Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2021

The French government has ordered a 6pm COVID curfew for the entire country. Meanwhile, in the UK the chief constable of the Dorset Police said that lockdown protesters need to accept that the middle of a pandemic is not the time to expect free speech and the right to free assembly.

In other news, for various reasons governments have fallen in Italy, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Kuwait. Also, Angela Merkel has finally stepped down as leader of the CDU in Germany.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Biden Unveils Massive $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Bill That Includes $1,400 Stimulus Payments
» Fitch: Hungarian Economy Will Boom in 2021-22
 
USA
» “Anybody Can Put on a MAGA Hat” — FL Teacher Fired for Telling Students Antifa Was Involved in DC Riots — Which We Now Know is True
» “Our Telephone Has Not Stopped Ringing” — Wyoming Republicans Rip Liz Cheney After Her Outrageous Vote to Impeach President Trump
» “Revoke Their Degrees”: Harvard Faculty and Students Seek Revocation of Degrees for Trump Officials and Allies
» Amazon and Major Publishers Colluded to Keep E-Book Prices High, Lawsuit Says
» Bill Gates Buying Up Huge Amount of Farmland While ‘Great Reset’ Tells Americans Future is No Private Property
» Caroline Glick: Goebbels and the New American Terror
» CNN’s Acosta Prompts Fake News Wave After Reporting Abe Lincoln Bust Was “Leaving” The White House
» Critics Call on Marvel to Retire “The Punisher” After Capitol Hill Rioters Wore His Symbol
» Dead Capital Police Officer Suffered Medical Condition, No Evidence of Getting Hit by Fire Extinguisher
» Devils: Facebook Restores President Trump’s Page — Lists Him as “Political Candidate, “ Not President
» Franklin Graham Compares Republicans Who Voted for Impeachment to Judas
» Gab Head Andrew Torba Supports Polish Freedom of Speech Proposals for Social Media
» GoFundMe Suspends Fundraiser for Elizabeth Heng’s New Free Speech Comment Platform
» Google May Face 4th Government Lawsuit Over Its Business Practices
» Huge! Brother of Arrested Antifa-BLM Activist John Sullivan Turned Him in! — Says His Brother Was “Somehow in Charge” Of US Capitol Riots (Video)
» Just in: Lindsey Graham Releases 11 Transcripts of Interviews Conducted During Senate Judiciary Committee’s Probe of Crossfire Hurricane
» Man Stole Tow Truck, Then Called 911 to Complain Because Victim Pulled a Gun on Him, Prosecutors Say
» Michigan State Prof Says the Phrase ‘Wuhan Virus’ Is an Example of ‘Linguistic Racism’
» Microsoft, Big Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller Funded COVID Passports
» Minds Cuts Major Features From Play Store App Version After Google Threatened to Deplatform it
» More Double Standards: Antifa-BLM Organizer Who Stormed US Capitol is Released From Jail Without Bail
» National Association of Realtors to Ban “Hate Speech” Online
» NRA Files for Bankruptcy, Says it Will Reincorporate in Texas
» Oathkeepers Issue Warning to American Patriots: “Beware of False Flags and Traps That Are Now Being Set”
» Parler CEO Flees Home With His Family, Goes Into Hiding After Receiving Death Threats
» Parler CEO John Matze Refutes Suggestions GPS Data Showed Parler Users Stormed the US Capitol Building
» Peer Reviewed Study Shows COVID Lockdowns Have No Benefits Compared to Voluntary Measures
» President Trump Plans to Leave DC on Morning of Inauguration — No Plans of Meeting With Joe Biden
» Report: Colorado State Dropped $107,000 to Identify Instances of Racism, Only to Find None
» Retired Firefighter Wrongly Accused by Twitter Mob; “This Story Has F***ed Up My Life”
» Rioters Planned to “Capture and Assassinate Elected Officials” During Capitol Building Siege
» Shooting, Homicide Surge Came After ‘Reforms’ NY’s Leaders Said Would Cut Crime
» Signal Messaging App Crashes — After Massive Number of New Users — Tens of Millions New Users Just This Week!
» Stanford Study Questions Benefits of Lockdowns and Stay-at-Home Orders
» Tucker: Capitol Events Being Used by Extremists to Eradicate Free Speech
» Twitter Bans Trump Over Risk of Violence, But These Leftist Profs Get a Pass
» Virginia Gun Rights Group Dropped by Mailchimp
 
Europe and the EU
» 23 Dead in Norway After Taking COVID Vaccine
» Concern Over Growth of Anti-White Woke Ideologies at Top French University
» Dutch Government Quits Over ‘Colossal Stain’ of Tax Subsidy Scandal
» End of Merkel Era Begins as German CDU Picks New Party Leader
» Food Courier in France Arrested for Allegedly Refusing to Serve Jews
» French Police Detain 7 in Probe of Teacher’s Beheading
» Germany to Put COVID Rulebreakers in ‘Detention Camp’
» Germany: African Pushes Woman Into Railway Tracks While Fleeing Inspectors
» Hungarian Foreign Minister Blames EU for Slow Vaccination Progress
» Macron’s France to Impose 6pm COVID Curfew on Public
» Prime Minister of Poland Vows to Stop Big Tech Censoring ‘Those Who Think Differently’
» Reform Party Leader Tasked to Form Estonia’s New Government
» UK Govt Shock Ad Campaign Claims Buying a Coffee, Seeing Friends ‘Cost Lives’
» UK Police Chief: ‘Now is Really Not the Time’ For Freedom of Speech, Right to Assembly
» UK: ‘No Vaccine, No Job’ Declares Anti-Brexit Pimlico Plumbers Boss
» UK: Deputy Chief Medical Officer Predicts Brits ‘Choosing’ To Mask Forever, Regular Vaccines
» UK: Farage: It Would be an Outrage to Suspend Democratic Process for COVID
» UK: More Than 100 Police Stand by and Let Over 100 ‘Travellers’ Drink and Flout COVID Rules at Funeral Wake for Three Hours Before Finally Dishing Out 42 Fines…
» UK: Muslim Train Driver Loses Religious Discrimination Claim After Suing Security Firm Working for Heathrow Express That Used Fake Bomb Daubed With Words ‘Allahu Akbar’ As Part of Training Exercise
» UK: Man Convicted of Encouraging Acts of Terrorism Through Online Posts
» UK: Two £10,000 COVID ‘Super Fines’ A Week Are Being Issued in Northamptonshire
» Welsh Party Plaid Cymru Suspended Council Member After His Posts Were Flagged as “Misinformation” By Facebook
 
