Intrepid Report: ‘A scandal’: After FCC bent rules, right-wing Sinclair network to grow even bigger

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday War and the State: Business as usual Part 6 of 6 parts: Deconstructing the State: Getting small By Arthur D. Robbins Suppose we chose to join hands with our anti-Federalist ancestors and decided we want to live in a Nation where, “peace, union, and industry, under a mild, free, and steady government” prevail (Storing, 67). Is such an outcome possible? How could we bring it about? Sauron rules in Washington By Paul Craig Roberts A reader asked why neoconservatives push toward nuclear war when there can be no winners. If all die, what is the point? House passes pay or die Trumpcare By Stephen Lendman Obamacare was bad enough—a deplorable rationing scheme to enrich insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains. America’s health is in the hands of GOP frat boys By Michael Winship This just in: Health care is not a game. It’s a matter life or death for millions and millions of Americans. But you sure wouldn’t know it from watching Donald Trump and House Republicans celebrate their narrow victory on Thursday. Deep State, shallow politics, dumb economics Evidence that this home of the master race of self-chosen people was the world’s greatest democracy even before Trump By Frank Scott In 1965, the USA had 780,000 people in prison, jail, on parole or on probation. Tuesday Puerto Rico declares bankruptcy By Stephen Lendman Colonized and exploited by America since 1898, its people, governor and other officials are powerless—ruled by US administrations and Congress. Marching in circles: Faustian thinking and the myth of science By Edward Curtin The recent marches on April 22 to promote science and to celebrate Earth Day were perhaps well-intentioned, but they were delusional and conducted without any sense of irony. They served power and its propaganda. Obviously, science has benefited us in certain ways, but it has become untethered from any sense of moral limits in its embrace of instrumental rationality and its unending efforts to sabotage faith in human freedom by rationally “proving” its illogical deterministic credo. And in doing so it has created and sustained a nightmarish world on the brink of destruction and undermined people’s will to resist this death march. Ostensibly rational, it has engendered a spiritual alienation that goes to the roots of the world crisis. The moral travesty of Trumpcare By Robert Reich Shame on every one of the 217 Republicans who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, and substitute basically nothing. It’s time to reawaken the spirit of Occupy for the starving millions By Adam Parsons The world is now facing an unprecedented emergency of hunger and famine, with a record number of people requiring life-saving food and medical assistance in 2017. Since the start of this year, the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of the second world war has continued to unfold, while the international community has failed to take urgent commensurate action. The extent of human suffering is overwhelming: more than 20 million people are on the brink of starvation, including 1.4 million children—a conservative estimate that is rising by the day. Famine has already been declared in parts of South Sudan, and could soon follow in Somalia, north-east Nigeria and Yemen. Neo-colonialism & living the Tea Party dream in Oklahoma By Jane Stillwater I’m still fascinated with the people of Oklahoma. The majority of them are good people, salt of the earth, friendly and hard-working. So how come so many Oklahoma residents seem to have such a grudge against Blacks, immigrants, women, liberals and gays? In her new book, Strangers in Their Own Land, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild just answered my question neatly. Wednesday How Trump mocks his voters By Eric Zuesse It usually comes from his actions, instead of from his words, but sometimes Trump mocks his voters verbally too, such as when the New York Daily News bannered on 9 December 2016, SEE IT: Donald Trump admits he doesn’t ‘care’ about locking up Hillary Clinton and opened: President-elect Donald Trump once again disassociated himself from his aggressive campaign rhetoric when he told a crowd in Michigan on Friday [9 December] that he doesn’t “care” about putting Hillary Clinton in jail anymore. No matter how hard we run, we always seem to be standing in the same place By Dave Alpert Political activism has been a part of my life for most of my adult years. I picketed, I marched, I signed petitions, and I collected signatures. I was fighting for change, for a better, more just life for people, not only for those of this country, but for those around the world. I became very familiar with Washington, DC. It was like a home away from home. ‘A scandal’: After FCC bent rules, right-wing Sinclair network to grow even bigger By Deirdre Fulton Creating the nation’s largest local TV station conglomerate—and raising the frightening prospect of a network that would rival Fox News—conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Monday it will buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. Israel’s draft nation-state law codifies racism By Stephen Lendman The 1917 Balfour Declaration is its antecedent—“establish[ing] in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people,” at the expense of indigenous Arabs as things turned out. You are the true guardians of the galaxy: A graduation message for a tyrannical age By John W. Whitehead Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people. Thursday Avoiding another war In North Korea By William John Cox During the Korean War, the United States dropped more bombs and napalm on North Korea than was used against the Japanese during World War II. The carpet bombing destroyed all of the cities and most of the villages in North Korea. More than 3,000,000 Korean civilians died in the war—most were in the North. Since the war ended with a cease fire in 1953, the North has been governed by the Kim family dictatorship, which uses the threat of American aggression to maintain its ironfisted physical and mind control of the North Korean people. Demanding special prosecutor, Democrats invoke Senate ‘slowdown’ By Nadia Prupis Senate Democrats announced a slowdown of committee business on Wednesday as the fallout from President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey continued. Donald Trump is attempting a coup—we must have a special prosecutor By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship So Donald Trump fired James Comey because the FBI director mistreated Hillary Clinton last summer over her use of private emails. Freedom Rider: Democratic Party death spiral By Margaret Kimberley The Democratic Party is in a death spiral that it cannot escape. The debacle continues with members of Congress singing lyrics, “Hey Hey Hey Good-bye,” from an old song. The juvenile display showed that they are up to their old tricks. They are again counting on Republican unpopularity to regain power. They have no intention of doing anything proactively that would energize their rank and file and reverse their string of defeats. Obscured American: Katy the bartender and nursing student By Linh Dinh Jonathan Revusky was in Philly for a few days, and I had a great time showing Jon around. We went to Kensington, Fishtown, Camden, Point Breeze, Little Cambodia and Rittenhouse Square, all but the last at the sinking end of the economic scale, places I’m well familiar with. At Jack’s Famous Bar, we ordered a cheesesteak and a roast beef sandwich for just $4 each, my kind of price, and I thought our lunch excellent. In Camden, I steered Jon to a bodega where a cheesesteak was just $3.50. Jon said, “I would never have walked into a place like that, if I wasn’t with you.” Most Americans wouldn’t go to Camden, period, even if you paid them. Friday Trump’s lawyers and the rule of law: Part 1 The president is playing with fire and his lawyers are fanning the flames. In the end, the nation will suffer the burns. By Steven Harper Shakespeare’s famous line has drawn conflicting interpretations. To some, it’s a 16th century lawyer joke. But to others focused on the anarchist who spoke them, it’s a nod to the role of law in underpinning a civilized society. Upon admission to the bar, the lawyers surrounding Donald Trump swore fealty to the US Constitution. When they assumed their current duties on behalf of all Americans, they reaffirmed that oath. When Trump attacks the rule of law, his advisers with legal degrees have a special responsibility to speak up. Whatever they’re saying to Trump privately, their public defense of his indefensible assault on the judiciary is no joke, and they know it. ‘More crazy than Nixon’: Critics shocked by Trump admission on Comey By Lauren McCauley While it’s hard to keep up with the shifting reports of how the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey came about, President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to directly asking the former head of law enforcement if he was under investigation—a move many said presented a shocking conflict of interest. Trump’s Latin American brain trust: two neocon crooks, just like him By Wayne Madsen Donald Trump has showcased in Latin American policy by forging close relationships with two of Latin America’s most dishonest leaders: neoconservatives Mauricio Macri of Argentina and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru. After visiting Trump at the White House in April, Trump called the neo-fascist Macri his “regional ally,” adding that the Argentine is doing a “fantastic job.” Major media organize to rig web-search results By Eric Zuesse The New York Times, as Robert Parry has pointed out, “Cheers the Rise of Censorship”, but only of censorship of any allegations that expose the fraudulence of the NYT’s allegations. The Washington Post, Google, the TV networks, and practically all of the famous providers of ‘news,’ have joined forces in order to block from the internet any statements that contradict, or especially any evidence that disproves, what they collectively define to be ’true’; and, while they do this, they add a lie, that their sole aim in doing this rigging of web-search results is to prevent ‘misinformation’ from polluting your mind. They use as an excuse the existence of some flagrantly fabricated reports on obscure websites, but if the mainstream press can ban reports such as those, then they can also ban real news reports, which expose the mainstream’s own lies. In other words: they are implementing their collective power to block you from being able to know that they’re systematically lying. Will the public trust them with this power? Double standards R us By Frank Scott After being vilified as a Satan by neo-liberals for allegedly costing their anointed one the election—this was before Putin was appointed Greater Satan—the former FBI director is sanctified by neo-liberals as martyr to the cause of justice and democracy. This continues an American tradition born the day European immigrants began making this country great by taking it from its original inhabitants who were foolishly trying to live with nature instead of dominating it for profits.
Disclaimer: You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to our newsletter at Intrepid Report .  Please add news_ltr@intrepidreport.com to your address book to ensure that our emails reach your inbox.  Copyright ? Intrepid Report . All rights reserved.