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NPC

Best of the Web: I was a liberal NY prof, but when I said the Left was going too far, colleagues called me a NAZI & treated me like a RUSSIAN SPY

Michael Rectenwald
RT
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 18:20 UTC
nyu graduates
© (L) AFP / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Drew Angerer; (R) Wikimedia / Jonathan71
What's wrong with the American left? Suffering from Trump anxiety disorder, acting like cult members, and engaging in a new McCarthyism, the left has lost its collective mind. I saw it coming and left the left in the nick of time.

My break with the left began in the fall of 2016. I was a professor at New York University, a left-liberal, and an active social media participant. My skepticism and resentment at my political tribe's insistence that I affirm its increasingly crazy claims had been growing steadily to this point.

Much like Jordan Peterson, my tipping point involved the pronoun wars, although, as you'll see, I enjoyed a more satirical approach. When the University of Michigan instituted a policy that offered students a carte blanche pronoun preference opportunity, a clever student offered "His Majesty" as his chosen pronoun, and his blasphemous pronoun choice made the news. The satirical trope hilariously underscored the absurdity of gender and pronoun proliferation, and the institutional lunacy that has attempted to keep pace with it. I posted a link to an article about the spoof on Facebook, without comment. I then proceeded to teach for the rest of the afternoon.
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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Why Extinction Rebellion seems so nuts

Brendan O'Neill
Spiked
Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC
extinction rebellion
© Getty
This is an edited version of a short speech Brendan O'Neill gave at the Battle of Ideas festival in London on 3 November 2019.

One of my favourite political events this year was the Battle of Canning Town. This was the moment when Extinction Rebellion decided to send its painfully middle-class agitators to a working-class part of East London early in the morning to lecture and inconvenience people who just wanted to get to work. What could go wrong?

Quite a lot, it turned out. There were many wonderful moments. The two posh greens who climbed on top of a Tube train at Canning Town were mocked and eventually dragged down. A commuter can be heard branding one of the protesters a 'ponytail weirdo'. Elsewhere on the Tube system that day, commuters pointed out that the London Underground is run on electricity and is therefore pretty eco-friendly. 'Are you that fucking stupid?', one asked a smug-looking couple of XR agitators. 'No wonder you can't get jobs...'

Comment: See also:

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Chess

Best of the Web: MSM Adamantly Avoids the Word 'Coup' in Bolivia Reporting

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 17:22 UTC
morales resign
There has been a military coup in Bolivia backed by violent right-wing rioters and the US government, but you'd hardly know this from any of the mainstream media headlines.
"Bolivian President Evo Morales steps down following accusations of election fraud" proclaims CNN.

"Bolivia's Morales resigns amid scathing election report, rising protests" reports The Washington Post.

"Bolivian Leader Evo Morales Steps Down" says The New York Times.

"Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns amid fraud poll protests" declares the BBC.

"President of Bolivia steps down amid allegations of election rigging" we are informed by Telegraph.

"Bolivia's President Morales resigns after backlash to disputed election" says the Sydney Morning Herald.
So there you have it. The indigenous leader of a socialist South American government which has successfully lifted masses of people out of crushing poverty, which happens to control the world's largest reserves of lithium (which may one day replace oil as a crucial energy resource due to its use in powering smartphones, laptops, hybrid and electric cars), which has an extensive and well-documented history of being targeted for regime change by the US government, simply stepped down due to some sort of scandal involving a "disputed election". Nothing to do with the fact that right-wing mobs had been terrorizing this leader's family, or the fact that the nation's military literally commanded him to step down and are now currently searching for him to arrest him, leading to ousted government officials being rounded up and held captive by soldiers wearing masks.

All perfectly normal and not suspicious at all.
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Family

Flashback Best of the Web: Bone-chilling national scandal: Thousands of babies are stolen from innocent parents by the UK state

Frances Hardy
Daily Mail
Wed, 27 May 2015 08:22 UTC
Nicky and Mark Webster, forced adoptions UK, UK state kidnapping
Nicky and Mark Webster with son Brandon. After doctors became suspicious of the parents, believing they were abusing their kids three of their children were forcibly removed and taken in social services
The woman's face was pale and tear-stained; her eyes raw from crying. 'Please may I speak to Denise?' she begged my husband. Fired by desperation, she'd found my home and rung my doorbell one evening six years ago. I was her last hope, she said.

