Facebook deactivates dozens of accounts of Palestinian journalists and activists
Eds. | mronline.org | 2020-05-15
At least 52 Palestinians have been affected by Facebook's deactivation sweep, according to data collected by Middle East Eye…
mronline.org/2020/05/15/facebook-deactiv…
The Japanese Art of Avoiding Your Relatives (Or Why Covid-19 Flopped in Japan)
Ash Warren | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
Let's say you do not get along with your mother-in-law and you do not wish to have contact with her like, ever. | Here are two possible methods you might employ. | The first is to burn down your house, fake your own death and move somewhere else under an assumed identity, or failing that to dig up the entire road between your place and hers, blow up her car and steal all her shoes. | This may discourage the urge to visit. | The other is to just not open the door when she knocks. | In many countries as we all well know, in order to avoid coming in contact with the dreaded Covid-19, which is possibly even more i…
anti-empire.com/the-japanese-art-of-avoi…
No Lockdowns: The Terrifying Polio Pandemic of 1949-52
Jeffrey A. Tucker | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
World War II had ended four years earlier and the U.S. was trying to return to peace and prosperity. Price controls and rationing were ended. Trade was opening. People were returning to normal life. The economy started humming again. Optimism for the future was growing. Harry Truman became the symbol of a new normacy. From Depression and war, society was on the mend. | As if to serve as a reminder that there were still threats to life and liberty present, an old enemy made its appearance: polio. It's a disease with ancient origins, with its most terrifying effect, the paralysis of the lower extremities. It mai…
anti-empire.com/no-lockdowns-the-terrify…
Anonymous shootings target students as violence against activists increases in Chile
Carole Concha Bell | thecanary.co | 2020-05-15
Chile has had a turbulent few months. And at the end of April, a dozen people were shot from an unmarked car in one of Santiago's most populated suburbs, La Florida, during a peaceful protest. This was not an isolated incident. Violence against students and protesters by anonymous attackers has…
thecanary.co/feature/2020/05/15/anonymous-shootings-target-students-as-violence-against-activists-increases-in-chile/
Venezuelan TV Exposed US Mercenaries' Names, Photos and Incursion Plan a Month Before It Happened
Ryan Parry | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
The Americans behind the failed Venezuelan coup went ahead with the ill-fated mission even though the country's ruling regime publicly exposed their plan on live TV more than a month earlier. | In footage unearthed by DailyMail.com Venezuelan state television claimed its government had infiltrated the 'mercenaries' and even aired photographs of the coup's US leader, Jordan Goudreau. | They also appeared to have the names of the other two Americans captured and paraded on TV this week, ex Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry. | The revelation, alongside the apparent lack of funding and adequate equipment fo…
anti-empire.com/venezuelan-tv-exposed-us…
Burundi Kicks Out WHO Meddlers
AFP | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
| Burundi has ordered the country's top World Health Organization (WHO) representative and three other experts coordinating the coronavirus response…
anti-empire.com/burundi-kicks-out-who-me…
Bye-Bye TEACHERS, COPS And Government PENSIONS
Karl Denninger | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
To all the screaming Karens: You've fired a few million workers and some of them even include you. | Retail sales for April were 22% below last year's figures. | No stores open, no bars and restaurants open, nobody actually spending money. "Oh, you can order out." Uh huh. The volume of business collapsed anyway. | That means no tax receipts. No sales taxes. | It means commercial property, which has property taxation at much higher rates than residences, is now wort…
anti-empire.com/bye-bye-teachers-cops-an…
In Defence of Conspiracy Theories (And Why the Term Is a Misnomer)
David Coady | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
Before 2012, if you had voiced suspicions that the Australian government had been anything but open and honourable in dealing with East Timor
Biden Can't Return Things to Normal, Because Trump Is a Normal US President. That's the Problem
Andrey Areshev | strategic-culture.org | 2020-05-15
To be clear, this is not a good thing. Trump has kept the bloodthirsty imperialism, corporate cronyism, Orwellian oppression, neoliberal exploitation and police militarization that holds the US empire together ticking along in basically the same way as his predecessors, in some ways more egregiously and in some ways less so.
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/05/15/bi…
Up to Five Iranian Tankers en Route to Venezuela Carrying Much-Needed Gasoline
Irina Slav | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-15
An Iranian tanker loaded with gasoline has set sail for Venezuela, Reuters reports, citing tanker tracking data. The cargo should help alleviate a growing shortage of gasoline in the sanctions-stricken South American country. | The Clavel, a medium tanker, loaded in March at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and this week passed the Suez Canal, the data showed. | TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani confirmed the data to Oilprice.com, noting that there were several vessels en route from Iran to Venezuela, with the cargo all or mostly gasoline. |
The 1930s and now: Looking back to move forward
Martin Hart-Landsberg | mronline.org | 2020-05-14
While there are great differences between the crises and political movements and possibilities of the 1930s and now, there are also important lessons that can be learned from the efforts of activists to build mass movements for social transformation during the Great Depression. My aim in this paper is to illuminate the challenges faced and …
mronline.org/2020/05/14/the-1930s-and-no…
Saturday, May 16, Second Webinar, 12-1 PM EDT Disarm and Divest During Covid-19
David Quinn-Jacobs | kingsbayplowshares7.org | 2020-05-11
Disarm & Divest During COVID19 Last KBP 7 Webinar Before Sentencing SATURDAY, MAY 16, 12-1pm. The Kings Bay Plowshares defendants will hold their final webinar before sentencing, this Saturday, May 16, 12-1 pm ET. Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of the Intercept, will host the defendants. Lead attorney Bill Quigley will join the webinar…
kingsbayplowshares7.org/2020/05/sat-5-16…
Facebook Is Go-To Platform For Organizing Protests Against Social Distancing
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2020-05-04
As COVID-19 continues to pose a lethal threat worldwide, fringe, right-wing activists are using Facebook to mobilize protests of stay-at-home orders in several states.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/05/05/faceb…
Jailing people who use Covid-19 as bioweapon would be 'discrimination.' So better lock up everyone instead?
rt.com | 2020-05-15
Accidentally spreading Covid-19 is wanting grandma dead, say opponents of ending lockdowns. Yet activists now worry that proposed laws to punish those who threaten to spread it deliberately would discriminate against minorities. | A Florida man spat and coughed on a police officer responding to a domestic violence call, and faces up to five years in prison on a federal charge of biological weapons hoax (he was negative for Covid-19). Another man in Texas, who falsely claimed on Facebook that he paid someone to spread the virus at local grocery stores, was charged with the same thing. A Michigan man who wiped h…
rt.com/usa/488692-criminalizing-covid-di…