Daily Archives: September 16, 2019

2019-09-16: News Headlines

Paul Atwood (2019-09-16). Why Mattis is No Hero. counterpunch.org Last week the corporate media were going all out to lionize former Marine General and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in tandem with the publication of Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, his memoir of his lengthy career (Co-authored with former Undersecretary of Defense, Bing West, also a marine officer and veteran of Vietnam). As this celebratory gala of war and warrior hood lapses yet another military idol will have joined the pantheon. When George H.W. Bush launched Desert Storm in 1991 and "kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all" he also claimed to re-elevate the glory of the American way of war where…

WSWS (2019-09-16). Trump exploits drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities to threaten war against Iran. wsws.org In a menacing threat against Iran, Trump tweeted that "there is reason to believe that we know the culprit" and that the US was "locked and loaded," implying imminent military strikes.

Robert Mackey (2019-09-16). Threatening New War for Oil, Donald Trump Calls His Own Offer of Iran Talks "Fake News" theintercept.com As he threatened to bomb Iran at Saudi Arabia's behest, Trump also intensified his battle with objective reality, by denying his own prior comments.

Mark Taliano (2019-09-16). The Barbarity of US-NATO, War Propaganda and the "Rule of International Law" globalresearch.ca Greetings delegates and organizers. My name is Mark Taliano. I am a writer and Research Associate at the Center For Research on Globalization (Global Research). | My book, Voices from Syria, and my website marktaliano.net represent my efforts to take …

Jeff Cohen (2019-09-16). What George Carlin Taught Us About Media Propaganda by Omission: On Bernie Sanders, Medicare for All, and the Green New Deal. commondreams.org Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at the Spin Room after the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Paul Street (2019-09-16). Joe Biden's Answer to Slavery's Legacy: Phonographs for the Poor. counterpunch.org The corporate media talking-head commentary on the third Democratic presidential debate last Thursday night focused on two things: Beto O'Rourke's call for a federal confiscation of the nation's assault weapons and Julian Castro's attempt to humiliate Joe Biden by suggesting that the former vice president had forgotten what he said about his health care reform program two minutes before. More

Jonathan Cook (2019-09-16). Brexit Reveals Jeremy Corbyn to be the True Moderate. counterpunch.org If there is an upside to Brexit, it is this: it has made it increasingly hard to present Jeremy Corbyn, contrary to everything the corporate media has been telling us for the past four years, as anything but a political moderate. In truth, he is one of the few moderates left in British — or maybe that should read English — politics right now. The fact that still isn't obvious to many in Britain is a sign of their — not his — extremism. More

Laura Flanders (2019-09-15). From Voice of America to NPR: New CEO Lansing's Glass House. commondreams.org John Lansing, now CEO of National Public Radio (NPR), talked about the operations of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the agency that oversees United States government-supported, civilian international news media such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Marti, and Alhurra. He explained how he planned to reshape U.S. media operations to better fit the current media environment, including how to address propaganda by countries such as Russia and China and stateless actors such as ISIL. (C-SPAN January 6, 2016) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Ed Sykes (2019-09-15). Conservative Party caught out by Facebook spreading fake news online. thecanary.co Facebook has caught the Conservative Party's official page changing a BBC headline to push its propaganda. And the social media giant has taken…

John Catalinotto (2019-09-13). Italian communist discusses European imperialism. workers.org Alessio Arena, secretary general of the Italian communist group Fronte Popolare (Popular Front), spoke to a full house at the Solidarity Center in Manhattan on Sept. 5 about the role of European imperialism in the world and the central role of German imperialism in controlling the direction of the European . . . | Continue reading Italian communist discusses European imperialism at Workers.org

Edward Hunt (2019-09-13). In the Pacific Islands, the Trump Administration Sees Empire, Ignores Climate Change. progressive.org The U.S. government views the islands as keys to controlling the Pacific and constraining the rise of China.

Don Fitz (2019-09-13). What Is Energy Denial? dissidentvoice.org The fiftieth anniversary of the first Earth Day of 1970 will be in 2020. As environmentalism has gone mainstream during that half a century, it has forgotten its early focus and shifted toward green capitalism. Nowhere is this more apparent than abandonment of the slogan popular during the early Earth Days: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." The …

pip.hinman (2019-09-13). As the Amazon forest burns, corporate media deflects blame. greenleft.org.au climate emergency Brian MierIssue 1237 Australia Amazon fires ranchers monocultureSeptember 13, 2019I spent last week in the Brazilian Am…

Staff (2019-09-12). Bernie Sanders Is Fighting to End the Media's Demonization of Socialism. therealnews.com We had a conversation with Sen. Sanders' Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray on the right-wing talking points used by mainstream media to discredit Sen. Sanders and the falsehoods about socialism perpetuated by the GOP…

Maryam Saleh (2019-09-12). With Trump in Office, Newspapers Increasingly Quoted Anti-Immigrant Groups Without Explaining Who They Were. theintercept.com A new study found that, as far-right groups gained influence in the halls of power, major newspapers quoted them without noting their nativist bent.

