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“Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what George Orwell called the 'official truth'. They simply cipher and transmit lies. It really grieves me that so many of my fellow journalists can be so manipulated that they become really what the French describe as 'functionaires', functionaries, not journalists. Many journalists become very defensive when you suggest to them that they are anything but impartial and objective. The problem with those words 'impartiality' and 'objectivity' is that they have lost their dictionary meaning. They've been taken over... [they] now mean the establishment point of view... Journalists don't sit down and think, 'I'm now going to speak for the establishment.' Of course not. But they internalise a whole set of assumptions, and one of the most potent assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity.”

-- John Pilger

News and Opinion

CNN Journalists Resign: Latest Example of Media Recklessness on the Russia Threat

Three prominent CNN journalists resigned Monday night after the network was forced to retract and apologize for a story linking Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund under Congressional investigation. That article – like so much Russia reporting from the U.S. media – was based on a single anonymous source, and now, the network cannot vouch for the accuracy of its central claims.

In announcing the resignation of the three journalists - Thomas Frank, who wrote the story; Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Eric Lichtblau, recently hired away from the New York Times; and Lex Haris, head of a new investigative unit – CNN said “standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.” The resignations follow CNN’s Friday night retraction of the story, in which they apologized to Scaramucci.

Several factors compound CNN’s embarrassment here. To begin with, CNN’s story was first debunked by an article in Sputnik News, which explained that the investment fund documented several “factual inaccuracies” in the report (including that the fund is not even part of the Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, that is under investigation), and by Breitbart, which cited numerous other factual inaccuracies.

And this episode follows an embarrassing correction CNN was forced to issue earlier this month when several of its highest-profile on-air personalities asserted – based on anonymous sources – that James Comey, in his Congressional testimony, was going to deny Trump’s claim that the FBI Director assured him he was not the target of any investigation. ...

But CNN is hardly alone when it comes to embarrassing retractions regarding Russia. Over and over, U.S. major media outlets have published claims about The Russia Threat that turned out to be completely false – always in the direction of exaggerating the threat and/or inventing incriminating links between Moscow and the Trump circle. In virtually all cases, those stories involved evidence-free assertions from anonymous sources which these media outlets uncritically treated as fact, only for it to be revealed that they were entirely false.

'Fake news': Trump tweets glee as three CNN journalists resign over Russia story

CNN on Monday accepted the resignations of three journalists involved in a story about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between an associate of Donald Trump and the head of a Russian investment fund.

On Tuesday, around 6.30am ET, Trump tweeted in response: “Wow, CNN had to retract big story on ‘Russia,’ with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!”

Wow, CNN had to retract big story on "Russia," with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017

The president then retweeted a tweet from a “clickbaiter & #FakeNews debunker”, featuring the CNN logo altered to read “FNN: Fake News Network”.

Later, using “stories” in the plural without citing additional examples, he added: “Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!” The president then broadened his attack: “So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!”

Court: Bush Administration Officials Can't Be Held Liable for Post-9/11 Mass Roundup of Muslims

Assad preparing chemical weapons attack in Syria, US claims

The White House has declared that it believes Bashar al-Assad’s regime is preparing to carry out another chemical weapons attack, and warned that the Syrian leader and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it went ahead. The unusual public warning on Monday night appeared to be intended to deter the regime from repeating its use of chemical weapons against rebel-held cities and towns.

It may also have been aimed at the regime’s backers in Moscow and Tehran, who have resolutely backed Assad and denied the regime’s responsibility for chemical weapons use. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, tweeted: “Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia and Iran who support him killing his own people.”

The Kremlin described the warning as an unacceptable threat and said Russia had no information about a new chemical attack. The US defence secretary, James Mattis, did not address the nature of the intelligence or White House warning as he flew to Europe for a Nato meeting, but said the US was not going to get drawn into the Syrian civil war. ...

Several US news outlets quoted unnamed US military sources as saying they had been taken by surprise by the announcement and had no independent knowledge of chemical weapons preparations.

US threatens Assad over ‘planned new chemical attack’

Donald Trump's bloodlust for war in the Middle East risks chaos

Lost among the deluge of stories about the Russia investigation and the Republicans’ push to take healthcare away from millions of people, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for a disastrous regional proxy war against Iran in Syria, and possibly beyond. Foreign Policy reported recently that key officials within the Trump administration are “pushing to broaden the war in Syria, viewing it as an opportunity to confront Iran and its proxy forces on the ground there”. The strategy was being advocated over objections from the Pentagon, but it doesn’t seem to be deterring the White House.

