Rumble: a market solution to YouTube censorship

All Americans should join Rumble’s free speech fight | Washington Times - Dean Karayanis:

illustration: Washington Times

December 6, 2021 - "In an era with precious little common ground, everyone objects to social media platforms. Conservatives gripe that they put speech in the hands of Big Tech oligarchs, corporate liberals that reap billions while giving content creators mere pennies. But upstart video platform Rumble has chosen another route, and it’s better to light a candle than tweet about the darkness. 

"Rumble’s simple commitment to open expression just gained a big-time ally. The platform just joined forces with CF Acquisition Corp. VI, an entity sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, which is expected to provide about $400 million to the 'neutral video platform.'

"Rumble not only respects free speech; it offers monetization for videos ten times that of Google’s YouTube, which recently demonetized 'Sad Little Man' for criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci. The video’s content may make Dr. Fauci’s fans faint, but is it any different [from] the music video for the ’80s hit 'Land of Confusion' by Genesis, which depicted a grotesque, senile puppet of President Ronald Reagan kissing a chimp and accidentally nuking the world? 

"I had a front-row seat for two of the media’s biggest free-speech revolutions: ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show' and Fox News Channel (FNC). Before them, the majority of Americans tuned in to see their beliefs ridiculed or ignored.... Rumble is still a digital David taking on Google’s Goliath, but those of us who left Rush’s TV show to launch Fox in 1996 didn’t think the country would support a third cable news network, especially with Microsoft and NBC backing MSNBC. But we were young and figured the gig would last just long enough to pay off our bar tabs. Twenty years later, what is now the #1 cable news channel, proved us wrong.... 

"FNC had Rupert Murdoch’s deep pockets.... Thanks to its merger, Rumble now has that key ingredient of financing. More importantly, they have that commitment to freedom..... Rumble has an uphill climb every bit as steep as Rush and Fox, but they benefit from the fact that Americans are disillusioned with Big Tech. We can watch videos without being transformed into mindless zombies out of a George Romero film — and we like to get paid for what we create.

"We’ll hear a lot of shade thrown at Rumble as it eats away at YouTube’s market share. But America is still an exception to a world of repression, and 44 million have already flocked to its platform, eager to be free of censorship, biased algorithms and digital serfdom."

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/6/all-americans-should-join-rumbles-free-speech-figh/

Thousands protest Covid restrictions in Europe

‘Make Austria Great Again’: Thousands protest COVID-19 restrictions in Europe | Global News - Reuters [stress added]:

December 4, 2021 - " Tens of thousands of protesters marched through several northwest European cities on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions imposed amid a surge in infections.

"Austria last month became the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown, which is set to last 20 days, and said it would make vaccinations mandatory from February. Some of the more than 40,000 demonstrators in Vienna carried signs reading: 'I will decide for myself,' 'Make Austria Great Again' and 'New Elections'.... Around 1,200 police officers deployed for the march on the central Ring boulevard, and a 1,500-strong counter-protest, both allowed under the terms of Austria’s lockdown.

"In the central Dutch town of Utrecht, several thousand demonstrated against restrictions that began last weekend. Protesters carried banners reading 'Medical Freedom Now!', with a large police contingent present. It was the first major demonstration in the Netherlands against the measures.... 

"In the German financial capital, Frankfurt, police broke up a demonstration of several hundred people for failing to wear masks or maintain social distancing, using batons and pepper spray after they were attacked by a group of protesters. And in Berlin, where a new government is set to take office within days, small groups gathered to protest after a large demonstration was banned."

Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/8425734/covid-19-protests-europe/

Madrid stayed open in 2nd Covid wave

Madrid, the City That Wouldn’t Lock Down | Wall Street Journal - Adam O'Neal:

December 2, 2021 - "Isabel Díaz Ayuso ... was sworn in as president of the Community of Madrid — analogous to a U.S. state governor — in August 2019. By February 2020 the novel coronavirus was spreading throughout Spain. The country quickly became among the hardest hit in the world, with Madrid at the center of the crisis. In March 2020 the regional government ordered the closure of schools and most shops before the central government did so nationally.

"'We were the region that warned the rest of Spain that we had to act against Covid because no decisions were being made,' Ms. Díaz Ayuso tells me in Spanish during a recent interview. 'The first wave was very hard.... It is true that back then nothing was known about Covid,” she continues. 'I believe that the difference in management comes after the second, third wave, when one must have learned'... But as fall approached, the number of cases rose again. 'When everyone was asking to close, with no alternatives, we decided to go against the virus, not the people.

"I arrived in Madrid in October 2020, fleeing an impending lockdown in Germany, and stayed until April. Bars often seemed as full as they were during pre-pandemic visits, and the city center was buzzing with holiday shoppers. I visited offices filled with workers. Playgrounds echoed with the sounds of schoolchildren at play. Meantime, Catalonia’s regional government shut down its bars in mid-October, while in November the Valencian government imposed stringent capacity restrictions on churches, restaurants and stores. Countries like the U.K., France and Germany also imposed lockdowns and stay-at-home orders of varying severity.

"The hospitality industry — one of Spain’s most economically and socially important — flourished in Madrid. Earlier this year it became the Spanish region with the most hospitality workers.... Some restrictions remained, including a curfew, neighborhood-based controls on movement, and a mask mandate, strangely even outdoors..... It was rare to see someone outside with an uncovered face, and plenty continued to wear masks after the mandate was narrowed to apply indoors only.

"Europeans may have a lower standard of 'pandemic freedom' than Americans, but the lockdown-fatigued public rewarded Ms. Díaz Ayuso’s People’s Party during regional elections in May. She campaigned on the simple slogan 'freedom' — previously 'communism or freedom' —and it worked. The party doubled its share of the electorate from two years earlier, finishing with a million votes more than its nearest competitor. Such electoral success has made Ms. Díaz Ayuso the most prominent conservative politician in Spain and prompted speculation about her as a potential challenger to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a Socialist....

"She says Madrid got back on its feet 'around the values of freedom, of prosperity. It has been an example. In fact, the May 4 elections are an example for a lot of countries.' Covid-19 devastated the Spanish capital, but several regions have faced more deaths per capita. Critically, the results suggest voters understand that a locked-down economy has public-health implications as well.

"'I believe in freedom in all aspects of life. And against everything that tyrannizes and enslaves the person—against addictions, against the identity division between man-woman, left-right, rich-poor. That is what the communist ideology often does, always seeking to collectivize the person and control them from above,' she says. 'Responsibility and freedom is what I think there has to be.'

"Masks are still required indoors in Madrid. But unlike in France or Italy, restaurant and bar patrons don’t need to show a Covid health pass to enter. I texted a Díaz Ayuso adviser this week to ask whether the Omicron variant had changed the government’s calculations. 'It hasn’t changed our plans,' he wrote back. 'We continue to choose to go against the virus with vaccination, testing and individual responsibility instead of the policy of closure for the sake of closure.'"

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/madrid-the-city-that-wouldnt-lockdown-isabel-diaz-ayuso-freedom-covid-19-coronavirus-11638475346

Inside an Australian Covid internment camp

Inside Australia’s Covid internment camp | UnHerd News:

December 2, 2021 - "Hayley Hodgson, 26, moved to Darwin from Melbourne to escape the never-ending lockdowns — only to find herself locked up in a Covid Internment Camp without even having the virus. She’s just returned from a 14-day detention at Howard Springs, the 2000-capacity Covid camp outside Darwin to which regional Covid cases are transported by the authorities. In an exclusive interview with Freddie Sayers, she recounted her experiences.

"It all began when a friend of hers tested positive. She recounts how investigators came to her home shortly afterwards, having run the numberplate of her scooter to identify her as a ‘close contact’. They asked if she had done a Covid test, and in the moment she lied and said she had, when she in fact had not yet. This set in train an extraordinary series of events.

"'So then the police officers blocked my driveway,' she says. 'I walked out and I said, “what’s going on, are you guys testing me for COVID? What’s happening?” They said, “no, you’re getting taken away. And you have no choice..… I just said, “I don’t consent to this. I don’t understand why I can’t just self-isolate at home, like a lot of other people are doing.” And they just said, “we’ve just been told from higher up where to take you. And that’s all that there is.”'

"She was ordered to pack a bag and was told that she could be released once she tested negative. Collected in the back of a rented van, she was then transported to Howard Springs. On arrival, she was told that she would have to stay there for the full 14 days.... She was tested three times during the 14 days, and on each occasion tested negative.

"At one stage she was disciplined for leaving the confines of her cabin without a mask and was threatened with a $5000 AUD fine. On another occasion, she told how she was offered Valium to calm her down.

You feel like you’re in prison. You feel like you’ve done something wrong, it’s inhumane what they’re doing. You are so small, they just overpower you. And you’re literally nothing. It’s like ‘you do what we say, or you’re in trouble, we’ll lock you up for longer’. Yeah, they were even threatening me that if I was to do this again, 'we will extend your time in here'.... 

"What Hayley is still not certain about is whether her sentence at Howard Springs was punitive and related to her original mistake about the test — that is the impression she got from one call with the Australian Centre for Disease Control. She has since lost her job at a store, which was on a casual basis. At no stage was she reminded of her rights or put in contact with a lawyer.

"This has all taken place in a state that has recorded a total of 290 cases and no deaths ... but ... has not shied away from highly draconian measures. Just last month, Katherine Town in the state went into a snap lockdown after three cases were reported. The state’s Howard Springs centre has ... served as a model for quarantine camps elsewhere in the country, with the Australian Government partnering with state governments to deliver ‘Centres for National Resilience’ in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. These are all expected to be completed in the next 6 months."

Read more: https://unherd.com/thepost/inside-australias-covid-internment-camp/

Belgian court rules Covid pass illegal in Wallonia

Belgian court rules COVID pass illegal in Wallonia | Anadolu Agency - Agnes Szucs:

December 2, 2021 - "A court in Belgium’s Wallonia region has ruled that use of a COVID pass is illegal and ordered the local government to pay a daily fine of €5,000 ($5,658) until they withdraw the measure, local media reported Wednesday. 

"Namur city’s Court of First Instance ruled Tuesday that use of the COVID Safe Ticket (CST) was illegal in the Wallonia region. According to the judgment, rules requiring everyone to show their CST before entering cafés, restaurants, gyms and cultural venues were curbing individual freedoms in a disproportionate way which does not serve the goal they pursue. 

"A non-profit organization called ‘Notre bon droit’ (Our good right) initiated the procedure challenging the Wallonia region’s decree on the COVID pass. The Wallonia region announced that they would not repeal the regulation and appealed immediately....

"According to the Belgian daily Le Soir, representatives of the Wallonia government failed to appear at a court hearing on Nov. 16 because no one dealt with the file in the public administration for five days due to a combination of a weekend and public holidays. 

"The invitation letter was received on Nov. 10, but the day after was Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I, a public holiday in Belgium. The holiday fell on a Thursday and was extended to a long weekend by most of the officials. The following Monday – Nov. 15. – was King’s Day, which grants a holiday for the public administration. As a consequence, nobody dealt with the file and the hearing took place in the absence of the Wallonia officials.

"Use of the COVID Safe Pass is mandatory all over the country.... But officially, regional governments are responsible for imposing the restrictive measures under the federal-state system."

Read more: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/belgian-court-rules-covid-pass-illegal-in-wallonia/2436283

Communist China sticks with Zero-Covid strategy

China has stuck by its zero-Covid strategy with mass testing as other countries grapple with living with the virus | BBC News -  Stephen McDonell:

November 6, 2021 - "A person walks into a five-star hotel to ask briefly for directions and ends up in two weeks quarantine because a guest had some coronavirus contact. One crew member on a high-speed train has close contact with an infected person, and a trainload of passengers is sent to quarantine.... In Shanghai Disneyland, 33,863 visitors suddenly have to undergo mass testing because a visitor the day before got infected. Welcome to life in the country which now feels like a perpetual, back-to-zero-Covid world. 

"China was the first country to impose restrictions to combat this pandemic and it will be one of the last to ease them....  Not so long ago, other countries like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore were also approaching each outbreak of the coronavirus as something that had to be completely stamped out in the community, sending cities into lockdown until the virus stopped spreading. The goal was to reach zero local transmissions.

"The two things that changed this approach were the emergence of the much tougher to control Delta variant of the disease and, more crucially, reaching high vaccination levels. High vaccination rates meant people might still contract Covid-19, but not have to go to hospital. As a result, borders elsewhere are opening to international travel.... Elsewhere, people are 'living with the virus'. 

"Not in China, where yet another Delta outbreak is being attacked with the same zeal as before the vaccine. If the official figures are accurate, over 1,000 local transmissions have been recorded since October. The figure is not that high, but the spread is significant, hitting 21 provinces. This matters because even a couple of cases in China will trigger the same strict measures as hundreds or thousands of new infections....

"Professor Guan Yi, a virologist from Hong Kong University and adviser to the government, has called for a switch from mass nucleic acid tests (which find infections) to mass antibody tests (which might help scientists understand the effectiveness of vaccines). In an interview with Phoenix TV he said that in the long run, there is no chance that a zero-Covid strategy could work in terms of achieving complete elimination. 'The virus is permanent now,' he said. 'It's the same as influenza, which will circulate in humans for a long time'.... 

"In China however, the government has drilled the population to mobilise to get back to zero cases with each new surge of the virus. Changing this message will be hard.... Dr Huang Yanzhong, from the New-York based Council on Foreign Relations, says a key problem is that vaccines cannot achieve what the Chinese government would like them to.... 'They're not confident about the effectiveness of the vaccines - the ability to prevent infections,' he told the BBC, 'because actually even the best vaccines can't prevent infections - but the zero-tolerance strategy says we can't accept even one single infection.' Dr Huang added the Chinese government has found itself in a political and ideological bind when trumpeting its successes to its people.... 'The zero-tolerance strategy is also part of the official narrative, to claim the success of the Chinese pandemic response model, the superiority of the Chinese political system'.... 

"Beijing has some big events coming up and there is great desire amongst officials to hold them in an environment free of any Covid outbreak. Most immediately there is the Winter Olympics in February. Tickets have not gone on sale but the goal is to have spectators in the stands.... Another rather bleak interpretation is that General Secretary Xi Jinping and his administration like the idea of reducing foreign influence in China, and the pandemic has provided an excellent excuse to move in this direction.... The emphasis of governance here has certainly shifted from a 'reform and opening up' philosophy to one that places the Communist Party at the centre of everything and its leader Xi Jinping at its very core....

"For many of those wanting to enter China or to leave it, they have no choice but to wait and see.... In the meantime, mass testing, centralised quarantine, transport controls, high-level surveillance, delivering track and trace as well as strict, localised lockdowns will remain a big part of life in China."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59257496

Covid restrictions tightened across Europe

COVID in Europe: Austria extends lockdown as Portugal tightens restrictions | Euronews with AP:

Map courtesy New York Times

December 1, 2021 - "COVID-19 cases are sweeping Europe once again.... Measures vary across the continent.... Here is a run-down of the latest situation in some of the European countries.

• "Austria's lockdown has officially been extended until December 11.... Essential shops that were allowed to open until 9 pm, however, will have to close by 7 pm starting on ... December 2.... Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has also said that vaccination will become compulsory from February 1. Authorities in Austria said on November 17 that travellers would need to show a negative PCR test upon entering the country.
• "Portugal reintroduced tighter pandemic restrictions on Wednesday.... Face masks have once again become mandatory and the country tightened control of its borders. A digital certificate proving vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 is required to access restaurants, cinemas and hotels.... 
• "Belgium has closed nightclubs and requires people to work from home as part of an effort to curb COVID-19 cases. The government issued new measures on Friday (November 26) including shutting bars and restaurants from 11 pm. Events held indoors must be seated and private meetings, besides weddings and funerals, are banned.... 
• "Netherlands ... restrictions entered into force over the weekend includ[e] the closure of all non-essential shops including bars and restaurants from 17:00 to 05:00.... Hospitality and cultural venues have to ensure people are seated 1.5m apart.... Amateurs sporting events are also not permitted between 17:00 and 05:00 with professional sports events allowed to proceed but with no spectator.
• "A 30-day state of emergency came into effect on Friday (November 26) as the Czech Republic sees record-high COVID-19 cases.... Christmas markets across the country are banned and people will not be allowed to drink alcohol in public places.... Bars, restaurants, nightclubs, discotheques and casinos have to close at 10 p.m. The number of people at culture and sports events will be limited to 1,000 who are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 All other public gatherings can be attended by up to 100 visitors, down from 1,000.
• "Slovakia declared a 90-day state of emergency and a two-week lockdown.... The ... measures ... include closing all non-essential stores, as well as bars and restaurants....
• [In] France ... From 15 January, all adults will need a booster jab at least seven months after being fully vaccinated in order to keep their health passes. From mid-December, people over the age of 65 will need one to have their health passes extended....
• "The Italian government on Wednesday (November 24) decided to exclude unvaccinated people from certain leisure activities.... Starting December 6, only people with proof of vaccination or of having recovered from COVID-19 can eat at indoor restaurants, go to the movies or attend sporting events. Having just a negative test result is no longer acceptable.... A new government decree also made vaccinations mandatory for law enforcement, military, and all school employees, among others.... Twenty towns in Italy's South Tyrol province face harsher COVID-19 restrictions from Wednesday (November 24) with an 8 pm curfew.... On public transport, passengers must wear an FFP2 mask or equivalent....
• "Sweden ... has announced that from December 1 a health pass will be required to attend any event of more than 100 people. The COVID pass — attesting that the holder has either been fully vaccinated, tested negative over the previous 72 hours or recovered from the disease over the preceding six months — has so far only been used in Sweden for travel purposes....
• "New COVID-19 restrictions came into force in Ireland on Thursday (November 18).... People were told to work from home unless attending the workplace is 'absolutely necessary'. A requirement for COVID-19 passes (based on vaccination or recovery) is extended to cinemas and theatres, while closing times for all on-licensed premises, including in hotels, will move to midnight.
• "[In] Ukraine From December 9, unvaccinated civil servants and social workers will be fired, the government said.... 
• [In] Latvia From 15 December, people must present a COVID-19 vaccination or recovery certificate in order to show up to work.
• "On November 12, Denmark reintroduced its digital pass.... For the next month, a valid pass is mandatory in order to enter nightclubs or cafes or to be seated indoors in restaurants." [stress added]

Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/01/covid-19-spike-felt-across-europe-as-vaccination-remains-stagnant