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Home » Roger Simon on the Orwellian developments on Twitter, et al.

Roger Simon on the Orwellian developments on Twitter, et al.

The New Neo Posted on by

Roger L. Simon writes:

…[W]hen Twitter announces—via Vijaya Gadde, its “Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead”—their two new principles in the wake of the Hunter/Joe Bidenemail censorship scandal, caveat emptor.

The first, about hacked content, is so much eyewash. The second is extremely dangerous and, yes, Orwellian:

“2. We will label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter”

I see. They will “provide context.”

This is actually more sinister than their previous approach—censorship. At least that was obvious.

This is, in essence, thought control.

You, the great unwashed, are not capable of analyzing for yourself. You need guidance—the same guidance they provided when publishing ad infinitum obvious disinformation about non-existent Trump-Russia collusion or propaganda from Javad Zarif, foreign minister of a country whose citizens are not allowed access to the internet but just happens to have 1.5 million Twitter followers.

I wrote “publishing” above because that’s what Twitter does, despite their denials and insistence that they only link to other publishers, supposedly giving Twitter itself a firewall against lawsuits.

This appears all the more ludicrous given their new rule two, which indicates that not only are they curating, they are editorializing (i.e., publishing… Congress take note).

They are our betters, and will tell us what to think. Got it.

But actually, this has been going on in the regular press for a long long time. And I don’t just mean on the editorial page; it’s expected there. Or the opinion pieces. I mean in the news.

For many years I have noticed that I could fisk almost every article written, even those that are supposedly straight news, and point out the multiple and repeated elements of such guidance. It starts with the decision as to what news to cover and what to ignore. It goes on to the headlines (“Republicans Pounce,” anyone?) and involves the placement of each fact, the emphasis it’s given, adjectives and verb and noun choice (“undocumented”), phrases such as “with no evidence” used for assertions by the right and not the left, the often-bogus “fact-checking” page, and so much more.

It is all the more effective for being subtle, at least to the people who are under its spell. Once noticed, though, it can’t be unnoticed. But the subtlety makes it more difficult to notice.

It also helps the cause greatly that the left controls all these levers of communication, except for just a few outlets. That makes for a unified message, which has extra power.

YouTube is an interesting case. It censors and demonetizes some sources on the right, but remains one of the main conduits for the message of certain people on the right, in particular many black conservatives or semi-conservatives. How long will that last?

Earlier today, commenter “physicsguy” wrote this:

The laptop is real. All the corruption to the highest levels is real. NOTHING will come of this. This morning after reading through all the above insightful comments and discussion I went and looked at the websites of ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR news. Here’s what I found:

ABC: in a sidebar with links to minor stories in small print 5 lines down was a link about “FBI probing emails”

NBC: nothing

CBS: Over half way down the page with 12 other stories ahead of it, was a story about Guiliani being a source of Russian disinformation.

NPR: second story from top was ” ‘Questionable NYPost “scoop” driven by ex-Hannity producer Guiliani”

I didn’t bother to check CNN et al. Combine that with Twitter and FB levee building. And for 3 days carefully watching the liberal/leftist acquaintances I follow on FB, who follow politics rabidly where nothing has been even mentioned,…I now assume they really have no knowledge of this at all. It’s only on Fox and the right internet media that is carrying this story. It’s going nowhere, and even if it does eventually make it out to the general public it will be too late, and then nothing more will happen. They’ve won by controlling the information stream. Hillary’s server, the Durham facade, and now this….none of it matters and nothing will happen.

That is my fear as well.

The information from the right is stifled by the gatekeepers. But even if it happens to get through to someone not on the right, that news has already been labeled as bogus and therefore not worth the time to study for oneself. So if I happen to mention any number of such events to any Democrat friend of mine, the usual response is either that the person has no idea what I’m talking about, or that it’s a lie because the source is only on the right.

Back when the blogosphere began, it seemed to be a possible way to counter that. But after a short heyday, blogs have been enormously eclipsed by social media and then quite quickly by leftist control of social media. The regular MSM, the entertainment field, education, and the press had already been lost by the time blogs (including this one) came on the scene. And they are even more lost now.

If the Democrats with this election, any investigation into any of these problems – the Bidens, Twitter’s status as a possible monopoly and publisher – is gone. Probably forever, or at least for a long long time, because the screws are tightening.

Suggestions in the comments here for what to do at this point would be appreciated. All I can think of is to talk to some of my more open-minded liberal friends about this, and discuss some of the events about which they might not be aware – although given past experience, our talks won’t be very productive.

Comments

Roger Simon on the Orwellian developments on Twitter, et al. — 43 Comments

  1. Increasingly, leftists are being emboldened to argue against freedom of speech and the free exchange of opinion in defense of the censorship of Big Tech, as they are confident in a few short weeks of a victory which will enable soft totalitarianism to reign supreme. Dissenting and contrarian arguments would then be categorized as “conspiracy theories” or “Russian disinformation” or “hate speech” and perhaps have no legal protection whatsoever. There still exist a few (mostly elderly) left-of-center defenders of the First Amendment, as well as some independent leftist journalists who are willing to defend unpopular ideas, but they will be too few and too marginal to make any difference should the Dystopian Duo prevail.

  2. Remember how the internet was supposed to be a beacon of free speech and topple of dictatorships as well as bringing us together?

  3. I fear the US solution will eventually, hopefully, lead to civil war in order to separate the freedom-respecting states from the Democrat-controlled authoritarian ones. The Dems will be in total power in 2021, it appears, and they will squelch us as if we were oranges and they were making juice.
    There is no basis for expecting any moderate, reasoning, constitutional discussion with Dems.
    Look at the Barrett hearings and their conduct.
    Dems overtly threaten the destruction of the constitution and Supreme Court packing. And some 40+% of millennials think democracy is outmoded. The China model looms large in their eyes. People like Thomas Friedman, who earns millions per year as a WaPo writer have long crowed about the need for us to become more like “efficient” communist China, where economic freedom is OK but freedom of conscience, of worship, of expression, are all verboten.

  4. Twitter and Facebook need competition, just like the MSM needed competition. It was a lucky break that someone with money was willing to take a chance and underwrite the creation of Fox. Can a benefactor with the proper sympathies and an adequate pocketbook be recruited, begged, etc? Sheldon Adelson?

  5. What to do? I’m sending Giulianl’s interview with Daily Caller on YouTube to some of my liberal friends and relatives. They probably won’t accept it as fact but maybe, just maybe, it might start a spark. It’s an excellent preliminary to what I hope may be much more.

  8. I don’t see what can be done directly. At least not in the near term. The one bright spot is the one that has always been there, as far back as I can remember. The left ALWAYS overplays their hand. Always. And they’ve done it again.

    What’s scary is that it does seem that fewer and fewer are noticing nowadays. But I do have hope that Twitter and Facebook have blown it. Many still do notice, as we can see in the extreme disrepute the MSM has fallen in to.

  9. The only thing to do is to get the news out, to absorb it, to acknowledge the evil that the Democratic Party represents.

    The Democratic Cover-Up Party and its supporters all understand this, which is why it’s doing its best not only to suppress it but to invert it into more “evidence” of “Russian collusion” and Trump-administration corruption. More evidence of Trump’s perfidy—and the utter danger to America posed by him and his supporters.

    All it is is more evidence of the Democrats doing what they do best: pathological, insane projection and prevarication.

    They will stop at nothing. No cover-up is too pernicious for them to attempt. No argument too pathetic. No action too criminal.

    None of this, of course, is new; but it is and continues to be a very sad and frightening commentary regarding what a significant swath of Americans and American institutions have become.

    One fears that it will only get worse:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/full-story-behind-hunters-laptops-debunks-latest-russia-conspiracy-theory
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/hunter-biden-computer-facebook-trump-censorship-scandal-jonathan-turley

  10. Speaking of stories that are “covered with a pillow until they stop moving”: can anyone point me to a relatively brief rundown of the evidence that the “Russian collusion” thing was in fact engineered by the Clinton campaign? By “relatively brief” I mean, say, 1000 words or so. And also relatively simple, hitting the crucial facts without overwhelming the reader with details, as Andrew McCarthy tends to do–for me, at least. It also needs to cite evidence that’s not reasonably disputable. I would like such a thing partly for my own education but more for the possibility of showing it to leftish friends who take the original Democratic story as solid fact.

    It would also help if it appeared in a publication not entirely identified with the right, but that’s probably asking too much.

  11. There must be some knowledge of the Biden scandal out there and it must be worrisome to the left. On several of the comment sections I read today, the professional seminar commenters were out in force calling the emails “Russian disinformation”. They must work for Jerry Nadler who recently called Antifa a myth.

  12. All I can think of is to talk to some of my more open-minded liberal friends about this, and discuss some of the events about which they might not be aware – although given past experience, our talks won’t be very productive.

    I suggest you give them a link to your blog. But then you would probably hear more “Car wheels on a gravel road.” Which is why you don’t, right? Well, at least the walkaway folks would, one would think, have that kind of courage.

  15. There must be some knowledge of the Biden scandal out there and it must be worrisome to the left. On several of the comment sections I read today, the professional seminar commenters were out in force calling the emails “Russian disinformation”.

    Paul in Boston: I’ve run into that too and come to the same conclusion that it is worrisome to the left. Else why the iron fist of tech and the media coming down nakedly to suppress the story.

    The hard-core “I’ll crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump” types are safe, but there are still some independents and swing voters, as well as disaffected Democrats, who are up for grabs and would likely be repelled by the Hunter Biden story.

    Perhaps I’m wrong, but with cities on fire for months, the transgender agenda running wild, BLM calling all white people racist, and Biden being a weak, peculiar candidate, I can’t believe there aren’t a fair number of non-Republicans who aren’t seriously worried about where the Democrats are leading us.

  16. Blogs are toast. Only a minuscule fraction of us Dinosaurs read, write, or comment in them.

    The vast majority of the population (and this includes most of the Under 30 year old Smart Fraction, not just the Normies And Retards) communicate and absorb info via Twitter, Instagram (no, it’s not just for pictures), YouTube, and Facebook. Also there’s the Chans.

    One well-crafted meme dropped into 8chan can go around the world 100 million times before a single bow tie wearer has found the words to convey the gist of something he/she read in National Review to readers of a blog. Unbelievable though it may seem, there exist multitudes who do not know or care about the Sea Peoples, Pelopponesian War, Italian City States, or the many other Needful Things.

    For better or worse, that’s just how it is. One’s initial reaction is to wring one’s hands at the decline of a more measured literate culture. Still, look at just where that ‘Culture’ has gotten us to.

    There’s a lot more reactionary spirit once you get away from the world of pure letters. Perhaps too much for some here. It’s not for nothing that the meme warring young whippersnappers to whom (Trigger Warning) Tomorrow Belongs are referred to in the trade as Generation Z. There’s a tad more IG Farben than Howard Zinn in that Z, if you get my drift.

    So, the Left is unlikely to have it all their way. The Gen Z reaction in other parts of the Net which assembled Boomers here do not see much of is a reaction to the mainstream censorship and degeneracy. Where it will go and how far it will go is too early to say. But, there are more things in Heaven and Earth…

  17. jes:

    You make some assumptions there that are incorrect. You have no idea whatsoever whether my friends have the URL my blog.

    I have given the URL to tons of people I know. Almost none of them have ever read it, particularly the political posts.

    They don’t want to know.

  18. In other news, Trump odds are shortening in the markets. Please to Vote Early and Vote Often to support the Zaphod Retirement Plan.

  21. Zaphod:

    What makes you think we don’t see it? As I wrote, blogs had their short day in the sun, to be replaced by social media. I’m well aware of that, as I assume are a lot of people here.

    Just because we prefer a long-form, more sedate medium, doesn’t mean that we’re not aware that the rest of the world has passed us by.

    It also is clear that, since young people like to rebel against orthodoxy, if the orthodoxy today is that of the left, some young people will rebel against it. The question is whether it will be enough, and will they gain enough power to matter before it’s too late.

    I don’t have the answers to those questions.

  22. @Neo

    I think some of us can know it intellectually. I think you’d be surprised how many still do not. But I don’t think any of us can really grasp Gen-Z’s attitudes. Our older generations who graduated pre ubiquitous social media are like Roman Cardinal Princes reading second-hand reports of grubby ink-stained German Burghers getting worked up about some trivial @#$#^ in far off places. Surely it won’t amount to much.

    Don’t know where it will go, but we’re all along for the ride.

  23. My mother-in-law believes everything the media (non-Fox) says. She buys it hook, line, and sinker. It’s utterly depressing, both to me and my wife.

  24. The left may try to smother the news on Twitter and Facebook, but radio is owned by conservatives, NPR is a rounding error. Rush Limbaugh claims twenty million unique listeners a week, that’s huge. He’s King Kong and is heard nationally, but there are a ton of smaller talk shows that serve local markets. They get the word out too and can’t be suffocated, plus they are on twenty four seven.

    Giuliani said that there a lot of pictures and even video on the drive, some of which he called disgusting and possibly criminal. If he puts that out, Biden will go up in smoke. There will be nothing the MSM can do to help him and they can’t stop Giuliani.

  25. “If the Democrats with this election” — should perhaps be “win this election” although we certainly hope they don’t. — Your friendly in-house copy-editor.

    And I much prefer the sedate, long-form communication of blogs, most especially this one, but also PowerLine & According to Hoyt (well, that one isn’t very sedate, but it is long-form). I read a Twitchy post occasionally, but it hurts my head trying to follow nested Tweets.

    I will be very interested in seeing what the Gen Z voters turn out for, if that can ever be ascertained.

    There were more bad news stories about postal workers trashing ballots and the like this week-end.

    As for getting the right-wing news out: How much does it cost to rent a billboard?

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/10/16/joe-biden-is-swamp-thing-on-massive-hollywood-billboard/

    That one was a hijacked board, but others have been paid for.
    Some have been “cancelled” of course, but then THAT becomes news.

    This is why Trump Tweets AND then the left reacts to his tweeting — he gets it.

    A sampling of the search results – view counts are not high enough, though, considering the audience for conservative blogs and news sites — I have no doubt that YT is suppressing them on the “you might like” lists and so forth:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bMJG_HtkGg
    Conservative Street Artist Alters Tarantino Billboards
    3,855 views•Jul 26, 2019
    (also hijacked)
    Sabo on “alleged” pedophiles in Hollywood, including Epstein – the sarc quotes are deliberate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnMMqBEyk2c
    Conservative organization pays for Sheriff Clarke billboard
    306 views•Apr 8, 2019
    A Washington-based conservative organization called BAMPAC, or Black America’s Political Action Committee, has many people wondering about the meaning of a “America’s Supports Sheriff Clarke” billboard.
    (I think they edited out the people who understood the message.)

    https://nypost.com/2020/10/03/billboard-co-refuses-to-post-ad-critical-of-lebron-james/

    A government watchdog recently tried to post a bold message on giant billboards during he NBA finals about LeBron James’ refusal to speak out against Chinese human-rights abuses, but was rejected by the sign company.

    The Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center was poised to spend “several hundred thousand dollars” on five billboard images showing the superstar with a Chinese flag covering his mouth and the message, “Silence is Violence.”

    The billboards were set to be displayed near the entrance to the NBA Bubble near Orlando, Fla., where James’ LA Lakers are battling the Miami Heat for the NBA championship.

    But Outfront Media refused to put up the ads for fear of upsetting the famously outspoken James, according to an email from the company viewed by The Post.

    “We cannot accept the ad as it is right now,” wrote the rep for Outfront, adding that the company would only put up the billboards if the NLPC agreed to remove the baller’s image. “The Chinese flag is Ok, and the silence is violence is ok,” he said.

    But the conservative think tank is standing its ground. “Some messages are too important to be suppressed,” said Peter Flaherty, chairman of NLPC. “When it comes to human rights in China, silence is indeed violence. We should be able to call LeBron on his hypocrisy without this censorship.”

    Money & fame have their perks. It’s amazing how much clout all these systemically oppressed mulit-millionaires have.

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/08/24/clear-channel-caves-to-blms-demands-to-remove-anti-poverty-billboards-erected-by-black-conservatives-964173

    A billboard campaign aimed at helping lift inner-city youth out of poverty launched by the Center for Urban Renewal and Education has ended after the organization’s founder said it came under a “deliberate attack” by Black Lives Matter activists.
    CURE founder Star Parker, a black conservative activist, syndicated columnist and author, told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Monday that the billboards, which featured a picture of black male and female youths along with advice like “Finish School” and “Take Any Job,” were targeted by BLM because they didn’t like the message.
    “Why would people be upset by that message?” Kilmeade asked.

    https://www.fox6now.com/news/these-are-big-issues-billboards-removed-after-message-about-poverty-sparks-controversy
    (same Star Parker ads)

    Within 24 hours, the billboards came down. Clear Channel, the company that owns the advertising space, told FOX6 News, in part:

    “This ad did not receive proper approvals, lacked appropriate attribution and was promptly removed. We value our neighbors for bringing this to our attention.”

    FOX6 News spoke with William Allen, Urban Cure’s COO, before the billboards were removed on Wednesday. Allen described his group as a “think tank” based out of Washington D.C. and tied to an extensive clergy network throughout the country.

    “It has always been the message parents have given — of course, parents give it in the home and privately,” said Allen.

    I added that one because the billboard company obviously hires the same letter-writers as Twitter and Facebook, or maybe there is just a style-book for weasel-worded “greengrocer” statements* by publishing companies (they are clearly not neutral platforms). Good thing it’s not the government forcing people to suppress the public expression of wrong-think.
    So far.

    If you don’t want to get cancelled, own your own board.
    https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/6002

    Weird Right-Wing Uncle Sam Billboard

    I’ve been observing this “outsider art” masterpiece for years, on the land of a farmer, Hamilton. Sold his farm a few years ago but gave himself an easement so he could change the messages. It’s designed to raise the hackles of those traveling between the lefty hotbeds of anywhere in Oregon and the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle area. There is a crude illustration of Uncle Sam on both sides and room for letters like on any theatre marquee or muffler shop signboard –messages of a far-right-wing bent.
    [Don Jankiewicz, 02/03/2002]

    Just some background: The farmer decided to put up the “Right Wing Uncle Sam Billboard” after I-5 was built right through the middle of his farm! He was mad and sought revenge — this billboard is that revenge. His legacy lives on, thanks to his Grandson. He moved it from its original spot a few years back to its current location.
    [Susan Colombo, 04/26/2007]

    In that story, most of the messages date from Obama’s tenure, as the remarks about them are posted by random people. Yelp (surprise!) still has their story up, and some of the reviews are from June 2020.

    https://www.yelp.com/biz/uncle-sam-right-wing-billboard-chehalis

    As My vehicle races through Chehalis I await with anticipation to view the current Politico message affixed to the billboard.” in 2 reviews

    “I’ve lived here for decades, and the best part about this sign is the reaction it gets from sensitive left-wingers about every 5 years or so.” in 2 reviews

    “Especially if you’ve spent the weekend in Portland or Seattle where democratic leadership floods the streets with homeless and drugs.” in 4 reviews

    The things you can learn on the internet — if you look for them.

    *familiar to most readers here, but never hurts to review the story.
    https://lawliberty.org/book-review/soft-totalitarianism-coming-or-going/

    One article in The Spectator describes how global management consultancy firm Accenture began encouraging employees to wear rainbow-colored lanyards declaring employees “allies” in an effort to promote an inclusive workplace. The implication is that, if one does not wear the lanyard, then one is not an ally but an enemy who wants a discriminatory workplace. To refuse the lanyard is to risk one’s job. The practice is reminiscent of Václav Havel’s greengrocer in The Power of the Powerless, who hung a sign that said “Workers of the world unite!” in his shop window not because he believed in Marxist promises but because he feared reprisals from the communist government.

