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Government Spending Billions To Expand Broadband but Can’t Tell Who Needs It

In November 2021, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion grab bag of public spending wish list items. One of those projects, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, would expand broadband access to communities that currently lack access to high-speed internet. BEAD would dole out $42.45 billion in state grants, and the Government Accountability Office estimated that the projects could require as many as 23,000 additional telecom workers to complete.

The only problem is that the government currently has no idea where broadband actually is and is not available.

The government defines broadband as any high-speed internet connection that is always on without needing to dial up. According to the text of the IIJA, “Access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States,” especially in an era of remote work and Zoom schooling. As such, the law set out to bridge the so-called “digital divide” wherein some rural and low-income communities do not have easy broadband access.

To determine what areas need investment, the government relies on maps from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But despite costing $350 million, the FCC’s maps are notoriously unreliable and have been for many years. In 2021, The Washington Post noted the maps are based on census data, so “if even one household in a census block—a statistical area that conveys population data—has broadband available, then the agency considers the entire group served. In rural areas, one block could cover dozens of square miles.” The FCC’s maps also don’t take into account physical impediments, like trees and mountains, which can disrupt wireless signals.

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“Project Censored” List: Top 25 Most Censored News Stories Of The Year

“Published each year by Seven Stories Press, featuring dispatches from the ongoing revolution in independent journalism, each book reports the year’s top-25 independent news stories, which corporate media have ignored, misrepresented, or censored; analyzes corporate “junk food” news and “news abuse;” highlights organizations that exemplify media democracy in action; and investigates hot topics in journalism and politics.” – Source

The presentation of the Top 25 stories of 2021-2022 extends the tradition originated by Professor Carl Jensen and his Sonoma State University students in 1976, while reflecting how the expansion of the Project to include affiliate faculty and students from campuses across North America has made the Project even more diverse and robust. The Top 25 stories of 2021-2022 have been selected from several hundred candidate stories submitted by 207 student researchers from ten US college and university campuses. – Source

About Project Censored

 “Project Censored educates students and the public about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government. We expose and oppose news censorship and we promote independent investigative journalism, media literacy, and critical thinking. Through our website, weekly radio program, annual book, and other programs, we provide this service to the United States, Canada, UK, and the world.

2021-2022 Theme: Billionaire’s Press

Writing for the Santa Fe reporter, “Project Censored, The billionaires’ press dominates censorship beat” Paul Rosenberg explained “Since its founding in 1976, Project Censored has been focused on stories—like Watergate before the 1972 election—that aren’t censored in the authoritarian government sense, but in a broader, expanded sense reflective of what a functioning democracy should be, censorship defined as “the suppression of information, whether purposeful or not, by any method—including bias, omission, underreporting, or self-censorship—that prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in society.” It is, after all, the reason that journalism enjoys special protection in the First Amendment: Without the free flow of vital information, government based on the consent of the governed is but an illusory dream.”

“Yet, from the very beginning, as A.J. Liebling put it, ‘Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.’”

“In their introduction to Project Censored’s annual State of the Free Press, [ ] Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth [ ] observe, “History shows that consolidated media, controlled by a handful of elite owners, seldom serves the public interest.”

“Despite the promise of boundless access to information, Silicon Valley mirrors legacy media in its consolidated ownership and privileging of elite narratives. This new class of billionaire oligarchs owns or controls the most popular media platforms, including the companies often referred to as the FAANGs—Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet)”.

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Another Facial Recognition Snafu Leads to False Arrest, Wrongful Imprisonment; ACLU Asks Lawmakers to Ban Police Use

Instead of enjoying a late Thanksgiving meal with his mother in Georgia, Randal Reid spent nearly a week in jail in November after he was falsely identified as a luxury purse thief by Louisiana authorities using facial recognition technology.

That’s according to Monday reporting by NOLA.com, which caught the attention of Fight for the Future, a digital rights group that has long advocated against law enforcement and private entities using such technology, partly because of its shortcomings and the risk of outcomes like this.

