Thursday, September 17, 2020

 Haaretz:

"Netanyahu Used Doctored Video of Abbas to Influence Trump's Policy, Woodward Reveals. According to excerpts from 'Rage' published by U.S. media, at a time when Trump was wondering if Israel was the obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu showed him a fake video to steer him away from pro-Palestinian sentiments. ...


The incident occurred on May 22, 2017, at a time when Trump was beginning to have doubts about Netanyahu and wondering aloud if the Israeli prime minister might be the real obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, Woodward wrote, according to excerpts from the book published by U.S. media.


A day after watching the 'spliced-together' video intended to 'counter any pro-Palestinian sentiments that were surfacing,' Trump confronted Abbas, calling him a 'murderer' and 'liar,' and shortly after ordered the closure of the Palestinian representative office in Washington and cut nearly all U.S. aid to the West Bank, Gaza and Palestinian refugees."

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/netanyahu-used-doctored-video-of-abbas-to-influence-trump-s-policy-woodward-reveals-1.9149688


-->No mention of this extraordinary story in the NYT. All the news that Zionists  deem "fit to print."


=====


Common Dreams:

"As officials marked 9/11 vowing to 'hold terrorists accountable,' new evidence suggests last week's swift and secretive police killing of activist Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, sought in the shooting of a right-wing Patriot Prayer follower, was a summary execution, so we have to wonder - who are the terrorists today? 


After the shooting, a U.S. Marshals Service statement noted, 'Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers.' Now a witness - an ordained minister living in the same apartment building - says an unarmed Reinoehl was walking to his car, holding a cellphone and eating a gummy worm, when officers opened fire with 30 to 40 shots without first announcing themselves or trying to arrest him. ...


Reinoehl was killed in Lacey, WA. by four members of a federal fugitive task force after being identified to police by his sister. Officials said Reinoehl pulled a gun, but acknowledged they 'are not able to confirm at this time if he fired shots.' And two witnesses said they saw Reinoehl fire at police, who were not wearing body cams. But Nate Dinguss, a 39-year-old minister, said he saw two unmarked police cars converge on Reinoehl as he walked to his car; that the cops jumped out and began blasting rapid-fire rounds at Reinoehl, who ducked behind his car but never reached for anything; and that police waited 'multiple minutes' before offering medical aid to Reinoehl, who died at the scene."

https://www.commondreams.org/further/2020/09/10/nothing-see-here-just-attorney-general-condoning-extra-judicial-killings-save-us


-->Not much in the mainstream media about this summery execution by federal authorities. Was he armed? Was he guilty? Why 30 to 40 shots? Trumps tweeted comments were the most instructive: "Do your job, and do it fast! Everybody knows who this thug is." Later on Fox News, he was more explicit: “This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him. ... And I will tell you something, that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.” Is this still a democracy? Reinoehl's murder was in fact a Presidentially directed execution, without any judge or jury. America has officially begun its fascist period. 


=====


CounterPunch:

"To understand the depth of criminality involved in the US-NATO war on Libya, we must unravel a complex story involving actors from both the US and Europe who quite literally conspired to bring about this war, while simultaneously exposing the unconstitutional, imperial presidency as embodied by Mr. Hope and Change himself.


In doing so, a picture emerges that is strikingly at odds with the dominant narrative about good intentions and bad dictators. For although Gaddafi was presented as the villain par excellence in this story told by the Empire’s scribes in corporate media, it is in fact Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy, French philosopher-cum-neocolonial adventurist Bernard Henri-Levy, and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who are the real malevolent forces. It was they, not Gaddafi, who waged a blatantly illegal war on false pretenses and for their own aggrandizement. It was they, not Gaddafi, who conspired to plunge Libya into chaos and civil war from which it is yet to emerge. It was they who beat the war drums while proclaiming peace on earth and good will to men."

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/08/the-plot-against-libya/


-->The US media always comes up short when US war crimes are proven. Leave it to small publications like CounterPunch to show Americans the truth about their empire of perpetual war.


Thursday, September 10, 2020

 The Forward:

"More than half of all American states have passed laws designed to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. No advocacy group was more important to this push than the Israel Allies Foundation, an American non-profit that supports a network of pro-Israel legislators across the globe. ...


