Ruth's Report: Heart Ann Wilson BBC Interview 1982

I was deep cleaning this afternoon and dusting and, around the stereo, came across Heart's DOG & BUTTERFLY vinyl album. Put it on while I fnished cleaning and been in a Heart mood ever since.

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

Friday, November 11, 2022. DON'T RUN JOE launches, and much more.

I wish the theme to THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW were true and love was all around -- instead it seems to be spin and lies that are all around. "Misinformation" will always exist. Like this garbage.

Is Greatscottwii an idiot or a liar? He's saying that, in 2004, he voted for Bully Boy Bush because the Democrat, John Kerry, wanted to restart the draft. Now I supported John Kerry in the 2004 primaries and, for the first time ever, my candidate finally won the nomination. And I know John. John never supported reinstating the draft nor did he campaign on that.

But there's another problem.

Greatscottwho explains that he "was tricked into being a Republican" -- which doesn't appear to be that hard of a trick for him -- because "then came the Iraq war, and I changed my party and never looked back."

Great Scott certainly never looked back at facts or reality.

The Iraq War started before the 2004 election. That's why John Kerry's most infamous moment was when he was trying to explain why he voted for it in 2002 "I was for it before I was against it'" -- remember that?

Scott's either a liar or an idiot.

And we're screwed if Joe Biden is the 2024 nominee. In nine days, Joe limps and scoots to 80. He's too old to be president now. And it is disgusting and outrageous that he might be the nominee in 2024. The greatest foreign policy crime and misadventure of the 21 century is the Iraq War. And Joe voted for it.

No one has ever paid for that. Joe wants to make Julian Assange pay for it -- pay for exposing War Crimes. But no one responsible for it has ever had to pay for it in this country. And every presidential election since the Iraq War started in 2003 has had an idiot on the Democratic Party presidential ticket who supported that war.

2004: John Kerry and John Edwards -- both voted for it

2008: Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- Joe voted for it

2012: Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- see above

2016: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine -- Hillary voted for the war

2020: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris -- Joe voted for it

Every ticket. Five presidential tickets. And, for those who don't know, when only one person voted for it on the presidential ticket, it doesn't mean the other didn't. No one who voted against the Iraq War has been on the presidential ticket.

156 members of Congress voted against the Iraq War. Not one of them ever made the Democratic Party's presidential ticket.

Here's the list THOUGHT.CO compiled of those who voted against the Iraq War:

State	Congress	Name	Party	Notes
Alabama	Rep	Earl Hilliard	D	retired from office
Arizona	Rep	Ed Pastor	D
Arkansas	Rep	Vic Snyder	D
California	Sen	Barbara Boxer	D
California	Rep	Joe Baca	D
California	Rep	Xavier Becerra	D
California	Rep	Lois Capps	D
California	Rep	Gary Condit	D
California	Rep	Susan Davis	D
California	Rep	Anna Eshoo	D
California	Rep	Sam Farr	D
California	Rep	Bob Filner	D
California	Rep	Mike Honda	D
California	Rep	Barbara Lee	D
California	Rep	Zoe Lofgren	D
California	Rep	Robert Matsui	D	deceased
California	Rep	Juanita Millender-McDonald	D
California	Rep	George Miller	D
California	Rep	Grace Napolitano	D
California	Rep	Nancy Pelosi	D
California	Rep	Lucille Roybal-Allard	D
California	Rep	Loretta Sanchez	D
California	Rep	Hilda Solis	D
California	Rep	Pete Stark	D
California	Rep	Mike Thompson	D
California	Rep	Maxine Waters	D
California	Rep	Diane Watson	D
California	Rep	Lynn Woolsey	D
Colorado	Rep	Diana DeGette	D
Colorado	Rep	Mark Udall	D
Connecticut	Rep	Rosa DeLauro	D
Connecticut	Rep	John Larson	D
Connecticut	Rep	James Maloney	D
Florida	Sen	Bob Graham	D
Florida	Rep	Corrine Brown	D
Florida	Rep	Alice Hastings	D
Florida	Rep	Carrie Meek	D	retired from office
Georgia	Rep	John Lewis	D
Georgia	Rep	Cynthia McKinney	D
Hawaii	Sen	Daniel Akaka	D
Hawaii	Sen	Daniel Inouye	D
Hawaii	Rep	Neil Abercrombie	D
Illinois	Sen	Dick Durbin	D
Illinois	Sen	Bobby Rush	D
Illinois	Rep	Jerry Costello	D
Illinois	Rep	Danny Davis	D
Illinois	Rep	Lane Evans	D
Illinois	Rep	Luis Gutierrez	D
Illinois	Rep	Jesse Jackson Jr.	D
Illinois	Rep	Bill Lipinski	D	retired from office
Illinois	Rep	Jan Schakowsky	D
Indiana	Rep	Julia Carson	D
Indiana	Rep	John Hostettler	R
Indiana	Rep	Pete Visclosky	D
Iowa	Rep	Jim Leach	R
Maine	Rep	Tom Allen	D
Main	Rep	Baldacci	D
Maryland	Sen	Barbara Mikulski	D
Maryland	Sen	Paul Sarbanes	D
Maryland	Rep	Benjamin Cardin	D
Maryland	Rep	Elijah Cummings	D
Maryland	Rep	Connie Morella	D
Massachusetts	Sen	Ted Kennedy	D
Massachusetts	Rep	Michael Capuano	D
Massachusetts	Rep	Bill Delahunt	D
Massachusetts	Rep	Barney Frank	D
Massachusetts	Rep	Jim McGovern	D
Massachusetts	Rep	Richard Neal	D
Massachusetts	Rep	John Olver	D
Massachusetts	Rep	John Tierney	D
Michigan	Sen	Carl Levin	D
Michigan	Sen	Debbie Stabenow	D
Michigan	Rep	David Bonior	D
Michigan	Rep	John Conyers Jr.	D
Michigan	Rep	John Dingell	D
Michigan	Rep	Dale Kildee	D
Michigan	Rep	Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick	D
Michigan	Rep	Sandy Levin	D
Michigan	Rep	Lynn Rivers	D
Michigan	Rep	Bart Stupak	D
Minnesota	Sen	Mark Dayton	D
Minnesota	Sen	Paul Wellstone	D	deceased
Minnesota	Rep	Betty McCollum	D
Minnesota	Rep	Jim Oberstar	D
Minnesota	Rep	Martin Olav Sabo	D
Mississippi	Rep	Bennie Thompson	D
Missouri	Rep	William Clay Jr.	D
MIssouri	Rep	Karen McCarthy	D	retired from office
New Jersey	Sen	Jon Corzine	D
New Jersey	Rep	Rush Holt	D
New Jersey	Rep	Robert Menendez	D
New Jersey	Rep	Frank Pallone Jr	D
New Jersey	Rep	Donald Payne	D
New Mexico	Sen	Jeff Bingaman	D
New Mexico	Rep	Tom Udall	D
New York	Rep	Maurice Hinchey	D
New York	Rep	Amo Houghton	R
New York	Rep	John LaFalce	D
New York	Rep	Gregory Meeks	D
New York	Rep	Jerrold Nadler	D
New York	Rep	Major Owens	D
New York	Rep	Charles Rangel	D
New York	Rep	Jose Serrano	D
New York	Rep	Louise Slaughter	D
New York	Rep	Edolphus Towns	D
New York	Rep	Nydia Velazquez	D
North Carolina	Rep	Eva Clayton	D	retired from office
North Carolina	Rep	David Price	D
North Carolina	Rep	Melvin Watt	D
North Dakota	Sen	Kent Conrad	D
Ohio	Rep	Sherrod Brown	D
Ohio	Rep	Stephanie Tubbs Jones	D
Ohio	Rep	Marcy Kaptur	D
Ohio	Rep	Dennis Kucinich	D
Ohio	Rep	Thomas Sawyer	D
Ohio	Rep	Ted Strickland	D
Oregon	Sen	Ron Wyden	D
Oregon	Rep	Earl Blumenauer	D
Oregon	Rep	Peter DeFazio	D
Oregon	Rep	Darlene Hooley	D
Oregon	Rep	David Wu	D
Pennsylvania	Rep	Robert Brady	D
Pennsylvania	Rep	William Coyne	D	retired from office
Pennsylvania	Rep	Mike Doyle	D
Pennsylvania	Rep	Chaka Fattah	D
Rhode Island	Sen	Lincoln Chafee	D
Rhode Island	Sen	Jack Reed	D
Rhode Island	Rep	James Langevin	D
South Carolina	Rep	Gresham Barrett	R
South Carolina	Rep	James Clyburn	D
Tennessee	Rep	John Duncan Jr	R
Texas	Rep	Lloyd Doggett	D
Texas	Rep	Charles Gonzalez	D
Texas	Rep	Ruben Hinojosa	D
Texas	Rep	Sheila Jackson-Lee	D
Texas	Rep	Eddie Bernice Johnson	D
Texas	Rep	Ron Paul	R
Texas	Rep	Silvestre Reyes	D
Texas	Rep	Ciro Rodriguez	D	retired from office
Vermont	Sen	Jim Jeffords	D
Vermont	Sen	Patrick Leahy	D
Vermont	Rep	Bernie Sanders	I
Virginia	Rep	Jim Moran	D
Virginia	Rep	Bobby Scott	D
Washington	Sen	Patty Murray	D
Washington	Rep	Jay Inslee	D
Washington	Rep	Rick Larsen	D
Washington	Rep	Jim McDermott	D
District of Columbia	Rep	Brian Baird	D
West Virginia	Sen	Robert Byrd	D
West Virginia	Rep	Alan Mollohan	D
West Virginia	Rep	Nick Rahall	D
Wisconsin	Sen	Russ Feingold	D
Wisconsin	Rep	Tammy Baldwin	D
Wisconsin	Rep	Jerry Kleczka	D	retired from office
Wisconsin	Rep	David Obey	D

And don't go to Crapapedia -- they've got people on their list who didn't even make it into Congress until five years after the vote took place.

