Tag: finance

As protests continue with no end in sight, marchers returned to the streets for a ninth night of demonstrations on Wednesday for what were largely peaceful demonstrations, marred by a couple of examples of police violence. According to the AP, Wednesday marked the second night that protests were “subdued”, following elevated charges against the officers involved in Floyd’s killing, as well as a start-studded memorial service in Minneapolis that featured the Rev. Al Sharpton and many of George Floyd’s family members.

According to the AP, the quieter mood was inspired by the new and upgraded criminal charges against the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, a more conciliatory approach by police (in many areas, police marched with them); along with the realization that the burst of violence following Floyd’s killing wasn’t sustainable.

“Personally, I think you can’t riot everyday for almost a week,” said Costa Smith, 26, who was protesting in downtown Atlanta.

Still, protesters have shown no signs that the marches will stop any time soon. And with millions of unemployed Americans, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the reaction to Floyd’s killings become an entrenched movement that continues for months, like Occupy Wall Street.

On protester in NYC told an AP reporter that there are “a lot more nights to go” of marching because protesters hadn’t got what they wanted.” Floyd’s brother Terrence appeared in Brooklyn, energizing the marchers. AP reported Friday morning that the NYPD made 240 arrests Thursday, compared with 180 on Wednesday.

During the first in a series of memorials for Floyd, the Rev. Al Sharpton urged those gathered Thursday “to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks!'”

In Texas, protesters welcomed Fort Worth officers joining the front of a march, while police in Austin also walked with dozens of members of the University of Texas football squad as they made their way from campus to the state Capitol to honor Floyd’s memory. After arriving, they all took a knee for the 8 minute 46 seconds, which symbolizes the amount of time Floyd was on the ground.

“This protest won’t just stop here,” junior safety Caden Sterns said. “To the white community…if you want change like you say you do, you must change. What I mean is, you must realize, and the oppressor must realize, you are oppressing.”

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms marched with protesters downtown and told the crowd through a megaphone that “there is something better on the other side of this.”

“We are in the midst of a movement in this country,” she said. “But it’s going to be incumbent upon all of us to be able to get together and articulate more than our anger. We got to be able to articulate what we want as our solutions.”

In spite of all of these positive feelings, the evening was marred by two incidents of police violence, one of which led to the immediate suspension of two officers in Buffalo after they pushed a frail elderly citizen to the ground, causing him to start bleeding out of his ear and likely nearly killing him.

BREAKING NOW: I just confirmed, the 2 officers seen shoving the elderly man in this video have been suspended IMMEDIATELY, according to the Buffalo police commissioner. pic.twitter.com/qbTvXAAPLH

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 5, 2020

In Vallejho, a city in the Bay Area, an officer shot and killed a protester who was kneeling with his hands up. The officer later said he believed a hammer in the man’s pocket was a firearm, according to the Guardian.

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the city council said they’re looking into a plan to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a new “public safety” organization. One council member suggesting replacing the traditional police department with a more holistic “public safety” department geared toward violence prevention and community services. Social workers or medics could respond to situations once handled by police, she suggested, like drug overdoses, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Around the White House, the Washington Post reports that the perimeter has continued to expand with each passing night. Here’s an infographic depicting the perimeter as of Thursday evening.

Source: WaPo

Mayor Jacob Frey says he’d support “deep, structural reforms” to the department, but not complete abolition of the agency. The level of support among the council members for the abolition vote is unclear.

Whatever the case may be, we should know soon enough as the city council prepares to vote Friday on reforms related to the police department.

The Buffalo, New York Police Department has suspended two officers without pay and launched an Internal Affairs investigation after a viral video showed the cops shoving a 75-year-old protester onto a concrete sidewalk as police cleared Niagra Square during enforcement of a citywide curfew.

The man can be seen bleeding from the head following the incident.

According to the Buffalo News, the incident occurred several hours after a standoff between police in riot gear and protesters, who where blocking the street in front of City Hall.

Two members of @BPDAlerts push him – one of them gives up a name slowing down the 1080p version on YouTube

Cc: @JordanUhl pic.twitter.com/BQHqaTCnuW

— J̶O̸N̶ (@Bern4Bern) June 5, 2020

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown – who told protesters in Niagra Square on Thursday that he will formally outlaw the use of choke holds on suspects by the Buffalo PD – said that the man was “knocked down” by officers.

