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Russian people overwhelmingly back changes to constitution - almost 78% voting for & 21% against


RT
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 16:47 UTC
russia vote constitution
© Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina
Members of a local electoral commission count ballots at a polling station following a seven-day nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia, July 1, 2020.
The majority of Russians have endorsed changes to the constitution in a week-long vote. Some 78 percent approved the amendments, while 21 percent were opposed, the Electoral Commission announced after all ballots were counted.

Voters were able to exercise their franchise either for or against the 206 proposed amendments from June 25 until July 1. The vote, initially set for April, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the period of voting itself was extended to allow for social distancing. Residents of Moscow, the city hit hardest by the coronavirus, and those in Nizhny Novgorod could also vote online.

However, the final day of voting - Wednesday - still saw millions going to the polls all over the country to cast their ballots in person. Turnout has been estimated at some 65 percent.

Comment: Turnout for the vote was 65%, or nearly two-thirds of those eligible. Moscow declared the day a national holiday to make it easier for its citizens to cast their ballot in person.

Historians declared the vote as the first truly Russian Constitution to be adopted by the people:

The Atlanticist fifth-column was not slacking off though, with perennial malcontent Alexei Navalny leading off:
Moscow protest leader Alexei Navalny rejected the legitimacy of the plebiscite and asked his followers not to engage in "despair and anxiety," but instead to focus on "mobilization." The populist activist, who has attempted to appeal to both nationalists and liberals, is prominent in the Western media's coverage of Russia.

"I woke up and found out78 percent voted for zeroing Putin's terms. That is, even more than in the presidential election in 2018 (76 percent). Russia has broken the record of fake votes. The announced result doesn't even have anything to do with people's opinions," he wrote on Telegram.

The election-monitoring organization Golos agreed with Navalny's assessment of the nature of the vote, believing the turnout and results to be rigged. Golos is registered in Russia as a 'foreign agent' and once received funding from the United States Agency for International Development.

"This is not a vote, not a referendum, but a show," said Lyubov Sobol, an opposition politician and lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund. Sobol thinks the vote was manufactured, allowing Putin to declare that serving further terms is the will of the people.

The constitutional amendments were also opposed by the country's biggest opposition parliamentary party, the Communists. In the weeks before the vote, the party's leader, Gennady Zyuganov, called on Russians to vote against it, citing a rushed process. On polling day, he tweeted, "Amendment voting is not a referendum. This is an all-Russian survey, which, in addition, is going ahead in accordance with incomprehensible rules. In such a situation, you cannot allow your voice to be stolen."

Another 'systematic' opposition politician, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, supported the amendments, however. Last week, when the political veteran voted, he said it was "imperative to support" the "major overhaul of the constitution."


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Black Cat

The Purge: "Woke" censorship's natural progression ends in tyranny

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.com
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:15 UTC
dictator dictatorship old boss new revolution
© Pawel Kuczynski
"Revolution"
As I have noted in the past, in order to be a conservative one has to stick to certain principles. For example, you have to stand against big government and state intrusions into individual lives, you have to support our constitutional framework and defend civil liberties, and you also have to uphold the rights of private property. Websites are indeed private property, as much as a person's home is private property. There is no such thing as free speech rights in another person's home, and there is no such thing as free speech rights on a website.

That said, there are some exceptions. When a corporation or a collective of corporations holds a monopoly over a certain form of communication, then legal questions come into play when they try to censor the viewpoints of an entire group of people. Corporations exist due to government sponsored charters; they are creations of government and enjoy certain legal protections through government, such as limited liability and corporate personhood. Corporations are a product of socialism, not free market capitalism; and when they become monopolies, they are subject to regulation and possible demarcation.
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Chart Bar

COVID deaths in Canada: A questionable statistic

John C. A. Manley
OffGuardian
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 08:01 UTC
coronavirus canada
"COVID is unquestionably much worse than a bad flu season," says Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, in an interview with the CBC.

McGeer cites government statistics (as of June 17) showing a COVID mortality rate of 22 deaths per 100,000 Canadians.
By comparison, the death rate for influenza in Canada on an annual basis is usually between nine and 13 deaths per 100,000 people..."
Does this one statistic really make COVID "unquestionably" worse than the flu?

Are not questions a fundamental part of the scientific process, whereby a theory is tested over the fires of inquiry?

Is not the act of questioning at the heart of true journalism?

Would you not agree that our ability to question the decisions, motives and actions of our government protects our democracy from descending into tyranny?

Comment: See also:

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People 2

Slavoj Zizek: Politically correct white people who practise self-contempt are contributing nothing in the fight to end racism

Slavoj Zizek
RT
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 15:55 UTC
Black Lives Matter demonstration, kneeling white women
© Leila Coker/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Black Lives Matter demonstration in Northampton town centre, UK on June 13, 2020
Smashing up monuments and disowning the past isn't the way to address racism and show respect to black people. Feeling guilty patronizes the victims and achieves little.

It was widely reported in the media how on June 21, German authorities were shocked by a rampage of an "unprecedented scale" in the center of Stuttgart: between 400 and 500 party goers ran riot overnight, smashing shop windows, plundering stores and attacking police.

The police - who needed four and a half hours to quell the violence - ruled out any political motives for the "civil war-like scenes," describing the perpetrators as people from the "party scene or events scene." There were, of course, no bars or clubs for them to visit, because of social distancing - hence they were out on the streets.

Such civil disobedience has not been limited to Germany. On June 25, thousands packed out England's beaches, ignoring social distancing. In Bournemouth, on the south coast, it was reported: "The area was overrun with cars and sunbathers, leading to gridlock. Rubbish crews also suffered abuse and intimidation as they tried to remove mountains of waste from the seafront, and there were a number of incidents involving excessive alcohol and fighting."
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Che Guevara

Democrats have crossed the line, smearing 4th of July and Mt. Rushmore as 'glorifying white supremacy'


Tim Pool
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 20:57 UTC
democrats trump rushmore
The Democrats' smear of the 4th of July and Mt. Rushmore was more inline with far left fanaticism than anything Americans mostly care about.

The tweet in question proves that beneath the thin veneer lies a fringe ideology. Presumably, Democrats realized that most Americans like the 4th of July and quickly deleted the Tweet.

But calls for destroying our history have been emboldened by Democrats, while Republicans stand for the most part idly by, save Donald Trump.

Trump recently announced they would go after those who destroy statues. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi joined in the removal of statues and quite literally got on bent knee for the far left...

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Pistol

Seattle police chief asks why black people keep dying in the 'Black Lives Matter' CHOP zone

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
eattle Police Chief Carmen Best
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best asked why two African-Americans were dead at a place that "claimed to be working for Black Lives Matter" after a 16-year-old teenager was killed inside the CHOP police-free zone.

Despite organizers urging occupiers to abandon the CHOP zone last week, it still remains very much active and as crime-ridden as ever.

A 19-year-old man was shot dead and another wounded during an incident in the area two weekends ago.

Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Antifa praises shooting of two black teens as victory against fascism

Ari Hoffman and Ian Miles Cheong
The Post Millennial
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
chaz chop fifth shooting
Witness statements about the shooting of two black teens on Monday at the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP, formerly CHAZ) create a confusing picture that leaves more questions than answers.

In the early hours of Monday, an unknown number of armed "security" members of the so-called autonomous zone opened fire on a Jeep Cherokee SUV that had been circling the perimeter. The shooting left one 16-year-old dead, and a 14-year-old critically injured.

Before the age of the victims was known, CHOP residents claimed on camera to livestreamers present at the location that the teenagers had been performing drive-by shootings, and that the vehicle they were in was stolen. Witnesses also claimed that the vehicle's two occupants, whose identity and makeup were not known at the time, had assaulted and robbed someone while armed with knives.

Comment: See also:

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Cross

Russian Orthodox priest: Black Lives Matter is anti-civilizational and anti-Christian

Jonny Tickle
RT
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 20:25 UTC
Bishop Savva of Zelenograd
© Sputnik / Sergey Pyatakov
Bishop Savva of Zelenograd
The West's Black Lives Matter movement is anti-Christian and anti-civilizational, according to Bishop Savva of Zelenograd, the deputy administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate.

According to Savva, the true nature of the movement "is becoming increasingly apparent." On his Telegram channel, the bishop wrote, "This is what kind of struggle for human rights? The struggle for who is most important in humanity."
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Chess

Seattle mayor moves to dismantle CHOP after protesters show up AT HER HOUSE, police arrest remaining protesters


RT
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 19:11 UTC
Kshama Sawant
© REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
City Councilmember Kshama Sawant speaks to protesters outside Mayor Jenny Durkan's home
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan sent heavy machinery to remove concrete barricades around the CHOP 'autonomous zone' and called for a probe of a council member, after protesters showed up outside her residence.

Under the cover of rain on Tuesday, vehicles operated by city workers removed the barricades set up around the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP, formerly known as CHAZ), an area spanning several blocks of downtown Seattle under control of protesters - including Black Lives Matter, Antifa and anarchists - since early June.

Unlike Friday's attempt to dismantle the barricades, which ended with city workers retreating after a two-hour standoff, there were no protesters physically blocking the machinery this time. Instead, they moved furniture, bins and other objects into the street afterward, according to KIRO-TV reporter Deedee Sun.

CHOP protesters objected to the removal because "barricades save lives," Sun reported, noting that they objected to their original deployment by the city two weeks prior. Critics of CHOP had also been opposed, saying the city was basically aiding and abetting the rioters.

Comment: This is obviously what should have been done a couple weeks ago. But it seems someone wanted to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the divisions that are being cynically inflamed in the US and Western world. Seattle police have finally stopped bending the knee to the radical leftists and are arresting all remaining protesters.





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Sherlock

UK's Muslim males had highest lockdown death rate, Jews more than double

Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 20:22 UTC
Misakim
© Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
A Misakim charity volunteer standing beside new graves at Rainsough Jewish cemetery in north Manchester last month.
Jewish burials in the UK between March and May were more than double the number recorded in the same period last year, revealing the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on the community.

According to data collated by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish burial boards carried out 811 funerals from March to May this year, compared with 358 in 2019, an increase of 127%.

It said the figures suggested the Jewish community had suffered 2.5 times as many deaths as a result of the pandemic than the non-Jewish population.

Comment: The coronavirus has been shown to be of most concern to the elderly and vulnerable and so, whilst socio-economic deprivation was taken into account in the above adjustments, what would the figures look like with those factored in? Or, because the lockdown led to a complete shutdown in primary care, was this the determining factor? Or is there another factor shared by the populations making them more susceptible?

See also:

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