society

Tyranny in Australia

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I warned at the beginning of the pandemic that we need to watch out for governments striking our rights in the name of “keeping us safe.”

So in Victoria they have curfew and house arrest, a compliant Parliament thinks that the Premier should do it for another 6 months, and police arrested a pregnant woman for posting details of an anti-lockdown protest on Facebook.

Apparently marches in support of Marxist groups such as Black Lives Matter are fine, but question the government’s handling of the pandemic and they will send in the storm troopers to arrest and intimidate you.

Meanwhile in northern NSW a woman carrying twins lost one of them because “Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders; they have NSW hospitals for NSW people.” True, but if you live in Lismore, Brisbane is much closer than Sydney.

If you live in Mungundi which literally straddles the border,too bad if you want to buy groceries. After their only supermarket burnt down, resident could travel to Moree, their nearest town, but it’s out of the bubble and so anyone doing that would have to self-isolate for 14 days if they want to enter Queensland, which is where their town’s medical services are. That’s in a region that has not had a single case of coronavirus.

Building supplies companies and tradies in SE Qld are losing work because much of their business relies on projects in northern NSW outside the bubble.

The Queensland tourism industry is facing devastation because people from interstate are unable to travel there.

But at least they got the AFL Grand Final… because football is more important than lives. It’s called bread and circuses, a political tactic that goes back at least to the Roman Empire. Entertain the plebs so they won’t complain as you slaughter them.

What a happy coincidence for Anastasia. Her state election is a week after the Queendalnd AFL Grand Final for Queenslanders.

This is Australia in 2020, and maybe some of these things are necessary to contain a virus that is less deadly than the flu to all except the over 70’s and people with other severe and chronic illnesses. In the USA, this week the CDC downgraded the number of official deaths due to Covid from over 100,000 to about 5,000- because all of the others had other issues that contributed to their death.

I am not a conspiracy theorist- most people and organisations are too inept to run a proper conspiracy. Australia needs to wake up to the power grabs and the petty restrictions on our way of life.

UPDATE:

Shortly after posting this, I received an email from Service NSW offering a special service to businesses. They can give you a QR code for people to scan when entering a business. This sends their contact information straight to the NSW Government so that if they need to use the information, they can get it straight away. I would suggest that people refuse to use this “service.”

Pamela Geller: Sweden Beat Covid Without A Brutal Lockdown

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Pamela Geller writes:

Sweden Refused to Lockdown: They Were Right, New Cases Plunge, Very Ill Approach ZERO

By Pamela Geller – on 
WUHAN VIRUS: CORONAVIRUS

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“In many ways the voluntary measures we put in place in Sweden have been just as effective as complete lockdowns in other countries,” Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s public health agency,

Sweden is a case study in what to do next time. Their results are eye-opening Lockdowns, destroying our economy, millions unemployed, neighborhood Stasi, Covid Karens, — not necessary.

It’s what the rational among us have been reporting for months.

 

 

Bloomberg: As other countries face renewed outbreaks, Sweden’s latest Covid-19 figures suggest it’s rapidly bringing the virus under control.

 

 

“That Sweden has come down to these levels is very promising,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters in Stockholm on Tuesday.

The Health Agency of Sweden says that since hitting a peak in late June, the infection rate has fallen sharply. That’s amid an increase in testing over the period. “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said.

 
 

Herd immunity.

 

Sweden COVID-19 Death Rate Lower Than Spain, Italy and U.K., Despite Never Having Lockdown (Newsweek)

While novel coronavirus cases have spiked across several parts of Europe, including Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, Sweden—where a countrywide lockdown was never issued—continues to report a downward trend in new cases and new deaths.

……the infection rate has fallen sharply. That’s amid an increase in testing over the period. “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero,” Tegnell said.

Swedish Covid Cases Trend Down

Source: Health Agency of Sweden

The development follows months of controversy over Sweden’s decision to avoid a full lockdown. The unusual strategy coincided with a much higher Covid-19 mortality rate than elsewhere in the Nordic region.Per 100,000, Swedish deaths even exceeded those in the U.S. and Brazil.

