Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 30,231]

Meta is ushering in a ‘world without facts’, says Nobel peace prize winner

Maria Ressa warns of ‘dangerous times’ for journalism and democracy after move to end factchecking in US

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/08/facebook-end-factchecking-nobel-peace-prize-winner-maria-ressa

The Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa has said Meta’s decision to end factchecking on its platforms and remove restrictions on certain topics means “extremely dangerous times” lie ahead for journalism, democracy and social media users.

The American-Filipino journalist said Mark Zuckerberg’s move to relax content moderation on the Facebook and Instagram platforms would lead to a “world without facts” and that was “a world that’s right for a dictator”.

“Mark Zuckerberg says it’s a free speech issue – that’s completely wrong,” Ressa told the AFP news service. “Only if you’re profit-driven can you claim that; only if you want power and money can you claim that. This is about safety.”

Ressa, a co-founder of the Rappler news site, won the Nobel peace prize in 2021 in recognition of her “courageous fight for freedom of expression”. She faced multiple criminal charges and investigations after publishing stories critical of the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

Ressa rejected Zuckerberg’s claim that factcheckers had been “too politically biased” and had “destroyed more trust than they’ve created”.

“Journalists have a set of standards and ethics,” Ressa said. “What Facebook is going to do is get rid of that and then allow lies, anger, fear and hate to infect every single person on the platform.”

The decision meant “extremely dangerous times ahead” for journalism, democracy and social media users, she said.

Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said on Tuesday he would remove factcheckers in the US and replace them with a crowd-sourced moderating service similar to the “community notes” feature on the rival social media platform X.

He added that Meta would also “get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse” and “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

Meta has said it has “no immediate plans” to remove factcheckers outside the US, although the rest of the changes will be implemented worldwide.

Ressa said she would do everything she could to “ensure information integrity”. “This is a pivotal year for journalism survival,” she said. “We’ll do all we can to make sure that happens.”

In October, the human rights group Amnesty International claimed that authorities in the Philippines were using Facebook to “red-tag” young activists, a term referring to the labelling of campaigners and others as alleged “communist rebels” and “terrorists”.

In 2021 a Meta whistleblower, Frances Haugen, claimed there was a lack of safety controls in non-English language markets, such as Africa and the Middle East, and that Facebook was being used by human traffickers and armed groups in Ethiopia.

“I did what I thought was necessary to save the lives of people, especially in the global south, who I think are being endangered by Facebook’s prioritisation of profits over people,” she told the Observer.

At the time, Meta, then operating under the corporate brand of Facebook, said the premise that it prioritised profit over safety was “false” and that it had invested $13bn (£11bn) in protecting users.

In 2018, after the massacre of Rohingya Muslims by the military in Myanmar, Facebook admitted that the platform had been used to “foment division and incite offline violence”. Three years later, the human rights group Global Witness claimed that Facebook was promoting content that incited violence against political protesters in Myanmar. Facebook said it had proactively detected 99% of the hate speech removed from the platform in the country.

[Vesper 30,231]

Germany and France warn Trump against use of force over Greenland

Olaf Scholz says borders are inviolable after president-elect talks of using US military or tariffs to take control of island

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/08/france-warns-trump-against-threatening-eu-sovereign-borders-greenland

Germany and France have warned Donald Trump against any attempt to “move borders by force” after the incoming US president said he was prepared to use economic tariffs or military might to seize control of Danish-administered Greenland.

In a hastily called televised statement, Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Trump’s remarks had triggered “incomprehension” among European leaders. “The principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country – regardless of whether it is east of us or to the west – and every state must respect that, regardless of whether it is a small country or a very powerful state.”

Earlier, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said that Europe would stand up in defence of international law. “There is no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be, attack its sovereign borders.”

Barrot added on France Inter radio, that, while he did not believe the US “would invade” Greenland, “we have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest”.

Denmark has said it is open to dialogue with Trump about working together to address his legitimate security concerns when it comes to Greenland, while rejecting any threat of force or coercion.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the experienced Danish foreign minister, said it was in everyone’s interests to lower the temperature in the discussions.