“So much wrong here,” Fight for the Future said Tuesday, sharing the story on Twitter. The group highlighted that many cops can use facial recognition systems without publicly disclosing it, and anyone’s “life can be upended because of a machine’s mistake.”

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Priorities: Government Officials Want Cannabis Legalisation Bill ‘as Soon as Possible’

Officials within Germany’s federal government are reportedly pushing for a bill to legalise cannabis in the country to be drawn up “as soon as possible”.

Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, a Green MP within the German parliament, has called for the Federal Health Minister to present a draft law that would legalise cannabis in the country “as soon as possible”, a report on Wednesday has claimed.

The issue has been a hot-button topic within the Bundestag for some time, despite the fact that the country has also largely failed to address its woeful energy situation which has seen inflation rise to its highest level in the country’s post-war history last year.

According to a report by Die Welt, Kappert-Gonther, who serves as the Green party’s health spokeswoman within parliament, emphasised that cannabis legalisation has already been agreed upon within Germany’s three-party ruling coalition, which consists of the Greens with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD, red), as well as the Free Democratic Party (FDP, yellow).

Now, the main issue getting in the way of legalisation is the country’s Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, who has yet to publish a draft bill that would legalise the substance.

“The controlled release of cannabis is agreed in the coalition agreement,” the health representative said. “The Minister of Health must now present a draft law in a timely manner.”

“I’m committed to making it happen as soon as possible,” the Green MP went on to say.

Die Welt goes on to note that — while the country’s government does want to legalise the drug — it is possible that Eurocrats from Brussels may block the legislation should they feel it interferes with EU law.

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US intelligence community warned Twitter about Ukrainian prosecutor’s book alleging Biden corruption

An internal Twitter document published by journalist Matt Taibbi has revealed that the United States (US) intelligence community warned the tech company about the publicity surrounding a book from a former Ukrainian prosecutor that claimed President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were involved in corruption in Ukraine.

The book, “True Stories Of Joe Biden’s International Corruption In Ukraine” was written by Viktor Shokin, who served as Ukraine’s top prosecutor between February 10, 2015 and March 29, 2016. In the book, Shokin alleged that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that had Hunter Biden on its board, paid Hunter millions of dollars to prevent prosecutors from taking action against Burisma.

Shokin also claimed that then Vice President Joe Biden had ordered Shokin to be fired before he could take action against Burisma. In January 2018, Joe Biden bragged about withholding $1 billion in aid to Ukraine until Shokin was fired.

Yet despite Biden admitting that he had withheld aid to ensure that Shokin was fired, the US intelligence community warned Twitter that “in the summer of 2020 members of a Russian influence, which is at least partially directed by Russian intelligence” were “aware of a production plan” associated with the book. The US intelligence community admitted that it’s “unclear at this time how involved Russian intelligence might be in the creation or promotion” of the book but cited “previous operations” as justification for highlighting “the potential nexus between this book and Russian intelligence.”

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Louisiana’s new law requiring age verification on adult websites is driving uptake of digital ID

Downloads of Louisiana’s state digital ID app have substantially increased because of a new Republican law requiring adult websites to verify the age of visitors with ID.

Since Dec. 31, the day before the law took effect, downloads of LA Wallet increased from a daily average of between 1,200 and 1,500 to over 5,000.

The increase in downloads and site visits coincided with the Jan. 1 implementation of the state law requiring adult websites to verify the age of visitors or be held responsible for distributing harmful content to children.

The law was sponsored by Republican state Rep. Laurie Schlegel, who said that she saw the harm caused by pornographic content while working as a couples therapist and decided that websites should start requiring users to show ID.

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MIT Goes Against the Grain, Releases a Stunning Statement Endorsing Free Speech

Surprise — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology endorses students’ liberty to engage in offensive speech…officially.

In contrast to castigations of “hate speech” and the increasingly common notion that “hate speech isn’t free speech,” MIT is siding with the Constitution.

On December 21st, the Cambridge private land-grant research university released a Free Expression Statement.

From the document:

Free expression is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition of a diverse and inclusive community. We cannot have a truly free community of expression if some perspectives can be heard and others cannot. Learning from a diversity of viewpoints, and from the deliberation, debate, and dissent that accompany them, are essential ingredients of academic excellence.

