Monthly Archives: August 2018

2018-08-28: News Headlines

Lee Camp (2018-08-28). How to Create a U.S.-Backed Government Coup for Fun and Profit! truthdig.com Nicaragua just defeated a U.S.-backed violent coup attempt, and no one cares. | Well, let me revise that: Very few care. English teachers may care because they may find it fascinating the phrase "violent coup" is one of the only English phrases often introduced with the prefix "U.S.-backed." | But I can tell you for certain the mainstream media don't want you to care. They don't even want you to know it happened. And they certainly don't want you to know that it followed a simple formula for U.S.-backed coups in leftist and anti-imperialist nations throughout Latin America, a formula our military intelligence apparatus has implemented in numerous countries tirelessly, like an overused football play. | On the corporate airwaves you won't hear about U.S.-backed anything. If the U.S. military backed up a truck, CNN wouldn't mention it, NPR would tell you the…

Abigail Curlew (2018-08-28). Canadian Intelligence: The Case of Media Manipulation and the CSIS Agenda. globalresearch.ca Accusations of fake news across the political spectrum have transformed a very concerning issue into a weapon of delegitimization. A recent report published by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) titled …

Hezvo Mpunga (2018-08-28). Facebook & Google Play the Censor: Are our Civil Liberties Endangered? therealnews.com Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins us to examine the dangerous juncture our freedom finds itself in when Facebook, Twitter, and Google work with the government and its intelligence services to control what we see and hear

DLi (2018-08-28). RussiaGate is a sophisticated Shell Game. indybay.org The current U.S. corporate media's hysteria over the "RussiaGate" affair is the outcome of a highly sophisticated Shell Game launched by the deepest bowels of the USA Imperial ruling junta. At its most basic nucleus, it is a desperate last-ditch attempt, by the Empire's GateKeepers, to return to the halcyon days of the 1950s Cold War era; a time when the manipulated consensus and bi-partisan ideological unity existed to promote the post-WW II Pax Americana across the entire Globe.

Shared by Samantha Borek (2018-08-27). Housing and the Trump Tax Cut. truthout.org Many of the opponents of the Republican tax cuts predicted a wide range of disaster scenarios if the tax cuts passed. Most of these were unrealistic. Tax cuts directed primarily at the wealthy were not a good use of government money, but they were not going to collapse the economy. | Nonetheless, there were some predictable negative results, at least one of which seems to be coming true. To date, it appears that consumer demand resulting from the tax cut (not the promised investment boom) is leading to more rapid growth than would otherwise be the case. | Because the Federal Reserve Board has chosen to raise interest rates at least partly in response to this acceleration of growth, the housing market appears to be weakening. Surprisingly, this fact seems to be getting little attention from either the mainstream media or the most…

Ian Berman (2018-08-27). Political Revocation of Security Clearances is Only Part of the Story. mintpressnews.com What the mainstream media does not ask is: "Why do these ex-government and military personnel get to keep their security clearance in the first place?"

Shared by Samantha Borek (2018-08-27). If Last Week's Events Won't Drive Trump's Voters Away, What Will? truthout.org With Donald Trump's political woes being overshadowed by the news of Sen. John McCain's death over the weekend, one might think the president would be relieved to have a change of subject from his no good, very bad week. Yet Trump seems to be fulminating at all the praise and attention for his nemesis, as even his beloved Fox News gives its airwaves over to paeans to the man Trump loathes above all others. | The Washington Post reported that Trump even refused to issue a laudatory tribute to McCain's years of service to the country, insisting instead on a flaccid tweet sharing thoughts and prayers for the family. After which he tweeted some standard insults about the Mueller investigation, threw out some economic news, complained about social media censorship and whined that President Obama gets too much credit for the…

Raymond B. Craib (2018-08-24). Egotopia. counterpunch.org Imagine Milton Friedman and Robinson Crusoe together, reminiscing about Burning Man, on a remodeled off-shore oil rig. Like the image? Welcome to seasteading. The latest in a long line of libertarian exit strategists, seasteaders aim to create self-governed, private floating platforms on the ocean. In an era of Silicon Valley excess, techno-libertarian optimism, and mainstream More

Jack Rasmus (2018-08-24). How Ideology in Mainstream Economics Works: Tax Cuts & Savings Rates. counterpunch.org Mainstream economic policy is full of misrepresentation of reality. Propositions like 'business tax cuts create jobs', 'income inequality exists because workers are not productive', 'free trade benefits everyone', 'inflation is always due to too much money chasing too few goods', 'the subprime mortgage crash of 2007-08 was caused by a 'global savings glut', 'the US More

splcenter.org (2018-08-24). Weekend Read: From cable to the White House, the mainstreaming of white nationalism. splcenter.org It doesn't take the infiltration of a hate group meeting or a deep dive into extremist chat rooms to be exposed to white nationalist ideas.