As the Washington Post made clear just a few days ago, Iranian and US forces have already been directly clashing in the region, and officials are busy planning the “next stage” of the Syria war once Isis is defeated – a plan that centers around directly attacking the Iranians. On Monday night, the White House seemingly laid down its marker. In a surprising statement that seemed to catch even the Pentagon off guard, press secretary Sean Spicer warned that Syria was planning another chemical weapons attack and “would pay a heavy price” if it came to pass. UN ambassador Nikki Haley quickly chimed in on Twitter saying that any further attack would “be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia & Iran who support him killing his own people”.

The White House is almost looking for a reason to launch yet another potentially catastrophic war in the Middle East, right in the middle of the most complex civil war we’ve seen in decades. There is no telling what chaos and destruction such a move would bring, but you can see the war wagons aligning within Trump administration circles as they prepare to move ahead with it anyway. ...

Six months ago it may have been hard to imagine a more destabilized Middle East, but leave it to the Trump administration to somehow make things worse. If they follow through on their stated desire to start a war with Iran, it will be a deadly folly of historic proportions.

Hersh: Trump Ignored Intel Before Bombing Syria

It’s Official: Any Future Gas Attacks In Syria Are Definite False Flags

The Trump administration has issued statements which confirm beyond a doubt that if there are any chemical weapons attacks on civilians in Syria, they are not being perpetrated by the Syrian government but by some other party trying to provoke and/or manufacture support for NATO aggression against the Assad administration. ...

The Trump administration has now threatened the Syrian government so aggressively, specifically and unequivocally that if there is a chemical weapons attack on civilians it can only mean one of two things: either (A) Assad is suffering from some sort of severe and untreated form of schizophrenia which would cause him to deliberately invite the wrath of the most powerful military force in the history of human civilization, or (B) the attack wasn’t perpetrated by Assad at all. Since we can tell from Assad’s intelligent and thoughtful interviews in perfect English that he is mentally competent, we will be able to safely eliminate the first possibility, leaving only the conclusion that it was a false flag of some sort.

It could technically be possible that the White House’s statement was a sincere attempt to save the lives of Syrians and deter the perceived threat of a chemical weapons attack, except that this possibility started looking a lot more remote after UN Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted that the Trump administration intends to blame both Assad and his allies for any attacks on the civilians of Syria, a nation known to be crawling with ISIS, Al Qaeda and other violent jihadist factions with an extensive history of deliberately attacking civilians.

As TYT’s Michael Tracey rightly notes, incendiary comments from Haley immediately preceded Trump’s deadly missile strike of a Syrian airbase in April.

Afghanistan’s Lessons for Syria

The battle for Raqqa is now being waged, and the diverse forces that have been helping to extinguish the self-proclaimed caliphate of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) soon must face squarely what becomes of the portion of Syria that ISIS had controlled. It may be useful to recall an earlier and somewhat similar situation in which the defeat of a common enemy led not to peace and stability but instead to fighting among the victors. This occurred some two decades ago in another land in which, like Syria, the United States struggles to formulate a strategy: Afghanistan. There are obvious differences between this piece of Afghan history and the current situation in eastern Syria, but there nonetheless are several observations about the former that apply as well to the latter.

There was too little advance planning or effort at accommodation that looked beyond whatever was the immediate military objective. ... There was no military solution to the differences and disagreements that ensued after the earlier enemy was defeated. No single Afghan militia was strong enough to overpower the rest. Even the Taliban never gained control of all of Afghanistan; a coalition in the northern portion of the country continued to resist. In Syria, the Assad regime, especially with its Russian and Iranian backing, is not going away. But neither does it have the strength (and its foreign backers do not have the will) to gain control over all Syrian territory and to wipe out the sources of resistance to the regime.

The new phase of civil war (in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal) reflected bloated ambitions and mission creep stimulated by earlier victories, not well-considered objectives that would justify a prolongation of the war. ... In the Syrian war, echoes of Afghanistan are heard in talk, including in debates on U.S. policy, about moving against the interests of Russia, Iran or the Assad regime as part of a military expedition that was supposed to have been all about defeating ISIS.

