The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 07.20.21

Posted on | July 20, 2021 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Saber – Under The Same Sky. One of a series of Fate/Grand Order art pieces released for the game’s 5th anniversary.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: How’s That Affordable Bail Working Out?
Ammo.com: Jefferson Davis
EBL: Kurt Westergaard, RIP, also, Dirty Diseased Democrats
Twitchy: “NPR Sucks & Is Unlistenable”, also, “Do You Read Your Own Website?”
Louder With Crowder: Woman Accused Of Hitting George Floyd Rioter With Her Car Found Not Guilty
Vox Popoli: Another Retreat From Arbitration, also, USN Throws Out Royal Navy Bait

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: How To Become Informed Catholics
American Conservative: Against Founder Worship
American Greatness: Fauci Snaps At Sen. Rand Paul Over Gain Of Function Research, also, Whistleblower Says Hasbro Is Pushing CRT On Employees Through Seminars
American Power: “Critical Race Weary”, also, Haiti’s New Day?
American Thinker: Are Masks About To Become Permanent?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Anti-Racist News
Babalu Blog: Cuba’s Communist Regime Militarizes The Streets, also, DC Erases “Cuba Libre” Street Painting In Front Of Cuban Embassy But Leaves BLM Street Painting Intact
BattleSwarm: Democrats Trying To Sneak Amnesty For Illegals Into “Infrastructure” Bill, also, Austin Police Refunding Petition Makes It To The Ballot
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, also, Blue Origin Completes First Commercial Suborbital Flight
Cafe Hayek: Phil Magness On “The 1619 Project”
CDR Salamander: France’s Stand In The Pacific Against Red China, also, “So How’s The Navy Handling Vaccinations & Mask Compliance?”
Da Tech Guy: I’m Not A Coffee Guy Myself, also, Where Floridians Spend Their Summer Vacations
Don Surber: Trump Judges To Decide On Section 230, also, Dear CBS – Try Harder
First Street Journal: The Racism Of White Liberals Has Made Itself Clear, also, Amanda Marcotte Jumps The Gun – Again!
The Geller Report: A List of Stores That Dropped Ben & Jerry’s After They Announced Boycott Of Jews, also, TX Lawmaker Calls For Forensic Audit In Texas’ 13 Most Populous Counties
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, Conspiracy Theories
Hollywood In Toto: Boy Behind The Door Walks Fine Line Between Horror & Exploitation, also, Canceled NC Singer Cecil Charles Won’t Back Down
The Lid: Sorry Libs – Studies Show It’s Not Republicans Resisting Vaccines
Legal Insurrection: South African Activist – “Critical Race Theory Is The Same Toxic, Demented Racial Politics That Set My Country On Fire”, also, Superintendent Who Axed Entrance Exam At America’s Best High School Resigns
Nebraska Energy Observer: Cornel West, The University, Life, & Freedom
Outkick: Rand Paul Reminds Dr. Fauci That Lying To Congress Is A Crime, also, Paralympian To Skip Games After Personal Care Assistant Denied Access
Power Line: Animatronic Short Circuit, also, Dr. Rand Paul Vs. Anthony Fauci
Shark Tank: Sen. Rubio Calls Biden “Lazy” Over Cuba
Shot In The Dark: Let’s Do The Political Math
The Political Hat: Misgendering The Sandwich, also, South Africa In A Widening Gyre
This Ain’t Hell: Believing That #BLM Has Marxist Objectives “Is A Sign of Extremism”, also, Doug Reeves Update
Transterrestrial Musings: Conservative Commentators, also, The Democrat Haters
Victory Girls: Democrat Plans For Election Stealing Revealed – Biden Sending Illegals To Florida
Volokh Conspiracy: Court Packing Is Unconstitutional
Weasel Zippers: Nikole Hannah-Jones Praised Cuba As “Most Equal” Country In Western Hemisphere, also, Defund The Police Democrats Silent As DC Passes 100 Homicides In 2021
The Federalist: Corporate Media Outlets Lost Over Half Their Audiences In The Last Year, also,  Poll – Majority Of Voters Don’t Think Kamala Harris Is Up To Replacing Joe Biden
Mark Steyn: Over The Rainbow, also, Spiritual Ammunition

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Category: Linkagery

Texas Democrats Spreading COVID-19

Posted on | July 20, 2021 | No Comments

Thanks to Evi L. Bloggerlady for the artwork. If you look at those people, it’s obvious they’re not just mentally ill, but in bad health overall:

A sixth Texas Democrat who traveled to Washington, DC, in an effort to prevent a vote on a GOP-backed voting bill has tested positive for the coronavirus, a new report said.
The unidentified state lawmaker — who was among a group of Democrats who flew to the nation’s capital on a private jet last week — is self-isolating, a spokeswoman for the Texas House Democrats told NBC News.
Over the weekend, five other state Democratic lawmakers tested positive for COVID-19.
The group made the trip to DC to press Congress to pass federal election reform legislation, which would supersede the Texas bill that prevents local officials from sending unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
The bill would also require, among other things, applicants to provide their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The Texas state Senate approved the sweeping bill Tuesday night. The legislation is now stalled in the House due to the lack of a quorum.
The delegation is expected to stay in DC for a month.

They ought to stay in D.C. forever. Texas doesn’t need Democrats. Texas needs disinfectant to rid the state of infections Democrats spread:

Republicans are slamming Texas Democrats for a “super spreader” trip to DC after a White House staffer and an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive for COVID-19 following meetings with the legislators — who fled their state to stall voting legislation. . . .
Although CDC rules require ordinary airplane passengers to wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus, the fact that the flight was privately chartered allowed the Democrats to flout that health guidance as they posed for selfies to promote their trip.
The apparent transmission chain brings COVID-19 closer to President Biden, 78, and Pelosi, 81, whose old age make them more at risk for serious illness. Both Biden and Pelosi (D-Calif.) are vaccinated, lowering their risk of contracting the virus or having to be hospitalized if they do.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing Tuesday that the White House aide has “mild symptoms.”
Psaki admitted “there have been” additional “breakthrough” infections among vaccinated staffers, but she would not say how many or when they were detected.

OK, so if you’ve been hanging around Texas Democrats, you’ve been exposed to the virus, which can only be cured by drinking bleach.

Wait, what? Did I actually write that? Freudian slip. Don’t quote me on Facebook, or you might be banned for spreading “misinformation.”

But Texas Democrats should go ahead and drink bleach.




 

Category: Democrats, Texas

In The Mailbox: 07.19.21

Posted on | July 20, 2021 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

“Because nothing is stronger than family, Gudao. Nothing.”

OVER THE TRANSOM
Red Pilled Jew: Quick Takes
357 Magnum: Four Hour Response Time For 911 Call
EBL: Saint Michael The Archangel, Pray For Us
Twitchy: “Sold Out…Literally”, also, Joy Reid Says Maybe You’re The Fascist
Louder With Crowder: World’s Dumbest Criminal Arrested After Responding To Facebook Post About Her Being A Fugitive
Vox Popoli: The Student Debt Jubilee, also, Matt Taibbi Tracks The Narrative
Stoic Observations: First Person Parables