As a magazine and TV agony aunt with a regular slot on ITV's This Morning, my job is to give constructive and compassionate advice to those who seek it. I take my role — and the responsibility it involves — very seriously.

So although I usually make it a rule not to see people in my home, this time the woman's distress was so acute that I invited her in.

Her story spilled out. She was a grandmother in her late 40s, whose daughter, single and unable to cope with the responsibilities of parenthood, had nonetheless given birth to four children.

Each had been raised with love, kindness and singular devotion by the woman standing in front of me: their grandmother. They were all under nine and the youngest was 18 months old. The woman was distraught because she had been told that her youngest grandchild, a cherubic, blue-eyed blonde, was to be taken from her.

Comment: Related articles: For more information on this horrendous practice, see Ian Josephs' website, forced-adoption.com, where he lays out what has been happening in the UK for years, and what parents can do about it.

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Battery

Flashback Best of the Web: Evo Morales plans to transform Bolivia into major global hub of lithium-based technologies


DW.com
Mon, 17 Jul 2017 17:22 UTC
lithium mine bolivia
The Bolivian government aims to pump massive investments to expand the country's production of lithium, a metal needed for the batteries that power everything from smartphones and laptops to hybrid and electric cars.

In a future battery-powered world, lithium may replace oil and emerge as one of the most important commodities on earth. That prospect is driving Bolivia, which is considered to have the largest reserves of the metal, to keep lithium under strict state control.

Bolivian President Evo Morales sees a prosperous future for his currently impoverished South American nation, pinning his hopes on the rapid rise in the global price of this valuable resource. "We will develop a huge lithium industry, over $800 million have already been made available," Morales told the German DPA news agency.

Lithium, the lightest of all metals, is the key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, which are currently the best available technology for powering a range of products, including mobile phones and e-cars.

Lithium-ion battery production is forecast to double to eight billion cells by 2025. And the world price for lithium carbonate has almost doubled in a short span of time to about $13,000 per ton. This has pushed a number of firms across the world to try to get hold of lithium supplies.

Comment: That's the end of that plan then.

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: US 'coup d'état': Bolivian President Evo Morales announces his resignation, UPDATES


RT
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 20:57 UTC
Evo Morales
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsBolivia's President Evo Morales addresses the media at the presidential hangar in the Bolivian Air Force terminal in El Alto, Bolivia, November 10, 2019.
Bolivia's President Evo Morales has resigned, shortly after the country's military urged him to do so. Two officials next in line to take over the government also left as the country is in turmoil after weeks of protests.

"I resign from my position as president so that (Carlos) Mesa and (Luis Fernando) Camacho do not continue to persecute socialist leaders," Morales said during a televised address naming the leaders of the opposition.

Morales said that he decided to leave the post in hopes that his departure would stop the spate of violent attacks against officials and indigenous people, "so that they [protesters] do not continue burning the houses [of public officials]" and "kidnapping and mistreating" families of indigenous leaders.

"It is my obligation , as the first indigenous president and president of all Bolivians, to seek this pacification," he said, adding that he hopes opposition would "understand the message."

Shortly after the announcement his Vice-President Alvaro Marcelo García Linera also submitted his resignation. The next person in line to take over the government, the president of the Senate Adriana Salvatierra, resigned soon after.

Comment: UPDATE: RT, 10/11/2019: 'Morales' resignation undermines claim he is a dictator, US may be behind push to oust him
Washington has played a hand in the resignation of Bolivia's president Evo Morales, human and labour rights lawyer Dan Kovalik told RT. The US has been stirring unrest for years with millions of dollars in democratic aid, he said.
Luis Fernando Camacho
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsPolice officers escort Luis Fernando Camacho, a Santa Cruz civic leader and major opposition figure, as he waves a national flag during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia November 10, 2019.
"I think this is a bad thing that's happened and I see the hands of the US behind it," Kovalik said, adding that there has been "evidence released of conversation between the White House and opposition leaders," indicating that anti-Morales protests might have been a "coordinated" campaign.

"And we know that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been spending millions of dollars in Bolivia for years trying to undermine Evo Morales"

A CIA offshoot of sorts, the NED channeled nearly $1 million into the South American country in 'democracy promoting' aid in 2018 alone. A huge chunk of the funds was used by International Republican Institute (IRI), in charge of promoting right-wing agenda.