Middle East
» Kuwait’s Cabinet Submits Resignation in Standoff With Parliament
 
Far East
» More Than 4,800 Boxes of Ice Cream Are Found to be Contaminated With COVID in China as Anti-Epidemic Authorities Scramble to Contact People Who Could be Affected
 
Australia — Pacific
» Chaos as Two People on a Flight Filled With Australian Open Players Test Positive for COVID — Forcing Some of the Sport’s Biggest Stars to Stay in Hotel Quarantine for 14 Days
» Matt Damon Cuts a Casual Figure as He Quietly Touches Down in Sydney With His Family on a Private Jet — as Mystery Surrounds Reason for Trip Down Under
» Shocking Moment a Furious Father ‘Attacks a Group of Youths at a Beach With a Baseball Bat After His Teenage Son Was Slapped in the Face’
» Victoria Relaxes Its Border Restrictions With Millions of Queenslanders After Both States Record Zero New Local Cases of Coronavirus
» Why Aboriginal Activist Who Led Crusade to Change ‘Racist’ Coon Cheese Name is Still Not Happy With the New Cheer Brand
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Al-Shabaab Attacks Bus Traveling in Kenya Looking for Christians
 
Latin America
» Mexican President Mounts Campaign Against Social Media Bans
 
Immigration
» Around One-Third of Belgian Residents Are Now Foreign Nationals, Or Have Migrant Backgrounds
» College Caves to Students’ Demands for ‘Reparations Fund, ‘ Help for Illegal Immigrants
» Mexico Strengthens Border With Guatemala as Another Migrant Caravan Heads to US From Honduras in Anticipation of Biden Admin (Video)
» UK: Muslim Migrant Complains of Conditions in Taxpayer-Funded Home, Says Iraq and Hull ‘Are the Same to Me’
 

Biden Unveils Massive $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Bill That Includes $1,400 Stimulus Payments

President-elect Joe Biden delivered a primetime speech Thursday night in which he outlined his recently unveiled $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” Biden’s team touted that the plan would, “change the course of the pandemic, build a bridge towards economic recovery, and invest in racial justice.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Fitch: Hungarian Economy Will Boom in 2021-22

The European Union’s recovery fund is expected to significantly accelerate the recovery of EU economies in Central and Eastern Europe from the shock caused by the coronavirus epidemic, especially next year, according to a study presented by Fitch Ratings in London on Wednesday. According to the forecast of the international credit rating agency, in 2022 Hungary’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by almost 7 percent — at the fastest rate within the group of countries.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

“Anybody Can Put on a MAGA Hat” — FL Teacher Fired for Telling Students Antifa Was Involved in DC Riots — Which We Now Know is True

A substitute teacher at Bok Academy in Lake Wales, Florida was fired after she told her students Antifa domestic terrorists were involved in the US Capitol riots.

One student recorded the exchange and the teacher was later fired.

When questioned by a student the teacher told the class, “Anybody can put on a MAGA hat.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

“Our Telephone Has Not Stopped Ringing” — Wyoming Republicans Rip Liz Cheney After Her Outrageous Vote to Impeach President Trump

The Wyoming Republican Party issued a message to anti-Trump Representative Liz Cheney.

Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, serves as the Republican House Conference Chair — the third highest Republican position in the House. It is a shock that she ever was named to that position and rumored that she was put there by former Speaker Paul Ryan to continue the Deep State Republicans’ harassment of President Trump.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

“Revoke Their Degrees”: Harvard Faculty and Students Seek Revocation of Degrees for Trump Officials and Allies

There is a building campaign at Harvard to rescind the degrees of Trump officials and allies including White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). This is not the only such effort to retaliate against Trump officials from blacklists to campaigns of harassment. Indeed, previously there was a demand for a ban on former Trump officials from being allowed on campus at Harvard. Recently Rep. Elise Stefanik was removed from a high-ranking board on Harvard for challenging the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The concern for some of us is that the Capitol riot is now being used by many to accelerate the crackdown on free speech on our campuses.

The revocation of degrees would result in immediate and likely successful court challenges. I cannot imagine a court allowing such an action to occur on this basis.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Amazon and Major Publishers Colluded to Keep E-Book Prices High, Lawsuit Says

The same Seattle law firm that once sued Apple for propping up e-book prices to the detriment of consumers filed a nearly identical complaint against Amazon on Friday.

The lawsuit is the latest development in growing antitrust scrutiny surrounding Amazon, which has recently expanded to include the commerce behemoth’s e-book division. Authorities in Connecticut confirmed Thursday they had launched a probe into whether Amazon’s deals to acquire e-books from publishers are anticompetitive and violate antitrust laws.