Public records obtained by The Forward show that the Israeli government approved a grant of more than $100,000 to the Israel Allies Foundation in 2019. The IAF has not disclosed this or any previous Israeli grants to the United States government, in possible violation of laws requiring American political advocacy groups to disclose foreign-government contributions. It is one of 11 American groups that received Israeli government funds, according to the documents, which show that the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and a quasi-governmental organization it created has given at least $6.6 million to U.S. organizations since 2018.


According to the Israeli documents, most of the grants to the American organizations were intended to send those groups’ members — and selected guests — on chartered trips to Israel. ... But documents also suggest that some of those trips included instructions for pro-Israel advocacy back home — in statehouses and on college campuses — which legal experts say may expose not just the recipient groups but also anyone who went on their trips to fines and even prosecution for violating disclosure rules."

https://forward.com/news/israel/453286/us-pro-israel-groups-failed-to-disclose-grants-from-israeli-government/


-->How many reams of pages has the NYT printed on Russia's influence in our government? No word on this story in our supposed "newspaper of record," which eagerly protects Israel's good name.


=====


FAIR:

"After the spectacle of a Democratic National Convention featuring more Republicans than Latinos, Americans got a Republican Convention featuring—to pick just one thing— gleeful violations of the Hatch Act. That’s the law that prohibits federal employees from taking part in partisan political activities. So, things like having the Secretary of State make a campaign speech from Jerusalem, where they’re engaged on state business, or the first lady stumping with the White House Rose Garden as backdrop, or the head of Homeland Security performing a naturalization ceremony, with Trump looking on, as part of the convention—all patently illegal and unethical.


But besides framing it as 'many Democrats were outraged,' as did USA Today (8/26/20), elite media normalized the behavior with passivity, like the New York Times headline (8/26/20), pointed out by Eric Boehlert in his newsletter Press Run (8/27/20), 'At RNC, Trump Uses Tools of Presidency in Aim to Broaden Appeal.' ” 


The same press corps for whom this is just 'oh there he goes, breaking with precedent again,' had a very different response, Boehlert reminds, when Al Gore was accused of violating the Hatch Act for making campaign fundraising phone calls from his White House office as vice president."

https://fair.org/home/press-normalizes-trumps-lawlessness-as-use-of-tools-of-presidency-to-broaden-appeal/


-->Major media treats rule breaking in the Trump administration as just anther unconventional use of presidential powers. I wonder if the NYT will have a different opinion when Trump overthrows our government? Another coup, sigh!


=====


Common Dreams:

"Full Frontal Attack on Rule of Law: Trump Sanctions Top ICC Officials Probing US War Crimes in Afghanistan. Human rights advocates blasted the move as 'another brazen attack against international justice' that 'is designed to do what this administration does best—bully and intimidate.'


Human rights advocates the world over condemned the Trump administration on Wednesday for imposing sanctions on two top officials at the International Criminal Court—just the latest act of retaliation for the Hague-based ICC's ongoing investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. forces and others in Afghanistan during the so-called War on Terror.


'The Trump administration's perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave international crimes, magnifies the failure of the U.S. to prosecute torture,' said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/02/full-frontal-attack-rule-law-trump-sanctions-top-icc-officials-probing-us-war-crimes


-->No worries about the US attacking the international rule of law. The NYT didn't think this story worthy of printing. The same goes for most of the empire's war crimes. Check back in 20 years after everyone has forgotten. 


Thursday, September 03, 2020

CounterPunch:
"Why Cuban Doctors Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. In early 2020, the U.S. government intensified its attempt to delegitimize the Cuban medical mission program. ... U.S. allies in Latin America, such as Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, expelled the Cuban medical missions. This would become a catastrophic decision for these countries as the COVID-19 pandemic developed across Latin America. ...

Cuban medical workers are risking their health to break the chain of the COVID-19 infection. Cuban scientists developed drugs—such as interferon alpha-2b—to help fight the disease. Now Cuban scientists have announced that their vaccine is in trials; this vaccine will not be treated as private property but will be shared with the peoples of the world. ...

[S]ince the start of Cuban medical internationalism in 1960, over 400,000 medical workers have worked in more than 40 countries. These medical workers believe in the twin missions of medical care and internationalism; it is a lesson that they learned from the teachings of Che Guevara, a doctor and an internationalist. It is a lesson that should be learned in Oslo, Norway, as they adjudicate the Nobel Peace Prize."

