Ominous Signs for Democrats in New York
38 minutes ago
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Who knew?
These Are The World's Binge-Drinking-est Countries
Which countries tend to drink the most on average?
As Statista's Anna Fleck reports, according to the World Health Organisation, Austria, Ireland and Czechia are the world's biggest binge-drinkers.
These Leftists hate anything that threatens their power over you! Unelected bureaucratic scum who will keep you in your place
Australian Broadcasting Boss Attacks Joe Rogan As 'Malevolent Figure Preying On The Public'
The far flung nation of Australia and its close neighbor New Zealand were widely considered two of the worst examples of authoritarian western response to the covid pandemic. The Australian public was locked down and under house arrest in the larger cities. In some cases only one person would be allowed to leave home at a time and could only travel a short distance to shop for necessities. People who went to public parks or beaches were fined or arrested. Covid camps were created to detain not only people who had traveled overseas, but also people who simply tested positive.
Most disturbing of all, Australian officials had people arrested who dared to criticize the lockdowns on social media. Australian news organizations widely defended such measures in lockstep with the government narrative. With the exception of a few minor complaints, journalists from the land down under acted as propagandists for the government and for Big Pharma.
It was these Orwellian conditions and similar attempts across the west that led to many personalities in the alternative media to speak out and become decidedly anti-establishment. One of those figures was podcaster Joe Rogan.
Rogan attracted the full fury of the corporate media for engaging in interviews with lockdown critics who debunked many of the narratives put forward by government authorities. As it turns out, in the majority of cases Rogan and his guests were right. The fearmongering over covid was overblown. The lockdowns were ineffective. Social distancing was ineffective. The masks were ineffective. The vaccines were suspiciously experimental and proven less effective than natural immunity. Death numbers were inflated by comorbidities.
The virus itself only has an average Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of 0.23%, meaning 99.8% of all people regardless of vaccination status were under no threat (the original false claims from the WHO and others was that the virus was deadly for 3% of people).
The lockdowns were pointless in terms of public health, but very useful in terms of public control.
To this day, many in the media still despise Joe Rogan and the alternative media for revealing the inconsistencies within the covid theater. Not to mention, they hate the fact that their elitist ivory tower is being torn down by civilian journalists. This was the motivation behind a recent attack on Rogan by the head of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Kim Williams, at the Australian Press Club (Williams took over the position at ABC at the start of 2024). Williams described Rogan as 'malevolent' - a person that 'preys on the fears of the public'.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation boss Kim Williams launches an unhinged tirade against Joe Rogan (@joerogan):
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) November 27, 2024
"People like Mr. Rogan prey on people's vulnerabilities. They prey on fear. They prey on anxiety."
"I personally find it deeply repulsive, and to think that someone… pic.twitter.com/NNenTOkiqP
Many would refer to the venomous comments spit by Kim Williams as gaslighting and projection. Joe Rogan is popular because of his sincerity, a quality which is severely lacking in modern journalism. It's the establishment media that commonly exploits fear and disinformation to set the public into a frenzy; it's this very behavior that caused millions of consumers to abandon mainstream outlets in the first place.
The ABC reported in 2023 that public trust in corporate media and the government was in steep decline post-covid. Instead of asking why this is the case and having the courage to participate in some self examination, media elites have instead chosen to blame podcasters like Joe Rogan (and the supposed ignorance of the public) for their fall from grace.
When ABC radio host Raf Epstein (an employee) asked Williams to speak further about his views on Mr Rogan and expand on his broad-brush attack, the ABC boss dredged up old covid-era accusations with no validity.
Epstein: “Are you worried that podcasts that don’t provide the scrutiny that you might get on the ABC, that they are the future, and that we really are going out of fashion?”
Williams: “Well, I would hope that we're the best antidote to misinformation and, more alarmingly, disinformation...I mean, Joe Rogan did an enormous, in my view, an enormous amount of damage back in 2020 and 2021, when he was particularly virulent in many of his remarks about vaccinations...I don’t think people have unlimited license to say what they want, simply because they believe something to be so...”
