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“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”

-- Noam Chomsky

News and Opinion

Google’s new search engine bias is no accident

Alternet has gone public with concerns about the way Google and Facebook have limited traffic to its website and, more generally, undermined access to progressive and independent media. ... There is something deeply misguided, even dangerous, about its description of what is happening. Here is how its executive editor, Don Hazen, describes Alternet’s problems:

Little did we know that Google had decided, perhaps with bad advice or wrong-headed thinking, that media like AlterNet—dedicated to fighting white supremacy, misogyny, racism, Donald Trump, and fake news—would be clobbered by Google in its clumsy attempt to address hate speech and fake news. …

So the reality we face is that two companies, Google and Facebook—which are not media companies, do not have editors or fact-checkers, and do no investigative reporting—are deciding what people should read, based on a failure to understand how media and journalism function.

“Bad advice”, “wrong-headed”, “clumsy”, “failure to understand”. Alternet itself is the one that has misunderstood what is going on. There is nothing accidental or clumsy about what Google and Facebook are doing. In fact, what has happened was entirely predictable as soon as western political and media elites started raising their voices against “fake news”.

That was something I and others warned about at the time. Here is what I wrote on this blog late last year:

But the claim of “fake news” does usefully offer western security agencies, establishment politicians and the corporate media a powerful weapon to silence their critics. After all, these critics have no platform other than independent websites and social media. Shut down the sites and you shut up your opponents.

Google and Facebook have been coming under relentless and well-documented pressure from traditional media corporations and the political establishment to curb access to independent news and analysis sites, especially those offering highly critical perspectives on the policies and behaviour of western corporations and state bureaucracies. ... The pressure on Google and Facebook is not going to ease. And the two new-media giants are not likely to put up any more resistance than is absolutely necessary to suggest they are still committed to some abstract notion of free speech.

Russiagate Targets Black People

The latest and most shameful charge is that Russia has targeted black Americans in an effort to “sow division” in the United States via social media. We are told that the Russian government spent a grand total of $100,000 to undermine the election and American society. Twitter and Facebook posts on issues ranging from the second amendment to police murder are now said to be tools of Russian espionage.

The cynical plot kills several birds with one stone. Democrats can explain away their dismal electoral failures. Democrats and Republicans make the case for imperialism. Now a phony concern for the plight of black Americans will be the rationale for targeting not only the Russian government, but all leftists in this country. From the Propornot campaign to changes in search engine algorithms, leftists and even progressive Democrats are being censored. That attack is committed under the guise of fighting Vladimir Putin and the effort is completely bipartisan.

Corporate giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google go along with the war party. Facebook initially showed little concern regarding the flimsy charges, but Democratic Senator Mark Warner raced off to Facebook headquarters to demand they find something. Facebook complied and is now fully on board with censorship under the guise of fighting Russia.
Now black people are being used in the propaganda effort. A neocon unit called Alliance for Securing Democracy has taken it upon itself to decide who is or isn’t a Russian operative. Led by right wingers like Bill Kristol, Michael Chertoff and Michael Morrell, professional propagandists and former CIA directors ask us to accept their determinations about who is or isn’t working for Russia. Whatever the truth about these social media ads, black people must not defend the system which oppresses them. ...

Black people took to the streets in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland because Michael Brown and Freddie Gray were killed by police. If there is any division to be sown it is because of institutionalized murder and other crimes and not because of any actions on Vladimir Putin’s part.

Draft U.N. blacklist names Saudi coalition for killing children in Yemen

A confidential draft United Nations blacklist seen by Reuters on Tuesday names a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition for killing and maiming children in Yemen, though it notes that the alliance has put in place measures to improve child protection.

In an effort to dampen controversy surrounding the annual children and armed conflict report, the draft blacklist - contained in an annex to the full report - is split into “listed parties that have put in place measures during the reporting period to improve the protection of children” and those which have not.

“In Yemen, the coalition’s actions objectively led to the listing for the killing and maiming of children, with 683 child casualties attributed to this party, and, as a result of being responsible for 38 verified incidents, for attacks on schools and hospitals during 2016,” according to a draft explanation of the blacklist seen by Reuters.

Massive Protests in Catalonia as General Strike Is Observed

Businesses ground to a halt here in Barcelona and across Catalonia on Tuesday, as a general strike was observed and protesters poured into the streets. Two days after the Spanish government authorized the use of force to disrupt a referendum on independence from Spain, Catalans for and against secession remain livid.

Spanish police officers, who injured nearly 900 voters as they attempted to cast ballots on Sunday, were a focus for much of the anger, as fresh images of the attacks continued to circulate. Rage at police actions intensified as video was broadcast showing Spanish officers in a hotel outside Barcelona applauding their colleagues and chanting “Viva España” late Monday night.

The Spanish officers were protected, however, by local Catalan police and demonstrators determined to retain the moral high ground through nonviolence.

Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, tweeted that 300,000 people marched in a protest that took over two hours to pass in front of local headquarters of the national police force, where demonstrators slowed to whistle, jeer, and chant, but there were no reports of violence. ...

Apart from anger at the Spanish police, there was also widespread scorn for the role played by Spain’s newspaper and television journalists, who stand accused by protesters of politically motivated, “manipulative” reporting that demonizes Catalan separatists as greedy or violent.

Crackdown by Spain on Peaceful Voters Who Favor Catalonia Independence Recalls Franco Regime

Spain 'losing control' of Catalonia, analysts warn

The expulsion of police from their hotels in Catalonia under pressure from street protests illustrates Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's growing struggle to keep control of the separatist-minded region, analysts say.

Police were able to close only about four percent of the polling stations while carrying out a violence-marred crackdown on would-be voters on Sunday, as regional leaders pushed ahead with a banned independence referendum.

Angered by the crackdown, an estimated 300,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona on Tuesday, shouting "occupation forces out".

Hundreds of police officers sent to the region to block the vote were chased out of their hotels by protesters who gathered outside.

For many Spaniards, such scenes highlight a growing sense that the authorities in Madrid are losing their grip on Catalonia.

The UAE Secretly Picked Up the Tab for the Egyptian Dictatorship’s D.C. Lobbying

When Egypt went to work to establish the credibility of its repressive government in Washington, it had help from the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba.

Emails obtained by The Intercept show that Otaiba and the UAE essentially picked up the tab for Egypt’s lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

Egypt in 2013 enlisted the Glover Park Group, a top D.C. public relations and lobbying firm founded by former Clinton White House and Democratic Party officials, to be one of its public faces in the U.S. capital.

In a September 2015 memo to Otaiba, GPG described its work for Egypt as designed to influence both the U.S. government and the “echo chamber” of Washington think tanks and news media in order to influence American policy.

US votes against UN resolution condemning gay sex death penalty, joining Iraq and Saudi Arabia

The US is one of just 13 countries to have voted against a United Nations resolution condemning the death penalty for having gay sex. Although the vote passed, America joined countries such as China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in opposing the move. The Human Rights Council resolution condemned the “imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations”.

It attacked the use of execution against persons with “mental or intellectual disabilities, persons below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime, and pregnant women”. It also expressed “serious concern that the application of the death penalty for adultery is disproportionately imposed on women”.

The US supported two failed amendments put forward by Russia, which stated the death penalty was not necessarily “a human rights violation” and that it is not a form of torture, but can lead to it “in some cases”. And it abstained on a “sovereignty amendment” put forward by Saudi Arabia, that stated “the right of all countries to develop their own laws and penalties”.

Masquerading Hackers Are Forcing a Rethink of How Attacks Are Traced

The growing propensity of government hackers to re-use code and computers from rival nations is undermining the integrity of hacking investigations and calling into question how online attacks are attributed, according to researchers from Kaspersky Lab.

In a paper set for release today at the Virus Bulletin digital security conference in Madrid, the researchers highlight cases in which they’ve seen hackers acting on behalf of nation states stealing tools and hijacking infrastructure previously used by hackers of other nation states. Investigators need to watch out for signs of this or risk tracing attacks to the wrong perpetrators, the researchers said.

