James Fitzgerald

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Brazilian lawmakers are debating a bill that would expand the definition of terrorism to include the activities of organised crime.
Piece by Dr James Fitzgerald @jamesfitz2.bsky.social, Associate Professor of Security Studies at DCU, for @uk.theconversation.com.
Read here: launch.dcu.ie/3GbJdIu

Brazil’s dangerous flirtation with counterterrorism Brazilian lawmakers are debating a bill that would expand the definition of terrorism to include the activities of organised crime.

My third of three pieces on the potential (re-)classification of organised crime as terrorism in Brazil.

Published today in @theconversation.com @ufrjoficial.bsky.social

theconversation.com/brazils-dang...

Netanyahu has spent the better part of two decades trying to strong arm the United States into an unprovoked war against Iran and finally found a president stupid enough to do it for him. Unbelievable.

It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this

"No Kings Day" protests turn out millions Our unofficial estimate is that around 4 million people attended a protest event yesterday. Anti-Trump resistance is outpacing 2017.

Based on crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don't have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday. That's nearly 2% of the U.S. pop!

Mobilized anti-Trump resistance is exceeding 2017 levels

Trump's Military Birthday Parade Was a Gross Failure Trump got the expensive military parade he wanted on his birthday, courtesy of Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and American taxpayers.

it is Illegal to not enjoy this. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

I’m published today in @folha.com, Brazil’s paper of record.

I argue against the motion that organised crime in Brazil be re-classified as ‘terrorism’.

In the other ‘corner’, Cláudio Castro, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, argues for the motion.

This @willsommer.bsky.social piece, on MAGA influencers embedding with law enforcement to capture cruel images of migrants for their social media followings, really captures what I'm talking about in my piece below on MAGA's deep structural problem here.

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-viciou...

Brasil: O perigoso projeto “contraterrorista” | Outras Palavras Congresso debate proposta que equipara ação de grupos como o PCC a “terror”. É demagógica e ameaçadora. Ao dotar o Estado de carta-branca para perseguir e punir, ameaça a democracia, sob pretexto de e...

My piece “Brazil’s Precarious Counterterrorism Project” is published today, in Português, in Outras Palavras (Other Words), as part of ongoing collaboration with NetLab, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

outraspalavras.net/direita-assa...

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

75% of American researchers & scientists are considering leaving the US
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Looking forward to presenting at this “International Workshop on Technology Justice For/From the Global South” tomorrow, at PUC-Minas, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Will speak about genealogies of (critical) terrorism studies and how it intersects with current perspectives in disinformation studies.

The extraction ideology: Brazilian pro-agribusiness propaganda in times of climate emergency Almost a century since the birth of modern Propaganda Studies, familiar dynamics continue to drive the literature. With a majority of scholarship emanating from the Global North, localized and cult...

Latest article with NetLab, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, w/Rose Marie Santini and Débora Salles.

The Extraction Ideology: Pro-agribusiness propaganda in times of climate emergency.

@dublincityuni.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Jair Bolsonaro Ordered to Face Trial in Brazil for Attempting a Coup Brazil’s top court ruled that the former president will be tried over his role in a vast plot to cling to power after his 2022 election loss.

Ordem e progresso 🇧🇷

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/w...

While Grok holds only a small market share compared to ChatGPT’s 62.5% dominance, access to vast government databases could provide a crucial competitive advantage.

Remember our conversation in 2016?

Data has become the oil of the 21st century, and Elon Musk’s pursuit of IRS taxpayer data represents a modern version of industrial monopoly building

Old friend just laid off by USDA, 1 mos short of his probationary period as senior researcher. Brilliant person who left a tenured faculty position several yrs ago to join USDA. Bright early-career researchers also being laid off. USDA is terminating a generation of highly-qualified scientists.

This is one gigantic five alarm fire.

Mind boggling when you see the entire confirmed list of agencies with mass firing of probationary employees, :

What’s not a “journey” these days.

Iconic mandatory cyber security journey vibes.

Opinion | Look Past Elon Musk’s Chaos. There’s Something More Sinister at Work. Everything is content.

The best piece on Musk & DOGE that I’ve yet read.

Finally, someone zones in on the video game vernacular that shapes so much of his (pathetic) behaviour and the juvenile frames by which his acts of destruction are carried out.

There is no reset button.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/o...

Twitter exchange in which a user makes fun of Musk for not understanding how SQL works and falsely claiming the government doesn't use SQL

not a new observation but Elon Musk genuinely isn't very bright, genuinely has no idea how most things work, and his entire supergenius engineer persona is a tech press-enabled mythology (they've never been held accountable for)

Free speech, fact checking, and the right to accurate information True to his campaign promises, on 20 January 2025, US President Donald Trump signed a broad range of Executive Orders, the scope of which ranged from renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” t...

My latest column just appeared in Science, entitled "Free speech, fact-checking, and the right to accurate information”. (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) I use one of President Trump’s first executive orders to unpack the terrain between misinformation and claims to free speech 1/n

Elon Musk: "It's more than just USAID, but... yes" Mike Benz: "I've been telling you guys forever that you've been living your whole in a carefully constructed USAID Truman Show, where none of the institutions you meet -- from the media, to public health, to universities, to NGOs, to terrorists -- are the institutions you think they are."

"Do online conspiracy theories have any impact? Do disinformation campaigns work?"

Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.

I read this Thiel article and…these incoherent conspiratorial ramblings would not pass muster in an undergraduate classroom.

Tech Bro Power Play: Zuckerberg vs. Global Tech Justice | TechPolicy.Press Tuesday's announcement signaled a new alliance between Silicon Valley and Washington against regulation and tech justice, write Tom Divon and Jonathan Corpus Ong.

techpolicy.press/tech-bro-pow...

Poynter calls bullshit on Zuckerberg’s “censorship” claims, explaining that fact-checking is speech, not censorship.

Announcing Just Security’s Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative Introducing Just Security's new initiative on the challenges and opportunities presented by transformative technologies.

Thrilled to announce today @briannarosen.bsky.social as inaugural director of @justsecurity.org's new Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative!

We look forward to partnering with @blavatnikschool.bsky.social (@ox.ac.uk).

Stay tuned: www.justsecurity.org/106105/annou...

What’s Behind Meta’s Makeover Ahead of Trump’s Second Term? (Gift Article) Mark Zuckerberg is positioning his company for a second Trump term — and revealing the hollow identity at its core.

Roose nails this. Knows his stuff and delivers a well-written, piercing critique of the politics of Zuckerberg and Meta. Pretty essential reading, IMO.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/t...