A 7 Eyewitness News reporter captured video showing the aftermath of the incident. Protesters can be heard reacting to the man’s fall. The man is now in stable but serious condition at Erie County Medical Center.

7 Eyewitness News has learned Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood has ordered the suspension of the officers involved in the incident. –WKBW

Mayor Brown issued the following statement shortly after 11 p.m.:

Tonight, after a physical altercation between two separate groups of protesters participating in an illegal demonstration beyond the curfew, two Buffalo Police officers knocked down a 75-year-old man. The victim is in stable but serious condition at ECMC. I was deeply disturbed by the video, as was Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood. He directed an immediate investigation into the matter, and the two officers have been suspended without pay. After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, Police leadership and members of the community, tonight’s event is disheartening. I hope to continue to build on the progress we have achieved as we work together to address racial injustice and inequity in the City of Buffalo. My thoughts are with the victim tonight.

Governor Andrew Cuomo weighed in as well, tweeting “This incident is wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful.”

“I’ve spoken with Buffalo @MayorByronBrown and we agree that the officers involved should be immediately suspended pending a formal investigation.”

This incident is wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful.

I’ve spoken with Buffalo @MayorByronBrown and we agree that the officers involved should be immediately suspended pending a formal investigation.

Police Officers must enforce — NOT ABUSE — the law. https://t.co/EYIbTlXnPt

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 5, 2020

Really?

Investigate WHAT?

You have the video.

Fire them.

— Kassandra Seven (@KassandraSeven) June 5, 2020

The New York ACLU also weighed in, saying in a statment “The casual cruelty demonstrated by Buffalo police officers tonight is gut-wrenching and unacceptable. Suspensions and an investigation are already in order, but there is little more we have to see to know what took place.” 

Police officers cannot continue to hide behind the lie that they are protecting and serving.

Read our full statement here. https://t.co/j2qDsk48jt pic.twitter.com/9alNvHr0zI

— NYCLU (@NYCLU) June 5, 2020

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A policewoman in Sweden has gone viral after she responded to “protesters” attacking her vehicle by taking a knee, crying and holding a sign that read “white silence is violence.”

A video clip shows the woman submitting to the mob before she is hugged by black people and a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

“The significance of the gesture is reinforced by the fact that her police car was attacked the seconds before she chose to submit to them,” commented Tobias Andersson.

This is what global mass-hysteria looks like. Crying #Swedish female police officers take a “Kaepernick-knee”, holding signs saying “White Silence Is Violence” in front of thousands of ppl at today’s #BlackLivesMatter protest. Video Source :@SamnyttSimon pic.twitter.com/jQIHmJ4qD4

— BasedPoland (@BasedPoland) June 3, 2020

Similar scenes have been documented in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

In each case, the person prostrates themselves so as not to get harassed, or in the worst case scenario, physically attacked by the mob.

This happened while their colleagues were literally being chased down and beaten. Total capitulation. pic.twitter.com/5dUam8arck

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 3, 2020

Two police officers in London were photographed kneeling before protesters yesterday, only for their colleagues to be violently attacked moments later.

If these are the people tasked with the responsibility of defending us from violent mobs, is it any wonder that armed vigilante groups in America are now protecting their own neighborhoods?

Meanwhile, Sweden maintains its reputation as the most embarrassing, pathetic country in the world.

En polis väljer att knäböja och underkasta sig de demonstranter som precis uttryckt att de hatar hela hennes yrkeskår. pic.twitter.com/k5ovMnLJfF

— Tobias Andersson (@SDTobbe) June 3, 2020

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We know what you’re thinking: Isn’t this just another “Spanish porn star arrested on manslaughter charges after inhaling psychedelic toad venom” story? It seems like they are just a dime a dozen nowadays.

But such is life: the latest case comes from Madrid, where a porn star named “Nacho Vidal” (of course) was arrested not only on manslaughter charges, but also for crimes against public health.

Nacho was detained last week in Valencia in connection with the death of a man that occurred in July 2019, according to AFP. The man who died was identified as fashion photographer Jose Luis Abad. The arrest comes after an 11 month inquiry into Abad’s death and Vidal.

A police statement said: “The police operation began following the victim’s death during the celebration of a mystic ritual based on the inhalation of venom of the bufo alvarius toad.”

The toad “secretes venom containing a very powerful natural psychedelic substance known as 5-MeO-DMT,” AFP wrote. The effects of the toad venom have been compared to DMT or ayahuasca. 

