Society's ChildS


Yellow Vest

Traffic chaos in Madrid as Spain's farmers vow to continue with protests, dismiss EU concessions as 'deception'

Fernando Heller
EURACTIV.es
Thu, 22 Feb 2024 13:36 UTC
farmer protest spain
© EPA-EFE/JP GANDULThe nationwide protests, which began on 6 February and have seen convoys and roadblocks set up across the country, are calling for changes to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and for local and national governments to take action to ensure fair incomes amid rising production costs.
Over 500 tractors from several regions descended on the Spanish capital, where they vowed to continue their struggle until Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his left-wing coalition implement concrete measures to secure the sector's viability.

ASAJA President Pedro Barato assured that farmers' associations nationwide will continue their demonstrations until the government changes its policies for the beleaguered sector, Euractiv's partner EFE reported.

"We have to mobilise to tell the public authorities what they have done wrong, which they could have done well", he said, referring to issues such as the relaxation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or the import of products from third countries that do not meet all EU standards.

COAG Secretary General Miguel Padilla vowed that the "fight will go on".

Comment: Whilst a number of European governments have made overtures about concessions in an attempt to placate producers, the establishment's brazen attack on farmers, and these protests, seem to have brought to the fore how government's have created conditions whereby farmers are at the mercy of subsidies for their survival, and should government's ever decide to withdraw them, farmers can be easily and quickly be thrown out of business.

See also:

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Stock Down

Superstition and taboo: Germany retreats into the Middle Ages as its economy declines

Henry Johnston
RT
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:51 UTC
A traditional Walpurgisnacht celebration (Night of the Witches) on the Domplatz.
© globalmoments/Getty ImagesA traditional Walpurgisnacht celebration (Night of the Witches) on the Domplatz.
An abandonment of reason is among the symptoms of a nation suffering from a collapse in the prevailing narratives.

Bloomberg recently foretold the end of Germany's days as an industrial power in an article that begins with a depiction of the closing of a factory in Dusseldorf. Stone-faced workers preside with funereal solemnity over the final act - the fashioning of a steel pipe at a rolling mill - at the century-old plant. The "flickering of flares and torches" and "somber tones of a lone horn player" lend the scene a decidedly medieval atmosphere.

Intentional or not in their inclusion of such evocative detail, the Bloomberg writers offer potent imagery for Germany - not only because the country is regressing economically but because its elites are increasingly guided by an atavistic force: the abandonment of reason.

As hard economic realities lay bare the futility of its utopian energy plan and the consequences of numerous terrible decisions mount, Germany is experiencing what Swedish essayist Malcom Kyeyune calls "narrative collapse." The peculiar offspring of this, Kyeyune argues, is a turn toward ritual, superstition, and taboo. It is a malaise afflicting the entire West, but Germany is suffering a particularly acute case.

Kyeyune defines this as an occurrence "when social and political circumstances change too rapidly for people to keep up, the result tends to be collective manias, social panics, and pseudo-religious revivalist millenarianism."

Comment: See also:

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Che Guevara

Adieu, colonizer: France's malign influence still hangs over Africa, and that needs to change

Egountchi Behanzin
RT
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 08:06 UTC
EFF supporters marching to the French Embassy on May 25, 2022 in Pretoria, South Africa.
© Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: EFF supporters marching to the French Embassy on May 25, 2022 in Pretoria, South Africa.
The unity of the continent built on regional integration will help strengthen the economic and political autonomy of its states

France's historical presence in Africa dates back to the 16th century with the beginning of the exploration and colonization of the continent by Europeans. Over the centuries, France extended its influence in many regions of Africa, establishing colonies and protectorates, and imposing its language, culture, and institutions on local populations.

There are several reasons for France's presence in Africa. On the one hand, France sought to expand its colonial empire in order to rival other European powers, particularly England and Germany. It was also motivated by economic interests, such as the exploitation of African natural resources, including rubber, ivory, wood, minerals, and later, oil. Thus, France established colonies in West Africa (Senegal, Ivory Coast, etc.), Central Africa (Congo, Gabon, etc.), and North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, etc.).

Comment: African Black Defense League/Black African Defense League, founded by Egountchi Behanzin/Sylvain Afoua in French LDNA, "Ligue de défense noire africaine", does since 2021 no longer exist as an registered organization in France according to the Wiki, but continues as a social network on different platforms with Egountchi Behanzin as the prime mover. From this perspective, one could say that the author represents a small group, but if one looks around many others express similar ideas, even if there is less of an attempt to present an overview than in this article. Below are some links to earlier SOTT articles, not all about France, there is more to the story than a tale about French imperialism. To begin, the Wiki about the French colonial empire has a map that shows where France once administered.
French colonial empire
© 2019 Creative CommonsThe First (light blue) and Second (dark blue) French colonial empires
It has been a long process, for just a few headlines:

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Bad Guys

American totalitarian "crypto dollar" may come before the election

Aaron Day
Brownstone Institute
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00 UTC
cryptoworld
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) threaten to replace the cash we use with programmable, trackable, and censorable tokens controlled by governments. Your financial choices could be suppressed, and privacy eliminated. Based on what I've learned and experienced directly, this could happen before the 2024 election. The best way to stop it is through direct action, not through politics.

In my 30 years as a serial entrepreneur and liberty activist, I have never encountered a more significant or urgent threat to human freedom and liberty than CBDCs. My direct experience with cryptocurrency, insights from researching my book about the threat of CBDCs called The Final Countdown, and an understanding of the political realities regarding CBDCs from my experience running in the 2024 Republican Presidential primary, have propelled me to dedicate 100% of my time and attention to sounding the alarm on this issue. We are at DEFCON 1.
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Propaganda

No, the Palestinians did not vote for more terrorism in the 2006 elections

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Mon, 19 Feb 2024 00:00 UTC
gaza children
Is this statement true or false: Israel is justified in flattening Gaza because the Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006 which proves they support terrorism.
  1. True
  2. False
The answer is "2". The 2006 elections do not prove that the Palestinians support terrorism. Quite the contrary. What the polling data shows is that the majority of people voted on issues completely unrelated to terrorism. Here's what they voted for:
  1. Safety and Security (37%)
  2. Decreased Corruption (25%)
What a surprise, eh? So, the Palestinians want the same thing that people want everywhere; More security and less corruption.

No one — and I mean no one — voted for Hamas because they thought the group would instigate more bloody confrontations with Israel. The fact that "safety and security" were the Number 1 issue, shows that there's no appetite for more conflict at all. Palestinians — at least the majority of Palestinians — want peace. That's what all the surveys tell us. Unfortunately, the media has tried to convince people that the opposite is true, that the people of Gaza voted for Hamas because they still cling to the idea of "pushing the Jews into the sea." But that's just not true. See for yourself:
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Stock Down

Disney: A billion-dollar casualty of woke

Lauren Smith
spiked
Mon, 19 Feb 2024 22:17 UTC
disney
The entertainment giant is paying a heavy price for trying to shove identity politics down our throats.

The Walt Disney Company is in deep trouble. Its last four high-profile releases bombed at the box office, losing over $1 billion between them. Once Hollywood's most successful film studio, Disney was dethroned last year by Universal Pictures.

The reason for Disney's decline? It has gone woke, to an almost comical degree. Last year, the company admitted to investors that there was a growing 'misalignment' between Disney's output and 'public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment'. 'Consumers' perceptions of our position on matters of public interest', it said, are risking the company's reputation and profits.
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Yoda

Babylon Bee takes fight for free speech all the way to the Supreme Court

Seth Dillon and Jeremy Dys
Fox News
Wed, 21 Feb 2024 22:07 UTC
babylon bee Seth dillon supreme court free speech
© Modified Fox News Digital/Joseph WulfsohnBabylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon urges the Supreme Court to make social media companies stop using vague policies to censor conservatives and Christians.
On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases involving state laws in Texas and Florida that increase transparency and accountability for Big Tech companies. The laws would require social media giants to publish their user standards and then apply them fairly.

The Babylon Bee filed a friend of the court (amicus) brief to explain to the court that, when left to their own devices, Big Tech often abuses these vague policies to silence voices that challenge its orthodoxy — too often at the expense of conservative and religious viewpoints.

Social media titans seem to have unlimited, unilateral authority to censor, deplatform or shadow-ban disfavored users, content and viewpoints. The companies claim to be "content-neutral" and "open platforms," and they reserve the right to censor content that violates their "community guidelines" and rules against "hate" and "misinformation."
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Gavel

Assange's final appeal - Your man in the public gallery

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Wed, 21 Feb 2024 20:25 UTC
The Royal Courts of Justice in London
© Aaron Chown/PAThe Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Reporting on Julian Assange's extradition hearings has become a vocation that has now stretched over five years. From the very first hearing, when Justice Snow called Assange "a narcissist" before Julian had said anything whatsoever other than to confirm his name, to the last, when Judge Swift had simply in 2.5 pages of glib double-spaced A4 dismissed a tightly worded 152-page appeal from some of the best lawyers on earth, it has been a travesty and charade marked by undisguised institutional hostility.

We were now on last orders in the last chance saloon, as we waited outside the Royal Courts of Justice for the appeal for a right of final appeal.

The architecture of the Royal Courts of Justice was the great last gasp of the Gothic revival; having exhausted the exuberance that gave us the beauty of St Pancras Station and the Palace of Westminster, the movement played out its dreary last efforts at whimsy in shades of gray and brown, valuing scale over proportion and mistaking massive for medieval. As intended, the buildings are a manifestation of the power of the state; as not intended, they are also an indication of the stupidity of large scale power.

Comment: It is a miracle that Mr. Murray was able to be present at all. TwitterX has litany of major news organizations who were denied access, even by video feed.


Reporters Without Borders was denied:


Sadly, this has been the pattern from the very beginning:



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Arrow Down

Green Movement is failing...Now they're trying to force citizens to love them

P.Gosselin
NoTricksZone
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:11 UTC
Like an abusive husband, who beats his wife to make her love him.
Abusive Husband
© Freepik

Today, especially in Germany, the socialist-green movement is failing miserably and plummeting in the polls - to record low levels. Desperate, socialist-green governments in Europe are now resorting to heavy-handed tactics to force citizens to "like" them again.

Growing censorship, opposition bans

For example, the EU has just enacted the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU), which is a regulation regarding "illegal content, transparent advertising, and disinformation".

Meanwhile, Germany is pushing to enact a draconian Democracy Security Act, designed to seriously curb online speech and obliterate opposition.

Will backfire

As well-intentioned as these new laws may sound, they are all designed to distract for the huge problems the green movement is causing and to stifle opposition and free speech. It's an abusive relationship that's never going to work.

Like a husband who beats his wife, the beatings will probably just get worse the more he gets rejected by her. That's how things are getting in Germany. Industry is headed to the intensive care unit and the green movement is failing.

Some examples follow:
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Post-It Note

Border Patrol Union unleashes on Biden in short but hard-hitting open letter: 'Dear Joe...'

Laura Wellington
The Western Journal
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 11:10 UTC
migrants border
Sometimes less says more. The Border Patrol Union proved it Monday with a social media post on X.

The union shared a very concise letter to President Joe Biden.

Fewer than 50 words, the message was short but sweet and to the point.

"Dear Joe, You OWN this catastrophic disaster at the border - lock, stock and barrel," the union wrote on the National Border Patrol Council account. "You created it. You nursed it along. You encouraged it. You facilitated it. It's all yours. Don't run from it now like a coward. Signed, The BP agents you've thrown under the bus."

Comment: As complicit and enabling as the Biden administration has been in facilitating this invasion, the White House has certainly not been the only group that bears responsibility for it:

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