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I don't want to browse at positive but I don't want to see the Spam-y wall of garbage in the top level comments.

Shouldn't be that hard to set the checked value for the input.commentHider for the case of Spam modded top level comments, is it?

Nathan Law and 5 others are being actively sought by Hong Kong police for collusion with foreign forces and jeopardizing national security, reports Global Times, an English language website run by the Chinese Communist Party.

Former UK consulate staffer, Simon Cheng Man-kit (previously detained for soliciting prostitutes, dixit Global Times), and secessionist Samuel Chu (now a US national) of Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), are also on the wanted list. Other names mentioned are Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Lau Hong, and Chu and Wayne Chan Ka-kui.

Interestingly, the reason why the 6 are being sought is for crimes after the national security legislation was officially established -- hence after Nathan Law was already in London. It wouldn't be surprising if Law's interview on the BBC's Hard Talk would be reason for accusing him of jeopardizing national security.

According to the article, the six are spread around the world: Nathan Law, Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Lau Hong in the UK, Cheng Man-kit in the US, Chu and Wayne in the Netherlands, EU. Hong Kong police is planning to issue an international search warrant for the six, through Interpol.

The Hong Kong police department is a member of the Interpol, and countries that shield the suspects are showing no regard the Interpol framework and will face pressure from it, Zhi Zhenfeng, a legal expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, stated.

‘She’s got a Chinese husband,’ they say. ‘She works here, and she won’t run away or exhibit any freethinking.’”

In 2018, China Media Group was created through the merger of several predominant Chinese state radio and television broadcasters. Its aim was (is) to increase China's 'discursive power' (huayuquan) i.e. its ability to influence international opinion, and, ultimately, decision making.

That same year, China Media Group signed a strategic partnership with the Russian state news agency “Rossiya Segodnya”. Under the agreement, Chinese and Russian state media would publish a defined number of positive news stories about each others viewpoints and achievements.

The contract turns out, in practice, to be rather one-sided.

While Rossiya Segodnya publishes more than 100 stories a month, sourced by China Media Group, the number of stories published in China, based on Rossiya Segodnya reporting, is practically non-existent. Even an essay written, and signed, by Vladimir Putin himself about the second world war didn't get the OK of China's propaganda department and, hence, was not published.

Meduza.io, the new home of lenta.ru newsroom exiles, investigates.

If you suffer of

• science-itis
• acute wussness
• selfish syndrome
• chronic dickishness
• pathological ignorance
• severe moron-ness

and can't wear a mask, just stay at home (1'30" in duration)

The president is his own best communicator and his highly rated briefings give him the opportunity to speak directly to the American people about the federal government's unprecedented coronavirus response that has saved millions of lives

- attributed to some white house mouthpiece (nothing new in the article), emph mine

This shit works, folks. The response is... disappointing

Something that picked my eye in a The Atlantic story:

Similar to other right-leaning extremist movements, they are the product of an unhappy generation of men who compare their lot in life with that of men in previous decades and see their prospects diminishing. ...
...
As alt-right protests waned, boogaloo boys began to appear on the streets. Armed men in aloha shirts and boogaloo patches made their first widely noticed appearance at a heavily attended pro–Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia, in January. And they came out again for the anti-lockdown protests in March. Later, many attended protests over the killing of George Floyd, some in solidarity, others to oppose the left.

The catalyst was similar to what mobilized so many young people on the left: the notion that the government enriched a privileged few at the expense of the people. In this, the boogaloo boys shared the anti-corporatist left’s belief that the government had betrayed public trust by maintaining a growing police force to perpetuate an unjust status quo.

Some may invoke higher level concepts (mah liberty), but it started to look to me like the Americans (no matter if left or right) are prone to react to the disproportionate distribution of "bread" by making "gladiator style circuses", especially after a longer period of time. And perhaps their "patricians class" likes it that way, at the very least it maintains the status quo and avoids the sun's reflection on the knife of the guillotines. Or even only on yellow vests

A case of a post-truth culture building their own version of reality to agree with what they need to perceive? Maybe not yet, hopefully never.

How Fox Sports will use virtual fans created in Unreal Engine to fill empty stadiums in MLB broadcasts

“We’re not looking to fool anybody, it’s still about the game. But shot-to-shot, when you’re watching a broadcast, it’s not more noticeable that you’re watching what is normally a broadcast with fans in just an empty stadium and having it feel weird — we want to give people a sense of normalcy,” Zager says. “And we felt like going down this path and trying to use a virtual crowd will hopefully make it so that blends in, and you can focus on the game more because you’re not thinking about the emptiness of a Major League Baseball stadium during the game.”

The effect is a combination of technologies you may have seen before. The augmented reality software used to insert the crowds is called Pixotope, which has worked on AR graphics for things like the Super Bowl and The Weather Channel’s terrifying storm warning demonstrations.

I was not going to write about Stella Immanuel. I almost did. But thought better of it.

But then she doubled down on the crazy.

