Another Death Penalty Horror: Stark Disparities in Media and Activist Attention
Stephen Cooper | counterpunch.org | 2019-11-18
On November 12, intrepid abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean tweeted to her legions of followers: "What do Sen. Ted Cruz, Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and me all have in common? We're among a growing local and national movement asking Texas @GovAbbott to stop the scheduled Nov. 20 execution of #RodneyReed[.]" But for Twitter's…
counterpunch.org/2019/11/18/another-death-penalty-horror-stark-disparities-in-media-and-activist-attention/

Social Media Censorship Reaches New Heights as Twitter Permanently Bans Dissent
Mnar Muhawesh | globalresearch.ca | 2019-11-18
It's an open secret. The deep state is working hand in hand with Silicon Valley social media giants like Twitter, Facebook and Google to control the flow of information. That includes suppressing, censoring and sometimes outright purging dissenting voices — …
globalresearch.ca/social-media-censorship-twitter-permanently-bans-dissent/5695269

Czech govt approves digital tax aimed at internet giants — ministry
rt.com | 2019-11-18
The Czech government approved a seven percent digital tax proposal on Monday aimed at boosting state coffers by taxing advertising by global internet giants like Google and Facebook, the finance ministry said. | The proposed tax, which still must make it past lawmakers in parliament, covers revenue gained from targeted advertising, providing digital marketplaces, and user data sales, Reuters said. It will be aimed at services provided to Czech users. | The tax would apply to companies with global revenue over €750 million ($826.5 million) annually, 100 million crown ($4.32 million) turnover in the Czech m…
rt.com/newsline/473715-czech-digital-tax-giants/

Yes, Something Stinks about the State Takeover of the Houston Independent School District
Diane Ravitch | commondreams.org | 2019-11-18
"Something stinks in Texas," writes education historian Diane Ravtich. (Photo: United Federation of Teachers/ Facebook) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/hisd-ravitch.jpg …
commondreams.org/views/2019/11/18/yes-something-stinks-about-state-takeover-houston-independent-school-district?cd-origin=rss

'Meth. We're on it': Oddly-worded South Dakota drug awareness campaign 'breaks bad' on social media
rt.com | 2019-11-18
South Dakota has rolled out a new anti-drug campaign warning about the dangers of substance abuse and costing taxpayers almost half a million. But its wording, "Meth. We're On It," has drawn ridicule online. | Taking a bizarre twist on "I am Spartacus," the ads portray average South Dakotans — a kindly old farmer, a churchgoing grandma, high school football players — sternly telling the camera "I'm on meth," with a narrator cutting in with the standard anti-drug PSA: "meth is not someone else's problem." | While the ads attempt to take a serious tone to address a crisis "growing at an alarming rat…
rt.com/usa/473748-south-dakota-meth-campaign/

Are we the baddies? NBC chief foreign correspondent tweets amazement to find US foreign policy not always great
rt.com | 2019-11-18
Hearing that the Americans "have become the bad guys" on the world stage was a "gut punch" to NBC News reporter Richard Engel, but Twitter quickly set the astonished journalist straight with some history and facts. | Engel, NBC's chief foreign correspondent, was informed of this shocking news via various "sources" who complained to him about the Trump administration's recent betrayal of the Kurds in northern Syria and the alleged "misogynistic" firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine. | Such politically motivated actions "m…
rt.com/usa/473738-richard-engel-usa-bad-guys/

Bolivia: More Than 68,000 Fake Twitter Accounts Supported Coup
telesurenglish.net | 2019-11-18
More than 68,000 fake Twitter accounts were created to support the coup d'état in Bolivia, revealed a recent study by Julián Macías Tovar, head of social networks for the Spanish party Podemos. | RELATED: | Thousands March in Response to Cochabamba Massacre: Bolivia | The specialist found that these false accounts used several labels to try to legitimize…
telesurenglish.net/news/more-than-68000-fake-twitter-accounts-supported-coup-in-bolivia-20191118-0008.html

Trump 'likes the idea' of testifying in impeachment 'hoax' to get Congress 'focused'
rt.com | 2019-11-18
US President Donald Trump may testify in impeachment hearings after all, he tweeted, calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bluff after she broached the idea – though he also deemed the proceedings a "no due process hoax." | The president has warmed to the idea of testifying in the "phony impeachment Witch Hunt," he tweeted on Monday, explaining that "even though I did nothing wrong, and don't like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!" | Crediting his change of mind to "Crazy, Do Nothing Speaker of the House, Nervous…
rt.com/usa/473726-trump-testify-impeachment-hearing-tweet/

GRAPHIC VIDEO of lifelong smoker's black lungs goes viral
rt.com | 2019-11-18
In what has already been dubbed the "best anti-smoking advert ever," a Chinese transplant surgeon has shared a video of his team removing a blackened pair of lungs from a failed organ donor. | Doctor Chen Jingyu, head surgeon of the transplant team at Wuxi People's Hospital in the Jiangsu Province, said the patient had died at just 52 years of age, after chain-smoking for 30 years. The man wanted his organs donated, but Jingyu's team quickly discovered that the blackened lungs were not remotely suitable for transplantation, as the graphic video shows. | The former heavy smoker's lungs showed all the signs of c…
rt.com/news/473730-lung-smoking-graphic-video/

Anti-terror measures against youngsters' online posts 'linked to spike in child detention globally'
United Nations | un.org | 2019-11-18
More than 5.4 million children are detained around the world, rights experts said on Monday, highlighting "aggressive" State counterterrorism measures for the spike in youngsters held for alleged links with armed conflict or national security concerns based on their social media posts.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/11/1051581

A secretive propaganda unit is manipulating our social media. But it's not Russian
Tom Coburg | thecanary.co | 2019-11-17
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) dossier on Russian meddling into UK politics remains unpublished. But Britain has its own meddling 'agency' — a designated brigade of the British army. Moreover, it has a connection with Twitter management.Exclusively, The Canary can also reveal that one of the brigade's forerunners was a British army 'psyops' division linked with the parent body of discredited data miners Cambridge Analytica.Small world.Inside the 77th: In Ma…
thecanary.co/exclusive/2019/11/17/a-secretive-propaganda-unit-is-manipulating-our-social-media-but-its-not-russian/

CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-17
It's been fun to see how the Center for American Progress (CAP) navigates this year's presidential election. For insider political reasons, they can't support Biden or Sanders. But for a long time, it was unclear who the alternative candidate they could support would be. | When Kamala Harris was rising, CAP's staff was doing overtime boosting her on Twitter and in the press, including boosting Harris's absurd health care proposal. But Harris's collapse put an end to that strategy. Recently Warren has risen as the alternative and so CAP has been working to promote her campaign, which puts CAP in the comical positi…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/17/caps-topher-spiro-is-trying-to-deceive-journalists-by-lying/

Jeremy Corbyn says Labour will protect EU nationals who've 'made their homes in this country'
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-11-17
Jeremy Corbyn has remained tight-lipped about the contents of his party's general election manifesto but has insisted migration into Britain is vital to maintain the economy. | Labour met on 15 November, to hammer out the final details of the manifesto, which will be unveiled on 21 November | Corbyn refused to confirm whether free movement of people would end if the UK leaves the EU under a Labour government. | Shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: "We just saw a Prime Minister on Marr and his name is Jeremy Corbyn". | We just saw a Prime Minister on Marr and his name is Jeremy Corbyn. Displaying the confiden…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/11/17/jeremy-corbyn-says-labour-will-protect-eu-nationals-whove-made-their-homes-in-this-country/

Prince Andrew's BBC interview likened to 'a plane crashing into an oil tanker'
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-11-17
Prince Andrew's interview with the BBC's Newsnight may not have been the reputation saver he expected, but it gave people on social media plenty to talk about.BBC presenter Jeremy Vine spoke for many when he asked if anyone else was "struggling with the Woking angle?"Andrew said he could not have been at a London nightclub on March 10, 2001, as he had been at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking, Surrey that evening and went home afterwards.Virginia Guiffre has claimed the prince had sex with her after they were introduced in…
thecanary.co/trending/2019/11/17/prince-andrews-bbc-interview-likened-to-a-plane-crashing-into-an-oil-tanker/

Trump's Ukraine Phone Call 'Unusual, Inappropriate': VP Aide
telesurenglish.net | 2019-11-16
As public hearings continue part of the Congress' impeachment inquiry, a foreign policy aide to Vice President Mike Pence told lawmakers, according to a transcript released Saturday that the phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart was "inappropriate." | RELATED: | Trump's Tweet May Cause Him Charges for Obstruction of Justice | Jennifer Williams, who was listening to the call on July 25, testified that Trump's insistence that Ukraine carry ou…
telesurenglish.net/news/Trumps-Ukraine-Phone-Call-Unusual-Inappropriate-VP-Aide-20191116-0008.html

Ex-Ukraine envoy's feelings that Trump 'threatened' her & his 'real-time attacks' on Twitter are IMPEACHABLE, Democrats say
rt.com | 2019-11-15
Ex-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch feeling "threatened" by President Donald Trump and his tweet criticizing her "in real-time" during her testimony amount to new grounds for impeachment, Democrats and their media proxies claimed. | During Friday's impeachment hearing, Yovanovitch complained that she's been the victim of a "smear campaign" by the Trump administration, carried out particularly by the president's personal counsel Rudy Giuliani — and Trump himself. | The former ambassador recalled her reaction to the transcript of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a testi…
rt.com/usa/473583-yovanovitch-impeachment-intimidation-trump/

Social Media Censorship Reaches New Heights as Twitter Permanently Bans Dissent
Mnar Muhawesh | mintpressnews.com | 2019-11-14
| | It's an open secret. The deep state is wo…
mintpressnews.com/social-media-censorship-twitter-permanently-bans-dissent/262807/