The problems, threats and adversaries that emerge from prolongation of the civil war into a new phase may take new forms that are difficult to foresee. In Afghanistan in 1992, as Najibullah’s regime fell and the militia leaders were just beginning their new round of conflict among themselves, it would have been hard to anticipate the Taliban emerging and sweeping to power as it soon would. In Syria, violent extremism bred by chaos and conflict after the fall of Raqqa may take non-ISIS forms for which we do not yet have a label.

Isis may be leaderless and facing defeat in Mosul, but the jihadis will fight on

The blowing up by Isis of the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul marks a decisive defeat for the caliphate declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the same mosque three years ago. Isis will continue fighting as a guerrilla force, but it will be the end of a state once the size of Great Britain and fielding a military force more powerful than many members of the United Nations. Presumably Isis decided to destroy the ancient mosque and its famous minaret, a symbol of Mosul, to prevent the Iraqi security forces triumphantly raising the Iraqi flag over a place so closely associated with Isis.

The end of the short-lived caliphate will be underscored if the self-declared caliph is himself dead, killed by a Russian airstrike near Raqqa some three weeks ago. Oleg Syromolotov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, repeated today a claim made last week but with greater certainty, saying that fresh information showed that there was “a high degree of probability” that Baghdadi was dead, killed after a meeting he was attending was targeted by Russian aircraft. ...

Though Baghdadi may be dead and surviving Isis forces are being driven into smaller and smaller enclaves in Iraq and Syria, the group will fight on. It can activate cells and sympathisers all over the world to commit high-profile atrocities guaranteed to dominate news agendas. Celebrations over Isis’s defeat may be interrupted and apparently contradicted by its continuing ability to wreak havoc.

Isis may also draw solace from the growing divisions among its enemies, whose loose collaboration was previously underpinned by fear of the jihadis. As that fear diminishes, there is growing friction between the US and Russia, the US and Iran, Syrian Kurds and Turkey, and, further afield, the confrontation between Qatar, on one side, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on the other. Isis has always been able to take root and grow from chaos and war.

US senator to block arms sales to Gulf over Qatar crisis

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday, Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said he had been pleased with Mr Trump's recent trip to Saudi Arabia, where he attended a summit of the Gulf Co-operation Council.

The Republican noted that the president had agreed with the GCC's six member states, including Qatar, to "ease regional conflicts" and establish "deeper security co-operation".

"Unfortunately, the GCC did not take advantage of the summit and instead chose to devolve into conflict," he added.

"All countries in the region need to do more to combat terrorism, but recent disputes among the GCC countries only serve to hurt efforts to fight [IS] and counter Iran."

"For these reasons, before we provide any further clearances during the informal review period on sales of lethal military equipment to the GCC states, we need a better understanding of the path to resolve the current dispute and reunify the GCC."

Wow! Imagine that, an anti-trust law enforcement action in this day and age.

Google fined record €2.4bn by EU over search engine results

The European Union has handed Google a record-breaking €2.42bn (£2.14bn) fine for abusing its dominance of the search engine market in building its online shopping service, in a dramatic decision that has far-reaching implications for the company.

By artificially and illegally promoting its own price comparison service in searches, Google denied both its consumers real choice and rival firms the ability to compete on a level playing field, European regulators said.

The Silicon Valley giant has 90 days to stop its illegal activities and explain how it will reform its ways or face fines of up to €10.6m a day, which equates to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of its parent company Alphabet.

On the back of the finding that Google is the dominant player in the European search engine market, the EU regulator is further investigating how else the company may have abused its position, specifically in its provision of maps, images and information on local services.

Google is also now liable to face civil actions for damages by any person or business affected by its anti-competitive behaviour.

New U.K. Government Held Together by Fear — of a Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn

After weeks of wrangling, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party agreed on Monday to give Prime Minister Theresa May the votes she needs to stay in office and push through legislation ensuring that the United Kingdom exits the European Union. While the Democratic Unionist leader, Arlene Foster, spoke of the deal being “in the national interest” of the U.K. as a whole, commentators pointed to what looked like a massive concession to Northern Ireland’s local government — an additional 1 billion pounds in social welfare spending.

