Tag: MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Sanders on Green New Deal: Doesn’t Go Too Far — ‘The Future of the Planet Is at Stake!’

By Pam Key

Friday on ABC’s “The View,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Green New Deal does not go too far.

Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Does the Green New Deal go too far?”

Sanders said, “No. You cannot go too far on the issue of climate change. The future of the planet is at stake, OK?”

He added, “We have, according to the best scientists in the world, we have 12 years to begin substantially cutting carbon emissions before there will be irreparable damage to the planet. I talked to some folks who were in Paradise, CA, remember the terrible, terrible fire that wiped out the whole community?”

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REPORT: House Democrats To Open Official Probe Into Trump’s Attacks On ‘Fake News’ Media

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By Joseph Curl

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter,” said the president of the United States — 200 years ago (Thomas Jefferson).

Said Ulysses S. Grant in 1868: “Throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my present office in 1868 to the close of the last presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history.”

And Harry S. Truman said in 1955: “Presidents and the members of their Cabinets and their staff members have been slandered and misrepresented since George Washington … when the press is friendly to an administration the opposition has been lied about and treated to the excrescence [sic] of paid prostitutes of the mind.”

Yes, we also had to look up “excrescence,” which it turns out is “a distinct outgrowth on a human or animal body or on a plant, especially one that is the result of disease or abnormality.”

Now that’s cold.

So President Trump’s battle with the American press is nothing new. Far from it. But the reaction from Congress is new — and decidedly more dangerous.

House Democrats reportedly are planning to open an official investigation into alleged abuses of power by President Trump for attacking the media, as well as the Justice Department and the FBI.

“Topics for the inquiry will include Trump’s public humiliation of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his attacks on actions by the liberal Ninth Circuit Court and his abuse of reporters as ‘dishonest’ and ‘enemies of the people,'” a source told Bloomberg News this week.

The Judiciary Committee led by Democrat Jerrold Nadler of New York will announce the probe in days, the official said. There are plans to hold public hearings with witnesses, but it’s not immediately clear who will be summoned. A spokesman for Nadler said he had no immediate comment.

Presidents have wide leeway to use their bully pulpit to attack foes and get their way. But the effort comes amid a broader push by Democrats now controlling the House to investigate actions of the president and his administration.

The official said there are questions about whether Trump, through some of his actions, is going too far and undermining the rule of law, a reference to established and defined limits on the arbitrary exercise of power.

The unnamed official said, “Trump’s attacks on the news media, singling them out for abuse and ridicule, potentially threatens freedom of the press, and also could serve to intimidate other journalists.”

Trump, for his part, has repeatedly made clear that he is attacking the “fake news” media, not the media as a whole. “With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media concerning me and my presidency has never been worse,” Trump said last January. “Many have become crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!”

The latest move by Democrats to officially investigate Trump’s criticism is simply an attempt to tie up his agenda with hopes of winning back the White House in 2020. Still, every American should be concerned when the legislative body of the U.S. government uses its power to probe the executive over criticizing the news media.

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Dems: We Have To Enact Socialism So We Can Find Out What It Is

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U.S.—Democrats across the country have begun urging the nation to enact socialism “so we can find out what it is,” stating that we won’t know exactly what the politico-economic system entails unless we pass it into law.

Speaking to CNN Wednesday, Christine Hallquist, one of the nation’s first transgender gubernatorial candidates stated, “I’m not sure I even know what socialism is,” but added that she agrees with her party’s increasingly favorable view of the failed economic system.

“We need to pass it so we can find out what’s in it,” Hallquist added. “That’s the best reason to pass sweeping overhauls of things like healthcare and our economy: so you can test your policies on the nation like a bunch of little guinea pigs.”

Congressional Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer also pushed for enacting socialism as soon as possible so the nation can find out what’s in it. “It worked for Obamacare. Well, for us, anyway,” Pelosi said in a press conference.

Finally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on the conversation, stating that socialism should “like, double the economy or something because we take away all the money and then give it all back so that’s like 2 or 3 times as much money as there was at first.”

 

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(DEMOCRATS) – Priorities? Ahead of 2020 election, US lawmakers introduce bill aimed at determining Putin’s wealth

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As the US saddles up for a contentious 2020 election, lawmakers have shown they can still work together on the nation’s most pressing issues… by drafting a bipartisan bill to find out how much money Vladimir Putin has.

In what may be the most perfect illustration of why Congress boasts a 20 percent approval rating, Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida has given birth to the Vladimir Putin Transparency Act, a piece of trailblazing legislation which would require US intelligence agencies to sniff out all assets belonging to Russia’s president.

Co-sponsored by New York Republican Elise Stefanik, the bill serves as a powerful rebuke to the partisan politics that continue to paralyze the legislative branch.

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Proposed US sanctions target Russia’s sovereign debt, banks, shipbuilding & LNG projectsProposed US sanctions target Russia’s sovereign debt, banks, shipbuilding & LNG projects

As members of the House Intelligence Committee, the two lawmakers have hinted that the bill is payback for Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.
“The best way to assail the power of Putin and his enablers is to go after the illegal and secret financial streams that fund their operations,”Demings said in a statement. “It’s time to fight back and protect our democracy.”

Although his salary as Russian president would be peanuts for Jeff Bezos, Putin has been identified by his critics as one of the world’s richest man, although apart from statements no one bothered to provide any proof.

By some particularly creative accounts, the Russian leader may have an eye-watering $200 billion discreetly stashed away, maybe in a shoebox under his bed, or maybe in a PayPal account controlled by a trusted friend – nobody knows and that’s why the Vladimir Putin Transparency Act is so important.

