Month: April 2022

On Tuesday, the UK threatened to ban Twitter just hours after the EU threatened to ban Twitter entirely if Musk allows free speech on his newly acquired social media platform. The Biden administration has meanwhile threatened to use Section 230 which holds social media companies “accountable” for the “harms they cause”.

CNBC reported that Britain’s proposed Online Safety Bill would even target content that is “legal but harmful,” a problematic definition that has attracted criticism from many in the tech industry. The legislation has not yet been approved but is expected to become law later this year.

“Twitter and all social media platforms must protect their users from harm on their sites,” a UK government spokesperson told CNBC. “We are introducing new online safety laws to safeguard children, prevent abusive behaviour and protect free speech. All tech firms with users in the UK will need to comply with the new laws or face hefty fines and having their sites blocked,” the spokesperson added.

Twitter could face penalties of up to 10 percent of its annual income.

Musk mocked the virulent censorship envisaged by the UK and EU in a tweet.

The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022

“By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people,” Musk noted in a follow-up tweet.

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/04/27/uk-eu-and-biden-administration-threaten-to-ban-twitter/

Profanation odieuse par les Loups Gris du mémorial arménien aux victimes du génocide. Une première en 27 ans d’existence de cette stèle. Les coupables doivent être retrouvés et sanctionnés. pic.twitter.com/TN9M1K2MrT

— Georges Dallemagne (@G_Dallemagne) April 26, 2022

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/04/26/ixelles-belgique-profanation-du-memorial-aux-victimes-du-genocide-armenien/

by Giulio Meotti

“60 Christians killed in Congo”, headlines the intelligence siteSite. During those very same hours, Italy’s Foreign Minister Di Maio and that of Ecological Transition Cingolani landed in Congo in search of hydrocarbons. Italy needs to diversify its gas imports in order to become independent from Russia, from which it purchases 40 percent of its needs each year.

On 6 March Di Maio was in Qatar.

On 2 April Di Maio was in Azerbaijan.

On 12 April, Italy’s PM Draghi and Di Maio were in Algiers, a country that, the last time it held free elections, in 1992, the fundamentalists of the Islamic Salvation Front won, the army managed a coup and there was a civil war that left 100,000 dead.

Each of these countries is engaged in wars or has dramatic situations regarding minorities, but the Italian government’s strategy is to dilute the risk and replace Putin with a handful of lesser autocrats.

According to Italy’s energy supply plans, Azerbaijan and Algeria will become decisive in the future for more than 60 percent of all its gas.

Perhaps the war in Ukraine marks, consciously or not, the birth of a new Europe under the pressure of energy. Having broken off relations with Russia, Italy and the rest of Europe are completely surrendering to the Islamic world for sources of supply.

“Why Algeria scares Europe”, headlines Le Figaro. “On the seafront of the bay of Algiers, along the ring road that connects the airport to the capital, designed by German architects and built by a thousand Chinese workers, on a space equivalent to the Vatican area, costing 4 billion euros, stands the Great Mosque, the third largest religious building in the world after Mecca and Medina. It can accommodate 120,000 faithful. It also has the tallest minaret in the world”.

Many companies that participated in the construction of the Great Mosque of Algiers are Italian. Algeria has power from its immense energy riches (even France in recent days has signed an agreement with Algeria) and one of the most dramatic demographic growths in the world. It will go from the current 42 to 72 million inhabitants in 2050 (all immigration that will take the road to Europe). While many countries, including in the Arab world, have seen their birth rates go down, Algeria has taken the opposite path. Its fertility rate has jumped from 2.4 children in 2000 to 3 today, with over 1 million births a year.

But it is not satisfied with building mega mosques in the Maghreb. In Tours, France, these days, the news tells of the construction of a new Mega Mosque financed by Algeria (Algeria is the third financier of mosques in France and also controls the Great Mosque of Paris).

A film we have already seen …

In the midst of the 1973 oil crisis, Belgium went to look for supplies to Saudi Arabia. Muslims in Belgium were in their first generation, they worked in the mines and wanted spaces to pray. The Belgian king Baudouin, in exchange for oil contracts, offered the Saudis the Pavillon du Cinquantenaire in Brussels with a 99-year lease. The building stands two hundred meters from the Schuman Palace and the headquarters of the European Union. Saudi Arabia transformed it into the Grand Mosque of Brussels, which has since been the de facto Islamic authority of Belgium.

As Alain Chouet, the former number two of DGSE, the French counterintelligence service, recounted in his newly published book “Sept pas vers l’enfer”, “in exchange, the Saudi king asked the king for Belgium to grant Saudis the monopoly to represent Islam and the appointment of imams in Belgium”. Then the Belgian government officially recognized the Islamic religion. It was the first European country. And then there was the inclusion of the Islamic religion in the school curriculum.

Eurabia was born in those years, the years of an energy crisis, of European weakness and the great rise of Islam. Between the Turkish-Azerbaijani power in the east and the Arab power in the south, is Eurabia 2.0 now being born?

