Daily Archives: February 2, 2021

2021-02-02: News Headlines

Armin Rosen (2021-02-02). Regime Journalists Mobilize to Ban Competition. And Your Free Speech. anti-empire.com "Like many of the other proponents of controlled speech mentioned here, Bazelon's writing has a detectable winking quality to it: Don't worry, dear reader, YOU'RE not the one who's going to be censored. THEY are. In fact, the censorship, so-called, won't even be that bad. You'll hardly notice it." | "One thing that people might not immediately recognize when they hear scary-sounding words like "censorship" is that the act of controlling other people's speech can be gratifying, a psychic net-positive for those who dream of a purified information space."The new enemy is no longer "disinformation" but "misinformatio…

Jack Rasmus (2021-02-02). Gamestop and the Game That Never Stops! counterpunch.org This past week a video game company in trouble, Gamestop, became the center of media attention. Day traders had driven up the company's stock price by thousands of percent in just one day. The mainstream media narrative was the 'small guy' investor challenged the big boys of finance who had bet Gamestop stock price would

_____ (2021-02-02). Gamestop—And the Game That Never Stops! popularresistance.org This past week a video game company in trouble, Gamestop, became the center of media attention. Day traders had driven up the company's stock price by thousands of percent in just one day. The mainstream media narrative was the 'small guy' investor challenged the big boys of finance who had bet Gamestop stock price would contract, not rise sharply. The little investor, so the story goes, initially won big but Gamestop's stock price escalation was stopped in its tracks by coordinated forces of Wall St., as trading was abruptly halted later in the day in the midst of the run-up. But that narrative, that media spin,…

Grant Molen (2021-02-02). White or Wealth Supremacy? realprogressives.org The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 authorized the dissemination of US state department propaganda to foreign nations deemed a threat to American democracy. This act has been a useful tool for intelligence operatives who have repeatedly sought to stamp out populist revolutions in countries with access to valuable natural resources. Through the spread of propaganda and the arming of US aligned insurgency groups, the US has been able to foment confusion and discord in foreign populations resulting in unwinnable political battles, power struggles and weak leadership representing the working people's interests. In the pow…

Alan MacLeod (2021-02-01). "At First I Thought it Was a Joke": Academic Media Censorship Conference Censored by YouTube. thealtworld.com The entire video record of the conference — estimated at around 24 hours of material — was mysteriously disappeared from YouTube say conference organizers. | MPN- An academic critical media literacy conference warning of the dangers of media censorship has, ironically, been censored by YouTube. The Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas 2020

Alan Macleod (2021-02-01). "At First I Thought it Was a Joke": Academic Media Censorship Conference Censored by YouTube. mintpressnews.com The entire video record of the conference — estimated at around 24 hours of material — was mysteriously disappeared from YouTube say conference organizers.

Caitlin Johnstone (2021-02-01). Revolution Isn't Microsurgery, It's A Long Road Trip. thealtworld.com Every day it seems like there's more sectarian fighting within the online left than the day before. | Maybe it's because lockdowns and social distancing have largely cut us off from in-person interactions. Maybe it's because generations of government psyops geared at stopping socialism and activist groups have left us all paranoid and hostile. Maybe it's because of increased infiltration and propaganda as a dying empire approaches crunch time. Maybe we just tend to be a bit more neurotic than other ideological groups. Maybe it's a mixture. | It feels like a state of paralysis. Someone will suggest some possible w…

WSWS (2021-02-01). Emmy Butlin and Maxine Walker of the UK Committee to Defend Julian Assange oppose Facebook censorship of the Socialist Equality Party/IYSSE. wsws.org The WSWS has been sent letters from Emmy Butlin and Maxine Walker, of the Committee to Defend Julian Assange (JADC) in opposition to the censorship of the World Socialist Web Site and Socialist Equality Parties by Facebook.

