mintpressnews--2020-07-17--Aid Groups Call for Worldwide COVID-19 Bailout Amid Fears of Mass Hunger

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have already devastated the world .
Over 14 million people have tested positive for the virus , and nearly 600,000 have died since it was first identified in December .
And cases continue to rise : yesterday saw 248,998 people test positive – an all-time high .
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the crisis is “ not even close ” to being resolved .
But the human cost from the economic fallout could be worse than the virus itself , as the world plunges into a deep and possibly prolonged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ starvation across the global south .
That is why international charity Oxfam is calling on the international community to agree to its proposal of an “ Economic Rescue Package for All.
” The package entails six key features that it hopes to lay out across the world , including : • Mass cash grants to all that need them – The plan does not call for a universal basic income , but does stipulate that mass subsidies may be needed to keep the poor from hunger , keep the self-employed afloat , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ package – In contrast to the 2008 bailout that saw large corporations rewarded for their recklessness , the plan states that small businesses should be given priority , that the funds must be used to primarily meet payroll , and that companies involved in fossil fuel extraction should not be bailed out at all .
• The suspension and cancellation of debt – After 2008 , poor nations were forced into implementing harsh austerity measures to meet their payments .
This can not be allowed to happen again .
• Issue Special Drawing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Monetary Fund created SDRs as a means to give countries more leeway to spend money on vital public services .
They should be used here too .
• A new international aid package – Many of the poorest countries desperately need international aid to help them overcome the current medical and economic crisis .
• Emergency wealth taxes – To pay for this , new levies on financial transactions , luxury goods , excess corporate profits and private wealth should be implemented .
The consequences of inaction will be extremely serious ; “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every day from COVID-linked hunger , which is more than those dying daily from the virus itself , ” warned Abby Maxman , President of Oxfam America .
On Monday , the United Nations released its 2020 edition of its State of Food Security and Nutrition report , estimating that a minimum of 83 million extra people , and possibly as many as 132 million worldwide will go hungry as a consequence of the coronavirus-related economic collapse that will disrupt commerce , supply lines and economic activity .
The number of hungry people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 60 million in the last five years , and the United Nations ’ goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2030 appears increasingly impossible .
The World Health Organization and UNICEF also expressed deep concern over the “ alarming decline ” of children ’ s immunization programs over the past four months , with three-quarters of all countries surveyed reporting disruptions in their immunization drives .
“ COVID-19 has made previously routine vaccination a daunting challenge , ” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore , warning of potential epidemics of preventable diseases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can not trade one health crisis for another.
” Many see the disruption caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to redesign society for the better , implementing more sustainable forms of food production and mass transit .
Oxfam describes the moment as a “ once in a generation chance to build a fairer world.
” However , it appears that currently , the pandemic is being used by those in power to further their own agendas .
82 percent of the benefits of Trump ’ s CARES Act , for example , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 1 million per year , with less than three percent going to the great majority earning under $ 100,000 annually .
According to the Institute for Policy Studies , total billionaire wealth has increased by $ 584 billion since the lockdown in mid-March .
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is also taking the opportunity to force through “ revolutionary ” change in the state ’ s public schools , his plan sounding very much like a privatization drive .
Which direction the world will ultimately take remains to be seen .
Feature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eats discarded eggs from a garbage bin during lockdown on the outskirts of Jammu , India , May 10 , 2020 .
Channi Anand | 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Canary .

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have already devastated the world. Over 14 million people have tested positive for the virus, and nearly 600,000 have died since it was first identified in December. And cases continue to rise: yesterday saw 248,998 people test positive – an all-time high. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the crisis is “not even close” to being resolved.
But the human cost from the economic fallout could be worse than the virus itself, as the world plunges into a deep and possibly prolonged recession which will lead to disease and starvation across the global south.
That is why international charity Oxfam is calling on the international community to agree to its proposal of an “Economic Rescue Package for All.” The package entails six key features that it hopes to lay out across the world, including:
Mass cash grants to all that need them – The plan does not call for a universal basic income, but does stipulate that mass subsidies may be needed to keep the poor from hunger, keep the self-employed afloat, and more. A responsible business bailout package – In contrast to the 2008 bailout that saw large corporations rewarded for their recklessness, the plan states that small businesses should be given priority, that the funds must be used to primarily meet payroll, and that companies involved in fossil fuel extraction should not be bailed out at all. The suspension and cancellation of debt – After 2008, poor nations were forced into implementing harsh austerity measures to meet their payments. This cannot be allowed to happen again. Issue Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) – The International Monetary Fund created SDRs as a means to give countries more leeway to spend money on vital public services. They should be used here too. A new international aid package – Many of the poorest countries desperately need international aid to help them overcome the current medical and economic crisis. Emergency wealth taxes – To pay for this, new levies on financial transactions, luxury goods, excess corporate profits and private wealth should be implemented.
The consequences of inaction will be extremely serious; “As many as 12,000 people could die every day from COVID-linked hunger, which is more than those dying daily from the virus itself,” warned Abby Maxman, President of Oxfam America. On Monday, the United Nations released its 2020 edition of its State of Food Security and Nutrition report, estimating that a minimum of 83 million extra people, and possibly as many as 132 million worldwide will go hungry as a consequence of the coronavirus-related economic collapse that will disrupt commerce, supply lines and economic activity. The number of hungry people in the world has increased by around 60 million in the last five years, and the United Nations’ goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2030 appears increasingly impossible.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF also expressed deep concern over the “alarming decline” of children’s immunization programs over the past four months, with three-quarters of all countries surveyed reporting disruptions in their immunization drives. “COVID-19 has made previously routine vaccination a daunting challenge,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, warning of potential epidemics of preventable diseases due to the disruption, “we cannot trade one health crisis for another.”
Many see the disruption caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to redesign society for the better, implementing more sustainable forms of food production and mass transit. Oxfam describes the moment as a “once in a generation chance to build a fairer world.” However, it appears that currently, the pandemic is being used by those in power to further their own agendas. 82 percent of the benefits of Trump’s CARES Act, for example, went to those already earning at least $1 million per year, with less than three percent going to the great majority earning under $100,000 annually. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, total billionaire wealth has increased by $584 billion since the lockdown in mid-March. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is also taking the opportunity to force through “revolutionary” change in the state’s public schools, his plan sounding very much like a privatization drive. Which direction the world will ultimately take remains to be seen.
Feature photo | A homeless man in India eats discarded eggs from a garbage bin during lockdown on the outskirts of Jammu, India, May 10, 2020. Channi Anand | 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--2020-07-17--Saudi Coalition Attack on Yemen Wedding Party Leaves Over 30 Civilians Dead

AL-JAWF , YEMEN — A wedding anywhere in the world is a happy occasion for couples and their families celebrating a new shared life , Yemen is no exception .
Weddings traditionally include thousands of guests gathered in large halls or houses , but not since 2015 , when the war began and the Saudi-led coalition began turning Yemen ’ s weddings into veritable slaughterhouses .
On Wednesday , a wedding party that was supposed to bring happiness to Mabakhuwt Marzuq Marei , his bride , and his guests , instead became the scene of a deadly attack .
Gathered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of women and children were packed under one roof when Saudi warplanes turned the celebration into a scene of carnage .
At least 31 women and children were killed and dozens were injured when at least one Saudi warplane dropped a bomb on the Marei family home in the Almasaeifeh District , situated in the Al-Hazm Directorate of the rich-oil province of Al-Jawf .
Marzuq Marei told reporters that the wedding was publicly announced and they specifically informed the Saudi Coalition of the time and place of the ceremony in order to avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attack described to MintPress by witnesses was tragic ; violent explosions were heard in the village , red fires mixed with dust and smoke illuminated flying rubble .
The bodies of wedding-goers fueled fires and ornamental furniture was strewn about as screaming and crying could be heard from those who survived the initial onslaught .
In one of the homes near the wedding ceremony , a woman watched and provided a morbid chorus to nearby rescue workers with her shouted curses at the Saudi regime .
Despite the fear of additional strikes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ women and children from the rubble , most still wrapped in their traditional wedding clothes .
They were transferred to the Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana ’ a , the Ma ’ rib Hospital and the Al- Hazm hospital .
The death toll is expected to rise , as many of the wedding attendees who were rescued from the rubble are still in critical condition .
“ We are celebrating , not fighting , and the Saudis know that , ” Marzuq Marei told reporters gathered at the scene .
“ I lost my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from COVID-19 , ” he said , calling the attack an “ American gift in the time of Corona , ” referring to the weapons allegedly used in the attack .
United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths called for a transparent investigation into the attack and wrote in a post on his official Twitter page , “ We deplore yesterday ’ s airstrikes in al-Jawf… A thorough & transparent investigation is required.
