Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 15 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Info

Censorship's slope is always slippery & the Internet Archive's embrace of biased 'fact-checking' proves it

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 21:19 UTC
graffiti censorship
© Pixabay / dimitrisvetsikas1969
The Internet Archive has begun slapping "fact-checks" on archived pages, supposedly to provide "context" they're missing. But readers don't need their thoughts babysat, and it's a small step to deleting the page altogether.

The nonprofit, which operates the Wayback Machine - an archive of old web pages spanning decades - announced last week that it would begin adding "fact-checks" and "convenient links to contextual information" to certain archived pages, unsettling internet freedom activists and researchers who rely upon the 40-petabyte mega-archive to do their work.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Megaphone

Poland delays implementing abortion ruling amid nationwide protests

Monika Scislowska
Independent.ie
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 12:53 UTC
abortion poland
© AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski
Women’s rights and man activists with posters of the Women’s Strike action protest against recent tightening of Poland’s restrictive abortion law in front of the parliament building as inside, guards had to be used to shield right-wing ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski from angry opposition lawmakers, in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Massive nationwide protests have been held ever since a top court ruled Thursday that abortions due to fetal congenital defects are unconstitutional. Slogan reads ‘Women’s Strike’.
Poland's right-wing government is delaying the publication and implementation of a high court ruling that tightens the abortion law, which has triggered almost two weeks of nationwide protests.

A government official said leaders are taking time to debate the contested ruling and find a solution.

"There is a discussion going on, and it would be good to take some time for dialogue and for finding a new position in this situation that is difficult and stirs high emotions," said Michal Dworczyk, the head of prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki's office.

Comment: See also: Pro-choice abortion supporters hold biggest-ever protest against Polish government

      Read More...
Magic Wand

Kanye West concedes presidential race — but already has sights on 2024

Ben Feuerherd
New York Post
Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:20 UTC
kanye west
© AP Photo/Michael Wyke
Kanye West threw in the towel on his presidential run in the 2020 election and hinted at another long-shot bid four years from now — though he didn't get many votes this time.

West made the concession in a tweet after appearing on the ballot in 12 states in the presidential election between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

"WELP," West said in the tweet. "KANYE 2024."

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Red Flag

Philadelphia stops counting mail-in ballots for the night

Laura Italiano
New York Post
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 22:38 UTC
philadelphia
Philadelphia has stopped counting mail-in ballots for the night — a move that could skew Tuesday night's preliminary results in Pennsylvania toward President Trump.

Only about 76,000 of the city's mail-in ballots have been tallied so far out of some 350,000 received, noted Holly Otterbein, who is covering the race in Pennsylvania for Politico.

"And remember, Biden supporters are disproportionately voting by mail," she tweeted.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Attention

Scotland: Warning hate crime bill will make it an offence to 'insult'

David Bol
The Herald
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:01 UTC
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf
Legal experts have warned they still have concerns over controversial hate crime proposals - amid warnings over insulting someone being a criminal offence.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf last month outlined amendments to the Scottish Government proposals amid concerns over the potential impact on freedom of expression.

Following the change of heart, the contentious stirring up hatred offences will now "require an intention on the part of the accused" for an offence to have been committed.

Comment: See also: Fascist Scotland justice minister wants to punish citizens over 'insulting' conversations AT HOME

      Read More...
Pocket Knife

Pro-Trump activist Bevelyn Beatty stabbed in the back... Multiple Proud Boys stabbed in DC

Cassandra Fairbanks
Gateway Pundit
Wed, 04 Nov 2020 02:36 UTC
Bevelyn Beatty stabbed
Pro-Trump activist Bevelyn Beatty and multiple Proud Boys were stabbed in DC while attempting to help another person who was being assaulted.

Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio tells Gateway Pundit that he was slashed in the stomach, Beatty was stabbed in the back, and multiple other members of the men's social group were stabbed and are now hospitalized with serious wounds.

A law enforcement confirmed to TGP that the group was walking down the street, away from the protests, when they saw an older man being stabbed and intervened.

Comment: This is the same Bevelyn Beatty, Christian activist, who was arrested for painting over the Black Live Matter mural on New York's Fifth Avenue back in July. See: NY Mayor's 'Black Lives Matter' mural attacked for third time in a week, this time by Christian activist

      Read More...
Arrow Down

Hospital intensive care no busier than normal for most trusts, leaked documents show

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 05:09 UTC
hospital beds
Hospital intensive care is no busier than normal for the majority of trusts, leaked documents have shown, raising more questions about whether a second national lockdown is justifiable.