The money, though, was probably less important to the D.U.P. than staving off what it sees as a nightmarish alternative: the specter of Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, becoming prime minister.

That’s because the election campaign that just concluded, with a hung Parliament in which no single party holds a majority of seats, kicked off a remarkable surge in popularity for Corbyn. That surge, lifting Corbyn and Labour, has shown no signs of abating since the votes were cast on June 8.

Panelbase Poll - the Sunday Times today:

Labour 46%
Conservatives 41%

Approval ratings
Corbyn +17%
May -17%

Labour are a govt in waiting.

— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) June 25, 2017

May orders national inquiry after 100% failure rate in high-rise cladding tests

Samples of external cladding from 95 buildings in 32 areas in England have failed fire-proofing tests, Downing Street has said, with Theresa May ordering a “major national investigation” into what has gone wrong. Every piece of cladding so far tested for fire resistance after the Grenfell Tower disaster had failed to meet the necessary standard, the prime minister’s spokesman said.

The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, updated ministers on Tuesday morning, the spokesman said, and gave them the latest figure of 95 buildings across 32 local authority areas. “That remains a 100% failure rate,” May’s spokesman said. It is believed that all the tests so far have involved local authority owned blocks, rather than private buildings. He said: “The prime minister said there would need to be a major national investigation into what had gone wrong, when cladding which is failing the tests was fitted on buildings across the country over a number of decades.

Brazil's president, Michel Temer, charged with corruption

Brazil’s top federal prosecutor has charged President Michel Temer with taking multimillion-dollar bribes, a stinging blow to the unpopular leader and to political stability in Latin America’s largest country. Rodrigo Janot submitted the charge to the supreme court, saying Temer “fooled Brazilian citizens” and owed the nation millions in compensation for accepting bribes.

Under Brazilian law, the lower house of Congress must now vote on whether to allow the top tribunal to try the conservative leader, who replaced Dilma Rousseff just over a year ago when she was impeached. Lawmakers within Temer’s coalition are confident they have the votes to block the two-thirds majority required to proceed with a trial. But they warn that support may wane if congressmen are forced to vote several times to protect Temer – whose popularity is languishing in the single-digits – from trial. ...

Investigators have uncovered stunning levels of corruption in recent years engulfing Brazil’s political class and business elites. Much of it centres on companies paying billions of dollars in bribes to politicians and executives at state-run enterprises in return for lucrative contracts. Temer and a third of his cabinet, as well as four former presidents and dozens of lawmakers, are under investigation or have already been charged over the schemes. More than 90 people have been convicted.

Dahlia Lithwick: Justice Neil Gorsuch Proving to Be "Far to the Right" of Antonin Scalia

California Scheming: Democrats Betray Single-Payer Again

Nothing better illustrates the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party—for all progressive intents and purposes—than California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s announcement on Friday afternoon that he was going to put a “hold” on the single-payer health care bill (SB 562) for the state, effectively killing its passage for at least the year. The Democratic Party finds itself in a bind in California. They hold the governorship and a supermajority in both houses of the legislature, so they can pass any bill they want. SB 562 had passed the Senate 23-14.

There was enormous enthusiasm among California progressive activists, who, with organizations like Campaign for a Healthy California (CHC,) and the National Nurses United (NNU,) and the California Nurses Association (CNA) were working tirelessly, and hopeful of success. ... After all, once enough progressive pressure was been put on the legislators, the bill would be going to super-progressive Democratic Governor, Jerry Brown, who had made advocacy of single-payer a centerpiece of his run for President in 1992.

Unfortunately, today that Governor is, according to Paul Song, co-chair of the CHC, “doing everything he can to make sure this never gets on his desk.” And it won’t. Unfortunately, all the Democrats like Rendon, who “claims to be a personal supporter of single-payer,” will make sure that their most progressive governor is not put in the embarrassing position of having to reject what he’s been ostensibly arguing for for twenty-five years, of demonstrating so blatantly what a fraud his, and his party’s, progressive pretensions are.

Thus unfolds the typical Democratic strategy: Make all kinds of progressive noises and cast all kinds of progressive votes, while carefully managing the process so that the legislation the putatively progressives putatively support never gets enacted. Usually, they blame Republican obstructionism, and there certainly is enough of that, and where there is, it provides a convenient way for Democrat legislator to “support” legislation they know will be blocked and wouldn’t really enact themselves if they could. ...