Ben Norton (2018-08-24). Big Tech Corporations Are Now Banning Iranian Social Media Accounts — A Censored Student Journalist Speaks out. grayzoneproject.com Google, Facebook, and Twitter are removing social media accounts of real life Iranians who are falsely dubbed as "government trolls."…

Ben Norton (2018-08-24). Big Tech Corporations Are Now Censoring Iranian Social Media Accounts — A Banned Student Journalist Speaks out. therealnews.com Google, Facebook, and Twitter are removing social media accounts of average Iranians falsely being dubbed "government trolls." Student journalist Sayed Mousavi warns "this is just the tip of an iceberg."

RT (2018-08-24). 'It looks like spam': Facebook hit with more claims that it unfairly censors conservatives. rt.com As Facebook continues to be hit with claims of censorship from Donald Trump and other conservative voices, two more alleged cases have been added to the pile, with the social network claiming the posts "look like spam."

RT (2018-08-24). Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before House committee over 'shadow banning' & bias claims. rt.com Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 5 to testify about the company's algorithms that have repeatedly raised suspicions of judgment bias and stealth censorship.

RT (2018-08-24). 'Information ops': Secret meeting of social media & tech giants to tackle midterm elections. rt.com Representatives from America's tech giants are meeting in private to discuss strategies for countering "information operations" ahead of the midterm elections. The meeting comes amid growing concern over social media censorship.

RT (2018-08-24). Trump accuses social media giants of censorship, says 'millions' being silenced. rt.com US President Donald Trump has lashed out at tech companies for deplatforming "millions" of users, arguing that people must be allowed to decide for themselves what is true. |

Hezvo Mpunga (2018-08-23). The Baltimore Bureau Podcast Show: August 24, 2018. therealnews.com Eze, Dharna, Khalilah and guest host DDM aka Secretary of Shade, discuss censoring on social media, MD environmentalists' fighting Gov. Hogan's Pipeline, Lead Levels higher than Flint in over 2,000 cities and more on this week's podcast

Alan MacLeod (2018-08-22). That Facebook Will Turn to Censoring the Left Isn't a Worry—It's a Reality. fair.org On August 6, a number of giant online media companies, including Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify and Pinterest, took the seemingly coordinated decision to remove all content from Alex Jones and his media outlet Infowars from their platforms. | Jones, perhaps the internet's most notorious far-right conspiracy theorist, has claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, the Democratic Party is running a child sex ring inside a DC pizzeria and that the Las Vegas shooting was perpetrated by Antifa. Despite or perhaps because of such claims, his website Infowars has built up an enormous following: 3 million Americans, almost 1 percent of the population, visited the site in July 2018, according to Alexa. Alex Jones: First they came for the conspiracy theorists…. | The reaction from the media to the decision to ban Jones and Infowars was largely celebratory. On…

RT (2018-08-22). Facebook, Twitter take down 'inauthentic Iran-linked' accounts… but Russia takes the heat. rt.com Facebook and Twitter have reported successes in battling alleged information manipulation by Iran-linked accounts. However, an overexcited mainstream media eager to expose 'Russian meddling' did not hesitate to blame Moscow.

RT (2018-08-22). 'It can turn around': Trump would rather tolerate 'fake news' than accept 'censorship'. rt.com Despite being constantly at odds with liberal mainstream media — often calling them 'fake news' — Donald Trump has told his supporters that even having to tolerate CNN is a much better alternative to censorship.

