News chunk 'n bits: Democracy vs autocrcacy; The Gaza body count; Etc.

Even the editorial Board at the WaPo has figured it out (article not paywalled off). This is about how pro-democracy forces are loosening the grip of dictators on the free flow of honest information. Essentially all dictators now realize that that is it critically important to control the internet and flood it with disinformation, lies, slanders, hate, bigotry, etc. Putin learned that lesson from his murdering war of aggression against Ukraine. The pro-dictatorship FTZWS (flood the zone with shit) propaganda tactic that Steve Bannon put a catchy name to has gone global. The WaPo Editors write:

ANNALS OF AUTOCRACY

Opinion | How the battle for democracy will be fought — and won

For more than a decade and a half, autocracy has been steadily advancing around the globe. Dictators routinely arrest their foes, including those demanding basic rights such as freedom of expression. But they have modernized their methods, taking control of the internet and using it to broadcast disinformation while censoring the truth. They have forced independent media to close and aimed surveillance at social media and the people who use it. They have created firewalls and imposed internet shutdowns. Freedom House found in its latest annual survey of political rights and civil liberties that democracy has been in decline for 17 years — and one of the biggest drivers has been attacks on freedom of expression.

But there are ways to confront the forces of authoritarianism, especially on the information battlefield, where the future of democracy may be decided for millions of people. The stakes are enormous: Will open societies thrive and grow, or will more of the globe fall under the sway of dictatorships such as the one in China, where information manipulation is the norm and surveillance technology watches over everyone, all the time?

[In response to the Iranian dictatorship shutting down the internet in sensitive areas in rebellion during a period of social unrest] a little-known channel helped millions of Iranians stay in the know. A nongovernmental organization in Los Angeles, NetFreedom Pioneers, had created a method to bypass the internet entirely and broadcast files — text, audio or video — from commercial satellites to anyone with a receiver dish. It is called Toosheh, or Knapsack. The group collected photos and news reports from social media platforms and elsewhere, uploaded them to a satellite and then down to homes in blacked-out Iran. The news was easily shareable on a flash drive.

Toosheh, founded by an Iranian émigré, brought fresh and uncensored information into a censored country, offering a ray of hope in the struggle between forces of dictatorship and democracy.

This opinion piece highlights the centrality and power of information and disinformation in the war between democracy and dictatorships, which are usually kleptocratic or at least deeply corrupt, like Russia.

For years, I have been arguing that about the most powerful weapon that modern dictator-kleptocrats have is control and suppression of inconvenient fact and truth and replacing that void via the FTZWS dark free speech tactic. This exemplifies why I see lying, slandering, irrational emotional manipulation (fomenting unwarranted fear, hate, bigotry, racism, etc.) and crackpottery as not just deplorable. It is literally evil (not just immoral) because harm to democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law are all intended. Innocent people will get killed, harmed or oppressed.

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From the endless Israel-Palestine misery and war horror story: More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll -- The Gaza Health Ministry said early Friday that 20,057 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since Oct. 7.

Dec. 6, outskirts of Gaza City

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From the Dictators getting their collective act together files: In Russia, parents are having gay children abducted to be ‘cured’ -- In Russia, where the entire LGBTQ+ community has been banned as “extremist,” some parents are paying thugs to abduct their queer sons and daughters, forcing them into secure private centers to “cure” them with so-called conversion therapy. Former residents say conditions behind high concrete walls are like small unregulated prisons, designed for alcoholics, drug addicts, or people whose families see them as problems. Many were tricked or abducted, then held for months. They recounted being beaten, humiliated or forced to read out confessions that they were destructive and selfish because of their “addiction” to their sexual or gender identity — mimicking rigid programs designed to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Does that sound familiar? It should. 

Flogging the non-heterosexual community is a fun and popular anti-democracy, pro-dictator tactic. It is used effectively to foment social bigotry and irrational fear and hate of the LGBTQ+ community, just like the corrupt, bigoted Christian nationalism wealth and power movement is doing here in the US. Dictators everywhere are catching on to this wonderful wealth and power TFZWS propaganda tactic.

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From the rampaging GOP authoritarianism files: Seattle hospital sues Texas AG who sought records of trans minors:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) tried to compel a Seattle hospital to hand over information about gender-affirming treatment Texas youths may have received across state lines, according to court filings, signaling an escalation of his office’s attempts to crack down on Texans’ ability to access such health care.

The Seattle Children’s Hospital requested a Texas judge nullify, or at least rein in, Paxton’s demands, arguing that his office lacks the jurisdiction over the Washington state hospital. In filings this month, the hospital said Paxton’s queries — made under the guise of an investigation by the AG’s consumer protection division — were “sham requests.”

If memory serves, states passing laws (mostly slave-related, I think) that other states refused to honor was a significant factor in splitting the country, paving the way to civil war. Now it’s happening again.

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Rudy Giuliani files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York after defamation case -- Rudy Giuliani has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, one day after a federal judge ruled that he must immediately pay the $148 million he owes two Georgia women he falsely accused of helping to steal the 2020 election. In paperwork filed Thursday to seek protection from creditors, Giuliani listed up to $500 million in debts, including the $148 million he owes former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss. .... He listed his assets between $1 million and $10 million.

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More Israel-Palestine horror: A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza -- .... according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times. The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore.