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solarbirdMore variety in this than usual, including some interesting material on how the US is completely blowing negotiations in China. I mean, completely.
----- 1 -----
Stonekettle
twitter.com/Stonekettle
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1276232748076797963
[THREAD]
Gargamel pretty sure the Smurfs are up to no good.
You know, it's ironic Gohmert should bring this up. Because he's right: this IS how you end up with communism. Or worse.
1/
[QUOTED TWEET]
Alexander Nazaryan
twitter.com/alexnazaryan
25 June 2020
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tex., says that “Marxist-backed” protesters are trying to foment a Bolshevik-style revolution in the United States.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
People like Gohmert put people like Trump in power. Then they set about consolidating that power. The people become increasingly disenfranchised. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The divide grows and grows until the people have had enough.
And THAT is when...
2/
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 2 -----
Ankit Panda
twitter.com/nktpnd
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/1276200431958491139
[THEAD]
Marshall Billingslea, when asked how the US plans to convince China to join arms control talks (that Beijing has repeatedly said it won’t join), answers that ... it’s on “the Chinese themselves to recognize that they have an obligation.”
There’s no attempt at persuasion here.
[IMAGE showing partial transcript of briefing]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 3 -----
The US Didn’t Bring Freedom to South Korea — Its People Did
By Kap Seol
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/gwangju-uprising-korean-war-seventieth-anniversary
The United States claimed to be fighting in defense of democracy in South Korea. In reality, however, it propped up a series of dictatorships. The people of South Korea only won their freedom decades after the war, through brave struggles against US-backed military strongmen, like the heroic Gwangju Uprising of 1980.
For South Korea, the popular uprising that convulsed the southwestern city of Gwangju for ten days in 1980 was a defining historical moment. The country that has since given the world the androgynous boy band BTS and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite had been living under the thumb of successive strongmen. Until 1992, regime change only took place through mass revolts or military coups. The Gwangju Uprising marked the beginning of the end for authoritarian rule in South Korea, now a vibrant young democracy that often reinvigorates itself not only at the ballot box, but also on the streets.
Of the three coups in modern South Korean history, the first two — both staged by Park Chung-hee, first to seize power in 1961, then to retain it in 1972 — were relatively bloodless affairs. Park preempted protest by rounding up thousands of activists and muzzling the press. Chun Doo-hwan, a young, US-trained general, mounted the third and final coup in May 1980, deploying the techniques he had learned from the US military.
While the rest of the country silently capitulated, Gwangju resisted the coup for ten days. Its citizens fought to repel the country’s best-trained special forces even as they wielded deadly force against the population in a bid to enforce martial law. The movement ended up controlling the city for five days until a massacre brought their insurrection to an end.
The uprising was a popular one in the fullest sense. Although college students — always pivotal in the country’s pro-democracy campaigns — initiated the struggle, they did not lead it, as ordinary citizens joined them on the barricades. The number of civilian deaths remains unknown. The South Korean government put the official toll at 196, but agreed to compensate 288 victims, with at least 81 more unaccounted for. By any count, there were more workers killed than students, attesting to their central role in the uprising.
----- 4 -----
Mike Masnick (TechDirt)
twitter.com/mmasnick
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/mmasnick/status/1275908445032427524
Someone is suing Twitch because women on it are too sexy. And here are the (NSFW) "harms" he describes.
I... have no words.
[IMAGE OF CLAIMS, including penis chafing from overuse of Fleshlight-brand masturbatory aid, at which point it gets even worse.]
----- 5 -----
WikiLeaks Founder Charged With Conspiring With LulzSec & Anonymous Hackers
June 25, 2020
Swati Khandelwal
https://thehackernews.com/2020/06/wikileaks-lulzsec-anonymous-hackers.html
The United States government has filed a superseding indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accusing him of collaborating with computer hackers, including those affiliated with the infamous LulzSec and "Anonymous" hacking groups.
The new superseding indictment does not contain any additional charges beyond the prior 18-count indictment filed against Assange in May 2019, but it does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged," the DoJ said.
In May 2019, Assange was charged with 18 counts under the old U.S. Espionage Act for unlawfully publishing classified military and diplomatic documents on his popular WikiLeaks website in 2010, which he obtained from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange has been alleged to have obtained those classified documents by conspiring with Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense computer.
