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"Journalists should be exposing inconvenient truths about powerful people in their own nation and its allies. Instead the people we call “journalists” criticize enemy nations, smear political dissidents, demand increasing amounts of censorship, and advance narratives that are convenient for the powerful."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald does excellent work, as usual. Here he chronicles the expanding attempts at censorship of outsider voices by the corporate media and tech industry, which he has landed in the middle of. There's far more than can be fairly extracted, so here is a bit to get you started.

Journalists Start Demanding Substack Censor its Writers: to Bar Critiques of Journalists

On Wednesday, I wrote about how corporate journalists, realizing that the public’s increasing contempt for what they do is causing people to turn away in droves, are desperately inventing new tactics to maintain their stranglehold over the dissemination of information and generate captive audiences. That is why journalists have bizarrely transformed from their traditional role as leading free expression defenders into the the most vocal censorship advocates, using their platforms to demand that tech monopolies ban and silence others. That same motive of self-preservation is driving them to equate any criticisms of their work with “harassment,” “abuse” and “violence” — so that it is not just culturally stigmatized but a banning offense, perhaps even literally criminal, to critique their journalism on the ground that any criticism of them places them “in danger.” Under this rubric they want to construct, they can malign anyone they want, ruin people’s reputations, and unite to generate hatred against their chosen targets, but nobody can even criticize them.

Any independent platform or venue that empowers other journalists or just ordinary citizens to do reporting or provide commentary outside of their repressive constraints is viewed by them as threats to be censored and destroyed. Every platform that enables any questioning of their pieties or any irreverent critiques of mainstream journalism — social media sites, YouTube, Patreon, Joe Rogan’s Spotify program — has already been systematically targeted by corporate journalists with censorship demands, often successfully.

Back in November, the media critic Stephen Miller warned: “It’s only a matter of time before the media tech hall monitors turn their attention to Substack.” ... Miller’s prediction was prompted by a Columbia Journalism Review article entitled “The Substackerati” which claimed that Substack was structurally unfair because “most” of “the most successful people on Substack” are “white and male; several are conservative” and “have already been well-served by existing media power structures.” All of that was false. The most-read and highest-earning writer on Substack is Heather Cox Richardson, a previously obscure Boston College History Professor who built her own massive readership without ever working at a corporate media outlet. And the writers that article identified in support of its claim — Matt Taibbi, Andrew Sullivan, Matt Yglesias and myself — do not remotely owe our large readerships to “existing media power structures.” The opposite is true, as The Washington Post’s Megan McCardle explained:

[These Substack writers] got so big by starting blogs that they could sell to traditional publications. They are not monetizing an audience they acquired through larger institutions, but reclaiming one they created themselves…. [O]bviously, one major characteristic of the successful one (wo)man show is the ability to swim against a crowd. Given that, it seems almost obvious that Substack would select people who are not in tune with the dominant views of the establishment media. And that the biggest audience numbers will come from folks who are not in tune with the establishment media….

That is precisely why they are so furious. They cannot stand the fact that journalists can break major stories and find an audience while maintaining an independent voice, critically questioning rather than obediently reciting the orthodoxies that bind them and, most of all, without playing their infantile in-group games and submitting to their hive-mind decrees. In fact, the more big stories you break while maintaining your independence from them, the more intense is the contempt they harbor for you: that explains, among other things, their willingness to watch Julian Assange (who has broken more major stories than all of them combined) be imprisoned for publishing documents.

As it turns out, we did not have to wait long for the initiation of the censorship campaign aimed at Substack. It has arrived. And amazingly, the trigger for it was my criticism of the work of a front-page New York Times reporter which, as I wrote yesterday, is — like all criticisms of journalists in Good Standing and Decent Liberal Society — being recast as “abuse” and “harassment” and “violence” in order to justify the banning and outlawing of that criticism.

Saagar Enjeti: NYT Star Reporter CRIES HARASSMENT For Pointing Out HER MANY Mistakes

Prof. Richard Wolff: Imagining a Real American Rescue

If you want to turn over the rocks and see what's underneath the Democrat's covid relief bill, this is worth a click and a full read:

The American Rescue Plan’s Money Cannon Is Great, But Not Enough

When Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan (ARP) on Friday, he will prove that the Democratic Party is finally willing — at least for a moment — to turn on the money hose and for once aim it not at Wall Street moguls, but instead at the raging wildfire of poverty and desperation incinerating the poor and middle class. That’s the very good news. The bad news is that the party’s COVID-19 relief bill also indicates that Biden might have been serious when he promised a room full of wealthy donors that nothing would fundamentally change about the macroeconomy’s structure.

