Wednesday, April 02, 2025

The Guardian UK:
"Who is Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who broke the Signal leak scandal? Though exactly how Jeffrey Goldberg ended up on a Signal group chat to discuss what were meant to be secret plans to bomb Yemen remains a mystery, posterity may render it one of recent US history’s most serendipitous chance encounters.

Had the fates been conspiring to add a journalist to the forum whose presence would inflict the maximum discomfort to Trump and his circle, they could hardly have chosen a more fitting candidate. ... At the same time Goldberg is also widely criticized by some on the left of US media and politics for his views on Israel, his past record serving in the Israeli military and his hawkish views on Iran and his support for the US invasion of Iraq.

However, since becoming the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief in 2016, he has built a track record of unearthing stories that have managed to specifically get under Trump’s skin with the type of journalism loathed by the president’s 'Make America Great Again' (Maga) followers.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/who-is-jeffrey-goldberg-atlantic-signal-chat-leak

-->Again we have to go to the Guardian for the complete story. Goldberg served in the IDF and has been a consistent champion of the US wars in the Middle East. Since 2016, His journalism has upset some Maga followers. Why does the NYT leave all this out of its coverage?

=====

Common Dreams:
"Jewish Groups Denounce Latest 'Cynical' GOP Hearing Equating Criticism of Israel With Antisemitism. 'Israel is a nation state, not a Jewish person, said Rabbis for Cease-Fire. 'Criticism of Israel's genocidal assault is not equivalent to antisemitism.'

Following the Republican Party's latest hearing on antisemitism on college campuses—part of a campaign in which discrimination against Jewish people has been conflated with calls for Palestinian liberation and opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza—the rights organization Rabbis for Cease-Fire on Thursday said it rejected 'the basic premises' of the hearing.

The hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday, titled 'Antisemitic Disruptions on Campus: Ensuring Safe Learning Environments for All Students,' was part of an effort to 'instrumentalize concern for Jewish safety to shield Israel from accountability,' said the group.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/congress-antisemitism

-->The NYT did cover statements by Rabbis for Cease-Fire, but conveniently left out any mention of the group's warning about conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

=====

Mondoweiss:
"Colonial violence is on display from Gaza to U.S. universities

As global attention is drawn elsewhere, Israel has resumed its full-scale assault on Gaza. Tareq Hajjaj reports on the deepening catastrophe: water and electricity have once again been cut off to over 2 million Palestinians, plunging Gaza into darkness pierced only by the flash of Israeli bombs. On the ground, Palestinians face a grim ultimatum: death or displacement. Chris Hedges describes it as the 'final stage of genocide'—a campaign of total erasure.

This push is not just military. Qassam Muaddi unpacks Israel’s latest plan to facilitate the 'voluntary emigration' of Palestinians from Gaza—another euphemism for ethnic cleansing. The world must not be fooled by the language of bureaucracy.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces are intensifying violence, turning refugee camps into battlefields. Felix Nobes documents how even Palestinian sports, a source of pride and resistance, are being systematically dismantled."
https://newsletters.mondoweiss.net/emails/webview/59730/150219247528707703

-->Mondoweiss coverage of Palestine is an example of how a free press should operate. The NYT coverage is the exact opposite. The paper offers readers pages on Ukraine, but disturbingly little on the hunger and slaughter going on in Gaza as well as the West Bank. Soon, we will see the broken bodies of Palestinians being starved to death. They are the same pictures that came to us from Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau. They are America's shame, and its no wonder that the NYT would try to divert our attention.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

The New York Times:
"Serving Sushi Amid Artillery Strikes in a Frontline Town."

-->This is on page 4, after the IDF has spent the weekend slaughtering hundreds of civilians in a calculated assault to continue the genocide. But the sushi story is about Ukraine. So is the next story about Ukraine's nuclear power plants. And the next: "Ukraine Attacks Air Base, home to Russian Bombers." And the next: "Russia's Public its War-Weary, But Still Wary of Concessions." Then we go to a story about egg prices in Hungary. Next story is about Syrians who were wanted by the Assad Regime. And the next is about Iran releasing a French Citizen. This is followed by a story of Trump saying he will annihilate the Houthis. Only then is the absolute slaughter of two million Palestinians described to readers of our "Newspaper of Record."

