The Intercept:

"SAUDI CROWN PRINCE Mohammed bin Salman reportedly accused President Joe Biden of hypocrisy during their meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday by asking why the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi seemed to matter more to him than the fatal shooting of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh.

Biden, who said during his campaign for the presidency in 2019 that Khashoggi had been 'murdered and dismembered … I believe on the order of the crown prince,' told reporters that he had confronted Crown Prince Mohammed over the killing of the dissident Saudi journalist at the start of their meeting this week.

But according to a Saudi official who spoke to the state broadcaster Al Arabiya, the prince contrasted Biden’s concern about the brutal murder of Khashoggi, a long-term resident of the U.S., with his failure to hold Israel’s government accountable for the killing of Abu Akleh, an American citizen who was shot — according to witnesses and visual investigations — from an Israeli military convoy."

https://theintercept.com/2022/07/16/saudi-prince-taunts-biden-caring-khashoggi-shireen-abu-akleh/

-->Let's see if the NYT can get away with not covering this story. It exposes the hypocrisy of the US campaign for human rights in the Middle East.

=====

+972:

"On July 12, nine European governments declared that they had rejected Israel’s designation of six Palestinian civil society groups as 'terrorist organizations.' The announcement is a major victory for the organizations themselves, political activists, and the Palestinian communities they serve.

Following the declaration by Defense Minister Benny Gantz outlawing the six NGOs last October, the European donor countries opened their own investigations to look into Israel’s allegations. Nearly nine months later, they concluded that 'no substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy' toward the organizations, and as such, they would continue to fund and collaborate with the groups. ...

Now, the declaration of the nine countries — including Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy — reaffirms what +972 and Local Call exposed in our investigative reports on the matter: that Israel has absolutely no proof to back its claims, and that its dossier failed to sway even countries that are friendly to Israel, and who took its allegations seriously."

https://www.972mag.com/edition/israel-europe-ngos-palestinians/

-->Now this is another story that makes Israel look bad. So far, the NYT has left both of these stories out. Sometimes it is just a delay in covering such stories, and we will keep checking to see if the NYT gets around to printing it.

=====

Common Dreams:

"As U.S. President Joe Biden met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Friday, a top official at Human Rights Watch implored the American leader to not lift a ban on the sale of certain weapons to the repressive monarchy as it continues waging an atrocity-laden war in Yemen.

Responding to reports that the Biden administration is considering ending its vague proscription against the transfer of 'offensive' weaponry to Saudi Arabia, Michael Page, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Middle East and North Africa deputy director, warned that such a policy reversal 'could lead to fresh rights violations in Yemen.'

'Since the beginning of the war in 2015, Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented how the Saudi- and [United Arab Emirates]-led coalition has used U.S. weapons in apparent unlawful airstrikes, including apparent war crimes,' wrote Page. 'The U.S. government's own report has detailed... oversight failures on these sales.' "

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/07/15/human-rights-watch-us-stop-selling-weapons-saudis

-->The mainstream media tries hard to disappear the US role in destroying Yemen. It is the same issue as in Palestine. The US touts human rights while denying such rights to tens of thousands in the Middle East. If the word got out, why the American people wouldn't support these war crimes. 

The Intercept:

"It should come as little surprise that the Biden administration and Democratic leadership in Congress are doing hardly anything to protect reproductive rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade. Speaking on 'Meet the Press' this Sunday, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra made clear that his agency had little interest in exploring ways to use federal powers to ensure abortions remain available in states that have banned the procedure. ...

It would be difficult to overstate how badly Democrats dropped the ball on preventing Roe from being endangered and then preparing for it to be overturned. The world after Roe, though, is showing the liberal establishment’s cowardice and complicity when it comes to getting access to abortions for people who need them. From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reading an Israeli poem to the repeated entreaties to vote harder, the utter failure is staggering. ...

Planned Parenthood, a group that does much good work but also exists firmly within the reluctant liberal establishment, has shown a lack of fortitude since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision took down Roe last month. ... Those who continue to take risks to fight for reproductive justice make clear that real resistance is possible. They clarify, too, that those caving so readily to a fascist status quo are making a choice to stand on the wrong side of history."

https://theintercept.com/2022/07/05/roe-wade-abortion-democrats-planned-parenthood/

-->The liberal establishment, like always, only tells us to vote. Vote for them? The very Democrats who sold us out?

=====

Common Dreams:

"As Russia's invasion of Ukraine revives the terrifying specter of thermonuclear annihilation, a scientific study published Thursday revealed that a nuclear exchange involving as few as hundreds of warheads would likely cause a 'little ice age' lasting centuries or even millennia.

