More Cracks in the FTC's Aggressive Antitrust Plans, as Court Refuses To Ban Meta From Buying V.R. Fitness App
Plus: Trump teases new avenues of authoritarianism, interest rates raised again, and more...
Meta's bid to buy the virtual reality (V.R.) company Within Unlimited may proceed, a federal judge says—notwithstanding the objections of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—has been betting big on V.R. with the launch of its "Metaverse." Within Unlimited fits into that plan because of its popular V.R. fitness app Supernatural. But the FTC objected to this purchase, calling it an illegal acquisition.
If Meta wants a virtual reality fitness app, it should develop its own, the FTC said. Buying an existing app "would eliminate the prospect of such entry, dampening future innovation and competitive rivalry," in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
It was a very silly argument, albeit one very much in line with the antitrust philosophy of the Biden administration and FTC Chair Lina Khan. Both have taken an aggressive stance toward antitrust action in general—conceiving of it as a way to cut big businesses down to size, rather than merely protect consumer welfare—and particularly antitrust action against Big Tech companies.
So, the FTC sued to stop Meta from acquiring Within Unlimited. And far from merely determining whether Meta could buy the Supernatural app or must develop its own V.R. fitness platform, the case also served as something of a test case for a contentious Khan FTC proposition.
The case tests "the FTC's argument that potential future concentration in the still-developing market for virtual reality fitness applications is enough to stall the merger of Meta and Within," noted Max Gulker, senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason, in December:
[Khan] and others belonging to the New Brandeisian school of antitrust advocate a more aggressive stance toward mergers than has been seen in decades. This advocacy is making the FTC's case against Meta a case to watch as it may offer a preview of the FTC's new strategy, as well as its potential success in court….
A large tech company acquiring a niche startup in a nascent, fast-developing market is not an unusual event. Along with fitting Meta's strategy, startups like Within often consider such buyouts successful outcomes of their entrepreneurial ventures.
The Federal Trade Commission's July 2022 announcement that it was blocking the acquisition reflects the more aggressive antitrust approach Khan is taking.
Yesterday's decision, from U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, strikes a blow against the Khan approach.
Davila declined to issue an injunction against the acquisition, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of now, the decision is still under seal.
This isn't the end of the battle, however.
"The FTC could continue to try to block the deal through a separate lawsuit filed in its in-house administrative court, where a trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 13," the Journal points out. "But antitrust enforcers have in the past often abandoned such administrative litigation once a federal judge denies the request for an injunction."
An FTC lawsuit against Meta's alleged "monopoly" on social media services is still ongoing as well.
FREE MINDS
Trump is teasing out new avenues of authoritarianism. The former president and 2024 presidential candidate's education plan would give the federal government even more control over what can be taught in schools around the country. His plans include treating what he calls "the Marxism being preached in our schools" (a.k.a. anything Trumpian conservatives don't like) as both a violation of the separation between church and state and a violation of freedom of religion. In a video speech last week, Trump also pledged to create a "new credentialing body" for teachers who "embrace patriotic values," and said he would cut federal funding for schools or education programs that push "critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children"—vague terms that can also mean whatever people in power want them to mean.
In a new video this week, Trump said that "as part of our new credentialing body for teachers, we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers," and sex differences. He vowed to ban transgender student athletes anywhere in the country from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, and pledged to sic the Department of Justice on teachers who talk to kids about being transgender ("they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential civil rights violations").
Trump said he would "ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth." He also vowed to cut hospitals or health care providers from Medicare and Medicaid eligibility if they allow any sort of gender transition treatments (including things like puberty blockers or hormone treatments) for minors, and said he would create a private right of action for people to sue doctors who do so.
Trump's promises are part of a larger Republican strategy for 2024 that Axios describes as a "'Protect the children' platform," which centers on "aggressively target[ing] school policies on gender identity and how racial issues are taught."
FREE MARKETS
Interest rates raised again. "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point and gave little indication it is nearing the end of this hiking cycle," notes CNBC:
Aligning with market expectations, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee boosted the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage point. That takes it to a target range of 4.5%-4.75%, the highest since October 2007.
The move marked the eighth increase in a process that began in March 2022. By itself, the funds rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight borrowing, but it also spills through to many consumer debt products.
QUICK HITS
Ben Crump announces at Tyre Nichols' funeral that Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee intends to re-introduce to Congress a new version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that includes the Tyre Nichols Duty to Intervene Act
— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) February 1, 2023
• Did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis really just change the A.P. African American Studies curriculum?
• Friends of self-proclaimed sex trafficking survivor and right-wing darling Eliza Bleu say she's lying about key elements of her story.
• Southwest and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) both royally screwed up holiday travel. Southwest has already lost hundreds of millions of dollars. But what about the FAA?
• Stripper Web, a longtime web forum for exotic dancers, is mysteriously shutting down.
• Ross Douthat examines the roots and meaning of "spiritual experience" untethered to religion.
• Atlanta is charging nonviolent protesters as terrorists.
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Trump is teasing out new avenues of authoritarianism.
Teasing. He’s nothing if not subtle.
When you’re pulling your interpretation from the emanations, penumbra and dog whistles of something and not the thing itself there is nothing but teases.
I like that we have more articles about how authoritarian people who are not in power and have no authority are than we do about the actual authoritarian March to hell we are currently experiencing.
I like how teaching kids the basics for education instead of cultural marxist lesson plans is authoritarian.
That was indeed special.
I get paid over 190$ per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I’d be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I’ve been doing..
HERE====)> http://WWW.NETPAYFAST.COM
Math is racist.
Skinteger color is the most important thing.
How does the number 7 make you feel?
Great article, Mike. I appreciate your work, I’m now creating over $35,500 dollars each month simply by doing a simple job online! I do know You currently making a lot of greenbacks online from $28,400 dollars, its simple online operating jobs.
.
.
Just open the link—————————————>>> http://Www.SmartJob1.Com
Crooked
That isn’t, having the national government overstep its authority even further is.
By prioritizing basics in education over cultural marxism. That is what the speech highlighted is about.
I don’t disagree except for the fact that it isn’t the federal government’s job and everytime the feds get involved the situation gets worse. Same thing will happen if Trumps wins election, passes some bs legislation that written by a bunch of bureaucrats in DC.
As long as they fund it, things should be tied to the funding that make sense.
I am against federal funding. But until that happens, focus is fine when attached.
That Don’s opening offer isn’t no federal dollars is telling. More big government won’t solve big government.
As always, the answer is to get rid of the Department of Education.
However, until that happens, the federal government DOES get to set education policy.
I didn’t realize that Jeff was actually ENB till her framing of that.
Stop grooming kids to read!
Those narrow, paved paths between fully-erected buildings where he’s going in order to flush out the rats and try to ensure people can’t store their rotten garbage permanently… they’re new and he just now teased them out.
At least until he pees on you.
Interest rates raised again.
I’ll see your inflation and raise you a recession.
Won’t anyone think of the spittin tobaccy?
But we ca re-define those so it never happens (happened).
Proof transgerism is real. Boy in dress says hospital told him he has PMS.
https://mobile.twitter.com/troonytoons/status/1620809407671177221
Science!
What a strange period we live in.
Easiest to just go with the flow.
It’s a stain on the fabric of our society.
The YMCA tranny has a gynecologist. Nothing surprises me anymore. Just waiting for the meteor.
Meteor? I seriously doubt that tinkering with hormones and genitals affects astronomical phenomena.
If a large meteor is on a collision course with planet Earth, ENB will somehow blame it on Trump.
Giant Meteor 2024!
Make
America
Giant
Meteorite
Again
That’ll be a hot time in the ole town tonight.
Google pays an hourly wage of $100. My most recent online earnings for a 40-hour work week were $3500. According to my younger brother’s acquaintance, he works roughly 30 hours each vad02 week and earns an average of $12,265. I’m in awe of how simple things once were.
.
.
See this article for more information————————>>>OPEN>> http://WWW.DAILYPRO7.COM
https://twitter.com/NoahPollak/status/1620949491611492353?t=u7bz84y6Bewki3WXJI1jfQ&s=19
DeSantis is politicizing higher education, commented the Associate Professor of Gender Studies in between classes where she advocates racial quotas, abolishing police, banning private property, prohibiting free speech, and the gender fluidity of toddlers
Shellenberger with a great breakdown of the corruption of dems, media, and government regarding the Russian hoax.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1620533994373943298
For those who have not yet read the article, you really should.
It is extremely self-serving and bends over backwards to protect the people perpetrating the hoax….
And yet it is still damning telling of the events of the Russia-gate hoax and it details the timeline and many of the important figures of the hoax, from an insiders perspective.
And the libertines who inhabit this comment section will deny it and go back to promoting Russia-gate.
I see you’ve interacted with White Mike.
Unreal.
It is time for Chic-fil-A to pay reparations for Chicxulub Critical Theory
FFS, Trump is not in office.
The libertine wing of The Atlantic is trending further left.
The bigger thing is ENB is ignoring every child succeeds act pushed through by Obama, and written by Linda darling-Hammond who stated that the goal of the act is to impose Palo frierian education. This is a method to explicitly teach Marxism.
ENB should quit as basic research is out of her skill set
Well she’s ignoring it for a purpose.
I doubt she has a problem with forbidding creationism being taught in science class.
The funny thing is that, like other religions, if she wants her CRT and transgenderism pushed, she can send her kids to a private school.
Yup repeal that and well the entire federal education department.
This is the way.
When you try to out-NPR NPR.
Congress did virtually nothing to account for fraud regarding 4T covid spending.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/agencies-congress-didnt-even-try-to-stop-fraud-in-4t-coronavirus-bailout-audit-finds
Fraud includes thousands of federal workers claiming UI benefits while still employed.
https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/30/your-taxes-paid-thousands-of-government-staff-covid-unemployment-while-they-worked-from-home/
https://twitter.com/RWMaloneMD/status/1621148024880898051?t=vid5tCZhxEZHEuqC9q4isA&s=19
EXCLUSIVE: The Federal Government Is Tracking Unvaccinated People Who Go To The Doctor And To The Hospital Due to CDC-Designed Surveillance Program – National File
[Link]
Leslie Stahl hardest hit…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/politics/hunter-biden-laptop-contents-letter/index.html
Remember how the Biden laptop was “unverifiable”??
Well, hunter has finally verified it.
In a stunning new strategy, they are trying to use government power to prosecute anyone who seeks to look at it. It seems that the breaking point was when reporters started finding emails that appeared to show him passing classified briefing materials to Ukraine.
So they have taken their case to a Delaware DA to prosecute the store owner. The lawyers now maintain that Hunter never dropped off a laptop (he has said he certainly may have in interviews) and that the shop owner somehow drove his blind ass to hunters house to steal it??? I dunno. They leave out that detail.
HUNTER DICK PICS.
Do you want to wake up Butt Plug?
Move over revenge porn narrative, weak attempt at lawfare to silence dissent inbound.
And forged Hunter’s signature on the receipt, as well. That shop-owner is one crafty SOB
Look who suddenly cares about matching signitures
“they are trying to use government power to prosecute anyone who seeks to look at it.”
“We can’t publish anything obtained by nefarious means” – NYT, WaPo, Reason Magazine
Don’t tell Mike Laursen. He’s still stuck in 2020 over it.
Atlanta is charging nonviolent protesters as terrorists.
Just following the lead of Garland’s Justice Department, I guess
I love that Reason will call 1/6 protesters terrorists but when a group ACTUALLY murders somebody and tosses molotov cocktails — they’re peaceful protesters.
Then again, this magazine did lionize a dead antifa member in 2020 who threatened a dude in a car with his rifle.
Fbi refuses to give updates on Biden classified documents search citing ongoing investigation. The literally opposite of staged photos for Trump. They state…
“Look, I think we’re providing information as this goes on and answering questions about the search activities as they’ve been happening,” Sams said. “I don’t want to speak too much to the DOJ’s practices in an ongoing investigation. I can say, you know, that we have cooperated fully, though the president’s personal attorneys have provided information to DOJ.”
Imagine the bolded part said to hide info regarding trump.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-refuses-to-say-if-fbi-searching-more-biden-locations-for-docs-wont-disclose-how-many-seized
It’s good to be in power.
It’s good to have the FBI/CIA on your side.
We should totes give the government the benefit of the doubt. – jeff
Parody is obsolete: Exhibit #943
“New travel restrictions should also be imposed on all Russian citizens. A complete travel ban to all democratic countries is one option” “Another is to make all Russians wanting to travel to democratic countries pay an additional “Ukrainian reconstruction fee” on top of the cost of their visas.” “If they do not want to pay such a fee for fear that it signals support for Ukraine, then they can vacation in Minsk instead of Barcelona.”
Everybody got that? Putin is a tyrant. Also ordinary Russians are responsible for what Putin does.
The truth regarding eastern Europe is minskmeat.
I have decided to expand this series to include moronic Trump dead-enders. 🙂
Parody is obsolete: Exhibit #202
Laura Loomer: Everyone knows GOP allowed for @KariLake’s election to be stolen. GOP only *allowed* DeSantis to win to take Trump out. Kari outshined Ron in 2022, & she’s actually LOYAL! I bet deep down, Kari knows this is true. PS: How come DeSantis was silent over Kari’s race being stolen?
The candidate who lost is good because Trump likes her. The candidate who won reelection by 19 points is bad because Trump doesn’t like him (anymore).
Again I pose the question: If these people were secretly working on behalf of Democrats, what would they be doing differently?
Again I pose the question: If these people were secretly working on behalf of Democrats, what would they be doing differently?
Accusing people they don’t like and admit are losers of secretly working on behalf of Democrats.
To be clear, I don’t believe Laura Loomer is literally on the Democrats’ payroll. Just like I didn’t believe Republican voters who gave Dems the weak midterm opponents they wanted were literally on the Democrats’ payroll.
I’m saying Trump dead-enders are so shockingly stupid, their behavior is often indistinguishable from a hypothetical double agent.
To be clear, nobody believed Trump was on Putin’s payroll either.
Ummmm shrike. And maybe Mike.
“to include moronic Trump dead-enders.”
Thanks Sandra, I love you too.
To be fair, assuming the GOPe is capable of playing that level of political Machiavellianism is giving them WAY too much credit. Claiming that these same people “allowed” DeSantis to take a 19-point win in what had been a swing state up until he took over and started cleaning up and fortifying the state’s electoral processes misses the fact that those GOPe leaders absolutely despise culture warriors like him.
Sandra’s cats think she’s totes smart and funny
I thought travel bans were Racist.
This is against white people so it’s the good kind of racism
Um, that’s anti-racism.
Ummm….so you are for open borders? I thought OBL was parody.
I bet that same motherfucker called anyone who suggested blocking travel from China a racist three years ago.
Maine is another migration magnet. It’s the poorest state in the Northeast and one of the poorest in the nation. Even so, it’s the destination of choice for Haitian and African migrants. Maine rolls out the red carpet.
.
Some 400 migrant families are living in hotels and motels in Maine. To foot the bill, the Maine Housing Authority dipped into Emergency Rental Assistance funds provided by Congress to help people who couldn’t pay their rent during the COVID lockdowns.
.
Some states reserved the funds for residents facing homelessness, but Maine allowed the money to house newcomers. Now that federal money has dried up, the state is asking taxpayers to fork over $182 million for the migrants’ hotel and motel rooms.
.
All the while, Maine is facing the highest rate of homelessness in 15 years, with shelters near capacity and homeless locals desperate to survive winter in tents.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-york-maine-migrant-magnets-hotel-american-needs-no-vacancy-sign
Sarc hardest hit.
Like sarc pays taxes.
Mostly a jab at loss of homeless resources for citizens.
I’m sure he’s more than willing to share.
Some citizens from other states travel here to get on the dole. Maybe it is easier to do that here and maybe they “timed out” where they were.
Was listening in to a closed municipal meeting where the homeless shelter staff, the town administrator and a rep from Salvation Army were talking about the phenomenon. The numbers are increasing.
We had -5 deg F this morning and will have -20 the next two days. If one is not living indoors, one may not be living. In the past, that kept a lot of folks from moving to the Pine Tree State.
Trump is teasing out new avenues of authoritarianism.
I see the TDS is still strong in you ENB. Good, good, feel the hate flow through you.
She even lists off several examples. How stupid is that? You know, making an assertion and then backing it up. Nobody does that anymore. You’re supposed to back up assertions with personal attacks and insults. You know, like you just did. She’s wrong because she’s got TDS and is full of hate. Who cares what she based her statement on? You won the argument by attacking her as a person. Bravo!
I unmuted ITL a few days ago because I vaguely remembered the handle as someone who was capable of intelligent conversation. Wanted to give him one more try.
Since then a steady stream of Trolling and some Insanity, but zero Logic. So mostly truth in labeling.
I love how you and sarcasmaschmuck think muting people is punishing them.
Makes them look extra retarded when they comment on muted posts.
In reality they mute to avoid information that destroys their narratives or emphasizes their hypocrisy.
They are both victims providing the most useful insights. Totally not narrative pushers.
I think Mike’s still butthurt about the evidence I gave him a few days ago. He’s like a YEC asking for a missing link. You provide one, and then he wants you to fill in the additional missing links due to the fact you provided what he asked for. Then when you show him that this was exactly what he was looking for, he gets pissed, attacks with ad hominem arguments, attacks the source of the report, and then “mutes” you in revenge.
“Mike’s still butthurt about the evidence I gave him a few days ago”
Being proven wrong is their number one reason for muting people. Nothing those two hate more than a proper citation.
Well, that’s one (highly inaccurate) version of the story.
But you are right about one thing … I’m putting you back on mute because you are not capable of honest or meaningful discussion.
OH NO! Not the mute!
How will you survive ITL?
Not a clue. I might have to atone by praising ENB and following her around on Twitter like a lost puppy.
Right. You’re not known for your honesty around these here parts, White Knight Mike. You remind me of a YEC I used to debate on talk.origins a long time ago. Even when shown evidence, he’d still keep on with the denials and lies.
Even when shown evidence, he’d still keep on with the denials and lies.
Wait a minute. You guys are angry at Reason writers for changing their minds when shown evidence. Yet you’re also angry at people who do not change their minds when shown evidence. Meanwhile you pal around with people with steel trap minds that will never change no matter what evidence is shown to them.
I’m detecting a lack of consistency here.
I’m guessing I made the list. When are you going to post the list?
We pointed out that you and them ignored reams of evidence until you couldn’t hide behind ignorance. You in particular attacked those giving you the evidence that you now admit to.
If you really want to be muted I could do so. That means you’d be like the girls here who I never respond to. I don’t respond to them because they’re human garbage who exist only to score points. They never have ideas, nor do they ever debate ideas. Only people. Every comment contains the word “you” in almost every sentence, because the argue people not what people say. So you’ll have to step up and act more like them. None of these honest debates about ideas without attacking the source. No more judging what someone says based upon what they said instead of who they are. No more coming to conclusions based upon facts instead of people. You’ll have to give up all intellectual honesty, all of your integrity, and give up any pretenses of being interested in debate. You’ll have to make everything about whoever you’re talking to, instead of what they are talking about.
If you think you can do all that then I’ll be happy to add you to The List.
For not responding to people you sure talk about them enough. You even respond to arguments with made up conjecture about their “muted” statements.
Intellectual honesty like disagreeing with shrike and then attacking other “muted” people saying the same things as liars in the same thread? Want the link?
Your entire complaint is people doing literally what you did in this post.
Is hypocrisy your favorite tactic?
Google pays an hourly wage of $100. My most recent online earnings for a 40-hour work week were $3500. According to my younger brother’s acquaintance, he works roughly 30 hours each vad02 week and earns an average of $12,265. I’m in awe of how simple things once were.
.
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See this article for more information————————>>>OPEN>> http://WWW.DAILYPRO7.COM
When he’s not out to impress the girls he can have some interesting things to say.
You and Mike dating yet?
Yep, anyone that says anything against you or Mike are just hangers on for the “Mean Girls”. It couldn’t possibly be multiple people reaching the same conclusions based off of y’all’s posts. Nope, everyone just wants to be part of their clique.
Giant fucking eyeroll.
No. It is exactly what happened. People even commented on you doing it in the thread.
But you are right about one thing … I’m putting you back on mute because you are not capable of honest or meaningful discussion.
I think the saddest thing is that you trollbertarians actually think you’re ‘muting’ someone. You’re not. They can still be heard. You’re just sticking your fingers in your ears, closing your eyes, and shouting ‘lalalala’ to keep yourselves from hearing them.
And you’re proud of announcing that you’re behaving like three-year-olds.
ENB loves both of you.
You guys couldn’t have a sense of humor if it smacked you upside your heads into next week.
There’s a difference between humor and stupid. Some people laugh at both, not knowing the difference. I can’t speak for Mike, but I don’t find stupid to be funny.
Isn’t that what you pretend your whole schtick is? “I was being sarcastic and retarded on purpose”.
Yes. Yes it is. When he can’t defend his idiotic statements he resorts to saying he was being sarcastic.
Yeah, it’s a shame. I tried to give him a chance.
No you didn’t. You literally just lied about your last interaction.
Note to Mike’s ego: you muting people has zero negative impact on them or their lives.
Muting people has a positive impact on my life. I’m no longer Charlie Brown tempted to kick the football because Lucy is on mute. I’m no longer tempted to defend myself from lies being told about me. These masturbators are master baiters, and it’s easier to not fall for the bait when they are on mute. And yes it does have a negative impact on their lives. They are ignored. They try harder and harder and harder to get attention, but it never comes. They want attention so badly. Poor babies.
I agree that in some cases, for narcissists, they don’t get the release when the person does not respond. Tony, maybe jeff and certainly Mike. In the case of Mike, the approval seeking with Ken was stalker creepy. I doubt Mike or anyone else muting ITL has any impact or him.
Seems to be some account jumping today.
Google pays an hourly wage of $100. My most recent online earnings for a 40-hour work week were $3500. According to my younger brother’s acquaintance, he works roughly 30 hours each vad02 week and earns an average of $12,265. I’m in awe of how simple things once were.
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See this article for more information————————>>>OPEN>> http://WWW.DAILYPRO7.COM
I’m ever-so-hurt that Mike muted me. Let me go play my world’s smallest violin while I soothe my tears over it.
So positive that you still talk about them including making up arguments from their “muted” posts?
Nobody cares who you claim to mute.
Ben Crump announces at Tyre Nichols’ funeral that Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee intends to re-introduce to Congress a new version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that includes the Tyre Nichols Duty to Intervene Act
Sheila is going to show up and personally intervene when cops are wailing on someone while they’re enforcing laws that she voted for.
It’s odd that ENB dedicates a chunk of print to fear-mongering about trump, but this combined effort from crump/jackson lee gets no more than the cut and paste. Federal guidance would be acceptable, federal mandates from authoritarian putzes and grifters like these two will not bring about police reform. They will however continue the DNC history of intruding into the states’ law-making arenas, and continue to fail to provide basic oversight as w/ all Congressional programs.
