Category Archives: Profiteering

A Coup in Asia’s Oldest Democracy: A Statement by Sri Lankan Students – Groundviews

Security forces outside the Petroleum Ministry after a shooting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. Photo Credit Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press 28th October 2018 We are a group of Sri Lankan stu…

Source: A Coup in Asia’s Oldest Democracy: A Statement by Sri Lankan Students – Groundviews

The Issues That Russian Operatives Used to Divide Americans, in Their Own Words – The New York Times – Our own hunger to reinforce our biases – they just fed them with lies we wanted to hear.

A criminal complaint offered a rare view into how Russian operatives tried to disrupt the American political process, including the midterm elections.

A President Who Believes He Is Entitled to His Own Facts – The New York Times – Similar to a Bavarian Clown

Mr. Trump has appeared to grow noticeably more comfortable in the role of president, according to advisers, and that comfort level has reinforced his confidence in his own instincts, including what he regards as facts. Mr. Trump often points to a key moment — his election in 2016, which defied the polls — as proof that agreed-upon data can be wrong. His long career in the New York real estate world convinced Mr. Trump that all people are prone to shading their views according to their own self-interest. Objectivity is not something he expects of people, and he long ago came to believe that “facts” are really arbitrary.

Online health hoaxes: The place where bleach “cures” autism and vaccines spread epidemics | In English | EL PAÍS

There is a place where cancer can be cured in just 42 hours and where all the doctors in the world are conspiring to deceive the population. It is a place where you can “cure” autism with bleach, and where vaccines, far from preventing epidemics, actually spread them. This place is called social media, where a losing battle is being waged on a daily basis against dangerous health hoaxes and misinformation. In Spain, the internet is the second most important source of information on pseudotherapies, and two-thirds of citizens go online to read up on health issues.

Source: Online health hoaxes: The place where bleach “cures” autism and vaccines spread epidemics | In English | EL PAÍS

Thursday Open Thread | This Administration’s Disgusting Reaction to the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Saudi born jouralist Jamal Khashoggi was torture and murdered by the Saudi Government. They couldn’t just murder the man with a gun, fast and quick. They had to be ‘imaginative’. …

Source: Thursday Open Thread | This Administration’s Disgusting Reaction to the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi | 3CHICSPOLITICO

GOP Senator Pushed VA to Use Unproven “Brainwave… — ProPublica

Sen. Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, pushed doctors at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Reno to adopt an experimental mental health treatment marketed by a company with ties to his office. On a Friday night last December in his Reno office, Heller, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced VA officials to representatives from a health care startup called CereCare. The company markets an “off-label” method of treating addiction and post-traumatic stress, using electromagnetic brain stimulation.

Source: GOP Senator Pushed VA to Use Unproven “Brainwave… — ProPublica

Opinion | Goodbye, Political Spin, Hello Blatant Lies – The New York Times

Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told. But it’s also because they can still count on enablers in the mainstream news media. After all, why did USA Today approve this piece? Letting Trump express his opinion is one thing; giving him a platform for blatant lies is another. And as fact-checker Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post put it, “Almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood.” Even the president of the United States isn’t entitled to his own facts. So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work? We’ll find out in a few weeks.