From a Lebanese refugee camp to Harvard, Ismail Ajjawi inspires other Palestinian students
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez | nationofchange.org | 2019-09-11
Today marks a week since Ismail Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian student who was denied entry into the United States, began classes with his fellow Harvard freshmen. Ajjawi was initially turned away at Boston's Logan Airport after immigration officials searched his phone and computer, and interrogated him about his religion and social media posts by friends …
nationofchange.org/2019/09/11/from-a-lebanese-refugee-camp-to-harvard-ismail-ajjawi-inspires-other-palestinian-students/

Government Internet shutdowns on the rise internationally
wsws.org | 2019-09-11
Instances of governments shutting down the Internet are on the rise in response to the growth of social conflict and protest, as well as the use of social media to organize political opposition.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/11/shut-s11.html

New poll suggests increasing support for break-up of the UK
Peadar O'Cearnaigh | thecanary.co | 2019-09-11
A new poll suggests that a majority of people living in the north of Ireland would vote to join the Republic of Ireland if there was a referendum. And with similar support also showing for an independent Scotland, the UK's days could well be numbered. | pic.twitter.com/muhAdZ5LUh
thecanary.co/trending/2019/09/11/new-poll-suggests-increasing-support-for-break-up-of-the-uk/

Some airplanes did something?! New York Times article 'de-terrorizes' 9/11 attacks
rt.com | 2019-09-11
On the anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attack on US soil, a story by the New York Times suggested that "airplanes" brought down the twin towers. The seeming shift of responsibility did not sit well with readers. | "18 years have passed since airplanes took aim and brought down the World Trade Center," read a tweet from the New York Times on Wednesday. "Today families will once again gather and grieve at the site where more than 2000 people died." Inside an accompanying article, the same bizarre sentence was repeated. | Though technological dystopia was all the rage in 2001, what with the success…
rt.com/usa/468604-new-york-times-911-airplanes/

'We don't want another FyreFest': 'Storm Area 51' event canceled over 'safety concerns'
rt.com | 2019-09-11
"AlienStock," a music-festival spinoff of the "Storm Area 51" viral event, has been canceled out of fear for visitors' safety amid armed and angry locals, military police, and punishing desert conditions. | Alienstock, set to take place in Rachel, Nevada — the closest town to the secretive Area 51 airbase — was canceled out of fear it would turn into "FyreFest 2.0," the organizers announced on Tuesday, referring to the notorious music festival that bilked attendees for hefty ticket fees only to strand them on a tropical island in the Bahamas with no infrastructure and no festival. | Also on rt.com…
rt.com/usa/468537-alienstock-canceled-storm-area-51/

War and whiskers: Freshly-resigned John Bolton gets meme-roasting
rt.com | 2019-09-10
US National Security Advisor John Bolton's departure from the Trump administration has been met with a mix of joy from the MAGA crowd and protests from dedicated neocons, but also with an avalanche of memes. | President Donald Trump announced Bolton's dismissal by tweet on Tuesday, saying he had "disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions," presumably meaning his advocacy for military-enforced regime change in Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran. Bolton insisted that he attempted to resign before Trump's announcement. | Reaction flowed in swiftly, with some commenters in the media lamenting the war-haw…
rt.com/usa/468514-john-bolton-mustache-memes/

'The Nation' Launches 'Signal:Noise,' a New Column Confronting Mainstream Media Myopia
Press Room | thenation.com | 2019-09-10
'The Nation' Launches 'Signal: Noise,' a New Column Confronting Mainstream Media Myopia…
thenation.com/article/trump-twitter-media/

John Bolton, welcome to #Resistance? Media, Democrats lament Trump firing national security hawk
rt.com | 2019-09-10
Within hours of his firing by President Donald Trump, the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton was embraced by mainstream media outlets and even some Democrats, even if only as an excuse to criticize the White House. | Trump announced Bolton's ouster via Twitter on Tuesday morning, stunning even those in Washington who have reported on the possibility of such a move for months. As the shock wore off, however, reporters and lawmakers figured they would offer their thoughts — which, unsurprisingly, went along the usual lines. | "Can't wait for the Resistance, led by Maddow & O'Donnell & Hayes, to e…
rt.com/usa/468525-bolton-firing-reactions-media-democrats/

