Ais

[Ais @AMRaghait]

@GBNEWS Really appalled at this particular segment and how impotent GB News was, barely challenging what is a huge issue. Insisting on "protecting" some, very clearly to the detriment of most others - we should know by now that this will result in the opposite of social cohesion.

[Ais @AMRaghait]

@threadreaderapp unroll please

[Ben Smith @bensmithlive]

Ivermectin is the future of cancer treatment.

This drug was once labeled "horse de-wormer."

Today, extensive research reveals it has 15 powerful ANTI-CANCER mechanisms of action.

Let’s look at the science behind how it works: 🧵

[Ais @AMRaghait]

@threadreaderapp unroll please

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

555 years ago today Erasmus was born.

You've probably heard his name before — but who was Erasmus and why does he matter?

This is the story of history's greatest educator...

[Ais @AMRaghait]

@threadreaderapp unroll please

[Jash Dholani @oldbooksguy]

This is Joe Overton

The famous "Overton Window" is named after him

It's the best mental model for understanding how political change ACTUALLY happens

A thread...

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.

The other platforms accepted that deal.

𝕏 did not.

[“Sudden And Unexpected” @toobaffled]

New email reveals that Dr. Anthony Fauci was notified in March 2020 that hydroxychloroquine was being effectively used to treat the coronavirus in China. 🇨🇳 👇

[Tracey O'Mahony @TraceyOMahony81]

EU Election Candidate Review

In this video we will review all parties and candidates running in the European elections taking place on 7th June 2024.

Link to rating slides can be found here: https://t.co/ulaanUZNx0

Link to alternative delegates can be found here:

https://t.co/16CVUGXPqK

https://t.co/CB3ZstfoIu

https://t.co/pGR1DTi2A0

[John McGuirk @john_mcguirk]

Gript Media's editorial on the events of last night, in full:

In Newtownmountkennedy, the State has crossed the rubicon

At about six minutes into this video footage from events in Newtownmountkennedy last night, April 25th, a man can be seen walking slowly towards the advancing Garda lines. Arms outstretched, and entirely unarmed, he asks the Gardai a question: “Why are you doing this? Why?”

The answer to his question is that the Gardai were ordered to do it. The force of the state has been deployed – in quite extraordinary numbers, according to the Gardai themselves – to facilitate the opening of a migrant accommodation centre that is ferociously opposed by the people who live in that small, previously peaceful village. More than fifty Gardai, including the riot squad, came armed with batons, shields, and pepper spray.

In their statement on the events of last evening, An Garda Siochána claims that force was used by Gardai to “defend themselves” from those assembled to protest. This does not accord with what this media outlet saw in real time, or what videos from the event confirm: That in at least one incident, an unarmed man was beaten by members of the force while defenseless and on the ground. That pepper spray was deployed liberally. And that residents – even those not protesting – were effectively subjected to martial law as Gardai roamed housing estates deploying force against those they deemed suitable targets without any apparent basis for doing so.

The force also claims – in its usual oblique and hopelessly vague manner – that it is “aware of misinformation and disinformation being spread in relation to this ongoing incident”. An Garda Siochána does not specify the nature of this misinformation or disinformation. However, perhaps they could start with their own official statement.

Stepping back from the conduct of the state’s police force, the bigger picture is even more disheartening: As that lone protester asked, why is the state doing this?

For many months now, the official line of Irish officials – parroted religiously by a majority of client journalists and pundits – has been that protests against Irish immigration policy are effectively the actions of a tiny minority of hardline activists looking for trouble. This is simply not credible.

In the first instance, were it true, then it speaks entirely ill of the competence of the state that a tiny minority of individuals engaged in criminal action would still be free and at large. There are but two explanations: Either the claim that these protests are orchestrated by a fringe minority is nonsense, or the state’s security services are too incompetent to deal with a fringe minority.

In the second instance, Newtownmountkennedy is an unlikely battlefield for a fringe minority to choose. Where was this fringe minority in Roscrea? Where was it in Naas?

The depth of public anger at the Government’s immigration policy is already beyond, it seems, the understanding of most of the media. From the perspective of the people of Newtownmountkennedy, what is happening to them is an outrage on a par with the plantation of Ireland, whether one considers that analogy fair or not. Their small community – a law abiding, peaceful place – is being asked to accept a huge influx of people of unknown origin, accommodated in tents, in a town with (until last night at least) a skeleton policing force, and very few health or other public services.

At the same time, the Government of Ireland is effectively setting up, in its own capital city, a permanent shanty town in the city centre. This week, portaloos were delivered to Mount Street to serve the toiletry needs of those living in hundreds of tents in the middle of Georgian Dublin. Clearly, the state intends for them to be there for some time.

What are the limits on the expansion of that tent city? When the tents cross the canals, or reach Merrion square, what will the state’s response be? What are the limits on the number of people that people in towns like Newtownmountkennedy are expected to accept?

These are questions to which the Government has no answer but blank stares and brute force.

Conflict in a democracy does not emerge when the system is working correctly. A democratic system is designed to arbitrate and resolve disputes peacefully. The purpose of it is to deliver a Government that listens to its people, which is why democracies tend to go to war less, and experience greatly fewer civil wars, than autocratic regimes do.

In Ireland, the system is not working correctly. Despite being repeatedly and firmly told, in endless overwhelming public opinion polls and public protests, that the public does not want the policy that it is enacting, the Government is pursuing that policy anyway. The political class appears intent on deluding itself into the belief that a majority of the public is in fact silently consenting, when in fact a majority is silently seething.

In such an atmosphere, open conflict between the state and the people is not only likely, but inevitable. Acts of violence – like arson or violence against police – must always be condemned, and are, for the avoidance of doubt, condemned by this publication.

Condemnation, however, does not prohibit explanation. When the democratic system of Government is no longer working as it should for the majority of citizenry, extra-democratic reactions are entirely likely and foreseeable. The events in Newtownmountkennedy last night do not make further such events less likely – they make them far more likely.

Over the coming days, as it can always be relied upon to do, the state-funded and state-supported Irish media will attempt, on behalf of its patron, to change the narrative and, once again, blame the public for its own discontent. For several years now, this gaslighting of the populace has been resorted to again and again: Seeing the obvious need for a limit on immigration into the state makes you a racist, or an extremist, or a member of a fringe, or “far right”, or some other label designed to make you doubt yourself while portraying an objectively extremist Government as reasonable and moderate by comparison.

This was never journalism. It was ever, and remains, the public relations function of a compromised and courtesan press.

Last night, one of our reporters, observing a defenceless man being beaten by Gardai, sought in the heat of the moment to ask them to stop. Some, seeking to defend the state or a particular idealised version of the role of journalism, have claimed that she should not have done so – that perhaps the perfect reaction would simply have been to record the event, and set her humanity to one side. We are proud that her reaction was entirely human and compassionate. She paid the price of receiving a dose of pepper spray aimed directly at her face, despite posing no threat to Gardai, and complying with their instructions. She was not alone – many other citizens received similar, or worse treatment, at the hands of the very state whose claimed purpose and duty is their defence, not their oppression.

That this cannot go on is obvious. That if it does go on much worse will follow is something that a blind man – even one blinded by pepper spray – could see.

https://t.co/ieQvQJhacs

[gript @griptmedia]

While Irish politicians were telling the public that it was a "red herring" to suggest the recent referendums may impact on immigration, FOI emails tell a very different story.

“These people can never talk about the dangers of misinformation ever again," says @Ben_Scallan.

[gript @griptmedia]

EXCLUSIVE: Gript can reveal internal Department of Justice documents warned that amending the constitutional definition of family, as proposed in the recent referendum, would "massively restrict the State’s ability to regulate its immigration system."

https://t.co/X82PxGYFkq

[Michael McDowell @SenatorMcDowell]

Today's @irishtimes column: EU asylum pact is in danger of being rushed through without scrutiny - Michael McDowell
https://t.co/ARviToLUCJ

[Rivkah Brown @rivkahbrown]

On 13 March I tweeted that JK Rowling “is a Holocaust denier”. That allegation was false and offensive. I have deleted it and apologise to JK Rowling.

[Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger]

BRAZIL SHOULD TERRIFY YOU

Just a day and a half ago, it seemed like things were calming in Brazil. The Folha de São Paulo, the New York Times of Brazil, editorialized against censorship. The head of the Brazilian Bar Association gave a strong statement in support of freedom of expression. And the President of Brazil’s Supreme Court said the conflict between Brazil and X, formerly known as Twitter, was over. “People talk a big game but don’t act on their words,” he said

All of that has once again changed. Yesterday, Brazil’s President Lula called for criminalizing lying. Given that everybody lies, Lula is proposing to give the government the power to arrest anyone he wants. Thousands of Workers Party activists took to X yesterday to demand that I be arrested for things I said during my testimony before the Brazilian Senate. And today, the head of X in Brazil announced they have quit out fear for their safety.

I am not afraid for myself. As I said on X a few days ago, I fear neither the devil nor de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice rapidly turning himself into Brazil’s dictator. I am taking all necessary precautions to ensure that I can leave Brazil safely and without being arrested. You can help by sharing this video and spreading the word about what is happening here.

And yet, what is happening in Brazil terrifies me nonetheless. I love this country and its people and fear that it is on the cusp of totalitarianism. A significant share of the Left wants to incarcerate their political enemies. Respected Brazilian journalists say with a straight face that the government must engage in mass censorship in order to protect democracy. Brazil is everything that George Orwell feared and worse. The Brazilian government appears to view “1984” not as a dystopia to avoid but rather as a guide to a better future.

I would be less worried if Brazil were small and irrelevant, but it’s not. Brazil is the largest and most important nation in Latin America. Just this week, top Brazilian government representatives were in China talking about how China, one of the most totalitarian nations in the world, is a model for Brazil. Brazil is an inspiration for European totalitarians who have weaponized government intelligence agencies to spread disinformation about their political enemies and are implementing a censorship system to control the entire Internet.

The most terrifying part of all of this is the marriage of psychopathic government leaders like Lula and de Moraes with totalitarian activists and voters. Governments have successfully brainwashed a significant percentage of the population into supporting mass censorship. Young adults raised on social media are today more intolerant than the students in China’s Cultural Revolution in China who denounced their teachers and sent them off to work camps to be tortured.

At the same time, people with a mentality no different from the people who ran the Stasi and the Gestapo are in charge of intelligence agencies in Europe and the United States.

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives renewed legislation that gives the US government the right to spy on Americans suspected of collaborating with foreign governments. The result will be McCarthyism on steroids. The FBI will be able to spy on any American citizen who dares to criticize the war in Ukraine. The US government will label people who oppose endless wars in Eurasia as “political extremists,” ruining their careers, or worse.

During the rise of Communism and fascism in Europe, many Jews and other persecuted people could flee to the United States. Where will we flee if the United States continues down the road to totalitarianism? Not Europe. Not Brazil. Is any country safe in a world where every movement, transaction, and thought is being monitored?

I keep waiting for the downward spiral to hit bottom, and it never does. I am naturally optimistic, but sometimes, that means I have tended toward wishful thinking. Such wishful thinking is dangerous and irresponsible in moments like this one. So, too, is passivity.

We must act. That starts with standing up to the bullies, all of whom are cowards on the inside. Elon Musk stood up to the bully de Moraes last week and appears to be holding strong. Tonight, he will hold a Spaces with the controversial former president of Brazil, whom the Supreme Court has prevented from running for office again for another eight years.

My colleagues and I are building a new free-speech movement. All of the organizations we used to rely upon to defend human rights, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and ACLU, have been taken over by totalitarians demanding censorship. We are gathering in London in June. We are starting our own free-speech NGOs around the world.

We can’t do this alone. Please share this post, consider subscribing to my publication, Public, and make a donation. People are risking their lives to defend free speech for all human beings. You don’t need to risk yours, but we desperately need your help. Things won’t calm down until we stand up to the tyrants and remove every one of them from power.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

🎉🌼🌸April Fools! 🌸🌼🎉

Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them.

In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls. The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women's and girls’ single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honours and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex.

For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable. The re-definition of 'woman' to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women's and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.

It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man. Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.

I'm currently out of the country, but if what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.

If you agree with the views set out in this tweet, please retweet it.

#ArrestMe #AprilFools #HateCrimeActScotland

11/X

[Michael Knowles @michaeljknowles]

🧵If you thought the Twitter Files were as bad as it gets for the “Trust & Safety” of Big Tech merging with government, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Eric Nelligan @eric_nelligan]

Wholesale costs have collapsed but energy companies have only passed on a fraction of these cost reductions

Aontú have been highlighting this since it was obvious that profiteering has been happening.

An out of touch Gov does not want to tackle this issue.

[Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger]

Ireland’s Prime Minister has resigned, but his government is still demanding the power to send police into homes to confiscate computers and cell phones in a bid to censor the entire Internet, worldwide. Watch:
https://t.co/71AZjfVd7A

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Thread of photos that look like paintings

1. Arnaud Montagard

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

NET ZERO - Germany is chopping down 120,000 trees in the beautiful, ancient forest of Reinhardswald … to erect 241 meter Wind turbines.

So they can say they are saving the planet 🤡