https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Philippines_top_diplomat_swears_at_China_online_tells_nation_to_leave_disputed_waters_999.html

The Philippines' top diplomat unambiguously told Beijing where to go on Monday, as the government insisted Chinese vessels were still illegally lingering in the disputed South China Sea.

"China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see… O… GET THE FUCK OUT," Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin tweeted.

The latest spat between Manila and Beijing over the resource-rich waters which China claims almost entirely flared up in March after hundreds of Chinese boats were spotted inside the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone.

https://www.rt.com/usa/522799-biden-domestic-spying-extremists/

The DHS is limited in how it conducts surveillance, the report explains. It cannot, for example, impersonate right-wingers on forums and chat rooms. However, a panoply of researchers, journalists and nonprofits have been doing this for years. According to DHS officials who spoke to CNN, the agency wants to use research firms to gather the data it’s forbidden from gathering itself. The FBI and National Security Council are reportedly coordinating on the effort, a source added.

It is unclear who these firms could be. However, some of the biggest names in the area include so-called anti-hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, and ‘fact checking’ firms like Bellingcat. All three of these organizations and others have been accused of pro-liberal, pro-Democrat bias, and have been extensively criticized.

The Atlantic Council, a weapons industry-backed think tank that already helps Facebook fight “misinformation and foreign interference,” is fully on board. Describing the Trump supporters who entered the Capitol in January as “violent extremists,” Atlantic Council fellow Tom Warrick told CNN that he would expect the DHS to “explore whether contractors could help them understand plots and trends” emerging online.

Yet “plots and trends” are vague terms, and establishing them would involve surveilling real people. A source told CNN that the DHS and FBI would likely use the broad data to “identify potential domestic terrorists,” and in CNN’s own words, “focus on specific individuals.”

Oh' the irony

https://dailyyonder.com/locals-worry-wind-and-solar-will-gobble-up-forests-and-farms/2021/05/03/

Massachusetts has installed solar panels faster than almost any other state as it seeks to reduce its carbon emissions. But some activists say the state’s transition to renewable energy has come at a cost.

“We have big multinational solar companies coming and cutting down forests,” said Jane Winn, executive director of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, a nonprofit in the state. “They’re not doing a good job of it, so they’re allowing erosion into wetlands. We’re trying to connect our forests so wildlife can move, and they’re in there fragmenting it.”

Similar conflicts are cropping up across the country, as the fast-growing wind and solar industries expand into new areas, driven in some cases by state mandates and incentives. In many places, locals are pushing back, saying that forests and farmlands should not be sacrificed in the fight against climate change.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/03052021-ron-paul-will-special-interests-allow-americas-longest-war-to-finally-end-oped/

Even if “won,” endless wars like our 20 year assault on Afghanistan would not benefit our actual national interest in the slightest. So why do these wars continue endlessly? Because they are so profitable to powerful and well-connected special interests. In fact, the worst news possible for the Beltway military contractor/think tank complex would be that the United States actually won a war. That would signal the end of the welfare-for-the-rich gravy train.

In contrast to the end of declared wars, like World War II when the entire country rejoiced at the return home of soldiers where they belonged, an end to any of Washington’s global military deployments would result in wailing and gnashing of the teeth among the military-industrial complex which gets rich from other people’s misery and sacrifice.

Would a single American feel less safe if we brought home our thousands of troops currently bombing and shooting at Africans?

As Orwell famously said, “the war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.” Nowhere is this more true than among those whose living depends on the US military machine constantly bombing people overseas.

President Biden has announced that the US military would be out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11. But as always, the devil is in the details. It appears that US special forces, CIA paramilitaries, and the private contractors who have taken an increasing role in fighting Washington’s wars, will remain in-country. Bombing Afghans so that Max Boot and his neocons can pat themselves on the back.