China Launches New App Allowing Citizens to Report Others For Expressing “Mistaken Opinions”
[Social] [Political]
China Launches New App Allowing Citizens to Report Others For Expressing “Mistaken Opinions”
by Paul Joseph Watson
Posted June 22, 2021
China’s Communist government has launched a new app that encourages citizens to report dissidents for expressing “mistaken opinions” on the Internet.
The new platform will target anyone who criticizes the dictatorship’s ruling CCP, disputes the official version of the country’s history or engages in “misinformation.”
The new website and app was proudly unveiled by China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), with authorities calling on users to play an “active role” in helping to identify “malicious people distorting facts and confusing” others.
China already operates an onerous social credit score system that bans people from using transportation and engaging in other basic functions of society if they commit minor infractions like jaywalking or buying too much junk food.
Given that social media mobs in the west, routinely aided by journalists, already conduct witch hunts that lead to people being socially ostracized, deplatformed and left unemployed for expressing “mistaken opinions,” are we really that better off than Chinese dissidents? More…
The Facts:
China is targeting dissidents who dispute country’s history or criticize ruling Communists and much like the Russian Cheka and the East German Stasi, they are enlisting citizens to spy on their neighbors.
Reflect On:
Consider how people have been reporting Corona lockdown “violaters” in the US and other western nations.
The Lies Capitalists Tell Us
[Economic]
The Lies Capitalists Tell Us
By William Hawes & Jason Holland
Posted June 21, 2021
While idiotic supporters of our two-party system wring their hands over the sensationalist nonsense reported by the mainstream media, we thought it might be worth touching on the most dangerous lie of all-time: capitalism. It’s an all-encompassing delusion, including: the myth of continual technological progress, the mendacious assumptions of endless economic growth, the lie that constant bombardments of media and consumer goods make us happy, and the omissions of our involvement in the exploitation of the planet and the resources of distant, poorer nations, among other things.
We’ve taken the time to hash out some of the most pernicious mendacities we’ve come across in our (relatively) young lives, in the workplace, in our private lives, and in the media. ***
Please share these counter-arguments far and wide, in order to educate your fellow citizens, and, if necessary, to provide the intellectual beat-downs needed when arguing with pro-capitalists. So without further ado, here is our list of the most devious “Lies that Capitalists Tell Us”: More…
The Military Origins of Facebook Part 1
[Media] [Politics]
The Military Origins of Facebook
by Whitney Webb
Posted June 20, 2021
Facebook’s growing role in the ever-expanding surveillance and “pre-crime” apparatus of the national security state demands new scrutiny of the company’s origins and its products as they relate to a former, controversial DARPA-run surveillance program that was essentially analogous to what is currently the world’s largest social network.
Part 1 of this two-part series on Facebook and the US national-security state explores the social media network’s origins and the timing and nature of its rise as it relates to a controversial military program that was shut down the same day that Facebook launched. The program, known as LifeLog, was one of several controversial post-9/11 surveillance programs pursued by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that threatened to destroy privacy and civil liberties in the United States while also seeking to harvest data for producing “humanized” artificial intelligence (AI).
As this report will show, Facebook is not the only Silicon Valley giant whose origins coincide closely with this same series of DARPA initiatives and whose current activities are providing both the engine and the fuel for a hi-tech war on domestic dissent. More…
Perverted Prison Justice
[Justice]
Perverted Prison Justice
by John Kiriakou
Posted June 19, 2021
Here’s an example of how the prison rape-elimination law gets violated; and not by other prisoners.
Let’s say a perverted prison administrator orders you to strip so that he can ogle you. You know this is a violation of the PREA. You must then file a form called a BP-8.5, which goes to the person you are accusing, saying, “Hey, you violated the PREA.” His response, of course, will be “No I didn’t.” You then have 14 days to file a Form BP-9, which goes to the warden. The warden, not surprisingly, almost always supports his staff member. You then have 60 days to file a form BP-10, which goes to the Bureau of Prisons regional office. Once the prisoner loses there, which is almost guaranteed, he can file a Form BP-11, which goes to the Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington. No prisoner ever wins at BOP headquarters.
