Massive data leak reveals that authoritarian governments have been using surveillance tech called Pegasus to spy on lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists. Naturally NSO, the corporation that makes Pegasus, insists it's only for terrorists and criminals (like, for example, a recently-murdered Mexican journalist?) and that it thoroughly vets its customers (like, for example, Hungary's ultra right-wing government?). Pegasus can extract emails, photos, and messages, plus it can turn on your microphone and camera and secretly record you; you won't be safe if you have an iPhone, or (even) if you use a good messaging app like Signal. Chances are very good you will be accidentally targeted, and chances are also very good you will be "accidentally" targeted.
Police arrest 100 protestors during the Women's Moral Monday March on Washington (D.C.), demanding, among other good works, the passage of the For the People Act and the restoration of the Voting Rights Act. They arrested them for obstructing First Street; imagine if right-wing governments got their way everywhere and some Trumphole could simply run them over without facing any criminal charges! Next time our "liberal" media insists that the For the People Act is "dead" because of the "politics," remember that people are putting their bodies on the line out there.
Greg Palast, America's Last Journalist, gives us a better history of Haiti in the wake of their President's assassination than our "liberal" media has. Contemporary "liberal" media accounts intone unctuously about Haiti's history of dictatorship and political upheaval, but the Western world (including us!) never forgave Haitians for winning independence from France in the early 1800s, and making Haiti pay French slaveowners for their "loss of property" is an evil we may never repair. Unexpected word choice there, "repair"? Maybe because I meant for you to think of the word reparations.
Matthew Yglesias thinks we should take a couple of steps to get more people vaccinated, like prod our FDA to formally approve the vaccines (right now they have Emergency Use Authorization) and tempt the recalcitrant with cash prizes. I think he's utterly wrong about the first item -- right-wingers aren't sincere when they say they won't get it because it's "not really approved"! -- but giving out cash prizes is an excellent idea. You remember how many banksters could get their workers to go along with all that robosigning just by giving out gift cards? It's demoralizing how easily some people can be bought! But if we can get them to vaccinate just by giving them $50 to blow at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I won't shake my head too much.
Ho hum, "Shoplifting is Big News" to our "liberal" media but "Stealing Millions From Workers is Not," according to Steven Keehner at FAIR. Specifically, they couldn't get enough of a 21-second video of a guy cramming items from Walgreens into a garbage bag and then biking away, but they couldn't say very much at all about a wage theft lawsuit against, you guessed it, Walgreens resulting in a $4.5 million settlement. Again, we are reminded that stories about "crime waves" aren't just ginned-up drama, but they cover up real crime waves that damage us a lot more. You have to wonder why that is.
Finally, I'm sure some folks look at Sean Hannity suddenly telling everyone they have to get COVID vaccines and say "good on him for getting his people to get vaccinated" or even "I'm glad he's finally seen the light," but I won't do any of those things. "Just like we've been saying, please take COVID seriously"? That's some motherfucking gall, right there, coming from a guy who's been saying the exact opposite of "take COVID seriously" for the better part of a year, all so he could glorify his Personal Lord and Savior, Donald Trump. And most of the rest of his "news" channel has lately been doing the same thing -- telling you to get the vaccine and pretending they've been telling you that all along! They have no shame, and as such they deserve oblivion -- their names forgotten, their deeds unthinkable.
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