(2020-01-07). Ms. Ocasio-Cortez Goes to Washington: AOC shamed into un-liking antiwar journalist's tweet, apologizing for wrongthink. rt.com 
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learned the hard way about the phalanx of thought-police waiting to pounce on politicians' 'wrongthink' when she was shamed into un-liking a tweet from an antiwar journalist. | Ocasio-Cortez (AOC, for short) stepped a little too far outside the mainstream when she clicked 'like' on a tweet by journalist Rania Khalek about US fears of Iranian retaliation over the killing of General Qassem Soleimani. An army of blue-checks and their enforcers quickly encircled her to point out the error of her ways, gloating when she finally knuckled under and apologized. | Last ni…
(2020-01-07). Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica's Psychological Manipulation of Voters. democracynow.org 
We continue our discussion of data harvesting, targeted advertising and voter manipulation — practices used by firms like Cambridge Analytica. The secretive data firm collapsed in May 2018 after The Observer newspaper revealed the company had harvested some 87 million Facebook profiles without the users' knowledge or consent to sway voters to support Trump during the 2016 campaign. A new trove of internal Cambridge Analytica documents and emails are being posted on Twitter detailing the company's operations, including its work with President Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton. We speak wit…
(2020-01-07). 52 Pick-Up: Trump's Deranged Threats to Bomb the Past. counterpunch.org 
On January 4th, President Trump tweeted that his military response to any Iranian military reactions to his assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani could include attacks on "52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD." For an administration whose acts in the present routinely require Orwellian carpet-bombing campaigns on the past (consider Mike Pence's lie this week that Iran was involved in the 9/11 attacks), t…
(2020-01-07). Impeach Trump for Acts of War on Iraq, Iran and Elsewhere. globalresearch.ca Trump's legal team reportedly prepared their strategy to challenge articles of impeachment by House Dems — yet to be sent to the GOP-controlled Senate for trial. | According to Law Professor Jonathan Turley, "(b)y rushing the impeachment and forcing a vote …
(2020-01-07). The US propaganda machine justifies the assassination of Qassem Suleimani. wsws.org To present with any degree of honesty the life of Major General Qassem Suleimani would require acknowledging the criminal role the United States has played in subverting the interests of the people of Iran and the entire Middle East for upwards of 70 years.
(2020-01-06). Censorship in Canada? Vanessa Beeley's Talks on Syria. dissidentvoice.org 
White Helmets Vanessa Beeley is a British journalist who was invited to Canada in the fall of 2019 to present talks in seven cities on the conflict in Syria. The sponsors of her speaking tour were several anti-war groups, including the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, and Peace Alliance …
(2020-01-06). Conservative satire as popular as mainstream news, journalists and cyberwarriors furious. rt.com 
A satirical article claiming the Democratic Party is officially mourning the death of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani has been shared more times than most CNN and New York Times articles, annoying the joke police. | Soleimani, who commanded the Iranian military Quds Force, was killed in an American airstrike last week, an assassination which raised already high tensions between Washington and Tehran to boiling point. Democrats criticized Trump for ordering Soleimani's killing, prompting conservative satire site the Babylon Bee to put its own spin on events. | "Democrats call for flags to be flown a…
(2020-01-06). America Escalates Its "Democratic" Oil War in the Near East. counterpunch.org 
The mainstream media are carefully sidestepping the method behind America's seeming madness in assassinating Islamic Revolutionary Guard general Qassim Suleimani to start the New Year. The logic behind the assassination this was a long-standing application of U.S. global policy, not just a personality quirk of Donald Trump's impulsive action. His assassination of Iranian military leader Suleimani was indeed a unilateral act of war in violation of international law, but it was a logical step in a long-standing U.S. strategy. It was explicitly authorized by the Senate in the funding bill for the Pentagon that it pa…
(2020-01-06). WhatsApp and fake news, or how to kill democracy. mronline.org 
Fears and anxieties are used to create and diffuse fake news and manipulate the electorate. This is what happened at the last Brazilian election. A group of researchers studied the case in order to develop a method to deal with fake news. | Source
(2020-01-06). Buttigieg and Biden Are Masters of Evasion. counterpunch.org In a recent New Yorker profile of Pete Buttigieg, one sentence stands out: "Watch Buttigieg long enough and you notice that he uses abstraction as an escape hatch." Evasive platitudes are also routine for Joe Biden, the other major Democratic presidential candidate running in what mainstream journalists call "the center lane." Jim Hightower has observed that "there's More
(2020-01-06). Top Senate Democrats Demand Trump Declassify Decision to Kill Soleimani That Brought US to the 'Brink of War With Iran'. commondreams.org Two leading Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate implored President Donald Trump on Monday to immediately declassify the formal notification submitted to Congress detailing the White House decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike last week. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2020-01-05). Trump Says Tweets Serve as 'Notification' to US Congress. telesurenglish.net United States President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that his tweets will serve as notification to the U.S. Congress in case he decides to strike Iran. | RELATED: | Thousands Mourn Iranian General as Quds Force Unfurls Red Flag | "These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required,…
(2020-01-04). 'Supermani': CNN contributor falls for obvious Iran satire as US journos struggle to understand who Soleimani really was. rt.com 
Neoconservative mainstream media favorite Michael Weiss appears to have fallen for a satirical piece on Qassem Soleimani that claimed the man did not cast a shadow and was nicknamed "Supermani." | Daily Beast senior editor and frequent CNN guest Michael Weiss is earning plenty of mockery on social media following him appearing to fall for a clearly satirical story on the legend of Qassem Soleimani, the late Iranian general recently assassinated by the US military. | "It was a well cultivated (and mythologized) aura, which the…
(2019-12-27). The Top 5 Mainstream Media Myths That Perpetuate Income Inequality. therealnews.com 
The Real News takes aim at the top 5 mainstream myths that bolster income inequality and tout the ultra-rich.
(2019-12-02). The War on Truth: How Israel's Social Media Trolls Conquered Facebook. zcomm.org Israel may have found a way to circumvent the influence of Facebook on the discussions pertaining to Palestinian rights and the Israeli occupation…
(2019-12-02). What George Carlin Taught Us about Media Propaganda by Omission. zcomm.org Corporate TV news outlets serve up a series of partial scores. Call it "propaganda by omission"