Links - 26th February 2022 (2)

How Marvel Is Expanding the MCU Into 7 Different Branches - "1.) MCU Cosmic
2.) MCU Avengers
3.) MCU Young Avengers
4.) MCU Multiverse
 5.) MCU Supernatural
 6.) MCU Street
 7.) Spider-Man"

Does calling a man a pig perpetuate human supremacy? - "  Have you micro-aggressed a sloth lately? Or a snake, or a rat, or a chicken? If so, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) would like to have a word with you.  According to their new campaign, “using animals as insults perpetuates speciesism”. No, I’m not making this up — this is what they’re actually tweeting out... our zoological idioms have very little to do with our violations of the natural world. For a start, we use some animal names as compliments (e.g. lion) or terms of endearment (e.g. duck), but does that doesn’t stop us from killing the actual animals. Similarly, the use of animal names as insults is not the reason why we ill-treat them. For instance, we subject pigs to the horrors of factory farming not because of our distaste for swine, but because we like eating pork. As for the poor old sloth, it’s not a metaphor that’s driving it to extinction, but habitat destruction.  The PETA campaign is not a special case limited to animal rights activism, but illustrative of a much wider trend. I don’t just mean the use of woke terminology, but something that applies across all shades of political opinion — and that is the idea that we can change the world by changing our words.  The language we use is important; but it’s not all-important. As Alfred Korzybski put it, “the map is not the territory” and “the word is not the thing.” And yet politics is increasingly constructed around narratives that are unsupported by reality. Just look at the paper-thin claims of the ‘stop the steal’ campaign in America or the empty words of the EU’s vaccine policy.   Growing concerns over government effectiveness or economic productivity should begin with a long, hard look at the cult of comms. The post-modern obsession with language at the expense of reality is a universal solvent, undermining the ability of campaigners, politicians and businesses to actually get things done."

PETA: ‘Take the flower by the thorns’ and stop using anti-animal language - "Instead of “kill two birds with one stone,” PETA suggests saying “feed two bird with one scone.” “Bring home the bacon” becomes “Bring home the bagels.” “Take the bull by the horns,” becomes “Take the flower by the thorns.” “Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are,” PETA also tweeted. The tweet prompted a strong response from the public, with nearly 10,000 retweets and over 40,000 responses. Many Twitter users made fun of PETA’s suggestions."

PETA mocked after asking people to use 'bring home the bagels' instead of 'bring home the bacon' - "the organization proposed using “feed a fed horse” instead of the popular phrase “beat a dead horse”... and “be the test tube” instead of “be the guinea pig.”"

PETA is blasted for telling regional farmers NOT to kill mice during apocalyptic plague - "'They shouldn't be robbed of that right because of the dangerous notion of human supremacy,' PETA spokeswoman Aleesha Naxakis told NCA NewsWire... Deputy Premier Michael McCormack has lashed out at the comments, calling the group 'idiots who have never been outside the city' and that the only 'good mouse is a dead mouse.'     'The real rats in this whole plague are the people who come out with bloody stupid ideas like this,' he said.  Mr McCormack said the ideas were 'reprehensible' as farmers across Australia are struggling - with some losing $300,000 each in ruined crops"

PETA Wants Ham Lake, Minnesota to Change Its Name - "People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has asked the City of Ham Lake, Minnesota to change its name to Yam Lake. PETA says that the new name would be more 'pig-friendly,' (Yes, really.)  The city in Anoka County is named after the lake that reminded early settlers of the shape of a ham, but PETA says it also resembles a yam."

Peta says sorry for taking girl's pet chihuahua and putting it down - "A family has settled a lawsuit against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) after it took a girl’s unattended dog and put it down. The legal outcome ends an attempt to in effect put Peta on trial for euthanising hundreds of animals each year.  Wilber Zarate from Virginia had sued the group for taking his daughter’s chihuahua from a mobile home park on the state’s eastern shore and euthanising it before the end of a required five-day grace period. Zarate alleged Peta operated under a broad policy of euthanising animals, including healthy ones, because it “considers pet ownership to be a form of involuntary bondage”."

PETA, Ferguson, jihad, Doctor Who, rape, and kitten pics: the toxoplasma of online rage - " The less useful, and more controversial, a blog post is, the more likely it is to get lots of page views...  People make fun of Tumblr social justice a lot, but the problem isn't with Tumblr social justice, it's structural. Every community on Tumblr somehow gets enmeshed with the people most devoted to making that community miserable. The tiny Tumblr rationalist community I participate in somehow attracts, concentrates, and constantly reblogs stuff from the even tinier Tumblr community of people who hate rationalists and want them to be miserable. It's like one of those rainforest ecosystems where every variety of rare endangered nocturnal spider hosts a parasite who has evolved for millions of years solely to parasitise that one spider species, and the parasites host parasites who have evolved for millions of years solely to parasitise them. If Tumblr social justice is worse than anything else, it's mostly because everyone has a race and a gender so it's easier to fire broad cannonades and just hit everybody...  People talk about the shift from old print-based journalism to the new world of social media and the sites adapted to serve it. These are fast, responsive, and only just beginning to discover the power of controversy. They are memetic evolution shot into hyperdrive, and the omega point is a well-tuned machine optimised to search the world for the most controversial and counterproductive issues, then make sure no one can talk about anything else. An engine that creates money by burning the few remaining shreds of cooperation, bipartisanship and social trust."
Social media is toxic

Revisiting the notion of induced traffic through a matched-pairs study - "In investigating the question of the existence of "induced demand" in connection with highway expansion projects, Hansen et al. (1993) studied eighteen California state highway segments whose capacities had been improved in the early 1970s. For the present study, these segments were paired with control segments that matched the improved segments to unimproved ones with regard to facility type, region, approximate size, and initial volumes and congestion levels. Taking annual data for average daily traffic (ADT) and design-hour-traffic-to-capacity (DTC) ratios during the 21 years 1976–1996, three approaches were used to compare growth rates between the improved and unimproved segments: overall growth comparisons for the matched pairs, repeated measures analysis, and analysis of matched mean profiles. We found the growth rates between the two types of segments to be statistically and practically indistinguishable, suggesting that the capacity expansions, in and of themselves, had a negligible effect on traffic growth over the period studied... aggregate models may overestimate induced traffic due to the attribution of at least a fraction of the observed traffic growth to "induced demand" rather than to some of the confounding factors which were not controlled for in such studies. At the same time, it is noted that the traffic induced by capacity expansion may in certain circumstances be larger than that observed in the present study, with the effect of new highway construction on traffic growth being a prime candidate for scrutiny in this regard. The results of this study nonetheless suggest that, for existing facilities, the size of the induced-traffic effect that can be attributed to capacity enhancements may be sufficiently small that its detection in a case-control study would be difficult, if not impossible, without a substantially larger sample size."
On the anti-car activist myth that building roads to expand capacity is pointless because just as many more cars will go down those roads, leaving you no better off
Addendum: Basically this study found that induced demand was a myth - as always, it was a problem of omitted variable bias

Induced road traffic in Spanish regions: A dynamic panel data model - "Distinguishing between traffic generated exclusively from the expansion of the road network (induced demand) and that resulting from other demand factors is of crucial importance to properly designed transport policies. This paper analyzes and quantifies the induced demand for road transport for Spain’s main regions from 1998 to 2006, years that saw mobility in Spain attain its highest growth rate... The estimated short-term elasticity is 0.12, while the long-run one is almost 0.25."

Induced demand and rebound effects in road transport - "We decompose induced demand into effects from increasing overall accessibility of destinations and those from increasing urban capacity, finding the two elasticities close in magnitude and totaling about 0.16, somewhat smaller than most previous estimates"

Mathematicians outline how cities can avoid traffic jams - "Most traffic jams are unnecessary, and this deeply irks mathematicians who specialize in traffic flow. They reserve particular vitriol for local transport engineers. “They do not have competencies in the field of system-related increases in traffic performance,” says Alexander Krylatov, a mathematics professor at St. Petersburg University. “If engineers manage to achieve local improvements, after a while the flows rearrange and the same traffic jams appear in other places.” Burn!
All drivers need to be on the same navigation system. Cars can only be efficiently rerouted if instructions come from one center hub. One navigation system rerouting some drivers does not solve traffic jams.
Parking bans. Many urban roads are too narrow and cannot be physically widened. Traffic-flow models can indicate where parking spots should be turned into lanes.
Green lanes. For cities that want to increase electric car use, special lanes should be created for electric cars, providing an incentive for their use. Digital twins. Traffic demands and available infrastructure can only be balanced with digital modeling that creates an entire “twin” of existing roadways. The software will be “an extremely useful thought tool in the hands of transport engineers.”"

Heinz Will Reward Those in Traffic, Driving at Speed of its Ketchup, 0.045 Km/h - "Being stuck in exhausting and never-ending traffic is always a summer pain point, but this year it doesn't have to be, thanks to Heinz.  Through a partnership with Waze and Burger King®, Heinz will be identifying those stuck in traffic, driving at the same speed as its slow-pouring ketchup (0.045km/h) and satisfying their taste buds with Heinz Ketchup and an Impossible Whopper from Burger King."

Here's how an artist fooled Google Maps into creating virtual traffic jams - "artist Simon Weckert says that each of the 99 smartphones in the wagon had their own connected SIM card and each one was actively using Maps for navigation. He discovered that if the wagon stopped moving, Maps would not show a traffic jam, so the wagon had to consistently be in motion for a jam to get registered. Additionally, if a vehicle drove by the wagon at a normal speed, Maps would also register traffic as normal. It was only when the wagon was in motion and the street was empty that a traffic jam would show on Google Maps."

Food banks don’t reduce food insecurity, so why did the federal government give them $200 million in emergency aid? | The Star - "Valerie Tarasuk was outraged. Canada’s foremost expert on food insecurity couldn’t believe the government was giving money to food banks.  “It’s craziness,” she said. “People like me spend all this time figuring this stuff out and then you watch these policy decisions and you think, ‘Why are we wasting our time doing this research?’ Nobody’s using it.”  Tarasuk, a professor at the University of Toronto, has been studying food insecurity for nearly 30 years. All of her research suggests that giving people food does nothing to make them less food-insecure, which is defined as having inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints.  The problem is not simply hunger; it’s poverty, she said. The only way to meaningfully address it is to increase income supports so people have enough money to buy food for themselves... One of the longstanding criticisms of food banks is that they are a Band-Aid solution, but Tarasuk argues that they are actually worse. That’s because most food-insecure people don’t ever use food banks, she said. “It’s a Band-Aid that only covers a quarter of the wound.”  Research shows that less than 25 per cent of people who are food-insecure ever go to the food bank.  Many people who are food-insecure are more likely to borrow from family or friends, take out payday loans or deplete their savings before using a food bank... receiving food donations may quell someone’s hunger, but it leaves their fundamental problems unresolved, Power said, describing food banks as having become a “smokescreen.”"