“I have my own experiences with Donald Trump and I also know that you shouldn’t say everything you think out loud,” he said. He also played down the possibility that Greenland would ever become part of the US, adding: “We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they materialise, Greenland will become independent, though hardly with an ambition to become a federal state in the United States.”

Denmark is caught in a double bind, confronted by the increasingly serious threats from Trump to take over the island for US geostrategic reasons, but also growing demands from Greenland’s political class for full independence from Denmark.

Greenland’s prime minister, Múte B Egede, held talks with the Danish king in Copenhagen on Wednesday, a day after Trump’s remarks thrust the fate of the mineral-rich and strategically important island into the spotlight.

In his new year remarks Egede had said that Greenland was now ready to take the next big step in the effort to break the “shackles of colonialism”. A self-government act has already been passed that opens the way to a referendum on independence. Local elections are due to be held in April that could turn into a test of opinion on Greenland’s constitutional future.

The president-elect’s son Donald Trump Jr flew briefly to Greenland on Tuesday in a trip coinciding with his father’s call for the US to run the island, and returned trying to stoke a mood for it to be sold to Washington.

He said: “These are people who feel they’ve been exploited. They haven’t been treated fairly by Denmark. They’re being held back from exploiting their natural resources, whether it’s coal, uranium, rare earths, gold or diamonds. It’s really a great place.”

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Tuesday that she could not imagine Trump’s ambitions leading to US military intervention in Greenland. In 2019 she had called Trump’s demand that Greenland be put up for sale “absurd”. Since then there has been a collective decision by the Danish government to try to soothe emotions.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 but is now a self-governing territory of Denmark and in 2009 achieved the right to claim independence through a vote.

Danish politicians are hoping a confrontation can be avoided by a meeting between senior officials from Denmark and the US to discuss any update required to the many post-second world war security agreements signed by the two countries. The US has a military base in Greenland, Pituffik space base (formerly Thule base), first established in 1941. It provides critical early-warning systems necessary to monitor Russian activity. Other bases were abandoned in the 1970s. But with the melting of the ice around Greenland, the possibility of new trade routes opening has transformed the Arctic’s importance.

In Berlin, Scholz said that Russia’s “brutal war of aggression” against Ukraine had prompted Germany as the EU’s top economy to strongly increase defence spending to 2% of GDP, amounting to it more than doubling in the last seven years. He noted that his country had worked closely with the US to protect Ukraine’s national “sovereignty and integrity”. “Borders must not be moved by force,” he said.

In an hour-long press conference on Tuesday, Trump refused to rule out using military force to take the Panama canal and Greenland, and also suggested he intended to use “economic force” to make Canada part of the US.

Egede, a member of the pro-independence Community of the People (IA) party, said last week Greenland “is not for sale and will never be for sale”.

Arriving at Copenhagen airport late on Tuesday night, Egede responded to Trump’s refusal to rule out military or economic pressure in order to gain control of Greenland, saying they were “serious statements”.

His original meeting with the king, scheduled for earlier in the day, was cancelled at the last minute, with Egede’s office citing “diary gymnastics”. Donald Trump Jr’s visit to Greenland on Tuesday led to the cancellation being viewed by some as a snub and embarrassment to the king, who recently changed the royal coat of arms to more prominently include symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are both autonomous territories of Denmark.

Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, the Greenlandic MP who represents the Siumut party in the Danish parliament, told the Guardian she took Trump’s comments about coercion as “directed more toward Panama than Greenland”. But, she said, his comments “underscore the growing geopolitical importance of Greenland”.

She added: “It also highlights a critical need for constructive dialogue. While I do not interpret his remarks as a threat of military force against Greenland or Denmark, they do suggest the United States may feel compelled to act if the kingdom of Denmark is unable to address security concerns effectively.”

