Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The New York Times:
"Childbirth in Venezuela, Where Women's Deaths Are a State Secret. We spent weeks following women inside the country's health care system, which has been crippled by a broken economy overseen by an increasingly authoritarian government."

-->Another long propaganda piece on Venezuela by The NYT. Only once in the entire article does it even mention the crippling blockade and sanctions imposed by the US. Maternity deaths are all supposedly the fault of "a broken economy overseen by an increasingly authoritarian government."

But let's compare Venezuela's maternity deaths to Haiti's, a country whose elected president has been overthrown twice by the CIA. A country completely in the grip of the US corporate interests, like Disney, Polo, J.C.Penney and Walmart. Venezuela had 125 deaths per 100,000 live births, but Haiti had 480. Why doesn't the NYT do a story on maternity deaths there?

Or a story about maternity deaths in the US, where Black women are "six times as likely to die of pregnancy related conditions as white women (ABC Eyewitness News story on Illinois Jan 30, 2020)? Why, that would put the number of Black maternity deaths in the US at much higher than the death rate in Venezuela. The deceit of our state run propaganda machine, our neoliberal NYT! 

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Code Pink:
"On Wednesday, April 7, 2020, the Jerusalem Post broke the story: "US Department of Defense gives 1 million [surgical] masks to IDF for coronavirus use." The shipment, which had arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport the night before, was also described on Twitter by Israeli army radio journalist Tsahi Dabush: 'Credit to US Department of Defense procurement delegates,' he wrote. 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has described over and over the shortage of medical equipment facing his state and the entire country. Nurses at many U.S. hospitals must stretch one disposable N95 respirator mask throughout an entire work shift — up to 12 hours — because there are simply not enough." 

-->Our mainstream media didn't cover this story. And Cuomo is not likely to object, having shown himself a greater friend to Israel than to his own NY State constituents even as thousands of New Yorkers die of COVID 19.

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Common Dreams:
"Climate advocates are slamming banking interests after a report Thursday revealed that JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup are planning to take over distressed oil and gas companies assets in the wake of an industry collapse, likely by using new access to federal bailout money included in the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress.

'It's never been more obvious that fossil fuels are a bad investment, and yet rather than following their supposed commitments to climate action, these big banks are doubling down on their toxic investments and getting directly into the fossil fuel business,' Sierra Club campaign representative Ben Cushing said in a statement. 

-->This bailout is going to be worse than in 2008, when the corporations and the very rich showered themselves with taxpayer dollars. 

Wednesday, April 08, 2020

The Intercept:
"While much of the world moved swiftly to lock down crucial medical supplies used to treat the coronavirus, the U.S. dithered, maintaining business as normal and allowing large shipments of American-made respirators and ventilators to be sold to foreign buyers.

The foreign shipments, detailed in dozens of government records, show exports to other hot spots where the pandemic has spread, including East Asia and Europe.

American hospitals around the country are now running low on all forms of personal protective gear, such as N95 masks or purified air personal respirators, for medical staff, as well as life-saving ventilators, which pump oxygenated air into the lungs, for patients.

-->The neoliberal thing to do when the pandemic is on the way: sell medical equipment to foreign countries to make profit. No mention of this in our neoliberal newspaper of record, the NYT.

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Common Dreams:
" 'How can it be that we spend 18% of our GDP on healthcare but still lack the beds, masks, ventilators, gowns, gloves, and test kits we need to adequately respond to this crisis?' asked Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Support for Medicare for All among U.S. voters has reached a nine-month high in a Morning Consult/Politico tracking poll as the deadly and ongoing coronavirus pandemic lays bare the horrors and systemic inefficiencies of America's profit-driven healthcare system.

The survey (pdf), released Wednesday, found that 55 percent of U.S. voters support Medicare for All, a nine-point jump since February. While support for Medicare for All is highest among Democratic voters at 75%, a majority of Independents—52%—also support the policy, along with 31% of Republicans."

-->The NYT is so busy with articles explaining how Bernie can't win, that it didn't cover this story. Has the NYT ever promoted universal healthcare? If not now when millions are at risk from a broken healthcare system, then when?

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B'Tselem:
"This morning, Thursday, 26 March 2020, at around 7:30 am, officials from Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank arrived with a military jeep escort, a bulldozer and two flatbed trucks with cranes at the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. They confiscated poles and sheeting that were meant to form eight tents, two for a field clinic, and four for emergency housing for residents evacuated from their homes, and two as makeshift mosques. ..."