The class-action lawsuit has much the same focus. The complaint, filed in federal court in New York City by Hagens Berman, a Seattle firm specializing in class-action lawsuits, contends Amazon and major publishers had colluded to keep e-book prices artificially high.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Bill Gates Buying Up Huge Amount of Farmland While ‘Great Reset’ Tells Americans Future is No Private Property

While Americans are being told by ‘Great Reset’ technocrats that the future is one without private property, Bill Gates and other billionaires have been buying up huge amounts of farmland.

Indeed, Gates is now the biggest owner of farmland in America, according to a Forbes report.

“After years of reports that he was purchasing agricultural land in places like Florida and Washington, The Land Report revealed that Gates, who has a net worth of nearly $121 billion according to Forbes, has built up a massive farmland portfolio spanning 18 states.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Goebbels and the New American Terror

What purpose did it serve for President-elect Joe Biden to liken Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) to Adolf Hitler’s top propagandist Joseph Goebbels?

In response to a question about the two Republican lawmakers following remarks on January 8, Biden said, “I was being reminded by a friend of mine…when we’re told [about] Goebbels and the great lie, you keep repeating the lie, repeating the lie.”

Although Biden’s comparison was imperfectly stated, it was clear enough to follow. He was saying that the lawmakers’ efforts to challenge the Electoral College votes from disputed states was a Nazi-like effort.

By speaking this way, Biden did many things at once. First, he whitewashed Goebbels’ barbaric crimes. Goebbels was the chief architect of totalitarianism in Nazi Germany and one of the lead architects of the Holocaust.

In his literary warning about the fragility of freedom and the allure of totalitarianism, 1984, George Orwell demonstrated that total control over a society is achieved through total control over the information its members can see.

Goebbels implemented this in Nazi Germany. As Hitler’s propagandist, Goebbels exerted total control over information. He ensured that Germans would view Hitler as their infallible savior. He conditioned them to view Jews as subhuman vermin, to be exterminated like cockroaches. And he made them believe that all Germans who didn’t accept what they were told were enemies of the people…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

CNN’s Acosta Prompts Fake News Wave After Reporting Abe Lincoln Bust Was “Leaving” The White House

CNN’s Jim Acosta set off a fake news wave when he reported that a bust of Abe Lincoln was “leaving” the White House, leading many, including Keith Olbermann, to claim it was being stolen.

The item was one of a number of things being removed by members of the Trump administration before Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.

“More stuff (appears to be Abe Lincoln bust) leaving the West Wing this afternoon,” tweeted Acosta alongside an image of a man carrying the bust.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Critics Call on Marvel to Retire “The Punisher” After Capitol Hill Rioters Wore His Symbol

Marvel comics is under pressure to retire a character from its universe known as The Punisher after his symbol was worn by some of the Capitol Hill rioters on January 6.

The Punisher was first introduced in 1974 and is the alter ego of the character Frank Castle. An ex-military man, Castle uses unconventional tactics, including torture, violence, and even murder, to exact his revenge on evildoers. That characteristic sets The Punisher apart from almost all other Marvel heroes.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Dead Capital Police Officer Suffered Medical Condition, No Evidence of Getting Hit by Fire Extinguisher

The U.S. Capitol police officer who died following the Jan. 6 Capitol invasion is believed to have suffered from a pre-existing medical condition that contributed to his death. This fact complicates the mainstream media’s narrative, which seeks to pin the officer’s death on supposedly violent pro-Trump protesters. The media is trying to forge resentment against Trump and conservative activists in the eyes of Middle America, using the fallen officer as a cause celebre. But even the officer’s family is pleading with the public not to politicize his death as narrative-busting details emerge.

Brian Sicknick was reportedly “injured” during the Capitol protest and media and activists ran with the story that Trump protesters hit him with a fire extinguisher. But Propublica reported that Sicknick told his brother he was merely pepper-sprayed. Where did the fire extinguisher story come from? ProPublica also noted Sicknick’s blood clot and stroke and use of a ventilator, according to Western Journal.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Devils: Facebook Restores President Trump’s Page — Lists Him as “Political Candidate, “ Not President

Last week after protesters and activists stormed the US Capitol the tech giants colluded and decided to remove the President of the United States.

They said Trump was dangerous for challenging the election.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Franklin Graham Compares Republicans Who Voted for Impeachment to Judas

In a Thursday Facebook post, Franklin Graham blasted the 10 Republicans who voted with Democrats to impeach President Trump, comparing their conduct to that of Judas, who infamously betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Gab Head Andrew Torba Supports Polish Freedom of Speech Proposals for Social Media

Andrew Torba is the founder of the independent social media portal GAB, which is meant to be an alternative to Twitter and a public forum on which freedom of expression is not hindered.

Torba on Thursday posted an entry in which he voiced his support for the Polish government’s ideas surrounding the protection of freedom of speech and the rights of those using social media portals. He also emphasized his Polish heritage.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

GoFundMe Suspends Fundraiser for Elizabeth Heng’s New Free Speech Comment Platform

Elizabeth Heng, CEO of The New Internet, announced on Thursday on Twitter that the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform had shut down her campaign created to support her new, freedom of speech-friendly company.

