President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “I’m not going to change anything” after the midterm elections even with the possible loss of one or both houses of Congress. One thing that did not change is Biden’s continued suggestion that his political opponents are fascists or national security threats. Biden is now supporting an investigation into whether Elon Musk’s taking over of Twitter is a national security threat. Biden’s statement comes just a couple days after Musk’s call for supporters to vote for Republican control of Congress and the President attacking him for his plan to restore free speech protections on Twitter.
During a press conference at the White House, a reporter asked Biden if he thought Musk was a national security threat because of his business ties to Saudi Arabia. Biden responded:
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation, and/or technical relationships with other countries, uh, is worthy of being looked at. Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that … it’s worth being looked at.”
This followed Biden’s tirade against Twitter for moving toward less censorship. The President seriously asked “how do people know the truth” if social media companies did not control what they could read or hear on these platforms.
Biden could have simply demurred and said that he would leave such matters to the responsible agencies to consider. Instead, he added his call to those of Democratic politicians and pundits to initiate a national security review.
The call to unleash a national security review on Musk’s takeover is being pushed by various liberal legal experts and pundits without any sense of concern over the use of such powers for political ends. Among those calling for an investigation is Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the deal.
Of course, many of these Democratic leaders and pundits supported Twitter silencing those with opposing views for years. In previous hearings, Democratic senators demanded greater censorship from Twitter in areas ranging from Covid to climate change. However, according to Murphy, they are now worried about “the potential influence of the Government of Saudi Arabia” and “[a]ny potential that Twitter’s foreign ownership will result in increased censorship, misinformation, or political violence is a grave national security concern.”
The call for a national security review lacks critical facts that would justify any serious action on the part of CFIUS.
CFIUS is a multi-agency committee headed by the Treasury Department and has the authority to block foreign ownership in critical U.S. industries for national security reasons. CFIUS was created to focus on vital national security industries. In 2018, it was given the mandate to examine foreign ownership of companies that collect and hold data on more than 1 million Americans. However, there is no indication that the Saudis hold a significant share or level of control in the company.
Even if CFIUS were to find sufficient ownership or control of Twitter, it would likely result in an agreement to protect data or limit such control. It would not likely present a substantial barrier for Musk. However, the point of these calls is to harass Musk at every turn in retaliation for his defense of free speech values on social media.
Notably, the calls for national security reviews are occurring at the same time that liberal groups are pressuring companies to withdraw from advertising on the platform. General Motors led the way, even though it had objections when Twitter was silencing opposing views. GM also has no difficulty in giving money to TikTok despite its connections with China. After all, American law professors have proclaimed that “China was right” all along in pushing for censorship on the Internet.
These groups know that Twitter represents a massive threat to the control over political speech on social media. Many customers never wanted the censorship being sold by companies like Facebook and Twitter, but they lacked any alternative. Twitter can now be that alternative. At the same time, Musk’s takeover led to a surge in use on the site. If the public flocks to Twitter as a free speech alternative, the establishment loses its control over what is read or heard by voters on these sites.
The threat is so great that political leaders such as Hillary Clinton have called upon foreign governments to impose censorship rules on Twitter — a call answered by European Union, British, and German officials. So, as Democratic leaders are raising the alarm of possible influence of foreign investors at Twitter, they are actively seeking direct censorship from foreign governments.
These campaigns only add support to Musk’s push for alternative revenue sources, including verification fees. As I previously wrote, we can show that there is a market for free speech by supporting Twitter in trying to reduce the dependence on corporate sponsors. If Musk remains faithful to free speech, many customers are likely to join his platform and support his effort to reduce censorship on social media.
And this instigate investigation has nothing to do with the opec swat down last month? Right … and the Saudis have no information about the whereabouts of Angela mahers killer.
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Translation: A threat to deep state security.
Yoel Roth has separated from Twitter. There is a big story about him in the NYPOST. ELON IS PROBABLY BETTER OFF WITHOUT HIM.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/11/post-censoring-twitter-exec-yoel-roth-among-latest-to-quit/amp/
I have no problem with investigating Musk’s companies for International Control, but do not stop there. All US companies, Unions, Government People, Colleges and their people should be looked at also. All checks should be done on all at the same time, but if there is not enough to people to check all then first check should be the Federal government at all levels and all agencies. Every report should be open to the all people immediately.
NO!
We have got to get passed this nonsense that government can “investigate” – torture whatever private groups it currently disfavors.
I WANT the GOP house to investigate the crap out of GOVERNMENT.
I want the J6 investigations to continue – but focused where they should be in the first place GOVERNMENT.
Our founders never imagined congress as a body to investigate ordinary people. It did not imaging the executive as having the power to investigate ordinary people.
The investigative power of congress is over GOVERNMENT
First rule in a witch hunt, don’t stop with the witches.
I see Biden using the FTC to shake him down. He’ll probably have to put Hunter on the board to make peace!
Steve Witherspoon you and I agree. Biden calling for an investigation of Elon Musk is an attempt to shut up anyone in opposition to his administration. One must ask why isn’t Biden calling for an investigation of Mark Zuckerberg for cooperating with the Justice Department concerning who should be censored on facebook? Joe hates the rich guys except for the rich guys he likes. Hugo Chavez was good at such things too.
JT is big on free speech…for everyone that doesn’t violate the rules of his blog; Copywrite and Civility being the two most often cited. Trolling his blog is just begging to get purged. Don’t whine about it, own it.
It’s really not that bad, folks, Nancy Pelosi merely got a haircut.
It’s a very attractive coiffure indeed.
Kevin “The Bumpkin From Bakersfield” McCarthy is a Pelosi in RINO clothing.
It’s not a mirage, it’s the “swamp effect.”
It’s “swamp” gas.
It seems like ATS never gives up on insulting Turley while making sure his comment disappear. He is a coward.
OT
OH —- NO, 2020 WASN’T STOLEN FROM TRUMP! ELECTION DENIERS ARE WRONG, RIGHT?
_______________________________________________________________________________
“SPECIAL REPORT: The Stealing of the Presidency, 2020” (excerpted)
“The left-wing news media didn’t just poison the information environment with their incessantly negative coverage of President Trump going into the 2020 election. They also refused to give airtime to important arguments of the Republican campaign — both pro-Trump and anti-Biden — which meant millions of voters cast their ballots knowing only what the media permitted them to know about the candidates.”
“To measure the true effect of the media’s censorship on the election, the Media Research Center asked The Polling Company to survey 1,750 Biden voters in seven swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), six of which (all but North Carolina) were called for Biden (survey details below). This lack of information proved crucial: One of every six Biden voters we surveyed (17%) said they would have abandoned the Democratic candidate had they known the facts about one or more of these news stories. A shift of this magnitude would have changed the outcome in all six of the swing states won by Joe Biden, and Donald Trump would have comfortably won a second term as president.
■ “Burying Biden’s Bad News: The media’s censorship of Biden’s scandals had the strongest impact on this year’s election. According to our survey, more than one-third of Biden voters (35.4%) were unaware of the serious allegations brought against the Democratic nominee by Tara Reade, a former staffer who said Biden sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.
“If they had known about Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations, 8.9% told us they would have changed their vote — either switching to Trump or a 3rd party candidate, not voting for any presidential candidate, or not voting at all. Even more Biden voters (45.1%) said they were unaware of the financial scandal enveloping Biden and his son, Hunter (a story infamously censored by Twitter and Facebook, as well as ignored by the liberal media). According to our poll, full awareness of the Hunter Biden scandal would have led 9.4% of Biden voters to abandon the Democratic candidate, flipping all six of the swing states he won to Trump, giving the President 311 electoral votes.
“The ticket’s left-wing ideology was another issue barely mentioned by the national press. A GovTrack analysis found Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, had the most left-wing record of any Senator in 2019 (even more than self-described socialist Bernie Sanders). Our poll found that 25.3% of Biden voters said they didn’t know about Senator Harris’s left-wing ideology. If voters had the complete story, it would have led 4.1% of Biden voters to change their vote, flipping Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Trump. The result would have been a Trump victory, with 295 electoral college votes.
■ “Hiding Trump’s Successes: The liberal media also prevented many Biden voters from learning about record-breaking positive economic news in the months leading up to the election. The five pre-election jobs reports from June 5 to October 2 showed a record 11,161,000 jobs were created in the extraordinary snapback from the pandemic recession. Yet a large number of Biden voters (39.4%) said they didn’t know about this achievement. If they had, 5.4% said they would have changed their vote; this would have swung Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Trump, who would have won with 295 electoral votes.
“On October 29, the government reported a huge jump in economic growth — 33.1% on an annual basis, double the previous record. Yet nearly half of Biden voters (49.0%) said they had no idea about this record-breaking achievement. Armed with that information, 5.6% said they would have changed their vote, swinging Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and a total of 295 electoral votes to Trump.”