[Fulham Broadway 17,333]

'This is insanity!' Critics pounce on Trump for mocking California amid fires

President-elect Donald Trump's decision to attack California Gov. Gavin Newsom while his state is suffering from catastrophic wildfires has drawn the ire of many online critics.

In the wake of a Wednesday Truth Social post, in which Trump labeled the California governor "Newscum" and blamed him personally for the fires, many critics expressed fury, but not surprise, that the president-elect would use a horrific tragedy to lob attacks at his political rivals.

"I hope he has a massive stroke," raged the  X account that goes by the name of Spiro's Ghost. "He is a deeply sick man."

TV meteorologist Brad Carl took a whack at Americans who think that taunting states undergoing natural disasters was a desirable trait in a president.

"I just can't believe that half of America wanted a guy like this at the top to treat fellow Americans like this (ones especially dealing with ongoing, horrific disasters in this way)," he wrote.

And journalist Jon Schwarz expressed astonishment that conservatives' reactions to the massive fires was to triple down on climate change denial.

"I used to think that when global warming truly began to bite, deniers would face reality and we could act," he wrote. "Now I think it's more likely it will lead to a kind of fascism that will respond to global warming by, like, executing everyone who says global warming is real."

This is insanity. Increased pumping of water through the aqueduct to Central Valley farms and LA urban lawns would have done absolutely nothing for the dry chaparral mountainsides. Is the Trump admin going to pay to install lawn sprinkers up and down the San Gabriels???

— David Burbach (@dburbach.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 12:27 PM

I just can't believe that half of America wanted a guy like this at the top to treat fellow Americans like this (ones especially dealing with ongoing, horrific disasters in this way). I'm all for Dems adjusting their messaging and such, but I would never want us to become this callous and awful.

AP Press

[Fernando 6,585]

6 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

I hope he has a massive stroke," raged the  X account that goes by the name of Spiro's Ghost. "He is a deeply sick man."

I find this ironic. 

You are saying one men is a sick and your response is responding the same.... 

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,333]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

I find this ironic. 

You are saying one men is a sick and your response is responding the same.... 

 

Agree - I think Twitter or X whatever it is, and Facebook will become (if not already) a cess pit of hatred and bile now all the moderators are gone. maybe I will do that for Talkchelsea 😁

[Vesper 30,231]

Britain at a Crossroads: financial turmoil meets political threats

Paul Mason 10th January 2025

As the UK battles rising bond yields, a weakening currency, and Musk’s online assault on democracy, Starmer’s government finds itself on the frontline of a global power struggle.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/britain-at-a-crossroads-financial-turmoil-meets-political-threats

I am writing this from an island under siege. One of the sieges is financial: the yield on a UK 10-year government bond is hovering around 4.8 percent, while sterling’s value against the dollar is falling. This has prompted foreign exchange traders to begin referring to the pound as the Great British Peso, and some commentators to push for immediate fiscal austerity.

The other siege is an existential attack on Britain’s democracy. Since the turn of the year, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the owner of X.com, has bombarded the Labour government with a string of insults and disinformation designed—according to a report by the Financial Times—to eject Keir Starmer from power.

Musk’s chosen casus belli is the so-called “grooming gang” scandal, which emerged under successive governments in the first two decades of this century. From around 2011, a pattern emerged in police investigations which found that gangs of men—often taxi drivers or others involved in manual work—had been preying on girls beneath the age of consent: tricking them into imagined relationships and then gang-raping them. Some, but not all, of the perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.

Numerous local and national investigations found the police had failed to investigate these rape gangs properly. Councils, which were supposed to care for some of the victims, downplayed both the crimes and the ethnicity of the perpetrators.

It was a major breakdown in the justice system because, despite scores of men being convicted, the number of victims runs into thousands, many of whom neither testified in court nor received compensation. It has become a cause célèbre for the extreme right.

What the far right wants is for the British state to associate this pattern of sexual violence with Pakistani ethnic identity. But it cannot. First, because the state’s records of the perpetrators’ ethnicity are patchy; second, because professional criminologists simply will not draw such binary conclusions.

