#Biden calls #America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” & its #alliances “our greatest asset.” …#Trump, called for withdrawing American forces in #Europe & #Asia & has promised… to cut loose even our closest #allies if they don’t do as he tells them. …Trump sees all countries as unreliable, the relations between them #transactional. That sentiment has spread throughout a #GOP that once championed America’s values abroad…
#Biden leads the #UnitedStates as the American century is fading into an uncertain future, a changing world of #threats, opportunities, & #power shifts. At 81, he holds fast to a vision that has reigned since WWII, in which a rich & powerful America leads an #alliance of #democracies to safeguard the globe from #tyranny.
#Canada is #unprepared for life next to a dictator because geographic isolation long protected us from invasion and war. #Canadian#governments simply assumed that the #USA would shield us from foreign threats. But if the U.S. becomes #dictatorial, where would that leave Canada?
"After two days of massive police presence, over fifty officers swarmed onto campus, entering the bounds of the encampment in riot gear as they began unzipping tents and circling the protesters remaining on South Lawn."
@Handout In so-called #liberal#democracies throughout the Global North, dissent and protest in favour of #humanrights and #equality are being trampled by increasingly militarized, right-wing and more powerful police forces. Nowhere is it more evident than against those who call for #FreePalestine#StopGenocid.
The accts signal a potential tactical shift in how #China aims to #influence American #politics, w/more of a willingness to target specific candidates & parties, including Biden.
…researchers linked the new activity to a long-running network of accts connected w/ #China’s govt known as #Spamouflage. Several of the accts…previously posted pro-Beijing content in Mandarin— only to recently resurface under the guise of #Americans writing in English.
In a separate proj, the Foundation for #Defense of #Democracies …ID’ed 170 fake pgs & accts on #Facebook that have also pushed anti-American msgs, incl’g pointed attacks on #Biden.
they clearly see Biden as a threat, not [#Trump]
Inequality in South Africa: the pictures below illustrate how #inequality has been evolving in #southafrica.
Both measures indicate that inequality has been on the rise and that the richest ten percent are the ones benefiting the most over time.
In a young #democracy such as #southafrica the #government in power should have the median voter in mind, and the median voter in SA is most probably living in a township. So what is happening to #redistribution? How is #civilsociety in SA?
@danie10 thanks, you are right, #education is a condition for #democracies to work well, #education improved, but from a very low base, and the quality is not ideal.
I think that the worst and most dangerous misconception #people have about #fascism is that it's this sort of turbocharged "Beast Mode" that #countries can go into to increase their production, win wars, and make the trains run on time, and that the primary objections to it centre on whether the "obvious" increase in efficiency that fascism offers is worth the loss of #freedom and lives. But in reality #fascist regimes like to put up a façade of strength and efficiency, even as they practice #corruption on a scale unimaginable in #democracies and even as the public interest is hollowed out by parasitical #opportunists. There is no trade-off; fascism is a #grift all the way down.
Today I watched Adam Tooze (bot account: @adam_tooze) on Jung & Naive (@jung@hub.netzgemeinde.eu). The video is available on https://onion.tube/watch?v=w4Y9SomH9Nc (for example)
A very interesting and informative interview by a person you could rightfully call one of the best in his field.
He argues that we don't really have any real #democracies on this planet since a genuine #democracy, where everyone is equal, would require to manage #property and #distribution of wealth in a completely different manner. For the benefit of society, and not a few money-nobles (oligarchs) and rich elites.
A very decent interview which I highly recommend to everyone. Especially those living in the US since a lot of it is about the United States. It touches on various aspects such as the economic system, the problems of #capitalism, #ClimateCrisis, #education, and a lot more. Coming from someone with a multinational background like Prof. Tooze, it should make for an interesting viewpoint.
Unfortunately it's in German, but I think subtitles should do the trick. 🙂
#Israel’s military announced that the country’s border is under control after hours of fighting & airstrikes Tues. BrigGen Dan Goldfuss of the 98th Div said the military is now “moving into the offensive … to change the reality within #Gaza to prevent such a thing from happening again.” Israel has called up tens of thousands of #reservists to fight since the unprecedented cross-border assault by #Hamas militants over the wknd.
Biden delivered a forceful condemnation of #Hamas as a #terrorist group, & defended Israel's right to respond to the attack. Biden, who has long been a supporter of #Israel & also has had a long relationship w/ PM Benjamin #Netanyahu, said that he reminded the prime minister that both the #UnitedStates & Israel are #democracies & must act "according to the rule of law."
Former head of #Twitter's Trust and Security, #YoelRoth, tells the story how #TFG and #Elmo ended his normal life:
"Backed by fans...#Trump publicly attacked me. Two years later, following his acquisition of Twitter and after I resigned my role as the company’s head of trust and safety, #ElonMusk added fuel to the fire. I’ve lived with armed guards outside my home and have had to upend my family, go into hiding for months and repeatedly move."
"These attacks on internet safety and security come at a moment when the stakes for democracy could not be higher. More than 40 major elections are scheduled to take place in 2024, including in the #UnitedStates, the #EuropeanUnion, #India, #Ghana and #Mexico. These democracies will most likely face the same risks of government-backed disinformation...
I’m here with a horde of other journalists because we’re hoping that the magistrate judge will read Trump’s name or initials—DT or DJT—if an indictment is handed down.
You do amazing 👏 work.
You should be the benchmark for "keeping up."
If only 20-30% of journalists were so devoted here in the #Fediverse and not on billionaire sites, this could change #democracies around the globe 🌎 .
The majority doesn't enjoy being lied to with #FakeNews.
Worrisome press freedoms issues in Canada. #oil and #gas industry, the Alberta government. Below is from today's newsletter from @thenarwhal
May 3, 2023. United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith recently told #CTV News she believes everyone’s rights under the Canadian Constitution need to be protected.
“They are dearly important to me and all Albertans,” Smith told the news outlet in a statement. “I am impressed with any political leader that stood up for the core Charter rights of freedom of speech, expression, religion, assembly and association these last several years. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.”
But my recent experience dealing with the #Alberta#government tells a different story — an experience that points to glaring shortfalls in free speech in Canada as we mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
In March, I started filing a series of requests for records from four different Alberta ministries. Thanks to reporting by my colleagues Carl Meyer and Drew Anderson in December, I knew officials had been meeting in secretive committees with oil and gas lobbyists to cook up new government policies and decisions.
These are decisions affecting public health, public safety, the environment and the economy. They have larger national and international implications, but are immediately important in Alberta, where voters are about to head to the polls for a general election, with only a few pieces of the full picture.
I used a provincial transparency law — the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act — to request the records. I’ve been using laws such as this one for nearly two decades as an important tool for my reporting.
But I wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
In recent weeks, the four ministries systematically refused to accept 26 separate requests for meeting records with lobbyists over the past two years.
As my requests came in, internal correspondence shows how officials from a central Alberta office sprung into action. But instead of figuring out how to release information, they actually organized a meeting to discuss how to refuse my requests for records.
This effort to stifle my reporting is just the latest example of how journalists in Canada are increasingly facing obstacles to doing their jobs.
As some of you know, The Narwhal has asked the courts to review whether the RCMP and the federal government infringed on press freedom in November 2021, when officers arrested photojournalist Amber Bracken and kept her in jail for several days.
The Narwhal’s award-winning staff are also among those struggling to cope with rising hostility and online harassment, particularly of women journalists. Our Ontario bureau chief, Denise Balkissoon, has also documented how a troubling lack of transparency in her province about changes to protected areas and the Greenbelt region is “a violation of democracy that will affect Ontarians for generations to come.”
The first part of Canada’s Constitution — the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — guarantees “#freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”
To me, this means we must all be empowered with the information that allows us to exercise those #rights and #freedoms.
In healthy #democracies, this would mean elected representatives introduce and support laws that ensure information about their government is also free. And so freedom of information laws become an extension of free speech — one that applies to all members of the public, regardless of their identity.
At The Narwhal, we take these rights seriously. We consider it part of our responsibility as journalists to ensure you are empowered and informed about matters that could affect your health and safety, as well as the environment and economy.
We aren’t intimidated by those who are opposed to free speech and a free #press — and we haven’t played our last card in this battle to shine a light on secrecy.
Thanks for reading and supporting The #Narwhal as we fight for press freedom.
I think we should be talking about a Wealth Tax of some kind in the US. It's way past time, and it's a simple matter of fairness We can't wait around for politicians to figure this out on their own. We need to exert pressure on them, or vote them out.
In the news today:
The Guardian: ‘Tax us now’: ultra-rich call on governments to introduce wealth taxes
If democracies don't finally begin pulling together and fighting the spread of #autocracyeverywhere, more and more developing democracies will fail and fall into a pit of #surveillance#dictatorship where civil society will be deprived of any possibility of organizing opposition again.
We know which regime is driving these "developments", but bankers and industrialists from democracies are still queueing up to kowtow its Leader while lobbying at home to ensure business continues as usual.