List of American state and local politicians convicted of crimes

List of political scandals in the United Kingdom

Former Child Victim Speaks Out About St. Louis Family Court Trauma: 'No One Would Help Me'

This article is part 11 of an investigative series looking into reported corruption in the Missouri judiciary. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

After my investigative series on Missouri family courts came out, I was contacted by hundreds of people alleging similar abuses that were detailed in the lawsuit filed by Evita Tolu against psychotherapist Dr. James Reid and guardian ad litem Elaine Pudlowski. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, along with other court actors, had conspired to drain the bank accounts of parents while labeling one parent with a false mental disorder, often borderline personality disorder (BPD), which would enable the guardians ad litem (GALs) to switch custody from a protective parent to an abuser. The custody switches, said victims, would ensure that the protective parent would spend any amount of money to continue fighting for their child while the court experts would rake in the cash.

The sheer number of emails that PJ Media is getting daily is difficult to go through and it’s even more difficult to interview each person and go through mountains of documents. But one story stands out from all the rest. PJM was contacted by a now-adult child whose mother fought the same system, including Dr. James Reid, and says her experience taught her that no one in the court system will help at-risk children.

Megan McLeod said she was six when the court battle began. McLeod’s mother, Sue LaMartina, reported to authorities that while in her father’s custody, Megan and her little brother were malnourished and suffering neglect. McLeod says that the GALs assigned to her case over the years were Brian Dunlap, Bruce Hilton (now a 21st Circuit Court judge), and Mark Kiesewetter. “Whenever they would visit…they didn’t really seem to care what was happening,” McLeod told PJM. “If they had just looked in the cabinets and the fridge they would see that we weren’t being fed. If they had just looked at my body, I was 50 or 60 pounds at the age of 10, they would see that I was obviously malnourished.”

McLeod said that she could never tell the GALs what was going on because they would interview her where her father could overhear. “I was really vague with my answers because they would come to my dad’s house where I stated I was uncomfortable and they expected me to be completely 100% honest and open about what I was saying but I couldn’t because my dad was listening.”

McLeod remembers Brian Dunlap most vividly. “He said that he was worried that we were being coached. I said that we weren’t.” McLeod says she tried to fight that charge but Dunlap would just claim she was lying. McLeod remembers saying, “I don’t know how to prove it to you that we’re not being coached. You’ll just say I’m lying.” McLeod also said that Dunlap had an inappropriate relationship with her father. “He was really buddy-buddy with my dad. You could tell that the relationship was more than neutral, which I don’t think should have happened…he was not receptive to what we were saying.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2021/04/12/former-child-victim-speaks-out-about-st-louis-family-court-trauma-no-one-would-help-me-n1439420

Texas Bill Will Label Parents Getting Sex Change Hormones and Surgeries for Their Children as Child Abuse

A new bill in Texas seeks to protect children from getting sex change procedures that they may regret later in life by criminalizing parents who do so.

Obtaining these treatments for children would be considered child abuse under the legislation.

The Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs held a hearing over the bill on Monday.

“Children are unable to give informed consent. This bill gives children a chance to get to adulthood with intact bodies,” Republican Executive Committee Member Jill Glover testified.

SB1646 would prohibit parents from “administering or supplying, or consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment.”

The bill, if passed, will also remove children from the care of people enabling or forcing hormone treatment and sex change surgeries.

“Parents who break the proposed law would be in violation of the state’s Family Code, which would trigger a Child Protective Investigation, resulting in the possible removal of the child from their home, according to Perry’s office. Doctors who perform sex change treatments would also be accused of child abuse, which would trigger a license investigation by the Texas Medical Board,” KVUE reports.

The bill will characterize hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and puberty blockers as child abuse.

The left is on a rampage over the bill, carefully claiming in articles that the bill would deny healthcare for trans children — when in reality it would only force them to wait until they are adults to make life altering decisions.

