Simon Black
sovereignman.com
Simon Black, as James Hickman is more commonly known, is the Founder of Sovereign Man. He is an international investor, entrepreneur and a free man. His daily e-letter, Notes from the Field, draws on his life, business and travel experiences to help readers gain more freedom, more opportunity and more prosperity.
Here’s our Monday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
Australia Orders Google to Pay Over $500,000 for Not Removing Video
Throughout 2020, YouTuber Jordan Shanks posted videos making fun of the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, Australia, John Barilaro.
Because Barilaro was born in Italy, Shanks imitated a strong Italian accent and made many Mario Bros references. Shanks also shared memes and articles criticizing the politician and accused him of corruption.
The videos at times pointed to legitimate news articles critical of Barilaro, and at other times were silly and hard to take seriously. But Barilaro was seriously offended. And, quite predictably, he accused Shanks of racism, hate speech and defamation.
Shanks settled the lawsuit.
But Barilaro also sued Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, saying the company should have removed the videos when it became aware of Barilaro’s complaint.
Now an Australian court has found Google guilty of defamation for failing to censor the videos, and ordered the company to pay Barilaro $715,000 AUD (which is a little over $500,000 USD).
So, free speech is so hated in Australia that they punish not only the silly memer, but also the video-hosting website.
Google must censor criticism and jokes about the Australian government and politicians, or be punished.
Click here to read the full ruling.
Fauci Says Mask Mandates are About “Authority”
In the past, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, has called the court ruling which overturned the airline mask mandate “disturbing” because he thinks it should be “a public health matter. . . not a judicial matter.”
He was basically saying that there should be no higher authority than public health officials. Courts should have no oversight on even the most blatantly illegal public health decisions.
In a recent Fox News interview, Fauci doubled-down on this opinion. He said that at this point, mask mandates aren’t about public health, but are instead about proving who has authority.
“It’s less about mandates on the plane than it is about who has the right and the authority and the capability of making public health decisions… It’s more a matter of principle of where the authority lies, than it is about whether or not there is going to be a mandate on a plane or not.”
It’s this elitist “we know better” mentality that has put the world at the mercy of idiotic and power-hungry public health officials for the past two years.
Click here to watch the video.
New ‘Top Gun’ Defies China over Taiwan Flag
In an early trailer for a sequel to the movie Top Gun, two patches were missing on the original bomber jacket worn by Tom Cruise: the flag of Japan and the flag of Taiwan.
But when the movie was recently released after a long pandemic delay, audiences found that the patches were restored – Taiwan’s flag was prominently displayed on the big screen.
This is the second recent example of a movie which producers refused to alter to appease China – which believes Taiwan is part of China.
We recently discussed how Sony refused to remove the Statue of Liberty in a recent Spider-Man movie.
This is in contrast to Warner Bros caving to Chinese demands to remove a gay reference in a recent film, and John Cena groveling to China after “accidentally” calling Taiwan a country – only to have his movie bomb in China anyway.
Meanwhile, both these movies which refused to censor for China, Spider-Man and Top Gun, have been box office hits.
Click here to read the full story.
Feminist Faces Three Years in Jail for “Transphobic” Tweets
A Norwegian feminist is under police investigation for saying that men cannot be lesbians.
If Christina Ellingsen is charged with a hate crime she could face up to three years in jail. Gender identity is now a protected characteristic under Norway’s recently adjusted laws on hate speech.
Christine Marie Jentoft, a man who identifies as a female lesbian and works for a pro-trans organization, made the complaint which prompted the investigation into Ellingsen.
Ellingsen told him during a television interview, “You are a man. You cannot be a mother. To normalize the idea that men can be mothers is a defined form of discrimination against women.”
She later tweeted similar criticisms.
Ellingsen has previously warned that laws prohibiting “hate speech” against trans people would be used to silence feminist women who believe in biological facts.
Click here to read the full story.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: “There is nothing to suggest that a recession is in the works”
Janet Yellen is currently the US Treasury Secretary and formerly the chair of the Federal Reserve.
Could you find a more qualified expert on the US economy?
So if you trust the experts… you’ll be comforted to hear that Yellen said this week, “I don’t think we’re gonna have a recession.”
In fact, she doesn’t seem to understand why the commoners are so frustrated.
Yellen said:
“When you look at opinion polls and you see what households have to say, it’s amazing how pessimistic they are, given that we have about the strongest labor market we’ve had in the entire post-war period; people can easily find jobs, they are confident about the job market.”
Yellen acknowledged, “I know people are very upset and rightly so about inflation, but there’s nothing to suggest that a recession is in the works.”
Of course, just last week Yellen admitted that she was wrong when she called inflation “small and manageable” in 2021… but hey, what are the chances the experts will be wrong again?
