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Hardhat

Best of the Web: Huge turnouts across France for 21st straight weekend of Yellow Vest protests


RT
Sat, 06 Apr 2019 17:29 UTC

Comment: And once again, RT France is pretty much the only network in France accurately reporting on it...


yellow vest protest acte XXI
Acte XXI, 6 April 2019. Month 6...
More than a dozen people have been arrested as Yellow Vest protesters flood the streets of French cities, marking the 21st consecutive week of mass demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron and his government.

Some 21 protesters were arrested in Paris on Saturday morning, local media reported, citing police. Eric Drouet, one of the leaders of the Yellow Vests, was fined 135 euro ($150) for violating public protest laws. The ruling was slammed by his lawyer who said that "if Drouet wants to have a cup of coffee at the Champs-Elysees, he has an absolute right to do so."

Nevertheless, the rallies in the French capital and elsewhere remain largely peaceful. The Yellow Vests are singing songs and holding placards as they march to denounce the policies of Emmanuel Macron and demand his resignation.


Comment: The French police officers' union estimates there were 110,000 protesters this time (throughout France, or just in Paris? We're unsure).

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Family

Best of the Web: Tens of Thousands Join Pro-Family March at World Congress of Families Conference in Verona, Italy


The Local, Italy
Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:08 UTC
world congress families
End-of-conference pro-life march at the World Congress of Families event in Verona, Italy, at the end of March 2019
Several tens of thousands of people have marched in support of the ultra-conservative World Congress of Families on Sunday, on the final day of their conference in northern Italy.


Comment: Not ultra-conservative, just conservative - predominantly Christian, though not exclusively.

Which, relative to the actual ultras on the liberal-left, is still fairly liberal.


Participants in the city of Verona carried pink and blue balloons and placards with slogans such as "Yes to life, not to abortion", an AFP correspondent saw.

Supporters travelled by train and coach from all over Italy to attend the march, which came a day after protesters staged their own demonstration denouncing the organisation's anti-abortion, anti-gay stance.

Before the march started at around midday, those gathered listened to a message from the organisers of the Congress. "The family, fundamental pillar of our society, must be at the centre of government policies," they said in their closing statement.

Comment: A US-founded, Russian-friendly, normal conference addressing concerns of the silent majority, the naturally conservative populations ruled by secular elites. This is the best of the West.

CNN's report on it called it a "conference of hate" and reminded its ultra-liberal audience that it took place in a city that was "home to one of the headquarters of German Intelligence during the Nazi occupation and in the 1970s, a far-right [NATO] terrorist network."

The UK's Independent focused on the negatives by labeling it an "anti-LGBT+ and anti-abortion conference," and suggesting that its real crime was providing a venue for discussing positive solutions to reversing the West's declining birth rates.

Here's a more objective report on the event, from American participant Dr Steve Turley:


And Turley's speech at the conference:




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Document

Best of the Web: Russiagate hysteria alive and well: The DETER election meddling bill has its day in the Senate


RT
Wed, 03 Apr 2019 16:25 UTC
Van Hollen/Rubio
© Carroll County Times/Getty ImagesSenators Chris Van Hollen and Marco Rubio
Mueller may have had his day, but the specter of Russian meddling still hangs over Washington. A bill newly introduced in the Senate promises to slap harsh sanctions on Russia should future election interference be discovered.

The 'Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines' (DETER) Act is the latest attempt by US lawmakers to squeeze Russia for a range of perceived election-related offenses. Introduced on Wednesday by Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida), it would require the Director of National Intelligence to determine within 30 days after every federal election whether Russia or any foreign government attempted to interfere.

If the DNI were to find such interference, it would require sanctions to be imposed on a list of Russian banks and energy companies. It would also prohibit US citizens from engaging in business with any entity owned by the Russian government, and freeze the assets of Russian political and business leaders targeted for sanction in the US.

The bill's text, seen by Reuters, appears to be a carbon copy of a bill introduced by Van Hollen and Rubio in January 2018. That iteration of the DETER Act never made it past introduction, and has languished in Congressional limbo ever since.

Comment: A groveling apology to Russia (and to President Trump) would be more appropriate.

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Venezuela's pro-Maduro 'colectivos': True grass-roots organizations demonized by the West


RT
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:26 UTC
colectivos militia venezuela revolution
© Redfish
Ever since the US recognized Venezuela's wannabe coup leader, pro-government activists have been bracing for possible military intervention. Western media have been for years portraying them as thugs of the dictatorship.

So-called 'colectivos' caught the eye of the Western mainstream media around 2011, depicted as government-sanctioned gangs who are allowed to commit crimes in their neighborhoods with impunity as long as they serve as vigilantes against the opposition.

The term comes from much earlier times in the 1960s, when it was used to describe self-organized local political action groups banding together for various causes. An indigenous tribe opposing logging on its ancestral land, a local volunteer radio station going on air to discuss local politics, or an ad hoc labor union negotiating better conditions are all examples of colectivos.


Comment: The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies

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Attention

Best of the Web: The myth of American meritocracy

Rajan Menon
The Nation
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 11:10 UTC
University of North Carolina
© Reuters / Jonathan DrakeStudents walk through the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on September 20, 2018.
Despair about the state of our politics pervades the political spectrum, from left to right. One source of it, the narrative of fairness offered in basic civics textbooks - we all have an equal opportunity to succeed if we work hard and play by the rules; citizens can truly shape our politics - no longer rings true to most Americans. Recent surveys indicate that substantial numbers of them believe that the economy and political system are both rigged. They also think that money has an outsize influence on politics. Ninety percent of Democrats hold this view, but so do 80 percent of Republicans. And careful studies confirm what the public believes.

None of this should be surprising given the stark economic inequality that now marks our society. The richest 1 percent of American households currently account for 40 percent of the country's wealth, more than the bottom 90 percent of families possess. Worse yet, the top 0.1 percent has cornered about 20 percent of it, up from 7 percent in the mid-1970s. By contrast, the share of the bottom 90 percent has since then fallen from 35 percent to 25 percent. To put such figures in a personal light, in 2017, three men- Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates - possessed more wealth ($248.5 billion) than the bottom 50 percent of Americans.

Over the last four decades, economic disparities in the United States increased substantially and are now greater than those in other wealthy democracies. The political consequence has been that a tiny minority of extremely wealthy Americans wields disproportionate influence, leaving so many others feeling disempowered.

Comment: See also:

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Pyramid

Best of the Web: Like Libya and Syria, Venezuela is not just about oil

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 12:00 UTC
US army oil
Yes, the latest research confirms that Venezuela is so rich in natural resources, that it could single-handedly satisfy all global demand for oil, for over 30 years. And it has much more than oil to offer, in its Orinoco basin and in other areas of the country.

But it is not all 'about oil'; actually, far from it.

Those who believe that what propels the spread of Western terror all over the world, are just some 'business interests' and legendary Western greed, are, from my point of view, missing the point.

I noticed that such individuals and analysts actually believe that 'capitalism is responsible for everything', and that it creates the culture of violence of which, both victims and victimizers, already became hostages to.

After working in all corners of the world, I am now more and more convinced that capitalism is actually the result of Western culture, which is predominantly based on expansionism, exceptionalism and aggression. It is also constructed on a deeply rooted desire to control and to dictate. Financial/monetary greed is just a by-product of this culture which has elevated its superiority to something that could be defined as religious, or even religiously fundamentalist.

Comment: See also:

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Bug

Best of the Web: Canadian man fined $55,000 for calling a male who identified as a woman a male

Michael Brown
The Stream
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Bill Whatcott
© Youtube/ScreenshotBill Whatcott's supporters pray over him just before he turned himself in for a "hate crime." June 2018.
We told you this was coming. We warned you it would happen. We were not crying wolf. We were telling you the truth. And now it is here, as a headline announces: "Canadian tribunal fines Bill Whatcott $55,000 for expressing Christian views on 'transgenderism.'" In other words, Whatcott called a biological male (who identifies as a female) a "biological male." That was his crime.