The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed the legislation – which could also involve sanctioning Putin’s “discovered” assets – as a case of transparent Russophobia.

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CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Urges Rashida Tlaib to Walk Back Apology, Declare Mark Meadows Racist

Alisyn Camerota CNN (Michael Loccisano / Getty)

By Joel B. Pollak

CNN’s New Day co-anchor Alisyn Camerota attempted Thursday morning to encourage Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) to undo her apology to Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) the day before, when she suggested he was a racist.

Meadows had brought Lynne Patton, a senior Trump campaign aide and now an administration official, to submit a statement into the record at the House Oversight Committee defending President Donald Trump from claims by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump is a racist. Patton happens to be black and has defended Trump before.

Tlaib — who has faced accusations of antisemitism after making insensitive remarks about Israel — shocked the hearing by calling Patton a “prop” and suggesting it had been racist for Meadows to bring her to the hearing. She cited her own feelings as a “woman of color.” (Tlaib is a Palestinian-American.) Meadows, visibly hurt, noted he has relatives who are “people of color.” Tlaib apologized to Meadows (though not to Patton herself).

The left then tried to target Meadows, circulating a video from 2012 in which he told a Tea Party gathering that they would “send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is.” CNN’s Anderson Cooper picked up the video and aired it Wednesday night, noting that Meadows had later regretted his remark and asserted his belief that Obama is an American citizen, but suggesting that Meadows might indeed be a racist for reasons other than Tlaib’s attack.

On Thursday morning, Camerota hosted Tlaib on New Day. Unlike Cooper, Camerota actually mentioned Patton, playing a clip from a radio show Thursday morning in which Patton had objected to being called a “prop.” Cameron described Patton as “the woman who was held up by Mark Meadows without speaking.” Tlaib did not apologize to Patton but asserted that she meant “no disrespect to her at all” to Patton, a remark Camerota did not challenge.

Camerota went on to argue to Tlaib that Meadows was, indeed, a racist, and asked her if she regretted her apology.

First, she asserted to Tlaib that “[t]here were people at home that felt that that was tone deaf and insensitive of congressman mark meadows,” i.e. bringing Patton to the meeting. “You certainly were not alone in that feeling and so why did you apologize to him?” Camerota cited no evidence of how “people at home” felt. When Tlaib offered an evasive answer, Camerota pressed her: “So do you regret apologizing to Congressman Meadows?”

Tlaib said that she “apologized if I made him feel like a racist,” saying that she saw the exchange as a “teachable moment” and did not want to label Meadows as a racist. She added that she was offended by Patton being brought to the hearing and “saying nothing,” evidently ignoring the fact that Patton had a statement entered into the record.

That did not satisfy Camerota, who then brought up the 2012 video: “I’m interested in whether or not you can separate a racist statement or a racist act from the person. And case in point, in 2012, you know, Congressman Mark Meadows engaged in the Birtherism talk where he doubted that President Obama was born here. let me just remind our viewers of what he said back then.” She played the clip, then asked: “Does seeing that change how you feel about him?”

Tlaib declined to take the bait, ignoring the 2012 video: “Congressman Meadows understood where i was coming from, he knew what my intention was at the end, and that’s why he decided to take …  his objections back.”

And still Camerota pressed Tlaib: “But just to be clear, you still today feel that he is not racist?”

Tlaib responded: “Look, I feel like the act was. and that’s up to the American people to decide whether or not he is.”

It was not enough for CNN, Cooper, or Camerota that Tlaib and Meadows had reconciled amongst themselves, with the mediation of committee chair Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Using a 2012 video that had no relevance to the exchange Wednesday, CNN tried to attack Meadows and to insert racial division where it had been partly healed.

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‘Unlike CNN, we get to tell the truth!’ Now-unblocked Maffick hosts flip off censors

CAP

Two Maffick Media hosts wasted no time tearing into the alliance of mainstream media and neocon think tanks that silenced them for 10 days for breaking a Facebook rule they say didn’t exist until after their page was removed.

Rania Khalek and Anissa Naouai of In the Now and Soapbox took aim at the “lazy report from CNN” inspired by “pro-war think tanks” that led Facebook to remove four pages published by Maffick Media for being part-owned by RT’s video agency Ruptly and not having it written in all caps on their logo – a “crime” that wasn’t actually against Facebook’s rules – without bothering to inform Maffick beforehand.

In a sarcastic retort to the corporate-government censorship alliance, they highlighted the absurdity of the 10-day ban, which claimed to take issue with the German-based company “hiding” its links to Russia – even though those connections had been common knowledge since a 2016 Buzzfeed “exposé” that also reported publicly available information as if it were a big secret.

“Unlike CNN, we get to tell the truth about war and corporations because we don’t rely on advertising dollars from weapons companies,” Khalek said, pointing out that “all media is funded by corporations or governments” and asking Facebook to at least make other pages jump through the same hoops. Naouai said CNN’s own parent company, AT&T, “helped the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans.”

Maffick’s pages were quietly restored on Monday with the addition of a line on their “about us” page disclosing their funding sources – a rule that didn’t exist before In the Now, SoapBox, Back Then, and Waste-Ed were de-platformed, and which hasn’t been applied to other outlets like BBC or Al-Jazeera, which are funded by governments.

“CNN wouldn’t care if we were funded by Japan,” Khalek noted. The hosts gave a spirited obscene gesture to their censors and hinted that CNN’s inability to grasp the Streisand effect may ultimately have helped them.

CAP

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