2020-02-08: News Headlines

Chauncey K. Robinson (2020-02-08). 'Birds of Prey' and the emancipation of women-led comic book movies. peoplesworld.org Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is the first mainstream R-rated female-led comic book movie. It also happens to be one of the boldest in breaking away from overused tropes viewers have come to expect from action and comic book films alike. The "lovable psycho" Harley Quinn gets a live-action …

RT (2020-02-08). More than a dozen killed in fireworks explosion at religious festival in northern India. rt.com A religious festival in India's northern state of Punjab has ended in tragedy as a trolley carrying fireworks was set ablaze and exploded, killing over a dozen people. | The blast rocked a "nagar kirtan" Sikh religious procession near Pahu village in the Tarn Taran district on Saturday. | Fireworks were an essential part of the festivities, but at some point the sparks landed on a trolley, which carried a large load of pyrotechnics, causing it to explode. |

WSWS (2020-02-08). Republican Senator Lindsey Graham introduces bill that threatens end-to-end encryption. wsws.org The assault on end-to-end encryption is part of the ongoing drive by the state to censor and regulate content on the internet.

Dave Lindorff (2020-02-07). The Democratic Party Leadership Has Done the Impossible, Disgracing Itself! dissidentvoice.org Bernie Sanders declares victory on Thursday in chaotic (and perhaps unsuccessfully DNC-hacked) Iowa Caucus Hooray for Bernie Sanders! He waited until he had the numbers and now he's calling it. He won Iowa! Maybe the same corporate media that have been touting Pete Buttigieg as the "presumptive winner" in the messy Iowa Caucus, now that …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-02-07). Who is Behind "Fake News"? Mainstream Media Use Fake Videos and Images. globalresearch.ca The mainstream corporate media is desperate. They want to suppress independent and alternative online media, which they categorize as "fake news". Readers on social media are warned not to go onto certain sites. Our analysis confirms that the mainstream media are routinely involved in distorting the facts and turning realities upside down.

Alan Macleod (2020-02-07). Media, Democratic Establishment Panics as Sanders Predicted to Sweep All 50 States. mintpressnews.com No matter how much mainstream media and establishment Democratic pols attempt to spin the results, Iowa has many of those in the establishment very worried, to say the least.

WSWS (2020-02-07). UK: Tory health secretary signals ditching Accident and Emergency targets as crisis in NHS worsens. wsws.org Research by the Patient Association found that 5,500 NHS patients died over the past three years due to spending so long on a trolley in overcrowded hospital A&E units.

Ariel Dorfman (2020-02-07). Trump May Not be a Dictator, But He Has a Despot's Sense of Impunity. counterpunch.org Now that President Trump has been "acquitted" in a sham trial by the Republican-controlled Senate and given unfettered license to act as he pleases, is there a real danger that he will become a dictator? According to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the House impeachment managers,

Jeffrey St. Clair (2020-02-07). Roaming Charges: When Satan Quotes Scripture. counterpunch.org The caucus system has been fetishized by the political pundit class for decades as an example of small state "town hall" style democracy in action. In fact, they're anti-democratic, often controlled by party bosses, where, lacking secret ballots, people bullied into voting with the mob. Less than 10 percent of registered Democrats turn out for these spectacles, far less than 60 percent you'd expect to vote in a primary. In the last few election cycles, however, Obama, Ron Paul and Sanders figured out how to exploit some of the weaknesses of the caucus system to defeat the bosses, which has resulted in the party t…

RT (2020-02-06). PHONY liberal media turns Republican Romney into HERO for sticking it to Trump (just like it did McCain & Bush). rt.com Mitt Romney is the latest token Republican being hoisted up on the shoulders of the mainstream media thanks to his "courageous" decision to defy Donald Trump by voting with Democrats to impeach the president. | You would think the Utah senator single-handedly defeated Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and then rescued a few kittens out of trees on his way home the way the media is writing about him. | The New Yorker declared that the former presidential candidate "seized" a chance to "rewrite his own place in history" with his impeachment vote. | An opinion piece in the Washington Post deemed the decision "cou…

Jim Naureckas (2020-02-06). How Corporate Media Make Pete Look Like He's Winning. fair.org If you turn to the New York Times for an On closer examination, it turns out that that is not a bar chart…

Staff (2020-02-05). In State of the Union, Trump Celebrates Hate & Xenophobia While Touting "Great American Comeback" democracynow.org President Trump delivered his third State of the Union address Tuesday night, just a day before the Republican-controlled Senate is expected to vote to acquit him in the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. Trump's speech, which focused heavily on the economy and immigration, sounded at times like a campaign rally, with Republican lawmakers chanting "Four more years!" He never once mentioned his impeachment trial. Prior to the speech, Trump refused to shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand, and once the speech was over, Pelosi was seen on television ripping up her copy of Trump's remarks. She la…

Ben Norton (2020-02-04). HuffPost UK editor works with gov't censorship program while smearing anti-war scholars as tools of Russia. thegrayzone.com HuffPost UK ran yet another hit piece smearing academic critics of the dirty war on Syria as Russian stooges. The…

Staff (2020-02-03). "A Grand Tragedy": Democrats Slam Republican Stonewalling in Senate Impeachment Trial. democracynow.org The Republican-controlled Senate appears poised to acquit President Trump in just the third impeachment trial in U.S. history, with a final vote on the two articles of impeachment scheduled for Wednesday. On Friday, the Senate voted 51 to 49 against calling witnesses to the Senate trial. Just two Republican senators supported calling for witnesses and collecting new evidence: Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine. Without new witnesses, Republicans have cleared the biggest hurdle in their drive to acquit President Trump on the two impeachment charges, which relate to his withholding of military aid to Uk…

Alan MacLeod (2020-02-03). News Flash: Billionaires Don't Like Socialism. fair.org Big news, everyone! Billionaires don't like socialism. In response to a rising progressive tide in the United States, a new genre of stories has emerged in corporate media: rich guys warning against taxing them, or really changing anything about the system at all. Just as the press are keen for you to know that …

Anya Parampil (2020-01-30). US government censorship? Social media giants disappear accounts of Iranian and Venezuelan academics, journalists. thegrayzone.com Red Lines host Anya Parampil talks with Professor Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran. Professor Marandi's Facebook and Instagram…

splcenter (2020-01-30). White Nationalist State Department Official Still Active in Hate Movement. splcenter.org U.S. State Department official Matthew Q. Gebert has been steadily producing white nationalist propaganda in the nearly six months since he was suspended from his job, Hatewatch has learned.

splcenter (2020-01-30). White Nationalist Podcaster Identified as U.S. Army Veteran. splcenter.org White nationalist State Department official Matthew Q. Gebert is regularly producing white supremacist propaganda with a man named Michael McKevitt, formerly of the U.S. Army, Hatewatch has determined.