And the title of this story is pure Israeli propaganda: "Hamas Fires Rockets at Tel Aviv." In the minds of the scripted NYT reporters, Palestinians always start the bloodshed and the IDF always responds. Sadly, the NYT is still talking about the "a full scale war," and not of an internationally recognize genocide of he Palestinian People. Then we get the description of an aerial bombardment and an IDF statement that the attack "had targeted Hamas." Nine paragraphs in, we find out that 500 people were killed "including scores of children." But it is not really scores of children butchered by this new assault, it is hundreds.

-->The NYT will own the genocide of the Palestinian people, just like the United States will. The newspaper has been exposed again and again for its pro Israel bias. But like the IDF, the NYT is shameless and purposely ignorant.

=====

Jacobin:
"President Donald Trump’s environmental regulators are advancing a proposal to block states from warning consumers about herbicides and other agricultural products in their food, according to federal documents reviewed by the Lever. Among the substances that could now go undisclosed is a widely used chemical that some studies have linked to cancer and that Trump’s own health secretary has called a 'poison.'

Last month, Trump issued an executive order mandating agencies 'fully address the growing health crisis in America.' But the initiative from Republican attorneys general — which would usurp state labeling authority — is now being moved forward by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The measure would declare that any label citing scientific findings not acknowledged by Trump’s EPA would 'constitute misbranding.' "

-->Where is the NYT story on Trump's hiding cancer warnings on agricultural products? Our newspaper of record has had a long standing love affair with Roundup, owned now by one of the largest chemical companies in the world.
https://jacobin.com/2025/03/trump-epa-pesticides-regulations-health

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Common Dreams:
" 'Columbia's capitulation to fascist government intervention is so severe when you really look at the details,' wrote an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Columbia University received a wave of criticism on Friday after it agreed to a number of demands from the Trump administration as part of negotiations over $400 million in federal grants and contracts that the Trump administration had pulled due to the school's alleged 'inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.'

The school agreed to a ban on masks and to appoint a senior vice provost with broad power to oversee both the department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies and the school's Center for Palestine Studies, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Also, Columbia has hired over 30 'special officers' who will have the ability to remove individuals from campus and arrest them, per the memo from the school announcing the update.

On Friday evening, writer Ross Barkan wrote on X, 'I confess I don't get Columbia folding. Don't they have an endowment worth many billions? Very rich alumni? Alumni who hate Trump? They could do a massive resistance fundraiser to make up for lost federal dollars. Very odd and very weak.'" Others echoed this sentiment."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-columbia-demands

-->Where is the NYT on this story? The newspaper did have an editorial entitled: "The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump." But no mention of Columbia in the article! Has the NYT buckled just like Columbia University?

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Common Dreams:
"Far-Right Group Sent List of Palestine Defenders to Trump Officials for Deportation. Betar, the international far-right pro-Israel group that took credit for the Department of Homeland Security's arrest of former Columbia University graduate student and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil for protesting the annihilation of Gaza, 
 
claimed this week that it has sent 'thousands of names' of Palestine defenders to Trump administration officials for possible deportation. ...
Earlier this week, Betar said: 'We told you we have been working on deportations and will continue to do so. Expect naturalized citizens to start being picked up within the month. You heard it here first. Those who support jihad and intifada and originate in terrorist states will be sent back to those lands.'
 
Betar isn't alone in aggressively targeting Palestine defenders. The group Canary Mission—which said it is 'delighted' about Khalil's 'deserved consequences'—publishes an online database containing personal information about people it deems antisemitic, and this week released a video naming five other international students it says are 'linked to campus extremism at Columbia.' "
 
-->These rightwing hate groups operate freely in the US, despite their funding by a foreign country. In fact, bogus antisemitic charges are the new McCarthy Era. Leave it to the NYT to leave this story about Betar out. 
 
=====
 
Common Dreams:
"Report Exposes Musk Operatives Who Have Infiltrated Social Security Agency. ... Despite his pledge of 'maximum transparency,' Elon Musk has gone to great lengths to obscure the names and activities of staffers working for his Department of Government Efficiency—even claiming at one point that it is illegal to publicly identify members of the advisory commission.
 
That didn't stop Wired from publishing a story on Thursday that names 10 DOGE operatives who have infiltrated the Social Security Administration, which is facing deep staffing cuts that advocates warn could impact the delivery of benefits. ...
 
