Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Common Dreams:
"Supporters of U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning are demanding she be released from solitary confinement, in which she has been held for 17 days since refusing to answer a grand jury's questions.

Chelsea Resists!, Manning's support committee, released a statement over the weekend denouncing her treatment and invoking the United Nations' own statements about the dangers and injustice of isolation in prisons. ...

Manning has been held in isolation for 22 hours per day, with one break from 1:00 to 3:00am. Her treatment qualifies as prolonged solitary confinement according to Juan Mendez, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture."

-->What solitary confinement? What torture? The NYT's coverage of Chelsea Manning's imprisonment is all about making the empire look good. That is, there is no coverage at all.

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Common Dreams:
"Rep. Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, came under fire from progressives Sunday night after he used his address at AIPAC's policy conference to attack left-wing members of his caucus and throw his full support behind a resolution condemning the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

'I stand with Israel, proudly and unapologetically,' said the Democrat from Maryland, whose remarks were immediately interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). 'So, when someone accuses American supporters of Israel of dual loyalty, I say: Accuse me. I am part of a large, bipartisan coalition in Congress supporting Israel. I tell Israel's detractors: Accuse us.' ...

Hoyer went on to express support for a bipartisan resolution condemning the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which was introduced by House Democrats last week."

-->The NYT always supports members of Congress who bow and scrape before AIPAC, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Our newspaper of record didn't print this story of senior Democrats and their obsequious ways around the Israel Lobby.

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The Guardian/Five Filters:
"The transparent motive behind this cynical campaign is to demonize Corbyn, not because he’s a 'f... anti-Semite,' but because he’s a principled champion of Palestinian rights.

Below, we've compiled a list of over one hundred Guardian articles to give you an idea of just how dedicated the paper has been in spreading these spurious charges of antisemitism.

According to Patrick Elliot, the Guardian was the first UK newspaper to publish a story with the words 'Corbyn' and 'antisemitism' in the same sentence. If you haven't already, it really is time to Dump the Guardian." - Norman Finklestien

-->Yes, the Guardian is much better than the NYT on many issues. It actually does investigative reporting on racism, corporate scandals, and white nationalist groups in the U.S. But on Venezuela, Cuba, and the right wing Israel Lobby if betrays its wealthy, neoliberal heritage. It hasn't come all that far from its steadfast support for Tony Blair.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Common Dreams:
"Human rights defenders expressed outrage on Friday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that the Trump administration is revoking or denying visas for any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel who try to investigate or prosecute U.S. officials or key allies for potential war crimes.

'This is an unprecedented attempt to skirt international accountability for well-documented war crimes that haunt our clients to this day.' —Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program

The move, Pompeo confirmed to reporters Friday morning, is a direct response to ongoing efforts by the ICC to probe allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity tied to the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan."

-->The Empire's publication was in no hurry to publish this story. We are still waiting.

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News stories for the last two weeks from the NYT:
-How Maduro Used Cuban Doctors to Coerce Venezuela Voters
-Venezuela Was Crumbling. A Blackout Tipped Parts of It Into Anarchy
-Polish Journalist Beaten by Venezuelan Police
-Darkness Lingers for Venezuela's Most Vulnerable
-Four Dead, Hundreds Detained After Venezuela Blackout
-Venezuela's Guaido to Open Up Oil Industry After Years of Nationalization
-Desperate Venezuelans Swarm Sewage Drains in Search of Water
-Ex-Venezuelan Vice President Accused of Aiding Drug Dealers
-How to Tackle Venezuela’s Military Problem
-Maduro ... uses humanitarian aid as a weapon against his own people

-->The NYT has been pushing the Pentagon's plan for regime change for the last several years. Is this the publication of the American Empire or not? 

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The Guardian UK"
"Pro-Israel lobbyists and donors spent more than $22m on lobbying and campaign contributions during the 2018 election cycle. The same or similar Israel-aligned groups and donors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent decades, and that money poured into American politics through a variety of channels, according to the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The CRP uses federal election records to track campaign finance spending and makes its data available on the OpenSecrets site.

The Guardian examined campaign finance data after Muslim Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar ignited a controversy with two tweets claiming pro-Israel lobby money influenced American political policy and discourse."

-->The NYT was filled with stories about Ilhan Omar’s "All about the Benjamins" statement. Yet this study of exactly how much money pro-Israel lobbyists and donors spent in the 2018 election cycle went unprinted.  

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

The Guardian UK:
"When the Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar claimed pro-Israel lobby money influenced American politics, in the way other powerful lobbying groups do, she ignited allegations of antisemitism and sparked a furious debate in her own party. But a look at House Democrats and 2020 presidential candidates’ responses to the resulting row seems to validate her claim.

House Democratic leaders who drafted a resolution initially aimed at condemning Omar’s remarks received millions from the pro-Israel lobby throughout their congressional careers. Congressman Eliot Engel, who accused Omar of using “a vile antisemitic slur”, has taken about $1.07m throughout his career, or about $107,000 per election. ...

Similarly, federal election records available on the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets website suggest a correlation between pro-Israel lobby campaign contributions and Democratic presidential candidates’ position on the controversy."

-->Only by going to a foreign newspaper can US citizens get an accurate view of how the Israel Lobby buys Congress. Turns out it IS all about the Benjamins.

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Common Dreams:
"Progressive Jewish Groups Thank Diverse Coalition That Mobilized to Thwart Democrats' Misguided Rebuke of Omar. ...

Progressive Jewish advocacy groups leading the grassroots mobilization in defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) celebrated late Wednesday after House Democratic leaders were forced to delay a resolution rebuking the congresswoman over her criticism of the Israeli lobby and government. ...

And Jewish Voice for Peace, which launched the #IStandWithIlhan hashtag with the help of a diverse coalition of allies, tweeted: 'This is how we win. Palestinian, Muslim, Jewish, Black solidarity.' "

-->The NYT wasn't so eager to acknowledge Jewish progressives who stood with Ilhan. No mention of the many progressive Jewish organizations that supported her and her honesty about the Israel Lobby. 

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Common Dreams:
"New research has tied high rates of hospitalizations for genital, skin, and urinary conditions to fracking in Pennsylvania, underscoring mounting concerns about the public health implications of the controversial process of extracting natural gas.

Alina Denham, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rochester, led a research team that analyzed county-level hospital data for the state from 2003 to 2014. Their findings indicated that 'long-term exposure to unconventional drilling may be harmful to population health.' ...

Past research has connected fracking with human health threats ranging from headaches to asthma to cancer. What distinguishes this team's findings is the conditions that prompted increased hospital stays, as well as those who were most commonly affected."

-->The NYT often omits studies that cast fracking in a bad light. It didn't print this new research.

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