More Censorship: Facebook BANS Right-Leaning Group ‘Britain First’

The censorship of those who buck the establishment is continuing with Facebook’s banning of the group “Britain First.” Private companies have the right to ban anyone they want, however, with the ramping up of obvious censorship, the establishment certainly seems like it’s desperately trying to cling to power by silencing those who dissent.

Facebook has banned the conservative political group Britain First for breaking its rules that prohibit “hate speech” on the social media platform.  Facebook said they had “repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups.”

Britain First described itself as “a patriotic resistance and ‘frontline’ for our long-suffering people” that will “restore Christianity as the bedrock” of national life and put British workers first.

“There are times … when legitimate political speech crosses the line and becomes hate speech designed to stir up hatred against groups in our society,” Facebook said in a statement, according to CNN. And Facebook didn’t simply stop at banning the group’s Facebook page. They banned the owners’, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, personal pages as well. The group’s accounts were later suspended by Twitter.

Britain First gained international attention last year when President Donald Trump retweeted three videos the easily offended took as “inflammatory” posted by Fransen on Twitter.  The page then became infamous for setting off a political firestorm soon after, that many political pundits assumed strained relations between Washington and London.

“We are an open platform for all ideas and political speech goes to the heart of free expression,” the company said on Wednesday. “But political views can and should be expressed without hate.”

This ban also means that the group and its leaders cannot set up Facebook pages in the future. The social media company says it did not take the decision lightly but had to respond to attempts to incite animosity and hatred, mostly against the religion of Islam.  The leaders had posted such things as a comparison of Muslims to animals, and captioned photos with “Islamaphobic and proud,” both of which constitute “hate speech” according to Facebook’s policy.

“Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.” –Potter Stewart

Italy's 5-Star Party Demands Immediate Elections After Failure Of Electoral Reform

Not everyone is satisfied with today"s news that Italy"s early elections will likely be pushed back. Italy"s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement called on Thursday for immediate national elections after the previously reported deal on electoral reform - which would have resulted in the next Italian elections taking place in September, at the same time as Germany"s - among the major parties unraveled.

"There is no chance of starting all over again. The legislature should end here and we should hold immediate elections," said Luigi Di Maio, who is widely expected to be the 5-Star"s candidate for prime minister. He spoke shortly after the lower house voted to send the electoral reform bill back to a cross-party commission for further discussion.

Today"s events have reintroduced confusion about the Italian political timeline: as Reuters adds, upping the pressure for an early election, the parliamentary party leader of the ruling Democratic Party, Ettore Rosato, told reporters he did not know how the coalition government could hold together following the rupture over the voting law.

Also moments ago founder of the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, said in a post on his blog that the Democratic Party now wants to avoid early elections, and regrets that no agreement found on electoral law.

As a reminder, the Five Star (M5S) party has erased the PD"s lead over the past two years, and according to recent polls was neck and neck, if not leading in the polls.

The Ruling Democratic Party and the Anti-Establishment 5 Star Movement Are Polling Neck-and-Neck
Opinion polls on voting intentions at Italy"s general elections

Looking at Italian bonds, there has been a modest reaction to the latest news, although much of that may be a function of the ECB"s "dovish relent" earlier in the day, which has pushed European yields broadly lower.

Drain the Swamp? Not So Fast — Trump Begins to Embrace the Establishment

November 12, 2016   |   Alice Salles

(ANTIMEDIA) On November 8th, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was elected president. To many, the image of an outsider promising to “drain the swamp” was enough to secure him the position.

When he was campaigning, Trump promised to rid Washington D.C. of corrupt politicians and outside interests, evoking the same sentiment President Ronald Reagan did decades ago. One year after taking office, Reagan told Americans it was “hard when you’re up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp.”

Just days after being elected, the Trump team published and distributed a list showcasing the president-elect’s transition team. What many in the media promptly noticed was the presence of certain corporate consultants and lobbyists, begging the question: Is he or is he not going to “drain the swamp?”

Two names that stand out are Michael Catanzaro and Michael Torrey, who are heading the “energy independence” portfolio and the Department of Agriculture, respectively.

Catanzaro, the New York Times reports, is a lobbyist “whose clients include Devon Energy and Encana Oil and Gas,” two companies that “tried to challenge the Obama administration’s environmental and energy policies.” Torrey is also a lobbyist running “a firm that has earned millions of dollars helping food industry players such as the American Beverage Association and the dairy giant Dean Foods.”

Another lobbyist listed as a member of Trump’s transition team is Michael McKenna, whose client, Southern Company, is said to lobby heavily against climate change legislation.

Also on Trump’s list is the chairman of the Washington law firm representing the Association of American Railroads and the National Asphalt Pavement Association, Martin Whitmer, who is set to oversee “transportation and infrastructure.” Other advisers with ties to a variety of industries include David Malpass, the “former chief economist at Bear Stearns, the Wall Street investment bank that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis,” and current president of Encima Global, a firm that provides “independent economic and market research to institutional investors.”

Jeffrey Eisenach, who was picked to help Trump restructure the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s staff, is a telecom industry consultant who helped cellular companies fight FCC-proposed regulations mandating “net neutrality,” a policy that was heavily criticized by former congressman Ron Paul for “stifling competition and promoting favoritism.”

Heading the transition team for the Office of the United States Trade Representative is former chief executive of the steel company Nucor, Dan DiMicco. DiMicco is known for arguing that “China is unfairly subsidizing its manufacturing sector at the expense of American jobs.”

While Trump’s pivot is certainly noteworthy, for all the attention lobbyists and certain consultants on his team received from the media, few publications showed much concern for President Obama’s 2008 transition team.

President-Elect Obama filled his team with “more than a dozen [individuals who had] … worked as federally registered lobbyists.”

One of Obama’s transition board members was Mark Gitenstein, a lobbyist who “worked on million-dollar lobbying contracts with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and promoted legislation for giant defense contractors Boeing and General Dynamics.” Before the election, however, candidate Obama had promised to put an end to the “K Street lobbying culture he encountered when he joined the U.S. Senate.”

Despite the names with ties to private industries on Trump’s team, the New York Times adds, a “number of the people on that list are well-established experts with no clear interest in helping private-sector clients,” suggesting that most members of Trump’s transitional team aren’t beholden to private special interests.

Regardless of the team’s lack of private ties, some are veterans from other administrations, such as former Bush administration official and lobbyist Christine Ciccone and former Reagan Attorney General and Heritage fellow Edwin Meese. Others include former president of the Heritage Foundation Edwin Feulner, former Senate Budget Committee staffer Eric Ueland, former Rep. Mike Rogers, and Sen. Jeff Sessions’ former chief of staff, Rick Dearborn.

The team is headed by Vice President-Elect Mike Pence with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie serving as the vice chairman of the transition team’s executive committee, a change adopted recently by the Trump team. Others serving on the Trump executive committee include Dr. Ben Carson, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Sessions, and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who once admitted the rise of the Islamic State was “a willful decision” of the Barack Obama administration. He has also criticized drone warfare and torture.

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