'This team appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any government agency,' the outlet noted. 'Many of them have worked or interned at Musk companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, and the majority of them have also appeared at other government agencies in recent weeks, as part of DOGE's incursion into the government.' "
 
-->Another failure of the NYT. It didn't report these infiltrations of the Social Security Agency. Our newspaper of record has always wanted the Wall Street takeover of this most important of social programs. This despite the fact that workers have paid into Social Security for decades.
 
===== 
 
Common Dreams:
"10,000+ Turn Out in Warren, Michigan to 'Fight Oligarchy' With Bernie Sanders. 
 
'We will not accept oligarchy, we will not accept authoritarianism, we will not accept kleptocracy,' the democratic socialist senator said. 'We're gonna fight back, and we're gonna win.'
 
The Democratic Party may have twice stymied Sen. Bernie Sanders' White House ambitions, but the National Tour to Fight Oligarchy launched last month by the democratic socialist has been drawing crowds that would be the envy of any presidential campaign. 
 
On Saturday, more than 10,000 people turned out to see Sanders (I-Vt.) speak in Warren, Michigan. Not only did they pack the main event space—the gymnasium at Lincoln High School—literally to the rafters, they filled two overflow rooms, with hundreds turned away outside, according to Michigan Advance."
 
-->The NYT has omitted coverage of Bernie for years. He would have been president now if it weren't for the neoliberal, pro Wall St. NYT.


Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Guardian UK:
"The US state department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior state department officials.

Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for months amid Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’s October 2023 attack.

The AI-fueled 'catch and revoke' effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, Axios reported. Officials will also check news reports of previous demonstrations against Israel’s policies and Jewish students’ lawsuits highlighting foreign nationals allegedly engaging in antisemitism."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/foreign-student-visas-pro-palestinian-ai

-->The Times of Israel reported this story too, but not the NYT. Was it because using AI to turn in students seems too much like the dystopia that we in "the land of the free" are now facing?

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Mondoweiss:
"On Tuesday, voters across the state of Vermont passed a number of non-binding resolutions declaring their towns and cities 'apartheid-free communities.'

The effort, organized by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), passed in Brattleboro, Winooski, Newfane, Plainfield, and Thetford. The question appeared on nine ballots on Town Meeting Day. Vermont is the first state in the country where municipalities have voted to cut economic ties with Israel.

The pledge affirms a commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people, opposes all forms of bigotry, and pledges toward ending 'support to Israel’s Apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.' The language on the ballot measure comes from the Apartheid-Free Communities initiative, which is backed by a global network of almost 500 congregations, businesses, and Palestine solidarity organizations."
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/03/vermont-towns-vote-to-cut-ties-with-israeli-apartheid/

-->The NYT didn't cover this interesting story. Maybe the story was judged to have used some of the NYT's forbidden words, like occupation or genocide.

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CAIR:
"The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) recently released a new report analyzing the deterioration of students’ First Amendment rights on college campuses across California.

'The Erosion of Free Speech on California’s Campuses' examines the history of student movements in the U.S. and how they paved the way for recent pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. It also highlights the growing restrictions imposed by government and university officials in an effort to crack down on protected speech.

Key findings from the report show that colleges and universities selectively enforce free speech policies and time, place, and manner (TPM) regulations to censor pro-Palestinian activism on campuses. TPM regulations include limiting noise levels, restricting signs on government property, or dictating protest times. At several universities across California, TPM restrictions were unequally enforced during student protests, and the degree of university or law enforcement intervention varied depending on the racial identity of the protesters."  
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-ca-releases-new-report-examining-the-suppression-of-students-first-amendment-rights-on-college-campuses/

-->The NYT ran a story entitled: "New Training and Tougher Rules: How Colleges Are Trying to Tame Gaza Protest." But nothing was printed about how unevenly these guidelines are being applied, or how Islamophobic they really are.

SONG: Buffy Sainte-Marie, Running for the Drum ... America the Beautiful 3:01)

Monday, March 10, 2025

Haaretz:
" 'Major Step to Full Sovereignty': Bill to Annex West Bank Settlements Near Jerusalem Set to Pass. The bill proposes the creation of 'metropolitan Jerusalem,' which would incorporate nearby West Bank settlements, fully annexing them to Israel. According to the bill's explanatory notes, 'The law will restore it as the heart of the Jewish people.'

