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Thursday, December 11, 2014

I haven't been posting

because I've been concentrating on answering questions from Tahseen al-Khateeb, a Palestinian poet and translator I've known for several years. Although the interview will be translated into Arabic and published in a Jordanian publication, I'll publish the original English on this blog.

A few years ago, I posted Tahseen al-Khateeb's translation of six contemporary Arab poets at the Poetry Foundation's Harriet Blog. That version has been corrupted due to reformatting, but you can still see it intact here.

For a little while, I was overstepping my bounds at Harriet by acting as a guerrila editor instead of just blogger, but not much came of it except for the Six Arab Poets and Seven Contemporary Italian Poets, which is available here. Commissioned by no one, I worked my ass off translating those poets, so do check them out!




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Aso, I just got this from Gregory Hilbert about Common Dreams, yet another one of our fraudulent "progressive" websites:



Common Dreams is, in effect, a front run by long-time Dem operator Craig Brown for the faux-progressive wing of the Dem establishment. Contrary to its claim of being 100% supported by thousands of small donations from readers, two thirds of CD's funds come from foundations funded by wealthy corporate capitalists and their heirs. The foundation list disappeared when CD revised its site in 2014. Here's the list from the old site. https://web.archive.org/web/20140713172135/http://www.commondreams.org/foundation_support

What's damning is who funds those foundations, which CD banned me for posting. Walmart Waltons, Ted Turner CNN, IBM, GM, Hewlett Packard, Citgo Oil,JP Morgan Chase, for example. They pay CD (Brown) to keep progressives from going off the USA Empire Inc establishment rails on which their dynastic wealth and power depend.

CD banned commenters critical of its support of Obama in 2008 and 2012. It intensified censorship in 2014, banning scores of dissidents, and anyone complaining about censorship or mentioning who funds CD. It now also prohibits the posting of links, and deletes comments and entire threads that expose the years-long quid pro quo by which an astrologer who does biz with convicted felon Kevin Trudeau polices threads for Brown, attacking dissidents and critics of establishment propaganda articles. Exempt from commenting policy, she routinely alleges that dissident progressives are paid neocon and govt agency trolls, promotes CD's duplicitous agenda, and flags commenters for banning when they post anything she knows Brown wants censored.

CD's primary current agenda:(1) support the Dem establishment lie that Warren has broken with Obama to lead it sharply leftward, and (2) promote McKibben's 350 while concealing that (a) McKibben was bankrolled in the millions by Rockefellers and the same IBM and GM heirs who fund the Schumann Media Center, which (b) was led for years by Bill Moyers, who (c) was before that for years a Rockefeller Trustee and Bilderberger, and before that LBJ's Press Sec and Special Advisor, and is now retiring with $24 million. And guess what, (d) the IBM and GM heirs gave CD $200,000 in 2012, the last year for which their foundation filed their IRS-required annual report. Readers may wonder why wealthy gatekeepers are funding 350 and CD. Primarily because McKibben-350 endorses the carbon trading scheme they and Wall Street want, but also for keeping people focused on Keystone and international too-little-too-late agreements rather than fracking, Wall Street, Washington, con-artist Obama, and Dem complicity in general. Keystone is moot. Tarsand oil will go by rail tanker if not by Keystone. If you doubt that, ask Boone Pickens, who is already making more billions from investing in rail and manufacture of tankers.

CD has run multiple articles promoting the Rockefeller PR stunt about divesting from oil. The Rockefeller heirs have trillions in oil and oil-derived wealth. They also fund two foundations. The smaller one, the Rockefeller Brothers, has pledged to divest of tarsand and coal, nothing more. The big and infamous one has pledged nothing. Neither have the Rockefellers surrendered their vast non-foundation wealth, nor have they blown the whistle for all they know about oligarch control and steerage of the establishment, inclusive of neo-lib and neo-con front orgs, their Repub-Dem duopoly, corporate cartels, etc.




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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lihn, do you have any more info on this Greg Hilbert who wrote this post? I'm curious because I have thought for some time that the astrologer is a paid agent for common dreams. Just wondering what the whole story is.

Linh Dinh said...

Hi Anonymous,

I just asked Doug Buckwald about Greg Hilbert. If he has any information, I'll leave it here as a comment tomorrow.


Linh

Anonymous said...

Linh I'm a big fan. Really love your stuff. Would be great to throw back a cold one someday.
I was once an avid reader of counterpunch then I noticed you missing.
Andre vltchec is still around CO so it can't be all bad but if you're not there well...eh.
Keep up the keeping up. Again, love what you do

Linh Dinh said...

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks, man! As for CP, I summed up what happened in a Vineland Postcard:

After CounterPunch canceled my Postcard series on its site, which is its prerogative, of course, its editor, Jeffrey St Clair, responded to readers’ complaints by questioning my sanity, “perhaps Linh has simply joined the conspiratorialists and Dissident Voice is a more comfortable venue for him. We’ve chased most of the people who question the moon landing, whether JKF is really dead and the circularity of the earth off of CounterPunch.” So to point out the obvious lies of a criminal government is to believe that this earth is flat? Good Lord, with such a rebel, who needs sheep?

And do go here if you want to see the beginning of it.


Linh

Linh Dinh said...

Doug Buckwald:

Hi Linh,

I don't know who Gregory Hilbert is, but I certainly would like to find out. I assume that he posted comments on Common Dreams using a pseudonym.

Mr. Hilbert's claims about Common Dreams are squarely in line with my own research on this subject. I am now convinced that my writings (and the writings of many other honest contributors) were removed by order of Democratic Party operatives. It was really a case of mass censorship along the lines of Joseph Goebbels and other fascist-leaning individuals. It is shameful that this was done, and the readers of Common Dreams ought to hold Craig Brown accountable for these reprehensible practices.

Mr. Hilbert is quite correct about the fact that the partial listing of foundation support for CD has now been removed. I use the term "partial listing" because Craig Brown made it clear that the list that used to be posted on the site was incomplete, and he was therefore withholding the names of some donors. It is not difficult to guess the motives behind Craig Brown's secrecy.

There is no question that even larger sums are now being provided by foundations (and likely wealthy individuals, too). After all, Craig Brown recently hired a number of new staff writers and paid for a major software overhaul on his website.

It is time for the fundamental dishonesty of Craig Brown to be revealed to all. His biased manipulation of information and his gross practices of censorship have done significant harm to progressive and leftist causes throughout this country. His actions have served to destroy progressive community rather than build it. How tragic it is to betray decent people as he has done.

Doug