As the whole world battles an unprecedented and paralyzing healthcare crisis, Israel’s military is devoting time and resources to harassing the most vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank, that Israel has attempted to drive out of the area for decades. Shutting down a first-aid community initiative during a health crisis is an especially cruel example of the regular abuse inflicted on these communities, and it goes against basic human and humanitarian principles during an emergency."

-->Did you really think that the NYT would cover this story? You haven't been reading https://FantasyLandMedia.org. 

Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Intercept:
"As the Coronavirus pandemic grips the United States, prosecutors, sheriffs, and public officials have raced to reduce the populations held in local jails, where it is next to impossible to protect elderly and otherwise vulnerable incarcerated people.

In New York, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is bucking this trend, pushing for a new law that would roll back newborn bail reforms that went into effect in January and instead expand judges’ power to put defendants in jail. Cuomo has backed this agenda for years, but his evident insistence on including it in the state’s budget negotiations amid a public health crisis is nonetheless remarkable. ...

For the advocates and legislators who helped pass New York’s landmark bail reforms last year, Cuomo’s drive to reverse those gains by slipping language into an under-scrutinized, must-pass disaster budget is the height of antidemocratic shock-doctrine misgovernment."

-->Although the NYT did an opinion piece about Cuomo rolling back bail reform, there was no news story. Our "newspaper of record" tends to side with prosecutors and police officers rather than victims of our criminal justice system.

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Common Dreams:

"The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges of international drug trafficking against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a move that was immediately denounced by progressives as a cynical Washington attempt to overthrow the Latin American leader as the coronavirus outbreak spreads around the world. 

In the midst of #COVID2019, the U.S. indicts VZ's Maduro & 14 other Venezuelan military & political leaders on 'narco-terrorism' charges and offers rewards for their capture. US sanctions continue causing misery and death in VZ. This is just another attempted coup against Maduro. ...

'I am old enough to have seen this one before,' said veteran media critic Peter Hart, making a likely reference to former Panamanian ruler and CIA asset Manuel Noriega, the last Latin American leader charged with drug trafficking, who the U.S overthrew in 1989."

-->There is no better example of how the NYT serves up Pentagon propaganda than its stories about Venezuela. Pages of undocumented charges, and a complete failure to fact check US government claims. Yes, it is just like the overthrow of so many Latin American democracies, all in the interest of US corporate profits. 

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Common Dreams:
"Oligarchs Are Running the White House: Trump Called Wall Street, Hedge Fund Titans Just Before 'Back to Work' Remarks. Trump and Pence are talking to private equity titans and hedge fund moguls instead of figuring out how to help healthcare workers get masks or workers to get wages or borrowers get debt relief.

President Donald Trump hosted a private conference call Tuesday morning with several billionaire Wall Street and hedge fund titans just hours before the president said he hopes to 'have the country opened up' and 'get people back to work' by Easter—even as the coronavirus pandemic worsens."

-->This is a good story about where Trump is getting his harebrained  ideas about handling the US pandemic. He may be watching Fox News, but his inner circle is made up of the very rich, and their agenda is to squeeze the last dollar from the working class. The NYT wants to demonize Trump, but protects the nation's oligarchs at every turn.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Intercept:
"In recent weeks, investment bankers have pressed health care companies on the front lines of fighting the novel coronavirus, including drug firms developing experimental treatments and medical supply firms, to consider ways that they can profit from the crisis.

The media has mostly focused on individuals who have taken advantage of the market for now-scarce medical and hygiene supplies to hoard masks and hand sanitizer and resell them at higher prices. But the largest voices in the health care industry stand to gain from billions of dollars in emergency spending on the pandemic, as do the bankers and investors who invest in health care companies.

Over the past few weeks, investment bankers have been candid on investor calls and during health care conferences about the opportunity to raise drug prices."

-->Oh yes, the long arm of neoliberal economic policies is going to kill more people during the corona pandemic. Well, at least a few filthy rich people will get even richer as the bodies pile up. This story was not covered in the NYT.
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Common Dreams:
"As the federal government develops strategies for how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak that has already significantly damaged the U.S. economy and killed over 100 Americans, a group of lawmakers are urging Congress approve the purchasing of 19 more F-35 fighters than the Pentagon requested as part of the battle against the disease, enraging progressives. ... 