The New Internet bills itself as a platform for restoring free speech and allowing all authenticated users to comment on every social media or news website without being censored.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Google May Face 4th Government Lawsuit Over Its Business Practices

State attorneys general are planning another lawsuit against Google, this one focused on the search and advertising giant’s Play Store for Android phones, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in February or March, the sources said, and it would follow complaints about Google’s management of its Play Store even though the company was originally see

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Huge! Brother of Arrested Antifa-BLM Activist John Sullivan Turned Him in! — Says His Brother Was “Somehow in Charge” Of US Capitol Riots (Video)

Antifa-Insurgence leader John Earl Sullivan is in custody after being arrested in Utah on Thursday.

As reported previously Antifa protester John Sullivan was caught on video posing as a Trump supporter during the rioting at the US Capitol last week.

Footage obtained by the Gateway Pundit from militant Black Lives Matter and Antifa activist John Sullivan’s Discord server shows the so-called “civil rights activist” reveling inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6 as he damaged federal property.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Just in: Lindsey Graham Releases 11 Transcripts of Interviews Conducted During Senate Judiciary Committee’s Probe of Crossfire Hurricane

Lindsay Graham released 11 transcripts of interviews conducted during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s probe of Crossfire Hurricane.

In July of 2016, Peter Strzok opened a counterintel investigation into Trump’s camp dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” on suspicions (based on no evidence) that the Russians had infiltrated Trump’s circle.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Man Stole Tow Truck, Then Called 911 to Complain Because Victim Pulled a Gun on Him, Prosecutors Say

A Grand Crossing man stole a towing company’s truck and then called 911 himself because he was upset that the truck’s driver dared to pull a gun on him, prosecutors said.

Elliott Scott, 22, is charged with aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, misdemeanor theft, and driving on a suspended or revoked license.

“Mr. Scott called 911?” a befuddled Judge Charles Beach asked prosecutors after hearing their allegations.

“Yeah,” Scott interjected. “Right.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Michigan State Prof Says the Phrase ‘Wuhan Virus’ Is an Example of ‘Linguistic Racism’

Michigan State University recently highlighted linguistics professor Peter De Costa’s study about “linguistic racism.”

To explain the concept, De Costa cited the phrase “Wuhan virus” as an example.

The university’s official news service, MSU Today, interviewed De Costa following the publication of his study, “Linguistic racism: Its negative effects and why we need to contest it.”

De Costa said that “linguistic racism” is “magnified when a speaker is multilingual and shuttles between different languages and language varieties.” He explained that “nationalist and hate-mongering efforts to label the virus as the ‘China virus’ or the ‘Wuhan virus’“ are an example of linguistic racism.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Microsoft, Big Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller Funded COVID Passports

A coalition of big tech companies, including Microsoft is developing a COVID passport, with the expectation that a digital document linked to vaccination status will be required to travel and get access to basic services.

The group is calling itself the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), and includes Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Minds Cuts Major Features From Play Store App Version After Google Threatened to Deplatform it

Bill Ottman, CEO of the open-source, free speech social network Minds has revealed that several key features will no longer be available in the Google Play store version of the Minds app after Google sent a 24-hour warning.

Ottman wrote that the Minds team had removed search, discovery, and comments from the response app which was accepted into the Google Play store. This functionality has also been removed from the Minds iOS app.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

More Double Standards: Antifa-BLM Organizer Who Stormed US Capitol is Released From Jail Without Bail

Antifa-Insurgence leader John Earl Sullivan is in custody after being arrested in Utah on Thursday.

As reported previously Antifa protester John Sullivan was caught on video posing as a Trump supporter during the rioting at the US Capitol last week.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

National Association of Realtors to Ban “Hate Speech” Online

The National Association of Realtors, the largest trade organization in the United States, has revised its policies to ban “hate speech and harassing speech” 24/7. The move is being considered by far the strictest social policy in the corporate world.

The updated policy prohibits the 1.4 million NAR members from using poorly-defined “hate speech” in private and public communication, be it offline or online.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

NRA Files for Bankruptcy, Says it Will Reincorporate in Texas

WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Friday filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a restructuring plan aimed at moving the influential gun rights group to Texas.

The filing comes six months after New York state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA for allegedly misappropriating funds.

The advocacy group said that it would restructure as a Texas nonprofit to exit from what it described as “a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York,” where it is currently registered

The NRA, which said it was not financially broke, filed for protection under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Oathkeepers Issue Warning to American Patriots: “Beware of False Flags and Traps That Are Now Being Set”

Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That oath, mandated by Article VI of the Constitution itself, is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches, or to detain Americans as “enemy combatants” in violation of their ancient right to jury trial.

The Oath Keepers motto is “not on our watch!”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Parler CEO Flees Home With His Family, Goes Into Hiding After Receiving Death Threats

Parler CEO John Matze has gone into hiding with his family after receiving death threats.

Because of Big Tech censorship, Parler, the free speech alternative to Twitter, became the fastest growing social media company — until they got deplatformed by Amazon, Apple and Google in a coordinated attack.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Parler CEO John Matze Refutes Suggestions GPS Data Showed Parler Users Stormed the US Capitol Building

Parler is asking a US District Court for the Western District of Washington to issue a temporary restraining order as part of its case against Amazon Web Services (AWS), and is refuting media reports that claim they have evidence that its users were present inside the US Capitol building on January 6.

The alternative social networking app got swept away in a tsunami of censorship hitting the US after last week’s unrest in Washington, when Google and Apple pulled it from its stores, while Amazon banned its entire platform from AWS citing a violation of terms of service.

In the lawsuit, Parler alleges that Amazon was in breach of contract, while also violating antitrust rules and undermining the free speech social network’s business to the point that a temporary restraining order was needed to keep it online.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Peer Reviewed Study Shows COVID Lockdowns Have No Benefits Compared to Voluntary Measures

A new peer reviewed study by Stanford researchers has found that mandatory lockdowns do not provide more benefits to stopping the spread of COVID-19 than voluntary measures such as social distancing.