An update from the NHS Secondary Uses Services (SUS), seen by The Telegraph, shows that capacity is tracking as normal in October with the usual numbers of beds available that would be expected at this time of year, even without extra surge capacity.

An NHS source said: "As you can see, our current position in October is exactly where we have been over the last five years."

The new data shows that, even in the peak of the Covid outbreak in April, critical care beds were never more than 80 per cent full.

Although there has been a reduction in surge capacity since the first wave, with the closure of the emergency Nightingale Hospitals, there is still 15 per cent spare capacity across the country - fairly normal for this time of year.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
X

PA poll watchers denied access, illegal campaigning observed at polling stations: 'The steal is on'

Hannah Bleau
Breitbart
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 21:25 UTC
lines voters pennsylvania election 2020
© NBC News
Voters lined up outside St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Hanover Township, Pennsylvania.
Election Day kicked off with a bout of chaos in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with poll watchers reportedly denied access and witnesses alleging "illegal campaigning" at various polling locations.

According to Trump 2020 EDO director Mike Roman, Democrat election officials are banning Trump poll watchers all across the city, as one video shows. Another photo on social media shows a physical barrier, which Roman says Democrat officials are using to keep poll watchers far from the counting tables:

Comment: In New York and Florida, the deceased apparently feel their civic duty keenly:
Ballots have been posted in to the New York City Board of Elections in the name of dead voters, according to The New York Post. The elections board received an absentee ballot from a Frances Reckhow of Staten Island, but as it turned out Frances Reckhow had died in 2012, according to an obituary filed with The Staten Advance.

Moreover, another absentee ballot was mailed from a certain Gertrude Nizzere, born in 1919, who also turned out to have a passed away a long time ago, according to the Board of Elections. After the incident, all data has been transferred to the police and Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon's office for investigation.

Earlier, a number of media outlets have cited the Broward County Election Commission on reporting that Florida election officials and law enforcement officials have disclosed an attempt to register about 50 deceased voters to vote in the 2020 US presidential election. More than 96 million early votes have been cast, which represents almost 70% of the 2016 total, according to the US Elections Project.
Just the sort of situation Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch have been litigating against:

      Read More...
USA

Breaking a Lance in Support of Trump

Joris De Draeck
Sott.net
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 22:03 UTC
Trump buy American
Fair warning: I'll squarely defend Trump in this article. I'll hone in on the good things he has done. Lo' and behold: there are many. With Trump's press coverage being 95% negative, I think that approach is needed, necessary and long-overdue.

I tried to make each section readable in and by itself. So skim over the headlines, pick a topic, read a bit, get upset (because "I defend the orange monster") and think: what if?
      Read More...
Attention

Twitter ups political censorship for election announcements from non-mainstream media accounts


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2020 22:00 UTC
Trump/Twitbirds
© www.carbonated.tv
Trump vs the Twits
Twitter has unveiled a new label for Election Day announcements that don't come from "official sources" - a category including not just election authorities, but national news outlets that frequently get stories wrong.

From Tuesday through Inauguration Day - over two months - Twitter will slap a 'disputed' label on "some Tweets that make claims about election results," the platform announced on its blog on Monday. Election-related tweets from any candidate running in 2020 and their campaigns, along with US-based accounts with over 100,000 followers, risk incurring the punitive labels, as does any tweet with over 25,000 likes or retweets. (see below)

The alert shows up as a blue exclamation point and a warning that "official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted" or "official sources called this election differently," depending on the outcome. Attempting to retweet the offending material enlarges the warning, adding a button so the user can "find out more" about how to "help keep Twitter a place for reliable info."

Comment: Twitter has arguably overreached its authority. It is supposed to be a public service, not a moderator of political content. Here is Twitter's new rules cheat sheet tweet, mentioned above:

Targeting the President, Twitter has become a self-appointed gatekeeper of communication and critic of policy above and beyond its scope of service and operation, flagging Trump's warning tweet of 'violence in the streets' after SCOTUS permits Pennsylvania to count ballots beyond election day:

See also:

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts