ANNOTATED NEWS

CRAIG MURRAY—Baraitser was not making no attempt to conceal a hostility to the defence argument, and seemed irritated they had the temerity to make it. This burst out when discussing c), the Iraq war rules of engagement.  Summers argued that these had not been solicited from Manning, but had rather been provided by Manning in an accompanying file along with the Collateral Murder video that showed the murder of Reuters journalists and children. Manning’s purpose, as she stated at her court martial, was to show that the Collateral Murder actions breached the rules of engagement, even though the Department of Defense claimed otherwise.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Yes, this deeply intermingled and certifiably sociopathic crowd, this “fortress of cruelty, brutality and mendacity” which, as Wight puts it, has “the temerity to describe [itself[ as a civilised society”, is also quite convinced that nothing radical needs to be done about the cascade of awful things constantly emanating from every pore of its scandalously lopsided arrangements. 

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—CNN has published a fascinatingly manipulative and falsehood-laden article titled “25 times Trump was soft on Russia“, in which a lot of strained effort is poured into building the case that the US president is suspiciously loyal to the nation against which he has spent his administration escalating dangerous new cold war aggressions.

BRYAN DYNE—The political dead end of the climate protests is also expressed by the endorsement of the current round of “strikes” by 3,024 companies, who in response to actual workers’ strikes would respond with court injunctions, mass firings, and brutal violence. In the case of the climate “strikes,” however, they are hoping that by pasting on a “green” label, they can dissipate the demonstrations and turn the millions of youth and workers away from a struggle against capitalism.

As the great fabulist prepared to close the news conference, he offered the servile media “one more question, on the economy, please”.  Knowing that most Americans know little and care less about foreign lands, but prick up their ears when the “economy” is mentioned, Trump surely wanted to use the question to brag some more about how well the economy is doing on his watch. The man may actually believe that.