There are common ways in which the prisoner is stymied in his attempt to file a complaint. The filing of every form is time sensitive. So the warden and others will withhold their responses, backdate them, and then send the responses to you so that you only have a day or two to respond. You can’t possibly get it done in time, so it’s dismissed as “not responsive in a timely fashion.” You have no recourse because the federal courts have ruled that a prisoner must exhaust the “administrative complaint process” before going to the courts. But if the complaint is dismissed by the BOP as “not responsive” because of time, you’re out of luck. And those people who violate the Prison Rape Elimination Act get off scot free. More…
Your Car’s Location Information Is Up For Grabs
[Media] [Social]
Your Car’s Location Information Is Up For Grabs
by Emiliano Falcon-Morano
Posted June 19, 2021
Recent reporting from Vice News shows that a surveillance company and U.S. military contractor, the Ulysses Group, is openly advertising a product the company claims can pinpoint the real-time locations of specific cars in nearly any country on earth. Documents released by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) show that the company promises to deliver a dramatic enhancement of “military intelligence and operational capabilities,” offering “15 billion vehicle locations” worldwide every month.
Where does this military intelligence company get all this information? There’s only one conceivable answer: Our car location data is being bought and sold.
Here’s how it works. First, automakers and original equipment manufacturers collect data for themselves. Then, they share the data with third parties, with little or no oversight, and few, if any, safeguards against abuse. Finally, those third parties repackage that data, aggregate it with other data, and sell it to the highest bidder. As a result, private companies and governments are in a position to know where we and our cars are at any given moment, both in real time and historically. It goes without saying that this is a powerful surveillance tool. More…
U.S. Media Offers Negative Picture Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Finds
[Media] [Social]
U.S. Media Offers Negative Picture Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Finds
by Jane Clayson and Serena McMahon
Posted June 18, 2021
Does the news seem overwhelmingly negative these days? Dartmouth College economics professor Bruce Sacerdote thought so. He felt that news coverage — especially of the coronavirus pandemic — was often more negative than what scientists or data suggested.
Like many Americans at the beginning of the pandemic, Sacerdote was stuck at home watching the news more than usual. He found it “depressing,” he says, and discovered the more his eyes were glued to the news, the more he realized the media was covering COVID-19 in “the worst possible way.”
This prompted him and a team of researchers to analyze tens of thousands of articles about COVID-19 by using a social science technique to determine whether reporting was negative, positive or neutral. They found news coverage of the pandemic in the U.S. was “shockingly negative” and bleaker than in international news outlets or scientific journals, Sacerdote says.
The study revealed nearly 90% of articles from major U.S. news organizations were negative compared to just 50% to 60% from major international media sources, he says. More…
Bombshell: Nobel Prize Winner Reveals – COVID Vaccine Is ‘Creating Variants’
[Social]
Bombshell: Nobel Prize Winner Reveals – COVID Vaccine Is ‘Creating Variants’
By Renee Nal
Posted June 17, 2021
While it is understood that viruses mutate, causing variants, French Virologist and Nobel Prize Winner Luc Montagnier contends that “it is the vaccination that is creating the variants.” The 2008 Nobel Laureate made the explosive comments as part of a larger interview with Pierre Barnérias of Hold-Up Media earlier this month.
Prof. Montagnier referred to the vaccine program for the coronavirus as an “unacceptable mistake”. Mass vaccinations are a “scientific error as well as a medical error,” he said. “It is an unacceptable mistake. The history books will show that, because it is the vaccination that is creating the variants,” Prof. Luc Montagnier continued.
The prominent virologist explained that “there are antibodies, created by the vaccine,” forcing the virus to “find another solution” or die. This is where the variants are created. It is the variants that “are a production and result from the vaccination.” More…
Garden Rebels: 10 Ways To Sow Revolution In Your Back Yard (And Why You MUST Go To Battle)
[Community]
Garden Rebels: 10 Ways To Sow Revolution In Your Back Yard (And Why You MUST Go To Battle)
by Daisy Luther
Posted June 17, 2021
Perhaps the next Revolutionary War will take place in a vegetable garden.