Win Without War has issued a list of policy demands—laid out in a document titled 'U.S. Foreign Policy in the Face of the Coronavirus'—to help guide the government's handling of the crisis.

'The greatest security challenges of the 21st century—global inequality, climate change, pandemics—cannot be solved militarily,' the document declares. 'Years of funneling trillions of dollars into the Pentagon instead of investing in critical human needs have left us woefully unprepared to meet them.' "

-->Does our mainstream media ever link US spending on the military to the fact that public health is so grossly underfunded? Millions of Americans might die in the pandemic, but we will get 19 more F-35 fighters. 
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Common Dreams:
"A group of economists and policy experts on Wednesday called on President Donald Trump to immediately lift the United States' crippling sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries, warning that the economic warfare—in addition to being cruel in itself—is 'feeding the coronavirus epidemic' by hampering nations' capacity to respond.

'This policy is unconscionable and flagrantly against international law. It is imperative that the U.S. lift these immoral and illegal sanctions to enable Iran and Venezuela to confront the epidemic as effectively and rapidly as possible,' Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs said in a statement just hours after the Trump administration intensified sanctions against Iran, which has been devastated by COVID-19."

-->Does the mainstream media ever even look at the consequences of US economic sanctions against foreign countries? Blocking critical supplies just feeds the pandemic, but the NYT was not interested in this story.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Common Dreams:
" 'Grotesque Level of Greed': Owned by World's Richest Man Jeff Bezos, Whole Foods Wants Workers to Pay for Colleagues' Sick Leave During Coronavirus Pandemic.

When progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders say "now is the time for solidarity" amid the coronavirus outbreak, they likely do not mean that employees of Whole Foods—owned by the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos—should be asked to give their own accrued paid sick days to their co-workers who have either contracted the deadly virus or been forced to take time out of work because of what is now a global pandemic.

But that is exactly what executives with the grocery chain are asking its employers to do, even though Bezos' could effectively give them unlimited paid sick leave during the current national emergency without barely a scratch in his bank account."

-->The NYT doesn't dwell on the criminal element that runs most US corporations. This story never made it into print.

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Common Dreams:
"New Report Takes Aim at Five Banking Institutions Backing Amazon Rainforest Exploitation. 'Five of the world's most powerful financial institutions are actively contributing to climate change by providing debt and equity financing for crude oil extraction projects in the Amazon.'

A new report from the group Amazon Watch shows how five of the world's largest financial institutions are funding the exploitation of the Amazon Rainforest for oil—even as those firms claim to be on the side of mitigating the climate crisis. ..

The five banks—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock—"have made available tens of billions of dollars for oil companies operating in the Amazon, including GeoPark, Amerisur, Frontera, and Andes Petroleum," according to the report."

-->Criminal bankers also have a friend in the NYT and the major media. 

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The Onion:
"MANAUS, BRAZIL—Widespread human-caused fires that have decimated over 1,300 square miles of Amazon rainforest in the year 2019 alone revealed a small tribe of isolated rich sociopaths who are completely untouched by consequence, sources confirmed Tuesday. 

'As the impact of deforestation continues to grow, a team studying the area located a tiny society of wealthy agribusiness executives and financiers who have never before been visited by any ramifications for their actions,' said anthropologist Cameron Hunt, adding that researchers were working to assemble more information about this remote group of oppressors, but had managed to identify a few of them as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, AgroSB co-founder Daniel Dantas, and meat-processing magnate Joesley Batista as well as executives from JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, BlackRock, and State Street."

-->One small tribe the rest of us would be better off without. Mainstream media never makes these links. Leave it to The Onion.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

The New York Times:
-->Our great "newspaper of record" proves once again that it favors establishment sellouts to progressive reformers. The NYT March 6 front page screams about Soviet involvement with Bernie's campaign, and for proof dredges up a picture of him visiting a Russian village in 1988. He was involved in establishing a sister city with Burlington, but who cares. He is a COMMIE! 

Krugman is just as bad if you turn to the Opinion page. According to Krugman "Joe Biden is clearly in favor of progressive goals such as universal health coverage and reduced income inequality." Same as Burnie, but Biden will just get there a little slower. And yes, Krugman trots out that shopworn canard about the need for progressives to "hold his feet to the fire." 

So this is "news" and "opinion" in that most corporatized publication in the empire. Why is anyone still reading this propaganda?

