9) the fake social media personas on the Internet, used by the US military and intelligence agencies to affect and lead public opinion in many countries, usually with the intent of inciting civil unrest and revolution. It has been obvious for some time that these tactics have been used domestically as well, the new legislation simply legalising the process. Many US government agencies have obtained this software that permits them to flood the social media with fake people making fake posts in support of government positions and discrediting those who hold contrary views or are critical of the government. The software is extremely detailed, providing extensive backgrounds for these fictitious people, permitting a single human to assume the identities of as many as 1,000 fake people, and make them appear to actually be in a certain physical place or even attending an actual event. They control the IP address, making it impossible to detect that a single person in one location is orches
What’s new? Coca crops have set record yields in Colombia since the 2016 peace accord with FARC guerrillas, persuading the government to expand its forced eradication campaign with the backing of U.S. authorities. Bogotá claims that eliminating the plant will reduce rural violence.
Why does it matter? Insecurity in Colombia’s countryside has steadily got worse in recent years as armed groups vie with one another and the military for supremacy. Enhanced eradication, and potentially aerial fumigation, could intensify violence by forcing farmers into the clutches of armed outfits, while failing to stop the replanting of coca.
What should be done? Colombia and the U.S., the lead outside backer of tough counter-narcotic policies in Latin America, should turn the page on using force against coca farmers in a bid to dent global cocaine supply. Boosting rural economies, forging ahead with crop substitution and avoiding clashes with cultivators would make for better policy.
Many keen observers of America and its democratic system must be shocked by many unfortunate events related to Presidential elections and the Republican-Democrat rivalry. These developments gave many reasons to believe that this Presidential election is going to be remembered as the saddest chapter of the US democratic history. But few would have taken note of the extraordinary cohesion, comradely coordination and collective wisdom demonstrated by the same political rivals on some issues related to common national agenda. Voting patterns and floor coordination between the two rival parties in both houses of the US Congress on both laws which were passed in support of human rights of China’s two restive colonies Xinjiang and Tibet during peak months of Presidential election presented the other side of the American democracy.