This is the Democratic Party. Lying losers who will do anything to avoid taking an effective stance for a healthcare policy that would immediately solve one of the worst horrors American families face every day, that would be immediately and concretely helpful to everyone, and, to top it all off, would be immensely popular. The dissembling Democrats are throwing away just about the most popular policy anyone could imagine—something people are literally dying for.

Senate GOP Healthcare Bill Estimated to Kill 28,600 More in U.S. Each Year & Drop 22M from Insurance

Senate healthcare bill would cut insurance for 22 million Americans, CBO says

Twenty-two million Americans will lose health insurance coverage over the next 10 years under the draft Senate healthcare bill, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The bill is the Senate’s version of a healthcare bill passed by the House of Representatives in May, which the CBO found would cost 23 million people healthcare coverage and decrease the federal budget deficit by $119bn over a 10-year period.

The Senate legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $321bn over a decade, the CBO found, largely due to the bill’s steep cuts to the Medicaid health program for the poor and the scaling back of federal assistance for those individuals purchasing their own private coverage. Roughly 15 million more people would be uninsured next year compared with the figure under the current healthcare law, according to the CBO, a number that would increase to 19 million in 2020.

The highest impact would fall on low-income and elderly Americans, with those between the ages of 55 and 64 bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. ... The CBO score comes after Republicans amended the draft Senate bill they released last week to require those who have gone without health coverage for more than two months to wait an additional six months if they want health insurance coverage. Advocates have pointed out that the waiting period could be fatal for those suffering from acute illnesses, such as cancer or heart disease.

FBI has questioned Trump campaign adviser Carter Page at length in Russia probe

FBI agents have repeatedly questioned former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page about his contacts with Russians and his interactions with the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Over a series of five meetings in March, totaling about 10 hours of questioning, Page repeatedly denied wrongdoing when asked about allegations that he may have acted as a kind of ­go-between for Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with Page’s account.

The interviews with the FBI are the most extensive known questioning of a potential suspect in the probe of possible Russian connections to associates of President Trump. The questioning of Page came more than a month before the Russian investigation was put under the direction of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Page confirmed Monday that the interviews occurred, calling them “extensive discussions.” He declined to say if he has spoken to investigators since the March interviews. ... As he has for months, Page said the accusations against him are lies spread by supporters of Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama, aimed at weakening the Trump administration.

In 'Remarkable' Rebuke to Monsanto, California Adds Roundup to Cancer Watchlist

In a move celebrated by scientists and activists, California on Monday announced it would add glyphosate—the active ingredient in the Monsanto-produced weed killer Roundup—to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer. The decision, made by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), was reportedly precipitated by the World Health Organization's classification of glyphosate as a "probable carcinogen" in May of 2015.

"California is required under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known as Proposition 65, to publish a regularly updated list of chemicals thought to cause cancer or birth defects," Newsweek reported.

Monsanto has been quick to respond to the move; as USA Today's Emily Bohatch noted, Monsanto is appealing a ruling on a case it brought against California last year, when the OEHHA first attempted to add glyphosate to its list of cancer-causing agents.

In response to the agrochemical giant's legal maneuvering, activists and scientists have insisted that Monsanto's motive is profit alone—not scientific accuracy or the health of the public—and hailed California's decision as a step in the direction of justice.

Also of Interest

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

Death of America’s Common Man

Hersh’s new Syria revelations buried from view

Saudi Arabia Wants to Reduce Qatar to a Vassal State

Media Focus on Trump Blindsides the Public from Rising Wall Street Risks

Winning entries in the iPhone photography awards 2017

A Little Night Music

The 5 Royales - Baby Don't Do It

The 5 Royales - I'm Gonna Run It Down

The 5 Royales - Slummer the Slum

The 5 Royales - Mine Forever More

The 5 Royales - Take Me With You Baby

The 5 Royales - I Got To Know

The 5 Royales - They Don't Know

The 5 Royales - Say It

The Five Royales - Baby Don't Do It

The 5 Royales - I Do

The 5 Royales - It Hurts Inside

The 5 Royales - Thirty Second Lover

The 5 Royales - Messin' up