Threat researchers have built an industry on identifying and profiling hacking groups in order to understand their methods, anticipate future moves and develop methods for battling them. They often attribute attacks by “clustering” malicious files, IP addresses, and servers that get re-used across hacking operations, knowing that threat actors use the same code and infrastructure repeatedly to save time and effort. So when researchers see the same encryption algorithms and digital certificates re-used in various attacks, for example, they tend to assume the attacks were perpetrated by the same group. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Getting this information right is particularly important because the investigations of security companies are increasingly playing a role in government attribution of hacking attacks.

Yahoo says all of its 3bn accounts were affected by 2013 hacking

Yahoo said on Tuesday that every one of its 3bn accounts was affected by a 2013 data theft at the tech company, tripling its earlier estimate of the largest breach in history.

The company, now part of Verizon Communications, said last December that data from more than 1bn user accounts was compromised by hackers in August 2013.

Yahoo included the finding in an update to its account security update page. The company said it will begin alerting accounts that were not previously notified of the attack.

However, the company said the latest investigation indicated that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information.

“It is important to note that, in connection with Yahoo’s December 2016 announcement of the August 2013 theft, Yahoo took action to protect all accounts. The company required all users who had not changed their passwords since the time of the theft to do so. Yahoo also invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so they cannot be used to access an account,” Yahoo said on Tuesday.

Rex Tillerson says he won't quit but doesn't deny calling Trump a 'moron'

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has denied he has considered resignation and pledged loyalty to Donald Trump in the wake of a report that he had called the president a “moron”.

“There has never been a consideration in my mind to leave. I serve at the appointment of the president and I’m here as long as the president thinks I can be useful to achieving his objectives,” Tillerson said at a hastily arranged press appearance on Wednesday.

But he did not deny the report on NBC News on Wednesday morning that he had derided Trump as a “moron” in a meeting of White House national security officials and members of the cabinet. Instead, he shrugged off the report as “petty nonsense” and issued a stream of praise for the president. ...

Moments after his statement, CNN also reported that he had called Trump a moron and that Trump had been made aware of it. The secretary of state said he had not talked to the president on Wednesday morning before making his statement, saying Trump was on his way to Las Vegas. But the president was clearly watching Tillerson, tweeting within a few minutes.

“The NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec Tillerson and VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!” Trump wrote.

Could Trump Actually Cancel Puerto Rico's Wall Street Debt after Devastation of Hurricane Maria?

We Can Finally Identify One Of The Largest Holders Of Puerto Rican Debt

For years, the identity of the owner of one of the largest holdings of Puerto Rican debts has been a mystery.

That mystery has finally been solved, with the help of the The Baupost Group, who unmasked themselves to The Intercept. The Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund managed by billionaire Seth Klarman, owns nearly a billion dollars of Puerto Rican debt, purchased under a shell company subsidiary and hidden from public scrutiny. ...

Though the island, currently recovering from a catastrophic hurricane, has been mired in a borrowing crisis for years, it’s difficult to get precise information about the creditors. Many of them scooped up bonds on the cheap, seeking an astronomical payout by forcing the island to pay them back at par (or 100 cents on the dollar). This has led to widespread suffering, as punishing austerity has been imposed to encourage Puerto Rico to pay back the bondholders in full. ...

Julio Lopez, state director of Make the Road Connecticut and a member of the HedgeClippers coalition, which is organized to challenge the concentrated power of hedge funds, said the revelation of Klarman’s involvement will have political ramifications.

“What’s incredible about this is these people were actually hiding,” said Lopez. “In the case of this person, he’s in Boston which has a large Puerto Rican community … Our work right now will be about activating our community in Boston, letting them know this person has been hiding and making sure we go to his houses and his companies to hold them accountable.”

Big Capital May Punish the UK For Corbynomics

IRS awards Equifax $7.25 million contract to prevent fraud

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to give Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayers' identities and help combat fraud, according to a recently-issued contract.

The IRS is hiring the embattled credit reporting agency to “verify taxpayer identity and to assist in ongoing identity verification and validations needs of the Service,” according to its filing on Federal Business Opportunities, a website that lists federal contracts.

The IRS labels Equifax as a “sole source order,” which means that the agency believes the credit reporting company is the only business capable of providing the service.

The contract comes as lawmakers and the public continue to hammer the company over its cybersecurity breach that compromised the information of 145.5 million Americans.

