News and commentary: progress in work

Author: Robert (Page 47 of 56)

Twitter HQ Gets Loomered: Laura Loomer Protests Outside NYC Office

Conservative firebrand Laura Loomer has handcuffed herself to the front door of Twitter headquarters in New York City to protest online censorship and is live-streaming the encounter. Twitter recently put Loomer’s account on a permanent suspension.

Update: the NYPD has reportedly arrested Laura Loomer.

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Although Loomer — who often uses the left’s confrontational tactics against them — is receiving criticism by dismissive liberals and conservatives, especially the blue-check Twitter cohort, the demonstration continues with a heavy police presence. It doesn’t appear that she is leaving anytime soon.

That said, in this era of politically motivated social media suspensions, outright bans, shadowbanning,  de-platforming, de-monetization, inflated or squelched trends, and so on, is this form of street theater completely out of line?

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In June 2017, Loomer, an independent journalist, rushed the stage at Shakespeare in the Park during a contemporary interpretation of Julius Caesar to protest the the assassination of a Trump lookalike in the play’s Caesar role.

Y'all liberals (I love you all) who read me don't get this Laura Loomer stuff.

Breaking the 4-minute mile was seen as impossible. Roger Bannister broke it, and since then 1,400 followed him.

"Conservatives" never engaged in left-wing style activism.

Today the game changed. read more

Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Is a Good Deal, Nigel Farage Declares

Brexit champion Nigel Farage admits that the pending withdrawal agreement is a good deal…for the European Union. For the United Kingdom, just the opposite.

In the Brexit back and forth, Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and her team essentially gave away the store, plus the farm and the fisheries,  to EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier with next to nothing in return. Given the one-sided outcome, Farage says it’s the worst deal in history.

In the June 23, 2016, referendum, the British public voted to leave or exit the EU and reclaim the country’s sovereignty, including control over its borders, Virtually the entire political and media establishment coalesced around the anti-Brexit or “Remain” viewpoint.

Leave Doesn’t Mean Leave?

May’s plan, which already gained the quick approval of EU top leadership, seems to be Brexit in Name Only or soft/fake Brexit, or even worse. That’s because the U.K. will lose its voting representation in the EU Parliament while still subject to EU governance if May’s plan goes through.

Speaking at the European Parliament where he is a member, Farage pointed out that the flawed deal “keeps Britain in the Customs Union and stuck with the EU’s rulebook.” See clip below.

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Perhaps one of the world’s best orators who speaks without relying on a teleprompter, Farage also predicted that the British Parliament, the House of Commons, would vote against the deal when it comes up on or about December 11.

He again insisted that a no-deal outcome would allow the U.K. to effectively negotiate individual trade deals under World Trade Organization rules when the country officially separates from the EU on March 29, 2019.

May Receives a Message

Several vocal pro-Brexit members of parliament have sent a letter to Theresa May asking that she change course before the vote because the deal she is pushing makes “a no-deal scenario more likely.”

Based on current atmospherics and what the bookies think, most parliamentarians in the Conservative and Labor parties intend to vote down the deal, but never underestimate the ability of politicians to cave.

A devoted globalist, May supported the Remain side in the referendum, but upon taking office as prime minister, promised that Brexit means Brexit and she would honor the will of the people.

She also said that no deal is better than a bad deal.

Related story:
Theresa May’s Brexit Deal Is a Tough Sell or Sell Out

Westmonster published the letter, signed by Brexiteer luminaries such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel, David Davis, which reads in part:

“But while respecting your efforts, we have grave concerns that your proposal does not take back control of our borders our money and our laws; does not permit us to negotiate new trade deals with the rest of the world; and does not safeguard our own precious United Kingdom…Being unable to leave the customs union without the EU’s permission would place the UK into a legal black hole. This is unprecedented in international treaty law.”

The authors also note that May’s plan requires the British taxpayer to fork over to the EU an estimated $39 billion and “hand the EU the keys to our destiny.”

For reasons that defy common sense, Northern Ireland would also be subject to more onerous EU rules than the rest of the U.K. under May’s agreement.

To protect British interests, this Brexiteer group also recommends that the short-from, so-called Brexit Political Declaration have the same legal effect as the complicated, EU-friendly Withdrawal Agreement itself. They also advocated a Canadian-style free-trade deal that would free Britain of the heavy-handed EU oversight and bureaucracy.

May’s FrEUdian Slip https://t.co/qOcXGdVclj pic.twitter.com/hJ0BGEsmoc read more

MSNBC Does Solid Reporting about the Migrant Caravan

An MSNBC reporter on the scene contradicted the mainstream media narrative that Central American migrants are primarily women and children and were comprised of those seeking political asylum rather than economic benefits.

The media rolled out this same trope in promoting open-borders, mass-immigration policies in Europe.

Said fair-and-balanced reporter MSNBC Gadi Schwartz:

“You’re going to see a lot of families here, a lot of women and children, but the truth is the majority of the people that are part of this caravan … the majority of them are men…From what we’ve seen, the majority are actually men, and some of these men have not articulated that need for asylum. Instead, they have talked about going to the United States for a better life and to find work.”

Hopefully this reporter won’t be hauled into HR for straying from the liberal groupthink.

The echo chamber is also engaging in predictable faux outrage over border patrol agents using tear gas on mostly adult male migrants who were throwing rocks and bottles at them.

Yet another example of a quote attributed to playwright/filmmaker David Mamet who apparently opined that “In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments modern liberals have to pretend not to know things…”

The Democrat-media establishment seems to have forgotten that the Obama administration also used the same techniques at the border when necessary.

I'm certain that all of the media figures attacking @realDonaldTrump for using tear gas at the border publicly spoke out against Obama for doing the same when he was in office.

Our fair & balanced media would never engage in selective outrage. 🙄https://t.co/imOmDZ0kiy read more

Twitter Reinstates Jesse Kelly Following Uproar

Twitter has reinstated the account of U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran and Houston-based talk show host Jesse Kelly. What was originally deemed an out-of-the blue, as it were, permanent ban on Sunday for the conservative pundit was reclassified by the influential social network as a temporary suspension, but without a specific explanation for either action.

From The Daily Wire:

“‘The account was temporarily suspended for violating the Twitter Rules and has been reinstated,’ a Twitter spokesperson told The Daily Wire. ‘We have communicated directly with the account owner.'”

"Temporarily suspended"? What a boldface lie. Twitter “permanently suspended” Jesse Kelly's account and told him it “will not be restored.” But now under the threat of a Congressional investigation, they say it was just "temporary," and now it's magically restored. https://t.co/T4w6D14AzF read more

Hillary Clinton Coughing Fits: A Complete History

Despite various coughing episodes, Hillary Clinton’s apologists in the national and international media dismissed as a conspiracy theory any speculation about the 2016 (and perhaps 2020) presidential candidate’s health.

The perception changed somewhat what the Democrat politician collapsed at the 2016 9/11 commemoration ceremony in lower Manhattan and was whisked away by Secret Service agents in footage captured by an ordinary citizen and put out on social media. Who knows if a news agency would have ever released the clip into the public domain.

Clinton’s doctor attributed the fainting spell to pneumonia.

Her doctor previously pronounced her fit to serve as commander in chief in a July 2015 statement, Fox News reported at the time. The report indicated that Clinton takes medication for an underactive thyroid and also suffers from allergies. She also suffered a concussion in 2012 and takes a prescription for blood clots.

“Hillary Clinton coughed her way through the primaries, hacked her way through the 2016 election and now is rasping her way through a 13-city book tour with Bill,” The Daily Wire quipped.

The Clinton presidential campaign deemed unfounded any allegations that the candidate was unwell.

Coughing in Canada read more

Twitter Suspends Jesse Kelly Who Warned About Online Censorship

Last summer, Jesse Kelly predicted that the de-platforming of a fringe media personality like Alex Jones was merely a trial run for banning mainstream conservatives, libertarians, and populists from social media.

Exhibit A for the accuracy of this prediction is Jesse Kelly himself.

Similarly, perhaps the shenanigans in Broward County, Fla., Arizona, California, and elsewhere in the 2018 midterm elections constituted a trial run for the 2020 presidential contest.

A Marine Corps combat veteran and Houston-based talk show host, Kelly made these observations about free speech or lack thereof in The Federalist in August 2018.

“The leftists will not stop (and did not stop) at nutty Alex Jones, because they do not think you are much different from him…They just knew Jones was the weak member of the herd. They could pick him off as a test run. Next they’re coming for you.,.The same people who ceded control of public education, the federal bureaucracy, the media, movies, and music to the left have once again found another hill not worth dying on. ‘It’s only social media,’ they say. Yeah, fear not. Around 2.5 billion people use Facebook and Twitter. What’s the worst that can happen if we just let the left have them?…We need to stop whistling past the graveyard and realize the left is seeking total victory. They do not want to compete in a marketplace of ideas. Their goal is to silence dissenting voices.”

On Sunday, Twitter abruptly permanently suspended Jesse Kelly for unspecified rules violations without providing an explanation.

Shortly after his article hit the Internet, former congressional candidate Jesse Kelly discussed the censorship with FNC’s Tucker Carlson, likening it to modern-day book burning.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, a vocal Never Trumper in the GOP, backed Kelly even they disagree on politics.

“Jesse Kelly can’t stand me. And I think his tribal war scalping stuff is stupid and wrong. But that doesn’t matter much compared to the bigger picture here: The trend of de-platforming and shutting down speech is a bad precedent for our free speech society.”

Jesse Kelly can’t stand me. And I think his tribal war scalping stuff is stupid and wrong.

But that doesn’t matter much compared to the bigger picture here: The trend of de-platforming and shutting down speech is a bad precedent for our free speech society. https://t.co/V11v6uDZY3 read more

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