RT (2021-02-01). White House press secretary Psaki finally CIRCLES BACK after trolling from 'conservative Twitter' over repetitive promise. rt.com White House Press Secretary Jen Paski has claimed she doesn't spend "a lot of time" thinking about Donald Trump's absence on social media, but she did turn heads by acknowledging criticism of her from "conservative Twitter." | Psaki addressed a number of issues with the press during a Monday gathering at the White House, but the comment that appeared to stick out most was one directed at what she deemed "conservative Twitter." | "I often note I'm going to circle back, I hate to disappoint conservative Twitter, but I am going to circle back on a number of things," she said before answering a few questions that…

Margaret Kimberley (2021-02-01). Pro-Biden Propaganda. "White Washed By the Democratic Party, A Very Dangerous President" globalresearch.ca All Global Research articles can be read in 27 languages by activating the "Translate Website" drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version). | *** | The Democratic Party and its corporate media have already white-washed Biden, …

_____ (2021-02-01). Post Workers Suspended After Refusing To Deliver Epoch Times. popularresistance.org Ramiro Sepulveda, one of the suspended postal workers, told CBC News he objects to the insinuations in some of the paper's past coverage of the origins of the coronavirus, which the paper calls "the CCP virus." | "I'm not for censorship. I'm not against freedom of speech," he said. "What my thing is, is there is no disclaimer stating that this was theory." | He says he went straight to his supervisor when he saw the free editions that were set to be delivered earlier this month. | "I said, 'That Epoch Times, I'm not delivering it. It goes against everything I believe in.'" | The second worker, Linying Su, who was…

_____ (2021-02-01). NY Times' Pseudo-Expert Worked For Far-Right Cult Falun Gong's Publicity Arm. popularresistance.org The New York Times published a factually challenged op-ed accusing China of committing "genocide" against its Uighur minority. The article sourced its spurious accusations to a right-wing operative who insists his research is part of a divine "mission" against Beijing that is "led by God." | The author of the New York Times op-ed, Amelia Pang, happens to be a former employee of the Epoch Times, a far-right propaganda arm of a fanatical anti-China cult called Falun Gong. The extremist group preaches that race-mixing, homosexuality, feminism, and science are Satanic plots, and reveres Donald Trump as a God-like fig…

The Global Research Team (2021-02-01). Global Research vs Online Censorship: Help Us Reach New Readers. globalresearch.ca Over the past 12 months, independent media —including Global Research— has felt the sting of increased online censorship, in the form of a crackdown on news that challenges official government narratives. While our core readership has remained (thank you!), an …

Shawgi Tell (2021-02-01). Will More Police-State Arrangements Foster Democracy? dissidentvoice.org The events of January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. were historic and will be analyzed for some time to come. Many were rattled and shaken to their core by what unfolded that day in the nation's capital. Others were excited, relieved, and hopeful. Since then, all sorts of disinformation, confusion, and illusions have filled mainstream …

Harun al-Aswad (2021-01-31). String of car bombs kills 20 people in Turkish-held north Syria. middleeasteye.net String of car bombs kills 20 people in Turkish-held north Syria | The attacks left at least 14 civilians dead, including four children, and scores wounded | Sun, 01/31/2021 – 14: 18 | Rescue workers extinguish a fire caused by an explosion in the town of Azaz, in rebel-controlled northern countryside of Syria's Aleppo province, on 31 January 2021 (AFP) | Three car bombs killed at least 20 people…

_____ (2021-01-31). Chicago Teachers' Struggle At A Crossroads. popularresistance.org The drive to reopen Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in the country, has become a pitched battle between educators and the state apparatus, the latter backed up by the corporate media and the unions. The fight by Chicago educators to prevent the reopening of schools is the focal point of the class struggle in the United States, with every other major district in the country looking to Chicago to set a precedent. | In this context, it is of the utmost importance for teachers and other educators to organize independently of the unions and join the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safet…

_____ (2021-01-31). Biden Day One: Nothing Changed, Nothing Ever Will. strategic-culture.org The Liberal Sleepwalkers are not dealing with the passive, stupid thuggish, unthinking herd that they believe half the American people to be. | The Doom of the Biden Administration and within the next eight years of the entire supposedly great and mighty Democratic Party has been written in deeds on the very first full day of Joe Biden's presidency. | There were absolutely no surprises whatsoever in it. Biden did what he said he was going to do. He nominated exactly the people he said he was going to nominate. The US Liberal Mainstream Media with their usual Courage and Character slavishly applauded with unanimou…