Scientists have long known that even a 'limited' thermonuclear war could result in a so-called nuclear winter, or prolonged global cooling resulting from atmospheric soot blocking life-sustaining sunlight. However, the new study examines the effects of such warfare on the Earth's oceans and marine ecosystems."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/07/08/model-shows-nuclear-war-would-cause-millennia-long-little-ice-age

-->The NYT is so busy stirring up war between NATO and Russia, there is no time to print anything about nuclear annihilation. 

 Telesur:
“Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro explained his country's ideals at a ceremony to remember the battle of Carabobo, a great victory against the Spanish. 'Simon Bolivar knew that if the consolidation of the military, political, and geopolitical victory in South America was not achieved, the Spanish imperialist army would not have been completely expelled from our lands, and a counteroffensive would occur sooner rather than later. ... 

That is why, from the beginning, Bolivar conceived a strategy of continental liberation: the integration and independence of South America. The great liberation campaigns are at the deep base of our roots and identity, with which we present ourselves to the world.

That is the Bolivarian vision. And that is why we now assume ourselves fully and absolutely as militants in Bolivar's cause. That is why we proudly say we are the Bolivarians of the 21st century.' "

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Keep-Fighting-for-a-New-Era-of-Prosperity-President-Maduro-20220624-0011.html

-->Do you think that you will be reading President Maduro's words in the US media? That is how you can judge the limits of our supposedly "free press." All the news that the Pentagon has decided is fit to print. The US is the imperial power in Latin America today, and like the Spanish before us, we will have to be driven away if the region is be finally become truly free.

=====

Common Dreams:

"U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday endorsed a pair of House Democrats in their primaries against challengers backed by the nation's most powerful pro-Israel lobby—which is spending heavily to defeat progressive candidates who advocate for Palestinian rights.

Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Andy Levin, both of Michigan, tweeting that the former 'has taken on powerful special interests and fought for working people' while the latter 'is a strong labor voice who is taking on right-wing-funded super PACs.' 

One of those super PACs is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's United Democracy Project (AIPAC's UDP), which has recently poured money into several Democratic primary races to thwart progressive candidates who support Palestine and who criticize Israel's occupation, colonization, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid there—and the nearly unconditional $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/29/sanders-pushes-back-against-aipac-super-pac-endorsements-tlaib-and-levin

-->Yes, the Israel Lobby is dedicated to supporting fascist candidates for the US Congress. Israel is a fascist state, and the Lobby's support of racist, right wing candidates in the US makes perfect sense. Of course, the NYT didn't print this story.

=====

Common Dreams:

"President Joe Biden has reportedly struck a deal with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to a lifetime federal judgeship in Kentucky, news that comes less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion.

According to Louisville's Courier-Journal, Biden has agreed to nominate Republican attorney Chad Meredith once there's a federal court vacancy in Kentucky, where abortion was outlawed immediately following the high court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on Friday.

In exchange, McConnell (R-Ky.) has purportedly agreed not to obstruct the president's future judicial nominations—a vow that was met with deep skepticism from outside observers, given the Kentucky Republican's long record of cynical machinations that have yanked the Supreme Court and lower courts to the right for decades to come."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/30/massive-betrayal-biden-cuts-deal-mcconnell-nominate-anti-abortion-judge

-->Does the Democratic leadership actually support abortion rights? Or is the party prone to using abortion rights to win elections? Pelosi's support of Henry Cuellar, the only anti-abortion Democrat left in the House of Representatives, is a case in point. Too bad our major media can't ask these questions.

Common Dreams:

"Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday that the U.S. Senate must swiftly respond to the right-wing Supreme Court's 'outrageous and reactionary' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade by eliminating the legislative filibuster and codifying abortion rights into federal law.

'Six Supreme Court justices, including some who in their nomination hearings called the case 'important precedent,' today did exactly what the American people did not want and overturned Roe v. Wade,' Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. 'This decision cannot be allowed to stand.'

'If Republicans can end the filibuster to install right-wing judges to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats can and must end the filibuster, codify Roe v. Wade, and make abortion legal and safe,' the senator added, referring to the Senate GOP's elimination of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in 2017, a move that paved the way for three of the right-wing justices who voted to end the constitutional right to abortion."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/24/sanders-says-end-filibuster-combat-outrageous-supreme-court-assault-abortion-rights

-->Bernie's words hardly ever make it into the mainstream media. He is right, of course. But the corporate controlled Democratic Party and the mainstream media want to use the issue in the next election. Why try to fix it now? 