What a miscarriage of justice. What an assault of freedom of speech and expression.

John Carpay, president of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom, defended Whatcott, noting in protest that, "The Supreme Court of Canada has long held that freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy." But not when it crosses the lines of transgender activism. Freedom halts there.

Carpay added, "Society is full of people with diverse views and the Tribunal's decision undermines the foundational principles of the free society and jeopardizes the health of Canada's democracy."
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X

Best of the Web: How to shoot yourself in the foot: Twitter blocks French govt ad campaign in order to comply with French govt 'fake news' law


RT
Wed, 03 Apr 2019 16:24 UTC
Macron
© Reuters / Philippe Wojazer
An ad campaign launched by the French government to encourage people to register to vote has hit an embarrassing snag: Twitter won't run the ads, as the company fears they may violate the new French law targeting fake news.

The Elysee hoped to inspire citizens to register to vote in the European elections ahead of the upcoming deadline by paying for sponsored tweets promoting the hashtag #OuiJeVote (Yes, I Vote). But the seemingly innocuous ad campaign faced an unexpected hurdle: France's recently-passed anti-fake-news legislation, which places strict rules on online political campaigns. The law states that all political ads must indicate who paid for them and how much was spent.

Fearing that the ad may violate the law passed by President Emmanuel Macron's own government, Twitter refused to run the ad.

The decision stunned French lawmakers and officials.

Comment: See also:

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Wine

Best of the Web: Unparalleled EU moment: China has arrived

Patrick Lawrence
Consortium News
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Xi Jinping
© Wikimedia CommonsPresident of People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping celebrates in Europe
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Xi Jinping's visits to Rome, Paris and Monaco last week. In bringing his much-remarked Belt and Road Initiative to the center of Europe, the Chinese president has faced the Continent with the most fundamental question it will have to resolve in coming decades: Where does it stand as a trans-Atlantic partner with the U.S. and - as of Xi's European tour - the western flank of the Eurasian landmass? The simplicities of the postwar order, to put the point another way, have just begun to pass into history.

In Rome, the populist government of Premier Giuseppe Conte brought Italy into China's ambitious plan to connect East Asia and Western Europe via a multitude of infrastructure projects stretching from Shanghai to Lisbon and beyond. The memorandum of understanding Xi and Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio signed calls for joint development of roads, railways, bridges, airports, seaports, energy projects and telecommunications systems. Along with the MoU, Chinese investors signed 29 agreements worth $2.8 billion.
BRI map
© Lommes, CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia CommonsBRI’s six proposed corridors, with Italy circled, on maritime blue route. (Note: Map does not include latest national boundaries.)

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

Best of the Web: The incorrigible hypocrisy of conservatives on US foreign policy

Jacob G. Hornberger
The Future of Freedom Foundation
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:20 UTC
neocons
Last week a Wall Street Journal editorial revealed the incorrigible hypocrisy with which conservatives have long suffered. Conservatives, of course, have long suffered this malady with respect to domestic policy given their ardent devotion to Social Security, Medicare, foreign aid, and other welfare-state programs even while decrying the left's devotion to socialism. But this particular WSJ editorial revealed the incorrigible conservative hypocrisy with respect to foreign policy.

The editorial was entitled "Putin Pulls a Syria in Venezuela." The opening sentence is comical: "Vladimir Putin has made a career of intervening abroad and seeing if the world lets him get away with it."

Why is that sentence funny? Because it also describes ever single U.S. president for the last 100 years! Every president from Woodrow Wilson through today has made a career of intervening abroad and seeing if the world lets him get away with it. Indeed, the central feature of the U.S. government for the last 100 years has been and continues to be empire and foreign interventionism.
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