Who didn't see this coming?
One of the key concerns raised by the recent censorship of Infowars and Telesur is that, although the two outlets could not be more different politically and structurally, both were providing fair coverage of, or support to politically imprisoned and now totally isolated journalist Julian Assange.
Since Assange was silenced in late March, his supporters continuously warned that if he were to remain unable to connect with the outside world, it would result in the silencing of the rest of us. They warned repeatedly and loudly that Assange was the last buffer between the establishment’s ire and total domination of social discourse, a canary in the coal mine of state censorship.
Unfortunately, we now see that those concerns were well-founded. The unelected Western power structure and its technocratic social-media-baron proxies coordinated the recent purge of Alex Jones’s Infowars within twelve hours on the same day, then deleted the Facebook page of Telesur, a Venezuelan news network, multiple times.
....The perceived threat might have originated with the fact that Jone’s petition was reaching hundreds of thousands of mostly Trump supporters, and therefore may have had a greater impact on Trump’s attitude towards Assange if it were to continue to be widely circulated.
In the week following the initial purge of social media accounts, the Infowars site also appears to have been taken down on a number of occasions. (click link to read the stupid responses to his site being down -sd) This would, therefore, interfere with the ability to sign or access the petition itself. This makes it seem increasingly possible that the strangling this petition’s reach that motivated the near-total censorship of Jones, first by limiting Infowars ability to promote it, and secondarily by attempting to take the site down as well.
....Amongst all of this censorship, it is worthwhile to remember that as of May this year, the Atlantic Council effectively dictates the censorship policy of Facebook, as decried by MintpressNews upon the announcement of the collaboration:
“The new partnership will effectively ensure that [the] Atlantic Council will serve as Facebook’s “eyes and ears,” according to a company press statement. With its leadership comprised of retired military officers, former policymakers, and top figures from the U.S. National Security State and Western business elites, the Atlantic Council’s role policing the social network should be viewed as a virtual takeover of Facebook by the imperialist state and the council’s extensive list of ultra-wealthy and corporate donors.”
....
It’s also worth noting the report by ZeroHedge: “The Council on Foreign Relation’s Richard Stengel, a former editor of TIME magazine, told an audience at a CFR event in late April called Political Disruptions: Combating Disinformation and Fake News that governments “have to” direct “propaganda” toward their own populations.”On a video recording of the CFR event, Stengel can be heard stating:
“Basically, every country creates their own narrative story and, you know, my old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the ‘chief propagandist’ job. We haven’t talked about propaganda… I’m not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population, and I don’t necessarily think it’s that awful.”
....
What will come next? What can we do to stop it? Right now, our best chance of halting this war on free speech and the free press must start with efforts to protect Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
Petition to Trump: Pardon Julian Assange
I hope that you read the rest of the article as well as the articles I listed below.
Additional information about the partnership between Facebook and the Atlantic Council. Their involvement with Facebook and probably other social media is a direct connection to the government in my opinion. Did the Atlantic Council have a role in Facebook and Google changing their algorithms that saw mostly leftist alternative websites' traffic decreased by up to 90%? What would be the reason for doing that? Could it be because they were not towing the party line, but instead telling people the truth about things that this country is doing?
Facebook Partners With Atlantic Council, a NATO Lobby Group, to “Protect Democracy”
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA – Facebook is hoping that a new alliance with the Atlantic Council — a leading geopolitical strategy think-tank seen as a de facto PR agency for the U.S. government and NATO military alliance – will not only solve its “fake news” and “disinformation” controversy, but will also help the social media monolith play “a positive role” in ensuring democracy on a global level.
The new partnership will effectively ensure that Atlantic Council will serve as Facebook’s “eyes and ears,” according to a company press statement. With its leadership comprised of retired military officers, former policymakers, and top figures from the U.S. National Security State and Western business elites, the Atlantic Council’s role policing the social network should be viewed as a virtual takeover of Facebook by the imperialist state and the council’s extensive list of ultra-wealthy and corporate donors.The announcement should sound alarm bells when one considers the Atlantic Council’s list of sponsors – including, but not limited to, war-profiteering defense contractors; agencies aligned with Washington and the Pentagon; Gulf Arab tyrants; major transnational corporations; and such well-loved Western philanthropic brands as Carnegie, Koch, Rockefeller, and Soros. Even the name of the group itself is meant to evoke the North Atlantic Council, the highest political decision-making body of North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(Read about who makes up not only the Atlantic Council, but especially the North Atlantic Council. Should foreign governments have a say in what we are allowed to read? Nope. But apparently they do.)
Why We’re Partnering With Facebook on Election Integrity
Democracy depends on debate, but productive debate depends on facts. In government for and by the people, facts are a foundation. Too often in recent years, we have witnessed attacks on this foundation: the deliberate spreading of false information, hostile state actors promoting divisive content, and attacks on fact-based reporting and evidence-based research.
....
In recent testimony in front of the United States Congress, Mark Zuckerberg :It’s not enough to just connect people, we have to make sure those connections are positive. It’s not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren’t using it to hurt people or spread misinformation. It’s not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they’ve given it to are protecting it too.
....
@DFRLab’s mission is to expose and explain falsehood online, and to identify its sources and amplifiers. Our team is looking at everything from the conflict in Syria, to protests in Russia, to politically motivated automation and bots in Malaysia. Using open source means that we do not ask our readers to take our credibility for granted: we present our findings in a way that anyone with access to the internet can verify them.
Comments
One more excellent article on Facebook's censoring
Independent Media Slams Facebook’s Plan to Act as Gatekeeper of ‘Trustworthy’ News
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
That is the worst part of this
IMHO, that our media has lied for so damned long that now when they're being attacked and censored they have NO leg to stand on regarding "freedom of the press." I've had this argument with several people now who are rightly worried about the media and censorship but will NOT see that our media has lied to us for decades and are complete hypocrites when speaking about that freedom or the First Amendment. It's like making Trump look correct when he spouts off what sounds like utter bullshit but in reality is not. It makes him seem more legitimate than he is and it only cements in place the lies they all tell us. And it divides and conquers, once again, the ultimate goal of the whole ugly hot mess.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Even WordPress is “disappearing” people’s small-potatoes blogs,
and no one seems to know why.
Three examples: American Everyman (Scott Creighton), Fellowship of the Minds, and Jay’s Analysis.
https://americaneveryman.com/
https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/
https://jaysanalysis.com/
@lotlizard Oh shit. That's bad. They
Oh shit. That's bad. They're stepping up the speed and scope of this quite fast.
We need to look to our backs. At this point, if they came for caucus99percent, we would lose caucus99percent and most of us would never speak to each other again.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Protecting us from “Fake News” is going to be the cover
for a massive, but largely invisible, sculpting of our perception of reality. The internet will become just one more propaganda conduit.
Your “oh shit!” comment, unfortunately, is spot on.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Hey Can't Stop
If you can, look at the left hand column: JtC has posted things like members books, art, sites, etc. I've set-up a secure back-up contact sheet for members (in case the site goes down) accessed there. Hope we don't need it.
Member Contact Project
Formed to keep members in touch beyond the c99p platform.
question everything
@QMS Yes, I know--and
Yes, I know--and thank you for taking lead on that. Perhaps we should put a spotlight on that via a front-page essay, maybe a sticky?
That's why I said that your work around here was likely to get a lot more important.
How much response have you gotten? I think I've forgotten repeatedly to give you my contact info.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Response is luke warm
I've about 21 so far. Guess trust is an issue? Anyway, it's available if needed.
question everything
@QMS We're getting
We're getting near the time when people will have to make a choice between trust and silence. I have no moral judgements on those who choose the latter. It's a rough world, and jumping the gap between digital and meatspace is difficult and risky. However, we should all be clear what the stakes are.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yeah, I just did some checking on twitter.
My analytics. For reference I have over 600 followers.
Less than 100 of them have seen my posts here, and I link to them EVERY day. Unless I directly send them the link or specifically mention them by name, NOBODY SEES IT.
I cannot believe that over five hundred people followed me to MUTE me.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I am not seeing
Member contact project only a member list... help please
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
@magiamma Click on the Member
Click on the Member Contact Project blue link at the bottom of the list. In JtC's essay is how to contact QMS. I just did it and it was easy.
oh that bottom
duh
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Your comment from the other FB essay
needs to be repeated here.
If there is interest I can post an essay where we brainstorm ideas for what we do if the poop hits the fan blades, but we already have a way to contact each other and that is the fact that JtC has our email addresses on record. However, is there a way to contact him if the site goes down?
BTW. I messed up the link to the Common Dreams article in my other essay. I remember I deleted something from that I didn't mean to copy and I think that was the problem. I never thought to double check my links before because no one has had problems with them, but lessons learned and all that.
Thanks for bring this to my attention.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Hey snoop
If you read the admin statement in the Member Contact Project, there needs to be a degree of separation. I have the snail mail address, as that's how I send the monthly tithes.
question everything
Thanks for letting me know that
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Dupe oops
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
you are welcome
2x
question everything
@snoopydawg I guess, SD, I feel
I guess, SD, I feel that JtC should not be the only point of contact, because what kind of a position would that put him in? Also, it would be a good idea for us already to have a place to regroup.
God, I hate even having to think like this.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@snoopydawg And yes, I do have a
And yes, I do have a way to contact JtC if the site goes down--we have each other's email addies from back in the day when we were a google group trying to start a website.
Also, yes, I think we should have a brainstorming essay; if you want to put one up, I will keep an eye out for it and participate.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Comcast seems to be assisting
with real time throttling of certain email content. On the news of the sudden death of child trafficking investigator Jen Moore (aka TaskForce) I emailed a link of her last video post to a friend. It did not arrive.
I tried again, lost in the digital ether again. I immediately followed up with modified versions with a variety altered subject lines and content. I sent from multiple email accounts to two email accounts of the same intended recipient. The results and my conclusions were clear, and very troubling:
When subject line and content were empty, all sent emails were promptly received.
All emails sent from my multiple email accounts were received by recipient’s Gmail server.
All emails sent with empty subject lines and no content were received.
All emails sent with any subject line and no content were received.
All emails sent to recipient’ Comcast address that contained the video link (BitChute.com) did not arrive.
All emails sent to recipient’s other email addresses arrived intact.
Comcast is blocking the transmission of certain email content.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
That is troubling. Censoring private communication.
We know that our private emails are being read, but now censored? Holy shit. Time to learn about how to encrypt email. But then again, I can see any email with encrypted content would be automatically deleted if companies like Comcast can't see into them.
Emails linking to C99 seem to be being blocked on hotmail.
other emails go through fine, but as soon as I add a c99 link, I immediately get an error message and "The email cannot be sent at this time." Remove the link, no problem.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Yikes!
We are much further down the Orwellian rabbit hole than I had imagined. We’ll be left only with drums and smoke signals before you know it.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Guess we will have to roll our own
question everything
I am wondering if a VPN would have mattered
A VPN is a way to keep your internet browsing a secret and hidden from sites that both track your content and only allow you a certain amount of articles a month. Plus many sites want you to disable your ad-blocker before they will allow you to read the article.
This VPN is supposed to be the best one available and it is again on sale for a limited time.
The website is talking about Kodi which is a free addon to Amazon Fire TV, Firesticks and other devices that allow you to watch TV and Movies for free from it, but it also works for your computers and smartphones.
I have been wanting to get one especially after the ruling on net neutrality, but I haven't yet.A few people here use on and maybe they can explain more how it works and how they like it.
We are definitely living in Orwell's world of 1984 so how much longer will it be before we are taken to room 101 for some reeducation?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Be afraid.
Be very afraid. Without revolution...
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I think youtube is throttling RT
...at least anecdotally. When I select an RT video, plan on slow loading and disruptions while watching.
With the loss of net neutrality we are back under the thumb of the media oligarchs....with no recourse.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
This is one of the most important essays
I have read in a long time.
The US government and the deep state are using private companies to impose censorship on the public. It is a good way around the first amendment since the government itself is not doing the censoring, only sanctioning it and in many cases providing financial support for it.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Agree, but it will get worse...
What will happen when there is no more "public spaces" - only corporate parks and private "toll roads". How will courts rule on constitutional rights cases when everything you step on when you leave your house is "private property"??
peace
FN
"Democracy is technique and the ability of power not to be understood as oppressor. Capitalism is the boss and democracy is its spokesperson." Peace - FN
Crossposting two questions/data bits into this essay
This is something I haven't mentioned because I don't exactly know how to describe it, but a couple weeks ago, something changed the way Google dealt with C99.
When I bring up Google, it usually puts an array of sites I visit often in thumbnail on the page. I can simply click on them and get where I'm going, rather than using the search bar. C99 was always among them, for obvious reasons.
A couple weeks ago, the C99 thumbnail disappeared, and has not returned, though I come here almost every day.
I'd like people with greater technological knowledge than mine to comment on this.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Others have noted that for other sites
gjohnsit wrote an essay on comparing the results of a search on Google and DuckGoGo after Google had changed its algorithms.
He found twice as many links on the Duck search than he did on Google. His essay might have been 4-5 months ago so maybe you can find it in his essay list? Or I can look for it later today and post it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Another crossposted data bit and question
This is in regard to the link in snoopydawg's earlier essay on this subject, still on the front page from a couple days ago. There's a link in her title to a Common Dreams article. It doesn't work. It might be nothing sinister, but I'm gonna start mentioning everything, because that's the world we live in.
Guys? I tried to click on the link in SD's title and got
an error message, essentially a "site not found."
Are other people encountering this problem?
I can get to that Common Dreams article if I type keywords from its title into the Google Search bar, as in "Common Dreams Deeply Disturbing"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Twitter did another purge 2 days ago as well.
And I KNOW a bunch of them were leftist accounts. They claimed bots. I know I didn't lose 20 bot followers when I interacted with them fairly regularly.
Back up your files NOW.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@detroitmechworks Um, I wouldn't have any
Um, I wouldn't have any idea how to back up things I posted on Twitter, if I still posted on Twitter. Ditto for FB. I don't know how to download or back up YouTube videos.
I know how to back up things like the essays on this site.
I'm guessing there's probably other people in this boat.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Twitter even purged Obama
I think it said that he lost 2 million followers in the first purge. I didn't pay much attention to the article at the time, but I'm trying to find it.
Hamilton 68 is another creation of the Atlantic Council and they say that they keep track of Russian bots. They were big in the news just after the Russian bots propaganda took off, but I haven't seen much written about them for awhile. But did they play a part in the Twitter sweeps?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
from the bezos rag:
august 15: “In recent months, Twitter has made several changes to promote safety and trust. It has introduced new machine learning software to monitor account behavior and is suspending over a million problematic accounts a day. The company has updated its policies to emphasize that content that is “dehumanizing” or causes “real-world harm” would not be permitted, but Dorsey said executives were still figuring out how to define those terms.
Dorsey said Twitter hasn’t changed its incentives, which were originally designed to nudge people to interact and keep them engaged, in the 12 years since Twitter was founded. “We often turn to policy to fix a lot of these issues, but I think that is only treating surface-level symptoms that we are seeing,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey’s visit to Washington this week marks his latest attempt at outreach in the nation’s capital. Throughout the summer, he met privately with members of Congress who have called for new regulation of Silicon Valley, while huddling with the country’s top conservatives, some of whom have alleged that Twitter is biased against right-leaning news and views.
