sadr.
As soon as the resignation took place, speculations and expectations about future scenarios for Iraq surfaced, after many outstanding crises without solutions, exacerbated by the political stalemate as a result of the sectarian quota system and failure of the Iraqi parliament three times in choosing a president and forming a government.
On this, the Iraqi researcher and political historian, Dr. Jawad Al-Baydani, spoke about the repercussions of this step, saying: "I believe that the political blockage will end with this resignation. It seems that there are hidden threads which occurred previously, with evidence that Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi signed the resignation as soon as it came to him, Perhaps there were negotiations taking place behind the scenes between the political blocs in light of the alliances made by the Sadrist movement with the al-Halbousi bloc, as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
This context he said, "In light of the Iraqi elections law, any member of the Iraqi parliament when he submits his resignation, the member close to the votes is the one who ascends or replaces him, and this is what will happen. Most of these will be from the coordinating framework as well as the independents, and thus will facilitate formation of the government.
The inability to form a government eight months after the October 10th elections? That's major unless we're in the US. The US has no interest in Iraq -- unless it can start an illegal war or, as Nancy demonstrates, use it as an excuse for inflation under President Joe Biden. Scapegoating? Iraq will rush to the tongue of Nancy for that.
Amr Salem (IRAQI NEWS) explains:
The Iraqi Ministry of Environment, on Thursday, called for developing a national strategy supported by an annual budget to combat climate change and desertification in the country, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
“The climate change and its negative impacts on Iraq are clearly visible,” The Iraqi Minister of Environment, Jasesim Al-Falahi, said in a statement cited by INA.
Falahi explained that United Nations reports confirm that Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most affected by climate change, according to INA.
The Minister of Environment also elaborated that the country is facing an unprecedented scarcity of rainfall and water leading to an increase in desertification rates and decrease in available fertile land.
But he's not really the Minister of Environment. He's a hold over from the previous government and the highest court in Iraq has already ruled that the holdover government is highly limited in what they can and cannot do. Which is a shame because Iraq is facing serious consequences from climate change. THE JERUSALEM POST observes:
Environmental experts have warned that the drying up of Lake Sawa in southern Iraq is a sign of more to come, with climate change and a lack of cooperation defining water distribution in the Middle East.
In April, the lake, which changes level seasonally and is the only one in Iraq to draw its water from underground aquifers, dried up completely for the first time in thousands of years.
For the inhabitants of nearby Samawa, the environmental concerns were trumped by the existential threat of losing access to the lake, which provides the only reachable water source in the region. Droughts resulting from climate change are thought to be partially responsible for the drying up of the lake.
Iraq could really use some leadership right now -- especially as the water issue is resulting in conflicts with neighbors. One of those neighbors? Turkey.
And there's a lot for Iraq to have conflict with Turkey over.
The Turkish government has been bombing northern Iraq with War Planes and drones, it's sent Turkish foot soldiers into the country and established military bases in Iraq. These are legally defined acts of war. These are violations of Iraq's sovereignty.
And yet they continue. Will any politician outside the Middle East call them out? Or will Jeremy Corbyn be the only one to do so?
In yesterday's snapshot, we noted that the Turkish government had killed yet another child. Mirza Dinnayi names the child:
Amberin Zaman (AL-MONITOR) reports:
The government of Iraq has yet to comment on a Turkish drone strike that killed a 12-year-old boy in the town of Sinune yesterday, the latest in a string of attacks in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, adding to fury among Yazidis, a marginalized community that was subjected to genocide by the Islamic State.
Nobel laureate Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor who was enslaved by IS, called Turkey’s attack “an act of terrorism.”
“Iraq has the ultimate responsibility to stop Turkey from attacking Sinjar,” said Murad Ismael, a prominent Yazidi activist. “The international community also has a moral responsibility towards Yazidis and the people of Sinjar. It is both painful and illogical that these attacks go [unaddressed] as if they are legitimate. It seems Turkey can get away with anything,” Ismael told Al-Monitor.
The UN condemned the attack without mentioning Turkey by name. “UNICEF is shocked at the killing of a 12-year-boy in an attack in Sinjar area,” the international body’s arm that deals with children said in a statement yesterday. “UNICEF calls on all parties to fulfill their obligation, under international law, to protect children at all times and without delay,” it added.
