New Zealand's deputy PM had the perfect comeback when confronted by American conspiracy theorist

Posted by Iana Murray in news

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New Zealand's deputy prime minister Winston Peters has no time for Covid denial, or Flat Earthers for that matter.
At a re-election campaign meeting in Tarunga, the leader of the New Zealand First party was confronted by a conspiracy theorist with an accent that sounded very American.

The incident was captured on video, as the sceptic asked the deputy prime minister to provide evidence that “there is a virus that causes the disease.”

Before he could even finish the question, Peters cut him off and proceeded to show him the science:

We’ve got someone who obviously got an education in America. 220,000 people have died in the United States, there are 8 million cases to date. We’ve got 79,000 cases probably today in India, and here is someone who gets up and says, “the Earth is flat.” Sorry sunshine, wrong place.

Just a reminder: New Zealand currently has zero cases. So Peters and recently re-elected Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are obviously doing something right.

People were a fan of the deputy PM’s brutal takedown.

Some Americans were also met with a wake-up call as to how the country is seen by the rest of the world.

Rex Chapman

@RexChapman

New Zealand: Winston Peters — deputy PM of New Zealand addresses an American COVID-19 denier at a press conference. “Sit down. Sorry sunshine, wrong place.”

3:24 PM · Oct 16, 2020

23

See the latest COVID-19 information on Twitter

Perhaps the lesson we can take from this is to be more like New Zealand, less like the US. Also, Winston Peters has some zingers.

Pro-Trump televangelist predicts that president will win the election and the world will end

Posted by Joshua Zitser in offbeat

Getty Images

A famous televangelist has claimed God told him who will win the November presidential election and about the chaos that will ensue afterwards.

Pat Robertson, who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, told viewers of his show The 700 Club: “First of all, I want to say without question, Trump is going to win the election.”

Trump is currently down about nine points in the national polls but, according to election forecasters 538, still has about a 12 per cent chance of winning the election.

Robertson has defended the president in the past and has previously made dark predictions

Things got gloomier after this initial prediction thought.

Robertson said: “What I think very frankly is the only thing that will fulfil the word of Jesus … is some kind of asteroid strike on the globe.”

He continued: “It’s sudden destruction. It’s not going to be some nuclear war. We’re not going to be allowed to blow this earth up.”

Robertson predicted that more than five years will pass between the election and the destruction of the earth by an asteroid.

In the meantime, he argued, there will be civil disobedience, riots and two assassination attempts on Trump.

To top things off, he also prophesied that there will be a war on Israel which will only end when God intervenes.

Robertson has previously made prophecies which have proven to be totally wrong. He predicted the world would end in 1982 and also in 2007.

Evidently, it did not.

Why did conspiracy theorists believe that JFK Jr was going to become Trump's new running mate?
Posted 1 day ago by Greg Evans in news

Picture: STF/AFP via Getty Images/MANDEL NGAN/AFP

Over the weekend, followers of the baseless pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory were bracing themselves for a major announcement from the president that could have changed the trajectory of the US election.

Images began circulating on Twitter from QAnon accounts that the president was going to sensationally announce at a rally in Dallas, Texas on Saturday that he was replacing Mike Pence as his running mate with John F. Kennedy Jr.

There are several problems here.

Firstly, Trump didn't hold a rally in Dallas on Saturday. He was actually at a rally in Janesville, Wisconsin instead.

Secondly, it would be against the law to announce a new running mate in the election as millions have already cast their votes.

Finally – and this is the biggest problem of them all – JFK Jr has been dead since 1999. The son of the former president died in a tragic plane crash on 16 July.

Kennedy was flying the light aircraft which crashed into the Atlantic ocean, a tragic accident which also claimed the lives of his wife Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette.

Obviously, JFK Jr wasn't announced as Trump's new choice for vice president because that would have been impossible but QAnon followers seem determined to believe this otherwise ludicrous theory. There are even pieces of merchandise that have been created for the very unlikely Trump Kennedy partnership.

So where does this bizarre theory come from?

Well, according to Rolling Stone this conspiracy first started to do the rounds in June 2018.

Apparently, posts began appearing on the notorious 8Chan messageboard suggesting that JFK Jr had faked his death and had gone into hiding over fears that he was going to be targetted by the same deep-state conspiracy that QAnon believes has also been targetting Trump since he moved into politics.