Authorities have said rituals like this one have been carried out “regularly” on the grounds that they offered medicinal benefits. Instead, authorities said it posed a “serious health risk” and lured in those who were “easily influenced, vulnerable or who were seeking help for illnesses or addictions using alternative methods.”

Vidal, described by AFP as “a media-savvy porn star in his mid-40s whose Twitter feed is full of ads for his 25-centimetre aromatic candles of the male genitalia,” (we swear we are not making this up) would host the rituals in his home.

Spanish porn star Nacho Vidal, who likes to advertise his aromatic candles shaped like male genitalia on Twitter, has been arrested on manslaughter charges following a man’s death during a mystic ritual in which he inhaled psychedelic toad venom @AFP https://t.co/csPGMAnQOq

— Hazel Ward (@WardieJerusalem) June 3, 2020

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The advance of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs) has incentivized scientists to look into various ways to solve the problem with efficient energy storage, which is the key to wider adoption of green energy technologies.

Most research focuses on batteries—how to make lithium-ion batteries safer and more efficient or how other, cheaper elements, can be used in batteries.

Most previous research has focused on the chemical storage and the electrochemical reactions in batteries.  

Now researchers at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are proposing a design based on the mechanical properties of nanostructures containing diamonds that could potentially be used in mechanical energy storage devices, including batteries, biomedical sensing systems, wearables, and small robotics and electronics.

The mechanical functions of a diamond nanothread (DNT) bundle have the potential to store and release energy when stretched or twisted. These diamond nanothread bundles consist of one-dimensional carbon threads.

“Similar to a compressed coil or children’s wind-up toy, energy can be released as the twisted bundle unravels,” Dr. Haifei Zhan from the QUT Centre for Materials Science said in a statement.

Zhan and his colleagues have found that the diamond bundles have high energy density—that is how much energy a system contains compared to its mass. The team have successfully modeled the mechanical energy storage and release capabilities of a DNT bundle and published their research paper in Nature Communications.

The model is just a first step in the team’s research into the potential of mechanical energy storage as compared to electrochemical energy storage. The scientists now plan to design an experimental nanoscale mechanical energy system as proof of concept and will spend the next two-three years building the system that will control the twisting and stretching of the nanothread bundle.

Despite the fact that research into diamond nanothreads is in very early stages, initial experiments show promising results. Compared to lithium-ion batteries, the diamond nanothread bundle has up to three times the energy density, according to the QUT scientists.

“Energy dense materials are very important to many applications, which is why we are always looking for lightweight materials that still perform well,” said Dr. Zhan.  

High energy density and low weight of materials used could be a major breakthrough in solving the issue of how to pack high energy potential into a lightweight energy storage system.

Because of its low weight, the diamond nanothread could find applications in aerospace electronics. Because of the mechanical—not electrochemical—nature of its energy storage potential, the diamond bundles could be used for implanted biomedical sensing systems monitoring heart and brain functions, the researchers at the QUT say. And, for batteries, the mechanical nature of the energy would be safer than the electrochemical reactions in lithium-ion batteries.

“Unlike chemical storage such as lithium-ion batteries, which use electrochemical reactions to store and release energy, a mechanical energy system itself would carry much lower risk by comparison,” Dr. Zhan said.

Mechanical energy storage systems are one of the many recent research projects and innovations in energy storage. Heat, gravity, or geothermal energy could be used to store and release energy, scientists and companies have set to prove.

While lithium-ion batteries are currently the most popular and widely used energy storage solution, the future may lie in nanostructures using mechanical rather than chemical energy forces.  

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of Energy, the constantly falling costs of available renewable technologies have spurred great interest in energy storage and various solutions to improve energy storage systems.

“There’s a misunderstanding. Storage is often looked upon as electrochemical storage or battery storage,” says Adarsh Nagarajan, the group manager for Power System Design and Planning at NREL, who works on integrating renewables onto the grid.

“Storage is beyond batteries. It’s beyond electrochemical. It’s much broader.”

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, has acknowledged that too many people have died in the country due to COVID-19. Tegnell was key in developing Sweden’s more relaxed strategy which saw bars, shops, cafes and gyms remain open while the rest of Europe locked down, which he criticised as being unsustainable.

Some restrictions were indeed imposed in Sweden with schools closing for over-16s but, as Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, the public were generally trusted to remain responsible and carry out physical distancing without government enforcement.

During a radio interview, Tegnell said that:

“if we were to encounter the same disease again, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done.”

His comments come as figures show Sweden’s per capita death rate being the highest worldwide in the seven days to June 02.

The government has now given in to opposition pressure and said it will launch an investigation into how COVID-19 was handled.

So how does Sweden’s more relaxed approach to the pandemic compare with neighbouring countries?

You will find more infographics at Statista

The latest data from the Johns Hopkins University shows that as of June 01, Sweden had 43.24 deaths per 100,000 of its population. That’s in stark contrast to Denmark and Finland who have recorded less than 10 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and Norway which has had less than 5. Last week, Denmark and Norway said they would reopen tourism between their two countries from June 15 but that Sweden would continue to face restrictions.

Via 21stCenturyWire.com,

As the threat of COVID-19 quickly fades from foreground and the damage from governments’ experimental panic-driven ‘lockdown’ measures, some experts are now asking an important question: why do different countries achieved such vastly different results in terms of fatalities due to Coronavirus?

The answers to this question will undoubtedly destroy official claims that the COVID lockdown was somehow science-based, let alone justified.

As it turns out, a large percentage of the population were never susceptible to this virus.

In other words: the threat was completely overblown, and lockdown and social distancing policies have never been based in reality.

UnHerd reports…

Professor Karl Friston is a computer modelling expert, world-renowned for his contributions to neuroscience. He has been applying his “dynamic causal modelling” approach to the Covid-19 pandemic, and has reached some startling results.

– The differences between countries are not primarily down to government actions, but due to ‘intrinsic’ differences in the populations

– We don’t yet fully understand what is driving it, although there are theories ranging from levels of vitamin D to genetic differences

– In each country, there appears to be a portion of the population that is ‘not even in the game’

– that is, not susceptible to Covid-19. This varies hugely between countries

– In the UK, Professor Friston estimates that portion to be at least 50%, and probably more like 80%

– The similar mortality results between Sweden (no lockdown) and the UK (lockdown) are best explained by the fact that in reality there was no difference – the impact of the legal lockdown in Professor Friston’s models “literally goes away.”

This is a highly informative interview with UnHerd host Freddie Sayer and Professor Karl Friston. Watch:

Authored by Peper Escobar via The Asia Times,

The Revolution Won’t Be Televised because this is not a revolution. At least not yet.

Burning and/or looting Target or Macy’s is a minor diversion. No one is aiming at the Pentagon (or even the shops at the Pentagon Mall). The FBI. The NY Federal Reserve. The Treasury Department. The CIA in Langley. Wall Street houses.

The real looters – the ruling class – are comfortably surveying the show on their massive 4K Bravias, sipping single malt.

This is a class war much more than a race war and should be approached as such. Yet it was hijacked from the start to unfold as a mere color revolution.

US corporate media dropped their breathless Planet Lockdown coverage like a ton of – pre-arranged? – bricks to breathlessly cover en masse the new American “revolution.” Social distancing is not exactly conducive to a revolutionary spirit.

There’s no question the US is mired in a convoluted civil war in progress, as serious as what happened after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King in Memphis in April 1968.

Yet massive cognitive dissonance is the norm across the full “strategy of tension” spectrum. Powerful factions pull no punches to control the narrative. No one is able to fully identify all the shadowplay intricacies and inconsistencies.

Hardcore agendas mingle: an attempt at color revolution/regime change (blowback is a bitch) interacts with the Boogaloo Bois – arguably tactical allies of Black Lives Matter – while white supremacist “accelerationists” attempt to provoke a race war.

To quote the Temptations: it’s a ball of confusion.

Antifa is criminalized but the Boogaloo Bois get a pass (here is how Antifa’s main conceptualizer defends his ideas). Yet another tribal war, yet another – now domestic – color revolution under the sign of divide and rule, pitting Antifa anti-fascists vs. fascist white supremacists.

Meanwhile, the policy infrastructure necessary for enacting martial law has evolved as a bipartisan project.

Protesters jump on a street sign near a burning barricade near the White House during a demonstration against the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

We are in the middle of the proverbial, total fog of war. Those defending the US Army crushing “insurrectionists” in the streets advocate at the same time a swift ending to the American empire.