German anger rises as pandemic reopens old wounds for the eurozone - "The European Union's fragile solidarity over Covid is at risk of collapse as German anger at high inflation and massive deficits in southern Europe exposes faultlines which almost destroyed the bloc a decade ago"

Bell Peppers: Differences Between Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red - "All bell peppers start out green and change color as they mature. If it's not picked, a green pepper may become yellow, orange, or red, depending on its varietal. The longer the fruit stays on the vine, the sweeter it becomes and the more nutritional value it gains. Since they were less ripe when picked, green peppers have longer shelf lives but are less nutrient-dense than peppers that have matured to another color."

WhatsApp privacy controversy leads company to take out full-page adverts asking users to stay - "WhatsApp’s change only affects businesses, not consumers. “We’re giving businesses the option to use secure hosting services from Facebook to manage WhatsApp chats with their customers, answer questions, and send helpful information like purchase receipts”, the company wrote in an online FAQ.  “Whether you communicate with a business by phone, email, or WhatsApp, it can see what you’re saying and may use that information for its own marketing purposes, which may include advertising on Facebook.”  Nevertheless, many users misinterpreted the company’s statement because of Facebook’s history of privacy violations, leading them to switch to other platforms like Signal or Telegram... WhatsApp in India is used for a greater variety of reasons than it is in other countries. In 2020, a payment service between users was rolled out in the country, after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), gave its approval to WhatsApp last November. Food shopping can be purchased through the app too, in certain areas of Mumbai.  It also launched a new fact-checking service in India to help combat misinformation in the run-up to their general election.  However, the app has been used to spread fake news about subjects including child abuse or organ harvesting in the country."

Asians dump WhatsApp for Signal and Telegram on privacy concerns - Nikkei Asia

Signal Won't Replace WhatsApp, People Will Use Both: Brian Acton - "Downloads of the encrypted messaging app Signal have skyrocketed since WhatsApp, a rival service, announced it would make users share some personal data with its parent company, Facebook... He said he expected people to rely on Signal to talk to family and close friends while continuing to talk to other people on WhatsApp... Acton has been an outspoken critic of Facebook; in 2018, he urged Facebook users to delete their accounts. He has said he left WhatsApp in 2017 "due to differences surrounding the use of customer data and targeted advertising.""

Dropping WhatsApp? Nostalgia Drives Users to ICQ - WSJ - "WhatsApp users around the world who are worried about the company’s shifting policy on data privacy are flocking to rival messaging apps such as Signal and Telegram.  In Hong Kong, some are choosing an alternative that reminds them of their childhood—before algorithms, Big Tech and viral misinformation...   Mr. Pang, an airline ground crew worker, said his contact list of friends had been “frozen in time,” with status updates from 20 years ago. One read: “I’ll find my way,” a cryptic phrase invoking the aesthetic of angst-ridden “emo” rock music popular at the time.  He said he has helped four or five friends to look up their ICQ numbers—he still has them on his old friend list—and get online...   Joyce Lai, a 30-year-old aerial exercise instructor, tried to take to ICQ again in recent days. She had committed her ICQ user number to memory in fourth grade, but she can’t log in because she forgot her password.  “I’ve tried so many combinations of my ex-boyfriends’ birthdays and phone numbers, but none of them worked,” Ms. Lai said."

FTC requests Facebooks to sell WhatsApp and Instagram in major antitrust case - "The US Federal Trade Commission has re-filed its complaint against Facebook, arguing that the company should be broken up and forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.  The revised complaint argues that Facebook has a monopoly over social networking in the US and argues that Facebook has looked to make it difficult for other companies to compete... The new case comes amid mounting scrutiny over the size and power of Facebook’s empire, and the way that it has bought up competitors as they have grown.  The case makes reference to an email from Mark Zuckerberg, sent in 2008, in which he said “it is better to buy than compete”"

Lateral thinking is classic pseudoscience, derivative and untested - "Among the purveyors of new psychological knowledge, there was, however, one ‘expert’ who stands conspicuously apart: Edward de Bono, a Maltese physician and medical researcher who turned his back on academia to become a student of creativity.  Eschewing experiment, ignoring all existing studies and scholarship, de Bono’s reputation as a thinker and proponent of lateral thinking is founded on nifty puzzles, a storehouse of anecdotes, an abundance of imperial generalities, no end of clunking analogies and neologisms, and a toolkit that was by no means as novel as his publishers or readers might have assumed. Beginning with his bestseller The Use of Lateral Thinking (1967), de Bono’s quixotic brand of psychology takes aim at traditional logic, identifying it as the enemy of insight and invention...   For readers who were wondering what science lateral thinking was based upon, de Bono’s book The Mechanism of Mind (1969) left the matter unresolved. Nerve networks in the brain, he declared – omitting to mention any neurological research or cognitive studies – permitted information to organise itself into sequences or patterns that were usually asymmetric, like rain channelled into streams and rivers...   Lateral thinking left academics from all disciplines nonplussed...   Though de Bono’s attack on Western logic and traditional pedagogy chimed with the countercultural zeitgeist, lateral thinking was destined to find its most starry-eyed acolytes in a world that the New Age had quietly passed by: business management, where de Bono soon acquired a reputation as a consultant and lecturer... In every one of his books, de Bono approached the field of creativity and problem-solving as a virtual scientific terra incognita: no philosopher or serious thinker had apparently thought to consider the mental processes, conscious or unconscious, that were the wellspring of left-field thinking and heterodox ideas; no experimental work had been undertaken on cold cognition, bounded rationality and the heuristic shortcuts that decision-making relies on. In the same way that Freud had feigned ignorance of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, fostering the impression that he was the true ‘conquistador’ of the unconscious, de Bono places himself in a class of one. An outsider scientist in search of a ‘more creative way of using the mind’, the only meta thinker to have escaped the 2,000-year stranglehold of Greek philosophy, de Bono could find no shoulders to stand on... when brainstorming was subject to its first empirical study, at Yale University in 1958, groups were found to work far less effectively than individuals on a series of creative puzzles. In the 60 or so independent studies that have since been conducted, the evidence has stacked up firmly against the febrile claims made by Osborn and others. Brainstorming, like lateral thinking, neglects to harness the productive spark of debate, friction and constructive conflict – elements that Koestler also came to believe he had overlooked in The Act of Creation... the acerbic American journalist H L Mencken observed that psychology was becoming lost in a fog of its own making. ‘The one way to make a splash in psychology is to come out with a new and revolutionary theory.’ Given that the lateral thinking movement has had almost 50 years to put its evidential house in order, to test whether its mental tricks are any more effective than, say, a short nap or concentrated effort, it’s surely time to put it back in the box and file it under what Mencken would have baldly called flim-flam."

Europeans are turning against the EU - "  The EU’s Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has admitted that Brussels’ disastrous handling of the pandemic has severely damaged public trust.  New polling commissioned by the ECFR reveals that majorities in France, Italy, Spain and Austria believe that the EU project is ‘broken’. The ECFR has described the situation as a ‘crisis of confidence’.  Even in the usually Europhile Germany, 55 per cent believe that the EU isn’t working – a rise of 11 percentage points since before the pandemic."

Sex doll rescued after it's mistaken for drowning woman - "The uproarious gaffe was chronicled on Twitter by YouTuber Natsuki Tanaka, who had initially believed she was witnessing a real-life rescue in the city of Hachinohe off Japan’s northeast coast"

Apple to boost ads business just as iPhone changes hurt Facebook - "Apple will expand its advertising business, according to two people familiar with its plans, just as it brings in new privacy rules for iPhones that are likely to cripple the ads offered by its rivals, including Facebook."

Apple to start scanning people’s images and messages to check for child abuse - "the feature is guaranteed to lead to concerns from privacy advocates, especially given Apple’s public commitment that privacy is a human right... the news has proven incredible controversial even before it was announced. On Wednesday, cryptography expert Matthew Green revealed that Apple had been working on the feature – and both he and a number of security and privacy experts warned that the feature could mark a departure from Apple’s previous record.  Professor Green, who works at Johns Hopkins, said that while such scanning technologies are better than more traditional tools, they are still “mass surveillance tools”. He noted that anyone who controls the list of possible images could use it to search for any picture – not just those associated with child abuse – and that there would be no way to know if the system was being abused in that way.  “The theory is that you will trust Apple to only include really bad images,” he wrote in a tweet thread. “Say, images curated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).  “You’d better trust them, because trust is all you have.”  Alan Woodward, a computing expert at the University of Surrey, was one of many who echoed Professor Green’s concerns. He said it could be a “double edged sword: the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and called for more public discussion before it was launched."

Apple Will Scan U.S. iPhones For Images Of Child Sexual Abuse - "Matthew Green, a top cryptography researcher at Johns Hopkins University, warned that the system could be used to frame innocent people by sending them seemingly innocuous images designed to trigger matches for child pornography. That could fool Apple's algorithm and alert law enforcement. "Researchers have been able to do this pretty easily," he said of the ability to trick such systems. Other abuses could include government surveillance of dissidents or protesters. "What happens when the Chinese government says, 'Here is a list of files that we want you to scan for,'" Green asked. "Does Apple say no? I hope they say no, but their technology won't say no.""

Apple is not your friend - "More than any company, Apple is exceedingly keen that we notice its piety and moral purity, for both are part of its brand. But it isn’t alone. Facebook also sells itself hard to the public on TV ads as the vital connecting influence in human engagement, a free social service, a wellness arm of the NHS. Both tech giants also compete to be the Wokest of them All – a posture which is getting too much even for the hairshirt left. Now Apple and Facebook are at loggerheads, engaged in a war of words over privacy... What if Apple isn’t quite as saintly as it portrays itself to be? In a competition lawsuit filed by state attorneys in the US (led by Texas), details of a deal between Google and Facebook to carve up the market between them have emerged... Apple’s pious gestures are in reality giving a huge helping hand to one member of the giant ad duopoly – the one it favours."

Traffic Is Way Up and the Internet Seems Fine. Did We Maybe Spend Too Much Time Ferociously Debating Net Neutrality? - "all those hysterical predictions about how repealing net neutrality back in 2018 would ruin the internet haven’t panned out. At least not yet. Of course, some net neutrality proponents seem to have missed the good news. Or refused to accept it. Take this bizarre and cognitively dissonant headline from Wired magazine: “The Covid-19 Pandemic Shows the Virtues of Net Neutrality: Network speeds are holding up despite the crush of internet traffic. Freed from rules, broadband providers have cut investment in their systems.” Eppur si muove...   One other lesson that should be learned: Apply deep skepticism to extreme activist claims that this or that policy tweak will save or destroy the American economy or some big chunk of it."

