"THE DRIVE TO PERSUADE President Joe Biden to cancel student debt took a major hit last week when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stunned Congress with a surprise statement in opposition. The move may put her at odds with much of the public and the Democratic Party, but it aligns her with Democratic megadonors Steven and Mary Swig, the billionaire scions of the Bay Area’s oldest real estate dynasty who have deep ties to the California representative. Steven Swig has also long served as a treasurer for Pelosi in her fundraising efforts.
In November, after Biden’s election, and amid increased pressure to cancel student debt, the Swigs quietly circulated a memo among key Capitol Hill figures, making the dubious case that debt cancellation at the executive level is illegal. The argument in the memo gets much of its weight by virtue of the wealthy couple who produced it, as the Swigs are not just major funders of progressive nonprofits, but also have significantly bankrolled Pelosi and her House Democratic caucus.
The memo, obtained by The Intercept, was distributed to members of Congress by Freedom to Prosper, an organization founded by and for the Swigs. The couple has in the past directly lobbied Pelosi, according to two sources with knowledge of the meetings, in which the Swigs would suggest rhetoric or policy proposals that Pelosi would agree to adopt in some form."
-->This disgusting display of how billionaires control Democratic Party leadership was nowhere to be seen on the plages of the NYT, that disgusting corporate rag that always supports mainstream Democratic Party sellouts.
=====
The NYT:
"How a Star Times Reporter Got Paid by Government Agencies He Covered.
A pair of new books tell how William L. Laurence, a reporter for The New York Times known as ‘Atomic Bill,’ became an apologist for the American military and a serial defier of journalism’s mores.
Shortly after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves of the U.S. Army, who directed the making of the weapons, told Congress that succumbing to their radiation was 'a very pleasant way to die.' ... His aide in misinforming America was William L. Laurence, a science reporter for The New York Times. At the general’s invitation, the writer entered a maze of secret cities in Tennessee, Washington and New Mexico. His exclusive reports on the Manhattan Project, when released after the Hiroshima bombing, helped shape postwar opinion on the bomb and atomic energy.
Before the war, Mr. Laurence’s science reporting won him a Pulitzer. Working with and effectively for the War Department during the bomb project, he witnessed the test explosion of the world’s first nuclear device and flew on the Nagasaki bombing run. He won his second Pulitzer for his firsthand account of the atomic strike as well as subsequent articles on the bomb’s making and significance."
-->Only seventy years late, the NYT discovers that the Pentagon was paying off some of its prize winning journalists. Our newspaper of record didn't have much choice, as the revelations came out in two recently published books. How much of its current warmongering articles on Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua will eventually be traced back to Pentagon sponsors? We will know in about 2090.
=====
Common Dreams:
"Science Museum Just Killed Its 'Own Reputation,' Says Greta Thunberg After Docs Reveal Gag Clause With Shell. The London Science Museum is facing fresh criticism from climate campaigners following revelations that the institution signed a 'gagging clause' with Shell banning it from criticizing the oil giant as part of an exhibition sponsorship agreement.
Thunberg's tweet was in response to Channel 4 News' reporting on the contract for Shell's controversial sponsorship of the 'Our Future Planet' exhibition, which opened in May and includes carbon capture technologies. Those include ones 'Shell either has commercial interest in, researches, or actually operates,' Politico EU reported Friday. ...
'It essentially creates a 'chilling effect,' where museum staff must refrain from speaking openly about the reality of Shell's activities because it could be seen as damaging the company's goodwill or reputation.' "
-->Is there an aspect of our democracy that hasn't been compromised by the wealthy and their massive, polluting corporations? Readers of the NYT don't have to worry. The newspaper didn't cover this story.