When Labour refused to call yet another national inquiry into the scandal, Musk piled in. He accused the Labour minister Jess Phillips of assisting genocide, accused Starmer of a deliberate cover-up, and has allegedly begun discussions with aides about bringing Labour down. He offered support to the right-wing populist Reform Party, urged it to ally with the convicted criminal and far-right leader Tommy Robinson, and then slammed the party’s leader—Nigel Farage—when he refused. He has called for the King to dissolve Parliament and reposted numerous offensive messages from fascist-aligned X.com accounts. And it is not over.

Keir Starmer came out fighting against Musk, while the British finance minister Rachel Reeves has played what English cricketers call a “straight bat” against the financial threat: calm words, orthodox policies, and non-engagement with the panic narrative. My fear, however, is that the perils of destabilisation will haunt both the UK government and its major European allies for as long as Trump is president and his ally, Musk, is engaged in his task of democratic destabilisation. Looming over the entire relationship between European states and these figureheads of American racism and misogyny is Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on European states, to seize Canada and Greenland, and to walk away from NATO. 

Linking cause to effect in the bond market can be difficult. A plausible account of Britain’s high cost of borrowing goes like this: Brexit has impaired the country’s economy; the crazed policymaking of the 49-day Liz Truss administration has impaired its reputation for fiscal stability, so the UK is paying a higher price than any other G7 country for its borrowing, despite its debt being well below 100 percent of GDP.

In addition, however, it is paying a premium for Trump’s mercurial policymaking. If he does impose tariffs on European goods, the argument goes, Britain will fare worse than its G7 counterparts in the EU because its trade balance and currency are more exposed than those of the Eurozone.

These dangers alone would be enough to put the Labour government on the defensive: its entire political project is premised on being able to stimulate growth through borrowing, state direction, and industrial strategy. Yet the economy is stagnating because global demand is weak and the sources of potential growth and productivity have atrophied during decades of offshoring and the rise of rentier capitalism.

But Musk’s intervention feels like a deliberate “force multiplier” in an asymmetric attack. The bond markets target the fiscal authorities, Musk targets the stability and reputation of the government, while Trump puts the squeeze on Britain to spend more on defence, to accept a one-sided trade deal (locking us out of the Single Market forever), and preparing the way for his ally, Farage, to supplant the Conservative Party as the potential next government. This may sound paranoid, but it would not require Trump or Musk to possess the brain cells and political interest in the UK to enact this strategy, because there are numerous British figures surrounding them for whom this is a desired course of action.

Starmer’s government is obliged to fend off the bond market vigilantes with the traditional tools: fiscal rigour, central bank signalling and, if necessary, intervention. The delayed and timid implementation of a new internet law, which would have obliged Musk to act more responsibly regarding hate speech and disinformation, has left Britain currently defenceless against his online manipulation. Moreover, UK laws on foreign electoral interference may not be strong enough to prevent Musk from attempting to buy the next election.

Thus, the ultimate fate of the Labour government may depend on the forces it can mobilise within UK civil society and the goodwill it can garner from more traditional conservatives in Washington. Above all, Starmer needs to deliver not just the long-term promise of growth and national renewal on which he won his substantial majority in July 2024, but also real, short-term improvements in living costs, housing supply and basic economic demand.

The one sure-fire way of achieving this, even in a deindustrialised economy like Britain’s, would be to rearm to meet the external threat posed by Russia. Rachel Reeves, the finance minister, has pledged never to borrow for day-to-day spending, only to invest. If the Strategic Defence Review—an independent and external review of UK military capability—mandates the government to lift defence spending substantially, then the path may be open to higher borrowing, particularly if Trump makes the same demand.

The worst of all worlds would be if the UK caves to the pressure of the bond market, imposing renewed cuts to public spending, while failing to mobilise progressive forces within civil society to resist the far right. Britain, unlike Germany, has no debt brake, nor is it constrained by the rules of the Maastricht Treaty. It is on its own when it comes to dealing with the chaos engine that is the incoming Trump administration, which is, not surprisingly, exactly where the Brexiteers wanted it to be when they designed their catastrophic project.

