| “Ghost Town”: Shocking Dystopian Video of NYC Shows an Abandoned, Boarded Up 5th AvenuePosted: 15 Aug 2020 10:44 AM PDTDe Blasio’s New York has finally hit an all-time low: the once bustling city is now on the verge of looking like a demilitarized zone. Between the pandemic and the riots in the city, iconic 5th Avenue now looks more like a dystopian nightmare in a recently shot video posted to Twitter.The video follows a car driving down a deserted 5th Avenue, with almost all of the area’s high end stores boarded up and shut down. There are few people seen on what is usually a busy street.“Look at everything. Everything’s boarded up. Even the hotel. Boarded up,” the video’s narrator, who is obviously fed up with how the city looks, says.He continues: “This is all Manhattan, boarded up. Have you ever seen Manhattan look like this? The media will not report this.”“Everything’s boarded up. They don’t want to show this to you people because they’re afraid. Saks 5th Avenue – boarded up from end to end. They put up barbed wire. Everywhere you see boards, windows are gone. Look at New York City – what happened,” he says.The video runs over 2 minutes and shows dozens of boarded up businesses. You can watch it here:Don’t know who recorded it but I downloaded this yesterdayHe’s single handedly wrecked ManhattanGhost town”Beirut DeBlasio” without the explosion pic.twitter.com/5I48ZGcWTZ— tadgermania (@tadgermania) August 7, 2020The video was originally posted as a response to another Tweet that seems to tell the developing tale about DeBlasio’s New York:From an email chain I’m on this morning:”DeBlasio has made the city worse than Dinkins days. I’m selling my place. Already have interest, I’m out!”Now multiply this by the whole city. NYC is toast— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) August 7, 2020Republished from ZeroHedge.com with permissionThe post “Ghost Town”: Shocking Dystopian Video of NYC Shows an Abandoned, Boarded Up 5th Avenue appeared first on We Are Change. |
| No Matter How You Feel About Trump, a Pardon for Snowden Would Be a Major WinPosted: 14 Aug 2020 03:49 PM PDTAfter President Donald Trump suggested in an interview published Thursday night by the New York Post that he is open to pardoning Edward Snowden, civil liberties advocates issued a fresh wave of calls urging the president to follow through and allow the American whistleblower to return to the United States.The U.S.-based Freedom of the Press Foundation—for which Snowden serves as board president—tweeted a link to the Post report along with a “long and varied” list of individuals who have demanded a presidential pardon for Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who famously exposed U.S. government mass surveillance by leaking classified materials in 2013.The list of people who have called for @Snowden to be pardoned is long and varied. No matter your feelings on Trump, a Snowden pardon would be a major win for those who care about fighting back against mass surveillance in the digital age. https://t.co/pmgucTKr8Y— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) August 14, 2020The ACLU on Friday also responded to the report on Twitter, sharing a Los Angeles Times op-ed from September 2016 that was authored by the group’s executive director Anthony Romero. He argued that “cases like Edward Snowden’s are precisely the reason the president’s constitutional pardon power exists.”Edward Snowden is a patriot. Our democracy is better off because of him.As we said four years ago, the president should pardon him.https://t.co/PAsp56QDu4— ACLU (@ACLU) August 14, 2020According to the Post, Trump polled his aides in the Oval Office on Thursday about whether he should allow Snowden to return from Russia—where the former intelligence contractor has lived in exile since 2013—without the risk of being imprisoned in the U.S., and the president said he was open to it.“There are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly. I mean, I hear that,” Trump said of Snowden. As the Post reported:Trump’s comments reflect a remarkable softening in his views about the man he once deemed a “traitor” worthy of execution. Republican lawmakers and the Justice Department’s inspector general recently highlighted misuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the secret FISA court to surveil former Trump adviser Carter Page.“Snowden is one of the people they talk about. They talk about numerous people, but he is certainly one of the people that they do talk about,” Trump said on Thursday, before turning to his aides. “I guess the DOJ is looking to extradite him right now? …It’s certainly something I could look at. Many people are on his side, I will say that. I don’t know him, never met him. But many people are on his side.”“How do you feel about that, Snowden? Haven’t heard the name in a long time,” Trump reportedly asked his staff. “I’ve heard it both ways. From traitor to he’s being, you know, persecuted. I’ve heard it both ways.”Snowden pointed out in a Friday tweet that “the last time we heard a White House considering a pardon was 2016, when the very same attorney general who once charged me conceded that, on balance, my work in exposing the NSA’s unconstitutional system of mass surveillance had been ‘a public service.’”That comment came from Eric Holder during a May 2016 interview with David Alexrod. Holder, who also called Snowden’s actions “inappropriate and illegal,” ran the Justice Department under President Barack Obama in 2013, when Snowden was charged with theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act.Journalist Matt Taibbi tweeted in response to Snowden that the fact that the whistleblower “has been in permanent exile while the creators/defenders of the illegal surveillance program he exposed have not only gone unpunished, but have been feted and given high-profile media jobs, is an ongoing outrage.”Even some right-wing politicians joined the calls for Trump to pardon Snowden. Michigan Congressman Justin Amash—who became an Independent and then a Libertarian after leaving the Republican Party last summer—tweeted his support for the whistleblower Friday:Edward @Snowden is a whistleblower who exposed unconstitutional surveillance practices that violated the rights of millions. He deserves the opportunity to return to the United States and receive a pardon as part of a fair process that examines his actions. https://t.co/JqVccAYd41— Justin Amash (@justinamash) August 14, 2020Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) also said in a series of tweets Friday that the president should pardon Snowden—prompting a response from Cenk Uyger of The Young Turks: “Wow. I agree. Do you believe in miracles?”Wow. I agree. Do you believe in miracles? The more you take money out of the equation, the more the left and right-wing can agree. We should end Snowden’s absurd exile. He’s an American hero. https://t.co/pkYgIrRicQ— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) August 14, 2020The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald, who was was among the first journalists to report on leaked documents from Snowden, wrote in a long thread of tweets Friday that Trump talking about a pardon for Snowden and Massie expressing his support for one “should not obscure that this is not a right-wing view.”Praise for Snowden’s heoric whistleblowing has also come from @BernieSanders, @CornelWest, Noam Chomsky and Washington Post media reporter @Sulliview: pic.twitter.com/VbhRoIvyqr— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 14, 2020And now conservatives see how easily NSA’s mass surveillance system, and the entire intelligence community apparatus, can be weaponized & abused for improper ends.What Snowden showed the world was crucial for it to know. He’s spent 7 years in exile. He should be pardoned.— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 14, 2020Greenwald also shared the ideologically diverse list of signatories to the Stand with Snowden pledge and said it is “good to see” that Trump is “now open to the view of the ACLU and the New York Times, among others, that Snowden is a heroic whistleblower.”Republished from CommonDreams.org under Creative CommonsThe post No Matter How You Feel About Trump, a Pardon for Snowden Would Be a Major Win appeared first on We Are Change. |
| Putin Sees US and Iran Headed Toward War, Proposes Urgent World Summit to Stop ItPosted: 14 Aug 2020 03:31 PM PDTRussia thinks war between the US and Iran is on the horizon, and is proposing steps to stop it:Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday proposed a video summit with the United States, Britain, France, China, Germany and Iran in a bid to avoid “confrontation and escalation” at the United Nations, where Washington is trying to extend an arms embargo on Tehran, reports Reuters.But it’s hard to know what could be done at this point. Not only did the Trump administration void the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), but long-standing hawks like Pompeo have sought to ramp up sanctions at every turn.The situation has been stalemated, with Tehran demanding easing of sanctions or erasure altogether as a condition for fresh talks, but with the White House alternately saying Iran has to first abandon all development related to nuclear power (which the US says is actually for nuclear weapons) and its ballistic missile program.But if Gaddafi’s fate is anything to go by (who abandoned his WMD program in the early 2000s and was “brought in from the cold” as they say – only to be overthrown by US-NATO military intervention and summarily executed in the street years later), the view from Tehran is that any ‘deal-making’ with the United States is impossible.“The issue is urgent,” Putin said of his plan in Friday comments. He explained the alternative remains “only further escalation of tensions, increasing risk of conflict – such a scenario must be avoided.”When asked about Putin’s proposal and a press briefing on Friday, President Trump responded: “I hear there’s something, but I haven’t been told of it yet.”However, given Iran essentially sees the US as in a state of war with the Islamic Republic – especially given the January assassination of IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, it will likely less than optimistic for any UN deconfliction meeting to succeed.Republished from ZeroHedge.com with permissionThe post Putin Sees US and Iran Headed Toward War, Proposes Urgent World Summit to Stop It appeared first on We Are Change. |
| Discussion of Wikileaks or Any “Hacked Information” is Now Banned on YouTubePosted: 14 Aug 2020 01:13 PM PDTSocial media giant YouTube announced yesterday a host of new measures it says are aimed at preventing any interference in the upcoming presidential elections. Chief among the list it wrote on its blog, is “removing content that contains hacked information, the disclosure of which may interfere with democratic processes, such as elections and censuses.” An example it gives, would be deleting “videos that contain hacked information about a political candidate.”It also promised to “raise up authoritative voices” when it comes to current events and politics by changing its algorithm to show users more credible channels and “reduce the spread of harmful misinformation and borderline content.” Example channels that produce authoritative content, it tells readers, includes Fox News and CNN. It also noted it would expand information panels underneath videos.There are a number of reasons this new policy could concern users of its platform. Firstly, the great majority of leaked information — the lifeblood of investigative journalism — is anonymous. Often, like in the cases of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning or Reality Winner, whistleblowers face serious consequences if their names become attached to documents exposing government or corporate malfeasance. But without a name to go with a document, the difference between leaked data and hacked data is impossible to define. Thus, powerful people and organizations could claim data was hacked, rather than leaked, and simply block all discussion of the matter on the platform. Hearing the news, some feared already existing content from investigative journalists would be subject to removal under the new guidelines.Youtube just announced that it will no longer allow videos that use information from…. Wikileaks and anything obtained in a ‘hack’ (no evidence was ever shown Wikileaks obtained hacked information) Does this mean @EmpireFiles & @JordanChariton videos will be taken down? pic.twitter.com/R8MBLS1hZZ— Robbie Martin (@FluorescentGrey) August 13, 2020YouTube’s choice of Fox News and CNN as reliable sources might also raise eyebrows in some quarters. According to the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report, fewer than half of all Americans trust the two networks (Fox at 42 percent and CNN at 47 percent). And a new study from Gallup/Knight Foundation finds that fewer than a third of the country has a favorable view of the media more generally, including only 19 percent of those under thirty (YouTube’s prime demographic). Many go to the platform precisely because it offers alternative and more diverse opinions to corporate-dominated radio, print and television. But YouTube is now funneling them back towards those same sources.The 2016 presidential election was colored by Wikileaks’ release of the Podesta emails, discussion of which would be banned under YouTube’s new rules. The Hillary Clinton campaign alleges the emails were hacked from Podesta’s computer. The published communications, the authenticity of which is not in doubt, informed the country of the machinations of the Democratic Party, how it tipped the electoral scales in favor of Clinton and against Bernie Sanders in the primary, how Clinton stated to Wall Street that she had a “public” and a “private” position on regulation, insinuating she was lying to the nation, how representatives of Qatar wanted to meet with her husband Bill for “five minutes” to present him with a $1 million check for his birthday, and how her own staff held her in contempt. The emails, Clinton contends, swung the election from her to Trump. If this is the case, the decision to ban all discussion of them would have fundamentally altered the democratic process.If YouTube’s actions seem drastic, the Australian state of Queensland introduced laws yesterday that made it illegal to publish allegations of corruption against any politician during election season. Those found guilty would be punished with a six-month jail sentence and a fine of nearly U.S.$5,000. After a public outcry, the law was overturned after only 24 hours.While misinformation online is a problem, there exist other, more serious threats to electoral integrity. President Trump, who said that Republicans would never get into power again if everybody voted, told Fox Business this week that he is actively withholding funds from the U.S. Postal Service in order to undermine the election to his benefit. “They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he said. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.” Add decades of gerrymandering and a campaign of voter suppression that has seen over 1,200 polling stations across the South, primarily in black neighborhoods, and Trump might be able to overcome his polling deficit and beat Biden.YouTube’s decision to ban discussion of hacked information on its platform is unlikely to significantly improve political discourse or election integrity in the United States. It will, however, continue to tilt the balance in favor of established corporate-funded outlets, to the detriment of new, alternative voices.Republished from MintPressNews.com under Creative CommonsThe post Discussion of Wikileaks or Any “Hacked Information” is Now Banned on YouTube appeared first on We Are Change. |