The Suez Canal’s connection to Indian history, Mumbai’s sex trade - "“Before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the foreign prostitute from eastern Europe was practically unknown in Bombay, and such immorality as existed was confined to women of Eurasian or Indian parentage,” grumbled civil servant SM Edwards in his book The Bombay City Police, published in 1929... The existence of European brothels, Tambe noted, was driven by “three distinct imperatives for colonial administrators: providing sexual recreation for British soldiers and sailors, preventing interracial sex, and preserving British national prestige”. She explained, “Although British administrators condoned brothels, they tried to ensure that brothel workers were not British as that could reflect badly on British womanhood.”"

Existential Comics on Twitter - "Rent is theft. Profit is theft. Interest is theft. Look, it isn't complicated. If you are making money that didn't come from your own labor, then it is coming from someone else's labor. You are stealing their money."
There's a reason his comics are almost never shared, only his shit political tweets
The "taxation is theft" people need to go argue with the commies, which will neutralise both crowds

Meme - "WHAT WOMEN WANT IN A MAN
Strong Silent Type: Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th)
Remembers your birthday:Michael Myers (Halloween)
Loves Children: Chucky
Dream Guy: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
In touch with his feminine side:Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs.)
Family Man: Jack Torrance (The Shining)
Loves His Mother: Norman Bates (Psycho)
Romantic Home Cooked Meals: Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)"

Jessie Roman 🏳️‍⚧️ on Twitter - "the fetishisation of the concept of the 'spoiler' to the militant level its reached these days is absurd and misses the point of most media.  like i dunno, if knowing an event in a movie makes it completely unenjoyable to you, maybe that's on you"
"One time I mentioned that one of the main cast members of a show was in every episode but one, and someone yelled at me for spoiling the show. "Now every time this character is in danger, I'll know they can't die because they only missed one episode!""
"After an episode of GoT (when it was good), I updated facebook with "Ramsay Bolton OMG!!!" which led to MULTIPLE ppl lecturing me, someone unfriending me & one of my best friends almost ditching me for real because "now we know he does something""
"One time I reminded a friend "Oh, yeah, the commercial this week said 'welcome back, [character name]!'" and he got mad at me for SAYING THE THING THE SHOW ITSELF HAD CHOSEN TO PUT IN THEIR ADVERTISING"
"Several major news outlets had announced that Loki was renewed for season 2 so I texted a friend, “Omg can’t wait for season 2!” He was PISSED. “HOW DARE YOU SPOIL IT FOR ME I HAVEN’T WATCHED THE LAST EPISODE!”"

Gregory Mason: A Nobel Prize for methods, not results - "This year’s Nobel laureates in economics received the award for coming up with creative methods for extracting causal insight from observational data. That may sound underwhelming but the three economists who were recognized have helped free us from the tyranny of randomized control trials (RCTs) as being the only route to understanding cause and effect... Natural experiments have their limits, of course... Using serendipitous randomness is now part of the standard toolkit in econometrics."

Alessio 🇮🇹 on Twitter - "Because you watched... Paddington
You'll love... The Revenant"
"yes netflix, you’re absolutely right..."

The trans assault on freedom

The trans assault on freedom

"It is an intolerant, coercive force – and it has been thoroughly embraced by political and cultural elites in both the UK and the US. 

In the UK recently we have seen Labour Party leader Keir Starmer criticise one of his MPs for daring to say that ‘only women have a cervix’. And we have also seen Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer condemn a gay- and lesbian-rights group for criticising trans ideas, calling it a ‘hate group’.

Even members of the Conservative Party are now exponents of the trans ideology. Indeed, the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, used her sole appearance at the Conservative Party conference to urge her fellow Tories to fight for the rights of trans people...  

For our cultural elites, transgenderism vies with environmentalism as the cause of the 21st century. As sociologist Michael Biggs notes, the ‘transgender movement has transformed cultural norms and social institutions at breathtaking speed’.

The ease and alacrity with which trans identity has been promoted, and conventional distinctions between men and women have been eroded, have surprised even trans activists. An American law professor sympathetic to transgenderism wrote of the ‘stunning speed’ with which ‘non-binary gender identities have gone from obscurity to prominence in American public life’, citing as proof the growing acceptance of ‘gender-neutral pronouns such as “they, them, and theirs”‘, ‘all-gender’ restrooms, and the ‘increasing number of US jurisdictions… recognising a third-gender category’...

The UK and parts of northern Europe have proven no less hospitable to transgenderism...

Little wonder that in many areas of life now, the boundary between man and woman appears increasingly illegitimate. To the extent it still exists at all, it is presented as artificial, even oppressive. And those who choose to transgress it are celebrated by the media as brave and inspirational role models.

Transgenderism is making itself at home in the most unlikely of places. Rejecting long-held scientific assumptions, both Nature and Scientific American ‘have denied that there are clear criteria for classifying humans as male and female’. The British Medical Association has also fallen in line. In its guide to ‘inclusive language’, it advises its members to use the term ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘pregnant women’. Just recently the prestigious medical journal, the Lancet, decided to call women ‘bodies with vaginas’. It seems that, even in the scientific, medical domain, biological reality is being sacrificed at the altar of transgender ideology.

Remarkably, transgenderism has also been embraced by big business. An advert for British bank HSBC announces that ‘Gender’s just too fluid for borders’. According to HSBC’s accompanying promotional material, its customers can now choose from 10 gender titles, including ‘Ind’, ‘Misc’ and ‘Sai’.  

HSBC’s willingness to transform language may look like a harmless exercise in linguistic sensitivity towards people who wish to be known as Mx or Ser. But it is one of many attempts to impose a vocabulary that not only challenges age-old linguistic norms but also the sentiments that lie behind them. As George Orwell warned, taking control of language and redefining the meaning of words is the first step taken by those seeking to control people’s thoughts.  

This obsession with words is hardly surprising. Ideologies that seek to shape people’s behaviour in pursuit of a political objective are inexorably drawn towards the policing of language. As laughable as some of the new vocabulary and pronouns may be, advocates of transgenderism are deadly serious – they want everyone to view social reality as they do, through the prism of transgenderism.  

In many parts of North America, the policing of gender-related language is backed up by formal and informal sanctions. Directives issued in 2015 by New York City’s Commission on Human Rights state that employers and landlords who intentionally use the wrong pronouns with their non-binary employees or tenants can face fines of up to $250,000. In 2018, California governor Jerry Brown endorsed a bill that promised to penalise healthcare professionals who ‘wilfully and repeatedly’ declined to use a patient’s preferred pronouns.

A tribunal in Canada recently ruled that refusing to use someone’s correct pronouns violates their human rights...

The tribunal’s ruling turns the individual’s demand to have his or her chosen identity validated and recognised by others into a sacred legal norm. This calls into question both freedom of expression and freedom of thought...  As Orwell put it in Nineteen Eighty-Four: ‘The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.’...

This formidable capacity to silence critics is one of the most disturbing aspects of transgenderism.  

Transgenderism is not content with merely abolishing the distinction between man and woman. It also aims to discredit any form of thinking that involves drawing binary distinctions between things. 

Few have realised how dangerous this is. The act of drawing binary distinctions, of discriminating between different categories of phenomena, is central to moral thought and the formation of moral judgements. It allows us to distinguish between good and evil or right and wrong. Therefore the attempt to devalue the drawing of binary distinctions is not only an attack on reason, it is also an attack on our ability to exercise moral judgement...  

Moreover, the attack on binary categories often calls into question normality itself. ‘In modern society, there is a huge misconception as to what is normal and abnormal’, writes one blogger. ‘The fact that there are two such categories, normal and abnormal, is just a reaffirmation of this misconception.’ One psychotherapist even challenges the validity of using normal and abnormal to refer to people’s mental and emotional states. ‘It is a real question as to whether those words can be sensibly used at all’, he writes, ‘given their tremendous baggage and built-in biases and the general confusion they create’.  

Transgenderism also insists that the very idea of normality, indeed of normativity, represents a threat to trans identity. This attack on normality imperils communal life. If society is deprived of the idea of normal and abnormal, it loses the capacity to draw a line between desirable and undesirable forms of behaviour. 

As I argue in Why Borders Matter, the crusade against binary thinking is principally driven by the desire to abolish moral judgement. Unfortunately, non-judgementalism already enjoys widespread institutional support in Western societies. Indeed, transgenderism’s rapid ascent rests precisely on the pre-existing prevalence of non-judgementalism in high places.

Numerous critics of transgenderism have rightly raised concerns about its deleterious impact on the status and rights of women. But this pales into insignificance compared to its impact on children. 

The presence of transgenderism in education effectively estranges children from the norms and values of their community. It challenges their own and their community’s understanding of what is normal and abnormal. This morally disarms them and leads to them feeling confused about their place in the world. For transgenderism that is not a problem. Rather, it is an opportunity for the indoctrination of young minds, a chance to tell children that gender is a choice, and that there is no biological justification for sex-based identities. Right from their earliest years, then, children are estranged from the cultural traditions, norms and legacies of their communities. And as a result, they are plunged into an identity crisis...  

That so many institutions have fallen under the spell of transgenderism is a sign that Western society is in serious trouble. So many people who are genuinely repulsed by this ideology remain silent and fear calling it out. This highlights the challenge transgenderism poses to those committed to defending a free and tolerant society. 

So be warned. Unless checked, the authoritarian impulse driving transgenderism will become even more unrestrained – it is not a transient phenomenon that will soon fade away. And the absence of any serious opposition to it will only encourage its advance, especially given the backing it receives from big business and elite foundations and trusts."

 

 

Clearly, the fact that trans mania has swept the developed world at an amazing speed is proof that the "slippery slope" is a myth

Links - 26th February 2022 (1 - Covid-19: Mandates/Passports)

The Juggernaut on Twitter - "Quebec announces that the unvaxed are not allowed inside of large stores unless accompanied by a Health Warden that will monitor them so they do not purchase anything except for food and medicine."