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-->A funny thing happened on the way to International Women's Day in the United States. First, the coverage was terrible. The NYT only refers to the day in its Fashion Section with a story entitled: "Cartier to Celebrate Women at the Expo 2020 in Dubai."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/fashion/jewelry-watches-cartier-expo-2020-dubai-women.html?searchResultPosition=7

Forbes at least brought the Women's Day event closer to home in an article entitled: "International Women’s Day Shouldn’t Be A Thing." What should it be then? Why, we are told that the celebration should be about women entrepreneurs who have gotten to be leaders of investment firms and CEOs of major companies. 

The rest of the US media didn't cover this international event at all. There was Fox News' video of Melania Trump giving out "Women Courage Awards." The big winner was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. So much for what our corporate controlled media thinks of women's rights.

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FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting:
"The Washington Post really does not like populism. Yes, I’m talking about its news section, not its opinions pages, where populists are always bashed. This week, the Post (3/2/20) gave us a major piece telling us how Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are two sides of the same populist coin. While the piece is confused in many ways, the one point it makes very clearly is that the Washington Post really dislikes Bernie Sanders. ...

The establishment figures that the Post is unhappy the populists are rejecting are folks like former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, who could not see the $8 trillion housing bubble ($16 trillion relative to today’s economy), the collapse of which sank the US economy. They also reject people like Larry Summers, who likewise dismissed people who tried to warn of the bubble, and pushed a trade opening to China that cost millions of manufacturing workers their jobs. Those are facts, not problems of perception."

-->It is not the billionaires that progressives must overcome, but their biased media. There can be little change in our two party duopoly until the left creates a different narrative through its own print publications as well as radio and TV programs.   

Wednesday, March 04, 2020

Intercept:
"William Owen, a Tennessee-based Democratic National Committee member backing an effort to use so-called superdelegates to select the party’s presidential nominee — potentially subverting the candidate with the most voter support — is a Republican donor and health care lobbyist.

Owen, who runs a lobbying firm called Asset & Equity Corporations, donated to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and gave $8,500 to a joint fundraising committee designed to benefit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in 2019. ...

Owen, currently registered as lobbyist for Klox Technologies, a medical product company, was quoted in the New York Times today as one of the party insiders considering an effort to block Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s path to the nomination at the DNC convention in Milwaukee this July."

-->DNC committee members trying to block Sanders can be Republican healthcare lobbyists. Parties don't matter when they are both under corporate control. This story wasn't covered in the NYT. Thanks to Steve in Beacon, NY for sending this to us.

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Democracy Now, interview with attorney Jennifer Robinson
"What is important, though, is that what the court finally heard is the defense case. And a number of arguments were put forward by our team, including the Espionage Act. This is an unprecedented use of the Espionage Act against a publisher, which is, of course, a political offense and ought to be barred (under the terms of the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty). There should be — extradition should be barred on that basis.

We also heard evidence about the grave threat that this poses to press freedom, not just for journalists inside the United States, but for journalists everywhere around the world, because of the precedent this case sets, that the United States could seek to extradite and prosecute journalists and publishers from around the world for publishing truthful information about the United States.

We also heard evidence about how the United States’ indictment has misrepresented the facts, including making the false allegation that Julian Assange had recklessly and deliberately put lives at risk."

-->Why doesn't the NYT cover a story like this? Our "newspaper of record" is too busy demonizing Assange to please the National Security State.

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Mondoweiss:
"McCarthyism is again, astride the land, like a destroying Saturn.  As of this writing, left labor in England has been decimated through the ginned up, explicitly false claims of antisemitism with no end to the aftershocks from this.

If you’ve been paying attention, there is a British Labour party 'compliance unit for antisemitism' and it’s exactly as bad as it sounds. Based on the deeply flawed IHRA definition of antisemitism, this inquisitorial system actually is more akin to a Stalinist purge show trial than the already sufficiently odious McCarthy hearings.  This self-flagellating cleaning of the ranks has resulted in a wholesale purge of Labour members, most recently, 25 people expelled in a single day. ...

Often these people are, like Jo Bird, Jewish and  life-long left, anti-racist activists, which brings us to why I’m again discussing this here. The one certain takeaway, that is also germane in the US, is that the weaponization of antisemitism is, unambiguously, an attempt to stifle legitimate and needed criticism of Israel."

-->The NYT is too busy weaponizing charges of antisemitism in the US to spend time discussing the new McCarthyism.
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