Amy Goodman’s crime of journalism

First published in Blasting News:

Amy Goodman charged with the crime of covering the corporate private security attacking Standing Rock Sioux protesting Dakota Access Pipeline.

Amy Goodman has turned herself in to North Dakota authorities after being charged with criminal trespassing for covering a private militia’s violent crackdown on protesters in North Dakota.  Goodman announced on Thursday on her show Democracy Now! “I will go back to North Dakota to fight this charge,” she said. “It is a clear violation of the First Amendment." Goodman went on to say "I was doing my job as a journalist, covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

Journalism criminalized

On Saturday September 3^rd as Goodman was covering the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline private security guards violently attacked the protesters.  Goodman’s live coverage showed guards attacking protesters using dogs and pepper spray and showed a dog with blood on its mouth and nose.  Goodman’s footage went viral.

Billionaires’ media ownership

Gone are the days of a vigilant press, here to stay are billionaire owned infotainment style misinformation.  Billionaire media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg were once an anomaly but now are the norm.  The media has been bought out by billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  Since the demise of the Fairness Doctrine under Ronald Reagan, billionaires now own part or all of several of America’s influential national newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Allegations are now facts

The fourth estate now publishes allegations as fact, a sort of lazy journalism that serves its bought-and-paid-for government officials rather than serving the people.  Media seeks to destroy the lives of those who lose favor with the government.  The Obama Administration, using the Espionage Act, has indicted or prosecuted six current or former government employees and two government contractors since 2009.  This is unprecedented since under all other presidents, only three prosecutions occurred under the Act since 1917.

Serving the war machine

The most egregious example of media malfeasance has to be the coverage of the west’s war of aggression in Syria.  As Steve Lendman pointed out in a recent article “Headlines and commentaries were virtually the same, shamelessly blaming Russia for vetoing France’s draft resolution—without explaining its adoption would assure greater war. Nor was Moscow given credit for its responsible cessation of hostilities draft proposal—despicably vetoed by America, Britain and France as expected.”

Amy Goodman herself has reported inaccurately on the events occurring in Syria.  A recent guest on DN was Yasser Munif, an assistant professor at Emerson College in Massachusetts.  Dave Alpert described the interchange between Munif and Goodman as such:  “His comments consistently focused on Russia and the Syrian Army as the sponsors of the “slaughter” of people in Aleppo. This is the kind of biased coverage one might expect from the N.Y. Times, MSNBC, or even Fox “News.”   The media coverage of the war in Syria will turn out to be the most shameful episode in the history of American press.

So Amy Goodman is returning to North Dakota to face charges of “criminal trespassing” for her raw coverage of a private company’s militia attacking the Standing Rock Sioux.  Goodman will have the best legal representation George Soros can buy, but at some point all journalists must be protected from prosecution.  Our democracy cannot survive without it.

By Patricia Baeten

Deaf, dumb and blind GOP just made Trump President

First published in Blasting News:

A hard rain is gonna fall on America and it can’t be stopped, Donald Trump will be the next President.

On Monday the GOP establishment met behind closed doors to conspire against Donald Trump.  Tuesday morning Washington Journal, C-SPAN’s flagship call in program posed this question to Republicans only “should the GOP stick with Trump?”  One hundred percent of callers, which included Democrats who support Trump want to dump the “weasels” (their words not mine) in the GOP who have abandoned Trump. 

Oligarch’s reign will end

The oligarch owned establishment has lost control over the people and will never get it back.  The phenomena is unlike anything ever seen in this country before.  The people hate our establishment politicians who care nothing about the people.  Trump has unleashed the sleeping beast that is the American people, who refuse take on the shackles of a congress that passes lethal laws that kill and maim ourselves and our children.

Congress serves rich and powerful

The signs have been there for a long time, in 2014 the Business Insider wrote “The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded.”  In 2016 Paul Ryan’s GOP passed HR933 the "Monsanto Protection Act.” 

Five terrifying facts about HR933

Here is what the International Business Times had to say about “five terrifying facts about the Farmer Assurance Provision -- Section 735 of the spending bill.”

1.)    The "Monsanto Protection Act" effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future.

2.)   The provision's language was apparently written in collusion with Monsanto.

