Society's ChildS


Oscar

Chloé Zhao's Oscars victory greeted with some praise - and censorship - in China

Helen Davidson
The Guardian
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:54 UTC
Chloé Zhao
© Chris Pizzello/APChloé Zhao won the Academy Award for best director for her film Nomadland at this year’s Oscars.
Chloé Zhao made history on Sunday night by becoming the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for best director for her film Nomadland. But in China, Zhao's country of birth, posts about her victory were removed and Weibo searches for her Chinese name returned results about a low-level official who had volunteered to promote a local Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Zhao's film also took out best picture, and Frances McDormand won best actress for her leading role. But the success wasn't enough to end a domestic silencing of Zhao-related news which began last month in response to an old interview for which she was accused of "smearing China". Within hours of her win at the Oscars, social media posts were being censored.

The 2021 ceremony was not broadcast in China, but many people saw 39-year-old Zhao's acceptance speech via clips shared on social media, adding comments of congratulations.

"She is the pride of Chinese and even all Asian people," said one commenter on Weibo.

"The four words of: Oscar, Chinese, female, and director, are finally connected in this moment, forming a very proud sentence," said another.

Posts about her directorial victory were live for at least an hour, but within minutes of the best picture win they began disappearing, including one by the US consulate in Guangzhou, and users began complaining of their messages being deleted.
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Bullseye

Tucker Carlson states the obvious: We should start asking people to stop wearing masks outside, 'they are useless' and it makes us uncomfortable

Tucker Carlson
Fox News
Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:31 UTC
tucker carlson masks
© Fox News'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host breaks down the harmful impacts of strict coronavirus restrictions, mandates.
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the April 26, 2021, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight.

In May of last year, the mayor of Los Angeles, a man called Eric Garcetti, issued this order to America's second-largest city. "Bring your mask with you whenever you leave your home. That will help us get more freedoms." Garcetti isn't much of an orator, to put it mildly, but it was a memorable quote, mostly because of the questions it left unanswered. For example, is it really possible to spread the coronavirus outdoors? That's the first and more obvious. And then more fundamentally, since when is a mayor in charge of doling out America's freedoms? Aren't those freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution that created the country? That's what they've been telling us.

So, it would have been nice to hear the answers to those questions. Unfortunately, at the time, a lot of the country was so terrified of the new pandemic that no one thought to ask those questions. People just obeyed. It was a big change. Other politicians watched it happen. They saw a smarmy nonentity like Eric Garcetti, a guy you wouldn't trust to clean your pool, suddenly assume unprecedented, god-like new powers, simply by asserting them. "Cover your face!" "OK, boss." Not a bad trick. So, naturally, other politicians wanted some of that power too. That's why they're in the business, for power. So they did the same thing that Garcetti did. And once again, no one pushed back.

Comment:

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Apple Red

'White savior' Isaac Newton benefited from 'colonial-era activity', claims university

Kurt Zindulka
Breitbart
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:38 UTC
newton
© Herman Pijpers, Flickr
The grandfather of modern physics, Sir Isaac Newton, has become the latest target of the woke mob in the push to "decolonise the curriculum", as Sheffield University is reportedly set to contextualise lessons on Newton with claims about him benefiting from "colonial-era activity".

Students at the university in the north of England will reportedly have lessons on Netwon's groundbreaking three laws of motion, including the law of gravity, with explainers detailing the "global origins and historical context" of his theories.

Professors in the engineering department of Sheffield University will seek to "challenge long-standing conscious and unconscious biases" among pupils and to confront the supposed "white saviour" and "Eurocentric" view of science and mathematics, according to documents seen by The Telegraph.

A diversity consultant at several top universities in Britain decried the efforts to decolonise the curriculum, warning that the movement is expanding from the traditionally left-wing humanities departments into the hard sciences.

"I'm employed by universities to do this training but for me equality, diversity and inclusion training is equality of opportunity, diversity of thought and inclusivity of action - that's all," the unnamed consultant said.

"This is something different altogether. It is blatantly teaching people to be activists," the consultant added.


Comment: Unfortunately, those words don't mean what he thinks they mean. Equality means everyone will be equally stupid. Diversity means a special kind of diversity that excludes those who aren't 'diverse' enough. Inclusivity is exclusive. Woke ideology is Orwellianism in liberal-democratic form.

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Light Saber

'Canceled People': The online database of victims of the new McCarthyism nears 200 listings

Greg Piper
Just The News
Tue, 27 Apr 2021 15:49 UTC
cancel culture people data base
© cancelecpeople.comHome page of the Canceled People Database
When political data scientist David Shor got fired for sharing research that found peaceful protests were more politically effective than violent protests, a skilled manual laborer in the Mountain West had an idea: Why not create a database of so-called cancelations?

Over the next several months he started researching documented instances of cancel culture across the world and soliciting submissions. His project, CanceledPeople.org (and .com), is approaching 200 listings from the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Indonesia and Australia.

The website got a boost of attention earlier this month when Christina Hoff Sommers, the American Enterprise Institute scholar and "Factual Feminist" YouTube host, tweeted about the "well-sourced database" of cancelations.

Comment:

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Arrow Up

Biden's 'catch and release' migrants - without court dates - total more than 15,300 Texas Democrat says

Brie Stimson
Fox News
Sun, 25 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Migrants bridge walk
© Getty ImagesMigrants cross international bridge in Brownsville, Texas
The number of migrants being fast-tracked for release without formal immigration court notices at the U.S.-Mexico border has reportedly increased by thousands since March to more than 15,300.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, said the surge of migrants coming to the border has raised the number of arriving people being put on the "honor system" by thousands from around 2,000 at the end of March, according to Border Report.

The released migrants are given nothing more than what's known as a "385" form, or booking report, according to the outlet. The 385 form usually says the migrant needs to report to the nearest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement station within a certain amount of days.

"It's just a honor system that they are given and this is not the way it's supposed to be," Cuellar, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, told Border Report last week.


Comment: Yuma, Arizona mayor has ongoing concerns regarding the conditions at the border:



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Hiliter

California recall has enough signatures to make ballot

Kathleen Ronayne
AP
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Newsom
© AP/Nic Coury/FileCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom
Organizers of the recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The California secretary of state's office announced Monday that more than 1.6 million signatures had been verified, about 100,000 more than needed to force a vote on the first-term Democrat.

People who signed petitions now have 30 days to withdraw their signatures, though it's unlikely enough will do so to stop the question from going to voters.

An election is likely in the fall where voters would face two questions: Should Newsom be recalled and who should replace him? The votes on the second question will only be counted if more than half say yes to the first.

If Newsom survives the recall he will be up for reelection in 2022.

Among the most prominent Republicans running to replace Newsom are former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, who has never run for elected office. Businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in 2018, and former Congressman Doug Ose, also are running.
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Black Magic

Best of the Web: Corporate media and other race-baiters have incited more violence than Trump ever did

Kylee Zempel
The Federalist
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
race baiters
When you can convince people racism is rampant, you ignite a flame of division and destruction that can only end with bodies on the ground and cities leveled.

Adam Toledo is a name that has likely saturated your newsfeed over the past month. He was a 13-year-old Mexican-American boy who was fatally shot by a police officer on Chicago's West Side not one month ago.

This week, that name was overshadowed by Ma'Khia Bryant, a black teenager who died at the hands of law enforcement in Ohio. In both cases, leftist politicians and Twitter-verified "journalists" couldn't get the story out fast enough, absent facts, video, or nuance — but the headlines wrote themselves: "Racist Cop Shoots Unarmed Minority."

Also in both cases, the stories turned out to be completely wrong. On Wednesday we learned that Bryant wasn't just standing in her driveway unarmed, or just casually holding a knife, or even dueling with another armed kid in a "knife fight" when the officer discharged his weapon. After the officer arrived, she lunged with a knife at another black girl she had pinned against a car, after having already charged a different girl nearby. She was armed and dangerous. And the officer, although accused of being a racist pig by even the White House, instead saved at least one black girl's life.
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Passport

Vaccine passports? EU to reopen to American tourists this summer, but travelers must have proof of 'APPROVED' jabs, Brussels says


RT
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 21:26 UTC
Eiffel Tower
© Reuters / Sarah MeyssonnierThe Eiffel Tower and other European tourist attractions may soon be ready to receive US tourists again, but only those with proof of Covid-19 vaccination.
Americans will be able to travel to the EU this summer when the bloc's nations reopen for tourism, the head of the European Commission has said - but only those who show proof of vaccination with an "approved" jab will be let in.

In what seems to be an indication of how lives will never return to pre-pandemic norms, the European Commission president on Sunday suggested that some sort of Covid-19 vaccination certificates will indeed be necessary for would-be travelers from the US.

"All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by EMA," Ursula von der Leyen told the New York Times.

Travelers will have to be fully vaccinated, not just have the first jab of a two-dose inoculation, the Times' interview clarifies. In just what form the Americans would have to present the evidence of vaccination, von der Leyen did not say, but the EU-US talks on the use of vaccine certificates - often referred to as "vaccine passports" - have been ongoing.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Case numbers do not always decline after lockdowns

Noah Carl
Lockdown Sceptics
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:38 UTC
world map
Lockdown proponents often argue that, although case numbers sometimes decline in the absence of a lockdown (as in Sweden, South Dakota, Florida), case numbers always decline in the presence of one. Once you put a lockdown in place, they claim, the curve reaches its peak and the epidemic starts to retreat.

There are certainly many countries where a decline in case numbers has coincided with the imposition of a lockdown. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that one caused the other.

As the researcher Philippe Lemoine has argued, people start changing their behaviour voluntarily when they see deaths and hospitalisations rising. The government, meanwhile, feels an increasing need to "do something", and the subsequent imposition of a lockdown happens to coincide with the peak of the infection curve.

Consistent with this account, there are several countries where a lockdown was imposed, but case numbers did not immediately decline; or if they did decline, they rose again while the lockdown was still in place. These examples constitute evidence against the claim that lockdowns have a substantial effect on the epidemic's trajectory. Here I will present six.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Black Lives Matter hammered for condemning 'senseless' killing of Ma'Khia Bryant while ignoring video evidence of knife and threat to stab


RT
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 21:04 UTC
vigil for Ma'Khia Bryant
© Reuters / Gaelen MorsePeople attend a vigil for Ma'Khia Bryant, who was shot and killed by a Columbus Police officer in Columbus, Ohio, April 21, 2021
The Black Lives Matter movement was savaged by conservatives for portraying the death of teenager Ma'Khia Bryant as "police senselessly taking another black child," while omitting crucial details of how the incident unfolded.

Bryant, 16, was shot dead by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio, last week. The officer arrived on the scene as Bryant was quarrelling with another teenager.

Bodycam footage shows the officer opening fire as Bryant lunges at the girl with a knife. "I'm going to stab the f**k out of you, b**ch!" Bryant screams, a split second before the officer shoots her down.

Comment: One can't seem to escape the idea that BLM idolizes criminals.

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