Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

TWITTER SEES JUMP IN GOVT DEMANDS TO REMOVE CONTENT OF REPORTERS, NEWS OUTLETS

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) saw a surge in government demands worldwide in 2020 to take down content posted by journalists and news outlets, according to data released by the social media platform.

In its transparency report published on Wednesday, Twitter said verified accounts of 199 journalists and news outlets on its platform faced 361 legal demands from governments to remove content in the second half of 2020, up 26% from the first half of the year.

The biannual report on Twitter’s enforcement of policy rules and the information and removal requests it receives comes as social media companies including Facebook Inc(FB.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube face government scrutiny worldwide over the content allowed on their platforms.

Twitter ultimately removed five tweets from journalists and news publishers, the report said. India submitted most of the removal requests, followed by Turkey, Pakistan and Russia.

The social media platform did not previously track such data on requests pertaining to journalists or publishers.

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Founder of liberal news site says right to own firearms is ‘made up’

Josh Marshall, founder of the liberal news site Talking Points Memo, claimed on Tuesday the right to own guns is “made up” by pro-Second Amendment activists.

“Just to remind everyone, the individual right to own and use firearms is completely made up and the product of NRA funded activism,” Marshall wrote.

Stephen Gutowski, founder of the firearms news site The Reload, wrote an extended Twitter thread on what he referred to as an “incredibly lazy” statement. 

“The text of the amendment is very plain. ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’ The amount of gaslighting people on the left use in regards to the Second Amendment is amazing,” Gutowski said. “Keep doesn’t mean own. The people means the states.”

“This all strikes me as incredibly lazy more than anything else. It’s intended to get claps from those who already uncritically agree with you. It’s certainly not going to persuade anyone else,” Gutowski continued. “As with the other plainly worded amendments in the Bill of Rights, determining how they apply in a myriad of different circumstances is necessary. But this shortcut of just saying the words don’t mean what they plainly mean and are really devoid of all value is dumb.”

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EPA Knew Fracking Chemicals Were Toxic, But Approved Them Anyway

Between 2012 and 2020, fossil fuel corporations injected potentially carcinogenic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or chemicals that can degrade into PFAS, into the ground while fracking for oil and gas, after former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency approved their use despite agency scientists’ concerns about toxicity.

The EPA’s approval in 2011 of three new compounds for use in oil and gas drilling or fracking that can eventually break down into PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” was not publicized until Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) obtained internal records from the agency through a Freedom of Information Act request, the New York Times reported Monday after reviewing the files.

According to PSR’s new report, “Fracking with ‘Forever Chemicals,’” oil and gas companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have since 2012 pumped toxic chemicals that can form PFAS into more than 1,200 wells in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.

While the Times noted that the newly released documents constitute some of the earliest evidence of the possible presence of PFAS in fracking fluids, PSR’s report warns that “the lack of full disclosure of chemicals used in oil and gas operations raises the potential that PFAS could have been used even more extensively than records indicate, both geographically and in other stages of the oil and gas extraction process, such as drilling, that precede the underground injections known as fracking.”

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Nancy and Paul Pelosi Making Millions in Stock Trades in Companies She Actively Regulates

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the sixth-richest member of Congress, according to the most recent financial disclosure statements filed in 2019. As the California Democrat has risen through party ranks and obtained more and more political power, her personal wealth has risen right along with it. Pelosi “has seen her wealth increase to nearly $115 million from $41 million in 2004,” reports the transparency non-profit group Open Secrets. Even by the standards of wealth that define that legislative body — “more than half of those in Congress are millionaires” — the wealth and lifestyle of the long-time liberal politician and most powerful lawmaker in Washington are lavish.

And ever since ascending to the top spot in the House, Pelosi and her husband, Paul, keep getting richer and richer. Much of their added wealth is due to extremely lucrative and “lucky” decisions about when to buy and sell stocks and options in the very industries and companies over which Pelosi, as House Speaker, exercises enormous and direct influence.

The sector in which the Pelosis most frequently buy and sell stocks is, by far, the Silicon Valley tech industry. Close to 75% of the Pelosis’ stock trading over the last two years has been in Big Tech: more than $33 million worth of trading. That has happened as major legislation is pending before the House, controlled by the Committees Pelosi oversees, which could radically reshape the industry and laws that govern the very companies in which she and her husband most aggressively trade.

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Whistleblower Leaks Email Revealing Biden Admin Using US Military to Secretly Move Illegal Aliens Around the Country

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday said a whistleblower leaked an email to him revealing the Biden Administration is using the US Military to secretly move illegal aliens around the country from Laughlin Air Force Base.

The US Military is supposed to defend this nation, but they are now secretly aiding and abetting illegal alien invaders.

The email, written by Lt. Col. Matthew Burrows and leaked to Tucker Carlson reads: “Over the next few days, weeks or months, you may see passenger aircraft on our ramp transporting undocumented non-citizens. Please review the attached public affairs guidance on the issue.”

Burrows then commanded military men in uniform to hide what was happening on the base from the very Americans they are sworn to serve: “Do not take photographs and refrain from posting anything on social media,” the email reads.

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Maine Abolishes Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property

Maine became the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture, a practice that enables law enforcement to confiscate millions of dollars worth of property without ever filing criminal charges. Taking effect on Tuesday without the governor’s signature, LD 1521 fully repeals Maine’s civil forfeiture laws, while simultaneously bolstering its criminal forfeiture process, which only authorizes forfeiture after a criminal conviction (apart from a few narrow circumstances, like the owner’s death or deportation). 

Although civil forfeiture is typically defended as a way to fight back against drug kingpins, in reality, many forfeiture cases have been remarkably petty. In Maine, half of all cash forfeitures were under $1,670. 

“It’s a very simple concept; you don’t lose your property unless you used it in the commission of a crime, or knowingly allowed someone else to use it in the commission of a crime,” bill sponsor Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham wrote in May testimony supporting his bill. “It is time to end this work around that makes people prove innocence, rather than prosecutors proving guilt. This is one of the founding principles of our country.” 

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