http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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Guardian UK:
"A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month.
The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their 'complicity' through weapons sales and other military support in the attack that killed 160 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including about 35 children.
The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; the author Alice Walker; the US academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stéphane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights.
'Horrified at the latest round of Israeli aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip and conscious of the impunity that has enabled this new chapter in Israel's decades-old violations of international law and Palestinian rights, we believe there is an urgent need for international action towards a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo against Israel,' the letter says."
-->The NY Times has not covered this story yet (Nov. 28). We will see in the coming days if our newspaper of record can bring itself to report on this condemnation of Israel and call for a military embargo.
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FAIR:
"CBS turns to benefit-cutting bosses for 'fiscal cliff' commentary. The CBS Evening News has decided the best way to inform viewers about the impending 'fiscal cliff' is to let corporate CEOs affiliated with the Fix the Debt campaign recommend cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
On November 19, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was tapped for his apparent expertise in long-term budget forecasting. His message was simple: Benefit cuts are necessary. 'The entitlements, and what people think that they're going to get, because it's not going to--they're not going to get it,' he asserted."
...The following night, anchor Scott Pelley had a new expert: Honeywell CEO David Cote, who warned that the country's debt load meant that 'we've got to do something.'
...On November 21, CBS Evening News was still on the case. The experts this time were, as anchor Jeff Glor put it, 'two men who say they know how it should be done--if only Washington would listen.' The two are Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who co-chaired a 2011 White House debt commission. The chairs issued a report, based on drastically shrinking the federal government, that was championed by many in the press, but failed to be approved by the full commission. Both are co-founders of the corporate-backed 'Fix the Debt' campaign.
...That was followed on the broadcast by another segment with Goldman Sachs' Blankfein."
-->The mainstream media is pulling out all the stops to get Americans scared enough to give up Social Security and Medicare benefits so that the very rich and the corporations they own can pay even less taxes. This redistribution of wealth to the elite is supported by both parties and almost all the media. Working people are about to be robbed again.
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Common Dreams:
"Ten Numbers the Rich Would Like Fudged: 1. Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs. 2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us. 3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans. 4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession. 5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year. 6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit. 7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH. 8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD. 9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984. 10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks. Bonus for the super-rich: A QUADRILLION DOLLARS in securities trading nets ZERO sales tax revenue for the U.S."
-->When will The NY Times or any other newspaper report on this transfer of wealth to the super rich? Pieces of the puzzle are sometimes offered, but no news media wants to look at the entire picture of how the American people are being swindled by the billionaires, and what devastation this means for the rest of us.