Amidst so much sound and fury signifying perplexity and paralysis, we may be reaching a supreme moment of historical irony, where US homeland (in)security is being boomerang-hit not only by one of the key artifacts of its own Deep State making – a color revolution – but by combined elements of a perfect blowback trifecta:Operation Phoenix; Operation Jakarta; and Operation Gladio.

But the targets this time won’t be millions across the Global South. They will be American citizens.

Empire come home

Quite a few progressives contend this is a spontaneous mass uprising against police repression and system oppression – and that would necessarily lead to a revolution, like the February 1917 revolution in Russia sprouting out of the scarcity of bread in Petrograd.

So the protests against endemic police brutality would be a prelude to a Levitate the Pentagon remix – with the interregnum soon entailing a possible face-off with the US military in the streets.

But we got a problem. The insurrection, so far purely emotional, has yielded no political structure and no credible leader to articulate myriad, complex grievances. As it stands, it amounts to an inchoate insurrection, under the sign of impoverishment and perpetual debt.

Adding to the perplexity, Americans are now confronted with what it feels like to be in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Pakistani tribal areas or Sadr City in Baghdad.

Iraq came to Washington DC in full regalia, with Pentagon Blackhawks doing “show of force” passes over protestors, the tried and tested dispersal technique applied in countless counter-insurgency ops across the Global South.

And then, the Elvis moment: General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, patrolling the streets of DC. The Raytheon lobbyist now heading the Pentagon, Mark Esper, called it “dominating the battlespace.”

Well, after they got their butts kicked in Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirectly in Syria, full spectrum dominance must dominate somewhere. So why not back home?

Troops gather during a demonstration on June 1, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images/AFP

Troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, the 10th Mountain Division and the 1stInfantry Division – who lost wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and, yes, Somalia – have been deployed to Andrews Airbase near Washington.

Super-hawk Tom Cotton even called, in a tweet, for the 82nd Airborne to do “whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters and looters.” These are certainly more amenable targets than the Russian, Chinese and Iranian militaries.

Milley’s performance reminds me of John McCain walking around in Baghdad in 2007, macho man-style, no helmet, to prove everything was OK. Of course: he had a small army weaponized to the teeth watching his back.

And complementing the racism angle, it’s never enough to remember that both a white president and a black president signed off on drone attacks on wedding parties in the Pakistani tribal areas.

Esper spelled it out: an occupying army may soon be “dominating the battlespace” in the nation’s capital, and possibly elsewhere. What next? A Coalition Provisional Authority?

Compared to similar ops across the Global South, this will not only prevent regime change but also produce the desired effect for the ruling oligarchy: a neo-fascist turning of the screws. Proving once again that when you don’t have a Martin Luther King or a Malcolm X to fight the power, then power crushes you whatever you do.

Inverted Totalitarianism

The late, great political theorist Sheldon Wolin had already nailed it in a book first published in 2008: this is all about Inverted Totalitarianism.

Wolin showed how “the cruder forms of control – from militarized police to wholesale surveillance, as well as police serving as judge, jury and executioner, now a reality for the underclass – will become a reality for all of us should we begin to resist the continued funneling of power and wealth upward.

“We are tolerated as citizens only as long as we participate in the illusion of a participatory democracy. The moment we rebel and refuse to take part in the illusion, the face of inverted totalitarianism will look like the face of past systems of totalitarianism,” he wrote.

Sinclair Lewis (who did not say that, “when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross”) actually wrote, in It Can’t Happen Here (1935), that American fascists would be those “who disowned the word ‘fascism’ and preached enslavement to capitalism under the style of constitutional and traditional native American liberty.”

So American fascism, when it happens, will walk and talk American.

George Floyd was the spark. In a Freudian twist, the return of the repressed came out swinging, laying bare multiple wounds: how the US political economy shattered the working classes; failed miserably on Covid-19; failed to provide affordable healthcare; profits a plutocracy; and thrives on a racialized labor market, a militarized police, multi-trillion-dollar imperial wars and serial bailouts of the too big to fail.

Instinctively at least, although in an inchoate manner, millions of Americans clearly see how, since Reaganism, the whole game is about an oligarchy/plutocracy weaponizing white supremacism for political power goals, with the extra bonus of a steady, massive, upwards transfer of wealth.

