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(To view a far more visually attractive, easily readable version of this report -- with essays dating back to 2009, and portfolios of relevant photographs -- all without the obvious, vexing, impossible-to-solve-in-less-than-two-hours formatting conflicts between Typepad and Blogger -- please go here.)
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INFORMATION
IN TODAY'S WORLD is mostly the possession of the One Percent and is
therefore rationed accordingly; indeed it is weaponized by selective
distribution exactly as if it were medical supplies amidst a plague or
food amidst famine. Hence if we are to break the deathgrip the
Neoliberals and their theeocrat/fascist allies have on the throats of
all Working Families, we must recognize that seizure and control of the
information supply is at least as vital -- and in many instances more
vital -- than seizure and control of the food supply.
The
reports below are offered as my own (probably final) contribution to
the ongoing process of breaking that death grip. I have chosen them precisely because I believe they will help us see beyond the sturm und drang of Mainstream Media Propaganda Machine (MMPM) headlines.1 Most
of these selections are scoops and/or analyses by my alternative-press
colleagues; they tell stories about the ever-more-deadly Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic that are thus certain to be censored by MMPM
outlets. The
remainder are MMPM sidebars chosen for their vital details, many of
which the MMPM advertisers don't want published and against which they have designed virtually omnipotent technologies of oppression; suppression of these types of stories -- whether by censorship or by space and time limitations -- is probable.
Headlines without my comments are those I assume to be self-explanatory.
Scroll
down -- it'll take only minutes at most -- read whatever is relevant
to you and yours, share it if appropriate and skip the rest:
Informative reports we might not find elsewhere:
General news:
'Sadness Beyond Tears' as COVID-19 Abortion Ban Brings Chaos to Texas ClinicsVicious, no-surprise ruling by
a ChristoNazi-dominated Federal Appeals Court shows us how -- probably
within months -- the Robbers' Court and its lower-court collaborators
will end all U.S. abortion rights. Barring revolutionary change, the ban
-- which reimposes a prohibition that is among the patriarchy's most
deadly instruments of terror and oppression -- is effectively forever.
Soon thereafter -- probably before this year is out -- the Regime will
begin banning all birth
control, thereby fulfilling the most fanatically sought objective of
the Trump/Pence Regime and its fanatical bands of murderously
misogynistic supporters: reducing all the nation's females to naught but
breeding stock and chattel, thereby (again) binding, gagging and
silencing the most potentially revolutionary segment of the U.S.
Working-Family population.
NOT REAL NEWS: False coronavirus claims and phony remediesFrom Associated Press in its ongoing and most welcome struggle to flush falsehood down the comic-cosmic commode.
Reliable anthologies of pandemic reports (scroll for whatever is relevant):
Virus Outbreak
Updated constantly by the Associated Press.
Updated constantly by the Associated Press.
Black Agenda Report
Updated regularly. In my opinion, the best, most informative, most relevant political website on the U.S. Internet.
Updated regularly. In my opinion, the best, most informative, most relevant political website on the U.S. Internet.
RT - Breaking news, shows, podcasts
Democratic (sic) Party Big Lies and Republican censorship not withstanding, this site provides what is often the most truthful reporting available to us in the United States. Updated often.
Democratic (sic) Party Big Lies and Republican censorship not withstanding, this site provides what is often the most truthful reporting available to us in the United States. Updated often.
TASS Russian News Agency
Just as Propagandamaster Bezos' WaPo gives us the Predatory Plutocrats' perspective, so does this site -- formerly Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Телегра́фное аге́нтство Сове́тского Сою́за, Telegrafnoye agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza) -- give us, in English, the often-radically different Russian government's perspective. (It's history, dating from 1904, makes interesting reading for mediaphyles.) Updated often.
Just as Propagandamaster Bezos' WaPo gives us the Predatory Plutocrats' perspective, so does this site -- formerly Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Телегра́фное аге́нтство Сове́тского Сою́за, Telegrafnoye agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza) -- give us, in English, the often-radically different Russian government's perspective. (It's history, dating from 1904, makes interesting reading for mediaphyles.) Updated often.