According to the new superseding indictment [PDF] unsealed Wednesday, Assange and others at WikiLeaks also recruited hackers at conferences in Europe and Asia and conspired with them to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks.
Since the early days of WikiLeaks, Assange has spoken in conferences about his own history as a "famous teenage hacker in Australia" and encouraged others to hack to obtain information for WikiLeaks.
----- 6 -----
Trump tweets about plan for BLM mural in front of his Tower
By KAREN MATTHEWS
June 25, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/trump-tweets-about-plan-for-blm-mural-in-front-of-his-tower/
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump has taken issue with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to paint “Black Lives Matter” in giant letters on the street in front of Trump’s namesake Manhattan tower.
Trump tweeted Thursday that de Blasio “wants to paint the fabled & beautiful Fifth Avenue, right in front of Trump Tower/Tiffany, with a big yellow Black Lives Matter sign.”
““Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ’Em Like Bacon”, referring to killing Police, is their chant. NYC Police are furious!” his tweet said.
But that has not in fact been a common chant at protests in New York or elsewhere since the death of George Floyd one month ago in Minneapolis.
City Hall officials announced Wednesday that the “Black lives matter,” rallying cry would be painted in bold letters on the street in front of the president’s midtown skyscraper.
“The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” de Blasio spokesperson Julia Arredondo said. “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter.”
De Blasio announced earlier this month that the city would paint “Black Lives Matter” on streets at locations around the city. The first such block-long message was put on a street in Brooklyn. The announcement follows the move by officials in Washington, D.C., to paint the slogan in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House.
----- 7 -----
Wendell Potter
twitter.com/wendellpotter
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/wendellpotter/status/1276158510955401216
[THREAD]
Amid America's #COVID19 disaster, I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec: We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada's single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations' COVID responses prove it. The truth: (1/6)
[NEXT]
Canada's doing much better than the U.S. when it comes to #COVID19 testing & treatment. On a per capita basis, more Canadians are being tested & fewer getting sick & dying. This may shock Americans who still believe the lies I told about the Canadian health care system. (2/6)
[NEXT]
Here’s the truth: Our industry PR & lobbying group, AHIP, supplied my colleagues & me with cherry-picked data & anecdotes to make people think Canadians wait endlessly for their care. It’s a lie & I’ll always regret the disservice I did to folks on both sides of the border. (3/6)
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
‘The noose was real’ – NASCAR releases photo from Talladega
By DAN GELSTON
June 25, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/auto-racing/the-noose-was-real-nascar-releases-photo-from-talladega/
[EDITOR: Irritatingly, this version of the story doesn't show the noose, but I have seen the photo. Yes, it was made from a large-door pull rope. But it was most definitely a noose, classic style, with slipknot, the kind for hanging people. Nobody makes a garage door pull work that way because it will collapse on your hand and crush your fingers. It was a noose.]
Declaring “the noose was real,” NASCAR officials on Thursday released a photo of the rope found in the speedway garage stall of Black driver Bubba Wallace that prompted a federal investigation into whether he had been the target of a hate crime.
The incident has put racism front and center for the stock car series that two weeks ago banned the Confederate flag from its venues and races at Wallace’s urging. It also prompted criticism from some fans that NASCAR had somehow overreacted — criticism NASCAR has bristled at and cited in releasing the photo from Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The image was taken by NASCAR security.
“As you can see from the photo, the noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “Based on the evidence we had, we thought our drivers — that one of our drivers had been threatened, a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions. It’s our responsibility to react and investigate, and that’s exactly what we did.”
----- 9 -----
Fact check: Breaking down Trump's false claims about DACA and the Supreme Court's ruling
By Daniel Dale
Updated 2:07 PM ET, Thu June 25, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/fact-check-trump-daca-supreme-court-tweets/index.html
Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court ruled last week against President Donald Trump's attempt to terminate DACA, an Obama administration program that protects from deportation and gives work permits to some undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children.
Trump responded to the court's decision with two tweets that were full of false and misleading claims. Here's a breakdown.
Trump tweeted: "I have wanted to take care of DACA recipients better than the Do Nothing Democrats, but for two years they refused to negotiate - They have abandoned DACA."
