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US Court PACER Bill Proposes to End Paywall
by grarpamp 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/bill-to-tear-down-federal-court… https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/new-bill-would-finally-tear-dow… https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/appeals-court-finds-users-were-… https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/ Some PACER users here. The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the Open Courts Act -- legislation to overhaul PACER, the federal courts' system for accessing public documents. The proposal would guarantee free public access to judicial documents, ending the current practice of charging 10 cents per page for many documents -- as well as search results. From a report: The bill must still be passed by the full House and the Senate and signed by the president. With Election Day just seven weeks away, the act is unlikely to become law during this session of Congress. Still, the vote is significant because it indicates the breadth of congressional support for tearing down the PACER paywall. The legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), whose bill we covered in 2018, and a fellow Georgian, Democrat Hank Johnson. Prior to Tuesday's vote of the House Judiciary Committee, the bill received a strong endorsement from Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). "It is indefensible that the public must pay fees, and unjustifiably high fees at that, to know what is happening in their own courts," Nadler said.

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Caitlin Johnstone re Assange: Exposing war crimes should always be legal - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

Caitlin Johnstone continues dropping truth bombs on the world, and lately via that thorn in the side of the West, RT.com (well done Ms Johnstone!): Caitlin Johnstone: Exposing war crimes should always be legal. Committing and hiding them should not https://www.rt.com/op-ed/501031-caitlin-johnstone-exposing-war-crimes/

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Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know
by jim bell 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know | | | | | | | | | | | Google's antitrust battles: What you need to know The search giant is headed for a historic showdown with the Department of Justice. The DOJ is just one of many t... | | | [partial quote follows] "What are the antitrust issues facing Google? Google's dominance in web search, digital advertising and smartphone software are the primary areas of interest to lawmakers and regulators. " "The company processes around 90% of all online searches in the US. That stranglehold is the foundation of Google's massive advertising business, which generates almost all of the company's $160 billion in annual sales. Google has been accused of hurting competitors by prioritizing its own products, like shopping ads or local business listings, over the listings of rivals in its search results. Critics also complain that the tech giant takes content from publishers and other websites and uses that information in prepared answers directly on Google's search engine, rather than simply providing a list of links that send users away to other sites. " "Google's ad business is also under a microscope because the company owns every step in a complicated system that connects ad sellers and buyers, which rivals say gives Google an unfair edge over the market. Much of the company's advertising prowess comes from acquisitions, including the 2008 buyout of the ad-tech firm DoubleClick." "The company also owns the Android operating system, the most popular mobile software in the world. Its dominance is hard to overstate; Android powers almost nine out of every 10 smartphones shipped globally. The tech giant has been accused of using that dominance to strong-arm partners to bundle Google's apps, like search and Maps, into their offerings. " "When is a DOJ lawsuit expected? The DOJ could file a lawsuit as soon as the end of the month, according to the Times report, but the exact timing isn't known. Attorney General Bill Barr and the 40 or so lawyers working on the case have disagreed over when it should be filed, the Times reported. " There's also an internal dispute at the DOJ over how broad the complaint should be. One team of lawyers is looking into Google's search business, while another is probing its advertising business, according to The Wall Street Journal. | | | | | | | | | | | WSJ News Exclusive | Justice Department Disagreement Arises Over Possibl... Brent Kendall Some Justice Department staffers have expressed internal concerns over plans to bring an antitrust lawsuit again... | | |

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Fwd: History of U.S. conspiracy theories-as-movements (including QAnon) from the 1790s-present
by Cecilia Tanaka 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

