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“Biden’s Disastrous Legislative Legacy”
Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, Cockburn just wrote the extensive cover story: “No Joe! Joe Biden’s disastrous legislative legacy.” Cockburn argues that many of today’s problems — “from ISIS to the so-called border crisis” — have their roots in policies Biden championed. Here are a few excerpts:
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FlyersRights.org Calls on FAA to Ground Boeing 737 MAX 8
“The FAA’s ‘wait and see’ attitude risks lives as well as the safety reputation of the U.S. aviation industry. Even assuming this design defect should not by itself take the aircraft out of service, the failure to warn airlines and pilots of the new feature, and the inadequacy of training requirements, necessitate an immediate temporary grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.”
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Breaking: U.S. Contractors Recently Arrested in Haiti Have Ties to Prominent Elites and Politicians
“The seven U.S.-based security contractors arrested in Port-au-Prince last month have ties to Haitian elites and politicians.” The investigation raises questions about why the U.S. government “broke with diplomatic procedures in getting the contractors — who were arrested a few blocks from the Central Bank with an array of weapons and driving in unmarked vehicles — out of Haiti, and why they have yet to be charged with any crimes in either the U.S. or Haiti.”
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Lies About Venezuela
The New York Times reports: “Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy.” Emersberger has written extensively on Venezuela and media coverage of the crisis for the media watch group FAIR including “Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President” and for the Canary. He said: “NYT was scooped on this by weeks by independent journalists like Max Blumenthal, but good to see. Bigger lie was the whole premise of the aid stunt.” (See FAIR piece “Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Cheap Trump/Rubio Venezuela Aid PR Stunt.”)
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Ellsberg: Manning Acting Heroically for Press Freedom in WikiLeaks Case
“Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately.”
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Breaking: Documents Show Gov Tracking Journalists and Lawyers at Border
“We’ve seen lawyers, activists, and journalists subject to unacceptable harassment and interrogation, with their electronic devices being searched or seized at the border for years. But this document provides clear evidence that the government is targeting people based on their First Amendment-protected activities. The U.S. border has become a Constitution-free zone, and CBP is an agency out of control. It’s time for Congress to step in to rein in the agency and reassert constitutional protections at the border.”
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Manipulating Charges of Anti-Semitism
“’Anti-semitic tropes’ are tendentiously read into Omar’s comments. AIPAC allies should stop hiding behind Jews, and Democratic politicians should stop feigning such sensitivity to Jewish feelings when Zionist lobbying is the subject. It’s a distasteful game.”
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What Happened to Syria? What’s Next?
Glass notes that despite Bashar Assad’s apparent victory, the Syrian civil war was much bloodier and more prolonged because of outside powers — the U.S., Russia and Iran — backing and arming various sides. The Saudis and the Qataris backed opposing jihadist forces. Thousands of these forces remain in the north of Syria, he warns, now controlled by Turkey, and pose a greater threat than ISIS. The Israeli government, he notes, was quite happy to see Syrians killing each other.
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U.N. Report of Israeli Crimes and the Efforts to Silence Critics
“This U.N. report is just the latest piece of evidence about Israel’s systematic brutality. The U.S. government quit the Human Rights Council to stop any serious criticism of Israel. And there’s a whole structure of anti-B.D.S. legislation and targeting of activists to silence people in the U.S.”
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Why Did Hanoi Summit Really Fail?
Kevin Gray, a specialist in international relations at the University of Sussex, England tweeted that “Former SK unification minister Chong Se-hyun suggests that summit was derailed by last minute attendance of Bolton, who added demands for NK to also report chemical/biological weapons, in response to which NKs increased their demand for sanctions relief.” National Security Adviser John Bolton is widely seen as responsible for the recent U.S. government announcement of withdrawing from the INF Treaty with Russia.
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn