Like Maria Said Paz: Once again free speech gets trampled over

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Once again free speech gets trampled over

Last week, Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal sounded more like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in rallying his troops to defy the existential threat of Elon Musk while pledging that they will not be “held hostage.” The threat, however, was not a private buyout but the threat that Twitter might be forced to respect free speech on the site. The problem for the Board members is that they could find themselves in court if their anti-free speech stance continues to stand in the way of shareholder profits. Such a lawsuit could be a bellwether for shareholder opposition to boards pursuing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies over profits.

The Board responded to the Musk offer with what sounded like a suicide pact to swallow a “poison pill” to sell new shares to drive down share values. While a standard tactic to fend off hostile takeovers, Twitter made it clear that it would not be forced into free speech after making the company synonymous with censorship.

They were joined by liberal commentators who declared that it was not just Twitter but democracy itself that could fall if free speech were allowed to breakout. The Washington Post’s Max Boot declared that “for democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich went full Orwellian in explaining why freedom is tyranny. Reich insisted that “every dictator, strongman, demagogue and modern-day robber baron” pushed free speech to oppress people and that, while good for Musk, “for the rest of us, it would be a brave new nightmare.”

I don't know what's worse, the harm TWITTER did to its stock holders or the harm people like Robert Reich are doing to democracy?

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Press whores are so overwhelmed with their whoring duties that they can't even save their former precious while the political stalemate continues in Iraq.

In November, the US mid-term elections will be held. Traditionally, the hose controlling the White House loses seats in Congress during the midterms.

Joe Biden's polls8ter says, "The worst political environment for Democrats in my lifetime.""

AOC and the Fraud Squad can't rally because they've been exposed as worthless.

They tried to bring in Bar8ack Obama this month to help Joe. Even if the catty behavior between Joe and Barack hadn't taken place at that event, Barack couldn't have helped.

The press whoring just isn't working.

He was still in the White House when I pointed out that The Cult of St. Barack wouldn't be able to keep him afloat after he was out of the White House. No, people would begin to notice how he did nothing for him and how various 'media' outlets were really just Democratic Party organ who covered for Barrack and Barack's many failures inste8ad of holding him accountable.

He wa8s never held accountable. He was going to end veterans homelessness, remember? He didn't8. He was going to close the gulag at Guantanamo. He didn't He was going to pull all US troops out of Iraq -- he never did and he started sending more back in in the fall of 2012 -- as THE NEW YORK TIMES finally reported in September of that month, buried in a story on Syria. He then began sending more in in8 the second half of 2014 and they remain in Iraq today. "We want to end the War! And we want to end it now!" Remember him thundering that in his 2008 rallies? Remember his alleged superior judgment and how he used the Iraq War to bash Hillary Clinton?

He was really good a words, they just didn't mean anything.

We constantly, while Barack was in the White House would use Joni Mitchell's "The Last Time I Saw Richard" to describe Barack and his cult back when he was president.

The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark café
You laugh he said you think you're immune
Go look at your eyes they're full of moon
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies pretty lies
When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies
Only pretty lies just pretty lies

Pretty lies, when you gonna realize they're just pretty lies?

The press whored for him constantly. See Ava and my "TV: The Myths" for some of his many broken promises. And I was right. The media whores couldn't devote all the attention they did to covering for him and lying for him when he was out of the White House. No.

They ahve othere politicians to whore for today. They still will rally around Barack and they did for that awful documentary. That's the reality. It was awful. NETFLIX knew they had a dog on their hand, i8t was a NETFLIX exec that provided us with the documentary ahead of time and told us that NETFLIX knew they'd wasted money. It debuted last week and never made it higher than number 3. It's dropped. QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, a USA network series, had its final season show up on NETFLIX and it performed better. WHITE HOT THE RISE & FALL OF ABERCROMBIE & FITCH just started streaming on NETFLIX and already it's creating more excitement.

Barack never helped anyone but himself. By the time Michelle Obama's book came out, the bloom was off that rose. It did not meet the publisher's expectations despite a huge promotional push.

Barack's only accomplishment was overseeing the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top. He was the hero of the 1%. 8And this was made clear as he worked to destroy a Chicago neighborhood by mposing his official library there, by yachting with David Geffen and limp noodle Bruce Springsteen. By getting millions from NETFLIX despite him never having produced a film or TV show.

His documentary was an embarrassment. But the press whores worked the p.r. material they were handed and went around, as the p.r. material did, comparing Barack to a man who has spent his lifetime -- and he's nearly 100 now -- covering environmental issues in films and TV shows. That was so insulting and outrageous and, no surprise, beyond the whores 8that lie never got traction.

He c9984an't save them. Bill can't save them -- he has to run from reporters these days to avoid facing the questions regarding Juanita and Monica. Hillary can't do press? She's seeing campaign aid after campaign aid pulled into an investigation on how the Russia myth was created by her campaign and paid for by her campaign and how aid how one person with her campaign after another lied to the US government.

In the Iraq that the US destroyed, the political stalemate continues. No president named since the October 10th elections, no prime minister-designate named. Six months and counting. QANTARA offers:

Iraq’s fragility and compounding problems are nothing new. The country has witnessed three devastating wars within three long decades, in addition to international sanctions, sectarian war and foreign influence. By the time Saddam Hussein’s statues were toppled, Iraq found itself in a devastating situation, in which bets were being made that Iraq would splinter into several countries based on sectarian and ethnic lines. Although Iraq defied these expectations, it remains a fragile state edging towards failure.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia cleric who won 73 out of 325 seats in the recent election, is however promising major change. The young cleric wants to break away from the political tradition of forming a national unity government after each election where all parties representing Iraq’s sects, ethnicities, and religions share the spoils. This type of political arrangement is one of the main causes of corruption and social division.

Instead, al-Sadr wants to form a majority government that can begin implementing desperately needed reforms – beginning with controlling the unruly militias and fighting corruption. He also aims to curb foreign influence from countries like Iran and make sure Iraq remains neutral regarding divisive regional issues. But will he succeed?

Al-Sadr will face many challenges in his efforts to brighten Iraq’s future. Even if he can form a majority government, further change will be an uphill battle because reform in Iraq is a formidable task that requires tremendous effort. Furthermore, some aspects of reform might take decades.

The western press, doing the US State Dept's bidding, whored for Moqtada and declared him a kingmaker and other things. He's a cult leader who is responsible for the deaths of many Ir8aiqs as w8ell as many US troops. But in August8, he took the bribe from the US State Dept -- that was made with US tax dollars -- a8nd they began promoting him lilke crazy.

Well he had t8hree tries. Three times, he called for a vote in Parliament to elect his nominee for president.

Three times he failed.

He's now in the midst of a 40-day, self-imposed exile

His oppontents are stupid. There was some initial excitement that the coordinating framework would be able to put together a government.

Then they learned that their answer was to pimp the same person for prime minister and the same person for president. Moqtada had already installed the same person for another term as Speaker of Parliament. So if the three top positions in government weren't going to change, what was the point8 of those October elections?

It's a question the already disenchanted are asking even louder these days.

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