The study compared countries that had imposed mandatory lockdowns, such as England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the U.S., to those that had relied on the public to follow voluntary measures, such as Sweden and South Korea.

The researchers subtracted “the sum of non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) effects and epidemic dynamics in countries that did not enact more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions (mrNPIs) from the sum of NPI effects and epidemic dynamics in countries that did.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

President Trump Plans to Leave DC on Morning of Inauguration — No Plans of Meeting With Joe Biden

President Trump plans on leaving the Swamp on Wednesday morning before the inauguration.

Trump will fly to Palm Beach to begin his post-presidency. His approval rating stands at 48% in the latest Rasmussen poll.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Colorado State Dropped $107,000 to Identify Instances of Racism, Only to Find None

Colorado State University spent $107,000 on a fruitless investigation into racism allegations within its athletics department.

According to the Denver Post, the university paid law firm Husch Blackwell $107,397.50 for more than 304.6 billable hours of services rendered, resulting in an hourly rate of $371.14. The invoice noted that the firm gave CSU a “discount” of percent.

In October, Campus Reform reported that the university hired the investigators to look into issues related to COVID-19 policy compliance and alleged racial bias.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Retired Firefighter Wrongly Accused by Twitter Mob; “This Story Has F***ed Up My Life”

An innocent man has been called a terrorist and targeted with threats after a group of Twitter users misidentified a retired Chicago firefighter as the man who used a fire extinguisher to attack a cop during the Capitol riot.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Rioters Planned to “Capture and Assassinate Elected Officials” During Capitol Building Siege

Federal prosecutors are claiming in a new court filing that the intention of the Capitol rioters was to “capture and assassinate elected officials.”

Prosecutors made the claim in a memo seeking to keep Jacob Anthony Chansley in detention after rallying people inside the Capitol using a bullhorn. During the riot, Chansley wore a headdress, face paint, and carried a six-foot spear.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Shooting, Homicide Surge Came After ‘Reforms’ NY’s Leaders Said Would Cut Crime

In March 2019, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, took a victory lap after the Empire State passed its “red-flag” gun law, meant to facilitate the confiscation of firearms from people deemed a risk to themselves or others.

“Something has to be done, because we are literally losing human life” to gun violence, the governor said.

The measure doesn’t seem to have helped. In 2018, before the red-flag law was enacted, the number of shooting victims in New York City was at its lowest since 2002. Two years later, the city saw almost 1,000 more shootings than the year the red-flag law took effect.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Signal Messaging App Crashes — After Massive Number of New Users — Tens of Millions New Users Just This Week!

Signal App is the latest alternative app to crash on Friday.

Signal is the latest app struggling to keep up with the massive growth they are experiencing.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Stanford Study Questions Benefits of Lockdowns and Stay-at-Home Orders

A group of researchers at Stanford published a peer-reviewed study earlier this month assessing the impact of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders — what they refer to as non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in early 2020. The study did not find evidence to support that NPIs were effective in preventing the spread.

“In summary, we fail to find strong evidence supporting a role for more restrictive NPIs in the control of COVID in early 2020,” the study concludes. “We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures. The data cannot fully exclude the possibility of some benefits. However, even if they exist, these benefits may not match the numerous harms of these aggressive measures. More targeted public health interventions that more effectively reduce transmissions may be important for future epidemic control without the harms of highly restrictive measures.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Tucker: Capitol Events Being Used by Extremists to Eradicate Free Speech

Tucker Carlson warned Thursday that a narrative full of lies in regards to the events at the US Capitol is being used to “justify the most sweeping crackdown on civil liberties and free speech in the history of this country.”

“Last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol was not an act of racism, nor was it an insurrection,” Carlson noted during a monologue, adding “It was not an armed invasion by a brigade of dangerous White supremacists. Those are lies.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Bans Trump Over Risk of Violence, But These Leftist Profs Get a Pass

In one of the latest crackdowns from Big Tech, President Donald Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, and Parler has been cut off by Amazon Web Services, Apple and Google. Tech companies have justified the censorship as the necessary course of action for Trump, his supporters, and conservatives due to the “risk of further incitement of violence.”

But, for years, Campus Reform has reported on leftist professors who have explicitly sent ill wishes to conservatives and Trump supporters and who have justified violence as a means of silencing those with whom they disagree.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Virginia Gun Rights Group Dropped by Mailchimp

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is the latest right-leaning organization to be de-platformed by a major tech entity. The email/newsletter service Mailchimp has blocked the 2nd Amendment group from sending out information through its service.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

23 Dead in Norway After Taking COVID Vaccine

Reports emerging from Norway indicate that at least twenty three people have died after taking the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, yet the government regulator has said they don’t see anything alarming in the cases.

Norway was one of the first countries to start vaccinating people before the end of last year, beginning in nursing homes with the elderly.

Reports from local media there note that there have been 23 deaths among those who have taken the shot, with 13 so far positively linked to the side effects of the shot.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Concern Over Growth of Anti-White Woke Ideologies at Top French University

Students at France’s prestigious Sciences Po University have expressed concern over the growth of radical, woke, anti-white ideologies largely imported from the United States.

Romain, a student at Sciences Po Paris, said that he and others have noticed a surge of people at the university backing racialist, colonialist, and other ideologies which oppose both “white supremacy” and criticise “white fragility”.