3.)   Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the "Monsanto Protection Act" even existed within the bill they were voting on.

4.)   The President did nothing to stop it, either.

5.)   It sets a terrible precedent.

It sets a terrible precedent indeed, barring federal courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s cancer, morbidity and mortality causing chemically engineered foods from killing Americans.  How many Americans supported that bill?  Zero, and that is just one example of who our congress is looking out for.  That is what you get from a congress that has no worries about being reelected because they control the election and the election outcome.

Politicians choose the voters instead of voters choosing politicians

Through redistricting, voter ID laws and decimating campaign finance laws the congress has denied the people their inherent right to elect their leaders.  And what do the people get?  From the Washington Times: “Rep. Paul Ryan defends cuts to military retirement in budget bill.  Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, defended controversial cuts to military retirement pay in the budget deal, saying that the need for military compensation reform is “undeniable.””

The American people have finally had enough, the rage that has been bubbling under the surface has erupted and Paul Ryan and the GOP have lit the fuse.  Their arrogant disregard for the American people was on full display when the GOP demanded Trump step down and allow his GOP chosen running mate, Mike Pence to take his place.  The super storm that has been on the horizon is here, and a hard rain is gonna fall and there is nothing that can stop it now.

By Patricia Baeten

Donald Trump the comeback King wins the debate defeats RNC

The merge of news and entertainment has devolved presidential debates to reality show status with Trump fighting three foes, media, GOP and Clinton. When Trump took to the stage he had to battle the GOP and their demand that Trump quit his presidential bid, eight hours of Sunday morning media attacks and as his opponent Hillary Clinton.  The moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz seemed to think their main job was to finish off Trump.  The trap was set.

Moderators attack Trump out of the gate.

The moderators decided to attack Donald Trump over the Billy Bush tape from the start setting a demeaning tone for the debates.  After apologizing for his statements, Trump went into a litany of the reasons he was running; the status quo is unacceptable and he wants to change that.  He wants to make America great again. 

Hillary miss-quotes Alexis de Tocqueville

Hillary said America is great because America is good.  Alexis de Tocqueville’s actual quote was “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”  One could make the case that with the US President as judge, jury and executioner through drone killings and endless wars of aggression, America has ceased to be good, therefore America has ceased to be great.

Obamacare

Hillary Clinton decided to double down on Obamacare vowing that if we just throw more government money into subsidies, increase penalties for not buying horrifically expensive insurance with astronomical deductibles, and gifting tax payer subsidies to insurance company profits Obamacare can be fixed.  Even Bill Clinton has called Obamacare the “craziest thing in the world.”

Immigration and Syrian Refugees

Hillary brought up the discredited photo of child with blood on his head after an alleged Russian and Syrian bombing of the US backed rebels in Aleppo.  Hillary then cited phony media reports that Trump as a private citizen was for Iraq war. When Trump challenged Hillary and cited he had the backing of the border control guards he was again interrupted by Martha Raddatz. Trump stuck to his guns on Syria, Russia and Iran.

 WikiLeaks exposes the real Clinton

The moderators briefly brought up WikiLeaks expose of Hillary Clinton.  In a speech before Wall Street banks, she stated her positions as stated for the public were different than her real positions behind closed doors.  In her response, Clinton blamed Russia and claimed WikiLeaks was working with Russia to defeat her and elect Trump.  She then tried to deflect from her statements and tried to bring up Trump’s taxes.

Taxes

The moderators then segued to Trump’s tax returns.  Trump said he would get rid of carried interest deductions for billionaires.  That was interesting since Clinton supporter billionaire Mark Cuban was on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday saying he was against getting rid of carried interest.  There must be a reason why billionaires want carried interest to remain.

Aleppo Syria

Hillary would continue to arm rebels whereas Trump supports forming an alliance with Russia and Syria to fight ISIS.  Raddatz tried to intervene excusing the failing policy in Syria to remove elected President Assad.  Trump was able to make the case that the US has more to benefit from providing safe zones for Syrians in Syria than having Syrians flee their country.