Not a wow-revolutionary-changing-life post, but the subject is interesting and, with a bit of luck, can inspire someone here, yay! :D Wish you all an awesome life, and many sweet kisses and good books!!! <3 Ceci, zzzleepy and late, sorry Shawn, grarpamp, Mark et all... ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: David Bray Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 21:56 Subject: History of U.S. conspiracy theories-as-movements (including QAnon) from the 1790s-present Conspiracy movements usually end up entering the halls of power. And then they get absorbed. By Stephen Mihm <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/AP8wRWjVDoM/stephen-mihm> September 17, 2020, 10:45 AM EDT https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-17/qanon-explained-as-u-… [image: In American history, conspiracy theory-making has a way of turning into policymaking.] In American history, conspiracy theory-making has a way of turning into policymaking. Photographer: Antonistock/iStockphoto Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, is a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. Read more opinion <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/AP8wRWjVDoM/stephen-mihm>Follow @SMihm on Twitter <https://www.twitter.com/SMihm> COMMENTS 26 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share <https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.co…> Tweet <https://twitter.com/share?text=Throughout%20U.S.%20history%2C%20conspiracy%…> Post <https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&title=The%20QAnon%20Party%3…> Email <?subject=The%20QAnon%20Party%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20a%20Conspiracy%20Theory%20-%20Bloomberg&body=The%20QAnon%20Party%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20a%20Conspiracy%20Theory%0D%0A%0D%0Aby%20Stephen%20Mihm%0D%0A%0D%0A%3Cp%3EConspiracy%20movements%20usually%20end%20up%20entering%20the%20halls%20of%20power.%20And%20then%20they%20get%20absorbed.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fopinion%2Farticles%2F2020-09-17%2Fqanon-explained-as-u-s-political-history> In this article 82064Z BLUE BOOK Private Company <https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/82064Z:FH> It’s tempting to view QAnon’s rise as a threat to America’s democracy — especially with a believer poised to win <https://www.npr.org/2020/08/13/901985118/from-fringe-to-congress-qanon-back…> a seat in the House of Representatives. But history suggests that conspiracy-based movements have been a part of the U.S. democracy since the nation’s founding. Long before the modern Republican and Democratic parties held sway, a succession of others rose and fell. In between, smaller fringe movements surged, often embracing some pretty bizarre conspiracies. Eventually, though, the QAnons of the past didn’t take over mainstream parties. Rather, their entry into the halls of power led to their absorption — or, alternatively, excommunication — by more mainstream parties. The historian Richard Hofstadter was one of the first to highlight the significance of “paranoid” politics in a now-famous essay <https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/> in 1964. Such conspiracies, he observed, invariably hold that a secretive cabal of elite insiders intends to corrupt and destroy the nation. QAnon’s satanic pedophiles working from within the “deep state” is squarely in this tradition. Conspiratorial thinking first gained traction in U.S. politics in the late 1790s, when the New Englander Federalists, their power on the wane, became convinced that Illuminati members headquartered in Europe were plotting to destroy the new nation with their trademark secularism. A strange coalition of Federalist politicians and congregational preachers joined together to sound the alarm. More from <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion?in_source=postr_index> Hedge Funds Can't Possibly Survive the Nasdaq Whale <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/hedge-funds-struggle-as-…> Why Portland, of All Places, Erupted <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/why-protests-in-portland…> Are Stocks Losing Some of Their Liquidity Momentum? <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/are-stocks-losing-some-o…> Covid-19 Lockdowns May Have Saved Kids’ Lives <https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-09-17/child-mortality-covid-19…> Some Federalist true believers argued that Thomas Jefferson, who would challenge John Adams for the presidency, was the leader of the American Illuminati and the embodiment of the antichrist. Rev. Timothy Dwight, who was arguably the most prominent pastor associated with the Federalists, led the call to arms in a famous sermon. “Shall we, my brethren, become partakers of these sins?” he asked his congregation in 1798. “Shall we introduce them into our government, our schools, our families? Shall our sons become the disciplines of Voltaire … or our daughters the concubines of the Illuminati?” This early movement, though, quickly faded out — as did the Federalist Party. Indeed, Jefferson’s victory in 1800 ushered in the demise of the Federalists over the next two decades. But conspiracy thinking hardly vanished. In the 1820s, the U.S. was left with only a single major political party, the Democratic Republicans. The fragile consensus unraveled over the course of the decade, triggering a fresh wave of paranoia. Back then, many members of the nation’s political elite belonged to the Freemasons, a fraternal order that flourished in many countries. Membership in this society came with a pledge of secrecy, and high-ranking Masons earned titles like “master” and “high priest.” This was the “deep state” circa 1826, complete with a star defector like Q: William Morgan. The former Mason — and critic of the Masonic Order — was arrested and promptly disappeared. Though no one ever found a body, the backlash against Freemasons was ferocious. Before long, an entire political party had emerged dedicated to exposing the iniquities of the secret order: the Anti-Masonic Party. As one historian of this movement has written <https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Masonic-Party-United-States-1826-1843/dp/081319…>, “Masonic