  26. Matthew on October 17, 2020 at 4:16 pm said:
    Remember how the internet was supposed to be a beacon of free speech and topple of dictatorships as well as bringing us together?
    * * *
    I remember when computers were going to result in paperless offices.

  27. At Biden’s town hall, one of the questioners was, if not of Gen Z, then close.
    Note that this is A Tale of Two Moderators.

    https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/16/black-voter-drags-biden-at-town-hall-asks-reason-to-vote-for-him-besides-you-aint-black/

    Cedric Humphrey, a black voter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, asked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden what reason he could give to young black voters to cast a ballot for him instead of staying home on Election Day.

    “Many people believe the true swing demographic in this election under the age of 30, not because they will be voting for Trump, but because they won’t be voting at all,” Humphrey said. “So my question for you is, besides ‘you ain’t black,’ what do you have to say to young black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continually fails to protect them?”

    Biden cited the need to ensure black Americans can generate wealth, and promised he would “provide $70 billion for HBCUs for them to be able to have the wherewithal to do what other universities can do because they don’t have the kind of foundational support they need.”

    ABC Moderator George Stephanopoulos did not interrupt to mention the fact that President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill in 2019 to permanently provide more than $250 million in annual funding to the nation’s historically black colleges and universities.

    I wonder if Mr. Humphrey, or any of the audience, knew that little factoid about The President of the White Supremacists. Biden is still running on repeating Trump’s accomplishments. Conservatives used to sneer at the GOP as “Democrat lite” and wonder why people didn’t just vote for the real thing; I can see a campaign ad here for Trump.

    The first presidential debate (not the one between Trump and Guthrie) made it to the Saturday Night Live cold open, and also miscasts the President’s statements condemning white supremacists, although they exploit an opening he gave them by squinting hard and turning sideways.

    SNL actually did a fair job skewering both candidates, before they cut to the Biden Infomercial. I think it’s always interesting (the rare times I see an SNL clip) to observe what the audience doesn’t laugh at — I suspect, judging from where they do laugh, that those are the topics they aren’t familiar with because they are “inside baseball” for the news junkies (I got most of the references, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsije1KetVw

  28. How do we stop it is very simply living our lives with joy and telling the truth. People respond to joyful lives and wish it for themselves. When talking with people when they say Trump is a racist I ask how the second chance act is racist. Followed up with long term funding for Historical Black Colleges. Then I add a factoid of record unemployment rate for all minorities. All told how is it racist. Usually they shift gears at that point.

    The white supremacy point I just repeat the above and tell them that the most prominent white supremacist, Robert Spencer has endorsed Joe Biden. Also I bring up Kamala Harris critique of his policies.

    I do the same with climate change with an example of the medieval warming period and a question. Why don’t they call it global warming anymore?

    I am more hopeful than most posters because people are seeing through the discordant message. Look at all the walk away videos and postings. People are changing as the younger generation sees how they are being screwed.

    Remember change is a process and not a moment. Like growing a garden, it has to be tended. My advice as stated it’s the start. Live your life joyfully. People can argue your facts but not your testimony Most conservative people I find are a happy group. People want that.

  29. Yes, the more sober and considered world of blogs is my choice too. And Neo’s observation that “They just don’t get it.” seems to me right on point. Coupled with the very real chance that Biden will win I salute the many contributors here who are wrestling with the possible consequences of that outcome. I prefer the company of people who consider all outcomes possible. What I might be able to add is that I have stopped responding to the friends and family who are into loathing Trump and who think that Comey et al are heros. If the totalitarians win then outlets like this blog may well be silenced too. But recall Samizdat in Soviet Russia and how close the Soviet authorities got to Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. There was a second copy and it got out. I don’t believe I really know what is the way forward here. Perhaps the left has to completely triumph and destroy the American Republic for people to “get it’. I don’t think so and believe it is a close ring thing and have sent my vote for Trump in, but in the full knowledge that – as a Buddhist friend put it – I am stirring the ocean with a stick. So I will greet the howls of despair if Trump wins with mostly silence and the howls of triumph if he loses with a calm statement to the effect that the Democrats have won and we will now find out what they make of their victory. In short, let events inform those we feel just don’t get it. On a larger stage of Western Civilisation it looks just now like the Mother Country of the Anglosphere will regain most of it sovereignty. What Toynbee called the Internal Proletariat will continue to withdraw its support for the Dominant Elite and its attempts to ‘manage decline’ by selling us out to the Chinese for personal and class profit. If Hunter Biden’s laptop is significant it is because it gives us some idea for how little we are being sold into slavery. Que sera sera.