It's important to note that covid cases and deaths plunged in 2021 well before the experimental mRNA vaccines were widely released to the public. It should also be noted that the vaccines did not prevent transmission as officials originally claimed.
Williams then turned to gaslighting. Angry that he had received so much criticism online for his comments, he accused Rogan fans of being "made of glass" and unable to handle critique.
Williams: “What fascinates me is you say something negative about Joe Rogan – and I have been swarmed with the most unbelievably vicious responses. I got one this morning that said that I should stay in my lane and watch out, and you read it and you think, ‘What are you saying to me?’”
Epstein: “Do you think they’ve got glass jaws?”
Williams: “Their whole body is made of glass. How can people react in such a, frankly, demonic fashion? I really stand back in disbelief..."
Keep in mind, ABC news has shut off comments on the Youtube video of Williams' Press Club interview. Exactly the kind of behavior you would expect from a mainstream propagandist with a glass jaw.
Asked whether podcasts were “a threat” to the ABC, Willaims answered in the affirmative.
“Of course they’re a threat to the ABC. I think they’re a threat to all views that are contrary into their own...If they represent the newfound mainstream, our society has deep troubles, and the only response that is available is to back education and knowledge...Knowledge is the is the antidote to this kind of hysterical rubbish.”
Considering the reality that the alternative media has been consistently proven right while the corporate media has been consistently exposed as dishonest, this kind of rhetoric from Williams rings rather humorous. The attacks on alternative personalities like Rogan stink of desperation. The last gasps of a dying institution long bereft of honor or honesty.
'Censorship Is About Stopping Ideas': Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Battle
'Censorship Is About Stopping Ideas': Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Battle
Until the internet came along, pumping government propaganda into American homes was like shooting fish in a barrel. As a constellation of alternative media websites such as ZeroHedge emerged, however, the ability to shape narratives and steer the national dialogue quickly eroded.
In order to regain control - particularly in the Trump-era, the government has been colluding with Big Tech, partisan 'fact checkers,' and an aptly named 'advertising cartel' to censor, de-monetize, and otherwise silence divergent opinions - particularly those which shed light on things like government malfeasance, bullshit wars, and cronyism.
Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is getting ready to level the playing field.
Carr, a veteran Republican regulator who has echoed President-elect Trump's promises to punish political bias within the national media complex, has argued that the agency should also regulate Big Tech - including Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
And in a Sunday interview with Fox News, Carr outlined the road ahead...
"Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me," said Carr, adding "We need to restore Americans' right to free speech... you mentioned Facebook and other companies. They've been part of a censorship cartel that has worked with advertisers, they've worked with government officials, to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans. That's gotta end."
"America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again."
Incoming FCC Chairman @BrendanCarrFCC: "Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me."
— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) December 1, 2024
"America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again." pic.twitter.com/wsXboFEMly
In a November letter, Carr accused several Big Tech companies of having "participated in a censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called "fact-checking" organizations as well as the Biden-Harris Administration itself."
"The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability."
Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 15, 2024
The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with “fact checking” groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives.
The censorship cartel must be dismantled. pic.twitter.com/Xf0sEYOUfv
Carr then suggested that their protection from liability under Section 230 may be on the line.
"As you know, Big Tech's prized liability shield, Section 230, is codified in the Communications Act, which the FCC administers. As relevant here, Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, "in good faith."
"The censorship cartel must be dismantled," Carr said in a November post on X.
LFG...
What a refreshing change in the FCC. 🇺🇸
— Bradley Brewer 🇺🇸 (@realBradBrewer) December 1, 2024
The tyrannical control of the censorship cartel on social media platforms outside of X is about to be threatened.
— Noah 1776 (@NoahB589) December 1, 2024
And rightly so, as the diverse ideological spectrum of American views should be fiercely supported, not covered with a socialist blanket of intolerance and…
There needs to be an investigation into Google changing their algorithm to hide certain news stories. Especially during the campaign.
— Matt Hasty (@Crinklingface) December 1, 2024
It's Palestinians who are stealing the aid shipments because they are barbarians
Middle East: UNRWA pauses Gaza aid through key crossing
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it is halting aid via a crossing into Gaza after looting by armed gangs. Medics say at least 15 have been killed by Israeli strikes in the Palestinian enclave. DW has more.
NYC: Has it gotten bad enough yet?
NYC is now home to over 58K ‘criminal’ migrants — including more than 1,000 gang members: ICE
Why habitual violent offenses need to be stopped before they murder
Illinois cop, 40, killed by violent career criminal — marking department’s first on-duty death in 86 years: police
Play stupid games win stupid prizes
Connecticut mansion engulfed in flames on Thanksgiving as residents fried turkey inside garage
Here are real war crimes ICC!
nts
Hamas has posted a harrowing video showing a weeping American-Israeli hostage held captive for 420 days.
In the footage, 20-year-old Edan Alexander identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump.
A pale-looking Alexander can be heard pleading for Trump to secure his release. He said: 'Soon... time is running out.'
He added: 'The fear is at its peak, and we are dying a thousand times every day that passes, and no one feels for us.
'The people of Israel: Do not neglect us. We want to return home with a full mind. Fear and isolation are killing us. Please do not forget us.'
The video later cut to footage of Alexander crying.
Addressing Trump, Alexander urged to 'use your influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom', before adding: 'I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin].'
The American-Israeli hostage also said in a message for Netanyahu that he 'neglected' the hostages.
Hamas has posted a harrowing video showing a weeping American-Israeli hostage held captive for 420 days.
In the footage, 20-year-old Edan Alexander identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump
Pictured is Edan Alexander before he was captured by Hamas terrorists more than a year ago
Alexander's message ends with him telling his parents and grandparents to be strong and that it is only 'a matter of time until this nightmare ends.'
His mother Yael Alexander said she was shaken by the 3-1/2-minute video, which showed her son seated in a dark space against a wall.
The video 'gives us hope, but it also shows how difficult it is for Edan and for the other hostages, and how much they are crying out and praying for us to rescue them,' Yael Alexander said at a Tel Aviv rally calling for the hostages' release.
'My dear, beloved Edan, we miss you painfully,' she said before she called on Israel's leaders to end the war in Gaza and make a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.
Netanyahu said in a statement that the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Alexander's family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home.
Trump's transition team could not be immediately reached for comment. Alexander, a soldier at the time of his abduction, was taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
Around half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to be alive.
Hamas leaders were expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday for ceasefire talks with Egyptian officials to explore ways to reach a deal that could secure the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.
The fresh bid comes after Washington said this week it was reviving efforts toward that goal.
!['I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin],' Alexander said](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/11/30/22/92660877-14144383-image-a-37_1733007294758.jpg)
'I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin],' Alexander said
Varda Ben Baruch, whose grandson Edan Alexander is held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants, poses for a portrait at home in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 14, 2024
People attend a candlelight vigil accompanied by prayers for killed Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin on September 1, 2024
The Biden administration, in office until Trump's January 20 inauguration, said it is working 'around the clock' to secure the release of U.S. citizens held hostage by Hamas.
'We have a critical opportunity to conclude the deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza,' said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett. 'This deal is on the table now.'
The Hostages Families Forum urged the administrations of both outgoing President Joe Biden and Trump to step up efforts to secure a hostage release.
'The hostages' lives hang by a thread,' it said.
Criminal law Should be Inelastic
Criminal law Should be Inelastic
Criminal law should be clear so that those covered by it can understand what is permitted and what is prohibited. It’s not the place for creative interpretations by the judiciary or partisan prosecutors. Jack Smith has now dropped his casesagainst president-elect Donald Trump on the grounds that a president cannot be criminally prosecuted, but there is much more that made these prosecutions untenable: They were never grounded in any fair reading of the law that Smith relied upon. The two cases involved Trump’s handling of classified material and his purported efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump was first indicted in June 2023 in a federal court in Miami on 37 felony counts related to mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House to his Florida home. They included willful retention of national defense information, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. A Florida judge dismissed the case, but Smith's office had sought an appeal.
