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Apple lifts ban on social network Parler after it agrees to 'content moderation' but users worry 'free speech' site's now neutered


RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:14 UTC
Parler on phone
© AFP/Olivier Douliery
The self-proclaimed 'free speech social network' Parler will be allowed to return to Apple's App Store after it was previously banned for not censoring enough content and was also accused of allowing threats of violence.

In a Monday letter to Republicans, Senator Mike Lee (Utah) and Representative Ken Buck (Colorado) - who had requested info on Parler's ban - Apple claimed that the app could now return to the store as it had "proposed updates to its app and the app's content moderation practices."

"Apple anticipates that the updated Parler app will become available immediately upon Parler releasing it," the company continued. Apple said the decision was made after "substantial conversations" in an effort to "bring the Parler app into compliance" with app-store guidelines.

Comment: The gatekeepers proved they can lock access any time they want.

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Target

Fear and loathing in Tallahassee: Joy Reid's baseless allegations against Ron DeSantis show just how scared the media are of him

Micah Curtis
RT
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:39 UTC
Joy Reed/Ron DeSantis
© MSNBC/AP/Wilfredo Lee
MSNBC's Joy Reid • Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
MSNBC host Joy Reid implied an investigation into rep. Matt Gaetz may implicate Florida governor Ron DeSantis, despite there being not a shred of evidence. Imagine the media reaction if Tucker Carlson did the same to a Democrat.

Ron DeSantis is a rather popular figure among conservatives in the United States. His brashness and anti-lockdown stance have resonated with many on the right. On top of this the Florida Governor is a strong advocate of constitutional rights, specifically the rights of, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. These elements are steadily coming together to make him a strong potential candidate for the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

No wonder Democrats fear and loathe him so much, especially those in the media.

Joy Reid of MSNBC encapsulated this animosity recently. She was discussing the sex trafficking allegations against Florida representative Matt Gaetz on her show, and spitballed the idea that the investigation might find something on Ron DeSantis. Reid said:
"If you're Ron DeSantis, does it feel like it's creeping closer to you? Because these are your friends, these are your allies."

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

Republicans slam Rep. Waters for telling protesters to 'get more confrontational'

James Anthony
The Post Millennial
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 02:34 UTC
Maxine Waters
© Unknown
Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-CA)
On Sunday, Rep. Maxine Waters received severe pushback from Republicans for her call at a protest on Saturday night in Brooklyn Center MN for protesters to "get more confrontational." Republicans responded vehemently to Waters' statements, which they considered to be inflammatory, to say the least.

Waters flew into the Minneapolis area on Saturday to be a keynote speaker at a rally held amid the protests over the officer-involved shooting of Daunte Wright, according to the Daily Wire. She was speaking about Wright's death, and also the ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd in May 2020, when she stated:
"We've got to stay on the street and we've got to get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business. We cannot go away," if the officers aren't convicted for murder.

Comment: Is Maxine one of those do unto yourself as you do unto others? She risks becoming a possible witness against her own lawsuit! See what legal expert Jonathan Turley had to say:
Rep. Waters' statement [to stay confrontational] is ironic since Waters is one of the House members currently suing former President Donald Trump and others for inciting violence on January 6th with his words on the Mall. Waters insists that Trump telling his supporters to go to the Capitol to make their voice heard and "fight" for their votes was actual criminal incitement. Conversely, Waters was speaking after multiple nights of rioting and looting and telling protesters to stay on the streets and get even more confrontational. There was violence after the remarks, including a shooting incident where two National Guard members were injured.

Waters has now guaranteed that she could be called as a witness by Trump in his own defense against her own lawsuit. Waters' most recent words could well be cited in the ongoing litigation over the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill. Waters has gone further and insisted that Trump should not only be charged with criminal incitement but actual "premeditated murder." She stated,
"For the President of the United States to sit and watch the invasion and the insurrection and not say a word because he knew he had absolutely initiated it - and as some of them said, 'he invited us to come."
That bring us back to Brooklyn Center this weekend. She called on people to stay in the streets and get more "confrontational." She added that there would be no acceptance of court decisions to the contrary in the Chauvin case: "We're looking for a guilty verdict. If we don't, we cannot go away." Protesters have not only been camped around the courthouse but the home of a witness in the Chauvin case was targeted. (It turned out to be his former home). Critics could charge that Waters' statement and these protests are meant to intimidate witnesses or influence the trial — just as critics charged that Trump was attempting to intimidate or influence Congress.