The winner is Donald Trump

All in all the debate went well.  Trump was, by accounts I’ve seen from post-debate callers into C-SPAN, the winner of the debate.  The following morning callers into C-Span’s three hour recap of the debate vowed to vote for Trump and against GOP defectors down ticket.  Some of the on-the-fence Clinton supporters have moved to Trump after hearing what Clinton says to voters is not what she says behind closed Wall Street donor doors.  Particularly incensed are the Bernie Sanders supporters who have vowed to either vote for Trump or a third party.

The biggest losers, Paul Ryan and the GOP

Unlike the real polls, CNN whose Anderson Cooper was a moderator and the Wall Street Journal’s “never Trump” poll overwhelmingly showed a Clinton win.  Anyone that would believe that hasn’t watched C-Span where actual callers revealed a much different result.  The biggest losers, Paul Ryan and the GOP.  On to the third debate, Trump is on a roll and he’s thrown off the GOP yoke and he’s ready for bear.  Should be fun.

Patricia Baeten

GOP heads for the fainting couches over Trump

First published in Blasting News:

The GOP is feigning outrage over Trump’s locker room comments 11 years ago, but the real outrage what the GOP’s policies against women have wrought.

The GOP’s anti-women policies have wrought horrors against women and children that are far more outrageous than anything Donald Trump has said.  Those policies have had real life and death consequences for women and children.  Now the GOP is demanding Trump drop out of the race and allow the GOP to choose a replacement.  Well head for the fainting couch, it’s not going to happen.

America’s Shocking Maternal Deaths

While the rate of women’s death during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth has dropped in nations across the world, it has reached shockingly high levels in the US.  According to the New York Times, the US has “the second-highest maternal mortality ratio among 31 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Only Mexico had a higher figure.”  A study by the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, in Texas the ratio of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, doubled to 35.8 in 2014 from 17.7 in 2000.

GOP rejected expansion of Medicaid for poor

Compare Texas with Germany where they have universal healthcare, there were only 4.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014.  GOP controlled Texas rejected expansion of Medicaid that would have covered 1.2 million more poor under the Affordable Care Act.  The GOP with their ideological opposition to contraception and abortion, have repeatedly shortchanged reproductive health programs that benefit women, particularly the poor.

Paul Ryan and the GOP’s Budgets are Killers

Paul Ryan’s tax reform proposals have been particularly bad for women and children.  Previous GOP budgets have included (From Arkansas Times):

  

•         At least $2.7 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people buy private insurance.

•         Cuts to SNAP (formerly food stamps) by $137 billion over the next decade.

•         Cuts to Pell Grants for low- and moderate-income students by up to $125 billion through such means as freezing the maximum grant… and repealing all mandatory funding for Pell Grants.

•         Cuts an additional $385 billion — beyond its SNAP cuts —from the budget category containing many mandatory programs for low- and moderate-income Americans, such as Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled, the school lunch and child nutrition programs, and the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits for lower-income working families.

GOP demands Trump drop out of race

Oh the outrage, Donald Trump does not have the “Christian Values” of the GOP.  Now the GOP is demanding Trump drop out of the race.  Get the vapors as the GOP heads for the fainting couch, Trump has vowed he will never drop out.  And why should he, according to the viewers’ calls that came in to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Saturday, they don’t care.  Trump as well as his supporters believe in a strong Social Security system, upholding the obligation of our nation to our veterans, feeding our people and making sure our citizens have a right to a dignified life and death. 

Nice try GOP but you are not changing a single mind about Trump, you are simply turning the klieg lights on your own hypocrisy.  Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the US and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Your October surprise is just another GOP dog and pony show of faux Christian values that have nothing to do with Christianity. 

By Patricia Baeten

Donald and Hillary’s No. 1 enemy their own campaigns

First published in Blasting News:

The biggest enemy that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have in this election are their own party elite and big media that seek to destroy them.

Big media’s smear machine has kicked into high gear with only one goal, destroy Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ensuring neither gets 270 electoral votes.  Big media and the party elite devised a plan that would toss the election to the GOP controlled House to choose the president.  Waiting in the wings is Evan Mc Mullin an ex-CIA agent, Goldman Sachs banker and Paul Ryan’s budget guru.

Campaigns destroyed from within

Clinton and Trump’s campaigns have been infiltrated with party elites who are sabotaging their respective campaigns.  New York Times reporters Susanne Craig and David Barstow revealed on This Week, someone from the Trump organization placed an envelope containing Trump’s 26 year-old tax return in Craig’s mailbox.  The illegal documents have now been published by the Times and the “bombshell” was the headliner on all the Sunday morning talk shows. 

The revelations have had little effect on Trump’s popularity.  Trump blew away his competition in the primary because he won the support of working people.  Matt Taibbi best described the Trump phenomena, “The new Republicans would no longer be the party of "business and the privileged," but the protector of a disenfranchised working class.  This was unplanned. If it happens, it'll be a change that takes place not because conservative leaders ever wanted it, but because voters demanded it.”

Small businesses do not create jobs.

For fifty years we have been told small businesses create jobs and if we just give tax breaks to the mega-corporations and small businesses great jobs will be created.  It’s a red herring, the real job creators are “new businesses.”  The number one thing that stops the unemployed from starting their own business is healthcare.  There is only one solution, Medicare for all.

The health care solution

Medicare for seniors is not free, over $100 dollars monthly is deducted from SS benefits to pay for Medicare.  In addition seniors are required to carry a supplemental plan and Medicare part D.  If Medicare were available to everyone in the nation, Obama Care, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, Children’s Health Insurance and Medicaid could be eliminated.  Healthcare would become a public utility, freeing employers from the yoke of providing that costly benefits for their employees.

Public education solution

Public education needs to be restored.  Wall Street profit driven charter schools destroy communities.  Fathullah Gülen, who is the subject of an FBI investigation, owns the largest charter school network in the US, all of which are fully funded by US taxpayers. Gülen is the largest recipient of H1B visas, employing Turkish teachers in his 120 charters.  Time to end for-profit charters.

Banking as a public utility

The testimony of Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf revealed the business model of banks is fraud.  It is time to make banking a public utility that serves the community in which they conduct business.  The banks have proven they have no desire to obey the laws, and it’s time to end “too big to fail” and restore law and order.

Voters want change

The worst thing Trump could do is to run on the failed fifty year GOP platform.  He needs to go back to running as a champion for working people and ignore the muck thrown at him.   Hillary needs a major course correction and drop the politics of personal destruction.  If they don’t neither candidate will reach 270 electoral votes and the Ryan-led House will install Evan Mc Mullin as President.  We can’t let that happen.

By Patricia Baeten

Debate or “Never Trump” prelude to election theft

First published in Blasting News:

Presidential candidate, former CIA operative and GOP House policy guru Evan McMullin revealed on Sunday the “Never Trump” plot to steal the election.

Evan McMullin, the former chief policy director for the House GOP Conference and former CIA operative laid out the “Never Trump” plot to steal the November election from Clinton and Trump.  Appearing on Wisconsin’s Sunday morning political show, Upfront with Mike Gousha, Mc Mullin revealed his backers’ plot to take the election out of the voters’ hands and punt it to the GOP controlled House of Representatives. McMullin revealed the plan is “to block Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump from winning the Electoral College so that the election goes to the House of Representatives to choose the winner.”

GOP establishment candidate

McMullin entered the race in August as the “Never Trump” candidate with backing of the Republican establishment’s most well-known operatives Bill Kristol, John Kingston, Joel Searby and Rick Wilson.  Within days of the announcement of his candidacy on August 8, 2016 McMullin gained access to the ballots in Utah and Colorado and announced legal action would be taken against states with deadlines on or after August 15.  By August 14, the Independence Party of Minnesota declared McMullin their presidential nominee. 

GOP House breaks the tie

McMullin's chief strategist Joel Searby outlined the campaign strategy on August 22^nd in a memo, the campaign plans to block Hillary Clinton from reaching 270 electoral votes, thus sending the election to the House of Representatives. According to Wikipedia, Searby believes that, “once in the GOP controlled House, against the backdrop of Trump and Clinton's deeply divisive positions and after a strong electoral college showing, we believe Evan's unifying message will prevail."

Immediate ballot access

McMullin was added to the Idaho ballot on August 23, Virginia on September 2, nominated as the ballot-qualified Independent Party candidate on South Carolina on September 7^th and announced as a write-in in Alaska, Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia on September 23^rd. Once the building blocks of a stolen election were in place, the GOP set its sights on the Trump and Clinton campaigns.  Clinton’s campaign was infiltrated with the Obama operatives that viciously attacked the Clintons in 2008 labeling them as racists.  Trump’s campaign was purged of his loyalists like Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort and replaced with GOP stalwarts.

