The Coup in Myanmar, Florida Hits Back at Big Tech, Can CNN Survive Without Trump?, State Dept. Spokeswoman says Police Bigger Threat Than ISIS, Russians (The Five for 02/02/21)
Hey,
Welcome to The Five.
This issue contains no stories about Gamestop…but if you’re looking for that you might try literally any other site on the internet :)
On to the news…
[one]
Well, this should make you happy to be a U.S. citizen. In Myanmar (formerly Burma) the military has taken over the government after a disputed election. Reuters reports:
The army said it had responded to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for a year in the country, also known as Burma, where neighbouring China has a powerful influence.
The generals made their move hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide win in a Nov. 8 election viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic rule.
The NLD said Suu Kyi had called on people to protest against the military takeover, quoting comments it said had been written in anticipation of a coup.
Phone and internet connections in the capital, Naypyitaw, and the main commercial centre Yangon were disrupted and state television went off air after the NLD leaders were detained.Summarising a meeting of the new junta, the military said Min Aung Hlaing, who had been nearing retirement, had pledged to practice a “genuine discipline-flourishing multiparty democratic system”.
He promised a free and fair election and a handover of power to the winning party, it said, without giving a timeframe.
The junta later removed 24 ministers and named 11 replacements to oversee ministries including finance, defence, foreign affairs and interior.
Some observations:
A. Myanmar was under the rule of the military from 1962-2011, so this is sadly nothing new. A quick skim of the Wikipedia page might be worth your time to get a general overview of their history.
B. If you look at Asian economies, countries that have stability (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore) have built enormous wealth, at times with little to no natural resources (Japan, Singapore) while other places toil in poverty, which is a bi-product of unstable governments and economies. This is similar to North America, where Mexico led the U.S. in both commerce and culture into the 1800’s. Mexico was hit hard by corruption, and has never been the same since…more or less run by drug cartels in some parts of the country. Where there is lawlessness, there is no stable form of commerce.
By comparison, things are pretty great in the U.S.
Despite a chaotic election, the government is functioning.
Despite Big Tech’s over-reach, we still have internet and phone service.
Despite us all hating each other…commerce continues.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have huge, urgent problems as a nation…but it perhaps puts them in perspective.
There are protests in Myanmar, but they’re not going to do anything. The military controls the government. What do they care if some (most) people don’t like that?
Finally, The U.N. has promised “strong action.” I’m pretty sure the military wouldn’t have taken over in the first place. Both China and Russia sit on the U.N. Security council, and dictatorships aren’t too concerned with the human rights or anti-democratic transgressions of other dictatorships.
[two]
While no challenges at the federal level have arisen to challenge Big Tech, the state of Florida is pushing back hard with Governor Ron Desantis proposing regulations that would impact Google/Facebook/Twitter etc.
Mandatory opt-outs from big tech’s content filters, a solution to tech censorship first proposed by Breitbart News in 2018.
A private right of action for Floridian citizens against tech companies that violate this condition.
Fines of $100,000 per day levied on tech companies that suspend candidates for elected office in Florida from their platforms.
Daily fines for any tech company “that uses their content and user-related algorithms to suppress or prioritize the access of any content related to a political candidate or cause on the ballot.”
Greater transparency requirements.
Disclosure requirements enforced by Florida’s election authorities for tech companies that favor one candidate over another.
Power for the Florida attorney general to bring cases against tech companies that violate these conditions under the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act.
[three]
CNN has experienced a 40% drop in ratings since Trump left office, according to Variety.
I’m careful to use a mix of sources from left and right leaning outlets for The Five…but I never use CNN. This isn’t due to a personal hatred of the network (I don’t even know what’s on CNN) but due to the fact that they no longer “break” news. The network has gone through numerous layoffs and no longer focuses on investigative reporting, instead filling their airwaves with opinion shows.
Without Trump in the White House (or on Twitter) apparently Americans aren’t that interested in their talking-heads-yelling-at-each-other format.
(And if you’re wondering why I’m not criticizing/commenting on Fox News or MSNBC…I don’t watch those either. I don’t know who the hosts are, etc. And I don’t have cable, so I guess I won’t find out. I’m purely a new media consumer.)
[four]
A Biden cabinet member said back in 2016 that the police, not Russians or ISIS, were the greatest threat to freedom. The Washington Free Beacon reports:
The State Department’s newly installed deputy spokesperson, Jalina Porter, said in a 2016 Facebook post that the "largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S cops," according to a screenshot of the post obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
"The largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S. cops," wrote Porter, who was recently tapped by the Biden administration to serve as State Department spokesman Ned Price’s deputy. "Not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else."
The State Department did not respond to multiple Free Beacon requests for comment on the posting. Emails sent to Porter via her website and to an address provided on it were not returned by press time.
The resurfaced comments could complicate the State Department’s messaging as it seeks to challenge Iran’s nuclear buildup, continue the fight against ISIS, and shape its response to the many ongoing national security threats posed by China, Russia, and the Islamic Republic. Tony Blinken, the department's new secretary, was confirmed on Tuesday.
[five]
While there have been some outlandish conspiracy theories about child trafficking (go down the YouTube wormhole of that weird D.C. pizza shop theory, which was disproven in 2016, if you dare), sex crimes against minors and human trafficking are both very common and increasing.
This week, two FBI agent died in the line of service while serving a warrant to a pedophile in Florida. I’ve got friends in this division of the FBI and have heard some of these horror stories first hand, so I’ll continue to call attention to this epidemic in the U.S.
Fox News reports:
Two FBI agents were killed Tuesday morning and three others were wounded while trying to serve a search warrant at a home in Sunrise, Fla., in a child pornography case, the FBI confirmed to Fox News. The suspect is also dead.
The incident unfolded around 6 a.m. in the vicinity of 10100 Reflections Boulevard, Sunrise, Florida. Two of the wounded agents were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition, the FBI said. The names of the deceased will not be released at this time, they added.
People who have sunken to this level of depravity would apparently rather go out in a blaze of gunfire than face prison, and the agents who work (often undercover) to take down pedophiles, pimps and human traffickers put their lives on the line every day, only for the majority of the public to remain ignorant as to what’s going on.
Godspeed to our brave agents putting their lives on the line. Every time I see a headline like this, I wonder if someone I know personally caught a bullet fighting for justice. That’s what police and military spouses feel every time their loved one walks out the front door…and whatever your opinions are on law enforcement policy, I hope you can bear that in mind.
Until the next one,
-sth