-->The NYT covered this story, but it was mostly US propaganda. The newspaper had little to say about how thousands of Cuban doctors have risked their lives to serve Third World countries over the last sixty years. 

=====

The Intercept:
"On June 19, hundreds of thousands of documents hacked from 251 FBI and local police websites were leaked in an unprecedented disclosure known as 'BlueLeaks.' Since the BlueLeaks files were exposed, our reporters have been poring through the documents and uncovering one bombshell after another.

The latest stunning revelations include how police exaggerated the supposed threat of 'antifa' to justify escalating violence against protesters. We also uncovered how the FBI chased nonexistent “eco-terrorists” and how police are using debunked junk science on 'lie detection' in crime investigations.

These leaks are an unprecedented exposure of the internal operations of federal, state, and local law enforcement, revealing jaw-dropping incompetence, racism, and disregard for civil liberties by the heavily armed government agencies policing our lives."

-->Silence from the NYT. How is the Intercept able to find these stories and the NYT can't. It may be because the true picture of US mistreatment and punishment of BLM protesters would make the US look bad. As always pro-US propaganda is more important than really reporting the news. 

=====

The Jimmy Dore Show:
"Code Pink Has More ___ Than MSNBC!

This happened at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This is one of those think tanks, that all they do is say bad ____. Hey, let's talk about invading Iran. Let's talk about invading Iraq, and Chad. So that's what these people do, they find bull____ reasons to do these things."

-->This delightful and thoroughly obscene report of Media Benjamin at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, protesting all its warmongering talk, is nowhere to be found in the "respectable media." In fact, the obscenity of US wars abroad never seems to interest our mainstream media. Clear your head of MSNBC's war machine propaganda by taking in a little of The Jimmy Dore Show!

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Israel Palestine News:
"Democratic bigwigs create group to promote Israel to progressives. ... New York Jewish Week reports that the group was formed 'to counter the drift — if not dive — away from support for Israel within the party.' Israel partisans are concerned at the growing support among Democrats for Palestinian human rights, as awareness of the situation has grown in recent years.

Numerous humanitarian agencies have documented Israeli human rights violations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Christian Aid, the International Red Cross, and others.

In addition, videos of Israeli settlers destroying Palestinian crops, Israeli soldiers beating people, including children, and killing unarmed protestors have become increasingly available on the Internet."

-->Of course, this story didn't get much national media attention. The Israel Lobby seldom appears in the NYT. Our own Rep. Delgado, is nowhere on Palestinian rights, while he accepted over $25,000 from the Israeli Lobby last year. Some progressive he is.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=q05&cycle=2020&recipdetail=H&mem=Y

=====

Mondoweiss:
"Pro-Israel advocates are overjoyed at the prospect of Joe Biden becoming the Democratic nominee for president this week. They say there has Never been a nominee from any party who is so pro-Israel, that Joe Biden personally wrote the Democratic platform that is 'straight down the line' behind Israel, and that his choice of Kamala Harris as veep reflects his love of Israel. And as for the 'hypercritical' new members of Congress, that attitude will be 'defeated' under Biden.

'We’ve actually never had a nominee on any side of the aisle for president who has a longer and stronger record than Joe Biden,' Halie Soifer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America said on an American Jewish Committee zoom call yesterday. 'He was elected in 1972 to the Senate and has been working on these issues with nine Israeli prime ministers ever since. There is no one with a stronger record on Israel to run for president than Joe Biden and we can all rest assured that as president he would only strengthen the relationship.' "

-->There has been a lot of coverage of Sleepy Joe, but very little on his long standing ties to Israeli apartheid. Looks like he won't be much different than Demented Donald.

=====

Common Dreams:
"'Immoral, Criminal, Inexcusable': Climate Groups Furious as DNC Drops Support for Ending Fossil Fuel Handouts From Platform. 'It's outrageous that the Dem establishment is caving to big money donors and moving backwards on fossil fuel subsidies.'

Environmentalists reacted with outrage late Tuesday to news that the Democratic National Committee this week quietly removed from the final party platform an amendment calling for an end to federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, a longstanding demand of climate activists that both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris supported during the primary. ...

The move represents a step back from the Democratic Party's 2016 platform—which included language supporting an end to tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel companies—at a time when analysts say throwing taxpayer money at the flagging industry makes less sense than ever."