The bill says that 'The law, jurisdiction and administration of [Israel] will apply to the territory of the Jerusalem Metropolitan Area.' It also prescribes that Jerusalem's mayor will be the metropolitan area leader and that the heads of the local settlements will be the directors of the various municipal authorities.

But Illouz [author of the bill] added that the bill has a larger underlying principle: enacting Israeli sovereignty over the entire West Bank. 'Israel has to act according to its interests and without fear. This law is a major step towards full sovereignty [of the West Bank].' "
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-02-28/ty-article/.premium/step-to-full-sovereignty-law-to-annex-west-bank-settlements-near-jerusalem-set-to-pass/00000195-4c3f-d79a-abfd-fdff5ab10000

-->Why didn't the NYT print this story? Doesn't it illustrate the extent of the planned ethnic cleansing of the whole West Bank? Maybe that is something that the NYT isn't ready to tell its readers.

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The Guardian UK:
"A US-based nonprofit organization has urged the international criminal court to investigate former president Joe Biden and two of his cabinet members for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The request, submitted by the Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) last month but made public by the group on Monday, urges the ICC to investigate Biden, as well as former secretary of state Antony Blinken and former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, for their 'accessorial roles in aiding and abetting, as well as intentionally contributing to, Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza'. ...

One passage from the submission alleges that 'by continuously and unconditionally providing political support and military support to Israel while being fully aware of the specific crimes committed by Netanyahu, Gallant, and their subordinates, President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Austin contributed intentionally to the commission of those crimes while at least knowing the intention of the group to commit the Israeli crimes, if not aiming at furthering such criminal activity'. "
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/icc-biden-gaza-war

-->Finally an admission of the war crimes committed by Biden and Blinken. Except the story was printed in the UK's Guardian, and not the NYT? Why is The Guardian so much better at informing the American people?

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Z Network:
"Journalists working at Britain’s most prestigious newspapers and TV channels have expressed concern at pro-Israel bias inside their organisations. Speaking exclusively to Declassified, half a dozen current and former staff at the BBC, Sky, ITN, the Guardian and the Times have disclosed the extent of anti-Palestinian prejudice in their newsrooms.

All of the journalists requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisals. Despite working for a range of outlets from across the political spectrum, they painted a consistent picture of the obstacles faced by reporters who want to humanise Palestinians or scrutinise Israeli government narratives. ...

One journalist at Sky News suggested there are a whole set of unwritten journalistic rules that apply exclusively to Israel. 'It’s a continuous battle to report the truth,' they said. 'We would see the raw footage being sent to us from Gaza – we’re all well aware of the carnage. Yet you can’t describe what your eyes are seeing.' "
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/battle-for-the-truth-pro-israel-bias-inside-uk-newsrooms-revealed/

-->Yes, the media of England and the US routinely suppress stories critical of Israeli war crimes. In some future world, the media in both countries will be charged with aiding and abetting the genocide being committed every day

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Common Dreams:
" 'Unconscionable' for EU to Roll Out Red Carpet for Israeli Foreign Minister, Says Amnesty. 'Discussions on the E.U.'s future relationship with Israel should above all be premised on an insistence that Netanyahu and Gallant face justice at the ICC for the crimes they are alleged to have committed.'

Amnesty International is calling out the European Union for planning to welcome Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar to Belgium next Monday even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant face arrest warrants for Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The human rights group joined historians, political leaders, and United Nations experts in condemning Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide in December—just two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/gideon-saar

-->Where is the NYT when it comes to reporting on criticisms of the EU for its allegiance to Israel? In fact, The NYT often hides the strength of the Israel Lobby, both here and in the EU.

=====          

Common Dreams:
"After addressing more than 3,400 Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, Iowa residents that 'Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway.'

'For better or worse, that is not going to happen,' said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the working class Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas.

'It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to authoritarianism, no to kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that low-income and working Americans desperately need, no to huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country,' said Sanders."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-donald-trump

-->The NYT carried this story, but from a very different perspective. Bernie's first quote is 'I am 83 years old. I do not think I’m going to be running for president [in 2028]." The graphic used in the Common Dreams story is of thousands of people crowding into an enormous room, waving their arms in support. The NYT? A picture of Bernie alone in a row of tall shrubbery, with his head pointed down. For social change is the last thing our newspaper of record ever wants, even when faced with a real fascist takeover.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/us/politics/bernie-sanders-iowa-trump.html

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Intercept:
"Larry Ellison has been at Donald Trump’s side since he took office last month. The man Trump referred to as 'one of the most serious players in the world' was front row at the inauguration, and then watched as the president signed an executive order on artificial intelligence — a major business interest for tech giant Oracle.

And Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire co-founder, was sitting next to Rupert Murdoch in early February when Trump created a fund to facilitate the purchase of TikTok. His presence was no accident.

Last month, after the Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok, Oracle emerged as a leader in the race to take control of the Chinese-owned short-form video platform. While the campaign against TikTok was led by China hawks in Washington, it was the ire of pro-Israel activists that perhaps best explains why Oracle is such a natural choice to take over the social media app."
https://theintercept.com/2025/02/18/oracle-tiktok-israel-palestine-gaza/

-->The NYT didn't think this story was newsworthy. Was it the strength of the pro-Israel Lobby that moved Larry Ellison and Trump? Put down that capitalist rag and read the Intercept!

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Aljazeera:
"The Israeli military forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to act as a human shield in Gaza by tying an explosive cord around his neck and threatening to have his head blown off, an investigation by the Israeli outlet The Hottest Place in Hell has found.

A senior officer from the army’s Nahal Brigade tied the explosive cord around the man’s neck before he was ordered to scout houses. After eight hours, soldiers ordered the man to flee with his wife from their home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood in May, said +972 magazine, which reported the piece. ...

The man was forced to act as a human shield for eight hours, before he was ordered, along with his wife, to walk towards the so-called 'humanitarian zone' in southern Gaza. But the soldiers did not care to tell nearby Israeli divisions that the couple was going to pass through the area, according to the testimonies. ... [W]hen another Israeli battalion spotted the elderly couple on the street, they were shot dead on the spot, according to Israeli soldiers present at the scene."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/16/israeli-soldiers-used-80-year-old-palestinian-as-gaza-human-shield-report

-->The utter depravity of the IDF comes through when stories like this are reported. But you won't find these stories from our mainstream media, like the NYT. This is not a story that makes the Empire look very good.

=====          

The Times of India:
"Did the US government actively work to destabilize Bangladesh using taxpayer-funded programs? Former US State Department official Mike Benz has made explosive claims that USAID and affiliated organizations orchestrated efforts to undermine the Bangladeshi government in a bid to secure American strategic interests. [Was it] regime change for a military base?

Speaking about US foreign policy planning, Benz laid out a hypothetical—but eerily specific—scenario: 'Let’s say it is vital to US national interest to build a military base in Bangladesh to counter China, but the Bangladeshi Prime Minister refuses. Our foreign policy planners then decide that regime change is necessary.'

Benz explained that once such a decision is made, 'all options to destabilize the country' come into play. These range from backing opposition forces to orchestrating a color revolution, a reference to past US-backed uprisings where leaders have been ousted, sometimes fleeing in helicopters."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/how-usaid-was-used-for-regime-change-in-bangladesh-former-us-state-dept-official-mike-benz-reveals/articleshow/118118878.cms

-->Is USAID used for CIA undercover operations in the Third World? Of course it is, but the US media is so lockstep that you will never read about it in the US. Now that is some control of the media! A whole week of talking about the USAID, but nothing said about its role is supporting the Empire.

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Common Dreams:
"U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders urged Europeans on Saturday to 'stand tall against right-wing extremism' after the American vice president scolded the continent's leaders for not accommodating parties like the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany, which appears poised for a strong performance in the approaching general election.
 
'European friends: Do not accept lectures on democracy and freedom of speech from an administration that denies the 2020 election results and is now suing and intimidating news outlets whose reporting they don't like,' Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a social media post after U.S. Vice President JD Vance used his address at the Munich Security Conference to blast Germany's 'firewall' against Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD.

Vance's speech was praised by AfD leader Alice Weidel—with whom the vice president met on Friday—and U.S. President Donald Trump, who called his second-in-command's remarks 'very brilliant' as they sparked revulsion and open condemnation from European leaders."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-germany-far-right

-->Bernie Sanders, like Noam Chomsky, lives in perpetual censorship when it comes to the NYT. The best minds of our nation are are always kept from our corporate controlled media.