The biggest problem science and civilization face is free speech.
Tonight the ABC tells us (with a straight face) that the leader of the free world’s words were too dangerous for the public to read. The Gods at Twitter have determined what The Truth is. Funnily enough, the ABC gave us his message then used the Twitter censorship as a way of “proving” Trump lies, or is still infectious. The ABC weren’t bothered (10 mins) with the Twitter totalitarianism, they obviously didn’t think the public would be harmed either, because they read the message out. Instead this was “Proof by censorship”.
The fact that Twitter objected was all the “proof” the ABC needed. Dr Twitter said so.
…
Given that there are scores of papers saying that Covid survivors have antibodies that last for a few months, it’s quite believeable that DJT was right. Who is running the country? DJT or an unnamed Twitter list?
In deleting it, Twitter have probably promoted it far beyond anything they could have arranged deliberately.
The Media IS the problem
The media memory-hole becomes the decision making process. The most important message to share right now is not the intriciate political details but the message — that it’s all propaganda.
Far right extremists turn out to be BLM, Antifa fans
Australians watching Their ABC heard how the FBI arrested six far right extremists who planned to kidnap the Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. She blames “Trumps hateful rhetoric”. But according to PJ Media, at least three of the six are BLM, Antifa, anti-Trump radicals.
Yet another one of the conspirators indicted in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has turned out to be an anarchist and this time is an identified Black Lives Matter, Inc.™ supporter.
If you’re keeping book, that now means at least three of the six men indicted by the federal government for the frightening conspiracy to kidnap the governor from her vacation home are avowed anti-Donald Trump anarchists and at least one is a BLM protester.
The ABC didn’t mention that tonight.
John Hinderaker, Powerline, explains how the Democrat Governor uses this in deeply dishonest fundraising email:
Today Governor Whitmer sent out a fundraising email to her supporters–or, anyway, those on her list, a group that includes me. The subject heading was: “We’ve seen the disastrous effects of Trump’s hateful rhetoric.” That is typical. Pretty much everything that goes wrong in the world is a result of “Trump’s hateful rhetoric.” The Democrats’ far more hateful rhetoric, meanwhile, has evidently no consequences.
It’s all in the way certain ducks are lined up
Hinderaker unpacks the Whitmer email to supporters. A series of disconnected mini-truths are exaggerated and lined up for effect. First she makes out Trump is attacking her, deriding her as “that woman”. (That bad, eh?) As Hinderaker says “How hateful can you get?” Having set the stage, she mentions Trump’s “Proud Boys” moment, declaring this was a call to right wing militant groups. Then … she says the FBI just thwarted a full fledged terrorist plot.
Far away in the lucky Australian bubble, the incident still made the news, but only the Democrat ducks got to quack. Hapless viewers would have to hunt to find out there was another story they needed to hunt for.
Australians hear how Trump lies nearly every night. If he does win in 2020, most Australians will have no idea why.
In a normal world, no politician should get away with abusing the truth.
John Hinderaker:
What is most interesting to me about Whitmer’s email is that she and her handlers are confident that she can lie with impunity. They know that what they are saying about Trump’s comments in the first debate and about the leftists who allegedly conspired to kidnap Whitmer are lies, but they don’t care. They assume that the press will cover for them, and that the vast majority of those who receive their fundraising appeal will not know that it is based entirely on lies.
After a summer of left wing riots, looting and destruction, the media is hunting for any signs of non-left violence to amplify to “even things out”.
The best thing we can do is spread the word about the censorship.
h/t David E
Completely agree Jo. Free speech is a central issue of the big battle of our time : Libertarianism vs. Authoritarianism.
390
“… confident that she can lie with impunity.”
This is now true for all on the left and the MSM itself which is now the propaganda arm of the DNC (or more accurately the SNC). This is obvious and transparent, so hopefully enough people will see through the propaganda before the Socialists can take over. Otherwise, when the propaganda inevitably fails, the only way to maintain their many policies opposing liberty is with heavy handed oppression of which Cancel Culture is the embryonic version.
290
Yes, what happened to the ethos about fighting for free speech during the last two world wars? It’s pretty clear the MSM, the left, Universities, unions and many other groups would very likely take the side of the enemy if we had another. Too bad we don’t have a strong leader to press that and many other points. We are governed or managed by spineless people in most facets of our lives today.
360
I’m a vintage American.
Trump is the first anti-establishment President of my lifetime.
Maybe ever.
Evidence?
The heavy flak means we’re over the target.
