In The Nation, Eric Alterman reminds us of Elliot Abrams’s lying on behalf of Salvadoran death squads in the Reagan years.
This was 20 years before the W. Bush administration’s “El Salvador Option” in Iraq, using the Badr Corps to hunt and kill Sunnis, which backfired, leading to Abrams’s “Redirection” policy to start tilting back toward al Qaeda.
Later he thankfully botched a coup in Venezuela.
I know there’s nowhere else to go, but reasonable people just need to quit Reddit.
Recently they have comprehensively banned and quarantined (funny wording) all talk of the coronavirus that does not refer to either 1) government press releases or 2) mainstream media articles. It’s sick, because these two sources of information are a week behind the curve and also often just wrong. Let’s compare this topic to national security topics, and see how much we trust the “official” channel of information.
Still, if information has to be verified by official channels before it can be viewed, then do we live in a democracy? If people can’t sort through and discuss facts without supervision, then do the people rule? It’s really terrifying.
Mind you that Reddit’s competitors have been shut down by a combination of government threats and mysterious web attacks. The places on the internet which can be called a “public forum” are all being shut down, or heavily regulated. They are also promoting and fostering a culture of shaming anyone who disagrees with consensus and official narratives. Yeah, there are free private forums on the internet still, but no places to just show up and meet strangers and be allowed to freely discuss anything. Scary.
By the way, Discord lets people make private chats and all that. So if Facebook and Reddit aren’t your thing for a private chat, try Discord – though it’s kind of an under 30 thing.
Update: Elizabeth Warren wants jail for spreading online disinformation.
People support this woman.
And get away with it, of course.
“Tragedy in East Baghdad”
From Haaretz: Fact check, Trump did not actually offer the Palestinians a state
The “Deal Of the Century” is nothing more than a declaration of surrender. Surrender what little sovereignty you have and any agency to act on your own behalf. Allow us to herd you into reservations you don’t control and have very limited autonomy over. This is not a Palestinian state. We’ve seen this before.
Nevermind her weird crooked face, I’m talking about that time she kidnapped an innocent young teenager and locked him in a cage for the rest of his life for a crime he did not commit.
Think for a minute she cared whether this was really the guy?
Yeah right. No evidence? No problem. He’s poor and black. What’s he going to do about it anyway?
Trump now regrets hiring John Bolton.
….many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020
