Thursday, December 01, 2016

"Land of the free"

One of the signs that a country is not a democracy is when it restricts the ability of the media to cover its crimes. The US is doing exactly that over what its doing at Standing Rock:
Award-winning Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou has had plenty of scary border experiences while reporting from the Middle East for the past decade. But his most disturbing encounter was with U.S. Customs and Border Protection last month, he said.

On Oct. 1, customs agents detained Ou for more than six hours and briefly confiscated his mobile phones and other reporting materials before denying him entry to the United States, according to Ou. He was on his way to cover the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline on behalf of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.


Because obviously, exposing militarised local police and oil company goons beating, shooting, and setting dogs on peaceful protesters trying to defend their land is a "threat" to "national security". Or at least, the ignorance of white Americans about where "their" country came from.

So much for the "land of the free". Trump is just the cherry on the top of a long decline into fascism.