The bill is one of many seeking to protect children from the controversial treatments across the nation. Last month, the Arkansas state legislature passed the first-ever ban on transgender surgeries, puberty blockers, and HRTs for minors. There are at least 17 other states considering similar laws.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/texas-bill-will-label-parents-getting-sex-change-hormones-surgeries-children-child-abuse/

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock caught endorsing blatant lies about Georgia's new voting law

More lies

Newly elected Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is in hot water this week after it was revealed that he signed onto a third-party email that contained blatantly false information about his state's new voting law.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the progressive lawmaker, who was elected to the Senate in the state's Jan. 5 runoffs, "signed an email sent out by the advocacy group 3.14 Action after the law passed, which claimed it ended no-excuse mail voting and restricted early voting on the weekends" — both of which were early proposals that ultimately didn't make it into the law.

The outlet added that a spokesperson for the senator claimed Warnock signed off on the email days before the law was passed when the aforementioned provisions were still under consideration. But that claim is obfuscated by the fact that the email was sent several days after the bill became law.

According to Fox News, the email was sent on March 30, five days after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law.

Either way, the imaging is bad, Hot Air noted in its coverage of the news.

"Which possibility is worse?" the outlet asked. "That Warnock knew an activist group's email which he endorsed was full of lies and endorsed it anyway because it was effective propaganda for his cause? Or that the substance of Georgia's law is so irrelevant to prefab Democratic demagoguery about 'Jim Crow 2.0' that Warnock just didn't care if the email was accurate or not?"'

What's the background?

The law — which aims to further secure state elections by requiring a photo ID for mail-in ballots and actually expands early voting hours — has been the subject of fierce scrutiny and numerous false attacks by Democratic politicians and media organizations since its introduction in the state legislature.

Last month, President Joe Biden earned "Four Pinocchios" from Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler for twice repeating a lie that the law "ends voting hours early so working people can't cast their vote." The president's statement was a complete reversal of the truth, which is that the law expands voting hours and days for early voting.

Biden has also on several occasions chosen to characterize the law as the "new Jim Crow" and earlier this month backed calls demanding that Major League Baseball move its All-Star Game out of the state.

Warnock would later frame the MLB's decision as an "unfortunate" consequence of Republicans' decision to move forward on the voting law.

"It is my hope that businesses, athletes, and entertainers can protest this law not by leaving Georgia but by coming here and fighting voter suppression head on, and hand-in-hand with the community," he said in a statement.

Several major businesses, such as Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, have openly criticized the law following Democrats' smear campaign against it. Biden last week warned Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere to "smarten up" or else lose more business over similar legislation.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/warnock-georgia-voting-law-email

Cuomo reportedly once compared himself to Sonny Corleone from ‘Godfather’

Gov. Andrew Cuomo once likened himself to hot-headed mob scion Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” — and bragged about his sexual prowess during a strategy session with his staffers, according to an explosive new report Tuesday.

The “Godfather” incident took place shortly after Cuomo, the elder son of late Gov. Mario Cuomo, was elected state attorney general in 2006, the New York Times Magazine said.

A former associate reportedly described how Cuomo enthusiastically described his power to intimidate people under investigation who visited his office.

“I loom over that table,” Cuomo reportedly said.

“In their minds, I’m Sonny Corleone and I’m capable of anything.”

The reported incident came decades before Cuomo’s younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, infamously melted down in public when a stranger called him “Fredo” — a reference to Sonny’s cowardly younger brother.

And during his first term as governor, Cuomo reportedly interrupted a strategy session about the Occupy Wall Street protest movement to boast about his ability “to see around the corner of politics” — as well as his skill at performing oral sex, a person who was present reportedly told the magazine.

The three-term Democrat — who’s mired in a series of scandals that include a raft of sexual harassment allegations — also reportedly accused an aide of going easy on a female journalist for personal reasons.

“You banging her?” the aide recalled being asked.

Cuomo also reportedly insulted an unidentified male official in 2019 with a crude reference to transgender people.

“You’d be a good-looking tranny, if you get a good set of tits,” Cuomo reportedly said.

The 8,500-word profile is reportedly based on interviews with more than 80 people over the past two months.

A Cuomo spokesman denied the various accounts, calling them “anti-Italian,” “bigoted,” “vile,” “disgusting” and “defamatory.”

https://nypost.com/2021/04/13/andrew-cuomo-reportedly-compared-himself-to-godfather-mobster/

Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt Calls for Full Communism

You wouldn’t think it, but this white paper and its super boring title - “Community-Centered Wireless Infrastructure Networks” - is a declaration of war by Google against big telecom.

Why is that? Well, Google and Eric Schmidt are running a campaign to lobby cities to have them own and control their own broadband system, instead of the way it works now, where they allow AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile to do so.

Most people think that telecom is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, but cities actually have a significant role in telecom deployment, because you have to attach equipment to all sorts of municipal infrastructure and it is muni governments that oversee such activities. In fact, cities were the first telephone regulators in the late 19th century, and had significant authority all the way until the Telecom Act of 1996, spurred by merchants who demanded that cities regulate telephones so there wouldn’t be wires strung all over the city streets from competing phone networks.

It’s now back to the future. Schmidt, along with a host of philanthropists and tech money, is saying that cities should work with a ‘neutral host partner,’ aka a public utility, when rolling out 5G services, not a ‘retail provider,’ which would be your standard telecom. In other words, cities should run the infrastructure. All hail Comrade Schmidt and his call for public agencies to own the means of production.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/google-ex-ceo-eric-schmidt-calls

James O'Keefe

@JamesOKeefeIII

UPDATE: Charlie Chester's @LinkedIn

account has been DELETED

The @CNN

Technical Director was featured in the #ExposeCNN undercover video today and detailed the network's agenda to "get Trump out of office." Chester also admitted CNN engages in 'propaganda'

https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1382019537781018626

Egypt 'seizes' megaship Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal until the owners pay $900MILLION compensation

The megaship which blocked the Suez Canal has been 'seized' on court orders

The Ever Given was seized due to its failure to pay $900 million in compensation

The vessel became lodged in the crucial global trade artery for 6 days last month

A megaship which blocked Egypt's Suez Canal and crippled world trade for nearly a week has been 'seized' on court orders until the vessel's owners pay $900 million, canal authorities said Tuesday.

The MV Ever Given was seized due to its failure to pay $900 million in compensation, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram, a state-run newspaper.

The Japanese-owned, Taiwanese operated and Panama flagged vessel got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, setting in motion a mammoth six-day-long effort by Egyptian personnel and international salvage specialists to dislodge it.

Maritime data company Lloyd's List said the blockage had held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe.

The canal is economically vital to Egypt, which lost between $12 and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to the canal authority.

The $900 million compensation figure was calculated based on 'the losses incurred by the grounded vessel as well as the flotation and maintenance costs, according to a court ruling handed down by the Ismailia Economic Court,' Rabie added.

He did not explicitly cite the Japanese owners Shoei Kisen Kaisha, but a different source at the SCA said Tuesday that negotiations over damages between that company, insurance firms and the canal authority were ongoing.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9466575/Egypt-seizes-megaship-blocked-Suez-Canal.html

Phony immigration attorney filed hundreds of fraudulent claims, sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison after HSI investigation

TAMPA – A Florida man was sentenced Monday to 20 years and 9 months in federal prison for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme where he posed as an immigration attorney and filed hundreds of fraudulent asylum applications. This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

“This criminal defrauded hundreds of victims who thought they were starting a path to legal citizenship,” said HSI Tampa Assistant Special in Charge Michael Cochran. “Identity and benefit fraud are crimes that threaten the national security and public safety of the U.S. by creating vulnerabilities to our legal immigration system. Thanks to HSI special agents, and our partners with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, he will now be held accountable for his crimes.”

According to court documents, Elvis Harold Reyes, 56, of Brandon, who owned and operated EHR Ministries Inc., portrayed himself as an immigration attorney. He is not and has never been a licensed attorney. Reyes targeted undocumented immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries who were seeking Florida driver licenses and work authorization. Reyes gave false, inaccurate and incomplete legal and immigration advice to victims to induce them to retain his services and those of EHR Ministries.

Victims retained and paid Reyes to represent them in immigration-related matters before USCIS and other agencies. Reyes filed fraudulent immigration applications in the victims’ names, seeking asylum relief and withholding-of-removal protections provided for under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In doing so, Reyes falsified answers to questions in the asylum applications—fabricating stories about threats, persecution and the applicants’ fear of returning to their native countries. Reyes did not inform the victims of the answers that he had provided on their behalf. He also did not inform the victims about the legal, administrative and other immigration-related consequences that might follow from filing for asylum relief or for Convention Against Torture protection.

“Posing as an immigration attorney, Reyes targeted hundreds of vulnerable people in the Tampa community with his immigration scam,” said USCIS Tampa District Director Michael Borgen. “USCIS is committed to finding and stopping those who want to cheat the immigration system and preserving it for those who qualify for immigration benefits.”

Reyes filed more than 225 fraudulent applications, intending to cause victim loss of more than $1 million. His victims’ actual losses exceeded $411,000. Reyes spent the criminal proceeds on, among other things, travel, luxury shopping, spas, jewelry, beautification/anti-aging procedures and an allowance for his girlfriend.

Reyes threatened aggrieved victims who confronted him by claiming that he could have them deported. And, when investigative reporting revealed Reyes’s scheme, he attempted to obstruct justice by having a friend wipe his computers.

“It is appalling that Elvis Reyes was preying on vulnerable individuals living in fear within our county,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. “I am proud of our detectives, who thoroughly investigated claims made by each victim, and our diligent efforts to reach undocumented members of our community through both English and Spanish PSAs, encouraging them to come forward if they were taken advantage of by Mr. Reyes. I am confident that these efforts ultimately helped lead to a conviction.”

This case was prosecuted by Middle District Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office, Assistant United States Attorney Frank Murray. Reyes had pleaded guilty Dec. 15, 2020. The Court deferred consideration of victim restitution to a later date.

HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI's workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 Special Agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI's international presence represents DHS's largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/phony-immigration-attorney-filed-hundreds-fraudulent-claims-sentenced-more-20-years

Riot Breaks Out in Portland over Shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota

Portland, Oregon, police declared a protest over the shooting death of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, to be a riot after the crowd turned violent Monday night. Police made multiple arrests after orders to disperse were ignored.

At about 8:30 p.m. Monday night, a crowd gathered at the Penumbra Kelly Building and began throwing objects at police officers, according to a statement from Portland Police Bureau officials. The crowd removed barrier tape and threw glass bottles, frozen water bottles, rocks, ball bearings, and other objects at officers. They also shot fireworks at the police.

About two hours later, police declared an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse. The crowd refused to comply and began stealing rocks and landscaping bricks from neighbors to use as weapons against officers.

When the crowd continued the violence against police, officials declared the protest to be a riot and began moving the crowd forcibly. After moving the crowd back a few blocks, police disengaged.

The rioters came out to protest the killing by Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officers of 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Police officials in that city said the officer accidentally shot Wright while possibly intending to deploy a Taser, Breitbart reported. Police officials identified the officer as 25-year veteran Kim Potter.

Rioting and looting continued in Brooklyn Center during a second night of protests. The looting and vandalism led to the arrest of 53 protesters in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis.

https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2021/04/13/riot-breaks-out-in-portland-over-shooting-of-daunte-wright-in-minnesota/

>>13418064

Well there's tonight's excuse for riots

9-year-old Nashville girl safe after neighbor kidnapped her from inside her apartment, police say

Nashville detectives investigating Saturday evening’s aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary case against Jacob Keener that involves a 9-year-old victim have not located any other victims thus far, but cannot rule out that possibility.

Keener, 21, who lived in an apartment complex in the Murfreesboro Pike/Nashboro area for about 3 months, is accused of entering another family’s apartment through an unlocked patio door, grabbing the 9-year-old by the hand, and taking her outside. Police say the victim and her 4-year-old brother were in the apartment by themselves while their parents went to the store.

A witness reported hearing the victim scream to let her go and seeing Keener with his hands on her waist. The girl broke free and ran back to her apartment. Her mother called police after hearing what had taken place.

Keener remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Anyone believing that Keener has had other inappropriate contact with children is asked to contact the MNPD’s Youth Services Division at 615-862-7417.

https://breaking911.com/9-year-old-nashville-girl-safe-after-neighbor-kidnapped-her-from-inside-her-apartment-police-say/

FEDS: Sex trafficking recruiter sent victims photos of ‘lavish lifestyle’

Tampa, FL – A federal jury has found Michael Davis (37, Jamaica, NY) guilty of conspiring and attempting to engage in the sex trafficking of a minor. He faces a minimum mandatory of 10 years, and up to life, in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 9, 2021.

Davis had been indicted on August 13, 2019.

According to evidence presented at trial, in August 2017, Davis began using a social networking website to recruit young women to engage in commercial sex. In December 2017, Davis used the website to send a message to an individual whom he believed was a 17-year-old girl living in Denver, Colorado. Unbeknownst to Davis, however, he was communicating with an undercover agent who specialized in child sex trafficking investigations.

Over the course of several weeks, Davis conspired with another individual to attempt to recruit, entice, transport, and obtain the purported child to travel to the Tampa Bay area so that he could cause her to engage in commercial sex. In an effort to persuade the child, Davis talked about the lavish lifestyle she would have and sent photos of large amounts of cash and marijuana. Davis orchestrated the purchase of a one-way bus ticket for the child and promised to pick her up from the bus station. The day before the child was expected to arrive in Tampa, federal agents coordinated with local law enforcement officers to detain Davis, who admitted he had communicated with the child and purchased a bus ticket for her.

This case was investigated by Federal Bureau Investigation, with assistance from the Largo Police Department and the Tampa Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa M. Thelwell.

https://breaking911.com/feds-sex-trafficking-recruiter-sent-victims-photos-of-lavish-lifestyle/

Kamala Harris: Black Women in the US Are More Likely to Die in Connection with Child Birth Because of Racism and Implicit Bias

Kamala Harris on Tuesday said black women in the US are more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications because of “systemic racial inequities.”

“Black women in our country are facing a maternal health crisis,” Kamala said. “Black women are 2-3 times more likely to die in connection with child birth than other women. “We know the primary reasons why—systemic racial inequities and implicit bias—and the consequences are both very real.”

Not a word about the health problems black women have entering pregnancy.

A lot of black women are overweight or obese and suffer from diabetes which increases the chance of having a heart attack, stroke or preeclampsia.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/kamala-harris-black-women-us-likely-die-connection-child-birth-racism-implicit-bias-video/

“The Free World” Died of COVID-19

It’s time to rebuild.

As someone with a background in foreign policy and international affairs, I am often asked to discuss the ramifications of having Joe Biden as the so-called leader of the Free World.

While it is easy to get carried away debating the merits of a heavily compromised man being the physical representation of the Free World, and how cringeworthy and depressing that is, I can’t help but get stuck on the possibility that the term itself is no longer viable.

“What Free World?”

The Free World is a term that was originally used to describe the Allied powers during WWII, but it is most applicable here when discussing what united the anti-Soviet bloc to the United States during the Cold War. It was these “Western world” values of free speech, free media, the freedom of assembly, and freedom of association that united our sovereign states against the evils of Communism.

COVID Mania has turned the world’s sovereign states into one tyranny after another. And the authoritarian forces of the world won this second “Cold War” against its citizens without firing a shot. Some appear to be under the impression that the ruling class, which just finished the fastest roll up of power in human history, will simply return these stolen liberties when the “national emergency” comes to an end. I’m not particularly convinced that this is the case.

As John Adams once said, “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

In the United States, our federalist system allows for pockets of freedom in places like Florida, Texas, South Dakota and the like. But dare to protest in the Nation’s Capital today and you’ll quickly find yourself on an FBI watchlist, and almost certainly, with a future date in our nation’s kangaroo court system. We continue to see authoritarian states implementing “vaccine passports” and other discriminatory measures in the name of a virus. Throughout most population centers in the United States, there are still heavy “COVID restrictions” on society and the economy. Our nation is no longer united behind these “Free World” concepts, and they are now only considered virtuous ideas in the aforementioned pockets of freedom in America. In the rest of the country, it has been made crystal-clear that your rights do not supersede a disease with a 99.8% recovery rate.

Now observe the devastation in the rest of the Anglosphere:

The United Kingdom has placed its citizens under indefinite confinement. Their “COVID restrictions” have lasted well over a year, and there is no end in sight.

After massive, sustained protests, #UK PM Boris Johnson threatens stricter lockdowns https://t.co/cLeDFqPNJY

— The HighWire (@HighWireTalk) September 22, 2020

https://www.globalresearch.ca/free-world-died-covid-19/5742558

Big Tech Is Censoring Science Because COVID-19 Panic Made Them Rich And Destroyed Their Competition

On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and three medical experts took a blowtorch to Google for banning from YouTube a video of them discussing COVID-19 science.

On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and three medical experts took a blowtorch to Google for banning from YouTube a video of them discussing COVID-19 science.

“They say it’s misinformation even though Google and YouTube routinely host conspiracy theory videos ranging from the cause of the 9/11 attacks to the role that 5G networks play in causing COVID-19,” DeSantis said in a press conference. “You can pretty much find any misinformation under the sun on Google/YouTube.” He blasted them for acting as a “big tech council of censors in service of the ruling elite.”

Last week, Google pulled a video of DeSantis on March 18 discussing COVID-19 with medical scientists Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and Dr. Scott Atlas, who all hail from elite institutions — Stanford University, Harvard University, and Oxford University. All but Gupta, who is based in the United Kingdom, also joined DeSantis’s April 12 press conference to respond to Google’s ban.

“For science to work, you have to have an open exchange of ideas,” Bhattacharya said Monday. “If you’re going to make an argument that something is misinformation, you should provide an actual argument. You can’t just take it down and say, ‘Oh, it’s misinformation’ without actually giving a reason. And saying, ‘Look it disagrees with the CDC’ is not enough of a reason. Let’s hear the argument, let’s see the evidence that YouTube used to decide it was misinformation. Let’s have a debate. Science works best when we have an open debate.”

“I’m very worried about the future of science because science is dependent on free exchange of ideas and it has been for 300 years now. So if this continues, this kind of attitude, the censoring of scientific views, then I think we have reached the end of 200 years of Enlightenment,” Kulldorff said Monday.

Preventing Open Inquiry Kills People

In taking down videos of the March 18 panel, YouTube was “really continuing what they’ve been doing for the past year: stifle debate, short-circuit scientific inquiry, make sure that the narrative is not questioned,” DeSantis said. “And I think we’ve seen already that that has had catastrophic consequences for our society.”

DeSantis noted that big tech took the lead in “censoring criticism of lockdowns,” while a good deal of scientific evidence clearly shows lockdowns have caused countless deaths and worsened millions of diseases worldwide, including in the United States. “Perhaps if we had had a freer exchange of ideas during those critical months, perhaps we would have been able to avoid” some of these terrible consequences, he said.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/13/big-tech-is-censoring-science-because-covid-19-panic-made-them-rich-and-destroyed-their-competition/

Two people dead in light plane crash near Canberra

Two men have died in a light plane crash north-east of Canberra.

Emergency services were called about 4.30pm to a property on Tallagandra Lane, Sutton, near to the ACT, after reports the plane had crashed into a paddock.

“The pilot and passenger on board - both men - died at the scene. They are yet to be formally identified,” NSW Police said in a statement.

“Police have been told the Cessna 172 left Canberra Airport about 1.30pm today.”

Officers from The Hume Police District have commenced inquiries and a crime scene has been established.

NSW Rural Fire Service personnel were called to the scene to assist with fire protection.

The plane belongs to Essential Energy, which manages the poles and wires that deliver electricity to 95 per cent of NSW and parts of southern Queensland.

A spokesperson for the company said the plane was performing contracted aerial inspections of the electricity network before the incident.

“Essential Energy’s thoughts remain with the families, friends and colleagues of the two people who died,” a statement from the company said.

“Authorities are currently investigating the incident and Essential Energy is providing full support. It would not be appropriate for us to provide any further information while the police investigation is underway.”

A spokesperson for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it would investigate and deploy investigators to the site on Wednesday.

Police will address the media on Wednesday morning. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/act/two-people-dead-in-light-plane-crash-near-canberra-20210413-p57ixl.html

Burkina Faso’s Ex-President Compaoré Charged in 1987 Killing of Predecessor Thomas Sankara

Before his 1987 killing, Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara predicted his defiance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), debts to which he encouraged African nations to refuse to pay, would get him killed.

Blaise Compaoré, the ousted former president of Burkina Faso, has been charged alongside 14 other people in connection with the 1987 killing of his predecessor, the pan-African communist revolutionary Sankara.

According to court documents viewed by Reuters, a Burkinabe military tribunal has charged Compaoré with complicity in the October 15, 1987, assassination of then-President Sankara. The charges include undermining state security and receiving cadavers.

Among the others charged are Gilbert Diendéré, Compaoré’s former right-hand man who is presently in prison for a failed 2015 coup d’etat; Yacinthe Kafando, the former chief of presidential security chief who is believed to have led the hit squad that killed Sankara; and other figures such as Nabonsouindé Ouédraogo, Idrissa Sawadogo, and Yamba Elysée Ilboudo, CGTN reported.

Compaoré has been in neighboring Cote D’Ivoire since being driven out of power by a popular uprising in 2014, and the Burkinabe government tried several times to extradite him in connection to Sankara’s death. He has denied any connection, although numerous testimonies say he was intimately involved with the overthrow.

In the aftermath, Compaoré assumed Sankara’s office and ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years, during which time he returned the country to the fold of its former colonizer, France, which is rumored to have played a role in Sankara’s overthrow. Burkina Faso has since become a major hub for France’s “forever war” in West Africa, Operation Barkhane, for which nearly 5,000 French soldiers have been deployed across several former French colonies in Africa.

When Compaoré was overthrown in 2014, the French Foreign Ministry hailed Burkina Faso under his rule as playing a “key role in guaranteeing regional stability and conflict resolution.” In the aftermath, Sankara’s wife, Mariam, traveled to Paris to ask the French government to release “declassified secret documents on the assassination of President Sankara, that could help us bring to light what happened.” An investigation was also opened in the capital of Ouagadougou that included exhuming what was believed to be Sankara’s body.

‘Africa’s Che Guevara’

Sankara was appointed Prime Minister of Upper Volta in 1983 in a coup organized by Compaoré, a fellow soldier who had trained in Libya together. However, he was already well-known in Ouagadougou for heroism in a border war with Mali, for his staunch defense of progressive reforms as a part of prior administrations, and for being the lead guitarist in a popular jazz band called "Tout-à-Coup Jazz,” for which Compaoré was the singer.

In power, the charismatic Sankara plotted a pan-Africanist revolutionary path for the country that rejected help from Western institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He once mused that the only food aid appropriate to offer the arid country wasn’t bags of grain, but tractors, watering cans, and fertilizer. In the four years he was in power, he successfully realized the promise of two meals and 10 liters of water per person per day, expanding agriculture, reclaiming desert and making the country food self-sufficient.

To illustrate his commitment to these goals, Sankara lived a spartan life, reduced public figures’ salaries to be comparable to the average citizen’s and forced officials to live and travel without luxury.

He backed numerous social reforms as well, including banning both female genital mutilation and polygamy and triumphing the equal rights of women, and he started mass literacy campaigns that increased the country’s literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in just four years. He also pushed to spread basic medical care throughout the country, reducing infant and maternal mortality rates among other common killers.

He also renamed the country from Upper Volta, a French colonial name describing its location at the headwaters of the Volta River, to Burkina Faso, meaning “Land of Upright People.” He supported the revolutionary struggles of other peoples, including the Saharawi struggle for a Western Sahara independent of Spanish or Moroccan rule. For this, he is often called “Africa’s Che Guevara” after the Argentine-Cuban communist revolutionary.

https://sputniknews.com/africa/202104131082621399-burkina-fasos-ex-president-compaor-charged-in-1987-killing-of-predecessor-thomas-sankara/

God's people are awakening

Satan the imitator's people are woke

2 Corinthians 4:4

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Eerie light display across Melbourne resembles UFOs - but there's a simple explanation

Strange lights over early morning skies in Melbourne today had some residents wondering if they were encountering a fleet of UFOs.

Observers were left scratching their heads as to what they were seeing as bright lights made their way across the sky.

"I saw the lights up in the sky and then another one came, then another one came, then another one came, and I was like, 'what the hell's going on here?'" witness Matt told 9News.

"So I walked out to the front of my house and I looked back to where they were coming from, and there was a whole string of them, it looked like someone had unravelled Christmas lights and put them in the sky."

But there was a scientific explanation for the twinkling display.

It was a series of satellites coming back down to Earth.

"I would've preferred a UFO than satellites," Matt said.

People have been reporting UFO sightings in recent years after seeing the Starlink satellites, tethered from Elon Musk's SpaceX program.

It's a project aimed at improving internet capabilities.

About 30,000 satellites will have been launched into the atmosphere once the project has been complete.

Melburnians can expect the satellites to make another appearance early tomorrow morning.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/strange-scenes-in-melbourne-skies-as-residents-wonder-if-they-were-seeing-ufos/fc286225-a616-44c7-af1a-c7234286ca2e