The Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department, Jalina Porter, on Friday condemned the Israeli government’s announcement that it would build 4,000 further housing units in the Palestinian West Bank, i.e., it would steal land owned by Palestinian families and bring in squatters from Israel to squat on that land.
The full lack of seriousness in the US government on this issue is obvious if we compare the steps Mr. Biden has taken to deal with the illegal Russian occupation of portions of Ukraine."
-->How rarely does our media ever point out this obvious double standard towards the illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing we witness in Palestine. Our major media likes to keep Israel's war crimes out of our attention, so that we can concentrate on reviving the new Cold War.
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Public Citizen:
"WASHINGTON, D.C. – This morning, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp, announced their quarterly profits. At a moment when consumers face historically high prices at the pump, Exxon doubled its profits to $5.5 billion. Chevron quadrupled its profits to $6.3 billion as compared to the same quarter in 2021.
In early April, Public Citizen, Friends of the Earth, and BailoutWatch reported that oil and gas companies have authorized spending a combined $45 billion for purchasing and retiring their own stock, directly enriching insiders and other shareholders.
In response to the windfall profits, Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement: 'With prices rising at the pump, Exxon, Chevron and Big Oil profits are soaring so high they don’t know what to do with all the money, so they are going to waste it on stock buybacks.'
'Consumers should not get punched in the face so that Big Oil can stuff its overflowing coffers. ... There’s a straightforward solution to windfall profits: a windfall profits tax. Congress should act immediately to adopt a windfall profits tax, as proposed by Sens. Whitehouse, Sanders and others, with the tax revenues returned directly to consumers. This shouldn’t be controversial and it shouldn’t be delayed.' "
-->Any discussion of a windfall profits tax at our "newspaper of record"? Nope. That bastion of pro corporate thought didn't even raise the question for its readers.
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Common Dreams:
"Investigation Shows Hundreds of US Cops Being Trained by Far-Right Extremists. Hundreds of cops across the United States have been taught by individuals who espouse far-right extremist views, according to a new investigation that was published Friday to sound the alarm on a burgeoning and unregulated private training industry.
Reuters identified five law enforcement trainers who have been hired by police and sheriffs' departments nationwide despite their support for right-wing militia groups, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters; the QAnon conspiracy, which baselessly claims that Democrats and Hollywood stars belong to a cabal of Satanist pedophiles and cannibals; and former President Donald Trump's 'Big Lie' that the 2020 election was stolen.
Some use bigoted instructional materials that promote racism, misogyny, and transphobia, and many endorse the constitutional sheriff philosophy, which maintains that county sheriffs should refuse to uphold any law they find unconstitutional."
-->This Reuters story wasn't carried by the major media in the US. Perhaps newspapers like the NYT, with close ties to Wall Street, don't want more scrutiny of the police. As long as establishment money is protected, why worry about what happens to protesters?
