mintpressnews--2020-12-30--Economist Behind 2008 Financial Crash Among Elites Warning Against $2000 Stimulus Checks

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary , Chief Economist of the World Bank , Director of the National Economic Council , and President of Harvard University , Lawrence Summers has warned against any implementation of a $ 2,000 COVID relief check .
Writing in business publication Bloomberg , the 66-year-old economist insisted that the proposal , which has drawn support from figures as diverse as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump , was a “ big mistake , ” as it would likely “ overheat the economy.
” He noted that he did support strengthening social safety nets and other spending measures , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much .
“ There is no good economic argument for the $ 2,000 checks , ” he confidently concluded .
Yet there are many reasons not to treat Summers as an infallible economic sage .
Chief among them is his ( major ) role in causing the 2008 financial crisis that devastated the United States and much of the rest of the world .
During his time in the Department of the Treasury under President Clinton , Summers successfully lobbied for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act , a 60-year-old piece of legislation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ west of investment banking , insulating Americans ’ savings from the dangerous world of venture capitalism .
He also pushed for increased deregulation of the finance system in general , setting the stage for an inevitable collapse .
A paid consultant to Citigroup and other financial behemoths , he also later opposed efforts to break up the “ too big to fail ” banks after the crisis .
This is perhaps not even Summers ’ most notorious moment , however .
In 2000 , the Governor of California Gray Davis ( D ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for advice , suspecting that energy giant Enron was toying with the state ’ s energy supply for profit , greatly increasing electricity prices even while power outages surged .
Summers reportedly scoffed at his suspicions , patiently explaining that California ’ s main problem was over-regulation and that he should allow Enron to operate more freely .
One year later , Davis ’ s suspicions were confirmed as Enron went bankrupt in a massive scandal that exposed the company as a Ponzi scheme .
Summers has always been a passionate believer in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the World Bank , he imposed austerity and trickle-down economics on a myriad of poor countries , while also infamously promoting the export of toxic waste from rich countries onto poor countries in Africa on economic grounds , suggesting that poor people ’ s lives were worth less than those of the rich .
“ The economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that , ” he wrote .
Summers also resigned from his position as President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of no confidence from the university ’ s faculty .
This came in the wake of him attacking African-American professor Cornel West , claiming that his rap album was an “ embarrassment ” to the university .
It appeared that the faculty found Summers ’ comments that women were inherently inferior in science and engineering , thus explaining the lack of female graduates and staff in those fields , to be more of an embarrassment , however .
No doubt the wild financial risks he took with Harvard ’ s endowment — blunders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1.8 billion — did not help his cause , either .
Summers is not the only one in corporate media sounding the alarm about giving money to poor people .
The Washington Post was so strongly against the idea that its board rushed out an editorial insisting that it was a “ bad idea ” pushed for political reasons , not economic ones , claiming that all it would achieve would be to “ blow nearly half a trillion taxpayer dollars.
” Meanwhile , economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman warned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” and that their economics “ aren ’ t very good.
” What “ divisive ” means in this context appears unclear , as a recent poll showed that 78 % of Americans support the $ 2,000 checks .
57 % “ strongly support ” them , while only 7 % “ strongly oppose ” them .
The cost of the project , estimated by detractors at around $ 464 billion , is less than one-quarter of what the billionaire class has increased its wealth by in 2020 .
At the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ richer , however , ordinary Americans have been suffering .
A September report noted that 56 million had been forced to use a food bank at some point , while 51 million Americans were made unemployed by July .
A poll released Monday found that Americans rated 2020 to be the worst year in modern history .
A $ 2,000 check at the end of it might have made some difference in their outlook , but if Summers has anything to do with it , that will not be coming their way at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers attends the meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during China Development Forum 2017 at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse , March 20 , 2017 in Beijing .
Etienne Oliveau | Pool via AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Chief Economist of the World Bank, Director of the National Economic Council, and President of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers has warned against any implementation of a $2,000 COVID relief check.
Writing in business publication Bloomberg, the 66-year-old economist insisted that the proposal, which has drawn support from figures as diverse as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, was a “big mistake,” as it would likely “overheat the economy.” He noted that he did support strengthening social safety nets and other spending measures, but maintained that $2,000 was too much. “There is no good economic argument for the $2,000 checks,” he confidently concluded.
Yet there are many reasons not to treat Summers as an infallible economic sage. Chief among them is his (major) role in causing the 2008 financial crisis that devastated the United States and much of the rest of the world.
During his time in the Department of the Treasury under President Clinton, Summers successfully lobbied for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a 60-year-old piece of legislation that separated commercial banking from the wild west of investment banking, insulating Americans’ savings from the dangerous world of venture capitalism. He also pushed for increased deregulation of the finance system in general, setting the stage for an inevitable collapse. A paid consultant to Citigroup and other financial behemoths, he also later opposed efforts to break up the “too big to fail” banks after the crisis.
This is perhaps not even Summers’ most notorious moment, however. In 2000, the Governor of California Gray Davis (D), reached out to the then-Treasury Secretary for advice, suspecting that energy giant Enron was toying with the state’s energy supply for profit, greatly increasing electricity prices even while power outages surged. Summers reportedly scoffed at his suspicions, patiently explaining that California’s main problem was over-regulation and that he should allow Enron to operate more freely. One year later, Davis’s suspicions were confirmed as Enron went bankrupt in a massive scandal that exposed the company as a Ponzi scheme.
Summers has always been a passionate believer in the magic of the free-market. While at the World Bank, he imposed austerity and trickle-down economics on a myriad of poor countries, while also infamously promoting the export of toxic waste from rich countries onto poor countries in Africa on economic grounds, suggesting that poor people’s lives were worth less than those of the rich. “The economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that,” he wrote.
Summers also resigned from his position as President of Harvard in 2006 after a vote of no confidence from the university’s faculty. This came in the wake of him attacking African-American professor Cornel West, claiming that his rap album was an “embarrassment” to the university. It appeared that the faculty found Summers’ comments that women were inherently inferior in science and engineering, thus explaining the lack of female graduates and staff in those fields, to be more of an embarrassment, however. No doubt the wild financial risks he took with Harvard’s endowment — blunders estimated to have cost the university $1.8 billion — did not help his cause, either.
Summers is not the only one in corporate media sounding the alarm about giving money to poor people. The Washington Post was so strongly against the idea that its board rushed out an editorial insisting that it was a “bad idea” pushed for political reasons, not economic ones, claiming that all it would achieve would be to “blow nearly half a trillion taxpayer dollars.” Meanwhile, economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman warned that the checks would be “divisive,” and that their economics “aren’t very good.” What “divisive” means in this context appears unclear, as a recent poll showed that 78% of Americans support the $2,000 checks. 57% “strongly support” them, while only 7% “strongly oppose” them.
The cost of the project, estimated by detractors at around $464 billion, is less than one-quarter of what the billionaire class has increased its wealth by in 2020. At the same time as the super-rich have been getting richer, however, ordinary Americans have been suffering. A September report noted that 56 million had been forced to use a food bank at some point, while 51 million Americans were made unemployed by July. A poll released Monday found that Americans rated 2020 to be the worst year in modern history. A $2,000 check at the end of it might have made some difference in their outlook, but if Summers has anything to do with it, that will not be coming their way at all.
Feature photo | Former U.S. Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers attends the meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during China Development Forum 2017 at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, March 20, 2017 in Beijing. Etienne Oliveau | Pool via AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-01-31--As Coronavirus Spreads So Does Anti-Chinese Racism

Facing the worldwide spread of the coronavirus , the World Health Organization declared a global emergency yesterday in response to the outbreak .
Up from just 548 on January 22 , there are , as of Friday afternoon , 9,600 confirmed cases of the disease , and 213 people have already died , all of them Chinese .
The majority of the infections and more than 95 percent of the deaths have occurred in the central province of Hubei , particularly in the city of Wuhan , one of China ’ s largest cities and a major transport hub .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ authorities for the speedy and comprehensive measures taken to combat the virus , including their transparency and their willingness to cooperate with the international community .
Nevertheless , the virus has already traveled around the world , with confirmed cases in North America , Australia and many European and Asian countries .
And as the virus has spread , so has anti-Chinese sentiment .
Similar to how Ebola was racialized as a distinctly African illness , news of the coronavirus has led to an outbreak of anti-Chinese sentiment across the West .
Across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Chinese people being refused service in restaurants .
In Canada , Chinese children claim to be being bullied at school .
Meanwhile , in Paris , a video of an Asian woman on a train surrounded by white people covering their faces in fear went viral .