US President Donald Trump walks back to the White House escorted by the Secret Service after appearing outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, June 1, 2020. Photo: AFP/ Brendan Smialowski

Slightly before the first, peaceful Minneapolis protests, I argued that the realpolitik perspectives post-lockdown were grim, privileging both restored neoliberalism – already in effect – and hybrid neofascism.

President Trump’s by now iconic Bible photo op in front of St John’s church – including a citizen tear-gassing preview – took it to a whole new level. Trump wanted to send a carefully choreographed signal to his evangelical base. Mission accomplished.

But arguably the most important (invisible) signal was the fourth man in one of the photos.

Giorgio Agamben has already proved beyond reasonable doubt that the state of siege is now totally normalized in the West. Attorney General William Barr now is aiming to institutionalize it in the US: he’s the man with the leeway to go all out for a permanent state of emergency, a Patriot Act on steroids, complete with “show of force” Blackhawk support.

For some strange reason, when one types the word “racist” into Twitter’s people search, Donald Trump is the top result – a discovery made days after Trump took action against biased social media platforms.

According to The Independent, Twitter search results are affected by the data they collect on you – including political leaning and your interests, however their search of the word in a private browsing session using Brave browser was the same on both iPhone and Android app.

Other users on the social media site have reported the same result.

It is not immediately clear why Twitter’s search algorithm promotes the result. Other results in the “People” section when searching for the word “racist” include accounts who have mentioned the word in their display names, such as the “Yes, You’re Racist” account which raises awareness of racial issues. –The Independent

Twitter claims it’s unintentional – explaining that when an account is mentioned frequently alongside certain terms it can affect search recommendations.

While unclear how long this has been going on, the discovery comes just days after Trump signed an executive order which chips away at the “liability shield” contained within Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects neutral social media companies from being sued over content posted by their users. Last week Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told Breitbart:

A lot of people don’t see that Facebook and Twitter … you see Twitter disadvantaging the president, they enjoy liability protections that are not enjoyed by your local newspaper or your local TV station, or Fox News, or CNN, or MSNBC. They have special benefits under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as digital platforms because they’re not creating content for which they should be liable. They’re not making decisions about content, they’re simply saying come one, come all with your content. And as a consequence of that, they’re getting a bunch of protections. 

This isn’t the first time Silicon Valley has deemed themselves the arbiters of information.

After they were busted trying to help Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election – and were beside themselves after she lost, Google employees discussed whether to bury conservative media outlets in the company’s search function after Donald Trump became president, according to the Daily Caller.

Communications obtained by TheDCNF show that internal Google discussions went beyond expressing remorse over Clinton’s loss to actually discussing ways Google could prevent Trump from winning again.

“This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it,” Google engineer Scott Byer wrote in a Nov. 9, 2016, post reviewed by TheDCNF.

Byer falsely labeled The Daily Caller and Breitbart as “opinion blogs” and urged his coworkers to reduce their visibility in search results.

“How many times did you see the Election now card with items from opinion blogs (Breitbart, Daily Caller) elevated next to legitimate news organizations? That’s something that can and should be fixed,” Byer wrote.

“I think we have a responsibility to expose the quality and truthfulness of sources – because not doing so hides real information under loud noises,” he continued. 

“Beyond that, let’s concentrate on teaching critical thinking. A little bit of that would go a long way. Let’s make sure that we reverse things in four years – demographics will be on our side.” –DCNF

Not everyone at Google agreed with muting ideological opponents. Senior software engineer Uri Dekel – a self-described Clinton supporter, suggested that it was the wrong approach.

“Thinking that Breitbart, Drudge, etc. are not ‘legitimate news sources’ is contrary to the beliefs of a major portion of our user base is partially what got us to this mess. MSNBC is not more legit than Drudge just because Rachel Maddow may be more educated / less deplorable / closer to our views, than, say Sean Hannity,” Dekel wrote Byer in a reply, adding “I follow a lot of right wing folks on social networks you could tell something was brewing. We laughed off Drudge’s Instant Polls and all that stuff, but in the end, people go to those sources because they believe that the media doesn’t do it’s job. I’m a Hillary supporter and let’s admit it, the media avoided dealing with the hard questions and issues, which didn’t pay off. By ranking ‘legitimacy’ you’ll just introduce more conspiracy theories.”

Another engineer, Mike Brauwerman, suggested that the company could avoid “accusations of conspiracy or bias” by using technology to “trace information to its source, to link to critiques of these sources, and let people decide what sources they believe.” 