“the Marxism being preached in our schools” (a.k.a. anything Trumpian conservatives don’t like) as both a violation of the separation between church and state and a violation of freedom of religion.”
This is some serious Grade A gaslighting.
Mikey, take notes…this is how it’s done.
So ENB admits marxism is her religion?
Just took a note on how strong your emotional reaction is whenever someone says something critical of Trump.
1) Trump is not in office.
2) Lies about him should be called out, especially when they were/are used to push a progressive narrative and policy.
What part of “Trump said this” did you fail to grasp???
I’m referencing Mike’s continued pushing of the Russian collusion hoax.
Which even the Columbia Journalism Review wrote about the Russian stuff being totally fake.
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-ed-note.php
No narrative did more to shape Trump’s relations with the press than Russiagate. The story, which included the Steele dossier and the Mueller report among other totemic moments, resulted in Pulitzer Prizes as well as embarrassing retractions and damaged careers. For Trump, the press’s pursuit of the Russia story convinced him that any sort of normal relationship with the press was impossible.
Came across this series on Twitter via Michael Shellenberger. Part I:
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-1.php
Before the 2016 election, most Americans trusted the traditional media and the trend was positive, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. The phrase “fake news” was limited to a few reporters and a newly organized social media watchdog. The idea that the media were “enemies of the American people” was voiced only once, just before the election on an obscure podcast, and not by Trump, according to a Nexis search.
Part II:
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-2.php
Before Comey’s testimony, Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat, read an opening statement in which he quoted from the dossier’s unsubstantiated allegation about Carter Page meeting with a sanctioned Russian official close to Putin in 2016 to discuss an extraordinarily lucrative business deal in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The California Democrat would go on MSNBC two days later to state that there was “more than circumstantial evidence now” of collusion. He offered no substantiation. Schiff declined to comment through his press aide, Lauren French, who said, in an email, “this isn’t something we’re going to move forward on.”
Part III:
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-3.php
By late October, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee had obtained banking records showing Fusion’s client for the dossier was Marc Elias, the lawyer for the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
Part IV:
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-4.php
My main conclusion is that journalism’s primary missions, informing the public and holding powerful interests accountable, have been undermined by the erosion of journalistic norms and the media’s own lack of transparency about its work. This combination adds to people’s distrust about the media and exacerbates frayed political and social differences.
Grade D gaslighting Mikey. Strive for the ENB level.
A) I have no emotional reaction
B) You did not take a note
C) The statement was not critical of Trump, it was a gaslit lie.
“a.k.a. anything Trumpian conservatives don’t like”
Reason can defend the Marxism by vilifying Trump and DeSantis for trying to reel it in it, but it still Marxism. It is not something conservative simply dislike.
I dislike sports in public schools, but sports aren’t Marxist. See the difference?
“A) I have no emotional reaction”
What is your motivation for feeling you need to defend Trump or “Trumpian conservatives”?
“B) You did not take a note”
You got me on that. I didn’t really take a note. That would be creepy.
“C) The statement was not critical of Trump”
It most certainly was. It said “Trumpian” right in the sentence.
Calling out lies pushing a narrative isn’t defending him. Calling out the Russian hoax as a hoax isn’t defending him. Calling you out for still pushing the Russian hoax isn’t defending him.
It is attacking yours and the medias lies to benefit a party.
It most certainly was. It said “Trumpian” right in the sentence.
Youre literally defending a bald assertions lol.
“ What is your motivation for feeling you need to defend Trump or “Trumpian conservatives”?”
You don’t have to be a Trumpian conservative to realize that cultural Marxism is being pushed in schools. So the statement is demonstrably false AND nothing more than a baseless partisan assertion.
Did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis really just change the A.P. African American Studies curriculum?
Depends. Which means we can label him Satan incarnate?
When you have lost Fist…
Transjails.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/02/beware-the-wolves-in-ewes-clothing/
Only a very silly person indeed believes that transwomen are only ever shrinking violets who just want to press wild flowers and urinate sitting down. Many of them are dirty great bruisers who could easily work as bouncers if the bottom fell out of the sissy-porn market. Make no mistake, trans ‘rights’ is the first ‘liberation’ movement both inspired and fuelled by pornography. Various ages and trials of a woman’s life can be sexualised, from the trans predilection for dressing up as little girls to the ghastly fake babies (don’t ask), which allow men to ape gestation and childbirth. Lesbians, of course, are the most loved and hated targets of these autogynephiles, which is thoroughly in line with porn-scored desires.
Southwest has already lost hundreds of millions of dollars. But what about the FAA?
It’s on maternity leave.
Oops.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/02/the-liberal-hypocrisy-over-britains-missing-children/
Last week, the UK Home Office admitted that about 200 asylum-seeking children had gone missing, at least 13 of whom are under the age of 16. Before they disappeared, these children had arrived in the UK unaccompanied by their parents, and been placed in hotels run by the Home Office.
Nevermind the same people so concerned over this were fully in support of the grooming gangs operating in England and don’t care if the “asylum seekers” are straight up lying about everything including their age
Forget whitewashing (too white supremic?), there’s now transwashing.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/01/the-dangers-of-trans-washing-the-past/
In some cases, activists have gone even further back in time to try to find transgender people. The Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, who died in 1458 BC, is often presented as a contender for ‘the first documented transgender figure in history’. Academics who practise ‘queer archaeology’ have started to explicitly label ancient human remains as nonbinary, or are refusing to classify bones as male or female, on the grounds that we apparently cannot know the gender identity of 9,000-year-old skeletons.
Suddenly, everyone’s pelvic bones are the same.
Suddenly, every
onething’s pelvic bones are the same.FIFY
Am I the only one getting “Nazis measuring skulls in India” vibes?
I am getting the “it’s Aliens” guy vibes.
Academics who practise ‘queer archaeology’
There are no such Academics. There may be anti-academic activists actively working to impose ‘queer archaeology’, but they seek to neither to advance human knowledge and understanding, nor professional, objective education and scholarship and, as such, are not Academics of any sort, nominal or otherwise.
What’s wrong with academics who unquestionably promote doctrine?
The Eliza Bleu story is a story because Eliza Bleu used her connections inside social media companies ,(particularly Twitter) to get people banned for sharing “unauthorized photos that were not voluntarily taken”. As a survivor, she was wounded by this. Except the photo was a screenshot from a music video she was paid to be a model in. She even publicly bragged about how happy she was for the video.
So people got banned for what sounded like sharing revenge porn of a sex trafficking victim. But was actually a picture from a music video that is on YouTube as we speak. Not even demonetized or adults only.
Reason skipped all the “liberty” part, but when we get to the junior high school catfight between friends that lets us in on the gossip about a rich girl who seems to have fabricated her backstory…. Now we are interested.
I guess the “banning people from social media” part was “too local”??
I guess the “banning people from social media” part was “too local”??
Something something, Private Companies.
Holy shit, Eliza Blue is a national story now?
I thought it was just some weird Twitter circle thing
If Eliza Bleu is a ‘right wing darling’, how come I’ve never heard of her?
Apparently everyone loves Britler.
Hunter says, “yes, the laptop is mine, and that’s me smoking crack on it.”
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/hunter-biden-admits-infamous-laptop-is-his-in-plea-for-probe/
First son Hunter Biden’s lawyers admitted late Wednesday that the infamous laptop that the now-52-year-old abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in the throes of his crack cocaine addiction does indeed belong to him.
So, the other part of the story is that while the laptop sits locked up in some FBI evidence room, what is actually circulating around is a disk drive. A disk drive with a spotty chain of custody and lots of people messing with the files on it.
You do realize that even the hard drive has been verified.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/21/cbs-confirms-hunter-biden-laptop-is-real-769-days-after-post-broke-story/
CBS News said Monday that it confirmed the authenticity of data from Hunter Biden’s former laptop — more than two years after The Post first revealed its contents — as the first son’s lawyer complained he didn’t “consent” to the release.
