Commentary -- WNT Selected

Facebook algorithm changes suppressed journalism and meddled with democracy | Jennifer Grygiel

July 24, 2019 (The Conversation) -- As the 2020 election approaches, there is much public concern that what was dubbed “Russian meddling” in the 2016 presidential election could happen again. But what’s not getting enough attention is the role Facebook’s algorithm changes play, intentionally or not, in that kind of meddling. Facebook’s News Feed algorithm determines what users see on its platform ...

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The Worlds We Live In | John Michael Greer

Photo: kraftrecipes.comMarch 6, 2019 (EcoSophia.net) -- I’m sure many of my readers noticed that last month’s posts were talking about the same thing from two different angles. The first of those pos ...

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The Suffocation of Democracy | Christopher R. Browning

Donald Trump at the First In Nation Republican Leadership Summit, Nashua, New Hampshire. Photo by Michael Vadon, Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)Oct. 25, 2018 Issue (The New York Review of Books) -- As a histor ...

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A leading Holocaust historian just seriously compared the US to Nazi Germany | Zack Beauchamp

Mitch McConnell“If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell.” Oct. 5, 2018 (Vox.com) -- Usually, comparisons between Donald ...

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A Farewell to Norms | Milton Mueller

Credit: Derek Bridges, Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Milton Mueller -- Internet Governance Project Sept. 4, 2018 “Keep right on lying to me. That’s what I want you to do.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms ...

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Journalists Are Not The Enemy | Boston Globe Editorial Board

Source: celebrationscakedecorating.comAug. 15, 2018 (Boston Globe) -- A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow ...

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Was the 2016 election legitimate? It's now definitely worth asking the question | Virginia Heffernan

Credit: Talking Points MemoJuly 28, 2018 (Los Angeles Times) -- We need to talk about a forbidden subject: the legitimacy of the current president. There’s been a code of silence around President Don ...

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Russia and the far right’s cozy affair | E.J. Dionne Jr.

Image: Los Angeles TimesJuly 29, 2018 (Washington Post) -- The links among Vladimir Putin, President Trump, and segments of both the Republican Party and the American conservative movement seem bizar ...

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OPEN TREASON | NY Daily News

Cover of N.Y. Daily News 17 July 2018

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War Is A Racket | Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

A speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC I. WAR IS A RACKET WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most viciou ...

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On Occult Literature: A Diversion of Sorts | John Michael Greer

Occult vibrations 1600 block of Lamont Street, NW. By rockcreek, Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)May 30, 2018 (EcoSophia.net) -- It so happens that last week’s post on reading books by dead people had a curi ...

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