Kanye West to buy struggling right-wing social media platform after getting suspended for anti-Semitic rants
- Updated on: 2024-01-23
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Kanye West to buy struggling right-wing social media platform after getting suspended for anti-Semitic rants
Brad Reed
October 17, 2022
US rapper Kanye West (C), attends a fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week, in Paris, on October 2, 2022. (JULIEN DE ROSA AFP/File)
Trump-supporting rapper Kanye West has come up with a solution to his recent suspensions from both Twitter and Instagram.
In a press release issued Monday morning , Parler announced that West would be acquiring the company for an undisclosed sum.
In justifying his purchase of Parler, West said that his goal was to defend conservatives' "free speech" rights from the tyranny of big tech.
"In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves," he said.
READ MORE: New York AG's Trump case reveals he had a huge breakup with one of the last banks that'll work with him
In fact, West got suspended from Twitter and Instagram not for posting any traditionally "conservative" opinion, but for posting anti-Semitic rants targeting the Jewish community.
"I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE," West wrote in one post. "The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda."
Parler is one of many right-wing social media apps intended to be a counter to Twitter, although so far it has failed to gain significant market success.
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Stories Chosen For You
Agence France-Presse
October 17, 2022
Banana growers on the edge of a giant national park on Cameroon's Atlantic coast say they can take no more crop destruction from hungry elephants as the conflict between man and animal escalates.
Near the southern border with Equatorial Guinea, eight villages have registered complaints with the Campo Ma'an national park, a vast area of virgin forest from where the animals emerge.
An estimated 500 gorillas and more than 200 elephants -- both endangered species -- roam the reserve's 264,000 hectares (652,000 acres).
A week after elephants flattened his banana plantation close by the park, Simplice Yomen, 47, is struggling to cope.
"We are at the end of our tether," he sighs.
The elephants eat the new growth inside the banana tree trunks after splitting them open.
Manioc, maize, sweet potato and peanuts are also favourite snacks, says park administrator Michel Nko'o.
In Cameroon, co-existence between humans and animals on the edge of dense forests is proving increasingly challenging.
Most of the crop destruction is recorded near protected wildlife reserves.
For Nko'o, the elephant raids have become noticeably more frequent since agro-industrialists began setting up by the park.
More 2,000 hectares of forest has been chopped down to grow palm oil trees for Cameroun Vert, an industrial plantation project for which the government first approved a clearing of 60,000 hectares before reducing it to 39,000 hectares after protests.
"The elephants who lived here no longer have any place to go and end up in people's fields," regrets park conservationist Charles Memvi.
'Discouraging'
Affected villages near the town of Campo have seen "three to four hectares of plantations destroyed, which is a major financial loss for the local people", says Nko'o.
Elephants are blamed for 80-90 percent of the attacks.
The rest is accounted for by gorillas, chimpanzees, hedgehogs, pangolins and porcupines.
Nearly all these species are endangered due to habitat loss and/or poaching.
Daniel Mengata's two hectares of banana trees were "devastated" in 2020.
"The animals really are discouraging us," the 37-year-old admitted.
"I started crying after seeing the damage because in one night a year's work was wiped out. That really hurts."
"I can no longer feed my family," adds Emini Ngono, 57. Hungry elephants have ruined her smallholding, which once produced gourds, manioc and potato.
Ngono says she could make more than 1,000 euros ($970) from selling seeds for gourds, a traditional stable food across the region.
Reconciliation
Not far off, logs of wood extracted from the forest are piling up.
The high-pitched noise from a saw masks the birdsong as a group of trackers set off looking for rare gorillas.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched a "primate habituation" project a decade ago focused on gorillas in a bid to develop ecotourism in the area.
Part of the income was to go to local communities to encourage them to help protect the animals and reduce the conflict with humans.
Chimene Mando'o is out tracking primates.
"There! That's Akiba", the 25-year-old cries after the gorilla calls out.
Shortly after, Akiba -- meaning "thank you" in the local Mvae language -- briefly appears at the foot of a tree just a dozen metres (yards) away, before scampering off into the jungle.
"We have to find a way to generate some development ... in such a way that everyone benefits from this natural resource," explains WWF biodiversity economist Yann Laurans.
The ministry for forests and wildlife says Cameroon has no legal framework to compensate people after attacks by animals from national parks.
The WWF is testing and studying an insurance system to cover people who lose their livelihoods to animal attacks.
Smallholder Simplice Yomen is hoping for a more secure future after setting up beehives to dissuade elephants from encroaching on his plantation.
Others are trying lemon trees and other spiky bushes to keep the elephants out.
© Agence France-Presse
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Sarah K. Burris
October 16, 2022
"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver focused his main story Sunday on "problems" that Republicans create so that they have something to solve.
Republicans are desperately trying to take over the House, Senate and a slew of offices that allow them to control elections in an effort to usher in restrictive election laws to put in more Republicans and eliminate any policy delivered by a Democrat for the past century.
Republicans pledged for almost ten years that Obamacare must be repealed and replaced, only to be outed for being unable to come up with the replacement. They have placed judges in top posts to eliminate the personal freedoms and medical privacy of women. They invented an idea that Kindergarteners are being taught they are evil for slavery and were convinced that any mention of LGBTQ should be banned from schools in Florida and other states that have followed.
Oliver focused on another top issue for the GOP: transgender sports. While there are many, many issues facing Americans, indeed the world, Republicans are concerned that one or two transgender people could bring down sports.
He began with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who ran a campaign ad claiming that she personally saved girls' sports in the state. There was one trans student about ten years ago in South Dakota, but Noem zeroed in on the possibility that one person ten years ago could one day be millions of trans students in the sparsely populated state.
Oliver pointed out that there were more girls playing sports in the Noem ad than there were trans kids in all of South Dakota sports. So, while Republicans like Noem complain about failures around inflation, healthcare and other problems they blame on Democrats, their solutions are focused on transgender sports.
Noem isn't the only one. A whopping 18 U.S. states have spent the past few years passing legislation to regulate who can urinate in a stall next to each other. While most people simply enter a bathroom, do their business and get out, in the mind of Republicans, restrooms are nefarious places where liberals are ushering in a plot to bring down society. They have yet to find any evidence of it, but they can't stop their minds from turning to anarchy as a result of a kid using the restroom.
The positive piece of Oliver's report is that he first reported on transgender rights nearly a decade ago and things have gotten a lot better. The crisis for the right-wing is that the American public has decided that they are accepting of same-sex marriage, eliminating a key issue that they have desperately clung to for years. Trans rights have now taken over that same desperate attempt to create a villain, make people afraid of him and then pass laws to protect children from him.
See Oliver's full segment in the video below:
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver 10/16/2022 | HBO John Oliver Oct 16, 2022 FULL 720
Sarah K. Burris
October 16, 2022
An interview with Mehmet Oz and Jimmy Kimmel was posted online Sunday showing a bizarre story about the doctor growing up "obsessed with needles."
As a humorous anecdote, Oz tells Kimmel, "This is a 25 gauge needle," he explains. "So, you can't do much damage with this thing. When I was a kid, I'll tell you a quick story. I was so fascinated by needles, I used to find — my dad was a physician. I used to find these needles in his desk. And I noticed those little holes in the top of the orange. Where the pores are. I would put the needle through the pore and get orange juice out. Then I noticed one day that my sister's head had little pores in it too."
He goes on to say that he remembers creeping up behind her, "and I threw it in there, and it didn't go in! The scull got in the way! I got no brain — I got nothing back. My mom just whacked me that time. Yeah. Absolutely took me out."
Oz reported in 2019 that his sister attempted to stab him on July 1 of that year. He claims she suffers from psychological issues despite the fact that his sister was stable enough to be caring for their mother, who had Alzheimer's Disease, the Turkish Sabah daily reported at the time.
They then became enthralled in a financial battle over their inheritance. While the doctor had his own millions, several homes and a television show, he accused his sister of robbing him of the inheritance he claimed was his, Page Six reported in March 2022.
See the video clip below:
\u201cUnearthed: Dr. Oz said he was \u201cso fascinated by needles\u201d that he stabbed his sister\u2019s head from behind with one.\n\nOz: \u201cThe skull got in the way. I got no brain\u2014 I got nothing back.\u201d\u201d
— PatriotTakes \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@PatriotTakes \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1665954869
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