secrecy became synonymous with darkness, sin, immorality, intemperance, treason, and the work of Satan.” Or as one Anti-Mason politician put it, Freemasonry lured people down “the steps that lead down to the gates of hell; the paths of perdition; conclaves of corruption, atheism, and infidelity.” [image: President Trump Holds Make America Great Again Rally In Pennsylvania] QAnon’s claims sound a lot like earlier conspiracy movements. Photographer: Rick Loomis/Getty Images And yet, this did not lead to the end of the republic, then in its fourth decade. Instead, the Anti-Masonic Party became institutionalized as a political force, settling on key issues far removed from their original obsession, like higher tariffs. An Anti-Mason won the governorship of Vermont in 1831; in total, the Anti-Masons sent 40 individuals to Congress, and many more to state legislatures. It was then largely absorbed by the newly formed Whig Party, which vied with the Democrats for dominance beginning in the 1830s. By the 1840s, though, an even more elaborate set of conspiracy theories would soon coalesce in response to the flood of Catholic immigrants. The alleged papal plot to destroy America triggered even more tell-all “memoirs” than the one about Masons. These included bestselling books like “The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk,” purportedly written by a nun who had fled the convent. It painted a sensationalized portrait rampant with sexual deviance, infanticide, and secret and subversive plots. First published in 1836, it launched a flood of similar exposes with titles like “Mysteries of Popery Unveiled.” Some native-born Protestants, fearful of papist meddling, combined to create a secretive society to counteract international Catholic influence. The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, as it was known, soon became a formal political party dubbed the Know Nothings, a nod to the secretive nature of its members. Like the Anti-Masons, the Know Nothings arose at a moment of realignment of the major political parties: The Whig Party was fading away. In fact, most of the Know Nothings eventually joined a new political party by the middle of the 1850s. They called themselves Republicans. The Populist Party, founded in 1891, was a serious political organization <https://www.amazon.com/Populist-Vision-Charles-Postel/dp/0195384717>. Though not primarily obsessed with conspiracies, some of its members embraced, among other things, the belief that a cabal of international bankers — typically Jews — manipulated events to suit their needs. The Populists helped make works like “Seven Financial Conspiracies That Have Enslaved the American People” a bestseller. While the party faded away, many of its members would find a home in the increasingly progressive Democratic Party. In 1958, a candy magnate named Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society, a group that anticipated much of the QAnon worldview. For most people, the John Birch Society is vaguely associated with anti-communism. In reality, though, Welch and his society offered a far more expansive, all-encompassing vision <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10570310209374748?journalCode=r…> of a worldwide conspiracy long before the arrival of the communists. In his writings, Welch traced the roots of a collectivist conspiracy back to — you guessed it — the Illuminati. According to Welch, this all-powerful secret society created a shadowy cabal he called the “INSIDERS” — usually denoted in capital letters — who had been behind history’s watershed events, from the French Revolution to the founding of the Soviet Union. According to Welch, communism was but a “tool of the total conspiracy” that aimed to create an internationalist “one-world government.” Welch’s breathless account of this “satanic program” held that mainstream politicians and military leaders were either unwitting dupes of this master plan or ruthless agents of the underlying conspiracy. He would impugn leaders like General George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, who Welch considered “a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.” Nothing, he warned his followers, was as it seemed; appearances could be deceiving. Rank-and-file Republicans, many of them veterans of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against a communist conspiracy, flocked to Welch’s organization. Hundreds of chapters sprang up around the country. At its peak, it numbered at least 100,000 members and operated 400 bookstores that sold Welch’s manifesto, “The Blue Book,” as well as the society’s other publications. The Republicans had an uneasy relationship with the John Birch Society, tolerating its antics but aware that doing so might tar the party as extremists. It fell to the party’s chief intellectual, William F. Buckley, to marginalize the Birchers. In the early 1960s, he wrote a series of articles from his perch as editor of the National Review, attacking <https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/william-f-buckley-john-birch-society…> the group for disseminating “paranoid and unpatriotic drivel.” The campaign succeeded, and the John Birch Society saw its influence wane. But their excommunication was done in service of a larger rebranding of the Republican Party, one that intensified after Barry Goldwater’s loss in a landslide to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. These efforts would ultimately propel Richard Nixon, and later, Ronald Reagan, to the White House. Forty years later, we are watching the demise of that incarnation of the Republican Party and the rise of QAnon. All the familiar ingredients are there: the fantasies that the world is controlled by secretive groups of insiders who are agents of secularism and Satan himself, and that they are sexually deviant and hellbent on the nation’s destruction. Add to that QAnon’s embrace of nativism and anti-Semitism, and you’ve got a banquet of conspiracy theories served up to the credulous. Can our political system tame this madness? If history is any guide, there’s reason for optimism. But one thing to keep in mind is that this may be the beginning of a very long haul.

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Cybersecurity: CPU and Systems without Intel ME, AMD PSP, Etc
by grarpamp 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

https://freundschafter.com/cybersecurity-cpu-and-system-alternatives-withou… " The fastest one is the AMD A10-6800K " A more comprehensive wiki that put all such anti-features into a table would not leave out other ranges of hardware either... IBM Power, RISC-V, phones, etc. It is not known if such a security / risk comparison exists. #OpenFabs , #OpenHW

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surprisingly, Soros now pins US color revolution on Trump
by Zig the N.g 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

This might be obvious in hindsight, or I might just be unfortunately slow to grasp things, but to this morning's delight, a "blame Trump" exercise actually surprises me. Go figure. Presimably feeling the heat, Soros is for some strange reason wanting his grand hurrah, the White color revolution being dished out on North America for the world to see, to NOT be blamed on Soros! It's hard to get over the level's of chutzpah in this one, and really, chops to Soros for at least __trying__ to pin the blame on someone as Project Veritas and other leaks ongoingly damn him in the public mind ... ... I guess "Putin dunnit" was beginning to wear a little thin.. and since for 30+ years the oligarchs have been stashing the cash over in their favourite Pooh Bear dictatorship, and now they're struggling to get it out, they might as well try to turn up the heat on MAGA Man. "All's fair in war and color revolutions." Quite sophístamicated: Hedge Fund CIO: Trump Is Now Left With Two Darker Options - A Domestic Civil Conflict And/Or A Chinese Conflict https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hedge-fund-cio-trump-now-left-two-darker-…

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Censorship: QAnon Site Gets Shutdown after Dox Cancels Free Speech
by grarpamp 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://qmap.pub/ https://qanon.pub/ Kindof hard to keep people and ideas down, 200k+ members in just one facebook channel. New anonymous and uncensorable comms hubs will form within the overlay networks and push out to clearnet. Popular QAnon Website Shuts Down After Citigroup Employee And Webmaster Doxxed And Stalked Fri, 09/11/2020 - 17:20 The world's most popular QAnon post aggregator has been taken offline, after its webmaster - a Citigroup employee named Jason Gelinas - was [42]doxxed by Logically.com and later stalked by Bloomberg's William Turton - who drove out to his house for an interview. After @LocgicallyAi published a report yesterday naming Citigroup employee Jason Gelinas as the man behind the most popular QAnon website, Qmap, I drove to his home in New Jersey and briefly interviewed him outside. [43]https://t.co/mXAUM0zuWK — William Turton (@WilliamTurton) [44]September 11, 2020 Under the username 'QAppAnon,' Gelinas launched Qmap.pub in May of 2018 under the username 'QAppAnon,' - which boasted over 10 million visitors in July according to SimilarWeb. The site aggregated 'Q drops,' messages posted by an anonymous individual (or individuals) to image board '8kun' promoting the theory that President Trump is part of a military intelligence operation by 'white hat' insiders to take down the deep state - arresting and prosecuting corrupt government officials and pedophiles. [45][IMG] Because '8kun' users often post graphic or objectionable material, Qmap.pub provided followers of the movement a 'clean' platform to follow Q drops. Over the years, Q’s posts would move from the 4chan forum to 8chan, and finally to its later iteration, 8kun. But these forums weren’t where most of Q’s followers would go to access the drops: most would find them neatly compiled on a site called QMap, now the main platform on which Q’s drops are published. For years it was believed that QMap was an endeavour that was independent of both the chan forums and the person or people posting Q’s drops, but recent discoveries concerning an IP address behind QMap raised questions as to whether Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan and 8kun, an elusive figure in his own right, could also be Q. [46]As some QAnon researchers have pointed out, however, the story of Q’s operations does not end with Jim Watkins. -[47]Logically.com Now, this is all that appears when one visits the site: [48][IMG] When reached at home by Bloomberg's Turton and asked about the Logically report, Gelinas said "I'm not going to comment on any of that," adding "I'm not going to get involved. I want to stay out of it." Wearing an American flag baseball cap, Gelinas said that QAnon is a “patriotic movement to save the country.” Hours after the initial contact from Bloomberg News, the website was no longer accessible. -[49]Bloomberg How did Logically track down Gelinas? According to their report, the website used a now-deleted Facebook post to track him down via email. "Our investigation can reveal that QAPPANON is not Watkins, but instead a New Jersey man in his forties with prominent roles in technical analysis and IT security for the banking sector. QAPPANON’s email address was initially discovered during our investigation into QMap’s translation efforts and international reach. A now-deleted Facebook post allowed us to trace the email to a CNET download cache for the QMap app as well as a new app in development called Armor of God. ... An extraction of QAPPANON’s email address from the URL led to their developer profile and list of created apps on CNET. While the qmap app is well known at this point, Armor of God is relatively new, having been uploaded on the 18th June 2020." And according to Gelinas' LinkedIn profile, he's an information security analyst for Citigroup. In August, Facebook followed [50]Twitter's July decision to punish QAnon followers - [51]banning hundreds of pages, groups and Instagram accounts tied to the movement. So - now that Gelinas has been outed as the man behind the most popular QAnon site on the planet, which has now been deactivated, what else does he have to worry about? 42. https://www.logically.ai/articles/qanon-key-figure-man-from-new-jersey 44. https://twitter.com/WilliamTurton/status/1304498734382936064 46. https://www.dailydot.com/debug/who-is-qanon-jim-watkins-rumors/ 49. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-11/qanon-website-shuts-down… 50. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-nukes-7000-qanon-accounts-restr… 51. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/facebook-bans-hundreds-qanon-groups-pages… " The Great Awakening. Dark To Light. Where We Go One We Go All (WWG1WGA). These people are sick. Trust the plan. They want you divided. They think you're sheep. Bigger than you can imagine. Expand your thinking. Track resignations. Their need for symbols will be their downfall. Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing. Now comes the pain. You are the news now. We know what happens in the end. God wins. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. " https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/1925200/qanon-groups-hit-by-facebo… https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/07/218219/facebook-removes-qanon-cons…