Democrats did not use the must-pass bill to make essential long-term changes to protect Americans against future emergencies. Instead, the party avoided including any measures that might generate significant opposition from powerful corporate lobbies in Washington. Even worse, the ARP could make it far more difficult to enact structural changes in the health care sector that has been at the center of the pandemic and that helped make our country so uniquely unprepared for such a threat in the first place.

To be sure, the package is a necessary rejection of austerity politics that have dominated Democratic politics since Bill Clinton promised in 1996 that “the era of big government is over” and since Joe Biden proudly cast himself as a deficit hawk in juxtaposition to his party’s New Deal tradition. This tectonic shift has been abrupt: When Democrats held a whopping 58 Senate seats during the 2009 recession, Barack Obama listened to austerians like Lawrence Summers and passed a wholly inadequate $787 billion stimulus bill. By contrast, with Democrats only holding 50 Senate seats amid the COVID crisis, Biden rejected Summers’ and his acolytes and passed a $1.9 trillion bill. ...

This must-pass pandemic relief legislation — which could be the only major initiative to get through a filibuster-gridlocked Senate for some time — is being billed as “historic” because of its sheer size, and it may well have expanded the realm of what is considered possible within the confines of the existing economic structure and political paradigm.

But the definition of “possible” remains an enormous problem. Lawmakers studiously excluded major initiatives that would fundamentally alter the economy. There is nothing in its 628 pages that will make the financial system more fair and economically shield people from the next crisis or boom-bust cycle. There is very little in the bill that reduces corporations' hegemony over our lives, requires the wealthy to sacrifice anything, regulates predatory industries, or changes the relationship between labor and capital. If, as Rahm Emanuel once said, we should “never allow a good crisis to go to waste” because it is “an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible,” the Democratic Party honored the first sentiment but fell short of the second concept. Democrats did utilize the crisis for real progress — but they did not maximize the opportunity when they could have.

AOC Lied About Using Leverage For $15 Minimum Wage

Colombia defence chief calls children who died in bombing 'machines of war'

Colombia’s defence minister is facing calls to resign amid growing indignation over his callous response to the death of at least one child in a government airstrike against dissident rebels.

After reports that several minors were among the dead left by the bombing raid, Diego Molano said on Wednesday that any young victims were “machines of war” who had been indoctrinated by the guerrillas.

“It’s not like they were studying for their school exams,” said Molano, who once headed Colombia’s child welfare agency. He would not confirm if any minors had been killed, but said that the airstrike was entirely legal.

Molano’s comments incensed many in a country long used to the horrors of civil war, with the hashtags “Machines of War” and “Molano Resign” trending on Twitter.

“The state should reach the regions in order to guarantee housing, food, health and education,” tweeted Heidy Sánchez, a Bogotá councilwoman. “[But] in Colombia it arrives to drop bombs. Who are the machines of war?”

“Hell on Earth”: Yemeni Children Starve to Death as U.S.-Backed Saudi Blockade Devastates Nation

Several EU countries suspend AstraZeneca vaccine to investigate blood clot cases

The European Medicines Agency has said the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine can continue to be used during an investigation into cases of blood clots that have prompted several European countries to pause their use of the shot.

The EMA said 30 cases of “thromboembolic events” or blood clots had been reported among 5 million people who had received the jab in Europe so far. “The vaccine’s benefits continue to outweigh its risks,” the regulator said in a statement.

Several European countries have either suspended inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure or banned the use of a specific batch after blood clots formed in some people who had received the jab.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland announced they were temporarily halting all AstraZeneca vaccinations to investigate the cases. Italy followed Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Lithuania in banning inoculations with one particular batch of 1m doses that was sent to 17 countries.

“The vaccine can continue to be administered while investigation of cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing,” the EMA said. “There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side-effects with this vaccine.”

Amazon is Trying to Crush a Union Drive in Alabama. Will It Succeed?

What if the most important election of the year is happening right now in Alabama?

This month, 5,800 Amazon warehouse employees in Bessemer, Alabama, will be voting on whether or not to unionize with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in what could turn out to be the most important election of the year. ...

Biden’s recent statement in support of workers organizing in Alabama suggests that under this administration significant gains for labor can be won, but only if workers are willing to fight for them.

One of the biggest lies sold to the American public has been to convince the vast majority of people that “politics” means showing up to the polls every few years to elect representative officials who will take it from there. Like many aspects of our lives, politics has become something to consume passively. It’s cable news networks, the punditry class, bumper stickers, lawn signs, campaign donations. It’s horse-race journalism and partisan tabloids.

