Author: Friends of Sleeper Cells

Chinese Propaganda Authorities Promote Clinton-Trump ‘Love Song’ Spoof Videos

Chinese netizens are chattering about a series of new spoof videos that features remixed footage from the October 9 US presidential debate. The videos depict Clinton and Trump as lovers, singing romantic songs to each other.

But these are not the average spoof videos made by teenager with too much time on their hands. News outlets and social media accounts affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party and the government are jointly promoting the series of videos remixed by “netizens”. Since they can’t stop people from following the news, propaganda authorities are doing their best to keep the focus on the more absurd aspects of the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Mexican Protesters Have a Message for the President: ‘Resign Now’

With social discontent reaching a boiling point in Mexico, the country’s social media users started sharing the hashtag #RenunciaAhora (Resign Now) to mobilize people for a massive march on September 15, 2016, demanding the resignation of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

In Mexico City, the march began at 5:00 p.m. local time, assembling at the Angel of Independence and continuing to the Zócalo. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the president’s customary “Cry of Independence” at the the National Palace, when the government remembers the beginning of the Mexican war of independence, marking the occasion with nationwide festivities.

New Report: Inside the Women’s Ward: Mistreatment of Women Political Prisoners at Iran’s Evin Prison

Political prisoners held in the Women’s Ward at Iran’s Evin Prison are routinely denied medical care and hospitalization, face severely restricted or denied visitation rights even with their young children, are deprived of regular telephone contact with their families, and are not provided adequate nutrition, according to a report released today by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

How a Shootout on a Guatemalan Highway Opened Window to Corruption

In 2013, ProPublica reporter Sebastian Rotella got a tip on an assassination attempt against Enrique Degenhart Asturias, a 44-year-old Guatemala native who had been working as a consultant to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. Rotella, a veteran Latin America correspondent, knew such violence was common in that part of the world, but this event felt distinctive.

For one thing, Degenhart was shot nine times, but he lived to tell the story. Second, Degenhart had recently been fired from a post in the country’s notoriously corrupt immigration service after trying to reform it. Third, the Guatemalan government had removed Degenhart’s security detail ten months before gunmen tried to take his life.

First Brazil, Next Venezuela: Will the World See a Coup in Caracas?

(Sputnik) – Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro declared a state of emergency in January, which was extended for two months last week, as opposition ramps up to remove him from office. Meanwhile, in Brazil, rumors are spreading about the government selling off state assets just days after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending an impeachment trial.

Speaking about the extension of the state of emergency in Venezuela, Dr. Francisco Dominguez said that there were “threatening noises” from the May 12-13 Concordia Summit in New York. The “noises,” according to Moniguez, suggest that measures should be taken to “sort out difficulties that the United States have with governments like Venezuela.”

I discovered the truth about Singapore’s ‘war on drugs’. Now I campaign against the death penalty

(openDemocracy) – Yong Vui Kong was my first encounter with the death penalty in Singapore. I was 21 years old, and so was he. But we couldn’t be further apart when I sat in the public gallery of the courtroom and he in the dock, behind a glass pane. At that age I was considered by many older people as young, idealistic, naive, prone to mistakes and immaturity. Yet the Singaporean criminal justice system was expecting Yong Vui Kong to die for a mistake he’d made when he was just 19 years old.

Born to a poor family in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, Vui Kong was arrested in 2007 with 47.27 grams of heroin. Under Singaporean law, 15 grams and above is enough to attract the mandatory death penalty. Seeing his youth, the trial judge had asked the prosecution to consider reducing the charge, so he wouldn’t have to face the gallows.

5 Views on What Basic Income Should Be and Why It Matters

It seems that basic income is on the lips of everyone today. From Finland to the Netherlands, Switzerland to Canada, governments and cities have embraced the idea as one worth testing. Although talk of basic income has been around for some time, it seems that now there is a real push, an unwavering drive and motivation to see how the idea could work in practice.

Beyond the hype, however, lie some crucial questions that need to be addressed. With support from all sides of the political spectrum and interest from cities and states all over the world, it is evident that the discussion on basic income is painstakingly broad in scope and variety. What do we even mean when we talk about basic income? Are we all talking about the same thing?

Meet the American Expat Trying to Raise $1.5 Million to ‘Recreate’ 9/11

(Sputnik) – Paul Salo, a 51-year-old self-described entrepreneur, doesn’t have much experience with the scientific method, nor does he, necessarily, believe that 9/11 was an inside job. But that’s not going to stop him from ramming a plane into a building to “find out what happens.”

In a video posted to his website, Salo stands on a riverfront of a Thai city, seeking donations to stage “9/11 Part 2,” in which he intends to fly an empty remote-controlled 747 aircraft into a high-rise building to observe the results of the crash.