=====

Common Dreams:

"An unidentified male motorist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa intentionally rammed into several women on Friday night as abortion rights defenders peacefully protested the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. ...

The driver of a Ford truck maneuvered around multiple cars at a red light and drove through the tail end of a group of demonstrators who were crossing a street downtown, running over one woman's ankle and sending her to the hospital, witnesses told HuffPost. 'He tried to murder them,' said Lyz Lenz, a local journalist and witness to the attack. 'These women see him coming and a bunch of people put their hands out to stop him. And he just keeps going.' ...

Although the Cedar Rapids police reportedly interviewed the driver Friday night, no arrests were made. Iowa is one of three states that have enacted laws shielding motorists who run over protestors from liability under certain circumstances."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/25/motorist-tried-murder-abortion-rights-advocates-iowa-protest-witnesses-say

-->Yes, it comes to this in a fascist state. The police aiding vigilantes committing violence against demonstrators. With its head in the sand like always, the NYT didn't cover this story.

=====

Common Dreams:

"Noam Chomsky told us that it 'should be clear that the (Russian) invasion of Ukraine has no (moral) justification.' He compared it to the US invasion of Iraq, seeing it as an example of 'supreme international crime.' With this moral question settled, Chomsky believes that the main 'background' of this war, a factor that is missing in mainstream media coverage, is 'NATO expansion.'

'This is not just my opinion,' said Chomsky, 'it is the opinion of every high-level US official in the diplomatic services who has any familiarity with Russia and Eastern Europe. This goes back to George Kennan and, in the 1990s, Reagan's ambassador Jack Matlock, including the current director of the CIA; in fact, just everybody who knows anything has been warning Washington that it is reckless and provocative to ignore Russia's very clear and explicit red lines. That goes way before (Vladimir) Putin, it has nothing to do with him; (Mikhail) Gorbachev, all said the same thing. Ukraine and Georgia cannot join NATO, this is the geostrategic heartland of Russia.' ...

'Starting in 2014, after the Maidan uprising, the United States began openly, not secretly, moving to integrate Ukraine into the NATO military command, sending heavy armaments and joining military exercises, military training and it was not a secret. They boasted about it,' Chomsky said."

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/25/not-justification-provocation-chomsky-root-causes-russia-ukraine-war

-->Do you see why the NYT doesn't print much that Chomsky says? In three short paragraphs he exposes the US empire and its decades of militarization and aggression. Read some Chomsky to save yourself from NPR and the New York Times. If the war in Ukraine brings the end of human civilization, then NATO expansion will be the fuse.   

Stop The Wall:
"On June 1, 2022 dozens of Israeli soldiers and JCB, Volvo and Caterpillar bulldozers raided the villages Al-Fakheet and Al-Markez and demolished seven residential tents and animal shacks, leaving families, along with their herds,s homeless. This is the second time these families lost their homes in less than a month. On May 11, 2022, the Israeli occupation, Volvo and JCB bulldozers ... razed 19 homes and animal shacks to the ground. Insisting on [keeping] their land, the owners of the destroyed homes rebuilt them again; some of which were among the seven demolished homes yesterday. ...

Masafar Yatta, in the south of Hebron, is home to 20 Palestinian communities, which have been living and herding their livestock in the area [for] generations. Classified as a firing zone, the expulsion of the eight communities would be a culmination of decades-long apartheid and settler colonial practices in the area. The forcible expulsion of these communities paves the way for Israel to annex Masafer Yatta and further consolidate its illegal settlement enterprise.  Land confiscation, including through the pretext of ‘military needs’ has been highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the OPT in his latest  as one of the salient features of Israeli apartheid. Villages in Masafer Yatta, such as Um Al-Khair have been highlight as a case study, in Amnesty International’s groundbreaking report on Israeli apartheid. ...

JCB, the world’s third largest construction company is not only used to destroy Palestinian homes. The company’s exported equipment to Israel is also used to construct illegal settlements, settlement industrial zones and apartheid infrastructure in the occupied West Bank and Syrian Golan Heights. JCB machines were involved in the construction of the Apartheid Wall on stolen Palestinian Land. According to Who Profits, the British-based company’s track and wheel excavators and wheel loaders were documented during the construction of the wall near the Palestinian villages of Al-Walaja, Anata and Beit Jala."

https://www.stopthewall.org/2022/06/02/who-is-aiding-israel-corporate-complicity-in-masafer-yatta-ethnic-cleansing/

-->British and US companies supplying the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. How many Americans are aware of that? The information is simply not there in the mainstream media.