Many of the fears being stoked are based upon old stereotypes of the Yellow Peril – a racist belief that East Asians were flooding Western countries with disease .
Yellow Peril has plagued immigrant communities in the U.S. since the earliest waves of Chinese immigration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newspaper printed the headline “ Yellow Alert !
” on its front page , suggesting the country was facing a “ new yellow peril.
” As two thirds of the first people carrying the virus had visited a live animal market in Wuhan , one hypothesis is that it was passed to humans through animal contact , possibly through bats .
This has fed into stereotypes that Chinese people have poor hygiene standards and will eat anything .
One video online of a young Chinese woman eating bat soup led to a deluge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) claiming that the practice was revolting and blaming her for the outbreak .
Conservative commentator Paul Joseph Watson even invented imaginary progressives that were forcing him to eat the bat or face being called bigoted .
Few seemed to care that the video was over three years old and was actually shot in Palau , a country thousands of miles from China .
Rhea Liang , a doctor in Queensland , Australia , revealed that her patients talked about refusing to shake her hand because of the coronavirus .
Dr. Liang is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left Australia since the outbreak .
“ This is racism , ” she concluded .
Meanwhile , after the TV personality shared a picture of himself with Korean pop band B.T.S.
, one user ’ s comment that “ James Corden dies of the coronavirus ” garnered 25 thousand likes on Twitter .
Thus , it appears to have taken very little for negative resentment towards Chinese people to bubble to the surface .
As one user said in a well-publicized tweet , “ Because of some folks in China who eat weird @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snakes , the entire world is about to suffer a plague.
” But if Americans are worried about potential outbreaks of disease , they need not look as far afield as China .
A poll published yesterday revealed that over 40 percent of the country does not always wash their hands after using the bathroom .
Meanwhile , a new report released last week found that dozens of major cities ’ drinking water , including Washington , D.C. , Philadelphia , New Orleans and Miami , have been found to contain toxic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not garner similar publicity to the coronavirus .
American meat is also well known to have serious hygiene issues , with reports finding that meat is riddled with fecal matter .
One serious fear in Britain is that Brexit will lead to the country being flooded with dangerous American meat that was previously banned under E.U .
regulation .
According to the latest Pew Research Center poll , only a quarter of Americans see China positively , with nearly two-thirds holding openly negative opinions about the country , with similar results found across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complete with the wave of xenophobia , is unlikely to improve the situation .
Feature photo | Passengers arriving from a China Southern Airlines flight from Changsha in China are screened for the new type of coronavirus upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi , Kenya , Jan. 29 , 2020 .
Patrick Ngugi | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

Facing the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency yesterday in response to the outbreak. Up from just 548 on January 22, there are, as of Friday afternoon, 9,600 confirmed cases of the disease, and 213 people have already died, all of them Chinese. The majority of the infections and more than 95 percent of the deaths have occurred in the central province of Hubei, particularly in the city of Wuhan, one of China’s largest cities and a major transport hub. The World Health Organization has praised Chinese authorities for the speedy and comprehensive measures taken to combat the virus, including their transparency and their willingness to cooperate with the international community.
Nevertheless, the virus has already traveled around the world, with confirmed cases in North America, Australia and many European and Asian countries. And as the virus has spread, so has anti-Chinese sentiment. Similar to how Ebola was racialized as a distinctly African illness, news of the coronavirus has led to an outbreak of anti-Chinese sentiment across the West. Across Europe and Asia, there are reports of Chinese people being refused service in restaurants. In Canada, Chinese children claim to be being bullied at school. Meanwhile, in Paris, a video of an Asian woman on a train surrounded by white people covering their faces in fear went viral.
https://twitter.com/Blayofficial/status/1222648026663178240
Many of the fears being stoked are based upon old stereotypes of the Yellow Peril – a racist belief that East Asians were flooding Western countries with disease. Yellow Peril has plagued immigrant communities in the U.S. since the earliest waves of Chinese immigration in the nineteenth century. One French newspaper printed the headline “Yellow Alert!” on its front page, suggesting the country was facing a “new yellow peril.” As two thirds of the first people carrying the virus had visited a live animal market in Wuhan, one hypothesis is that it was passed to humans through animal contact, possibly through bats. This has fed into stereotypes that Chinese people have poor hygiene standards and will eat anything. One video online of a young Chinese woman eating bat soup led to a deluge of hate online (including from media) claiming that the practice was revolting and blaming her for the outbreak. Conservative commentator Paul Joseph Watson even invented imaginary progressives that were forcing him to eat the bat or face being called bigoted. Few seemed to care that the video was over three years old and was actually shot in Palau, a country thousands of miles from China.
Rhea Liang, a doctor in Queensland, Australia, revealed that her patients talked about refusing to shake her hand because of the coronavirus. Dr. Liang is actually from New Zealand and has not left Australia since the outbreak. “This is racism,” she concluded. Meanwhile, after the TV personality shared a picture of himself with Korean pop band B.T.S., one user’s comment that “James Corden dies of the coronavirus” garnered 25 thousand likes on Twitter. Thus, it appears to have taken very little for negative resentment towards Chinese people to bubble to the surface. As one user said in a well-publicized tweet, “Because of some folks in China who eat weird shit like bats, rats, and snakes, the entire world is about to suffer a plague.”
Frankly shameful that China is doing a quarantine on its own citizens. Or not doing enough of a quarantine. Whatever China is doing it's incredibly bad — Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) January 27, 2020
But if Americans are worried about potential outbreaks of disease, they need not look as far afield as China. A poll published yesterday revealed that over 40 percent of the country does not always wash their hands after using the bathroom. Meanwhile, a new report released last week found that dozens of major cities’ drinking water, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami, have been found to contain toxic, cancer causing chemicals. The report did not garner similar publicity to the coronavirus. American meat is also well known to have serious hygiene issues, with reports finding that meat is riddled with fecal matter. One serious fear in Britain is that Brexit will lead to the country being flooded with dangerous American meat that was previously banned under E.U. regulation.
According to the latest Pew Research Center poll, only a quarter of Americans see China positively, with nearly two-thirds holding openly negative opinions about the country, with similar results found across the West. The latest news, complete with the wave of xenophobia, is unlikely to improve the situation.
Feature photo | Passengers arriving from a China Southern Airlines flight from Changsha in China are screened for the new type of coronavirus upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 29, 2020. Patrick Ngugi | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-01-31--On Holocaust Memorial Day US Embassy Falsely Claims America Liberated Auschwitz

The United States Embassy in Denmark has apologized for a statement it made earlier this week that incorrectly claimed that it was American troops that liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp .
In fact , Red Army troops reached its gates on January 27 , 1945 .
“ We acknowledge the important contributions of all Allied Forces during WWII and remember the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust , ” the correction read .
The incorrect statement was immediately met with scorn online from those who felt this was another example of Soviet erasure and an insult to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fascism in Europe .
Users replied with pictures of Red Army troops liberating the camp .
Those same people would likely be unimpressed at the news that Wikipedia has been removing those same pictures , a fact discovered by Lithuanian journalist Vladimir Vodo .
While the encyclopedia ’ s administrators argued that they might not technically be in the public domain , erasing images of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day is not an optically wise move .
The Soviet Union is responsible for killing about four of every five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 95 percent of all Allied Army casualties .
The scale of their loss was enormous ; the current Russian government estimates the Soviet losses at 26.6 million dead – around sixty-three times the total American sacrifice in both Europe and the Pacific .
Even comparatively tiny states like Latvia and Lithuania lost a similar number of people as the entire United States .
This is far from common knowledge in America ; a 2015 poll found that just 11 percent of Americans knew that the Soviet Union contributed the most to the defeat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ majority who answered picking the U.S. as the most important nation .
This finding was replicated all over Western Europe , except in the United Kingdom , where Britons incorrectly believed they primarily defeated the Soviet Union .
This , argued Vox ’ s Dylan Matthews , is part of a “ successful 70-year campaign to convince people the USA and not the USSR beat Hitler.
” He notes , for instance , that in 1945 , 57 percent of French citizens recognized the U.S.S.R. to have contributed the most to the effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite the fact that the French had virtually no contact with the Soviet Union , and that both the U.K. and the U.S. fought bitter and protracted wars across most of Northern France .
By 2004 , however , only 20 percent knew the U.S.S.R. was the most important in Germany ’ s defeat , with 58 percent choosing America .
Decades of Cold War hostilities meant that any sympathetic portrayal of Russians for their suffering was politically inexpedient .