After Waters remarks, protesters confronted reporters in a tense scene. Also protesters descended upon the home of the prosecutor responsible for the second degree manslaughter charge against the officer who killed Daunte Wright. Also the Minnesota National Guard was fired upon, injuring at least two Guardsman.

That is not to say that Water incited such actions but that the same claimed nexus could be raised in making such an allegation as was done in the Trump impeachment.

In my view, those words are political speech and should not be subject to criminal sanctions. I also rejected prior claims against Waters like when she encouraged protesters to confront Trump officials in restaurants and "push back on them and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." It is all protected speech.

Yet, that standard cannot be selectively applied to some but not all riots or protests. Waters was encouraging protesters to continue to fight for what they believe in. Her over-heated rhetoric could easily be seen by some as an invitation or endorsement for rioting. However, criminalizing such speech would shred the guarantees of free speech in our country.

Carl Jung once said that "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves". That certainly seems to be the case with Waters and Trump. It is also why Waters could prove the only witness that Trump needs to call to defeat her own lawsuit.
Waters has a long arching trend for incitement to protest and riot.

See also: Petition calls for Maxine Waters removal from congress for inciting public attacks

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Cowboy Hat

Helen Pluckrose: We need liberal social justice, not "critical social justice"

Helen Pluckrose
symposium.substack.com
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:00 UTC
pluckrose

Helen Pluckrose
This is a contribution to Symposium No. 1, our invitation to explore and explain the basic principles of a liberal outlook.

Liberalism is a much misunderstood word. In the US, it can be used to mean "left." In the UK, it is often understood as "centrist," and in Australia, it can be taken to refer to the conservative party. However, liberalism is not a political position. It is a set of values that seeks to defend every person's freedom (individualism), tolerate and even appreciate difference (pluralism) and recognise and value our shared humanity and see in it a moral responsibility to ensure that the same rights, freedoms, and responsibilities belong to everybody (universalism.) Liberalism, therefore, can be at home on the left where it mixes with left-wing aims to distribute goods more evenly to enable everyone to reach their potential, or on the right where its concepts of freedom extend more into the realm of markets and overlap with libertarianism.

Liberals on the left and liberals on the right might therefore disagree with each other on economic issues. What they agree on however, are the centrality of the individual, the importance of freedom of belief and speech, the value of tolerating different ideas, and the need for a consistency of principles in which the same rules and freedoms apply to everyone.
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Fire

Scores killed, over 100 houses razed in petrol tanker explosion in Benue, Nigeria

Peter Duru
Vanguard
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 13:38 UTC
fire
Over 100 houses have been razed, scores killed and many declared missing after a tanker conveying petroleum product exploded at Oshigbudu in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue state.

A source in the area told Vanguard that the tanker laden with petrol was travelling from Oweto and heading towards Otukpo when the driver lost control of the truck and it fell over spilling its content at the Oshigbudu/Obagaji junction.

According to him "the whole thing happened suddenly and when the truck fell, the petrol spilt into people's house and a nearby petrol station and there was a huge explosion. "Many houses are presently on fire and most of those living in those houses did not escape because of the manner the accident happened," he said.

Confirming the development, Vice Chairman of Agatu LGA, Mr, John Ikwulono said the accident occurred at about noon.

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Eye 2

'Insane' video of children being paraded and tipped at DRAG SHOW causes uproar


RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 16:09 UTC
kids drag show
© Twitter / @DistortedLinds
Footage from a drag show in Los Angeles is causing uproar on social media as it shows children posing for the crowd and being tipped cash.

"Why in the hell do these people got these f***ing little-bitty a** kids at this f***ing drag show," the unidentified person in the video says, before a couple of young girls are brought out onto the stage.

The person filming notes it is nearly midnight. An adult drag performer can be seen encouraging the kids to take cash tips from the audience, as they direct the children in poses and take them on a catwalk.

Comment: It seems there are those in the world who will use every opportunity available to them to sexualize children. It's at least heartening to see some people still see it for the sick and twisted perversion that it is.

See also:

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Blackbox

When it comes to woke tyranny, are the worms beginning to turn?