” The attack came just weeks after the UN , in a highly contentious move , took the Saudi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to counts from Yemen ’ s Ministry of Health based in Sana ’ a as well as from local hospitals , some 21,000 civilians , including 4,270 children and 2,370 women , have been killed and around 26,100 injured since the beginning of the Saudi-led war in 2015 .
Yemen ’ s governmental and non-governmental bodies and institutions condemned the attack and called for an end to U.S. arms sales to Riyadh .
For their part , Yemen ’ s tribal leaders called a consultative meeting in Sanaa on Thursday and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Saudi-led coalition countries in response to the airstrike .
The attack on the wedding ceremony came just three days after another attack that killed at least ten civilians and injured others when a Saudi warplane dropped a U.S.-made bomb on the home of Naif Mejeli in the Woshahah District , located in the country ’ s northwestern Hajjah Province .
The bomb used in that attack , which completely destroyed the home , was a Raytheon Mark-82 jointly manufactured by U.S. weapons companies Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics .
As with other weapons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been dropped on a funeral hall , schools and hospitals , factories , heritage buildings , and other facilities , and has a gained a reputation among Yemenis who know it as the “ stupid bomb ” due to its ability to cause collateral damage .
The MK-82 was used in the school bus attack in Dahyan on August 9 , 2019 , that left 40 schoolchildren dead and was also used on a funeral in 2016 which left over 140 dead and 525 wounded .
Even by Yemeni standards , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Airstrikes , this week ’ s attacks came as a shock .
And not only because of the killing of women and children but because of the timing of attacks , when people are struggling against COVID-19 , hunger , and a spat of diseases that are spreading throughout the country .
Like Marzuq Marei , Al-Jawf ’ s residents have long known that the natural resources and strategic location of their province were more of a curse than a blessing , today the sincerity of their predictions is manifesting as they watch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flares emanating from the stacks of lucrative oil wells and refineries , but from burning farms , cars , and family homes set ablaeze by near-constant Saudi airstrikes .
For three months , the Saudi-led coalition , local mercenaries , and allied Salafi extremist groups , and have been fighting a fierce campaign to reoccupy the Al-Jawf , which holds most of the country ’ s reserves and enjoys a unique status as a neighbor to two oil-rich regions of Marib and Saudi Arabia .
However , the Saudi-led coalition , equipped with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unable to advance as local residents fight to free their homeland , whatever the sacrifice .
Feature photo | A screenshot from video obtained by MintPress from the Ansarallah Media Center shows drone footage of the site of a Saudi airstrike on a wedding party in Al-Jawf , Yemen .
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist .
He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media .

AL-JAWF, YEMEN — A wedding anywhere in the world is a happy occasion for couples and their families celebrating a new shared life, Yemen is no exception. Weddings traditionally include thousands of guests gathered in large halls or houses, but not since 2015, when the war began and the Saudi-led coalition began turning Yemen’s weddings into veritable slaughterhouses.
On Wednesday, a wedding party that was supposed to bring happiness to Mabakhuwt Marzuq Marei, his bride, and his guests, instead became the scene of a deadly attack. Gathered at his home to celebrate, dozens of women and children were packed under one roof when Saudi warplanes turned the celebration into a scene of carnage.
At least 31 women and children were killed and dozens were injured when at least one Saudi warplane dropped a bomb on the Marei family home in the Almasaeifeh District, situated in the Al-Hazm Directorate of the rich-oil province of Al-Jawf. Marzuq Marei told reporters that the wedding was publicly announced and they specifically informed the Saudi Coalition of the time and place of the ceremony in order to avoid an attack.
The scene of the attack described to MintPress by witnesses was tragic; violent explosions were heard in the village, red fires mixed with dust and smoke illuminated flying rubble. The bodies of wedding-goers fueled fires and ornamental furniture was strewn about as screaming and crying could be heard from those who survived the initial onslaught. In one of the homes near the wedding ceremony, a woman watched and provided a morbid chorus to nearby rescue workers with her shouted curses at the Saudi regime.
Despite the fear of additional strikes, rescuers pulled the bodies of dozens of women and children from the rubble, most still wrapped in their traditional wedding clothes. They were transferred to the Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a, the Ma’rib Hospital and the Al- Hazm hospital. The death toll is expected to rise, as many of the wedding attendees who were rescued from the rubble are still in critical condition.
“We are celebrating, not fighting, and the Saudis know that,” Marzuq Marei told reporters gathered at the scene. “I lost my loved-ones in a Saudi airstrike, not from COVID-19,” he said, calling the attack an “American gift in the time of Corona,” referring to the weapons allegedly used in the attack.
Shocking, even by Yemeni standards
United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths called for a transparent investigation into the attack and wrote in a post on his official Twitter page, “We deplore yesterday’s airstrikes in al-Jawf… A thorough & transparent investigation is required.” The attack came just weeks after the UN, in a highly contentious move, took the Saudi regime off its list of child killers.
According to counts from Yemen’s Ministry of Health based in Sana’a as well as from local hospitals, some 21,000 civilians, including 4,270 children and 2,370 women, have been killed and around 26,100 injured since the beginning of the Saudi-led war in 2015.
Yemen’s governmental and non-governmental bodies and institutions condemned the attack and called for an end to U.S. arms sales to Riyadh. For their part, Yemen’s tribal leaders called a consultative meeting in Sanaa on Thursday and Ansar Allah promised to intensify strikes on Saudi-led coalition countries in response to the airstrike.
The attack on the wedding ceremony came just three days after another attack that killed at least ten civilians and injured others when a Saudi warplane dropped a U.S.-made bomb on the home of Naif Mejeli in the Woshahah District, located in the country’s northwestern Hajjah Province. The bomb used in that attack, which completely destroyed the home, was a Raytheon Mark-82 jointly manufactured by U.S. weapons companies Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.
As with other weapons provided to Saudi-led coalition, the MK-82 has been dropped on a funeral hall, schools and hospitals, factories, heritage buildings, and other facilities, and has a gained a reputation among Yemenis who know it as the “stupid bomb” due to its ability to cause collateral damage. The MK-82 was used in the school bus attack in Dahyan on August 9, 2019, that left 40 schoolchildren dead and was also used on a funeral in 2016 which left over 140 dead and 525 wounded.
Even by Yemeni standards, where dozens are killed every day by Saudi Airstrikes, this week’s attacks came as a shock. And not only because of the killing of women and children but because of the timing of attacks, when people are struggling against COVID-19, hunger, and a spat of diseases that are spreading throughout the country.
Like Marzuq Marei, Al-Jawf’s residents have long known that the natural resources and strategic location of their province were more of a curse than a blessing, today the sincerity of their predictions is manifesting as they watch plumes of smoke flow not from gas flares emanating from the stacks of lucrative oil wells and refineries, but from burning farms, cars, and family homes set ablaeze by near-constant Saudi airstrikes.
For three months, the Saudi-led coalition, local mercenaries, and allied Salafi extremist groups, and have been fighting a fierce campaign to reoccupy the Al-Jawf, which holds most of the country’s reserves and enjoys a unique status as a neighbor to two oil-rich regions of Marib and Saudi Arabia. However, the Saudi-led coalition, equipped with the latest U.S.-supplied weapons, has been unable to advance as local residents fight to free their homeland, whatever the sacrifice.
Feature photo | A screenshot from video obtained by MintPress from the Ansarallah Media Center shows drone footage of the site of a Saudi airstrike on a wedding party in Al-Jawf, Yemen.
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.


mintpressnews--2020-07-17--Portland  Mayor Condemns Masked Federal Agents Abducting Protesters

Anonymous masked federal agents in military uniforms jump out of unmarked minivans , abducting seemingly random people on the street in Portland , frightening new viral videos show .
Officers from the U.S .
Marshals Special Operations Group and Customs and Border Protection ’ s BORTAC have been sent to the city to tamp down of 49 days of continuous demonstrations against racist police brutality .
The move appears to be the Trump administration ’ s latest tactic to crush the nationwide protests that erupted in late May over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police .
One video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beside a small group of people on a deserted Portland street , arresting one man without identifying themselves or saying anything and putting him into the back of a minivan .
“ It sounds more like abduction .
It sounds like they ’ re kidnapping people off the streets , ” said Juan Chavez , director of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center , who has been working on issues of police brutality on protestors for weeks .
“ It ’ s like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he found the new events “ terrifying.
” Repressive tactics have increased since Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf began involving himself and his department in the protests , with federal agents firing tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators .
Homeland Security has justified its invasion , claiming that Portland has been “ under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city .
Each night , lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property.
” The DHS claims that “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , although the examples of destruction they give , such as graffiti and throwing rocks , appear trifling in comparison to abduction .
Wolf himself arrived in Portland recently , declaring that , “ Our men and women in uniform are patriots .
We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch.
” Wolf ’ s actions have received strong condemnation from demonstrators , human rights groups , and even local politicians who have unequivocally told federal agents to leave .
Mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler claimed that , “ This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ House .
It is irresponsible and it is escalating an already tense situation .
Remove your heightened troop presence now , ” adding that the city neither needed nor wanted their help .
Local congressman Earl Blumenauer was similarly forthright , placing the blame for the violence on government forces .
“ Chad Wolf just arrived in Portland .
Here ’ s my message : go home Chad and take your unlawful DHS agents with you .
The Trump admin has no place occupying and inciting violence in our community , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can also count on the support of the American Civil Liberties Union , who issued a statement reading , “ Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland are being assaulted — shot in the head , swept away in unmarked cars , repeatedly tear gassed — by uninvited and unwelcome federal officers .
We won ’ t rest until these federal officers are gone.
” The “ shot in the head ” comment refers to the case of Donavan LaBella , a 26-year-old protester shot outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaker over his head when police shot him in the face at close range with a rubber bullet .
Video shows him instantly collapse on the street .
Even as others retrieve his body , a large pool of blood is already noticeable where he fell .
LaBella ’ s mother confirmed he survived the incident , but that he needed facial reconstruction surgery , with doctors inserting a titanium plate into his head .
Portland has been a hotspot of protest since the police killing of George Floyd on May 25 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Trump administration decided to confront the protests with force rather than negotiate or co-opt them , the president infamously suggesting the National Guard should shoot any “ looters.
” A recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement .
Thus , it is unlikely that the new escalation of violence will win the president many new supporters , something he may need come November ’ s election .
Feature photo | Police stand as protesters gather during a demonstration , July 16 , 2020 in Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

Anonymous masked federal agents in military uniforms jump out of unmarked minivans, abducting seemingly random people on the street in Portland, frightening new viral videos show. Officers from the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and Customs and Border Protection’s BORTAC have been sent to the city to tamp down of 49 days of continuous demonstrations against racist police brutality. The move appears to be the Trump administration’s latest tactic to crush the nationwide protests that erupted in late May over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police.
Is it happening in any part of Central, South America?
Nope.
It's Portland, USA. https://t.co/U2mpTloyd6 — Carlos Latuff (@LatuffCartoons) July 17, 2020
One video shows individuals in battle fatigues pull up beside a small group of people on a deserted Portland street, arresting one man without identifying themselves or saying anything and putting him into the back of a minivan. “It sounds more like abduction. It sounds like they’re kidnapping people off the streets,” said Juan Chavez, director of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, who has been working on issues of police brutality on protestors for weeks. “It’s like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay,” he said, adding that he found the new events “terrifying.”
Repressive tactics have increased since Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf began involving himself and his department in the protests, with federal agents firing tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators. Homeland Security has justified its invasion, claiming that Portland has been “under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city. Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property.” The DHS claims that “violent anarchists” have wrecked the city, although the examples of destruction they give, such as graffiti and throwing rocks, appear trifling in comparison to abduction. Wolf himself arrived in Portland recently, declaring that, “Our men and women in uniform are patriots. We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch.”
Wolf’s actions have received strong condemnation from demonstrators, human rights groups, and even local politicians who have unequivocally told federal agents to leave. Mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler claimed that, “This is clearly a coordinated strategy from the White House. It is irresponsible and it is escalating an already tense situation. Remove your heightened troop presence now,” adding that the city neither needed nor wanted their help. Local congressman Earl Blumenauer was similarly forthright, placing the blame for the violence on government forces. “Chad Wolf just arrived in Portland. Here’s my message: go home Chad and take your unlawful DHS agents with you. The Trump admin has no place occupying and inciting violence in our community,” he tweeted late last night.
The demonstrators can also count on the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, who issued a statement reading, “Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland are being assaulted — shot in the head, swept away in unmarked cars, repeatedly tear gassed — by uninvited and unwelcome federal officers. We won’t rest until these federal officers are gone.”
A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police. Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media. — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) July 16, 2020
The “shot in the head” comment refers to the case of Donavan LaBella, a 26-year-old protester shot outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland on Saturday. LaBella was holding a speaker over his head when police shot him in the face at close range with a rubber bullet. Video shows him instantly collapse on the street. Even as others retrieve his body, a large pool of blood is already noticeable where he fell. LaBella’s mother confirmed he survived the incident, but that he needed facial reconstruction surgery, with doctors inserting a titanium plate into his head.
If you've been shrieking about tyranny over masks and lockdowns but you're fine with masked anonymous feds invading Portland and kidnapping protesters into unmarked vans, you have replaced your brain with a political party. — Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) July 17, 2020
Portland has been a hotspot of protest since the police killing of George Floyd on May 25 and has seen seven weeks of nightly demonstrations. The Trump administration decided to confront the protests with force rather than negotiate or co-opt them, the president infamously suggesting the National Guard should shoot any “looters.” A recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement. Thus, it is unlikely that the new escalation of violence will win the president many new supporters, something he may need come November’s election.
Feature photo | Police stand as protesters gather during a demonstration, July 16, 2020 in Portland, Ore. Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian 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--2020-07-20--UK Govt Loaning Troops to Oman to Prop up Dictatorship

The United Kingdom keeps dozens of army operatives — “ respectable mercenaries ” in its own words — to help prop up the Omani dictatorship , a new report from the investigative team at Declassified U.K. has found .
Rooted in half a century of covert cooperation between the two countries that receives virtually no public attention , 91 British operatives , paid for by the Sultan of Oman , wearing Omani uniforms , but still remaining part of the British military , hold key positions , training and leading local forces to help the monarchy stay in power .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ inform parliament on what the rules of engagement are for these secret soldiers , leading to increased speculation , particularly over the roles of the air force pilots in the country flying the 12 extremely costly , British-made Typhoon fighter jets Oman purchased in 2012 for 3.75 billion U.S .
Dollars .
Neither Britain ’ s Royal Air Force nor arms manufacturer BAE Systems would tell investigative journalist Phil Miller , who broke the story , if the pilots were contracted to fly the planes at times of conflict .
In 2019 the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world ’ s second largest arms exporter , capturing around 19 percent of all international sales .
After Johnson defeated Labour ’ s Jeremy Corbyn in the December general election , shares of British weapons manufacturers rocketed on the expectation of increased sales .
Corbyn , a lifelong anti-war activist , had promised to halt arms transfers to Middle Eastern dictatorships , the destination for nearly 80 percent of British arms sales .
According to data from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade , Oman is the United Kingdom ’ s third largest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States , buying $ 1.5 billion worth of hardware since January 2017 .
Considering its tiny population of under 5 million people , however , the country is by far the most loyal customer London has .
Aircraft , including drones , are the number one purchase , in terms of value , followed by small arms and ammunition .
Virtually the entire Omani military comes equipped with some form of British weaponry .
Apart from the Typhoon , the Air Force also flies BAE Hawks .
Oman also sails three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Portsmouth , England , and commissioned between 2013 and 2014 .
Meanwhile , the Army continues to field 38 BAE Challenger II battle tanks , vehicles that cost them almost $ 400 million .
Scottish journalist Adam Ramsay has described Oman as , “ effectively , although not formally , part of the British Empire , ” suggesting that in any future offensive against Iran , the country would play an “ absolutely vital role ” in it , ( even though the two states have maintained cordial relations ) .
Situated just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Oman is home to both U.S. and U.K. military sites , including newly built army and navy bases .
The neocolonial relationship between the two nations stretches back at least 50 years .
In 1970 , Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said came to the throne in a British-backed coup .
Qaboos was very much Britain ’ s man , having grown up and been educated in England .
Entering the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst at age 20 , he even served in the British Army for a year .
With @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he managed to suppress a socialist uprising in the southern region of Dhofar .
He would go on to rule with an iron fist for 50 years until his death in January this year when flags across Britain were lowered to half mast in mourning .
In their obituary , The Guardian , the outlet marking the left-wing extreme of the U.K. corporate press , described him as a “ relatively benevolent and popular absolute monarch , ” who transformed his country for the better .
Qaboos also used his British weaponry to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his country , sending troops in to fire live ammunition at demonstrators .
To this day , public gatherings of 10 or more people remain prohibited .
The U.K. government immediately expressed its concern – not at the suppression of human rights , but that they might lose a valuable client ruler .
Prime Minister David Cameron rushed to the Middle East , offering new shipments of weapons .
Since then , the sultan ’ s newly bolstered police and military received anti-riot training in the U.K .
In discussions of problematic regimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost never brought up , precisely because , in the eyes of the West , it is behaving itself , making the world safe for Western oil companies .
To many in Washington , D.C. and London , they are the only ones whose rights matter .
Feature photo | In this photo made available by Oman News Agency , Oman ’ s new sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said , right , receives Britain ’ s Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his arrival to attend an official mourning ceremony for the late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Jan. 12 , 2020 .
Photo | Oman News Agency 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 .

The United Kingdom keeps dozens of army operatives — “respectable mercenaries” in its own words — to help prop up the Omani dictatorship, a new report from the investigative team at Declassified U.K. has found. Rooted in half a century of covert cooperation between the two countries that receives virtually no public attention, 91 British operatives, paid for by the Sultan of Oman, wearing Omani uniforms, but still remaining part of the British military, hold key positions, training and leading local forces to help the monarchy stay in power.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to inform parliament on what the rules of engagement are for these secret soldiers, leading to increased speculation, particularly over the roles of the air force pilots in the country flying the 12 extremely costly, British-made Typhoon fighter jets Oman purchased in 2012 for 3.75 billion U.S. Dollars. Neither Britain’s Royal Air Force nor arms manufacturer BAE Systems would tell investigative journalist Phil Miller, who broke the story, if the pilots were contracted to fly the planes at times of conflict.
In 2019 the United Kingdom overtook Russia to become the world’s second largest arms exporter, capturing around 19 percent of all international sales. After Johnson defeated Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn in the December general election, shares of British weapons manufacturers rocketed on the expectation of increased sales. Corbyn, a lifelong anti-war activist, had promised to halt arms transfers to Middle Eastern dictatorships, the destination for nearly 80 percent of British arms sales. According to data from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Oman is the United Kingdom’s third largest customer, behind only Saudi Arabia and the United States, buying $1.5 billion worth of hardware since January 2017. Considering its tiny population of under 5 million people, however, the country is by far the most loyal customer London has. Aircraft, including drones, are the number one purchase, in terms of value, followed by small arms and ammunition.
Virtually the entire Omani military comes equipped with some form of British weaponry. Apart from the Typhoon, the Air Force also flies BAE Hawks. Oman also sails three Khareef class corvette warships, built in Portsmouth, England, and commissioned between 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, the Army continues to field 38 BAE Challenger II battle tanks, vehicles that cost them almost $400 million.
Scottish journalist Adam Ramsay has described Oman as, “effectively, although not formally, part of the British Empire,” suggesting that in any future offensive against Iran, the country would play an “absolutely vital role” in it, (even though the two states have maintained cordial relations). Situated just across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, Oman is home to both U.S. and U.K. military sites, including newly built army and navy bases.
The neocolonial relationship between the two nations stretches back at least 50 years. In 1970, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said came to the throne in a British-backed coup. Qaboos was very much Britain’s man, having grown up and been educated in England. Entering the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst at age 20, he even served in the British Army for a year. With the help of U.K. special forces, he managed to suppress a socialist uprising in the southern region of Dhofar. He would go on to rule with an iron fist for 50 years until his death in January this year when flags across Britain were lowered to half mast in mourning. In their obituary, The Guardian, the outlet marking the left-wing extreme of the U.K. corporate press, described him as a “relatively benevolent and popular absolute monarch,” who transformed his country for the better.
Qaboos also used his British weaponry to violently suppress the 2011 Arab Spring in his country, sending troops in to fire live ammunition at demonstrators. To this day, public gatherings of 10 or more people remain prohibited. The U.K. government immediately expressed its concern – not at the suppression of human rights, but that they might lose a valuable client ruler. Prime Minister David Cameron rushed to the Middle East, offering new shipments of weapons. Since then, the sultan’s newly bolstered police and military received anti-riot training in the U.K.
In discussions of problematic regimes that abuse human rights, Oman is almost never brought up, precisely because, in the eyes of the West, it is behaving itself, making the world safe for Western oil companies. To many in Washington, D.C. and London, they are the only ones whose rights matter.
Feature photo | In this photo made available by Oman News Agency, Oman’s new sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, right, receives Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his arrival to attend an official mourning ceremony for the late Sultan Qaboos, in Muscat, Oman, Jan. 12, 2020. Photo | Oman News Agency 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--2020-07-20--Partisan Media Coverage of Epstein Masks His Links to Both Sides of the Political Establishment

The Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to rumble on .
Earlier this month , the deceased sexual predator ’ s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested and charged with luring and grooming children into his sex ring .
Epstein , who died in prison in suspicious circumstances last August , was connected to huge swaths of the global elite , counting billionaire business owners , hotshot lawyers and professors , members of the royal family , and foreign leaders among his closest acquaintances .
Perhaps the two most important and notable , however , given their enormous influence , are former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump .
Clinton , already infamous for the numerous women accusing him of sexual misconduct ( including rape ) , is known to have flown all around the world with Epstein on his private jet , the Lolita Express , which he used to ferry girls to his private Caribbean island where he allegedly imprisoned and raped them .
Locals report seeing the former president there .
President Trump also has deep ties to the disgraced New York fraudster .
“ I ’ ve known Jeff for fifteen years .
Terrific guy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ He ’ s a lot of fun to be with .
It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do , and many of them are on the younger side .
No doubt about it.
” Like Clinton , Trump was also a flyer on the Lolita Express , Epstein claiming both that it was he who introduced him to his wife Melania and that Clinton “ owed him some favors.
” The office of the president of the United States is the most powerful in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cajoled and blackmailed his powerful associates .
Did the two presidents ’ connections to him influence U.S. public policy ?
If we do not investigate , we can not know .
We rely largely on the corporate press to carry out such investigations , shaping our understanding of the world in the process .
However , the great majority of what we consume comes mediated through ultra-partisan outlets pushing a clear agenda .
The two most widely viewed networks in the U.S. are Fox News and MSNBC , both of which have clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and MSNBC to the Democrats .
Unfortunately , as well shall see , they are both spinning the Epstein story hard to shield their champion from blame while simultaneously demonizing the opposing president .
As Liz Franczak from the Epstein-focused TrueAnon podcast said , the story , “ so perfectly encapsulates and implicates both sides of the ruling class and yet you have these polarized sides , team red , team blue , pulling out what they want for their own purposes and refusing to understand , see or even admit that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Media have already been under the spotlight for their poor coverage of the affair .
Epstein is known to have had connections to influential media figures like George Stephanopoulos , Katie Couric , Charlie Rose in addition to some of the media ’ s biggest sponsors , such as Bill Gates .
Last year , ABC News anchor Amy Robach was caught on a hot mic lambasting network executives for killing her investigations into his network — precisely because of his connections — allowing him to remain at large for three more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequences was the producer accused of leaking the clip in the first place , not those who protected , “ the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known , ” as Robach described him .
In order to gauge the level of partisan coverage , this study analyzed all articles or show transcripts from MSNBC.com featuring the words “ Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump ” or “ Jeffrey Epstein Bill Clinton ” and all results appearing under the “ Jeffrey Epstein ” topic on FoxNews.com , counting the number of articles mentioning each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sex offender .
The date range was July 6 , 2019 ( Epstein ’ s arrest ) to July 13 , 2020 ( the first day of data collection ) .
Full documentation can be found here .
The results were exactly as Franczak suspected , with both networks showing a strong bias ( an over 2:1 ratio ) towards associating the opposing party to the pedophile , while downplaying their own candidate ’ s incriminating ties to him .
19 MSNBC articles or segments mentioned Clinton ’ s links to Epstein , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Fox News flipped that on its head , associating Epstein far more with Clinton ( 78 times ) than with Trump ( 37 times ) .
While these findings already reveal a great disparity in the coverage , they actually undersell the level of bias in reporting because they do not take into account the quality and context of the references .
On the MSNBC show , “ The 11th Hour , ” a former federal prosecutor reacted to the news of Epstein ’ s arrest by saying “ I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats in there , let it come out .
If there are Republicans in there , let it come out .
This should not be about politics .
This is – if anybody abused those girls , it ought to come out and they ought to be prosecuted and I ’ m for it.
” Host Brian Williams responded : “ Yes , hear hear , I think most thinking individuals would agree with that.
” But the media didn ’ t do that .
MSNBC constantly stressed Trump ’ s connections to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own links .
Indeed , on July 17 , 2019 , five separate MSNBC shows centered around the Trump-Epstein connection , but only one noted any link to Clinton , and even that was merely when a guest began listing a number of powerful people he had ties to , and was not brought up again , the show going back to discussing at length Trump ’ s complicity .
Nevertheless , this counted as one hit for Trump , and one for Clinton .
Meanwhile , Fox News did the same but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emphasis on the former president ’ s ties to the notorious sexual predator , and rarely discussing the current president in relation to him .
Many of Fox ’ s mentions of Trump were included merely as a sentence of background information , for example , a July 8 , 2019 article noting , “ Epstein , who once counted as friends former President Bill Clinton , Britain ’ s Prince Andrew and President Trump , was arrested Saturday after his private jet touched down from France.
” In its “ Five Details @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fox included a section called the “ Bill Clinton Connection ” where it ( accurately ) described their long history , his multiple trips on the Lolita Express , and meetings they had in New York .
But it did not mention any connection to Trump whatsoever .
