Educate!
Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
The scoreboard glowed with the promise of another Friday night football game in Liberty, Mississippi, a small town near the Louisiana border. The Trojans, in black and gold, sprinted onto the field to hollers from friends and families who filled barely half the bleachers.
The fans were almost all Black, as is the student body at the county’s lone public high school. Scanning the field and the stands would give you little indication that more than half the county’s residents are white.
In some swaths of the South, a big event like high school football unites people. But not in Amite County.
Compatible Left Joins Imperialism In Celebrating Defeat Of Syria
December 18, 2024
Stansfield Smith, Popular Resistance.
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Imperialism, Media, Syria, Terrorists, US coup
It may be no surprise that the “mainstream” corporate news media have turned into advertising agencies for US government policy. But it still surprises that what the CIA called a compatible left - those on the left it deemed compatible with maintaining imperialist rule - celebrates another US successful “regime change,” this time, Syria.
Portside ran an article, Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing, which criticized “some self-styled Western ‘anti-imperialists’” for their lack of enthusiasm for the “victory.” While it does note Israel bombed Syria 220 times up to mid-November this past year, one finds no mention of the long US blockade imposed on Syrians.
Inside ‘Greater Israel’: Myths And Truths Behind The Zionist Fantasy
December 18, 2024
Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss.
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Gaza, Greater Israel, Israel, Israeli Imperialism, Israeli Occupation, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Wars and Militarism, Zionism
As Israel pushed its forces deep into sovereign Syrian territory following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime the term ‘Greater Israel’ has resurfaced in media coverage. The term has been used in recent days to describe Israel’s military expansion beyond its currently recognized borders, an ever-expanding definition of what the Israeli state can come to encompass. The maps used to describe the vision often echo biblical stories that many Zionists consider as history. But what is the ‘Greater Israel’ idea in actuality? Is there really such an Israeli project? And how realistic is it that it will be realized?
Privatizing Syria: US Plans To Sell Off A Nation’s Wealth After Assad
December 18, 2024
Kit Klarenberg, MintPress News.
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Bashar al-Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-sham (HTS), Privatization, Syria, US Imperialism
In the immediate wake of the Syrian government’s abrupt collapse, much remains uncertain about the country’s future – including whether it can survive as a unitary state or will splinter into smaller states as did Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, a move that ultimately led to a bloody NATO intervention. Moreover, who or what may take power in Damascus remains an open question. For the time being at least, members of ultra-extremist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) appear highly likely to take key positions in whatever administrative structure sprouts from Bashar Assad’s ouster after a decade-and-a-half of grinding Western-sponsored regime change efforts.
Scandal Deepens Around CNN’s Clarissa Ward Staging Syria Prison Scene
December 18, 2024
Wyatt Reed, The Grayzone.
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Al-Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, Clarissa Ward, CNN, Fraud, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Media, Propaganda, Regime Change, Syria
“In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed.”
That’s how veteran CNN journalist Clarissa Ward described her foray into a Syrian prison on December 12, where she promptly claimed to have rescued a forgotten inmate after three months in jail. But there was just one problem with the “extraordinary moment”: a review of a dramatic story depicted by CNN reveals a number of glaring inconsistencies, the greatest of which is that the man stands accused of being an impostor.
Russian General Igor Kirillov Killed In Moscow; What We Know So Far
December 18, 2024
Sarah Shamim, Al Jazeera.
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Assassination, Biological Weapons, Chemical Weapons, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism
Igor Kirillov, a senior general in charge of Russia’s nuclear defence forces, was killed on Tuesday in a bomb blast in Moscow.
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), talking to Al Jazeera, has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
During the early hours of Tuesday, Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement. The attack site was 7km (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.
The explosive device “had a capacity of some 300 grams in TNT equivalent”, Russia’s TASS news agency reported, quoting a law enforcement official.
Russian media reported that the bomb was remotely operated.
NYT Panics Over Outrage At Insurance Companies
December 18, 2024
Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
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Brian Thompson, Health Care, Health Insurance, Luigi Mangione, New York Times (NYT), UnitedHealthcare, universal healthcare
In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the arrest of alleged shooter Luigi Mangione, I wrote (FAIR.org, 12/11/24) about how Murdoch outlets like the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, as well as Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post editorial board, not only decried the widespread support for Mangione but fought back against legitimate criticism of the health insurance industry.
Now the New York Times is in full-scale panic mode over the widespread boiling anger against the health insurance industry the killing has laid bare.
Israel’s Genocide Day 437: Israel Intensifies Attacks On Gaza City
The Israeli army issued displacement orders on Sunday to the people of Gaza City, ordering them to move out of several neighborhoods, as Israeli bombings intensified on the city, with Israeli strikes targeting the neighborhoods of Al-Sabra and Sheikh Radwan.
Israel’s renewed focus on Gaza City comes as the Israeli siege on the north of Gaza continues for the 70th day, along with intensified raids and bombings on Jabalia and Beit Hanoun. Since October, Israel has been carrying out an operation dubbed ‘The General’s Plan’, aimed at strangling the areas of the Gaza Strip north of Gaza City.