  30. The Zerohedge story Barry linked had some timeline information, as does this one.
    Senator Johnson’s questions for the FBI are going to bring forth some embarrassing answers, assuming Wray ever answers them.
    At some point, Barr needs to pull rank on these rebellious subordinates, and remind them who they work for.
    (Hint: it’s not the Democrat party).

    As the Hunter Biden laptop scandal threatens to throw the 2020 election into chaos with what appears to be solid, undisputed evidence of high-level corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the same crowd which peddled the Trump-Russia hoax is now suggesting that Russia is behind it all.

    To wit, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who swore on National television that he had evidence Trump was colluding with Russia – now says that President Trump is handing the Kremlin a “propaganda coup from Vladimir Putin.”
    …
    Byron York tweet: Would be more persuasive if they provided evidence that 1) story is false, and 2) it ‘comes from the Kremlin.’
    …
    Yet, if one looks at the actual facts of the case – in particular, that Hunter Biden appears to have dropped his own laptops off at a computer repair shop, signed a service ticket, and the shop owner approached the FBI first and Rudy Giuliani last after Biden failed to pick them up, the left’s latest Russia conspiracy theory is quickly debunked.

    I do still wonder what role Steve Bannon played; he was mentioned in some of the early stories as perhaps being a conduit from Isaac to Giuliani, but he’s totally dropped out of the narrative now.

    Then ZH quotes from another post, which is important enough to copy with only minor omissions.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/10/yes-the-hunter-biden-emails-are-authentic-by-larry-c-johnson.html

    This is the story of an American patriot, an honorable man, John Paul Mac Isaac, who tried to do the right thing and is now being unfairly and maliciously slandered as an agent of foreign intelligence, specifically Russia. He is not an agent or spy for anyone. He is his own man. How do I know? I have known his dad for more than 20 years. I’ve known John Paul’s dad as “Mac.” Mac is a decorated Vietnam Veteran, who flew gunships in Vietnam. And he continued his military service with an impeccable record until he retired as an Air Force Colonel. The crews of those gunships have an annual reunion and Mac usually takes John Paul along, who volunteers his computer and video skills to record and compile the stories of those brave men who served their country in a difficult war.

    This story is very simple–Hunter Biden dropped off three computers with liquid damage at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware on April 12, 2019. The owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, examined the three and determined that one was beyond recovery, one was okay and the data on the hard drive of the third could be recovered. Hunter signed the service ticket and John Paul Mac Isaac repaired the hard drive and down loaded the data. During this process he saw some disturbing images and a number of emails that concerned Ukraine, Burisma, China and other issues. With the work completed, Mr. Mac Isaac prepared an invoice, sent it to Hunter Biden and notified him that the computer was ready to be retrieved. Hunter did not respond. In the ensuing four months (May, June, July and August), Mr. Mac Isaac made repeated efforts to contact Hunter Biden. Biden never answered and never responded. More importantly, Biden stiffed John Paul Mac Issac–i.e., he did not pay the bill.

    When the manufactured Ukraine crisis surfaced in August 2019, John Paul realized he was sitting on radioactive material that might be relevant to the investigation. After conferring with his father, Mac and John Paul decided that Mac would take the information to the FBI office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mac walked into the Albuquerque FBI office and spoke with an agent who refused to give his name. Mac explained the material he had, but was rebuffed by the FBI. He was told basically, get lost. This was mid-September 2019.

    Two months passed and then, out of the blue, the FBI contacted John Paul Mac Isaac. Two FBI agents from the Wilmington FBI office–Joshua Williams and Mike Dzielak–came to John Paul’s business. He offered immediately to give them the hard drive, no strings attached. Agents Williams and Dzielak declined to take the device.

    Two weeks later, the intrepid agents called and asked to come and image the hard drive. John Paul agreed but, instead of taking the hard drive or imaging the drive, they gave him a subpoena. It was part of a grand jury proceeding but neither agent said anything about the purpose of the grand jury. John Paul complied with the subpoena and turned over the hard drive and the computer.
    In the ensuing months, starting with the impeachment trial of President Trump, he heard nothing from the FBI and knew that none of the evidence from the hard drive had been shared with President Trump’s defense team.

    The lack of action and communication with the FBI led John Paul to make the fateful decision to contact Rudy Giuliani’s office and offer a copy of the drive to the former mayor. We now know that Rudy accepted John Paul’s offer and that Rudy’s team shared the information with the New York Post.

    John Paul Mac Issac is not responsible for the emails, images and videos recovered from Hunter Biden’s computer. He was hired to do a job, he did the job and submitted an invoice for the work. Hunter Biden, for some unexplained reason, never responded and never asked for the computer. But that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer called John Paul Mac Isaac and asked for the computer to be returned. Too late. That horse had left the barn and was with the FBI.

    John Paul, acting under Delaware law, understood that Hunter’s computer became the property of his business 90 days after it had been abandoned.

    At no time did John Paul approach any media outlet or tabloid offering to sell salacious material. A person of lesser character might have tried to profit. But that is not the essence of John Paul Mac Isaac. He had information in his possession that he learned, thanks to events subsequent to receiving the computer for a repair job, was relevant to the security of our nation. He did what any clear thinking American would do–he, through his father, contacted the FBI. When the FBI finally responded to his call for help, John cooperated fully and turned over all material requested.

    The failure here is not John Paul’s. He did his job. The FBI dropped the ball and, by extension, the Department of Justice. Sadly, this is becoming a disturbing, repeating theme–the FBI through incompetence or malfeasance is not doing its job.

    Any news outlet that is publishing the damnable lie that John Paul is part of some subversive effort to interfere in the United States Presidential election is on notice. That is slander and defamation. Fortunately, the evidence from Hunter Biden’s computer is in the hands of the FBI and Rudy Giuliani and, I suspect, the U.S. Senate. Those with the power to do something must act. John Paul Mac Isaac’s honor is intact. We cannot say the same for those government officials who have a duty to deal with this information.

    I’m still not sure why the FBI didn’t take the computer on Day One, nor why they insisted on waiting to get a subpoena after they decided they did want it after all – were they not afraid that some valuable evidence might be lost, destroyed, or altered? That seems to be the rationale for no-knock warrants when dealing with something important, like drugs or ill-gotten gains, but I guess the national security of the United States is just a minor thing.

    I am glad Mr. Isaac had the foresight to copy the drive before they did take it, which this post didn’t mention as it was known and also easy to infer, but I wonder when he made the copy. He would actually have had one already as the initial download of the retrieved data to give his errant customer; how many copies did he make in all?

    The comments make the obvious inferences, and the trolls (and, I presume, some legitimate readers) ask some questions, but the major ones are answered further down by Johnson.

    “What a chilling account, to say the very least. Good lord, am I reading this wrong or is it possible the FBI confiscated the laptop in order to protect Biden and at the same time effectively damage Trump during the impeachment proceedings against him? These are truly perilous times for our country. I’m reeling at the thought of such heinous corruption.” Posted by: akaPatience | 17 October 2020 at 12:04 AM

    Think what a bombshell this would be if we hadn’t already lived through four years of revelations about perfidy in the top hierarchy of the government.

  31. Another point is the Bari Weiss posting. She knows that something is wrong with her world view. It can’t describe what is happening in her daily life. She tries to blame Trump but internally knows that it isn’t the case. It is something else. That something else is the age old issue of individual right/identity vs. corporate obligations. It tend to grow in places with high population densities.

    For too long the creep of the administrative state has grown. With this election as Wretchard of the Belmont Club says “They have dropped their masks because they are all in.” They are pushing hard now to impose their ideology on us. You can see the start of the social credit system of China being imposed with the censoring of thoughts. If Biden wins with a corresponding Democratic Congress you will see them implement their vision with a vengeance. Trump and his family will be destroyed no doubt about it with all his administration. Then they turn their attention to us.

    Several years ago I read Richard Evans Third Reich trilogy. If you want a sense of what can happen read his second book of the series, “The Third Reich in Power”. That is what will come if the administrative state devotees win. What is striking is that there were many willing participants who eventually regretted being involved as it radically changed their lives even before the start of WW II.

    But they over played their hand with their crazed attempt of suppression and out right lies. Now there is a rebellion against it. How it turns out is TBD but I am optimistic. Because the administrative state needs lots and lots of money to function. When the money runs out then it gets interesting and chaotic. The lockdown blow back on the blue states is starting to really bite. New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois desperation for revenue will/is becoming acute because they won’t have the means to keep the machine running and their power base of public sector unions will have to be modified. Existing arrangements are being tested and overturned. An example is at long last the speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan is being investigated for corruption.

    We are in the beginning of that process globally when bills come due and can’t be met. The “Fourth Turning” is upon us. As with every crisis there will be great opportunity and danger. IMHO, the losers in this reorderIng will be the knowledge workers who are not tied to the real economy. That would be educators, journalists entertainment including sports and government workers not tied to essential services. All those diversity and ethnic studies people are going to have to find a new gig. The winners will be everyone else who has a marketable skill

  33. Turley talks about the curious case of the dog in the night.
    I omit his analysis, but it’s well worth reading, because, Turley, right?

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/hunter-biden-computer-facebook-trump-censorship-scandal-jonathan-turley

    The problem was the absence of “barks” from the Biden camp. The computer files revealed a host of embarrassing pictures of Hunter Biden using drugs or exposed in other embarrassing ways. The emails contain dates and addresses that match up with confirmed records.

    If they are fabricated, there were three barks that we would have expected within hours of the release.

    Bark 1: This was not Hunter Biden’s computer
    …
    Bark 2: These were not Hunter Biden’s photos or emails
    …
    Bark 3: This is defamation
    …
    Instead of these obvious barks, the public heard something closer to a whimper: that the campaign could not find any notation on Vice President Biden’s official schedule that he met with a Ukrainian figure connected to the payments to his son Hunter Biden.

    It would be a curious sight in itself for Biden’s official schedule to include “meeting with Ukrainian connected to Hunter.” Many meetings are not part of an official schedule that staffers know is subject to official records laws for preservation and review.