Bolton out: Trump ditches hawkish adviser he kept for 18 months despite 'disagreements'
rt.com | 2019-09-10
Whatever prompted US President Donald Trump to decide the services of his national security adviser John Bolton were "no longer needed," the question now is if he intends to retreat from the hawkish path Bolton had blazed. | Trump made the announcement on Twitter, as usual, saying he "disagreed strongly with many of [Bolton's] suggestions" and therefore asked for his resignation — and received it on Tuesday. Bolton's response perhaps illustrated the nature of his relationship with Trump: he tweeted only a confirmation that he'd offered to resign, then leaked an account to the media disputing Trump's versi…
rt.com/usa/468512-bolton-trump-security-advisor-resignation/

Massive blaze as train carrying flammable liquid derails in Illinois (PHOTO, VIDEO)
rt.com | 2019-09-10
Plumes of huge black smoke have been seen miles away from the crash site after a freight train carrying flammable liquid derailed near Dupo, Illinois, prompting an evacuation of railroad staff. | The accident occurred at around 12: 45 pm local time at Union Pacific's Dupo Yard, when the train was being prepared for departure, the railroad said. The derailment caused a tank car with methyl isobutyl ketone solvent to catch fire. | There have so no reports of deaths and injuries far been, with railroad staff safely evacuated from the yard. | www.facebook.com/herb.simmons.5/videos/10221191145874015/ | Foota…
rt.com/usa/468523-train-derailment-fire-dupo-illinois/

Publishers beg Congress to save them from extinction at the hands of Big Tech
rt.com | 2019-09-10
Newspaper executives are begging Congress to rescue their business model from predatory tech platforms, urging lawmakers to pass a bill that will allow them to bargain collectively and presumably restore their former glory. | Seven major newspaper publishers are lobbying for the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would give the newspaper industry four years of immunity from antitrust laws. That would enable them to bargain collectively with companies like Google and Facebook — which are, ironically, subject to several antitrust probes of their own, due to their outsize presence in the tech…
rt.com/usa/468531-newspapers-beg-congress-protection-internet/

From a Lebanese Refugee Camp to Harvard, Ismail Ajjawi Inspires Other Palestinian Students
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-09-10
Today marks a week since Ismail Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian student who was denied entry into the United States, began classes with his fellow Harvard freshmen. Ajjawi was initially turned away at Boston's Logan Airport after immigration officials searched his phone and computer, and interrogated him about his religion and social media posts by friends that were critical of U.S. policy. He was then forced to return home to Lebanon, but his case provoked outrage on the Harvard campus and among some Palestinian rights and academic freedom groups. Ajjawi, who is attending Harvard on a full scholarship, was edu…
www.democracynow.org/2019/9/10/palestinian_student_ismail_ajjawi_harvard

Trump, John Legend and 'filthy-mouthed' Chrissy Teigen spar about US criminal justice reform
rt.com | 2019-09-09
President Donald Trump has sparked a Twitter spat with John Legend and Chrissy Teigen after he accused them of stealing the credit for his criminal justice reforms, prompting them to clap back and call him a "p*ssy-ass b**ch." | Trump had tweeted that he'd been able to do what "no one else did" in passing criminal justice reform into law, and slammed "boring musician" Legend, "his filthy mouthed wife" Teigen and others for "taking the praise" for his work, which, he boasted, President Barack Obama "couldn't come close" to achieving. | When all of the people pushing so hard for Criminal Justice Reform were unab…
rt.com/usa/468390-trump-legend-tiegen-twitter/

Identity Unmasked: Meet the Proprietors of the Internet's Largest Neo-Confederate Propaganda Machine
splcenter.org | 2019-09-03
A small Facebook campaign predicated on keeping Confederate monuments in place has morphed into a group of more than 200 ardent, secretive separatists planning to make the South a separate nation.
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2019/identity-unmasked-meet-proprietors-internets-largest-neo-confederate-propaganda-machine

Out of the Darkness: Conversion Therapist Quits 'Ex-Gay' Movement
Intelligence Report Staff | splcenter.org | 2019-09-03
According to Truth Wins Out, Matheson's fellow ex-gay leader Rich Wyler announced his exit in a post to a private Facebook group. TWO "goes undercover to expose 'ex-gay' conversion leaders as hypocritical frauds that have not actually changed their sexual orientation," its website states.
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2019/out-darkness-conversion-therapist-quits-ex-gay-movement