Friday, May 22, 2020
Headlines for May 22, 2020
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for May 22, 2020
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” — Malcolm X
*Why Bombs Made in America Have Been Killing Civilians in Yemen
Subhead: President Trump sees arms deals as jobs generators for firms like Raytheon, which has made billions in sales to the Saudi coalition. The Obama administration initially backed the Saudis too, but later regretted it as thousands died.
Attempt by the NYT to whitewash Obama while blaming Trump for US bombs killing civilians in Yemen (as if that wasn't/isn't the case in spades in Iraq & Afghanistan as well). 14th paragraph: “After the Yemen war began in 2015 and the Obama administration made a hasty decision to back the Saudis.”
“Officials in the Obama White House, recalling how the Saudis had sought American backing, know it as the “five minutes to midnight” call. It was late March 2015, and the Saudis wanted to know immediately whether the United States would support its imminent invasion of Yemen to suppress the Iranian-aligned rebels who had overthrown the Saudi-friendly government there. The Saudis characterized the military action as necessary to defend their borders from potential Iranian aggression, just as the United States was involved in negotiations with the Iranians over a nuclear deal.
“It happened so quickly,” Ben Rhodes, one of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy advisers, said in an interview. “Obama typically had a very rigorous process around certainly the application of U.S. military force, and this felt very different.”
With few options, none of them appealing, the advisers recommended a high-risk plan to support a country with billions of dollars in American weapons but little experience in using them.”
Obama only suspended delivery of bombs in Dec, AFTER the election. Obama started backing Saudis. He "had misgivings" & "was becoming concerned" because "the war had gone in a direction we had not anticipated." Translation: Saudis hadn't achieved a quick victory that would have made US support look good. Those were the only misgivings Obama had. And not a word in this article about the *active* support US gave Saudi Arabia under Obama — refueling bombing runs in midair, along with targeting assistance.
*Kim Jong Un Disappeared From View, But North Korea’s Problems Never Left
Subhead: Leader signals focus on the home front as Pyongyang faces economic strains, coronavirus threat
Is there a country in the world that isn’t facing these problems? Why write about North Korea and not, say, Haiti? Or a hundred other countries who never see an article about them in the WSJ?
And as for the DPRK, this: “Pyongyang, to much skepticism, has yet to report a single coronavirus case. It canceled public events, closed schools and required citizens to wear masks outdoors.” [and closed the border with China]
*U.S. Space Force To Launch Secret Mission Devoted To Coronavirus Victims & Frontline Workers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fELO2g6ld7g [Today show video]
This is a sick joke. This mission is devoted to better ways of killing people while simultaneously depriving Coronavirus victims and frontline workers of the money they need to get appropriate healthcare and appropriate supplies and other kinds of support, respectively.
*Russia is interfering in our elections again. And Trump supporters are emulating Russian tactics.
Not sure what “Russian tactics” are. Lying? I’m pretty sure Trump supporters get that from Trump himself. As far as the “Russian interference”, note this from the article (emphasis added): “Attacks against me came first…from far-right sources. Forensics data I was shown suggested AT LEAST ONE ENTITY HAD RUSSIAN TIES.” Unidentified, natch. As is the nature of the alleged “ties”. The article talks about right-wing attacks (on the author) and how “newly created Russian Twitter accounts picked them up”. The link on that goes to an account that tweets in Russian and has 375 followers! [Trump has 80M followers] The article talks about how “Russian “disinformation clearinghouses” [whatever they are] posted versions of the story.” “Disinformation clearinghouse” links to an article in ZeroHedge, a site run by “a Bulgarian-born, U.S.-based former investment banker and capital-markets trader” (Wikipedia) How is that “Russian”?
This same paper, the Washington Post, ran a headline the next day reading “Trump calls Romney a LOSER following sharp criticism for firing inspectors general”. Who is that amplifies Trump’s message?
*Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election
Not the Russian election, the U.S. election. 🙄 Filled with nonsense, like this:
“The Russians were expecting the election of Hillary Clinton—and preparing to immediately declare it a fraud. The embassy in Washington had attempted to persuade American officials to allow its functionaries to act as observers in polling places. A Twitter campaign alleging voting irregularities was queued. Russian diplomats were ready to publicly denounce the results as illegitimate.”
And this, Russia’s attempt to undermine American democracy: “This winter, the Russians even secured airtime for their overt propaganda outlet Sputnik on three radio stations in Kansas, bringing the network’s drive-time depictions of American hypocrisy to the heartland.”
GOP Plans Stronger Role in Who Gets To Vote
NYT Front page, 5/19
Online: Freed by Court Ruling, Republicans Step Up Effort to Patrol Voting
Nice euphemisms for “voter suppression”
Trump Is Playing the China Card. Who Believes Him?
Subhead: He attacks Joe Biden to deflect blame for his terrible handling of Covid-19 and record of appeasing Beijing.
Susan Rice attacks Trump for attacking China, then tries to outflank him from the right!
