SOCIAL ARMCHAIR WARRIOR AND FORMER ACTRESS ALYSSA MILANO IS PEEVED.
"FIRED FOR TAKING A DUMP!" SHE EXCLAIMED TO THESE REPORTERS.
NO, SHE WASN'T SPEAKING ABOUT HERSELF. SHE WAS SPEAKING OF THE HIGH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WHO HAS LEFT HIS JOB AFTER BEING CAUGHT REPEATEDLY DEFECATING ON A RIVAL SCHOOL'S TRACK.
"IT IS LIKE SCIENCE AND STUFF," HUFFED ALYSSA. "EVERYONE KNOWS WHEN YOU JIGGLE YOUR STOMACH BY RUNNING, YOUR INTESTINES LIKE RUSH THINGS TO YOUR HEART AND FROM THERE TO THE BOTTOM OF YOUR FEET AND THEN TO YOUR BOWELS. THAT'S BASIC SCIENCE! MY TUTOR TAUGHT ME THAT WHEN I WAS 16! THIS IS SO UNFAIR AND ANOTHER DONALD TRUMP ATTACK ON OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM!"
As July turns into August this week, it's worth noting that Iraq has still not formed a new government.
May 12th, Iraq held national elections. Ahead of the elections, there had been big hopes -- these hopes included a large turnout. Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) noted, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and prime minister." RUDAW added, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs." AFP explained that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women. THE SIASAT DAILY added, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers." Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reported, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37 million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi women has declined steadily since 2003. According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence and sanctions."
The other big hope? For the US government, the biggest hope was that Hayder al-Abadi's bloc would come in first so that he would have a second term as prime minister. It was not to be. Mustapha Karkouti (GULF NEWS) identifies the key issues as follows, "Like in previous elections, the main concerns of ordinary Iraqis continue to be the lack of security and the rampant corruption."
As we noted the day of the election:
Corruption is a key issue and it was not a topic explored by candidates outside of Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition. Empty lip service was offered. Hayder al-Abadi, current prime minister, had been offering empty lip service for four years. He did nothing. Iraqis were supposed to think that, for example, Hayder's focus on ISIS in Mosul mattered. All life was supposed to stop because of Mosul? All expectations were to be ignored because of Mosul?
Arabic social media today and yesterday was full of comments about the lack of improvement in services. It noted how the elections had not mattered before and, yes, how in 2010 the US government overturned the elections because they didn't like the outcome.
So it was probably only surprising to the US government and their press hacks that Hayder wouldn't come in first. But that was after the votes were counted. On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote. NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent." AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."
Elections held May 12th. August arrives this week but it comes in the door with no new government to welcome in Iraq yet.
Really? Is that what you're doing, Brett? Because that's not what others are saying. For example, MIDDLE EAST MONITOR quotes the outgoing Speaker of Parliament Salem al-Jubouri on the matter:
In remarks to the Anadolu Agency, Al-Jubouri’s adviser Abdul-Malik Al-Hosseini said: “The former parliament speaker met on Sunday in Baghdad with the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat [the Islamic State] and discussed the Iraqi parties’ efforts to form a new government and the importance of reaching a common vision among all political blocs.”
Al-Hosseini added that “the global coalition and the United States want the political blocs to accelerate resolving the issue of forming the new government in order to start dealing with the issues of stability and reconstruction.”
Brett, for those who have forgotten or never knew, was sent to Iraq by Barack Obama in the summer of 2010. Why was that? They'd held elections in March of 2010. And thug Nouri al-Maliki had lost but refused to step down. Instead of negotiating for Nouri to step aside, Brett oversaw the negotiations for The Erbil Agreement, the US contract that overturned the 2010 election results and gave Nouri a second term. Human rights monster Samantha Power, among others in the administration, insisted that Nouri -- despite his thuggish ways and secret prisons and jails where torture was taking place -- had to have a second term.
Is that what Brett's again working on? Overturning the votes of the Iraqi people?
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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