Tucker Carlson Can't Believe The FBI Got All Worked Up Over A Measly Attempt To Kidnap A Governor
Robyn Pennacchia

THE WONKETTE

March 05, 2021 

Tucker Carlson's entire job, his entire purpose, is to scare white Republicans. He tells them Antifa and Black Lives Matter and sex-crazed pandas are coming for them, their precious Dr. Suess books and their very way of life, that they are constantly on the verge of being systemically oppressed by whichever group he is currently frightened of, that trans people are going to walk around public bathrooms naked, that little old ladies conspired to steal the election from poor Donald Trump by pretending to be their dead husbands, that lockdowns are coming for their sperms, that they are going to be cancel cultured just for saying extremely bigoted things, that Elmo is going to tell their white children that they are personally responsible for all that is bad in America, etc. etc. etc. We'd be here all day if I went on.

But, naturally, because Carlson is big on projecting, he did a whole segment last night on how actually it is the Left who are afraid of everything! Especially silly things like armed insurrections and kidnappings!

Transcript via Media Matters:

And a lot of liberals were certain that today — this day, March 4 — was the day the right wing revolution would finally begin. March 4, they believed, was something called "QAnon Inauguration Day."

What's "QAnon Inauguration Day"? We have no idea. We don't know anyone who does know. In fact, we'd bet money that not one Trump voter in a million had ever heard of it until this week when the hysteria emergence on the other channels started yapping about it on television.

They'd heard about it from Nancy Pelosi who told her bodyguards to write up a report on the threat of "QAnon Inauguration Day." So, that's what they did.

Here's the excerpt from the bulletin put out by the top minds at DHS and the FBI.

"An unidentified group of militia, violent extremists has discussed plans to take control of the U.S. Capitol on or about 4 March." Today.

Well, that sounds pretty scary. Another white supremacist insurrection? But, wait a second. Can we get some context — who exactly are these unidentified violent extremists?

So, as we know, Tucker Carlson does not believe in QAnon. This is not to say that he doesn't believe in what the QAnon people believe ... but that those people do not exist in the first place. There was never any person calling themselves Q and posting coded missives to 4chan, no throngs of Trump supporters hanging on their every word and devoting their lives to decoding said missives, believing that Donald Trump was on a secret mission to take down the Satanic pedophile cabals or hoping to get to see every Democrat and every celebrity in Hollywood hauled out of their homes, tried by military tribunals for all of their crimes, and then executed on live TV. It was all something people like me made up in order to make Trump supporters look crazy. Because, you know, that's a thing we have to put effort into.

For what it's worth, we actually do know what the deal was supposed to be with "QAnon Inauguration Day." Some QAnon people and some sovereign citizens had a crossover episode and came up with the theory that Trump was going to be inaugurated for a second term on March 4.

As I explained in February:
Many of them are still holding strong, mostly to the belief that Trump will be inaugurated on March 4th as the 19th REAL President of the United States, because they now think every president since Grant (including Trump, we guess) was illegitimate. It is some sovereign citizen crap where they think the US was made a corporation after that, and so therefore everything since then has been about the US as a corporation and not as a country. More than likely, they'll all be spelling their names in all caps and trying to access their strawman bank accounts any day now.

So far, they haven't been particularly clear on how that's gonna go — although many of them have been booking hotel rooms for March 4, hoping to be witnesses to this glorious event. So many, in fact, that the Trump hotel in DC has jacked up prices to $1745 a room. Because hey! If you can't profit off all of the people you've psychologically damaged for life, then what is the point of anything?

Yeah.

So, the last time a bunch of Trumpists planned a coup on the internet, they followed through with it. People died. Others were severely injured. Many will be going to prison for decades. And Fox News talking heads demanded to know "What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it?" — suggesting that because she had the same information everyone else had, that Trump supporters were planning "something" for January 6, that she irresponsibly just let the Capitol riots happen because she wanted Trump supporters to look bad. So this time, armed with exactly the same information that everyone else who reads the news has, Pelosi simply suggested that perhaps it ought to be taken seriously. Woah, if true.

The real kicker, however, comes at the end where Carlson LOLs at law enforcement having taken the plot by "that homeless guy" (about eight militia members with access to some pretty serious weaponry) to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer:
And is the threat they pose more or less dangerous, for instance, than the plot by that homeless guy to kidnap the Governor of Michigan? The plot the FBI foiled just in time before a platoon of rightwing vagrants could abduct Gretchen Whitmer in a shopping cart. We never really learned any details.