Trump was separately indicted on four felonies in August 2023 for his attempt to reverse the 2020 election results: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Months before Smith moved to dismiss the cases, his prosecutions were on the rocks. In July, the Court ruled that a president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. Moreover, he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts. Since then, we learned how factually weak the case was. For example, we learned what had previously been hidden -- that he had, in fact, asked for the National Guard to be present on January 6 to prevent any possible rioting (as he had claimed) and that Pentagon leaders had deliberately delayed their deployment to the Capitol. (Something they concealed for over three years.)
WASHINGTON -- Today, the Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) released transcripts of interviews conducted by the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) that contradict the findings published in their January 6 report, “Review of the DoD’s Role, Responsibilities, and Actions to Prepare for and Respond to the Protest and its Aftermath at the U.S. Capitol Campus on January 6, 2021.”
In their report, the DoD IG claims that the actions at the Pentagon were “reasonable in light of the circumstances” at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The IG also determined that “DoD officials did not delay or obstruct the DoD’s response to the [U.S. Capitol Police’s] [Request for Assistance] on January 6, 2021.” The Subcommittee’s investigation into the delayed National Guard response on January 6, including these newly obtained witness transcripts, suggest the exact opposite.
Previously concealed by the Biden-Harris Administration for over three years, these transcripts indicate that senior Pentagon officials unnecessarily delayed the DC National Guard response to the Capitol on January 6 due to “optics” concerns, and reveal that President Trump urged his senior military leaders to prioritize safety.
Following the release of these transcripts, Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (AL-03), and former Major General William Walker of the D.C. National Guard, released the following statements:
Chairman Loudermilk:
“The fact that an IG report can be used to manipulate a historical narrative to protect the very Department it’s tasked with overseeing is deeply concerning. The men and women of the National Guard who put their lives on the line to protect our nation deserve the truth.
"Through our investigation, we know that the National Guard was capable and ready to deploy to the U.S. Capitol at 3 pm on January 6, but their response was delayed by senior Pentagon leaders. These new transcripts prove that not only were political concerns of ‘optics’ at play on January 6, 2021, but that DoD officials continued to delay as the riot at the Capitol worsened. DoD officials also misled Congress, telling then-Speaker Pelosi at 3:19 pm that the National Guard was 'on the way.'
"It is abundantly clear that the DoD IG’s report protects a preconceived narrative to safeguard their own interests, instead of being based on facts. As we continue the critical work of our investigation, we will not waver from our goal of ensuring the American people get the full truth.”
So, not only did Trump ask that the demonstration be peaceful, he did everything in his power to keep it that way. That case should never have been brought, but in any 
fair adjudication should have been dismissed, unless you think that being a Republican deprives a president of a right to free speech.
The fate of the J6 defendants is still being considered by the District of Columbia courts, but the Supreme Court’s ruling in June of this year (Fischer v U.S.) makes clear the prosecutors erred in an overly expansive reading of the relevant criminal law. The Court simply read the statute in its clear meaning -- not the creative reading that the prosecution acted under:
Roberts explained that the general principles used to construe statutes instruct courts that “a general phrase can be given a more focused meaning by the terms linked to it.” Here, he continued, subsection (c)(1) provides several specific examples of evidence tampering that the law prohibits – such as altering a record and concealing a document. When subsection (c)(2) immediately follows those examples, he reasoned, “the most sensible inference” is that the scope of (c)(2) is limited by the examples in (c)(1). Indeed, he noted, if subsection (c)(2) sweeps as broadly as the government posits, “there would have been scant reason for Congress to provide any specific examples at all” in subsection (c)(1).