It has narrowed the spectrum of the “political” to red and blue, kids in cages or “migrant overflow facilities”, dog whistles over bull horns, an open disdain for working people or a veneer of compassion. Far fewer see the actions they take day-to-day, in the workplaces where we spend the majority of our waking lives, as something worthy of being political.

The Bessemer election has the potential to topple this frame in favor of a new horizon. The difference between electoral politics and labor organizing is the difference between voting in a president who says he will phase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next four years – yet surrenders before the battle begins – and taking direct action to ensure that higher wages are guaranteed in your contract immediately.

Convicted drug trafficker testifies that he bribed Honduran president

A convicted drug trafficker and former cartel leader has testified in a New York court that he bribed the Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, with $250,000 in exchange for government contracts as well as protection from capture and extradition to the United States.

“It was for protection so neither the military nor preventative police would arrest me or my brother in Honduras and so we would not be extradited to the United States,” Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, a leader of the Honduran drug clan Los Cachiros, testified in the trial of alleged drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez.

Rivera said the money, which was paid in 2012 when Hernández was head of Honduras’ congress, was delivered in cash to the president’s now deceased sister, Hilda. ...

US prosecutors have alleged that much of Hernández’s political rise was funded by drug traffickers who paid to be allowed to move drugs through Honduras without interference.

Chicago suburb to become first city to provide reparations to Black residents for housing

A suburb of Chicago is set to become the first place in the US to provide reparations to its Black residents for housing through a tax on marijuana sales, with a plan to distribute $10m over the coming decade.

Evanston, which sits on the shores of Lake Michigan north of downtown Chicago, is set for an initial disbursement of about $400,000 for housing needs, with a vote on the issue set to take place at the city council on 22 March.

Under the proposal, residents would get $25,000 to use towards home improvements or mortgage assistance. To qualify, residents must have either been or descended from a Black person who lived in Evanston before 1969 who suffered from discriminatory housing practices by government and banks.

This funding will be the first to flow in the wake of a landmark decision by Evanston in 2019 to financially compensate its Black residents for historical racism and discrimination. These reparations, set to total $10m, will come via community donations and a tax on marijuana.

Derek Chauvin trial: judge grants request to add third-degree murder charge

A judge has granted prosecutors’ request to add a third-degree murder count against a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, offering jurors an additional option for conviction and resolving an issue that might have delayed his trial for months.

The Hennepin county judge Peter Cahill reinstated the charge on Thursday after the former officer, Derek Chauvin, failed to get appellate courts to block it. Cahill had earlier rejected the charge as not warranted by the circumstances of Floyd’s death, but an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds.

Chauvin already faced second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Legal experts say the additional charge helps prosecutors by giving jurors another option to find Chauvin guilty of murder. Cahill told potential jurors after the ruling that he still expected opening statements on 29 March.

The dispute over the third-degree murder charge revolved around wording in the law that references an act “eminently dangerous to others”. Cahill’s initial decision to dismiss the charge noted that Chauvin’s conduct might be construed as not dangerous to anyone but Floyd.

But prosecutors sought to revive the charge after the state’s court of appeals recently upheld the third-degree murder conviction of another former Minneapolis police officer in the 2017 killing of an Australian woman. They argued that the ruling established precedent that the charge could be brought even in a case where only a single person is endangered.

Minneapolis to pay George Floyd's family $27m in police custody death lawsuit

The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $27m to settle a civil lawsuit with the family of George Floyd, just weeks before the trial is scheduled to begin for the former police officer charged with his murder.

The city council unanimously approved the settlement on Friday. The council emerged from closed session Friday to announce the move, which includes $500,000 for the neighborhood where Floyd was arrested.

Minneapolis promised change after George Floyd. Instead it's geared up for war

The George Floyd uprising that began in Minneapolis introduced the demand of defunding the police to the general public, empowered Black-led anti-police violence movements across the planet, generated policy changes in cities across the US, and most importantly built new organizations which have the capacity to fight for systemic change for the long haul. The uprising brought a lot of reforms and positive developments to its birth city, too, including a move to actually defund the Minneapolis police department and redistribute funds to services with a larger potential for eradicating both crime and poverty. Now, however, the Minneapolis and Minnesota governments are in the process of undoing that progress and moving in the opposite direction. The trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who publicly killed 46-year-old George Floyd – and inadvertently triggered what may have been the largest protest movement in US history – began this week. Instead of becoming more transparent and committed to undoing the anti-Black image it has cultivated, the city of Minneapolis has quickly transformed itself into a 21st-century police state, pushing even beyond the hyper-militarization and violence that already plague police departments across the US. ...