If only senior leadership at Google were as interested in allowing people to find, consume, and judge content on their own.

Meanwhile, Trump and his family still dominate Google image search results for the word “idiot.”

At a time when Taiwan remains a crucial issue between China and the U.S., an “opinion” piece published in China’s nationalization propaganda machine, The Global Times, claims that: “It is just a matter of time before China surpasses the US in terms of comprehensive national strength.”

“No matter what card the US plays, it cannot change the general trend of China,” The Global Times wrote.

The piece is being published a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China. In addition to issuing blame for the coronavirus pandemic, there are a number of issues being grappled with by the two national superpowers: intellectual property issues, China’s seeming reluctance to hold up its end of the Phase 1 trade deal, and the latter country’s insistence of continuing to devalue the Yuan. 

But the most current issue at bar for the two nations remains control over Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen delivered her inaugural speech on May 20, which seems to have irked – and is likely what prompted – this “response” from the CCP propaganda machine.

The “interview” includes Douglas Paal, Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace of the US, and Jin Canrong, the associate dean of Renmin University of China’s School of International Studies in Beijing. Paal is a U.S. resident and directs the endowment’s Asia Program. Both were eager to push for support of China, apathy from Taiwan and skepticism toward U.S. policy. 

For example, when asked about the Trump administration’s obvious support of Taiwan right off the bat, Paal had no problem criticizing and undermining his own country’s handling of the situation:

Even before the Trump administration came to power, there has been a dual faceted policy toward the island of Taiwan from him. Many in his government want to elevate US relations with Taiwan in every way possible. Some want to use Taiwan as a cudgel against the Chinese mainland and its influence. Strangely, Trump himself seems not to share this view. He seems to view Taiwan as a “small country,” small market, and maybe even tradable in negotiating business deals.

This duality seems to have kept lower level officials from crossing really sensitive redlines in the long established ambiguities prevailing in US-Taiwan-Chinese mainland relations. I don’t think all current American officials appreciate how sensitive and explosive this issue is. In fact, I believe some think it will help bring the Chinese government down. So the situation devolving into a major crisis has low probability, but potentially high consequences.

He claimed that Trump’s position on Taiwan policy is “unclear”, other than seeing Taiwan as an asset to help control the mainland. He also contradicted Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, making it seem as though the U.S. is “all bark and no bite” in its posturing that it would defend Taiwan. 

“For example, in the middle of a global pandemic, the US has no interest in losing a role within the WHO, but Trump is trying to withdraw from it,” Paal said, continuing to try and undermine the President’s actions.

“The gap between rhetoric and action is wide,” he later said, when asked if he thought the U.S. would act against China’s one-China principle.

Paal also encouraged Taiwan to “keep a low profile” amidst the dispute and said he thinks Tsai “is maintaining the basic official line of status quo” for the time being:

Taiwan, in my view, should stick to advocating its own interests, including international participation and acknowledgement, autonomy at home, lessons in good governance, especially concerning epidemics, and sound economics. None of those is compatible with becoming a spear-head for America’s brooding conflict with China.

If US officials want to send videos to Taiwan ceremonies, why would Taiwan want to reject them? If the US wants to send the 7th fleet into Taiwan’s waters, in the absence of a Chinese mainland attack, Taiwan should ask why and to what purpose?

Jin added: “The rise of China depends on our own economic development. As long as we stay on track, no outside force can stop us from growing stronger. It is just a matter of time before China surpasses the US in terms of comprehensive national strength. From this perspective, no matter what card the US plays, it cannot change the general trend of China. So, practically speaking, the Taiwan card is useless.”

Jin continued, trying to downplay potential U.S. effectiveness in dealing with Taiwan and asserting a reluctance to act by the U.S.:

“The island of Taiwan has been used by Washington as a chess piece to contain China’s development. The US used to have a bottom line, but now it is becoming increasingly radical due to fears of a rising China. Washington is not as confident as it was. It once believed that it would undoubtedly win the game with China. But now it has become scared and is using all the tools at its disposal to contain China. As US elites’ hostility toward China deepens, they might possibly cross China’s bottom line.

“Given Tsai’s intention to change the status quo, the cross-Straits situation could become increasingly risky,” Jin concluded.

“Actually, the Chinese central government can launch attacks whenever it wants and the result will be in favor of the mainland. Within the first island chain, the Chinese mainland faces no rivals. “