According to local sources, many Palestinians in Gaza City haven’t responded to the displacement orders, despite continuous strikes and attempts by the army to push them out of the city.
Will The US Military Intervene In Venezuelan Inauguration To Force Regime Change?
December 17, 2024
Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance.
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Edmundo González, Inauguration, Nicolas Maduro, US military, US Regime Change, Venezueula
Ten days before Donald Trump will be inaugurated in Washington DC on January 20, there will be another inauguration in Caracas. Two contenders claim they will receive the Venezuelan presidential sash.
Nicolás Maduro’s claim to the presidency is backed by the finding of the Venezuelan electoral authority (CNE) that he won 51.95% of the vote in the July 28th contest. This was subsequently confirmed by their supreme court (TSJ), after a thorough examination of the voting records.
Edmundo González Urrutia’s claim is based on informally collected voting tallies from 70 to 80% of the precincts showing that he won anywhere from 55 to 75% of the total vote (depending on the source). In contrast, the official CNE electoral authority found he lost with 43.18% of the vote.
Many Wealthy Members Of Congress Are Descendants Of Rich Slaveholders
December 17, 2024
Neil K. R. Sehgal and Ashwini Sehgal, The Conversation.
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Congress members, History, Slavery, United States, wealth inequality
The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.
Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic inequalities. Others believe its effects have largely faded.
One way to measure the legacy of slavery is to determine whether the disproportionate riches of slaveholders have been passed down to their present-day descendants.
Connecting the wealth of a slaveholder in the 1860s to today’s economic conditions is not easy. Doing so requires unearthing data for a large number of people on slaveholder ancestry, current wealth and other factors such as age and education.
In Syria Dirty War, ‘Our Side’ Has Won
December 16, 2024
Aaron Maté.
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Israel, Joe Biden, Syria, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism
In his first remarks on the ouster of Syrian president Basher al-Assad, President Biden made the case that he deserves a share of the credit.
Assad’s “main allies” -- Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia -- “are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” Biden said. Therefore, their inability to save Assad from the Turkish-backed insurgents’ sweeping advance was “a direct result of the blows that Ukraine, Israel have delivered upon their own self-defense, with unflagging support of the United States.” Beyond the blows inflicted by US client states, Biden also noted that he had maintained crushing US sanctions; kept US troops in Syria’s northeast; “ordered the use of military force against Iranian networks” in Syria; and supported Israel’s “freedom of action” to carry out even more military strikes against similar targets.
Israel To Deploy Remotely Operated Machine Guns Against Palestinians
December 16, 2024
News Desk, The Cradle.
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Genocide, Israel, Killer Robots, Palestine, Wars and Militarism, West Bank
The Israeli army is preparing to deploy automated, remotely monitored machine guns to protect illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio reported on 15 December.
The automated weapons, developed by Rafael Combat Systems, will be installed on watch towers around dozens of settlements and near their entrances. They will be controlled remotely from command centers "to prevent armed attacks and infiltration operations."
The same system was installed on the Gaza border in 2008 and operated by spotters in bases. However, it failed to prevent fighters from the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, from approaching and breaching the barrier fence to attack settlements and Israeli military bases on 7 October 2023.
The Global South Is On The Brink Of A Disastrous Debt Crisis
December 16, 2024
C. J. Polychroniou, Truthout.
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Debt crisis, Global South, Neoliberalism, Poverty
Countries across the Global South are experiencing climate, poverty and development crises — all made worse by the unbearable costs of debt servicing. Indeed, according to Development Finance International, “Citizens of the Global South now face the worst debt crisis since global records began.” Low-income countries, which have seen the amount paid on foreign debt payment increase by 150 percent since 2011, are being hit especially hard.
In the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows, Ilene Grabel, a leading economist in global finance and global financial governance, sheds light on the roots of the Global South debt crisis and offers specific strategies for easing the debt burden of developing countries.
Who’s Funding ‘Newspaper’ Mailed To Potential Jurors In Greenpeace’s Trial?
December 16, 2024
Emily Sanders, DeSmog.
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Greenpeace, Legal System, Pipelines, Social Justice
In early September, fossil fuel executive and Donald Trump megadonor Kelcy Warren quietly made a large donation to a political action committee few people have ever heard of. Warren is CEO of Energy Transfer, the company behind the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline, which in 2016 faced thousands of protesters including members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other opponents.
The timing is potentially significant because Warren made his $5 million donation to the super PAC called Turnout for America while his company pushed forward with a lawsuit against the nonprofit Greenpeace related to the Standing Rock protests.
Pete Hegseth Is A Terrible Choice To Head The Pentagon
December 16, 2024
Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance.
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Congress, Donald Trump, Pentagon, Secretary of Defense
Veterans For Peace is astounded that someone with the track record of Pete Hegseth would seriously be considered for the critically important role of US Secretary of Defense. His dubious and questionable qualifications are far overshadowed by the many reasons that should disqualify him. These include a well-documented record of misogyny, sexual assault, white supremacy, Islamophobia, financial malfeasance, alcoholism, and opposition to VA healthcare. Are these the qualities we want in our Secretary of Defense?