"We" actually did learn a lot of details, but it seems like the crack minds at "Tucker Carlson Tonight" who couldn't find the QAnon website also did not have the necessary Googling skills to figure that out.

The thing is, we actually have pretty good reason to be scared of rightwing extremism, because rightwing extremists kill people on a fairly regular basis. The Left, as desperately as Tucker Carlson may want to believe we do, does not. It is understandable that he may find that unfair, that he would prefer the FBI and everyone else pay no attention to the domestic terrorism behind the curtain, but given that rightwing extremists have killed over 330 people since September 11, 2001, (while leftwing groups have killed zero), we can't do that. Even if it really, really hurts Tucker Carlson's precious narrative.

[Media Matters]

THE WONKETTE

Globalink | US Expert on Surge of Anti-Asian Violence Amid Pandemic


People take photos during an event to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Feb. 12 in Chicago, the United States, Feb. 6, 2021. | Photo: Joel Lerner/Xinhua

Published 5 March 2021 

The coronavirus pandemic had been spreading in the United States for more than a year, causing not only a public health crisis but also a surge in violence and hate incidents against Asian Americans in the country

Globalink | Highest Military Expenditure in World, U.S. Turned It into a Sword

A U.S. military vehicle is seen passing through the Tal Tamr area in the countryside of Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria on Nov. 14, 2019. | Photo: Xinhua file photo

Published 5 March 2021

Which country has the highest military expenditure in the world? Unsurprisingly, it's the U.S.! According to a report issued by an independent Swedish organization, the U.S. spent as much as 732 billion dollars for military purposes in 2019. The real question is, was the money spent in the interest of a better world? Nah... The money has turned people's lives in many parts of the world into nightmares, if not hell.

SEE PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Food Waste Contributes To Climate Change: UN Report


The report warns that food waste, previously considered a problem of developed countries, now has become a global concern. | Photo: Twitter/ @CromwellPoly

Published 5 March 2021

The report points out that "on a global per capita-level, 121 kilograms of consumer-level food is wasted each year, with 74 kilograms of this happening in households." The study estimates that at least 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to throwing away food, which turns it into a critical environmental issue.

Over 931 million tonnes of food are wasted worldwide, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported on Tuesday.

The report points out that "on a global per capita-level, 121 kilograms of consumer-level food is wasted each year, with 74 kilograms of this happening in households." The study estimates that at least 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to throwing away food, which turns it into a critical environmental issue.





"Food waste is environmentally, economically, and morally scandalous. We must rethink the way we produce and consume," the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said via Twitter.

Moreover, the study highlights that 690 million people suffered hunger in 2019, and three billion people are currently unable to afford a healthy diet. The statistic is expected to worsen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, the report warns that food waste, previously considered a problem of developed countries, has become a global concern. "If we want to get serious about tackling climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, businesses, governments, and citizens around the world have to do their part to reduce food waste," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said.

DEMOCRAT 

Activists want to save voting rights bill by killing the filibuster


BY CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS AND ADAM BREWSTER
MARCH 5, 2021  / CBS NEWS

With voting rights legislation that passed the House this week marching toward a likely death in the Senate, activists are readying for a fight to save it: they're taking on the bill-slaying filibuster, the Senate rule requiring 60 votes to end debate on a measure. In an evenly split 50-50 Senate, it will always be a struggle to win over 10 senators from the other side.

"Those who won the election, who have the majority are going to be faced with a choice: do they protect voting rights or do they protect the filibuster rule?" said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy & senior adviser at Common Cause. "I don't think saying, 'Oh, but the filibuster,' is going to cut it."

The "For the People Act," known as HR1, is a broad bill that would create automatic, same-day, and online voter registration nationwide. It includes some measures that would require states to overhaul their registration systems. It would expand absentee voting, limit the states' ability to remove people from voter rolls, increase federal funds for election security and reform the redistricting process.

Democrats argue that efforts underway in Republican state legislatures to tighten voting laws in the wake of the 2020 election — along with the looming possibility that the conservative-heavy Supreme Court could weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act this summer — make federal legislation imperative.

"The major effort to change state laws to limit access to the ballot needs to be protected by legislation," says Robert Brandon, president of the Fair Elections Center. "Beyond that, there are probably some things the [Biden] administration can do, but it's really the law...that's why legislation like HR1 is so important."

Republicans unanimously oppose the measure, arguing that it amounts to a federal takeover of state-run elections. Opposition to HR1 is one issue uniting the GOP at this point, even as they disagree about how to move forward as a party in the post-Trump era. It was a key topic of conversation at CPAC last week, and moreover, former Vice President Mike Pence, who has taken pains to remain out of the fray, broke his silence by writing an op-ed urging his party to vote against the measure.

On Thursday, Pence cheered Republicans for sticking together in their opposition, tweeting: "Election Integrity is a National Imperative."

The legislation is unlikely to garner support from any Republicans, let alone the 10 needed to override a filibuster. And as other legislative debates have shown, the Democratic majority is fragile. A group of 20 U.S. senators have urged President Biden to take executive action. But even their prescriptions acknowledge that there isn't much he can do to beef up voting laws.

"The ability for the executive branch to act in a way through executive action is pretty limited," said David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. "If we want to see new policies regarding access to the ballot, election integrity, funding for elections and election security, that will likely have to come through legislation either at the federal level or like we're seeing in the states."

As for what Mr. Biden can do, the Brennan Center for Justice wrote in October 2020 that the president could improve cybersecurity and direct more federal agencies to offer voter registration. Spaulding said that the president could also provide more resources for the Justice Department to enforce the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights legislation. He applauded the White House for supporting the bill and said the administration needs to "really use the bully pulpit" to help pass legislation.

South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the House Democratic Whip and close ally of Biden, told CBS News that while he hasn't spoken with the president recently about issuing an order on voting rights, "I did say to him more than once that Abraham Lincoln freed slaves with an executive order. Harry Truman integrated armed services with an executive order, so Congress never passed a law to integrate the armed services. Never. So I just think that that is something he must keep in mind going forward."

He added, "If Congress refuses to erect the safeguards for voting rights, I just think that executive authority ought to be used to do what can be done."

The fate of HR1 in the Senate is a reminder of the limits of the Democrats' control of the upper chamber. "Democrats are not in charge. You've got these filibuster rules and the filibuster seems to be in charge," Clyburn said. "I don't believe we can afford for racial issues to be filibustered."

Clyburn is hoping the House can pass another piece of voting legislation, The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, around Labor Day. The measure, named for the late congressman and civil rights icon, would restore a key provision in the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013: it required states with a history of discrimination to seek federal approval to change election laws.

"Hopefully, the Senate will not filibuster that. If they do, there is going to be one hell of a price to be paid in next year's elections," Clyburn said.

In his eulogy for Lewis in July, former President Obama proposed abolishing the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation, calling it "a Jim Crow relic." But President Biden has been reluctant to support eliminating it. When asked Thursday about getting rid of the Senate rule in order to pass HR1 and other measures, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president's "policy has not changed on that issue" and that he wants to find a path forward to work with both parties.

It's also true that filibuster reform faces its own uphill battle in the Senate within the Democratic caucus. Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Rules Committee which has oversight over federal elections, supports reforming the filibuster to pass HR1. But West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin on Monday said he's not changing his opposition to killing the filibuster. Without his support, Democrats won't be able to muster the simple majority they would need to eliminate it.

"Never!" Manchin told reporters who asked if he'd change his mind if the Senate was holding up Democratic legislation. "Jesus Christ, what don't you understand about 'never'?"

First published on March 5, 2021

 

America's Right To Vote 

LeBron James' More Than a Vote launches campaign defending voting rights

Proposals to restrict voting gain traction in Republican states

Dominion Voting Systems sues MyPillow CEO for $1.3 billion

CHUMP CHANGE 

Texas grid operator made $16 bln price error during winter storm, watchdog says

Kanishka Singh

March 6, 2021
REUTERS

An electrical substation is seen after winter weather caused electricity

 blackouts in Houston, Texas, U.S. February 20, 2021. 

/Go Nakamura//File Photo

Power grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) made a $16 billion pricing error in the week of the winter storm that led to power outages across Texas, Potomac Economics, which monitors the state’s power market, said.

ERCOT kept market prices for power too high for more than a day after widespread outages ended late on Feb. 17, Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, said in a filing.

"In order to comply with the Commission Order, the pricing intervention that raised prices to VOLL (value of lost load) should have ended immediately at that time (late on Feb. 17)," Potomac Economics said.

"However, ERCOT continued to hold prices at VOLL by inflating the Real-Time On-Line Reliability Deployment Price Adder for an additional 32 hours through the morning of February 19," it said, adding the decision resulted in $16 billion in additional costs to ERCOT's markets.

The findings of Potomac Economics were reported first Thursday by Bloomberg and the Texas Tribune.

The Public Utility Commission, the Texas power regulator, on Friday unanimously vetoed a request to cut about $16 billion from state power charges during the final day of the February cold snap, saying even a partial repricing could have unintended effects.

Separately, rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded ERCOT by one notch to A1 from Aa3 and revised the grid operator's credit outlook to "negative" on Thursday.

On Wednesday, ERCOT’s board ousted chief executive Bill Magness, as the fallout continued from a blackout that left residents without heat, power or water for days.

The mid-February storm temporarily knocked out up to half the state’s generating plants, triggering outages that killed dozens and pushed power prices to 10 times the normal rate.

Many of ERCOT's directors have resigned in the last week, and the head of the Public Utility Commission resigned on Monday.

Technology

More than 20,000 U.S. Organizations compromised through Microsoft flaw -source

(REUTERS) 3/6/2021 

More than 20,000 U.S. organizations have been compromised through a back door installed via recently patched flaws in Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) email software, a person familiar with the U.S. government’s response said on Friday.

The hacking has already reached more places than all of the tainted code downloaded from SolarWinds Corp (SWI.N), the company at the heart of another massive hacking spree uncovered in December.

The latest hack has left channels for remote access spread among credit unions, town governments and small businesses, according to records from the U.S. investigation.

Tens of thousands of organizations in Asia and Europe are also affected, the records show.

The hacks are continuing despite emergency patches issued by Microsoft on Tuesday.

Microsoft, which had initially said the hacks consisted of "limited and targeted attacks," declined to comment on the scale of the problem on Friday but said it was working with government agencies and security companies to provide help to customers.

It added, "impacted customers should contact our support teams for additional help and resources."

One scan of connected devices showed only 10% of those vulnerable had installed the patches by Friday, though the number was rising.

Because installing the patch does not get rid of the back doors, U.S. officials are racing to figure out how to notify all the victims and guide them in their hunt.

All of those affected appear to run Web versions of email client Outlook and host them on their own machines, instead of relying on cloud providers. That may have spared many of the biggest companies and federal government agencies, the records suggest.

A Microsoft logo is seen on an office building in New York City on July 28, 2015. 

REUTERS/Mike Segar

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier on Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the vulnerabilities found in Microsoft's widely used Exchange servers were "significant," and "could have far-reaching impacts."

"We're concerned that there are a large number of victims," Psaki said.

Microsoft and the person working with the U.S. response blamed the initial wave of attacks on a Chinese government-backed actor. A Chinese government spokesman said the country was not behind the intrusions.

What started as a controlled attack late last year against a few classic espionage targets grew last month to a widespread campaign. Security officials said that implied that unless China had changed tactics, a second group may have become involved.

More attacks are expected from other hackers as the code used to take control of the mail servers spreads.

The hackers have only used the back doors to re-enter and move around the infected networks in a small percentage of cases, probably less than 1 in 10, the person working with the government said.

"A couple hundred guys are exploiting them as fast as they can," stealing data and installing other ways to return later, he said.

The initial avenue of attack was discovered by prominent Taiwanese cyber researcher Cheng-Da Tsai, who said he reported the flaw to Microsoft in January. He said in a blog post that he was investigating whether the information leaked.

He did not respond to requests for further comment.

Hong Kong electoral reforms prevent "dictatorship of the majority", says pro-Beijing lawmaker

NOT THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PARTY

Yew Lun Tian

March 6, 2021

Beijing's proposal for Hong Kong electoral reforms could prevent "dictatorship of the majority", a pro-Beijing Hong Kong lawmaker said, calling people who want one man one vote "politically immature".

China's rubber-stamp parliament is deliberating plans to overhaul Hong Kong's electoral system to ensure Beijing loyalists are in charge. read more

Hong Kong representatives to China's parliament, in Beijing this week for an annual session, say the changes are necessary and desirable.

DEATH TO BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY!

"Many people in Hong Kong are politically immature," Martin Liao, who sits on both Hong Kong's and China's legislature, told Reuters by phone on Saturday.

"They think 'one man one vote' is the best thing, and they take advice from countries that don't even have 'one man one vote'," he said, referring to how neither the U.S. President nor the British Prime Minister is elected by a popular vote.

The proposed changes, which include expanding the city's Election Committee from 1,200 to 1,500 people, and expanding the city's Legislative Council from 70 to 90 seats, will make Hong Kong's electoral system more "representative", and less prone to "dictatorship of the majority", Liao argued.

Critics however worry that the expansion means that Beijing would be able to stack the two bodies with even more pro-establishment members, to gain the numerical superiority needed to influence important decisions such as the election of the city's Chief Executive, leaving Hong Kong voters with less direct say in who they want to lead them.

"If you are not a patriot, it's going to be hard for you to get in," Tam Yiu-chung, the only Hong Kong representative in China's top lawmaking body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, told Reuters by phone on Saturday.

OTTO RUHLE

The Struggle Against Fascism Begins with the Struggle Against Bolshevism, 1939

From the Bourgeois to the Proletarian Revolution, 1924

The Revolution Is Not A Party Affair, 1920

The following issues have been at the centre of the struggle of Left Communism:

The Role of the Party in the Revolution

In Pannekoek's Party and Class he characterises a party as “an organization that aims to lead and control the working class”; his General Remarks on the Question of Organization look to the future for new forms of organisation suitable for the emancipation of the working class.

Paul Mattick's The Masses and the Vanguard concludes:

“The militants who call themselves the “Vanguard” have today the same weakness that characterizes the masses at present. They still believe that the unions or the one or the other party must direct the class struggle, though with revolutionary methods. But if it be true that decisive struggles are nearing, it is not enough to state that the labour leaders are traitors. It is necessary, especially for today, to formulate a plan for the formation of the class front and the forms of its organizations. To this end the control of parties and unions must be unconditionally fought. This is the crucial point in the struggle for power.”

and his Council Communism proposes Councils (a.k.a. soviets) as a way forward; his 1967 Workers Control expresses the idea from another standpoint.

Bordiga also wrote on these themes: See The System of Communist Representation, Is this the Time to form “Soviets”?, Towards the Establishment of Workers' Councils in Italy, Party and Class (1919-1921).

The issue was also debated at the Second Congress of the Comintern:

• The role of the Communist Party in the proletarian revolution
• Discussion on the role of the Communist Party continued
• Theses on the role of the Communist Party continued
• The Formation of Soviets

Trotsky's Communism and Syndicalism puts the Bolshevik position on the role of the party in the Revolution; Paul Matick's The Mass and the Vanguard makes the opposite case very powerfully.

Myanmar forces fire tear gas, stun grenades on protest as UN envoy calls for action

Protesters cover with makeshift shields during an anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

Myanmar security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a protest in Yangon on Saturday, just hours after a United Nations special envoy called on the Security Council to take action against the ruling junta for the killings of protesters.

The Southeast Asian country has been plunged in turmoil since the military overthrew and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, with daily protests and strikes that have choked business and paralysed administration.

Sporadic protests were staged across Myanmar on Saturday and local media reported that police fired tear gas shells and stun grenades to break up a protest in the Sanchaung district of Yangon, the country's biggest city. There were no reports of casualties.

More than 50 protesters have been killed since the coup, according to the United Nations - at least 38 on Wednesday alone. Protesters demand the release of Suu Kyi and the respect of November's election, which her party won in landslide, but which the army rejected.

"How much more can we allow the Myanmar military to get away with?" Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener told a closed meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Friday, according to a copy of her remarks reviewed by Reuters.

"It is critical that this council is resolute and coherent in putting the security forces on notice and standing with the people of Myanmar firmly, in support of the clear November election results."

A junta spokesman did not answer calls requesting comment.

The army says it has been restrained in stopping the protests, but has said it will not allow them to threaten stability.

Several hundred people gathered in Sydney on Saturday to protest against the coup, singing and holding up three fingers, a salute that has come to symbolise solidarity and resistance across Myanmar.

"We would like to urge the Australian government to work closely with the U.S., UK and EU governments and take strong action against these Myanmar military dictators," said protest organiser Thein Moe Win. read more

In Myanmar's southern town of Dawei, protesters chanted "Democracy is our cause" and "The revolution must prevail".

