Mondoweiss:
"Employees often face certain restrictions on their freedom of speech. In the past year, retaliation against employees or future employees for expressions of solidarity with Palestine has repeatedly made headlines. Law firms have rescinded their offers to graduating students. Tech companies, including Google, have fired employees for organizing. Last year, Starbucks and its union sued each other over a disputed social media post by the union.

But the response of universities, with their long standing reputations of creating space for intellectual engagement and dissent, stands out. Faculty at Columbia and other universities have described a growing climate of academic suppression. And staff, like Clara, have fewer protections.

Clara [last name withheld] is one of many students and staff at universities across the United States who have been disciplined for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Her story shows that the crackdown on staff members extends to when staff is off the clock and reflects the uneven enforcement of murky speech policies by universities."
https://laborforpalestine.net/2024/12/10/universities-are-continuing-to-retaliate-against-staff-for-participating-in-gaza-campus-protests-mondoweiss/

-->This is a hidden crackdown. Few media sources will show the American public just how bad these violations of freedom of speech really are.

=====

Peoples Dispatch:
"Governments in Latin America have been at the forefront of opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and several of those which have done so suddenly face new threats, even including attempted coups. Adrienne Pine, a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, said during a recent webinar hosted by the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition that 'Anybody who stands with Palestine is going to be attacked in Latin America by the US and by Zionists.'

Recent events appear to show the truth of her remarks. Of the 165 countries that recognize Israel, only four have officially cut diplomatic ties with the country since it began its Gaza offensive, and all of them are Latin American: Bolivia, Belize, Colombia and Nicaragua (Venezuela severed its ties with Israel in 2009 while Cuba broke off relations during the Yom Kippur War of 1973). A further eight countries have withdrawn their diplomats from Tel Aviv since October 7, 2023, of which Chile, Brazil and Honduras are from Latin America.

This article looks at the experience of three governments in the region which have strongly opposed Isreal’s genocidal war—Nicaragua, Honduras, and Colombia. All are suffering attacks that appear to be either in direct retaliation for their actions or which suspiciously coincide with them. All three have progressive governments which have historic reasons for challenging Israel, adding to their condemnation of its recent actions."
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/11/12/latin-american-governments-pay-a-price-for-challenging-israels-genocidal-war/

-->Finding this story is difficult in the US media. Could it be that the US empire is still hiding its attacks on Latin America?

=====

Mondoweiss:
"After 16 years behind bars, Mufid Abdulqader, a member of the 'Holy Land Five' has been released from prison into a halfway house. The Palestinian American is slated to spend one year at the facility.

The case of the Holy Land 5 has become a symbol of the unconstitutional overreach associated with U.S. counterterrorism since 9/11. In 2009, five Palestinian-American Muslims received prison sentences as a result of their work with the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) charity. Prosecutors claimed that HLF funneled money to Hamas and charged the men with 'material support for terrorism,' as the United States has designated Hamas as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization.'

Abdulqader received a 20-year prison sentence. Mohammad el-Mezain and Abdulrahman Odeh were given 15 years. Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker, 65 years."
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/12/after-16-years-in-prison-holy-land-five-member-mufid-abdulqader-has-been-released/

-->Silence in the US press. Is it just shame about a story that most mainstream media refused to touch? Five innocent men sentenced, two for 65 years each. When it comes to Palestinians in the US, the "Land of the Free" offers few protections for the innocent.

Telesur:
"On Tuesday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez presented the 2025 Economic and Financial Budget Bill to the National Assembly (AN). The proposed budget amounts to $22.6 billion, with 77.7% of this total allocated to social investment.

'As we have stated and reaffirmed previously, this law was not drafted in an office. It was not prepared by the Ministry of Finance’s planning department. This is a law created with the people’s input. Over 100,000 assemblies defined the essential guidelines for formulating policies aimed at addressing the needs of Venezuelans,' the Bolivarian vice president stated. ...

'This will ensure that projects originating directly from the needs of the people, who are organized into communes and communal councils, are included in next year’s budget,' Rodriguez affirmed, highlighting that the budget proposal comes amid favorable expectations for her country’s economy."
https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-allocates-78-of-the-2025-budget-to-social-investment

-->What a completely democratic way for selecting how a country spends its money. Contrast this with who makes the empire's decisions, the billionaires, of course. The NYT never carries stories like this, of course. News about South America is mostly Pentagon propaganda.

=====

Drop Site News:
"First, they banded together to block investing in overly political, woke businesses. Now, a coalition of state officials across the U.S. is using its power to allocate state funds to a political cause it cares about: Israel.

Since 2020, states and municipalities across the country have amassed a portfolio of  $1.7 billion in Israel Bonds—securities sold by the state of Israel to 'strengthen every aspect of Israel's economy, enabling national infrastructure development.' Since October 7th, 2023, $580 million of state and municipal investments have been invested in Israeli bonds.

In some cases, the state treasurers and comptrollers that purchased Israeli bonds are the very same officials who pushed for laws in their states against investing in firms that embrace environmental social governance (ESG), or investments based, at least superficially, on diversity, climate change, or any other criteria they deem 'woke.' Their argument: If a firm makes politically motivated investment decisions in accordance with ESG, then the firm has compromised its fiduciary duty to be a good steward of dollars and maximize returns for investors."
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-bonds-biden-gaza-moodys

-->Of course, investing in Israel is one of the stupidest things that state officials could do. These investments have already cost tens of millions in loses for municipalities and retirement programs. Don't look to the NYT to point out how politicians are investing in Israel rather than doing what is best for their public funds.

=====

Common Dreams:
"Israeli Siege Leaves 130,000 Kids Trapped and at Risk of Starvation in Northern Gaza. 'With no food, no clean water, and constant fear, both my children have developed rashes, and my daughter is passing blood, but there is no medicine, no help, and absolutely nothing I can do,' said one mother trapped in the area.

An estimated 130,000 children under the age of 10 have been trapped in areas of northern Gaza almost entirely cut off from aid assistance, food and medical supplies for 50 days, a major humanitarian group said Monday."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/northern-gaza-hunger-israel

-->The Gaza genocide has full support of the US media. Occasionally stories are leaked through. But for the most part, the starving children are well hidden.

Common Dreams:
"More than 1,000 doctors and nurses are among at least 44,211 people killed in Israel's 13-month assault on the Gaza Strip, officials in the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave said Sunday.

'Over 310 other medical personnel were arrested, tortured, and executed in prisons,' Gaza's Government Media Office also said in a statement, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. 'The Israeli army also prevented the entry of medical supplies, health delegations, and hundreds of surgeons into Gaza.'

'Hospitals have been a declared target for the Israeli army, which bombed, besieged, and stormed them, killing doctors and nurses, injuring others after directly targeting them,' the office said. The statement came after the director of the main partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza was injured in an Israeli strike."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-has-killed-over-1000-doctors-and-nurses-in-gaza

-->Many news outlets in the rest of the world carried this story. But not the NYT or other major media in the empire. Does that make our media complicit in a genocide? Of course it does; it is such an important part in deceiving the American people.

=====

Mondoweiss:
"The Heritage Foundation got a lot of publicity during this election cycle for its infamous Project 2025. But that’s not the only project they intend to carry out now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House.

Project Esther is a new proposal from Heritage that claims to lay out a plan to combat antisemitism in the United States. In fact, it aims to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement as a first step in a crusade to, ultimately, restrict activism against American policy of all sorts, foreign and domestic. .

It’s not a new enterprise, of course. Disingenuous accusations of antisemitism have been weaponized by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel for a century or more but Project Esther means to unify and coordinate the cynical use of the fight against real antisemitism in order to completely destroy the movement for Palestinian rights.

But that is only its initial ambition. As the full plan makes clear, the people who produced this scheme see it as the key to devastating movements against both American imperialism abroad and white supremacy domestically."
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/11/inside-project-esther-the-right-wing-action-plan-to-take-down-the-palestine-movement/

-->Baby steps to a fascist state, where protesters are beaten and locked up. Can our country's democracy survive its military empire? This is obviously not something the NYT want to discuss. It didn't report this story.

=====

The Intercept:
"In 2002, President George W. Bush signed a bill into law that gave the U.S. president the power to invade the Netherlands — or anywhere else on earth — in order to liberate an American citizen or citizen of a U.S. ally being detained for war crimes at the International Criminal Court, based in the Dutch city of The Hague.

While no president has yet made good on this military threat, it serves as shorthand for the U.S. relationship to the international institution of justice. (President Joe Biden, then a senator, opposed the amendment authorizing a Hague invasion before ultimately voting for the bill.) 

The law was meant to fend off the specter of American troops standing trial for atrocities committed during the fledgling 'war on terror,' but the U.S. horror of The Hague has its roots in the longstanding policy of unconditional support for Israel.
That same year Bush and his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, withdrew the U.S. and Israeli signatures from the Rome Statute, the treaty that formed the ICC. U.S.-Israel opposition to any attempt by the court to hold Israel accountable for possible international law violations has been ironclad ever since."
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/21/icc-netanyahu-arrest-us-war-crimes/

-->The Intercept makes the NYT look like Pentagon propaganda. Where is this back story in our "newspaper of record"?