Monthly Archives: September 2020

2020-09-30: News Headlines

Caitlin Johnstone (2020-09-30). Russia Could Never Discredit The US Empire The Way These Guys Just Did. thealtworld.com Wow. | I mean, wow. | So in case you missed it, the first US presidential debate was everything the US empire deserves and a fair reflection of everything the US empire is. | If Vladimir Putin were every bit the election-meddling demon the Democrats say he is, and if he had unlimited time and unlimited resources to create the perfect ninety-minute propaganda video to discredit the US-led unipolar world order, he could not have designed one more effective than the performance that was just delivered by President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden with the help of moderator Chris Wallace. | Trump after b…

Ramzy Baroud (2020-09-30). Fight over the Mediterranean: France's Proxy War and the Budding Turkish-Russian Alliance. dissidentvoice.org Overwhelmed by uncontrollable circumstances, the Greek government is bracing for another financial crisis that promises to be as terrible as the last one in 2015. Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced on September 12 that Athens has made a "robust" arms deal that will "reinforce the armed forces" and create a "national shield". However, beyond Mitsotakis' …

Norman Solomon (2020-09-30). Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't Defeat Trump. indybay.org Don't get fooled again…

sputniknews (2020-09-30). 1st Presidential Debate in US: How Trump Managed to Look 'Stronger' Than Biden in 'Slanging Match'. sputniknews.com Despite polls conducted by US mainstream media, including CNN and CBS, saying that Joe Biden came out as the winner of the first presidential debate, political analysts are not rushing to give the victory to the Democratic Party nominee.

Aaron Maté (2020-09-29). The Grayzone's Aaron Maté testifies at UN on OPCW Syria cover-up. thegrayzone.com In remarks to the UN Security Council, The Grayzone's Aaron Maté details the OPCW's Douma cover-up scandal and urges UN members to support the chemical watchdog's inspectors whose evidence was suppressed. At an Arria-Formula Meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone delivers remarks on the OPCW's ongoing Syria scandal. Veteran OPCW inspectors who investigated an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 say that their probe was censored and manipulated. Under direct US …

Staff (2020-09-29). The Real News Network announces new editorial leadership. therealnews.com For Immediate Release | September 29, 2020 | Media contact: Charles Lenchner, charles@therealnews.com | Baltimore, MD The Real News Network (TRNN), an international nonprofit news project headquartered in Baltimore, today announced that Maximillian Alvarez, formerly an associate editor at The Chronicle Review, will serve as the new editor-in-chief for the organization. Additionally, TRNN announced the promotion of Lisa Snowden-McCray to managing editor and Baltimore editor. | TRNN's mission is to center the stories and voices mainstream, for-profit media too often ignores or marginalizes, a mission that both A…

RT (2020-09-29). Newly released FAA records only deepen mystery around 'jetpack man' sightings over Los Angeles as FBI continues probe. rt.com Inexplicable sightings of a man flying 3,000 feet above LA in a jetpack have only become more puzzling with the release of FAA records on the incident, showing pilots reporting other unidentified craft to confused air controllers. | Government records

RT (2020-09-29). Did BoJo steal 'build back better' tagline from BIDEN? Fact checkers can relax, as BOTH repeat an old UN slogan from JAPAN. rt.com UK PM Boris Johnson promised to 'build back better' with a new education program, which prompted suggestions he swiped a tagline of US presidential candidate Joe Biden. But did both plagiarize it from somewhere else? | Speaking at the Exeter College in Devon on Tuesday, Johnson

_____ (2020-09-28). Fake News Hoax Exposed: NY Times Podcast Star Lied About Joining ISIS. strategic-culture.org The main source for the hit New York Times podcast Caliphate lied about serving as an ISIS executioner. It's just the latest in a series of fake national security-related stories published by the US newspaper of record. | Ben NORTON: | The top US newspaper has been exposed for overseeing another large-scale fake news operation. | The main source for the New York Times' award-winning podcast,

Linn Washington Jr. (2020-09-28). Big Lies About Blacks From Bigot Boy. counterpunch.org During President Trump's appearance on a nationally televised Town Hall forum held recently at the U.S. Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he engaged in the 'Big Lie' — that propaganda technique linked with Hitler's Nazi regime. Trump spun Big Lies of varying size on topics ranging from health care to racial hatred throughout that Q-&-A session broadcast from

Caitlin A. Johnstone (2020-09-28). War Propaganda firm Bellingcat continues lying about Syria. mronline.org In December of 2016, the war propaganda firm Bellingcat ran an article assuring its readers that Twitter star Bana Alabed is a perfectly legitimate little Syrian girl and not at all a psyop designed to manufacture support for military interventionism against Bashar al-Assad.

