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Thousands of US Communities with Lead-Poisoned Water
Stephen Lendman
A December 19 Reuters “Off the Charts” report said “examination of lead testing results across the country found almost 3,000 areas with poisoning rates far higher than in” Flint, MI.
“Yet many of these lead hotspots are receiving little attention or funding” - showing shocking contempt for the health and welfare of millions of Americans.
Lead poisoning isn’t confined to Flint. It’s not even one of the most dangerous US hot spots. According to information obtained by Reuters, “nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates (have) at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city’s contamination crisis.”
“And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher.”
Neocon John McCain Blames Putin and Assad for US War Crimes in Syria
Stephen Lendman
McCain is part of the neocon lunatic fringe infesting Washington, a criminal gang waging war on humanity.
Syria is one of many countries America raped, massacring hundreds of thousands, displacing millions, their well-being destroyed, victims of US imperial viciousness.
Aleppo’s liberation is just cause for celebratory joy everywhere among people supporting peace and stability worldwide.
In a neocon Washington Post op-ed, McCain called it a “tragedy,” saying the city “has fallen to regime forces of Bashar al-Assad.”
He recited a litany of Big Lies, portraying liberation from the scourge of US-supported terrorists as aggressive conquest - ignoring Obama’s war, waged for imperial dominance and exploitation, using imported ISIS and other takfiri terrorists as American foot soldiers.
He praised the al-Qaeda-linked, Soros supported, White Helmet butchers, shamelessly calling them “intrepid…rescue workers.”
Obama Vows to Prove the Unprovable
Stephen Lendman
A long ago disgraced US president appears part of an ongoing coup attempt to deny Trump the office he won - a terrifying scenario heading for full-blown tyranny if a way isn’t found to stop it.
If successful, things will never be the same again. Be scared. Be very scared. Get involved to save the remnants of remaining freedoms before they’re gone and it’s too late.
At his yearend press conference, the last one of his presidency, he vowed to prove the unprovable, saying:
“We will provide evidence that we can safely provide, that does not compromise sources and methods. But I’ll be honest with you, when you’re talking about cybersecurity, a lot of it is classified and we are not going to provide it, because the way we catch folks is by knowing certain things about them that they don’t want us to know.”
N.Y. Times Hides News From Americans Unless U.S. Gov't. Approves
Eric Zuesse
On Wednesday, December 14th, the front page of The New York Times featured four news-reports, each of which displays how the employees (editors and reporters), who have been hired by the publisher, convey — by means of selective reporting and hiding of facts — the very same partisan political viewpoint, which the readers who subscribe to the publication will falsely believe to be ‘objective’ and ‘non-partisan’ (since otherwise they wouldn’t even be subscribers to that publication). A ‘journalist’ in such an organization is thus little different from any other public-relations or PR professional, except that the recipients of the PR that a journalist delivers, believe the PR to be honest, and a ‘free press’, not mere puffery for some product or political viewpoint. The following analysis of the NYT’s December 14th front page will show that whether or not such journalism is honest depends upon whether or not a person considers to have been honest such things as (to cite examples here that are trivial by comparison, and so are more simple, and famous) Bill Clinton’s statements, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, or “It depends upon what the meaning of is is”.
Is selective hiding of crucial facts ‘honest’, or really a ‘free press’? You’ll be the judge of that, here.
False Prophets and False News: Time for New Beginnings
James Petras
Introduction
There are deep flaws in the blogs, media reports, and official statements, which purport to describe world historic events and changes.
These so-called ‘up-to-date’ reports of major world events undergo repeated revisions in hours, days or weeks as the story is being ‘played out’. What might start out as a ‘scoop’ for the upwardly mobile journalist is transformed into a by-word for a ‘critical blogger’ rewriting mainstream reports by simply substituting negatives for pluses (or vice versa).
‘Immediacy’ trumps historical context and structural understanding. Protagonist or antagonists of the moment are demonized , slandered and scandalized, or lauded , praised and iconized.
The practice of deep falsification involves magnifying transient trivia and glossing over world-historic change. The false prophets substitute superficiality for deep understanding.
Soon after proclaiming a ‘major systemic transformation’, which fail to occur, a series of modifications or reversals take over, and the initial ‘great prophesy’ is forgotten – as if the readers of news were afflicted with an epidemic of dementia.
Most political parties, left, right and center, have their own unchanging warped world view to frame everyday minutiae.
When Truth-Telling Becomes Russian Propaganda
Stephen Lendman
Fake news is a US government, scoundrel media specialty - proliferating managed news misinformation agitprop, truth-telling suppressed on issues mattering most.
