“Hip-hop visionary, cultural icon and controversial genius YE will perform July 20, 2025 exclusively at the Rubicon Festival in Bratislava. It will be his only confirmed live performance in Europe in 2025 — and ever first show in Slovakia in history,” organizers confirmed on the event’s website on Monday. “Rubicon Festival is raising the bar for European festivals to a whole new level.”
His participation in the festival has sparked anger. More than 3,000 people have already signed a petition asking the festival to cancel the performance of the rapper, who is formerly known as Kanye West.
The authors of the petition point out that Ye has in recent years repeatedly and openly adopted the symbolism and ideology associated with Nazi Germany, having written, for example, “I am a Nazi” and “I love Hitler” on social media platforms.
“He trivializes the crimes of the totalitarian dictatorial regime and the war atrocities that also affected the Slovak population,” the petition reads.
The petition refers to Ye’s latest track, “Heil Hitler,” which was released on May 8 — the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
The song references the Nazi salute which was used while Adolf Hitler was in power. The single’s artwork resembles a swastika, and the song ends with a lengthy sample from a Hitler speech.
As the petition also mentions, the song is banned in Germany.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Maine legislature to count the votes of a GOP lawmaker who was censured after she identified a transgender teen athlete in a viral social-media post.
The court majority sided with Rep. Laurel Libby, who filed an emergency appeal to restore her ability to vote while her lawsuit over the punishment plays out. There were two noted dissents, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The majority did not explain its reasoning, as is typical on the court’s emergency docket.
I like talk radio. I want to listen to NPR. Many of your topics are good. But almost all of them are heavily slanted left, anti-Trump, anti-conservative, pro-Ukraine War, etc. I want to hear your side but I also want to hear the other side. It is bad media, bad for USA, and super-boring radio to feature only one side of an issue as if there is no other side at all. Indeed, most issues have several sides all worthy of discussion. Your shows would gain listeners and respect if you provided real balance. ABN
UPDATE: A good example of how bad NPR can be happened a few days ago. I was driving and a show came on NPR about how American evangelicals were supporting Trump in large numbers. One commentator was some journo who has been reporting on religion in USA for forty years; the other was some college professor of religious studies. I forget who the host was. The entire program entailed describing how evangelicals had a psychological need to be accepted and heard and that’s why they support Trump. If I am remembering correctly the speakers implied if not stated outright that evangelicals had that need because they were uneducated and lacked sophistication. I found the program extremely irritating because all three of the supposedly educated and sophisticated speakers never onceconsidered that evangelicals might like Trump’s policies because they are good policies. My sense of those three speakers is they themselves are small-minded, incurious, and selfish in how they waste airtime by telling only one side of a potentially great story. Such a waste. It was a very good topic. Next time, get some people who are able to sympathize with evangelicals and who understand Trump’s policies as they are and not as NPR frames them all the time. To be clear, I am 100% willing to listen to all positions on all topics, including what amounts to NPR propaganda, but I really really want to hear all sides. Forty years he’s been a religion journo and many years she’s been a college religion prof and they both just cooed at each other over NPR lefty banalities the entire time. The host was no better. ABN
Ursula is pushing leftist ‘soft’ totalitarianism, wrapped in smarmy ‘morality’. What she wants is to control European minds by controlling what they can say and hear. At this juncture, as AI advances rapidly and security controls become increasingly omnipotent, we must insist on free speech, unrestricted free speech. Restricting speech based on bogus claims of ‘misinformation’ or ‘hate speech’ or whatever Ursula doesn’t like, serves only the totalitarians. With free speech on as many platforms as possible, the citizens of the West will constitute the only repository of information that can compete with AI. ABN
An interesting report from the U.K reflects British government officials who feel their legal position against ‘free speech’ in Great Britain is now part of the negotiations for President Trump’s tariffs. Essentially, the tariff discussion is encompassing more than just tariffs; if the nation does not support traditional freedoms and liberty, they could face stronger tariffs from the USA.
The messenger for this dynamic is not coincidentally Vice President JD Vance, who aligns closely with the tech platforms. The tech control agents are bitterly opposed to President Trump’s tariff position, and this nuance is quite possibly a way to give the tech platforms an ancillary benefit, vis-a-vis free speech support.
The tech industry is facing pressure from the EU and British government to censor and control information content on their platforms. By adding the importance of free speech to the leverage of tariff pressure, President Trump gives both Main Street companies and American Tech Titans something important to their business interests. This is both a smart and righteous approach.
This is an interesting take. If money and business wants it, it will happen. I am optimistic for free speech in the high-tech future. Notice how Jordan has crashed and burned with his anti-free speech pro-psychopath nonsense. How can you make ridiculous assertions when so many are able to answer? And by now, who is willing to not be able to answer? ABN
Denis may have some details wrong but the gist is correct, far as I know. I visit X to find random info or get insights from people like Denis. Pro-tip — if you want to enjoy X without seeing any ads, just follow a bunch of conspiracy theorists. Money is everywhere and affects everything and thus should always be a consideration when assessing any information. ABN
Bangor Publishing Company — the company that owns both the Bangor Daily News (BDN) and a lesser-known marketing agency — has received more than $2.4 million from state agencies since Gov. Janet Mills (D) took office in 2019, according to a review of contracts filed with Maine’s procurement office.
The payments to Bangor Publishing Company are not regularly disclosed by the company’s newspaper arm but are available publicly via the state’s vendor payment disclosures and its procurement record websites.
State financial records show that payments made to either Bangor Publishing Company, Pulse Marketing Agency, or Pulse Marketing LLC began almost immediately after Gov. Mills entered office and totaled more than $2.4 million as of fiscal year 2024.
The Maine Wire’s review of those contracts sheds new light on the murky and ethically questionable dynamics that arise when a newspaper company is simultaneously reporting on state government and profiting from lucrative contracts with state agencies.
American Buddhist Net 