Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 02 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

NPC

Democrats move to strike 'so help me God' from House committee oath

Nancy Pelosi
© Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

A key committee in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is moving to eliminate the God reference from the oath administered to witnesses testifying before the panel, as part of a new rules package expected to be approved this week, according to a draft obtained exclusively by Fox News.

The draft shows that the House Committee on Natural Resources would ask witnesses to recite only, "Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of law, that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

The rules proposal places the words "so help you God" in red brackets, indicating they are slated to be cut. The words "under penalty of law" are in red text, indicating that Democrats propose to add that phrasing to the oath.

Stop

Twitter erupts after EU bigwig Verhofstadt's 'choose your own identity' mantra

Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium's staunch pro-EU politician, tried to hail the pan-European cause on Twitter, claiming that multiple identities don't clash in the continent, provoking the ire of Europeans and Catalans in particular.

"I am from Gent, I am Flemish, I live in Belgium and I am European," he says in a video he uploaded to Twitter. "There is no contradictions at all! There is no war of identities in Europe!"

Verhofstadt, a key Brexit negotiator in the European Parliament and an over-the-top EU supporter, wrote that Europeans should feel free to choose multiple identities and "be proud of all of them."

HAL9000

Surveillance guinea pigs? Facebook pays teens $20 a month to install 'research app' that gives them unfettered access to mobile data

facebook secret
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Facebook has been paying users $20 a month to install an app which monitors their phone and web activity and sends it back to the social media giant, a report has revealed. The app may run afoul of Apple's privacy guidelines.

Launched in 2016, the "research app," first uncovered by TechCrunch, allows Facebook to continuously collect a user's private data, including chats from instant messaging apps, photos and videos, emails, web browsing activity, and more. Aimed at people aged 13 to 25, the app, according to Facebook, is designed to study mobile usage habits. Users were also asked to take screenshots of their Amazon order history page.


While the app is voluntarily downloaded and installed in exchange for upwards of $20 a month, critics have noted that the program closely resembles a similar Facebook-owned app, Onavo, which gave the company undisclosed access to sensitive user data. Facebook was later forced to remove Onavo from Apple's App Store, due to violations with Apple's data collection policies.

Comment: That Facebook is paying people to install an app that collects data is interesting considering how much information they get from your phone already by virtue of just having Facebook installed in the first place. However, it does suggest that there are limits to what they can collect, hence requiring someone to install a dedicated 'research' app. See also:


Clipboard

Local polls show 86% of Venezuelans oppose military intervention, 81% against US sanctions

The vast majority of Venezuelans oppose military intervention and US sanctions to try to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power, according to polling by the local firm Hinterlaces.

venezuela pro government protest
More than eight out of ten Venezuelans oppose international intervention, both military and non-military, in their country, as well as the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States to force leftist President Nicolás Maduro out of power.

According to a study conducted in early January 2019 by the local polling firm Hinterlaces, 86 percent of Venezuelans would disagree with international military intervention. And 81 percent oppose the US sanctions that have gravely hurt the South American nation's economy.

This poll was conducted before the Donald Trump administration launched a political coup in Venezuela on January 23, attempting to replace its government with a right-wing opposition that has made it clear that it seeks to impose neoliberal capitalist economic policies.

Hinterlaces is led by the independent pollster Oscar Schemel, who has experience studying numerous elections in Venezuela and has a pro-business perspective. Most polling firms in the country, such as the competitor Datanálisis, tend to be pro-opposition. Hinterlaces is more neutral, and often leans toward the government, although Schemel has criticized some of Maduro's economic policies.

Attention

California college board scraps Pledge of Allegiance because it's 'steeped in white nationalism'

eagle american flag
© W. Perry Conway / Getty Image
The Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees President says the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag is "steeped in expressions of nativism and white nationalism."

In emails obtained exclusively by Campus Reform, the president of the SBCC Board of Trustees, Robert Miller, stated that he decided to "discontinue use of the Pledge of Allegiance" at board meetings because of its history.

Live stream videos of the board's past several meetings show that the last time members recited the Pledge of Allegiance during a board meeting was Dec. 13. During the Jan. 10 live-streamed meeting, Miller noted at the beginning that it was his first meeting as president of the board. It was also the first meeting since a similar circumstance in summer 2018 that members did not recite the pledge.