In this case, we have decided to accelerate the prophecy of the greatest orientalist of the twentieth century, Bernard Lewis, a Jew who in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt in 2004 said: “In the future the protagonists will be China, India and Russia, while Europe will be part of the Maghreb. Europe will be Islamic at the end of the century … “.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326446

The leader of the Flemish social democratic party Vooruit in Belgium, Conner Rousseau, came under strong criticism on Tuesday, even from his own camp, for what he perceived as derogatory and xenophobic remarks about diversity in Brussels and especially in Molenbeek. The chairman of Vooruit said in an interview with the Flemish weekly Humo that he felt “not in Belgium” when “driving across Molenbeek”. Conner Rousseau’s remarks about Molenbeek were heavily criticised: “Unbearable, stigmatising and xenophobic”.

“But most of these people were born here. The most important thing is that they speak our language and work. In Brussels, because of the shortage of teachers, there are people who teach in Arabic in class because they don’t speak French. That is unacceptable. And what is the Flemish government doing? It is increasing the cost of language courses to reduce the waiting lists,” he said.

In an interview on Tuesday morning (De Ochtend, Radio 1), he said that he was actually arguing for a good social mix. In his view, in some regions almost only Arabic is spoken and children are therefore not encouraged to learn Dutch or French, which undermines their chances at school and in the labour market. […]

There was also great indignation among francophone socialists. “These remarks are intolerable, stigmatising and xenophobic. Brussels is a cosmopolitan region with neighbourhoods that have a great diversity of population. They deserve better than disrespect worthy of a pub debate. It is pathetic and unbearable,” reacted Brussels SP leader Ahmed Laaouej.

N-VA MP Theo Francken also reacted: “The Socialists have voted against tightening migration policy for years. They only conquered liberal Brussels thanks to mass immigration, which they defended so much and still defend. The PS Moureaux family has ruled Molenbeek for decades, don’t make me laugh,” he tweeted.

For Ecolo co-chair Rajae Maouane, Conner Rousseau’s comments are “intolerable”. “They show a great misjudgement of Brussels. The people of Brussels deserve respect”.[…]Le Soir

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/04/26/quand-je-roule-dans-molenbeek-moi-non-plus-je-ne-me-sens-pas-en-belgique-le-president-dun-parti-social-democrate-neerlandophone-sous-le-feu-des-critiques/

The train conductor called the federal police in Selb on Friday evening: an obviously drunk passenger sexually harassed several women on train OPB 79742 from Regensburg to Marktredwitz between 6.57 pm and 8.40 pm. This was reported by the officers on this Monday.

After the train had reached Marktredwitz station, a federal police patrol tried to check the young suspicious man. However, he immediately behaved extremely aggressively. The officers asked the man to put down his beer bottle. However, instead of complying with the request, he pushed one of the police officers. He kept the bottle in his hands in a “threatening posture”, according to the police report.

The officers had to bring the 21-year-old to the ground and tie him up. In the process, he fought back violently and bit into the protective gloves of one of the police officers. The officer was not injured. With the support of an additional patrol, the police finally managed to bring the man, who was constantly spitting, to the Federal Police in Selb in a squad car.

Further investigations revealed that the man, who is of Ethiopian origin, had apparently held one of the women and only let her go when the train attendant intervened. In the process, he threatened the conductor with his beer bottle and also verbally abused him. The man was finally taken to a district hospital.

The Selb police are now investigating the 21-year-old for sexual harassment, assault, battery and resisting law enforcement officers. The officers are asking for further witnesses. The other women who were sexually harassed on the train should also call the Selb Federal Police Station.

https://www.frankenpost.de/inhalt.marktredwitz-im-zug-mann-belaestigt-frauen-sexuell.f608f03c-a49b-4c64-9831-9efb7ac003cc.html

In recent weeks the attention of Italian TV talk shows has focused on the Russian attack on the Azovstal steel plant, which is located near the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The huge industrial plant has become one of the symbols of a growing Ukrainian dilemma: Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers are huddled in the underground tunnels of the plant.

Italian television aired a very detailed rendering of an alleged underground bunker of the Azovstal steel plant, showing five floors, a research laboratory, a vegetable garden and a dormitory. This scoop was surprising, since no independent witnesses had access to the site after 24 February 2022 (the first day of the conflict). Moreover, the existence of such a particular structure with a “garden” connected to the steelworks site has never been confirmed.

The reason for this is that the image does not show a bunker in Ukraine, but is one of the illustrations created for a board game that never went into production.

This fact did not stop the top national TV programme to broadcast the image on Controcorrente as the bunker mentioned frequently in the battle around Azovstal on 20 April 2022.

Other shows repeat the fake diagram

The next day it was the turn of the La7 programme Piazzapulita, which in the early evening of 21 April 2022 aired the same image, presenting it as “a section of the Azovstal steelworks” and citing as its source the “Russian political scientist”.