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Dutch Government Quits Over ‘Colossal Stain’ of Tax Subsidy Scandal

THE HAGUE (Reuters) — Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government resigned on Friday, accepting responsibility for wrongful accusations of fraud by the tax authorities that drove thousands of families to financial ruin, often on the basis of ethnicity.

The cabinet would remain in place for now in a caretaker capacity to manage the coronavirus crisis, Rutte said. He then rode his bike to King Willem-Alexander’s 17th century baroque Huis Ten Bosch palace in The Hague to discuss his resignation.

An election has already been scheduled for March 17 at the end of Rutte’s third term.

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End of Merkel Era Begins as German CDU Picks New Party Leader

BERLIN (Reuters) — Germany’s Christian Democrats elect a new chairman on Saturday, aiming to unite their conservative party behind a new leader who they hope can succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor when she steps down after federal elections in September.

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Food Courier in France Arrested for Allegedly Refusing to Serve Jews

(JTA) — French police have arrested an Algerian man they say declined to serve Jewish-owned businesses because of antisemitic discrimination while working as a food courier in Strasbourg.

The man, Dhia Edine D., is an illegal immigrant, the French lawmaker Meyer Habib wrote Wednesday on Twitter. Earlier this week, Edine D. allegedly told staff from two kosher restaurants that he does “not serve Jews” and thus is canceling their order with Deliveroo, the online delivery service for which he was working.

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French Police Detain 7 in Probe of Teacher’s Beheading

LE PECQ, France — French anti-terrorism police on Tuesday detained seven people suspected of having communicated via social media with the killer of a schoolteacher whose beheading last year reopened debate about France’s cherished rights of expression, a judicial official said.

The teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed Oct. 16 outside his Paris-region school after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a class debate on free expression.

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Germany to Put COVID Rulebreakers in ‘Detention Camp’

Germany is set to put COVID dissidents who repeatedly fail to properly follow the rules in what is being described as a ‘detention camp’ located in Dresden.

Yes really.

In order to try to increase compliance, violators are told that if they receive both a warning and then a fine, a court will decide whether they should be punished with a stint in the camp.

“We don’t assume that there will be very many, but in the event that a court decides that way, there will be a facility to accommodate them,” a spokesperson told RT.

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Germany: African Pushes Woman Into Railway Tracks While Fleeing Inspectors

A Nigerian man caught traveling as a fare-dodger in Frankfurt pushed a 60-year-old woman onto the railway tracks and seriously injured her while trying to flee inspectors, the Junge Freiheit reported. The victim survived the attack, as no train was arriving at that moment.

The 49-year-old African was spotted by two controllers on the S-Bahn traveling from Wiesbaden to Hanau without a valid ticket. They asked him to leave the train at Frankfurt Airport Station. While he was getting off, according to the police, he suddenly pushed one of the controllers aside and fled across the platform.

There he pushed a woman so hard that she fell headfirst onto the tracks. The victim was unconscious for a while, but, fortunately, the two inspectors managed to quickly lift her up and called an ambulance.

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Hungarian Foreign Minister Blames EU for Slow Vaccination Progress

Coronavirus restrictions cannot be lifted in Hungary due to the European Commission’s “scandalously” slow procurement of vaccines, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjartó said at a press conference in Budapest on another topic on Thursday.

Szijjartó said that the problems of last year had not disappeared this year either, and even at the beginning of the year — contrary to expectations — the “euphoria” fell short.

“Everyone expected, based on the belief in Brussels, that vaccination will be launched at a tremendous rate in the European Union at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, which will then be able to lift existing restrictive measures and restrictions in European countries,” he said.

Szijjartó added, however, that all this was lagging behind because of the European Commission, while vaccination is taking place at “stormy speeds” across the EU, in the United States, Britain and Israel.

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Macron’s France to Impose 6pm COVID Curfew on Public

France is entering an even harsher coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, as the government announced a raft of new measures including a nationwide curfew and border controls for new arrivals.

Macron’s left-liberal government is launching the new-broadened curfew, saying the restrictions will last for at least two weeks. At the moment, the most-impacted regions of France have a 6 pm curfew now, and others have 8 pm, but from Saturday, the whole country will have to be home by early evening.

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Prime Minister of Poland Vows to Stop Big Tech Censoring ‘Those Who Think Differently’

Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki has vowed to “defend freedom of speech on the internet” and insisted “the owners of social media networks cannot operate above the law” after U.S. President Donald Trump and Parler were purged.

“I was born and raised among people for whom freedom was the most precious of values… because we know what it is like when someone tries to limit it,” said the 52-year-old conservative, who was born in the same year the Soviet communists and puppet regimes in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland itself invaded the wayward satellite state of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring.

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Reform Party Leader Tasked to Form Estonia’s New Government

HELSINKI (AP) — Estonia’s president on Thursday tasked the leader of the main opposition party to form a new government, a day after Prime Minister Juri Ratas and his Cabinet stepped down in the wake of a corruption scandal in Ratas’ ruling Center Party.

Kaja Kallas, chairwoman of the center-right Reform Party that emerged as the winner of the 2019 general election, will have 14 days to put together a new Cabinet, President Kersti Kaljulaid said.

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UK Govt Shock Ad Campaign Claims Buying a Coffee, Seeing Friends ‘Cost Lives’

A series of new social media ads which aim to shock Britons into staying locked in their homes and avoid interacting with other people claim that buying a cup of coffee could “cost lives.”

The ads were released on Thursday, with one Facebook meme labelled “Don’t let a coffee cost lives.”

