Three examples of important content for understanding the true nature of the Israel/Hamas conflict

Following the disgusting and senseless actions of Hamas we are now in yet another time of war involving Israel.

But it’s not merely the reports on the atrocities that instigated this latest crisis that we need to discuss. It’s also the actual reporting of it. Just a couple of weeks ago my wife told me she wanted to watch the movie 1984 with John Hurt and Richard Burton. And while the term “Orwellian” might be overused these days, it certainly has to be said that large portions of the mainstream media have reverted to 1984-style propaganda from the moment news of the (again, reprehensible just in case it isn’t clear how I feel) Hamas action broke.

I could go on about my feelings on this matter but the purpose of this post is to share some media which has been produced by people who understand the situation much more than I do yet find themselves able to approach it with a holistic view rather than a “we stand squarely behind Israel no matter what, and anyone who doesn’t totally agree with us is an anti-Semite” one.

So here they are, I hope you either have the time to watch/listen or at least have been able to find similar open-minded discussions and presentations out there.

Apologies for not posting for so long, I could literally produce multiple posts every single day but most of my online time has to be taken up with rugby, especially now. I’m hoping to start a TikTok account for this site soon. JLP

1. POD SAVE THE WORLD

First we have a podcast from Pod Save The World, an excellent production featuring Tommy Veitor (of parent show Pod Save America) and Ben Rhodes (who worked with the US State Department under President Obama) which generally talks about world news from a US perspective, which some may see as a contradiction as the vast majority of the population is definitely ignorant of anything to do with global politics. They normally have a show during the week but they got together for this special one immediately after the news broke, and this is why I appreciate their extremely balanced view which pointed out the actions of the Netanyahu government as well.


2. THE YOUNG TURKS

Next up we have The Young Turks, generally hosted by Cenk Uygur and Anna Kasparian, but for their first show after the Hamas attack, Anna gave up her seat to occasional guest Ben Gleib, and Israeli-American comedian who is always promoting Progressive values, a fact proven by his very existence as a TYT host. But with a lot of his family members living in Israel and some directly affected by the Hamas attack, he is of course extremely well placed to offer that perspective.

So for this protracted debate, which I would recommend you watch in its entirety, we not only have the standard “anti-Occupation” viewpoint offered by Cenk, but it also comes with strong rebuttals from someone speaking for Israeli citizens in the aftermath of a horrific atrocity.

Unfortunately the video is age-restricted so I can’t share it directly to the page, so instead I will add the link below.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE YOUNG TURKS DEBATE ON YOU TUBE


3. THE DAILY SHOW

Even with the terrible nature of a story like this, it is actually possible to turn to comedy for both solace and, most crucially, information.

This clip may not be a current one from The Daily Show (it first aired in 2014), but it is still perfect for illustrating just how polarized the media landscape becomes whenever Palestine is in the news.

One media story, three media clips, three media opinions

The “one media story” is all about the GOP and what they’ve done since they’ve taken over the House of Representatives (albeit barely).

We all knew that serving the American people was furthest from their minds, and in a way it’s to their credit that they didn’t even bother hiding the fact that a major priority of theirs was to use the subpoena power of committees to find, or at least create, enough dirt on Joe Biden & his family to trash his name as much as possible in the build up to the 2024 election.

Now to the “three media clips” in question. One is from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, the second one is from “The Young Turks” and the reason you don’t see a third in this post is because it is the clip the other two are talking about, namely one from Fox News as Maria Baritiromo interviewing James Comer who is the GOP Chairman of the House Oversight Committee that is one of many gunning for the Bidens.

Most of the time it would be counter-productive to share rhetoric from people like Comer, not just because it’s designed to smear, but also because it is so boringly predictable. Naturally we know it boils down to “Biden=bad” which is the red meat Fox viewers want to hear and at this stage they don’t even need to have found actual evidence to do an interview like this, all they need is for Comer to say something like “We are hearing reports that….” and their work is done.

For these clips, the story is about a “whistleblower” that they claim has information about Biden supposedly working for the Chinese government. They announced this a week or two ago, but now it seems the whistleblower has “gone missing”???

Which brings us to the other two clips. First, here’s Morning Joe, hosted by former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough. He now hosts the morning show on MSNBC which would make you think he’s a Democrat now, but I reckon he’s the guy on which Aaron Sorkin’s character Will McAvoy in The Newsroom was based. But that’s a debate for another day, for this clip Scarborough plays the exchange between Bartiromo & Comer before having a long laugh about how the GOP “lost” a whistleblower, like that’s the biggest takeaway from the Fox clip.