On the same day, the image was also broadcast on Rai 1 by Porta a Porta. According to Bruno Vespa, the image is “a graphic from the Messaggero” showing a real “city” under the Azovstal steel plant.

The image was actually made in 2015 to illustrate the “underworld” of a board game called Blackout, a project that was never realised due to the failure of the crowdfunding campaign that was supposed to raise the funds for its realisation. The author, an American named Richard T. Broadwater, managed to raise only 14 000 of the approximately 50 000 euros needed.

The game was to be set in a post-apocalyptic world infested with “parasitic creatures” that force the human population to live in bunkers (like the one in the illustration), except for a team of mercenaries able to deal with the creatures on the surface.

The prototype of pre-war metallurgical plants in the former USSR is in fact a plant project in the city of Gary in the US, with a typical steel plant design. In addition to the Gary plan, the Russians added a storm drain and large chimneys, because serious gas cleaning units were not used at that time, but it was necessary to remove flue gases with a high content of fine dust. It was also equipped with a civil defense system in Mariupol.

High-ranking foreign mercenaries trapped in the plant

Russia has allowed the mercenaries trapped in the plant to conduct their communications in order to intercept their interactions with Kiev. The Ukrainian military who remained at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol have been asking for permission to be evacuated to Turkey, according to DNR head Pushilin.

As a result of the request, in Mariupol, a truce was declared for several hours on Monday. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation waited at a safe distance from the metallurgical plant and organized a humanitarian corridor for the exit of workers, women and children, but none of the civilians ever came out, despite the fact that the Azov militants allegedly “worry” about their fate underground. The humanitarian corridor therefore did not work as expected.

Meanwhile, the new mayor of Mariupol announced that the Azovstal plant would not be restored, while the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and Azovmash would be.

Situation underground is critical

The commander of the fighters trapped underground, pleaded to the world to save them. Serhiy Volyn reported on the critical situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Nazis at the plant.

There are a lot of wounded, and every day new deaths are recorded. The situation is deteriorating, and they are experiencing problems with ammunition, medicines, food.

The brigade commander of the 36th brigade refused to blame President Putin and generally recognized that the situation was extremely critical and it was no longer possible to solve it by military means.

EXCLUSIVE: #Macron has abandoned at least 50 French officers to death in #Mariupol. There are French military & intelligence officers in #Azovstal Factory who are there for training Ukrainian and neo-Nazi fighters. Macron forbid them to disclose or surrender before the elections. pic.twitter.com/IHhG9lpXiP

— Işıkgün Akfırat (@iakfirat) April 22, 2022

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/04/26/italian-talk-shows-detail-azovstal-nazi-bunkers-from-a-game/

By Mark C. Ross

One thing the left is particularly good at is euphemism.  Stalin made his bones as a Bolshevik thug by robbing banks in order to fund the revolution; they called it expropriation.  Now the obviously desperate Progressives are pounding the table, demanding that we masses be protected from the scourge of misinformation that’s poisoning our minds.  Only public statements that are approved for their content by progressive partisans should be allowed to have influence.  Hmmm…sounds like censorship to me.

This romance with censorship is nothing new.  Back in the 1970s, after an unusually contentious local election, then–San Francisco supervisor Dianne Feinstein proposed an ordinance that would make it a crime to include a false statement in a political speech.  Although I was still a registered Democrat at that time, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of Star Chamber would have to be empaneled to rule on every single political utterance.

As this is being written, Elon Musk’s total takeover of Twitter has just been made official.  It’s within the realm of possibility that he could take a page from George Orwell and rename it The Ministry of Truth.  Just kidding.

An oblique form of censorship popular among leftists is to challenge the pedigreeof an information source.  The Southern Poverty Law Center calls American Thinker “a not so thoughtful far-right online publication.”  I received this statement in lieu of an actual response to specific “facts” and conclusions made in one of my blog posts.  Why bother presenting a plausible contradiction when you can just impugn the source?  Lazy minds, don’t you know.

Lurking below all of this is leftists’ palpable lack of desire to defend their opinions.  As Ayn Rand’s fictional John Galt stated in his laying out of Objectivism, mystical ideas are the enemy of civilization.  Feelings are supposed to have more weight than logic.  Take climate worship, for example.  There are forces that we will never understand…that are conspiring to destroy our world…unless we destroy them first by strangling the economic basis for modern life.

Standing in the way of this impending disaster is that pesky thing called common sense.  Humanity didn’t make it this far by not being able to make good decisions.  Adversity may not be pleasant, but it can be instructive.  Add to this the modern facility for the transmission of information.  It started with cheap paper and web printing, then radio, and then TV.  Now there are the internet, cell phones, and satellite coverage.  Bottom line: It’s virtually impossible to monopolize information.  Hence the panicked demand for what really amounts to censorship from those who’ve lost their monopoly. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/hypocritical_leftists_should_stop_carrying_on_about_misinformation.html