"They Conjure Stories From Thin Air" - Former 'Junk Bond King' Slams "Mendacious" New York Times

Ray Dalio isn't the only American billionaire railing against the mendacious American press.

Another legendary financier (and ex-con) Michael Milken, who has reinvented himself as a major philanthropist over the last three decades, took to the commentary pages of the Wall Street Journal on Monday (ironically, the paper with which Dalio is feuding) to rail against America's ertswhile paper of record, the New York Times.

During the editorial, Milken asserts that the New York Times essentially libeled him in a story published late last year, rendering him collateral damage in the Grey Lady's war on President Trump's 'opportunity zones' initiative that was passed as part of the 2017 tax reform plan.

The NYT newsroom, as Milken correctly asserts in his editorial, has adopted a stance that's clearly hostile to the policy, which offers incentives for private capital to invest in economically-adverse communities (instead of the direct government assistance often favored by liberals like the editors of the NYT).

At some point, the paper figured out that it could "conjure a news story virtually out of thin air" if it could link Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin with investors in a tract of land impacted by the 'opportunity zones' program.

Basically, investors in property within an opportunity zone can receive valuable tax benefits for development that might have already been in the works, or at least that's how the NYT has chosen to spin it.

The policy is obviously intended to incentivize developers to build things like affordable housing by making it easier for them to do so profitably (typically, by offering the tax breaks mentioned above). But the NYT claims the program is essentially a giveaway to big developers and friends of the administration, despite not having any evidence linking boogeymen like Milken to insiders like Mnuchin.

The specific story to which Milken is referring transformed coincidences into nefarious conspiracies. The slant is obvious from the headline: "Symbol of 80s Greed Stands To Profit From Trump Tax Break For Poor Areas."

Basically, the only fact in this story is that Milken is an investor in a tract of land covered by an opportunity zone in California. As Milken notes, many other much more high-profile investors are also involved (many of them tech giants like Microsoft). These companies spend billions on lobbying every year. Yet, Milken gets the blame for influencing the legislation to his benefit, via a tenuous connection to Mnuchin. The only vaguely incriminating detail is that Mnuchin intervened in the process of shaping the policy at all. And he could have had a million reasons for doing so.

Despite deploying a team of six reporters to work on the story for months, they couldn't find anything definitively linking Milken to Mnuchin and the opportunity zone legislation. So they went with the slightly attenuated angle crystalized in the story's headline: Yes, Milken may have stood to profit from this investment (which represents just a sliver of his overall portfolio). But as far as we know, it's not illegal to make money in America - at least not yet.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/they-conjure-stories-thin-air-former-junk-bond-king-slams-mendacious-new-york-times

IAF strikes Gaza targets following rocket attacks

A spokesperson for the IDF said that three rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, all landing in open fields near the town of Netivot.

The Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes on several Hamas targets late on Tuesday night following three rockets that were launched towards Israel earlier in the night.

A spokesperson for the IDF said that three rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, all landing in open fields near the town of Netivot.

The IDF spokesperson further said that they struck several Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip in response to the rockets fired at the Gaza Border communities, as well as the recurring cases of incendiary balloon launches.

Two people were lightly injured while running to the shelter, local sources say.

These alerts come after the previous weekend, in which IAF fighter jets attacked a number of Hamas targets in northern Gaza

Among the targets last weekend were weapon storage facilities and underground infrastructure, which the Hamas' military wing uses.

Last weekend's airstrikes were carried out in response to incendiary balloons launched from Gaza towards Israel.

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Red-alert-sirens-heard-in-Gaza-Border-communities-616555

Groundhog day, Rockets hit nothing, airstrikes kill

The Syrian Arab Army and Allies are Fighting the “Real War on Terror”

Probably the most hideous propaganda to be spewed by the establishment media cartel in the West is that which portrays the Syrian Arab Army as some kind of militia, “Assad’s gang”, disconnecting these defenders of homeland from the people they are fighting for and dying for every day.

I travelled to Aleppo by Pullman bus a few days ago, it was full of young soldiers heading to the frontlines in West Aleppo and Idlib. Young men from all areas of Syria, all communities, united in the common cause – to liberate their country from the infestation of extremism and sectarian terrorism, to bring peace back to a country that everyone in Syria describes as “the safest place in the Middle East before 2011”.

Most of them slept, curled up in their seats, exhausted.. others hopped off the bus when we stopped, to have a coffee or a cigarette. All of them polite, friendly and tired.

I was in Layramoun, an industrial area to the north of Aleppo two days ago as the SAA soldiers prepared for the military campaign to liberate the areas surrounding the factories that are occupied by the West’s “moderates” – Al Qaeda in Syria – it was freezing cold, a biting wind cutting to the bone, not one of the soldiers had really warm clothing or boots. They arrived one by one, their faces full of purpose, their weapons slung over their shoulder, greeting each other with grim camaraderie before the battle begins. Tanks nestling inside open garages, hidden from view, artillery trucks carrying missile launchers parked on the roadside, groups of soliders discussing plans… there was a feeling of calm before the storm.

These soldiers do not have the equipment or food that the terrorist groups have. Turkey ensures that their proxies have everything they need, including US manufactured TOW missiles (anti-tank). The SAA soldiers often do not have food for weeks/months, they survive literally on what they can forage except when local people risk their own lives to bring them sandwiches & tea. The illegal US/EU sanctions are a major part of the war waged against these soldiers who defy all this hardship until victory is the sweetest taste in their mouths.

Their weapons are old and battered compared to the sophisticated equipment supplied to groups like ISIS- BUT these young men are winning their battles, because they believe in their cause, they know they must win or die and that if they do not win, their people will die at the hands of these monsters camped on their land.

To reduce these heroes, these brave Resistance fighters to some kind of homogenous brigade of government militia is a crime in itself. Every young man (and woman) has dreams, hopes and ambitions that they put on hold to fight a war that has shattered their dreams.

When we see videos of terrorist missiles scything through these young people to cries of “Allah Akhbar”, more lives are lost, more blood is shed and more hopes are destroyed. Every single soldier is an individual fighting side by side with thousands other individuals to defeat the enemy that would see them divided. They do not fight for one man, they fight for us all.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/honour-syrian-arab-army-allies-real-war-terror/5702737

https://twitter.com/PlaysTrumpCard/status/1224909421937090563

https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1224907608982802433

https://twitter.com/SeanMcCarthyCom/status/1224914724632047617

Really????