Indeed , the network appears to have gone to some lengths not to implicate the president , earlier this month cropping Trump out of a photo of Epstein and Maxwell it used to illustrate a segment .
Fox constantly detailed and centered the Clinton-Epstein relationship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Former President Bill Clinton insists he never visited the notorious “ orgy island ” of his late ex-pal Jeffrey Epstein – but now a second person begs to differ.
” “ Bill Clinton flew many times on Jeffrey Epstein ’ s private jet .
A private investigator told us that one of the co-pilots said Bill Clinton flew on the plane without secret service a few times and while young girls were dressed up as candy stripers .
Now , new photos have emerged showing the former President on Epstein ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged madam .
Here he is with Ghislaine Maxwell , who is under FBI investigation for engaging in alleged underaged sex trafficking .
Ghislaine Maxwell also attended Chelsea Clinton ’ s wedding.
” Watters went on to show viewers a number of incriminating pictures of the ex-president .
On Epstein , Tucker Carlson stated that , “ He got away with it because he was affluent and he had many powerful friends like Bill Clinton.
” Yet Fox was far more likely to miss an opportunity to impugn Trump .
In dozens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prince Andrew , Fox often highlighted how Roberts accused Clinton of staying on Epstein ’ s private island , but only two mentioned that the 16-year-old Roberts was working for Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort when she was trafficked by Maxwell .
MSNBC was just as likely to play down unhelpful Epstein connections .
Only ten minutes into a segment called “ Why Trump ’ s White House is linked to Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case ” did host Brian Williams mention Clinton ’ s connections to Epstein , before quickly returning to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report on Epstein ’ s arrest with the words , “ A notorious convicted sex offender and friend of Donald Trump , a man whose escaped serious accountability for years seemingly thanks to it as enormous wealth and social connections is now behind bars.
” He later went on to say that “ Epstein is connected to some of the most powerful people in America in the world including Bill Clinton , Alan Dershowitz , Prince Andrew , and yes President Donald Trump – about which more in a bit , ” before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump-Epstein connection .
Both these examples were coded as one article mentioning Trump and one for Clinton , despite the obvious disparity in emphasis .
For this reason , the study also counted the number of articles and segments specifically centering on each president ’ s relationship to the billionaire criminal .
These findings give a more accurate assessment of the level of partisan coverage , with 15 MSNBC pieces targeting Trump , but only 2 for Clinton , whereas Fox News was its opposite , with 13 on Clinton but only one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clinton was brought up on MSNBC it was as an accusation made by Trump , which hosts and guests quickly challenged .
On the August 13 edition of Hardball , for instance , Clinton was only mentioned in connection to Epstein because Trump had the “ chutzpah ” to “ trash his name , ” according to host Chris Matthews , his guest Paul Butler , a former federal prosecutor , immediately turning the attack back on him , stating : Thus , both networks did their level best to maintain the illusion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while the other president was deeply implicated in the scandal , feeding into a climate of extreme polarization , where each side believes that the other is hopelessly implicated , while theirs remain relatively blameless .
Regular viewers of each network would routinely be presented with great details about the enemy president ’ s crimes , but , if relying solely on that network for information , would be largely clueless about their own president ’ s profoundly suspicious links .
Indeed , MSNBC has not mentioned Clinton with regards to Epstein since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be a left-right issue .
Instead , it exposes how so many of those at the top of society belong to a sordid network of extremely wealthy and powerful people , sharing far more in common with each other than they do with the rest of us .
His connections to all manner of business tycoons , royals , celebrities and politicians from both sides of the political spectrum expose the system as rigged and fundamentally corrupt .
Yet corporate media , who we rely upon to inform us and curate our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Epstein a partisan affair by constantly emphasizing only one party ’ s connections to the pedophile .
Hats off to them : it was not an easy achievement .
Feature photo | From left , Donald Trump , then-girlfriend Melania Knauss , Jeffrey Epstein , and Ghislaine Maxwell pose at Trump ’ s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach , February 12 , 2000 .
Photo | Davidoff Studios Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to rumble on. Earlier this month, the deceased sexual predator’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested and charged with luring and grooming children into his sex ring. Epstein, who died in prison in suspicious circumstances last August, was connected to huge swaths of the global elite, counting billionaire business owners, hotshot lawyers and professors, members of the royal family, and foreign leaders among his closest acquaintances.
Perhaps the two most important and notable, however, given their enormous influence, are former President Bill Clinton and current President, Donald Trump. Clinton, already infamous for the numerous women accusing him of sexual misconduct (including rape), is known to have flown all around the world with Epstein on his private jet, the Lolita Express, which he used to ferry girls to his private Caribbean island where he allegedly imprisoned and raped them. Locals report seeing the former president there.
President Trump also has deep ties to the disgraced New York fraudster. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” he said in 2002, “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it.” Like Clinton, Trump was also a flyer on the Lolita Express, Epstein claiming both that it was he who introduced him to his wife Melania and that Clinton “owed him some favors.”
The office of the president of the United States is the most powerful in the world. Epstein is known to have cajoled and blackmailed his powerful associates. Did the two presidents’ connections to him influence U.S. public policy? If we do not investigate, we cannot know.
We rely largely on the corporate press to carry out such investigations, shaping our understanding of the world in the process. However, the great majority of what we consume comes mediated through ultra-partisan outlets pushing a clear agenda. The two most widely viewed networks in the U.S. are Fox News and MSNBC, both of which have clear party loyalties, Fox to the Republicans, and MSNBC to the Democrats. Unfortunately, as well shall see, they are both spinning the Epstein story hard to shield their champion from blame while simultaneously demonizing the opposing president. As Liz Franczak from the Epstein-focused TrueAnon podcast said, the story, “so perfectly encapsulates and implicates both sides of the ruling class and yet you have these polarized sides, team red, team blue, pulling out what they want for their own purposes and refusing to understand, see or even admit that this crosses both. This encapsulates everyone.”
Media have already been under the spotlight for their poor coverage of the affair. Epstein is known to have had connections to influential media figures like George Stephanopoulos, Katie Couric, Charlie Rose in addition to some of the media’s biggest sponsors, such as Bill Gates. Last year, ABC News anchor Amy Robach was caught on a hot mic lambasting network executives for killing her investigations into his network — precisely because of his connections — allowing him to remain at large for three more years. Yet the only one facing consequences was the producer accused of leaking the clip in the first place, not those who protected, “ the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known,” as Robach described him.
In order to gauge the level of partisan coverage, this study analyzed all articles or show transcripts from MSNBC.com featuring the words “Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump” or “Jeffrey Epstein Bill Clinton” and all results appearing under the “Jeffrey Epstein” topic on FoxNews.com, counting the number of articles mentioning each president’s links to the deceased sex offender. The date range was July 6, 2019 (Epstein’s arrest) to July 13, 2020 (the first day of data collection). Full documentation can be found here.
The results were exactly as Franczak suspected, with both networks showing a strong bias (an over 2:1 ratio) towards associating the opposing party to the pedophile, while downplaying their own candidate’s incriminating ties to him. 19 MSNBC articles or segments mentioned Clinton’s links to Epstein, as opposed to 45 for Trump. But Fox News flipped that on its head, associating Epstein far more with Clinton (78 times) than with Trump (37 times).
While these findings already reveal a great disparity in the coverage, they actually undersell the level of bias in reporting because they do not take into account the quality and context of the references. On the MSNBC show, “The 11th Hour,” a former federal prosecutor reacted to the news of Epstein’s arrest by saying “I’m a lifelong Democrat. If there are Democrats in there, let it come out. If there are Republicans in there, let it come out. This should not be about politics. This is – if anybody abused those girls, it ought to come out and they ought to be prosecuted and I’m for it.” Host Brian Williams responded: “Yes, hear hear, I think most thinking individuals would agree with that.”
But the media didn’t do that. MSNBC constantly stressed Trump’s connections to Epstein, downplaying Bill Clinton’s own links. Indeed, on July 17, 2019, five separate MSNBC shows centered around the Trump-Epstein connection, but only one noted any link to Clinton, and even that was merely when a guest began listing a number of powerful people he had ties to, and was not brought up again, the show going back to discussing at length Trump’s complicity. Nevertheless, this counted as one hit for Trump, and one for Clinton.
Meanwhile, Fox News did the same but in the opposite direction, putting great emphasis on the former president’s ties to the notorious sexual predator, and rarely discussing the current president in relation to him. Many of Fox’s mentions of Trump were included merely as a sentence of background information, for example, a July 8, 2019 article noting, “Epstein, who once counted as friends former President Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and President Trump, was arrested Saturday after his private jet touched down from France.”
In its “Five Details to Know” article on Epstein, Fox included a section called the “Bill Clinton Connection” where it (accurately) described their long history, his multiple trips on the Lolita Express, and meetings they had in New York. But it did not mention any connection to Trump whatsoever. Indeed, the network appears to have gone to some lengths not to implicate the president, earlier this month cropping Trump out of a photo of Epstein and Maxwell it used to illustrate a segment.