Dorsey, along with executives from Google and Facebook, is set to return in September for a high-profile Senate hearing about Russian efforts to spread disinformation and destabilize U.S. politics ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.”
‘Twitter is sweeping out fake accounts like never before, putting user growth at risk;
Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June, and the pace has continued in July’, July 6, also waPo
“The rate of account suspensions, which Twitter confirmed to The Post, has more than doubled since October, when the company revealed under congressional pressure how Russia used fake accounts to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June, and the pace has continued in July, according to the data.” [snip]
“Twitter’s growing campaign against bots and trolls — coming despite the risk to the company’s user growth — is part of the continuing fallout from Russia’s disinformation offensive during the 2016 presidential campaign, when a St. Petersburg-based troll factory was able to use some of America’s most prominent technology platforms to deceive voters on a mass scale to exacerbate social and political tensions.
The extent of account suspensions, which has not previously been reported, is one of several recent moves by Twitter to limit the influence of people it says are abusing its platform. The changes, which were the subject of internal debate, reflect a philosophical shift for Twitter. Its executives long resisted policing misbehavior more aggressively, for a time even referring to themselves as “the free speech wing of the free speech party.”
How convenient
FCC shuts down Alex Jones’ flagship radio station
Jacqueline Thomsen 15 hrs ago
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' flagship radio station.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday that the pirate radio station, Liberty Radio, was hit with a $15,000 fine and at least temporarily pulled from the airwaves.
The newspaper reported that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleged that Liberty Radio had functioned without a license since at least 2013, and had been transmitting from a tower at an Austin apartment complex.
Liberty Radio stopped airing on the radio in December, but still streams online.
The Associated Press reported that Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick were named as the defendants in the lawsuit, and the apartment complex where the station was transmitting from is linked to the pair. The Olenicks reportedly told the FCC that they would not pay the fine and would treat any agency representatives as trespassers.
Jones, a conspiracy theorist who founded the site Infowars, has recently been banned by several platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.
Infowars and Jones' content has also been pulled from Spotify and Vimeo, and Twitter placed restrictions on the accounts for Jones and his site.
Jones has been criticized for some of the conspiracy theories he promotes: The parents of two children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have sued him for allegedly saying the massacre was staged and a cover-up orchestrated by the parents of the children.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
danielle ryan has a couple compendia up at RT,
although i'd quibble with her left/right linear coding:
‘Five examples that show internet censorship is as much a threat to the left as the right’ via RT, 15 Aug, 2018
but as to the twittersphere:
"Twitter recently suspended the accounts of Daniel McAdams, the executive director of the libertarian and antiwar Ron Paul Institute and Scott Horton, the editor of the AntiWar.com website. Explaining what happened, McAdams said that he and Horton were suspended after defending former US diplomat Peter Van Buren who had just been banned permanently from Twitter after heated exchanges with journalist Jonathan M. Katz over what Van Buren said was his “unwillingness to challenge government lies”. In one of his tweets to Katz, Buren sarcastically commented: "I hope a MAGA guy eats your face". Katz reported him for "promoting violence" and Twitter later caved and removed Buren's account.
In explaining his suspension, Twitter told McAdams that he could not “promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease” — none of which he accepts that he did.
Perhaps the really amazing thing about all of this is that it is happening in front of our eyes and the powers that be are not even bothering to lie about it. Elected US officials are openly promoting this kind of censorship as a way to prevent the "sowing of discord" among populations. At a Senate Judiciary Committee last year about “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online,” Democratic Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono called on social media platforms to prove their commitment to preventing “the fomenting of discord” online.
Working hand-in-glove with governments, corporations like Facebook have been handed enormous power to decide what constitutes free speech and which opinions are worthy of being heard. How long will it be before people realize banning Alex Jones wasn’t really a victory at all?"
and 'EU ‘disinfo-busting’ outlet targets ‘Russophiles’ in McCarthyist campaign to push own narrative' aug. 14
"EU DisinfoLab, whose raison d’etre is to “fight disinformation with innovative methodology,” published a report about “hyperactive” Twitter accounts that were sharing news about Alexandre Benalla, Macron’s former deputy chief of staff and bodyguard who was fired in July when it was revealed that he had violently assaulted a protester during an annual May Day rally.
French media excitedly latched onto the DisinfoLab report (The Russians! The Russians!) and soon headlines appeared about Russian “bots” and their apparent involvement in the Benalla scandal, prompting national discussions about what could be done to combat social media manipulation by the “Russophile” accounts. During all the hysteria, the EU DisinfoLab graciously decided to clarify its findings to say that not all of the accounts posting about Benalla were of the ‘Russophile’ variety. But, according to the NGO’s co-founder Nicolas Vanderbiest, the case was a hot topic for the “Russophile ecosystem” and a sizable 27 percent of the accounts were part of the “Russian disinformation system"
f you were wondering, the “Russian disinformation system” is, according to DisinfoLab, comprised of anyone sharing content from RT or Sputnik or anyone promoting the “Russian narrative” in any way.
Because remember, in good, free, open Democratic societies, questioning established narratives is unacceptable and grounds for public shaming and having your name immediately placed on some kind of Twitter blacklist. You might also be as surprised as I was to hear there is apparently an overarching “Russian narrative” for every world event, regardless of whether or not it relates to Moscow in any way.
Making matters worse, the NGO released the raw data which it used in its research which appeared to categorize users with labels such as “jew,”“lesbian” and “homo” – prompting questions from users about why they were being politically profiled in such a public way. The NGO then seemingly deleted the those files and denied posting them before appearing to admit to publishing them and releasing an apology to those affected.
Ironically, funding for the report on this alleged suspicious Russian Twitter activity was provided by none other than Twitter itself. Luckily, Twitter had some money lying around for such purposes; the very money it had received from RT and Sputnik to run ads on its platform. Having realized the error of its ways, Twitter pledged that money to “civil society” projects such as EU DisinfoLab – who was the happy recipient of $125,000, according to the organization itself."
but jay dyer's website may have been deleted by wordpress for that reason: RT had just featured by RT. i tried to find it, but i'll say i didn't care for him claiming that trans folks were claiming victimhood, etc. along the way to make his russiagate critique. but here's his youtube channel.
oh, and it seems as though venezuela analysis is up again on facebook, may be down again soo, of course.
but while totally odious and dangerous, it's been comin' down the pipe for quite some time as media consolidate, multi-billionaires buy say...the wapo, capitalist financial sites, and likely cable teevee news, though not having cable, i dunno which those might be.
but this IS a full-fledged corporatocracy, although sheldon wolin calls it rule by inverted totalitarianism (serving corporations, including the military and wall street). so as far as atlantic council (nato think tank, ha) being largely funded by zuck, VZ analysis and telesur often reporting on threats within pink nations, and that...nato just added colombia as a partner, *and* that the US military and ecuador have made a pact of defense, any sites that or social networking acccounts that feature anti-war, anti-empire, pro-assange info...are naturally on their lists to hush.but as soon as the WaPo (bezos boy) began the mccarthyite (imo) #MeToo movement and ProporNot, the die was cast, wasn't it?
On edit: more on bezos boy: ‘Amazon and the CIA: a match made in hell; Part One: Amazon cashes in on war crimes and mass surveillance, Evan Blake, wsws.org, 13 July 2017
‘Amazon and the CIA: a match made in hell; Part Two: Amazon, war propaganda, and the suppression of free speech’, july 2017
including the very profitable to bezos: ‘Cementing ties between Amazon and the military
.................
and again, julian assange's 'google is not what it seems' was quite prescient, wasn't it?
additional thoughts:
a commenter at the café loves jay's analysis, and i'd looked one day at his CIA in films tab, and there must have been 28 pages worth.
i'd been listening to 'red right hand' yesterday, and had begun wondering if librul sites who easily feature links to other librul sites on 'trump's fascism', but never, no never, speak to obomba's fascism (also both at home and abroad), and failing to connect the dots that O paved the way for T in soooo many key respects...have been part of the overall problem that got us to...today's censorship by corporate power. but if one factors in the many sorts of 'deep state' rule, and yes, even the warring intelligence agencies... this seemed quite on target to me. who rules the rabble class?
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his
red right hand
You'll see him in your nightmares,
you'll see him in your dreams
He'll appear out of nowhere but
he ain't what he seems
You'll see him in your head,
on the TV screen
And hey buddy, I'm warning
you to turn it off
He's a ghost, he's a god,
he's a man, he's a guru
You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his red right hand...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dt_8xXgqo]
This isn't America anymore, is it?
Probably hasn't been for quite a while. But it takes a piece like this, with a really good, hard look at where we are, to make it clear. Thanks for this, SD!
Unfortunately, there are so few people -- that I know anyway -- who even understand what this (censorship) means and how degraded this country has become. Everyone is completely on board with RUSSIA! They buy the entire story, even the ones who don't particularly like Hillary. And dog help you if you say anything contrary to the party line. Makes my head hurt.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare
Over the last 40 years the changes have come slowly
but starting with O's administration and now Trump's they are coming faster and faster. First the mask started slipping and is now completely off and now they are taking the gloves off and we are seeing their plan speeding up.
Great to see you and thanks for commenting!
"The conscious intelligent manipulation of the organized opinions and habits of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our society."
-Edward Bernays.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
German state-supported 7pm TV news: 300 US papers editorializing
in unison against Trump = standing up for a free press!
When, as Germans should know better than anyone, it could equally well be the most perfect demonstration yet of press Gleichschaltung in America.
Julian Assange is a hero. Is
Julian Assange is a hero. Is it OK to say that here? It's my first-ever caucus99percent comment and having been "bojo'ed" from a certain other site, I feel like an East German the day after the Berlin Wall came down...
@Brett Wilkins Yes, of course.
Yes, of course.
It would also be OK to say here that Julian is a rapist trying to undermine the free world, but you'd have to back that up with data, or be met with near-universal scorn.
You can say what you want, as long as you remain within the bounds of civility and do not rely on character attacks on members to make your point. You will, however, be asked to prove your case, and your proof will be rigorously examined.
Because of this rigorous rationalism (and the site's dedication to freedom of expression) the statement "Julian Assange is a hero" is likely to be met with a great deal of approval. The other statement, not so much. You'd be likely to get a pile-on of people demanding factual corroboration.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Welcome to the Blue Blog, Brent
Glad to have you aboard our oasis of truth in a sea of discontent. (did I mix metaphors?)
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Welcome Brett...
we are a nonpartisan site that owes no allegiance to any political party or ideology. We value open discussion on all topics and issues.
Our only rule is DBAA, which translates to Don't Be an Ass. Stay civil with other c99p members and you'll be fine. That's about it.
Glad to see you participating. If you have any problems or question just ask and I'm sure someone will help.
Make yourself at home.
@JtC I've always asserted
I've always asserted that personal attacks and insults are a sign of intellectual bankruptcy. Boy could they sling 'em over at DK! I can't think of any time I ever stooped to their level, though.
It is okay to state your opinion on anything,
after all, we are free range.
Our number one rule here is to treat each other with respect and not to attack one another personally.
BTW, welcome and please continue to comment and write.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Welcome aboard. We have no site ideology, in fact, JtC
says that the one thing that would make him shut this place down is if it becomes an echo chamber. So, non-partisan, no set dogma, no idols you cannot attack and no demons you cannot support. There can and will be arguments and pushbacks, but excepting personal attacks, that's all cool.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Not to worry,
the progressive insurgency will handle it.
That's the thing, very few ever talk about what to do about this and the many other transgressions the ruling class place upon us.
This isn't anything new in this country, it's just a new iteration. The only way to end this is to end rule by the rich.
@Big Al What insurgency.
What insurgency.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Watching the sheep being herded
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQw21ntR64]
This is exactly what is happening to us. Opinions that represent anything outside what the powers that be wish to be aired and discussed are being systematically herded into an ever narrower and narrower gate, just like the sheep being herded.
This is exactly why I will continue to defend those on the far right like Alex Jones, whom I cannot stand to listen to, but believe in his right to free speech. If we do not defend those with whom we may not agree, we will have no one to defend us either.
Julian Assange has stood as a beacon in the night for truth regardless of which side it may hurt. He may be our last hope on the world scale for getting the truth out there. Meanwhile the real fake news is the propaganda we rail against.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The video is spot on
In one of the links at the bottom there's a statement by someone that says it's okay for them to publish propaganda.
And remember that Obama's signing statement that lets the government start using propaganda again. Those articles at the end have a lot of scary information in them.
Look to see how many foreign governments, people and organizations are funding the Atlantic Council. And the sheep in this country thinks that it's Putin's gangs that are destroying the country.
Heh! I'd love to post this on ToP, but I have friends there that I need to get their email addresses before I get banned.
But then there's the number of people who have gotten banned for what they say on other sites so I think it's just a matter of time before I get the hammer.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Alex Jones is a liberal and a libertarian, I was told
I asked, "He's a liberal AND a libertarian?" And added something like I didn't recall ever hearing anything liberal come out of his mouth, and asked what I had missed.
Whoops! I hit a nerve. Three successive comments from that person, each getting pissier than the last. The first was a pasted definition of the word liberal. One telling me I should actually listen to Alex and not just take what his haters have said about him. The last telling me I most certainly was "NOT" an all accepting liberal.
All I did was question how he could be both and ask what liberal aspect I had missed.
So very strange. I still don't know exactly where this person was coming from or um, I'm so confused lol.
The INSANITY is the DEMANDING of censorship.
Congress demands censorship. Both party establishments demand censorship. Liberals demand censorship. The mass media powers demand censorship. And the same is happening all over the EU. Money is being funneled to organizations to censor and blacklist. Government money is being allocated to essentially find and shut down various people and online institutions.
You know, let's say Putin is trying to undermine Western liberal democracies. Well, he has won. Game over. He has managed to transform our political lives into an online system of STASI agents gladly finking on and denouncing each other. Putin does not need anymore bots, hacks, or trolls to spark the online inquisitions. The West is gladly and voluntarily doing it to themselves. The West will destroy itself from within.
The old Twilight Zone series with Sterling were powerful lessons. One that profoundly shows where we are going is "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street".
Epilogue
Can’t even feel sorry for the SPD (German Social Democrats)
anymore, though their support has recently declined so much that they are in danger of being overtaken in the polls by the right-wing populist AfD.
The Social Democrats, embodied by their former Justice Minister Heiko Maas, are responsible for the NetzDG, an Internet censorship law.
Just read the link. "Criminal content"?
Oh my gosh. Sounds like the beginning of a type of German gulag for political prisoners.
huge disappointment to listen to them and all other
parties in Germany for that matter since I am back. Ok, I am grateful I can go to the doctor and not getting poor doing so. And I am grateful to read books in German. And I like going to the Museum. And sometimes I am grateful to not have to watch US TV and can instead watch a couple of channels in German TV and their special reports. I admit I find the German TV more bearable than the US TV media.