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Israel-UAE (and ME oil) deals - relevant authority - sane relationships - do business not war - oppose BDS - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

Israelis have a right to exist. Others do to, such as the Palestinians. (And there may be no utility in failing to acknowledge the fact that in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, the Israelis holds much power.) Israel looks to be starting to actually take the reigns of her own relationships with her Middle Eastern neighbours - the headline right now is the Israel UAE deal/s, but then there's e.g. the secretive oil pipeline that Israel runs from the Med sea to the South, and a few other tidbits. Let's put it this way: Israel building business relationships with her Arab neighbours, is the right approach to medium term stability in the region. Let's hope Israel -continues- to move away from "moonshots via war and tribulation" ("a war footing") which she has been on for far too long, and into this new regime of "doing business with her neighbours". Endless Opportunities and Billions in Trade, Here's Why the Israel-UAE Deal Stirs Excitement https://sputniknews.com/analysis/202009091080404267-endless-opportunities-a… Other benefits to this "independence via doing business" Israeli initiative, include the possibility of financial self sufficiency for Israel, and in this particular (epic) moment in history, the possibility for something conclusive for the Palestinians now that a thaw between Israel and her Arab neighbours is firmly on the table. Now is the moment, all parties ought give this their best negotiation. Further, with Israel actually (apparently) on the path of business relationships, and therefore some level of financial independence, this provides for the possibility of the USA further withdrawing from the Middle East theater (not completely, since the U.S. has important interests in Iraq which ought be protected, but at least to some degree). This new multi polar world emerging (thank you again V.V. Putin and all Russia), this "nationalistic" world, is a far lesser evil than the one world Beast-chipped prophecy we were so so close to. So here's prayin for Israeli financial independence, and for North America's consequent independence from the intense decades long Israeli political influence over the U.S. As business partnerships grow, we should see the reduction of endless blatant evils of provocations, bombings, false flags, death and assassinations, e.g. upon Syria and may be Lebanon. We can pray for this too. The Russian-German gas pipeline cost basis of the NordStream-2, may well make Israel's "moon shot" MedStream simply untenable financially. So be it, it was a chutzpah moonshot anyway. Though perhaps Israel can build MedStream and somehow write off the capital construction cost (surely Jewish bankers have some experience on how to do that). (Note the USA doing that "Iron Dome" deal is cheesy and chintzy, but props to the Israeli's for working with what they've got, they do what they can, which is more than many do...) Next, the deep state trying to sabotage the Russia-Germany gas pipeline is likely NOT about the USA shipping gas across thousands of ocean miles to Europe (it simply make NO financial sense at all), but INSTEAD perhaps the truth is Israel's MedStream - that would actually make sense (NOT saying I support MedStream, just analyzing facts on the ground). Should be much better that Israel focuses on many far cheaper and far easier low hanging "business deal" fruits all around - her immediate Arab neighbours - stop being arseholes, start doing business. Thankfully for Russia's and Germany's interests (IFF Germany has any ovaries left) we see the Navalny Novichok 2 point 0 hoaxasaurus falling apart. Germany first claimed Novichok in Navalny's body fluids, which of course contradicts the Russian first responders who still have samples of said fluids, and so now Germany claims "a water bottle had Novichok on it". Yeah yeah, pull the other one :D - for details: Navalny False-Flag Authors Invent New Twist To Cover Lies https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/navalny-false-flag-authors-invent-ne… Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/08/navalny-false-flag-author… SO, for the above reasons (Israel literally finding her financial feet to do business rather than bombing the crap out of her neighbours all the time, and the possibility of Israel-USA decoupling which such financial stability would no doubt help facilitate) it's evidently in our collective interests to --oppose-- the "BDS against Israel" movement - you see, for the Israelis, this is literally an existential issue, that is, directly relevant to their very existence! (Razer, an ACK could be useful here, to help us if we're missing something obvious ...) And before any of us leap into reactivity, consider this: there's an old biblical saying "live by the sword, and you shall die by the sword" - so if you call for the financial destruction of Israel, then perhaps it would be fitting that such financial destruction befall your own nation... "Pragmatic karma" dictates that we must uphold the rights of others, all others, which rights we seek to enjoy for ourselves. (When war falls on your doorstep or nation, that's a different situation, until then, each of your countrymen have the same rights as you to speech, travel, association, work and trade, privacy, etc.)

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Open Technology Fund sues administration for $20M in missing funds
by coderman 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

https://www.axios.com/scoop-open-technology-fund-sues-administration-for-20… Scoop: Open Technology Fund sues administration for $20M in missing funds [Sara Fischer](https://www.axios.com/authors/sara), author of [Media Trends](https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-media-trends) The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is suing the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) over roughly $20 million in congressionally appropriated funds it says the government is refusing to provide, Axios has learned. Why it matters: There's [bipartisan uproar from Congress](https://www.axios.com/accusations-of-hobbling-internet-freedom-fu… over the funding that OTF says is being withheld. The USAGM, whose new CEO is seeking to replace OTF leaders with Trump loyalists, is required by law to provide the funding via federal grants, but it has given shifting rationales for why the money has been held up. The big picture: The OTF is a government-supported nonprofit focused on advancing internet freedom. Without funds, it can't support work by activist journalists in places like Hong Kong and Belarus, where authorities are increasingly cracking down on internet freedom. Details: The lawsuit, set to be filed Thursday in federal claims court, alleges the USAGM breached its contracts with the OTF in three ways: - It withheld about $9.4 million in funding that it owes under OTF’s 2020 grant agreement. - It withheld an additional $9.8 million in prior OTF program grants held by Radio Free Asia, OTF’s former parent organization. - A USAGM senior adviser "engaged in transparently pretextual efforts to force OTF into breaching its grant agreement." The lawsuit also says two chief financial officers at the USAGM flagged that it was illegal to withhold the funds, but the USAGM tried to move forward with the plan anyway. - The first CFO, Grant Turner, a longtime career civil servant, was ordered by a USAGM adviser last week to “cease and desist” transferring a portion of the promised OTF funding. Turner also protested the unlawful transfer of those OTF funds to another account. - Turner said, according to the lawsuit, that the USAGM's efforts are a “thin cover” for the “operational destruction” of the OTF. - The following day, Turner’s replacement, acting CFO John Barkhamer, also refused to comply with the order to transfer funds into another account, according to the lawsuit. He resigned in protest and reported USAGM leadership's conduct to the inspector general for the agency. Be smart: The issue of funding the OTF is particularly sensitive, given that the USAGM [announced](https://www.usagm.gov/2020/08/18/ceo-pack-revives-usagms-office-… on Tuesday that it plans to create and fund its own Office of Internet Freedom. Sources fear the agency is withholding the OTF's funds in order to shift them to its new agency, which is illegal if done without congressional approval.

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Linusgate: Debian banned Linus Torvalds
by Debian Community News Team 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

You can't make this up Techrights has the debian-private email thread, 253 messages about how to apply the knife to Torvalds' throat so he would only say what Debian wants him to say. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=techrights+linusgate&t=ffab&ia=web -- Debian Developer

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