Society's Child
Italy adopted a three-way system of restrictions shortly before Christmas and has since been changing up measures on a regional basis depending on the latest coronavirus infection rate data. Restaurants and cafes in several regions have been forced to shut down or operate as takeaways only to avoid people assembling in large groups indoors. But several businesses across the country have begun to protest demanding "clearer" and fairer rules from the Government.
Today, the monopolistic powers now enjoyed by a handful of mighty corporations, which are no longer shy about declaring their political bent, have tempted them to wade into the deep end of the political pool with deleterious effects on democracy. Indeed, corporate power wedded to government is nothing less than fascism.
In presenting such a case, it is important to put aside the notion that fascism is a purely right-wing phenomenon, complete with a chauvinistic demagogue haranguing a frenzied crowd. The new dictator on the block is not some fanatical Fuhrer, but rather Silicon Valley, the fountainhead of technological advancement and the formidable fortress of liberal ideology. In other words, fascism is an ideology that moves fluidly along the political spectrum, although some say the ideology grew out of European progressivism.

A U.S. Capitol police officer talks to supporters of US President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli (R), a QAnon supporter known for his painted face and horned hat, on Jan. 6.
The state of play: The prosecutors in Arizona made the claims in a detention memo late Thursday against Jacob Chansley — the man photographed wearing horns while standing at Vice President Mike Pence's desk in the Senate chambers. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona told Reuters prosecutors plan to file an amended memo later Friday.
- Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said Friday that there may have been a "disconnect" between his office, which is leading the prosecution effort, and local offices on the evidence obtained so far in the cases, per Reuters.
Comment: More from CNN:
US takes back its assertion that Capitol rioters wanted to 'capture and assassinate' officials
Katelyn Polantz, Updated 0018 GMT (0818 HKT) January 16, 2021
Justice Department prosecutors have formally walked back their assertion in a court filing that said Capitol rioters sought to "capture and assassinate elected officials."
A federal prosecutor in Arizona asked a magistrate judge in a hearing on Friday to strike the line in a recent court filing about defendant Jacob Anthony Chansley, a man who is alleged to have led some in the crowd in the first wave into the Capitol with a bullhorn while carrying a spear and wearing a fur headdress.
The entire line the prosecutors want to omit from their court filing is: "Strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government."
The stunning move comes a few hours after the Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, said at a press conference there was "no direct evidence of kill and capture teams" at this time in the siege of the Capitol building.
In court, Todd Allison, a line prosecutor for the Justice Department in Arizona, said DOJ may want to argue that type of assertion if Chansley goes to trial, but cannot say that at the moment.
"We do not want to mislead the court by discussing the strength of any specific evidence" related to his intent, Allison said.
Chansley will remain in jail as he awaits trial, a judge decided on Friday, after the Justice Department portrayed him as a particularly belligerent leader among the rioters. Chansley's case eventually will move to the federal court in DC.
The line was a chilling description yet of rioters who seized the Capitol last week, writing in a court filing that the intention was "to capture and assassinate elected officials."
Justice Department lawyers have begun describing in more alarming terms what transpired.
In a separate case, prosecutors in Texas court alleged that a retired Air Force reservist who carried plastic zip tie-like restraints on the Senate floor may have intended to restrain lawmakers.
Chansley's attorney said he is not violent.
"He loved Trump, every word. He listened to him. He felt like he was answering the call of our president," Chansley's attorney Al Watkins, appearing on CNN Thursday night, said. "My client wasn't violent. He didn't cross over any police lines. He didn't assault anyone." Watkins said Chansley also hopes for a presidential pardon.
Prosecutors describe those who took over the Capitol as "insurrectionists" and offer new details about Chansley's role in the violent siege last week, including that after standing at the dais where Vice President Mike Pence had stood that morning, Chansley wrote a note saying "it's only a matter of time, justice is coming."
Chansley later told the FBI he did not mean the note as a threat but said the Vice President was a "child-trafficking traitor" and went on a long diatribe about Pence, Biden and other politicians as traitors.
Before he was arrested, Chansley told the FBI he wanted to return to Washington for the inauguration to protest.
Prosecutors accuse Chansley of being a flight risk who can quickly raise money through non-traditional means as "one of the leaders and mascots of QAnon, a group commonly referred to as a cult (which preaches debunked and fictitious anti-government conspiracy theory)."