Therefore , the 26.6 million dead were consigned to the trashcan of history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to this day as its president Vladimir Putin is widely accused of being the mastermind behind Donald Trump ’ s 2016 election victory .
Generalized anti-Russian xenophobia is common in popular culture in a way that would not be tolerated for other groups .
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper , for instance , claimed that Russians are “ genetically driven to co-opt , penetrate ” and “ gain favor , ” while media in 2018 was full of scare stories about Russian anchor babies in the U.S .
Despite the fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neoliberal ideology , commentators feel free to use words like “ Russian ” and “ Soviet ” interchangeably , describing senior Putin officials as communists , drawing from a deep well of resentment built up over the past 100 years .
The latest Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans see Russia as a “ critical threat ” and 73 percent see the country unfavorably – a figure three times higher than during the last days of the Cold War .
Located in southern Poland , Auschwitz is the name given to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extermination camps where over one million people were exterminated , the majority of them Jews .
The incorrect statement was immediately met with scorn online from those who felt this was another example of Soviet erasure and an insult to the enormous sacrifice the U.S.S.R. made to defeat fascism in Europe.Other groups exterminated there , however , included Soviet prisoners of war – a practice only ended by the arrival of the Red Army .
All but 92 of the estimated 15,000 Soviets who entered the camp were exterminated .
As with their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is politically inconvenient for the powerful .
Feature photo | Soviet troops open the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp after liberating it in 1945. Credit | Fototelegraf Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and The Canary .

The United States Embassy in Denmark has apologized for a statement it made earlier this week that incorrectly claimed that it was American troops that liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. In fact, Red Army troops reached its gates on January 27, 1945. “We acknowledge the important contributions of all Allied Forces during WWII and remember the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust,” the correction read.
Yesterday, we inadvertently wrote that US troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was of course liberated by Soviet troops. We acknowledge the important contributions of all Allied Forces during WWII and remember the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. — U.S. Embassy Denmark (@usembdenmark) January 28, 2020
The incorrect statement was immediately met with scorn online from those who felt this was another example of Soviet erasure and an insult to the enormous sacrifice the U.S.S.R. made to defeat fascism in Europe. Users replied with pictures of Red Army troops liberating the camp. Those same people would likely be unimpressed at the news that Wikipedia has been removing those same pictures, a fact discovered by Lithuanian journalist Vladimir Vodo. While the encyclopedia’s administrators argued that they might not technically be in the public domain, erasing images of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day is not an optically wise move.
The Soviet Union is responsible for killing about four of every five Nazis during the conflict and suffered around 95 percent of all Allied Army casualties. The scale of their loss was enormous; the current Russian government estimates the Soviet losses at 26.6 million dead – around sixty-three times the total American sacrifice in both Europe and the Pacific. Even comparatively tiny states like Latvia and Lithuania lost a similar number of people as the entire United States.
This is far from common knowledge in America; a 2015 poll found that just 11 percent of Americans knew that the Soviet Union contributed the most to the defeat of Nazi Germany, with the large majority who answered picking the U.S. as the most important nation. This finding was replicated all over Western Europe, except in the United Kingdom, where Britons incorrectly believed they primarily defeated the Soviet Union.
This, argued Vox’s Dylan Matthews, is part of a “successful 70-year campaign to convince people the USA and not the USSR beat Hitler.” He notes, for instance, that in 1945, 57 percent of French citizens recognized the U.S.S.R. to have contributed the most to the effort to beat Nazi Germany. This, despite the fact that the French had virtually no contact with the Soviet Union, and that both the U.K. and the U.S. fought bitter and protracted wars across most of Northern France. By 2004, however, only 20 percent knew the U.S.S.R. was the most important in Germany’s defeat, with 58 percent choosing America. Decades of Cold War hostilities meant that any sympathetic portrayal of Russians for their suffering was politically inexpedient. Therefore, the 26.6 million dead were consigned to the trashcan of history.
Fear and mistrust of Russia continue to this day as its president Vladimir Putin is widely accused of being the mastermind behind Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. Generalized anti-Russian xenophobia is common in popular culture in a way that would not be tolerated for other groups. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, for instance, claimed that Russians are “genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate” and “gain favor,” while media in 2018 was full of scare stories about Russian anchor babies in the U.S. Despite the fact that Putinism is an expressly anti-communist, neoliberal ideology, commentators feel free to use words like “Russian” and “Soviet” interchangeably, describing senior Putin officials as communists, drawing from a deep well of resentment built up over the past 100 years. The latest Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans see Russia as a “critical threat” and 73 percent see the country unfavorably – a figure three times higher than during the last days of the Cold War.
Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz is the name given to a complex of dozens of concentration and extermination camps where over one million people were exterminated, the majority of them Jews. The incorrect statement was immediately met with scorn online from those who felt this was another example of Soviet erasure and an insult to the enormous sacrifice the U.S.S.R. made to defeat fascism in Europe.Other groups exterminated there, however, included Soviet prisoners of war – a practice only ended by the arrival of the Red Army. All but 92 of the estimated 15,000 Soviets who entered the camp were exterminated. As with their comrades who liberated it, their memory is politically inconvenient for the powerful.
Feature photo | Soviet troops open the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp after liberating it in 1945. Credit | Fototelegraf
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-01-31--Dead on Arrival: Dissecting Trump’s Vision for the Future of Palestine

Now that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has revealed the details of the so-called Deal of the Century , the only appropriate response is a bold , well-defined plan which offers a real solution to the ongoing colonization of Palestine .
To be viable , the alternative plan will need to include at least three vital elements : A total and unequivocal rejection of Zionism and the State of Israel , a plan by which Palestine will transition from an apartheid state to a democratic country and immediate implementation of the Palestinian right of return .
Zionism is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , violent and racist regime .
Like fascism and apartheid before it , Zionism must be denounced clearly and unequivocally .
In an interview from 1984 with Palestinian leader the late Dr. George Habash , Habash explains why peace can not coexist with Zionism , he says , among other things , that “ Israel is the embodiment of Zionism ” and “ Zionism is fascism.
” In a piece published in Hebrew in the online publication , Mekomit , writer and activist Orly Noy writes that demographic engineering has been a foundation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Noy says that the BALAD party , an Israeli political party with a platform that calls for democracy and equality for all in the most unambiguous terms , is portrayed in Israel as extremist and even as “ supporting terrorism.
” This , Noy says , is because Zionism is inherently incapable of accepting the basic idea of granting citizenship to Palestinians .
Well-funded public relations campaigns have succeeded in painting what is inherently a racist ideology as heroic and even romantic .
This campaign has gained Zionism a great deal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
At the same time , Palestinians and their leaders are labeled as terrorists unless they agree to stop fighting for their rights and capitulate to their colonizers .
The spectacle that took place at the White House on January 28 ought to have been titled , “ The Impeached and The Indicted , ” or “ How to Save Your Hide.
” It was a crowning moment for all who believe that racism , money and violence should come before justice , freedom and equality .
Trying to address the content of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is titled , “ Peace to Prosperity , ” would be a waste of time .
It would be much wiser to spend time and energy on implementing a real solution to the question of Palestine .
It is , however , important to read because it does offer a view into the broader aims of the State of Israel .
Zionists , both Jewish and Christian , are obsessed with biblical narratives because they are , for all intents and purposes , one of the only tools they can use to legitimize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Historically speaking , Jews did not control Jerusalem for any significant amount of time , and others made most of the contributions to the city .
In its section on Jerusalem , Trump ’ s plan states : The State of Israel has been a good custodian of Jerusalem .
During Israel ’ s stewardship , it has kept Jerusalem open and secure .
One has to wonder by what standard this custodianship was measured .
How has Israel been a good custodian of Jerusalem ?
The city is segregated , and various @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hostile to each other .
You will not find an Israeli Jew living in the Shuafat refugee camp , for example , or Isawiya or any other Palestinian neighborhoods for that matter .
With very few exceptions , one will never find a Palestinian living in an Israeli-Jewish area of the city .
For many decades now , Jerusalem has subjected to a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing .
Entire Palestinian neighborhoods have been emptied of their residents and subsequently leveled to the ground .
The city ’ s indigenous populations , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minority of Ultra-Orthodox religious Jews , are disenfranchised , impoverished and the discrimination against them is striking .
Millions of Palestinians wishing to pray in Jerusalem are prohibited from entering the city at all , and those who do come are subjected to humiliating measures under the guise of security .
Gaza has tremendous potential but is currently held hostage by Hamas… Significant improvements for the people in Gaza will not occur until there is a ceasefire with Israel , the full demilitarization of Gaza and a governance structure that allows the international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money into investments that will not be destroyed by predictable future conflicts .
