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.

DHS Sued Over Its Social Media Surveillance Tactics

On paper at least, when a federal agency receives a FOIA request, it’s required to respond with either a denial or a so-called “grant of access” within the span of 20 business days. As the CDT points out in its suit, even if every requested document can’t be released in this time frame, at the very least the agency should notify which documents are on the table, which are being withheld, and give the party asking for these docs the right to appeal these decisions.

By that rationale, when the CDT filed its initial FOIA request in mid-August 2019, it should have heard a response sometime in mid-September. Instead, it alleges that it hasn’t gotten a substantial request to date. Even USCIS—the only agency to offer any sort of timeline for wrangling these requested documents—initially estimated it would take until the end of December. In the 13 months since its self-set deadline, the CDT alleges the agency hasn’t returned any of the records requested.

“The public deserves to know how the government scrutinizes social media data when deciding who can enter or stay in the country,” said CDT General Counsel Avery Gardiner in a statement. “Government surveillance has necessary limits, particularly constitutional ones.”

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Jared and Ivanka made up to $640 million in the White House

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to tell the exact amount as the income is sometimes reported in broad ranges and cover four months of income before Ivanka Trump officially joined her father’s administration and nearly one month before Jared Kushner joined.

Both Kushner and Trump announced they would not take a salary while working for the government in an attempt to shut down nepotism concerns. While their supporters marked this as a public sacrifice, the massive amount of money they made on the side undercuts that argument, as government salaries would have been less than 1% of their income.

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Dr. Fauci Secretly Ordered Chinese “Animal Experiments” With Disturbing Links to COVID Outbreak

According to a Newsweek piece written in 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Fauci-led National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), committed $3.7 million dollars to research bats and coronaviruses in China over a six-year period.

It’s worth noting in that particular Newsweek piece, the US intelligence backtracked from their earlier claims that the Coronavirus outbreak occurred “naturally,” and conceded that the pandemic “might” have started from a leak in the Wuhan lab.

But this new research wasn’t just about bats. It went deeper and darker than that. As a matter of fact, Dr. Fauci was among the first to fund the controversial “Gain of Function” ferret research in Wuhan, China. Fauci was so committed to the controversial work that back in 2011 he wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, entitled, “A Flu Virus Risk Worth Taking,” where he vigorously defending “Gain of Function” research.

But something very interesting took place right before Obama’s moratorium on “Gain of Function” took effect.

Dr. Fauci had commissioned a study to assess the risk of new Coronaviruses emerging from wild animals. Fauci wanted to see what viruses could infect animals and humans. The directive behind the research and written in the project summary was “Gain of Function” manipulation.

But the Obama admin was getting cold feet about the program.

While many in the scientific community (like Fauci) were very excited by “Gain of Function” research, the more popular it became, the more scrutiny it received, and significant security issues were being raised. Eventually, the controversy got to be too much and in 2014 the United States pulled the plug.

NPR reported that the Obama administration was concerned about any research that could make the viruses more dangerous, so they wanted to stop and review studies to see if they could make these germs capable of causing more disease or spreading easily through the air.

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CNN Mask Karen Freaks Out, Calls Police On Super Bowl Revellers

“I gave a call to Tampa Police to ask them what’s going on with all these people that are out and about and not wearing masks because there is a mask mandate in the City of Tampa while this pandemic is underway and during this time of the game there,” she whinged.

“You’re supposed to be wearing a mask if you’re anywhere near Raymond James Stadium, if you’re in a bar or a restaurant or anywhere in one of these event or entertainment areas. And you can see from the pictures and the video that we have that people are just not paying much attention to that mask mandate,” Kaye urged.

She continued, “They are supposed to be fined up to $500.00. So I asked the Tampa Police, how many citations have been issued? What do you want to say in response to this? What’s being done about it?”

The police didn’t bother responding to her frothing.

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Facebook’s new expert on ‘online disinformation’, Ben Nimmo, was a fantasy fiction writer. Has he really given that up?

The tech giant’s self-styled ‘troll-finder-general’ is touted as an authority on alleged Russian ‘information warfare’ – but any objective look at his background and track record raises troubling questions over his capabilities.

On February 5, Ben Nimmo announced he will with immediate effect be joining Facebook, to help the social media monopoly “lead global threat intelligence strategy against influence operations.”

It’s a shocking development, yet somehow an entirely unsurprising one. After all, despite having less than no discernible professional or educational background in social media, data analysis, information technology, or digital research, in recent years he’s enjoyed a stratospheric rise to mainstream prominence as an expert on online “disinformation,” and a series of well-remunerated posts at a number of state-backed and quasi-state organizations. 

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Corona Cash: Financial Disclosures Reveal Biden Surgeon General Made Millions off Pandemic ‘Consulting’

Vivek Murthy, President Biden’s pick for surgeon general, cashed in last year as the Chinese coronavirus pandemic gripped the nation, making more than two million dollars off pandemic “consulting.”

Several of Biden’s nominees have filed financial disclosures, including Murthy, who according to Politico made millions by consulting various companies, including those in industries severely impacted by the pandemic, such as Carnival Cruise Line. Such consulting gigs have raised eyebrows due to concerns of bias.

The outlet estimated that Murthy, who served as U.S surgeon general from 2014-2017, made nearly one million last year consulting for Netflix, Airbnb, and Carnival Cruise Line alone:

The former surgeon general pulled in nearly $550,000 since Jan. 1, 2020, consulting for Netflix; $410,000 consulting for Airbnb; $400,000 consulting for Carnival Cruise Line; and nearly $300,000 consulting for Estee Lauder.

Murthy’s speaking, writing and consulting firm paid him nearly $500,000 more. His speaking engagements through the firm included speeches to companies such as Google and Cigna, as well trade groups such as Business Roundtable and American’s Health Insurance Plans.

Jeff Hauser of the Revolving Door Project highlighted the mounting concerns related to Murthy’s financial disclosures, explaining that it is “less than ideal to have a Surgeon General who is sympathetic to entities from which we would like him to feel a sense of remove, like the cruise industry.”

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Despite Being Closed for COVID-19, The Kennedy Center Still Got Over $80 Million in Tax Dollars in 2020

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC – a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that sits on more than half of a billion dollars in assets, received over $80 million from the federal government in taxpayer dollars even as it is shuttered to the public because of COVID.

By law, the Kennedy Center receives federal funding every year, federal funding fueled by taxpayers who – in the overwhelming majority – have never and will never visit the institution. This despite the fact that the Center has been 80 percent privately funded for the past half-decade.

That is also a 501(c)3 organization means it is allotted generous tax exemptions by the Internal Revenue Service under the label of being an educational organization.

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