The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Cliff Varnell]

34 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

THE HILL

OPINION>JUDICIARY

Censorship by surrogate: Why Musk’s document dump could be a game changer

BY JONATHAN TURLEY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 12/03/22 10:30 AM ET

“Handled.” That one word, responding to a 2020 demand to censor a list of Twitter users, speaks volumes about the thousands of documents released by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, on Friday night. As many of us have long suspected, there were back channels between Twitter and the Biden 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ban critics or remove negative stories. Those seeking to discuss the scandal were simply “handled,” and nothing else had to be said.

Ultimately, the New York Post was suspended from Twitter for reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Twitter even blocked users from sharing the Post’s story by using a tool designed for child pornography. Even Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was suspended for linking to the scandal."

---30---

This seems pretty clear. The Donk-Biden team had a pipeline into Twitter, and they used it. 

That's DC. Hardball. And the media is onboard. 

The 'Phants do similar things.

 

Ben, what’s the scandal?  Should it be illegal for the children of the rich and powerful to take advantage of their parents’ success?

Trump and Musk both received financial help from their fathers — but it’s only a problem for Democrats?

[Cliff Varnell]

Ben: The Donk-Biden team had a pipeline into Twitter, and they used it.

Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand the First Amendment

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-and-tucker-carlson-dont-understand-the-first-amendment/672352/

... [T]he First Amendment protects Twitter, the Biden campaign team, and the Democratic National Committee. The “TWITTER FILES” released so far do not describe a violation of the First Amendment. Instead, they detail the exercise of First Amendment rights by independent, private actors.

<quote off, emphasis in the original>

Edited December 4, 2022 by Cliff Varnell

[Benjamin Cole]

53 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Ben: The Donk-Biden team had a pipeline into Twitter, and they used it.

Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand the First Amendment

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-and-tucker-carlson-dont-understand-the-first-amendment/672352/

... [T]he First Amendment protects Twitter, the Biden campaign team, and the Democratic National Committee. The “TWITTER FILES” released so far do not describe a violation of the First Amendment. Instead, they detail the exercise of First Amendment rights by independent, private actors.

<quote off, emphasis in the original>

That's why I say it is DC hardball. The way the game is played.

The Donks had pull inside of Twitter, and they used it. 

Twitter repressed stories that reflected badly on the Donks. 

The rest of media is much the same, aligned with establishment Washington. 

The Donks are playing the infinite outrage card not because they are concerned about hate speech, but rather because they have lost a powerful media ally. 

Strike three, the Donks are out, and there is no crying in baseball. 

Separately, I have concerns that Twitter, Google, FaceBook have become de facto town squares, and should be open to all. 

But, as of now, Musk can do what he wants, just as Jack Dorsey did what he wanted. 

One billionaire to the next. 

BTW, if Amazon gives you the boot, or alters its algorithms (to favor vendors, or its own brand) your business can go kaput overnight. 

How powerful is too powerful? 

Interesting questions....

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

It's called graft, and it's been going on since the world began. More on that below.

 

Now to serious business.  Trump, a candidate for President in 2024  tweeted today to call for the termination of the U.S. Constitution to head off possibilities of going to jail.

 

Yes  to the kiddies, whoever thought a fascist wouldn't have a Hitler mustache?

Whoever thought a fascist would be in a business suit?

Whoever thought an fascist could be so cool on social media?

 

Actually you evaluate whether one is a fascist leader by his actions.

If they try to overthrow elections that they realize they lost, and then engage in a multi level schemes to divert and de legitimize a free and fair election, that includes outright asking state election officials to fraudulently overturn state elections. Entering baseless legal complaints about an election to attempt to use appointed officials to overturn elections. Demonstrating and storming the Capitol to stop legal certification, as well as ongoing attempts to infiltrate  the election process at choke points to subvert election results,  that's what we call a Fascist.

That Trump was bungling and inept is no rationalization that it all didn't matter anyway.  It was a deliberate multi pronged attack that could have been more effective  and probably would be if attempted a second time.

 

And now it doesn't matter if he's a crazy loon, on a last ditch effort to save his neck. All the adolescent scoffing as if the whole thing was some joke doesn't obscure the fact that it doesn't matter how inept Donald Trump is. He's guilty and should be thrown in jail.

 

 

 

Re: Hunter Biden, What was suppressed? You could hear all this on Fox.  Ben, you probably don't even know who Bobulinsky is. Even though he pitched a no hitter for the Angels and ended up marrying Elizabeth Taylor and you're old enough to remember and from L.A.

 

 

[Cliff Varnell]

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

That's why I say it is DC hardball. The way the game is played.

The Donks had pull inside of Twitter, and they used it. 

Twitter repressed stories that reflected badly on the Donks. 

From the Atlantic article linked above:

...Taibbi last night said that Twitter “received” and “honored” deletion requests from the Trump White House.

 

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

The rest of media is much the same, aligned with establishment Washington. 

Like in 2016 when the New York Times gave 4X more coverage to Hillary’s e-mails than her policy positions?  Or like how all three cable news networks spent the last 11 days of the ‘16 campaign bashing Clinton relentlessly over the phony Comey accusations?  Or how the media got played by Bill Barr when he lied about the Mueller Report?

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

The Donks are playing the infinite outrage card not because they are concerned about hate speech, but rather because they have lost a powerful media ally. 

You were outraged by Twitter “censorship” under the old regime but Musk kicking off lefties for no valid reason is hunky-dory?

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Strike three, the Donks are out, and there is no crying in baseball. 

You gotta quit warming up and get in the game first.

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Separately, I have concerns that Twitter, Google, FaceBook have become de facto town squares, and should be open to all. 

No town I’m part of.  

Should content moderation be criminalized?

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

But, as of now, Musk can do what he wants, just as Jack Dorsey did what he wanted. 

One billionaire to the next. 

But you only seem outraged by Dorsey.

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

BTW, if Amazon gives you the boot, or alters its algorithms (to favor vendors, or its own brand) your business can go kaput overnight. 

Tell me about it.  I put up a website about bedbugs that made a bit of side cash and Google killed it.  I do duck-duck-go.

15 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

How powerful is too powerful? 

Interesting questions....

 

 

[Matt Allison]

3 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Ben, what’s the scandal?  Should it be illegal for the children of the rich and powerful to take advantage of their parents’ success?

 

There is no scandal. Twitter leaving what amounted to revenge porn up on their site likely opened them up to legal jeopardy.

Elon Musk is most certainly not a genius. Truthfully, he's unmasked himself as a something of a dolt with this weirdness.

[Steve Thomas]

Marjorie Taylor Greene came out Saturday and said, "This is why I'm going to scream this loudly every single day. Elections have consequences, election interference has consequences, and election fraud has consequences."

It's going to be funny watching Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake battling it out to see who Donald Trump picks as his Vice Presidential nominee.

Mirror mirror on the wall

Who's the Trumpiest of them all?

Steve Thomas

Edited December 4, 2022 by Steve Thomas

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

From the Atlantic article linked above:

...Taibbi last night said that Twitter “received” and “honored” deletion requests from the Trump White House.

 

Like in 2016 when the New York Times gave 4X more coverage to Hillary’s e-mails than her policy positions?  Or like how all three cable news networks spent the last 11 days of the ‘16 campaign bashing Clinton relentlessly over the phony Comey accusations?  Or how the media got played by Bill Barr when he lied about the Mueller Report?

You were outraged by Twitter “censorship” under the old regime but Musk kicking off lefties for no valid reason is hunky-dory?

You gotta quit warming up and get in the game first.

No town I’m part of.  

Should content moderation be criminalized?

But you only seem outraged by Dorsey.

Tell me about it.  I put up a website about bedbugs that made a bit of side cash and Google killed it.  I do duck-duck-go.

 

I am not not in the League of the Infinitely Outraged, not before, now now. 

As I say, they play hardball in DC, both parties long cleats sharpened, and media catamites at the ready.

Twitter has gone from the Donk Camp to Musk Camp. I guess Musk is gravitating to the 'Phants, but we shall see. 

The untold angle: Musk is heavily compromised by a huge factory operating in CCP-land, that is mainland China.

