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Mainstream journalists who refuse to defend dissident journalists are worshippers of power

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:01 UTC
assamge blumenthal
Alternative media circles have been buzzing for the last two days ever since news broke about the arrest of Grayzone journalist Max Blumenthal, who was reportedly jailed for two days after a SWAT-style police team showed up threatening to break his door down last Friday.

Blumenthal is charged with simple assault alleged to have taken place five months ago during the notorious standoff when the US government was working to remove the official Venezuelan government from its DC embassy and replace it with diplomats from the Guaido-led puppet government it was attempting to force into power. Dissident journalists, including Blumenthal, stationed themselves in the embassy in opposition to the illegal eviction and to document the behavior of the evictors. Blumenthal calls the assault charge "a 100 percent false, fabricated, bogus, untrue, and malicious lie."

Comment: See also:

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Attention

The intolerant radicals and their Meghan Murphy circus: Trans activists mob controversial feminist's talk in Toronto

Sue-Ann Levy
The Sun
Thu, 31 Oct 2019 11:14 UTC
meghan murphy protest
© Toronto Sun
Protestors outside the Palmerston Library following a talk by controversial speaker Meghan Murphy on Tuesday October 29, 2019.
The irony would probably be lost on the angry mob of radicals, but the circus they created Tuesday night around the 45-minute appearance of controversial feminist Meghan Murphy made them come across as obstinate, intolerant and as Murphy suggested — steeped in bigotry.

As Murphy spoke inside the Palmerston Library to a capacity crowd, the rent-a-mob of trans and LGBT people and assorted hangers-on grew louder, angrier and more intimidating to those who aren't used to their cries of self-righteous indignation as I am.

Egged on by the ideologues at the CBC, other left-wing media and various leftist authors — enabled by Mayor John Tory who pushed to get the Toronto public library to cancel the event (not one of his finer moments) — hundreds of regressives tried to bully attendees by either holding them captive inside the library or screaming "shame, shame" as they departed, surrounded by a phalanx of cops and security guards.

Comment: See also:

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People

Lorry driver calls police over 12 men stowaways in his refrigerated lorry in Belgium

Jennifer Rankin
The Guardian
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 18:23 UTC
Lorry
© Gareth Fuller/PA
Lorry drivers are increasingly reluctant to drive to the UK because they risk being fined if people are illicitly found onboard.
Belgian police say they have found 12 people "safe and well" in a refrigerated lorry, one week after 39 people lost their lives in a similar vehicle that had travelled to Essex via continental Europe.

The migrants were discovered in the back of a fruit and vegetable lorry on the motorway, near the Flemish town of Oud-Turnhout, in the early hours of Wednesday. Police said they found 12 adult men: 11 Syrians and one Sudanese citizen.

"Yesterday evening we received a call from a lorry driver near Oud-Turnhout who suspected that there were people in his refrigerated lorry," Sarah Frederickx, a federal police spokeswoman, told the Flemish national broadcaster VRT. "The 12 men were found safe and sound."

Comment: As noted above, this story comes on the heels of the 39 bodies that were found in a lorry container in the UK; they were later found to be from Vietnam.

There has been a surge of illegal immigrants to Europe this year, totaling 456,000 so far, up 10% on last year, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, along with similar reports of migrant problems in the US.

See also: "This is a bomb that will explode": Greek ministers admit services overwhelmed after riots at refugee camp on Lesbos

And check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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Info

It's time for 'LGB' and 'T' to go their separate ways

Brad Polumbo
Quillette
Sat, 26 Oct 2019 00:01 UTC
LGBT symbols pins
The growing rift between increasingly radicalized transgender-rights activists and the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) communities has finally come out into the open. This week, Europe's biggest LGBT-rights organization, the London-based Stonewall charity, was publicly accused of subordinating LGB rights to the group's increasingly single-minded goal of replacing sex with gender as a marker of identity. As Helen Joyce recently wrote in Standpoint, "Stonewall went all in for gender self-ID. Its online glossary now describes biological sex as 'assigned at birth' (presumably by a midwife with a Hogwarts-style Sorting Hat). 'Gay' and 'lesbian' now mean same-gender, not same-sex, attraction. 'Transphobia' is the 'fear or dislike of someone based on the fact that they are trans, including the denial/refusal to accept their gender identity.' At a stroke, anyone who declares themselves exclusively attracted to people of the same sex has become a bigot."

