Wednesday, May 01, 2019

Common Dreams:
"Vendors Leave Progressive Challenger's Primary Campaign Over 'Galling' DCCC Threat. The Democratic establishment is already taking steps to stop insurgent progressive challengers to the party's incumbents.

Marie Newman, who is challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) in the 2020 primary for the Illinois 3rd District, told Politico on Friday that a number of vendors have already dropped out of her campaign—the direct result of a rule put in place by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) banning consultants and other campaign mechanics from working with anyone running against a sitting Democrat. ...

As Common Dreams has reported, the battle between progressives and the DCCC over challenges to incumbents has raged for over a month, beginning in late March when the DCCC issued its new rules on vendors."

-->Somehow the NYT has remained ignorant of the DCCC's attempts to undermine progressive candidates. Keeping its readers in the dark is important in presenting the Democratic Party as a real political movement rather than a corporate run shell game. Think Hillary Clinton, Goldman Sachs' last candidate. 

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Common Dreams:
"Two American economists warn that U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela 'are a death sentence for tens of thousands of people' and that the nation's humanitarian crisis will worsen as long as the sanctions continue. Since August of 2017, President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions that 'have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017–2018,' write Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs. ...

'These sanctions would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the U.S. is a signatory,' the economists say. 'They are also illegal under international law and treaties which the U.S. has signed, and would appear to violate U.S. law as well.' "

-->What's a few war crimes to the NYT? Apparently very little, as our newspaper of record continues to beat the drums of war against Venezuela. It didn't cover this story.

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Common Dreams:
"Landmark' Victory for First Amendment as Court Strikes Down Texas Anti-BDS Law. Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist who lost her job due to the law, celebrated the ruling as 'a huge win not just for me, but for everybody here in Texas.'

In a decision hailed as a landmark victory for the First Amendment, a federal judge on Thursday struck down a Texas law requiring government contractors to sign a pledge vowing not to participate in the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.

'This is a complete victory of the First Amendment against Texas's attempts to suppress speech in support of Palestine,' said Gadeir Abbas, senior litigation attorney with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the organizations that sued Texas over the anti-BDS law."

-->Readers of the NYT are being kept from celebrating this victory. It didn't cover this story, probably because it makes the Israel Lobby look like a danger to the First Amendment rights of all Americans.