The Daily Jot: 2019-10-27

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

CRANKY CLINTON WOULD LIKE TO JUMP IN THE RACE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S PRESIDENTIAL NOMINTION.

AND IT'S MORE THAN CONCERN FOR LANDING ON HER WEAK CANCKLES THAT HAS HER HOLDING OFF. DICK MORRIS SAYS THAT SHE'S WAITING FOR JOE BIDEN TO DROP OUT AND THEN SHE'LL RUN.

OH, AND HE ALSO SAYS CRANKY CLINTON BELIEVES GOD WANTS HER TO BE PRESIDENT.

''I DO!'' SQUEALED AGING HAGTRESS ALYSSA MILANO. "I'LL BE THE MARY MAGADELINE TO HER JESUS. I'LL BATHE HER FEET, CANKLES AND ALL! I'LL EVEN COME UP WITH HER CAMPAIGN SLOGAN: GOD MADE HER DO IT!"

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Of the protests, FORT RUSS NEWS claims:

A leading Lebanese newspaper revealed the role played by the US embassy in the October protest rallies in Iraq which turned violent. The Arabic-language al-Akhbar paper wrote on Saturday that it has gained access to a security document that shows the US mission’s role in organizing a secret formation to add fuel to the flames of unrest in Iraq last month.

According to the newspaper, the US embassy has formed a high committee of protests, which coordinated field activities during the protests and the embassy provided it with intelligence and a number of politicians and government workers supported it.

A psychological operations team to guide the media and spread rumors, an electronic mobilization team to lead people through social media, a team, trained in Erbil and Amman, to report on the security services’ mistakes and produce fake news on the protests, a team to exert international pressures on the Iraqi government, to organize protests in front of Iraq’s embassies in foreign states, a team for releasing reports about the protest rallies in cooperation with different media outlets, an IT team to resolve problems related to filtering of the internet and social media, a medical team stationed near the protestors and hospitals to help the wounded and a team to provide logistical support, including food, water and preliminary aid, to the protestors were also formed by the US embassy’s secret committee to foment unrests in Iraq, al-Akhbar added.

For background on FORT RUSS NEWS, go to SOURCE WATCH. Despite their questionable ties, they could be right. Anything is possible. However, it doesn't really pass the common sense test. If the US government was orchestrating these protests in Iraq -- even just encouraging them -- their would have been immediate press coverage in the US. But these protests have not gotten a great deal of traction in the US. For example, 60 MINUTES covered Joe Biden Sunday, not the Iraq protests. The US government is very good at getting the press to cover what it wants covered. So if this claim were accurate, we should have been seeing this promoted non-stop the way the Hong Kong protests (or 'protests') have been.

We're not going to play gatekeeper and pretend that this belief is not out there (that the US government is pulling the strings) but we're also not going to toss common sense out the window and pretend like this is what is happening. It's possible, many things are possible, but it seems unlikely.

An editorial at GULF NEWS notes:

The repression of antigovernment protests in Iraq is an indication of how bankrupt the government has become. While the Iraqi people are starving and desperate for change, taking to the streets to demand the resignation of the government whom they see as ineffective, the government has done practically nothing to address their concerns.

Instead of listening, they have responded with violence — an indication that dissent will not be tolerated in the supposed democracy. Freedom of speech and expression should be a staple of any functioning democracy.

The editorial goes on to falsely claim that women appeared at the Baghdad protests, for the first time, on Saturday. That's how AP damages everyone when they misreport (see Sunday's "AP strips women out of the coverage yet again"). They have pushed that claim, AP has, and now it is infecting other outlets.

Nabil Salah (THE NEW ARAB) reported of Friday's Baghdad protests:

Neither the downpours of live ammunition, excessive – and crippling – deployment of tear gas canisters nor on-the-loose snipers could break the spirit of young Iraqis as they resumed their uprising on October 25 against a regime that has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the masses.

Men, women and even children from all walks of life have marched to Baghdad’s Tahrir square since the early hours of the morning.

How is that confusing? It's confusing -- don't know why -- to the ASSOCIATED PRESS.

Friday, on PRI's THE WORLD, Marco Werman spoke with Sinan Antoon (ALJAZEERA) about the protests and Sinan noted men and women -- and women -- were taking part. That was Friday. Women did not suddenly begin participating on Saturday, it's just that AP refused to note them until Saturday.