#Taiwan's military mobilised forces & said it was confident it could protect the island, after #China started 2 days of #punishment drills around Taiwan in what it said was a response to "separatist acts".
The exercises in #TaiwanStrait & around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands…,come 3 days after #Lai Ching-te took office as Taiwan's new #president, a man Beijing detests as a #separatist.
China, which views democratically governed #Taiwan as its own territory, has denounced Lai's inauguration speech on Mon, in which he called on #China to stop its threats & on Tues Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called #Lai "disgraceful".
Lai has repeatedly offered talks w/ China but been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future, & rejects Beijing's #sovereignty claims.
The Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (#PLA) said it had started joint military drills, involving the army, navy, air force & rocket force, in areas around #Taiwan at 7:45AM.
The drills are being conducted in the Taiwan Strait, the north, south & east of Taiwan, as well as areas around the Taiwan-controlled islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu & Dongyin, the command said in a statement.
"There is no doubt 'Project 2025' would transform America into a much nastier, much more dangerous, much more hostile place for anyone who dares to deviate from what the Right deems the ;natural order. In a very real sense, that’s what’s on the ballot in November."
"The election isn’t really about Biden vs. Trump; it’s a referendum on whether the effort to finally realize the promise of a truly democratic, pluralistic, multiracial society should be continued or abolished altogether. Those are the stakes."
"It is not clear to me how anyone can any longer deny that Trump is promising to destroy our democracy and usher in authoritarianism.
But it is also not clear that he is still a figure that any but the extremes of his base will follow to that end. Hence his emphasis on turning them to violence."
She notes that on Friday in Minnesota, he used fascist rhetoric when he
In Minnesota Friday, Trump echoed fascists when he told supporters that their opponents are corrupt communists to whom the US does not belong: it belongs to MAGA.
Saturday at the NRA meeting in Dallas, he threw out the idea of nullifying the constitutional amendment limiting a president to two terms. He also urged his followers there to "be rebellious."
He told the same crowd that if Biden were Republican, he'd have been given the electric chair.
He continues to lie grossly about having won the 2020 election — when he did not do so. He said yesterday that the courtroom for his trial is like Fort Knox, with police everywhere blocking people from coming near. "This is, quite simply, a lie," and the reality is, his supporters have not turned out to support him.
Pepsi or Coke? Both brands are making money in Russia despite promises to unwind operations. For Russia’s war to end, companies must be named and shamed to finally leave the Russian market, and sanctions must be enforced. In this week’s Gaslit Nation, Andrea is joined by Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman and analyst Monique Camarra of the Kremlin File podcast to discuss how to end Russia’s war, not just give Ukraine enough to stay in the fight. Peter Dugas, New England Regional Director of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, also stops by to discuss the common ground behind the headlines of the climate crisis. Young conservatives in growing numbers embrace science and are on the front lines of a bipartisan movement to end our self-destructive dependence on fossil fuels. Want to be part of the movement? Join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby in Washington, DC, June 8-11 to meet with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle – get training on how to demand sensible and urgent climate crisis legislation. Sign up by May 20th here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-change-conferences/summer/ This week’s bonus show looks at why the average American voter should care about the growing protests in Georgia against a Russian law put in place by Russian-backed politicians. (Sound familiar?) The bonus show also answers questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender level and higher. The discussion includes the hypocrisy of America’s TikTok ban, the importance of stating one’s values and goals in the fight for our democracy, how the Israel-Palestine War impacts Ukraine coverage and why that matters, and more! To join the conversation, submit questions to our regular Q&As, bonus shows, get all shows ad-free and invites to virtual events, and more, subscribe to Gaslit Nation at the Truth-teller level or higher! Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! Show Notes: Want to plant seeds of change? Join Citizens’ Climate Lobby in Washington, DC June 8-11 to meet with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to demand urgent action on the climate crisis. Sign up here by May 20th: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-change-conferences/summer/ Join Gaslit Nation and Kremlin File for a live taping on June 18th 12pm ET live-taping! The Zoom link will be sent out the morning of the event to Gaslit Nation’s supporters at the Truth-teller level or higher on Patreon Find out which companies are still doing business in Russia: Leave-Russia.org Jamala - 1944 (Ukraine) 2016 Eurovision Song Contest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxS6eKEOdLQ Jamala’s Music Video for Mr. Jones (Ціна правди/”The Price of Truth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6F6P3tTJw8 Eurovision: Isreali contestant booed as thousands protest outside venue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEb1AeRR7Nk French artist disrupts rehearsal at EuroVision to give a speech for peace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWU69VCaNjY
Jay Kuo in the "increasing evidence that the Russians are pulling the GOP’s puppet strings":
"Russia is now keenly aware of how easy it is to sow confusion, mistrust, and outright lies by managing to plant false stories, whether through the internet or through an intelligence source, with those willing to exploit them for their own political gain."