Historically , Gaza has been a prosperous city , known as a center for commerce and learning .
In the time since , Israel has turned it into little more than an open-air prison and the conditions of that prison are getting worse by the day .
The claim that Hamas is holding Gaza hostage is interesting but not authentic .
The navy ships , the air force bombers , artillery batteries and infantry battalions that bomb Gaza regularly and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strip do not belong to Hamas ; they are all Israeli .
The demand that Palestinians in Gaza disarm before there are guarantees for their safety and liberty is unrealistic at best .
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are subjected to a slow and painful death by a variety of means , including a lack of water , nutrition , and medicine .
Yet , demands are being made that they cease to struggle against their oppressors .
In what must have come as a shock to many , if not most of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is that it includes a frightening section about the future of Palestinian citizens of Israel .
In 1948 , the Zionist leadership and militias did not intend for Palestinians to remain in what became Israel .
Throughout the years , Israel has made several attempts to force them to leave through massacres like Kafr Qassem , intimidation , and blatantly discriminatory laws , yet with little success .
Here is what the Trump plan says about Palestinian citizens of Israel : The Triangle Communities consist of Kafr Qara , Ar ’ ara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Qalansawe , Tayibe , Kafr Qasim , Tira , Kafr Bara and Jaljulia .
These communities , which largely self-identify as Palestinian , were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949 , but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated .
The Vision contemplates the possibility , subject to agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine .
What used to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most extreme right-wing Zionists , namely ridding Israel of its Palestinian citizens , is now part of a “ peace ” plan and has been given the rubber stamp of the United States government .
The communities mentioned in this passage , and many others besides them , have been subjected to land confiscation to a point that neither agriculture nor population growth is possible .
Wide roads and comfortable housing in Jewish-only colonies have been built on the lands of these communities while they are simultaneously prohibited from building and cultivating .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement shall provide for a complete end and release of any and all claims relating to refugee or immigration status .
There shall be no right of return by , or absorption of , any Palestinian refugee into the State of Israel .
One of the three demands made by the call for Boycott , Divestment and Sanctions , known more commonly as BDS , is the implementation of the Palestinian refugees ’ right to return .
Five million Palestinians languish in inhumane conditions in and around Palestine only because Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their homeland .
The United States has adopted the long-held Zionist narrative that places the blame for the refugee issue on other countries .
What must be made absolutely and unequivocally clear is that Israel holds the responsibility for creating the refugee problem and must allow , and pay for , its remedy .
A great deal has been said and written about this issue and few expected that Trump ’ s plan wouldn ’ t absolve Israel of its responsibility .
Yet an appropriate response to this plan remains a dedicated campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland .
Each Palestinian city boasts its own unique trademark dishes and flavors , from Ramallah ’ s rukab ice cream to the famed knafeh of Nablus .
Together , these attractions , among many others , endow the West Bank and Gaza with rich potential tourism opportunities .
One is encouraged to know that President Trump ’ s son in law has heard of Palestinian ice cream and sweets .
It seems that he has even Kushner knows that “ the West Bank and Gaza are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ However , Palestine is a naturally beautiful and historically fascinating country and there is far more than sweets and ice cream that make it a great tourist destination .
What is holding back tourism in Palestine and the Palestinian economy , in general , isn ’ t the fact that people haven ’ t heard of knafeh .
The underlying cause of poverty and unemployment is Israel and the economics of apartheid that is has put in place .
Tourists are encouraged , and often given no choice , but to spend their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shops and hotels .
From El-Jaleel in the north to the Naqab in the south , and from the Dead Sea in the East to the Mediterranean coast on the West , Palestine is a tourist haven .
Palestinian hospitality is well known and appreciated by all who have experienced it and Palestinians do not need handouts and patronizing from Donald Trump .
Furthermore , Palestinians possess one of the highest literacy rates in the world .
They do not need to be lectured by Israel and the United States , two governments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will tell how the election campaigns of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump will be affected by their latest stunt .
What is clear is that the reality for Palestinians will not improve until Zionism is condemned , a roadmap to a democratic free Palestine is put in place , and refugees are allowed to return to their homeland .
Feature photo | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump announce their so-called Mideast Peace Plan in an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington , Jan. 28 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Miko Peled is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem .
He is the author of “ The General ’ s Son .
Journey of an Israeli in Palestine , ” and “ Injustice , the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five .
”

Now that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has revealed the details of the so-called Deal of the Century, the only appropriate response is a bold, well-defined plan which offers a real solution to the ongoing colonization of Palestine. To be viable, the alternative plan will need to include at least three vital elements: A total and unequivocal rejection of Zionism and the State of Israel, a plan by which Palestine will transition from an apartheid state to a democratic country and immediate implementation of the Palestinian right of return.
Zionism, fascism and apartheid
Zionism is a racist ideology that produced a dangerous, violent and racist regime. Like fascism and apartheid before it, Zionism must be denounced clearly and unequivocally. In an interview from 1984 with Palestinian leader the late Dr. George Habash, Habash explains why peace cannot coexist with Zionism, he says, among other things, that “Israel is the embodiment of Zionism” and “Zionism is fascism.”
In a piece published in Hebrew in the online publication, Mekomit, writer and activist Orly Noy writes that demographic engineering has been a foundation of Zionism since Israel was first established. Noy says that the BALAD party, an Israeli political party with a platform that calls for democracy and equality for all in the most unambiguous terms, is portrayed in Israel as extremist and even as “supporting terrorism.” This, Noy says, is because Zionism is inherently incapable of accepting the basic idea of granting citizenship to Palestinians.
Well-funded public relations campaigns have succeeded in painting what is inherently a racist ideology as heroic and even romantic. This campaign has gained Zionism a great deal of support and respect in the United States. At the same time, Palestinians and their leaders are labeled as terrorists unless they agree to stop fighting for their rights and capitulate to their colonizers.
A Spectacle at the White House
The spectacle that took place at the White House on January 28 ought to have been titled, “The Impeached and The Indicted,” or “How to Save Your Hide.” It was a crowning moment for all who believe that racism, money and violence should come before justice, freedom and equality.
Trying to address the content of this plan, which by the way is titled, “Peace to Prosperity,” would be a waste of time. It would be much wiser to spend time and energy on implementing a real solution to the question of Palestine. It is, however, important to read because it does offer a view into the broader aims of the State of Israel.
Jerusalem
Zionists, both Jewish and Christian, are obsessed with biblical narratives because they are, for all intents and purposes, one of the only tools they can use to legitimize their abuse of Palestinian human rights. Historically speaking, Jews did not control Jerusalem for any significant amount of time, and others made most of the contributions to the city. In its section on Jerusalem, Trump’s plan states:
The State of Israel has been a good custodian of Jerusalem. During Israel’s stewardship, it has kept Jerusalem open and secure.
One has to wonder by what standard this custodianship was measured. How has Israel been a good custodian of Jerusalem? The city is segregated, and various communities, even Jewish ones, are hostile to each other. You will not find an Israeli Jew living in the Shuafat refugee camp, for example, or Isawiya or any other Palestinian neighborhoods for that matter. With very few exceptions, one will never find a Palestinian living in an Israeli-Jewish area of the city.
For many decades now, Jerusalem has subjected to a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing. Entire Palestinian neighborhoods have been emptied of their residents and subsequently leveled to the ground. The city’s indigenous populations, including the majority of non-Jewish Palestinians and a minority of Ultra-Orthodox religious Jews, are disenfranchised, impoverished and the discrimination against them is striking. Millions of Palestinians wishing to pray in Jerusalem are prohibited from entering the city at all, and those who do come are subjected to humiliating measures under the guise of security.
Gaza
Gaza has tremendous potential but is currently held hostage by Hamas… Significant improvements for the people in Gaza will not occur until there is a ceasefire with Israel, the full demilitarization of Gaza and a governance structure that allows the international community to safely and comfortably put new money into investments that will not be destroyed by predictable future conflicts.
Historically, Gaza has been a prosperous city, known as a center for commerce and learning. In the time since, Israel has turned it into little more than an open-air prison and the conditions of that prison are getting worse by the day.
The claim that Hamas is holding Gaza hostage is interesting but not authentic. The navy ships, the air force bombers, artillery batteries and infantry battalions that bomb Gaza regularly and force Palestinians to remain in the Gaza strip do not belong to Hamas; they are all Israeli.
The demand that Palestinians in Gaza disarm before there are guarantees for their safety and liberty is unrealistic at best. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are subjected to a slow and painful death by a variety of means, including a lack of water, nutrition, and medicine. Yet, demands are being made that they cease to struggle against their oppressors.