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: It Is Time To Cast Down Vatican II, also, When Will Catholics Begin To Take Their Faith Seriously?
American Conservative: Police Killed Ashli Babbitt Too, also, David Brooks’ Identity Crisis
American Greatness: The American Descent Into Madness, also, The Conservative Case For Hardcore Porn
American Power: Ben Carson Slams Critical Race Theory, also, Koreatown Protests – Cops Fire Rubber Bullets At Violent Protesters
American Thinker: The Silent Majority Is Rapidly Becoming The Angry Majority, also, Parents Canceled By Their Own Children
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Another Latin Betrayal Of Cuba’s People, But Who’s Counting? also, Pope Francis Lamely Calls For “Dialogue” & “Peace” In Cuba
BattleSwarm: Amazing Living Van Conversion, also, Talcum X’ed
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Red China Test-Flies Reusable Suborbital Spacecraft
Cafe Hayek: On Matters Of Trade His Name Should Be Darkhizer, also, Beware Of Any Government-Engineered “Easy Choice”
CDR Salamander: Ukraine & The Eastern Black Sea, On Midrats
Da Tech Guy: Cuba Envy, also, The Latin Mass Gets Trashed
Don Surber: Let Them Drop Out, also, American Distrust Rises
First Street Journal: They Can’t Handle The Truth, also, 300
The Geller Report: Seth Keshel – Trump Won Pennsylvania By 6-8%, also, New Evidence Of Gross Election Discrepancies In Other Georgia Counties – Worse Than Fulton County
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, The Crab With The Neutron Heart
Hollywood In Toto: Why Flight Of The Navigator Speaks To The Little Kid In All Of Us, also, Leno Dishes On Letterman, The Late Night Wars, & His Humble Roots
The Lid: Not All Trump Supporters Think He Should Run In 2024, also, Why America Is Losing To Marxist Democrats In Two Sentences
Legal Insurrection: “You Are One Of The Reasons People Can’t Stand The Media”, also, California Court Strikes Down State Law Banning Misgendering
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, America, Liberty, & The World
Outkick: Nikole Hannah-Jones Knows Nothing About Racial Equality In Cuba, also, Naomi Osaka Can’t Talk To The Media, But She’s On The SI Swimsuit Issue Cover
Power Line: Two More Texas Democrats Down, also, Magic Bus
Shark Tank: Kat Cammack Spotlights Biden’s War On Bacon, also, Sen. Rubio’s Fundraising Shows Grim Reality For Demings
Shot In The Dark: Cognitive Dissonance, also, Realization
The Political Hat: Political Hat Vs. Gaia, also, Perpetuation of The Human Species Is Transphobic
This Ain’t Hell: Schadenfreude Texas Style, also, Doug Reeves – Fake Navy SEAL Diver & Gulf War Participant
Transterrestrial Musings: Competition To FB & Twitter, also, Marilyn Monroe’s Death
Victory Girls: Truscott Claims GOP Is “The Death Wish Party”, also, Black Rifle Coffee Co. Insults Their Customer Base
Volokh Conspiracy: Anaheim Announces Cancellation Of America First Event At Private Venue, Claiming Security Threats & City’s “Values”
Weasel Zippers: Capitol Hill “Rioter” Gets Eight Months For Walking On Senate Floor, also, Pro-Abort Democrat Denied Communion By NM Bishop
The Federalist: GA Voting Official Makes Excuses For Those Who Voted Illegally In 2020, also, White House Says Nothing’s Off the Table When It Comes To Using Big Tech To Silence Dissent
Mark Steyn: What Ails Us – The Hospital, also, The Sweet Season Of Dancing Eunuchs

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Category: Linkagery

Philly to Chicago: ‘Hold My Beer’

Posted on | July 19, 2021 | No Comments

Every time I write about the ghastly homicide toll in Chicago, our friend Dana Pico pipes up to remind me that the per-capita homicide rate in Philadelphia is actually worse. Do the math, says Dana, and the homicide rate in Chicago currently works out to about 27 per 100,000 population annually, while in “Kill-a-delphia,” the current rate is about 35 per 100,000 annually — about 25% higher. So while the forecast in Chicago continues to be “partly cloudy with widely scattered afternoon and evening gunfire,” it’s always pouring down murder in Philadelphia:

At least three dozen people have been shot in another violent weekend in the city of Philadelphia.
Since Friday evening, at least three people have died and 33 others were injured by gunfire.
In the latest shooting, which occurred around 11:15 p.m. Sunday near Market and Peach streets in West Philadelphia, three teenagers were injured.
Police on patrol heard gunshots and rushed to the scene.
Arriving officers found three shooting victims and then spotted a male running from scene.
Police went after the suspect, but there is no word yet on whether they caught him.
In all, investigators found at least 10 shell casings in that area.
The victims, ages 16, 17, and 18, are listed as stable at the hospital.
Detectives are still working to learn exactly what led to the shooting.
Just before 3 p.m. Sunday, three people were shot on the 5500 block of Malcolm Street.
Police say a 15-year-old male, a 29-year-old male and a 19-year-old male were all injured by gunfire. All three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
One of the youngest victims of gun violence this weekend was a 1-year-old girl who was shot in the leg Saturday. It happened around 8 p.m. at the corner of 50th Street and Haverford Avenue.
The child was transported by police to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and listed in stable condition. Officials say a 26-year-old man was also shot in the left forearm. The man is expected to survive.
And on Friday night, a quintuple shooting left one person dead and four others, including a 14-year-old, injured. It happened around 8:40 p.m. on the 2700 block of Ruby Terrace.

OK, as of this morning (after 199 days since the start of the year) there had been 304 homicides in “Kill-a-dephia,” an average of about 1.528 per day; if that average daily homicide count continues until the end of the year, there will be another 254 murders in the city this year, for a total of 558 Philadelphia homicides — an all-time record. The latest:

Philadelphia police keep getting
shot at while responding to shootings

Shoot somebody, the cops show up, and you shoot at the cops.

Fact: Joe Biden got 81% of the vote in Philadelphia.




 

Category: Crime, Pennsylvania

Rule 5 Sunday: Rumiko Manbagi

Posted on | July 18, 2021 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

When we first meet Rumiko Manbagi in the manga Komi Can’t Communicate, she looks absolutely hideous, the platonic ideal of a gyaru girl* who doesn’t know the meaning of moderation. Feeling horribly lonely and out of place, she flees to the girls’ room, where Komi finds her and befriends her. It’s the start of a beautiful relationship, as Rumiko ditches the ganguro look in favor of letting her natural blonde beauty shine through, becomes Komi’s second-best friend, and eventually, the ultimate wingwoman. Let’s face it, for a two-dimensional character, she develops beautifully. Here she is in some fanart with her BFF, Komi.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

A winning pair.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1414, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Hunter’s Laptop Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Hacer America Vuelva Ser Grande, Turandot, La Rondine, La Fanciulla Del West, Linda Ronstadt, These Boots, Madama Butterfly, Duran Duran, Tosca, Don’t Tread On Me, The Style Council, La Boheme, Manon Lescaut, and Peter Schilling.

A View From The Beach: Taylor Anne Ramirez, No Sweat!, Fish Pic Friday – Tiffany Ann, Toad Smokin’ Thursday, Study Claims Ecological Fisheries Management Unnecessary, Some Wednesday Wetness, Tattoo Tuesday, “Dragon Man” Ousts Neanderthal as Nearest Human, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Palm Sunday, Lindsey Harrod, Fish Pic Friday – Kelly Young, Election 2020: While Waiting on Elsa, Trucking into Thursday, NYT Dreads Patriotism, Flags and Pickup Trucks, Rule 5 Star Makes WuFlu News, The Wednesday Wetness, Some Tuesday Tanlines, The Monday Morning Eye Opener, Cave Women Found Not Guilty in Decline of Elephants, 2020 Election – July 4, 2021 Edition and Happy Fourth of July!

Brian Noggle: Constance Towers in The Horse Soldiers.

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

*Actually more ganguro, but why be picky?

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Category: Rule 5

Mindless Carnage Continues in Chicago

Posted on | July 18, 2021 | No Comments

Covering homicide in Chicago must be like covering the weather: “Partly cloudy with widely scattered afternoon and evening gunfire . . .”

At least 53 people had been shot in Chicago this weekend as of Sunday afternoon, and five of them had been killed.
At least nine of the surviving victims were under 18, with the youngest being just 8 years old.
On Saturday night, six people were shot outside a party in the South Austin neighborhood — all but two of them girls under 18.
The victims were standing on the sidewalk on Ohio Street near Lavergne Avenue at 11:40 p.m., when someone in a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle shot them all.
Three of the victims were taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County. A 15-year-old girl was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a graze wound to the head. The youngest victim, who is 12, suffered a graze wound to her hand. Family members drove her to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. The sixth victim was a 25-year-old man who was shot in the backside and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was treated and released.
At 1:05 a.m. Sunday, a shooting in South Chicago left an 8-year-old boy injured along with a 28-year-old man. They were both in a moving vehicle in the 2000 block of West 83rd Street when someone in a black sport-utility vehicle fired shots. The man was shot in the back and was treated and released from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while the boy was taken to Advocate Christ in good condition with a shot to the left leg.
The first fatal shooting happened at 6:48 p.m. Friday. A 26-year-old man was on the street in the 12000 block of South Union Avenue in West Pullman when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot him. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Lawn.
At 11:57 p.m. Friday, a man was killed and three others were injured in a shooting in the South Austin neighborhood. Police said the four men were standing outside when three other men came up and shot them all.
A 29-year-old man was shot in the head and back was pronounced dead on the scene. A 40-year-old man was shot in the hip and leg and aa 45-year-old man was also shot in the leg – both were taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County in serious condition. A 62-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the back and was taken to Stroger in good condition.
The suspects fled in a possible gray Nissan.
At 1:46 a.m. Saturday, a 31-year-old man was shot in the head by a man he knew during a quarrel in the 2800 block of West Van Buren Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. He was pronounced dead Mount Sinai Hospital.
At 11:23 p.m. Saturday, a 27-year-old woman and a man of an unknown age were standing in the 7600 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue when someone in a black sport-utility vehicle fired shots. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the right knee and was in fair condition, but the man was pronounced dead at the same hospital with gunshot wounds throughout the body.
At 12:38 a.m. Sunday, a 30-year-old man was on the sidewalk in the 5100 block of South Marshfield Avenue when someone in a gray sedan shot him. He was taken to the U of C Medical Center with gunshot wounds to the chest and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Criminals just cruising the streets, randomly shooting people. So far this year, 396 people have been shot dead in Chicago, and another 1,905 wounded — a casualty rate far higher than U.S. troops in Afghanistan recently, so why aren’t we withdrawing from Chicago? Oh, wait — I just remembered, Joe Biden got 82% of the vote in Chicago, so these are Democratic voters murdering each other. If not for the ammunition shortage, they might keep killing until Illinois becomes a GOP bastion.