Comment: It doesn't appear that Miller actually embraces the constitution. That sounds like a narrative. He embraces outrage and grievance culture. He's playing the part of the delusional white knight saving non-victims from non-threats, while creating divisions among people he should be working with.


Bullseye

MAGA hat gets man kicked off of Frontier Airlines flight for the second time

Kenny Cool
In 2016, Kenny Cool was booted off of a Frontier Airlines flight for saying "Make America Great Again." On Monday evening it happened once again - on the same airline.

While attempting to travel from Las Vegas back home to St. Louis, Cool was called a "school shooter" over his hat and says another passenger asserted that they want to kill the president.

He was the only one escorted from the aircraft.

Comment: Say what you will about MAGA hats but they sure are a handy tool in identifying NPCs.
The Truth Perspective: What MAGA-hat Kid Can Teach Us About The Corruption of Ideology


NPC

Washington Post political reporter calls Trump supporters 'rubes'

Trump supporters
© Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The far-left Washington Post's Dave Weigel called President Trump's supporters "rubes" during an appearance on a left-wing podcast.

In response, the Post told the Daily Caller, which first reported on the incident, that "We do not think our reporters should be using derogatory terms to characterize anyone [and the] matter is being handled internally."

Weigel appeared on the left-wing podcast Chapo Trap Host and in reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) handling of the partial government shutdown and the funding for President Trump's wall, said that McConnell "is very good at identifying what the rubes want to hear."

Pistol

Antifa member killed after pulling gun on cops at a middle school

Charlie Landeros
A member of an Antifa-related organization was killed after he pulled a weapon on Eugene, Oregon police at a middle school.

"An armed man involved in a custody dispute was shot to death by Eugene police during a struggle just outside Cascade Middle School Friday morning," said KOIN. "Authorities said they were called to the school shortly before 10:30 a.m. to escort the man from the school. As they were walking him out, authorities said, he produced a gun."

Charlie Landeros was a far-left activist who used they/them/theirs pronouns. He had recently lost custody of his child, which is reportedly why he was at the school in the first place. He had a loaded pistol in his person, and extra 9mm ammunition in his backpack.

"Landeros was a member of Community Armed Self Defense (CLDC), a group that was created as a "new liberatory and inclusive space for all oppressed peoples to learn about armed self-defense," according to the group's Facebook page, which is no longer publicly available on Facebook as of 4 p.m. Saturday," said a local news report.

The group outwardly hated police. Its Facebook page is archived here.

Shoe

Thousands of Muslims demand Nike recall 'blasphemous' Air Max sneaker that may or may not have 'Allah' written on the sole

Nike airmax
© REUTERS / Mike Blake
An Air Max shoe made by Nike
NIKE has been urged to recall "offensive" Air Max trainers because they have "Allah's name in Arabic" on the sole.

Saiqa Noreen was appalled when she spotted text on the bottom of the shoe and accused the sports brand of "blasphemy".

The illustrative wording appears to spell out the words Air Max in a joined up font.

However, Saiqa is not convinced and at the very least believes Nike have made a clumsy error - offending millions of Muslims in the process.

Comment: Nike wanted to cater to outrage culture, so it got outrage culture!


Syringe

Singapore official: American leaked HIV records of 14,200 persons

HIV sample
© jarun011, Getty Images/iStockphoto
Singapore's health ministry accused an American on Monday of stealing and leaking the records of 14,200 people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, before January 2013.

It said Mikhy K. Farrera Brochez recently put the official records of 5,400 Singaporeans and 8,800 foreigners online. These included HIV test results, names, identification numbers, phone numbers, addresses and other health information, it said.
"While access to the confidential information has been disabled, it is still in the possession of the unauthorized person, and could still be publicly disclosed in the future," it said in statement. "We are working with relevant parties to scan the internet for signs of further disclosure of the information."
The ministry said Brochez worked in Singapore as a lecturer for a period before he was jailed for several drug and fraud-related offenses and deported last year. His partner, who headed the ministry's National Public Health Unit from March 2012 to May 2013, had access to the confidential information, it added.

It identified his partner as Ler Teck Siang, a Singaporean doctor who has been charged under the Official Secrets Act for failing to take reasonable care of confidential information relating to HIV-positive patients. The charge is pending before the courts.