pickThe concluding article in #NewInternationalist #551 is investigative journalist Matt Kennard's look at the USA's interference in the politics of other countries to further its own agenda. Knowing of the CIA's meddling with the politics of its traditional enemies, I was shocked to read of its propaganda tactics to undermine left-wing UK politicians from at least the end of WWII, most recently JC.
Reading of the UK as a vassal state to the USA is ⬇️
An article in #NewInternationalist #551 on press freedom led me to the website of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontiers), where there is an index ranking each country. While it could certainly be worse, it's depressing to find the UK at 23/180 given our national pride in freedom of speech. Still, we're better than the USA at 55th, despite the vaunted First Amendment.
Another reason to emigrate to Scandinavia!
https://rsf.org/en/index
"If we are going to sin, we must sin quietly." ☠️
Sir Eric Newton Griffith-Jones, attorney-general of Kenya, 1955-61 in a memo to the British governor of Kenya regarding the suppression of information about and the "plausible deniability" of, the illegal treatment of "Mau Mau rebels", detained in concentration camps built by the UK colonial government within 10 years of the liberation of the WWII nazi death camps.
#NewInternationalist #551
"By December, half of the world's population will have had the opportunity to cast a vote this year."
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#551 of #NewInternationalist Magazine focuses on party politics, which doesn't sound riveting (to me, at least), but it's important as it's how most politics is organised, so I guess I'll have things to learn.
It was interesting (i.e., extremely concerning) to read about the rescinding in 2011 of a US law prohibiting governmental propagandising of US citizens & US allied countries, meaning, of course, that this has now become routine. No wonder conspiracy theories abound & trust in politics is so low.
I now need to read something revivifying! 3mo