And wait, here’s more verification.
https://www.newsweek.com/hunter-biden-laptop-twitter-files-1765395
In March 2022, the Times acknowledged the authenticity of some of the contents of the laptop in an article about the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax affairs, stating “emails were obtained by the New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop.”
Some
You have “Logic” in your handle. Do you understand the difference between some and all.
^ What carrying the HO2 for the DNC looks like.
Logic. Read differently or worded differently. The Times viewed some of the content and acknowledged its authenticity. They did not view every bit of content on the laptop and found what they needed to verify the facts for the story.
Also the meaning of some.
Don’t disagree. The Times reporting was shoddy.
Mike, you’re so totes not a Democrat.
2) I’m a libertarian ™ and ENB <3 me.
Oh, there’s more, from even the FBI and DOJ.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-doj-fbi-confirm-hunter-biden-laptop-is-not-part-of-russian-disinformation-campaign
“Don’t drag the intelligence community into this,” Ratcliffe continued. “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign and I think it’s clear the American people know that.”
“”“Don’t drag the intelligence community into this,” Ratcliffe continued. “”
The intel community put itself into it when they signed a letter claiming it had the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.
You were not concerned about the chain of custody with the Steele Dossier. You believed that hook, line, and sinker.
Or mail in ballots.
And the FBI ‘investigation’ into the evidence?
Wonder how that is going and when they will release all the pertinent information that will exonerate young Hunter?
Don’t know. I agree they are taking a long time.
Chain of custody required for hunters laptop, not required for elections. Amusing.
Why claim “dick pics” when you can claim you’re the victim of your own laptop?
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/new-tactic-hunter-biden-is-the-laptop-from-hell-victim/
Then, Wednesday evening, Hunter’s lawyers did an abrupt U-turn. Yes, the laptop computer is his, they finally admit. But information from it was published without his permission!
Too funny = published without permission
I thought it was Russian disinfo….? 🙂
1619’s historical fiction and ignoring why the Revolution actually happened.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/to-vilify-our-founders-hulus-1619-ignores-what-actually-sparked-the-american-revolution/
The 1619 Project’s most harebrained idea is that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery. Slavery was barbaric, especially in the more southern states. But there was little slavery in the northern colonies, and they would not have risked their lives for its preservation.
People have always loved paying taxes .
I actually wonder if this is the primary push of this project. Turn it from revolution against taxes to revolution for racism. Kills 2 stones. Tell Americans taxes aren’t bad and you’re racist for control measures.
The primary purpose of the 1619 propaganda is to destroy American ideals.
Cultural/racial Marxism.
Again, to prove they were serious about ending slavery in The Colonies, The British shot Crispus Attucks.
To be fair, the narrative that the Civil War was fought to “free the slaves” is complete bullshit, too. There’d be a legitimate CSA today if most of the Union troops thought they were actually fighting to free the slaves from bondage. They didn’t like black people any more than the poor, non-slaveholding crackers fighting on the side of the Confederacy.
Outside of a few hyper-idealistic northeastern elites, the vast majority of the Union army was fighting to bring the country back together, not free slaves. The EP was simply an inevitable strategic policy adopted by Lincoln because he knew it would ultimately weaken the South enough to help bring the war to a close.
‘Hyper-idealistic northeastern elites,’ I support their viewpoint, and their right to hold and fight for it, but can’t help but compare this to current year very online dipshitterati. Add the SE, left coast, and the comparison seems apropos.
The northern states were more against southern power than they were against pro freedom. Most of their talks revolved around reducing the farming industry competing against northern factory output. Even for northerners the fight was largely economic power sourcing.
Outside of a few hyper-idealistic northeastern elites, the vast majority of the Union army was fighting to bring the country back together
Why did it split apart? What was the irreconcilable issue that caused the South to decide to secede?
I’ll give you a hint– it started with an ‘s’.
Why did it split apart?
Irrelevant. The fact remains that the vast majority of the Union army didn’t go to fight in a war to free bonded black people. Northeastern brahmins like Robert Gould Shaw and Joshua Chamberlain certainly did, but they were the minority. If they had, the North never would have had to implement a draft after the EP was released.
Lincoln himself even stated that he would gladly keep every slave in bondage if it meant bringing the Union back together. The ultimate cause of the conflict is beside the point, and I’ll remind you, it actually only started because the South stupidly fired on Fort Sumter.
FBI: Fixing Biden’s Investigation.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/fbi-bungling-case-against-biden-over-top-secret-documents/
At every stage, the FBI has adopted an approach that would compromise or complicate any criminal charge.
This exercise is merely to derail his plans to run again. Nobody intends to really hurt the gravy train.
Stripper Web, a longtime web forum for exotic dancers, is mysteriously shutting down.
Making it rain… tears.
It’s an uncover operation.
Naked oppression
Ross Douthat examines the roots and meaning of “spiritual experience” untethered to religion.
You can’t hide from the militant atheists that way.
DC and major TDS.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/the-dc-anti-trump-brigade-behind-the-big-bad-bot-stories-that-duped-the-media/
Simply in terms of volume, Taibbi estimates that Hamilton 68 “may go down as the single greatest case of media fabulism in American history. Virtually every major news organization in America is implicated, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Mother Jones alone did at least 14 stories pegged to the group’s ‘research.’ Even fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes cited Hamilton 68 as a source.”
Atlanta is charging nonviolent protesters as terrorists.
I blame Donny Glover.
The nonviolent ones who shot a cop and destroyed property and openly planned further violent attacks?
Those nonviolent protesters?
The same group that set fire to a truck at the proposed training site while the driver was in it… Then called for violence in Atlanta after claiming the dickhead who shot the cop didn’t shoot the cop. Reasonmag is nothing if not lacking objectivity.
Meta’s bid to buy the virtual reality (V.R.) company Within Unlimited may proceed…
Thank goodness. Within Unlimited is bringing the pants.
Another one? And no, it’s not Buttplug.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/missing-former-abc-producer-charged-child-porn
James Gordon Meek, who was writing about the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan when he “fell off the face of the earth,” was raided by the FBI in October 2022.
So…did they find him or is he still missing?
They found him. Evidence includes a video of someone raping a toddler and him talking about how it is his dream. Sick shit.
Are you serious? Take the guy out back, put a bullet in his head.
…. was raided by the FBI in October 2022.
Is he “cooperating “?
It’s lying all the way down with Pfizer.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/pfizer-ceo-made-misleading-statements-vaccinating-children-against-covid-19-uk-watchdog
During an interview with the BBC published on Dec. 2, 2021, Bourla was asked whether he believed it was likely that 5- to 11-year-olds in the UK and Europe would be vaccinated against COVID-19 and whether it was a good idea.
WWIII here we come! Neocons and Democrats excited!
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/us-readying-ukraine-arms-package-rockets-can-reach-nearly-100-miles
The US is preparing another major escalation of military aid to Ukraine as Reuters reports the next arms package will include rockets that have a range of 94 miles (150 km), almost double the range of the munitions Ukraine was provided for the HIMARS rocket systems.
Mission creep indeed.
Commander in Chief Biden certainly is the mission creep.
Unfortunately, the LP is cosponsoring this with actual communists.
Also- NAFO is the most cringe astroturf that ever been employed.
https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1620870610749640704?t=Cr0hfeXk_wA6hL5WemCIDg&s=19
Join us at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday, Feb 19 at 12:30 pm, on the anniversary of the Ukraine War. Veterans, speakers, musicians, comedians—we’re all Raging Against the War Machine.
And we want you there with us!
Remember when Trump droned an Iranian terrorist, and all the blue checks, including this magazine’s staff, said he started WW3.
But they’re okay with this.
I thought WW3 started when he spoke with Kim Jong-un. No wait, it started when he dumped all the fish food in the koi pond.
No, now I remember! It was when he got two scoops of ice cream.
WHOA: #GoogleLeaks tells #TwitterFiles to hold its beer with bombshell-filled thread
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2023/01/31/whoa-googleleaks-tells-twitterfiles-to-hold-its-beer-with-bombshell-filled-thread/
#3 In 2021, former Google software engineer Zachary Vorhies (@Perpetualmaniac) published a book where he explained that the turning point was the election of @realDonaldTrump.
The morning after the election, employees cried, lost their minds, and planned their resistance.
…#5 Kent Walker, Google’s Chief Legal Officer, suggested Trump voters were motivated by “fear,” “xenophobia,” and “hatred.”
He described how the company would take on the rise of “populism” and “nationalism.”
Twitter, Media, And Democrats Are All Guilty In The Hamilton 68 Scandal
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/01/twitter-media-and-democrats-are-all-guilty-in-the-hamilton-68-scandal/
The latest chapter of “The Twitter Files” broke on Friday, with the release of internal communications that provided a takedown of Hamilton 68, which wrongly purported to expose Russian disinformation on social media. The details released, however, prove equally devasting to the corrupt media, dishonest Democrats, and Twitter itself.
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi’s most recent exposé provided more details of the internal angst at Twitter caused by Hamilton 68, which Taibbi described as “a computerized ‘dashboard’ designed to be used by reporters and academics to measure ‘Russian disinformation.’” As Taibbi explained, former FBI counterintelligence agent Clint Watts conceived of the dashboard, which the Alliance for Securing Democracy think-tank hosted. It then served as “the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years.”…
Mathematics is racist. Objectivity is racist. There is no truth but the ideology. The party is accountable to nobody and nothing. 2+2 = whatever they say, anything else denies power to the party thus supporting racist capitalism.
“Objectivity Has Got To Go”: News Leaders Call for the End of Objective Journalismhttps://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/01/objectivity-has-got-to-go-news-leaders-call-for-end-of-objective-journalism/
We previously discussed the movement in journalism schools to get rid of principles of objectivity in journalism. Advocacy journalism is the new touchstone in the media even as polls show that trust in the media is plummeting. Now, former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward have released the results of their interviews with over 75 media leaders and concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.” …
Opinion Newsrooms that move beyond ‘objectivity’ can build trust
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/30/newsrooms-news-reporting-objectivity-diversity/
But increasingly, reporters, editors and media critics argue that the concept of journalistic objectivity is a distortion of reality. They point out that the standard was dictated over decades by male editors in predominantly White newsrooms and reinforced their own view of the world. They believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading “bothsidesism” in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.
It’s Far Too Late For A ‘Reckoning’ Of The Trump Years. The Corrupted News Media Are Irredeemable
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/01/the-corrupted-news-media-are-irredeemable-its-far-too-late-for-a-reckoning-of-the-trump-years/
If you have nothing going on and 10 hours to spare, you should still find something to do other than read the tragically long article in the Columbia Journalism Review that bills itself as a reckoning for the appalling misconduct of the news media during the Trump years. It’s too little and about six years too late for that trash.
Mummified legend Bob Woodward is quoted in the piece, authored this week by former New York Times journalist Jeff Gerth, urging newsrooms to “walk down the painful road of introspection.” Gerth himself says “news outlets and watchdogs haven’t been as forthright in examining their own Trump-Russia coverage.” He ticks through a series of prominent writers and editors who “declined to comment” on his exhausting attempt at serious — very, very serious — media accountability.
So what? They did what they did. They continue to do it. They have achieved their goals and shown they’re willing to defend their victories with whatever it takes. But we, the people who called B.S. from the beginning, are supposed to be impressed, grateful even, that someone of prestige is acknowledging that we were right?
Gerth, Woodward, and the rest can go practice having a stroke.
No amount of “painful road of introspection” can fix what the media, conspiring with the Democratic Party and the permanent Washington bureaucracy, did to this country and to American democracy. They beat a terrifying lie — a sitting president as an asset of a foreign adversary — into the public consciousness for more than two years, crippling the political agenda Trump was duly elected to enact and, certainly, aiding in the denial of a second term in office.
If you have nothing going on and 10 hours to spare, you should still find something to do other than read the tragically long article in the Columbia Journalism Review that bills itself as a reckoning for the appalling misconduct of the news media during the Trump years. It’s too little and about six years too late for that trash.
I’m honestly shocked the people who wrote that article possessed that level of self-awareness to realize how much the press’s actions during the Trump years completely destroyed public trust in them, much less the CJR allowing it to go to print in the first place. It’s a devastating indictment straight from one of the Cathedral’s own credentialed institutions.
You build trust by throwing away ‘objectivity’, according to WaPo. Millennials only trust people who parrot the party line and reassure them of their moral and intellectual superiority.
Uh, 2005 called, it wants it already-out-of-date newsroom debate back.
Objectivity? No.. we don’t get much call for that around here anymore. People ski topless while smoking dope, so ….
https://youtu.be/vPY4HPWrL7Q
Objectivity has never existed in news rooms, the Uniparty just invented that to give an illusion of authoritativeness to The Narrative. The sooner we abandon that falsehood, the better.
We previously discussed the movement in journalism schools to get rid of principles of objectivity in journalism. Advocacy journalism is the new touchstone in the media even as polls show that trust in the media is plummeting.
The recent iteration isn’t really new–like most university departments these days, journalism schools have been quite open
for about the last 20 years or so that their mission is to create marxist activists that will push marxist ideology as a religious practice. Universities are little more than seminaries for the radical left these days.
Academia delenda est.
If you want to know why so many journalists are parroting the radical shitlibbery that was common in early-mid 2000s web media like Gawker and Salon, or more established communist outlets like The Nation, that’s why.
What took him so long?
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pritzker-to-end-illinois-emergency-orders-after-more-than-3-years/
None of Illinois’ neighbor states still see the need to declare a statewide emergency and invoke emergency powers to urge people to get vaccinated. Illinois is one of just seven states nationwide still calling the COVID-19 pandemic an emergency, with six of the seven led by Democratic governors.
It’s Time for the Scientific Community to Admit We Were Wrong About COVID and It Cost Lives | Opinion
https://www.newsweek.com/its-time-scientific-community-admit-we-were-wrong-about-coivd-it-cost-lives-opinion-1776630
As a medical student and researcher, I staunchly supported the efforts of the public health authorities when it came to COVID-19. I believed that the authorities responded to the largest public health crisis of our lives with compassion, diligence, and scientific expertise. I was with them when they called for lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters.
I was wrong. We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives.
I can see now that the scientific community from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence and misled the public about its own views and policies, including on natural vs. artificial immunity, school closures and disease transmission, aerosol spread, mask mandates, and vaccine effectiveness and safety, especially among the young. All of these were scientific mistakes at the time, not in hindsight. Amazingly, some of these obfuscations continue to the present day.
But perhaps more important than any individual error was how inherently flawed the overall approach of the scientific community was, and continues to be. It was flawed in a way that undermined its efficacy and resulted in thousands if not millions of preventable deaths.
What we did not properly appreciate is that preferences determine how scientific expertise is used, and that our preferences might be—indeed, our preferences were—very different from many of the people that we serve. We created policy based on our preferences, then justified it using data. And then we portrayed those opposing our efforts as misguided, ignorant, selfish, and evil.
We made science a team sport, and in so doing, we made it no longer science. It became us versus them, and “they” responded the only way anyone might expect them to: by resisting.
It isn’t even about team sports. Anyone who looked at the data and thought about it for 2 seconds knew we were being lied to and that the orders/recommendations didn’t make sense
Chicago says “hold my beer” to California.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-unions-mayoral-candidate-wants-suburbs-tax-on-the-rich/
Johnson proposes reinstating the $4-per-month employee “head tax” on large Chicago businesses, imposing $100 million in new user fees for areas “frequented by the wealthy, suburbanites, tourists and business travelers,” and raising the real-estate transfer and financial transactions taxes for a combined $200 million.
The Chicago Teachers Union organizer and avowed Socialist said his plan would also increase the Chicago hotel tax – which is already the highest in the nation – to generate an additional $30 million. He wants to make “the big airlines pay for polluting the air” in Chicago neighborhoods to the tune of $98 million.
Everyone will gladly pay because Chicago is such a fabulous and safe place to be.
Chicago is the epitome of what winning the cultural war looks like.
Just another day in Chicago.
https://cwbchicago.com/2023/01/fleeing-carjacker-tosses-cops-to-the-pavement-in-daring-getaway-on-chicagos-south-side.html
Shocking dashcam video shows Illinois State Police troopers being flung to the pavement as they tried to arrest an SUV full of suspected carjackers in Chicago on Tuesday evening.
Sarc approves this message.
Sarc saw an epsode of Starsky and Hutch that showed what the officers should have done.
With or without a drink in each hand?
Ideally, with an 80-ouncer in each hand…perhaps sarc needs to write a follow-up letter to Colt 45.
Pfizer reports $100 billion haul, with vast majority of profits looted from US taxpayers
https://dossier.substack.com/p/pfizer-reports-100-billion-haul-with
Pfizer colluded with the federal government to siphon off $100 billion dollars from the American taxpayer last year, in filings announced Tuesday by the drugmaker. $31 billion of that massive haul amounted to pure profit, which was up 43% from 2021.
Almost $57 billion of those dollars came directly from grants delivered by the U.S. government for the mRNA shots and Pfizer’s Paxlovid horse pills, the Covid-19 “treatment” best known for its “Paxlovid Rebound” side effects.
Bill Gates secured hundreds of millions in profits from mRNA stock sales before suddenly changing tune on vaccine technology
Once an mRNA evangelist, Gates now dismisses the technology as inferior, after banking a 15x return on investment.
https://dossier.substack.com/p/bill-gates-secured-hundreds-of-millions
He’s trying to bail before things go really bad, really fast.
Uh, 2005 called, it wants it already-out-of-date newsroom debate back.
Objectivity? No.. we don’t get much call for that around here anymore. People ski topless while smoking dope, so ….
https://youtu.be/vPY4HPWrL7Q
https://twitter.com/rpyers/status/1620547913406636034
The Lincoln Project wraps up 2022 having raised $12.6M, spending ~$1M on political independent expenditures, w/the remaining $11.8M going to assorted other operating expenditures (chiefly legal fees/payouts and #resist-funded generational wealth transfers to the usual suspects).
Conserving conservatism conservatively.
How much did they spend on teenage boy’s asses in 2022? Less than 2021?
I’m in the wrong business.
Crime isn’t limited to crooks and politicians in Chicago.
https://cwbchicago.com/2023/02/chicago-cop-accused-of-forging-records-to-beat-traffic-tickets-won-70-dismissals-and-paid-just-10-times-records-show.html
Prosecutors on Tuesday accused a newly-retired Chicago cop of successfully contesting dozens of traffic tickets since 2009 by falsely reporting that his girlfriend had stolen his car 44 different times.
“Trump is teasing out new avenues of authoritarianism. The former president and 2024 presidential candidate’s education plan would give the federal government even more control over what can be taught in schools around the country.”
An education plan for public schools is now authoritarian? Funny that ENB doesn’t have a problem with all the “Dear colleague” letters the Democrats have been handing out like candy, but the going back to the three “R’s” is incipient authoritarianism.
What a retarded joke.
Peace activist sentenced for criticizing German war policy in Ukraine
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/01/qqln-f01.html
The Berlin-Tiergarten District Court sentenced peace activist Heinrich Bücker in January for speaking out in public against Germany’s war policy in Ukraine. The verdict is a massive attack on the basic democratic rights of freedom of speech and assembly. It is reminiscent of the persecution of anti-militarists in the Weimar Republic who—like Carl von Ossietzky—opposed the rearmament of the Reichswehr (armed forces)….
Germans have no industry with thought policing and speech control so you can’t really blame them for not seeing how bad this is.
no “history” . typo
Whole body gestational donation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36401055/
Whole body gestational donation offers an alternative means of gestation for prospective parents who wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to, gestate. It seems plausible that some people would be prepared to consider donating their whole bodies for gestational purposes just as some people donate parts of their bodies for organ donation. We already know that pregnancies can be successfully carried to term in brain-dead women. There is no obvious medical reason why initiating such pregnancies would not be possible. In this paper, I explore the ethics of whole-body gestational donation. I consider a number of potential counter-arguments, including the fact that such donations are not life-saving and that they may reify the female reproductive body. I suggest if we are happy to accept organ donation in general, the issues raised by whole-body gestational donation are differences of degree rather than substantive new concerns. In addition, I identify some intriguing possibilities, including the use of male bodies-perhaps thereby circumventing some potential feminist objections.
, I identify some intriguing possibilities, including the use of male bodies-perhaps thereby circumventing some potential feminist objections.
More solid science.
Whole body gestational donation
You mean surrogate mothers?
Brain dead (literally) surrogate mothers.
These are the good Handmaids from the Handmaid’s tale.
Except they’re brain dead but consented medically before they were brain dead so it doesn’t count as rape… because, uh, clumps of cells can’t be raped! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Ex-NSA Chief: ‘We Kill People Based on Metadata’
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata
Science!Justice!Canadian gov’t releases children’s coloring book about assisted suicide
https://thebridgehead.ca/2022/12/22/canadian-govt-releases-childrens-coloring-book-about-assisted-suicide/
Socialized medicine’s inevitable conclusion.
If all the easily manipulated emotionally damaged people kill themselves as children, who is going to grow up and vote for Democrats?
The easily manipulated emotionally damaged people that killed themselves as children.
When I call them “fascists” I mean it literally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4#Killing_of_children
So… Burried in the knee-jerk anti-Trump snark was a bit about student athletes and trans students.
Did Reason’s Editor just stake out a position in favor of high school trans-girls being allowed to compete on the girls team in all sports?
Or is this just “Trump said it, so it is automatically bad”?
Yes.
always have
“Should you ‘forever’ mask in some settings? Here’s what UCSF’s Bob Wachter and other COVID experts are doing”
[…]
“In one of his now-trademark Twitter threads detailing his approach to living amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UCSF chair of medicine Dr. Bob Wachter recently shared with his thousands of followers that while he’s open to taking more risks as cases in the Bay Area come down, there are some situations in which he’ll almost always mask up — forever….”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/mask-covid-17744942.php
Howard Hughes would be proud.
If you are in San Francisco you should probably be wearing a hazmat suit.
And Lysol, plenty of Lysol.
San Franciski? Did you droven or did you flew?
Maybe the Feds are jealous of Meta because they want a monopoly on virtual reality. At least the economic, legal, and political domains.
“Home Equity Theft” by the Tax Collector
https://www.hoover.org/research/home-equity-theft-tax-collector
Recently, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear the case of Tyler v. Hennepin County, whose factual history reads like Greek legal tragedy. The story, as recounted in Reason magazine (where I first learned of the case), involves Geraldine Tyler, a 94-year-old woman who suffered from the all-too-common frailty of falling behind on her property taxes. At first, she owed only $2,300 in back taxes. As is common in most states, steep interest charges began to accrue the moment the debt was not paid. For Ms. Tyler, that meant her property debt plus hefty interest and fees mushroomed to $15,000 in a few years. Had the government been a private lender in the consumer market, government agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would have explored ways to limit these exactions, for longstanding law governing mortgages holds that lenders may not just keep all the proceeds of foreclosure sales. Instead, private lenders may at most collect principal, interest, and fees, and they must return any sums in excess of that amount (the surplus or equity in the property) to the borrower.
In this context, however, Minnesota’s Hennepin County rejected that principle; it did not stop with the collection of the total debt. Instead, when the obligation had not been repaid, the county seized the property, sold it for $40,000, satisfied the $15,000 debt Ms. Tyler owed, and then pocketed the rest of the money. Ms. Tyler received nothing. No wonder Reason used the evocative term “home equity theft” to describe the transaction. Indeed, what happened to Ms. Tyler could happen to property owners in eleven other states—Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Alabama, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine. Fortunately, most states have recognized the punitive nature of these claims and have reverted to the rule applied to private mortgages, which returns the surplus to the borrower.
Look at it this way: the government confiscated property from a capitalist, punished a tax resister, and created a new dependent. That’s a progressive Democrat win-win-win.
End all property taxes
We’re fighting for democracy
Zelensky’s Great Purge continues, launching police raid against oligarch who fell out of favor with Biden Admin
The Ukrainian president’s longtime political and financial patron is no longer in the good graces of the people in charge.
https://dossier.substack.com/p/zelenskys-great-purge-continues-launching
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky just sicced his secret police (Ukraine’s SBU) on Igor Kolomoisky, a billionaire oligarch who was once wholly responsible for financing the Ukrainian president’s rise to power. The significance of the story — regarding Zelensky turning on his longtime patron and Kolomoisky’s other significant ties — was entirely buried by foreign and state media, with most merely referring to the situation as another in a series of “anti-corruption” actions.
We’re fighting for
democracyOur DemocracyFixed.
Prices too high? We are from the government and we are here to help!
https://twitter.com/BushelsPerAcre/status/1620857144777269249
also, $7 per liter?
Reason would have used the program to push for more immigrants.
https://twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1620882010016468992
This is Marvin Horne. A farmer who took down the National Raisin Reserve by going all the way to the Supreme Court, because he was sick of the government stealing his crops every year.
Marvin is a hero. The GOP would have kept funding the program in perpetuity.
Say his name.
Marvin is a hero.
From the Twitter link, it’s from 2015:
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/22/416538131/california-raisin-growers-get-their-day-in-the-sun
Until now, the way the system has worked was this: A board of private raisin producers met each year to determine how much, if any, of the producers’ crop would be set aside for a reserve. The reserve would then be used for charity, for government programs like school lunches, or for export. It took the votes of two-thirds of the raisin committee to approve a set-aside. That private collective judgment then was adopted into law by order of the Secretary of Agriculture.
As most of the raisin producers saw it, the system protected them from market saturation and low crop prices.
But that’s not how Marvin and Laura Horne saw it. In 2003, when the raisin committee voted to set aside 47 percent of the growers’ crop, the Hornes balked, selling 100 percent of their raisins. The federal government fined them the market value of the missing raisins — nearly $500,000 — plus an additional civil penalty of $200,000.
There’s a raisin big govt groups have sour grapes over this.
To say nothing of wrath
Out: it isn’t real
In: we’ll go after you for mentioning it, just like we arrested the people who had Ashley Biden’s diary saying Grampa Joe molested her.
https://twitter.com/mviser/status/1620920090551062529
NEW: Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a newly aggressive strategy, today sent a series of blistering letters to state and federal prosecutors urging criminal investigations into those who accessed and disseminated his personal data.
https://twitter.com/intelligencer/status/1620924138868056065
Texts from Hunter Biden reportedly show that in 2019 the president’s son threatened to withhold back pay from a legal assistant unless she had sex with him on FaceTime
Whatever you do, pay attention to the irrelevant salacious stuff… Nobody notice the email to Ukraine that had what appears to be intelligence briefing materials obtained from daddy.
Nope… It is all about crack and penises.
Also, also… Remember when #MeToo was a thing?
Louis CK has to be looking at genuine Quid Pro Quo sexual harassment (best case scenario) and thinking of his consensual if creepy encounters that got him cancelled….
It never ends well for the Male Feminist.
The discovery process in those law suits are going to come back and bite them. Did Hunter use his crack dealer as a lawyer?
I wouldn’t exactly think particularly highly of Hunter Biden’s intelligence or smarts. He did leave not one, but three different laptops behind, abandoned. The DOJ got two before we saw what was on them. On the laptop itself, we see him recording himself doing stupid stuff and some quite possibly illegal stuff (smoking crack comes to mind). My guess is that Hunter just didn’t think that far ahead to the possibility that discovery could be a right royal bitch and bite him in the ass.
“Human penis is found in parking lot of an Alabama gas station”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11702537/Dismembered-human-penis-parking-lot-Alabama-gas-station.html
News of the weird lifted from Count Potato at Glibertarians.com
Bonus quote:
“According to initial reports, police do not believe the finding is proof of any foul play, but it is not clear whose member was found.
One employee simply told local reporters: “It was a whole d*ck.”
You say ‘news of the weird’, but I’ve heard this story before.
police do not believe the finding is proof of any foul play
Just a routine Gender Transition.
Sounds like that’s up Buttplug’s alley with his phallic obsession.
A parent transitioned their child. From my perspective, this is healthcare.
Free minds, Free markets, and WWIII
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1621136959463882753
Zelenskyy is calling on NATO to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against Moscow now? Are we sure it is smart to arm this lunatic to the teeth?
Trump is teasing out new avenues of authoritarianism. The former president and 2024 presidential candidate’s education plan would give the federal government even more control over what can be taught in schools around the country.
For the last fucking time. The government runs the government schools Exerting control over those schools is “authoritarian” in the same way as having speed limits on highways.
Also, now do creationism and phrenology and white supremacy. Can those be taught in the public schools? If not, why not? Who makes that decision?
1. Class, next week we’ll be discussing Hitler’s polemic, Mein Kampf and the effect it had on the future of Europe at the time.
2. Class, write this down, the capitalist Jewry are the cancer of the nation and should be wiped from the face of the earth. Now let’s turn to page 22 of Mein Kampf.
The fact that we no longer… *clears throat* that we pretend to no longer know how to navigate these two situations is not resulting in Trump Authoritarianism.
Those have all been discredited and are supported by icky conservatives. Also, no cultural Marxism is being taught. /s
Parasites are the first to go, which is why we need ‘stakeholder’ capitalism instead of ‘shareholder’ capitalism. To protect their phony-baloney jobs.
https://twitter.com/thegarance/status/1621157088780242944
The layoffs sweeping the tech industry are gutting diversity and inclusion departments.
This is a trend I can only hope continues. I always predicted that when shit got real… and I mean really real, this would go away. A good, hard, economic downturn in the wokest sectors of the economy might just do the trick. Like former tech industry people walking around with a donkey and pots clanging on the side for a few years might disavow them of these idiotic ideas.
Plus: Trump teases new avenues of authoritarianism, interest rates raised again, and more…
Is there someone currently holding national office who might fall into this category?
Whadabout
Sometimes asking what about the actual authoritarian in power right now is the right move.
No, focus billions of column inches on a three-year-gone president while ignoring current events. Then screech “whaaaataboooutttzzz!” when someone asks where da current events at.
Web sites are constrained by column inches?
Don’t the column inches or disk space or whatever allocated to the blog posts about Biden and the Democratic Party today count?
Trump, who is the top-polling Republican candidate for President in 2024 is “three-year-gone”?
DeSantis is polling ahead of Trump. The nation is in a shit space in part due to the person actually in office but crickets.
I suppose libertarian outlets are focusing on Biden but cheap imitations think Trump is where they should focus.
Similar to a whatabout but ENB completely sidesteps even mentioning the current president, who is Biden. I’d call it a preemptive chaff & redirect but others may stay with whatabout.
I am making a good salary from home $6580-$7065/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now it’s my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone,
🙂 AND GOOD LUCK. 🙂
Here is I started.…………>> http://WWW.SALARYBEZ.COM