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UK Police Chief: ‘Now is Really Not the Time’ For Freedom of Speech, Right to Assembly

The chief constable of Dorset Police has urged lockdown protesters to accept that “now is really not the time” for freedom of speech and the right to assembly.

Chief Constable James Vaughan was speaking after the controversial arrest of two women for, seemingly, being recorded leaving home more than once and “sitting on a bench”, in an incident the police now allege was “stage-managed” by lockdown protesters, as one of the women is a Covid sceptic — although she denies any pre-planning.

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UK: ‘No Vaccine, No Job’ Declares Anti-Brexit Pimlico Plumbers Boss

Anti-Brexit businessman Charlie Mullins has vowed to introduce a “no vaccine, no job” policy, barring those who refuse vaccination for the Chinese coronavirus from his employment.

The multimillionaire founder of Pimlico Plumbers said that he is allocating up to £1 million to innoculate his workforce once the vaccinations are available for private purchase.

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UK: Deputy Chief Medical Officer Predicts Brits ‘Choosing’ To Mask Forever, Regular Vaccines

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has predicted people may “choose” to mask up forever, as well as regular rounds of vaccination, as the coronavirus “is likely to be with us probably for the foreseeable future”.

“The pandemic has changed a lot of things,” the technocrat said in response to a question put to him by The Sun newspaper.

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UK: Farage: It Would be an Outrage to Suspend Democratic Process for COVID

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that it would be “outrageous” to cancel local and regional elections in May, saying the democratic process cannot be suspended because of the Chinese coronavirus.

Local elections across Great Britain are due to take place in May, and while a government minister said that it would take a “high bar” of conditions to suspend them, the position would remain “under review”.

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UK: More Than 100 Police Stand by and Let Over 100 ‘Travellers’ Drink and Flout COVID Rules at Funeral Wake for Three Hours Before Finally Dishing Out 42 Fines…

[…]as Priti Patel warns rule breakers ‘can’t be chillin’’ in new Home Office ad

Police have been accused of failing to stop more than 100 ‘travellers’ who broke lockdown rules to ‘attend a wake’ on a static caravan site.

Onlookers said 100 police swooped on the scene at Clyde Road, Seven Sisters, London, in 15 vans last night.

But locals claim little was done to break up the celebration, which was attended by around 70 people and went on until around 2am.

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UK: Muslim Train Driver Loses Religious Discrimination Claim After Suing Security Firm Working for Heathrow Express That Used Fake Bomb Daubed With Words ‘Allahu Akbar’ As Part of Training Exercise

Anis Ali, 36, launched a claim for compensation after he discovered that the fake suspicious package planted to test security procedures had the Arabic words for ‘Allah is Greater’ on it.

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UK: Man Convicted of Encouraging Acts of Terrorism Through Online Posts

Counter Terrorism police are asking the public to remain vigilant and always report anything suspicious, following today’s conviction of a man who encouraged acts of violence and terrorism through online posts.

The Met’s Counter Terrorism Command has brought an end to the illegal online posts made by Munna Hamza, 50 (21.07.70), which particularly encouraged acts of terrorism against the Bangladeshi government.

He was arrested after one of his posts was spotted by a member of the public who reported it to police.

Hamza was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court today, Wednesday, 13 January, of three counts of encouraging terrorism contrary to section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act 2006. These were for three posts made between 1 September 2015 and 31 December 2015 (counting as one charge), one on 3 May 2018 and one on 16 May 2018. He was found not guilty of one other count of encouraging terrorism contrary to section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act 2006, which related to a post made on 24 June 2018.

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UK: Two £10,000 COVID ‘Super Fines’ A Week Are Being Issued in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire Police are dishing out £10,000 Covid fines at the rate of more than two a week.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley revealed his Force has issued 14 fines totalling £140,000 for illegal mass gatherings in less than seven weeks.

Events relating to only five of those have been made public and the number does not include a Fixed Penalty Notice which Police said would be going to the organiser of a funeral in Kettering on November 9 but is still yet to be issued.

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Welsh Party Plaid Cymru Suspended Council Member After His Posts Were Flagged as “Misinformation” By Facebook

Plaid Cymru, a center-left political party in Wales, suspended a councilor over social media posts related to the coronavirus that Facebook flagged as misinformation. Gwlad, a pro-Independence political party with no known links to the councilman, blasted Plaid, calling the suspension suppressing free speech.

Earlier this week Plaid Cymru suspended Gruffydd Williams, the councilor of Nefyn Ward in Gwynedd County. The party suspended the ward representative over Facebook posts related to COVID-19 that the social media giant labeled as misinformation.

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Kuwait’s Cabinet Submits Resignation in Standoff With Parliament

DUBAI (REUTERS) — Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah presented the resignation of his cabinet to the country’s ruler on Wednesday, days before the premier was due to be questioned in parliament over his choice of ministers and other issues.

The standoff between the government and parliament less than a month after the cabinet was appointed poses the first big challenge to Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who assumed power in September.

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More Than 4,800 Boxes of Ice Cream Are Found to be Contaminated With COVID in China as Anti-Epidemic Authorities Scramble to Contact People Who Could be Affected

Three samples of locally produced ice cream were found to be contaminated in the Tianjin municipality, in the north east of the country.

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Chaos as Two People on a Flight Filled With Australian Open Players Test Positive for COVID — Forcing Some of the Sport’s Biggest Stars to Stay in Hotel Quarantine for 14 Days

Two people on a flight filled with tennis players from Los Angeles to Melbourne have tested positive for Covid — with the safety of the Australian Open now called into question.

