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.

Surgeon general calls on Big Tech to censor voices that challenge Biden’s vaccine narrative

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, Vice Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service Surgeon General of the United States, has produced new guidance to combat “misinformation” about health guidance as provided by the U.S. Government.  [pdf Here]  Comrades, the ‘Ministry of Truth’ is becoming very real.

The government push to promote vaccinations for COVID-19 has gone well beyond reasonable advancement for the public health.  Now, we are entering a phase where the ongoing demand is becoming problematic, propaganda.  More government advocates are pushing toward mandatory vaccinations for a virus that has 99.9% survival rate.

If you stand back – the scale of the demand far exceeds the known risk from the virus itself…. things just don’t add up.

Additionally, the alliance between government and Big Tech is becoming increasingly worrisome.  Now the surgeon general is asking Big Tech to get even more involved and start pushing even more consequences for those who ask reasonable questions and are righteously skeptical of the government position.

In a 22-page publication intended to allow only one standard for acceptable discussion as sanctioned by the U.S. government, the Surgeon General tells Big Tech what to do:

“Prioritize early detection of misinformation “super-spreaders” and repeat offenders. Impose clear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies.” (page 12)

In other words, silence the opposition.  The Government will be the “single source of truth“.

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Facebook Censorship Board Member: Free Speech Is Not A Human Right

Free speech is not a human right, according to prominent Facebook censorship board member Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

“What we’re trying to find, of course, I think many of us engaging in this conversation, is that middle road. How do you moderate content and how do you find that balance between human rights and free speech, which is a human right, but also other human rights because free speech is not an absolute human right,” the Facebook Oversight Board co-chair said during a live stream of Politico’s Tech 28 spotlight.

“It has to be balanced with all the human rights and that is what the oversight is there to do,” she added.

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Biden’s Press Secretary admits Federal Government is flagging content for Facebook to censor

The White House press secretary Jen Psaki has made a startling admission at a press briefing on Thursday that the US government is actively coordinating with Facebook to flag the posts of United States citizens for being “problematic” and containing COVID-19 “misinformation.”

The admission has raised First Amendment free speech rights implications, particularly as previous lawsuits that have accused Facebook and the government of working together to censor online content have been dismissed due to a judge finding “lack of evidence.”

Psaki’s admission could open the doors to finding that evidence.

“Can you talk a little bit more about this request for tech companies to be more aggressive in policing misinformation? Has the administration been in touch with any of these companies? And are there any actions that the Federal Government can take to ensure their cooperation? Because we’ve seen from the start, there’s not a lot of action on some of these platforms,” Psaki was asked.

“Well, first, we are in regular touch with the social media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 Team,” Psaki announced. “Given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue of misinformation specifically on the pandemic. In terms of actions that we have taken or we’re working to take, I should say, from the Federal Government, we’ve increased disinformation research and tracking. Within the Surgeon General’s Office, we are flagging posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.

Paski continued: “It’s important to take faster action against harmful posts. As you all know, information travels quite quickly on social media platforms. Sometimes it’s not accurate, and Facebook needs to move more quickly to remove harmful violative posts. Posts that would be within their policies for removal often remain up for days. That’s too long. The information spreads too quickly.”

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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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