They also said Chansley suffers from mental illness and is a regular drug user, according to prosecutors' detention memo.
A Detroit Free-Press article on Friday detailed how Campbell, speaking at a pep rally in 1998 before his Texas A&M University team took on arch-rival the University of Texas, said he was proud to attend a school where "men like women and women like men." He later issued an apology, which was published in a local newspaper.
The resurfacing of an old controversy came at an inopportune time for Campbell, who, according to reporter Marlowe Alter, was the leading candidate to fill the Lions' vacant head coaching position. But it quickly came to light that Alter himself has a far more extensive and recent history of bigoted commentary.
Comment: See also:
- MSNBC host Joy Reid stripped of LGBTQ award after more homophobic posts uncovered
- Snowflake viewers rip Ellen DeGeneres for forgiving Kevin Hart over 10yr-old homophobic tweets
- UK: Hospitals to deny care to "racist" or "homophobic" patients
- Irony overload: Will Autonomous Zone 'warlord' be canceled after old homophobic tweets surface?

Nurses prepare the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines at the University Hospital, in Nitra, Slovakia January 11, 2021.
The plan is broken down into two phases. The first, which begins on Monday and will last for a week, will see Slovakians flocking to Covid-19 testing locations, including regular and mobile testing sites, to take either an antigen or a PCR test.
From next Wednesday, January 27, Slovakians who have failed to obtain test results proving they are not infected will be effectively confined to their homes. Such routine things as traveling to the workplace, walking to the post office, or countryside trips (for those aged 15-65 years) will be off limits. Visits to the doctor and shopping for groceries are among the few exceptions from the regulations.
If the newly introduced rules are not tricky enough, those who live in one of the 37 districts with a higher rate of infections will have to go through a second round of testing. They will be exempted from the de facto curfew, to last from February 3 to February 7, only if they test negative twice. Those who live in the remaining 36 districts won't have to repeate the procedure.

Parler chief executive officer John Matze is "confident" that his social media platform will be back online in the near future after his team was able to launch a static website and recover the company’s data over the weekend.
"I'm confident that by the end of the month, we'll be back up," Matze told Fox News during a telephone interview on Sunday night.
Parler chief executive officer John Matze is "confident" that his social media platform will be back online in the near future after his team was able to launch a static website and recover the company's data over the weekend.
Parler registered its domain with host sharing website Epik last week, following Amazon Web Services' decision to shut Parler down for failure to moderate "egregious content" related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The move was a tiny-yet-important step that helped Matze realize his aggressive timeframe for Parler's eventual return is realistic.
"Every day it changes wildly, but I feel confident now," Matze said. "We're making significant progress. When you go into Parler.com it doesn't go into the void now, it hits a server, and it returns just one piece of information"
Comment: See also:
- Parler CEO flees home with his family, goes into hiding after receiving death threats
- Parler said Amazon shut its service down to prevent Trump from joining
- How Silicon Valley, in a show of monopolistic force, destroyed Parler
- Parler CEO on 'shocking' restrictions by Amazon, Apple and Google: 'You just never think it will happen'

A health worker fills a dose in a syringe as Covid-19 vaccine drive starts at LNJP hospital in Delhi on Saturday
Against a target of 8,117 health workers to be vaccinated on the first day of the drive in 11 districts of Delhi, a total of 4,319 were administered the vaccine, figures showed.
Officials said a few cases of AEFI were observed in some people who were administered the vaccine.
"A few AEFI cases were reported but most were minor and the persons were normalised during observation period. Only one severe AEFI case was reported in South Delhi," said a top government official.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunisation and does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine, is known as AEFI.
Comment: The pharmaceutical biz knows something is up with the vaccines their rolling out or they would not be offering compensation for the vaccine-injured. But by that time the damage would have already been done:
Bharat Biotech, an Indian pharmaceutical firm whose Covid-19 vaccine is being used in a nationwide immunization drive, has promised to fork over cash to those who suffer serious side effects from the drug.
Biotech's Covaxin is one of two jabs that have received emergency approval in India. Covishield, a jab based on the AstraZeneca/Oxford formula, is also being administered in a nationwide immunization drive that began on Saturday.
