FALSE DEMOCRACY

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—This all comes out as we learn that Facebook is attaching warning labels to posts from outlets sponsored by governments which have not been absorbed into the US-centralized empire like RT and CGTN, but attaching no such label to outlets funded by imperial governments like BBC and Radio Free Europe. There is not any discernible difference in the degree of bias shown in state media from unabsorbed nations like Russia and China than there is in state media from the US and UK (or oligarchic media from the US and UK for that matter), but Facebook causes its 2.6 billion active users to look at one with suspicion but not the other.

RICK STERLING—A major disinformation and censorship drive against SouthFront was recently launched.  On April 30 the SouthFront Facebook account with about 100,000 subscribers was deleted without warning or notice. On May 1,  SouthFront’s  main YouTube account with over 150 thousand subscribers was terminated. The English language channel had 1,900 uploaded videos with 60 million views over the past 5 years. While the SouthFront website continues as before, the above actions remove important distribution channels which SouthFront has painstakingly built up. The censorship has been accompanied by a parallel disinformation campaign promoted by corporate, governmental and establishment “think tank” organizations. 

In an interview with Jimmy Dore, Chris hedges warns that the faux left (i.e., the center right corporatist Democrats who call themselves “the left”) is playing with fire by cheering on censorship, but that only the REAL left will pay for that. Meantime, as the frustration and pent-up anger grows across America, conservative Americans, many armed vigilante types, duly incited by Trump and rightwing media, are liable to cross the line and initiate a reign of unrestricted violence.  

JANINE JACKSON—In Vietnam, “the structures that control epidemics are the same ones that control public expressions of dissent.” Good thing we don’t have any of that dissent-controlling here, right? Although the mayor of New York City did just declare public protest illegal, and cops did just arrest writer Jill Nelson for writing “Trump = Plague” in chalk on an abandoned building.

Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Congress rammed through the CARES Act — which economist Michael Hudson explains is not a “bailout” but a massive, $6 trillion giveaway to Wall Street, banks, large corporations, and stockholders. Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the enormous financial scam with Hudson, who reveals how the economy actually works, with the Federal Reserve printing money so rich elites don’t lose their investments.