Walter Smolarek (2020-09-28). Why are Azerbaijan and Armenia on the brink of war? liberationnews.org Intense fighting that broke out on Sunday between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left scores dead and hundreds wounded as the two neighboring states teeter on the brink of all-out war. At issue is the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave surrounded and claimed by Azerbaijan but de-facto controlled by forces representing the region's Armenian majority. …

Ian Cobain (2020-09-28). EXCLUSIVE: UK government probing cyber-attack over Syria propaganda leaks. middleeasteye.net EXCLUSIVE: UK government probing cyber-attack over Syria propaganda leaks | Ministers alerted after hackers dump details of covert Foreign Office programmes online, with suspicion focusing on Russia | Mon, 09/28/2020 – 16: 22 | A Syrian rebel fighter pictured in 2016. British government contractors helped to run media offices for opposition groups, according to leaked documents (AFP) | Hackers have penetrat…

Stephen Lendman (2020-09-28). Trump Nominates Right-Wing Ideologue for Supreme Court of the United States. globalresearch.ca On Saturday, Trump nominated US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett for SCOTUS. | If confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate as expected pre-November elections, it'll shift the High Court to a far-right 6 — 3 majority, potentially for …

Zero Hedge (2020-09-28). NYT Publishes 10,000 Word Summary of 20 Years of Trump Tax Returns; President Calls It "Totally Fake News" globalresearch.ca With the news and outrage cycle in need of a fresh Trump reset now that the first presidential debate is just two days away, on Sunday afternoon — almost exactly two years after the NYT first published a report alleging …

_____ (2020-09-28). How The Far Right Took Over The Mainstream. popularresistance.org In European politics, extensive statistical research has demonstrated that male working class voters tend to hold a much stronger propensity to vote for far-right political parties. While we need to be worried by disaffected white male voters in both modern far-right parties and in extremist political organisations, it is also important to note that the contemporary far-right in Europe (particularly the populist radical right) has sought to become more 'diversified' in attracting a wider section of voters in society, and in focusing on different issue areas.

Project Censored (2020-09-28). Make America Think Again — Mickey Huff at the 56th Annual Faculty Lecture at DVC. projectcensored.org As well as being the director of Project Censored, Mickey Huff is a faculty member at California's Diablo Valley College. This past April, he was invited to deliver the annual…

Editor (2020-09-28). Discredited Russian Bounty Story Exposes Media's Role in Status Quo. scheerpost.com By Maj. (ret.) Danny Sjursen / Original to Scheerpost It is an old journalistic trope: no one reads the correction … or the retraction. No matter how serious the error or profound the implications of the misreporting. Like, let's say the entire range of mainstream media took the word of unnamed intelligence sources as gospel and reported that the only other nuclear superpower — which supposedly… |

teleSUR (2020-09-28). California's Wildfires Remain Uncontrolled After Over 40 Days. telesurenglish.net The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Sunday informed that over 3.6 million acres of land have burned from wildfires in California so far this year, 26 people have died, and nearly 7,630 structures have been damaged or destroyed so far. | RELATED: | The state's biggest-ever fire, the August Complex in Mendocino, Humboldt, and Lake counties, has been active for 41 days and grown to 873,079 acres with 43 percent containment as of Sunday…

Andrew W Horne, Katy Vincent, Catherine A Hewitt, Lee J Middleton, Magda Koscielniak, Wojciech Szubert, Ann M Doust, Jane P Daniels, GaPP2 collaborative (2020-09-26). [Articles] Gabapentin for chronic pelvic pain in women (GaPP2): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. thelancet.com This study was adequately powered, but treatment with gabapentin did not result in significantly lower pain scores in women with chronic pelvic pain, and was associated with higher rates of side-effects than placebo. Given the increasing reports of abuse and evidence of potential harms associated with gabapentin use, it is important that clinicians consider alternative treatment options to off-label gabapentin for the management of chronic pelvic pain and no obvious pelvic pathology.

Richard Horton (2020-09-26). [Comment] Offline: COVID-19 is not a pandemic. thelancet.com As the world approaches 1 million deaths from COVID-19, we must confront the fact that we are taking a far too narrow approach to managing this outbreak of a new coronavirus. We have viewed the cause of this crisis as an infectious disease. All of our interventions have focused on cutting lines of viral transmission, thereby controlling the spread of the pathogen. The "science" that has guided governments has been driven mostly by epidemic modellers and infectious disease specialists, who understandably frame the present health emergency in centuries-old terms of plague.

sputniknews (2020-09-26). Biden Compares Trump to Nazi Propaganda Chief, Says Prepared For 'Lies' on Debates. sputniknews.com As the US November presidential election race between Democratic candidate Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump intensifies, next week on 29 September, will see the two holding their first presidential debate.

2020-09-29: News Headlines

Staff (2020-09-29). The Real News Network announces new editorial leadership. therealnews.com For Immediate Release | September 29, 2020 | Media contact: Charles Lenchner, charles@therealnews.com | Baltimore, MD The Real News Network (TRNN), an international nonprofit news project headquartered in Baltimore, today announced that Maximillian Alvarez, formerly an associate editor at The Chronicle Review, will serve as the new editor-in-chief for the organization. Additionally, TRNN announced the promotion of Lisa Snowden-McCray to managing editor and Baltimore editor. | TRNN's mission is to center the stories and voices mainstream, for-profit media too often ignores or marginalizes, a mission that both A…

Editor (2020-09-29). Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won't Defeat Trump. scheerpost.com Alec Perkins / CC BY 2.0] By Norman Solomon The big banner headline across the top of the New York Times homepage as Tuesday got underway — "TRUMP'S TAXES SHOW CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE" — might give the impression that Donald Trump is finally on the verge of political downfall. Don't believe it for a moment. The same kind of mistaken belief has led many to put undeserved trust in… |

_____ (2020-09-28). Fake News Hoax Exposed: NY Times Podcast Star Lied About Joining ISIS. strategic-culture.org The main source for the hit New York Times podcast Caliphate lied about serving as an ISIS executioner. It's just the latest in a series of fake national security-related stories published by the US newspaper of record. | Ben NORTON: | The top US newspaper has been exposed for overseeing another large-scale fake news operation. | The main source for the New York Times' award-winning podcast,

Linn Washington Jr. (2020-09-28). Big Lies About Blacks From Bigot Boy. counterpunch.org During President Trump's appearance on a nationally televised Town Hall forum held recently at the U.S. Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he engaged in the 'Big Lie' — that propaganda technique linked with Hitler's Nazi regime. Trump spun Big Lies of varying size on topics ranging from health care to racial hatred throughout that Q-&-A session broadcast from

Ian Cobain (2020-09-28). EXCLUSIVE: UK government probing cyber-attack over Syria propaganda leaks. middleeasteye.net EXCLUSIVE: UK government probing cyber-attack over Syria propaganda leaks | Ministers alerted after hackers dump details of covert Foreign Office programmes online, with suspicion focusing on Russia | Mon, 09/28/2020 – 16: 22 | A Syrian rebel fighter pictured in 2016. British government contractors helped to run media offices for opposition groups, according to leaked documents (AFP) | Hackers have penetrat…

Walter Smolarek (2020-09-28). Why are Azerbaijan and Armenia on the brink of war? liberationnews.org Intense fighting that broke out on Sunday between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left scores dead and hundreds wounded as the two neighboring states teeter on the brink of all-out war. At issue is the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave surrounded and claimed by Azerbaijan but de-facto controlled by forces representing the region's Armenian majority. …

Caitlin A. Johnstone (2020-09-28). War Propaganda firm Bellingcat continues lying about Syria. mronline.org In December of 2016, the war propaganda firm Bellingcat ran an article assuring its readers that Twitter star Bana Alabed is a perfectly legitimate little Syrian girl and not at all a psyop designed to manufacture support for military interventionism against Bashar al-Assad.

Stephen Lendman (2020-09-28). Trump Nominates Right-Wing Ideologue for Supreme Court of the United States. globalresearch.ca On Saturday, Trump nominated US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett for SCOTUS. | If confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate as expected pre-November elections, it'll shift the High Court to a far-right 6 — 3 majority, potentially for …

Zero Hedge (2020-09-28). NYT Publishes 10,000 Word Summary of 20 Years of Trump Tax Returns; President Calls It "Totally Fake News" globalresearch.ca With the news and outrage cycle in need of a fresh Trump reset now that the first presidential debate is just two days away, on Sunday afternoon — almost exactly two years after the NYT first published a report alleging …

teleSUR (2020-09-28). California's Wildfires Remain Uncontrolled After Over 40 Days. telesurenglish.net The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Sunday informed that over 3.6 million acres of land have burned from wildfires in California so far this year, 26 people have died, and nearly 7,630 structures have been damaged or destroyed so far. | RELATED: | The state's biggest-ever fire, the August Complex in Mendocino, Humboldt, and Lake counties, has been active for 41 days and grown to 873,079 acres with 43 percent containment as of Sunday…