But none of those people above made the ticket. The idiots like Joe who got it wrong make the ticket.

We need better.

Joe Biden has spent the week trying to do a victory lap -- at his age, any form of movement is difficult. There's no victory lap to be had. The House is probably going Republican. The Senate could go either way. And he's trying to claim victory.

The exit polls show the American people don't want him to run and that they think the country is going in the wrong direction.

Mid-week, Gloria Borger rightly called Joe out on CNN for his response that he not changing anything he's doing for the next two years. Gloria stated, ""Now you have 75% of the country saying that we're headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-five percent believe we are in a recession. And then the president, you know, in a way to try to brag about himself and what he's done" says he's not changing anything.

Maybe Gloria can be honest about this because she's seen his stupidity up close and personal such as in 2014 when he insisted "I'm not changing my brand" and claimed he never apologized to anyone.

He's a Moron with a War On -- even if he needs Viagra to get it up.

Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:

Inflation rose at an unadjusted annual rate of 7.7 percent in October, according to data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Thursday morning. The report noted that consumer prices rose by 0.4 percent over September, the same rate as the previous month.

While consumer prices are still rising at a pace not seen since the early 1980s, with devastating consequences for working class living standards, the October rate was less than the 7.9 percent that had been predicted by analysts.

The BLS Consumer Pricing Index (CPI) summary said the inflation rate for October was “the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending January 2022,” and was down from the September rate of 8.2 percent.

The statement said that the “all items less food and energy index rose 6.3 percent over the last 12 months.” But in the critical categories of energy and food, prices increased by 17.6 percent and 10.9 percent respectively.

There's a group getting media attention, Roots Action. They're site is DON'T RUN JOE -- if they had any humor it would be DON'T RUN, JOE, YOU MIGHT BREAK A HIP. If they had a sense of grammar, it would be DON'T RUN, JOE. Their mission:

Democrats will need bold leadership in 2024. We're calling on Joe Biden to announce that he's not running for re-election.

They note:

In 2024 the United States will face the dual imperatives of preventing a Republican takeover of the White House and advancing a truly progressive agenda. The stakes could not be higher. The threat of a neofascist GOP has become all too obvious. Bold and inspiring leadership from the Oval Office will be essential.

Unfortunately, President Biden has been neither bold nor inspiring. And his prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak. With so much at stake, making him the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 2024 would be a tragic mistake.

“Moderate” policies have failed to truly address such pressing concerns as the climate emergency, voting rights, student debt, health care, corporate price-gouging, and bloated military spending in tandem with anemic diplomacy.

Biden triumphed over Donald Trump in 2020 with vital help from extraordinary grassroots efforts in swing states by progressive organizations (including RootsAction). A president is not his party’s king, and he has no automatic right to renomination. Joe Biden should not seek it. If he does, he will have a fight on his hands.

Contact: info@rootsaction.org | Learn more at our FAQ

Can you imagine the GOP putting a presidential candidate in a debate with Joe, someone under 62, who stands on the stage with energy and awareness? The Democratic Party cannot afford Joe.

Turning to Iraq, Pesha Magid (COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW) reports:

On June 13, 2022, Suadad al-Salhy, a senior reporter for Middle East Eye in Iraq and a former correspondent for Reuters, checked her phone to find that three people had texted her a screenshot of a post on the social network Telegram. The post, on a channel run by a government-affiliated Iraqi paramilitary group, asked followers whether they were aware that Salhy’s sister was an opposition politician. It included images of the two women.

Salhy is Iraqi, and in 2004 covered the Battle of Fallujah and the American invasion. She is not easily frightened. But as Iraq changed in the years since, paramilitaries have taken prominent roles in the country’s economy, security, and government and operate with practical impunity. Since the end of 2019, paramilitaries are suspected to have been behind at least thirty-six assassinations, with activists and journalists as their primary targets. In November 2021, they went as far as to conduct a drone attack on Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi, an assassination attempt that was widely seen as retaliation for his attempts to bring a paramilitary “death squad” to justice.

Social media attacks can serve as a precursor. In May 2020 Hisham al-Hashimi, a renowned analyst of paramilitaries and terrorism, saw an uptick in posts targeting him. Just weeks later, on June 9, 2020, he was shot by two gunmen on the back of a motorcycle as he returned home.

Salhy’s sister is in fact a politician, and the two had kept their being related a secret to protect each other. Salhy did not want her sister to become a target because of what she had written; nor did she want her work to be associated with her sister’s political positions. Now the paramilitaries were letting them know that their relationship was not only understood but monitored. “It was just telling me they can reach me,” Salhy said. “And if they cannot reach me, they can reach my family.”

Iraq remains a war zone and no one has paid for their role in harming that country. Instead, they get away with it. They don't even have to answer questions as the Tweet below demonstrates.

Let's close with BROS.