1984 - Internet Free Speech Crackdown in Germany

It's Back to the Future

Germany returns to its roots and

abolishes freedom of speech

UPDATE  -  Beatrix von Storch, a leading figure in the Alternative for Germany party, is one of the first hit by new hate speech laws on social media. She was blocked from Twitter and Facebook on Monday after slamming the Cologne police for sending a New Year's tweet in Arabic.  More

(BBC)  -  Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material.

Sites that do not remove "obviously illegal" posts could face fines of up to 50m euro (£44.3m).

The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about law-breaking material.

Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law's provisions.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law's main focus but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and Russian social network VK. Other sites such as Vimeo and Flickr could also be caught up in its provisions.

The Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG) law was passed at the end of June 2017 and came into force in early October.

The social networks were given until the end of 2017 to prepare themselves for the arrival of NetzDG.

Germany's justice ministry said it would make forms available on its site, which concerned citizens could use to report content that violates NetzDG or has not been taken down in time.

As well as forcing social media firms to act quickly, NetzDG requires them to put in place a comprehensive complaints structure so that posts can quickly be reported to staff.

Most material will have to be removed within 24 hours but networks will have a week to act on "complex cases".

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The End of Free Speech

A “Gender Fluid” Jesus is Coming

Words Fail

(Infowars)  -  Claiming that gender “isn’t determined at birth,” a Swedish church is worshipping a “gender fluid” Jesus.

The Swedish Church in Västerås recently placed a Christmas ad in a local newspaper that used a gender-neutral pronoun (yes, those actually exist in Sweden) to refer to Christ, which prompted a major backlash.

“We didn’t want to assign a gender to Jesus right away at birth,” said church leader Susann Senter in response to critics, translated from Swedish. “Theologically, we’re talking about  Jesus as true God and man.”

“A human is not just ‘he.’”

Well, that’s not according to Jesus’s followers who said he referred to Himself as the Son of God the Father.

But Senter also claimed Jesus has “feminine” qualities.

“If I’m a little provocative: Most 19th and 20th century depictions of Jesus are quite feminine,” she explained. “He is gentle, has curly hair and is not very physically powerful.”

And, true to her progressive agenda, Senter was proud to announce her church’s “gender equality program.”

“We have set aside two working days for all employees to talk about equal treatment… how we cuddle each other has been one of the topics,” she stated.

The Church of Sweden has similarly encouraged clerics to use “gender neutral” pronouns when referring to God instead of “Lord” or “He,” as I reported in November.

he largest church in the country said it wants to be more “inclusive,” a countrywide trend that began when Swedes started appeasing Muslim migrants.

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What would Jesus do?

Hell, let's throw this in

Then there is the American version of Jesus

Trump looks to destabilize nuclear Pakistan

Here is a Great Idea

Let's Destabilize a Nuclear Power

The Military-Industrial Complex on the March

• The unconstitutional wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya are winding down. So suddenly out of thin air we see President Trump going after Pakistan. 
• I smell the Military-Industrial Complex at work trying to stir up new shit that will require endless military spending. Except in this case they are trying to destabilize a nuclear power.
• Call me a "Crazy Blogger" (which I am), but this sounds like insanity to me.

(Daily Mail)  -  The United States said Tuesday that it was withholding $255 million in aid to Pakistan as punishment for the country's support for terrorism.

Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., announced the deprivation at a media avail where she stressed that the action was not related to Pakistan's vote for a resolution condemning the United States' decision to relocate its embassy and declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

'It is entirely connected to Pakistan's harboring of terrorists,' she said from the United Nations. 'However, as I said in December, we won't forget the Jerusalem vote.'

President Trump had previewed the aid slash in a tweet on Monday that said the U.S. had 'foolishly' given Pakistan $33 billion and received 'lies & deceit' in return.

Pakistan then summoned the U.S. ambassador to the country, David Hale, for a meeting, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif claimed Trump's outburst was non-consequential.

'He has tweeted against us (Pakistan) and Iran for his domestic consumption,' Asif told Geo TV on Monday. 'He is again and again displacing his frustrations on Pakistan over failures in Afghanistan as they are trapped in dead-end street in Afghanistan.'

Trump's administration had been threatening to keep the $255 million over Pakistan's alleged ties to the Haqqani network, known associates of the Afghan Taliban, since August.

It informed Congress then that it would freeze the payment until Pakistan cracked down more heavily on terrorism. 

'We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately,' Trump said in an August speech announcing a new strategy to combat terror in Afghanistan.

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Bottom Line
We bribed Pakistan
to supply the Afghan War
The only way to supply American troops and our Afghan allies is through Russian controlled areas in the north or through Pakistan in the south.
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Personally I couldn't give a damn who "controls" the shit-hole of Afghanistan. But let's not lie to ourselves that Pakistan did not put themselves in danger from home grown Islamists in order to help us in the war.
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See our 2013 article
Thousands block NATO supply line to Afghanistan

Sex Robots Will Kill Us

Death By Sex Droid

• If I have to go then death by my Jennifer Lawrence Sex Droid is as good a way as another.

(Indy 100)  -  Elon Musk is convinced that it is going to kill everyone and a Google AI managed to create its own AI which was more powerful than any version a human has ever built.

Yeah, it isn't looking good and we wouldn't bet against Judgment Day from the Terminator movies happening anytime soon. 

Just when you thought it was advanced computer systems and the military that were out to get us, it turns out that sex robots - the very machines designed to give us pleasure - could be about to kill us too.

Sex robots have been with us for quite a few years now and they have already attracted their fair share of warnings and controversy.

However, a warning from Dr Nick Patterson, a cybersecurity lecturer at Deakin University, Australia has to be the starkest yet. 

He believes that in the future sex robots could be easier for hackers to access and control than a laptop or a mobile phone. 

From there these remotely controlled cyborgs could be used for all sorts of nefarious means such as violence and murder.

Speaking to the Daily Star, Dr Patterson said: 

"Hackers can hack into a robot or a robotic device and have full control of the connections, arms, legs and other attached tools like in some cases knives or welding devices.

Often these robots can be upwards of 200 pounds, and very strong.

Once a robot is hacked, the hacker has full control and can issue instructions to the robot.

The last thing you want is for a hacker to have control over one of these robots!

Once hacked they could absolutely be used to perform physical actions for an advantageous scenario or to cause damage."

Dr Patterson goes on to add that - like smartphones - robots will need an operating system that will need to be connected to the Internet, making it easier to hack into.

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Facebook shuts down “Warriors for Christ” page

Where is the Republican Party?

Nowhere to be seen as usual

• Slimeball Democrat Zuckerberg is censoring free speech of Conservatives and Christians and naturally the GOP is missing in action.
• If Republican's brains were not shoved up their asses they might see Leftist censorship as a campaign issue to draw millions of millennials to vote Republican. But these so-called "Conservatives" are so fucking stupid or corrupt that they have no clue about real world issues.

(Pamela Geller)  -  I received this email from an admin for the Warriors for Christ Facebook page. As a proud Jew, I am not directly affected by this, but remember Pastor Niemoller’s famous poem:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

They’re coming on Facebook for the Jews, for the Christians, for all the defenders of freedom. They’re coming for the warriors for Christ. They’re not coming for the warriors for Allah. For months, Facebook has been censoring, scrubbing and banning posts deemed to be hate speech. 

And despite the claim in this article that “anti-Muslim rhetoric” was left up, in reality, it is quickly and efficiently scrubbed. I’m not talking about comments such as the ones quoted below, calling for mass murder and genocide — those are never acceptable under any circumstances, directed at any group, and should be removed.

No, Facebook acts swiftly to shadowban or block or flag as “hate speech” essentially all comments and users who dare violate the sharia. And it’s getting worse. Posts, links, comments critical of jihad and sharia violate Facebook’s sharia terms of service.

My feed has been blocked and banned. Facebook daily referrals were 90K plus back in February; today they are under 2k. 

My feed is blocked from my millions of followers on Facebook, and I have seen my circulation drop precipitously in the past few months. For news publishers, Facebook is the motherboard of link traffic. No news site can survive without them. None of us are immune, which is why my traffic is down upwards of 95% since the block. My Facebook page has well over a million followers; add my organizations to that, and it is roughly two million people.

This has all been arranged at the highest levels. A chief officer from a major American communications company went to the terror state of Pakistan to assure the Pakisstani government that Facebook would adhere to the sharia. The commitment was given by Vice President of Facebook Joel Kaplan, who called on Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. “Facebook has reiterated its commitment to keep the platform safe and promote values that are in congruence with its community standards.”

Read More . . . .

Zuckerberg And His Army of Facebook Zombies

The Death of the Free Internet

See More:

Facebook bans critic of Black Lives Matter

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Facebook Deletes Account for Gun Dealer

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Internet filters to "protect" you from free speech

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Facebook censors anti-Clinton video

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Facebook bans Michael Savage for posting about Muslim terrorism

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Big Brother 2016: Beyond Orwell's wildest dreams

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Government ID required for Internet use

Speaking of the Boy Scouts and 2017...

(Armand's Rancho Del Cielo)  -  2017 is the year that a "gallon of grease to the glide path" of the eventual demise of the Boy Scouts of America was added.

As an Eagle Scout noted:

The Boy Scouts of America stood for over a century on its strong foundation of Judeo-Christian values, growing boys into young men, and young men into leaders.  However, in recent years the BSA has allowed cracks to form in that foundation.  

From the lifting of the ban on openly gay boys from joining the organization, to the sanctioning of openly gay adult leaders, to the encouragement of so-called “transgendered” boys to join, the BSA’s moral foundation has been rapidly and steadily eroding into dust. 

As soon as the BSA changed the definition of the phrase “morally straight” in the generations-old Scout Oath back in 2013, allowing for homosexual membership, we all knew that this first compromise would not be the last.  We all knew that it was only a matter of time before the BSA compromised itself into oblivion. 

That day has now arrived. 

From the BSA’s website: 

"Today, the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout." 

This is incredibly disappointing news, but in light of the BSA’s changes over the last few years, it isn’t at all surprising.  It does, however, mark a complete transformation for the organization.  The Boy Scouts has always been exclusively for boys.  As Ben Shapiro famously noted, it’s in the name. 

There are plenty of organizations out there for all different varieties of youth.  The Boy Scouts even have several co-ed programs for both boys and girls.  The girls already have the Girl Scouts.  If the Girl Scouts isn’t working, why not work to fix that organization instead?  There is absolutely no need for the Boy Scouts to change who they are to be “inclusive.”

Unfortunately, this is all part and parcel of the Left, who are "out to erode our way of life at every level. Their aim is to kill these organizations and slowly erode our moral fabric."

Water and Food to be Taxed

When our King raised taxes

we overthrew the monarchy

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have introduced a five percent value-added tax (VAT) on many goods and services in an attempt to raise budget revenues amid a global slump in oil prices.

The two Gulf countries had long prided themselves on being minimum tax havens fueled by energy export, but the downturn in the oil market has forced them into taking measures to tackle their huge budget deficits. The two Arab kingdoms will receive up to an estimated $21 billion from the new tax in 2018, equivalent to 2.0 percent of GDP.

The imposition of VAT will help to raise tax revenues of the Saudi government to be utilized for infrastructure and developmental works,” said Mohammed Al-Khunaizi of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council, as quoted by Arab News.

The VAT will apply to most products and services, including food, clothing, jewelry, electronics, phone, water and electricity bills, and hotel room bookings. Exceptions include air travel, healthcare, basic surgery and state-funded education. At five percent, the tax is still among the lowest in the world, but the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment announced it will launch inspections to check which businesses don’t comply.

Read More . . . .

Top 30 Movies of 2017

"They say" the movie business is down. Not true.

American audiences may be sitting on the asses drooling on their toy cell phones, but the movie market overseas is booming.

For example The Fate of the Furious did 82% of their business overseas.  It is the same for other films:  Spiderman 62% overseas, Justice League 65% or The Mummy 80%.

All in all 2017 was a great year for film. Below are the worldwide grosses as of December 31st, 2017.

2017 WORLDWIDE GROSSES

Pink highlight = official revisions of older movies
Gold highlight = now playing or recent movies

Rank	Title (click to view)	Studio*  FilterA24 ADC Annapurna Aviron BG BH Tilt BST BV CLF Electric ENTMP Fathom Focus Fox FoxS LG/S LGF Neon ORF Par. PFR PNT Purd. RAtt. SGem Sony SPC STX TriS Uni. WB WB (NL) Wein. ALL	Worldwide	Domestic / %		Overseas / %
1	Beauty and the Beast (2017)	BV	$1,263.5	$504.0	39.9%	$759.5	60.1%
2	The Fate of the Furious	Uni.	$1,235.8	$225.8	18.3%	$1,010.0	81.7%
3	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	BV	$1,040.4	$517.1	49.7%	$523.3	50.3%
4	Despicable Me 3	Uni.	$1,033.5	$264.6	25.6%	$768.9	74.4%
5	Spider-Man: Homecoming	Sony	$880.2	$334.2	38.0%	$546.0	62.0%
6	Wolf Warrior 2	HC	$870.3	$2.7	0.3%	$867.6	99.7%
7	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	BV	$863.7	$389.8	45.1%	$473.9	54.9%
8	Thor: Ragnarok	BV	$848.0	$311.4	36.7%	$536.6	63.3%
9	Wonder Woman	WB	$821.8	$412.6	50.2%	$409.3	49.8%
10	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	BV	$794.9	$172.6	21.7%	$622.3	78.3%

Wonder Woman
Best Superhero movie of 2017

11	It	WB (NL)	$698.1	$327.5	46.9%	$370.6	53.1%
12	Justice League	WB	$652.6	$225.6	34.6%	$427.0	65.4%
13	Logan	Fox	$616.8	$226.3	36.7%	$390.5	63.3%
14	Transformers: The Last Knight	Par.	$605.4	$130.2	21.5%	$475.3	78.5%
15	Kong: Skull Island	WB	$566.7	$168.1	29.7%	$398.6	70.3%
16	Coco	BV	$537.9	$178.9	33.3%	$359.0	66.7%
17	Dunkirk	WB	$525.2	$188.0	35.8%	$337.2	64.2%
18	The Boss Baby	Fox	$498.9	$175.0	35.1%	$323.9	64.9%
19	War for the Planet of the Apes	Fox	$490.7	$146.9	29.9%	$343.8	70.1%
20	The Mummy (2017)	Uni.	$409.1	$80.1	19.6%	$329.0	80.4%