As a gay man who lives in the United States, I have no direct stake in Britain's intra-LGBT politics. ("LGB/T" might now be a more apt term.) But I am surprised that it has taken this long for such a formal breach to occur. The same pressures have been building everywhere, and it was only a matter of time before someone acted on them.

Comment: It's interesting that there seems to be a growing sentiment among the LGBs to separate, at least ideologically, from the Ts. The recent rise of Meghan Murphy in the news cycle in Canada (and worldwide) is one such example. The simple fact of the matter is that the radical remodeling of the concept of gender and complete denial of biological reality the trans activists are fighting for is a threat to everything our society has been built upon. Previous fights for women's rights, gay rights and even racial equality, is all threatened by these new kids on the block and their insane religious worldview.

See also:

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Briefcase

Sue 'em! Bayer says US glyphosate plaintiffs more than double since July

Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss
Reuters
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 02:56 UTC
Logo and flags of Bayer AG
© REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
Logo and flags of Bayer AG are pictured outside a plant of the German pharmaceutical and chemical maker in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019.
Germany's Bayer (BAYGn.DE) is now facing 42,700 U.S. plaintiffs blaming its glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer, more than twice the tally in July and potentially raising any future settlement.

Bayer, the inventor of aspirin and owner of Yasmin birth control and Claritin allergy relief brands, is widely expected to eventually buy itself out of the litigation, with analysts currently estimating the size of a future settlement at $8-$12 billion.

It put the increase in claims down to a significant increase in plaintiff-side television advertising spending.

"The number of lawsuits, first and foremost, doesn't tell us anything about their merits," Chief Executive Werner Baumann said in a media call. "The number of the lawsuits in no way, shape or form is indicative of the amount of the settlement."

The company said it was still constructively engaged in a mediation process ordered by a federal judge.

Bayer, which last year acquired Monsanto for $63 billion, revealed the spike in claims as it reported a 7.5% rise in third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion), in line with market expectations.

Comment: See also:

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Fire

Devastating fire kills 70 passengers as gas stove explodes on train in Pakistan


RT
Thu, 31 Oct 2019 07:41 UTC
Pakistan train fire
© Asghar Bhawalpuri / Reuters TV
Passengers leaped to their death, trying to escape the raging fire, which devoured several train cars in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 70 people.

The packed train was traveling from Karachi to the city of Rawalpindi in eastern Punjab province when a gas cylinder blew up inside.

The cylinder was booked by a group of passengers who were using it to boil eggs on a gas stove when the blast happened. Cooking oil added fuel to the blaze, which spread rapidly, completely burning three cars.

Firefighters were deployed to the site, and military helicopters were flown in to airlift the injured.

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Pistol

Long Beach, California, shooting: 3 dead, 9 hurt in costume party shooting

Phil Helsel, Elisha Fieldstadt, Kurt Chirbas and Colin Sheeley
NBC
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
The shooting happened at or near a residence shortly before 11 p.m. The fire department said three adult men are dead.
Long Beach shooting
© Long Beach Fire
Long Beach firefighters responded to shooting at a residence on the 2700 block of 7th Street.
Investigators were still searching for a suspect or suspects after three men were killed and nine other people were taken to hospitals following a shooting Tuesday night at a costume party at a home in the Southern California city of Long Beach, fire officials said.

Officials said those injured were seven women and two men ranging in age from 20-49. They warned that the number of wounded people could rise because they didn't know if people at the party had brought themselves to the hospital.