We’ve Grossly Underestimated How Much Cow Farts Are Contributing to Global Warming

A new NASA-sponsored study shows that global methane emissions produced by livestock are 11 percent higher than estimates made last decade. Because methane is a particularly nasty greenhouse gas, the new finding means it’s going to be even tougher to combat climate change than we realized.

We’ve known for quite some time that greenhouse gases produced by cattle, sheep, and pigs are a significant contributor to global warming, but the new research, published in Carbon Balance and Management, shows it’s worse than we thought. Revised figures of methane produced by livestock in 2011 were 11 percent higher than estimates made in 2006 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a now out-of-date estimate.

It’s hard to believe that belches, farts, and poop from livestock could have any kind of global atmospheric effect, but it’s an issue of scale, and the nature of methane itself.

There are approximately 1.5 billion cows on the planet, each and every one of them expelling upwards of 30 to 50 gallons of methane each day. We typically think of farts as being the culprit, but belches are actually the primary source of cattle-produced methane, accounting for 95 percent of the problematic greenhouse gas.

Time to shine: Solar power is fastest-growing source of new energy

Solar power was the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide last year, outstripping the growth in all other forms of power generation for the first time and leading experts to hail a “new era”.

Renewable energy accounted for two-thirds of new power added to the world’s grids in 2016, the International Energy Agency said, but the group found solar was the technology that shone brightest.

New solar capacity even overtook the net growth in coal, previously the biggest new source of power generation. The shift was driven by falling prices and government policies, particularly in China, which accounted for almost half the solar panels installed.

The Paris-based IEA predicted that solar would dominate future growth, with global capacity in five years’ time expected to be greater than the current combined total power capacity of India and Japan.

Fukushima operator can restart nuclear reactors at world's biggest plant

The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been given initial approval to restart reactors at another atomic facility, marking the first step towards the firm’s return to nuclear power generation more than six years after the March 2011 triple meltdown.

Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved an application from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to restart two reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa – the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – even as the utility struggles to decommission Fukushima Daiichi.

The process will involve reviews and consultations with the public, and the restart is also expected to encounter strong opposition from people living near the plant on the Japan Sea coast of Niigata prefecture.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) ruled that the No 6 and No 7 reactors, each with a capacity of 1,356 megawatts, met stringent new safety standards introduced after the Fukushima disaster. The authority’s five commissioners voted unanimously to approve the restarts at a meeting on Wednesday.

The decision drew criticism from anti-nuclear campaigners.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Intercepted Podcast: Guns Before Country

The NRA’s Latest Terrorist Attack on U.S. Soil

The violent side of Spain has resurfaced

The Supreme Court Returns to Washington, and Workers Are on the Menu

Donald Trump’s Disgusting Remark On Puerto Rico Is More Revealing Than He Knows

Puerto Rico’s Debt Is Quietly Sitting in Mom and Pop Mutual Funds as Trump Says It Will Be Wiped Out

Trump's Puerto Rico Visit Is a Political Disaster

Populists are on the March in the South: Bernie-Backed Insurgent Randall Woodfin Defeats Birmingham’s Incumbent Mayor

‘The Social Contract Is Broken’: Inequality Becomes Deadly in Mexico

Too poor to vote: how Alabama’s ‘new poll tax’ bars thousands of people from voting

Goodbye – and good riddance – to livestock farming

Americans Hopeful This Will Be Last Mass Shooting Before They Stop On Their Own For No Reason

A Little Night Music

The Chairmen of the Board - Chairman of the Board

The Chairmen of the Board - Give Me Just A Little More Time

Chairmen Of The Board - Patches

Chairman Of The Board - Feelin Alright

The Chairmen of the Board - Finders Keepers

The Chairmen of the Board - You got me dangling on a string

Chairman of the Board - Gone Fishing

General Johnson and the Chairman of the Board - Carolina Girls

General Johnson & The Showmen - It Will Stand

General Johnson & The Showmen - 39-21-46

Chairmen Of the Board - Everything Is Tuesday

Chairmen Of the Board - Pay To The Piper

Chairmen Of the Board - Working on a Building of Love

Chairmen Of The Board - Skin I'm In

Chairmen Of The Board - Party All Night