For those just tuning in . . .
* Stella Immanuel is Trump's latest favorite doctor
* believes malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a "cure for COVID," (retweeted by Trump and one of the moron twins.)
* claimed that alien DNA was used in medicine (well that explains some things)
* some gynecological problems were the result of sex with demons. (other sources said it was from sex with demons . . . in your dreams)
* demon sperm (that could simply indicate being a feminist)
Rather than provide links, which hordes of ACs will call "fake news", I'll just leave it as an exercise for the reader to google search for her name.

A few bits . . .

"America, you don't need to be afraid. COVID has a cure. You don't need to be afraid. COVID has prevention," she said. "If they put everybody on hydroxychloroquine now, for those with early disease, early disease, and those that want to get prevention, I'm telling you it will stop COVID in its tracks in 30 days."

and

Immanuel told Facebook that their servers would "be down in Jesus' name" if they did not restore her allegedly deleted profile page. At the time of writing, her account still appears to be online and active.

I would suggest that Trump finds her message appealing because she is crazier than he is. I know ACs will dispute this. Which I suppose must mean that he is crazier than she is -- although it could mean they are equally crazy.

If NOT A > B, then either A < B or A = B, but that could be fake news.

Quibi’s recipe for winning an Emmy without really trying

Television’s most important award might be going to its least important streaming service: Quibi. The service was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards, of which it’s almost certain to win at least one.

Quibi — which one estimate claims retained only 8 percent of people who signed up for its three-month free trial — hasn’t suddenly started putting out content on the same level as Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. Instead, the short-form streaming service is competing in a game that no one else is playing.

At face value, Quibi’s nominations and near-certain win seem impossible: Quibi only has 16 original drama or comedy shows, has been around for just over three months, and has made about the same impact on the media landscape as a water balloon has on an Abrams tank.

[...] Quibi’s nominations are exclusively in the short-form-specific Emmy categories. Its competition is a few web-series spinoffs of larger shows and a YouTube series. Unless things go very badly for the mobile-focused streaming service, it’ll be walking away with at least one award come September.

[...] A report from Sensor Tower earlier in July claimed that the company was only able to convert about 72,000 of its initial 910,000 users into paid customers when the three-month free trial offer expired.

Assuming random selection of winners, Quibi has just a 2.4% chance of winning zero Emmy Awards.

Previously: Fox Could Buy Tubi While NBCUniversal Eyes Vudu
Meg Whitman-Run Streaming Service "Quibi" Launches, Reception Mixed
The Fall of Quibi: How Did a Starry $1.75bn Netflix Rival Crash So Fast?

A former border patrol agent describes the special federal unit deployed in Portland as some of 'the most violent and racist in all law enforcement'

A former senior border patrol agent described an elite federal unit deployed by the Trump administration to quell protests in Portland, Ore., as some of the "the most violent and racist in all law enforcement."

[ . . . . ] The specially trained officers are the "biggest guys, like the jocks in a football team," Budd told The Guardian. "They live in tight groups like the Navy Seals, spending their time in military-style training."

"They don't exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement," Budd said. "They view people they encounter in the military sense as enemy combatants, meaning they have virtually no rights."

[ . . . . ] "They don't do normal vehicle stops. They will rip drivers from their seat, throw him against the side, put him in handcuffs – the same tactics you are now seeing Bortac agents use in Portland," Budd told The Guardian.

[ . . . . ] Many local and state officials, along with DHS employees themselves, have condemned the actions and presence of federal agents in Oregon's largest city as "unconstitutional." Congressional lawmakers in response have introduced legislation to block Trump, who has sought to increase the number of federal forces in Portland, from using them as a "shadowy paramilitary against Americans."

[ . . . . ] Budd also told The Guardian that an instructor during her training as a border patrol agent in 1995 used racial slurs like "tonks" and "wetbacks" to refer to Latino migrants, who she said were often deemed as "criminals" by the agency.

Nice.

This is how tyranny begins. Secret police. Unmarked. Using unmarked rental vehicles. Not actually "arresting" people, just seizing them off the street, beating them up, and releasing them (catch and release) -- with no records kept.

But what about "I wast just following orders" at Nuremberg?

I understand from other sources that the ACLU won an injunction restraining the feds in Portland. District ct of Oregon. I don't have a better link.

Stripping these thugs of their qualified immunity would mean they could be prosecuted as they should be. But . . . "I was just following orders!" (from Nuremberg)

And of course, our Dear Leader will pardon them all. Because the power of the pardon isn't to promote justice, it is to do just the opposite as demonstrated by every single use of this power by Trump.

But it will get worse. Just watch. I'm sure Germany could not have understood at the time what was happening to them. Until it was too late. Some parts of our democracy are still in working order, as this injunction would suggest. But clearly the system is seriously fractured where opposite sides see black as white and white as black.

Brace for the wave of ACs who will spout their shameful anonymous proclamations that it's all fake news. That the moms being tear gassed are terrorists.

Our founders did not want us to have a king. With absolute power, as trump claims to have. (absolute authority) But they assumed that other parts of our checks and balances would have the courage to oust any such tyrant long before it got to this point.

It will get worse.

Update
Here is a copy of the TRO.

ACLU sued to get the federal thugs removed. Nobody wants them there (except Trump). They have no legitimate purpose there, at least unmarked, and not making records of arrests.