The theory reportedly picked up momentum when the right-wing commentator and conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin told YouTuber Jenny Moonstone that she believed that the person behind Q was actually JFK Jr because of how lovingly they spoke of the former president. Rolling Stone quotes her as saying:

The way that Q talks about JFK Sr. in the posts, it is with such love and passion, it makes me think that it is someone that is close to him. If JFK Jr. faked his death and was alive, it would make sense that he was Q.

Daily Dot also reported in April 2019 that QAnon believers had tried to link JFK Jr's death to the start of Hillary Clinton's political career as she had run for the New York senate seat that he was allegedly running for, despite never announcing his intention to run for office during his lifetime.

Another claim trying to link JFK Jr to Trump is a quote from supposedly from the June 1999 edition of George magazine, a publication that Kennedy Jr was the editor-in-chief of. The quote, which is said to be from Kennedy Jr says:

If my dear friend Donald Trump ever decided to sacrifice his fabulous billionaire lifestyle to become president he would be an unstoppable force for ultimate justice that Democrats and Republicans alike would celebrate.

The fact-checking website Snopes has completely debunked this quote as not only did JFK Jr never say this, it was also never printed in the magazine.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that Trump and JFK Jr were friends. There are photos of the two together which QAnon have used for their memes but they look to be from Trump's time as a New York socialite when he pretty much ran into anybody.

Another bizarre link to JFK Jr is a well known Trump supporter called Vicent Fusca who has been frequently spotted at Trump rallies. Despite having zero resemblance to Kennedy Jr, QAnon followers have been claiming that Fusca is Kennedy in disguise and has used plastic surgery to alter his appearance.

It can't be said how many members of the QAnon community believe in this conspiracy but they have twice suggested, prior to last weekend, that Kennedy was going to come out of hiding and side with Trump.

At Trump's 4 July celebration in 2019, they believed that JFK Jr was going to make it public that he was still alive. They had also looked very deeply into the 55th anniversary of the assassination of JFK and claimed that JFK Jr would reemerge on 22 November 2019 and 'usher in the storm' and help Donald Trump rid the world of the global Satanic paedophile rings that QAnon is so firmly against.

Not even a smidgen of this has ever happened and it appears to be another prime example of a conspiracy getting way out of hand and people wanting to believe something that clearly isn't true.

That being said, although it's unlikely that Trump believes in the JFK Jr theory, he has refused to disavow himself from the community. During a recent town hall event on NBC, Trump claimed to not know anything about the conspiracy before he started to praise them, saying:

I do know they are very much against paedophilia. They fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it … I just don’t know about QAnon.

Whether this theory continues to gather pace remains to be seen and with just a few weeks to go until the US election it will be interesting to see what the future of this wild conspiracy theory and its followers will be.

A scientist has a disturbing theory for why we haven't met aliens yet
Posted  by Louis Staples in discover
UPV



Right now, you'd understand if aliens didn't want to pay Earth a visit, what with the potentially deadly Covid-19 pandemic and all.

But earlier this year, after 16 years of secrecy, the Pentagon has released footage of UFOs which has made many ask, for the zillionth time: are we really alone in the universe? Or are aliens already among us?

For years, these questions have divided scientists, sci-fi fans and conspiracy theorists. Although many explanations have been put forward for why we haven’t met aliens yet, none have been completely convincing or universally accepted.

In short, in a world where we're obsessed with discovering every little thing, this is one big question we don't really know

But two years ago, when the world seemed like a very different place, Russian physicist Alexander Berezin, from the National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET), had a theory. He suggested that once a civilisation reaches the capabilities of spreading across the stars, it will inevitably wipe out all other civilisations.

Just what we need to hear.

The grim solution doesn’t hypothesise a necessarily evil alien race (phew!) it's more that they might not notice us and their exponential expansion across the galaxy might be more important to them than we are. Cheery indeed

He wrote in 2018:

They simply won't notice, the same way a construction crew demolishes an anthill to build real estate because they lack incentive to protect it.

So why haven't we met them yet and been obliterated?

Well, it's not all bad news, sort of. Berezin suggests that the reason humans are still here is that we are not likely to be the ants. In other words, we are the future destroyers of countless civilisations and we're just not ready yet.