Facts First: It is nonsensical to claim that Trump has been trying to support DACA recipients better than Democrats. Trump has repeatedly tried to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) despite vocal Democratic objections. And Trump has rejected various Democratic proposals to save the program even though they have offered him concessions on his own priorities, like a wall on the US-Mexico border.
----- 10 -----
Jeff Yang
twitter.com/originalspin
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1276190752809213952
[THREAD]
In other news people are just going to shrug at and ignore, Arizona GOP official Paul Peterson pleaded guilty to selling Pacific Islander babies
[NEXT]
This case actually turns out to be far worse than I originally thought.
The pregnant Marshallese women were kept in a prostitution camp where they had sex for food. The babies were essentially being farmed by the defendants. The women were as young as 15.
[SEE ALSO:
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/prostitution-camp-provided-women-in-petersen-human-smuggling-case
]
----- 11 -----
Ben Collins
twitter.com/oneunderscore__
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1276241781655511048
[THREAD]
1 / I'd been thinking a lot lately about the smaller, more practically dangerous effects of unchecked disinformation on platforms with exponential sharing and community growth.
Then I saw a woman in a QAnon Facebook group earnestly ask for help with her tinnitus.
[NEXT]
2 / The woman in the QAnon group asking for help with her tinnitus received these suggestions:
It’s your wifi. Go barefoot.
Mind control labs are just shifting their frequency.
“Your DNA is getting upgraded.”
It’s a common symptom of your mind awakening. Read my ebook.
[NEXT]
3 / Can we put the cat back in the bag here? Probably not.
Facebook created a directory of vulnerable people who can commiserate about the unseen powers keeping them down, and for grifters to isolate and take advantage of them.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
- Gargamel pretty sure the Smurfs are up to no good.
- It’s on “the Chinese themselves to recognize that they have an obligation.”
- The US Didn’t Bring Freedom to South Korea — Its People Did
- This lawsuit against Twitch would be hilarious of it wasn't so viciously misogynistic.
- WikiLeaks Founder Charged With Conspiring With LulzSec & Anonymous Hackers
- Trump tweets about plan for BLM mural in front of his Tower
- Former health-care exec whistleblower on lies he told about Canadian health care
- ‘The noose was real’ – NASCAR releases photo from Talladega
- Fact check: Breaking down Trump's false claims about DACA and the Supreme Court's ruling
- Arizona GOP official Paul Peterson pleaded guilty to selling Pacific Islander babies
- I saw a woman in a QAnon Facebook group earnestly ask for help with her tinnitus
----- 1 -----
Stonekettle
twitter.com/Stonekettle
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1276232748076797963
[THREAD]
Gargamel pretty sure the Smurfs are up to no good.
You know, it's ironic Gohmert should bring this up. Because he's right: this IS how you end up with communism. Or worse.
1/
[QUOTED TWEET]
Alexander Nazaryan
twitter.com/alexnazaryan
25 June 2020
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tex., says that “Marxist-backed” protesters are trying to foment a Bolshevik-style revolution in the United States.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
People like Gohmert put people like Trump in power. Then they set about consolidating that power. The people become increasingly disenfranchised. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The divide grows and grows until the people have had enough.
And THAT is when...
2/
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 2 -----
Ankit Panda
twitter.com/nktpnd
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/1276200431958491139
[THEAD]
Marshall Billingslea, when asked how the US plans to convince China to join arms control talks (that Beijing has repeatedly said it won’t join), answers that ... it’s on “the Chinese themselves to recognize that they have an obligation.”
There’s no attempt at persuasion here.
[IMAGE showing partial transcript of briefing]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 3 -----
The US Didn’t Bring Freedom to South Korea — Its People Did
By Kap Seol
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/gwangju-uprising-korean-war-seventieth-anniversary
The United States claimed to be fighting in defense of democracy in South Korea. In reality, however, it propped up a series of dictatorships. The people of South Korea only won their freedom decades after the war, through brave struggles against US-backed military strongmen, like the heroic Gwangju Uprising of 1980.
