Also from Jamie Zawinski yesterday: Mozilla's Original Sin > Some will tell you that Mozilla's worst decision was to accept funding from Google, and that may have been the first domino, but I hold that implementing DRM is what doomed them, as it led to their culture of capitulation. It demonstrated that their decisions were the decisions of a company shipping products, not those of a non-profit devoted to preserving the open web. > >Those are different things and are very much in conflict. They picked one. They picked the wrong one.

>A Marine veteran and true American patriot, Mr. Ritter is also a noted former Chief UN weapons inspector, author and journalist. He was enroute to Russia to attend an international conference in St. Petersburg.

• Malaysia Sun: US seizes Scott Ritter's passport
• Al Bawaba: US confiscates former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter passport
• RT: ‘It was about sticking it to the Russians’ – Scott Ritter on US seizure of his passport
• Daily Beast: Moscow Throws Putin Fanboy Scott Ritter Under the Bus

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Ryan Grim @ The Intercept, 2020: Joe Biden, Five Years Before Invasion, Said the Only Way of Disarming Iraq Is “Taking Saddam Down” >Biden told Ritter that no matter how thorough the inspections, the only way to eliminate the threat was to remove Saddam Hussein. […] “You and I believe, and many of us believe here, as long as Saddam is at the helm, there is no reasonable prospect you or any other inspector is ever going to be able to guarantee that we have rooted out, root and branch, the entirety of Saddam’s program relative to weapons of mass destruction. […] > >Hussein, it turned out, did not have an active WMD program. > >During questioning, Biden mocked Ritter as “ol’ Scotty boy” and suggested that his demands — that the international community compel Iraq to cooperate with inspectors — if met, would give Ritter the unilateral authority to start a war in Iraq. Biden argued that such decisions belonged to higher-level officials. “I respectfully suggest they have a responsibility slightly above your pay grade, to decide whether or not to take the nation to war,” Biden said. “That’s a real tough decision. That’s why they get paid the big bucks. That’s why they get the limos and you don’t. I mean this sincerely, I’m not trying to be flip.”

http://archive.today/2024.05.30-203844/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/us/politics/biden-ukraine-russia-weapons.html

>The global War on Terror was based on a mistake.

Quintupling down are we? Never change, The Atlantic.

ETA: Not sure if there’s a paywall, so just in case: https://archive.ph/68sf0

>Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accused US President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify US policy in the conflict.

>“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she said, noting that ancestors of hers were killed by “state-sponsored violence.”

>“I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call said of the war overall and US support for it. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, for his election prospects.”

In case of paywall: http://archive.today/M5OFY

>Key federal agencies have resumed discussions with social media companies over removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears, a stark reversal after the Biden administration for months froze communications with social platforms amid a pending First Amendment case in the Supreme Court, a top senator said Monday. > >Mark Warner, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters in a briefing at RSA Conference that agencies restarted talks with social media companies as the Supreme Court heard arguments in Murthy v. Missouri, a case that first began in the Fifth Circuit appellate court last July. The case was fueled by allegations that federal agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were coercing platforms to remove content related to vaccine safety and 2020 presidential election results.

>Foreign adversaries have been found deploying fake social media personas that have engaged with or provoked real-life users in an attempt to assess U.S. domestic issues and learn what political themes divide voters. > >The U.S. has been putting its foot down in diplomacy talks on election interference, telling major economic adversaries like China to not intervene in election processes come November. Two weeks ago in Shanghai and Beijing, cyberspace and digital policy ambassador Nathaniel Fick and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a stern warning to Chinese officials about election dynamics. > >“The secretary … delivered a very clear message that we view interference in our domestic democratic process as dangerous and unacceptable,” Fick said in a separate RSA briefing with reporters Monday. “Diplomacy is most important when it is most challenging, which is why the discussions with the Chinese at this moment matter a lot,” he said.