2018-08-28: Social Media Postees

Canadian Intelligence: The Case of Media Manipulation and the CSIS Agenda
Abigail Curlew | globalresearch.ca | 2018-08-28
Accusations of fake news across the political spectrum have transformed a very concerning issue into a weapon of delegitimization. A recent report published by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) titled …
globalresearch.ca/canadian-intelligence-…

How to Create a U.S.-Backed Government Coup for Fun and Profit!
Lee Camp | truthdig.com | 2018-08-28
Nicaragua just defeated a U.S.-backed violent coup attempt, and no one cares. | Well, let me revise that: Very few care. English teachers may care because they may find it fascinating the phrase "violent coup" is one of the only English phrases often introduced with the prefix "U.S.-backed." | But I can tell you for certain the mainstream media don't want you to care. They don't even want you to know it happened. And they certainly don't want you to know that it followed a simple formula for U.S.-backed coups in leftist and anti-imperialist nations throughout Latin America, a formula our military intelligence apparatus has implemented in numerous countries tirelessly, like an overused football play. | On the corporate airwaves you won't hear about U.S.-backed anything. If the U.S. military backed up a truck, CNN wouldn't mention it, NPR would tell you the…
truthdig.com/articles/how-to-create-a-u-…

RussiaGate is a sophisticated Shell Game
DLi | indybay.org | 2018-08-28
The current U.S. corporate media's hysteria over the "RussiaGate" affair is the outcome of a highly sophisticated Shell Game launched by the deepest bowels of the USA Imperial ruling junta. At its most basic nucleus, it is a desperate last-ditch attempt, by the Empire's GateKeepers, to return to the halcyon days of the 1950s Cold War era; a time when the manipulated consensus and bi-partisan ideological unity existed to promote the post-WW II Pax Americana across the entire Globe.
indybay.org/newsitems/2018/08/24/1881709…

If Last Week's Events Won't Drive Trump's Voters Away, What Will?
Shared by Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-08-27
With Donald Trump's political woes being overshadowed by the news of Sen. John McCain's death over the weekend, one might think the president would be relieved to have a change of subject from his no good, very bad week. Yet Trump seems to be fulminating at all the praise and attention for his nemesis, as even his beloved Fox News gives its airwaves over to paeans to the man Trump loathes above all others. | The Washington Post reported that Trump even refused to issue a laudatory tribute to McCain's years of service to the country, insisting instead on a flaccid tweet sharing thoughts and prayers for the family. After which he tweeted some standard insults about the Mueller investigation, threw out some economic news, complained about social media censorship and whined that President Obama gets too much credit for the…
truthout.org/articles/if-last-weeks-even…

Political Revocation of Security Clearances is Only Part of the Story
Ian Berman | mintpressnews.com | 2018-08-27
What the mainstream media does not ask is: "Why do these ex-government and military personnel get to keep their security clearance in the first place?" | The post Political Revocation of Security Clearances is Only Part of the Story appeared first on MintPress News.
mintpressnews.com/political-revocation-s…

Housing and the Trump Tax Cut
Shared by Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-08-27
Many of the opponents of the Republican tax cuts predicted a wide range of disaster scenarios if the tax cuts passed. Most of these were unrealistic. Tax cuts directed primarily at the wealthy were not a good use of government money, but they were not going to collapse the economy. | Nonetheless, there were some predictable negative results, at least one of which seems to be coming true. To date, it appears that consumer demand resulting from the tax cut (not the promised investment boom) is leading to more rapid growth than would otherwise be the case. | Because the Federal Reserve Board has chosen to raise interest rates at least partly in response to this acceleration of growth, the housing market appears to be weakening. Surprisingly, this fact seems to be getting little attention from either the mainstream media or the most…
truthout.org/articles/housing-and-the-tr…

Big Tech Corporations Are Now Banning Iranian Social Media Accounts — A Censored Student Journalist Speaks out
Ben Norton | grayzoneproject.com | 2018-08-24
Google, Facebook, and Twitter are removing social media accounts of real life Iranians who are falsely dubbed as "government trolls."… | The post Big Tech Corporations Are Now Banning Iranian Social Media Accounts — A Censored Student Journalist Speaks out appeared first on Grayzone Project.
grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/24/big-tech-…