CBC condemns comparisons of COVID restrictions to Nazi Germany after calling Trump 'Hitler' for four years | The Post Millennial

Facebook - "The government has increased vaccinated differentiated measures to encourage unvaccinated people to stay home for their protection. I think it is a good thing that the government is taking steps to protect the vulnerable. Given that almost all the deaths from COVID daily are from people with "underlying conditions", I propose that such measures also apply to anyone with an "underlying condition" so that they are equally protected."
Colin Powell should have been under house arrest. Maybe that would have protected him.
If covid apartheid is really to protect the people affected by it, there should be no medical exemptions

About 52,000 employees in Singapore remain unvaccinated against COVID-19: MOM - "authorities announced that unvaccinated workers will not be allowed to return to workplaces from Jan 15...   Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated employees will not be allowed to return even with a negative COVID-19 test result...   "Unvaccinated employees, especially those who are older, will put immense strain on our healthcare capacity in the coming months, if they contract COVID-19," said MOM.   Vaccination also will be a condition for the approval or grant of new long-term passes, work passes, as well as permanent residence from Feb 1 next year.   In an update on Wednesday, MOM clarified that the measures will apply to both employees and those who are self-employed. MOM said that employers should redeploy unvaccinated workers to jobs which can be done from home, with suitable remuneration. They can also place them on no-pay leave "based on mutually agreeable terms".  As a "last resort" after exploring these options, companies can fire these workers with notice, "in accordance with the employment contract""
Someone who denied that covid apartheid was a thing cheered this. At least under apartheid one did not get fired. So this is even worse
After a 100% vaccination rate has been achieved, the new scapegoats will be those who haven't gotten their boosters

Meme - "IMAGINE IF YOU WILL... A PANDEMIC SO SEVERE THAT WE CAN AFFORD TO FIRE HEALTHCARE WORKERS"

After Firing Hundreds over Vaccine Mandates, California Has to Use COVID-Positive Hospital Staff - "Allowing infected health workers to continue their duties is needed “due to the critical staffing shortages currently being experienced across the health care continuum”...   The state is so short-staffed that Gov. Newsom called out the National Guard last week to assist with coronavirus testing."
Weird. We were told covid apartheid was necessary to prevent the healthcare system from collapsing

CDC shortens isolation time for asymptomatic COVID-19 to five days - "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is cutting its recommended isolation time for people infected with COVID-19 from 10 to five days, as long as they are asymptomatic."
So much for covid apartheid being to protect people from the unvaccinated

Chris Selley: Canadians are enjoying firing the unvaccinated far too much - "One thing on which we should probably all be able to agree: These people are sincere in their objections. You don’t choose unemployment out of an antisocial fit of pique — especially if you’re a low-paid immigrant who doesn’t have a lot of other marketable skills, which is very possibly the reality in some of these casesIn the early days of the vaccination drive, Canadian government officials and media outlets were very careful never to blame the hesitant. There were cultural considerations that meant certain communities needed to be cajoled and reassured, we were told, and if our cajoling and reassurances weren’t working, well, that was our fault for not understanding, and we needed to try harder. Nowadays many commentators are perfectly happy to vent spleen on those same people... in 2016, 36 per cent of Canada’s nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates were immigrants, and of those 30 per cent each were Black and Filipino. We know demographics are similar in the long-term care industry. Vaccine resistance is a huge problem in the Philippines, thanks in large part to a bungled rollout of the world’s first-ever Dengue fever vaccine in 2016. (It is a grimly fascinating tale, offering many potential warnings that went unheeded during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.) There has been much reporting about hesitancy in Canada’s Black community as well, usually citing an understandable mistrust of authorities. Earlier this year, Statistics Canada found just 56 per cent of Black Canadians were “very or somewhat willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” as opposed to 77 per cent overall... Perhaps governments that told us masks don’t work and foisted byzantine, clearly political and often downright asinine rules on us for the better part of two years should not be surprised to find that some of us just aren’t willing to listen anymore. It can’t be pointed out enough how recently Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was musing that it would be inequitable to bar the unvaccinated even from a Toronto Raptors game, never mind from gainful employment in their field. It can’t be pointed out enough that the reason mandatory vaccination became Liberal policy was because strategists saw it as a valuable wedge issue in an election that Trudeau was insistent on having... There is much concern among Canadian elites over the radicalization of the individualist Canadian right. That’s not generally who’s getting fired from hospitals and LTC homes, but it’s who’s marching in the streets, protesting outside of hospitals and chucking handfuls of gravel at the prime minister. It’s difficult to think of a more efficient way to cultivate that discontent and turn it into rage than by firing thousands of people because their personal medical decisions are unpopular, and not even offering them a few hundred bucks a week to help them get back on their feet."

Stop Calling It a ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’ - The Atlantic - "“If you get into these scenarios where you start pitting one group against another, you create tension, you create resistance,” says Simon Bacon, a behavioral scientist at Concordia University, in Montreal. “What you really need to do is totally deflate that.”... “If you’re worried about safety and efficacy, a vaccine passport or lottery doesn’t affect that,” Bacon told me. This was one concern raised about Israel’s “green pass” vaccine passport, which, after it was rolled out in February, had at best a minimal impact on vaccine uptake... Some early evidence (not yet peer-reviewed) suggests that vaccine requirements can be counterproductive because they make people feel pressured and may increase existing distrust of public-health initiatives, especially among marginalized groups. The American Public Health Association’s executive director, Georges C. Benjamin, has warned that Biden’s latest mandate might cause Americans to “dig in and bristle at being told what to do.” An overarching principle of public health, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is that people should engage with policies willingly, not because they fear being penalized. A recent study of attitudes toward vaccine passports in the United Kingdom and Israel showed that lower willingness to get a shot is associated with feeling that one’s autonomy is being compromised. For some, said the study’s lead author, Talya Porat of Imperial College London, “passports might increase resistance to vaccination or alter the motivation behind their vaccine decisions in ways that might have detrimental long-term consequences.” Even though people might get vaccinated now, they may resist booster shots or vaccines against new coronavirus variants in the future... Calling this a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” stigmatizes the people we need to engage with most... Often, the people who are vaccine hesitant are our own family, friends, and colleagues. That’s worth remembering, because it reminds us who is at risk if we alienate the unvaccinated. If there’s any chance of persuading them to get a shot—and ample evidence shows that doing so is possible—it’s not going to happen if we only enforce policies that exclude them, foster resentment, and make them feel like their fears and concerns are being dismissed. Compassion, not coercion, is what’s going to get us through this pandemic together."
Of course, lots of vaxholes delight in demonising and cutting off their friends and family, so

RIP, 'Pandemic of the Unvaccinated' - ""This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated. Not the vaccinated, the unvaccinated," Biden emphasized, on the same day that the omicron variant produced a one-day positive-case increase of 16 percent in highly vaccinated New York City... New York City's one-shot vaccination rate (of 92 percent for adults, 83 percent for kids between 13 and 17) "rivals any number in the free world," Politico's Jack Shafer observed last week, and yet somehow my vaccinated teen and boosted self spent Christmas under quarantine. The fact-checkers over at The Poynter Institute's PolitiFact generously rated Biden's "vaccinated…do not spread the disease" claim as only "mostly" false, despite epidemiologist quotes like "[the] statement is not accurate," and "vaccinated individuals can definitely infect other people."... how have mandates worked in practice? The New York Times on December 18 published a survey of all 50 states and the country's largest 100 cities, and concluded that the government orders "have not provided the significant boost to state and local vaccination rates that some experts had hoped for." To the contrary: "In most locations, the number of adults with at least one shot grew at a slower pace after states and cities announced mandates than it did nationwide in the same time periods."   "Mandates might help for people who are just finding it inconvenient, but have no really legitimate reason to not get the vaccine," Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, told the Times. "But then you have people who have strong beliefs against it or who really have significant other struggles, and the mandates are not going to do anything for those people."... Rebranding COVID-19 as the "pandemic of the unvaccinated," then targeting that population with punishments for noncompliance, has been a way to scapegoat political opponents and technology companies, while bolstering the sense of virtuousness among the vaxxed. Those dynamics were present at the creation of the re-brand. The same week that the White House COVID-19 Response Team began telling vaccinated people that the pandemic was now for those other people, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a "whole-of-society" effort to combat "health misinformation," then Biden just flat-out accused Facebook and other social media companies of "killing people."  Then in the same week that Biden announced his vaccine mandate, he also charged prominent GOP officials with being "cavalier" about whether children lived or died. "Republican governors in states like Texas and Florida are doing everything they can to undermine the public health requirements that keep people safe," the president tweeted. "They're playing politics with the lives of their citizens, especially children. I refuse to give in to it."  Biden's entire speech unveiling his vaccine mandate was dripping with irritation for Americans who had yet to get a shot, and for politicians who were not sufficiently on board with his COVID policies...   The message given here to the vaccinated is mixed bordering on schizophrenic. This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated does not jibe with vaccinated workers need protection from unvaccinated workers. In a speech touting the urgent need for vaccination, Biden is saying that getting vaccinated cannot be a ticket back to normal life until we deal with those foolish anti-vaxxers. Rather than encourage the kind of social cohesion that correlates best with high inoculation rates, the president is telling one bloc of voters it's OK to be pissed off at the other...   The pandemic of the unvaccinated framing actively encouraged one of the uglier and least productive societal reactions to COVID-19: Making the mere fact of contracting the virus a morality play falling largely along partisan lines. The whole notion that by "doing everything right," and "following all the rules," you will be righteously spared, unlike those anti-science people this summer down south.   That self-flattering narrative is collapsing, now that (as predicted) a stubbornly seasonal/regional virus has hit media/Democratic centers for a third consecutive winter. "Thousands who 'followed the rules' are about to get covid," ran the headline on a Washington Post "Wellness" column last week. "They shouldn't be ashamed." Lovely sentiment, that.   If the public health goal is to prevent unnecessary deaths by persuading fence-sitters to take the life-saving vaccine, there are many strategies that strike me as more potentially effective than scapegoating, marginalizing, and punishing a population that's already disproportionately suffering from the disease. Starting with maybe studying, you know, behavioral science... politicians and public health officials might consider telling the whole relevant truth as they know it, rather than the partial bowdlerized truth as they mold it to shape public behavior.  It's not just Biden busting the fact-check-o-meters; it's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, as Jacob Sullum pointed out just today: "Time and again during the COVID-19 pandemic…Walensky has proven herself untrustworthy. The latest example is Walensky's slippery response to criticism of a study that she has repeatedly cited to justify the CDC's controversial recommendation that K–12 schools require students to wear face masks as a safeguard against COVID-19."  Public health officials have been unreliable narrators about the science of masks, the science of social distancing, the science of outdoor transmission, the science of outdoor dining, and the science of reopening, almost always in the direction of favoring their preferred restrictions. Responding specifically and factually to expressed reasons for vaccine hesitancy is not only more moral than compulsion and demonization, it might well be more effective at the stated goal... Maybe instead of directing rage at a subset of our fellow countrymen who are getting seriously ill in disproportionate numbers, we should personally live as though we are in an endemic, and otherwise try to persuade our recalcitrant loved ones that this mild cough and week-plus indoors is a damn sight better than the alternative. Politicians might not be able to shut off their internal machinery of rhetorical division, but weren't you supposed to be better than all that?"

Ontario town requires full vaccination to get married | The Post Millennial - "If you're looking to get married in the town of Oakville, Ontario, you now have to show proof of full vaccination in order to obtain a marriage license"

COVID-19: stigmatising the unvaccinated is not justified - "There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission. In Massachusetts, USA, a total of 469 new COVID-19 cases were detected during various events in July, 2021, and 346 (74%) of these cases were in people who were fully or partly vaccinated, 274 (79%) of whom were symptomatic. Cycle threshold values were similarly low between people who were fully vaccinated (median 22·8) and people who were unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated, or whose vaccination status was unknown (median 21·5), indicating a high viral load even among people who were fully vaccinated... People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Historically, both the USA and Germany have engendered negative experiences by stigmatising parts of the population for their skin colour or religion. I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatisation of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together."