The Palestinian Communities of 1948
In what must have come as a shock to many, if not most of those who have read the Trump plan, is that it includes a frightening section about the future of Palestinian citizens of Israel. In 1948, the Zionist leadership and militias did not intend for Palestinians to remain in what became Israel. Throughout the years, Israel has made several attempts to force them to leave through massacres like Kafr Qassem, intimidation, and blatantly discriminatory laws, yet with little success.
Here is what the Trump plan says about Palestinian citizens of Israel:
The Triangle Communities consist of Kafr Qara, Ar’ara, Baha al-Gharbiyye, Umm al Fahm, Qalansawe, Tayibe, Kafr Qasim, Tira, Kafr Bara and Jaljulia. These communities, which largely self-identify as Palestinian, were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated. The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine.
What used to be an idea expressed by only the most extreme right-wing Zionists, namely ridding Israel of its Palestinian citizens, is now part of a “peace” plan and has been given the rubber stamp of the United States government. The communities mentioned in this passage, and many others besides them, have been subjected to land confiscation to a point that neither agriculture nor population growth is possible. Wide roads and comfortable housing in Jewish-only colonies have been built on the lands of these communities while they are simultaneously prohibited from building and cultivating.
Refugees and the right of return
The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement shall provide for a complete end and release of any and all claims relating to refugee or immigration status. There shall be no right of return by, or absorption of, any Palestinian refugee into the State of Israel.
One of the three demands made by the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, known more commonly as BDS, is the implementation of the Palestinian refugees’ right to return. Five million Palestinians languish in inhumane conditions in and around Palestine only because Israel does not allow them to return to their homeland.
The United States has adopted the long-held Zionist narrative that places the blame for the refugee issue on other countries. What must be made absolutely and unequivocally clear is that Israel holds the responsibility for creating the refugee problem and must allow, and pay for, its remedy.
A great deal has been said and written about this issue and few expected that Trump’s plan wouldn’t absolve Israel of its responsibility. Yet an appropriate response to this plan remains a dedicated campaign demanding the implementation of the right for Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
A final note of humiliation
Each Palestinian city boasts its own unique trademark dishes and flavors, from Ramallah’s rukab ice cream to the famed knafeh of Nablus. Together, these attractions, among many others, endow the West Bank and Gaza with rich potential tourism opportunities.
One is encouraged to know that President Trump’s son in law has heard of Palestinian ice cream and sweets. It seems that he has even Kushner knows that “the West Bank and Gaza are endowed with the potential for tourism.” However, Palestine is a naturally beautiful and historically fascinating country and there is far more than sweets and ice cream that make it a great tourist destination.
What is holding back tourism in Palestine and the Palestinian economy, in general, isn’t the fact that people haven’t heard of knafeh. The underlying cause of poverty and unemployment is Israel and the economics of apartheid that is has put in place. Tourists are encouraged, and often given no choice, but to spend their money in Israel rather than in Palestinian shops and hotels.
From El-Jaleel in the north to the Naqab in the south, and from the Dead Sea in the East to the Mediterranean coast on the West, Palestine is a tourist haven. Palestinian hospitality is well known and appreciated by all who have experienced it and Palestinians do not need handouts and patronizing from Donald Trump.
Furthermore, Palestinians possess one of the highest literacy rates in the world. They do not need to be lectured by Israel and the United States, two governments characterized by racism and violence.
Time will tell how the election campaigns of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump will be affected by their latest stunt. What is clear is that the reality for Palestinians will not improve until Zionism is condemned, a roadmap to a democratic free Palestine is put in place, and refugees are allowed to return to their homeland.
Feature photo | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump announce their so-called Mideast Peace Plan in an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 28, 2020. Alex Brandon | AP
Miko Peled is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. He is the author of “The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”


mintpressnews--2020-01-31--A New US Air Force Video Game Lets You Drone Bomb Iraqis and Afghans

The United States Air Force has a new recruitment tool : a realistic drone operator video game you can play on its website .
Called the Airman Challenge , it features 16 missions to complete , interspersed with facts and recruitment information about how to become a drone operator yourself .
In its latest attempts to market active service to young people , players move through missions escorting U.S. vehicles through countries like Iraq and Afghanistan , serving up death from above to all those designated “ insurgents ” by the game .
Players earn medals and achievements for most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while there is a prominent “ apply now ” button on screen if players would like to enlist and conduct real drone strikes all over the Middle East .
The game has failed to win over David Swanson , director of the anti-war movement World Beyond War , and the author of War is a Lie .
“ It is truly disgusting , immoral , and arguably illegal in that it is recruitment or pre-recruitment of underage children to participate in murder .
It is part of the normalization of murder that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told MintPress News .
Tom Secker , a journalist and researcher into the influence of the military on popular culture was similarly unimpressed by the latest U.S.A.F .
recruitment strategy , telling us , Despite the fact that they are rarely , if ever in any physical danger , the military has considerable difficulty recruiting and retaining drone pilots .
Nearly a quarter of Air Force staff who can fly the machines leave the service every year .
A lack of respect , fatigue and mental anguish are the primary reasons cited .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2005 and 2010 said what he did “ weighs on your conscience .
It weighs on your soul .
It weighs on your heart , ” claiming that the post traumatic stress disorder he suffers from as a consequence of killing so many people has made it impossible for him to have relationships with other humans .
“ People think it is a video game .
But in a video game you have checkpoints , you have restart points .
When you fire that missile there ’ s no restart , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get you to think of what you ’ re shooting at as human the easier it becomes to you to just follow through with these shots when they come down , ” said Michael Haas , another former U.S.A.F .
sensor operator .
The Airman Challenge game follows this path , using red dots on the screen to represent enemies , sanitizing the violence recruits will be meting out .
“ We were very callous about any real collateral damage .
Whenever that possibility came up most of the time it was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t even consider other people that were on screen , ” Haas said , noting that he and his peers used terms like “ fun sized terrorist ” to describe children , employing euphemisms like “ cutting the grass before it grows too long , ” as justifications for their extermination .
The constant violence , even from afar , takes a heavy toll on many drone operators , who complain of constant nightmares and having to drink themselves into a stupor every night to avoid them .
Others , with different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prince Harry , for example , was a helicopter gunner in Afghanistan and described firing missiles as a “ joy.
” “ I ’ m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox , so with my thumbs I like to think I ’ m probably quite useful , ” he said .
“ If there ’ s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys , then we ’ ll take them out of the game.
” Drone bombing is a relatively new technology .
Barack Obama came into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s reckless aggression , even being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 .
While he slashed the number of American troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan , he also greatly expanded U.S. wars in the form of drone bombings , ordering ten times as many as Bush .
In his last year in office , the U.S. dropped at least 26,000 bombs – around one every twenty minutes on average .
When he left office , the U.S. was bombing seven countries simultaneously : Afghanistan , Iraq , Syria , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Up to 90 percent of reported drone casualties were “ collateral damage , ” i.e .
innocent bystanders .
Swanson is deeply concerned about the way in which the practice has become normalized : “ If murder is acceptable as long as a military does it , anything else is acceptable , ” he says , “ We will reverse this trend , or we will perish.
” History did not exactly repeat itself with the election of Donald Trump in 2016 , but it did rhyme .
Trump came to power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , strongly criticizing Obama and the Democrats ’ handling of the situation in the Middle East .
Egged on even by so-called “ resistance ” media , Trump immediately expanded drone bombings , increasing the number of strikes by 432 percent in his first year in office .
The president also used a drone attack to kill Iranian general and statesman Qassem Soleimani earlier this month .
Killing in the Game of In 2018 , the armed forces fell well short of their recruitment targets , despite offering a package of benefits very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result , it totally revamped its recruitment strategy , moving away from television and investing in micro-targeted online ads in an attempt to reach young people , particularly men below the age of thirty , who make up the bulk of the armed forces .
One branding exercise was to create an Army e-sports team entering video game competitions under the military brand .
As the gaming website , Kotaku wrote , “ Positioning the Army as a game-friendly environment and institution is crucial , or even necessary , to reach the people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Army surpassed its recruitment goal for 2019 .
Although the Airman Challenge game is a new attempt at recruitment , the armed forces have a long history being involved in the video game market , and the entertainment industry more generally .
Secker ’ s work has uncovered the depths of collaboration between the military and the entertainment industry .
Through Freedom of Information requests , he was able to find that the Department of Defense reviews , edits and writes hundreds of TV and movie scripts every year , subsidizing the entertainment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exchange for positive portrayals .
“ At this point , it ’ s difficult to effectively summarise the US military ’ s influence on the industry , because it ’ s so varied and all-encompassing , ” he said .
The video games industry is massive , with hyper-realistic first person shooters like Call of Duty being among the most popular genres .
Call of Duty : WWII , for example , sold $ 500 million worth of copies in its opening weekend alone , more money generated than blockbuster movies “ Thor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” combined .
Many people spend hours a day playing .
Captain Brian Stanley , a military recruiter in California said , “ Kids know more about the army than we do… Between the weapons , vehicles , and tactics , and a lot of that knowledge comes from video games.
” Young people , therefore , spend huge amounts of time effectively being propagandized by the military .
In Call of Duty Ghosts , for instance , you play as a U.S. soldier fighting against a red-beret wearing anti-American Venezuelan dictator , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while in Call of Duty 4 , you follow the U.S. Army in Iraq , shooting hundreds of Arabs as you go .
There ’ s even a mission where you operate a drone , which is distinctly similar to the Airman Challenge .
U.S. forces even control drones with Xbox controllers , blurring the lines between war games and war games even further .
Although the military industrial complex is keen to advertise opportunities for pilots , they go to great lengths to hide the reality of what happens to the victims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these is likely the “ Collateral Murder ” video , leaked by Chelsea Manning to Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange .
The video , which made worldwide news , laid bare the callousness towards civilian lives Haas described , where Air Force pilots laugh at shooting dead at least 12 unarmed civilians , including two Reuters journalists .
While those commanders ultimately in charge of military operations in the Middle East appear on television constantly , trying to sanitize their actions , Manning and Assange remain in prison for helping to expose the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manning has spent the majority of the last decade incarcerated , while Assange awaits possible extradition to the United States in a London prison .
The Airman Challenge video game , for Secker , is merely “ the latest in a long line of insidious and disturbing recruitment efforts by the US military.
” “ If they feel they have to do this just to recruit a few hundred thousand people to their cause , maybe their cause isn ’ t worth it , ” he said .
Feature photo | A screenshot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ latest recruitment tool , a video game called the Airman Challenge Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

The United States Air Force has a new recruitment tool: a realistic drone operator video game you can play on its website. Called the Airman Challenge, it features 16 missions to complete, interspersed with facts and recruitment information about how to become a drone operator yourself. In its latest attempts to market active service to young people, players move through missions escorting U.S. vehicles through countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, serving up death from above to all those designated “insurgents” by the game. Players earn medals and achievements for most effectively destroying moving targets. All the while there is a prominent “apply now” button on screen if players would like to enlist and conduct real drone strikes all over the Middle East.
The game has failed to win over David Swanson, director of the anti-war movement World Beyond War, and the author of War is a Lie.
“It is truly disgusting, immoral, and arguably illegal in that it is recruitment or pre-recruitment of underage children to participate in murder. It is part of the normalization of murder that we have been living through,” he told MintPress News.
Tom Secker, a journalist and researcher into the influence of the military on popular culture was similarly unimpressed by the latest U.S.A.F. recruitment strategy, telling us,
The drone game struck me as sick and demented… On the other hand, many drone pilots have described how piloting drones and killing random brown people is a lot like playing a video game, because you’re sat in a bunker in Nevada pushing buttons, detached from the consequences. So I guess it accurately reflects the miserable, traumatised, serial killing life of a drone pilot, we can’t accuse it of inaccuracy per se.”
Game Over
Despite the fact that they are rarely, if ever in any physical danger, the military has considerable difficulty recruiting and retaining drone pilots. Nearly a quarter of Air Force staff who can fly the machines leave the service every year. A lack of respect, fatigue and mental anguish are the primary reasons cited. Stephen Lewis, a sensor operator between 2005 and 2010 said what he did “weighs on your conscience. It weighs on your soul. It weighs on your heart,” claiming that the post traumatic stress disorder he suffers from as a consequence of killing so many people has made it impossible for him to have relationships with other humans.
“People think it is a video game. But in a video game you have checkpoints, you have restart points. When you fire that missile there’s no restart,” he said. “The less they can get you to think of what you’re shooting at as human the easier it becomes to you to just follow through with these shots when they come down,” said Michael Haas, another former U.S.A.F. sensor operator. The Airman Challenge game follows this path, using red dots on the screen to represent enemies, sanitizing the violence recruits will be meting out.
“We were very callous about any real collateral damage. Whenever that possibility came up most of the time it was a guilt by association or sometimes we didn’t even consider other people that were on screen,” Haas said, noting that he and his peers used terms like “fun sized terrorist” to describe children, employing euphemisms like “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” as justifications for their extermination. The constant violence, even from afar, takes a heavy toll on many drone operators, who complain of constant nightmares and having to drink themselves into a stupor every night to avoid them.
Others, with different personalities, revel in the bloodshed. Prince Harry, for example, was a helicopter gunner in Afghanistan and described firing missiles as a “joy.” “I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful,” he said. “If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game.”
A Nobel Cause
Drone bombing is a relatively new technology. Barack Obama came into office promising to end President Bush’s reckless aggression, even being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. While he slashed the number of American troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, he also greatly expanded U.S. wars in the form of drone bombings, ordering ten times as many as Bush. In his last year in office, the U.S. dropped at least 26,000 bombs – around one every twenty minutes on average. When he left office, the U.S. was bombing seven countries simultaneously: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.
Up to 90 percent of reported drone casualties were “collateral damage,” i.e. innocent bystanders. Swanson is deeply concerned about the way in which the practice has become normalized: “If murder is acceptable as long as a military does it, anything else is acceptable,” he says, “We will reverse this trend, or we will perish.”
History did not exactly repeat itself with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, but it did rhyme. Trump came to power having made multiple statements perceived as anti-war, strongly criticizing Obama and the Democrats’ handling of the situation in the Middle East. Egged on even by so-called “resistance” media, Trump immediately expanded drone bombings, increasing the number of strikes by 432 percent in his first year in office. The president also used a drone attack to kill Iranian general and statesman Qassem Soleimani earlier this month.
Killing in the Game of
In 2018, the armed forces fell well short of their recruitment targets, despite offering a package of benefits very attractive to working-class Americans. As a result, it totally revamped its recruitment strategy, moving away from television and investing in micro-targeted online ads in an attempt to reach young people, particularly men below the age of thirty, who make up the bulk of the armed forces. One branding exercise was to create an Army e-sports team entering video game competitions under the military brand. As the gaming website, Kotaku wrote, “Positioning the Army as a game-friendly environment and institution is crucial, or even necessary, to reach the people the Army wants to reach.” The Army surpassed its recruitment goal for 2019.
Although the Airman Challenge game is a new attempt at recruitment, the armed forces have a long history being involved in the video game market, and the entertainment industry more generally. Secker’s work has uncovered the depths of collaboration between the military and the entertainment industry. Through Freedom of Information requests, he was able to find that the Department of Defense reviews, edits and writes hundreds of TV and movie scripts every year, subsidizing the entertainment world with free content and equipment in exchange for positive portrayals. “At this point, it’s difficult to effectively summarise the US military’s influence on the industry, because it’s so varied and all-encompassing,” he said.
The US Army spends tens of millions a year on the Institute for Creative Technologies, who develop advanced tech for the film and gaming industries, as well as in-house training games for the Army and – on occasion – the CIA. The Department Of Defense has supported a number of major game franchises (Call of Duty, Tom Clancy games, usually first or third-person shooters). Military-supported games are subject to the same rules of narrative and character as movies and TV, so they can be rejected or modified if they contain elements the Department Of Defense deems controversial.”
The video games industry is massive, with hyper-realistic first person shooters like Call of Duty being among the most popular genres. Call of Duty: WWII, for example, sold $500 million worth of copies in its opening weekend alone, more money generated than blockbuster movies “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Wonder Woman” combined. Many people spend hours a day playing. Captain Brian Stanley, a military recruiter in California said, “Kids know more about the army than we do… Between the weapons, vehicles, and tactics, and a lot of that knowledge comes from video games.”
Young people, therefore, spend huge amounts of time effectively being propagandized by the military. In Call of Duty Ghosts, for instance, you play as a U.S. soldier fighting against a red-beret wearing anti-American Venezuelan dictator, clearly based on President Hugo Chavez, while in Call of Duty 4, you follow the U.S. Army in Iraq, shooting hundreds of Arabs as you go. There’s even a mission where you operate a drone, which is distinctly similar to the Airman Challenge. U.S. forces even control drones with Xbox controllers, blurring the lines between war games and war games even further.
