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Vulture journalist who wished death on Covington students and their parents gets fired

Jon Levine
TheWrap
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:40 UTC
Erik Abriss

Erik Abriss
Digital company INE Entertainment has fired a journalist who publicly wished for the death of several Covington Catholic High School students and their parents in a pair of tweets over the weekend. Aside from his job as a post-production supervisor at INE, Erik Abriss is a contributor to New York Media's pop culture site Vulture.

"We were surprised and upset to see the inflammatory and offensive rhetoric used on Erik Abriss' Twitter account this weekend. He worked with the company in our post-production department and never as a writer," the company said in a statement to TheWrap on Monday.

"While we appreciated his work, it is clear that he is no longer aligned with our company's core values of respect and tolerance. Therefore, as of January 21, 2019, we have severed ties with Abriss."

Passions ran high on social media Saturday after video emerged of several students from Covington, many of whom were wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, surrounding a Native American elder who was in Washington, D.C. for the Indigenous Peoples' March. Many viewers believed the teens were attempting to taunt the elder, Nathan Phillips.
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Hiliter

Southeastern Louisiana University ban offensive jokes, posters and cartoons

Katherine Timpf
National Review
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:24 UTC
cartoon sketch
© Pixabay
The "discrimination and harassment policy" of Southeastern Louisiana University lists "offensive jokes," "posters," "cartoons," and "drawings" as "prohibited conduct" that can be considered "harassment."

"This conduct need not have intent to harm; if severe enough, it does not have to consist of repeated incidents; and it need not be directed against a specific individual/group of Individuals," the school's policy states.

As The College Fix notes, the university has received a "Red Light" rating from the pro-free-speech group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - a rating reserved for schools that have "at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech." FIRE's senior program officer Laura Beltz told The Fix that, although she did not know of any students who had recently been disciplined under the policy, that doesn't mean that the existence of such a restrictive policy was harmless.

"It's important to remember that, even when not enforced, policies that restrict constitutionally protected expression have an impermissible chilling effect on speech," Beltz told The Fix. "To use two policies at Southeastern Louisiana as an example, students may be discouraged from expressing themselves if they read a policy that requires registration of expressive activities a full seven days in advance, or one that calls things like 'offensive jokes' punishable harassment."

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Fake news media doubles down on losing hand, accuses Covington students of racism during old sporting event

Cassandra Fairbanks
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:39 UTC
Covington Catholic school black out
Instead of apologizing for terrorizing the students of Covington Catholic High School, the mainstream media is now digging up old school photos from before the children even went there to some-how prove that the kids might be racist.

Four years ago, the school had continued a tradition where they had "white out," "black out," and "blue out" sporting events. The media has ignored the other colors and focused on photos they found of a "black out" game.

Beginning last year, the school banned face paint for the games. Additionally, this has nothing to do with the children or the families - it was the school.


Comment: There are many who realized they got duped by the initial fake news coverage of this event and promptly apologized once they understood the fuller picture. However, there are always those who are so consumed by ideology that they cannot and will not adjust their perceptions once new information becomes available. Their cognitive disability becomes all the more apparent in situations like this, and this is good. Rational people are better able to spot them and see how such distorted thoughts are not only without merit or value, but also in how such distortions are actually harmful.

A huge lesson for many who saw they were misled was in seeing how context matters. Some obviously have a hard time with this lesson as can be seen in those who insist on staying off the rails.

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Bomb

Derry: Security alerts lifted as police claim all three were 'hoaxes'


the journal.ie
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Londonderry explosion
© Steven McAuley/PA Images
Londonderry explosion
A 50-YEAR-old man remained in police custody overnight, while four others were released "unconditionally" by the PSNI in connection with the car bomb that exploded in Derry city on Saturday evening.

It came after a number of security alerts in the city yesterday. Although a number of hijackings took place, police declared late last night that the alerts were "hoaxes".

As part of its investigation into the explosion which the PSNI says was carried out by a group called "the New IRA", two 21-year-olds, a 42-year-old and a 34-year old were all arrested in the past few days. They've since been released without charge.

There were no injuries in the car bomb on Saturday night, and the attack has been roundly condemned in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain.

The PSNI responded to three security incidents in Derry yesterday that involved two vehicle hijackings and another incident where a van was reported abandoned outside a girls' secondary school.

Comment: See also:
Northern Ireland: Police make arrests in courthouse car bombing deemed a terrorist attack by the 'New IRA'

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Chess

Twitter suspends account that ignited Covington 'MAGA kids' controversy

Donie O'Sullivan
CNN Business
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:57 UTC
maga hat
Twitter suspended an account on Monday afternoon that helped spread a controversial encounter between a Native American elder and a group of high school students wearing Make America Great Again hats.

The account claimed to belong to a California schoolteacher. Its profile photo was not of a schoolteacher, but of a blogger based in Brazil, CNN Business found. Twitter suspended the account soon after CNN Business asked about it.

The account, with the username @2020fight, was set up in December 2016 and appeared to be the tweets of a woman named Talia living in California. "Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020," its Twitter bio read. Since the beginning of this year, the account had tweeted on average 130 times a day and had more than 40,000 followers.

Late on Friday, the account posted a minute-long video showing the now-iconic confrontation between a Native American elder and the high school students, with the caption, "This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March."
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Bullseye

Tucker Carlson eviscerates famous liberals who urged doxing, assault and murder of Covington MAGA kids

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:26 UTC
nick sandmann
Tucker Carlson excoriated famous liberals and a few anti-Trump GOP who called for the harassment, assault and murder of a group of Kentucky high school students who were falsely accused of bigotry against a Native American man, Nathan Phillips, at a pro-life demonstration on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Based on an out-of-context "staredown" between student Nick Sandmann and Phillips, high-profile liberals across Twitter went on a blitzkrieg of fake news over the weekend - falsely claiming that the Covington High School group harassed Phillips while chanting "build the wall" - which never happened.
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Handcuffs

Police in Poland arrest man trying to ram through gates of Presidential Palace


RT
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:53 UTC
Polish Presidential Palace in Warsaw
© Wikipedia
Polish Presidential Palace in Warsaw
Police in Warsaw, Poland, have arrested a man after he tried to ram his car through the gates of the Presidential Palace.

The 36-year-old driver knocked down a policeman who tried to stop him, before plowing his car into a barrier before the gate, the Polish Press Agency reported.

A police spokesman said that the man will be tested for drug and alcohol consumption, and did not "react to anything" when police arrested him.

The man's motives remain unknown. The driver most likely lost control of his vehicle after the police officer initially tried to stop him, Polish news site Rzeczpospolita reported.

Situated in Warsaw's historic center, the 200-year-old presidential palace is the place of work and residence for Andrzej Duda, the Polish president. Duda was not in the building at the time of the crash, as he departed for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday.

"The palace is safe and well guarded," Duda said through his press secretary. "Officers are doing their job well."
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MIB

American arrested for spying in Russia was in possession of 'state secrets' according to his lawyer


RT
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:53 UTC
whelan
© Reuters / Maxim Shemetov
Paul Whelan, the ex-US Marine suspected of espionage in Russia, had documents containing state secrets at the time of his arrest in Moscow, his lawyer said. Whelan may not have been aware he had sensitive information, he added.

"I can confirm that at the time of his detention, Whelan had some documents containing state secrets, but I cannot go into details," Vladimir Zherebenkov, who represents Whelan, told reports on Tuesday.

Zherebenkov, however, suggested that his client may have been unaware that he was in possession of the secrets. "How he got it, what he was supposed to do with it, and whether Whelan knew that he had secret information is unknown," he said.

The former US Marine was seeking information on Russia of an "open" and "cultural" kind, the lawyer said, suggesting that his efforts were inspired only by his keen interest in Russian heritage.
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Black Cat

The corporate media continues to expose itself as a propaganda machine with every new horses**t narrative

C.J. Hopkins
The Unz Review
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
rachel maddow
So the corporate media have gone and done it again. As they have, repeatedly, for the last two and half years, they shook the earth with a "bombshell" story proving beyond any reasonable doubt that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the presidency from Hillary Clinton, or at least committed an impeachable felony in connection with something to do with the Russians, or Ukrainians, or other Slavic persons ... which story turned out to be inaccurate, or not entirely accurate, or a bunch of horseshit.

This time it was BuzzFeed's Jason Leopold, "a reporter with a checkered past" (i.e., a history of inventing his sources) who broke the "bombshell" Russiagate story that turned out to be a bunch of horseshit. Leopold, and his colleague Anthony Cormier, reported that Trump had directed his attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about plans to construct a Trump Tower in Moscow, thus suborning perjury and obstructing justice. Their sources for this "bombshell" story were allegedly "two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter."

Comment: It has by now become obvious to many in the US that they are being fed a diet rich in lies and short on truth. More and more people are turning to true alternative sources of information - which is precisely why we are seeing the attack on it being made so vociferously - and from so many different centers of power. But until the truth space is completely eradicated, it is of the utmost importance that voices like the author's continue to use words like 'horseshit' or 'bat-shit crazy' to give the public an accurate description of the quality of information being shoved down our throats.

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Snowflake

Writing prof sez giving good grades based on quality school work is racist

Jon Street and Rob Shimshock
Campus Reform
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:40 UTC
depressed woman
American University in Washington, D.C. is hosting an event on Feb. 1 on "antiracist" grading with a professor who serves as director of a writing center which argues that American grammar is a "racist," "unjust language structure."

The seminar, titled, "Grading Ain't Just Grading: Rethinking Writing Assessment Ecologies Towards Antiracist Ends," will be led by University of Washington-Tacoma professor Asao Inoue, who previously published an essay titled, "A Grade-less Writing Course that Focuses on Labor and Assessing," in which he argues in favor of "dispens[ing] almost completely with judgments of quality when producing course grades."

"This is my ideal writing course, and allows me to cultivate a more critical, democratic community. It shares responsibility and negotiates most of the work in the course with students, as well as the terms by which that work is done."

Comment: What can one say in the face of such idiocy, except how did this lunatic gain a college teaching position? The answer is that he is teaching at what is really an asylum comparable to Evergreen College.

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