How Ideology in Mainstream Economics Works: Tax Cuts & Savings Rates
Jack Rasmus | counterpunch.org | 2018-08-24
Mainstream economic policy is full of misrepresentation of reality. Propositions like 'business tax cuts create jobs', 'income inequality exists because workers are not productive', 'free trade benefits everyone', 'inflation is always due to too much money chasing too few goods', 'the subprime mortgage crash of 2007-08 was caused by a 'global savings glut', 'the US…
counterpunch.org/2018/08/24/how-ideology…

Egotopia
Raymond B. Craib | counterpunch.org | 2018-08-24
Imagine Milton Friedman and Robinson Crusoe together, reminiscing about Burning Man, on a remodeled off-shore oil rig. Like the image? Welcome to seasteading. The latest in a long line of libertarian exit strategists, seasteaders aim to create self-governed, private floating platforms on the ocean. In an era of Silicon Valley excess, techno-libertarian optimism, and mainstream…
counterpunch.org/2018/08/24/egotopia/

Weekend Read: From cable to the White House, the mainstreaming of white nationalism
splcenter.org | splcenter.org | 2018-08-24
It doesn't take the infiltration of a hate group meeting or a deep dive into extremist chat rooms to be exposed to white nationalist ideas.
splcenter.org/news/2018/08/24/weekend-re…

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before House committee over 'shadow banning' & bias claims
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-24
Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 5 to testify about the company's algorithms that have repeatedly raised suspicions of judgment bias and stealth censorship.
rt.com/usa/436798-twitter-dorsey-testify…

'Information ops': Secret meeting of social media & tech giants to tackle midterm elections
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-24
Representatives from America's tech giants are meeting in private to discuss strategies for countering "information operations" ahead of the midterm elections. The meeting comes amid growing concern over social media censorship.
rt.com/usa/436756-tech-giants-secret-mee…

Trump accuses social media giants of censorship, says 'millions' being silenced
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-24
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at tech companies for deplatforming "millions" of users, arguing that people must be allowed to decide for themselves what is true.
rt.com/usa/436739-trump-social-media-cen…

'It looks like spam': Facebook hit with more claims that it unfairly censors conservatives
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-24
As Facebook continues to be hit with claims of censorship from Donald Trump and other conservative voices, two more alleged cases have been added to the pile, with the social network claiming the posts "look like spam."
rt.com/usa/436787-facebook-censorship-co…

The Baltimore Bureau Podcast Show: August 24, 2018
Hezvo Mpunga | therealnews.com | 2018-08-23
Eze, Dharna, Khalilah and guest host DDM aka Secretary of Shade, discuss censoring on social media, MD environmentalists' fighting Gov. Hogan's Pipeline, Lead Levels higher than Flint in over 2,000 cities and more on this week's podcast | The post The Baltimore Bureau Podcast Show: August 24, 2018 appeared first on The Real News Net…
therealnews.com/stories/the-baltimore-bu…

That Facebook Will Turn to Censoring the Left Isn't a Worry–It's a Reality
Alan MacLeod | fair.org | 2018-08-22
On August 6, a number of giant online media companies, including Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify and Pinterest, took the seemingly coordinated decision to remove all content from Alex Jones and his media outlet Infowars from their platforms. | Jones, perhaps the internet's most notorious far-right conspiracy theorist, has claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, the Democratic Party is running a child sex ring inside a DC pizzeria and that the Las Vegas shooting was perpetrated by Antifa. Despite or perhaps because of such claims, his website Infowars has built up an enormous following: 3 million Americans, almost 1 percent of the population, visited the site in July 2018, according to Alexa. Alex Jones: First they came for the conspiracy theorists…. | The reaction from the media to the decision to ban Jones and Infowars was largely celebratory. On…
fair.org/home/that-facebook-will-turn-to…

Facebook, Twitter take down 'inauthentic Iran-linked' accounts… but Russia takes the heat
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-22
Facebook and Twitter have reported successes in battling alleged information manipulation by Iran-linked accounts. However, an overexcited mainstream media eager to expose 'Russian meddling' did not hesitate to blame Moscow.
rt.com/usa/436532-facebook-twitter-iran-…

'It can turn around': Trump would rather tolerate 'fake news' than accept 'censorship'
RT | rt.com | 2018-08-22
Despite being constantly at odds with liberal mainstream media — often calling them 'fake news' — Donald Trump has told his supporters that even having to tolerate CNN is a much better alternative to censorship.
rt.com/usa/436537-trump-fake-news-censor…