By this winter, the summer’s ambitions had been replaced by a renewed commitment to the status quo. The police budget was cut by a mere $8m – out of a total budget of $179m – and a proposal to modestly reduce the size of the police force was shot down by city council members and Mayor Jacob Frey, who would be more useful to the world as a Justin Trudeau impersonator than an elected official. ... The Hennepin county government center, the location of the trial, is being turned into a fortress. Several layers of high-security barbed-wire fences line the area around the center and a few buildings around it; they are reinforced with large concrete barriers which, combined with up to 2,000 national guard soldiers, give the impression that the city is ready to fight its own people. Speaking to ABC News, Kandace Montgomery, the current co-director of the local Black liberation organization Black Visions, responded to the city’s preparations. “As the people of Minneapolis and Minnesota are calling for justice and healing, and care, state officials have been responding in some ways by basically preparing to go to war with folks … So, I do think it’s meant to be an intimidation tactic.”

In arguably its most dystopian move, the city also wanted to pay social media influencers to share messages during the trial to prevent potential rioting. The city planned on giving six influencers $2,000 a day each to combat “misinformation”. In January the city approved over a million dollars to fund a communication strategy that would include community organizations and influencers, specifically targeting “Black, Somali/East African, Native American, Hmong and Hispanic” communities by sharing “city-generated and approved messages” – which local activists have compared to the Ghetto Informant Program that Cointelpro used to hinder Black movements in the 1960s. After anger from community members, the influencer plan has been scrapped, though the city still plans on communicating with local leaders – excluding organizations like Black Visions who helped popularize the “defund the police” demand. ...

Instead of committing to police reform and transparency – or acknowledging the growing threat of the far right – the city of Minneapolis is, in the words of city councilman Jeremiah Ellison, “showing up ready for war”.

Oklahoma Bill Declares 'Open Season' on Protesters

Racial justice advocates on Wednesday condemned the Oklahoma House of Representatives' approval of a Republican bill shielding motorists who run over protesters, a measure they say ignores the real issues of systemic racism and police violence while further endangering Black lives.

H.B. 1674 (pdf)—passed by a party-line vote of 79-18—would grant civil and criminal immunity to drivers who "unintentionally" kill or injure people while "fleeing from a riot" if they have "reasonable belief" that doing so will protect them from harm. 

Additionally, the proposed legislation would punish protesters who block traffic with up to a year behind bars and a $5,000 fine.

Democratic lawmakers blasted the bill as draconian and criticized their GOP colleagues for bringing the measure to a vote after midnight when few people were paying attention. Democrats also said the bill was misguided and ignored the bigger problems of racism, police violence, and inequality that sparked Black Lives Matter and other protests. 

The Oklahoman reports state Rep. Regina Goodwin, a Tulsa Democrat, asked if the Legislature cares about "real issues" causing Black people and allies to take to the streets. ...

After a Republican colleague mentioned a 2020 incident in which Black Lives Matter protesters on a Tulsa highway were seriously injured when a truck plowed through them, Rep. Monroe Nichols, another Tulsa Democrat, retorted that "maybe the way to prevent something like this from ever happening again is to make reforms on the broader systemic issue." ...

"Oklahoma legislators are effectively declaring open season on protesters by seeking to immunize people who run them over from criminal liability," tweeted Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. "This is an abhorrent use of legislative power that reeks of racial animus and must be stopped."

New York assembly approves 'impeachment investigation' into Andrew Cuomo

The New York state assembly has authorized its judiciary committee to start an “impeachment investigation” into sexual misconduct allegations brought by six women against Andrew Cuomo.

The panel’s investigation, which would run parallel to one being led by the state attorney general, Letitia James, would be authorized to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence, said Carl Heastie, the speaker of the state assembly.

“The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious,” Heastie said in a statement.

Cuomo, 63, has denied all allegations by the women, most of whom are former aides. The most recent is an unnamed aide who told the Times-Union newspaper on Tuesday that Cuomo had groped her after calling her to the executive mansion last year under the pretext of business. ...

The governor has also faced accusations in recent weeks that his administration sought to downplay the number of nursing home residents killed by Covid-19.

David Sirota: Cuomo REFUSES To Disclose How Rich He Got Off COVID Book Deal

Cuomo denies sexual misconduct allegations: 'I'm not going to resign'

Andrew Cuomo has refused to resign after a group of New York’s most powerful and prominent Democrats joined calls for the governor to step down over the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him, and scrutiny over his administration’s misreporting of Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents.

