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Trump Sweeps 304 of 306 GOP Electors, Hillary Loses 5
Stephen Lendman
It’s all over but the postmortems. The campaign to dump Trump fizzled. The only surprise was Hillary losing five elector votes.
Commenting on why he rejected her, Hawaii Democrat elector said “(t)hey can call me faithless, but the point is if we don’t think someone’s qualified - and Hillary Clinton I do not feel is qualified.”
Four Washington state Democrat electors dumped her. Three others in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota unsuccessfully tried switching their votes from her.
For the first time in US history, more than one elector defected. Trump swept all GOP delegates except two in Texas. One voted for Ron Paul.
Obama Authorizes New Illegal Sanctions on Russia
Stephen Lendman
Imposition of sanctions is illegal without Security Council authorization. Countries imposing them unilaterally or complicit with other nations do so illegitimately.
Multiple rounds of US and EU sanctions on Russia have no legal standing. On December 20, a Treasury Department press release announced new ones on “seven individuals and eight entities under two Executive Orders…related to Russia and Ukraine, and identified two vessels as blocked property.”
The Treasury falsely accused Russia of occupying Crimea and continuing aggression in Ukraine, lied about US meeting its obligations under Minsk agreements, and absurdly claimed it acted to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow will respond asymmetrically at a time and way of its choosing. It has no idea what “next hostile moves” may be coming before Obama leaves office.
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?
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