For South Korea, the popular uprising that convulsed the southwestern city of Gwangju for ten days in 1980 was a defining historical moment. The country that has since given the world the androgynous boy band BTS and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite had been living under the thumb of successive strongmen. Until 1992, regime change only took place through mass revolts or military coups. The Gwangju Uprising marked the beginning of the end for authoritarian rule in South Korea, now a vibrant young democracy that often reinvigorates itself not only at the ballot box, but also on the streets.
Of the three coups in modern South Korean history, the first two — both staged by Park Chung-hee, first to seize power in 1961, then to retain it in 1972 — were relatively bloodless affairs. Park preempted protest by rounding up thousands of activists and muzzling the press. Chun Doo-hwan, a young, US-trained general, mounted the third and final coup in May 1980, deploying the techniques he had learned from the US military.
While the rest of the country silently capitulated, Gwangju resisted the coup for ten days. Its citizens fought to repel the country’s best-trained special forces even as they wielded deadly force against the population in a bid to enforce martial law. The movement ended up controlling the city for five days until a massacre brought their insurrection to an end.
The uprising was a popular one in the fullest sense. Although college students — always pivotal in the country’s pro-democracy campaigns — initiated the struggle, they did not lead it, as ordinary citizens joined them on the barricades. The number of civilian deaths remains unknown. The South Korean government put the official toll at 196, but agreed to compensate 288 victims, with at least 81 more unaccounted for. By any count, there were more workers killed than students, attesting to their central role in the uprising.
----- 4 -----
Mike Masnick (TechDirt)
twitter.com/mmasnick
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/mmasnick/status/1275908445032427524
Someone is suing Twitch because women on it are too sexy. And here are the (NSFW) "harms" he describes.
I... have no words.
[IMAGE OF CLAIMS, including penis chafing from overuse of Fleshlight-brand masturbatory aid, at which point it gets even worse.]
----- 5 -----
WikiLeaks Founder Charged With Conspiring With LulzSec & Anonymous Hackers
June 25, 2020
Swati Khandelwal
https://thehackernews.com/2020/06/wikileaks-lulzsec-anonymous-hackers.html
The United States government has filed a superseding indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accusing him of collaborating with computer hackers, including those affiliated with the infamous LulzSec and "Anonymous" hacking groups.
The new superseding indictment does not contain any additional charges beyond the prior 18-count indictment filed against Assange in May 2019, but it does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged," the DoJ said.
In May 2019, Assange was charged with 18 counts under the old U.S. Espionage Act for unlawfully publishing classified military and diplomatic documents on his popular WikiLeaks website in 2010, which he obtained from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange has been alleged to have obtained those classified documents by conspiring with Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense computer.
According to the new superseding indictment [PDF] unsealed Wednesday, Assange and others at WikiLeaks also recruited hackers at conferences in Europe and Asia and conspired with them to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks.
Since the early days of WikiLeaks, Assange has spoken in conferences about his own history as a "famous teenage hacker in Australia" and encouraged others to hack to obtain information for WikiLeaks.
----- 6 -----
Trump tweets about plan for BLM mural in front of his Tower
By KAREN MATTHEWS
June 25, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/trump-tweets-about-plan-for-blm-mural-in-front-of-his-tower/
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump has taken issue with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to paint “Black Lives Matter” in giant letters on the street in front of Trump’s namesake Manhattan tower.
Trump tweeted Thursday that de Blasio “wants to paint the fabled & beautiful Fifth Avenue, right in front of Trump Tower/Tiffany, with a big yellow Black Lives Matter sign.”
““Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ’Em Like Bacon”, referring to killing Police, is their chant. NYC Police are furious!” his tweet said.
But that has not in fact been a common chant at protests in New York or elsewhere since the death of George Floyd one month ago in Minneapolis.
City Hall officials announced Wednesday that the “Black lives matter,” rallying cry would be painted in bold letters on the street in front of the president’s midtown skyscraper.
“The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” de Blasio spokesperson Julia Arredondo said. “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter.”
De Blasio announced earlier this month that the city would paint “Black Lives Matter” on streets at locations around the city. The first such block-long message was put on a street in Brooklyn. The announcement follows the move by officials in Washington, D.C., to paint the slogan in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House.