 

Category: Chicago, Crime

FMJRA 2.0: Blank Generation

Posted on | July 18, 2021 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

CNN ‘Stepped Up,’ Covered Avenatti Prison Sentence, MSNBC Didn’t
EBL
357 Magnum

Civil War History: Kibbitzing
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Shotgun Blues
A View From The Beach
EBL

Death at Chuck E. Cheese
EBL
357 Magnum

In Defense of R.E. Lee
Dark Brightness
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Natasha Romanova Redux
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
EBL
Proof Positive

England Soccer: ‘Get Woke, Go Broke’?
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.12.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

64 Shots: Londre ‘KTS Dre’ Sylvester Gunned Down Outside Chicago Jail
First Street Journal
EBL
357 Magnum

What’s Happening in Houston?
EBL
357 Magnum

Oh, Dear God: Barrett Brown Again!
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.13.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Apocalypse in South Africa
EBL

Never Doubt God Answers Prayer
Dark Brightness
EBL

In The Mailbox: 07.14.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Whither the ‘Ahoy’ Coalition?
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.15.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Aspiring Rapper Update
EBL
357 Magnum

Another Aspiring Rapper Update
EBL
357 Magnum

Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update
First Street Journal
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.16.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Top linkers for the week ending July 16

  1.  EBL (21)
  2.  357 Magnum (13)
  3.  A View From The Beach (7)
  4.  Proof Positive (6)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

The First Rule of Censorship Club

Posted on | July 18, 2021 | No Comments

“The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.”

Something very similar is at work in the operations of Big Tech, acting as a political arms of the Biden administration. Using the pretext of suppressing “misinformation,” Facebook and other platforms are identifying and silencing the administration’s opponents and, even though this is happening in full view of anyone paying attention, you’re not going to know anything about it if you get your news from CNN, MSNBC or one of the broadcast network troika of NBC/ABC/CBS.

In fact, the liberal media are engaged in “fact-checking” that labels reporting about this censorship as (you guessed it) “misinformation.”

Politico reported last week that the Democratic National Committee is going to “work with SMS carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages.”

Repeat: “text messages.”

The DNC is going to censor your text messages?

A lot of people (among them our friends at Gateway Pundit) were startled by this news, but then the Thought Police “fact-checkers” at USA Today went to work to label this as “misinformation,” explaining that what they were actually talking about was mass-delivery text messages sent via software platforms (known as SMS APIs), the kind of messages you get from political campaigns when you sign up to get text alerts. So the White House is not monitoring your private text messages, but instead is trying to silence groups like Turning Point USA, which sends its members alerts like, “Biden is sending goons DOOR-TO-DOOR to make you take a Covid-19 vaccine. Sign the petition to: No medical raids in America.”

Let us stipulate that a certain amount of hyperbole is to be expected in the messages that political organizations deliver to their followers. How is what TPUSA does any different than what the DNC itself sends to its supporters? If you’re signed up for such text-message alerts from any political outfit, you have volunteered to receive this stuff, and why is it that the effort to suppress “misinformation” is only directed toward opponents of the Biden administration, not its supporters?

It’s the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 all over again.

No, wait — that’s hyperbole, and perhaps even “misinformation,” but my point is that the Biden administration’s behavior is comparable to what the Adams administration was attempting to do, to suppress the publication of material deemed “dangerous” to the public interest:

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that the White House is not only working with Facebook to flag disinformation on vaccines — it’s also asking Facebook to share data on the reach and engagement of posts deemed disinformation.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” the White House press secretary said.
Facebook, which did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, was one of several social media platforms that attempted to suppress discussion of the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab. Evidence has since been uncovered suggesting the theory holds merit.
Senior Biden administration staff and members of the COVID-19 team are targeting misinformation, specifically on coronavirus vaccines and the pandemic, by keeping “in regular touch” with social media platforms, Psaki said Thursday.
The Biden administration has also proposed four key requests to social media platforms, Psaki said: the first, that social media platforms “measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform.”
“Facebook should provide, publicly and transparently, data on the reach of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, not just engagement, but the reach of the misinformation and the audience that it’s reaching,” Psaki said. “That will help us ensure we’re getting accurate information to people. This should be provided not just to researchers but to the public so that the public knows and understands what is accurate and inaccurate”
The Biden administration also wants platforms like Facebook to “create a robust enforcement strategy that bridges their properties and provides transparency about the rules,” to take “faster action against harmful posts,” and to promote “quality information sources in their feed algorithm.”
“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” Psaki said. “All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including Facebook, ones that Facebook owns.”

This raises so many questions, it’s hard to know where to begin, but try this: Why is it that “smart” people, like Jen Psaki, believe that they are capable of discerning the difference between facts and “misinformation,” yet they believe the rest of the country is full of people too stupid to tell the difference? Like, “We need to censor Facebook or otherwise your grandmother is going to die from drinking bleach.”

What is at the heart of the White House crusade to suppress “misinformation” about COVID-19 is not an issue of fact, as to the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but rather an issue of power — the Biden administration seeks the authority to control what people are allowed to publish on social media platforms, not just about COVID-19 vaccines, but about anything it might deem to be dangerous in some way. The issue is not about the specific content of any particular message on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., but instead whether these companies are going to be taking orders from the White House. Saagar Enjeti nailed it:

Exactly — censorship of social media has escalated drastically since 2016 because, in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat, Democrats decided that “misinformation” was to blame. Even while all the major media were lined up to support Hillary, your grandma’s Facebook feed was full of content that wasn’t aligned with the pro-Hillary message strategy, and therefore DONALD TRUMP IS HITLER! ZOMG! #RESISTANCE!

The Democratic reaction to their 2016 defeat has shaped everything that they’ve done ever since, and this reaction is apparent everywhere. One of the guys who gets this is Matt Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone reporter who I used to loath for his left-wing views — he was very much an advocate of the “Occupy” movement and “Anonymous” cyberterrorism, back during the Obama era. Much like Glenn Greenwald, however, Taibbi has become disillusioned with Democrats in the past few years, and is now concerned about the anti-“misinformation” censorship crusade.

Taibbi has a fascinating account about video producer Matt Orfalea’s recent experience with YouTube censorship. Orfalea says this:

You have all these people who’ve been complaining about fascism since Trump, and then this [the White House encouraging social-media censorship] is actual, by-definition, fascism. According to the classic definition, it includes the merging of corporate and state power.
Look, I’ve done a lot of videos that are very critical of Biden. So the thought does go through my head, “Is this why my channel was targeted?” Now that Jen Psaki admitted that the government does have this direct relationship with the social media companies, picking targets, telling them who needs to be [flagged], it’s hard not to think about it.

Are any left-wing or pro-Biden accounts being censored? Don’t be silly. This censorship goes in only one direction, and we know how it works.

What we must focus on is not the nature of the messages being censored, but rather the abuse of power involved. There are a million and one things on the Internet that, were it up to me, might be banished, but this is not a Third World banana republic, and I’m not the leader of a military junta with the autocratic power to make my enemies quake with terror. Oh, what the imaginary McCain Junta Regime might do, if ever I had such power to punish those on my personal Enemies List! But as it is, in the real world, I’m just a law-abiding citizen of a constitutional republic, and so I must tolerate the fact that people are free to publish all kinds of dangerous nonsense on the Internet. Actual murderers post videos brandishing pistols and boasting about their crimes — almost 30 million views for “Who I Smoke,” mocking the victims killed by ATK in Jacksonville — but that’s fine with YouTube, I guess.

The collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech is more fascist than anything Donald “Orange Hitler” Trump ever did. And if you think this is just about COVID-19, you’re part of the problem. It’s time to wake up and smell the Orwellian dystopia, people.




 

Category: Media Bias
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