Assuming the hypothesis above is correct, what does it mean for our future? The only explanation is the invocation of the anthropic principle. We are the first to arrive at the [interstellar] stage. And, most likely, will be the last to leave.

He cites colonialism and capitalism are two historical example of the forces that will eventually prompt humans to destroy other cultures.

Berezin hopes that he’s wrong and, to be honest, so do we.

So yeah, it seems like things could always be worse. If this theory is true, let's hope that aliens steer clear of us for a little (a lot) longer and that it's a very, very, very long time before we consider becomes the aliens who destroy other places.

HT: IFLScience

Iceland PM shook by an earthquake in a live interview responds in the best possible way
Posted  by Isobel van Hagen 

Getty

The prime minister of Iceland appeared shaken, literally, when she was interrupted by an earthquake during a live interview.

Katrin Jakobsdottir was discussing the impact of coronavirus on tourism with the Washington Post when the room she was in started to visibly shake. While she initially appeared startled, she managed to brush it aside and finish answering the question

"Oh my god, there's an earthquake," she said with her eyes widening. "Sorry, there was an earthquake right now. Wow."

But Jakobsdottir then started laughing, saying: "Well, this is Iceland!" before continuing her response to the question

"Yes I'm perfectly fine, the house is still strong, so no worries," she added.

She later posted on Twitter about the interview: “Spoke with @IgnatiusPost about Covid-19 and how we are dealing with the situation here in Iceland. We also spoke about the heart and soul of the Icelandic people. And then we had an earthquake. I hope everyone is feeling good and steady.”

Jakobsdottir, 44, has been Iceland's Prime Minister since 2017.

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday afternoon near Krysuvik, about 35km south of the capital, Reykjavik, according to The Icelandic Meteorological Office.

While earthquakes are quite common on the volcanic island country, the tremble led to reports of damage around the capital and also briefly interrupted a parliamentary session in the capital.

Bjarni Benediktsson

@Bjarni_Ben

Þetta var stærsti skjálfti sem ég hef upplifað (reyndar misst af allnokkrum).

7:46 AM · Oct 20, 2020

149

See Bjarni Benediktsson’s other Tweets

“The was the biggest earthquake I have ever experienced,” Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson wrote on Twitter, next to a picture of a fallen ceiling tile.

People on social media seemed taken with Jakobsdottir calm control of the situation saying, “you handled it like a champ” and “seriously impressive”.

As one Twitter user put it, “Never a dull moment in Iceland!”

An earthquake in Iceland briefly disrupted an interview between Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius and Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir

5:10 PM · Oct 20, 2020

Trump has a Chinese bank account and pursued China projects, analysis of his tax record reveals

Trump did not include the Chinese bank account in his public financial disclosures

Stuti Mishra@StuteeMishra
  

File image: Analysis of Trump's tax records reveal attempts at getting business deals in China and a 'secret' bank account

Donald Trump maintains a previously undeclared Chinese bank account and has been unsuccessfully pursuing major business deals in China for more than a decade, according to a new US media report.

The president did not include the Chinese account in public financial disclosures, according to the New York Times, which has released a series of analyses of Mr Trump’s tax records since reporting that he has paid just $750 in income tax in some recent fiscal years.

According to the NYT report, the Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management and paid $188,561 in taxes in the country from 2013 to 2015.

Tax records do not apparently shed light on the exact amounts of money involved in the deals made through this account. But it is mandatory in the US to reveal any foreign income while filing for taxes, and Trump International Hotels Management has reported only a few thousand dollars from China in recent years.

The exposé comes in the final stages of a heated battle for the 3 November presidential election.

Recently, allegations from Senate Republicans against Democrat Joe Biden have included claims that his son “opened a bank account” with a Chinese businessman, hinting that he has vested interests in China. Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that his opponent would be “soft” on the Asian superpower.

Trump Organisation lawyer Alan Garten told the Times that Mr Trump’s company does indeed maintain a bank account in China, but refused to name the bank in question. In a statement, he said Trump International Hotels "opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States to pay the local taxes".

Garten said the company had opened the account once an office was opened in China "to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia".

“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialised and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said.

He added: “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”

Billionaire Trump Megadonors Behind Group That Promoted Scott Atlas as an Anti-Fauci

It's the same group that promoted hydroxychloroquine to the president in March.

PUBLISHED ON OCT 20, 2020
Donald Shaw@donnydonny
Money-in-politics reporter. Co-founder of Sludge.See more
EDITED BY DAVID MOORE

Dr. Scott Atlas, advisor to President Donald Trump delivers an update on the nations coronavirus testing strategy in the Rose Garden of the White House on September 28, 2020 in Washington, DC.TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES

One of the first groups to promote the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to President Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 was also an early booster of Scott Atlas, the radiologist Trump has selected as a coronavirus adviser to push back against Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.

The Job Creators Network (JCN), a right-wing “dark money” nonprofit founded by Trump megadonor Bernie Marcus, bought a full-page Wall Street Journal ad in May attacking Fauci and calling for a “second opinion” on whether businesses should temporarily close to limit the spread of the virus. The ad promotes the views of Atlas, prominently quoting him on his belief that businesses should reopen.

Excerpt from JCN’s full-page Wall Street Journal ad from May that promotes Scott Atlas’ views in favor of swift reopening as a “second opinion” to information communicated by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci

Atlas was selected by Trump as a science adviser in August after the president asked his advisers to “find a new doctor who would argue an alternative point of view from Birx and Fauci, with whom the president has grown increasingly annoyed for public comments that he believes contradict his own assertions that the virus’s threat is receding,” according to the Washington Post.

Atlas, who is not an epidemiologist, has repeatedly promoted a “herd immunity” strategy based around limiting social distancing and allowing millions more people to become infected with the virus. He has also spoken out against the wearing of masks and recently had an anti-mask tweet censored because Twitter determined it to be in violation of its COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy.

Trump seems to listen to advice from JCN, which is closely tied to multiple billionaire megadonors to his campaigns and other Republican political groups. In late March, the group launched a multi-faceted campaign calling on Trump to make a then-obscure drug, hydroxychloroquine, available to treat COVID-19 patients. Trump went on to repeatedly promote the drug on Twitter and on TV for several months, despite a lack of scientific evidence that it was effective.

Sludge is reader-supported and ad-free. If you appreciate our independent journalism, Become a member today. 🙏


The Mercer family, who were top donors to Trump’s 2016 campaign, are major donors to JCN, with their Mercer Family Foundation giving the group multiple $100,000 donations in recent years, according to an analysis of tax documents by LittleSis. Rebekah Mercer’s “Making America Great” nonprofit donated more than $1 million to JCN in 2018, according to the group’s 990 filing. Robert Mercer donated $400,000 to pro-Trump super PAC the Great America PAC in 2018, and he gave $355,200 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee earlier this year.

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus is the founder of JCN. Marcus is a major GOP donor who spent more than $7 million through outside groups to help elect Trump in 2016. In the current cycle, Marcus has donated $5 million to pro-Trump super PAC the Preserve America PAC, $100,000 to American Principles Project PAC, which is running ads against Biden, and hundreds of millions more to super PACs backing Republican congressional candidates.

JCN board member Andrew Puzder, who was Trump’s nominee for labor secretary in 2017, has donated $125,000 to Trump Victory, $79,000 to the RNC, and tens of thousands more to Republican groups and candidates since 2016, according to Federal Election Commission data.

The Koch brothers-founded political nonprofit Americans for Prosperity is a partner of JCN, as is LIBRE Initiative, another Koch-backed group. Another Koch-backed group, Generation Opportunity, which is now part of Americans for Prosperity, is listed as a partner to JCN’s affiliated foundation. The Koch network of political groups has stayed mostly on the sidelines of the presidential contest this year, but Americans for Prosperity has spent $31 million this cycle to boost Republican candidates for the Senate and House.

Billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz, who has donated more than $1 million to Republican Party groups and GOP campaigns since 2016, has given JCN at least $300,000 through The Anschutz Foundation, according to tax records.

By promoting doctors who express alternative views from most epidemiological experts and miracle cures with no medical backing, JCN sows confusion around COVID in a way that could make the Trump administration’s response to the crisis look less like a clear failure. JCN’s billionaire donors stand to benefit immensely from preventing Democrats from taking over the Senate and the White House, who may attempt to roll back parts of the 2017 tax law that disproportionately benefits the ultra-rich.

Voters, Assemble!
Kamala Harris compares Trump to Thanos in a Zoom reunion with the Avengers



"He held the fate of the universe in his hand, and right now we're looking at someone who is denying science."

Dais Johnston

Marvel's movie schedule has been plunged into darkness by the coronavirus pandemic, but on October 20, the Avengers reunited to take on a villain more dangerous than Thanos: President Trump.

During a Zoom-based reunion fundraiser for the Joe Biden campaign attended by various Marvel actors, directors Joe and Antony Russo, and Senator Kamala Harris, the Vice Presidential nominee did not mince words about the country's current situation, at one point comparing Trump to the purple Avengers supervillain.

During the Biden campaign's Voters Assemble fundraiser livestream, Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo introduced a whole slew of actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a roundtable video chat. Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Zoe Saldana, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, and (briefly) Robert Downey Jr. all joined the call, answered questions from fans, and shared their personal voting plans.

The highlight of the call, however, was when Senator and Marvel superfan Kamala Harris jumped in to explain why the concept of superheroes is so important in today's political climate.




"Let's think about the Avengers in the context of this election," she said. "There is something about the values of the Avengers that reflect the core values of who we are as Americans.

"Honor and decency matter. They matter whether you are saving the universe from Thanos or fighting for the soul of our nation." Harris also spoke on the importance of courage and working as a team in order to defend the values that they all share, and how she's seeing that in the voters "suiting up" in order to have their voice heard. "It's the true sign of patriotism, Captain America," she said, addressing Chris Evans.

"I often talk to my team about the Avengers, how everyone brings their own power and are appreciated for that, and all those superpowers come together to deal Thanos." She started laughing as she made the comparison. "I just think there is such symmetry around that in this moment. He held the fate of the universe in his hand, and right now we're looking at someone who is denying science."

It doesn't take Bruce Banner's seven PhDs to figure out who Kamala is referring to. The comparison between Trump and Thanos is not new, and in fact, was used by the President's own team in a baffling ad from the @TrumpWarRoom Twitter account late last year.


A still from the video editing Trump's head onto Thanos, declaring re-election "inevitable." Twitter.com

Aside from addressing the comparison between the "villains" we and the Avengers face, Kamala also shared fond memories of her fellow Howard University alum Chadwick Boseman and displayed an impressive show of Marvel know-how during a friendly round of Avengers trivia.

He may not be an intergalactic genocidal warlord, but if President Trump poses a threat to American values to assemble so many superheroes even just over Zoom, the assembled voice of the American people will make itself heard in two weeks.

In the words of Sen. Harris, "if the Avengers can assemble from across the galaxy, the American people can get together from wherever we are, whoever we voted for in the last election, whatever language our grandmother spoke, and come together to get our country on the right track."

‘The Daily Show With Trevor Noah’ Sheds Light On #EndSARS Movement In Nigeria, Draws Comparisons To Protests In America

By Alexandra Del Rosario
Associate Editor/Nights & Weekends DEADLINE

October 20, 2020 

As calls to abolish the anti-robbery force known as SARS grow in Nigeria, protests against law enforcement show that police brutality isn’t solely an American issue, Trevor Noah said on Tuesday. The Daily Show host used his “If You Don’t Know Now You Know” segment to educate viewers on the push for social justice in Nigeria and why #EndSARS has gained the social media support of Kanye West, Rihanna, Hillary Clinton, NeNe Leakes and more.

“This issue isn’t just unique in the U.S. Whether it’s U.S. police targeting Black Americans or Nigerian police targeting other Nigerians, police know they can abuse their power without any ramifications because the people they arrest don’t have the power to respond,” Noah said.

He joked that the Nigerian movement is a monumental one considering that “the only time Nigerians get united is if their team’s playing the World Cup or they’re shitting on other countries.” The host explained that the anti-robbery force has been targeting a range of Nigerians, mostly those who dress fancily or own luxury items.

The random and sporadic targeting, isn’t just but it also isn’t unique as police officers in America continue to racially profile and Black Americans, a number of whom become victims of police brutality or are wrongfully charged.

Noah used the segment to draw parallels between the anti-police brutality protests in American and Nigeria, and even compared how law officials and politicians has responded to the demonstrations.

“It’s amazing how around the world, ‘law and order’ seems to be code for beat the shit out of these protestors,” he said, referring to Trump’s response to the Black Lives Matter protestors.

Watch the full The Daily Show segment