Sunday, November 3, 2019

Who Do We Trust In Media -- Not the Mainstream

I will just say it outright --Not only can the mainstream media not be trusted, consuming it does a lot of harm and moderating consumption is critical to informed political opinion and mental health. There are over 200 independent progressive periodical and online journalism organizations and none are substantially funded by advertisers. These can be trusted.




Additionally it is good to know that many fine journalists still write and publish in mainstream periodicals and newspapers such as NY Time, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Esquire etc. even as those outlets are overwhelmingly biased toward centrist, neoliberal, corporate and wall street propaganda. Headline bias is often biased and deceptive in the mainstream so critical reading below the first couple of paragraphs is needed and I frequently look at authors other works and wikis to establish a baseline credibility before accepting an articles analysis. Below is a link to a list of trusted sources -- it is growing and evolving. I attended a couple of seminars at Bioneers this year lead by Mother Jones' CEO Monika Bauerlein on just this subject and the word is that good journalism is alive and well and growing in alternative media but needs all our support.

I am providing this from the press room at Democracy Collaborative to get you started on a deeper dive into alternative media

In the news: From the Democracy Collaborative


 A partial list of sources:  Mother Jones, In these times, Jacobin, The Nation, It's going, down, common dreams, democracy now, UK Guardian, Double Down News, Grist, TeleSUR, Mongabay, institute for policy studies, electronic infadada, The independent, The Intercept, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), Institute for Public Accuracy, Consortium News, The Empire Files, Indymedia, MintPress News, CounterPunch, Dissent, Dollars & Sense, Monthly Review, Open Secrets, Foreign Policy in Focus, New Republic, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor
Roar (used to be Shambala), The Sun
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Thursday, October 10, 2019

This Isn’t the First Time the US Has Abandoned the Kurds

By Stephen Zunes, Truthout

This article sets the record straight on the plight of the Kurds and also our direct responsibility for their protection given our official policy of betrayal
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019

MAYBE ABOLISHING AMERICA’S POLICE FORCES ISN’T AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS

I take a hard core position on this.
Rather than fight and solve violent crimes, police act as little more than heavily militarized code-enforcers, or as David Graeber of the London School of Economics aptly terms, “bureaucrats with weapons” — protecting us from broken tail lights, missing front license plates, and imperfect lane changes more often than from robbery, homicide, and rape. 
Give police the equipment and weapons of war under the premise of fighting terrorism, when terrorism is all but nonexistent, and predictably, they will go to war. As Abraham Maslow posited in 1966 in a concept known as the law of the instrument, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” 
We, the citizenry, are not nails to be forcibly and violently coerced into submission over the tiniest of nonviolent and inconsequential infractions — but, whether or not we’re inclined to admit as much, that summarizes our current situation in the eyes of an overbearing state and its criminalization of, in essence, daily life.


http://undergroundreporter.org/abolishing-americas-police-forces-isnt-crazy-sounds/?fbclid=IwAR1EY_v_GASn3uKScT9rne51l8nUeFo_ggTsan4gSTGHKlJZJ_f70pAvO1k
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Monday, September 16, 2019

How Important Is The Drone Attack On The Saudi Oil Field?

I will let this blogger speak for himself.  I am perhaps more scared than he is but agree with his assesment that they pretty much had it coming and that drones will be the weapon of the weak.  And here it begins.  We will see more of this.

Image result for drone weapon

https://www.ianwelsh.net/how-important-is-the-drone-attack-on-the-saudi-oil-field/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IanWelsh+%28Ian+Welsh%29

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Sunday, August 18, 2019

Climate Strike with Us on 9/20

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Saturday, August 17, 2019

Europe struggles to save Iran deal

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/opinion/europe-struggles-to-save-iran-deal/

My question for progressives is how to answer the contradiction that the "Deal" insures that Iran can ship oil to Europe to burn yet nixing the deal and applying sanctions brings us closer to war.  Both are bad.  This is just not "our" deal either way -- It's bad policy.

Since I am not really using this to blog I should just re-write the lables and dump all of the bookmarked stories in here by publication date with minimal comments as it will be easier to sort and find articles I looking for to include as references.
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Saturday, February 23, 2019

The New Yorker on Venezuela has typical liberal Western bias

Although this article does point out that the Chavista government actually has a sizable base of support, it blames the government for overspending and economic crisis on Chavez and doesn't mention that Venezuela is essentially under sanctions and a ruthless attack by the United States and its surrogates in South America among right-wing governments.  Nor does it mention that the divisions that we are fanning are racist and classist at their roots. In other words the framing is simply that the government of Venezuela is irresponsible. As true as it is that the government of Venezuela made poor economic policy decisions it should be recognized that those decisions were made under duress.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/venezuelas-food-crisis-reaches-a-breaking-point

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