Now that Elon Musk has scarfed up Twitter with his $45-billion offer, prompting shivers across the world of wokedom, just how bad are things at that leftist outfit?
Well, let’s start with the bawling censor.
Author: Blazingcatfur
Don’t Make Concessions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
The debate over whether to delist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) has evolved. President Joe Biden appears to have ruled out an unconditional delisting of the IRGC in whole. The deliberations now are over whether Washington and Tehran will be prepared for a middle ground solution, that involves retaining the IRGC’s extraterritorial arm, the Quds Force, while removing the rest of the IRGC’s units from the FTO list in exchange for undefined concessions. But this kind of arrangement would invent an artificial distinction in the IRGC that does not exist.
Diversity, Free Speech, and the ‘Woke’ Assault on America
We are living in Orwellian times.
Tech plutocrat Elon Musk announces he is buying Twitter to liberate this “virtual town square” from one-sided political censorship – and he is met with hysterical charges that he is attacking free speech. A woman who reposts TikTok videos of “woke” teachers bragging about their sexualize of children in their classrooms, is attacked by a Washington Post reporter who harasses the woman’s family in order to silence an enemy of “free speech” and purveyor of “hate” – just days after the reporter appeared in a video and bursts into tears over getting the same treatment she later inflicts on the anonymous creator of Libs on TikTok.
Leftists Claim Everything Is Racist — Except For Actual Race Hatred
Everything from boulders to cycling, from camping to baseball, have all been criticized as racist, but one slur has been given complete immunity.
If you’ve been tuned into politics for the last several years, you’ve no doubt heard a lot about racism. You’ve been told that America is systemically, systematically, structurally, institutionally, and irrevocably racist. You’ve also heard that millions of Americans are racist, or, at best, that they uphold a racist system through colorblind ignorance. Maybe you’ve even been told that you’re a racist.
Putin’s plot to paralyse the EU
His invasion was set in motion last spring
“It’s much worse than everyone thinks.” Alan Riley is drinking tea on the outside patio of the Radisson hotel in central Chișinău, the capital of Moldova. “The recent winter energy crisis was exceptional. And we now realise that it was Russia softening up Europe for the war.”
If Riley, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, is correct, Putin’s tactics have more than paid off. Gas and electricity prices could soon reach £3,000 in the UK, while household energy bills are predicted to reach €3,400 in Germany, €2,800 in France and just below €2,000 in Italy and Spain.
Musk’s Free Speech Crusade
Ending Big Tech censorship at Twitter will be trickier than it sounds, but it’s worth the struggle.
For Elon Musk, coming up with $44 billion was the easy part. What comes next, less so.
To the delight of many conservatives, Musk has purchased Twitter and announced that he will make the platform “an arena for free speech.” One can almost picture him storming into Twitter HQ, marching downstairs, and kicking in the rusty door to the content-moderation boiler room. Steam blows and bells ring as, with a mighty tug, he dislodges a giant iron lever from the “Less Speech” setting and wrenches it into the “More Speech” position. After a few more adjustments—a crank down on the “Spam” knob, a flip onward of the “Edit Tweet” switch—he returns to the lobby, instructs the astonished employees to stay out of the basement, and leaves.
The big lie that underpins the new eco-militant movement
There are plenty of irritating things about the new eco-militant movement, whether it is the Greta Thunberg faction, Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil, or whatever new group may have sprung up in the meantime.
For a start, there is the aggressive hyper-moralism and absolutism, which often lends itself to bizarre conclusions. (Just the other day, a veteran Extinction Rebellion activist called for a purge of ‘rich Boomers’, in revenge for climate change.) Then, there is the excessive and unwarranted self-confidence. There is the eagerness to disrupt other people’s lives, and to force their own pet obsessions on everyone else. There is the knee-jerk anti-capitalism, which is particularly absurd given the terrible environmental track record of non-capitalist economies. There is the general cultishness of the movement, and the complete inability and/or unwillingness to comprehend competing viewpoints.
How worried should Europe be as Russia starts cutting off gas supplies?
The unavoidable truth looming over Europe’s response to the invasion of Ukraine is that Russian gas heats the continent’s homes and powers its industries.
While European leaders have vowed to wean themselves off Kremlin-controlled supplies, both of gas and oil, the reality is that this is very hard to do in short order. There will be at least one more cold winter to come before major energy-hungry economies that rely heavily on Russia, such as Germany and Italy, can tap other sources.
The Achilles Heel.
2021 census data offers snapshot of Canada’s transgender population for first time
TORONTO — Census data released Wednesday offers an unprecedented snapshot of Canada’s transgender population, showing 0.33 per cent of residents identify as a gender that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
The data collected during last year’s national household survey shows about 100,815 people are transgender or non-binary, including 31,555 who are transgender women, 27,905 who are transgender men and 41,355 who are non-binary.
h/t RM
Mucho Dough Snags Most Wanted Mo
Toronto cops bust most-wanted accused killer hours after $250Gs appeal
Rupa Subramanya: Why is Canada dragging its feet on getting back to normal from COVID?
On May 2, Switzerland and Greece are set to remove all COVID-related travel restrictions. Visitors will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination, proof of recovery or a recent negative test. The Swiss, who are 70 per cent fully vaccinated — a rate much lower than Canada’s approximate 81 per cent — removed virtually all domestic pandemic restrictions a month ago, and friends and family there tell me that life is back to pre-pandemic times.
WTF?
This “man” had a gynecologist appointment to get birth control. “He’s” mad because he was misgendered for a female.
The party of science wants us to believe this is a male and disregard biology. pic.twitter.com/Ps84mxFr1J
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 27, 2022
Judge rules Barry and Honey Sherman murder case too sensitive to release more case documents
An Ontario court justice has lauded the Star for its ongoing efforts to hold police accountable in the unsolved Barry and Honey Sherman murder case but for now has closed the door to releasing more information from the homicide probe.
Justice Leslie Pringle said she is concerned that releasing additional police witness statements and theories of the case from search warrant documents would impact “the integrity of the ongoing police investigation.” In a ruling on the case, which was back in court Wednesday, Pringle said she is also concerned that to release more information would “prejudice the interests of innocent persons.” Pringle did not identify those individuals.
Previously, Pringle has allowed large swaths of information to be released, which has fuelled an ongoing investigative series in the Star that has revealed numerous problems with how the high-profile murders have been investigated. While refusing to release more, she acknowledged that considerable time has passed since the murders.
The Real Reason Elon Musk Offends the Left
Elon Musk bought Twitter. Conservatives appear cautiously optimistic about the platform’s future, with several prominent commentators noting that their follower counts rose significantly overnight. Still, some are concerned that Musk is not a conservative. They point to his public positions on climate change and support for left-wing organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
GUNTER: A possible home equity tax for Canadians is still being floated
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) keeps saying it isn’t studying the idea of taxing Canadians’ principal residences when they sell them. Yet the Crown corporation keeps paying a group of tax-loving academics to study a form of capital gains tax that is known as a “home equity tax.”