Tag: Iran

State Department Announces That Great Firewall For The US; Blocks Chinese Apps & Equipment

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

State Department Announces That Great Firewall For The US; Blocks Chinese Apps & Equipment

Forget banning TikTok, the Trump State Department just suggested it wants to basically ban China from the internet. Rather than promoting an open internet and the concept of openness, it appears that under this administration we’re slamming the gates shut and setting up the Great American Firewall for the internet. Under the guise of what it calls the Clean Network to Safeguard America, last night Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a program that is full of vague statements, that could, in practice, fragment the internet.

This is incredibly disappointing on multiple levels. While other countries — especially China, but also Iran and Russia — have created their own fragmented internet, the US used to stand for an open internet across the globe. Indeed, for whatever complaints we had about the State Department during the Obama administration (and we had many complaints), its commitment to an open internet was very strong and meaningful. That’s clearly now gone. The “Clean Network to Safeguard America” consists of five programs that can be summed up as “fuck you China.”

DHS Head Chad Wolf Adopts Language of War in Threats Against Portland Protesters

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

DHS Head Chad Wolf Adopts Language of War in Threats Against Portland Protesters

While these are extreme events, the phrase “all options on the table” is largely used in politics as a code phrase conveying the most extreme violence imaginable, without having to explicitly state it. The phrase was famously used by President George W. Bush throughout his administration when discussing Iran and its supposed nuclear weapons program. When asked by a reporter if “all options” could mean a nuclear attack on Iran, Bush refused to answer, simply re-stating that “all options” were on the table.

…

The phrase, therefore, is continually used against foreign enemies of the U.S. government as a way of threatening war or even nuclear annihilation without having to explicitly state it, letting the threat pass under the radar of many, and allowing for plausible deniability if challenged. The fact that government officials are beginning to use that same rhetoric against the domestic population in Portland is not a positive sign for the future of the city or the country.

The Time has Come for the West to Sit Down, Shut up and Listen to the Rest of the World

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Time has Come for the West to Sit Down, Shut up and Listen to the Rest of the World

The world desperately needs to hear from The Others. As it needs The Others to get involved, to be themselves, to stop white Western boys from murdering millions and millions of innocent people in all corners of the world, as they have been doing for several centuries without interruption, just as much as it needs the Others to erect new concepts, new ideologies, and new moral principles.