Sascha

Censorship is a gateway crime to many other crimes
"Those who can get you to believe absurdities can get you to commit atrocities"
Censorship is an early step

[Sascha @Sawajako]

@SBakerMD I hope 2024 becomes the year of debate.
There's experts on both sides of many of these issues. But one side censors the other side. One side refuses to debate.
I hope we embrace the scientific & democratic spirit & publicly debate the most important issues
https://t.co/ObHiiBvYCk

[Sascha @Sawajako]

Be very careful with these kinds of people.
Certainty + unwillingness to debate is a dangerous combination. Some shield themselves from debate and are deluded/certain/ignorant enough so they'll use violence / commit certain evil for believed "common good"
https://t.co/INDtlJIumN

[Erik Magnethi @ErikMagnethi]

Ukraine could have thrived as a neutral country. Then the Nulands arrived and decided to wreck the country, turn it into a NATO colony and use it as cannon fodder to destabilise Russia. Unconscionable.

[Martin A. Armstrong @ArmstrongEcon]

The AfD won a couple of elections, and it looks like they would probably win federally. In France, Marine Le Pen is polling around 46%. With the riots, another poll might put her over 50%. Both represent a real threat to Brussels.

Both are anti-war and anti-Brussels. Meloni has said she wants some sovereignty back. Brussels needs an external enemy, and that's Russia. Without it, Brussels will collapse.

Our computer shows the likelihood of the EU surviving past 2029 isn't very high.

[Pepijn van Houwelingen @PvanHouwelingen]

Ongelofelijk.

We hebben het kabinet gevraagd inhoudelijk (!) te reageren op allerlei experts zoals Glenn Diesen, Jeffrey Sachs en John Mearsheimer die de oorlog in Oekraïne karakteriseren als een proxyoorlog tussen de NAVO/EU enerzijds en Rusland anderzijds in en vooral ten koste van Oekraïne.

Dit weigert (!) het kabinet te doen. Waarom?

Omdat deze kritiek (van al deze experts) “pro-Russische desinformatie” zou zijn en het kabinet wil vermijden “om in dergelijke frames mee te gaan”.

Met andere woorden, deze regering kwalificeert elke vorm van kritiek - ook zeer goed onderbouwde kritiek van onafhankelijke vooraanstaande experts - bij voorbaat (bij voorbaat!) als “desinformatie afkomstig uit het Kremlin” (het staat letterlijk zo in de beslisnota hieronder, lees het zelf!) en weigert (weigert!) vervolgens om deze kritiek inhoudelijk te weerleggen en Kamervragen hierover te beantwoorden want zo wordt, aldus de regering “bewust vermeden om in dergelijke frames mee te gaan”.

Werkelijk niet te bevatten, wat een krankzinnige stupiditeit. Zo rommel je je bevolking dus een oorlog met Rusland in.

[Pepijn van Houwelingen @PvanHouwelingen]

We hebben de Nederlandse regering onlangs expliciet verzocht te reageren op de argumenten op basis waarvan professor Sachs en Diesen hieronder tot de conclusie komen dat Oekraïne door het westen (eerst de VS en nu de EU) al decennia wordt gebruikt en misbruikt om Rusland te verzwakken en te verslaan.

Het kabinet weigert (weigert!) deze vraag van ons te beantwoorden omdat professor Sachs en Diesen “Kremlinpropaganda” zouden verspreiden. Maar als het allemaal slechts propaganda is, dan kan onze regering dit toch makkelijk weerleggen?

Waarom doet het kabinet dit dan niet als de gelegenheid zich voordoet? Waarom kiest het kabinet ervoor zoals u zelf in de beslisnota hieronder kunt lezen geen (geen!) antwoord te geven en wordt door de regering “bewust vermeden om in dergelijke frames mee te gaan”?

Waarom?

Omdat het dus geen “frames” zijn maar omdat het de keiharde waarheid is.👇

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

This war could have 100% been avoided if the NATO war ghouls hadn’t been so committed to throwing every Ukrainian into the meat grinder to appease their deranged imperialist fantasies, even if this meant destroying Ukraine in the process. Unconscionable.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇷🇴 Romanians have shut down a main Bucharest street for Călin Georgescu, as judges decide if he can go home.

Georgescu, who won the first round of the annulled 2024 presidential election, has spent nearly a month in pre-trial detention in a fraud case.

A lower court ordered him moved to house arrest on October 13, but prosecutors appealed. The Court of Appeal is deciding his fate today.

And just DAYS before the hearing, 2 NEW criminal investigations surfaced.

In one, prosecutors accuse him of having his home scanned for their audio-video recording devices, devices that, by their own admission, they had installed as part of their surveillance of him.

The other accuses him of giving a fascist salute to supporters last year.

His wife, Cristela, says she no longer feels safe living in her own home.

If this happened in Moscow, Brussels would be calling him a political prisoner.