Coronavirus live updates - The Washington Post
Probably not "fake news" and updated often -- but listed last because Propagandamaster Bezos's corporate crown jewel is nevertheless best known for its censorship2 and warmongering lies. (See also the related story under "Censorship and disinformation," below.)
Probably not "fake news" and updated often -- but listed last because Propagandamaster Bezos's corporate crown jewel is nevertheless best known for its censorship2 and warmongering lies. (See also the related story under "Censorship and disinformation," below.)
On the pandemic's most obviously dire consequences:
Doctors are sending out ‘do-not-resuscitate’ forms telling people like my disabled daughter to sign them, I find that chillingThis
ironic emergence of German Nazi pre-genocide policies in the only
Western European land to defy Hitler and thence play a major role in his
defeat would not be happening (1) had Neoliberal greed not lethally
reduced the western world's access to medical supplies; nor (2) would it
be happening were the British authorities not anticipating death rates
more medieval than modern.
Other indications of the pandemic's true magnitude:
cryptogon.com » Boarding Up StoresWhen major retailers and small businesses board up their spaces, it's obviously for a very
long closure -- one measured in months if not years. What this also
provides us is a yardstick by which to measure the owners' (already
declining?) trust in governmental ability to protect their wealth. What
it does not tell us is against whom these Capitalists -- most of them
notorious for miserable wages and wretched working conditions -- feel
they might need protection.
Privacy advocates alarmed after Seattle-area police launch online tool to report illegal gatheringsWhich -- of course -- can also be used to break up political gatherings if and when the deadly pandemic subsides.
Vindictive virus-vectors (includes countermeasures):
Wash. nursing home faces $611,000 fine over lapses during fatal coronavirus outbreak
A powerfully indicative story about the wretched state of USian healthcare – and the most egregious example of Propagandamaster Bezos’ Capitalist-protecting paywall censorship I have yet encountered during this disaster. Click on the head to witness the censorship for yourself. The details of the suppressed story are in next link, with thanks to Seattle’s KIRO-TV:
A powerfully indicative story about the wretched state of USian healthcare – and the most egregious example of Propagandamaster Bezos’ Capitalist-protecting paywall censorship I have yet encountered during this disaster. Click on the head to witness the censorship for yourself. The details of the suppressed story are in next link, with thanks to Seattle’s KIRO-TV:
California cities want transparency rules waived in pandemicDisease as an excuse for spreading a plague of censorship.
"It Could Be The End" How the virus might be the death-blow to the nation's remaining newspapers.
Council on Anti-Discrimination, COVID-19 - City of TacomaDespite
its "progresive" reputation, Washington state has more than its share
of fascists and ChristoNazis, all of whom -- like the predatory insects
they are -- intensify their depredation amidst darkness, whether the
physical absence of light or the emotional darkness of chaos, crisis and
societal collapse. Hence the relevance of this statement and the report
immediately below. At least in Tacoma and Seattle, the politicians and
the bureaucrats are no longer trying to hide the problem.
Seattle police chief tells residents to dial 911 if they experience 'racist name calling'And -- yes -- der Trumpenführer is adding Asiatics to his letslynchem-list of real humans against whom he legitimizes deadly anti-human hatred.
A Family’s Fetid Week With CoronavirusIf you read nothing else this weekend, please
read this. It is the most outspoken, most emotionally honest, most
implicitly life-supportive and by far the best reporting I have read in many
years. Indeed, Reyhan Harmanci is a writer whose talent I'd have
recognized with a full-time general-assignment staff-job (way, way) back
when "editor" was the key part of my job-title. (For more of her work,
click on her "Family's Fetid Week" byline.)
LifeAn
Associated Press anthology of stories and photographs about how the
deadly virus is changing people's lives throughout the world.
