Monthly Archives: September 2020

2020-09-28: News Headlines

Alan MacLeod (2020-09-28). As his extradition trial drags on, media and rights groups are still ignoring Julian Assange. mronline.org Many mainstream rights groups and media organizations have a mixed history when it comes to opposing Washington's agenda. The case of Julian Assange has been no exception.

_____ (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…

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. …

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…

_____ (2020-09-28). Discredited Russian Bounty Story Exposes Media's Role In Status Quo. popularresistance.org 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 rigged our last election, and runs our current president as an "asset" — had been offering Afghan militants bounties for the scalps of dead American soldiers.

_____ (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 …

Derek Royden (2020-09-25). The (flawed) case against Julian Assange. nationofchange.org The many mainstream journalists cheering on his extradition may come to regret in the future when the American government comes for them or their sources.

MEE staff (2020-09-25). US cuts $20m in funding for group helping pro-democracy efforts in Iran. middleeasteye.net US cuts $20m in funding for group helping pro-democracy efforts in Iran | Open Technology Fund supports activists operating in Iran, Belarus and Hong Kong, helping them bypass internet censorship and state surveillance | Fri, 09/25/2020 – 16: 33 | Iranian protesters run for cover from riot police (unseen) during an anti-government demonstration in Tehran in 2011 (AFP/File photo) | The Trump administration bloc…

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

Project Censored (2020-09-25). Episode 109 — RBG, The People's Party & RussiaGate with Jeremy Kuzmarov. projectcensored.org On today's episode, Nicholas Baham II (Dr. Dreadlocks), Janice Domingo, and Nolan Higdon discuss the life of RBG, The People's Party and RussiaGate with Jeremy Kuzmarov Along The Line is…

Project Censored (2020-09-25). The Virus Came From A Chinese Lab? Headlines and Pre-pubs, Oh My! Documenting The News Literacy Process. projectcensored.org By Nolan Higdon It was just another day in 2020: COVID-19 continued ravaging communities; we were still on lockdown; police and protesters were clashing in cities across the US; and…

Nora Barrows-friedman (2020-09-25). YouTube, Zoom and Facebook censor Leila Khaled for Israel. zcomm.org "They are bothered by the ways in which we are focusing on questions of Black liberation, Palestinian liberation and prison abolition, and the connections between these movements"

2020-09-27: News Headlines

_____ (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.

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.

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.

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 …

Derek Royden (2020-09-25). The (flawed) case against Julian Assange. nationofchange.org The many mainstream journalists cheering on his extradition may come to regret in the future when the American government comes for them or their sources.

MEE staff (2020-09-25). US cuts $20m in funding for group helping pro-democracy efforts in Iran. middleeasteye.net US cuts $20m in funding for group helping pro-democracy efforts in Iran | Open Technology Fund supports activists operating in Iran, Belarus and Hong Kong, helping them bypass internet censorship and state surveillance | Fri, 09/25/2020 – 16: 33 | Iranian protesters run for cover from riot police (unseen) during an anti-government demonstration in Tehran in 2011 (AFP/File photo) | The Trump administration bloc…

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

Project Censored (2020-09-25). Episode 109 — RBG, The People's Party & RussiaGate with Jeremy Kuzmarov. projectcensored.org On today's episode, Nicholas Baham II (Dr. Dreadlocks), Janice Domingo, and Nolan Higdon discuss the life of RBG, The People's Party and RussiaGate with Jeremy Kuzmarov Along The Line is…

Project Censored (2020-09-25). The Virus Came From A Chinese Lab? Headlines and Pre-pubs, Oh My! Documenting The News Literacy Process. projectcensored.org By Nolan Higdon It was just another day in 2020: COVID-19 continued ravaging communities; we were still on lockdown; police and protesters were clashing in cities across the US; and…

Nora Barrows-friedman (2020-09-25). YouTube, Zoom and Facebook censor Leila Khaled for Israel. zcomm.org "They are bothered by the ways in which we are focusing on questions of Black liberation, Palestinian liberation and prison abolition, and the connections between these movements"

Reuters (2020-09-24). Venezuela Launches London Appeal in Battle for $1 Billion in Gold. globalresearch.ca The Nicolas Maduro-backed Venezuelan central bank launched a landmark appeal in London on Tuesday over $1 billion ( £785.21 billion) of gold reserves held in the Bank of England's underground vaults. | The Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) board controlled by the …

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-09-24). Advocates Demand Facebook #StopCensoringPalestine After Platform Blocks Livestream Featuring Palestinian Rights Defenders. commondreams.org "When it comes to speech advocating for Palestinians. Facebook swiftly censors and removes content, often with no explanation." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

commondreams (2020-09-24). Thousands Call on Facebook to Stop Censoring Palestine. commondreams.org ______________________________…

_____ (2020-09-24). VIDEO: The Propaganda Campaign Against Russia Is Gathering Momentum. strategic-culture.org Russia does everything that any normal sovereign power should do. The problem is that Washington doesn't want any competition for their global monopoly on power. Watch the video and read more in the

_____ (2020-09-23). 'Confirmed' Has Become a Meaningless Word in Mainstream News Reporting. strategic-culture.org Caitlin JOHNSTONE | Last week Politico published a The claim was nonsensical on its face; the idea that Iran would see the assassination of some random ambassador to an irrelevant country as a proportionate…

Workers World Party (2020-09-23). Workers World Party demands "Stop Censoring Palestinian Resistance!" workers.org Sept. 23 — Today, three media platforms, Facebook, Zoom and YouTube, collaborated to censor a Palestinian program featuring Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled and U.S. political prisoners. Workers World Party condemns this censorship and expresses its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and freedom. The WWP Facebook . . . |

Brijana Prooker (2020-09-23). In Covering the West Coast Fires, We Can't Ignore People with Chronic Illnesses. progressive.org My autoimmune disease symptoms are flaring uncontrollably from the smoke, and I'm not alone in my plight.