Instead of bullets, there will be seeds. Instead of chemical warfare, there will be rainwater, carefully collected from the gutters of the house. Instead of soldiers in body armor and helmets, there will be back yard rebels, with bare feet, cut-off jean shorts, and wide-brimmed hats. Instead of death, there will be life, sustained by a harvest of home-grown produce. Children will be witness to these battles, but instead of being traumatized, they will be happy, grimy, and healthy, as they learn about the miracles that take place in a little plot of land or pot of dirt.
Every day, the big industries that run our nation take steps towards food totalitarianism. They do so flying a standard of “sustainability” but what they are actually trying to sustain is NOT our natural resources, but their control. More…
Rule by Fiat: When the Government Does Whatever It Wants
[Justice] [Politics] [Social]
Rule by Fiat: When the Government Does Whatever It Wants
By John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
Posted June 16, 2021
At 4:30 a.m. on March 12, 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that had most of the country under a partial lockdown and sheltering at home, a masked SWAT team—deployed to execute a “high risk” search warrant for unauthorized firearms—stormed the suburban house where 21-year-old Duncan, a software engineer and Second Amendment advocate, lived with his parents and 19-year-old brother.
The entire household, including Lemp and his girlfriend, was reportedly asleep when the SWAT team directed flash bang grenades and gunfire through Lemp’s bedroom window.
Lemp was killed and his girlfriend injured.
No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, had a criminal record.
No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, was considered an “imminent threat” to law enforcement or the public, at least not according to the search warrant. So what was so urgent that militarized police felt compelled to employ battlefield tactics in the pre-dawn hours of a day when most people are asleep in bed, not to mention stuck at home as part of a nationwide lockdown?
According to police, they were tipped off that Lemp was in possession of “firearms.” Thus, rather than approaching the house by the front door at a reasonable hour in order to investigate this complaint—which is what the Fourth Amendment requires—police instead strapped on their guns, loaded up their flash bang grenades and acted like battle-crazed warriors. This is the blowback from all that military weaponry flowing to domestic police departments. This is what happens when you use SWAT teams to carry out routine search warrants. More…
Video: Roger Waters Tells “Little Prick” Zuckerberg To “F*** Off” Following Request To Use Iconic Pink Floyd Song For Ad
[Media]
Video: Roger Waters Tells “Little Prick” Zuckerberg To “F*** Off” Following Request To Use Iconic Pink Floyd Song For Ad
by Steve Watson
Posted June 15, 2021
Pink Floyd song writer Roger Waters slammed Mark Zuckerberg during a press conference recently, announcing that the Facebook owner had offered a “huge, huge amount of money” to use the iconic song Another Brick In The Wall Part II in an advert for Instagram.
Speaking at an event to raise awareness about imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Waters noted the deep deep irony of Facebook wanting to buy and use a song that rails against ‘thought control’ and mindless conformity.
Waters described the development as part of Zuckerberg’s “insidious movement… to take over absolutely everything.”
Waters read out Facebook’s request, which noted “We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is.”
“And yet, they want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram more powerful than it already is,” Waters urged, adding “so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out into the general public so the general public can go, ‘What? No. No More.’” More…
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Quotable Sayings
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
______________________________
You do not become a billionaire through labor. You become a billionaire through inheritance, corruption or economic rents – or, in most cases, some mixture of all three.
Grace Blakeley
______________________________
Mainstream American liberals think they’re clear-eyed because they can see the propaganda strings being pulled by Fox and Donald Trump, and mainstream American conservatives think they’re clear-eyed because they can see the propaganda strings being pulled by MSNBC and the Democrats, but the propaganda strings on both trace back to the same puppet master. And seeing that is just the beginning.
Caitlin Johnstone
______________________________
You alone are the judge of your worth and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.
Deepak Chopra
_____________________________
It is obvious that the US government is destroying Assange to signal to journalists the consequences of publishing information. It is therefore also obvious that any journalist who fails to use whatever platform they have to speak out against Assange’s persecution has no intention of ever publishing anything that the US government doesn’t want published. Their silence on or support for what is being done to this man can and should be taken as an admission that they are nothing other than state propagandists.
Caitlin Johnstone
_____________________________
It’s quite fitting that the – imperially pre-determined – judicial fate of Julian Assange is being played out in Britain, the home of George Orwell.
Pepe Escobar
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