I read the TAZ (in print) lately and grinned a little thinking about you.
https://www.euronews.com/live
the political parties are owned
as is the media, liberal think tanks, government spooks and our dear motherland security apparatus. This is just another ball of propaganda being shoved down our throats. Big tech is more than willing to go along, as they stand to make the most (temporary) profit. It's no more about protecting our beautiful minds from fake news than protecting us from the scary Russian 'enemy'. A lie repeated indefinitely becomes reality. Just look at the polls! What is being protected here is the state's ability to control the false narrative with impunity.
question everything
Yup. and with open impunity
Now there isn't even some convoluted excuse for the censorship. The government will decide what opinions are legitimate and outsource the censorship to private social media. The idea of making the media outlets into public utilities will never happen, as that means giving up ownership of what ideas are acceptable.
Ouch, makes my brain hurts just thinking about it
Like we have a choice in this demon graphic? (slang for democracy). Perhaps it would be polite politics to actually ask the voters / tax payers what we care to invest OUR resources in? Might make it seem a bit more like that constitution we once believed in. But
question everything
And there's so many people who still haven't
abandoned FB after they found out how much of their information FB has on them. One thing that would get Facebook and Twitter attention is for people to stop using them. Will that happen? Nope. But it doesn't really matter does it? FB has everyone's information even if they never joined it. The six degrees of separation strikes again.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
and there seem to be some here
who use the Google search engine. one has to wonder why that might be, yes?
@wendy davis Because DuckDuckGo
Because DuckDuckGo screwed up my computer. It stopped being able to load, though the signature "duck" icon was up in the corner all the time. Then suddenly I had a malware problem, for no clear reason. I can't prove the two are connected, of course, but I got rid of DuckDuckGo and went back to the path of least resistance.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
boycotting google
using duck ducks for years now. Can really see the changes. Some stuff I can't get on ducky, switch to googles and , lo and behold, there it is. Think they have been pre-empted. Sheist.
question everything
i'm not following;
did you set your usual search engine/browswer to use duck-duck? my default browser is Firefox (moziilla, free), and one cn choose multiple search engines within it. my default is 'bing' although i use duck-duck at times. but in the end, i do like that bing anticipates where i might like to go and hell, i blog under my own name in any event.
but i've been taken aback by your fear that c99% might be deleted; myself, i can't see it, as a fine a place as it is for so many, it simply does not challenge power, as i see it. or better said: it doesn't challenge the Imperial Project, although a few authors use other's challenges in various diaries.
but i do agree that folks who want to continue to congregate if and when the web goes down need to communicate via snail mail, as bruce dixon's advised for years, and most especially not to rely on social networking platforms to arrange group actions.
but consider how many sites whose authors DO challenge power, but are still up, and yes, some like craig murray's are often under DDOS attacks that take time to sort out he says. same w/ twitter accounts, really; the ones still up do surprise me.
as to detroit mechworks' story of trying to email w/ a c99% link in it, i email some thru bill gates' piece of crap, and it works fine, so i dunno whassup w/ hotmail or if t'were a fluke or an outlier. some of the café denizens email me via hushmail (quite secure i'm told), but i can't even figure out to answer them.
anyhoo, i have two epic swords of damocles hanging above me this week, and i may not be communicating what i intend to just now. if i can get my muddled mind together, i'll come back. but for now, i beg you: don't fear the worst; it just gives 'them' power over you.
@wendy davis There are two
There are two fights going on. One is over material power. The other is over human perception.
We are not a contender in the first fight, sadly. Even worse, the first fight has more or less been won by the bad guys, unless they are betrayed from within in a way more effective than simply leaking information. Not that I don't admire leakers! But "I'm gonna take terrible risks and put the information out there and then let the people decide what to do" basically ignores the fact that the people haven't any power.
We are a small but doughty contender in the second fight, and the people we're up against are psychopaths who are looking for 100% compliance with their propaganda.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i tend to disagree,
as i’d said earlier. but what i’d said was both that this site doesn’t challenge power, nor imperial power in any meaningful way. the journalists whose sites do, and there are a long list of them, but for instance: consortium news, moon of alabama, dissident voice, jonathan cook, modoweiss, wsws, usually popular resistance, NEO, land destroyer, and caitlin johnstone for a few. as in: they have muscle. but given that she’s a most avid assange supporter, i’d expected that her twit account would be close, and wikileaks just posted that it’s so. but her site’s still up.
but the next wave of Twitter-downs? perhaps craig murray, vanessa beeley, MoA, sharmine narwani, consortium news, john pilger, wikileaks? they're all still up. oh, and kim dot com’s claiming he has a new twitter-thing in the planning stages, or close.
but what i mean by challenging the western imperial (hegemonic) power amounts loosely to: anticapitalist, anti-imperialist, which might translate to anti-war. most on this site seem to believe that ocasio2018 is an actual socialist, not a capitalist 'reformer', and that she and a couple others will shift the D party to the left, for instance. some of my favorite tankies on twitter have a hella lotta fun retweeting her funniest 'tells', but that's a whole 'nother story.