    That is what is so curious about the Hunter Biden story and, to move from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Lewis Carroll, it is becoming “curiouser and curiouser.”

    Some commenters praise, and others criticize, Turley, but this one “gets it” IMO.

    StrandedInTheCenter
    1 day ago

    No need for them to “bark”. As long as there’s a near-total news blackout on the story, they can just pretend there’s nothing there. If only FOX and OAN talk about it, the Biden campaign can dismiss it as just another right-wing conspiracy theory.
    And the mainstream news and social media blackout only needs to hold for a few weeks before it becomes a moot point.

    h/t Barry for the links to Turley and Zerohedge; but you sent on about 2 hours of rabbit chasing!

  34. Methinks we are sorely in need of another “No Malarkey” tour.

    First though, should it be established that Biden and the Democrats support and encourage Antifa (that splendid “idea”) BECAUSE it is just ANOTHER WAY to give whites (l.c. “w”) the right to beat up Blacks (u.c. “b”)—as long as the latter “ain’t Black” (that is, according to the Democratic Party’s current authorized definition of “Black”).
    E.g.,
    https://soundcloud.com/rttv/wayne-dypree-show-antifa-member-stabs-black-trump-supporter-trump-ramps-up-for-2020-election
    https://www.foxla.com/news/man-arrested-for-sucker-punch-of-black-trump-supporter-at-laguna-beach-rally
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/27/blake-hampe-43-charged-with-stabbing-black-trump-s/
    etc.

    So that, mark it well, the Biden campaign seems to have endorsed the existence of what is, in essence, two categories of racial identity:
    – Biden/Democratic Party supporter
    – Trump supporter

    …which certainly makes things a whole lot “easier”.

    …which might, perhaps, be considered (by some wascally pedants) somewhat akin to the notion (Bari Weiss, take note) that there is a certain category of Jews that should be banned from the synagogues….:
    https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/29/atlantic-trump-supporting-jews-exile/

    Having said all this, where does it say in the Constitution that crack heads should be banned from visiting the White House?

    Yep, we need another “No Malarkey” tour. Fast.

  36. @AesopFan I strongly prefer the continuation of the Republic and have cast my vote in accordance with that conviction, but recognise we are approaching a fork in the road and must choose one or the other as individuals but collectively follow the fork that prevails electorally. As a great Yogi said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it!” No matter which one we take about half the country is going to be verrry upset. I’m pretty sure the outcomes will be different depending on the result, but it is pretty uncertain how thing will work out in the longer term. Unlike Obama I think the Great Arc of history bends in the direction of the second law of thermodynamic – ie toward entropy which in political terms is equivalent to corruption. Now where is my crack pipe and my dominatrix.

  37. “Suggestions in the comments here for what to do at this point would be appreciated.” neo

    At this point, the only productive action that can be taken is to vote and pray.

    If Trump wins in a landslide, events will proceed in a predictable manner.

    If it’s a close election, it may not be resolved until sometime in January.

    If the Left manages to steal the election, then make no mistake, 1984 will have arrived.

  38. Thing is, they’re NOT our betters. Literally. They, and those who support them, confuse their immense wealth and entrepreneurial spirit for both general intelligence as well as political and policy savvy. Sure, Mark Zuckerburg is a super smart guy, but his fortune is made on a social media platform originally conceived of for getting laid. You can’t say anything more for Dorsey or Bezos, or any of them. Elon Musk will outright admit it. He got rich creating Paypal, and has parlayed that fortune into some highly technical industries, but he doesn’t know jack about them, he relies on his team.

    The clearest example of this is Bill Gates. The man made a fortune buying someone else’s product and leveraging it into a giant monopoly. He doesn’t have any specific knowledge about much of anything. And yet, he thinks he should be dictating worldwide health care policy. Good lord.

    These people have more in common with the clueless celebrities that their platforms enable than anyone else. Their opinions should be completely ignored.

  39. “Unlike Obama I think the Great Arc of history bends in the direction of the second law of thermodynamic – ie toward entropy which in political terms is equivalent to corruption” – Lorenz

    Indeed.

    My theological position is that God is the only force in the universe which can stop, and reverse, Entropy: Order against Chaos is Light against Darkness is Good against Evil.

  40. Doc Zero accurately states what a lot of us have intuited about the current use of the media as a propaganda arm of the Left.
    Add this to the lexicon along with “Wrongthink” which is related but not identical.
    Although, in the world of reality, Wrongthinkers clearly believe Badfacts.

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1318534188832837632.html

    The latest addition to the lexicon of totalitarianism is “Badfact.”

    A Badfact is objectively true, but it damages the political narratives of the ruling elite, so everyone must be prevented from thinking about it. The accuracy of the Badfact is never seriously challenged.

    The most common technique for suppressing Badfacts is the “mostly false” factcheck, which is based not on disputing the accuracy of the Badfact, but on insisting that some mystical “context” is needed to understand the “greater truth” surrounding it.

    RTWT

  41. Pingback:Strange Daze

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