Cyber Warfare
Although the military industrial complex is keen to advertise opportunities for pilots, they go to great lengths to hide the reality of what happens to the victims of airstrikes. The most famous of these is likely the “Collateral Murder” video, leaked by Chelsea Manning to Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange. The video, which made worldwide news, laid bare the callousness towards civilian lives Haas described, where Air Force pilots laugh at shooting dead at least 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists. While those commanders ultimately in charge of military operations in the Middle East appear on television constantly, trying to sanitize their actions, Manning and Assange remain in prison for helping to expose the public to an alternative depiction of violence. Manning has spent the majority of the last decade incarcerated, while Assange awaits possible extradition to the United States in a London prison.
The Airman Challenge video game, for Secker, is merely “the latest in a long line of insidious and disturbing recruitment efforts by the US military.” “If they feel they have to do this just to recruit a few hundred thousand people to their cause, maybe their cause isn’t worth it,” he said.
Feature photo | A screenshot from the US Air Force’s latest recruitment tool, a video game called the Airman Challenge
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-02-03--Noam Chomsky: People Even Worse Than Jeffrey Epstein Donated to M.I.T.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( M.I.T . )
is under heavy public scrutiny for associating with and accepting large financial donations from notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein , described by ABC anchor Amy Robach as “ the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known.
” Yet Noam Chomsky , the institution ’ s most famous academic , claimed that Epstein was not even the most reprehensible character his former employer took money from .
In an interview with the “ dunc tank ” podcast released this weekend , the professor noted , In my office at M.I.T , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the window of my office and I saw the David Koch Cancer Center .
David Koch is surely a candidate for one of the most extraordinary criminals in human history .
He was personally responsible for shifting the Republican Party from being a minimally sane organization on global warming to being the most dangerous organization in human history , which may destroy us all… , does anybody say anything about that ?
” Chomsky claimed that after Koch died last year , the university produced a laudatory obituary presenting the petrochemical billionaire as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding the university basketball team .
He noted that in 2008 the Republican Party had taken some steps towards trying to deal with climate change , with John McCain running for president promising to take measures to deal with the impending catastrophe .
The Koch brothers , whose businesses would be negatively affected by any legislation , “ went into high gear , ” launching a “ juggernaut , ” bribing and intimidating senators , developing astroturf organizations , and succeeded in turning the party into a climate change denialist organization , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poll found that only 26 percent of Republican voters believed in man-made global warming .
Chomsky was adamant that , in its insistence to increase the use of fossil fuel , the Republican Party constitutes an existential threat to organized human survival .
He claimed that the international negotiations on climate change in Paris were scuppered “ for one reason : the Republican Party.
” According to Chomsky , the U.S. is : He also condemned President Trump for recently issuing an executive order to dismantle major environmental protection legislation put in place @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poisonous substances in the water supply .
A new report published last week found that dozens of major American cities ’ water supplies are contaminated with toxic , carcinogenic chemicals .
“ The most astonishing document in the entire history of the human species ” “ Think what this means for much of the world .
There are just no words to capture it.
” That was the former M.I.T .
professor ’ s reaction to the Trump Department of Transportation ’ s 500-page environmental impact study .
It concludes that by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rise by around four degrees centigrade .
“ Anyone who follows this knows that the scientific community and the World Bank describe such a temperature rise over pre-industrial limits as cataclysmic , ” he said .
Despite this , the document concludes that there should be no further restrictions placed on automotive emissions .
Why ?
Chomsky describes their reasoning as , “ We ’ re going off the cliff anyway , so why not have a good time while the fun lasts.
” The nihilism of the administration shocked even him : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] document like that in history I ’ d be interested in seeing it.
” It is for this reason primarily that he believes that it is imperative that Trump and the Republicans not maintain office after 2020 .
“ We ’ re living in a world of raving lunatics with enormous power , ” he said , adding that he would take the first person off the street ahead of Trump .
Epstein and Koch ’ s are far from the only plutocrats to patronize good causes for good publicity .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that makes OxyContin , the drug primarily responsible for America ’ s opioid crisis , have their name plastered onto the wall of many of the world ’ s finest museums , including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , the British Museum in London , and the Louvre in Paris .
Meanwhile , huge petroleum corporations like BP and Shell sponsor environmental seminars the world over , something Chomsky is also critical of .
Described as “ arguably the most important intellectual alive ” by the New York Times in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ linguistics with his theory of universal grammar .
Although currently at the University of Arizona , he is most associated with M.I.T.
, where he taught from 1955 to 2017 .
However , it was his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War that shot him to national prominence .
Chomsky is a longtime critic of the U.S. government and its foreign policy , penning over 100 books on the subject .
Feature photo | Noam Chomsky delivers a speech at the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe , Germany in May 2014 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) is under heavy public scrutiny for associating with and accepting large financial donations from notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, described by ABC anchor Amy Robach as “the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known.” Yet Noam Chomsky, the institution’s most famous academic, claimed that Epstein was not even the most reprehensible character his former employer took money from. In an interview with the “dunc tank” podcast released this weekend, the professor noted,
In my office at M.I.T, when I was there I looked out the window of my office and I saw the David Koch Cancer Center. David Koch is surely a candidate for one of the most extraordinary criminals in human history. He was personally responsible for shifting the Republican Party from being a minimally sane organization on global warming to being the most dangerous organization in human history, which may destroy us all…, does anybody say anything about that?”

Chomsky claimed that after Koch died last year, the university produced a laudatory obituary presenting the petrochemical billionaire as a model M.I.T. graduate, even funding the university basketball team. He noted that in 2008 the Republican Party had taken some steps towards trying to deal with climate change, with John McCain running for president promising to take measures to deal with the impending catastrophe. The Koch brothers, whose businesses would be negatively affected by any legislation, “went into high gear,” launching a “juggernaut,” bribing and intimidating senators, developing astroturf organizations, and succeeded in turning the party into a climate change denialist organization, he said. The latest Pew Research Center poll found that only 26 percent of Republican voters believed in man-made global warming.
“The most dangerous organization in human history”
Chomsky was adamant that, in its insistence to increase the use of fossil fuel, the Republican Party constitutes an existential threat to organized human survival. He claimed that the international negotiations on climate change in Paris were scuppered “for one reason: the Republican Party.” According to Chomsky, the U.S. is:
The only major country in the world that is refusing to take any steps to deal with this urgent crisis. The Republican Party is dedicated, openly and publicly, to trying to maximize the threat…, to have the maximum possible use of fossil fuels, to cut back even on domestic regulations that would benefit the population of the United States.”
He also condemned President Trump for recently issuing an executive order to dismantle major environmental protection legislation put in place by President Nixon to monitor and control poisonous substances in the water supply. A new report published last week found that dozens of major American cities’ water supplies are contaminated with toxic, carcinogenic chemicals.
“The most astonishing document in the entire history of the human species”
“Think what this means for much of the world. There are just no words to capture it.” That was the former M.I.T. professor’s reaction to the Trump Department of Transportation’s 500-page environmental impact study. It concludes that by the end of the century, temperatures will rise by around four degrees centigrade. “Anyone who follows this knows that the scientific community and the World Bank describe such a temperature rise over pre-industrial limits as cataclysmic,” he said. Despite this, the document concludes that there should be no further restrictions placed on automotive emissions. Why? Chomsky describes their reasoning as, “We’re going off the cliff anyway, so why not have a good time while the fun lasts.” The nihilism of the administration shocked even him: “If you can find [another] document like that in history I’d be interested in seeing it.”
It is for this reason primarily that he believes that it is imperative that Trump and the Republicans not maintain office after 2020. “We’re living in a world of raving lunatics with enormous power,” he said, adding that he would take the first person off the street ahead of Trump.
Epstein and Koch’s are far from the only plutocrats to patronize good causes for good publicity. The Sackler family, owners of the company that makes OxyContin, the drug primarily responsible for America’s opioid crisis, have their name plastered onto the wall of many of the world’s finest museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Louvre in Paris. Meanwhile, huge petroleum corporations like BP and Shell sponsor environmental seminars the world over, something Chomsky is also critical of.
Described as “arguably the most important intellectual alive” by the New York Times in 1979, Chomsky revolutionized the field of linguistics with his theory of universal grammar. Although currently at the University of Arizona, he is most associated with M.I.T., where he taught from 1955 to 2017. However, it was his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War that shot him to national prominence. Chomsky is a longtime critic of the U.S. government and its foreign policy, penning over 100 books on the subject.
Feature photo | Noam Chomsky delivers a speech at the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany in May 2014. Uli Deck | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-02-03--As Bernie Sanders Surges, DNC Launches “Troll Army” Ahead of Iowa Caucus

The Democratic National Congress ( DNC ) has set up an extensive online communications team of trolls – and is launching it just in time for the Iowa caucus .
CNN ’ s Donnie O ’ Sullivan spoke to a number of its agents ( almost all of whom insisted on remaining anonymous ) and reported that the new DNC project is working with government agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security as well as online media giants like Facebook , Twitter , Google and Reddit .
The DNC present the project as a “ counter disinformation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ online .
“ Both Republicans and foreign actors , like Russia , have an incentive to divide the American electorate and may try to use the Iowa Caucus to further that goal , ” it said .
However , if history is any judge , there is reason to believe the real target of the mission is to discredit surging outsider candidates challenging the Democratic establishment , chief among them Bernie Sanders .
The only named member of the cyber task force is Nell Thomas , who worked for the online arm of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one that saw a troll army called “ Correct the Record ” launched on social media .
Thomas subsequently spent two years working for Facebook before taking a position with the DNC in May of last year .
No other officials agreed to be named , citing possible harassment as a justification .
The DNC establishment infamously rigged the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination against Sanders in order to assure Clinton was chosen as the candidate , arguing in court that it was under no legal obligation to provide a fair election and claiming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amendment .
Words like “ impartial ” and “ evenhanded , ” as used in the DNC charter , it said , could not be interpreted by a court of law .
The first sentence of O ’ Sullivan ’ s report reminds readers that Russians supposedly tried to help Sanders beat Clinton in 2016 .
He also noted that the new DNC group has built a system that will monitor social media variations of the word “ rigged ” and cause the team to spring into action to counter supposed false information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DNC ’ s arsenal is a monitoring tool called “ Trendolizer.
” According to CNN : “ When stories from websites known to peddle misinformation mention candidates and begin getting shares on social media , Trendolizer detects it and an alert is sent to the relevant campaigns.
” Herein lies another clue that the real purpose is to undermine outside challengers .
After the 2016 election , corporate media boosted an organization called PropOrNot , which claimed to be a team of impartial “ experts ” who had created a list of fake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While included on the list were dubious sources such as InfoWars and Natural News , there were also libertarian outlets like AntiWar.com and a number of high-quality progressive media organizations like Black Agenda Report and TruthDig ( MintPress was also included on the list ) .
PropOrNot was described as “ embodying the toxic essence of Joseph McCarthy , but without the courage to attach individual names to the blacklist ” by investigative journalists Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald .
Despite this , the hysteria it created in the corporate press pushed social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bing and Facebook to change their algorithms ostensibly to fight fake news .
But the only discernable effect was to hammer alternative media and promote establishment outlets .
Google traffic to AlterNet fell by 63 percent overnight , Common Dreams lost 37 percent , Democracy Now !
36 percent and The Intercept 19 percent .
MintPress News has also suffered badly from the algorithm changes that punished almost every outlet that did not lie in the beltway between Clintonite liberal and moderate Republican .
CNN also confirmed that Facebook has hired former intelligence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaigns ” and has partnered with fact-checking organizations to “ downrank false posts.
” Facebook has already outsourced much of its quality control to the Atlantic Council , a think tank affiliated with NATO , essentially meaning that the U.S. government decides what the world sees ( and doesn ’ t see ) in its newsfeeds .
And fact-checking organizations have fought a long and bitter war against Sanders , attempting to undermine his every comment .
For instance , fact-checkers at the Washington Post rated the Vermont senator ’ s claim that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because , after crunching the numbers they found it was actually $ 27.89 .
They also claimed his pronouncement that millions of Americans work multiple jobs was “ misleading ” because only 8 million do so , and many of those are part-time .
Sanders supporters did not welcome the news of a new online counter-propaganda network .
“ Brace yourself , the DNC is launching its troll army ( branded as ‘ troll fighters ’ ) headed by a former Hillary staffer to counter ‘ disinformation ’ .
If you use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will come after you .
Get ready to be called a Russian all over again , ” noted one Sanders ’ supporter on Twitter .
Nevertheless , Sanders ’ poll numbers are surging , and if he can win Iowa , preventing him from being the Democratic candidate might prove harder than last time .
Feature photo | Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt. , waves as he leaves after speaking at a campaign event , Feb. 2 , 2020 , in Des Moines , Iowa .
John Locher | AP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

The Democratic National Congress (DNC) has set up an extensive online communications team of trolls – and is launching it just in time for the Iowa caucus. CNN’s Donnie O’Sullivan spoke to a number of its agents (almost all of whom insisted on remaining anonymous) and reported that the new DNC project is working with government agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security as well as online media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Reddit.
The DNC present the project as a “counter disinformation team” aimed at correcting Russian interference online. “Both Republicans and foreign actors, like Russia, have an incentive to divide the American electorate and may try to use the Iowa Caucus to further that goal,” it said. However, if history is any judge, there is reason to believe the real target of the mission is to discredit surging outsider candidates challenging the Democratic establishment, chief among them Bernie Sanders.
The only named member of the cyber task force is Nell Thomas, who worked for the online arm of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, one that saw a troll army called “Correct the Record” launched on social media. Thomas subsequently spent two years working for Facebook before taking a position with the DNC in May of last year. No other officials agreed to be named, citing possible harassment as a justification. The DNC establishment infamously rigged the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination against Sanders in order to assure Clinton was chosen as the candidate, arguing in court that it was under no legal obligation to provide a fair election and claiming it was their right under the First Amendment. Words like “impartial” and “evenhanded,” as used in the DNC charter, it said, could not be interpreted by a court of law.
The first sentence of O’Sullivan’s report reminds readers that Russians supposedly tried to help Sanders beat Clinton in 2016. He also noted that the new DNC group has built a system that will monitor social media variations of the word “rigged” and cause the team to spring into action to counter supposed false information about Iowa.
Another weapon in the DNC’s arsenal is a monitoring tool called “Trendolizer.” According to CNN: “When stories from websites known to peddle misinformation mention candidates and begin getting shares on social media, Trendolizer detects it and an alert is sent to the relevant campaigns.” Herein lies another clue that the real purpose is to undermine outside challengers.
After the 2016 election, corporate media boosted an organization called PropOrNot, which claimed to be a team of impartial “experts” who had created a list of fake news websites that peddled Russian propaganda. While included on the list were dubious sources such as InfoWars and Natural News, there were also libertarian outlets like AntiWar.com and a number of high-quality progressive media organizations like Black Agenda Report and TruthDig (MintPress was also included on the list).
PropOrNot was described as “embodying the toxic essence of Joseph McCarthy, but without the courage to attach individual names to the blacklist” by investigative journalists Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald. Despite this, the hysteria it created in the corporate press pushed social media giants like Google, YouTube, Bing and Facebook to change their algorithms ostensibly to fight fake news. But the only discernable effect was to hammer alternative media and promote establishment outlets. Google traffic to AlterNet fell by 63 percent overnight, Common Dreams lost 37 percent, Democracy Now! 36 percent and The Intercept 19 percent. MintPress News has also suffered badly from the algorithm changes that punished almost every outlet that did not lie in the beltway between Clintonite liberal and moderate Republican.
CNN also confirmed that Facebook has hired former intelligence officials to “root out coordinated disinformation campaigns” and has partnered with fact-checking organizations to “downrank false posts.” Facebook has already outsourced much of its quality control to the Atlantic Council, a think tank affiliated with NATO, essentially meaning that the U.S. government decides what the world sees (and doesn’t see) in its newsfeeds. And fact-checking organizations have fought a long and bitter war against Sanders, attempting to undermine his every comment. For instance, fact-checkers at the Washington Post rated the Vermont senator’s claim that his average donation was $27 false, because, after crunching the numbers they found it was actually $27.89. They also claimed his pronouncement that millions of Americans work multiple jobs was “misleading” because only 8 million do so, and many of those are part-time.
Sanders supporters did not welcome the news of a new online counter-propaganda network. “Brace yourself, the DNC is launching its troll army (branded as ‘troll fighters’) headed by a former Hillary staffer to counter ‘disinformation’. If you use the word ‘rigged’, they will come after you. Get ready to be called a Russian all over again,” noted one Sanders’ supporter on Twitter. Nevertheless, Sanders’ poll numbers are surging, and if he can win Iowa, preventing him from being the Democratic candidate might prove harder than last time.
Feature photo | Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., waves as he leaves after speaking at a campaign event, Feb. 2, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. John Locher | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.