The totem words and adjectives we use to describe Israel, a perverse and pornographically murderous society, fail. One day flows into the next, each indistinguishable in the level of sadistic torture and carnage dreamed up by the IDF Einsatzgruppen. As televised vignettes at July’s end showed, the Israelis, a “bizarre specimen of moral laxity,” in the…
Category: Economics
Powell: More Easy Money Is Coming Soon
The Fed promises a soft landing, but the fact that the Fed now plans to start cutting interest rates is one of the strongest recession signals we can get.
“It’s Not OK Any More”: UK Free Speech Crack-Down Targets “Extremist Ideologies”
“It’s Not OK Any More”: UK Free Speech Crack-Down Targets “Extremist Ideologies”
The crackdown on free speech continues in the United Kingdom as officials use recent rioting to justify a roundup of citizens who they view as “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs.”
The government is ramping up arrests of those with “extremist ideologies” in the latest wave of arrests.
The crackdown includes those accused of misogynist views.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how difficult it is to get a free people to give up freedoms. They have to be afraid, very afraid.
For that reason, governments tend to attack free speech during periods of public anger or fear.
That pattern is playing out, yet again, in the United Kingdom.
The recent anti-immigration riots have given officials a renewed opportunity to use anti-free speech laws to target those with opposing views.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.
A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers.
Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt.
Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.”
Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.”
A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”
Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room.
Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement:
“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.
After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”
“Toxic ideology” also appears to be the target of Ireland’s proposed Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) law. It covers the possession of material deemed hateful. The law is a free speech nightmare. The law makes it a crime to possess “harmful material” as well as “condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.” The law expressly states the intent to combat “forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.”
The Brock case proved, as feared, a harbinger of what was to come.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs.” That includes what she calls extreme misogyny.
Cooper said that the problem revealed by the recent protests was “gaps in the current system” and stressed that “it’s not OK any more to ignore the massive growing threat caused by online hatred towards women and for us to ignore it because we’re worried about the line, rather than making sure the line is in the right place as we would do with any other extremist ideology.”
She added:
“For too long governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we’ve seen the number of young people radicalised online grow. Hateful incitement of all kinds fractures and frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy.”
For free speech advocates, it is chilling to hear UK officials state that they have been too lax on free speech in the past and must now take censorship and arrests more aggressively.
The United Kingdom has a myriad of laws criminalizing speech with vague terms allowing for arbitrary enforcement. For example, Public Order Act 1986 prohibits any expressions of racial hatred, defined as hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group’s color, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.
Section 18 of the Act specifically includes any speech that is “threatening, abusive, or insulting.” An arrest does not have to be based on a showing of intent to “stir up racial hatred,” but can merely be based on a charge that “having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.”
For those Americans who have remained silent during as this anti-free speech movement grows, you need only to look to the United Kingdom to see what this movement means for our “indispensable right.”
That wave has now reached our shores and it will require each one of us to defend a right that defines us all.
* * *
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/23/2024 – 03:30
Adam Smith, the American Home, and the Religion of Progress
John Tamny and Jack Ryan get heretical about housing. They argue, in part, that owning a home comes with significant costs and may not be “worth it,” however, individual consumers decide what costs they are willing to undergo and what is “worth it” for them.
Be Prepared to Hear More about Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
With the U.S. Government engaged in out-of-control spending, we are looking at tax increases in the coming years. And even if Congress does not pass official tax hikes, we will see the government seizing wealth via inflation.
Beyoncé ‘Never Scheduled’ to Perform at the DNC, Rep Says
Pop singer Beyoncé was “never scheduled” to perform on the last night of the DNC despite reports that were circulating on Thursday.
The post Beyoncé ‘Never Scheduled’ to Perform at the DNC, Rep Says appeared first on Breitbart.
This Is The Chart That Keeps Japanese Policymakers Up At Night
This Is The Chart That Keeps Japanese Policymakers Up At Night
Japan has a demographic crisis that started in 2017 and picked up steam in 2020 and will accelerate from there into at least 2050… as a high life expectancy and a low birth rate has created an unprecedented aging population.
As a simple and effective measure of that ‘crisis’, we look at the old-age dependency ratio measures the number of people over the retirement age of 65 for every 100 working-age people.
The higher dependency ratio means fewer workers are supporting a growing number of retirees, which strains social security systems, healthcare, and pension funds. This situation could lead to economic stagnation or decline unless addressed through policy changes like increasing immigration or boosting birth rates.
In charts by creator Preyash Shad, Visual Capitalist looks at old-age dependency ratios of the top 10 economies based on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Japan in Trouble
Japan has had a rapidly rising old-age dependency ratio for several decades and has the highest ratio currently at 54.5.
Meanwhile, Germany is the runner-up in the top 10 economies with a distant second-place dependency ratio of 41.4.
At the same time, the United States maintains a relatively low old-age dependency, with a ratio of 31.3, which places it seventh among the top 10 economies.
India, now the world’s most populous country, has the lowest ratio of 11.6, in large part because it also has the youngest population.
Projections for 2050
By 2050, Japan will maintain the highest old-age dependency ratio of the group, moving from 54.5 to a staggering 80.7.
In an effort to head-off such a high ratio, Japan is has put policies in pace to attract young immigrants and migrant workers.
However, despite government incentives, cultural shifts towards later marriages, fewer children, and more women entering the workforce have not significantly reversed the trend in Japan (or many other nations).
Italy, which is facing similar demographic pressures, will move from distant third to a close second, moving from a ratio of 40.9 to 74.4.
China, because of the results of the one-child policy and low immigration, could surpass the U.S. by 2050 with a ratio of 47.5.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/22/2024 – 20:30
*** DNC Livewire Night 4 *** It’s Kamala’s Turn: Harris to Speak to Dysfunctional Convention
Vice President Kamala Harris will complete her coup against President Joe Biden on Thursday night when she addresses the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the dysfunctional gathering of Democrats in Chicago, Illinois.
The post *** DNC Livewire Night 4 *** It’s Kamala’s Turn: Harris to Speak to Dysfunctional Convention appeared first on Breitbart.
Volcano erupts in Iceland, sixth since December: met office
A new volcano erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Thursday, spewing hot lava into the air in the sixth eruption to hit the region since December, authorities said. “An eruption has started on the Sundhnuksgigarod east of Mt. Sylingafell,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a statement, adding that the eruption […]
The post Volcano erupts in Iceland, sixth since December: met office appeared first on Insider Paper.
JACK POSOBIEC: ‘How can RFK clean out the deep dark swamp?’
After being the first to report that Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will reportedly withdraw from the race to endorse President Trump at his upcoming campaign rally in Arizona on Friday, Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec discusses how Kennedy could benefit a potential Trump presidency. This includes RFK Jr. helping the Trump…