The Bigger Picture Is Hiding Behind a VirusHow plutocratic predators (PPs or shall we say "plu-preds"?) use one crisis to camouflage another. (Afterthought: "plu-pred" is far more implicitly sneering, hence equally more likely to reappear within these pages.)
IMF warns of new ‘Great Depression’, Russia ahead of the curve due to increased cash & gold reserves
Transmission of COVID-19 by aerosol, implications for public healthI
lack the biological and medical knowledge to evaluate this report, but I
post its link because its author, an outspokenly anti-Trump
conservative with whose opinions I often disagree but whose factual
reporting has repeatedly proven itself dependably reliable.
Because I know there are biologists and medical people amongst you
readers, I would beseech your evaluation of this and any other such
reports I might lack the knowledge to confirm or refute (which I will
identify as such whenever I post their links).
Important stuff to bear in mind:(Archived
material that helps us understand what the PPs -- plutocratic predators
-- are doing to us now and what they might do to us in the future.)
Trump Admits That Easy Voting Would Defeat Republicans
New: how gerrymandering and methodical voter-suppression have reduced our elections to meaningless charades.
New: how gerrymandering and methodical voter-suppression have reduced our elections to meaningless charades.
Goldman Sachs warns that curing patients may not be 'sustainable'
Outright acknowledgment from the deadliest Neoliberal predators that curing disease with a single treatment is bad for profits. A report from 2018 that explains what's being done to us today, hence given knife-edged relevance by the pandemic
Outright acknowledgment from the deadliest Neoliberal predators that curing disease with a single treatment is bad for profits. A report from 2018 that explains what's being done to us today, hence given knife-edged relevance by the pandemic
Average U.S. Citizens Have “Little Or No” Influence On Government Policy
Another "old" report given new relevance by what's being done to us today.
Another "old" report given new relevance by what's being done to us today.
The Truth About the United States' "Continuity of Government" Plans & The Coronavirus Perfect StormScroll
down to the 12th graf to learn how at least eight million U.S. citizens
are on the PPs' enemies lists and will be disappeared.
Military, Trump administration ready plans for domestic crackdown as virus spreads across US
From the report: "'a senior military planner working on coronavirus but not authorized to speak on sensitive planning matters [...] says that deployment of federal troops in support roles is being prepared,' including to conduct traffic stops, home searches and seizures and arrests." Scroll to Footnote3 to learn what atrocities could thus be inflicted on us.
From the report: "'a senior military planner working on coronavirus but not authorized to speak on sensitive planning matters [...] says that deployment of federal troops in support roles is being prepared,' including to conduct traffic stops, home searches and seizures and arrests." Scroll to Footnote3 to learn what atrocities could thus be inflicted on us.
Avenger Planet: Is the Covid-19 Pandemic Mother Nature's Response to Human Transgression?
Excellent question -- though as a (solitary-practice) Gaian Pagan, I would cite the scientific hypothesis that bears the Earth Goddess' name and answer "almost certainly yes." (One of the innumerable reasons the ChristoNazis so despise us is the majority of our beliefs are based on science -- the ultimate terminator of all patriarchal religion.)
Excellent question -- though as a (solitary-practice) Gaian Pagan, I would cite the scientific hypothesis that bears the Earth Goddess' name and answer "almost certainly yes." (One of the innumerable reasons the ChristoNazis so despise us is the majority of our beliefs are based on science -- the ultimate terminator of all patriarchal religion.)
CARES Act Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for FreelancersNew:
specifically for writers and editors. (Disclosure: I am a longtime
National Writers Union member and co-chaired one of their local writers'
workshops c. 2009-2011.)
Handling mail amid coronavirus: Low risk but wash your handsMy
practice is to assume everything from outside is potentially
contaminated, hence I wash my hands thoroughly after handling any
incoming packages and sanitize any surface upon which they might have
rested or been unwrapped.