COVID-19 booster shot needed to maintain fully vaccinated status from Feb 14: MOH

Unvaccinated people to be barred from returning to workplaces, even with negative test result - "“Following the review and discussion with tripartite partners, we have decided to remove the PET concession for unvaccinated persons to return to the workplace from Jan 15, 2022,” said MOH in a press release issued at 11pm.  In an update on Wednesday, MOM clarified that the measures will apply to both employees and those who are self-employed... "This change will help to protect unvaccinated individuals and to create safer workplaces for everyone"...   Vaccination also will be a condition for the approval or grant of new long-term passes, work passes, as well as permanent residence... Vaccination will also be required when renewing existing work passes."
Tis better to be infected with covid than to be unvaccinated. Of course vaxholes still pretend this is about protecting other people; I pointed out to one that he was doing a bait and switch in going from talking about covid apartheid protecting the unvaccinated themselves to claiming that it was necessary to protect others within 2 hours, and he was either too stupid or too disingenuous to realise what I was talking about, claiming that covid-19 was new so the science changed (apparently the science changed in 2 hours)

Philippines' Duterte threatens unvaccinated people with arrest - "Duterte in an televised address to the nation said he was asking community leaders to look for unvaccinated people and make sure they were confined to their homes"
According to vaxholes no one is forced to be vaccinated. Good luck applying this logic in virtually every other area of life (then again, liberals are now claiming that facing "consequences" doesn't mean you have no freedom of speech, which "coincidentally" is what totalitarians say too

Quebec expands vaccine passports to liquor, cannabis stores, with 3rd dose requirement on the way - "According to the leader of the province's Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade, the Coalition Avenir Québec is making decisions related to the pandemic based on political considerations instead of science.  "They've lost control," Anglade said.  The government did not do enough to anticipate and slow down the virus's fifth wave...   She highlighted the fact that this week alone, the province has modified vaccination requirements, reduced the availability of PCR tests, changed the isolation rules for the general population as well as staff and children at daycares.  "All of this is creating a lot of anxiety in the population, and François Legault is nowhere to be seen this week""

[WHY] The unvaccinated in Korea and how they deal with the vaccine pass - "“Even when I go to a restaurant by myself, people like the employees whisper around me after noticing that I am unvaccinated,” Oh told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “It’s not like I did anything wrong, but it seems like people are treating me like a criminal.”   Oh did receive her first vaccine, but found out that she was pregnant one day before the appointment for her second jab. She chose not to get the second shot since she was advised by her doctor to not get it, concerning potential effects it could have on the baby... The unvaccinated adults have been essentially barred from public facilities including indoor gyms, bars and clubs from November, and then additionally banned from theaters and museums from mid-December, as Korea began expanding its vaccine pass system amid its worst and longest wave of the pandemic. They are allowed to eat alone at restaurants and cafes, but there have been reported cases of unvaccinated people being turned away at the door even if they're alone. The pass system for those aged 12 to 18 was waived until March 1, and recently halted indefinitely by a local court at certain venues.    The vaccine pass system requires full inoculation, proven with a QR code, or a negative PCR test. The PCR test is valid until midnight two days after receiving the result via text message.   Starting Jan. 10, the unvaccinated in Korea were also barred from large supermarkets and department stores — specifically, those larger than 3,000 square meters (32,300 square feet).    There has been increasing public backlash against the system recently, with around 1,000 doctors and other professionals filing a case to a local court to stop expanding the vaccine passes, which they said infringe on the "basic rights of the people." The court announced its decision on Friday to place a temporary halt on the system across large-sized supermarkets and department stores, but only those in Seoul."...
Ko Yu-bin, a 25-year-old office worker in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, noticed her eyesight worsened after she was administered her first shot in early December.   “Everything is so blurry, and it never gets better,” Ko said. “I don't think I can get another vaccine, I’m so scared.”...
For 22-year-old Kim Ha-jin, who was diagnosed with pericarditis, or inflammation in the heart, following her second vaccine, the scariest part was not when the heart-attack-like pains would occur, but the unknown afterwards...  Discharged from the hospital, her chest pains and breathing problems continued for three months, but when she asked her doctor about them, the response she got was the same — the medical world doesn’t have enough data on these side-effects... “I didn’t get vaccinated due to my health condition, but once was kicked out of a restaurant just because I’m unvaccinated,” said Moon So-ri, a 30-year-old resident of Goyang, Gyeonggi.   Moon recently underwent heart surgery and has to take special medication for three months. She was told by the doctor to not get any vaccines while taking the drugs since, taken in tandem, she could develop unusual blood clots...    
“If some people say they don’t want to get vaccinated, that’s their right. The government has no right to oppose their decision,” said Dr. Ma Sang-hyuk from Fatima Hospital, who also served as the former vice president of the Korean Vaccine Society.   “The inoculation rate in Korea is very high compared to foreign countries, but we now know that vaccines are not the key solution to the pandemic,” Ma added. “The way the government has been pushing forward with the system has no regard for the welfare of the people.”... Officials of the Health Ministry have repeatedly emphasized that the vaccine pass system is designed to "protect the unvaccinated."... Kim Woo-joo, a doctor specializing in infectious diseases at the Korea University Guro Hospital in western Seoul, said the vaccine pass system itself is not the problem, but the way the system has been implemented in Korea.   “The unvaccinated are not the main ones getting infected these days — among the Covid-19 patients aged 60 or over, 85 percent have been fully vaccinated,” he said. “But [the government is] going after the unvaccinated by enforcing the vaccine passes at even essential stores.”...  People who have had serious reactions to shots, such as anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, and could not complete the vaccine course or get a third booster shot, have to present a note from a local health center to prove they have a valid reason for not getting their shots.   A doctor’s note from a private clinic is not acceptable, and there is no waiver for pregnancies, according to the Health Ministry... A local court in Korea recently placed a temporary halt on the expansion of the vaccine pass system, citing concerns on human rights.    On Jan. 4, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that private educational facilities, such as hagwon (cram schools), reading rooms and study cafes, should be temporarily excluded from the list of establishments requiring a vaccine pass for entry — effective immediately.   “In order to implement a policy that would be unfavorable to a certain group of society, in this case the unvaccinated, there needs to be a rational reasoning behind it,” the Seoul Administrative Court said in a statement. “As we are seeing a hike in breakthrough cases, we cannot conclude at this point that the unvaccinated [should be barred from these facilities because they] could be the main source of future Covid-19 cases.”"
Weird how there're medical exemptions if the aim is to "protect the unvaccinated". The elderly need to be subject to covid apartheid too to "protect" them, since they are at an elevated risk from covid

Facebook - "Twitter just locked my account for another one of those memes calling vaccine passports systemically racist. The Woke elites REALLY don't want people to know that they're just using minorities and don't believe anything they say about systemic racism."

Facebook - "You are apparently allowed to call everything systemically racist (math, surfing, physics, hiking, a rock, etc.) on Twitter *except* vaccine passports. Isn't that interesting?"

Facebook - "Hi Ibram X. Kendi, would you mind commenting on whether vaccine passports are racist policy given that they will have undeniably racist outcomes? Isn't your definition of racism "racist policy that has racist outcomes done by racist people"? Are the people pushing them racists too? Thx"

Hannity slams NYC vaccine passport, says it will disproportionately hurt black New Yorkers - "'Remember for months now Democrats insisted that all forms of voter ID, yeah they're racist. They called voter verification voter ID laws 'Jim Crow of the 21st century' and 'Jim Crow 2.0''  'But apparently identification for daily activities is Democratic approved'... Hannity noted that statistics show that only 33 percent of black people in the city are vaccinated, meaning very few would be allowed to enter most places of business.      'That would mean 66 percent, fully two thirds of African Americans will be barred from restaurants, from concerts, from venues where you have ballgames, movie theaters all in New York City'"
Apparently liberals imagine that Jim Crow only applied to voting, and not all other life activities

Black Lives Matter Leader Calls Vaccine Mandates Racist, Disrespectful - "More than 70% of Black Americans between 18 and 44 in New York City have not gotten the vaccine, a statistic repeated by activist Chivona Newsome at the restaurant protest of Carmine’s Italian Restaurant. Hawk Newsome, a Black activist and the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Greater New York chapter, organized a protest outside of the Manhattan restaurant where a hostess claimed three Black women from Texas attacked her after she asked for them to show proof of vaccination.  Newsome and his sister, Chivona, organized a protest outside the restaurant earlier this week where Hawk accused the city of using vaccine requirements to cover for its “racist ways” and “discrimination.”... “We are not anti-vaxxers. Some of us are vaccinated,” Newsome said of his group. “It’s an individual’s choice. No one should be forced to put something in their body.”... Newsome, like other Black Americans, cited the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as an example of the exploitation of Black Americans by the U.S. government.  “I think, in a perfect world, vaccine requirements] should be business by business. But it could be a slippery slope, so the mandate should be removed completely,” Newsome told Yahoo News. “It’s not gonna be white men in suits on Wall Street who are gonna get stopped. There’s such hypocrisy in this thing.”  Newsome and the Black Lives Matter of Greater New York are advocating for the complete abolition of vaccine requirements at the city and national levels."

Black Lives Matter of Greater New York leader blasts vaccine mandates as racist and disrespectful - "three black women were taped attacking the waitress at Carmine's Italian Restaurant, after which they were arrested and charged with instigating a fight. The women allege that the waitress used racial slurs against them that provoked them, but no recording of such an altercation has been made public thus far. The owner of Carmine's, Jeffrey Bank, denied that his hostess used racist language while asking for proof of vaccination.  "Three women brutally attacked our hostess without provocation, got arrested and charged for their misconduct, and then, over the last several days, had their lawyer falsely and grossly misrepresent their acts of wanton violence in a cynical attempt to try to excuse the inexcusable," Bank said in a statement... A Black Lives Matter protester was recorded shouting at a member of the community anti-crime group "Guardian Angels" during the protest. The unidentified man, who was wearing a black tank top and mask, repeatedly shouted "suck d***" in the face of Patrol Lead for the Guardian Angels Joshua Penner... Following the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, which sparked several nationwide demonstrations and led to former police officer Derek Chauvin being convicted on murder charges, Newsome said if the United States doesn't "give [black people] what they want," they would "burn this system down," while refusing to clarify whether his statement was literal or figurative. At one point in the Fox News interview, Newsome also referred to Jesus Christ as "the most famous black radical revolutionary in history."... Newsome believes that black communities are being intentionally left out of discussions about vaccine hesitancy by left-wing politicians.  "It fits a narrative to say crazy Trumpsters are the only ones who don't want to take the vaccine""

Facebook - "Once a vaccine passport social credit system is implemented, you will never be allowed to assemble to protest CRT in schools again as parents. Or anything else as anybody else. They will find ways to deny you entry, shut down your bank accounts, terminate you from work, no-fly list, etc., for being a "public health threat" for having the wrong opinions (cf. "syndemic"). Antifa and BLM will be able to do whatever they want, though. At first. LOL."

Broad Vaccine Mandates Are a Serious Violation of Civil Liberties - "The government should not have the power to force you to make a private medical decision that has little effect on anyone else. Your vaccination status is, by and large, your business. The vaccines are not substantially blocking the spread of COVID-19: We all know countless vaccinated people who've caught the disease. This is particularly true of the omicron wave: It's great to be vaccinated, but the vaccine is not preventing you or your close contacts from contracting COVID-19. The vaccine is a personal health decision. It protects the person who gets it, and thus it's not really the government's business.   Yet countless municipalities, including our nation's capital—the site of this weekend's protest—are broadly mandating vaccination. In D.C., if you want to enter a restaurant, you have to show not just your vaccine card, but also a photo ID—like a driver's license—in order to prove that the card is really yours.  Note that D.C.'s COVID-19 mitigation policies have been, at all times, foolish. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reimposed a mask mandate to deal with delta, even though the mayor herself had been partying maskless the night before. The district's vaccine mandate took effect last week, ostensibly to deal with omicron, but guess what? Omicron is largely over in D.C. Cases are plummeting. We will never stop cases no matter how desperately we mandate vaccines, masks, and everything else. The only thing we can control is deaths, but the government shouldn't force this choice on people. You shouldn't have to show identification to participate in social life—to leave your home. Isn't that something Democrats used to believe—or still pretend to believe? Certainly, in some cases, it is... That's an advertisement from the committee to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives. The thrust of the ad is that nefarious, moralizing Republicans are coming between you and your private medical decisions. Is that wrong? Of course. But the Democratic Party, vis-a-vis its leaders at the local level, and its national leader President Joe Biden, is wholly committed to the idea that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of unelected bureaucrats, gets to interfere in your private medical decisions. You can't go anywhere without its permission. That's currently the Democratic Party's central policy commitment: Anthony Fauci knows best. Democratic leaders will make you provide a vaccine card and ID to participate in social life, civil liberties be damned.  It's funny, because in other circumstances, this would be the sort of thing that progressive civil liberties organizations opposed. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has waged war on the concept of voter ID laws—the idea that you should have to provide a photo ID in order to vote... But when it comes to vaccine passports—a roughly equivalent restriction on people's civil liberties—the ACLU has not denounced them. On the contrary, it wholeheartedly supports them.  "We see no civil liberties problem with requiring COVID-19 vaccines in most circumstances," writes the ACLU. "In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties."  If we lived in a world where progressive defenders of civil liberties were actually doing the right thing and fighting back against vaccine mandates, it would be easier to completely ignore and write off Malone and the anti-vaccine cranks who gathered in Washington, D.C., this weekend. But we live in a world where many of the supposed defenders of civil liberties have sided with the state. COVID-19 mitigation policies grow more unreasonable and oppressive—and more disconnected from reality—with each passing day. What is the ACLU doing about it? Nothing."

Oppressive COVID Measures for the Unvaccinated Were Based on 'Software' Error, Claims German Minister. - "In November 2021, news outlets reported on the increasing “incident numbers” in the city – where the figure grew from 111.6 infected people per 100,000 to 160 per 100,000 in a span of few of days. By the end of November, that number shot up from 209.2 to a record of 223.3.  The ostensibly drastic increases have been used to legitimize new COVID policy measures in the city. First, 2G (vaccinated or recovered) status limitation was announced in order to enter shops, restaurants, and clubs. Social contact limitation was mandated for the unvaccinated. After the order, Mayor Peter Tschentscher, claimed to observe an increase in vaccination numbers, and implied it was the only way out of the pandemic.   Now, an investigation from the Sueddeutscher Zeitung and Welt newspapers has found that the numbers in Hamburg’s Social Services departments were drastically skewed and, in most cases, they didn’t even know who was vaccinated and who was not. This, however, did not stop them classifying everyone with an unknown status as unvaccinated. Indeed, by the end of November, a whopping 70 percent of the positive cases had unknown status. In the second week of November, the Mayor of Hamburg held a press conference and incorrectly claimed that 90 percent of all new infections were amongst the unvaccinated. In addition, he alleged the 7-day infection average for the unvaccinated was at 605 per 100,000 and just 22 in 100,000 for the vaccinated...   Germany’s COVID measures targeting the unvaccinated were introduced in November 2021, and have used these two major data mismanagements as basis for legitimacy. Nearly 100,000 German citizens are believed to have participated in anti-mandate protests in recent days."

Rejected! Shaq Unleashes Fire On Vax Mandates, Exposes The Forced Jab Agenda - "Shaquille O'Neal absolutely posterized his podcast co-host when he comes out against forced vaccinations. His co-host tried to argue that no one is being forced, and Shaq shot down that talking point over, and over again...
Shaq: There's still some people who don't wanna take it. And you shouldn't have to be forced to take something you don't want.
Turner: I don't think people are forced to take – well there are some. We have a mandate at CBS.
Shaq: That's forced!
Turner: We have a mandate at CBS, but my point—
Shaq: That's forced!
Turner: I wholeheartedly—
Shaq: That's forced!
Turner: No it's not forced.
Shaq: It is forced! Because if the man don't take it the man's gonna get fired!
In today's world, this is a spicy take from Shaq. It takes courage to come out against something that all the forces of around you support. In today's world, being against mandates is somehow the same as being "anti-vax.""
If liberals like it, it doesn't count as coercion: I've some some claim that students in the US are forced to recite the pledge of allegiance (when they've clearly allowed to opt out)

Links - 25th February 2022 (2 - George Floyd Unrest: Kyle Rittenhouse)

Meme - ">l never chased Kyle house
>okay, I mean I chased after people about to harm Kyle Rittenhouse
>okay, I did chase Kyle Rittenhouse
>but I didn't have a gun
>but I didn't mention the gun
>okay, I had a gun but it fell out
>okay, I had a gun but it fell out into my hand
>okay, I had a gun but it fell out into my hand but I didn't do anything with it
>okay, I had a gun but I pulled it out on purpose and chased Kyle Rittenhouse and pointed it at him
>okay, I had a gun that I pulled out and chased Kyle Rittenhouse with and pointed at him and it was illegal for me to have
ALL OF THIS HAPPENED IN 30 MINUTES"

The Meme Policeman - Posts | Facebook - "I want to live in a country where Colin Kaepernick is seen as a hero and Kyle Rittenhouse is seen as a terrorist"
"They really do live in an alternate universe, as this IS basically the mainstream view in our culture.
▪️Colin Kaepernick is widely celebrated in the media, pop culture and has deals with several large companies. He has a multi-million $ sponsorship with Nike, which had a prominent ad series showing him as a hero (“Believe in Something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”)
▪️He also has several other deals showing his life in a heroic context; a multi-book deal with Scholastic on his childhood, a partnership with Disney/ESPN Films for a docuseries about his last 5 years as an activist, and a current Netflix show dramatizing his early life.
▪️Meanwhile, the government has Kyle Rittenhouse on trial for a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence. Not only does no major company support him, even right wing-friendly Black Rifle Coffee went out of their way to reject any connection to him after he wore one of their shirts."

WATCH: Kenosha Detective Admits Kyle Rittenhouse Only Shot People Chasing Him - "Kenosha Police Department Detective Ben Antaramian, a prosecution witness, admitted under cross-examination Monday in Kenosha County Court that Kyle Rittenhouse only shot people who chased him through the streets during Black Lives Matter riots last Aug. 25... Chirafisi systematically worked through the other possibilities: “You’d agree there are multiple times, based on the surrounding circumstances, that he doesn’t pull the trigger, right?” After Antaramian seemed reluctant to agree, Chirafisi cited an example in which an unarmed person ran up to Rittenhouse, and then stepped back, and the latter did not fire"

Meme - "Borders are just imaginary lines on a map!"
"He crossed state lines!!!!!"

Meme - "He crossed state lines!"
"He lives 25 minutes away and regularly goes to the area"
"He fled a crime scene!"
"He turned himself in once he got back home"
"He was only there to murder protestors!"
"Pictures of him cleaning graffiti hours before"
"He killed innocent protestorst!"
"He killed a registered sex offender and shot two felons, one of which was illegally carrying"
"He instigated the violence!"
"Have you even watched the video for yourself?"

1/1024th Liberty Memes - Posts | Facebook - "Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people in cold blood just because they were chasing him and trying to kill him. Aside from chasing him, cornering him, threatening him, and lunging at him while trying to take his gun (as another mostly peaceful protester fired into the air nearby), the first victim (Rosenbaum) did almost nothing to provoke Kyle. The other man he killed was mostly peaceful when he interacted with Kyle, aside from hitting him over the head with a skateboard and trying to take his gun. Both of the people killed, and the person injured, had been mostly peaceful towards Kyle aside from briefly assaulting and trying to kill him right before he shot them. I'm outraged at this cold blooded murder against mostly peaceful protesters."

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "The Washington Post has a great article on the people shot by Rittenhouse. The article would have been a more complete recounting of the night if they had included a similar treatment for Kyle Rittenhouse.  The Post appears to give an accurate accounting of the night based on what is publicly known. The first person shot, Kyle Rosenbaum, was a just-released psychiatric patient who couldn’t get his meds that day. He was highly agitated that night and was chasing Rittenhouse. He was shot when he tried to grab Rittenhouse’s firearm.  Anthony Huber was a friend of Blake’s, whose shooting by police had triggered the riots. Huber had two stays in prison as well as mental health issues. He gave chase when Rittenhouse passed him after shooting Rosenbaum.  When Rittenhouse had fallen, and was almost hit by a flying kick by an unknown assailant, Huber swung his skateboard at Rittenhouse’s head and tried to grab the rifle. That’s when he was shot in the heart and quickly died.  The third man, Gaige Grosskruetz, closed in on Rittenhouse with a pistol in his hand and was shot once. Like Rittenhouse, he also came to the protest with a medical bag to help those injured in the protests, as well as carrying a firearm for protection. Earlier in the night he had helped a woman who had been shot by a rubber bullet fired by police.  In sum, the first two were shot when they attempted to take away Rittenhouse’s rifle as he was running away. The third was shot while closing in on him with a gun in his hand."

AJ+ on Twitter - "The judge in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial says lawyers cannot call the 2 people he killed "victims." Rittenhouse killed 2 people and wounded another with an AR-15 style weapon. The judge says "victim" is too "loaded" but will let lawyers call them "rioters, looters or arsonists.""
The replies are hilarious: "None of the victims were rioters, looters, or arsonists. At this point, the anti-blackness in this country isn't surprising." (none of the 3 people who attacked Rittenhouse and were shot by him in self-defence were black)

'His word is final.' Judge in Kyle Rittenhouse trial is viewed as tough jurist - ""He has a reputation for doing what he believes is the right thing and being an independent thinker," said William Lynch, a retired attorney who served on the board of the ACLU of Wisconsin at the time of Schroeder ruling about the AIDS tests... Schroeder's no-nonsense reputation was evident when Rittenhouse took the stand on Wednesday.  On cross-examination, Schroeder twice asked the jury to leave the room before admonishing prosecutor Thomas Binger for his line of questioning.  Defense attorney Mark Richards threatened to call for a mistrial with prejudice.  "This is ridiculous," Schroeder told Binger at one point.  Defense lawyers and Schroeder took issue with Binger's questions about Rittenhouse's silence after his arrest -- a right guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment.  "I was astonished when you began ... by commenting on the defendant's post-arrest silence," Schroeder told the prosecutor.  Schroeder called it "a grave constitutional violation for you to talk about the defendant's silence."  "You're right on the borderline, and you may be over, but it better stop," the judge said.  The judge later admonished Binger after the prosecutor asked the defendant about an incident two weeks before the Kenosha shootings that Schroeder has said would not be allowed into evidence.  Binger said he believed Rittenhouse's testimony opened the door for the questioning but Schroeder was adamant and again spoke sharply to the prosecutor. Schroeder told Binger he should have asked the court for permission first and said the evidence would not be allowed.  "Don't get brazen with me," Schroeder said. "You know very well that an attorney can't go into these types of areas when the judge has already ruled without asking outside the presence of the jury to do so, so don't give me that."... A seasoned southeast Wisconsin attorney who has appeared before Schroeder many times described the judge as "someone who has studied the Constitution and the enumerated rights for criminal defendants and... respects the right of the defense to put on a defense."... "I would say his overall career as a trial judge I have found to be one which I find fair to the defense in the presentation of evidence and at a trial," Kenosha defense attorney Terry Rose said of Schroeder."
He's independent. No wonder the left hates him

Facebook - "Many till now do not know that the 1st rioter to attack Rittenhouse was a convicted sex offender of young boys and a felon, and the 2nd also had a felony for threatening his own brother with a knife. The guy who prevented this from being known by the jury? The judge being falsely accused of bias by the far left."
Bias is anything the left hate

Giving Kyle Rittenhouse Basic Due Process Is Not a Scandal - "Andrew Fleischman, an Atlanta attorney at Ross & Pines LLC who specializes in appeals, tells Reason the request is fairly "boilerplate," and the decision to grant it is "not necessarily a sign of favor." The Kenosha News reported earlier this month that disallowing the term "victim" is Schroeder's "standard practice in criminal cases and is not unique to his handling of the Rittenhouse case." Anecdotally, other defense attorneys have weighed in that in their respective jurisdictions, it is perfectly common to disallow the term "victim." The Chicago Tribune explained that such rulings were "not uncommon in self-defense cases where there is a dispute over who bears responsibility."  There is also an uproar over Schroeder allowing the defense to refer to the alleged victims as "rioters," "looters," and "arsonists." However, as the Chicago Tribune reported, Schroeder "cautioned the defense team against using pejorative terms during opening statements, but he said they could use them in their closing arguments if the evidence suggested the men engaged in criminal acts.""

Kyle Rittenhouse judge slams 'vast amount' of 'irresponsible and sloppy journalism' surrounding case - "Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said that those selected for the task may need to disregard much of what they have heard in the media about the case.  "This case has become very political. It was involved in the politics of the last election year," Schroeder said in the court session, adding, "To this day, you can go out and read things from all across the political spectrum about this case, most of which is written by people who know nothing."... "It can be frightening," he added while urging jury candidates to abandon their presuppositions and focus solely on the evidence presented at trial. He reminded them that the right to a fair trial is an important right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."
Liberals are going to get even more upset, and demand he be taken off the case

Why Kyle Rittenhouse’s Crowdfunded Legal Defense Shouldn’t Be Controversial - "Few would argue against the idea that Rittenhouse deserves competent legal counsel, a fair hearing, and his day in court like anyone else. In some ways, these efforts are already being frustrated because of the current politicized environment.  A GoFundMe campaign launched to raise funds for Rittenhouse quickly disappeared from the platform, and officials from the crowdfunding platform confirmed they terminated the campaign and returned the donations to the contributions.  Precisely why the campaigns were deleted remains unclear.  According to a Washington Times report, GoFundMe officials said the campaigns violated the companies terms of service but did not specify what terms had been violated...   A campaign for Rittenhouse then appeared on Fundly, a rival crowdfunding site. More than $50,000 was raised in a span of hours before that page also disappeared...   I personally think crowdfunding platforms should permit people to donate to the legal defense of accused criminals regardless of their crimes because it helps ensure the accused will receive effective legal counsel and a fair trial. (Patriot and future president John Adams famously defended British soldiers who participated in the Boston Massacre because he believed the same.)"

GoFundMe on Twitter - "Here is the verified GoFundMe to support the family of Anthony Huber—the hero who gave his life attempting to take down a gunman in Kenosha & save others. All funds will be sent to Anthony's partner & stepdaughter."
GoFundMe Website Lifts Ban On Rittenhouse Fundraisers After Acquittal

Kyle Rittenhouse made reasonable decision to shoot: expert testimony | The Post Millennial - "At a pretrial hearing on Tuesday, a use-of-force expert stated that Kyle Rittenhouse's actions during the riots in Kenosha, Wisc., in August 2020 were justified. Rittenhouse shot three men during that rioting, two of those men, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, died from their injuries. Expert John Black testified that video shows Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse before reaching for the defendant's gun, Huber attacking Rittenhouse with his skateboard and attempting to wrestle away the gun, and Gaige Grosskreutz, who was injured, running at Rittenhouse armed with a pistol... Black reportedly testified that he has extensively viewed and studied bystander video from the three shootings.  Black noted that Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse, threw a plastic bag at him, then attempted to reach for Rittenhouse's rifle."

Licensed Memes: The Banterbury Tales - Posts | Facebook - "A lawyer for Rittenhouse repeated the N-word twice in his opening statement while quoting Joseph Rosenbaum, who his client is accused of killing."
"1. Based gamer lawyer
2. How are the media trying to make his lawyer out to be the racist when it was R o s e n b a u m he's quoting."

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "Yesterday may go down as one of the worst days ever for a prosecutor. It wasn’t bad luck, it was malpractice. The prosecutions witnesses ended up supporting Rittenhouse’s claims of self defense while humanizing him and describing him as someone there trying to help injured people.  The prosecutor was undisciplined from the start, asking questions and pursing lines of thought that had no application to the guilt or innocence of Rittenhouse.  On more than one occasion it was going so bad for the prosecution that the prosecutor attempted to impeach his own star witnesses."

Virginia police lieutenant fired for donating to Kyle Rittenhouse fundraiser seeking due process - "The Virginia police lieutenant who was fired from the department in April after anonymously donating to a fundraiser to benefit Kyle Rittenhouse said his ousting came in only a matter of days, despite that the process typically takes months.  Norfolk Police Lt. William Kelly was only roughly 10 months from being a 20-year veteran of the department, at which point he would have been eligible to have received his retirement savings without a penalty. He was fired from Norfolk Police Department in April, when he was suddenly left desperate to find affordable health insurance for himself, his wife, who is sick with cancer, and their three kids.   "I thought I was a free man in America expressing his personal opinion to somebody, giving some words of encouragement and making a simple donation"... The grievance argues that his dismissal violated due process and Virginia code that does not allow immediate dismissal. It also violates the "Virginia Law Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act," which requires certain steps, including the ability to respond to formally alleged charges, to be provided to an officer before he or she is fired.   The termination was based on political affiliation, race and was "unjustified, excessive, arbitrary and capricious," the document further states.  The grievance also features a picture of Chief Boone holding a "Black Lives Matter" poster during a protest in the city. "

Gaige Grosskreutz Admits Pointing Gun at Rittenhouse Before Being Shot - "another witness testified Grosskreutz had a handgun in his possession with a bullet loaded in the chamber. The Daily Wire reported the witness, Jason Lackowski, aided Grosskreutz after he was shot by Rittenhouse... Grosskreutz admitted to “advancing” on Rittenhouse at a time when Rittenhouse was down on the ground and to pointing the gun at him.  Rittenhouse defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked, “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him … that he fired, right?” the Chicago Sun-Times observed.  “Correct,” Grosskreutz responded."

WATCH: Prosecution Appears to Fall Apart as Rittenhouse 'Victim' Admits He Pulled Gun First - "He also cleaned graffiti off buildings and offered medical aid to protesters, before being attacked during a riot. In the melee, he fired an AR-15 rifle in what his lawyers claimed was self-defense, killing two and wounding Grosskreutz.  Democrats seized on the event in an attempt to blame President Donald Trump for the Kenosha riots, which had been a serious liability for then-candidate Joe Biden, who was slow to condemn them. Biden claimed, without evidence, that the 17-year-old Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist” — a claim that led immediately to threats of a defamation lawsuit from Rittenhouse’s attorney...   During cross-examination, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi noted that Grosskreutz had lied to police about being armed... The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Binger, appeared to rest his forehead on his left hand, almost despondent, as he composed a message on his phone with his right.   The defense ended its cross-examination when Grosskreutz admitted that he never tried to talk to Rittenhouse to stop the violence...   Last year, Facebook prevented users from defending Rittenhouse on the platform, calling the incident a “mass murder,” thus presuming Rittenhouse’s guilt. Twitter locked the account of a Rittenhouse attorney, and a police officer lost his job for donating to Rittenhouse’s defense.  President Trump said at the time that it looked as if Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense — for which CNN accused him of racism."

Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com on Twitter - "It’s over. Kyle Rittenhouse did not fire until a gun was pointed at him. The prosecutors literally facepalm."

Facebook Ban on Supporting Rittenhouse Wears Thin as Prosecution Stumbles - "Facebook decided last September to ban statements defending Kyle Rittenhouse as if they were support for “mass murder” — a decision that looks increasingly questionable as Rittenhouse’s lawyers make a strong self-defense case in a Kenosha court...   Some legal observers opined that Rittenhouse should qualify for a directed verdict — a legal finding by the judge that the prosecution has failed to establish the basic elements of the crime. But the establishment media continued portraying the teenager in the worst possible light"

‘I Was Wrong’: Young Turks’ Kasparian Admits She Bought Into False Rittenhouse Narrative - "Kasparian said she thought Rittenhouse first chased after Joseph Rosenbaum, sparking the incident that ended with the teen fatally shooting Rosenbaum. However, it was Rosenbaum who chased after Rittenhouse. Moreover, a gun was fired from a third party just seconds before Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum... it was revealed during trial last week that Rosenbaum was “masked” when he chased Rittenhouse, and continued to pursue the teen despite Rittenhouse repeatedly yelling that he was “friendly,” Kenosha Police detective Martin Howard confirmed... Kasparian had a discussion with Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro, headlining the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s annual dinner. The progressive politico caught heat for the discussion, but fiercely defended the exchange and ripped the Left for “platform scolding.”"