Free expression promotes creativity by affirming the ability to exchange ideas without constraints. It not only facilitates individual autonomy and self-fulfillment, it provides for participation in collective decision-making and is essential to the search for truth and justice. … Academic freedom promotes scholarly rigor and the testing of ideas by protecting research, publication, and teaching from interference.

That principle means on-campus guests can’t be relegated to a single perspective:

A commitment to free expression includes hearing and hosting speakers, including those whose views or opinions may not be shared by many members of the MIT community and may be harmful to some. This commitment includes the freedom to criticize and peacefully protest speakers to whom one may object, but it does not extend to suppressing or restricting such speakers from expressing their views. Debate and deliberation of controversial ideas are hallmarks of the Institute’s educational and research missions and are essential to the pursuit of truth, knowledge, equity, and justice.

The school makes clear things such as “direct threats, harassment, plagiarism, or other speech that falls outside the boundaries of the First Amendment” won’t be protected. Furthermore, it expects “a collegial and respectful learning and working environment.”

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French ‘Anti-Hate’ Site Lists Mainstream Catholic Symbols Alongside Nazi Devices

A French “anti-hate” website claiming to catalogue far-right symbols has listed several mainstream Roman Catholic symbols, including crosses and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, alongside well-known Nazi devices.

The French “anti-hate” website Indextreme claims that it is looking to “observe, catalogue and publicize the graphic symbols used by the far right in France,” and places various mainstream Roman Catholic symbols alongside those of Nazism and other far-right ideologies.

The project, which was created by graphic designer Geoffrey Dorne and photojournalist Ricardo Parreira and has been promoted by the leftist French website StreetPress, lists many symbols broken up into various categories from phrases to animals, flags, gestures, numbers, and crosses.

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THIS WILL NOT END WELL: Communist Chinese Scientists Explore Using MOSQUITOS to Distribute VACCINES, Could Create Dangerous MUTANT Insects Instead

Designing a killer virus evidently was just a little test run for the Chicoms. Now they might unleash mankind’s most notorious insect to supposedly “vaccinate” wildlife and reduce viral infections.

Hard to imagine any unintended consequences will occur. It’s not like mosquitos spread nasty infections like Yellow Fever, Malaria, West Nile, and Dengue Fever to humans.

The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday that Chinese scientists claim they found a way to turn the disease-carrying nuisance into an indispensable ally of all humanity. Of course, this required them to create a few genetically modified insects.

Here are their findings. No question they applied this trial with the same rigor and caution as their other gain of function research projects:

“The researchers found that bites in wildlife from genetically modified mosquitoes triggered a strong, long-lasting immune response. Once immunized, the animals resisted infections, thus helping to prevent the early spread of many viruses, including the once widespread Zika virus (ZIKV).”

“In their study, the researchers used CYV as a vaccine vector to construct a chimeric vaccine, which contains proteins from a different virus. They took several proteins from CYV and inserted them into ZIKV cells to create the CYV-ZIKV virus, which was not infectious (in animals, human impact unknown). CYV-ZIKV could replicate efficiently in mosquitoes and be secreted in saliva, they said.”

But don’t worry about this virus reaching mosquitos in the wild. Chinese scientists assure us they took care of the problem. You can trust the Chicoms, right?

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Jordan Peterson ordered to enter ‘re-education’ program in Canada over his comments, speech that ‘may cause harm.’ He’s refusing to comply.

Jordan Peterson has been ordered by a Canadian psychology governing body to enter what Peterson called a “re-education” program reportedly over his past comments and speech that “may cause harm.”

Not surprisingly, Peterson said Wednesday he “formally indicated” his “refusal to comply” with the demands of the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

What are the details?

Peterson posted to Twitter parts of a document from the College of Psychologists of Ontario that outlined its concern over his “public statements made on social media and during a January 25, 2022, podcast appearance” that “may have lacked professionalism.”

The document indicates that Peterson is to work with another professional to “review, reflect on, and ameliorate [his] professionalism in public statements” and complete a “Coaching Program.”

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