!xi !putin-wink Sounds like no more rubles or Xi bucks. Back to sharing one toothbrush no iphone 😂

Emphasis original: >[NYT’s Cecilia] Kang’s thesis [link] was premised on years’ worth of media and policymaker fearmongering that TikTok user data was susceptible to surveillance by the Chinese government (BuzzFeed News, 6/17/22; Forbes, 10/20/22; Guardian, 11/7/22). According to Kang’s colleagues, the law’s enactment was prompted by “concerns that the Chinese government could access sensitive user data” (New York Times, 4/26/24). In 2023, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte sought to prohibit TikTok throughout his state on the grounds that “the Chinese Communist Party” was “collecting US users’ personal, private and sensitive information” (Montana Free Press, 5/17/23). (Gianforte’s attempt was later thwarted by a federal judge.) > >If such fears were officials’ genuine motivation, one could hope that broader data-privacy regulation might follow. Yet, as the Times neglected to mention, the spying accusations are tenuous—and deeply cynical. As even US intelligence officials concede, apprehensions about China’s access to TikTok user data are strictly hypothetical (Intercept, 3/16/24). And, despite its bombshell headline “Analysis: There Is Now Some Public Evidence That China Viewed TikTok Data,” CNN (6/8/23) cautioned that said evidence—a sworn statement from a former ByteDance employee—“remains rather thin.” > >Given their dubious nature, it’s hard to see these data-privacy claims as anything other than a pretext for the US to throttle TikTok. By forcing either divestment or a ban, the US, at least in theory, wins: It transfers a tremendously lucrative and influential company into its own hands, or it prevents that company from serving as a platform—albeit one with plenty of problems—on which people can engage in and learn from discourses that are critical of US empire.

On how Lenin’s theory of imperialism was a conjunctural one to the period rather than a general/universal one, and how to conjuncturaly theorize on later periods, up to the present.

>At the invitation of H.E. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, paid a state visit to France from May 5 to 7, 2024. The two heads of state had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East: > >1. As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China and France are working together to find constructive solutions, based on international law, to the challenges and threats to international security and stability. > >2. China and France condemn all violations of international humanitarian law, including all acts of terrorist violence and indiscriminate attacks against civilians. They recall the absolute imperative of protecting civilians in Gaza in accordance with international humanitarian law. The two heads of state expressed their opposition to an Israeli offensive on Rafah, which would lead to a humanitarian disaster on a larger scale, as well as to forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. > >3. The two heads of state stressed that an immediate and sustainable ceasefire is urgently needed to enable the delivery of large-scale humanitarian aid and the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip. They called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and the guarantee of humanitarian access to meet their medical and other humanitarian needs, as well as respect for international law with regard to all detainees. They called for the immediate and effective implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions, in particular Security Council resolutions 2712, 2720 and 2728. This is the only credible way to guarantee peace and security for all and to ensure that neither Palestinians nor Israelis will suffer from the horrors they have experienced since the attack on October 7, 2023. > >4. The two heads of state called for the effective opening of all necessary corridors and crossing points to enable rapid, safe, sustainable and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip. The two heads of state stressed the importance of strengthening the coordination of international humanitarian efforts. > >5. The two heads of state called on all parties to refrain from unilateral measures on the ground that might aggravate tensions, and in this respect condemned Israel's policy of settlement construction, which violates international law and constitutes a major obstacle to lasting peace as well as to the possibility of establishing a viable and contiguous State of Palestine. The two heads of state reiterated that the future governance of Gaza cannot be dissociated from a comprehensive political settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-State solution. > >6. The two heads of state called for a decisive and irreversible relaunch of a political process to concretely implement the two-State solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, both with Jerusalem as their capital, and the establishment of a viable, independent and sovereign State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders. The two heads of state reaffirmed their commitment to this solution, which is the only way to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Israeli and Palestinian people for lasting peace and security. > >7. The two heads of state also expressed deep concern over the risk of escalation in the region, and called for the prevention of regional turbulence. China and France are working with their partners to deescalate the situation and call on all parties to exercise restraint. > >8. China and France reaffirm their commitment to promoting a political and diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action concluded in 2015 is a major outcome of multilateral diplomacy. The two countries are concerned about the risks of escalation, recall the importance of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and facilitation of diplomatic efforts, and reaffirm their commitment to safeguarding the international non-proliferation regime and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East. > >9. The two heads of state stressed the importance of safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and called for an immediate cessation of attacks on civilian vessels to safeguard maritime security and global trade and prevent regional tensions and humanitarian and environmental risks. > >10. The two heads of state called for the observance of the Olympic Truce during the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Olympic Truce calls on all parties to stop hostilities throughout the Games. As conflicts spread and tensions rise, the Truce is an opportunity to work toward a durable resolution of conflicts in full respect of international law.

https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2024 >International Reporting: Staff of The New York Times > >For its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas’ lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel’s intelligence failures and the Israeli military’s sweeping, deadly response in Gaza.

Context:

The Intercept: “Between the Hammer and the Anvil” The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé >Israel promised it had extraordinary amounts of eyewitness testimony. “Investigators have gathered ‘tens of thousands’ of testimonies of sexual violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, according to the Israeli police, including at the site of a music festival that was attacked,” Schwartz, Gettleman, and Stella reported on December 4. Those testimonies never materialized.