Fox constantly detailed and centered the Clinton-Epstein relationship, one article beginning with the sentence, “Former President Bill Clinton insists he never visited the notorious “orgy island” of his late ex-pal Jeffrey Epstein – but now a second person begs to differ.”
Host Jesse Watters began a TV segment in January by stating:
“Bill Clinton flew many times on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. A private investigator told us that one of the co-pilots said Bill Clinton flew on the plane without secret service a few times and while young girls were dressed up as candy stripers. Now, new photos have emerged showing the former President on Epstein’s plane and with Epstein’s alleged madam. Here he is with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is under FBI investigation for engaging in alleged underaged sex trafficking. Ghislaine Maxwell also attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.”
Watters went on to show viewers a number of incriminating pictures of the ex-president. On Epstein, Tucker Carlson stated that, “He got away with it because he was affluent and he had many powerful friends like Bill Clinton.” Yet Fox was far more likely to miss an opportunity to impugn Trump. In dozens of articles detailing Virginia Roberts’ allegations against Prince Andrew, Fox often highlighted how Roberts accused Clinton of staying on Epstein’s private island, but only two mentioned that the 16-year-old Roberts was working for Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort when she was trafficked by Maxwell.
MSNBC was just as likely to play down unhelpful Epstein connections. Only ten minutes into a segment called “Why Trump’s White House is linked to Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case” did host Brian Williams mention Clinton’s connections to Epstein, before quickly returning to Trump. Likewise Chris Hayes began a report on Epstein’s arrest with the words, “A notorious convicted sex offender and friend of Donald Trump, a man whose escaped serious accountability for years seemingly thanks to it as enormous wealth and social connections is now behind bars.” He later went on to say that “Epstein is connected to some of the most powerful people in America in the world including Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, and yes President Donald Trump – about which more in a bit,” before launching into a long discussion of the Trump-Epstein connection. Both these examples were coded as one article mentioning Trump and one for Clinton, despite the obvious disparity in emphasis. For this reason, the study also counted the number of articles and segments specifically centering on each president’s relationship to the billionaire criminal.
These findings give a more accurate assessment of the level of partisan coverage, with 15 MSNBC pieces targeting Trump, but only 2 for Clinton, whereas Fox News was its opposite, with 13 on Clinton but only one for Trump.
Much of the time Clinton was brought up on MSNBC it was as an accusation made by Trump, which hosts and guests quickly challenged. On the August 13 edition of Hardball, for instance, Clinton was only mentioned in connection to Epstein because Trump had the “chutzpah” to “trash his name,” according to host Chris Matthews, his guest Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor, immediately turning the attack back on him, stating:
I think Donald Trump is trying to deflect. If Bill Clinton has exposure then so does Donald Trump. Bill Clinton’s social lies with Epstein. So did Donald Trump. Bill Clinton was on the private plane. so was Donald Trump. The fact is that Mr. Epstein took his own life. He died while he was in the custody of the Trump administration. Bill Barr directs the Bureau of Prisons, and they allowed, in so ways that facilitated Mr. Epstein`s suicide.
Thus, both networks did their level best to maintain the illusion that their champion remained relatively taint-free, while the other president was deeply implicated in the scandal, feeding into a climate of extreme polarization, where each side believes that the other is hopelessly implicated, while theirs remain relatively blameless. Regular viewers of each network would routinely be presented with great details about the enemy president’s crimes, but, if relying solely on that network for information, would be largely clueless about their own president’s profoundly suspicious links. Indeed, MSNBC has not mentioned Clinton with regards to Epstein since last September.
The Epstein story should not be a left-right issue. Instead, it exposes how so many of those at the top of society belong to a sordid network of extremely wealthy and powerful people, sharing far more in common with each other than they do with the rest of us. His connections to all manner of business tycoons, royals, celebrities and politicians from both sides of the political spectrum expose the system as rigged and fundamentally corrupt. Yet corporate media, who we rely upon to inform us and curate our reality, have managed to make even Epstein a partisan affair by constantly emphasizing only one party’s connections to the pedophile. Hats off to them: it was not an easy achievement.
Feature photo | From left, Donald Trump, then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell pose at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, February 12, 2000. Photo | Davidoff Studios
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--2020-07-20--Portland: “Wall of Moms” Mobilizes to Protect Protests From Police Violence

Despite a widely-condemned federal crackdown , Portland ’ s anti-racist police brutality protests show no signs of abating .
Last night a group of local moms dressed in white and yellow tried a new tactic ; placing themselves between law enforcement and protesters in order to prevent more violence .
Chanting , “ Feds stay clear !
Moms are here !
, ” groups of women congregated at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other locations in Central Portland .
They were met with tear gas , flashbangs , and pepper round bullets , injuring many .
Oregon ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of particularly intense struggle over the past week , as the Trump administration has tried to neutralize ongoing demonstrations that began in late May .
Last week , federal agents were deployed to that end .
Viral video shows masked , anonymous units emerging from an unmarked minivan and seemingly abducting people off the street randomly .
A disabled veteran , Christopher David , was also attacked , federal officers beating him with clubs and macing him at point-blank range .
“ They just started wailing on me , ” David told The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit social media , turning him into an overnight local celebrity .
Washington ’ s move to bring in federal agents to Portland was roundly condemned , especially by local politicians , including the mayor , who deemed it irresponsible and escalatory , demanding that they be withdrawn .
The Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) has justified its actions , claiming that “ violent anarchists ” have taken over and destroyed the city , although the only examples of destruction it provided were stone throwing , graffiti , and a broken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a federal intervention was truly necessary .
Nevertheless , the DHS has declared the move a successful one , its acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli telling NPR that he intends to take the tactic nationwide : With as much lawbreaking [ that ] is going on , we ’ re seeking to prosecute as many people as are breaking the law as it relates to federal jurisdiction .
That ’ s not always happening with respect to local jurisdiction and local offenses .
But , you know , this is a posture we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but in any of the facilities that we ’ re responsible for around the country.
” In June , Portland temporarily suspended the use of tear gas by police and blocked police from using physical force on journalists .
However , federal agents are not subject to the same laws .
On Saturday , the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) announced it was taking the Trump administration to court over its actions .
“ Federal agents are terrorizing the community , threatening lives , and relentlessly attacking protesters demonstrating against police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ order .
This is lawlessness — and it must be stopped , ” they announced , adding that they should be removed from the city .
The lawsuit is aimed at stopping the feds from wantonly attacking journalists and observers .
“ I ’ ve been documenting violent and militarized police responses to protests in Portland for more than four years , but nothing prepared me for the unrestrained brutality I ’ ve witnessed and experienced in recent days , ” said the ACLU ’ s Doug Brown .
“ While some federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we now have additional militarized special ops officers occupying the streets of downtown Portland , bent on inflicting pain and terror on people who believe Black Lives Matter.
” In June , the Scottish parliament voted 52-0 to ban the sale of tear gas , rubber bullets and other weapons of oppression to the United States .
Nevertheless , police in Portland continued to use near-lethal force .
Last Saturday , police officers shot 26-year-old protester Donovan LaBella in the face from close range .
Labella survived but needed facial reconstruction surgery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plate into his face .
The immediate spark for the protests was the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd on May 25 .
Footage of a Minneapolis police officer choking Floyd to death for over 8 minutes went viral , causing a worldwide protest movement .
Hundreds of cities in all 50 states launched their own demonstrations .
Polls show that the majority of Americans disapprove of Trump ’ s decision to confront rather than co-opt the protests .
Despite this , the order to move federal agents into Portland appears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than an attempt at de-escalation .
Feature photo | Black Lives Matter protesters gather outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse , July 19 , 2020 , in Portland , Ore. Noah Berger | 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

Despite a widely-condemned federal crackdown, Portland’s anti-racist police brutality protests show no signs of abating. Last night a group of local moms dressed in white and yellow tried a new tactic; placing themselves between law enforcement and protesters in order to prevent more violence. Chanting, “Feds stay clear! Moms are here!,” groups of women congregated at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other locations in Central Portland. They were met with tear gas, flashbangs, and pepper round bullets, injuring many.
Jesus Christ feds came out of the courthouse in Portland and fired a flash bang at the moms against police brutality. At least one of these mothers is pregnant. pic.twitter.com/4qajHKtvaq — Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 19, 2020
I am a 49 year old mother with a Masters in Education and I just got gassed by my own government. We were peaceful. I think I stood in the middle of the gas for longer than i should have… #wallofmoms #PortlandMoms #PortlandProtest #Teargas #BLM — Jen (@UnderAGraySky) July 20, 2020
Oregon’s largest city has been the site of particularly intense struggle over the past week, as the Trump administration has tried to neutralize ongoing demonstrations that began in late May. Last week, federal agents were deployed to that end. Viral video shows masked, anonymous units emerging from an unmarked minivan and seemingly abducting people off the street randomly. A disabled veteran, Christopher David, was also attacked, federal officers beating him with clubs and macing him at point-blank range. “They just started wailing on me,” David told The Independent, after images of the attack hit social media, turning him into an overnight local celebrity.
Washington’s move to bring in federal agents to Portland was roundly condemned, especially by local politicians, including the mayor, who deemed it irresponsible and escalatory, demanding that they be withdrawn. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has justified its actions, claiming that “violent anarchists” have taken over and destroyed the city, although the only examples of destruction it provided were stone throwing, graffiti, and a broken fence, leading to questions of whether a federal intervention was truly necessary.
Nevertheless, the DHS has declared the move a successful one, its acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli telling NPR that he intends to take the tactic nationwide:
With as much lawbreaking [that] is going on, we’re seeking to prosecute as many people as are breaking the law as it relates to federal jurisdiction. That’s not always happening with respect to local jurisdiction and local offenses. But, you know, this is a posture we intend to continue not just in Portland but in any of the facilities that we’re responsible for around the country.”
https://twitter.com/Underground_RT/status/1285178612698808320
In June, Portland temporarily suspended the use of tear gas by police and blocked police from using physical force on journalists. However, federal agents are not subject to the same laws. On Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced it was taking the Trump administration to court over its actions. “Federal agents are terrorizing the community, threatening lives, and relentlessly attacking protesters demonstrating against police brutality. This is not law and order. This is lawlessness — and it must be stopped,” they announced, adding that they should be removed from the city. The lawsuit is aimed at stopping the feds from wantonly attacking journalists and observers.
“I’ve been documenting violent and militarized police responses to protests in Portland for more than four years, but nothing prepared me for the unrestrained brutality I’ve witnessed and experienced in recent days,” said the ACLU’s Doug Brown. “While some federal officers had already been in the streets, we now have additional militarized special ops officers occupying the streets of downtown Portland, bent on inflicting pain and terror on people who believe Black Lives Matter.”
In June, the Scottish parliament voted 52-0 to ban the sale of tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons of oppression to the United States. Nevertheless, police in Portland continued to use near-lethal force. Last Saturday, police officers shot 26-year-old protester Donovan LaBella in the face from close range. Labella survived but needed facial reconstruction surgery, including the insertion of a titanium plate into his face.
The immediate spark for the protests was the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd on May 25. Footage of a Minneapolis police officer choking Floyd to death for over 8 minutes went viral, causing a worldwide protest movement. Hundreds of cities in all 50 states launched their own demonstrations. Polls show that the majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s decision to confront rather than co-opt the protests. Despite this, the order to move federal agents into Portland appears to be an intensification of the conflict rather than an attempt at de-escalation.
Feature photo | Black Lives Matter protesters gather outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 19, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Noah Berger | 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--2020-07-20--The Hopelessness Discourse: How Palestinian Pessimism Could Spark a Much-Needed Rebellion

In a recent TV discussion , a respected pro-Palestine journalist declared that if any positive change or transformation ever occurs in the tragic Palestinian saga , it would not happen now , but that it would take a whole new generation to bring about such a paradigm shift .
As innocuous as the declaration may have seemed , it troubled me greatly .
I have heard this line over and over again , often reiterated by well-intentioned intellectuals , whose experiences in researching and writing on the so-called ‘ Palestinian-Israeli conflict ’ may have driven some of them to pessimism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hopelessness discourse ’ is , perhaps , understandable if one is to examine the off-putting , tangible reality on the ground : the ever-entrenched Israeli occupation , the planned annexation of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank , the shameful Arab normalization with Israel , the deafening silence of the international community and the futility of the quisling Palestinian leadership .
Subscribing to this logic is not only self-defeating but ahistorical as well .
Throughout history , every great achievement that brought about freedom and a measure of justice to any nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Indeed , who would have thought that the Algerian people were capable of defeating French colonialism when their tools of liberation were so rudimentary as compared with the awesome powers of the French military and its allies ?
The same notion applies to many other modern historic experiences , from Vietnam to South Africa and from India to Cuba .
Palestine is not the exception .
However , the ‘ hopelessness discourse ’ is not as innocent as it may seem .
It is propelled by the persisting failure to appreciate the centrality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other people , for that matter – in their own history .
Additionally , it assumes that the Palestinian people are , frankly , ineffectual .
Interestingly , when many nations were still grappling with the concept of national identity , the Palestinian people had already developed a refined sense of modern collective identity and national consciousness .
General mass strikes and civil disobedience challenging British imperialism and Zionist settlements in Palestine began nearly a century ago , culminating in the six-month-long general strike of 1936 .
Since then , popular resistance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of national identity , has been a staple in Palestinian history .
It was a prominent feature of the First Intifada , the popular uprising of 1987 .
The fact that the Palestinian homeland was lost , despite the heightened consciousness of the Palestinian masses at the time , is hardly indicative of the Palestinian people ’ s ability to affect political outcomes .
Time and again , Palestinians have rebelled and , with each rebellion , they forced all parties , including Israel and the United States , to reconsider and overhaul @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point was the First Intifada .
When , on December 8 , 1987 , thousands took to the streets of the Jabaliya Refugee Camp , the Gaza Strip ’ s most crowded and poorest camp , the timing and the location of their uprising was most fitting , rational and necessary .
Earlier that day , an Israeli truck had run over a convoy of cars carrying Palestinian laborers , killing four young men .
For Jabaliya , as with the rest of Palestine , it was the last straw .
Responding to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mourners , Gaza was , within days , the breeding ground for a real revolution that was self-propelled and unwavering .
The chants of Palestinians in the Strip were answered in the West Bank , and echoed just as loudly in Palestinian towns , including those located in Israel .
The contagious energy was emblematic of children and young adults wanting to reclaim the identities of their ancestors , which had been horribly disfigured and divided among regions , countries and refugee camps .
The Intifada – literally meaning the “ shake off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israel that the Palestinian people are alive , and are still capable of upsetting all of Israel ’ s colonial endeavors .
The Intifada also confronted the failure of the Palestinian and Arab leaderships , as they persisted in their factional and self-seeking politics .
In fact , the Madrid Talks in 1991 between Palestinians and Israelis were meant as an Israeli- American political compromise , aimed at ending the Intifada in exchange for acknowledging the Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ) as a representative of the Palestinian people .
The Oslo Accords @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 1993 , squandered the gains of the Intifada and , ultimately , replaced the more democratically representative PLO with the corrupt Palestinian Authority .
But even then , the Palestinian people kept coming back , reclaiming , in their own way , their importance and centrality in the struggle .
Gaza ’ s Great March of Return is but one of many such people-driven initiatives .
Palestine ’ s biggest challenge in the movement is not the failure of the people to register as a factor in the liberation of their own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s inability to appreciate the immense potential of harnessing the energies of Palestinians everywhere to stage a focused and strategic , anti-colonial , liberation campaign .
This lack of vision dates back to the late 1970s , when the Palestinian leadership labored to engage politically with Washington and other Western capitals , culminating in the pervading sense that , without US political validation , Palestinians would always remain marginal and irrelevant .
The Palestinian leadership ’ s calculations at the time proved disastrous .
After decades of catering to Washington ’ s expectations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultimately , returned empty-handed , as the current Donald Trump administration ’ s ‘ Deal of the Century ’ has finally proven .
I have recently spoken with two young Palestinian female activists : one is based in besieged Gaza and the other in the city of Seattle .
Their forward-thinking discourse is , itself , a testament that the pessimism of some intellectuals does not define the thinking of this young Palestinian generation , and there would be no need to dismiss the collective efforts of this budding generation in anticipation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one .
Malak Shalabi , a Seattle-based law student , does not convey a message of despair , but that of action .
“ It ’ s really important for every Palestinian and every human rights activist to champion the Palestinian cause regardless of where they are , and it is important especially now , ” she told me .
“ There are currently waves of social movements here in the United States , around civil rights for Black people and other issues that are ( becoming ) pressing topics – equality and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Palestinians , it ’ s important that we ( take the Palestinian cause ) to the mainstream as well , ” she added .
“ There is a lot of work happening among Palestinian activists here in the United States , on the ground , at a social , economic , and political level , to make sure that the link between Black Lives Matter and Palestine happens , ” she added .
On her part , Wafaa Aludaini in Gaza spoke about her organization ’ s – 16th October Group – relentless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world , to play their part in exposing Israeli war crimes in Gaza and ending the protracted siege on the impoverished Strip .
“ Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists outside are important because they make our voices heard outside Palestine , as mainstream media does not report ( the truth of ) what is taking place here , ” she told me .
For these efforts to succeed , “ we all need to be united , ” she asserted , referring to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well .
The words of Malak and Wafaa are validated by the growing solidarity with Palestine in the BLM movement , as well as with numerous other justice movements the world over .
On June 28 , the UK chapter of the BLM tweeted that it “ proudly ” stands in solidarity with Palestinians and rejects Israel ’ s plans to annex large areas of the West Bank .
BLM went further , criticizing British politics for being “ gagged of the right to critique Zionism and Israel ’ s settler-colonial pursuits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole new generation needs to replace the current one for any change to occur in Palestine is an insult – although , at times , unintended – to generations of Palestinians , whose struggle and sacrifices are present in every aspect of Palestinian lives .
Simply because the odds stacked against Palestinian freedom seem too great at the moment , does not justify the discounting of an entire nation , which has lived through many wars , protracted sieges and untold hardship .
Moreover , the next generation is but a mere evolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They can not be delinked or analyzed separately .
In his “ Prison Notebooks ” , anti-fascist intellectual , Antonio Gramsci , coined the term “ pessimism of the intellect , optimism of the will.
” While logical analysis of a situation may lead the intellect to despair , the potential for social and political revolutions and transformations must keep us all motivated to keep the struggle going , no matter the odds .
Feature photo | An old man tries to clear his eyes and catch his breath after he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Khan Yunis , in the occupied Gaza Strip , during a the first Palestinian Intifada , Jan. 10 , 1987 .
Dieter Endlicher | AP Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle .
He is the author of five books .
His latest is “ These Chains Will Be Broken : Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons ” ( Clarity Press , Atlanta ) .
Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs ( CIGA ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

In a recent TV discussion, a respected pro-Palestine journalist declared that if any positive change or transformation ever occurs in the tragic Palestinian saga, it would not happen now, but that it would take a whole new generation to bring about such a paradigm shift.
As innocuous as the declaration may have seemed, it troubled me greatly.
I have heard this line over and over again, often reiterated by well-intentioned intellectuals, whose experiences in researching and writing on the so-called ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ may have driven some of them to pessimism, if not despair.
The ‘hopelessness discourse’ is, perhaps, understandable if one is to examine the off-putting, tangible reality on the ground: the ever-entrenched Israeli occupation, the planned annexation of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, the shameful Arab normalization with Israel, the deafening silence of the international community and the futility of the quisling Palestinian leadership.
Subscribing to this logic is not only self-defeating but ahistorical as well. Throughout history, every great achievement that brought about freedom and a measure of justice to any nation was realized despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
Indeed, who would have thought that the Algerian people were capable of defeating French colonialism when their tools of liberation were so rudimentary as compared with the awesome powers of the French military and its allies?
The same notion applies to many other modern historic experiences, from Vietnam to South Africa and from India to Cuba.
Palestine is not the exception.
However, the ‘hopelessness discourse’ is not as innocent as it may seem. It is propelled by the persisting failure to appreciate the centrality of the Palestinian people – or any other people, for that matter – in their own history. Additionally, it assumes that the Palestinian people are, frankly, ineffectual.
Interestingly, when many nations were still grappling with the concept of national identity, the Palestinian people had already developed a refined sense of modern collective identity and national consciousness. General mass strikes and civil disobedience challenging British imperialism and Zionist settlements in Palestine began nearly a century ago, culminating in the six-month-long general strike of 1936.
Since then, popular resistance, which is linked to a defined sense of national identity, has been a staple in Palestinian history. It was a prominent feature of the First Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987.
The fact that the Palestinian homeland was lost, despite the heightened consciousness of the Palestinian masses at the time, is hardly indicative of the Palestinian people’s ability to affect political outcomes.
Time and again, Palestinians have rebelled and, with each rebellion, they forced all parties, including Israel and the United States, to reconsider and overhaul their strategies altogether.
A case in point was the First Intifada.
When, on December 8, 1987, thousands took to the streets of the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, the Gaza Strip’s most crowded and poorest camp, the timing and the location of their uprising was most fitting, rational and necessary. Earlier that day, an Israeli truck had run over a convoy of cars carrying Palestinian laborers, killing four young men. For Jabaliya, as with the rest of Palestine, it was the last straw.
Responding to the chants and pleas of the Jabaliya mourners, Gaza was, within days, the breeding ground for a real revolution that was self-propelled and unwavering. The chants of Palestinians in the Strip were answered in the West Bank, and echoed just as loudly in Palestinian towns, including those located in Israel.
The contagious energy was emblematic of children and young adults wanting to reclaim the identities of their ancestors, which had been horribly disfigured and divided among regions, countries and refugee camps.
The Intifada – literally meaning the “shake off” – sent a powerful message to Israel that the Palestinian people are alive, and are still capable of upsetting all of Israel’s colonial endeavors. The Intifada also confronted the failure of the Palestinian and Arab leaderships, as they persisted in their factional and self-seeking politics.
In fact, the Madrid Talks in 1991 between Palestinians and Israelis were meant as an Israeli- American political compromise, aimed at ending the Intifada in exchange for acknowledging the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a representative of the Palestinian people.
The Oslo Accords, signed by Yasser Arafat and Israel in 1993, squandered the gains of the Intifada and, ultimately, replaced the more democratically representative PLO with the corrupt Palestinian Authority.
But even then, the Palestinian people kept coming back, reclaiming, in their own way, their importance and centrality in the struggle. Gaza’s Great March of Return is but one of many such people-driven initiatives.
Palestine’s biggest challenge in the movement is not the failure of the people to register as a factor in the liberation of their own land, but their quisling leadership’s inability to appreciate the immense potential of harnessing the energies of Palestinians everywhere to stage a focused and strategic, anti-colonial, liberation campaign.
This lack of vision dates back to the late 1970s, when the Palestinian leadership labored to engage politically with Washington and other Western capitals, culminating in the pervading sense that, without US political validation, Palestinians would always remain marginal and irrelevant.
The Palestinian leadership’s calculations at the time proved disastrous. After decades of catering to Washington’s expectations and diktats, the Palestinian leadership, ultimately, returned empty-handed, as the current Donald Trump administration’s ‘Deal of the Century’ has finally proven.
I have recently spoken with two young Palestinian female activists: one is based in besieged Gaza and the other in the city of Seattle. Their forward-thinking discourse is, itself, a testament that the pessimism of some intellectuals does not define the thinking of this young Palestinian generation, and there would be no need to dismiss the collective efforts of this budding generation in anticipation of the rise of a ‘better’ one.
Malak Shalabi, a Seattle-based law student, does not convey a message of despair, but that of action. “It’s really important for every Palestinian and every human rights activist to champion the Palestinian cause regardless of where they are, and it is important especially now, ” she told me.
“There are currently waves of social movements here in the United States, around civil rights for Black people and other issues that are (becoming) pressing topics – equality and justice – in the mainstream. As Palestinians, it’s important that we (take the Palestinian cause) to the mainstream as well,” she added.
“There is a lot of work happening among Palestinian activists here in the United States, on the ground, at a social, economic, and political level, to make sure that the link between Black Lives Matter and Palestine happens,” she added.
On her part, Wafaa Aludaini in Gaza spoke about her organization’s – 16th October Group – relentless efforts to engage communities all over the world, to play their part in exposing Israeli war crimes in Gaza and ending the protracted siege on the impoverished Strip.
“Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists outside are important because they make our voices heard outside Palestine, as mainstream media does not report (the truth of) what is taking place here,” she told me.
For these efforts to succeed, “we all need to be united,” she asserted, referring to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora, and the entire pro-Palestinian solidarity movement everywhere, as well.
The words of Malak and Wafaa are validated by the growing solidarity with Palestine in the BLM movement, as well as with numerous other justice movements the world over.
On June 28, the UK chapter of the BLM tweeted that it “proudly” stands in solidarity with Palestinians and rejects Israel’s plans to annex large areas of the West Bank.
BLM went further, criticizing British politics for being “gagged of the right to critique Zionism and Israel’s settler-colonial pursuits”.
Repeating the claim that a whole new generation needs to replace the current one for any change to occur in Palestine is an insult – although, at times, unintended – to generations of Palestinians, whose struggle and sacrifices are present in every aspect of Palestinian lives.
Simply because the odds stacked against Palestinian freedom seem too great at the moment, does not justify the discounting of an entire nation, which has lived through many wars, protracted sieges and untold hardship. Moreover, the next generation is but a mere evolution of the consciousness of the current one. They cannot be delinked or analyzed separately.
In his “Prison Notebooks”, anti-fascist intellectual, Antonio Gramsci, coined the term “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”
While logical analysis of a situation may lead the intellect to despair, the potential for social and political revolutions and transformations must keep us all motivated to keep the struggle going, no matter the odds.
Feature photo | An old man tries to clear his eyes and catch his breath after he was hit by a cloud of tear gas in Khan Yunis, in the occupied Gaza Strip, during a the first Palestinian Intifada, Jan. 10, 1987. Dieter Endlicher | AP
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net