Society's ChildS


Megaphone

Catalan rapper arrested for 'insulting monarchy' - 200 artists sign petition 'defending freedom of speech' - Anti-Madrid protest erupts in Barcelona - UPDATE: Riots ongoing

Namita Singh
Independent
Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:42 UTC
Hasél
© AFPCatalan rapper Pablo Hasel is arrested by police at the University of Lleida, 150 kms (90 miles) west of Barcelona, on February 16, 2021 where he had barricaded himself.
A convicted Spanish rapper who had barricaded himself inside a university with supporters in an attempt to avoid arrest has now been taken into custody after a 24-hour standoff with the police.

Pablo Hasél, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, was due to begin a nine-month jail sentence for tweets and lyrics attacking the monarchy, but locked himself inside Lleida University in Catalonia on Monday.

Hasél was convicted for glorifying terrorism and slandering the crown and state institutions. The country's National Court issued an order for his arrest on Monday after a 10-day period for him to enter prison voluntarily expired on Friday.

Comment: Spain's monarchy is certainly worthy of criticism: Spain's retired king flees country ahead of investigation into financial corruption

Now protests have erupted in support of the rapper:

Barcelona protest demanding rapper's release descends into riots
Clashes erupted between protesters and riot police during demonstrations in Catalonia against the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel, convicted for calling the former Spanish king a thief, with cops in Barcelona firing rubber bullets.

Hasel, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duro, was arrested earlier on Tuesday after barricading himself inside the University of Lleida in Catalonia. He is to serve a nine-month sentence handed down in 2018 over song lyrics and tweets regarding disgraced former monarch Juan Carlos I, and a social media post praising a Spanish Maoist terrorist group.




Over 200 artists have signed a petition against his imprisonment, saying it amounts to persecution of freedom of expression, and thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday in a number of Catalonian cities to show their support for the rapper.

In the regional capital Barcelona, huge crowds marched through the city streets calling for Hasel's release. Clashes broke out there too, with protesters throwing various projectiles at police and turning dumpsters into flaming barricades while riot cops fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.



The demonstrations in Lleida, where Hasel was arrested, also descended into unrest, with eyewitness footage showing motorcycles ablaze and protesters throwing plastic chairs and other debris at police vans before officers charged at them with the vehicles.



In the Spanish city of Valencia, officers were filmed repeatedly lashing out with their batons and striking protesters while they pushed to clear the main square. Demonstrators could be heard chanting "Without freedom of opinion there is no democracy".


Spain's government last week pledged to ease punishments for "crimes of express" such as hate speech and insults to the crown or to religion.
UPDATE 18/02/2021: Riots over the rapper's incarceration have not abated:
Valencia saw some of the worst violence on Thursday, where demonstrators could be seen clashing with riot police in footage posted to social media, while a helicopter appeared to be monitoring the protests from above.


Multiple injuries were reported amid the clashes in the eastern Spanish city, while some protesters appeared to hurl stones and bottles at officers.


In Barcelona, which saw the first protests two days ago, further violent clashes broke out on Thursday, as bins, bikes and a building were set on fire.


Protests in the Catalonian capital focused on the Ministry of the Interior, where a heavy police presence was in place, with helicopters also deployed. Barricades have also been erected in Barcelona and the windows of Spanish newspaper El Periódico have been smashed, according to El Pais.


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Microscope 2

We'll have herd immunity by April

Marty Makary
Wall Street Journal
Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:35 UTC
Mask Shield illustration
© Illustration: Martin Kozlowski
Amid the dire Covid warnings, one crucial fact has been largely ignored: Cases are down 77% over the past six weeks. If a medication slashed cases by 77%, we'd call it a miracle pill. Why is the number of cases plummeting much faster than experts predicted?

In large part because natural immunity from prior infection is far more common than can be measured by testing. Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus. Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.

Now add people getting vaccinated. As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.

Comment: Despite the assumption that the vaccine will confer immunity, natural herd immunity is undoubtedly rising. But will this mean an end to lockdowns and social distancing initiatives?

See also:

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Syringe

Melbourne anti-vaxxers arrested as hundreds rally in Australian capital cities

Luke Henriques-Gomes
The Guardian
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 04:52 UTC
melbourne police arrest anti-vaxxer
Victoria's chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has assured the public that "fervent anti-vaxxers" are a "small minority" as hundreds rallied in capital cities across Australia.

Multiple people were arrested at a Melbourne rally on Saturday amid clashes with the police, while protesters also marched through the Sydney CBD and large groups gathered in Brisbane and Adelaide.

Demonstrators in Melbourne voiced conspiracy theories and rallied "against mandatory Covid vaccinations", an idea that has already been rejected by the federal government and health experts.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Australian spy found dead reportedly planned to release classified data on Afghan 'war crimes'

Evgeny Mikhaylov
Sputnik
Sun, 21 Feb 2021 06:51 UTC
afghanistan conflict
© AP Photo / Hadi Mizban
The officer was found dead in the Russell complex in Canberra just a month after the biggest scandal in the history of the Australian military. According to police reports, his death was not suspicious, as he had apparently committed suicide.

An Australian intelligence officer, who was found dead in the car park of army headquarters in December 2020, allegedly had an encrypted hard drive with him, as he was reportedly planning to release classified information on the misconduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

"It is understood the intelligence officer was going to make the information public because the Brereton Report is an erroneous one-sided witchhunt against the SAS to try to appease the Afghanis", the source told the newspaper.
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Bad Guys

'DEATH TO THE PATRIARCHY': Madonna lashes out at shadowy cabal of men attempting to 'cut off her life force'


RT
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 09:46 UTC
madonna
© REUTERS/Eduardo MunozSinger Madonna speaks to guests after receiving the Advocate for Change award during the 30th annual GLAAD awards ceremony in New York City, New York, US, May 4, 2019.
Pop icon Madonna has complained that a conniving cadre of scheming men has prevented her from reaching her full potential, but some believe that the obscenely wealthy and successful entertainer may be overreacting.

"The Patriarchy continues to try to crush my neck with their heavy boots, cut off my life force and take away my voice — Even those who call themselves artists..............You know who you are!!! DEATH TO THE PATRIARCHY! Now and Forever," Madonna tweeted, including a photograph of herself wearing a glittering tiara.


Comment: Looks like someone feels like she needs some attention.

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Attention

TWO Boeing planes suffer rare engine failure in two days, parts break off over populated areas

Tom Boon
Simple Flying
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:03 UTC
boeing engine failure
© @speedbird5280 (Hayden Smith) via InstagramFILE: A United Airlines Boeing 777 suffered an uncontained engine failure over Denver earlier today.
A United Boeing 777 was forced to return to Denver International Airport earlier today. The 26-year-old aircraft suffered an uncontained engine failure over the city, with parts of the engine cowling ending up in a local resident's front yard.

It's incredibly rare for an aircraft to suffer an uncontained engine failure. In August 2019, Simple Flying reported that a car window in Italy had been smashed by debris from a Norwegian 787's uncontained failure. However, today has been a day of incredible co-incidence as not one but two major uncontained failures occurred over populated areas. Earlier today, parts of a Boeing 747 engine ended up lodged in the roof of a car in the Netherlands.

Comment: See also:

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Info

MI6 chief apologises for 'wrong, unjust and discriminatory' treatment of LGBT+ recruits

Kim Sengupta
Independent
Sat, 20 Feb 2021 11:48 UTC
richard moore MI6
The head of MI6 has issued a public apology for unjust treatment in the past of staff and recruits because of their sexuality, acknowledging that talented and brave people who wanted to serve their country suffered because of ignorance and prejudice.

Although same-sex relationships were decriminalised in 1967, the intelligence agencies continued to bar LGBT+ entrants until 1991. Even after that date, Richard Moore pointed out, serving officers who had not disclosed their sexuality during the vetting process faced harsh treatment.

The ban on LGBT+ entrants, said Mr Moore, was based on "misguided view" that they would be more susceptible to blackmail than straight people by hostile states, making them a security risk.

Comment: If the barring of LGBT entrants was lifted 30 years ago, why apologize now?

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Eye 1

Best of the Web: Wall of Lies

John Waters
johnwaters.substack.com
Sun, 07 Feb 2021 08:08 UTC
Propaganda is not what it used to be. It is something far worse. In part because of the effectiveness of its action upon us, we have no idea when it is present, nor what it is doing to us.

stay home
This essay is an adaptation to current circumstances of a chapter from my 2018 book Give Us Back the Bad Roads (Currach Press), titled 'Engineering Consent'.
I see the same syndrome expressed in signs everywhere: people on the street jumping under buses rather than pass close to one another; a journalist I once thought at least vaguely intelligent writing about 'cases' under the seeming impression that PCR tests do exactly what it says on the Covid tin; a political movement supposed to be pro-freedom demanding a faster rollout of vaccines; half a dozen police officers sitting on a woman and helping each other to handcuff her because she is more than five kilometres from her home, and nobody batting an eyelid. Signs of what? Signs of complicity in a terror beyond understanding. Signs of having surrendered the option of having a mind of your own. Signs of a surrender to the insuperable, the inevitable. Signs of being walled in by lies.

There is something we are not comprehending, something to do with the minds of the generality of people.

It is not sufficient to speak of 'propaganda'. The word, used by our limited understanding of its meaning, is inadequate to the achievement of even the remotest understanding of where we are now. To speak of it thus in times like these is like standing on the deck of Noah's Ark discussing the weather.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Czech Republic scraps plans to reopen shops, mandates DOUBLE masking in public


RT
Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:57 UTC
Double mask
© Global Look Press / Keystone Press Agency / Cadu Rolim
Citing an ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases, the Czech government abandoned plans to re-open "non-essential" shops next week. It also ramped up its masking game, urging people to wear two surgical masks or a respirator in public.

Stores, expected to re-open on Monday, will not be allowed to do so, Czech officials said on Friday following a government meeting on tackling the pandemic.

"The pandemic situation is not good, the UK variant is still spreading. That's why we decided not to open closed shops for now," the country's industry minister, Karel Havlicek stated on Twitter.

The re-opening of "non-essential" stores, however, will be debated by the government again next week.

Comment: Meanwhile in the Netherlands, the elite show their contempt for the law by extending the lockdown:
Via RT:

Dutch senators have voted overwhelmingly to pass an emergency act to continue a nationwide curfew, disregarding a judge's ruling this week that the restriction violates the law as well as the rights of citizens.

The emergency bill passed in a 45-13 vote on Friday evening, according to local media, upholding the nightly curfew in the face of an ongoing legal challenge to the restrictions, intended to stem the spread of Covid-19.

While a lower court ruled in favor of Dutch activist group Viruswaarheid (Virus Truth) on Tuesday, deeming the 9pm curfew "not legitimate" and a "far-reaching violation of the right to freedom of movement and privacy," the decision was swiftly reversed on a last-minute appeal from the government. The court reconvened on Friday to rule on the issue, but decided to take another week to reach a final verdict and is set to meet again on February 26.

Following Tuesday's court rulings, Prime Minister Mark Rutte introduced emergency legislation to buoy the curfew order, rushing the bill through the lower house of parliament before senators passed it on Friday. The law keeps the curfew in force at least until early March, though it is unclear what effect the legislation will have should judges rule the restriction illegal next week.


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Play

Art and culture: Why the past matters


The Reprobate
Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Gone With The Wind
The Critical Drinker's passionate defence of the art of yesterday, no matter how much it clashes with current ideas.

Sometimes, you sit down to write something, making a point about an issue that has been bugging you for some time - and then you discover that someone else has made exactly the same point, perhaps more eloquently than you could ever hope to. Much was the case when I tried to write about why we should respect the art of the past, warts and all, rather than seeking out things to be offended by in works that were made long before the current world of intersectionality was even though of - which is pretty much anything up until the last ten years. We now live in a world where films, TV shows, paintings, novels and everything else you might think of are either banished from sight or given the artistic equivalent of the scarlet letter, forever prefaced with a warning about their sinful, shameful content to ensure that viewers will always be reminded of their own complicity in this for enjoying these works, rather than wringing their hands in shame.

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