Andrea Widburg
American Thinker
Sat, 17 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Grace Chruch School
For three days, I've had sitting on my virtual spindle a post that Bari Weiss, formerly of the New York Times, posted on her Substack page. It's entitled "I Refuse to Stand by while My Students Are Indoctrinated." The author isn't Weiss but is, instead, Paul Rossi, a math teacher at Grace Church High School in Manhattan (annual tuition: $57,330). On Friday, Weiss added another open letter, this from Andrew Gutmann, a parent who had just pulled his daughter out of Brearley, another expensive private school (annual tuition: $54,000). Both are horrifying exposés of and attacks against the woke culture saturating these institutions.

Both letters are long and don't yield easily to a brief summary. I'll quote a few select paragraphs from each, but you must read them to get the full flavor of the Maoist madness at these institutions.

Paul Rossi, the teacher, writes that Grace Church is focused on "'antiracism' training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to [my students] and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy and understanding."

Comment: Yes, the worm is turning. Level-headed individuals everywhere are beginning to call out this highly damaging brain-mushing nonsense:

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Info

Poll: More Texas voters say they'd back Matthew McConaughey over Gov. Greg Abbott for governor

Aris Folley
The Hill
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 12:38 UTC
mcconaughey for governor
More Texas voters said in a new poll that they would back Matthew McConaughey over Gov. Greg Abbott (R) at the ballot box if the actor were to run for the state's leading office.

In new poll released by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler on Sunday, 45 percent of registered voters in the state said they would likely support the actor if he ran for governor.

By contrast, 33 percent of voters said they would still vote for Abbott, while slightly less than a quarter of respondents said they would vote for someone else.

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

Newspaper uses 'breached' data to dox police who donated to innocent colleague targeted by BLM; Twitter promotes

Luke Rosiak
The Daily Wire
Sat, 17 Apr 2021 00:01 UTC
burning cop car police
© Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Twitter's featured story doxxes low-level police officers who donated small amounts to help colleagues who have garnered the ire of Black Lives Matter, using data breached from charity website GiveSendGo.

British news outlet The Guardian published an article Friday, based on information from a group that specializes in trafficking hacked materials, listing the names of low-level police employees who anonymously donated to funds supporting the due process rights of colleagues who have garnered the ire of Black Lives Matter.

Twitter then put it atop its "trending" section, which is manually curated by the site - after it silenced all references to an election-eve New York Post story that was damaging to the Joe Biden campaign, claiming it violated a policy that Twitter will not promote hacked materials. There is no evidence the Hunter Biden laptop featured in the story was hacked.

Comment: It seems clear that Twitter is OK with doxxing individuals of a conservative bent, while censoring doxxing info on progressives. It's rather unsurprising, but the audacity of their actions is truly something to behold.

More from The Daily Wire:
Reporters Dox, Harass Paramedic For Donating $10 To Kyle Rittenhouse Defense Fund

Using reports based off a data breach, ABC4 News took a camera crew to the home of a Utah paramedic who donated $10 last summer to a defense fund for teenager Kyle Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse, 18, has been charged with two felony counts of homicide and one count of felony attempted homicide for allegedly killing two men and wounding a third during a riot in Kenosha last year. The teen is facing potential life in prison.

As highlighted by Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, The Guardian used data breached from charity website GiveSendGo to dox numerous low-level police officers and paramedics who made small donations to help colleagues targeted by Black Lives Matter.

ABC4 News published the paramedic's name and brought a camera crew to his home to question him about "his side of things." The paramedic did not come out of his home.

A report from the news station boasted of ABC4 News investigative reporter Jason Nguyen going to the man's home, noting "those inside the home didn't want to talk." A video of the encounter aired on the news station.
The line between reporting and activism is, more or less, non-existent at this point. It's clear that the Guardian has no issue endangering people's lives if their political affiliation falls on the wrong side of the line.

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NPC

'Madness': Jane Austen museum to add displays on iconic writer's 'connection' to colonialism & slavery after BLM protests


RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:36 UTC
Chawton Cottage museum Jane Austen
© Getty Images / naumoid
Chawton Cottage, an independent museum of novelist Jane Austen.
A museum dedicated to Jane Austen in the English countryside is introducing displays on the writer's "colonial roots" and connection to the British Empire following Black Lives Matter protests.

According to the Telegraph newspaper, Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire will feature displays showing the beloved writer's "links to slavery" through her Church of England clergyman father Rev George Austen, who was once "the trustee of an Antigua sugar plantation." Austen's love of tea will also be subject to "historical interrogation" over its links to colonialism, the Telegraph said.

It's not all bad news, however. Another proposed display will attempt to portray Austen in a positive light by declaring "Black Lives Matter to Jane Austen" - a reference to her support of abolitionism.
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