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Wednesdays insurrection laid bare the fragility of democracy in the United States. It is unsurprising that many Americans feel their confidence in the countrys democratic ideals deeply shaken. The expressions ofconcernfrom American allies, and the schadenfreude fromautocrats,including Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdoan, are sobering.

Writing inForeign Policy, Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council,argued, Ambitious foreign-policy goals are completely out of step with the realities of the countrys domestic political and economic dysfunction How can the United States spread democracy or act as an example for others if it barely has a functioning democracy at home? InForeign Affairs, James Goldgeier, a professor at American University, and Bruce Jentleson, a professor at Duke University,calledon President-elect Joe Biden to abandon his proposed international summit for democracy and hold a domestic one instead. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations,lamented on Twitter that it will be a long time before we can credibly advocate for the rule of law overseas.

However, it would be wrong to conclude that our current humiliation means that the United States has somehow lost its standing to speak up for democracy and human rights globally, or that these ideals are less pressing because of our domestic troubles. Quite the opposite. Our situation shows that the United States has a real stake in the struggle.

Repairing democracy at home is not incompatible with standing up for democracy abroad; they are mutually reinforcing. The threats to democracy are not unique to the United States. Trumpism is part of a global nationalist-populist movement that benefits from international networks of kleptocracy, disinformation, and corruption. As Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren noted during the Democratic presidential primary, taking down these networks is a necessary prerequisite for restoring democracy and the rule of law at home.

Many of the long-term threats to democracydisinformation and the lack of an objective truth, political interference by China and Russia, inequities in the global economy, and fears about interdependence and globalizationcan only be addressed collectively. And American allies still want the countrys help. Allied officials have told me in recent days that although they are worried about whats happening in the United States, they would regard it as a disaster if the U.S. abandoned its leadership role in strengthening liberal democracy globally.

This week, Twitter wasawashwithpeople arguing that the United States has no moral authority to lecture others about human rights given what happened in Washington. This sentiment was also prevalent over the summer, following the murder of George Floyd. Then, Tamara Cofman Wittes, a former Obama-administration official, wiselyobserved, in an article on the Brookings Institution website:

To insist that we must first get our house in order before speaking to others oppression, to be so ashamed by our own shortcomings that we refrain from calling out abuses abroad, and thus to withhold our solidarity from the abused, would itself be an act of moral abdication.

After four years of Donald Trump and rising authoritarianism around the world, we now live in what former U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband haslabeled the age of impunity, when governments believe that they can get away with anything, largely because they can. If the United States does not push back against this, it will only get worse.

In the days after the insurrection, the Chinese embassy in Washingtontweeted a horribly offensive statement about the forced sterilization of Uighur women in Xinjiang, China, that was later taken down by Twitter. The post could be interpreted as a deliberate provocation to show that, as the United States fell into crisis, China could push the boundaries of acceptable discourse. Earlier in the week, China arrested scores of prodemocracy activists in Hong Kong in its efforts to slowly strangle the last remnants of freedom in the city.

Perhaps denunciation of these actions and a renewed focus in Congress on how to respond would sound hollow because of Americas domestic problems, but that does not make them any less necessary. Beijing may argue that the United States lacks credibility, but its victims certainly would not.

Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden team has signaled that it is willing to get tough with American allies and other countries when they commit human-rights abuses or undermine democracyincluding the Saudi Arabian governments murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the imprisonment of women-rights activists. Many domestic critics of U.S. foreign policy have long argued for these actions. Because America electedand then rejecteda populist who incites violence, it would be a very unfortunate irony if his newly elected replacement would shy away from holding to account an absolute monarchy thatsends teams abroad to kidnap and sometimes murder its critics.

Moments of crisis and despair should force us to confront our own failings and reconcile them with our values and purpose. Sometimes, an individual can articulate that in a way that resonates and breaks through. This time, that eloquence came from a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, a group that has been attacked and undermined by the Trump administration. Two days after the invasion of the Capitol, Natalie Brown, the U.S. ambassador to Uganda, issued astatement that explained why the United States must still stand for freedom and the rule of law:

When we speak out against human rights abuses, we do so not because such abuses do not occur in America. When we speak out for press freedom, we do so not because American journalists are entirely free of harassment. When we call for judicial independence, we do so not because judges in America are free of external influence. On the contrary, we do so because we are mindful of the work still to be done in the American experiment with democracy and because our history has taught us that democracy must be defended if it is to endure.

The U.S. certainly has lessons to learn from the past few days, and years. For example, the Trump administrationused democracy and human rights purely instrumentally, as weapons with which to bludgeon its enemiesChina, Venezuela, Cubawhile giving its friends a pass and undermining these values at home. That approach is bankrupt and will fail if tried again.

Biden transition officials have admirably spoken out in support of human rights and seem likely to continue to do so. The president-elect likes to talk about the power of our example rather than the example of our power. He is right, of course, but the sad truth is that the power of our example will not be sufficient to fight authoritarianism worldwide. The urgency and gravity of the struggle is such that it requires concrete action as well as strong words. These could include legislation to prohibit U.S. companies from aiding and abetting authoritarian governments in their acts of repression. It should also mean imposing a cost on U.S. allies that undermine democracyfor instance, banning their leaders from visiting Washington, or even reducing cooperation with them.

Trump, more than any other president, has tried to empower autocrats and undermine liberal democracy. In this, he succeeded for four years. Now we are poised for a reversal. For the United States to lose confidence in its own ability to protect democracy abroad would be to hand Trump and Trumpism a victory when he is on the verge of defeat. It is precisely because American democracy is under pressure at home that the U.S. government ought to stand up for it overseas.

See the article here:
The US must now repair democracy at home and abroad - Brookings Institution

Editor,

It should be obvious now that Donald Trump, and his supporters and enablers, represent a clear and present danger to our democracy.

His supporters represent a class of Americans who live in an alternate reality fed by fear and fantasy. Their appearance on the political scene was anticipated. These poor folks embrace falsehoods and absurd conspiracy theories.

The fact is that, though Vlad was sad, the entire rational world breathed a sigh of relief to see Trump defeated.

For four long disturbing, destructive years we watched this enemy of democracy, lover of dictators and white supremacists, pseudo-Christian, enabler of grifters, torturer of children and families, abuser of women, defiler of the rules of decorum and decency, denier of science and reality, extortionist and betrayer of allies and pardoner of liars, thieves and war criminals wreck havoc.

This narcissistic wannabe dictator, worked tirelessly to shred the fabric of our democracy and almost succeeded. He had powerful allies in boardrooms and in Congress as well as the Fox propaganda machine.

Studies have pointed out Fox News biases. The Business Insider reported that media outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC have a negative impact on peoples current events knowledge, while NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative sources of news.

According to the Pew Research Center, The Fox News audience skews more ideological than that of its two main competitors.

Their methods are studied in high schools and universities as examples of bad journalism.

While senators Ted Cruz and JoshHawley maneuver to inherit the irrational, well be praying for their return to sanity and invite them to join us on Jan. 20 to celebrate our democracy which, though ravaged, survived this terrible period.

Gary Piazzon

Coupeville

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Letter: Democracy, though ravaged, survived this terrible period - Whidbey News-Times

The inauguration of Joe Biden as US president on 20 January has become a touchstone moment in the history of American democracy. Following the outrage of last weeks storming of Congress by Donald Trump supporters, at least 10,000 members of the national guard will be deployed in Washington by this weekend. Reports have detailed FBI warnings of possible armed protests in the capital and across the United States in the days ahead. The area around the Washington Monument, close to where Mr Trump urged supporters to fight for his right to stay in office, has been closed to the public. The mood is fearful, febrile and somewhat surreal. In the words of one newspaper headline: Is this America?

Since the foundation of the federal republic, the peaceful transition of power has been fundamental to Americas understanding of itself. In US democracys choreography, the presidential inauguration is designed as a moment of civic celebration that transcends partisan differences. That Mr Trump chose to mobilise an insurgency against the handover gives the measure of his narcissism, hubris and deranged will to power. Last weeks riot was not a one-off piece of performance theatre that got out of hand. The pitch for an assault on democracy had been rolled for months. In the autumn, speaking more like a mobster than a president, Mr Trump told the neo-fascist Proud Boys movement to stand by, and warned that the Democratic party would try to steal the election. Last weeks violent mayhem, which led to five deaths, was the culmination of a strategy to intimidate and discredit the democratic institutions of the country he leads.

Democrat members of the House of Representatives are therefore right to launch impeachment proceedings for a second time against a rogue president. As the charge sheet states, Mr Trump incited violence against the government of the United States. Assuming Wednesdays vote to impeach is passed in the Democrat-controlled House, the next stage will take place in the Senate, currently in recess until after Mr Bidens inauguration. A two-thirds supermajority would be required to convict, but it seems improbable that a sufficient number of Republicans will do the right thing. Another shaming moment looms for a party that has abased itself at Mr Trumps feet in the pursuit of power and lost its soul in the process.

But even if legal process were to deliver Mr Trump his just deserts, the crisis of Americas growing polarisation of which the president is a symptom as well as a cause would remain. Tribalism has become a disabling virus in the US body politic, cracking the public square in two. Social media, belatedly under new scrutiny, is used by citizens to sustain alternate, conflicting realities: three in four Republican voters continue to believe that there was widespread voter fraud in November, despite the rulings of close to 100 judges to the contrary. As faith in the neutrality of public institutions declines, studies have shown a disturbing rise in the number of Americans on both left and right who believe that political violence is sometimes justified.

Against this dismal backdrop, the theme of Mr Bidens inauguration speech will be America united. It seems likely that it will be delivered in the shadow of impeachment proceedings against his predecessor, and a mass military presence. This is a script that should belong to a bingeworthy drama on Netflix during lockdown. Instead, it is Americas dystopian reality. The new presidents healing message will be the right one. Making it heard will be the defining challenge of his long political career.

Read more from the original source:
The Guardian view on democracy in America: the threat is real - The Guardian

I would like to offer some thoughts following the regrettable breach or our National Capitol.

As a soldier with 37 years of service, the breach of our National Capitol was exceptionally hurtful. Im sure all of the service men and women who have defended the nation and its noble ideals are equally pained.

The first amendment of the US constitution gives our citizens the right to protest; it reads in part, Congress shall make no law ... abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble. All of us support this right. The key word is peaceably. There is no place for domestic violence regardless of the cause.

The breach of our National Capitol is deeply painful, largely due to its symbology as the heart of our nation. While this is true, we must keep in mind that this breach was caused by a few thousand of our 330 million citizens.

This event will be captured in the American History books our children and grandchildren read. It simply cant be wiped away. It has damaged our country and the impact of this event will last for years to come. Those responsible cannot be forgiven whatever their motives, whatever their emotions of the moment. Those directly involved must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and those indirectly responsible must suffer the political consequences, no matter how long it takes.

We have a lot of work to do and must resolve to heal the hurt. I offer some suggestions, albeit necessarily much abbreviated.

Recognize, that as hard as it is to say, the greatest current threat to our democracy is not China or Russia, it is internal forces. For some time now, the FBI has reported the highest threat comes from domestic terror groups.

There is a recipe for the destruction of our democracy. It includes the denigration of our organs of government, restrictions of the free press, turning our citizens against each other, creating mistrust of law enforcement, and creating doubt, confusion and suspicion. These methods are well-known techniques of subversion, and are objectives of our enemies and they seem to be working.

Democracy, particularly one as complex as ours requires an informed and involved electorate. We must vigorously pursue truth and understand the issues before us.

Build your own faith in our institutions. There are thousands of good people just like yourself who work hard every day to ensure our nation functions effectively.

