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Lauren Boebert Apologizes After Theater Surveillance Video Shows Her Vaping and Getting Frisky With Her Date Before Being Kicked Out of Beetlejuice Performance | The Gateway Pundit

Sep 16, 2023 Survive the News 0 Comments

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) issued an apology Friday after new surveillance video was posted online Thursday night that showed Boebert vaping and engaging in heavy petting with her date, reportedly…

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Just when you may have thought things couldn’t get any crazier: American playwright and humorist C.J. Hopkins, profiled in this space on numerous occasions, has been sent a “punishment order” by a German judge, offering him a Sophie’s Choice of 60 days in jail or 3,600 euros. (Article by Matt Taibbi republished from Racket.news) His crime? Essentially, insulting the German health minister in a tweet, and using a scarcely-visible image of a Swastika on a mask in a book critical of the global pandemic response, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. He was first accused of this “crime” in June, shortly after Roger Waters was placed under investigation for wearing his clearly satirical “Pink” costume in a stage performance in Berlin. As I wrote when C.J. was charged weeks later, authorities claim that through the use of the mask image, C.J. was “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” The judge in C.J.’s case has already heard free-speech argumentation from his lawyer, and this technically being a non-jury misdemeanor offense, has already ruled against those arguments. C.J. will apparently have a chance to argue for mitigation, but the decree has already been handed down: The “Punishment Order” for C.J. Hopkins Here is the would-be offending image: As noted previously, here are some images currently on sale in Germany that have not been made the subjects of hate speech prosecutions: No amount of drugs exist that if consumed would allow a rational person to conclude that the writing of C.J. Hopkins furthers “the aims of a former National Socialist Organization.” Agree with him or not, and I increasingly do, he used his imagery to compare the sweeping declarations of emergency power that were common around the world during the pandemic (and were particularly authoritarian in Germany) to Nazi tactics. He compared, for instance, the 2020 “Infection Protection Act” to the “Enabling Act of 1933,” which announced that to “remedy the distress of the people,” the “laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution.” C.J.’s real offense seems to be a response to a tweet by Die Welt, quoting German health minister Karl Lauterbach. Portrayed in full Sprockets-style smart-glasses glory, Lauterbach is shown saying, “The masks always send out a signal”: C.J. retweeted the quote, adding the image from his book cover. That’s it, that’s the offense. No matter how you feel about that exchange, that is not “intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” That is using the negative connotations of Nazism to criticize a currently serving government official. I defy any American reporter to justify incarceration for this type of criticism of a still-serving politician. We’d have to build a separate Supermax just for people who used Hitler analogies during the Trump years, or published gleeful headlines like, “Lawsuit Reveals Trump Can’t Stand Being Compared to Hitler.” The use of speech laws in this way recalls the way drug laws are applied in the U.S. We let stockbrokers blow as much coke as they want, out of the navels of exotic dancers if they like, but make possession a real crime in other contexts, effectively giving authorities a way to use an “offense” committed by many to selectively criminalize membership in certain groups, residency in certain neighborhoods, etc. As C.J. points out, the real problem is not so much with his case (although he’s certainly worried), but the now-open way in which such laws are being applied, from the prosecution of Julian Assange to the suppression of Covid speech and even the extra counts addressing “false statements” in tweets by Donald Trump. We’ve already decided that Racket will help with C.J.’s fine if and when this matter is finally adjudicated, and we’ll keep you updated on the progress of the case, and on the progress of the many laws being considered to allow more prosecutions of this type in more parts of the world. Until then, some words from C.J., whom I reached this morning: Matt Taibbi: What the fuck? C.J. Hopkins: I’m relatively okay in that I just got the latest update from my lawyer yesterday, I guess. Matt Taibbi: This is the same case? I’m not confusing this with something else? C.J. Hopkins: You’re not. It’s the same case. It’s the weirdest thing. I’m just drafting a new thing about it. I think I wrote you, described the process a little bit, but yeah, this is just the next stage of the same case. Matt Taibbi: So this essentially is about the use of the image on the cover, right? C.J. Hopkins: It’s about the tweet… It’s the cover art from the book and it’s me going after the mask thing, like the one tweet I think, not exactly verbatim but pretty close, says the masks are nothing but ideological conformity symbols, and that’s all they’ve ever been. Stop pretending like they’re anything else or get used to wearing them. That’s one tweet. Then the other tweet was going after Karl Lauterbach, our health minister here. He tweeted his own tweet and his quote was, “The masks always send out a signal,” and so I just quoted it back to him and stuck the image from the book on the front as well. That’s it. It’s basically, I insulted the health minister of Germany and put a picture of a barely visible swastika online. Matt Taibbi: You need an electron microscope to see it! C.J. Hopkins: I’ve said it, I don’t know how many fucking times, it’s not illegal. Yes, if you’re a Nazi, it’s illegal to spread swastikas around in Germany. But if you’re doing art, if you’re commenting on history, if you’re selling a book, there are a whole slew of reasons for exceptions where people can and do use swastikas, which you put in your piece, you put examples of the book covers. My lawyer has made all these arguments to the prosecutor. Matt Taibbi: And those arguments were rejected? C.J. Hopkins: Not even addressed, really. It’s just we had a chance to respond first and then we asked them for the tweets. That’s when we got the tweets. Then my lawyer wrote an even longer and more detailed response citing the terms of law and explaining who I am and my whole history of published work that anybody could fucking look at and figure out who I am, and what my intentions are. And nothing. The next thing we got was called an Order of Punishment. Matt Taibbi: Oh, my goodness. C.J. Hopkins: We got it yesterday. Basically, the story is this judge has already decided what my punishment is, which is either 3,600 euros or 60 days in jail. It’s so fucking Kafka-esque. So now the next step is that we go to “trial.” We go to trial where my lawyer will argue the exact same stuff that he’s already argued in written pleadings. He’ll argue that before the same judge that has already found me guilty and handed down this Order of Punishment. Matt Taibbi: So this is sort of analogous to the process of being sentenced in the United States and asking for mitigation in sentencing? C.J. Hopkins: I guess. I mean, I’m used to a trial where you go and you argue first and then they find you guilty. I guess the written argument was that was sufficient and so now I’m guilty. And yeah, I think that’s it. Because my lawyer is also talking about just getting the fine reduced. Matt Taibbi: Is it going to affect your immigration status or your ability to live there? C.J. Hopkins: I’m going to be a convicted fucking criminal, a hate criminal. I don’t think it can affect my ability to live here. I’ve got a permanent residence visa. Not that I want to stay. I spent the better part of yesterday standing on a bridge with my wife, talking about when and how I’m going to get the hell out of here. I don’t know, Matt, I don’t think that it can affect my residency status. I’ve got permanent residency. Who knows? Who knows at this point? Matt Taibbi: Has there been any interest from media there or here? C.J. Hopkins: Not major media… There’s a German journalist, Dirk Pohlmann, who was in the mainstream media here for many, many years. He runs his own independent thing now, and wrote up a piece on it. There’s another independent German journalist who writes for a mainstream Swiss paper. He lives in Switzerland. He wrote up something just on his Substack. It didn’t appear in his paper. I was grateful as hell for Europeans, because I didn’t expect a ton of stuff from the US. I thought that I might get some action here in Germany and it’s killing me. This country is fucking breaking my heart. Matt Taibbi: Absent some kind of mitigation, you’re going to have to make a decision about paying or serving. Are you thinking about doing the time? C.J. Hopkins: No. I thought about it originally and I thought, okay, I’ll make a statement. I’m going to be 62 years old in a couple of days. Life is too short to spend two months in an extremely overcrowded jail in Berlin. Let me say one more thing before you go. My case is my case, but really the story here is this is happening all over. This is just this naked crushing of dissent and opposition. Look at what they’re doing to Trump in the States. Look at what they’re doing to Assange, to people much bigger than me. I think that’s the real story here, just this naked crushing of dissent and opposition. Matt Taibbi: We’ll obviously want to keep tabs on your situation. Good luck and sorry you’re going through this. Hang in there. C.J. Hopkins: Thanks. Read more at: Racket.news

Aug 24, 2023 Survive the News 0 Comments

Madness: American satirist C.J. Hopkins sentenced in German speech case Just when you may have thought things couldn’t get any crazier: American playwright and humorist C.J. Hopkins, profiled in this…

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Data coming out of Europe shows that business activity this month has contracted to its lowest level since November 2020. In the Eurozone – the parts of the continent that currently use the euro as its main legal currency – the HCOB Flash Eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 47.0 in August from 48.6 in July, its weakest level in 33 months. A PMI is a comprehensive index attempting to measure the prevailing direction of economic trends in certain economic sectors. The quoted flash composite PMI is focused on the eurozone’s manufacturing and services sectors. (Related: Conservative German party brands EU a “failed project,” calls for its complete overhaul as a federation of autonomous nations.) A reading of 50 or above would have marked an expansion in economic activity, while a reading below last month’s 48.6 would have signaled a contraction in the continent’s economy. Some economists were hoping for a very modest increase to 48.8 for August. The recent PMI would be the lowest reading since April 2013 if the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic months were excluded. Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist for the Hamburg Commercial Bank in northern Germany, said the eurozone’s service sector is “unfortunately showing signs of turning down to match the poor performance of manufacturing.” The services PMI dropped to a 30-month low at 48.3, while the manufacturing PMI only rose slightly from 42.7 in July to 43.7 in August – nowhere near enough to prevent the eurozone from entering a recession. “Considering the PMI figures in our GDP [growth] nowcast leads us to the conclusion that the eurozone will shrink by 0.2 percent in the third quarter,” predicted de la Rubia. “The downward pressure on the economy of the eurozone in August stems mainly from the German service sector, which switched from growth to contraction at an unusual pace,” de la Rubia added, noting that reduced output in German manufacturing also added to arguments that the country is becoming “the sick man of Europe.” Euro, British pound falling in value Following the release of the eurozone composite PMI, the euro responded by losing approximately 0.3 percent of its value compared to the United States dollar, trading at a low of $1.0809. Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom pound similarly experienced a dip, falling by 0.8 percent in value to $1.2636. These values represent a more than one-month low for the euro and a two-month low for the pound. Furthermore, the worse-than-expected readings have made financial analysts predict that both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) may respond with less aggressive interest rate increases. “The continuing sharp drop in the PMI data will test the ECB’s growth optimism,” said Mark Wall, chief European economist at Deutsche Bank. “Ongoing manufacturing weakness might be more than just cyclical. It could reveal a more persistent and structural competitive shock.” “The weakening in services might reveal that monetary transmission is stronger than the hawks were expecting,” he continued. “We are expecting the ECB to pause [rate increases] in September, but it is not clear that inflation is where the ECB wants it yet. A pause should not be misinterpreted as the peak.” Back in July, ECB President Christine Lagarde herself noted that, for August, the central bank would either raise rates or pause rate hikes. No discussions were done considering decreasing interest rates. “We continue to expect services inflation to ease enough over the coming months to convince the ECB to not hike past September,” said Melanie Debono, senior Europe economist for economic research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Stagnating employment combined with decreasing production and results therefore in lower output per head,” said de la Rubia. “As a result, the ECB may be more reluctant to pause the hiking cycle in September.” Current predictions suggest that ECB rates will remain unchanged next month at 3.75 percent. Learn more about the rapidly deteriorating state of the global economy at EconomicRiot.com. Watch this video discussing how at least four European countries – Estonia, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands – are already in a recession and at least 24 more are on the verge of it. This video is from the channel MEGA (Make Earth Great Again) on Brighteon.com. More related stories: The international monetary system will COLLAPSE, warns James Rickards – it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. Bond investors warn: Brace for INEVITABLE RECESSION caused by Fed’s continued RATE HIKES. Calm before the storm: Financial experts warn current market calm is a sign of impending recession. Germany falls into RECESSION amid high energy prices and drop in consumer spending. Europe has spent hundreds of billions in energy subsidies to shield citizens from EU-caused energy crisis. Sources include: CNBC.com Barrons.com MarketWatch.com Investopedia.com Brighteon.com

Aug 24, 2023 Survive the News 0 Comments

IMPLOSION: Latest data shows Europe’s economy has contracted to its lowest activity level since first year of pandemic Data coming out of Europe shows that business activity this month has contracted…

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J6 Defendant Taylor Taranto’s Claims About Ashli Babbitt’s ‘Puppet Performance’ Ignites Violence In DC Gulag: ‘He May Be Put Here For Some Nefarious Reason …To Do Whatever He Was Sent Here To Do’

Jul 12, 2023 Survive the News 0 Comments

J6 defendants detained in the “patriot pod” of the District of Columbia Central Detention Facility called The Gateway Pundit to address “false narratives” surrounding their contention with Taylor Taranto, a…

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Excerpt From Kari Lake’s “Unafraid” Reveals That Former AZ Secretary of State Jan Brewer Was “100% Sure” She Would Win the Governor’s Race in 2010 Despite Horrible Debate Performance – Is This Why Katie Hobbs Didn’t Debate?

Jul 7, 2023 Survive the News 0 Comments

Katie Hobbs Kari Lake’s first-ever book, “Unafraid,” reveals the shocking things she learned about Arizona’s political establishment while campaigning for Governor in 2022. Order “Unafraid” by Kari Lake today here! Get Awesome…

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