Twelve days before Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) was set to broadcast on April 15 across PBS stations nationwide as part of its strand American Masters, the filmmakers were told that a 90-second sequence—which shows the famous artist discussing an anti-Trump cartoon he created for the 2017 Women’s March newspaper—would be cut from the documentary.

The filmmakers, directors Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin, who produced the film alongside Sam Jinishian and Alicia Sams, had a choice. According to Sams, they could choose to buy back their licensing deal, or agree to PBS’s decision and move forward with the broadcast. “We were told the film still has an anti-fascist message, and the audience can connect the dots themselves,” she says. “The irony of censoring someone who is a free speech advocate is maybe lost on PBS, but certainly not lost on us.”

If the article's intent was to let the facts speak for themselves, it forgot to invite them. Instead, Tracy leveraged the full weight of his employer, America's paper of record, to ask an entertainer who sings with Elmo about how to go to school if she would care to comment about receiving money from Hamas. Nasty work.

I wrote the book Copaganda based on my years of being a civil rights lawyer and public defender representing the most vulnerable people in our society. I watched as the police and the news media distorted how we think about our collective safety. Copaganda makes us afraid of the most powerless people, helps us ignore far greater harms committed by people with money and power, and always pushes on us the idea that our fears can be solved by more money for police, prosecution, and prisons. Based on the evidence, this idea of more investment in the punishment bureaucracy making us safer is like climate science denial.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/63196442

Deregulation is also foundational policy. Kratsios said that removing regulations that act as “barriers to innovation” will help foster progress in the technology stack within the U.S.

For the final element of OSTP’s “promote” effort, Kratsios said the widespread adoption of these tech solutions will both catalyze domestic efficiency and set an example internationally.

“We as a country need to be having our great industry at companies, academic institutions and everyday Americans using this technology,” he said. “But also, even more importantly, we need to have the rest of the world running on an AI stack that is ours, that’s American.”

Deploying these solutions within the federal government is also a critical step to promoting U.S. leadership in emerging tech and science realms. Kratsios said that accelerating adoption at a public- and private-sector level, potentially facilitated with the help of the deregulation policies, will help further drive U.S. innovation.

“Those breakthroughs are only really valuable if we actually adopt them and allow the American people to fully realize the benefits of those technologies,” Kratsios said. “But if no one is using it, if the Department of Defense isn't actually adopting and using it in its stack, if all of our great financial institutions aren't attempting to leverage those models to drive better services for their customers, it really doesn't matter.”

He added that the White House is contemplating the idea of creating an “ecosystem of trust” to facilitate adoption of new U.S. technologies.

While the EU is aiming to become the global leader for more ethical and trustworthy AI via improved regulatory laws, Peter Theil protege and current science advisor to president Trump, Michael Kratsios, has again indicated the U.S. is taking the polar opposite approach, and once again emphasized the need for deregulation while attempting to dominate the global AI race.

Although the U.S. previously joined the U.K. and E.U., in September of 2024, signing the first “legally binding” treaty on AI, to ensure use of AI aligns with “human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” the Trump administration began distancing the U.S. from a unified stance on AI regulations, within the first month Trump took office in 2025.

At a global summit in Paris, this past February, the U.S. and U.K. refused to join dozens of other countries including France, China and India, agreeing to an "open", "inclusive" and "ethical" approach to AI development.

While the U.K. government claimed it did not sign due to concerns over national security and global governance, Vice President J.D. Vance indicated the U.S.refusal was due to concerns over strict regulations, stating it could "kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off". Vance vowed that the U.S. would not squander an opportunity to grow AI policies over safety concerns

As Chief Technology Officer during Trump's first administration, Kratsios would have certainly been involved in the policy and decision making regarding Clearview AI's controversial facial recognition technology and it's use by FBI and ICE. In fact, a 2019 interview with Kratsios indicates he opposed the regulation of controversial facial recognition technology.

Given Kratsios previous leadership and dismissal of regulations when promoting what is now recognized as extremely controversial A.I. technology, the Trump administration's repeated attempts to shift the U.S. away from consensus with the E.U.'s focus on the necessity of regulations, should perhaps alarm any American citizens with their own ethical concerns regarding AI technology, privacy, and human rights.

While Trump has asked Kratsios to utilize AI technology to blaze a trail for America in 2025, it may also be worth noting that just over 5 years ago, in March of 2020, Kratsios was also tasked by Trump to use cutting edge technology to tackle COVID misinformation and track early cases of the virus in the U.S. in order to keep it from spreading..

Just a reminder that one of the biggest promoters of the lab leak theory is Trump's former CDC director Robert Redfield.

The accusations against the virus originally escaping from a Chinese lab, while a possibility, have never been conclusively proven, and may have arisen in retaliation after the Chinese government circulated a video of Redfield as propaganda during the earliest months of the pandemic, in order to claim the U.S. was actually responsible for COVID.

Last June, Reuters released an investigative report which revealed the U.S. military had actually retaliated against the Chinese government's accusations by running a secret anti-vax campaign attempting to undermine China during the pandemic.

Tensions have since arisen regarding accusations against the NIH and involvement in "dangerous" gain-of-function research at the Chinese lab, and testimony provided by Anthony Fauci.

I am working on a 3 part series covering this information, and how it relates to recent issues surrounding the creation of an updated bird flu vaccine. The first part covers common misunderstandings related to the NIH and Gain of Function research in detail.

I am still working on the two follow ups which will cover the lab leak theory and vaccine roll out, but have not had much time to get back into writing them. I hope to have time soon, because I feel it's important to keep people informed ahead of the administration's attempts to spread new propaganda, because this all seems to be part of an elaborate public campaign that has been in the making for quite some time.

Please also keep in mind that Redfield actually wrote a public health commentary attacking "dangerous" gain-of-function research back in February, and praising Trump's planned EO to halt Gain of Function research, which was one of Trump's first announcements up on taking office. Redfield's commentary was published on the Heritage Foundation's website in February.

According to an article released today by a right wing White House press member, Trump's EO is nearing completion.

In a piece critical of Democratic Party support for Cuomo, the Atlantic‘s David Graham (3/3/25) wrote, “If, in order to curb the far left, Democrats like [Rep. Ritchie] Torres are willing to embrace an alleged sex pest who tried to cover up seniors’ deaths, is it worth it?”

The same might be asked of some in the corporate media, with the New York Times at the top of the list.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/38410612

From Reddit to the New York Times and TMZ, there’s an ongoing effort to squash the wave of popular anger at for-profit healthcare that Luigi Mangione represents.

In his first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term, President Donald Trump distorted the facts on fraud, immigration, aid to Ukraine, the economy, autism and more.

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If Your Time is short

• President Barack Obama in 2010 ordered federal agencies to prioritize hiring more people with disabilities. The Federal Aviation Administration incorporated such efforts into its diversity hiring program.

• These efforts remained in place throughout President Donald Trump’s first administration. The FAA under Trump expanded its effort to hire people with disabilities, announcing in 2019 a program to hire 20 people with disabilities to be air traffic controllers.

• Trump in 2018 eliminated an Obama-era assessment used in hiring air traffic controllers that scored applicants based on their work and education history and personality traits. Biden did not revive it.

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Quick Take

President Donald Trump said his administration blocked $50 million for condoms to be sent to Gaza through its pause on foreign aid. But it has provided no evidence that $50 million was ever directed toward condoms for Gaza. The contractor identified by the State Department said it has not used U.S. aid “to procure or distribute condoms.”

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A constant narrative evolution

The Kremlin’s take on peace has evolved over the last three years. During the early days of Russia’s full-scale war, there was no space for narratives about peace, only for an ill-advised tone of triumphalism. Then, realising the Ukrainian resolve to defend their homes would not be easily broken, the Kremlin started talking about peace while its bombs rained down on Ukrainian civilians. Moscow quickly devised ‘peace proposals’ that were merely empty PR stunts, deploying the narrative of peace to support Russia’s war, masking Moscow’s true imperial ambitions.

As the war raged on, the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers continued to spin their twisted tale of peace, increasingly reaching out to more global audiences and depicting Russia’s war against Ukraine as a noble fight to dismantle the ‘Western hegemony’ and establish a ‘truly multipolar’ world order.

But, there was a complication in maintaining this knight-in-shining-armour image. Ukraine and its supporters interested in just and lasting peace were already working toward their goal, including building a global community to support real peace. The Kremlin then pivoted from polishing its own image to disparaging the West or any proposals for peace that were not rooted in Russian imperialist ultimatums. This dichotomy – disguising Russia’s aggression as attempts for peace and accusing the West of not being serious about peace – has now become the Kremlin’s go-to tactic to manipulate the public perception of achievable peace in Ukraine. [...]

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1839567

Here is the link to the report: https://graphika.com/reports/chinese-state-influence

A Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has called for the overthrow of a foreign government when impersonating protesters criticising flood relief efforts in Spain, online analysis outfit Graphika said.

Graphika said an operation dubbed Spamouflage, which it believed was linked to the Chinese state, posed this month as human rights group Safeguard Defenders to spread online calls for the government to be toppled in response to the catastrophic floods in October that killed 224 people.

"This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling to overthrow a foreign government," Graphika said in its latest report.

...

The report also finds:

• Chinese covert influence operations have impersonated human rights organizations critical of Beijing, almost certainly in an effort to discredit their activities and disrupt domestic political conversations in Western countries. The state-linked Spamouflage operation, for instance, has repeatedly targeted the Spain-based non-profit Safeguard Defenders and in January posed as the organization to spread online calls for the Spanish government to be overthrown in response to deadly floods in Valencia. This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling for the overthrow of a foreign government.
• Chinese state influence actors and pro-China communities continue to leverage international trade issues in their efforts to advance Beijing’s strategic interests. In recent weeks, this has included attempts to orchestrate a boycott of Japanese retail brand Uniqlo due to the company’s reported refusal to use cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, and efforts to exacerbate tensions between the U.S. and Japan over a blocked steel company merger.
• Chinese officials and state media have used social media and other online platforms to dismiss and deflect allegations of Chinese state hacking activity. After Japan accused China in January of orchestrating a years-long hacking campaign against Japanese government agencies and companies, for example, Chinese state actors spread statements dismissing the allegations as groundless and disseminated cartoons casting Tokyo as an agent of U.S. “disinformation.”
• Overt and covert Chinese state influence actors have engaged in a sustained effort to advance narratives that reinforce Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and attempt to legitimize its activities in the region. In November, these actors amplified comments by an international law scholar that appeared to support China’s position.

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces a Senate vote to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, right-wing media are split on whether to support his nomination.

Some claim the nominee — who has a long history of undermining scientific research and promoting health misinformation — is a “bipartisan” solution for “Making America Healthy Again,” while others have highlighted his past extremism, Democratic affiliations, and pro-abortion beliefs. Some right-wing media have also covered for Kennedy’s extremism in the past, largely ignoring his vaccination views.

Kennedy has a history of pushing harmful policies and embracing extremism — and right-wing media have played cover for him [...]

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