So when the Intercept’s Lee Fang kicked off the 8th installment of the Twitter files, I was not expecting much at all. After all, Fang was one of the authors of the very recent garbage Intercept story that totally misunderstood the role of CISA in the government and (falsely) argued that the government demanded Twitter censor the Hunter Biden laptop story. The fact that the evidence from the Twitter files totally disproved his earlier story should at least result in Fang questioning his understanding of these things.
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LibsOfTikTok was ‘whitelisted’.
Thus, it’s not at all surprising that Twitter clearly has a similar whitelist feature. This was actually somewhat revealed in an earlier Twitter File when Bari Weiss, thinking she was revealing unfair treatment of the @LibsOfTikTok account, actually revealed it was on a similar Xcheck style whitelist that clearly showed a flag on the account saying DO NOT TAKE ACTION ON USER WITHOUT CONSULTING an executive team.
Twitter’s most recent transparency report, published in July, shows that it took action on 4.3 million accounts in the second half of 2021 and removed 5.1 million pieces of content. You could cherry-pick a few of those decisions to fit almost any ideological narrative. Right-wing commentators aren’t the only people complaining about platforms’ actions. Some Black and LGBTQ social-media users have also objected that they’re being unfairly moderated, as automated tools take down posts containing words and phrases deemed offensive. Distrust of Big Tech’s power is universal.
Another way to understand the size of CEO compensation at the big contractors is to look at how many jobs would be created if that $287 million were spent on something else. The answer is that spending that money on productive activities would create thousands of jobs: 2,812 jobs in clean energy or infrastructure; 4,104 jobs in health care; and 4,362 in education, calculated using data on the jobs impact of government spending generated by Heidi Peltier for the Brown Costs of War Project.
The powerful military-industrial complex, with generous campaign contributions funneled via K-Street lobbyists to both parties, celebrated a huge victory yesterday. By getting overwhelming majorities in both chambers to approve a whopping, unprecedented $856 billion Pentagon bill, America’s defense industries are assured of continued prosperity for years to come. Pentagon budgets are rarely cut year after year and generally only rise with time.
The people of Jackson, Mississippi, have toxic sludge coming out of their kitchen faucets. In some neighborhoods, there isn’t enough water pressure to flush toilets. They’ve gotten, at most, the distracted attention of President Joe Biden.
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One joker suggested that if the city of Jackson declared itself a part of Ukraine, the $2 billion check would be in the mail tomorrow.
“The ultimate goal of the provocation is the creation of an exclusion zone of up to 30 kilometers, the introduction of international forces and foreign observers into the NPP’s territory, as well as the accusation of the Russian armed forces of nuclear terrorism,” Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense of the Russian armed forces, said on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters that Kiev plans to stage a false flag attack on the Zaporozhye NPP during Friday’s visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The Biden administration is no longer in charge of the White House. Relying on a select network of think-tanks and their corporate proxies, the Big Defense is. What it wants, it seems to get.
Scott [Horton] is joined by Dan Steinbock to discuss an article he wrote about the network of Democratic organizations running American foreign policy. Steinbock has dug deep into the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and WestExec Advisors, two organizations that have allowed top foreign policy officials to make money cycling between government, think tank and advisory roles. Steinbock also takes a step back and examines how these organizations are connected to weapons companies, Wall Street and technology firms.
Permanent war has cannibalized the country. It has created a social, political, and economic morass. Each new military debacle is another nail in the coffin of Pax Americana.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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