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Matt Damon Cuts a Casual Figure as He Quietly Touches Down in Sydney With His Family on a Private Jet — as Mystery Surrounds Reason for Trip Down Under

Matt Damon is the latest Hollywood A-lister to arrive in Australia.

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Shocking Moment a Furious Father ‘Attacks a Group of Youths at a Beach With a Baseball Bat After His Teenage Son Was Slapped in the Face’

A father allegedly hit a teenager in the back and stomach with a baseball bat before he was tackled to the ground in a beach brawl captured on camera.

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Victoria Relaxes Its Border Restrictions With Millions of Queenslanders After Both States Record Zero New Local Cases of Coronavirus

Victoria has reported no new local or interstate coronavirus cases for a tenth day in a row, as authorities hope to scale back border restrictions for Greater Sydney.

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Why Aboriginal Activist Who Led Crusade to Change ‘Racist’ Coon Cheese Name is Still Not Happy With the New Cheer Brand

Author and anti-racism activist Stephen Hagan said the Indigenous community was not consulted about the product’s new name.

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Al-Shabaab Attacks Bus Traveling in Kenya Looking for Christians

(ICC) has learned that yesterday, January 12, 2021, gunmen believed to be part of the Somali-based al-Shabaab terrorist group flagged down a passenger bus at Tarbaj, Wajir State. During the attack the gunmen separated men from women, interrogating them to identify non-local travelers.

Reporting on the incident, the conductor of the bus plying Mandera Nairobi route said, “We were approaching a place called Darkut when six fully armed men stopped the bus. They fired in the air and ordered all our passengers from Mandera to alight. They separated men and women and started asking if there were people who were not Somalis. They also wanted to know if we carried any civil servants. Fortunately, they were not able to identify any.

Al-Shabaab has long posed a security threat in the Northeastern region along Kenya’s border with Somalia, regularly targeting Christians. In recent years, the militants have killed hundreds of non-local passengers by separating them from Muslims and shooting them dead. Yesterday, when they failed to identify any Christians, they ransacked the bus and stole foodstuffs and other items belonging to the travelers. They also robbed the conductor.

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Mexican President Mounts Campaign Against Social Media Bans

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to lead an international effort to combat what he considers censorship by social media companies that have blocked or suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump.

President Andre’s Manuel López Obrador’s administration is reaching out to other government to form a common front on the issue.

“I can tell you that at the first G20 meeting we have, I am going to make a proposal on this issue,” López Obrador said. “Yes, social media should not be used to incite violence and all that, but this cannot be used as a pretext to suspend freedom of expression.”

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Around One-Third of Belgian Residents Are Now Foreign Nationals, Or Have Migrant Backgrounds

Around one-third of Belgium’s resident population are either foreign nationals or from migration backgrounds, according to the country’s statistical agency Statbel.

According to the figures to January 1st, 2020, just over two-thirds of Belgium’s population, or 67.9 per cent, are native Belgians, according to the Statsbel figures, representing 7,806,078 people.

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College Caves to Students’ Demands for ‘Reparations Fund, ‘ Help for Illegal Immigrants

Bryn Mawr College has agreed to pay up to $10,000 for an annual “reparations fund” in response to a strike by students that lasted more than two weeks.

According to the Bi-College News, the president of Bryn Mawr College, Kimberly Wright Cassidy, accepted some of the demands made by the “Bryn Mawr Strike Collective,” which were made on November 3. Participants of the strike were encouraged to not go to class or complete their classwork, among other things.

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Mexico Strengthens Border With Guatemala as Another Migrant Caravan Heads to US From Honduras in Anticipation of Biden Admin (Video)

Another migrant caravan has formed in Honduras in anticipation of a Biden Administration.

According to Center for Immigration Studies, the new caravan left San Pedro Sula, Honduras on Friday and is hoping to reach ‘paradise’ (United States) by January 20th.

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UK: Muslim Migrant Complains of Conditions in Taxpayer-Funded Home, Says Iraq and Hull ‘Are the Same to Me’

Intesar Hassan’s predicament is a shame indeed. But what obligation do British taxpayers have to provide for her needs? How did they incur this obligation? And why do the Daily Mail and Metro think her misfortune is newsworthy? Note how their stories are almost identical; this is a coordinated campaign.

There are no doubt British citizens who have cold houses that are served by inadequate maintenance staff. Yet would any of them ever get written up in the Daily Mail or Metro? Of course not. And why is that? Because stories such as this one are meant to further a narrative, to tug at the heartstrings so that resistance to mass Muslim migration is softened. After all, who would be so heartless as to deny an old, bedridden woman a bit of taxpayer money to get her a new place, right? And haven’t these refugees from war-torn Iraq suffered enough? How could you possibly oppose their mass migration into the UK, you heartless, greasy Islamophobe?

Articles of this kind are, in short, no less state propaganda designed to inculcate views and attitudes in the populace than anything turned out by Goebbels.

“‘Life in Hull is the same as in Iraq’ says refugee who wants council house after fleeing war-torn Middle East,” by Luke May, Mailonline, January 13, 2021.

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2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2021

  1. Off topic here – I need a concrete example, a court case from SWEDEN where someone was sentenced for spreading/providing information that reflects negatively on immigrants and was convicted because he/she is not an academic and therefore unable to discuss the isseu in a sensible manner – or something like that. Really specific, I know. I do seem to remember a case like that. More generally, this involves a debate about whether it is in practice against the law to criticise immigration in Sweden; even more generally the claim that left-wingers always ultimately erode freedom of speech(!). Any and all help would be much appreciated!

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