People have taken to Myanmar's streets in their hundreds of thousands at times, vowing to continue action in a country that spent nearly half a century under military rule until democratic reforms in 2011 that were cut short by the coup.

"Political hope has begun to shine. We can't lose the momentum of the revolution," one protest leader, Ei Thinzar Maung, wrote on Facebook. "Those who dare to fight will have victory. We deserve victory."


GRAVE DISTURBED

On Friday night, authorities disturbed the grave of a 19-year-old woman who became an icon of the protest movement after she was shot dead wearing a T-shirt that read "Everything will be OK", a witness and local media said.

One witness said the body of Kyal Sin, widely known as Angel, was removed on Friday, examined and returned, before the tomb was re-sealed in Myanmar's second city of Mandalay. The independent Mizzima news service also reported the event.

A military spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. Reuters was unable to contact police for comment. read more

The killing of protesters has drawn international outrage.

"Use of violence against the people of Myanmar must stop now," South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a tweet, calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees and for the restoration of democracy.

The United States and some other Western countries have imposed limited sanctions on the junta and the independent U.N. human rights investigator on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, has called for a global arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions.

The army took power over allegations of fraud in last year's election which had been dismissed by the electoral commission. It has promised to hold a new election at an unspecified date.

That plan is rejected by protesters and by a group representing lawmakers elected at the last election that has begun to issue statements in the name of a rival civilian administration.

On Friday, it listed four demands - the end of the junta, the release of the detainees, democracy and the abolition of the 2008 constitution which left significant political representation and control in the hands of the military.

A civil disobedience campaign of strikes running parallel with the protests has been supported by many government workers including a trickle of policemen.

Authorities in Myanmar have asked India to return eight policemen who sought refuge across the border to avoid taking orders from the junta, an official in northeast India said on Saturday.

India's foreign ministry responded to a request for comment by referring to a statement given at a media briefing on Friday which said the ministry was still "ascertaining the facts." read more




Myanmar protesters string up women's clothes for protection

Protesters in Myanmar have taken to stringing up women's clothing on lines across the streets to slow down police and soldiers because walking beneath them is traditionally considered bad luck for men.

The wraparound cloths, known as longyi, are hung on washing lines. Sometimes women's underwear is used too.

"The reason why we hang the longyis across the streets is that we have the traditional belief that if we pass underneath a longyi, we might lose our luck," said one 20-year-old protester who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.

"The younger generation nowadays doesn't believe it anymore, but the soldiers still do, and it's their weakness. So, we might gain more time to run if they come towards us in case of emergency."

Videos on social media have shown police taking down the lines of clothes before crossing them. Traditionally walking beneath items used to cover women's private parts is not only bad luck, but emasculating for men.

Reuters was unable to contact police for comment.

For more than one month, protesters have demonstrated across Myanmar against the Feb. 1 military coup and the arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of others. More than 50 protesters have been killed by security forces.

The lines of clothing do not stop police using teargas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. Some protesters have also been killed by live bullets. The army has said it has responded to the protests with restraint.

The army seized power alleging fraud in a November election won by Suu Kyi's party. The electoral commission had dismissed its allegations.

U.S. Senate backs bill to clamp down on China-funded Confucius Institutes

BIG IN CANADA TOO, INTEGRATED INTO EDMONTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS, UNIV OF ALBERTA, AND IN OTHER PROVINCES

By Reuters Staff

FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags flutter outside the building of an American company in Beijing, China January 21, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill to tighten controls on Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses known as Confucius Institutes, the latest in a series of efforts to crack down on the centers lawmakers accuse of being propaganda tools.

The measure passed the Senate by unanimous consent - without a rollcall vote - on Thursday. There was no immediate word on Friday on when it might be taken up in the House of Representatives

The measure would cut back on federal funding for any college or university with a Confucius Institute on its campus, unless the institute ensured that the college or university had full authority over it, including what grants it makes and who works there.

To become law, the measure must pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden.

U.S. officials have been pushing to close Confucius Institutes for some time. Former Republican Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in September he hoped all of them would be shut down by the end of 2020.

William Burns, nominated by Biden, a Democrat, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said last week that if he were a U.S. college or university president, he would recommend shutting down Confucius Institutes.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bill Berkrot