Totally agree,
as it stands, the support for reforming the democratic party is certainly not challenging the power. In fact, that would be something I'd encourage if I was the ruling class, certainly not censor. I'm not sure where this fear of the establishment censoring C99 is coming from. Certainly Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, the two favs here, are not anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist, just the opposite actually.
ta for weighing in,
duplicate deleted; sorry.
on edit: i wasn't able to edit out the duplicate, so i tried this un. the other's gone with the wind, dayum. and i hadn't composed it on a word doc. i dunno, maybe tomorrow if my spirits improve past 'life sucks, then ya die...but they won't say when'.
@Big Al They are
They are censoring everybody who disagrees with any part of their narratives. Total Information Awareness and Total Message Control. That's why.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i’lll try again,
to sorta reproduce my lengthy lost comment. if i understand correctly, most folks here are elf-exiles from daily kos, and again, iiuc, the major issue was bernie sanders. and i continue to blown away that either the bern and ocasio2018 ar so often identified here as ‘socialists’, in but gjohnsit’s ‘pearl clutching over socialism’ thread, i was blown away by the comments i’d read yesterday, esp. the one that got high-fived many times. but that’s just me.
there may be as many sorts of socialism as there are communists, but the two main camps, wsws trotskyites, and marxist Leninists, but often ‘red’ is shorthand, as is ‘tankie’. now one of the tankies on twitter (oh, do they delight in investigating ocasio!) linked to one jacobin author’s post at not...jacobin, it’s not on the site, mind you...by meagan day on august 1, 2018:
“The phrase is indeed everywhere. In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders and now New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon have claimed the label. Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the country’s largest socialist group, is seeing its membership explode from 6,000 in summer 2016 to more than 45,000 today. And the media doesn’t quite know what to make of it all.
I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyone’s needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens.
Democratic socialists share goals with New Deal liberals. But they want to go further.”, etc.
but at least they call themselves DSAs now, not simply ‘socialists’. but they’re the socialists who are anti-imperial except assad, who knows who all. but when they tout the fact that both ‘naom chomsky and the new yawk slimes lvoe the magazine’, what’s not to love?/s
i do remember many here saying that the reason ocasio got so many interview gigs after her amazing upset in the primary was that the media were collectively caught flat-footed, but i see it differently, i mean: 'vanity fair'? but seeing her back off from palestinan support on firing line (by transcript), and praising 'deep and wide-ranging thinker' wm. buckley were two bridges too far.
stir in this oped from one young dsa: 'Op-Ed: Open Letter Regarding Palestine and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' as he points to a different point of view from another author.
"n the interview, Hoover queried Ocasio-Cortez on her position concerning the Israeli occupation, citing Ocasio-Cortez’s previous statements condemning the “massacre” of Palestinians. Ocasio-Cortez’s response was troubling to say the least:
“Well, I believe absolutely in Israel’s right to exist. I am a proponent of a two-state solution. And for me, it’s not — this is not a referendum, I think, on the state of Israel. For me, the lens through which I saw this incident, as an activist, as an organizer…”
Further on, Ocasio-Cortez expressed a commitment to sit down with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, saying, “I’m willing to learn and evolve on this issue.”, etc.
And right on schedule Caitlin got banned from Twitter
How's that for timing? She's back now, but she was still banned. The reason for it was because she said something mean about McCain, but one look at her site and you can see how many times she has written about Assange. This is no coincidence.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
yes, and it's good
to know that it's up again. i can see how awkward my sentence was saying her account had been deleted, but i had hyperlinked the tweet.
"but given that she’s a most avid assange supporter, i’d expected that her twit account would be close (sic), and wikileaks just posted that it’s so. but her site’s still up.
@wendy davis Is that
Is that really true, or is it just that gjohnsit publishes more than everybody else on this site? He drops like, two or three essays a day. If a couple of us each dropped three essays a day, maybe this site wouldn't look like a Democratic party funfest. I know that a lot of people here have no interest in reforming the Democratic party at all. But unfortunately, most people here don't have the energy or maybe the desire to drop 2-3 essays per day. God knows I don't; I barely crank out my OT.
When Al used to drop essays more frequently, they almost invariably were front-paged and had numbers of commenters equal to gjohnsit's diaries. The majority of the responses to them were positive. That makes no sense if the site is a Democratic party funfest.
It would be instructive to have a handful of people who do NOT agree with gjohnsit collectively drop, say, 5 essays a day. If we had ten people willing to do that, each person would only have to write an essay every other day. You, wendy, wouldn't have to increase your output at all. The rest of us would have to. We would also need to show up to comment in each other's essays.
What I'm saying is that I don't put that much energy into this site, and neither do most of the people who agree with us. Gjohnsit does, and we're looking at the result.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@wendy davis That said, you
That said, you may be right, and I hope you are.
Later, I'd like to know what you mean by "not opposing the imperial project." Lot to talk about there!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@snoopydawg I have stopped using
I have stopped using both FB and Twitter, but remain attached to Google the Evil, both their search engine and YouTube.
It will be a sad day when I have to stop using YouTube.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
[YES!!] ‘Father of the Web’ working on privacy-focused project c
@Sirena Holy shit. Good on him.
Holy shit. Good on him.
The changes from the time of Usenet to now are staggering. Here's hoping he and his can make some change.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Great link
Thanks for posting it
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt