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11 mo. ago

  • Is this where the expression "dying of laughter" comes from?

  • Hilarious!!

  • Then prove it instead of just speculating.

    The proof we do have is that Webb became extremely depressed because of all the media slander, his loss of credibility as a journalist from his peers and the general population and ultimately, the resignation from his position, inability to find a job, and loss of his mortgage and house a week prior to his death.

    What we have zero proof of is why the CIA would want to kill someone that didn't break the significant story in the first place, was already widely discredited and shunned, and EIGHT years after the news had died down.

    Also, it is not impossible to have a suicide with two bullets. It happens rarely when the first shot fails to be immediately lethal. Considering the first bullet went through his left cheek, it probably didn't kill him. It was the second shot that hit an artery.

    On top of that, Webb's own family firmly believe it was a suicide and they would appreciate it if you would treat it as such as they knew him a lot more than you did.

  • Kiwi Farms is an immensely creepy stalking forum run by manchild Joshua Conner Moon out of his mom's house (no, literally). The people who are stalked are what are known as "lolcows" to the site's userbase or "exceptional individuals."

    Due to difficulties with enforcing anti-harmful speech legislation on the internet, there hasn't been much legal action taken on Kiwi Farms, despite them being responsible for harming many people (directly and indirectly), costing them jobs and partners, exaggerating and spinning rumors, or even mentally abusing their victims to the point of suicide. In fact, the owners maintain that there is nothing illegal about the site, citing technicalities (i.e. "we don't harass people; our users do!") and phonebooks also distributing personal information (because "sharing the address of this person we find weird is totally the same as a printed 411!").

  • Important clarification:

    Webb, an investigative journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, uncovered convincing evidence that proceeds from international cocaine trafficking represented a major source of funding for US-backed right-wing death squads in Nicaragua (known as the Contras) with South Central Los Angeles and other urban African American communities serving as key markets for the drug; and more distressing, that the CIA had become aware of this illicit commerce early on and incorporated it into a broader domestic strategy, allowing the cocaine pipeline to continue and thrive to a massive degree that eventually gave rise to the U.S. "crack epidemic" of the '80s and '90s and the birth of the prison-industrial sector.

    Webb DID NOT break the story of America's crack coming from the Contras with the CIA's approval. That fact had already been available around the time it occurred. Webb's contribution was gathering and sharing the details and more evidence. To be fair, Webb never claimed to have any evidence that the CIA engineered the whole thing, only that they knew it was going on, approved of it, and even met with Contra leaders and funders to discuss it.

    Webb's downfall as a journalist is mainly due to his making unsupported claims. If he had had evidence for all of his claims, it would not have made him vulnerable to being discredited. For example, the US Justice Department found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts," and that "the claims that Blandón and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." Even Nick Schou, Webb's biographer, agreed that, "the story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors."

    On December 10, 2004, Gary Webb took his own life. It is true that there were two bullet wounds in his head, which has raised suspicions that his death might not have been a suicide. However, no evidence has yet been presented contradicting the coroner's findings, so we have to accept it as such for now.

    And yes, Kill the Messenger (2014) is worth watching. It is a surprisingly accurate film starring Jeremy Renner. It portrays how Webb assembled the story and depicts the media's tomfoolery and its impact on Webb's life. Even Webb's own son liked it.

  • Not exactly. He is on trial after videos have been revealed showing him calling for upping the Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and calling on the audience to kill their MP.

    Considering in the last five years, two MPs: Jo Cox and David Amess have both been murdered on the job it is not at all surprising he has found himself on trial.

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  • Wasn't lack of regulation what caused the 2008 recession?

  • politics @lemmy.world

    Trump picks Kelly Loeffler to lead Small Business Administration

    politics @lemmy.world

    Trump nominates Jared Isaacman—Shift4 CEO, commercial astronaut, and Musk friend—to be next NASA administrator.

    politics @lemmy.world

    Supreme Court hears arguments in challenge to gender-affirming care ban

    politics @lemmy.world

    Missouri lawmaker proposes bounty system to report migrants

    politics @lemmy.world

    Florida introduces anti-chemtrail bill

    politics @lemmy.world

    Neo-Nazis, emboldened by Trump's victory, are on the march across the US

    politics @lemmy.world

    How will 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico, Canada impact Texas?

  • Sadly they have a red hat

  • I still find it insane how racism has become political now.

  • I read somewhere that Eritrea (the North Korea of Africa) is the only other country that has this policy.

  • You say many states outlaw faithless electors, but a shocking amount, 34 out of 50 states, still count the vote, with only 2 of those 34 actually penalizing it. The rest of the States have proper protections against such a thing from occurring, but faithless electors doing some real damage to an election is still a possibility. Will it happen this time around? Probably not. They've never really come close to changing the outcome of an election, but if they worked together, they could!

    It is worth noting that the 2016 election had 10 faithless electors and was the first election in over 100 years in which multiple electors worked to alter the result of the election.

    Sources: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_electors_in_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election

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  • People in the tech community who care about their privacy need to understand that if a product is not open source it should NOT be trusted. Transparency is a necessary factor in guaranteeing privacy, otherwise we cannot see and prove if a person or company's claim to privacy is true.

  • I'm more worried there will be a record high amount of faithless electors this election season.

  • Fluoride, when swallowed, can be distributed throughout the body, which includes being in the saliva that covers the teeth. Nevertheless, fluoridated water has been shown with more than enough evidence to improve the quality of teeth in humans compared to its risks (if any) and removing it in water will reduce those benefits.