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Social Media and Social Control: how Silicon Valley serves the US State Department

Facebook isn’t the only Silicon Valley firm with partisan oversight of what we see: the bipartisan billionaire class and their security state have partnered with tech firms since the dawn of the internet to control the parameters of users’ thinking. by Morgan Artyukhina  Part 8 - Guarding you from the news In August 2018, Microsoft rolled out the NewsGuard app, which vets news outlets according to a list of highly subjective standards presented as the site’s “Nutrition Facts,” which include “gathers and presents information responsibly” and “does not repeatedly publish false content,” among some more mundane items. The advisory board that oversees NewsGuard is a whos-who of security state figures, including Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush; Ret. General Michael Hayden, who has headed both the NSA and CIA; and Richard Stengel, a former TIME editor who served as Barack Obama’s Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. In other wo

Κι όμως, ο Σάντερς μπορεί να νικήσει!

Αλέξανδρος Ζέρβας Μέρος 4ο -  Τα μαθήματα από το «πάθημα» της Χίλαρι Όλα αυτά έχουν ιδιαίτερη σημασία αν εξετάσει κανείς με προσοχή το «πάθημα» της Χίλαρι Κλίντον το 2016. Τότε η υποψήφια των Δημοκρατικών μπορεί μεν να κέρδισε την εμπιστοσύνη ψηφοφόρων ανώτερων τάξεων αλλά και ανώτερης μόρφωσης, αλλά απέτυχε να κινητοποιήσει το μεγαλύτερο μέρος όσων ανήκαν στην εργατική τάξη, και μάλιστα σε περιοχές που μαστίζονταν από την αποβιομηχάνιση αλλά και την ανεργία. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι μεγάλο μέρος των συγκεκριμένων ψηφοφόρων είχαν στηρίξει την υποψηφιότητα του Μπάρακ Ομπάμα τόσο στις εκλογές του 2008 όσο και σε εκείνες του 2012. Στην προηγούμενη εκλογική μάχη, σύμφωνα με τις αναλύσεις, είτε δεν προσήλθαν στις κάλπες είτε -ακόμη χειρότερα- κινήθηκαν προς την επιλογή Τραμπ, συμβάλλοντας αποφασιστικά στο να κερδίσει αυτός κρίσιμες πολιτείες. Κάπου λοιπόν, όπως αναφέρουν αρκετοί αναλυτές, έρχεται το βασικό στοίχημα για τους Δημοκρατικούς, οι οποίοι για να καλούνται να

OPCW investigator testifies at UN that no chemical attack took place in Douma, Syria

In testimony before the United Nations Security Council, former OPCW inspection team leader and engineering expert Ian Henderson stated that their investigation in Douma, Syria suggested no chemical attack took place. But their findings were suppressed. by Ben Norton Part 2 - Western airstrikes based on unsubstantiated allegations by foreign-backed jihadists Foreign-backed Islamist militants and the Western government-funded regime-change influence operation known as the White Helmets accused the Syrian government of dropping gas cylinders and killing dozens of people in the city of Douma on April 7, 2018. Damascus rejected the accusation, claiming the incident was staged by the insurgents. At the time, Douma was controlled by the extremist Salafi-jihadist militia Jaysh al-Islam, which was created and funded by Saudi Arabia and formerly allied with Syria’s powerful al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. The governments of the United States, Britain, and France responded

WikiLeaks paper confirms biggest fear of the US empire and the Wall Street mafia

The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review.  globinfo freexchange A cable from July, 2007, depicts the anxiety of US officials about the potential capability of North Korea to produce hardly detectable US counterfeit currency. There are numerous references about the effort of the US government to stop

More than 40 rights groups condemn 'attempt to intimidate and retaliate against' Glenn Greenwald

A coalition of more than 40 press freedom and human rights groups from across the globe sent a letter Friday to Brazilian authorities condemning cybercrime charges brought against American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald earlier this week as a clear intimidation effort for his reporting on key members of President Jair Bolsonaro's government. Greenwald, who co-founded The Intercept , lives in Rio de Janeiro with his husband, Brazilian Congressman David Miranda, and their family. The letter initiated by Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) and Freedom of the Press Foundation echoes journalists, politicians, and advocates worldwide who have expressed support for Greenwald since Tuesday. " These charges represent a straightforward attempt to intimidate and retaliate against Greenwald and The Intercept for their critical reporting on messages that appeared to show a judge advising federal prosecutors how to prosecute cases he was presiding over i

Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva: Obama, Hillary ordered me not to negotiate with Iran

He was the world’s most popular leader. Now he is “ the world’s most prominent political prisoner ” according to American political philosopher Noam Chomsky.  From extremely humble beginnings as a peanut seller and a shoeshine boy on Brazil’s streets, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rose to become president of his nation in 2002. Yet he is now being kept hostage by the country’s fascist Bolsonaro administration.  In a wide-ranging interview with Brasil Wire editors Daniel Hunt, Brian Mier and Michael Brooks, host of The Michael Brooks Show , the man universally known as Lula described how the U.S. government ordered him not to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, new revelations about U.S. involvement in the coup of 1964, and the current state of his country. U.S. tensions with Iran are nearing an all-time high. But ten years ago, the Brazilian government brokered a deal between Iran and the West – something,  Lula reveals, was met with near incandescent anger by Barack Obam

Anna Brees talks to Gordon Dimmack about the state of the UK's media and its future

Gordon Dimmack Former BBC and ITV news presenter Anna Brees talks to Gordon Dimmack about her work in giving a voice to the victims of horrific crimes covered up by the state, her work training the next generation of journalists, her history in "old media", the persecution of journalists, and the state of our media and its future.

While Trump cuts food stamps, USAID bankrolls Venezuela regime change with half a billion in tax dollars

The Trump administration has spent $654 million in “aid” to try to overthrow Venezuela’s government, including $435 million through USAID and $128 million directly to Juan Guaidó and his corrupt coup gang — all while imposing crippling austerity at home. by Ben Norton Part 1 Under President Donald Trump, the United States has dumped over half a billion dollars into regime change-related “aid” efforts targeting Venezuela’s elected, UN-recognized government. From 2017 to December 2019, the Trump administration spent at least $654 million on Venezuela-related aid schemes. While Washington claims this spending assisted humanitarian efforts, much of the US taxpayers’ money financed efforts to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a central arm of Washington’s hybrid war on socialist and independent states around the world. It has a long and sordid history of funding “civil so

BBC faces existential threat. In the 21st century, it has nobody left to lie to

 by George Galloway Part 2 - Destroying Corbyn at any cost But the once-great ship of the British state, the BBC, has more recently run into much more turbulent waters – which they navigated with almost Thatcherite brutality. There were many and obvious reasons why the BBC and its hand-picked journalists and broadcasters were terrified of the possibility of a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government.  There had never been such a government before, one which could not be relied upon to remain within the dictatorship of the prevailing orthodoxy. So they pulled out all the stops to kill it, no matter how reputationally damaging their conduct was. Corbyn had to be destroyed at almost ANY cost. Their news and current affairs output (and appointments) over the Corbyn era of 2015-2019 was as crude, and crudely effective, as any screaming, screeching Rupert Murdoch tabloid.  Perhaps they were worried the ghost of Sir Alasdair Milne would return to haunt them in the form of his son Seu

Brazil’s far-right government backed terror plot against Venezuela, top newspaper reveals

Brazil’s extreme Bolsonaro government backed an attack on Venezuela in a plot to overthrow its elected president. The shocking terror operation has received no coverage in mainstream US media. by Ben Norton Part 3 - Brazil’s, and Guaidó’s, complicity in the attacks These attacks on Venezuela had the backing of Brazil’s far-right government, led by President Jair Bolsonaro, a fascistic demagogue who came to power following a US-backed parliamentary and legal coup that forced Brazil’s center-left Workers’ Party from power. Bolsonaro has pledged to purge, imprison, and exile leftists, and has staunchly defended his country’s previous military dictatorship, while heaping praise on the murderous junta of US-backed Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Before and after the attacks on Venezuela, according to O Globo , there were “ high-level communications ” between Brazil’s Foreign Ministry and the coup regime of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Guaidó, who the Uni