Month: September 2020

Former Writers for The Post Millennial Raise Concerns About the Right-Wing Outlet

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Former Writers for The Post Millennial Raise Concerns About the Right-Wing Outlet

Heading into the 2020 presidential election season, The Post Millennial made inroads with far-right U.S. audiences, publishing attacks on journalists and aligning itself with the far-right movement, issuing a torrent of inflammatory smears against LGBTQ equality, racial justice, and anti-fascism. The first installment in RWW’s investigative series into The Post Millennial revealed that the outlet intersected with the far-right early in its inception despite presenting itself as center-right, its writers repeatedly violated the site’s own stated ethics policies, and leadership at the site maintained murky ties to conservative political campaigns. Our second installment examined the outlet’s oddly close relationship with far-right collaborator and disinformer Jack Posobiec, whose false reporting the outlet has defended and on whose perceived enemies the site has published attacks.

Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday

The commerce department announced Friday morning that it would ban U.S. business transactions with China-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.

Related:

Commerce Department Prohibits WeChat and TikTok Transactions to Protect the National Security of the United States

As of September 20, 2020, the following transactions are prohibited:

—Any provision of service to distribute or maintain the WeChat or TikTok mobile applications, constituent code, or application updates through an online mobile application store in the U.S.;

—Any provision of services through the WeChat mobile application for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S.

How to Plan a Coup

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How to Plan a Coup

On September 10, Trump’s friend and adviser Roger Stone appeared on Infowars, the show run by the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses before they testified concerning the ties of the 2016 Trump campaign to Russia, Stone publicly asked Trump to commute his sentence and, in exchange, promised to campaign for him.

Stone was a political operative for Richard Nixon—he famously has a picture of Nixon tattooed on his back—and was a business partner of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, now also a convicted felon. Stone calls himself a “rat-f**ker” — a term used by Nixon insiders to describe electoral fraud and dirty tricks — and was an instigator of the “Brooks Brothers Riot” that shut down the recount of ballots in Florida in 2000.

In July, Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month prison sentence, and now, apparently, Stone is holding up his end of the deal.

Related:

Roger Stone’s dirty tricks helped sway the 2000 Florida recount

China Will Not Invade Taiwan

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

YouTube Source: China Will Not Invade Taiwan

Subscribe to Tales of the American Empire.

For seven decades, the world has been told that an invasion of Taiwan is imminent. The American military-industrial-congressional complex needs threats to justify wartime budgets, and China provides one excuse. American warships and aircraft routinely operate just off China’s coast. If China complains, the world is warned that China is threatening military action. The good ole “China will soon invade Taiwan” tale is a perpetual favorite. In reality, China lacks the naval power to invade Taiwan and attempting to conquer this large island would prove bloody, devastate the Chinese economy, lead to domestic unrest, and may not succeed.

Sources:

China Can’t Execute Major Amphibious Operations, Direct Assault on Taiwan”; Ben Werner; USNI News; May 3, 2019

“Taiwan’s Next Batch of Stealthy Catamarans Will Have Serious Mine-Laying Capabilities”; Joseph Trevithick; The Warzone; May 24, 2019

Related Tale (YouTube): “American Bombings of Chinese Cities During World War II”

Before Election, Trump Tries To Stack Prison-Sentencing Agency With Right Wing Allies

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Before Election, Trump Tries To Stack Prison-Sentencing Agency With Right Wing Allies

President Trump has quietly nominated a slate of tough-on-crime former prosecutors to run a powerful agency that writes the sentencing rules for the entire federal prison system.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is an independent panel of seven members who set guidelines for federal judges to follow when calculating defendants’ prison time, with an emphasis on making sure that sentences are fair and not overly punitive. The commission is required by law to be bipartisan and to represent a diversity of backgrounds.

But Trump has broken from that precedent by proposing to fill the agency’s five empty seats with appointees who are nearly all white male former law enforcement officials.