Project Censored (2020-09-28). Make America Think Again — Mickey Huff at the 56th Annual Faculty Lecture at DVC. projectcensored.org As well as being the director of Project Censored, Mickey Huff is a faculty member at California's Diablo Valley College. This past April, he was invited to deliver the annual…

Editor (2020-09-28). Discredited Russian Bounty Story Exposes Media's Role in Status Quo. scheerpost.com By Maj. (ret.) Danny Sjursen / Original to Scheerpost It is an old journalistic trope: no one reads the correction … or the retraction. No matter how serious the error or profound the implications of the misreporting. Like, let's say the entire range of mainstream media took the word of unnamed intelligence sources as gospel and reported that the only other nuclear superpower — which supposedly… |

_____ (2020-09-28). How The Far Right Took Over The Mainstream. popularresistance.org In European politics, extensive statistical research has demonstrated that male working class voters tend to hold a much stronger propensity to vote for far-right political parties. While we need to be worried by disaffected white male voters in both modern far-right parties and in extremist political organisations, it is also important to note that the contemporary far-right in Europe (particularly the populist radical right) has sought to become more 'diversified' in attracting a wider section of voters in society, and in focusing on different issue areas.

_____ (2020-09-26). Leaked Docs Expose Massive Syria Propaganda Operation Waged by Western Govt Contractors and Media. strategic-culture.org Western government-funded intelligence cutouts trained Syrian opposition leaders, planted stories in media outlets from BBC to Al Jazeera, and ran a cadre of journalists. A trove of leaked documents exposes the propaganda network. | Ben NORTON | Leaked documents show how UK government contractors developed an advanced infrastructure of propaganda to stimulate support in the West for Syria's political and armed opposition. | Virtually every aspect of the Syrian opposition was cultivated and marketed by Western government-backed public relations firms, from their political narratives to their branding, from what th…

WSWS (2020-09-26). White House nears antitrust lawsuit against Google while advancing new censorship rules for social media. wsws.org Any antitrust action against Google by the US government, whether focused on the search or advertising aspects of the tech firm's business, has nothing to do with stopping anti-competitive practices or protecting the rights of consumers.

_____ (2020-09-26). Throw Sand In The Gears Of The Machine. popularresistance.org Humanity will continue along its self-destructive trajectory until the masses use the power of their numbers to force real change. Humanity will not use the power of its numbers to force real change as long as it's being successfully propagandized not to do so. The oligarchic propaganda machine is therefore the primary barrier to our transition from our self-destructive patterns into a healthy collaborative relationship with each other and with our ecosystem. | So throw sand in the gears of the machine. If enough of us throw enough sand, we can cause the whole thing to break down.

Andrew W Horne, Katy Vincent, Catherine A Hewitt, Lee J Middleton, Magda Koscielniak, Wojciech Szubert, Ann M Doust, Jane P Daniels, GaPP2 collaborative (2020-09-26). [Articles] Gabapentin for chronic pelvic pain in women (GaPP2): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. thelancet.com This study was adequately powered, but treatment with gabapentin did not result in significantly lower pain scores in women with chronic pelvic pain, and was associated with higher rates of side-effects than placebo. Given the increasing reports of abuse and evidence of potential harms associated with gabapentin use, it is important that clinicians consider alternative treatment options to off-label gabapentin for the management of chronic pelvic pain and no obvious pelvic pathology.

Richard Horton (2020-09-26). [Comment] Offline: COVID-19 is not a pandemic. thelancet.com As the world approaches 1 million deaths from COVID-19, we must confront the fact that we are taking a far too narrow approach to managing this outbreak of a new coronavirus. We have viewed the cause of this crisis as an infectious disease. All of our interventions have focused on cutting lines of viral transmission, thereby controlling the spread of the pathogen. The "science" that has guided governments has been driven mostly by epidemic modellers and infectious disease specialists, who understandably frame the present health emergency in centuries-old terms of plague.

sputniknews (2020-09-26). Biden Compares Trump to Nazi Propaganda Chief, Says Prepared For 'Lies' on Debates. sputniknews.com As the US November presidential election race between Democratic candidate Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump intensifies, next week on 29 September, will see the two holding their first presidential debate.

James ONeill (2020-09-26). Australia Ill-Equipped to Face the Challenges of the Emerging New World Order. globalresearch.ca The American writer Mark Twain once observed that there were three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies and statistics. In the 21st century that list might usefully be added to and include lies of omission. The modern mainstream media do …

Johanna Ross (2020-09-25). Hack Reveals UK's Propaganda Campaign to Drive Syrian Regime Change. globalresearch.ca When I