Society's ChildS

Yellow Vest

Swiss to vote in referendum to repeal lockdown restrictions, 55% concerned over loss of freedoms

Sam Jones
Financial Times
Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:00 UTC
switzerland mask lockdown
© Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty ImagesA poll found that 55 per cent of Swiss were concerned about their individual freedoms being restricted by government measures imposed to tackle rising infections
Swiss campaigners have triggered a referendum to strip the government of new legal powers to impose lockdowns and curtail public life as the country battles the pandemic.

Campaign group Friends of the Constitution on Wednesday handed in a petition of 86,000 signatures collected over the past three months โ€” well in excess of the 50,000 required โ€” to formally initiate a nationwide vote to repeal the 2020 Covid-19 Act under Switzerland's highly devolved democratic system.

The outcome will be legally binding, with a vote scheduled for as early as June. While the pandemic has exposed social and political fractures across Europe over the rights of citizens, in Switzerland โ€” where individuals' rights are often treated as culturally sacrosanct and government powers are sharply proscribed by law โ€” the strains have become particularly evident.

Comment: Given the choice, it's likely a significant majority of citizens in many countries suffering the totalitarian lockdowns would choose to take their power back:

Read More...
Arrow Up

Andrew Yang kicks off NYC mayoral bid, calls for universal basic income

Adam Slaw
Fox News
Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00 UTC
Yang
© Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA2.0Andrew Yang
Former 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang on Thursday launched his New York City mayoral campaign -- hoping to replace outgoing Bill de Blasio with an audacious pitch for a universal basic income as a headline policy.

"I'm running for mayor for a very simple reason -- I see a crisis and believe I can help," he said, citing the COVID crisis as well as high unemployment in the Big Apple.

Yang spoke in Morningside Heights on the Upper West Side of Manhattan after announcing his campaign on Wednesday evening.
"We need bold ideas and fresh ideas to revive our city. We need to look forward and adapt to economic challenges of today and the future. We also need a city government focused on competence and delivering for our people every day."
He called on the city to move away from political blame games: "When in reality, the people have been losing and it is tearing our city apart." Yang could stake out a relatively moderate candidacy in a field of left-wing Democratic hopefuls. He described his platform as "a positive vision for New York City and a rational, progressive plan to implement it and make it a reality."

Comment: Some suggest Andrew Yang is floating feel-good messages that have little chance of implementation:


Read More...
Arrow Down

'Proving my point': Ben Shapiro argues against Dem cancel culture, liberals respond blasting Politico for giving him platform


RT
Thu, 14 Jan 2021 19:32 UTC
Ben Shapiro
© AFP/Mark RalstonBen Shapiro
Liberal critics are blasting Politico for daring to give "prime real estate" to conservative Ben Shapiro, who argued Republicans voting against Trump's impeachment are pushing back against cancel culture.

A day after the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time, Politico decided to get the perspective of Shapiro, a decision that now has them in the sights of liberal critics on social media.
"I'm so grateful that I don't write for a publication that has the bad judgment to turn one of its flagship products over to Ben Shapiro," Vox reporter Ian Millhiser added. Others slapped the publication for merely giving a conservative like Ben Shapiro, who has been one of the more critical voices of the president on the right, a platform.

Comment: Heaven help us when all of our comments, views and reasoning are exactly the same. Identicality: The death of diversity and freedom of opinion.

Read More...
Document

Best of the Web: Trump team's Peter Navarro drops third major report on historic election fraud - confirms Trump won

Joe Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:55 UTC
Navarro
© White HousePeter Navarro, Director, Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy
The Populist Press just reported that Peter Navarro from the Trump Team has released a report showing President Trump won the 2020 Election.
Volume 3 of the Navarro Report is designed to serve as a capstone to what has been a comprehensive analysis of the question: Was the 2020 presidential election stolen from Donald J. Trump? In this report, we provide the most up-to-date statistical "receipts" with respect to the potential number of illegal votes in each battleground state.
In the report it begins by discussing the first and second reports and then shares this:
The broader goal of this final installment of the Navarro Report is to provide investigators with a well-documented tally of potentially illegal votes on a state-by-state and category-by-category basis. This tally is presented in Figure One on the next page of this report. Note that each number in this figure has a corresponding endnote identifying the source of the number. Note further that we have taken a conservative approach to the count of potentially illegal ballots.

Comment: Hopefully the investigation continues and there is a beneficial outcome from the information. As for this dog and pony show of an election, it appears to be too late.

Read More...
Target

Capitol Police report warned Congress could be targeted three days before riot

Sarah Polus
The Hill
Fri, 15 Jan 2021 04:43 UTC
Capitol riot
© UPIRiot at the US Capitol
The Capitol Police sent an internal intelligence report three days before the deadly Capitol riot that warned of potential for violence, The Washington Post reports.

"Due to the tense political environment following the 2020 election, the threat of disruptive actions or violence cannot be ruled out," the 12-page report reads.

Instead of counterprotesters being the target of the rioters like in past presidential election protests that occurred in D.C., this time the Capitol would likely be the target, the report warned.
"Supporters of the current president see January 6, 2021, as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election. This sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent."
The report, which doesn't appear to have been shared widely with other law enforcement agencies, noted that prominent leaders on the right would be speaking at the "Stop the Steal" rally, predicted by the Capitol Police to be one of that larger events that day, according to the Post.

Comment: The Capitol riot investigation may determine potential linkings of various officers/guards with specific actors in the crowd. It is unknown if the following is one of those scenarios:
Robert Bauer and his cousin Edward Hemenway, two men arrested in connection to the Capitol riot last week, admitted to agents that they were among the scores of people who entered the building on Jan. 6, according to a complaint filed Thursday.

Bauer, from Kentucky, told agents that he traveled with his wife to Washington, D.C., for the pro-Trump rally that day and they stayed with Hemenway in Virginia for part of the trip. All three said they attended the rally on Jan. 6 and joined the crowd in marching toward the Capitol.

Bauer and Hemenway each told investigators that after the men entered the Capitol, an officer shook their hands and said "it's your house now," according to the complaint.

A Capitol Police spokeswoman told The Hill that the department:
"is actively reviewing video and other open source materials of some USCP officers and officials that appear to be in violation of Department regulations and policies. Our Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating these behaviors for disciplinary action, up to, and including, termination. Several USCP officers have already been suspended pending the outcome of their investigations."
Bauer and Hemenway appeared in federal court on Friday and both pleaded not guilty to trespassing and knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds, the Courier-Journal reported.

Bauer told officials in the complaint he entered the Capitol building to "occupy the space" and claimed he had no intentions of harming anyone. Hemenway said he entered out of "stupidity" and "curiosity" and that he didn't know Congress was in session at the time, though he said he did know lawmakers were certifying the Electoral College vote.


Read More...
X

DOJ: No charges will be filed in case over discarded Pennsylvania ballots

Tal Axelrod
The Hill
Fri, 15 Jan 2021 04:50 UTC
Hand/vote
© Lacey Gregory/KANSAN/KJN
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Friday that it will not be pressing charges against a former temporary elections worker in Pennsylvania who threw out nine military ballots in the Keystone State before November's presidential election.

While Republicans had seized on the case in Luzerne County as an example of what they said was widespread voter fraud that cost President Trump a second term, prosecutors said they found insufficient evidence to determine any criminal intent contributed to the worker discarding the ballots.

"After a thorough investigation conducted by the FBI and prosecutors from my office, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent on the part of the person who discarded the ballots," said Acting U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler. "Therefore, no criminal charges will be filed and the matter is closed."

The DOJ's investigation was sparked following a request by the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office after it learned the ballots were discarded.

The unidentified worker has been fired, and their mistake was chalked up as a "bad error" without malintent by Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D).
Read More...
Yellow Vest

Thousands march in Vienna against lockdown


Reuters
Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:14 UTC
vienne lockdown protest
Thousands of people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against restrictions on public life designed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, just as Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's government held talks about extending the measures.

Chanting demonstrators - many without masks - held signs including "Kurz Must Go" and "Make Influenza Great Again" during marches through the city centre.

Austria, a country of 8.9 million people, is in its third lockdown, with only essential shops open. The country has reported nearly 390,00 coronavirus cases and almost 7,000 COVID-19 linked deaths since the pandemic began last year.

Comment: Meanwhile in Italy there is a growing movement amongst hospitality establishments that are defying lockdown by opening up:

See also:

Read More...
Red Flag

The Woke movement is Leninism 4.0: Political commentator Dr. James Lindsay

Gary Du and Jan Jekielek
The Epoch Times
Fri, 15 Jan 2021 20:08 UTC
James Lindsay
© Brendon Fallon/The Epoch TimesJames Lindsay, co-author of "Cynical Theories," in New York on Feb. 28, 2020.
Dr. James Lindsay, an American-born author and political commentator, called the "woke" movement promoted by Black Lives Matter and other left-wing activists Leninism 4.0.

"Now we have the attempt to apply Leninism to the American context, using corporations as part of the toolset, for example. And so we call this movement the 'woke' movement. We talked about woke capital with all the corporations ... the woke movement is Leninism 4.0," Lindsay told Jan Jekielek, host of The Epoch Times' American Thoughts Leaders program on Jan. 13.

Lindsay explained that the first 3 versions or flavors of Leninism through Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, each tried to fix the problems from the previous version.


The "woke" movement that has evolved today focuses on the issues of social and racial justice and has become a catchword used by Black Lives Matter activists on the streets.

Lindsay described the movement as "the idea is that you have some enlightened party of people who are probably part of what Marx would have identified as the bourgeoisie, who understand the problem of the proletariat better than the proletariat does and is going to shepherd them through the revolution that they need to have that's for the greater good or in their best interest."

For people on the left, being "woke" means siding with social justice advocates focused on contemporary political concerns, but for people on the right, it is often interpreted as an aspect of "political correctness" or "cancel culture."

Comment: For more by Lindsay, see the following:

Read More...
X

Hong Kong censorship debate grows as internet firm says can block 'illegal acts'

Jessie Pang
Reuters
Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:32 UTC
hong kong
The company which approves internet domains in Hong Kong said it will now reject any sites that could incite "illegal acts", raising new concerns about freedoms after Beijing's imposition of a national security law on the Chinese-ruled city last year.

Holders of .hk domains were advised of the policy change on Thursday, sources told Reuters, hours after internet service provider Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) said it had blocked access to HKChronicles, a website offering information about anti-government protests.

The moves came just days after the arrest of more than 50 pro-democracy activists, and sources have told Reuters that China is planning a further crackdown.

HKBN said it had blocked the website, which also publishes personal information on Hong Kong police officers, in compliance with the national security law, the first such censorship in the city of its kind.
Read More...
Yellow Vest

The lockdown rebellion begins: Poland takes the lead!

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Sat, 16 Jan 2021 17:28 UTC
Zakopane Poland
© Iryna Kazlova / iStock / Getty Images PlusSmall town village near Zakopane in the winter foggy morning in Tatra mountains.
Highlanders in Poland's 'winter capital' to reopen

Highlanders in Poland's "winter capital" of Zakopane are rebelling against lockdown, with hundreds of businesses vowing to reopen in defiance of government restrictions.

Sebastian Pitoล„, who has emerged as leader of the Gรณrlaskie Veto โ€” Highlanders' Veto โ€” movement, was previously best known as an architect whose Tolkienesque designs were the subject of a Snopes article, as some people had doubted that viral images of his beautiful if eccentric traditional buildings were real.
Read More...