Logan

21	Kingsman: The Golden Circle	Fox	$395.5	$100.2	25.3%	$295.3	74.7%
22	Cars 3	BV	$383.8	$152.9	39.8%	$230.9	60.2%
23	Fifty Shades Darker	Uni.	$381.0	$114.4	30.0%	$266.5	70.0%
24	Your Name.	FUN	$355.3	$5.0	1.4%	$350.3	98.6%
25	xXx: The Return of Xander Cage	Par.	$346.1	$44.9	13.0%	$301.2	87.0%
26	The Great Wall	Uni.	$334.6	$45.2	13.5%	$289.4	86.5%
27	Murder on the Orient Express (2017)	Fox	$326.1	$100.6	30.9%	$225.4	69.1%
28	Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle	Sony	$322.8	$169.8	52.6%	$153.0	47.4%
29	Resident Evil: The Final Chapter	SGem	$312.2	$26.8	8.6%	$285.4	91.4%
30	The LEGO Batman Movie	WB	$312.0	$175.8	56.3%	$136.2	43.7%

Box Office Mojo

Murder on the Orient Express

Democrats prosecuting man for Internet free speech against Islam

Democrats Attack 1st Amendment

The 1st Amendment was not written

just to protect polite speech

(Reason)  -  In September 2016, Mark Feigin posted five insulting comments on the Islamic Center of Southern California's Facebook page (before he was finally blocked by the ICSC from commenting):

• "THE TERROR HIKE ... SOUNDS LIKE FUN" (written in response to the Center's "Sunset Hike" announcement).
• "THE MORE MUSLIMS WE ALLOW INTO AMERICA THE MORE TERROR WE WILL SEE."
• "PRACTICING ISLAM CAN SLOW OR EVEN REVERSE THE PROCESS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION."
• "Islam is dangerous - fact: the more muslim savages we allow into america - the more terror we will see -this is a fact which is undeniable."
• "Filthy muslim shit has no place in western civilization."

California is now prosecuting him for posting these comments, on the theory that they violate Cal. Penal Code § 653m(b):

Every person who, with intent to annoy or harass, makes repeated telephone calls or makes repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device ... to another person is ... guilty of a misdemeanor. Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to telephone calls or electronic contacts made in good faith or during the ordinary course and scope of business.

The posts, the California AG's office argues, were "were made with the specific intent to annoy and harass the members of the ICSC," because Feigin "was not trying to engage in any kind of political discussion but instead trying to vex members of the ICSC with his thoughts about their religion." The posts are criminal because they constitute "repeated harassment from those who wish to mock and disparage their religion," and, "[r]ather than attempt to engage in discussion or debate," are "cruel and pointedly aimed at dismissing an entire religion and those who practice it."

What could be more "intolerable" than for [the] ICSC Communications Director ... to check the ICSC's Facebook page and discover that someone has written "PRACTICING ISLAM CAN SLOW OR EVEN REVERSE THE PROCESS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION" as the Defendant in this case did .... Or how about ... "Filthy muslim shit has no place in western civilization." This is exactly the kind of repeated, annoying, and harassing electronic communication that PC 653m(b) is meant to deter. Protected speech? Political speech? Defendant's posts on the ICSC Facebook page are neither of those things.

And the government's argument makes clear that it's going after Feigin for the content -- indeed the viewpoint -- of his speech: "The mere content and nature of the posts establish that they are not made in 'good faith' as Defendant would suggest but are meant to annoy and harass."

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Bank accounts frozen for trading in non-existent coins

Non-Existent Coins Frighten Elites

• How dare people think they are free to be able to trade baseball cards, antiques or bitcoins.

(Sydney Morning Herald)  -  Bitcoin investors are claiming Australia's banks are freezing their accounts and transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, with a viral tweet slamming the big four and an exchange platform putting a restriction on Australian deposits.

Cryptocurrency trader and Youtuber Alex Saunders called out National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation on Twitter for freezing customer accounts and transfers to four different bitcoin exchanges  - CoinJar, CoinSpot, CoinBase and BTC Markets.

After hundreds of shares and responses to the social media posts calling the banks' alleged behaviour “disgusting” and “appalling” with some threatening to move their accounts, some users said their activities with the cryptocurrency had still been described as a "security risk" by their financial institutions.

Banks were remaining tight-lipped on whether bitcoin activity was causing specific accounts to be closed or frozen, though its understood none had company-wide policies banning cryptocurrency investment activity.

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