Category Archives: Traitor

Why is Twitter Protecting Violent Islamophobes While Banning Everyone Else?

Loomer, in contrast, has actively threatened the Muslim community with her tweets: wanting to deprive them of their citizenship and their livelihood – clear steps, regardless of her intent, upwards on the pyramid of hate leading up to eventual genocide. This is in a climate where the Muslim community in the United States already faces threats ranging anywhere from surveillance to vigilante and state violence. Loomer is using a public platform with which she speaks to over 100,000 followers to make comments that have a high likelihood of inciting physical violence. In addition – far more dangerous than a phone number – Loomer has tweeted pictures and videos (which are still up!) without consent, of course, of Muslim Americans in hijabs walking out in New York City, making them or other women in hijabs in New York clear targets of violence from any fanatical right-wing followers she might be radicalizing.Twitter’s selective use of the ban tool in order to suppress activists and prop up white supremacists is well documented, and it is clear the platform has a harassment problem. But this is just one more obvious instance where the company has shown what is laziness at best and active complicity in white supremacy at worst in how they chose to moderate their platform. After the McGowan controversy went down, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted what seems – then and now – a hollow apology and a claim that the company is aiming to counteract the silencing of marginalized voices on their platform and strengthening their policy against abusers and bullies. Laura Loomer’s tweets and verified account – standing loud and proud on the internet – are a marker of proof that Dorsey and Twitter are full, apologies for the language, of horseshit.

Source: Why is Twitter Protecting Violent Islamophobes While Banning Everyone Else?

Thursday Open Thread | Ex-Trump aide on Mueller indictment: Trump is “f-cked” | 3CHICSPOLITICO

A former campaign aide to President Trump said the president is “f–ked” now that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been indicted.“Here’s what Manafort’s indictment tells me: Mueller is going to go over every financial dealing of Jared Kushner and the Trump Organization,” Sam Nunberg told Vanity Fair.“Trump is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can’t go any lower. He’s fucked.”

Source: Thursday Open Thread | Ex-Trump aide on Mueller indictment: Trump is “f-cked” | 3CHICSPOLITICO

A Refusal to Compromise? Civil War Historians Beg to Differ – The New York Times – Still trying to normalize slavery and anti-Americanism?

After Reconstruction was rolled back and Jim Crow segregation instituted in the South, a growing number of white Americans depicted the Civil War as a tragic family disagreement, rather than a battle over principle.In 1913, veterans from both sides gathered at Gettysburg for a “Great Reunion,” where President Woodrow Wilson gave an address that included no reference to slavery or secession. The era also saw a surge in the construction of Confederate monuments, including many outside the former Confederacy.Mr. Blight, the author of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,” said that Mr. Kelly’s remarks were themselves part of this “reconciliationist” tradition.“It reflects a very old set of ideas about the meaning of the Civil War,” Mr. Blight said. “Everybody was right, and nobody was wrong. Everybody was noble, everyone fought for their conscience, you don’t have to worry anymore about what they fought for.”“It takes all responsibility away,” he said. “That’s your compromise.”

Plot behind Caceres murder in Honduras, says legal panel | News | DW | 31.10.2017

Records had shown multiple communications between suspected gunmen and an unnamed DESA official, according to GAIPE findings reported by Associated Press.An international outcry ensued after the murder of Caceres who with her movement Copinh led indigenous Lenca peoples in opposing the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project.Construction was subsequently suspended when investors, including a Dutch bank and a Finnish fund, froze funding.

Source: Plot behind Caceres murder in Honduras, says legal panel | News | DW | 31.10.2017

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Just Shut the Door on Independent Scientists | Earthjustice

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt decreed that scientists who receive EPA funding for their research may no longer sit on key scientific advisory boards. This policy will freeze out many academic experts who rely on public grants to conduct independent studies. Pruitt also dismissed independent scientists from several important scientific bodies and replaced them with industry insiders.

Source: Scott Pruitt’s EPA Just Shut the Door on Independent Scientists | Earthjustice

The 14 Stereotypes That Facebook Assigns To All Of Us: SFist

Zuckerberg and company seem stuck in a cushy Silicon Valley mindset that assigns actual reality to the milk-and-cookies stereotypes that investors and advertisers are comfortable with. The monster they’ve created is being used for far more sinister purposes than what falls within purview of the company advertising parameters. Facebook remains flat-footed and clumsy in response to troll accounts that literally call for U.S. violence, and internationally, use of Facebook to cause real-life mass violence.There is a popular Silicon Valley notion that tech execs like Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Sergey Brin are the best and brightest minds of our era. But if their platforms are being used in ways they didn’t anticipate and still can’t control, well, doesn’t that inherently make them not best and brightest minds of our era?

Source: The 14 Stereotypes That Facebook Assigns To All Of Us: SFist

Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mr Trump sought to dismiss George Papadopoulos, who has provided key evidence in the first criminal case connecting Mr Trump’s team to alleged intermediaries for Russia’s Government.”Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!” Mr Trump tweeted. Mr Trump had called Mr Papadopoulos an “excellent guy” last March and tweeted a picture with him at a “national security meeting” in Washington.

Source: Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Firm restoring Puerto Rico’s power threatened to quit, mayor says | World news | The Guardian – “#TraitorTrump’s people are all about graft and greed at other people’s expense.”

Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz had demanded greater transparency over the $300m deal secured by Whitefish Energy, a tiny two-year-old firm based in the Montana home town of the US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke.

Source: Firm restoring Puerto Rico’s power threatened to quit, mayor says | World news | The Guardian

Whitefish had only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on 20 September, killing more than 50 people and knocking out power to the whole island. The company has since contracted more than 300 workers, but three-quarters of the US territory remains without electricity.