Jonathan Cook (2019-09-12). Brexit reveals Corbyn to be the True Moderate. dissidentvoice.org If there is an upside to Brexit, it is this: it has made it increasingly hard to present Jeremy Corbyn, contrary to everything the corporate media has been telling us for the past four years, as anything but a political moderate. In truth, he is one of the few moderates left in British — or …

Staff (2019-09-09). Hurricane Dorian Was Fueled by Climate Change. Why Isn't the Mainstream Media Making the Connection? democracynow.org At least 44 people are dead, and the number is expected to rise dramatically, as the Bahamas continues to reel from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian last week. More than 70,000 on Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands have been left homeless, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, remain missing. As the Bahamas faces unprecedented destruction and thousands continue to seek shelter and aid, the island nation has been described as "ground zero" for the climate crisis. Despite this, the mainstream media has largely omitted any mention of global warming in its coverage of the disaster. We speak to Allison Fisher, o…

Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams (2019-09-08). New Season of Amazon's Jack Ryan Focused on Venezuela Denounced as 'Over-the-Top and Ridiculous' US Propaganda. venezuelanalysis.com The upcoming season of Amazon's Jack Ryan could have been scripted by John Bolton.

Esha Krishnaswamy (2019-09-06). Climate Minimizers Don't Deny Climate Change—but Find Endless Reasons to Reject Sanders' Plan to Stop It. fair.org Climate change is an existential threat to human civilization. If only corporate media acted like it. | While the majority of corporate media do not outright deny the reality of the human-caused climate crisis, they are filled with another brand of insidious ideologues that I call climate minimizers. These downplay the threat that climate change poses to all of us by ignoring scientific data, avoiding discussion on the actual impact of climate change, and hyper-focusing on trivial details. | These tendencies were on display…

splcenter (2019-09-03). Identity Unmasked: Meet the Proprietors of the Internet's Largest Neo-Confederate Propaganda Machine. splcenter.org A small Facebook campaign predicated on keeping Confederate monuments in place has morphed into a group of more than 200 ardent, secretive separatists planning to make the South a separate nation.

ACLU (2019-08-27). New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System. aclu.org Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…

2019-09-16: Social Media Postees

Joe Biden's Answer to Slavery's Legacy: Phonographs for the Poor
Paul Street | counterpunch.org | 2019-09-16
The corporate media talking-head commentary on the third Democratic presidential debate last Thursday night focused on two things: Beto O'Rourke's call for a federal confiscation of the nation's assault weapons and Julian Castro's attempt to humiliate Joe Biden by suggesting that the former vice president had forgotten what he said about his health care reform program two minutes before.
counterpunch.org/2019/09/16/joe-bidens-a…

Trump exploits drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities to threaten war against Iran
wsws.org | 2019-09-16
In a menacing threat against Iran, Trump tweeted that "there is reason to believe that we know the culprit" and that the US was "locked and loaded," implying imminent military strikes.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/16/saud…

Why Mattis is No Hero
Paul Atwood | counterpunch.org | 2019-09-16
Last week the corporate media were going all out to lionize former Marine General and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in tandem with the publication of Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, his memoir of his lengthy career (Co-authored with former Undersecretary of Defense, Bing West, also a marine officer and veteran of Vietnam). As this celebratory gala of war and warrior hood lapses yet another military idol will have joined the pantheon. When George H.W. Bush launched Desert Storm in 1991 and "kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all" he also claimed to re-elevate the glory of the American way of war where…
counterpunch.org/2019/09/16/why-mattis-i…

Threatening New War for Oil, Donald Trump Calls His Own Offer of Iran Talks "Fake News"
Robert Mackey | theintercept.com | 2019-09-16
As he threatened to bomb Iran at Saudi Arabia's behest, Trump also intensified his battle with objective reality, by denying his own prior comments.
theintercept.com/2019/09/15/threatening-…

What George Carlin Taught Us About Media Propaganda by Omission: On Bernie Sanders, Medicare for All, and the Green New Deal
Jeff Cohen | commondreams.org | 2019-09-16
Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at the Spin Room after the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/09/16/what-g…

The Barbarity of US-NATO, War Propaganda and the "Rule of International Law"
Mark Taliano | globalresearch.ca | 2019-09-16
Greetings delegates and organizers. My name is Mark Taliano. I am a writer and Research Associate at the Center For Research on Globalization (Global Research). | My book, Voices from Syria, and my website marktaliano.net represent my efforts to take …
globalresearch.ca/speech-for-the-general…

Brexit Reveals Jeremy Corbyn to be the True Moderate
Jonathan Cook | counterpunch.org | 2019-09-16
If there is an upside to Brexit, it is this: it has made it increasingly hard to present Jeremy Corbyn, contrary to everything the corporate media has been telling us for the past four years, as anything but a political moderate. In truth, he is one of the few moderates left in British — or maybe that should read English — politics right now. The fact that still isn't obvious to many in Britain is a sign of their — not his — extremism.
counterpunch.org/2019/09/16/brexit-revea…

