The NY Times headline: "For Immigrants Watching a Mob Storm the Capitol, a Sense of Shock and Shame"
"A little more than five years ago, Ahmad Shah Srosh was standing alongside the US soldiers who had come to his country, helping them promote democracy to his fellow Afghans. ... Mr. Shrosh saw in the United States an example of the reward that awaited when true democracy took root. 'Every country follows the democracy of the United States,' Mr Srosh said from his home in Houston. ...
Carla Miranda, 34, a lawyer fled Venezuela in 2013 after receiving death threats for representing people in opposition to the former strongman Hugo Chavez. 'All these things that happened yesterday brought back bad memories,' she said of the voters who invaded the Capitol."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/immigrants-capitol-riot.html
-->Where does one start on this propaganda piece? US soldiers didn't come to Afghanistan to "promote democracy." No one but a NYT journalist on the Pentagon payroll could ever think that. There were many reasons, but spreading democracy was not one of them. Poor Carla has been similarly deceived. Chavez was a duly elected president of Venezuela, not a strongman. And those rioters in the street were part of a US coupe to overthrew his valid election. The US has been trying to get rid of elected presidents of that country for years, and it has nothing to do with democracy. What propaganda our "newspaper of record" dishes out to its readers. Shameful, really.
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Common Dreams:
"'A Profoundly Troubling Pick': Progressives Slam Biden Choice of Gov. Raimondo for Commerce Chief. 'Raimondo has a history of supporting cuts to public assistance programs, selling public pensions to Wall Street, undermining labor unions, and grossly mishandling Rhode Island's Covid-19 response.'
'Raimondo, a former venture capitalist, is the wrong pick—and the American public agrees,' the Revoling Door Project—a group that's urged Biden to reject corporate-aligned Cabinet selections—said in a statement. 'According to November polling, nearly 70% of respondents oppose President-elect Biden appointing Raimondo to any Cabinet position.'
Raimondo, a charter school advocate who backed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the Democratic presidential primary—had previously been under consideration to be Biden's Department of Health and Human Services chief but withdrew her name from consideration last month amid grounded accusations her 'record on health is a total disaster.'
-->Where some progressives see a "total disaster," the NYT sees a "rising star in the Democratic Party," who "cut taxes and eliminated regulations to support businesses." The NYT did give a nod to some critics of Gov. Raimondo's candidacy, but the overall writeup ignored much of her neoliberal track record. In fact, the NYT often pretends that there is no split between the corporate hacks in the party and its relatively tiny progressive wing.
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The Intercept:
"How Israel attacks drove Raphael Warnock into the arms of a centrist pro-Israel group. Democratic Majority for Israel’s endorsement of Warnock — and Warnock’s embrace of it — was a step backward for progressives. ...
Republicans homed in on the reverend’s past remarks condemning Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians. Following a news report that resurfaced old comments, his opponent in the January 5 runoff, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, began running attack ads. One focused on a 2018 sermon in which Warnock condemned Israel for directing fire at unarmed Palestinian protesters near Israel’s separation fence with the occupied Gaza Strip.
In response, Warnock has come out in recent months as a staunch supporter of the U.S. relationship with Israel, distancing himself from past comments on the conflict."
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/01/warnock-israel-dmfi-senate/
-->Poor Warnock had to throw all his pro Palestinian rights under the bus to get the the Israel Lobby's endorsement. It was a shameful exercise of Zionist political power, especially over Black candidates. The NYT headline, however, read: "Raphael Warnock, From the Pulpit to Politics, Doesn’t Shy From ‘Uncomfortable’ Truths" It is like the power of the Israel Lobby was carefully stripped from the NYT story.