At a press conference on Friday, Cuomo denied all of the sexual misconduct allegations and castigated politicians calling for him to quit as “reckless and dangerous” and engaging in “cancel culture”.

“I did not do what has been alleged. Period,” Cuomo said. The governor said he wanted investigations into the allegations to proceed but added: “I’m not going to resign. Period.”

“Politicians who don’t know a single fact but yet form a conclusion and an opinion are, in my opinion, reckless and dangerous,” he added.

His statement came shortly after a group of congressional representatives includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a standard bearer for the party’s progressive wing, as well as Jerry Nadler, who chairs the House judiciary committee, and Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House oversight committee. Nadler said on Friday that Cuomo had lost the confidence of New Yorkers.

Florida set to record highest number of manatee deaths in a decade

A combination of cold weather, a decline in seagrass due to development and contaminated waterways have put Florida on pace for its highest number of manatee deaths in a decade. The number of deaths, 432 so far this year, is nearly three times the five-year average of 146 deaths between 1 January and 5 March, the South Florida SunSentinel reported, citing figures from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission. Last year, the state recorded 637 manatee deaths, and in 2019, 607.

“It’s this combination we have of cold weather, we have a reduction of where manatees can go, and in the places where manatees can go, as a consequence of human development and other activities, we have poor water quality which has resulted in these grass die-offs,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The largest number of deaths is in Brevard county, with 179, the newspaper reported. Many of those deaths occurred along the Indian River, which is a common warm-water gathering place, officials said. The manatees swim away to eat seagrass, which is their main source of food. But they aren’t finding as much, so they return hungry to the warmer water. “A manatee will choose starvation over freezing to death,” Lopez said.

Officials said cold stress has accounted for 41 deaths so far. There were 52 cold-stress deaths among manatees in 2020, officials said.

Krystal Ball: Katie Porter EVISCERATES Lying Oil Executive

Hawaii: flooding forces evacuations as officials warn 'this is climate change'

Heavy rains triggered flooding on multiple Hawaiian islands this week, destroying homes and bridges and setting off mass evacuations. The downpour, officials and climate scientists say, is an example of the more intense rainstorms that are occurring more frequently as the planet warms.

The rainstorms this week first affected Maui, moved northward up the island chain to Oahu and Kauai, then circled around and hit the southernmost part of the Big Island.

On Oahu, flooding covered roads and yards in towns on the eastern coast. Rising waters in the Opaelua stream, which carries waters from the mountains down to the ocean, set off an evacuation order for the small town of Haleiwa, a mecca for big-wave surfers. Honolulu firefighters rescued a 27-year-old man after his truck was swept down a stream, and suspended the search for an individual a witness saw in a stream in Pearl City.

Meteorologists on Wednesday extended a flash flood watch for the entire state through Friday because of the potential for more rain and because the ground was already saturated.

“This is really an example of climate change in the present day,” Suzanne Case, the head of the department of land and natural resources, said in a statement. “We have a flood emergency because of the heavy rain bomb. And we’re seeing these more and more across the island chain – more frequent and more extreme events.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Caitlin Johnstone: Mainstream Journalism Doesn’t Exist: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board exposed as accomplice of NYPD

War on Poverty Faced ‘Massive Resistance to Use of Funds for Genuine Empowerment’

The Truth is a Joke Zionism Can’t Accept

One Day After the Senate Hearing on GameStop Manipulation, Its Stock Puts on a Wild Show of Manipulation

Jayapal Demands Investigation Into 3 House Republicans for 'Involvement in the Deadly Attack on the Capitol'

Warning Against 'Democratic Version of Ajit Pai,' Groups Call for FCC Pick Without Telecom Ties

DeJoy Gives Himself an 'A,' Asks Congress for Money to Further Slow Mail

Woodlands and Wetlands Could be Worth More When Left to Nature Than When Farmed

Colonization, Conquest and Our Unconscious Civilization

Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape, dies aged 94

Minnesota Fisherman Blows CNN's Mind With Truth About Biden Admin

Krystal and Saagar: Stockton UBI Experiment STUNS Conservative Critics

A Little Night Music

Old Crow Medicine Show - Down Home Girl

Old Crow Medicine Show - James River Blues

Old Crow Medicine Show - Caroline

Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show - The Weight

Old Crow Medicine Show - Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer

Old Crow Medicine Show & Willie Watson - Paradise

Old Crow Medicine Show - Take 'Em Away

Old Crow Medicine Show - Child of the Mississippi

Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel

Old Crow Medicine Show - Pray For America

Old Crow Medicine Show - Humdinger