Roberts also pointed to the provision’s history as additional support for the majority’s interpretation. Until the Enron scandal, the statute only made it a crime to use intimidation or physical force, or “corruptly persuade,” someone else to shred documents. The statute did not, Roberts noted, create liability for the person who actually shredded the documents -- leading Congress to enact Section 1512(c) to “plug this loophole.” “It would be peculiar to conclude that in closing the Enron gap, Congress actually hid away in the second part of the third subsection of Section 1512 a catchall provision that reaches far beyond the document shredding and similar scenarios that prompted the legislation in the first place.”
The government’s expansive construction of subsection (c)(2) would have other effects as well, he suggested. It “would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.”
As to the document case, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed iton the basis that Smith had never been legally appointed. Had the case proceeded, any jury would have had to consider the fact that the documents probably were declassified by the president upon leaving office, were kept in a secure place in a facility guarded by the Secret Service, that the raid on Mar-a-Lago turned up few documents that had ever been classified, and both the means by which the raid was accomplished and its efforts to prejudice a jury by photos in which pages marked ”classified” were scattered about, containing nothing at all, would have made the case a hard one to sustain.
There’s nothing particularly unique about these observations on criminal law, but I was reminded of them by the creative efforts of some to manufacture “genocide” out of a justified defensive war in Gaza. Aside from the international organizations’ antisemites, the European press comes to mind. The latest being Der Speigel.
Eli Rosenbaum, retired head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations, details how the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, desperate to find Israel guilty of genocide, have tripped up the International Court of Justice (ICJ ) case.
It is easy to see why the ICC’s November 21 statement almost certainly fatally wounds South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ. Buried in that statement is this important sentence: “On the basis of material presented by the Prosecution covering the period until 20 May 2024, the [Court’s Pre-Trial] Chamber could not determine that all elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were met.” [snip] it is virtually impossible that sufficient evidence exists to prove “genocide” at the ICJ, much less at the substantially higher standard of proof applicable to final ICJ determinations that genocide has been committed.
The offense of extermination is defined in the ICC’s 1998 governing treaty -- the so-called Rome Statute -- which lists prosecutable crimes against humanity as including “extermination.” It provides that the crime “includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population…”
The ICC’s November 21 public statement doesn’t specify which element(s) of “extermination” could not be established by ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to the judges’ satisfaction [snip] But it can be readily deduced from the description of the Israeli officials’ alleged actions [snip] that what the ICC Prosecutor failed to establish regarding the crime of extermination was the Israeli officials’ supposed “intention” “to bring about the destruction of part of a population.” [snip]
The crime of extermination obviously has much in common with the crime of genocide. Centrally, both crimes involve mass killings or other acts that target at least a part of a population for “destruction.” But to establish genocide, an additional element must be proved: the killings or other acts must have been “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” [snip]
Thus, the essential difference between extermination and lethal genocide is that only genocide requires prosecutors to prove that the intention to achieve the destruction of a part or all of a civilian population was based on the victims’ nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion, as such. Extermination, by way of comparison, requires only a showing of acts intended to bring about the destruction of a part of a population for any reason [snip]
Let us return, then, to the pending ICC and ICJ cases involving Gaza: As noted above, the ICC judges have signaled that they deem the evidence amassed for the alleged Israeli crime of extermination to be insufficient, for the obvious reason that the ICC Prosecutor has been unable to establish, even under the weak reasonable-basis-to-believe ICC arrest warrant standard, that Israeli leaders intended to destroy “a part of a population.” Barring the extremely remote possibility -- bordering on the inconceivable -- that South Africa and its co-litigants have discovered evidence that has somehow eluded the very experienced and far better-resourced staff of the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor, genocide can’t be proved at the ICJ either, because the crime of genocide requires proof not only of an intent to destroy a part of a population (as in the crime of extermination) but also that the evidence “is fully conclusive” and that such evidence establishes that the alleged destructive intention was based on the nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion of that targeted population.
Der Spiegel highlights Canadian William Schabas, who says that Palestine “was always etched in his heart,” and equally impermissibly expands his interpretation of the law of genocide. He would erase the intent from the clear words of the law respecting genocide, which would, of course, make it meaningless -- simply a vehicle for partisan prosecutions in the same way that Jack Smith and his team played with our criminal system.
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