RT (2021-01-30). 'You must do more': Chelsea captain pleads with social media giants for protection after English FA condemns yet more racist abuse. rt.com Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta has urged Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to "do more" against trolls who have sent racist abuse to youngster Reece James, adding that he cannot fathom how bullies "have such hate in their heart". | The worsening crisis of online abuse against footballers took another grim turn on Saturday when Chelsea defender James revealed messages calling him a "monkey", "trash" and telling the England prospect he had "dirty black skin". | Shortly afterwards, West Midlands Police announced that they had arrested a 49-year-old man near Birmingham on suspicion of sending racial abuse to Roma…

Richard Horton (2021-01-30). [Comment] Offline: The case for No-COVID. thelancet.com As many countries continue to struggle with a third wave of COVID-19—Hong Kong is suffering its fourth wave and is contemplating a fifth and sixth—all governments and public health authorities will need to remain open to new ideas for controlling the pandemic. This past week, Ilona Kickbusch, founding director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, shared a proposal being widely discussed in Germany. The approach devised by a group of clinicians and academics, which in addition to Kickbusch includes Melanie Brinkmann, Michael Hallek, M…

_____ (2021-01-30). Big Tech's Gravest Sin? Working With the Security State. strategic-culture.org Though they claim to champion privacy, companies like Google and Amazon are making a fortune contracting with the government. | By Ivan ELAND | The "de-platforming" of Donald Trump by Twitter, Facebook, and Google-owned YouTube—that is, Big Tech—recently garnered big headlines. Trump's change in status has raised cries among some conservatives of "censorship." Yet a more libertarian view holds that these are private companies that have a right to control their own content, just as private broadcast and print media do. The word "censorship" has been traditionally and more appropriately applied to go…

Dean Obeidallah (2021-01-30). Maz Jobrani doesn't miss Trump jokes: He wasn't just bad for America, he was bad for comedy. salon.com The stand-up appeared on "Salon Talks" to discuss his special shot in Dubai, Islamophobia, and censorship in comedy…

Georgios Mamarelis, Dimitrios Moris (2021-01-30). [Correspondence] Frozen shoulder. thelancet.com Amar Rangan and colleagues1 presented their findings from a multicentre, pragmatic, three-arm, superiority randomised controlled trial designed to compare early structured physiotherapy of frozen shoulder with manipulation under anaesthesia and arthroscopic capsular release.1 All options were found to be clinically equivalent; however, there was a higher risk of complications with arthroscopic capsular release than with manipulation under anaesthesia. Manipulation was the most cost-effective option.

Daniel Jacoby, Carolyn Y Ho, Steven J Lester, Andrew Wang, Iacopo Olivotto (2021-01-30). [Correspondence] Mavacamten for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Eduard Quintana and colleagues for their Correspondence. The EXPLORER-HCM trial1 is the largest prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study ever done in patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Far from being "unambitious", the study included a vast array of endpoints ranging from objective measurements of performance to gradient reduction and key aspects of quality of life. The primary endpoint was developed following discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration, and was defined as either a 1 ∑5 mL/kg per min or greater increase in peak oxygen consumption (p…

Rod Driver (2021-01-30). Supporting Democracy Abroad If It Gives The 'Right' Results. zcomm.org The double standards of the mainstream US and British media in relation to foreign interference in elections has been particularly obvious since 2016…

Editor (2021-01-30). Joe Biden Is the Embodiment of Our Fading Empire. scheerpost.com Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0] By Alfred McCoy / TomDispatch After four years of Donald Trump's fitful tenure, America is awakening from a long, troubled sleep to discover, like the fictional character Rip Van Winkle, that the world it once knew has changed beyond all recognition. In that classic American tale by Washington Irving published in 1819, an amiable but shiftless farmer strolls out of… |

Heather Digby Parton (2021-01-29). McConnell repeats the same obstructionist playbook from Obama era: Can Biden ignore the trolling?>. salon.com Republicans are concern trolling President Biden on his promises of "unity." They should be ignored…