European governments may be bemused, for now, at Starmer’s predicament. But they should watch it closely. Because this asymmetric mixture of trade war, bond market pressure and outright political interference is coming everyone’s way soon.

This is a joint publication by Social Europe and IPS-Journal

Paul Mason

Paul Mason is a journalist, writer and filmmaker. His latest book is How To Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance (Allen Lane). His most recent films include R is For Rosa, with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. He writes weekly for New Statesman and contributes to Der Freitag and Le Monde Diplomatique.

[Fulham Broadway 17,333]

Billionaires main mission is to divide people by creating distrust and polarisation. 

[Vesper 30,231]

[Vesper 30,231]

Easy for some:

Charlotte Owen got peerage for ‘advising Boris Johnson on reshuffles’

The former prime minister called Charlotte Owen, who became the youngest life peer in parliamentary history, an ‘extremely effective’ adviser

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/charlotte-owen-got-peerage-for-advising-boris-johnson-on-reshuffles-5qfbvdfvt

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge was 30 when nominated for her peerage, and had spent six years in relatively junior Westminster roles

Boris Johnson justified handing a junior aide a spot in the House of Lords by saying she advised him on cabinet reshuffles and ministerial appointments.

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge and Lord Kempsell, two former special advisers in the Conservative government, were appointed to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list.

The government’s justification for the appointments, published on Thursday, says that Johnson “entrusted Charlotte with engaging the parliamentary party on his behalf and she was essential to maintaining his relationship with them”.

It added that “Charlotte was later tasked with helping the new chief whip in his role and used her unique knowledge to become a bridge between the prime minister and the chief whip”.

Owen was 30 when Johnson put her forward for the peerage in 2023, after only six years at Westminster in relatively junior roles, making her the youngest life peer in parliamentary history. The former prime minister has previously defended the move saying that she had been an “extremely effective” political adviser.

Johnson’s citation for her also states that “Charlotte led on many sensitive and key projects including advising the prime minister and the chief whip on suitability for ministerial appointments during the reshuffle”.

Owen’s formal nominators for the peerage were Grant Shapps and Chris Heaton-Harris, then cabinet ministers.

Owen was said to have been “essential” to Boris Johnson’s relationship with his parliamentary party

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

Kempsell, appointed when he was 31, was also an adviser to Johnson and political director of the Conservative Party. The justification given in his case included: “As political director, he was the most senior policy and political official in the Conservative Party, having overall responsibility for developing the party’s policy platform, political campaigning, media position and managing a team of ten in the party’s policy and research secretariat.

“He provided political advice directly to the prime minister, all cabinet ministers and many MPs, prepared the prime minister for parliamentary appearances and developed the party’s platform for multiple party conferences. He led work on major parliamentary by-elections.”

The reasons were only published after an 18-month freedom of information battle with Martin Rosenbaum, a transparency campaigner.

Rosenbaum took the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac) to a tribunal to reveal the letters. Holac had refused his freedom of information request on the grounds that the citations contained confidential personal information but a judge upheld Rosenbaum’s arguments that releasing the information was in the public interest.

Rosenbaum said that the reasons cited for nominating Owen “do come across as very thin, inadequate and lacking in evidence of relevant achievements”. He added: “They leave her peerage as a mystery rather than properly justifying and explaining it.

“I am very pleased that the documentation has now been revealed, but it shouldn’t need an argument over 18 months for the public to find out what reasons are officially provided for allocating certain people important political powers.”

[Fulham Broadway 17,333]

54 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Easy for some:

Charlotte Owen got peerage for ‘advising Boris Johnson on reshuffles’

The former prime minister called Charlotte Owen, who became the youngest life peer in parliamentary history, an ‘extremely effective’ adviser

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/charlotte-owen-got-peerage-for-advising-boris-johnson-on-reshuffles-5qfbvdfvt

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge was 30 when nominated for her peerage, and had spent six years in relatively junior Westminster roles

Boris Johnson justified handing a junior aide a spot in the House of Lords by saying she advised him on cabinet reshuffles and ministerial appointments.

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge and Lord Kempsell, two former special advisers in the Conservative government, were appointed to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list.

The government’s justification for the appointments, published on Thursday, says that Johnson “entrusted Charlotte with engaging the parliamentary party on his behalf and she was essential to maintaining his relationship with them”.

It added that “Charlotte was later tasked with helping the new chief whip in his role and used her unique knowledge to become a bridge between the prime minister and the chief whip”.

Owen was 30 when Johnson put her forward for the peerage in 2023, after only six years at Westminster in relatively junior roles, making her the youngest life peer in parliamentary history. The former prime minister has previously defended the move saying that she had been an “extremely effective” political adviser.

Johnson’s citation for her also states that “Charlotte led on many sensitive and key projects including advising the prime minister and the chief whip on suitability for ministerial appointments during the reshuffle”.

Owen’s formal nominators for the peerage were Grant Shapps and Chris Heaton-Harris, then cabinet ministers.

Owen was said to have been “essential” to Boris Johnson’s relationship with his parliamentary party

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

Kempsell, appointed when he was 31, was also an adviser to Johnson and political director of the Conservative Party. The justification given in his case included: “As political director, he was the most senior policy and political official in the Conservative Party, having overall responsibility for developing the party’s policy platform, political campaigning, media position and managing a team of ten in the party’s policy and research secretariat.

“He provided political advice directly to the prime minister, all cabinet ministers and many MPs, prepared the prime minister for parliamentary appearances and developed the party’s platform for multiple party conferences. He led work on major parliamentary by-elections.”

The reasons were only published after an 18-month freedom of information battle with Martin Rosenbaum, a transparency campaigner.

Rosenbaum took the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac) to a tribunal to reveal the letters. Holac had refused his freedom of information request on the grounds that the citations contained confidential personal information but a judge upheld Rosenbaum’s arguments that releasing the information was in the public interest.

Rosenbaum said that the reasons cited for nominating Owen “do come across as very thin, inadequate and lacking in evidence of relevant achievements”. He added: “They leave her peerage as a mystery rather than properly justifying and explaining it.

“I am very pleased that the documentation has now been revealed, but it shouldn’t need an argument over 18 months for the public to find out what reasons are officially provided for allocating certain people important political powers.”

It was also for sucking his cock (allegedly)

[Vesper 30,231]

[Fernando 6,585]

So sad what has happened in California. Losing everything you worked for in a short time is hard to stomach. 

But it also puts into context what the Bible says that this life is like a vapor. Can easily disappeared. 

And as we approached the end of the age the Bible speaks how everything will be be ending the only thing that is certain is our right relationship with him and others. 

Edited January 11 by Fernando

[KEVINAA 129]

the inauguration is at 12pm us ET later today

5pm UK

6am NZL

anytime before 6pm us ET the 2nd nine eleven could happen, be on guard pay attention to every code word or buzz word in tv media.

 

 

Live streams to watch live on YT

[search term]

(DONALD TRUMP INAUGURATION 2025 LIVE)

Edited January 20 by KEVINAA

[Vesper 30,231]

 

Right-Wing Extremists Are Abuzz Over Musk’s Straight-Arm Salute

“Incredible things are happening already lmao,” wrote Gab founder and Hitlerbot innovator Andrew Torba

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-salute-reaction-right-wing-extremists-1235241866/

https://archive.ph/kgVpW

Right-wing extremists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis are celebrating an alarming gesture made by the world’s richest man. 

 

At a post-inauguration rally Monday, Elon Musk thanked Donald Trump’s supporters with a gesture that resembled a Roman salute, first putting his palm to his chest and then extending a stiff right arm toward the crowd, at a slight elevation and with his palm down.

 

It wasn’t a one-off. He later repeated the gesture.

 

Musk’s sway in the new administration is hard to overstate. The billionaire spent hundreds of millions to get Trump elected, and has been sitting shotgun for much of the transition period helping Trump shape his cabinet and incoming administration.

 

Trump has tasked Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a quasi-governmental effort to eliminate hundreds of billions in federal spending.

 

And in his inauguration speech, Trump also embraced Musk’s life goal of colonizing Mars — as part of America’s “manifest destiny.”

Regardless of whether the South Africa-born Musk intended the salute as a “Sieg Heil” salute favored by the followers of Adolf Hitler in World War II, as some online commentators have suggested, it was eagerly received that way by extremists online. 

 

 

Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of the notorious neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, posted the clip of Musk’s salute on Telegram with a lightning-bolt emoji (evocative of the Nazi SS) and the caption: “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.”

 

Another neo-Nazi leader, Christopher Hood, who founded the New England race-separatist movement NSC-131, also posted the clip to Telegram with the emojis ⁉️and 😁.

 

Andrew Torba is the founder of the far-right Christian Nationalist social media platform Gab, which pioneered AI-powered Nazi chatbots. He shared the clip on his account with the caption: “Incredible things are happening already lmao.”

 

Far-right author Keith Woods, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a “self-described ethno-nationalist and antisemite,” shared the clip in a post on X, writing: “Ok maybe woke really is dead.”

 

Thomas Sewell, an Australia-based neo-Nazi, whose Telegram avatar is a picture of himself throwing a Roman salute, posted the video of Musk calling it a “Donald Trump White Power moment.”

 

The Proud Boys Ohio chapter posted to a clip of the Musk video to its Telegram channel with the text, “Hail Trump!”

 

A chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter posted a note of appreciation on Telegram, along with a picture of a banner drop the group had previously executed at a freeway overpass reading: “Elon Musk Stop White Genocide.”

 

The Telegram caption read, “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.”

 

Alternative explanations for the gesture are plausible. Musk is socially awkward, and he may have been stiffly trying to throw love to the crowd for helping put Trump back in office. “My heart goes out to you,” he said after he did the gesture a second time. 

 

However, Musk has allied himself with far-right movements in Europe, including the extremist German party AfD.

 

After purchasing Twitter, which he renamed X, he welcomed long-banned white nationalists back to the platform in the name of free speech.

 

And his X account is sometimes hard to distinguish from far-right extremists. In late 2023 he went on a so-called “apology tour” to Israel after responding to a post about an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X with the words “the actual truth.”

 

He often posts Pepe frogs, and other images and memes associated with the alt-right, including recently temporarily adopting the handle “Kekius Maximus.”

[NikkiCFC 8,337]

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

2 tier kier talking absolute bollocks again I see.

[Special Juan 28,148]

The biggest threat to the UK is the people running the country

End of

[KEVINAA 129]

the SUN PLUTO CONJUNCTION starts at 12:28 pm UK  today / 07:28 am US ET before NYSE opens at 09:30 am and my time at 01:28 am NZL - WED 22 JAN. 

 

THEN STOCK MARKETS CRQSH COLLAPSE BEGINS at : 07:28 am NEW YORK TIME before 09:30 am OPENS begins stock trading.

 

SUN PLUTO CONJUNCTION - watch Bloomberg live streams in ten background to watch all the markets GO RED and loose BILLIONS.

[Fulham Broadway 17,333]

Drill baby Drill.....Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord. Only Yemen Iran and Libya have not signed up to it.

Just shows what a 75 million dollar 'donation' to Trump by fossil fuel companies can get you.

Looking forward to more California fires....

[Fernando 6,585]

1 hour ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Drill baby Drill.....Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord. Only Yemen Iran and Libya have not signed up to it.

Just shows what a 75 million dollar 'donation' to Trump by fossil fuel companies can get you.

Looking forward to more California fires....

I still think that California fire was weird. Like some guy set on fire around the pacific palisades. 

As well the ineptitude of the California government by cutting funds to fire department and not improving the water situation.