_________________1I
select these stories on the basis of my news judgment as it evolved
during my 64 years as a writer, photographer and editor, three decades
of which were in the working press. (Despite an on-and-off involvement
with the alternative press that began in 1963, all but about three of
those first 30 earning-years were primarily in the Mainstream Media
Propaganda Machine, at least half in decide-what's-news jobs ranging
from sports editor and associate editor to city editor, news-and-picture
editor and editor-in-chief. (Though as my colleagues moved stealthily
Rightward, so did I move ever-more-openly Leftward, until eventually I
was Left...outside.) Beyond that -- and in keeping with today's
(unequivocally apocalyptic) context -- it is a matter of relevance plus
probability of censorship. I ask myself three questions: firstly, is a
given story useful – a term in this context I use as synonymous with
relevant. If the answer is yes, I than ask, secondly, how likely is it
to be suppressed by the MMPM, the PPs’ first ever privately owned,
for-maximum-profit copy of Josef Goebbels’ infamous Reich Ministry of
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. And here my rule is one of inverse
returns: the less
likely I think I am to see the story disseminated via the National Daily
Wipe and Audiovisual Psychodemonic Zombification Monopoly, (NDWAAZPM,
with apology to Henry Miller for the Psychodemonics), the more likely I
am to include it in these summaries. Reports that pass the first two
tests are each then subjected to the third and final test: do they
include indications from which we might evolve estimates of our
situations accurate enough to facilitate effective response? If the
answer here is also affirmative, the report in question will always be
included in the daily update. Meanwhile the first two criteria generate a
lengthy list of possibles I winnow down to probables and thence to
musts, a process that takes approximately seven or eight hours each day.
2As to what prompts my sudden skepticism of virus coverage by The Washington Post, note how quickly Bezos or one of his zero-tolerance subordinates imposed paywall censorship on this pivotally important 20 March story (scroll down to "U.S. intelligence reports"), which for only a very few short minutes appeared as part of WaPo's
non-paywalled daily virus report. Pretending to be real journalists
rather than the Regime's scribes -- a mental downgrading inflicted as
much by the clerical drudgery necessitated by computers as by the chief
Josef-Goebbels-wannabee Bezos himself -- is a form of moral imbecility I
cannot abide.
3Be aware that "home searches and seizures"
could include not only confiscation of all real or potential weapons
but -- given the ChristoNazi Regime's anti-marijuana fanaticism --
confiscation of, and arrest for possession of, all the (still federally
illegal) medical marijuana upon which such a huge number of
opiate-denied chronic-pain victims are now forced to depend. Too --
given the Regime's even more fanatical hatred of women and female
sexuality -- such raids might also be used to confiscate all
birth-control devices and criminalize all unwed women who possess them,
thereby fulfilling still more of the PPs' ChristoNazis objectives. Thus
-- by such mass arrests -- could the Regime give its plutocratic owners
the ultimate "gift" of permanently enslaving millions of U.S. citizens
for brutally hard, typically deadly labor, thereby granting our Masters'
wish of exterminating "surplus workers" while following the German
Nazis' model of amassing unlimited profits from mass murder.
(As always, headlines are reproduced in their original up-style and down-style formats.)
*****
IMPORTANT CHANGE OF DATE/TIME FORMAT:
as of Monday 6 April I am going to be treating this Update series as if
it were a (West Coast) early morning Monday-Friday daily; hence it will
be dated the day it is actually published rather than by the date of
the (technically somewhat shorter) news day.
This
should enable me to publish these link-lists at a time (2-3 a.m.) that
makes them available as morning reading on both coasts; it will also
broaden the news-cycle -- that is, lengthen the time spanned by links to
stories available for inclusion on a given day's date. I apologize for
any inconvenience this may impose.
I
am sorry too I have not yet decided whether I am going resume this
publication with a posting dated Tuesday (7 April) or shorten my weekend
by half and resume work each Sunday night to produce a Monday edition.
Obviously you'll know my decision by whichever day Dispatches reappears.
May we all have the healthiest and most fulfilling weekend possible in this sickest and most frustrating of times.
LB/4 April 2020 04:01 PDT
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