-->It makes sense to Big Oil which bankrolls the Democratic Party leaders. It is quite a story, and shows vividly how much this party is run by corporate America. As usual, the NYT misses this story completely.

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Common Dreams:
"Progressive Democrats led by Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday introduced a bill to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and other industry giveaways, calling taxpayer support of the climate-killing business- a counterproductive and dangerous use of federal funds as the climate crisis worsens and Americans suffer through an economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

'It's past time we end the billions of taxpayer subsidies to fossil-fuel companies,' said Omar, a Minnesota Democrat. 'Our focus right now needs to be on getting the American people through this difficult, unprecedented time, not providing giveaways to polluters.'

'Taxpayers provide $15 billion in direct federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry every year,' she added. 'That ends with this bill.' "

-->What a great idea! Why are we subsidizing fossil fuels? Why because Big Oil funds most candidates for Congress as well as for President. The mouthpiece for corporate American, the NYT, didn't cover this story.

=====

The Guardian UK:
"Donald Trump has vowed to use a contentious provision to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran, following what Iran’s president said was a humiliating defeat for the US in its bid to extend an arms embargo on Tehran.

A day after the UN security council overwhelmingly rejected a US resolution to extend the embargo, Trump said at a news conference at his New Jersey golf club: 'We’ll be doing a snapback. You’ll be watching it next week.' ...

'I don’t remember the US preparing a resolution for months to strike a blow at the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it garners only one vote,' the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said in a televised speech. 'But the great success was that the US was defeated in this conspiracy with humiliation.' ”

-->The NYT doesn't report "humiliation" when it comes to the empire. Only two countries in the entire world voted to prolong the US embargo on Iran. But if you read the NYT for your news, you just might have missed this. 
(UPDATE) The NYT finally covered this story on Aug. 17

=====

Common Dreams:
"President Donald Trump's trade policies during his first term have 'failed to stop offshoring or the erosion of the U.S. manufacturing base,' and his administration's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has erased much of the progress made in the wake of the 2008 finanical crisis, according to a report released Monday.

The new report authored by Robert E. Scott, senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), challenges the narrative from the president and key figures in his administration that the era of offshoring U.S. jobs is 'over' thanks to Trump's trade agenda.

In spite of claims from the Trump administration, Scott wrote, 'the United States has not begun to address the root causes of America's growing trade deficits and the decline of American manufacturing. Decades of trade, currency, and tax policies that incentivized offshoring, combined with an utter failure to invest adequately in infrastructure and good jobs at home, have contributed to growing inequality and an eroding middle class.' "

-->Words of wisdom about Trump's failed policies. Why can't you read about this report in the NYT? Maybe its because the newspaper's corporate Board of Directors like these policies. 

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Common Dreams:
"'The World Is Watching': Amnesty Report Details Human Rights Violations by US Police During Racial Justice Protests. The use of force detailed in the report 'is ultimately a symptom of the very issue that started these protests: unaccountable police violence.'

In a report titled 'The World is Watching,' Amnesty International USA revealed on Tuesday that U.S. police violated the human rights of protesters, medics, journalists, and other people at least 125 times in the first weeks of the current U.S. racial justice uprising. Between May 26 and June 5, police in 40 states and Washington, D.C. responded to protests with 'shocking amounts of excessive force,' according to the organization."

-->The NYT didn't print this story. It doesn't fit the "chaos" narrative for protesters that our "newspaper of record" is trying to establish. 

=====

The Daily Beast:
"or nearly a month, Riot Ribs served barbecue, tacos, jalapeno poppers—whatever they had on hand—from a series of tents near the site of ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon. Then, on Tuesday, the food collective announced an abrupt closure. ...

Beset by local police, federal authorities, right-wing trolls, and friendlies-turned-grifters, the Pacific Northwest’s protest food groups have spent the past month struggling to do what should be one of the least controversial jobs there is: handing out free food. ...

'Everyone needs to know that they’re targeting us. They slashed our cases of water bottles; broke one tent only (one of our cooks); broke open our snacks and sprayed them with tear gas as well,' the group tweeted. 'All of our grills were purposely pepper sprayed on the inside last night. We need new grills.'