The almost universal use of social media makes truth harder to determine. I would just say, work hard to know what the truth is. Read and listen to sources that check their facts. Sort facts from opinion. If you are unable to determine whether information is true, dont pass it to others. Be watchful of those who apply derogatory labels to broad groups of other and brand them as unpatriotic.

Be strong enough to think for yourself. Too many simply become sycophants to someone elses ideology. Some follow others simply to belong to a group and thereby derive a degree of power.

Change is inevitable. The lessons of history are clear to those who take time to study them. The US is the greatest country on the face of the earth. Some who have a shallow understanding of history have the view that beginning with the founding of the nation we have been perfect. A more rigorous study of our history shows that we have done things we are not proud of but it also shows we get better all the time.

I encourage all of us to make an individual effort so that we are able to fulfill the promise of our country.

Mike Dodson is a retired lieutenant general with the U.S. Army, a former mayor of Manhattan and a Kansas House representative for the 67th District.

Go here to see the original:
COLUMN | Riots show greatest threat to democracy comes from within US - Manhattan Mercury

Despite assisting investigators in the wake of a historic attack on democracy, online platforms need to do more to keep their user data private even if it means going bust. The subsequent security failure by conservative social-networking site Parler is a lesson for other social platforms, even the good ones.

Events in the US have unfolded over the past two weeks like a boxing match between democracy in one corner and a grumpy skinhead in the other.

First, the latter the chin of democracy with a heavy blow. Rioters who entered the Capitol Hill Building, the country's Congress, committed a direct offence at one the most sacred political sites of American democracy that momentarily paralysed the nation.

But then democracy recovered. It rose to its knees and used what it's bestat, the power of the people. Within hours of the incident thousands of concerned citizens, open-source journalist and hobby online investigators gathered onlineacross social media networks - including your humble correspondent - andanalysed video-frame by video-frame every image of footage fromthe scene.

Leading perpetrators (see example of one Tweet above), were quickly located. This is becausethese individualsleft sufficient portions of online breadcrumbs - essentially traces openly accessible for those who know where to look - all over the web. Investigators used data fromonline posts, public authority records and other open-source intelligence sources.

This left their profile accessible and data that made tracing possible. Here at E&T, we covered variousfacial and images recognition tools and code that endow investigators and citizen journalists with great powers. They directly helped in the information gatheringfor the Capitol Hill incident and helped to inform federal and state investigators.

But we also need a few critical words on how these intrusive open-sourcetechniques impede privacy and thereforecan be viewed critically in the eyes of advocates.

Inthe example of the riotsit confirmed both. Itallowedinvestigators for instance to find the man who brought to Capitol Hill police-type temporary restraints, as Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton wrote. If the trespassers had the chance, thesecouldhave been used to take members of Congress hostage. So there was a real need and opportunity to do good.

I chatted to people online and collected the set of essential tools used in what might have been the biggest ever collaborative online investigation. Most effective were online tools likeMicrosofts facial image comparisonanalyser. It allows to compare faces in uploaded images with others found across the web. It provides you with a score indicating how closely subjects' faces align.

Open source face verification online tool by Microsoft Azure that assisted in the manhunt for individuals involved in the Capitol Hill storming

Image credit: Microsoft, E&T

Other tools such as Yandex image search,PimEyes, TinEye, Berify, Pixsy, Face-rec.org, FindFace or Image Raider, all enabled users to gather intelligence to locate equipment, identitiesor even where the culprits shopped for their neo-Nazi clothes. All this eventuallyhelped to build a public case against the intruders.

Then democracy struck another blow at the sullen guy in the corner. Amazon decided to suspend its webhosting service to social media platform Parler. Parler is popular among right-wing extremist groups, and members involved in the Capitol Hill incident used it to coordinate their actions and share footage.

Amazon gave Parler a short-lived ultimatum. When it went dark, geolocation datafrom videos turned up. Every time a Parler user took a video, metadataincludingthe location, time and the Parler IDwererecorded.

This information leaked when the Parler data was initially scraped by @donk_enby on Twitter. This process is kind of like hitting next page then save over and over.The hacker shared links to the data she scraped, but not the data itself.

The links point to millions of public posts, images, and videos.The hacker also shared video metadata which included GPS locations and other information that cameras save in videos, like the phone model, but not data generated by the website, like usernames, other sources have told me.

That allowed developer Kyle McDonald and others, like me, to take the geolocation data from videos and plot it on a map. McDonald says it shows that Parler users were everywhere, not restricted to specific places the way that some popular narratives suggest. We can see the progression of videos taken around and even inside the Capitol Hill building.

Timeline graphic for video uploads by Parler users and their geo-location on January 6

Image credit: Google Earth, Parler data, E&T

The data is evidence for a clear movement from the White House to the Capitol on January 6, including many videos that were shot inside the Capitol.

Image credit: Google Earth; Parler

GPS locations can be accurate down to a few metres, McDonaldexplains. We can see dots and relevant Parler IDs taken videos inside the building (see image above). Although this helps to expose the people behind the Parler IDs, there is a darker side to these leaks that we should worry about.

[Such leaked metadata] have a history of being abused by police and other people interested in spying like stalkers, McDonald says.

"Parler was incredibly irresponsible in not scrubbing this metadata. They scrubbed metadata from images, which indicates that they were aware of this problem but too incompetent to fix it for videos". It's not the first GPS leak. It may not be the last. Other developers and privacy advocated told me that they are worried.

What happened if Facebook goes bust tomorrow [and leaks data in a similar fashion]? one privacy advocate and developer from London told pointed out to me.

McDonald says by now providers should know that they "should always scrub GPS metadata, making any attempt to locate users futile. But users should also have legal protections against this kind of abuse, he adds.

With the Parler geolocation video data now in the open, people started to look in their own neighbourhoods, some possibly for right-wing extremists. Who would blame them?

Of course, it warrants pointing out that not everyone on Parler is a member of an aggressive far-right extremist terrorist group. White supremacy and groups affiliated to it were recorded, that much is true, but many Twitter commentators also said that it would be a mistake to throw all Parler users in one pot.

Nonetheless,it's positive to see that theclosing of Parler struck a direct blow against far-right British groups that are banned from Twitter, Youtube and Facebook.

"People are taking a look in their own neighbourhoods, and remembering that we have a lot of work to do if we want to build strong communities that are resilient against the kinds of conspiracies and extremism that led to the attack on the Capitol,McDonald adds. Recently, hehelped to build a browser app called Facework that uses AI and uses peoples' facial expressions.

Will the fight between Democracy and privacy go into another round? You bet it will. For now, the Capitol Hill incident has led to support of federal investigators, the finding of the perpetrators andnow toDonald Trumps second impeachment.

He might not ever take public office again. So, despite this roundbeingwon by democracy, those who bet on privacy might have lost their money.

Most recent reports confirmed informationthat appZellowas alsoinvolved in the orchestration of the Capitol Hill incident. Weshouldhope that the social media walkie-talkie app, critics say has largely ignored a growing far-right user base,picked up a lesson or twofrom the Parler fiasco.

Pressure on the British biomasslobby is increasing. An investigation now also published byThe Guardian,forwhich E&T worked witha team ofinternational journalists,went through apainstaking process of fact-checking by the paper's lawyers before publication, I amtold.

Our effortsand scrutiny paid off. The piece made waves. Environmental advocate Greta Thunberg tweetedthe report and proclaimed itto be an "essential read on how 'bioenergy' is accelerating the climate crisis in the time span we have at hand."

E&T covered the same findings in Decemberandreceived pressure from several companies and industry groups. But the findings are watertight: healthy roundwood - trees that could be used to capture carbon emissions -is stillcutand used to make biomass pelletsfor the benefit of the UK's 'renewable energy transformation'.

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Read more:
US events are prompting a showdown between democracy and online privacy - E&T Magazine