Imagine, a NYC billionaire real estate developer may be the first real man of the people.
630
He is not a lawyer. And he doesn’t need the money.
Hillary complained that when they left the Whitehouse after 8 years, they were broke. Which was an amazing statement for many reasons. And they were both senior partners in a law firm, but there was that bit of trouble with Whitewater.
But then surely she then had a good salary as Secretary of State under Obama? Plus the big donations to the Clinton foundation, like the one from Morocco which allowed them to finally buy those weapons or was that just a coincidence? The Clintons have always been one step ahead of the law. History may well show them as lifelong villains. Only the dumb get caught.
The best US Presidents have not been lawyers where law graduate Biden never had a real job or did anything anyone can remember.
440
Not only is the Donald not a lawyer, he is also not a career politician. As we know only too well in this country, no matter who we vote for, we will always end up with a politician in charge.
Therein lies the problem.
290
As PDT noted, until he became a politician, he was in rap videos of all genre, no one ever booed him, guest spots on tv shows . ..
PDT is the successful American dream everyday free folk dream of and aspire to.
He is not a perfect human, but who can claim they are?
But, he is a patriot who knows and loves that his country allows and affords the opportunity to win like he has and any one can.
360
Thanks for that comment, Travis. I hope you don’t mind if I use your complete comment in future arguments against braindead leftists.
150
I’m so glad a Trump came along and showed the media’s only power was the power invested in it by their audience. He is the first major leader to stare them down. All the rest quickly folded under pressure from a few finger wagging scolds in the press gallery demanding an apology for some harmless quip. Plenty of good tell-it-like-it-is politicians were driven from office by their cowardly colleagues caving into media pressure.
Always remember – some of the worst leaders have had overwhelming media approval.
50
The burning of the Reichstag, 1933, which gave Hitler absolute power.
Straight out of the Fascists handbook from the German News Agency, 1939. The Gleiwitz incident.
These were the textbook ‘false flag’ news items just as the intended target of the ‘foiled’ kidnapping, very unpopular Democrat Governor Whitmer, blames Donald Trump. As does the entire Democrat party. Without any logical or factual explanation.
Luckily though the FBI and CIA are on top of it all, deflecting the heat of their own statutory crimes in lying to the FISA court so they could spy on the President and whitewashing the Clinton’s involvement and the server in the garage of Secretary of State, Hillary.
All the work of Russian hackers and Australia’s Julian Assange, while Clinton’s mail was stored unencrypted in English on Yahoo every night by her private ‘secretary’ Huma Abadein. Abadin said Hillary liked to have everything printed out when she came home. It is likely everyone on the planet had access to Hillary’s emails even without Wikileaks.
You just wonder how much respect is left for the press in the United States. And this is the same press which tells us Climate Change is real and causes bushfires. How this happens though is a complete mystery.
391
And today 30,000 vehicles paraded in an anti Socialism rally in Florida. You have to wonder how many Floridians who escaped the Castro dictatorship believe the Democrat/Sanders/Warren/Harris dream that socialism is the future, that Castro, Maduro, President Xi are wonderful people in ideal governments with equality for all. There are even massive Trump rallies in Deep Blue California.
Sock puppet Biden is increasingly in his own fantasy world and clearly even he says Kamala Harris was ‘Presidential’ in her debate speech and in the Harris-Biden team. It is amazing that the Democrats think the press are enough to shield most Americans from the fact that Biden could not count his own toes or remember the result.
Still the bookies have Biden ahead but not the 14:1 they had to pay out on Trump last time. Sportsbet have Biden at $1.40 and Trump now blown out to $3.00. It can only mean the fake polls are working and once again the Democrats believe they are sure winners and $1.40 is a certain return. That $3.00 is looking very attractive. It can only go higher as Wall street and Silicon Valley convince the mug punters that Biden is a sure thing.
260
“Sock puppet Biden is increasingly in his own fantasy … It is amazing that the Democrats think the press are enough to shield most Americans from the fact that Biden could not count his own toes or remember the result.”
The article Biden Claim of Being ‘Raised’ in Black Church Doesn’t Hold up to Scrutiny reports on his latest dubious claim as well as listing many of his previous dubious claims.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/12/nolte-biden-claim-of-being-raised-in-black-church-doesnt-hold-up-to-scrutiny/
50
“You just wonder how much respect is left for the press in the United States.”
The answer to that question is very little. Even among Democrats, respect for the media has been falling.
90
The MSM is a problem but not the root cause of the problem. The root cause is us. Don’t pass the buck to others. We the people decide who gets into power to try and turn things around away from anarchy. At the moment neither major party desires to do that. So the only peaceful choice we have is to send a loud and clear message we the people had enough of the nonsense about a lot of issues. Just don’t vote “1” for either major party. If enough voters do that we might have a slim prospect of forcing one of the majors by way of a suitable aggregate of minor parties to grow a backbone and do some things they should have done a long time ago. Just as an example, the federal government should have mandated that coal fired power plants be built and renewables banned in the name of national security. We’ve had far too many restrictions on so many other areas so it’s time to place restrictions on things that will go a long way to avoiding anarchy.
152
The people only know what they are told. The point here is that the deceit in the press is enormous. The ‘kidnapping’ is a false flag event, attributed to Trump and many will believe that. Why would the press lie to them?
Hitler promised everyone a free car. Free annual holidays. Just work hard and they will be rich. And he gave them WWII and their world in total ruin. He lied and the press lied. New York governor Andrew Cuomo calls Wu Flu the “European Virus”. How can the voters make a choice when everything they are told is wrong?
314
🙂
23
‘The MSM is a problem but not the root cause of the problem.’
Strongly disagree, the propaganda has been intense for at least 30 years and the people are not to blame for their limited voting choice. The good news is that Sky is taking the ABC on and will ultimately win the bout, because they offer a believable counterpoint.
Back in the day auntie was conservative and balanced, but at some point the rot began to set in and I blame the journalism schools.
173
Well if people can’t be bothered to think for themselves and do something about it while we have a democratic system of voting then it will only be much harder when that right is removed from us.
100
Also, the ABC and MSM are not the government. Political parties form governments. We the people vote for those political parties. Hence the buck stops with the people. To say otherwise is to reject the reality of our democratic system of government.
80
An informed society, not just an opinionated one, is the backbone of our democracy. We are misinformed, but once auntie comes back to the centre the masses will be better served.
Imagine an unbiased Q & A or 7.30 Report, it would be a different world.
53
The ABC was created a century ago by our Federal government to provide fair and balanced and reliable and nation wide coverage, particularly for those very busy people who do not have the time to follow the news closely.
This absolute requirement for fairness and impartiality is in their charter. And it it fundamentally the ONLY reason we taxpayers give $50,000,000 a week for a news service.
We are being robbed by their ABC. And they just awarded themselves a wage rise.
If they were a private company, the ABC’s reach would be illegal many times over. But it is now beyond government control.
Before they call for defunding the police and the army, defund the ABC. We would lose nothing and gain $50Million a week. That would be free internet for everyone or free Foxtel or Prime. And what do we get for it? Nothing most people watch, ever.
170
Sorry TdeF, I don’t agree. I don’t watch the ABC on TV and haven’t for years and only listen to the News for as long as my patience lasts (usually less than 3 minutes) but I do listen to the classical music fairly often. Others probably have some section they listen to (there is a country program Sunday morning that seems popular outside the inner cities), and their childrens’ TV channel is popular with those who have young children or grandchildren.
I think, as I have said before, that it needs to be split into several channels. That way the monolithic control by the Central Committee would be much more difficult, and all sections would be more responsive to feedback. It could even be made a subscription service.
40
One of my few disappointments with Tony Abbott was his inability to tackle the ABC. He couldn’t possibly have been afraid of bad coverage as they were already disrespecting him 100% at every chance. For some reason ALL governments have failed to make them obey their charter. Ministers for Communication always seem ineffectual. I can’t refuse to pay the tax which funds them. Eventually, the taxman just seizes my assets.
40
No.
That sort of regulation is precisely the wrong thing for governments to do as it places even more power in the hands of faceless bureaucrats who would be defining what exactly is a threat to “national security” as well as enforcing the regulations.
All the federal government needs to do is make the energy market a level playing field, removing subsidies and requiring the renewable generators to guarantee supply for their bids JUST AS ALL OTHER GENERATORS ARE REQUIRED else face hefty fines.
In fact I’m certain that the latter would be enough to keep renewables from being economically viable and hence ensure the national security of our grid. If renewables were viable without all the economic support, they wouldn’t be a problem.
20
The ABC and BBC have the same training manual. Maybe they have sold the manual to Twitter, Google and Facebook.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/10/12/bbc-mistakes-taiwan-holiday-celebrations-north-korean-military-parade/
50
Sold? Meh, it’s a free giveaway, an added-value bonus, a contagious disease thoroughly ensconced within all government-sponsored PR/media outlets, even in our sleepy little Hobbit cum Pandora movie-set land called No Zuld (where, with the election this weekend, media nonsense is on steroids-plus!).
40
The tweet violated Twitter rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.
Do all the tweets that spread misleading and potentially harmful information about climate change get deleted?
150
They are working on it, except misleading and potentially harmful information is defined as skepticism of alarmism. The whole concept is wrong to begin with.
140
Like Paul Barry’s Media Watch on their ABC.
50
If you find one and alert them to it. Yes.
016
How soon till the ABC “Fact Checkers” discover the “Streisand Effect”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
40
“He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
Tw@tter hath becometh the new Roman Catholic Church: Ban it! equals spread it far and wide – yet another own goal. Orange Man be laughing all the way back into the White House (or should that be the more innocuous Oval Office).
22
Watching the first debate, and seeing the moderator demand that Trump denounce right wing extremism, it was obvious this was another MSM hatchet job. This was confirmed when Trump attempted to answer that the issue of a burning and violence fueled America was due to left wing extremism, which prompted even stronger demands that he denounce right wing terror and ended up with the MSM using this a a sign of Trump’s support for right wing extremism. The fact that you can’t find a right wing extremist in the midst of the packed crowd of left wing terrorists burning the cities and enforcing their version of totalitarian anarchist control, is inconsequential.
What is very obvious in the USA is that it’s becoming completely overrun with violent left wing extremists engaging in a full blown terror attack on their own country, with particular aim at those who don’t support their warped ideology. The parallels with Islamic extremism are all too obvious, where we have seen decades of domestic terror attacks across the middle east on those that support moderate Islamism. What makes this new left wing terror all the more concerning is that it has the full backing of the MSM and of the Democrats, who are effectively part of the terrorist organisation. Blaming right wing extremism for their own evil deeds is just part of the plan to obfuscate and distract. If the Democrats win, then democracy is officially dead.
220
Well said Serge. The media need an answer to Trump’s line “all the violence is from the left”.
130
Why answer that as it is patently wrong. How could all violence possibly be from one political persuasion?
Here is a question to ask yourself. What percentage of people don’t fit onto the left right spectrum?
019
Off the top of my head I would say 50% of the electorate don’t fit into those categories. Ask yourself how many swing voters are out there.
01
I was wrong, at the last Fed election 21% were non-aligned.
‘Voters swung to the Coalition based on the economy, tax and leadership. Voters swung to Labor on the environment and health. On balance, there were a greater number of voters that switched from Labor to the Coalition based on economic issues, than from the Coalition to Labor based on environmental issues.
‘A rise in support for minor parties contributed to the election result. This trend is associated with record low political partisanship. 21% of voters do not align with any political party.’
Australian Election Study
10
Politicians define themselves as left/right. Voting for the one you agree with does not automatically make you aligned with their position. The stated alignment of the party or politician forces the conversation into statements like, “55% of voters are leaning right”, when most of them are doing no such thing. They are voting among the choices for all sorts of reasons other than the strictures of a political spectrum.
24
I disagree. About 80% of people vote based on ideological grounds and only ~20% are swingers. The main problem we face today is that a large and growing sub-set of the left leaning group are absolutely intolerant of the other 40-60% who support a different side, and rather than allow a majority voice to determine the political outcome, they now riot like spoiled children, burning and vandalizing in protest.
In determining the cultural differences between left and right, the most striking example is in a post election wash-up. If Trump wins, there will be riots, looting, deaths and violence across the nation by those of the left. If Biden wins there will calm streets because right leaning people respect the outcome of the majority.
110
where do you get your stats?
13
Stats not required when you live in the real world and speak to real people.
30
The hard left don’t seem to ‘get’ debate either. Supporting ones beliefs by offering reasoned logic isn’t in their tool box – just a big megaphone with huge lithium batteries!
20
Yes, unfortunately, it seems to be demonstrated in the behavior of the left-wing activists that it is “Our way or no way,” as epitomized by the statement “He’s not MY president!”
00
No one says all violence is formented by the left but the majority of it is simply because the vast majority of media outlets will not report the source of the violence if a leftist organisation is involved (or even report it as violent at all). Given this, the left quite understandably feel secure that they can take whatever actions they deem necessary or even helpful to advance their cause and when any resistance is met, escalating to violence becomes almost obligatory.
20
The Reps and Dems have both introduced legislation to curb the social media giants. But they disagree on means so nothing moves. Next time one party controls both houses something big may happen. But it may take the Pres not vetoing it, so maybe all three must be from one party, which happens.
The Dems want antitrust action. The Reps want to remove the giants’ immunity from litigation (Sec 230). I prefer the Rep approach.
In any case, blocking the President’s tweets is suicidal. My tweets, sure. Your tweets, fine. They can get away with that. The Presidents, not so much. I am hopeful.
200
I notice Twitter censured (placing a message “The following media includes potentially sensitive content” over the images) the posted images on Trumps Twitter feed of Antifa/BLM pulling down and defacing a statue of Abraham Lincoln, yet, Twitter hadn’t censured the original images from the source, which was Antifa/BLM members own Twitter accounts.
https://twitter.com/KittyLists/status/1315530755989147654
81
What gives them the authority to stop the President speaking to the people?
70
The upcoming election in USA is a contest between the large corporate voice and voices less able to be seized and corrupted, empowered by new media.
The left arrived at almost total control of most cultural forms, after a century of immense effort, just as a new low-friction means of cultural expression emerged. It is understandable that they express frustration, and are willing to destroy everything in 2020, as victory was within one day of accomplishment on November 8, 2016, and it slipped through their grasp. From their perspective everything is crumbling. The empires of corruption they were finalising are resulting in they and their children going to prison.
20
I’ll just throw up what I put at the end of the weekend untreaded, as it is rather pertinent to this topic. Google white people, or white couples, or white girls or white boys, go to images, and compare that to what you get, when searching black couples, or asian couples.
One big F U from Big Media.
20
Nos it seens that everybody is censoring the Great Barrington Declaration. The first page of Google results lists only criticisms of the declaration. The declaration itself is relegated to page of the results.
30
looks like fake news to me https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/76181926?hl=en
06
stevem:
Switch to DuckDuckGo as your search engine.
10
I had checked both Google and DuckDuckGo before I posted. Great Barrington Declaration itself was 1st hit on ddg.
40
Scientific test for reproducibility:
Google 5th result
DuckDuckGo 1st result
10
I note the ABC reference at end of post. My recent experience with ABC commentary is quite disturbing for a taxpayer funded operation. One of the policy experts on a recent Friday chat show likened Premier Palaszczuk’s covid policy to actions of Hitler, regardless of the fact that the Premier’s grandfather spent time in a Nazi concentration camp. ABC’s reply to my criticism of their uninformed/disrespectful yobbo commentator was that it was their guest’s (AFR journo) private opinion…so that was OK? Hopefully morals/ethics can be re-instated at “our” ABC. Given Annabel Crabb’s recent comment about Trump’s covid experience I don’t see that as being anytime soon.
80
I know a 74 year-old may not have strong immunity, but if Trump doesn’t have any immunity after getting the disease, then there is zero hope for a vaccine and we are in a lifetime of Wuhan Flu.
50
Have some hope – vaccines can be made to illicit a different and longer term response than the one caused by a normal infection.
Your statement also lacks logic. If DT has a low level or no immunity, it is likely that younger and healthier people will have a stronger immune response. And that is most of us.
14
Are you for elimination or herd immunity?
00
Define both.
00
illicit = generally illegal or otherwise proscribed;
elicit = causing a response
20
There is a strong odor in the air that I suspect is coming from the elephant in the room. What is the likelihood that antifa/BLM supporters would associate and collaborate with ‘White Supremacists’? It seems to me that the likelihood is that all those involved in the alleged plot are from the same end of the political spectrum. The MSM and others working to prevent Trump from being re-elected apparently will do and say anything to attempt to discredit Trump, whether the facts and logic support their claims or not.
20
[Snip] Governor “Witless” p-retended to be a moderate with the campaign slogan “Fix the damn roads” which was a lie because after getting elected her best idea was a 50 cent per gallon gasoline tax to fix the roads. That didn’t take much talent. “Witless”is the worst governor since I moved to Michigan, from New York, in 1977. The only good news is New York is worse!
[Email coming. – Jo]
00
The US election will, usually, be in doubt right up to election day. Remember that Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 2 million votes in 2016. Also remember that Lincoln only got about 42% of the popular vote, but still won in 1860. The main factor in US elections is just how many people vote, and in what states they vote… it is usually only about 60-65%. The key is how many people vote in the “swing states” (Florida etc). This election will be almost a mirror image of the 2016 election. The swing states will decide it, no matter the popular vote.
00