Morales' decision to resign rather than cling to power while risking lives of his supporters, who turn out for mass rallies in his name, "undermines the claims that he is some sort of a dictator," Kovalik said. "That shows a lot about who he is. That shows that Morales cares about his own country... he's shown himself to have the well-being of his own people at heart."

Morales, once a very popular leader, was faced with a wave of unrest and mutiny from the military. Kovalik believes that outside interference might have played a role in such a change of heart.


"Of course, people change their minds about things, but I also think there've been some manipulation of the public in Bolivia."
UPDATE: RT, 11/11/2019: Morales denounces 'coup d'état', as opposition says warrant issued for his arrest
Police and military have been on the lookout for Evo Morales, who has just resigned as Bolivia's president, opposition has claimed. Morales dubbed the arrest warrant "illegal," while police chief denied its existence altogether.

"I denounce in front of the world and the Bolivian people that a police official publicly announced that he was instructed to execute an illegal arrest warrant against me; in addition, violent groups assaulted my home. The coup destroys the rule of law."

Earlier, Bolivian protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho has said that an outstanding warrant exists for the socialist leader's arrest.

"Confirmed!! Arrest warrant for Evo Morales !! The police and the military are looking for him in Chapare [rural province in the northern region of Cochabamba], a place where he hid," Camacho wrote, adding that the military seized the presidential plane Morales used to get to his political stronghold of Chimoré in the Department of Cochabamba, 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of La Paz, from where he announced his resignation.

However, Commander of Bolivia's National Police Yuri Calderón has dismissed reports that an order for Morales' arrest is currently being served. In the comments broadcast on national TV, Calderón said that police have received no such document from the prosecutor's office.
UPDATE: RT, 11/11/2019: Former President and VP of electoral commission arrested
The commander of Bolivia's National Police, Yuri Calderón, has dismissed reports that an order for Morales' arrest is currently being served.

"There is no arrest warrant for Morales nor for any other ministers of his cabinet. A request has been put in with the Attorney General... for the issuance of an arrest warrant for the perpetrators and accomplices of those who violated the electoral process. This is an absolute lie." He confirmed, however, that the former president and vice president of the electoral commission were arrested on Sunday. A video of the arrest has been circulating online.



See also:

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Eye 1

Flashback Best of the Web: Medical Kidnapping is a Terrible Problem in the United Kingdom

Christina England
medicalkidnap.com
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:01 UTC
forced adoption protest england
Protesting forced adoption in the UK. Image from Facebook page 'Never Give Up'
In the UK, there has been a steady increase in the number of children taken into care for many years. Sadly, however, many of these children may have been needlessly taken away from loving families, families who are innocent of any wrongdoing.

One case to have hit the headlines recently is the case of Kerry McDougall. In April 2015, Mrs. McDougall, a 22 year-old woman with moderate learning difficulties, gave birth to a third child in Ireland, after having her first two children forcibly removed from her care because social workers believed that she was "too dumb" to be a mother.

The Mirror, reporting on the story, wrote:
"In 2010 Fife social workers shocked Britain by ruling Kerry, who used to have a cleft palate and has moderate learning difficulties, was unfit to wed or be a mum.

But Kerry and Mark defied them, marrying and fleeing to Ireland when she became pregnant with her first son.

They had another boy there and she and Mark were deemed fit parents by Irish social services, who removed their sons from their register.

But when the couple returned to Fife thinking they had proved themselves, their boys were handed to a foster family.

Close to tears, Kerry said: "I can't describe what it feels like to have your children taken away, screaming for you."

Comment: Apart from a smattering of media reports and TV mentions of this abominable practice in recent years, there is very little public-available information about it. Which is apparently by design: it's illegal for the victims to talk about what has happened to them.

See also: British State Has Stolen Thousands of Children From Families it Deems 'Potential Risk' - Hundreds of Pregnant Women Fleeing UK Shores

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Video

Best of the Web: Syria's Assad gives exclusive interview to RT UK on manufactured origins of 'civil war' and US control of 'ISIS'


Sputnik
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 08:18 UTC
Having endured a deadly, drawn-out civil war which is gradually drawing to a close, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is facing the daunting task of reuniting and reconstructing a devastated nation, filling in the power vacuum in newly-liberated parts of the country and overcoming a Western-imposed economic blockade.

Syrian President Bashar Assad
© RTSyrian President Bashar Assad during his interview with RT's Afshin Rattansi
The Presidential Palace in Damascus overlooks the Syrian capital, but the most troubled parts of the war-ravaged country are out of sight.

The future of those lands, as well as the broader question of how to solve the ongoing political imbroglio and rebuild Syria, are on Bashar al-Assad's mind as he speaks in his first interview to foreign media in over a year.

The president talks to RT's Afshin Rattansi about the origins of the conflict that engulfed his country and the role of Western governments in it, and gives his take on the recent and future developments in Syria and elsewhere.


On the interview embargo

Bashar al-Assad, who turned 54 in September, last gave an interview to a foreign news outlet in June 2018. He says he had stopped speaking to Western media completely because of their hunt for a "scoop", but feels now that "public opinion in the world, and especially in the West, has been shifting during the past few years".

"They know that their officials have told them so many lies about what's going on in the region, in the Middle East, in Syria, in Yemen," he says of the Western public. "They know there is a lie, but they don't know the truth; so, I think, it's time to talk about this truth."
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Seismograph

Best of the Web: Several injured as rare 5.4M earthquake strikes southeast France - UPDATE: Earthquake revised down to 4.9M


Euronews
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 11:52 UTC

Comment: This is not normal. And what an auspicious day for it to occur on... Armistice Day.


france earthquake
Four people have been injured in an earthquake of rare intensity in France, which was felt from Lyon to Montpellier.

The quake, which didn't cause any major damage, was magnitude 5.4 and struck just before noon in the Ardèche region, in the southeast of the country, the French Central Seismological Office (BCSF) in Strasbourg said in a statement.

It was felt mainly in the Drôme and Ardèche regions, particularly around Montélimar where a person was seriously injured by falling scaffolding.

Three other people were slightly injured in the Ardèche "following a panic attack", the Drôme prefecture said on Twitter.

Montelimar's mayor, Franck Reynier, urged residents not to overload the emergency services with calls, adding: "We will keep you informed as we go along." He has been tweeting safety measures, and reported a crack in a building, and a fallen chimney.
earthquake france
© DL/Laure FUMASThe village of Mélas near the city of Montelimar was particularly damaged

Comment: Following the quake, they shut down a nearby nuclear power station in Cruas, Ardeche.

There have been 5 - let's say - 'significant' quakes in France in just the last year:

France's largest in the modern era was a 6.2M in 1909...

Other events in France in the last month or so: And just 6 days ago there was an earthquake swarm in Switzerland.
Thousands evacuated and homes damaged in French quake

Many old buildings were severely affected, with the commune of Teil reporting the most damage

More than 8,500 people have been evacuated and hundreds of buildings dangerously weakened in southeast France, as the extent of the damage from yesterday's 5.4 magnitude earthquake emerges.

The quake struck on Monday, November 11, at 11h51. It lasted around 10 seconds.


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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: James Le Mesurier: British spy trainer behind White Helmets 'found dead' in Istanbul

Bel Trew
The Independent
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 11:44 UTC
White helmets exposed
Le Mesurier was in the thick of it
James Le Mesurier, who helped found the "White Helmets" a volunteer first responder group in Syria, has been found dead near his home in Istanbul, the organisation and a diplomat have said.

The former British Army officer was the director of Mayday Rescue charity that trained members of the Syria Civil Defence or White Helmets, playing a major role in its creation in Turkey in 2013.

He was awarded an Order of the British Empire for his work three years later.

His death comes just days after he was accused of being a spy in a tweet by the Russian foreign ministry.

It is not known how Mr Le Mesurier died, but Turkish media reported he may have fallen from the balcony of his apartment in the Turkish city.

Comment: Note that this British outlet is trying to imply that the Russians killed him because Zakharova tweeted about his notorious 'White Helmets' outfit last week!

Uhm, non-sequitur much?

UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter points out that:
"...the organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military officer, James Le Mesurier — who had experience in the murky world of private security companies and the shadowy confluence between national security and intelligence operations and international organizations — and representatives of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society. Earlier that month, the SNC was given Syria's seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the league held in Qatar.

So here we have a civil defence organisation being established in Syria by an ex-British army officer, a man with a background in the shadowy world of private security, in conjunction with a Syrian opposition group in exile."


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