Propaganda wars precede hot ones. Deception, popular fiction and Big Lies launch them. Intense Russia bashing risks world peace, stability and security.
Washington’s imperial war machine is humanity’s greatest threat. Is Trump up to taming it? Will he try once in office?
Or were his campaign pledges just bluster? World peace and stability depends on which way he goes - along with whether he’ll defend waning freedoms or eliminate ones left, making America more of a police state than already.
Disgraceful US Anti-Semitism Awareness Act
Stephen Lendman
Long ago, anti-Semitism was an issue in America, very much so when I grew up. No longer. Today it’s in vogue to be Jewish.
As a Jew, I’m fiercely critical of Israeli ruthlessness, a state run by fascists, Zionist ideologues and religious fundamentalists. I intend no letup in my activism.
Unanimous Senate passage of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act is a bone to Israel and AIPAC, its main US lobby. House passage followed by Obama signing it into law is virtually certain.
The measure has nothing to do with addressing a growing number of “religiously motivated hate crimes” - everything to do with targeting vitally needed Israeli criticism and BDS support, especially on college campuses.
Chosen Leaders, Proven Failures and Political Debacles
James Petras
Introduction
With a few notable exceptions, political leaders are chosen by political leaders, and not by electorates or community-based organizations or popular assemblies. Popular media figures and the so-called ‘pundits’, including academics and self-declared experts and ‘think-tank’ analysts reinforce and propagate these choices.
A collection of terms and pseudo concepts are essential in validating what is really an oligarchical process. These concepts are tagged onto whoever is chosen by the elite for electoral candidates or for the seizure of political power. With this framework in mind, we have to critically analyze the symbols and signs used by popular opinion-makers as they promote political elites. We will conclude by posing an alternative to the ‘propaganda of choice’, which has so far resulted in broken pre-election promises and political debacles.
Language and Pseudo-Concepts: Subterfuges for Manipulated Choices
The usual suspects in the business of mass-manipulation describe their political leaders in the same folksy or pseudo-serious terms that they attribute to themselves: Experts/ intuitive improvisers/ trial and error ‘muddlers’. The ‘experts’ often mean wrong-headed policymakers and advisers whose decisions usually reflect the demands of their current paymasters. Their stated or unstated assumptions are rarely questioned and almost never placed in the context of the contemporary power structures. The experts determine the future trajectory for their political choices. In this way, the views expressed by ‘experts’ are primarily ideological and not some disembodied scholarly entity floating in an indeterminate space and time.
Pundits often promote ‘experience’ in describing the ‘experienced’ leader, adviser or cabinet member. They denigrate the opposition candidate adversary as ‘lacking experience’. The obvious questions to this platitude should be: ‘What kind of experience? What were the political results of this experience? Who did this experience serve?
Trump Allies w. Israel’s Justice Minister Who Advocated Exterminating Palestinians
Eric Zuesse
Many news-reports indicate that President-Elect Donald Trump’s Israel policy is in accord with that of his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner, who allegedly allies himself with Israel’s Jewish Home Party, which favors Israel's absorbing both the West Bank and the Gaza strip and imposing upon Palestinians the full rule by Israel’s government, regardless whether they accept it or not.
The Jewish Home Party was co-founded by Ayelet Shaked, Netanyahu’s Press Secretary, and by Naftali Bennett. Both Bennett and Shaked were elected to Israel’s Knesset or parliament in 2013. Bennett was Netanyahu’s Minister of Economy until 2015, when Netanyahu appointed him Minister of Education. During 2006-2008 Bennett had been Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff. On 14 May 2015, Shaked started her service, appointed by Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel’s Minister of Justice, equivalent to America’s Attorney General, serving now in a different and much higher capacity than before, her former boss, Netanyahu.
UN Aid in Syria Going to US-Supported Terrorists
Stephen Lendman
The UN largely operates as a wholly owned US subsidiary, serving its imperial interests - in flagrant violation of its Charter principles.
On November 30, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said world body aid is politicized - crumbs alone earmarked for thousands of Deir al-Zor residents, trapped by ISIS fighters, desperately needing help.
Most UN aid goes to US-supported terrorists. On Wednesday, Russia’s General Staff head of main operations Gen. Sergei Rudskoi accused the UN and other international organizations of refusing to provide humanitarian aid to Aleppo residents.
“The Russian Center for Reconciliation did not receive a single proposal on the humanitarian aid deliveries either from the UN or from any other international organization as if civilians no longer need food and medicine after militants have been driven out,” Rudskoi explained, Moscow alone providing it.
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