Five of the injured people were considered "immediate," or with injuries that paramedics believe could potentially be life-threatening, Jake Heflin, public information officer for the Long Beach Fire Department, said.
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Fire

Deflection: Snarling California governor blames Trump for wildfires engulfing the state


RT
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:29 UTC
California wildfires
© Reuters / Gene Blevins
Add California's wildfires to the list of problems caused by US President Donald Trump. The state's former governor has warned Trump and his fellow Republicans that "the blood is on your soul"... for denying climate change.

"California's burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all. The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up," former governor Jerry Brown snarled, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Trump administration's recent decision to bar California from setting its own auto emissions standards. "This is not politics, this is life, this is morality...this is real," he continued.

Brown likened Trump and his fellow climate change skeptics to believers in "flat Earth," claiming climate change is directly responsible for the wildfires currently engulfing swathes of California. While at least two of this year's fires are actually believed to have been caused by malfunctioning PG&E power lines - like last year's devastating Camp Fire, which wiped out an entire town - Brown has glossed over the notoriously mismanaged utility to pin the blame on hotter, drier weather. The only solution? "Limiting our carbon pollution," he told reporters in 2015, defying climate scientists who suggested that that year's fires were not caused by anything of the sort.

Comment: Talk about passing the buck:

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Bullseye

737 Max jets are 'flying coffins': Boeing CEO skewered by Congress for concealing deadly software problems

Jonathan Garber
Fox News
Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Boeing CEO Dennis Mullenburg
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg was raked over the coals at an emotional hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) had victims' family members hold up photographs of the loved ones they lost in two deadly 737 Max jet crashes that killed more than 300 people and said they were in "flying coffins" due to Boeing's decision to conceal MCAS stall-prevention software problems from the pilots.

He told Muilenberg that the crashes were "not only preventable" but also "the result of a pattern of deliberate concealment."

Other members of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation pressed Muilenberg about what and when the aviation giant knew about problems with the software.

"Did you read this document and how did your team not put it in front of you, run in with their hair on fire, saying we've got a real problem here," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said about the instant messages between two pilots which suggested Boeing knew about problems with its MCAS software in 2016 - more than two years before the first accident. "How did that not happen, and what does that say about the culture of Boeing?"

Comment: Flawed analysis, failed oversight, greed: How Boeing & FAA certified faulty 737 MAX
The FAA, citing lack of funding and resources, has over the years delegated increasing authority to Boeing to take on more of the work of certifying the safety of its own airplanes.[...]

But several FAA technical experts said in interviews that as certification proceeded, managers prodded them to speed the process. Development of the MAX was lagging nine months behind the rival Airbus A320neo. Time was of the essence for Boeing.[...]

"There was constant pressure to re-evaluate our initial decisions," the former engineer said. "And even after we had reassessed it ... there was continued discussion by management about delegating even more items down to the Boeing Company."[..]

"There wasn't a complete and proper review of the documents," the former engineer added. "Review was rushed to reach certain certification dates." [...]

Minimizing MAX pilot transition training was an important cost saving for Boeing's airline customers, a key selling point for the jet, which has racked up more than 5,000 orders.


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Sheriff

Florida Senate removes Parkland shooting sheriff

John Kennedy
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 18:37 UTC
Scott Israel
© Michele Eve Sandberg/Corbis via Getty Images
The Florida Senate removed Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel from office Wednesday, upholding Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's ouster of the veteran lawman for his department's failings in mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the Fort Lauderdale airport.

In a mostly party-line, 25-15 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate handed a political victory to the first-year governor, who made good on a campaign promise by suspending Israel within days of taking office in January.

But with the vote, the Senate defied the recommendation of its own special master, who held a two-day hearing in June, concluding that DeSantis failed to show enough evidence to remove Israel for the tragic mistakes of his deputies.

The special master urged the Senate to reinstate Israel.
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