So I watched this on Monday, and I couldn’t believe that even though Joe goes from his monologue to talk to about eight different “co-hosts” about the clip, none of them appears to notice the obvious. They make it out that “even Maria is disgusted” by the disappearance of the whistleblower, when IMO it doesn’t take a whole lot of grey matter to see that what Maria is doing is trying to make it look to the viewers that Biden, who they’re trying to maintain is some kind of Don Corleone figure, somehow had the informant “whacked”.

Thankfully by Wednesday we had this coverage by The Young Turks where they see it for what it is. Now THIS is proper analysis.

The girl on the left, Emma Vigeland, usually isn’t on TYT anymore this was a guest appearance – she was a host up to a few years ago but now she works with Sam Seder at The Majority Report, another quality outlet I must say. And actually in another clip on this show, she vehemently disagrees with Cenk on the Debt Ceiling crisis, which is always good to see in these videos because if everyone agrees on everything life would be pretty boring.

But overall I’ve done this post to highlight the difference between right-wing media, “corporate” (or as they’d call it “centrist” media, and progressive media. You can probably tell which I feel is the most reliable. JLP

Podcast : US media “forgets” that governing is for everyone

Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia says one thing, US media spins it as another – and not just the right wing media either.

An article on what Stacey Abrams actually said > Georgia GOP attacks Stacey Abrams … for speaking the truth (msnbc.com)

How Fox News covered the same speech > Stacey Abrams calls Georgia ‘worst state in the country to live’ | Fox News Video

The True Centre Podcast 011 – "The Cost Of Living Coalition March" The True Centre Podcast

My thoughts on the Irish Left in general and a march/rally in Dublin on Saturday in particular. Learn more about the Cost of Living Coalition here > https://www.facebook.com/COLCIreland
  1. The True Centre Podcast 011 – "The Cost Of Living Coalition March"
  2. The True Centre Podcast 010 – "Beware The Thirty Odd Percent"
  3. The True Centre Podcast 009 – US media "forgets" that governing is for everyone
  4. The True Centre Podcast 008 – Elon Musk helps me define 'true centre'
  5. The True Centre Podcast 007 – Happy 20th birthday TYT

Maddow is back, she’s at her best, and now we all need to learn the phrase “Eliminationist Rhetoric”

Rachel Maddow has been on hiatus for quite a while now, working on other projects which is a good thing for her because while her 5-nights-a-week MSNBC show is must watch TV, the “corporate Democrat” nature of the network clearly holds her back.

What makes her presentations so compelling, for me anyway, is that whatever the topical news subject might be covering, she not only goes back several steps in the timeline while researching it, she also seems to bring you through her own process of learning as well. So while she might open her show talking about something like the presidency of Boris Yelstin, her verbal corkboard shows takes you from there to the Q Anon conspiracy.

But far be it from me to provide anything else that might act as a “spoiler” for the classic Maddow experience contained within the following two videos, all that is left is for me to strongly recommend just watch them, enjoy and learn. JLP

“Biden’s First Year” (The True Centre Podcast Ep 4)

The True Centre Podcast 011 – "The Cost Of Living Coalition March" The True Centre Podcast

My thoughts on the Irish Left in general and a march/rally in Dublin on Saturday in particular. Learn more about the Cost of Living Coalition here > https://www.facebook.com/COLCIreland
  1. The True Centre Podcast 011 – "The Cost Of Living Coalition March"
  2. The True Centre Podcast 010 – "Beware The Thirty Odd Percent"
  3. The True Centre Podcast 009 – US media "forgets" that governing is for everyone
  4. The True Centre Podcast 008 – Elon Musk helps me define 'true centre'
  5. The True Centre Podcast 007 – Happy 20th birthday TYT

Some thoughts on…The Big Lie

Republicans and right wing media normally do soundbites and branding better than anyone but this might one of the best of them all.

#IANWAE

The Fake News Media, working in close conjunction with Big Tech and the Radical Left Democrats, is doing everything they can to perpetuate the term โ€œThe Big Lieโ€ when speaking of 2020 Presidential Election Fraud. They are right in that the 2020 Presidential Election was a Big Lie, but not in the way they mean. The 2020 Election, which didnโ€™t even have Legislative approvals from many States (which is required under the U.S. Constitution), and was also otherwise corrupt, was indeed The Big Lie. So when they try to sell the American people the term The Big Lie, which they do in unison and coordination, think of it instead as the greatest Fraud in the history of our Country! An even greater Hoax than Russia, Russia, Russia, Mueller, Mueller, Mueller, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, or any of the other many scams the Democrats pulled!

“From The Desk of Donald J Trump”, May 6, 2021

Also available as podcast