Running mates chosen by elite

The running mate chosen for Clinton was Obama loyalist and reliable war monger Tim Kaine and Trump’s running mate, chosen without his input was the extremely conservative, deeply unpopular Mike Pence.   Now the strategy was to narrow Clinton’s lead to ensure the race would be close enough that along with the voter ID purge and the GOP redistricting of 2010 the election could be a tie throwing the contest to the House of Representatives as the decider. 

Game set match

After a summer of attacks on the two candidates and endless GOP congressional investigations along with endless media attacks the contest has narrowed.  Tonight’s “debate” controlled by cable infotainment carnival barkers will center on solidifying the media driven impression of two deeply unpopular, divisive, dishonest candidates.  In the end, there will be a media blitz to bolster Evan McMullin as the only alternative, creating the illusion of popularity necessary to successfully steal the election.  That is the “Never Trump” plot to steal the election.

By Patricia Baeten

Panicked war criminals lash out at Trump

Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post the official anti-Trump rag, has published a letter from a group of war criminals calling Trump “entirely unqualified.”

The Trump hating Washington Post has gleefully published a letter signed by 75 retired senior “diplomats” opposing Trump for Commander-in-Chief.  The news comes as the CIA instigated war in Syria has reached an explosive level after the Pentagon sabotaged the cease fire agreement.  The war in Syria has devolved into a hot war between the CIA backed terrorists and the Pentagon backed terrorists.

Syria hotbed of neocon terrorism

The war was started to remove the elected president of Syria in order to launch a war against Russia.  Earlier this year it was reported by the LA Times that CIA backed militias were fighting Pentagon backed militias in Syria.  The insane foreign policy of the Obama Administration is just a continuation of the foreign policy the US jammed down the world’s throat for the last half century.

Commander-in-Chief commands nothing

Counter Punch has reported that the Pentagon, packed with neocons had publicly expressed their disagreement with the cease fire in Syria.  In an article entitled “Rogue Mission: Did the Pentagon Bomb Syrian Army to Kill Ceasefire Deal?” they accuse the Pentagon of treason.  According to the article, the Pentagon deliberately bombed the Syrian army in defiance of President Obama killing 62 and wounding 100.

US blames Assad

The US quickly took credit for the slaughter saying it was a “mistake.” Even more outrageous was the “apology” given by the UN Ambassador Samantha Power.  She accused Assad of the attacks that took place earlier that killed eighteen Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers who were delivering aid to war victims.  Eighteen of the thirty-one trucks in the convoy along with the warehouse where the humanitarian aid was kept were destroyed.

A US backed NGO called the “White Helmets” filmed footage shortly after the attack.  The group who call themselves the Syrian Civil Defense Force are neither Syrian, nor Civil, nor Defense.”  They have made the accusations against Assad that the US is touting as evidence.

Russia responds

According to Global Research Russia has responded by bombing a semi-secret facility operated by US, British, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari intelligence personnel just outside Aleppo.  The US hasn’t commented yet, they probably don’t want to admit they had the secret spook compound in the first place.  The neocons are itching for a nuke war with Russia before President Trump takes office.

US nuke program run on floppy disks

While Russia has invested in state-of-the-art military equipment, the US has plowed trillions into a cold war military industrial complex.  CNN recently reported that the US is running its nuclear program on floppy disks.  Worse yet, the U.S. Treasury still depends on assembly language code "initially used in the 1950s.”  No wonder Wall Street has been able to rob the treasury.

Eighty-eight generals support Trump

Trump received a letter of support from eighty-eight of America’s finest.  The letter opens, “The 2016 election affords the American people an urgently needed opportunity to make a long-overdue course correction in our national security posture and policy. As retired senior leaders of America’s military, we believe that such a change can only be made by someone who has not been deeply involved with, and substantially responsible for, the hollowing out of our military and the burgeoning threats facing our country around the world. For this reason, we support Donald Trump’s candidacy to be our next Commander-in-Chief.”  I say Amen to that.

By Patricia Baeten