Conservative Party caught out by Facebook spreading fake news online
Ed Sykes | thecanary.co | 2019-09-15
Facebook has caught the Conservative Party's official page changing a BBC headline to push its propaganda. And the social media giant has taken…
thecanary.co/trending/2019/09/15/conservative-party-caught-out-by-facebook-spreading-fake-news-online/

From Voice of America to NPR: New CEO Lansing's Glass House
Laura Flanders | commondreams.org | 2019-09-15
John Lansing, now CEO of National Public Radio (NPR), talked about the operations of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the agency that oversees United States government-supported, civilian international news media such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Marti, and Alhurra. He explained how he planned to reshape U.S. media operations to better fit the current media environment, including how to address propaganda by countries such as Russia and China and stateless actors such as ISIL. (C-SPAN January 6, 2016) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/views/2019/09/15/voice-…

Italian communist discusses European imperialism
John Catalinotto | workers.org | 2019-09-13
Alessio Arena, secretary general of the Italian communist group Fronte Popolare (Popular Front), spoke to a full house at the Solidarity Center in Manhattan on Sept. 5 about the role of European imperialism in the world and the central role of German imperialism in controlling the direction of the European . . . | Continue reading Italian communist discusses European imperialism at Workers.org
workers.org/2019/09/12/italian-communist…

In the Pacific Islands, the Trump Administration Sees Empire, Ignores Climate Change
Edward Hunt | progressive.org | 2019-09-13
The U.S. government views the islands as keys to controlling the Pacific and constraining the rise of China.
progressive.org/dispatches/pacific-islan…

What Is Energy Denial?
Don Fitz | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-09-13
The fiftieth anniversary of the first Earth Day of 1970 will be in 2020. As environmentalism has gone mainstream during that half a century, it has forgotten its early focus and shifted toward green capitalism. Nowhere is this more apparent than abandonment of the slogan popular during the early Earth Days: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." The …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/09/what-is-energ…

As the Amazon forest burns, corporate media deflects blame
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-09-13
climate emergency Brian MierIssue 1237 Australia Amazon fires ranchers monocultureSeptember 13, 2019I spent last week in the Brazilian Am…
greenleft.org.au/content/amazon-forest-burns-corporate-media-deflects-blame

With Trump in Office, Newspapers Increasingly Quoted Anti-Immigrant Groups Without Explaining Who They Were
Maryam Saleh | theintercept.com | 2019-09-12
A new study found that, as far-right groups gained influence in the halls of power, major newspapers quoted them without noting their nativist bent.
theintercept.com/2019/09/12/anti-immigra…

Bernie Sanders Is Fighting to End the Media's Demonization of Socialism
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-09-12
We had a conversation with Sen. Sanders' Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray on the right-wing talking points used by mainstream media to discredit Sen. Sanders and the falsehoods about socialism perpetuated by the GOP…
therealnews.com/stories/bernie-sanders-i…

Brexit reveals Corbyn to be the True Moderate
Jonathan Cook | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-09-12
If there is an upside to Brexit, it is this: it has made it increasingly hard to present Jeremy Corbyn, contrary to everything the corporate media has been telling us for the past four years, as anything but a political moderate. In truth, he is one of the few moderates left in British — or …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/09/brexit-reveal…

Hurricane Dorian Was Fueled by Climate Change. Why Isn't the Mainstream Media Making the Connection?
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-09-09
At least 44 people are dead, and the number is expected to rise dramatically, as the Bahamas continues to reel from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian last week. More than 70,000 on Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands have been left homeless, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, remain missing. As the Bahamas faces unprecedented destruction and thousands continue to seek shelter and aid, the island nation has been described as "ground zero" for the climate crisis. Despite this, the mainstream media has largely omitted any mention of global warming in its coverage of the disaster. We speak to Allison Fisher, o…
www.democracynow.org/2019/9/9/hurricane_…

New Season of Amazon's Jack Ryan Focused on Venezuela Denounced as 'Over-the-Top and Ridiculous' US Propaganda
Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-09-08
The upcoming season of Amazon's Jack Ryan could have been scripted by John Bolton.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14650

Climate Minimizers Don't Deny Climate Change–but Find Endless Reasons to Reject Sanders' Plan to Stop It
Esha Krishnaswamy | fair.org | 2019-09-06
Climate change is an existential threat to human civilization. If only corporate media acted like it. | While the majority of corporate media do not outright deny the reality of the human-caused climate crisis, they are filled with another brand of insidious ideologues that I call climate minimizers. These downplay the threat that climate change poses to all of us by ignoring scientific data, avoiding discussion on the actual impact of climate change, and hyper-focusing on trivial details. | These tendencies were on display…
fair.org/home/climate-minimizers-dont-de…

Identity Unmasked: Meet the Proprietors of the Internet's Largest Neo-Confederate Propaganda Machine
splcenter.org | 2019-09-03
A small Facebook campaign predicated on keeping Confederate monuments in place has morphed into a group of more than 200 ardent, secretive separatists planning to make the South a separate nation.
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence…

New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/employee-speec…