John Pilger – A virulent if familiar censorship is about to descend on the US election campaign. As the cartoon brute, Donald Trump, seems almost certain to win the Republican Party’s nomination, Hillary Clinton is being ordained both as the “women’s candidate” and the champion of American liberalism in its heroic struggle with the Evil One.
This is drivel, of course; Hillary Clinton leaves a trail of blood and suffering around the world and a clear record of exploitation and greed in her own country. To say so, however, is becoming intolerable in the land of free speech.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama should have alerted even the most dewy-eyed. Obama based his “hope” campaign almost entirely on the fact of an African-American aspiring to lead the land of slavery. He was also “anti-war”.
Obama was never anti-war. On the contrary, like all American presidents, he was pro-war. He had voted for George W. Bush’s funding of the slaughter in Iraq and he was planning to escalate the invasion of Afghanistan. In the weeks before he took the presidential oath, he secretly approved an Israeli assault on Gaza, the massacre known as Operation Cast Lead. He promised to close the concentration camp at Guantanamo and did not. He pledged to help make the world “free from nuclear weapons” and did the opposite.
As a new kind of marketing manager for the status quo, the unctuous Obama was an inspired choice. Even at the end of his blood-spattered presidency, with his signature drones spreading infinitely more terror and death around the world than that ignited by jihadists in Paris and Brussels, Obama is fawned on as “cool” (the Guardian).
On March 23, Counterpunch published my article, “A World War has Begun: Break the Silence”. As has been my practice for years, I then syndicated the piece across an international network, including Truthout.com, the liberal American website. Truthout publishes some important journalism, not least Dahr Jamail’s outstanding corporate exposes.
Truthout rejected the piece because, said an editor, it had appeared on Counterpunch and had broken “guidelines”. I replied that this had never been a problem over many years and I knew of no guidelines.
My recalcitrance was then given another meaning. The article was reprieved provided I submitted to a “review” and agreed to changes and deletions made by Truthout’s “editorial committee”. The result was the softening and censoring of my criticism of Hillary Clinton, and the distancing of her from Trump. The following was cut:
Trump is a media hate figure. That alone should arouse our scepticism. Trump’s views on migration are grotesque, but no more grotesque than David Cameron. It is not Trump who is the Great Deporter from the United States, but the Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama …
Greg Hunter – Former top bank regulator Professor William Black says there is no hiding the cesspool that is Wall Street. Dr. Black says, “People on Wall Street agree that the system is rigged. You get them into a bar, they will say the same thing. When Bernie Sanders says the business plan of Wall Street is fraud, that’s simply an accurate, objective fact. That is their key profit center . . . and it’s not just here. The United States has been in a competition with the United Kingdom (UK) for decades now on this race to the bottom with the City of London and Wall Street.
Jennifer Hoffman – Although we understand the spiritual principles around death and its timing, on a human level there is far less clarity and understanding. And when that friend or loved one dies by their own effort, the situation becomes yet more muddled and unclear. What level of despair could take them so far into their own darkness that they cannot find a single spark of light? Why didn’t they tell us they were in trouble and how could we not have been more aware of their situation? In the challenging times we live in, the thin line between hope and despair thins considerably and sometimes only one choice emerges for someone, that it’s time to quit.