-->Contrast this story with the chorus of hysteria about "chaos" in Portland once the military left. From the NYT to Fox, the corporate controlled news media has decided to come in on the side of militarism and law and order. The establishment press is united it the desire to have the police and federal goon squads in charge, rather than run the risk of real social change in America.

=====

The Guardian UK:
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a rogue intelligence agency that needs to be shut down. It’s hard to reach any other conclusion on the heels of the DHS sending federal militarized police into Portland last month, where camouflaged and unidentified officers indiscriminately sprayed protesters with teargas and rubber bullets for more than two weeks. But even after the agency reached an agreement with Portland officials to leave, virtually every day we learn more about the DHS abusing its vast surveillance powers to spy on journalists, protesters and immigrants. ...

An intelligence report leaked to the Nation included 'a readout of these individuals’ personal information, including their social security numbers, home addresses and social media accounts, much of the data generated by the DHS’s Tactical Terrorism Response Teams'. ...

'They targeted Americans like they’re al-Qaida,' a source with knowledge of the surveillance operations told the Nation. If you think this sounds like an exaggeration, consider this: another leaked DHS document, this one posted by Lawfare’s editor-in-chief, Ben Wittes, showed that the DHS was creating 'baseball cards' of arrested protesters. As the Washington Post noted: 'Historically, military and intelligence officials have used such cards for biographical dossiers of suspected terrorists, including those targeted in lethal drone strikes.' ”

-->How refreshing this point of view would be if one could find it in a US publication. But our national media is never up to questioning the national security state. 

Thursday, August 06, 2020

 The Guardian UK:

"Dear Larry Fink: it's time to stop lavishing your wealth on the police

Morris Pearl. The CEO of one of the world’s largest financial firms gives lip service to racial justice. But his actions speak otherwise. ...


If America’s millionaires tried even one-tenth as hard to end police brutality as they’ve tried to cut their own taxes, we would be looking at a completely different world. ... Mr Fink has voiced a commitment to racial equity and said all the right things in the last few weeks, but he has not actually done what he professes to believe in. ...


Yet, at the same time as Mr Fink is sympathizing with a movement against anti-Blackness, he has remained a donor to the New York Police Foundation (NYPF), which pays for equipment and training and provides incentives for anonymous tips that lead to arrests. For the last three years, Mr Fink has served as co-chair of the NYPF’s annual gala."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/01/dear-larry-fink-its-time-to-stop-lavishing-your-wealth-on-the-police


-->It takes a newspaper from outside the empire to point out how billionaires like to talk about racial justice, as they support racist police forces. Maybe protecting their money comes first. The NYT didn't touch this story.


=====


The Guardian UK

"Revealed: super-rich donate to Cuomo as he rejects tax hikes for billionaires. ... Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has stood firm against intensifying pressure to avert massive budget cuts by raising taxes on the many billionaires who live in his state.


As that campaign to tax billionaires received a recent boost from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York’s Democratic state legislative leaders, Cuomo has insisted that he fears that the tax initiative will prompt the super-rich to leave the state. ...


But in defending billionaires, Cuomo is protecting a group of his most important financial boosters. More than a third of New York’s billionaires have funneled cash to Cuomo’s political machine, according to a Too Much Information review of campaign finance data and the Forbes billionaire list."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/31/cuomo-new-york-governor-billionaires-super-rich


-->The NYT didn't print this story either. Our "newspaper of record" likes the billionaires as much as Cuomo does. 


=====


Common Dreams:

"Bolivians Join Mass Marches Against Election Delay by Right-Wing Coup Government. Thousands of Bolivians took to the streets this week in mass demonstrations and marches against the coup government's decision to postpone the country's presidential election until October, further extending the brutal reign of unelected right-wing President Jeanine Añez as the coronavirus continues to ravage the Latin American nation. ...


'Bolivia shows how the ideologues of the free market are more than happy to toss out any semblance of democratic rule if they feel threatened,' [wrote Bolivian journalist Oliver Vargas. 'It also exposes the true character of interventions by governments like the U.S. and U.K. in international affairs to 'promote democracy.' "

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/30/our-obligation-defend-democracy-bolivians-join-mass-marches-against-election-delay


-->The US was behind the coup that toppled Bolivia's elected president, Evo Morales, last year. Now the empire's newspaper of record isn't reporting the devastation that has followed. It is just like Honduras. First a US coup, then years of oppression and right wing death squads. The American way, but it never gets reported in the NYT.

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