I guess the Donks do not bring that up as Donk-team billionaires at Disney, NBC-Universal, Apple, BlackRock are hip-deep in Beijing sewage too. 

So...what happens when Tweet-heads start banging on Beijing? 

You can't make this stuff up....

 

 

 

[Matt Allison]

The revelation about Trump and Twitter is the actual, real, First Amendment scandal, as Trump was then President.

None of the Bidens were in government at the time, and they were simply requesting dick pics be removed.

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

POLITICS DONALD TRUMPTRUMP ADMINISTRATION

62 Things Trump Did That You Forgot About To Preserve Your Sanity

Donald Trump's running for president again, so you can look forward to more of his "fun" ideas — like the time he tried to buy Greenland.

By 

Ryan Grenoble

Dec 3, 2022, 08:00 AM EST

 

00:2301:08

Donald Trump has returned to the news cycle amid a deluge of stories about a dinner meeting he hosted with a white supremacist and Ye, the rapper previously known as Kanye West.

It’s a reminder of the chaotic years of his presidency, as well as a foreboding ― though hopefully instructive ― warning about how he would wield power if elected again.

If past is prologue, let’s take a moment to remember just how unsettling things got during the Trump administration, with this not-even-remotely-exhaustive list of weird and bad stuff he attempted while in office:

• Tried to buy Greenland.
• Wanted to nuke hurricanes.
• Doctored a hurricane forecast map with a Sharpie.
• Attempted a coup to stay in power.
• Absconded with thousands of classified documents, lied about it and refused to give them back when the feds asked nicely.
• Sent unidentified federal officers to Portland, Oregon, to abduct protesters and spark a conflagration that could be used as a pretense for implementing martial law.
• Ordered peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could pose for a photo-op with a Bible outside a church.
• Tried to blackmail Ukraine into manufacturing dirt for his 2020 campaign.
• Asked Russia for help in his 2016 campaign — and got it.
• Had a weird affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Remember the Helsinki summit?)
• Invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to an in-person meeting in the Oval Office, where he accidentally revealed top-secret intelligence.
• Wanted to withdraw the U.S. from NATO.
• Separated migrant parents from their children, locked the kids in cages and then failed to reunite them.
• Insisted that “raking” would prevent forest fires because “you’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important.”
• Covered for Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a U.S. journalist with a bone saw. (Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, owes Saudi Arabia $2 billion, and the crown prince has reportedly bragged about having Kushner “in his pocket.”)
• Intervened to get Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.
• Put Kushner in charge of Middle East peace.
• Embraced rampant nepotism.
• Touted injecting disinfectant as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted ultraviolet light as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted ivermectin as a COVID-19 cure.
• Told people not to wear face masks to cut down the spread of COVID-19, even though they work.
• Actively discouraged COVID-19 testing.
• Refused to send federal aid to New York City amid the first COVID-19 wave because the virus was hitting Democratic-voting states hardest.
• “Jokingly” said on multiple occasions that he deserved to be president for more than two terms.
• Thought climate change was a Chinese hoax.
• Built an incomplete border wall that doesn’t work, wasn’t needed and wasn’t paid for by Mexico.
• Started a trade war with China that mainly hurt U.S. consumers.
• Threw food when angry.
• Saw no problem with his vice president potentially being hanged by a violent mob he’d summoned and sent to the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.
• Stared directly at the sun.

Thought people needed an ID to buy cereal.

• Fired James Comey as FBI director because he didn’t like the bureau investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. (Later, it was revealed that Trump’s campaign manager gave detailed internal polling data to a Russian intelligence agent.)
• Was a “xxxxing moron,” according to Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state.
• Fired the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s China-based pandemic response team — and then when a pandemic happened years later, said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for COVID-19.
• Repeatedly embraced racism.
• Thought repeating “person, woman, man, camera, TV” would assure Americans of his mental stability.
• Tweeted literal gibberish — a lot.
• Lied all the time. (And still does.)
• Openly embraced and amplified QAnon conspiracy theories.
• Got impeached twice.
• Passed huge tax cuts for wealthy corporations ― and massively grew the national debt.
• Flip-flopped on whether the White House had ordered the USS John McCain be hidden so he wouldn’t get mad. (It did.)
• Called American military members who died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers.”
• Claimed to have bone spurs to get out of military service.
• Binge-watched Fox News when he should have been working.
• Played so, so much golf.
• Raked in cash from foreign interests at his Washington hotel in an operation sometimes described as the “epicenter” of a corrupt presidency.
• Held a rally that may have led to the death of Herman Cain.
• Allegedly directed his lawyer to commit campaign fraud to cover up that Trump cheated on his wife after she had recently given birth.
• Was accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women.
• Dismissed any bad news about himself as “fake.”
• Lied about voluntarily turning over his tax returns.
• Ate well-done steak — with ketchup.
• Described white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.”
• Grossly abused the presidential pardon on his way out the door.
• Used private communication services extensively after arguing that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for having a private email server.
• Refused to release White House visitor logs.
• Went to Puerto Rico and threw paper towels at people desperate for actual hurricane aid.
• Discouraged exercise because he believes bodies are like batteries, with a finite amount of energy.
• Tried to trick the parents of the young British man ( killed when an American service member's wife drove on the wrong side of the road there and hit him head-on) into a photo op which he thought would make him seem like a greatly skilled and soothing arbitrator who resolved the issue.
• The parents caught on to this and feeling offended refused to be used like that and immediately left the White House and flew back to England.
• Went with Melania to the World Series ball game and when introduced, the Trump "LOSER - LOSER - LOSER"  yelling and booing was so loud the networks had to pan away and lower the volume on the broadcast.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Joe Bauer

[Paul Bacon]

12 hours ago, Matthew Koch said:

Isn't this called Cognitive Dissidence, William? 

You're a "cognitive dissident"!

[Matthew Koch]

1 hour ago, Paul Bacon said:

You're a "cognitive dissident"!

Sounds like the name of a band, I play guitar.. do you play Paul, we'd just need couple of more people and we could get Cliff to be the manager. What music genre would "Cognitive Dissident" be, Punk? 

[Cliff Varnell]

3 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I am not not in the League of the Infinitely Outraged, not before, now now. 

As I say, they play hardball in DC, both parties long cleats sharpened, and media catamites at the ready.

Twitter has gone from the Donk Camp to Musk Camp. I guess Musk is gravitating to the 'Phants, but we shall see. 

That’s bs, Ben.  Twitter was never a “powerful Donk ally.”

Twitter admits bias in algorithm for rightwing politicians and news outlets

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/22/twitter-admits-bias-in-algorithm-for-rightwing-politicians-and-news-outlets

3 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

The untold angle: Musk is heavily compromised by a huge factory operating in CCP-land, that is mainland China.

I guess the Donks do not bring that up as Donk-team billionaires at Disney, NBC-Universal, Apple, BlackRock are hip-deep in Beijing sewage too. 

So...what happens when Tweet-heads start banging on Beijing? 

You can't make this stuff up....

 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Cliff Varnell

[Steve Thomas]

Let me see if I've got this straight:

A Private Political Party asks a

Private Company not to

Publish Personal Pictures of a

Person's Private Parts and

People are Pissed?

Sounds Pretty Picayune.

Steve Thomas

[W. Niederhut]

George Clooney, Gladys Knight, U2 among Kennedy Center honorees

Performers such as Gladys Knight or the Irish band U2 usually would be headlining a concert for thousands

George Clooney, Gladys Knight among Kennedy Center honorees - ABC News (go.com)

December 4, 2022

Excerpt

Sometimes the Kennedy Center honors not just individuals but groups.

This year it's the band U2. The group's strong connection to America goes back decades. They performed in Washington during their first trip to America in 1980. In a statement the band — made up of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. — said they originally came to America with big dreams “fueled in part by the commonly held belief at home that America smiles on Ireland.”

“And it turned out to be true, yet again,” read the statement. “It has been a four-decade love affair with the country and its people, its artists, and culture.”

U2 has sold 170 million albums and been honored with 22 Grammys. The band’s epic singles include “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Lead singer Bono has also become known for his philanthropic work to eradicate poverty and to raise awareness about AIDS.