=====

The Conversation (academic rigor, journalistic flair)

" 'The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. 

It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights.It is the story of wilful collusion by intelligence services behind the back of national parliaments and the general public.

It is a story of manipulated and manipulative reporting in the mainstream media for the purpose of deliberately isolating, demonizing, and destroying a particular individual. It is the story of a man who has been scapegoated by all of us for our own societal failures to address government corruption and state-sanctioned crimes.' ...

That is one of the findings of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, whose investigation of the case against Assange has been laid out in forensic detail in [his recent book] 'The Trial of Julian Assange.' " 

https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622

-->The order has come down from the top. Only personal stories will be printed about Julian Assange. Nothing about the war crimes that he has exposed. That's how the empire's propaganda machine works. 

=====

Activist Radio Point of View:

One might say that the Israel Lobby isn't much worse than some of the biggest of corporate advocacy groups. Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banks, and the weapons makers spend millions on campaign contributions and flood DC with their lobbyists. Is Israel doing anything different?

Well, most lobby groups don't spend a lot of time spying on the American people. Certainly not to the extent the Israeli Lobby does, using its huge collection of personal data to destroy the job prospects of college students and professors. In fact the lobby goes beyond that to infiltrate American human rights organizations, even using the Israeli spyware company NSO to trace their communications and locations. Pro-Israel reporters have infiltrated our major media, like Isabel Kershner for the New York Times, whose son served in the Israeli Army and husband works for an Israeli propaganda group (the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv). 

The Israel Lobby has a close relationship with groups that fan Islamophobia in US campuses and communities. The Clarion Fund distributed copies of the racist film "Obsession" to millions of people in the same year it was awarded $18 million from the Donors Capital Fund, a group that links conservative causes to overseas funders operating in Israel. Jewish Voice For Peace has recently identified at least seven major foundations involved in creating and funding anti-Muslim sentiment in the US. 

The Israeli Lobby is, in fact, much more destructive to our democracy than corporate advocacy groups. 

Don't Extradite Assange:

"3 Important new developments in cases involving the US government spying on Assange and his lawyers. There have been important updates in the cases involving the spying on Julian Assange and his lawyers. 

1. Spanish Court summons former US Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo to explain CIA plot to assassinate Julian Assange. 

2. UK admits violation of Article 8 & Article 10 (confidential journalistic material) of the European Convention of Human Rights. In 2016, Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson took legal action against the UK Government with help from Privacy International over illegal surveillance & information sharing with the US Government for her work for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

3. In a separate case, El Pais reports that The British authorities have obstructing an investigation into US spying on Julian Assange's defence. Spain's High Court has issued an order requesting UK assistance to depose British lawyers spied on at the embassy, some of whom are acting for Assange in the US extradition, but British authorities are obstructing the request for lawyers' testimony. Proving that the US secret services learned about Assange's defence strategy by spying on his lawyers could annul the extradition request."

https://dontextraditeassange.com

-->Still no reporting on Julian Assange, except for Democracy Now and a few other left publications. The blackout of Assange shows just how controlled the major media really is when it comes to hiding the war crimes of the empire.

=====

Economic Policy Institute:

"The reasons for escalating inflation are hotly debated, but some theories gaining traction have not been grounded in the data. EPI research sets the record straight on the causes of inflation—and how policymakers can best restrain it. Below, we debunk 5 top inflation myths.

Myth #1: Workers’ wage growth is driving inflation. Nominal wage growth—while faster relative to the recent past—has lagged far behind inflation, meaning that labor costs have been dampening, not amplifying, inflationary pressures all along.

Myth #2: Corporate profits are not contributing to inflation. In fact, fatter corporate profit margins have driven over half of the increase in prices in the nonfinancial corporate sector between the second quarter of 2020 and the end of 2021. This is not normal. From 1979 to 2019, profits only contributed about 11% to price growth. Ignoring the role of profits makes inflation analyses a lot weaker.

https://www.epi.org/blog/debunking-5-top-inflation-myths/

-->The top two myths are the most damaging. By not printing this information, most US citizens will end up blaming inflation on wage growth and not on corporate profits. The corporate controlled press keeps us in the dark. The NYT ran a story entitled: "Rising Wages Could Complicate America’s Inflation Cool-Down." Even our newspaper of record is blaming rising wages instead of excess corporate profits.

=====

Common Dreams:

"I’ve just finished going through the more than 60 presidential statements, documents and communiques about the war in Ukraine that the White House has released and posted on its website since Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in early March. They all share with that speech one stunning characteristic—the complete absence of any mention of nuclear weapons or nuclear war dangers. Yet we’re now living in a time when those dangers are the worst they’ve been since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

You might think that the risks of global nuclear annihilation would merit at least a few of the more than 25,000 words officially released on Biden’s behalf during the 100 days since his dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress. But an evasive pattern began from the outset. While devoting much of that speech to the Ukraine conflict, Biden said nothing at all about the heightened risks that it might trigger the use of nuclear weapons.

A leader interested in informing the American people rather than infantilizing them would have something to say about the need to prevent nuclear war at a time of escalating tensions between the world’s two nuclear superpowers."

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/09/media-and-congress-enable-bidens-silence-increasing-risk-nuclear-war

-->Why must Norman Solomon have to point out this omission in Biden's pro war rhetoric? Don't the major newspapers have political analysts? Maybe this story gets in the way of our media's rush towards war with Russia.

 Highland Current:

"Since the first anniversary of 1969’s Stonewall riots, through President Clinton’s 1999 White House declaration, the month of June has long been considered National Pride Month, acknowledging our country’s vast and dynamic LGBTQIA+ communities, and honoring the important leaders and organizers who fought for the establishment and advancement of equality nationwide.

This June, Cold Spring and Philipstown will continue that tradition by celebrating our queer neighbors, workers and visitors through the month-long display of Progress Pride flags at Town Hall, Village Hall, McConville Park and the bandstand.

Four local businesses have generously donated the flags at no cost to the village or town: Amanda Amadei of Amadei Yoga, designer Charles Burleigh, Anthony Lise of Lise Law & Mediation and Michael Siebert of Houlihan Lawrence.

We would like to thank the town and village boards for their continued commitment to make sure everyone feels welcome in Cold Spring and Philipstown. Our hope is that the flags remain in use for years to come.

Sean Conway, Cold Spring

Teddy Nagel, Garrison

https://highlandscurrent.org/2022/06/03/letter-pride-month/

-->Pride month is about flags, of course, but it is also about grassroots support of human rights in communities all across America. The revolution for gay rights has happened in our country, and our media should talk more about how local towns, villages and businesses can stand up for the basic rights of all its citizens. 

=====

Common Dreams:

"Canada could be a clean electricity powerhouse by 2035—without building more large hydro dams or relying on expensive and sometimes unproven and dangerous technologies like nuclear or fossil gas with carbon capture and storage.

New David Suzuki Foundation modelling research—the first of its kind in Canada—finds we could affordably and quickly shift from fossil fuels to reliable 100 per cent emissions-free electricity using mainly wind and solar, existing hydro, energy efficiency, batteries and other energy storage technologies and grid improvements, including connecting grids between provinces. The transition would help Canada achieve its global climate commitments, create tens of thousands of new jobs and meet the growing demand for electricity.

Not only is this possible, the study notes that the underlying analysis was cautious: 'The modelling did not consider a range of additional technologies and approaches, such as demand response, distributed renewables and emerging storage technologies that are likely to lead to increased efficiencies and further reductions in costs when moving to a zero-emissions electricity system.' "

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/05/groundbreaking-report-details-canadas-rapid-path-renewable-transition

-->Wouldn't it be encouraging to have such news appear in the US media? But the NYT, along with so much of our corporate controlled press, decided not to print this story. Too damaging to Big Oil? Or the desperate nuclear energy industry?

=====

Mondoweiss:

"If a Palestinian-American wants to travel to the occupied West Bank to visit their family, they will soon need to apply to the Israeli government for advanced permission, reveal the personal information of the relatives they plan on visiting, along with data of any land they own or stand to inherit in the territory. And even then, they could still be denied entry for 'any relevant considerations,' as so deemed by Israeli authorities. 

These are just some of the invasive restrictions that Palestinians who hold foreign passports would be subjected to according to a new ordinance published by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli government agency responsible for enforcing Israeli policy in the occupied territory. ...

'It’s all part of the apartheid system. What we are seeing is representative of how Israel applies its apartheid laws to Palestinians everywhere, both in the occupied territory and abroad. Israel targets Palestinians simply for being Palestinians' [said Ahmed Abofoul, a lawyer with Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq]”

https://mondoweiss.net/2022/06/apartheid-in-action-the-danger-of-israels-new-west-bank-travel-restrictions/

-->Specifics of Israeli Apartheid are often left out of our media. Why didn't the NYT cover this story?