alanjjohnstone
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Another interesting article to readhttps://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/29/the-new-hysteria-on-kremlin-trolls/
Quote:Of course the Russian government is playing around with our social media: every government that can is doing this. This is life in our cyber-world. We spy on them; they spy on us. We spin stories, they spin stories. We undermine or overthrow governments to get our way, others may try to do the same, if they can. Cyberspace is the New Great Game,…https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n01/jackson-lears/what-we-dont-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-russian-hackingProvided by another comrade an article which is of interest concerning Russia's "cyber attacks" and "hacking"
Quote:For the DNC, the great value of the Russian hack story is that it focuses attention away from what was actually in their emails. The documents revealed a deeply corrupt organisation, whose pose of impartiality was a sham. Even the reliably pro-Clinton Washington Post has admitted that ‘many of the most damaging emails suggest the committee was actively trying to undermine Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.’ Further evidence of collusion between the Clinton machine and the DNC surfaced recently in a memoir by Donna Brazile, who became interim chair of the DNC after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in the wake of the email revelations.This article by a comrade touches on various aspects related to media and dissemination of false information http://www.stephenshenfield.net/themes/international-relations/187-hunting-foreign-agents
Quote:It seems to me reasonable to suspect that the concern about Russian propaganda, while genuine, serves as a pretext for pursuing a more far-reaching goal — namely, restoring full monopolistic control of the political establishment over the public flow of information.i think there is another thread that RT was rightly shown to be pandering to the right-wing anti-migrant xenophobes and promoting nationalist separatismAs for the BBC, i would say it is equally as unreliable. But my aversion to the Beeb has been made clear over the years on here.DW or France 24 or Al Jazeera all have their weaknesses but it is interesting to compare the lead stories and differences in emphasis, sometimes. I think one person on the Forum recommended reading Irish newspapers
Now, if i was you, LBird, i would be asking myself is there anything in the style of my debating rather than the substance of it that could be improved to help convince others.Have you found any receptive audience in your cyber travels?
I just checked by Googling – we are guilty, our official SPGB twitter But as they say, no publicity is bad publicityhttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/melania-claus-twitter-reacts-first-180530637.html Melania Trump ✔@FLOTUS#MerryChristmas
That is why i thought it a pity there was no link for me to follow up on.As for the use of scum, much to do with the context that we are criticising sections of the ruling class. At certain times when they are engaged in particular actions, scum would be too tame a term.
Some will find this article confirmation of their view that we stick to the traditional propaganda method https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/25/death-magazines-overplayed-titles-fight-back-facebook“It is too early to call the death of magazines,” said Adam Smith, a director at WPP-owned Group M.Alex Bilmes, the editor of Esquire, says "You need a beautiful physical object that offers respite from social media and constant digital churn – although we are of course available digitally too. I hear a lot of doom and gloom but I don’t feel it. There is no cause for complete panic.”
Yet another trial proposed in Scotland. Four councils face the task of turning basic income from a utopian fantasy to contemporary reality as they build the first pilot schemes in the UK, with the support of a £250,000 grant announced by the Scottish government last month https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/25/scotland-universal-basic-income-councils-pilot-schemeThe independent thinktank Reform Scotland, which published a briefing earlier this month setting out a suggested basic income of £5,200 for every adult, has calculated that much of the cost could be met through a combination of making work-related benefits obsolete and changes to the tax system, including scrapping the personal allowance and merging national insurance and income tax.
I note the OP on the Forum reprints was almost 5 years ago. It is a shame that the Party has not chosen to re-published as a series with a uniform price (the covers are well-themed) and made them available on our own website.
Quote:meat-eating is deeply embedded in our culture and the multi-billion-dollar cattle and dairy industries are powerful and politically connected, making change difficult.https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/12/24/no-more-silence-about-torture-animals
I read the article but it seems to ignore that in modern war casualties are now mostly civilian from famine and disease caused by the direct consequences of war.Perhaps even in the past, figures did not include those who died from the results of armies foraging – a polite term for looting – food from the surrounding areas.Perhaps there is an equivalent death toll from the modern bombardment cities and the starvation of besieged cities.The difficulty for historians is determining those figures hence they ignore it and focus on more easily acquired statistics.
Yet another example of the increased threat an intensity of forest fires http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42464835The Thomas Fire has now become the largest fire in California's recorded history.
We do have those American evangelicals who are looking forward to the End Days and the Rapture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaptureThere are Christian Zionists who are willing to escalate the risk of conflict in the Middle East to fulfill their biblical prophecies.So not to be casually dismissed as a butt of jokes.