----- 7 -----
Wendell Potter
twitter.com/wendellpotter
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/wendellpotter/status/1276158510955401216
[THREAD]
Amid America's #COVID19 disaster, I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec: We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada's single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations' COVID responses prove it. The truth: (1/6)
[NEXT]
Canada's doing much better than the U.S. when it comes to #COVID19 testing & treatment. On a per capita basis, more Canadians are being tested & fewer getting sick & dying. This may shock Americans who still believe the lies I told about the Canadian health care system. (2/6)
[NEXT]
Here’s the truth: Our industry PR & lobbying group, AHIP, supplied my colleagues & me with cherry-picked data & anecdotes to make people think Canadians wait endlessly for their care. It’s a lie & I’ll always regret the disservice I did to folks on both sides of the border. (3/6)
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
‘The noose was real’ – NASCAR releases photo from Talladega
By DAN GELSTON
June 25, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/auto-racing/the-noose-was-real-nascar-releases-photo-from-talladega/
[EDITOR: Irritatingly, this version of the story doesn't show the noose, but I have seen the photo. Yes, it was made from a large-door pull rope. But it was most definitely a noose, classic style, with slipknot, the kind for hanging people. Nobody makes a garage door pull work that way because it will collapse on your hand and crush your fingers. It was a noose.]
Declaring “the noose was real,” NASCAR officials on Thursday released a photo of the rope found in the speedway garage stall of Black driver Bubba Wallace that prompted a federal investigation into whether he had been the target of a hate crime.
The incident has put racism front and center for the stock car series that two weeks ago banned the Confederate flag from its venues and races at Wallace’s urging. It also prompted criticism from some fans that NASCAR had somehow overreacted — criticism NASCAR has bristled at and cited in releasing the photo from Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The image was taken by NASCAR security.
“As you can see from the photo, the noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “Based on the evidence we had, we thought our drivers — that one of our drivers had been threatened, a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions. It’s our responsibility to react and investigate, and that’s exactly what we did.”
----- 9 -----
Fact check: Breaking down Trump's false claims about DACA and the Supreme Court's ruling
By Daniel Dale
Updated 2:07 PM ET, Thu June 25, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/fact-check-trump-daca-supreme-court-tweets/index.html
Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court ruled last week against President Donald Trump's attempt to terminate DACA, an Obama administration program that protects from deportation and gives work permits to some undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children.
Trump responded to the court's decision with two tweets that were full of false and misleading claims. Here's a breakdown.
Trump tweeted: "I have wanted to take care of DACA recipients better than the Do Nothing Democrats, but for two years they refused to negotiate - They have abandoned DACA."
Facts First: It is nonsensical to claim that Trump has been trying to support DACA recipients better than Democrats. Trump has repeatedly tried to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) despite vocal Democratic objections. And Trump has rejected various Democratic proposals to save the program even though they have offered him concessions on his own priorities, like a wall on the US-Mexico border.
----- 10 -----
Jeff Yang
twitter.com/originalspin
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1276190752809213952
[THREAD]
In other news people are just going to shrug at and ignore, Arizona GOP official Paul Peterson pleaded guilty to selling Pacific Islander babies
[NEXT]
This case actually turns out to be far worse than I originally thought.
The pregnant Marshallese women were kept in a prostitution camp where they had sex for food. The babies were essentially being farmed by the defendants. The women were as young as 15.
[SEE ALSO:
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/prostitution-camp-provided-women-in-petersen-human-smuggling-case
]
----- 11 -----
Ben Collins
twitter.com/oneunderscore__
25 June 2020
https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1276241781655511048
[THREAD]
1 / I'd been thinking a lot lately about the smaller, more practically dangerous effects of unchecked disinformation on platforms with exponential sharing and community growth.
Then I saw a woman in a QAnon Facebook group earnestly ask for help with her tinnitus.
[NEXT]
2 / The woman in the QAnon group asking for help with her tinnitus received these suggestions:
It’s your wifi. Go barefoot.
Mind control labs are just shifting their frequency.
“Your DNA is getting upgraded.”
It’s a common symptom of your mind awakening. Read my ebook.
[NEXT]
3 / Can we put the cat back in the bag here? Probably not.
Facebook created a directory of vulnerable people who can commiserate about the unseen powers keeping them down, and for grifters to isolate and take advantage of them.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