>“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Abdush’s sister, that in a short timespan “they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her?” Speaking about the rape allegation, her brother-in-law said: “The media invented it.”

>“There is nothing,” Schwartz said she was told. “There was no collection of evidence from the scene.”

Vanity Fair: New York Times Launches Leak Investigation Over Report on Its Israel-Gaza Coverage Management has questioned staffers, including Daily producers, after The Intercept revealed internal debate over a yet-to-air episode on Hamas weaponizing sexual violence. Such a probe is highly unusual, say staffers, one of whom dubbed it a “witch hunt.”

>The economic base of fascism has always been the petit bourgeois, or as I like to call them, the roofing class. Small business owners. The guys who have a handful of contractors and pay 1,200 bucks a month on an F-150 Raptor that’s never been used for any kind of manual labor.

>Every worker in this country has always been at the mercy of the elite, but not the elite fascists assume are pulling the strings. It’s not a shadow cabal of elite Jews, it’s just the people who own the means of production. They’re not shy about it. People like Warren Buffet routinely admit there’s a class war being waged, and that the capitalists want to make sure that they win it.

>On the whole, there’s a reason the ruling class tolerates fascism and not socialism. Socialism is genuinely revolutionary, whereas fascism is just a cancerous offshoot of capitalism that can, in their mind, be used as a tool when needed.

>What we’re seeing today has the same hallmarks of every other period where fascism has grown in popularity: economic insecurity, the formation of fascist paramilitaries, and a series of charismatic figures trying to tap into the rising tide of far-right populism for personal gain.

>According to software engineer and blogger, Paul Biggar, however, one key detail on the methods employed by the Lavender system that is often overlooked is the involvement of the messaging platform, WhatsApp. A major determining factor of the system’s identification is simply if an individual is in a WhatsApp group containing another suspected militant. > >Aside from the inaccuracy of the method and the moral question of targeting Palestinians based on shared WhatsApp groups or social media connections, there is also notably the doubt it brings to the platform being privacy-based and guaranteeing “end-to-end” encryption for messages. > >Stating that WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, makes it complicit in Israel’s killing of “pre-crime” suspects in Gaza, Biggar accused the company of directly violating international humanitarian law, as well as its own public commitment to human rights. > >These revelations are the latest evidence of Meta – formerly Facebook – aiding in the suppression of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices, with the platform long having been criticised for taking significant steps to shut down dissent against Israeli and Zionist narratives. Those measures have included permitting adverts promoting a holocaust against Palestinians and even attempting to flag the word ‘Zionist’ as hate speech.

>Questioning the accuracy of the report, a WhatsApp spokesperson told MEMO: “We have no information that these reports are accurate. WhatsApp has no backdoors and we do not provide bulk information to any government. For over a decade, Meta has provided consistent transparency reports and those include the limited circumstances when WhatsApp information has been requested. Our principles are firm – we carefully review, validate and respond to law enforcement requests based on applicable law and consistent with internationally recognized standards, including human rights.

>“I think part of the problem is young people aren’t having enough sex so they go on the hunt for fake threats and the most popular threat through history is [antisemitism].”

>Galloway said American society would not survive if its people could not rally behind noble causes — adding that much of what he was seeing reminded him of the early rise of Hitler. > >“It’s easy to poke fun at these kids, but history has a way of repeating itself, and this is how it starts. In ’30s Germany, a progressive community, a thriving gay community, excellent academic institutions. And how it started, was it was fashionable to wear a brown shirt and mock students at the University of Vienna,’ Galloway said.

>Galloway repeated his observation which went viral this week that if students at terrorist encampments were chanting slogans calling for the death of black or gays they would be swiftly stamped out. > >And that professors who did so would never work again.

>Protesters calling for Israel to cease fire in its war with Hamas who have disrupted US public events and infrastructure are practicing “leftwing fascism” or “leftwing totalitarianism”, a senior US House Democrat said, adding that such protesters are “challenging representative democracy” and should be arrested. > >“Intimidation is the tactic,” said Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee. “Intimidation and an effort to silence opposition … I don’t know if there’s such a thing as leftwing fascism. If you want to just call it leftwing totalitarianism, then that’s what it is. It is a direct challenge to representative democracy now.” > >Smith was speaking – before the outbreak this week of mass protests on US college campuses, many producing arrests – to the One Decision Podcast and its guest host Christina Ruffini, a CBS News reporter.