I Looked Up What Happened When Sweden Refused To Shut Down – They Were Right, We Were Wrong

By Josh Manning,The Western Journal,Published August 1, 2020:

Sweden did it.

The Nordic country defeated COVID-19 without seeming to break a sweat — fever-induced or otherwise. They effectively showed that Fauci & Co. were completely wrong about a shutdown being necessary to save civilization as we know it.

While that accomplishment should be lauded and their efforts duplicated around the world, the media has instead chosen to blast the Nordic state and paint a dismal picture that simply doesn’t exist.

A few examples (among many, many others) are below:

CBS Newsdeclared: “Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID-19.” Similarly, theUniversity of Virginia Health Systemissued a news release titled: “Lack of Lockdown Increased COVID-19 Deaths in Sweden.”

Taking a stab at prognostication,Newsweeksaid: “Sweden COVID-19 Deaths Linked to Failure to Lockdown as Country Prepares for Second Wave.” Always eager to bravely embrace the status quo,The New York Timesran a piece headlined: “Sweden Tries Out a New Status: Pariah State.”

Finally,Business Insiderreported: “Sweden’s coronavirus death toll is now approaching zero, but experts are warning others not to hail it as a success.”

It’s all awfully prickly from a leftist media that used to adore Sweden’s welfare state. The reason for the barbed headlines is simple — Sweden dealt with COVID-19 in its own way.

The country didn’t truckle to the tyranny of over-educated, under-experienced experts. It didn’t implement authoritarian policies designed as much to break spirits as to break the pandemic. And it didn’t turn its voters into quasi-prisoners.

In other words, Sweden responded more or less the way the rest of the developed world has responded to contagious diseases until 2020, which just happens to also be President Donald Trump’s re-election year.

What were Sweden’s results?

 

Read the full article here

BURNING BIBLES IN PORTLAND SHOWS THEIR TRUE COLOURS

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Apparently the “Black Lives Matter” group is now burning Bibles in the US. It sohuld be clear to everyone that this is just a front for Marxism using anti-racism as a cover. Any christians sympathetic to this group need to repent- now.

From Mario Murillo:

BURNING BIBLES IN PORTLAND SHOWS THEIR TRUE COLORS

Posted on  by mariomurilloministries

Black Lives Matter has started burning Bibles. They knelt with their Black Lives Matter signs leaning against them, and burned a pile of Bibles.

Writing to you about this feels so inadequate. I wish I could sit across a table and look you right in the eye to see your reaction. I desperately need to get through to you. Do you have any idea what this means?

In ten years at Berkeley during the height of riots and demonstrations, I never saw a Bible burned.

Ask yourself: What does burning copies of the Word of God have to do with black lives? Answer: It has to do with black lives about as much as Black Lives Matter does. Absolutely nothing. This is something evil and so dangerous that we must prepare for the fight of our lives.

By burning Bibles, BLM has revealed their true colors. This is not about rights or equality. And it is certainly not about George Floyd. Clearly, this is about destroying Western Civilization. And they will proudly stand by this religious hatred. You will hear no apology from BLM.https://www.youtube.com/embed/QshzEwmZvSo?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

Here’s what Ian Cheong, a Twitter user, who posted the video said: “Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland.”

Later in the Twitter thread, Cheong pointed out that the violent and chaotic nature of these protestors has no correlation with “protesting against police brutality.”

“I don’t know what burning the Bible has to do with protesting against police brutality. Do not be under the illusion that these protests and riots are anything but an attempt to dismantle all of Western Civilization and upend centuries of tradition and freedom of religion,” he continued.

But many Christians are still under that very illusion. I believe that the patience of heaven is wearing thin toward American Christians who are still on the fence.

It is not a coincidence that as communist agitators grow bolder in the U.S., China is intensifying a crackdown on Christian congregations in Beijing and various provinces. They are destroying crosses. And, like their counterparts here, they too are burning Bibles!

And the other things China is currently doing, such as closing churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith, is the next part of the Left’s plan for America.

The similarities between BLM/ Antifa agitators in the United States and the Chinese Communist Party continue to grow as the two groups come together over their goal of removing President Trump from office in November, and forcing the United States into irredeemable decline.

The silence in the media, the total lack of coverage about this Bible burning, will tell you all you need to know about the Democrat Party. Joe Biden will not mention it, let alone condemn it. You will also hear absolutely nothing about this from the press.

That silence—that tacit approval—is why these looters, rioters and thugs believe they can operate with impunity. Tucker Carlson said it best: “they are the armed militia of the Democrat Party.”

There can be no question in your mind why we must vote every Democrat out of office. This is no longer a political party. It is a shill for violent revolution.

And book burning is darker than you may realize. Heinrich Heine, the German poet, said in 1820, “Where They Have Burned Books, They Will End Up Burning People.” His chillingly prophetic statement that where books had been burnt, people would eventually be burnt, came true at the infamous May 10, 1933 book burning of more than 25,000 volumes in Berlin’s Opera Square, which was presided over by the most intellectual of the Nazi leaders, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. They later built ovens to incinerate Jews, “undesirables,” and dissidents.

The act of burning Bibles in Portland is not innocent or harmless. There is something evil unfolding in our nation. Our stance toward the Left must change. We must raise our voices if we wish God to honor us as a people that He can bless with continued freedom.

So long as we ignore the clear signs of tyranny—the overreach of leftist governors in the pandemic—the censorship of social media and news media—the calculated brainwashing of Christians to turn them away from their moral duty—we risk a dark and evil world for our children and grandchildren.

We have nothing to fear but complacency, tolerance, and apathy—the cancers the modern church is prone to. Fear of being called a racist is right behind this unholy trio as the sickness of our generation of believers.

Heaven is not surprised by any of these threats. Hell has created a weapon of mass damnation and it is in full vigor before our eyes. But again, heaven is not passive. God saw this coming and forged a weapon for this specific evil. He yearns for someone to rise up in the Name of Jesus, take up that specific weapon and thrust it into the very heart of darkness. Let it be you!

Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me!”

Covid Models Were Wrong, and Modellers Unwilling to Learn!

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From the University of Sydney:

Did COVID-19 models get it wrong? Professor Sally Cripps explains

Leading statistician analyses COVID-19 modellingRenowned University of Sydney statistician, Professor Sally Cripps, examines the efficacy of COVID-19 modelling as part of an online analysis with colleagues from Stanford University and North-Western University.

Did COVID-19 models in the United Kingdom and the United States get it wrong?

As part of an online discussion between an international group of researchers, including Stanford University Professor of Medicine John P.A. Ioannidis and Northwestern University statistician, Professor Martin A. Tanner, University of Sydney statistician Professor Sally Cripps discusses the efficacy of the two countries’ COVID-19 modelling efforts, with recommendations on how countries – including Australia – can better prepare for uncertainty.

In April, Professor Sally Cripps alongside US colleague, Professor Martin A. Tanner found that over 70 percent of US states had death rates that were inconsistent with IHME predictions. Credit: Centre for Translational Data science. 

“COVID-19 models got it wrong in that they failed to forecast with any degree of accuracy daily death counts even when the forecast was for one day in advance. In addition they failed to accurately quantify uncertainty,” said Professor Cripps, who is the Director of the University of Sydney Centre for Translational Data Science and the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Data Analytics for Resources and Environments. 

“But that doesn’t mean all modelling is bad or ineffective. In fact, what this scenario represents is an opportunity to learn and do better. Modellers have tried to justify their faulty models rather than learn from their mistakes.” At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, societal lockdown was the sensible thing to do. Australia acted swiftly in that regard, but now we need to find a way out. 

“At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, societal lockdown was the sensible thing to do. Australia acted swiftly in that regard, but now we need to find a way out.

“Though lockdowns minimise COVID-19 deaths, there are many studies which show that lockdowns increase domestic violence, as well as increase deaths from cancer and heart attacks.

“We need to develop models which have multi-criteria functions that allow governments to better understand a measure’s effect across all of our society.

“We also need access to reliable data, and models that are validated and continuously reappraised for their performance in real-time.”

As of 26 June 2020, COVID-19 had claimed almost 125,000 lives in the United States and over 43,000 in the United Kingdom.

DISCLOSURE:

Professor Cripps conducted an analysis on the efficacy of COVID-19 modelling efforts as part of an ongoing online discussion with international colleagues, Stanford University Professor of Medicine John P.A. Ioannidis and Northwestern University statistician, Professor Martin A. Tanner. The discussion has been published by the International Journal of Forecasters. 

“I Can’t See Them Arresting The Wind”

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Sign of the times

Red faces amid police hate crime probe into Kingstanding Chinese takeaway ‘vandalism.’

 

At the other end of the police spectrum is the constabulary of woke Birmingham:

Police hunting racist yobs who vandalised a Chinese takeaway sign so it read ‘bat’ were left red-faced when they discovered the missing letters had fallen off in the WIND.

A probe was launched after residents spotted the letters G,O,L,N and O had been removed from the Golden Boat’s bright red sign so it now said ‘DE BAT’.

West Midlands Police logged it as a hate crime and immediately launched an appeal in a bid to catch the culprits.

But they were left with egg on their face when it emerged the missing letters had actually fallen down in a recent storm.

A spokesperson for the Golden Boat in Kingstanding said: “The wind blew it down. The letters came down by themselves.

“It’s weird but it’s certainly not a crime, it’s just a coincidence.

“We were very surprised to hear the police were investigating it as a hate crime. I can’t see them arresting the wind.”

 
They should keep the sign exactly as it is and trademark the name.

From Catallaxy files

Bill Muehlenberg: We all should be alarmed

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The Rise of Statism and the Reduction of the Individual

We all should be alarmed at government overreach in the corona crisis:

“Gathering outdoors is the next freedom to be restored,” said a front-page article from the Daily Telegraph. Um, am I the only one who was shocked by that sentence – and others like it? Gosh, isn’t that swell of the State to allow us to go outside a bit. So very kind of them.

Um, since when was it the right of governments to simply take away our right to freely assemble as we decide in the first place? Am I now supposed to grovel before the State and thank them profusely if they take away my right to eat or breathe and then ever so graciously give it back – if I behave?

I have said it before and I will keep saying it (no matter how much the alarmists dislike me for doing so): The two most shocking things about the corona crisis are these: one, the absolute speed and ease in which governments have shut down and locked down entire nations; and two, the ready, eager and unquestioning acceptance of all this by the masses.

BTW, I have been saying this for several months now. However, just moments ago I saw a brand-new article by Dennis Prager in which he says this: “But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.” Hmm, we sure seem to be on the same page here.

And all this has utterly shocked me and saddened me. Yes it really has. Worse yet, I fully realise that the only thing so many folks are worried about is when their beloved footy team will be playing again. But there actually are some things that matter a whole lot more. Like freedom. Like the individual. Like democracy. Like the rule of law. Like the ability to think for oneself and ask questions.

But far too many folks really do not seem to give a rip that so much of this is being taken away from us. The masses just do not seem to care. The sheeple could not be bothered with even raising an eyebrow here. Too many simply trust the government implicitly. ‘My country right or wrong’ has now morphed into ‘My State right or wrong.’

And even more shocking is how many Christians have fallen into line here. ‘Well the government said it, so it must be right. Who am I to question?’ And, ‘Why are you so worried about technology? What could ever go wrong?’ Hmm, why do I suspect that far too many of these naïve, apathetic and undiscerning believers would just as happily intone, ‘The State is my shepherd’?

Or as Ben Davis has recently put it:

Our Government in Canberra,
Hallowed be thy name,
Give us this day our daily support payments,
And increase our debts.
Lead us not into temptation to violate your stay at home orders,
But deliver us from COVID-19.
For the power and glory are yours,
Amen

Yes, there is a place for taking sensible precautions, for some government intervention, and for some limited restrictions on our liberties. I have been saying this from day one as well. But we seem to have gone far beyond this. If the State tells us to download a questionable app, most folks will do it. If the State tells us to snitch on our neighbours, most folks will do it. If the State tells us that we cannot leave our homes unless the State allows us to, most folks will do it.

And when Big Tech and the Big State get into bed together and fully support each other in this draconian overreach and abuse of power, then you know we really are getting to the end of freedom as we know it. I have been documenting this for quite a while now, but for too many folks it simply goes in one ear and out the next.

Let me offer just one scary case in point of what we are up against. For a few days now I – and millions of others – have shared a very important, fact-filled video of two California doctors sharing informed, balanced and evidence-filled concerns about the accepted narrative on corona.

They have dared to ask how a nation-wide lockdown makes any sense, based on all that we now know about COVID-19, how it spreads, who is really at risk, and so on. It was seen over 5.5 million times. But then YouTube decided that you – the people – are too stupid and it is too dangerous to have a video like this being seen.

So they pulled it. The head honcho said that only points of view that go along with groups like WHO will be allowed. Um, if anyone thinks that WHO has handled this whole crisis well, they need to go to the back of the class. Here is just one of many pieces on the appallingly bad way that WHO has dealt with this: thefederalist.com/2020/04/09/why-the-who-is-a-danger-to-public-health/

And see this damning expose of the head of WHO: www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/10/5-shocking-facts-about-who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus/

But the censors and mind-controllers at YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and so on have all decided that certain ideas and points of view are now verboten. The people will NOT be allowed to get a differing point of view. You will only be allowed to hear what the State thinks you should hear. But I refuse to submit, and the full 68-minute video can be seen here: newtube.app/user/anthony/GlkxUvo

Please watch it and share it. One article explains the situation with this pulled video:

Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi … decried California’s COVID-19 related lockdown in particular on medical and economic grounds. Part 1 carried the heart of the doctors’ remarks in about 50 minutes…. They focused on their own experience and widened the discussion to take in California generally. They made many of the same points we have been making here over the past month, but tied the discussion to their experience as physicians and owners in the business of treating patients in need of urgent care.

Laura Ingraham invited Dr. Erickson on for a segment of her FOX News show last night, and she got action! As events transpired, she was able to report in real time that YouTube had removed the viral part 1 video following the segment — for violating YouTube’s terms of service, of course. www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/was-it-something-he-said-4.php

Another Fox News host who has constantly been trying to sound the alarm on all this is Tucker Carlson. This short video clip is also must-viewing and must-sharing: video.foxnews.com/v/6152742822001

In it examines the collusion of Big Tech and Big Government, discusses the censored video, and then says this: “Of all the many ironies of this moment, so many of them bitter, the hardest to swallow is this one: As we fight this virus, we are becoming far more like the country that spawned it – we are becoming more like China. It’s horrifying.”

I mentioned just above a new piece by Dennis Prager. Let me speak to it a bit further. In it he offers these 4 signs of a police state:

No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.
No. 2: A mass media supportive of the state’s messaging and deprivation of rights.
No. 3: Use of police.
No. 4: Snitches.

He concludes the article this way:

It is said that about 1 in every 100 East German citizens were informers for the Stasi, the East German secret police, as superbly portrayed in the film “The Lives of Others.” It would be interesting, and, I think, important, to know what percentage of New Yorkers informed on their fellow citizens. Now, again, you may think such a comparison is not morally valid, that de Blasio’s call to New Yorkers to serve a Stasi-like role was morally justified given the coronavirus pandemic. But you cannot deny it is Stasi-like or that, other than identifying spies during World War II, this is unprecedented in American history at anywhere near this level.

This past Friday night, I gathered with six others for a Shabbat dinner with friends in Santa Monica, California. On my Friday radio show, I announced I would be doing that, and if I was arrested, it would be worth it. In my most pessimistic dreams, I never imagined that in America, having dinner at a friend’s house would be an act of civil disobedience, perhaps even a criminal act. But that is precisely what happens in a police state. townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/04/28/our-dress-rehearsal-for-a-police-state-n2567744

Lastly, let me take that final point about snitching and share what another writer has said about it:

That is not America. In East Germany, the Communists built a collective of informants. In the Soviet Union, informing on your neighbors and even your parents proved your loyalty to the state. This behavior has no place here. We’re Americans. Our first allegiance is not to the state, but to each other. In America, treason is not a betrayal of the state, but of the rights of the individual to be free of the state. Socialists betray the individual to the state and their pandemic response reinforces that first betrayal of the individual. It is no coincidence that the 1-800-INFORM phenomenon has taken root in the blue parts of the country. The culture of informants values the collective and suppresses the individual.

To the socialist, governments never fail. The experts are always wise and the public officials all-knowing. Government only fails because individuals subvert, sabotage, and undermine its well-meaning efforts. The informant helps the authorities redirect the blame for their failures by locating individual scapegoats. A nation of informants can only arise in a socialist system where people put the state first. They scowl and plot against their neighbors, spying and informing on them for the freedom they feel in their souls. The pandemic is a threat to the body of the nation, but 1-800-INFORM threatens the soul. thewashingtonstandard.com/1-800-inform-report-your-neighbors-to-authorities-its-the-un-american-way/

There are so many things happening right now that should concern every single one of us. And what concerns me so very much is that so few people seem concerned at all!

Lessons From The Lock Down

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The so-called lock down in Australia has not been as draconian as in other places, at least not in law. The nightly scolding by politicians, though, keeps people in their place. And if they stray, then the police are always ready to hand out $1000+ fines.

I have learned some things about people and about myself during this time that I would not have expected.

  1. People give up their hard earned rights and freedoms with very little care. Who would have though a few months ago that we would willingly embrace the closing down of churches, pubs and restaurants? Freedom of association is a basic human right, yet we have surrendered that without any debate.
  2. Who would have thought that police would roam the streets, stopping people to ask them where they are going, and to send them back if they don’t have a reasonable excuse?
  3. I have seen disturbing signs of the contempt of the young towards the old that has come from the fact that many victims of the corona virus are elderly.
  4. No surprise, but I thought I wouldn’t see it in Australia. Politicians who take your rights away will not readily let go of their power. The “crisis” must go on longer than first expected. People will have to agitate to get their freedom back.

I have also learned some things about myself in this time. The chief thing among them is that I am not so nearly introverted as I thought.

Extroverts are people who find energy from being with other people, while introverts find energy in being alone. Extroverts like to party when they are down to help them forget, while introverts like to spend time alone to work things out and find energy to face life.

I have discovered that I love people, physically present people, people that you can touch and see their body language. Yes too much of that and I tire easily, but they are people that God loves and Jesus died for, and I love them too. I miss them.

Although I am a bit of a tech fan, and have always seen ways for computers and other devices to make life simpler, looking at people on a screen is no substitute for being in the room together. I love small groups partly because you can talk seriously with one another. But the camera and the screen put up a wall between people.

I miss worship. Yes I can worship God however and wherever I like. But corporate worship is something else. People have been live streaming their services, but that seems to me to be to worship what porn is to marriage. You can have all the same bits present but it misses the point. Worship is never about a good band and a preacher performing, while the rest of us watch on. Worship is about the gathered people of God, together expressing praise and adoration to the Lord. I don’t care what anybody says, you can’t do that by way of a screen, and whatever a live stream is it isn’t worship.

I don’t know how long this lock down will last, but I suspect that with declining deaths and declining new cases the pressure will be growing for politicians to wind back the restrictions.

As they do that we need to make sure that we end up with the full restorations of freedom and human rights.