Cliff Kincaid
Paying the media for pro-U.N. coverage
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By Cliff Kincaid
August 28, 2015

A CNN story blared, "The American stock market has surrendered a stunning $2.1 trillion of value in just the last six days of market chaos." The ups and downs of the stock market have been seized upon by those leading a global campaign to steal trillions of dollars from the American people in the name of "sustainable development."

One aspect of the campaign is a so-called "financial transaction tax," endorsed by socialist and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT), which would even affect the stock trades of small investors. The proposal has a global component.

However, the odds are that you will only be treated to positive coverage of this unfolding scheme to "redistribute the wealth" on a global basis. George Russell of Fox News broke the story of how a branch of media giant Thomson Reuters and the United Nations Foundation are training journalists and paying for stories to "popularize" the U.N.-sponsored Sustainable Development Goals and make them attractive to news consumers.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are outlined in the U.N. report, "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," a manifesto to be adopted by the nations meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from September 25 to 27, as the global organization celebrates its 70th anniversary.

The SDGs, such as "End poverty in all its forms everywhere," sound positive. However, in reality, the concept of "sustainable development" is a Marxist scheme that researcher Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute calls "a United Nations plan for the creation of a global socialist utopia thinly disguised as a poverty reduction program."

Thomson-Reuters says, "The intensive training program aims to provide professionals from 33 countries with information, tools and strategies to understand the complex issues surrounding the next set of UN global development goals. The program will enable reporters, editors and spokespeople to better understand, report and communicate around some of the issues related to two crucial upcoming UN conferences: the UN Summit in New York in September that will see the adoption of the new Global Goals, and the UN Climate Change Conference in December in Paris, which is aimed at reaching a universal climate agreement."

Marta Machado, who's in charge of the Thomson-Reuters initiative, has worked for the Muslim Brotherhood channel, Al Jazeera, and CNN.

The United Nations Foundation, started by CNN founder Ted Turner, claims the effort is designed to "increase, enhance and influence global communications and media reporting" on the campaign.

However, in a press release that carried the subheadline "Why communications matter in 2015," the United Nations Foundation said the campaign will include media training, financial grants and "a sustained surge in targeted digital media," designed to "help increase the volume and animate a global public conversation about the new goals, creating the environment to help us achieve success by 2030" (emphasis added).

Hence, the coverage will be slanted in favor of the United Nations.

Another "partner" in the global media campaign on behalf of the U.N. is the Jynwel Foundation, described as the philanthropic initiative of Jynwel Capital, an international investment and advisory firm based in Hong Kong.

As this campaign unfolds, it is a virtual certainty that the real purpose of the SDGs – to punish Americans and other "rich" people – will be carefully concealed.

As amazing as it seems, a report on foreign aid from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is actually titled "From Billions to Trillions: Transforming Development Finance." A United Nations General Assembly report, dated August 14, 2015, calls for "several trillion dollars per year" to be spent to implement "sustainable development" on a global level.

But don't call it theft; call it "sharing." Indeed, a report titled, "Financing the Global Sharing Economy," proposes global taxes on financial transactions, energy and other measures to bring in over $2.8 trillion. The founder of Share the World's Resources (STWR), Mohammed Mesbahi, has outlined a "strategy for world transformation" that condemns "the materialistic and self-seeking idea of the American Dream."

In order to acquire these resources, new taxes on the national and global level are being pushed in the name of stabilizing the stock market.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 1,000 points at the open on Monday, the "progressives" in favor of financial transaction taxes went into action. James Henry, senior fellow at the Columbia University Center for Sustainable International Investment, was quoted as saying the stock turbulence is "a great example of why we need a Financial Transaction Tax," a proposal that he says would raise hundreds of billions of dollars.

Almost on cue, socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed the idea. Sanders, who backs a 90 percent top marginal tax rate, says his proposed financial transaction tax will reduce "risky and unproductive high-speed trading and other forms of Wall Street speculation..." In order to make it attractive, he says the proceeds "would be used to provide debt-free public college education."

Jared Bernstein, the economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. from 2009 to 2011, says in a New York Times column that Sanders is right. "A financial transaction tax is a smart, fair way to raise urgently needed revenues while reducing unnecessary trading that makes our markets more volatile," he wrote.

The council of the Socialist International convened on July 6 and 7 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and endorsed the Millennium Development Goals and the "post-2015 development agenda."

Sanders is reported to be a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S. affiliate of the SI.

Such a tax could be applied on a global basis as well. Steven Solomon, a former staff reporter at Forbes, says in his book, The Confidence Game, that a global financial transactions tax "might net some $13 trillion a year..."

Calls for global taxes and more foreign aid are not new. The difference this time around is that the Vatican has endorsed the SDGs. Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, gave a formal statement to the world body endorsing the "sustainable development" agenda.

Pope Francis will formally address the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Thursday, September 25.

© Cliff Kincaid

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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