GERMANY – A district court in Munich earlier today sentenced German journalist Michael Stürzenberger to six months in jail and an additional 100 hours of charitable work for publishing this photo in his Facebook timeline.
It shows A ranking Nazi, and Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, shaking hands in 1941 in Berlin.
It shows A ranking Nazi, and Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, shaking hands in 1941 in Berlin.
Along with the photo, he had written a review of an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, ‘Hakenkreuz und Halbmond’ (“Swastika and Crescent Moon”) about the National Socialists’ admiration for Islam, and mentioned his own review of that Süddeutsche article in PI-News.
For this post, in particular the photo, the court found Stürzenberger guilty of “disseminating propaganda of anti-constitutional organizations”.
Prosecution had accused Stürzenberger of “inciting hatred towards Islam” and “denigrating Islam” by publishing the photo. A superficial onlooker, prosecution argued, could not know that this black and white photo in Stürzenberger’s timeline was a historical document.
Prosecution had accused Stürzenberger of “inciting hatred towards Islam” and “denigrating Islam” by publishing the photo. A superficial onlooker, prosecution argued, could not know that this black and white photo in Stürzenberger’s timeline was a historical document.
According to PI-News, the sentence might be given as a suspended sentence for three and a half years.
Google revealed in a blog post that it is now using machine learning to document "hate crimes and events" in America. They've partnered with liberal groups like ProPublica, BuzzFeed News, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to make information about "hate events" easily accessible to journalists. And now, there are troubling signs that this tool could be used to ferret out writers and websites that run afoul of the progressive orthodoxy.
Now, with ProPublica, we are launching a new machine learning tool to help journalists covering hate news leverage this data in their reporting.
The Documenting Hate News Index — built by the Google News Lab, data visualization studio Pitch Interactive and ProPublica — takes a raw feed of Google News articles from the past six months and uses the Google Cloud Natural Language API to create a visual tool to help reporters find news happening across the country. It’s a constantly-updating snapshot of data from this year, one which is valuable as a starting point to reporting on this area of news.
On the surface, this looks rather innocuous. It's presented by Google as an attempt to create a database of hate crimes — information that should be available with a quick Google search, it should be noted. But a quick glance at the list of partners for this project should raise some red flags:
The ProPublica-led coalition includes The Google News Lab, Univision News, the New York Times, WNYC, BuzzFeed News, First Draft, Meedan, New America Media, The Root, Latino USA, The Advocate, 100 Days in Appalachia and Ushahidi. The coalition is also working with civil-rights groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, and schools such as the University of Miami School of Communications.
ProPublica poses as a middle-of-the-road non-profit journalistic operation, but in reality, it's funded by a stable of uber-liberal donors, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations
It's easy enough to figure out the direction of this project by taking it for a test drive. A search for "Scalise" returned four results, one of which didn't even mention Steve Scalise, the congressman who was shot by a crazed leftist in June. A search for "Trump" during the same time period yielded more than 200 results. A search of the raw data resulted in 1178 hits for Trump and not a single mention of Scalise.
Note that Google, which recently fired an employee for expressing his counter-progressive opinions, thinks this information could be used to "help journalists covering hate news leverage this data in their reporting." What do they mean by "leverage this data"? They don't say, but an email sent to several conservative writers by a ProPublica reporter may give us some indication. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer along with some others received this from ProPublica "reporter" Lauren Kirchner:
To summarize: Liberal ProPublica, working with the smear merchants at SPLC — powered by Google — sent a reporter out to issue not so veiled threats against conservative websites. It's blatantly obvious that the goal here is to tank websites they disagree with by mounting a campaign to pressure their advertisers and tech providers to drop them as clients. This comes on the heels of Google, GoDaddy, CloudFlare, Apple, and others singling out alt-right sites for destruction in the wake of the Charlottesville riots.
The retired TV weatherman and founder of the Weather Channel, known for his skepticism of the view that mankind is a significant cause of climate change, is issuing an ultimatum to Al Gore and others who insist “deniers” are the worst of humanity: “So put me to death.”
In an interview with MyNewsLA.com, John Coleman expressed how he feels about his critics.
“I’m just a dumb old skeptic — a denier as they call me — who ought to be jailed or put to death,” he said. “I understand how they feel. But you know something? I know I’m right. So I don’t care.”
Coleman said his intent is to expose what he calls “Algorian” scientists who manipulate data and take billions in government research grants for personal gain.
Several experts at the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank that frequently addresses climate issues, blasted the Times for printing “fake news” and “fake science.”
“The New York Times’ front-page story on the national climate assessment represents fake news in collaboration with the deep state,” said Fred Palmer, energy policy senior fellow at the Heartland Institute.
He said the first paragraph of the story “gives the game away, claiming there has been a massive warming in the United States since 1980.”
“In fact, there has been little if any warming based on satellite readings, corroborated 100 percent by weather balloon readings,” he said. “The satellite data readily available on Dr. Roy Spencer’s webpage show 0.28 degrees Celsius warming since 1979. That rate of warming would equal less than 0.75 degrees Celsius over 100 years.”
America is experiencing a Great Unlearning. The left is engaged in a gigantic temper tantrum because they’re not getting their way, and subsequently they’re determined to deny, refute and destroy our history by trashing monuments and other historical artifacts. But there’s a funny saying about those who refuse to learn from history …
America is not becoming wiser as a nation; we are becoming stupider and more of a laughingstock in the international arena. Our “reputation is being sullied by the desolation.”
The last couple of decades have seen the level of public education degenerate to a staggering degree. Schools employ self-righteous instructors who use “social justice” as both a battle cry and a bludgeon, produce graduates of breathtaking ignorance, and call it success. The K-12 school system has completely abandoned the notion of educating children and instead creates ignoramuses indoctrinated in the progressive agenda at the expense of literature, mathematics, science, geography, economics and of course history. This is now being taken up in colleges and universities, where it’s actually possible to get degrees in agitation and victimhood.
It’s no wonder sensible people view the latest riots, clashes and toppling of monuments with revulsion. The chasm in this country, it seems, has never been wider as people misbehave and attack and pummel and smash. Over what? America’s past? This isn’t to erase racism; this is to erase history. It’s the Great Unlearning.
Big deal, you might say. It’s just a bunch of statues. America still has free speech. Oh really? Tell that to the many who have lost their jobs, like software engineer James Damore, fired from Google for daring to express ideas departing from the liberal agenda. The Great Unlearning.
Some have called these rioters and their leaders Bolsheviks (defined here). One person wrote: “I am former political refugee from the Soviet Union. Live in U.S. for 30 years now. What is going on in the USA is exactly what Bolsheviks were doing in Russia 100 years ago. … Two things that Bolsheviks did as soon as they took power in Russia is (1) they confiscated and banned all weapons from citizens, and (2) they banned study of Russian history. There was no history taught in schools or colleges for 17 years. After that it was only History of Communist Movement. Isn’t it what going on here now looks the same? Left wants to take your guns and change the history. Soon there will be no mention of Washington or Columbus or Jefferson.”
D’Souza explained the current leftist tactic of targeting and removing political dissidents from jobs or positions of influence is simply an old fascist tactic carried over to the present day.
“The Nazis called this ‘Gleichschaltung,’ meaning coordination, but it really refers to beating the whole society, using the institutions of culture – media, film, the state – against your opposition to make them cower before you,” he observed.
“The reason Trump is such a renegade is because he refuses to cower before these guys. Mitt Romney will cower. McCain will cower. Conservative intellectuals are perfectly happy to do genuflections. But Trump won’t do it. And I think he’s stronger for it.”
D’Souza argued “fascism” has a specific meaning even though the left simply uses it as a slur against people it doesn’t like. The New York Times bestselling author explained fascism grew out of socialism when leftist
intellectuals needed an explanation for why Karl Marx’s supposedly inevitable communist revolution was failing to manifest.
intellectuals needed an explanation for why Karl Marx’s supposedly inevitable communist revolution was failing to manifest.
“This is very important because this is a part of the origin of fascism that the left has suppressed,” he told Molyneux. “The progressives in academia have tried to make sure that this story does not get into the textbooks.
“Fascism is an outgrowth of Marxism and of socialism. At the end of the 19th century, a lot of intelligent Marxists were scratching their heads because a lot of the prophecies of Marx weren’t coming true. Marx had predicted the outbreaks of communist revolutions in countries like England and Germany, and this just wasn’t happening. So the smart Marxists said: ‘Something is wrong with Marx. We need to modify Marx. We need a kind of new Marxism, if you will, for the 20th century.’
Out of that, he said came two offshoots, Leninist Bolshevism, itself a revision of Marxism, and Mussolini’s fascism.
“First of all, the ideology of the Democratic Party now, its economic ideology, is essentially indistinguishable from fascism,” he said. “It’s closer to fascism than it is to, say, Marxian socialism. Consider this: Socialist countries like to nationalize private industry.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is angry.
After serving for 30 years in the Capitol, she decided Friday enough is enough.
No, she’s not quitting.
She’s determined, she says, to see all the Confederate statues in Statuary Hall removed – ironically, nine out of 10 being members of her own party, as were all prominent politicians from the South.
“There is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country,” the current House minority leader said.
So which statues does she want eradicated?
1. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy – a Democrat from Mississippi.
2. Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy – a Democrat from Georgia.
3. General Robert E. Lee, a Virginian who never dabbled in politics.
4. General Joseph Wheeler, an Alabama Democrat.
5. James Zachariah George, a Democrat from Mississippi.
6. Wade Hampton III, a Democrat from South Carolina.
7. General Edmund Kirby Smith, a Democrat from Florida.
8. Zebulon Baird Vance, a Democrat from North Carolina.
9. John E. Kenna, a Democrat from West Virginia.
10. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a Democrat from Georgia.
2. Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy – a Democrat from Georgia.
3. General Robert E. Lee, a Virginian who never dabbled in politics.
4. General Joseph Wheeler, an Alabama Democrat.
5. James Zachariah George, a Democrat from Mississippi.
6. Wade Hampton III, a Democrat from South Carolina.
7. General Edmund Kirby Smith, a Democrat from Florida.
8. Zebulon Baird Vance, a Democrat from North Carolina.
9. John E. Kenna, a Democrat from West Virginia.
10. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a Democrat from Georgia.
“Nancy Pelosi has been walking through those halls of the Capitol for 30 years, and all of a sudden, she wants to see these statues removed,” said Rush Limbaugh. “Do I have to even explain how ridiculous that is?”
The total of 100 statues on display are part of the National Statuary Hall Collection and aren’t chosen by Congress. Each state contributes two statues, chosen by that state’s government, according to the architect of the Capitol.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, believed to be mulling a possible run for president in 2020, said Wednesday he plans to introduce a bill to remove the statues of Confederate leaders from the Capitol building.
“This is just one step,” Booker tweeted. “We have much work to do.”
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