Youtube Censors: Demonetization is government censorship

Youtube content makers are livid, and rightly so.  They are being censored for making content that does not meet youtube's extremely vague "terms of service" rules for video content. 

What's that you say?  Google and youtube are private companies, not the government?  Private companies cannot censor?

I agree, private companies cannot censor, only governments can.  But if a company silences people at the behest and by the order of a government (as part of the price of doing business with said government), then it IS government censorship.

Google abandoned the Chinese market in 2010 but in 2016 has decided to go back.  One of the conditions set out by the mass murdering Chinese dictatorship in 2010 was the censorship of search results, prevention of certain topics online.  In order to re-enter China's markets, google will have to do the corrupt government's bidding and censor user content.  And judging by the new "terms of service" for youtube, google has already started.

These are their five "rules for unacceptable content":

"Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual humor"

What constitutes "sexual content"?  LGBTQIA kissing?  Transgender people's videos?  People at the beach?

"Violence, including display of serious injury and events related to violent extremism"

Does this include video showing police and governments violently assaulting and murdering peaceful human rights protestors (e.g. the corporate and government violence against protesters in North Dakota)?  Does this include video exposing war crimes by corrupt governments?  Very likely, it does.

"Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and vulgar language"

So, it's perfectly alright for advertisements to appear in hollywood movies full of profanity and racist language, but a youtube video with a much smaller audience cannot say them?

"Promotion of drugs and regulated substances, including selling, use and abuse of such items"

Meanwhile, advertisements by multinational pharmaceutial industries will still be perfectly legal.  Discussing and advocating the legalization or decriminalization of drugs, or even discussing countries where drugs are legal, will remain a banned topic.

"Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown"

China Uncensored is a youtube channel based in Hong Kong which factually (while humourously) reports on serious events in China such as human rights abuses, the mass murder of falun gong members for "organ harvesting" and transplant tourism, the silencing of the press, arrests without trial and torture, etc.  Would it surprise you to hear that China Uncensored has been "demonetized" (read: demonized) for reporting facts?  All at the behest of Beijing and likely other governments.

Unfortunately, it's not just the corrupt Chinese regime that likes these rules.  Other governments which mass murder and commit war crimes (e.g. the US, Israel, the UK) would be just as happy to see these rules imposed, to silence whistle blowers and help cover up their crimes against humanity.

How many other topics will be deemed "sensitive" and silences by google for the benefit of governments?  Systematic racism in countries like the US and Australia?  Climate change?  The corporatization of the entire world with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

"Not censorship."  Yeah, right.

Justice Done: There will be no hate crimes trial in Georgia

In early 2016, Georgia man Martin Blackwell committed a violent assault upon two young men - the son of his girlfriend, and the young man's boyfriend.  Blackwell poured boiling on them, causing burns, disfigurement and long term nerve damage that the victims may never recover from.

The FBI has declared is will not proceed with a hate crime trial against Blackwell.  Their reason?  Blackwell was convicted of the assault by a Georgia court and received a forty year prison sentence.

Normally, I would be livid at the idea that a criminal is not going to face trial for a hate crime.  But in this case, it is arguably the right thing to do.  Why?

First, he was given a forty year sentence for his crime.  At his age, that is effectively a death sentence.  He will never walk free for the rest of his life.

Second, Blackwell was arrested, tried and convicted without a hate crime law.  The courts in Georgia did their jobs.

Hate crime laws came into being because those in the so-called "legal system" would allow criminals to go free or undercharge the criminals (and not send them to prison) because the cops, prosecutors and judges hated the victims as much as the perpetrators did.  The "authorities" were condoning the crime and victimizing people a second time with their arrogance.

The actions of the Georgia court speak volumes.  They properly charged Blackwell and convicted him, and the judge sentenced him adequately.  Justice has been done, thus there is no need for a hate crime trial.

But it does beg a question: Would Georgia's legal system have convicted Blackwell without the FBI breathing down their necks?  Would such a conviction have happened if hate crime laws didn't exist elsewhere?  In all likelihood, they wouldn't.

Cops Empowered: Death of a nation

Police banality is as much a problem as police brutality.  US cops have become so used to committing murder with impunity that they no longer hesitate to kill.  The white robes of "Birth Of A Nation" in 1915 have been replaced by blue uniforms during the death of the nation in 2016.

The US media no longer make any pretence about their overt racism.  Not one media member called the Dallas shooter a lone wolf, even though he was a lone wolf.  He acted alone, unaffiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, but good luck getting any racists in the media to admit that fact, to label a black shooter the same way as a white shooter committing the same crime. 

And good luck getting anyone to admit the shooting in Dallas is the fault of US cops, courts and so-called "legal system".  The murderers in Minnesota and Louisiana who murdered two black men bear more responsibility for the five dead cops in Dallas than the shooter.  Minnesota governor Mark Dayton deserves credit for calling the crime a murder, yet for doing so the rightwing media and corrupt police establishment have sought to vilify him - the same police establishment that publicly celebrated when one of the six murderers in Baltimore was "acquitted" by a corrupt legal system.

I am not wishing for this and don't want to see it, but Americans should brace themselves and expect to see a lot more tit-for-tat killings. People are tired of violent cops acting with impunity.  As happens in many other places, when legal means don’t work, people will resort to extralegal means. Note that I say extralegal, not illegal. There is a difference.

I won’t be shocked if the US turns into Vietnam on a small scale, warfare between the occupiers (cops) and the populace. The US military killed Vietnamese civilians indiscriminately to try and subdue the populace, but instead enraged people into supporting the resistance. The resistance killed US soldiers randomly to demoralize them, blending in with the population, and leaving the US military unable to find them.

Occupation of a population is impossible because people won’t stop fighting for their homeland until they win or they can’t fight anymore. It ends up in one of three results: a police state (e.g. USSR, South Africa), genocide to the point where the occupied populace can’t fight back anymore (e.g. US, Canada, Australia), or the occupiers realize they can’t win and give up (e.g. Vietnam, India, Afghanistan, the US civil rights fight). Palestine is a place heading towards one of these three endings.


Not two days after the Dallas shootings, cops in Baton Rouge have used trumped up charges to justify perpetrating violent acts against protesters.  The streets of the US are turning into Tiananmen Square.  The Black Lives Matter protester in this photo shows the same courage and dignity as the Chinese man who stood in front of a column of tanks.

Ignorance Wins: The UK commits suicide, not EU-thanasia

England wanted to EU-thanize the EU but instead has just committed economic and political suicide.  A vote based on racist and reactionary (lack of) thinking won't only separate the UK from the EU in terms of borders.

The UK banking system will be isolated, which means no EU loans, consumer protection or international banking.  It means UK citizens cannot travel, work or live in the EU.  It means UK citizens will lose the legal protections that the EU offers (environmental, economic, labour and employment rights, human rights, food and consumer safety, etc.).

The Scottish vote on separation in 2015 failed, but the possibility of voting again still exists.  Once the economic and political fallout of this vote come to pass, Scottish people will flock to the polls and will gladly return to the EU.  And you can expect Wales and Northern Ireland to choose the same route soon after. 

Within ten years, England will either become an economic basket case, the North Korea of Europe, or it will come crawling back, begging for readmittance that will only come on the EU's terms.

As seen on twitter:

Silence Kills: Media complicity in another Israelis human rights abuse

In the West Bank, part of Palestinian land, ramadan is not the only news story.  But you won't hear about the other story in the corporate media.

Update: The Israeli government has since admitted to human rights abuses by intentionally cutting off water to the West Bank.  But they still blame the Palestinian authority for the Israeli government's own actions.

The Israeli government has cut off the entire water supply to the West Bank.  Cut off all water.  As daily temperatures soar to 35°C or higher.

There are only two reasons to commit a human rights violation like this against a civilian populations:

1) To kill as many of the population as possible while protect by media silence and a US veto.

2) To drive people into such desperation that they decide to leave their homeland and allow an occupying invader to take it.

As if Israeli policy toward the West Bank and Gaza has ever been any different.

West Bank Palestinians Without Clean Water After Israel Cuts Off Supplies

“Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, siphoned off water supplies to the municipality of Jenin, several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages,” Al Jazeera reported.

Daytime temperatures are reaching 95 degrees and some people have not had access to drinking water for 40 days, according to Ayman Rabi, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group.

[...]

"Israel allocates to its citizens, including those living in settlements in the West Bank deemed illegal under international law, between three and five times more water than the Palestinians," Martin Asser wrote. "This, Palestinians say, is crippling to their agricultural economy."

Lip Service: The hypocrisy of punishing and celebrating dissidents

Barack Obama is "paying tribute" to Muhammad Ali after Ali's death.  In reality, Obama is paying lip service to the ideals of standing up to injustice and criminality while gutlessly doing the opposite and punishing those who dare or blow whistles.

Ali stood up against the illegal war in Vietnam at the risk of his freedom and his career, while at the height of his career.  He was not only punished by a corrupt government with a false prosecution and jail time, he also endured a corrupt media's attacks upon his character.  He was labelled a "coward" and "communist" by the US populace.  It is only in retrospect that people are calling him a hero for doing what was right.

The reality is far different today.  People like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning also stood up and did what was right, speaking out against illegal wars and war crimes.  For doing so, they are vilified by a corrupt government and a cowardly and complicit media.  One is a political prisoner of conscience, incarcerated for telling the truth that her government lied and committed a war crime.  The other is living in exile, called a "coward" by a government that murders people with impunity, that intentionally bombs hospitals to kill doctors and aid workers.

This sort of hypocrisy isn't anything new.  Back in World War I, England imprisoned people who refused to take part in that war, after first threatening to murder them (so-called "executions").  As with Ali in the US, the UK government now wants to celebrate people that it tried to punish. 

This isn't about morality and doing what's right. It's propaganda and more lies being sold both at home and abroad. 

The message is clear: It's okay to have refused to be part of war crimes fifty years ago.  But if you refuse to commit war crimes now, you're a "coward".  The scum who call pacifists "cowards" for refusing to fight in illegal wars and war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq are dishonestly trying to claim the moral standing of those who refuse to take part in wars.