Writer: Julie

[Sascha @Sawajako]

@brivael Check out https://t.co/bTr4xM4IYD and other reports by @MCC_Brussels such as those on censorship laws, the ngo complex etc. By Norman Lewis and Thomas Fazi

[Sascha @Sawajako]

@levelsio If this is the real Raymond Ibrahim I was referencing: this a fair summary @RaymondIbrahim5 ?

Check out his work. Booms of course but he's been on lots of long form podcasts as well.

[Sascha @Sawajako]

@levelsio Not saying this is for sure going on but would be consistent with the religion (which perhaps should be better described as a political operating system for conquest coated with a veneer of divinity, repackaging age old tribalism and the worst human impulses as "what god wants")

[@levelsio @levelsio]

🇪🇺 Chat Control has passed 😔

They can and will now legally scan any person's messages, emails and photos you send without a warrant

The way they passed this law when the majority of the European Parliament was against it will shock you:

They waited until most EP members were on holiday so only a few were present and then created an "urgent" vote for it to pass it through

There's nothing democratic about any of it and big powerful forces are behind this that can manipulate the EU for whatever they want

Democracy in Europe died a bit today 😔

[Pavel Durov @durov]

Once typical of banana republics, such tricks are now used by the EU to pass surveillance laws.

[Sascha @Sawajako]

@durov Interesting. How would you compare the censorship and propaganda regimes in Russia vs EUSSR w DSA, NGO complex etc. which Lewis and Fazi at @MCC_Brussels have produced excellent reports about?

And how would you compare respective lvls of awareness about them in the populace?

[Pavel Durov @durov]

🚨 Two years ago, I was detained in Paris by police for 3 days — the longest they can hold someone before charging them.

In an unprecedented move, French authorities accused the head of a major platform of crimes committed by its users.

That investigation is still ongoing, although it makes less sense with each passing year.

Why?

Because we now have extensive evidence that Telegram was neither worse than other popular platforms at moderation, nor the worst at cooperating with authorities.

So why was Telegram singled out?

Over the last two years, we have seen a pattern emerge in multiple countries: Telegram is quietly asked to grant political favors — such as illegal censorship or surveillance. When we refuse, local media and “non-governmental” organizations launch orchestrated campaigns portraying Telegram as a cesspool of crime, from child pornography to terrorism.

Our moderation is no worse than that of other major platforms. Yet these campaigns instill the idea that Telegram should be persecuted or restricted.

Suddenly, officials start caring about crime and protecting children — but only on platforms that reject their secret political demands. Platforms that accept such deals get away with almost anything — including literally selling ads promoting child pornography.

Is the French investigation against me political? It certainly fits the pattern we see elsewhere, mostly in authoritarian countries. And it definitely raises questions.

In time, this investigation may itself be investigated — especially now that Macron’s war against free speech is facing pushback. This month, France’s Constitutional Council struck down his social media ban for children under 15 on freedom-of-expression grounds.

In the end, freedom and truth will prevail ✊

[Alan Watson @DietHeartNews]

Obama’s CIA coup in Kiev in 2014 toppled Viktor Yanukovych. Poroshenko's regime (2014-2019) began attacking Donbas, the ethnic Russian region historically close to Russia. After 2014, #Ukraine turned against Russia, the Orthodox faith, and the shared history of the two peoples.

[Alan Watson @DietHeartNews]

There will be no ceasefire, no freeze - and no European "peacekeepers" in Ukraine. The war will continue until Ukraine surrenders and NATO is humiliated. After the Minsk betrayal, Putin learned he can't trust the West:
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

To buy time to build up Ukraine's army, Merkel admitted that NATO and #Ukraine never intended to honor the Minsk accords. Now, as Russia is advancing into its historical territories, the Eurocrats say Russia must agree to a ceasefire and a freeze. Russian response: "Nyet means Nyet."

[Richard @ricwe123]

Without Julian Assange, we might never have learned that the current CIA director, William Burns, acknowledged in 2008 the dangers of admitting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO.

The 2008 "Nyet Means Nyet" memo, written by Burns when he was the ambassador to Russia, states that Ukraine’s entry into NATO is a red line for Russia and is seen as an existential threat. According to Burns, this would eventually force Russia to consider intervention, a decision it would prefer to avoid.....

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

It's fkn wild!

The guy who won the Presidential Election in Romania is being locked up for checking his house for buys installed by the Romanian intelligence

How is this real? And in an EU country!

[Richard @ricwe123]

This is the European Commission: 27 unelected officials, largely shielded from direct democratic accountability, wielding enormous power over the lives of hundreds of millions of Europeans.

Many are political failures in their own countries, sent to Brussels after finishing second or third at home,not as a punishment for failure, but seemingly as a consolation prize for it.

And the EU’s own institutional design places these commissioners at the very heart of its power, giving them a central role in shaping and proposing the laws that govern Europe.

Think about that: politicians rejected by their own electorates can end up wielding immense influence over the lives of millions of people who never had a direct say in putting them there.....