In a statement, Biotech said that it will pay compensation to recipients of its vaccine who experience "serious adverse effects," provided that the health episode is "proven to be causally related to the vaccine."
The firm also promised a "medically recognized standard of care" in government-designated hospitals or facilities, in the event that someone experiences a severe reaction to the drug. [...]
It's not clear how much an individual would receive under the compensation agreement, but even the promise of cash is somewhat unusual. For example, in the United States, companies such as Pfizer and Moderna have total immunity from liability if something goes awry with their vaccines.
Although the Indian government has hailed Covaxin, the decision to green-light the drug has been criticized by health experts and watchdog groups. Notably, the vaccine has yet to complete phase three clinical trials, raising questions about whether it has been properly vetted before hitting the market.
India hopes to immunize 300 million people by August, with long-term plans to administer the jab to most of its population.
In one key passage, Ciszek describes how his dismissive contempt for his captors and the absurdity of the charge against him vanished. In a moment, they turned to cold realism when he realized what he was dealing with. The Russians were not about to stop asking him the same questions over and over again for days on end. They were not going to listen to facts or reason. "They were relentless, and they were thorough, and they were good at their trade," Ciszek notes.
Respect Thy Enemy
This kind of appreciation for the skill of your enemy is essential to dealing with atheist materialists, whether in the old Soviet Union or in the modern media. Sure, the press is filled with people who are incompetent and make unbelievable mistakes. You and I might consider the MSM something of a joke. But don't be fooled. In the midst of the mediocrities, you'll also find experts and fanatics. You'll meet people schooled in opposition research, psychological warfare and emotional manipulation.
Comment: See also:
- NBC host: Allegations against Kavanaugh are 'dynamite wrapped in radioactive material'
- A fresh mendacious assault on Brett Kavanaugh's character
- Tucker Carlson: What the revival of the left's smear campaign against Kavanaugh is really about
- The case against Kavanaugh is collapsing
- Confirmation vote delayed as Kavanaugh and Ford prepare to testify
- Witness named by Kavanaugh accuser, becomes third to deny knowledge of sexual assault
- Extreme bias: WaPo sandbagged a report that might have cleared Kavanaugh
- Grassley refers porn lawyer Avenatti and client Julie Swetnick to DOJ for criminal charges over Kavanaugh accusations
Baker, who was arrested Friday morning, was allegedly attempting to recruit volunteers online to encircle protesters while carrying weapons, and trap them around the capitol building, according to a press release. Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, the press release said:
"Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped. The diligent work in this case by the FBI and other public safety organizations has averted a crisis with this arrest, and we will not stop in our efforts to detect, deter, and disrupt anyone else planning to incite or commit violence."Baker, who was reportedly in the army for a year, received an "other-than-honorable discharge in 2007" and has reportedly created extremist posts for months.
Comment: Here is the entire criminal complaint filed against Daniel Alan Baker:
https://www.scribd.com/document/49085391...from_embed
Antifa supporter Daniel Alan Baker trained in Syria in 2017 with the YPG, was featured on VICE, and in 2020 participated in the CHAZ insurrection in Seattle, per DOJ documents. Daniel Alan Baker wanted to stockpile AK-47s and build bombs in CHAZ district in Seattle to start "the revolution."See also; FBI arrests 'anarchist' said to have plotted attack on Trump gatherings in Tallahassee - fought in Syria with YPG
An article published in the UK newspaper on Sunday makes the case for "immunity passports," which would allow vaccine recipients to be exempt from lockdown restrictions.
The piece, titled 'Covid passports: a freedom certificate that may get the world travelling again', argues that several countries will start to introduce the documents, in some shape or form, and pressure will mount on British authorities to follow suit.
"Whether or not the moral, political and medical questions of favouring the vaccinated are resolved, demand from the jabbed hordes for the necessary paperwork to travel this summer is likely to prove irresistible," the article argues. The piece drew the ire of many, who couldn't help but take to Twitter to note that it appeared to be a conspiracy theory brought to life.
Comment: Some folks are in lockstep with the conspiracy theorists; others are in blind denial. You can flip a coin but both sides are coming up tails.
Comment: The fear programming isn't working anymore and people have had enough! Hopefully this will catch on in other countries. They can't stop everyone!
See also: "I Am Open": 50,000 Italian restaurant owners plan to ignore lockdown