Category: General

“Online Persona Management Services” to Allow CIA, etc., to Control Social Media Conversations

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“Online Persona Management Services” to Allow CIA, etc., to Control Social Media Conversations
CENTCOM responded to the news with its typical openness and candor: “The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable CENTCOM to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US,” said spokesman Bill Speaks (how’s that for a sock puppet name, huh?) But of course the internet is international in nature. The contract calls for the sock puppet controllers to employ something called “traffic mixing,” which intends to blend the online presence of the false persona with that of people outside of the operation, in a way that will provide, “...excellent cover and deniability.”

RIP, Berta Caceres -What Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You to Know

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RIP, Berta Caceres -What Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You to Know
If environmentalists like Caceres are ever going to win, it will be in the face of these huge, almost unseeable and unknowable economic forces. Until we all recognize them--and their political handmaidens--for what they are, hugely destructive monstrous forces that threaten to destroy our only planet for the sake of a few dollars--they will continue to roll over us all until there is nothing left.

Terrorism And Cucumbers

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Terrorism And Cucumbers
Nursery school workers go insane, report four-year-old child for terroristic threats over mispronounced word Remember the good old days, when school officials overreacted to things that could actually be reasonably considered a threat–albeit a far-fetched one–like the little girl whose father packed a steak knife in her lunch to make it easier for her to cut a chicken breast? It might at least seem plausible that someone could see fit to take a flimsy steak knife away from a six-year-old, sure.… Read the rest

Legislation advances in Australia that would label protesters as “eco-terrorists”

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Legislation advances in Australia that would label protesters as “eco-terrorists”
Sometimes the state seems downright eager to make true every horrible thing people say about it. In Australia’s latest effort to lurch its way downward into a true Orwellian dystopia, the legislature in New South Wales has advanced legislation that would tar even peaceful protesters with the label “eco-terrorists” and hand police sweeping new powers. The move was widely derided as an anti-democratic, authoritarian attack.… Read the rest

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Sudden Death Costs Dow Chemical Nearly $1 Billion US

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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Sudden Death Costs Dow Chemical Nearly $1 Billion US
Dow had planned to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, confident that the high court’s consistent 5-4 split (with Scalia’s considerable weight favoring business and other conservative causes regardless of the precedent or even logic involved) would play out in their favor. Upon news of the famously hard line conservative judge’s death, however, Dow quickly did an about face and decided to accept a slightly lower settlement of $835 million and be done with it, rather than take their chances with a tie in the Supreme Court, which would by default uphold the lower court’s ruling.

Japanese Children Self-Sufficient at a Remarkably Young Age by Western Standards. What Can We Learn from them?

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Japanese Children Self-Sufficient at a Remarkably Young Age by Western Standards. What Can We Learn from them?
For the Japanese one big difference in attitude is the cultural sense not so much of self-sufficiency, but rather of group reliance. As reported in The Atlantic, Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth, says that a strong sense of community is key to understanding the independence of their kids: “[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others,” Dixon said.

Modern Day Slavery: For Profit Prisons Make Huge Profits But Degrade Us All says Whistlebloser Kiriakao

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Modern Day Slavery: For Profit Prisons Make Huge Profits But Degrade Us All says Whistlebloser Kiriakao
There used to be a time when the aim of prisons was rehabilitation. They still use that word sometimes. But how closely focused on rehabilitating the sources of their profits can a private for profit prison There is a sickness at work here at the heart of this very ugly twist on capitalism, and it is appropriate that Kiriakou comment on it, considering the sickness he personally exposed at the heart of the CIA torture program, and the price he paid for that bravery. Thank you, Mr. Kiriakou.