Leakers are the people's CIA

#MMT + ORGANIZING (labor unions, tenents' unions, debtors' unions) to win the class war. My heroes: Jane McAlevey, Kshama Sawant, Stephanie Kelton

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

There's even more work to be done today than when these words were first written. And the #GreenNewDeal will make it happen.

@davidsirota @KateAronoff

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is just pure unadulterated propaganda by the BBC.

And it takes literally 2 seconds to debunk: go on Xiaohongshu (or any other Chinese social networks), type a keyword related to the mudslide (I typed "泥石流", "mudslide") and you'll see thousands of posts with footage about it - including from state media (the first post in my screenshot is from People's Daily)🤷

Even crazier - which shows the extent to which the BBC thinks its audience are complete idiots - their lead example of footage that supposedly isn't being shown in China is… footage that comes from China!

This is how they open their article:

"The dramatic footage was almost impossible to miss. A torrent of water tearing through Gyirong Port, one of the main border crossings between Nepal and Tibet, sweeping away all in its path as hundreds of people fled for their lives.
The scenes, captured by CCTV cameras, quickly spread on social media and onto screens around the world.
Except here, in China."

We've all seen this footage, which is Chinese CCTV footage, released first in China, and extremely widely spread on Chinese social media (it's in the 3rd post on my Xiaohongshu screenshot below 👇).

It's literally insane: they think you're stupid enough not to notice that they're using Chinese footage as their lead example to claim China isn't showing footage 🤦

This also all points to a deeper issue: China does have a completely different and largely insulated media ecosystem with little overlap with Western media, and extremely little reach in the West.

Which means it's trivially easy for outlets like the BBC to make false claims about what's happening in China that:
a) their readers will never check: it's actually difficult to for foreigners to access Chinese social networks, if only for the language barrier.
b) won't be challenged by the other side: Chinese media has so little reach in the West that there's essentially no one to push back. It's like lying about someone who isn't in the room.

That's the irony when you read about "Chinese propaganda": the bigger issue is that it actually doesn't really exist - at least not in a material way - and therefore falsehoods about China can be written with an impunity that they could never get away with if they were writing about, say, France or Germany.

As I keep repeating, this is actually mostly bad for the West because - given the importance of China in the world today - this is a country you simply cannot afford to misunderstand. Bad journalism about China is a strategic liability.

So, in a somewhat ironic way, if there were one genuine "China threat" worth worrying about, it's this: that China is not great at communicating about itself with the outside world and Western publics are left with garbage BBC articles to understand it.

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@Anuraag_Shukla A recent academic paper strongly supports Teltumbde’s argument. Ironically, or maybe not so ironically, hard-wiring caste into government has hurt dalits most. Of course a small segment of dalits have benefited, but the masses have not. https://t.co/d7INK6rbOF

[WikiLeaks @wikileaks]

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, "Internews Network" (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and "training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.

The operation claims “offices” in over 30 countries, including main offices in US, London, Paris and regional HQs in Kiev, Bangkok and Nairobi. It is headed up by Jeanne Bourgault, who pays herself $451k a year. Bourgault worked out of the US embassy in Moscow during the early 1990s, where she was in charge of a $250m budget, and in other revolts or conflicts at critical times, before formally rotating out of six years at USAID to IN.

Bourgault’s IN bio and those of its other key people and board members have been recently scrubbed from its website but remain accessible at https://t.co/Zp7SvobICU. Records show the board being co-chaired by Democrat securocrat Richard J. Kessler and Simone Otus Coxe, wife of NVIDIA billionaire Trench Coxe, both major Democratic donors. In 2023, supported by Hillary Clinton, Bourgault launched a $10m IN fund at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The IN page showing a picture of Bourgault at the CGI has also been deleted.

IN has at least six captive subsidiaries under unrelated names including one based out of the Cayman Islands. Since 2008, when electronic records begin, more than 95% of IN's budget has been supplied by the US government (thread follows)

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@LittleDsrtFlowr @jaseokundaye You miss the point. All convention goers support the administration that’s financing genocide and giving it diplomatic cover.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

When Iranian police beat women in the streets for standing up for their rights, the world - and Germany - rightfully condemned it.

But those condemnations ring very hollow now as German police beat and kick elderly women for objecting to Israel's slaughter of Palestinians.

[James Jackson @derJamesJackson]

Who needs the AfD when you have the Bavarian interior ministry producing videos about Muslims reminiscent of Nazi propaganda https://t.co/Qa9gAG1Fdw

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@wallacemick When the Germans knew they were about to get defeated, the death camps went into overdrive to make sure they killed as many Jews as they could before the world stopped them. I feel like that is what Israel is doing.

[CharanTeja @CharanT16]

Aadhaar-based MGNREGA payment causing delays in wages, non-disbursal | The move seems to be threatening the NREGA & dignity of the workers| My latest report after a break.
Thanks @dhanyarajendran https://t.co/KNhRnBosIv

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@MoonofA NYTimes admits they cannot verify Ukrainian officials’ claims re Bucha. Interestingly, the screenshotted article has been updated to remove this admission. But an archived version showing it can be found here: https://t.co/10z9r5bUaN

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

The only appropriate response to the climate catastrophe in Pakistan is to unconditionally cancel the country's external debts. These resources should be used to support people and ecosystems rather than to service foreign capital. It is a minimal first step toward reparations.

[Cape Town Cabal @capetowncabal]

No one serious about African Studies thinks John Comaroff is " is one of the world’s leading experts on Africa and the Global South ..." No one.

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@briebriejoy @FadhelKaboub @BadFaithPod This was the best interview I’ve yet heard with Fadhel Kaboub—and I’ve been following him for a while! But at ~58:15 Fadhel refs a very spicy statement by Greenspan on political utility of consumer indebtedness. WHERE CAN I FIND THIS QUOTE?

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@JamaalBowmanNY @AdyBarkan You’re barking up the wrong tree with this deficit talk. It is a neoliberal talking point.

[Captain Optamicus 🏴‍☠️🦑 @CaptOptamicus]

Sawant has called for a revolt against student debt saying that "the laws of the rich are unenforceable if the working class refuses to obey those laws.” #KeepKshama

[Susan Sarandon @SusanSarandon]

I agree

[Status Coup News @StatusCoup]

NEW: NYPD arrested a NY Amazon union organizer while he was doing protected organizing. They "used extreme physical force, put me in a holding cell for several hours," Brett Daniels tells us.

His arrest came as Amazon launched daily union-busting sessions
https://t.co/nf3LZhBoT4

[Jayati Ghosh @Jayati1609]

Just learned of the death of my teacher #GeoffHarcourt - one of the most humane economists (and people) I have ever known: so modest about his own achievements and brilliance, and so kind and generous to others. We learned so much from him, in so many ways.

[Leakers are the people's CIA @HeroSnowden]

@ECommie69 These toilets are common in India and they used to be common in France… no connection to communism, unfortunately. But they are much nicer to use, if you have functioning knees & can squat. My son grew up with these and for a long time used to squat on western toilet seats too

[Jennifer Sherer @jensherer]

I'm so sick of hearing this is a pandemic of the "unvaccinated." It's a pandemic of a failed state that protects private health industry profiteers over public health and refuses to regulate workplace safety.