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "The forensic pathologist really could only contribute useful new information on two topics — evidence of how close Rittenhouse’s rifle was to Rosenbaum when he shot and specifics about “shooting Rosenbaum in the back”. The short answer is that the doctor confirmed the testimony of the journalist — the shooting was consistent with the theory of self defense.  The rest of the trial was wild; perhaps because the prosecution is getting more desperate.  The testimony of the witnesses made it clear the car lot owners/sons perjured themselves on the stand. They did ask for help protecting their lot. They confirmed, again, that Rosenbaum was a maniac that night. He was even quoted as saying that he was “willing to go back to jail” when taunting.  The funniest moment of the trial was with the lone female property protector, armed with her might .380 pistol on her hip. She was asked what Rosenbaum had said. First she turned to Judge and apologized then rattled of a sentence involving several words not used in polite conversation.  What was perhaps most notable about the day was behavior of the prosecutors during cross examinations. They have a special gift of pressuring witnesses until they same something even more damning about the prosecution case.  The cross examination of a man, probably on the spectrum and with a speech impediment, who stated he believes the prosecutors were trying to get him to lie about his testimony. The prosecutor spent an enormous amount of time attempting to bully the witness into changing his statement. He not only didn’t succeed but managed to make the prosecutors look even worse.  The picture that emerging from this trial is of a police department that was overwhelmed and who did a poor job collecting evidence and statements. The riots created too much work for too few people. The prosecutors are coming across as sloppy, inattentive, thin skinned, poorly skilled, and poorly focused. The charge of violating the curfew was dismissed today because they didn’t introduce any evidence that a curfew had been ordered.  Anything is possible but I can’t imagine a scenario where Rittenhouse gets convicted on a felony at this point. It’s amazing the teenager was as restrained as he was. He used 8 bullets to stop four attackers in a chaotic moment. Six bullets hit their intended target and nobody was accidentally harmed. The officer that shot the man that started these riots used 7 bullets."

Meme - Tara Dublin: "We do not participate in #RoyMoorePickUpLines because we do not make fun of sexual assault, but extra especially when it's kids PM"
Tara Dublin: "And that's the same face Kyle Rittenhouse will make during his first time in the prison shower #KyleRittenhouselsGuilty"

Prosecution rests its case against Kyle Rittenhouse and judge dismisses curfew violation charge - "Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed to dismiss a curfew violation charge against Rittenhouse, ruling that prosecutors had failed to present any evidence a curfew was in place... the paramedic testified that his concealed carry license was expired that night. He also admitted he incorrectly told investigators his gun had fallen out of his pants earlier in the night... Other video from earlier in the night showed Rosenbaum yelling, "shoot me (n-word)." One of the armed men said Rosenbaum had acted "belligerently" and another said he had threatened to kill him and Rittenhouse. "He goes, 'You know, if I catch any of you guys alone tonight, I'm gonna f***ing kill you,'" according to Ryan Balch, a military veteran who brought his weapon into Kenosha that night... Richie McGinniss, a video editor with The Daily Caller news site, testified that Rosenbaum had lunged for the front of Rittenhouse's rifle moments before he was shot"

Defense Moves for Mistrial in Kyle Rittenhouse Case; Judge to Prosecutor: 'I Don't Believe You!' - "Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to declare a mistrial “with prejudice,” which would prevent prosecutors from bringing the charges again. That provision, Chirafisi claimed, was necessary to prevent prosecutors from deliberately ruining their own case to get “another kick at the cat.” He said that prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, had acted in “bad faith” — a key element of dismissal with prejudice... Judge Schroeder had admonished the prosecution that it had committed a “grave constitutional violation” by referring to Rittenhouse’s previous silence, which conflicts with his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent...   There was another interruption later, when the judge admonished the prosecution for discussing excluded evidence... Judge Schroeder berated Binger again, saying that he had been trying to find a way around his previous rulings. “When you say that you had been acting on good faith, I don’t believe that,” he said...   Later, when the prosecution argued for the admission of a photograph into evidence showing Rittenhouse wearing a shirt with an expletive on it, the judge noted that Rittenhouse is not on trial for “exquisitely bad judgment” or “behaving in a very offensive way,” but for murder."

Libertarian Party NH on Twitter - "You can make up complete lies about Kyle Rittenhouse and you won't get banned. But if you say Kyle Rittenhouse was innocent, you will be."
"Kyle Rittenhouse did nothing wrong.": "Violating our rules against glorifying violence"
Ayanna Pressley on Twitter - "A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15. He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines."

Meme - ""Money doesn't matter" - Rich People " Looks don't matter" Attractive People
"Nothing really matters" Thomas Binger, prosecutor in the Rittenhouse trial"

Media Pounce on Rittenhouse Judge's Ringtone During Trial - "Media figures went wild on Wednesday with accusations of bias on the part of Kyle Rittenhouse trial Judge Bruce Schroeder after his ringtone erupted in the courtroom — allegedly to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” though others heard “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash.   The moment occurred as the Kyle Rittenhouse defense tried to argue that the prosecution was deliberately trying to cause a mistrial by breaking several pre-trial orders to cover up for their lousy performance in the hopes of a do-over."
We're still told that liberals don't hate their countries

Meme - "He's 17 he cant carry a gun that's illegal!" - Antifa with baseball bat and molotov cocktail

Meme - Sarah Beth Burwick: "I am highly educated and reasonably perceptive, and it was only today that I learned the Kyle Rittenhouse victims were white. My progressive bubble made this seem like a very different case than it is."
Hester P.: "Oh my. I did not know this"
GEM1963: "I assumed the same."
Billiam: "I was pretty shocked to learn many of the details over the past couple 'weeks too. Once I watched all the video footage & learned some other details. I was like *shocked*"
Comments: "If one isn’t racist what does it matter what race the perps were?"
"It's weird. It's almost as if their feelings for who is a perp versus who is a victim changes depending on the ethnicity of the people involved. There must be a word for that....."
"Intersectionality?"

Thread by @BillAckman on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Last night, Neri and I watched several hours of .#Kylerittenhouse direct testimony and cross examination. We came away believing that #Kyle is telling the truth and that he acted in self defense. We found him to be a civic-minded patriot with a history of helping his community as an EMT and fireman in training, in his removing hate graffiti earlier that day from a local school, and ultimately in volunteering to protect a business during the night of August 25th in Kenosha.
Our first hand impressions of Kyle were materially different from those we had previously formed based on media reports and opinion pieces that we had consumed. I have always been frustrated to read an inaccurate press report about a subject I know well, yet somehow I continue to believe other articles in the same newspaper about subjects I know less well. Media and political bias are dividing our country and destroying lives. While we have not heard the entire trial, based on our assessment of Kyle on the stand, we believe that he will be found innocent by the jury. Often times, communities react negatively and even violently after a jury verdict where they are surprised by the outcome based on what they have previously read in the newspaper, seen on TV or more likely been served on social media. I encourage you to watch the trial, or at a minimum his testimony and cross examination, before you form a view of his guilt or innocence. With respect to my own political bias, I am not a gun owner, nor a member of the NRA. On balance, I support stronger gun regulations and removing loopholes in the sale of guns. Unfortunately it seems that society’s view of #kyle ‘s innocence depends more on one’s views about gun control rather than on what actually took place last August.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s life is at risk. Justice demands a fair trial. Society would benefit greatly if politics did not enter the court room and convict innocent people.
Just got a call from the media asking if my Twitter account was hacked. That is, the reporter couldn’t conceive of the idea that I could believe that Kyle is innocent because I am not a right winger. Crazy."

Sarah Beth Burwick on Twitter - "Let me add a few points-
1. All my friends/family are progressively and I recently woke up to their hyocrisy and msm BS
2. I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the case
3. If you hear someone called a white supremacist enough times, you believe it unless you realize you need to question everything you’ve been told, which is what is keeping me very, very busy of late."

Audrey 🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter - "#kenosha shooting - #fact check, if Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum did not intervene, 17yo far right Kyle Rittenhouse would have killed more people, taking an assault rifle heading to a crowd of antifascists and black ppl is not to be taken lightly. They saved people. #BLM"
Kenosha is going to go up in flames when all these delusional leftists don't like the trial's outcome

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "With the news media’s shift to presenting the news like a soap opera, they are reluctant to shift the narrative when the facts change (assuming they notice). As I’m following the news coverage, those that lean left have not reported most of the problems with the prosecution’s case. This has created parallel world where many in the country are going to be shocked with an equal on the major charges.  There is a not insignificant percentage of the population that believes Rittenhouse will be freed because of racism, bias, or corruption in the system. In my experience these individuals haven’t been watching the trial."

Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery: a tale of two trials - The Spectator World - "why is the national media almost singularly focused on fabricating racial components in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and not at all in the trial of Gregory McMichael and his two accomplices, who stand accused of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was gunned down while jogging last February?  We are being fed the fantasy that Rittenhouse was a dangerous, mass-shooting, pro-Trump militia member, out for blood on the night of the Kenosha riots in Wisconsin. We are also being told, without evidence, that he is a white supremacist. This claim has been repeated on MSNBC, and even by members of Congress, such as Ayanna Pressley who tweeted, “A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15. He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.” Pressley neglects to mention the race of the Antifa activists shot by Rittenhouse: they’re all white...   CBS News framed Grosskreutz as a “lone survivor.” A Washington Post headline described how Grosskreutz “feared for his life” before he was shot by Rittenhouse, omitting the crucial self-defense elements that had been established in court. The Daily Beast wrote that Grosskreutz was trying to surrender to Rittenhouse, a claim directly contradicted by his own statements in court. There are almost too many instances of media malfeasance to count. What’s more, there is video evidence that disputes many of the media’s characterizations of what happened that night...   An acquittal cannot stand in the eyes of the national media, who have already all but passed their own verdict on Rittenhouse.  Across the country in Glynn County, Georgia, however, three white men are standing trial in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery was chased while jogging and gunned down in the middle of the street by three men in a truck, who claimed they thought he was a burglar fleeing the scene of a crime. Once again, based on video at the scene, and a history of McMichael’s own racially charged statements, there appears to be more evidence that Arbery’s targeting and subsequent killing was racially motivated. Yet the coverage in the media has been mostly muted, save for trial updates and recaps.  So why is the national press attempting to draw race into a trial where race played no part in the fates of Rittenhouse or his victims, yet simultaneously all but ignoring the implications out of Georgia that very well might see justice for a young African American shot dead in the street?  Could their framing be part of an attempt to force the political right to defend Rittenhouse and in doing so reveal the “structural racism” of the country as it exists on that side of the political aisle?  In the end, to our media, justice for Arbery does not matter, because his death is not a blunt instrument with which they can bludgeon their political adversaries."