This works because many Americans are eager to gobble up disinformation.
"In Applebaum's eyes, the deployment of propaganda by authoritarians — and authoritarian wannabes such as Trump — is one of the most profound issues of our time.
'I think it is at the center of one of the worst crises for American democracy this century, certainly in recent decades,' Applebaum told me by phone Tuesday."
"'"If we can't agree on what happened yesterday, then how do we write legislation about it? If we don't share the same reality in the democracy, then how do we debate how we should organize our world?' …
Applebaum explained that Vladimir Putin's Russia "pioneered" the "firehose of falsehoods," a tactic that Trump has employed in the U.S. and others have used across the world to seize and maintain power. "
"Republicans have been waging legal war on our democracy, using the courts to take away our reproductive, voting and other rights, and they have been waging a parallel information war that sets the stage for the reception of those legal arguments and decisions."
"Yet another loyalty performance for an audience of One, who's addressed as though he is still the head of state. We're also dwelling in the "upside-down world" of #authoritarianism, as I call it. "Accountability" means stopping investigations into abuse of power & "a threat to our entire system"=a threat to Republican plans to convert America to an autocracy under TFG's lead. That's the most telling phrase."
-R Ben-Ghiat
"Here is a difficult truth: A part of the American political spectrum is not merely a passive recipient of the combined authoritarian narratives that come from Russia, China, and their ilk, but an active participant in creating and spreading them."
"Like the leaders of those countries, the American MAGA right also wants Americans to believe that their democracy is degenerate, their elections illegitimate, their civilization dying. The MAGA movement’s leaders also have an interest in pumping nihilism and cynicism into the brains of their fellow citizens, and in convincing them that nothing they see is true."
By regularly using vicious tropes about #undocumentedImmigrants and other domestic enemies within, #Trump is trying to acclimate voters to the ugliest forms of #authoritarian, dehumanizing language.
"Americans are losing our rights and freedoms gradually, and every time I work with organizations outside of democratic countries, I’m reminded that once rights and freedoms are gone, they’re incredibly difficult to regain.
This has been top of mind all week as I’ve watched University and College Administrations call on police to break up protest encampments."
As A.R. Moxon, who grew up the son of white evangelical Christian missionaries, says, it takes "very fine people" to sustain people like Nazis, Confederates, Christian nationalists, and authoritarian supremacists. And this is a primary point of his forthcoming book Very Fine People, taking off on Trump's staterment after the neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville that there were "very fine people" on both sides.
#AlJazeera previously called Israeli efforts to curtail its operations an "escalation" & said in a statement in early April that it "comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera".
It said that Israeli authorities have deliberately targeted & killed several of its #journalists including #SamerAbuDaqga & #HamzaAlDahdooh, both killed in #Gaza during the conflict. #Israel has said it does not target journalists.
"The lesson should be clear: Authoritarian leaders weaponize traditional journalistic ethics centered on newsworthiness, balance, and objectivity. In attempting to prove their innocence, journalists end up playing—and usually losing—their game. The proper response should not be to exclude politically dangerous figures from all coverage, but to avoid covering them in a framework of their own choosing."