Society's ChildS


Card - MC

Mission creep: How Mastercard's anti-porn rules could be used to ban the Right from banking

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:11 UTC
credit cards jail
© The Federalist
Leftist activists have already been pushing Mastercard, Visa, and others to expand their ban beyond illegal activities, with the eventual goal of demonetarizing opposing political views.

Last week, Mastercard, Inc., announced new rules for banks processing credit card payments to pornography websites, designed to combat child pornography and sex trafficking. Unfortunately, for a country whose corporate overlords refuse (or are unable) to distinguish between intrinsic evil and prudential policy judgments, this promising development will likely also serve as a beta test to further attack conservative groups.

In December, Mastercard and Visa banned the use of their credit cards on the Pornhub website after The New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof detailing the availability of child abuse and rape videos on that site. Mastercard explained its decision by confirming that Pornhub, a subsidiary of MindGeek, had violated the company's standards by providing "unlawful content." Visa quickly followed suit, announcing that it too had instructed "the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network."

Comment:

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Hourglass

An Afghanistan veteran looks back on the 'First Postmodern War'; an interview with Adrian Bonenberger

Matt Taibi
taibbi.substack.com
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Troops
© The Outpost
I first met Adrian Bonenberger in 2014, after he completed two tours in Afghanistan. He'd published Afghan Post, a painful epistolary memoir about his experiences. Bonenberger started that book a breezy, confident, idealistic young officer, but as he came across more cruelty, waste, and corruption, started to break down, second-guessing not only the mission but himself, i.e. why he'd volunteered.

At the outset of Afghan Post Bonenberger referenced everything from the illustrated versions of The Odyssey and The Iliad he read as a kid, to All Quiet on the Western Front. But after years of head-scratching missions, circuitous contracting schemes, and lies sent down from above (and demanded in return), he seemed to realize, unpleasantly, that his experience was less Homer and more Catch-22.

He laughs some, but mostly the absurdity crushes him. A selection of passages gives a snapshot of his progression:
My life is in near-perfect harmony... This is what I've been aiming for, a sense of balance, of co-existing with the world. My job at this instant is precisely what it needs to be, no more, no less. I'm a good commander, man... Life feels correct.

We aren't here to defeat the enemy; that's impossible with our resources. We're here to occupy them, to distract them from the women wearing blue jeans in Kabul.

No matter how many rifle-bearing insurgents we kill, they only seem to increase in numbers and proficiency.

I just want to keep bashing away at the Taliban until they quit. I refuse to stop. I will break them with constant patrolling...

What are we doing. This makes no sense. I feel my grasp on humanity slipping away. The army believes the solution to this is behavioral health. We'd do better with some religious/moral equivalent — sadly, our own multi-faith shepherd/ expert does not provide me with anything like the type of certainty I'd need to get me through this or buck-up.
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Brick Wall

'A line in the sand'? Denmark tightens immigration rules, barring convicted criminals & unemployed from citizenship


RT
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 18:16 UTC
denmark border crossing
© Reuters / TT News Agency / Johan Nilsson
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and a coalition of liberal and conservative parties have agreed to impose tighter controls on citizenship, vowing to deny naturalization to criminal convicts and the recently unemployed.

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration Affairs announced on Tuesday that the government had struck a deal with the Venstre Party, the Conservative People's Party and the Liberal Alliance to tighten the country's immigration rules, putting emphasis on "Danish values."

"Obtaining Danish citizenship is a great declaration of faith from Danish society, according to the parties to the deal," the ministry said in a statement, adding that "They are therefore in agreement that it is necessary to raise the bar for who can become a Danish citizen."

In addition to rule changes regarding criminal convictions, which also include foreign-born residents who have been fined for at least 3,000 Danish krones ($485) for various offenses, the government will now require immigrants to have held a job for at least three-and-a-half of the prior four years before becoming citizens. Those who have been fined for the specified amount, as well as anyone found to have violated the Aliens Act or committed "social fraud," will be made to wait a period of six years before they become eligible to apply.

Comment: The rest of Europe would do well to follow Denmark's lead in this area. Do European leaders want huge segregated zones full of immigrants who are not assimilating, or do they want a real national culture and social fabric with everyone living in harmony?

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Snakes in Suits

Hypocrite: 'Cancel rent' champion Ayanna Pressley raked in thousands as landlord, records show

Collin Anderson
Washington Free Beacon
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:04 UTC
Ayanna Pressley
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.)
The progressive congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) has called rent cancellation legislation "literally a matter of life and death." At the same time, she has collected cash from her own rental properties.

Pressley and her husband made as much as $15,000 in rental income in 2019 after purchasing a $658,000 Boston home, according to property records and financial disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The income appears to come over the course of four months — the unit was first listed for $2,500 a month in June 2019 and the posting was removed in August.

Pressley and her husband refinanced the building as a multifamily investment property in August 2020. That requires the couple to maintain rent loss insurance.

Pressley's office did not return multiple requests for comment on whether the Democrat collected rent during the pandemic, and her real estate agent also did not return a request for comment.
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NPC

The reason media liberals have to lie about "cancel culture"

Michael Tracey
mtracey.substack.com
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:25 UTC
dixie chicks
© Frank Micelotta/Getty ImagesThe Dixie Chicks
Judd Legum is a standard-issue, loyal Democrat who writes on Substack under the auspices of something approximating journalism; he previously ran the now-defunct partisan propaganda operation ThinkProgress. As a faithful Party operative, Legum is evidently shielded from the raving anti-Substack hysteria that frequently gets directed at those who use the platform to do things other than pay daily homage to generic liberal pieties. (He has been quite successful on Substack, but curiously this hasn't resulted in his being accused of legitimating a platform that perpetuates violent transphobic hatred. Very convenient!)

In any event, one recent statement from Legum is worth remarking upon because it's so emblematic of the kind of unremediated whitewashing and memory-holing that standard-issue media liberals reflexively seem to engage in — usually in an attempt to deflect from their constant torrent of dishonesty and record of craven failures:

Comment: Despite their defiance of the Iraq War, the Dixie Chicks have allowed the virus of "social justice" to shape their behavior:

Dixie Chicks submit to social justice, drop 'Dixie' from their moniker

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Bad Guys

Tucker Carlson: Jurors only convicted Chauvin because they were scared

Phil Owen
The Wrap
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:25 UTC
Tucker carlson jurors chauvin trial
© Fox NewsTucker Carlson
Tucker said the whole thing was "an attack on civilization"

Tucker Carlson began his show on Tuesday night with comical bit of unintentional irony as he tackled Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict for the murder of George Floyd last summer. Tucker suggested that members of the jury only voted to convict Chauvin because they were worried about what would happen to them if they didn't, and then complained about political parties trying to "impose a different standard of justice on its own supporters."

"The jury in the Derek Chauvin trial came to a unanimous and unequivocal verdict this afternoon: Please don't hurt us," Tucker whined to open the show. "The jurors spoke for many in this country. Everyone understood perfectly well the consequences of an acquittal in this case. After nearly a year of burning and looting and murder by BLM, that was never in doubt."

Comment: Nothing like letting your leftist freak flag fly.

The Obamas felt the need to bloviate on the trial:


While Nancy Pelosi made the most unself-aware comment to come out of Washington in a while (and that's saying a lot):

"Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice," Pelosi said during a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus just outside the Capitol building. "Because of you, and because of thousands — millions — of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice."

The remarks raised eyebrows among some staffers on Capitol Hill who were watching the event. And the Speaker was immediately panned as tone deaf — and worse — by a long and growing list of conservative pundits and Twitter users after her comments were reported by several news outlets across the country.

In response to the criticism, Pelosi quickly tweeted a short statement, referencing her initial remarks, which her office labeled a clarification.

Mad Maxine could resist weighing in either, as her previous comments on the trial had earned her a tongue-lashing from the presiding judge, and a Congressional vote of condemnation, which she narrowly avoided:
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said she was relieved when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd on Tuesday.

"Someone said it better than me: I'm not celebrating. I'm relieved," Waters told reporters after the verdict was read.

Waters had been on the receiving end of intense backlash from Republicans following remarks she made over the weekend about the case.

Waters told a group of protesters and journalists in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on Saturday "we've got to get more confrontational," when advocating for police reforms.

The congresswoman was also criticized for her comments by the judge in the Chauvin case.

"I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function," Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said Monday. "If they want to give their opinions, they should do so ... in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution."

Republicans and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday introduced a measure of censure against Waters for the remarks, saying her words amounted to an incitement of political violence.

The measure failed on a party-line vote just moments before the Chauvin verdict was handed down by a jury.
Even those who ought to stay out of such matters felt compelled to offer an opinion. It did not end well:
The brand Twitter account for the Las Vegas Raiders was unceremoniously shoved into the ranks of horrible social media meme misfires with a tone deaf tweet on Tuesday about the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial.

The account posted a meme meant to signify that the nation could breathe again after the former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd, who died while being arrested.


The attempt to garner woke approval instead turned into a public relations nightmare as the tweet was assailed by those on the right and the left of the issue.

"The fact that there were MEETINGS that went into approving this graphic and y'all made it your pinned tweet shows you gotta have the most tone deaf social media staff on the planet," responded Tyler Conway of the Bleacher Report.

Some pointed out that the phrase, "I can breathe," was used by pro-police protesters as a counter to the "I can't breathe" slogan used by Black Lives Matter activists.

"Oh no raiders, what are you doing," tweeted sports writer Chris Herring.

"Politicians and companies are really setting new galactic records in magnitude of s****y reactions today," responded video game designer Josh Sawyer.

"So many opportunities to say nothing are being missed today," tweeted Desiree Stennett, the race and inequality writer for the Orlando Sentinel.

"I've seen a lot of bad tweets on this app but this might be first-ballot Hall of Fame worthy," joked Baltimore Sun writer Daniel Oyefusi.

Raiders owner Mark Davis confirmed later to a reporter that he had originated the tweet after hearing a family member of George Floyd say the phrase.

"That's my tweet. That was me. I don't want anyone in the organization taking heat. I take full responsibility for that," he said.

"If I offended the family, then I'm deeply, deeply disappointed," he added, but said the tweet would not be deleted.


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Take 2

Psaki pressed on whether Biden 'acknowledges his own role in systemic racism' in America

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fox News
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 17:17 UTC
psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had an uncomfortable exchange with a reporter Wednesday after he asked whether President Biden "acknowledges his own role" in what the president described as "systemic racism" in America.

During his address to the nation Tuesday evening following the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Biden said George Floyd's death, which he called "murder in full light of day," had "ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism in the United States."

At Wednesday's briefing, New York Post reporter Steve Nelson confronted Psaki about whether the president contributed to "systemic racism" during his decades-long tenure in the Senate.
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Handcuffs

Florida school superintendent arrested, accused of lying to jury investigating Parkland massacre

Scott Travis, Lisa J. Huriash and Rafael Olmeda
Orlando Journal-Sentinel
Wed, 21 Apr 2021 17:04 UTC
robert runcie
Broward County's school superintendent and the district's chief lawyer were arrested Wednesday as part of a statewide grand jury spawned by the school massacre in Parkland more than three years ago.

Superintendent Robert Runcie, an administrator hired a decade ago to clean up corruption, was indicted on a charge of perjury in an official proceeding, a third-degree felony.

General Counsel Barbara Myrick was arrested on a charge of unlawful disclosure of statewide grand jury proceedings, also a third-degree felony.

The surprising indictments — just days after the grand jury finished meeting — saddened Runcie's supporters, raised claims of political influence and delighted critics who have blamed Runcie for the Parkland tragedy.
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NPC

Protesters at George Floyd 'autonomous zone' ask white people: 'decenter' before you enter


RT
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 16:59 UTC
George Floyd Square
© Reuters / Octavio JonesPeople react after the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20, 2021
The Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd took his final breath has become a sort of Mecca for devotees of the BLM movement, who have declared it an "autonomous zone." The zone's rules, however, are raising eyebrows.

The intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has become an infamous address. It was there, last May, George Floyd died at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with murder murder this week. Since Floyd's death, the area has seen protests, vigils, and even baptisms in the name of Floyd, as well as four fatal shootings.

For several months, some protesters have blocked traffic at the intersection and declared it an "autonomous zone," in the vein of the lawless 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' that sprung up in Seattle last summer. With Chauvin awaiting sentencing, they apparently have no intention of moving, and a poster seen in the zone this week lays out some peculiar demands of white visitors.
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Pirates

Black Lives Matter says communities being 'terrorized at a greater rate' under Biden than Trump


RT
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 16:51 UTC
Biden walks away
© Reuters/Tom Brenner
Black Lives Matter has called for Joe Biden to "demilitarize" the police, claiming black communities are being "terrorized" more under the current president than Donald Trump.

In a Tuesday Twitter thread, the Black Lives Matter organization called for Biden to end the 1033 program, otherwise known as the Law Enforcement Support Office, which allows for the transfer of military surplus equipment to local law enforcement agencies. While this can at times be weaponry, it also includes mundane "coffee makers, electrical wire and cargo containers," according to a report from The Washington Post.

"Biden's first 100 days are up in 10 days. By then we need him to #End1033, which transfers military equipment into the hands of police across the country-- including school & campus police. Another example? The military you see out on your streets ahead of the Chauvin verdict," the group tweeted.
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