[…and on and on and on].
– Rich Noyes, November 24, 2020 https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2020/11/24/special-report-stealing-presidency-2020
OT
No, no, 2020 wasn’t stolen.
Oh, those pesky conservative election deniers; FBI conspires with Facebook to suppress critical election information.
Zuck said the suppression was “meaningful.”
____________________________________
“Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Suppressed Hunter Biden Laptop Story ahead of 2020 Election”
“Facebook suppressed stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election after the FBI told the company they should look out for Russian “misinformation,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan Thursday. The ‘distribution’ of the bombshell report was suppressed on Facebook for ‘five or seven’ days when it was being determined if the laptop was real, Zuckerberg said, but users could still ‘share it.’ Facebook engineers downgraded the report within the platform’s ‘ranking and newsfeed’ features, so ‘fewer people saw it than would have otherwise,’ he said. Asked how many fewer user saw the story as a result of the suppression, Zuckerberg said he couldn’t provide an exact number but offered that the effect was ‘meaningful.’”
– Diana Glebova, August 26, 2022
KARIZONA!
Jonathan: Virtually all the pundits predicted there would be a huge “red wave” in Tuesday’s midterms. It never materialized . And Trump is livid over Dr. Oz’s loss. True to form the Trumpster blames everyone else for his failed endorsement of Oz. He blames Melania for encouraging Trump to support Oz. Trump invariably blames the women when things go bad.
Turning to calls for CFIUS to investigate Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Brookings has a long article (11/4/22) entitled “The national security grounds for investigating Musk’s Twitter acquisition” in which it lays out that there are significant foreign equity investments in Twitter. The countries leading minority investments are Saudi Arabia (27%), United Arab Emirates (10%) followed by China, Qatar and Canada. Brookings says: “Given evolving trends in CFIUS decisions in other cases. President Biden would have strong grounds for blocking Musk’s Twitter acquisition or at the very least compelling the minority foreign investors to sell their equity to parties that would not pose a national security threat”. But you bizarrely claim “…there is no indication the Saudis hold a significant share or level of control in the company”. 27% is not exactly chump change! A minority interest of that magnitude gives you a lot of clout over corporate decisions. What is to prevent the Saudi Crown Prince from asking Musk to censor critics of the Saudi’s dismal human rights record?
We have seen that Musk is already blocking his own critics. So much for his commitment to “free speech”. Musk told all his Twitter followers to vote for Republicans on Tuesday. That indicates Twitter will become a platform for the GOP not a public forum for all views. It seems you are running out of reasons to support Musk. As Twitter’s advertising revenues are drying up you are stepping up to the plate by telling your own followers: ” We can show that there is a market for free speech by supporting Twitter in trying to reduce dependence on corporate sponsors”. That obviously implies we should be signing up for the $8/per/month verified account. Seems you are desperate to prop up Musk. Of course, a verified account on Twitter today doesn’t carry the cache it used to have. That’s because anyone now can get verified. But who wants to be associated with neo-Nazis, racists, anti-semites and conspiracy theorists? That’s why corporate sponsors are headed for the door. Of course, you could set the example by getting your own verified Twitter account. Why haven’t you done that? I think I know why.
>”The President seriously asked “how do people know the truth” if social media companies did not control what they could read or hear on these platforms.”
Exactly. Musk could ban President Biden from Twitter (like his predecessor) post haste or leave his demented jibberish up for ridicule and condemnation .. . tough decision.
*baby steps
Apparently — based on the election results — about half the country agrees with Biden’s opinion of the other half of the citizenry. I think it is seriously time to consider splitting up. I could live with a peaceful division a la what happened in the old Czechoslovakia and nothing like what happened on the Asian subcontinent after WWII or what happened in the Balkans. In my thinking there will be three countries
— The country Riverarea will continue to be a constitutional Republic pretty much based on the 1789 U.S. Constitution as amended. It will include the Ohio, James, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Rio Grande-* and maybe Potomac river valleys plus Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas and probably Alaska (its choice). The national sport will be football
–The country Lawrence will be a constitutional monarchy and include New England, New York, NJ, PA and MD east of the mountains, and DelMarVa north of the smelly chicken plants. The national sport will be ice hockey. It may choose to become a province or two of Canada if Canada would have them
— California will be a Cuba style Communist dictatorship and pick up OR and WA west of the mountains and probably HI (its choice). California will disband the Marine base near San Diego and scuttle the fleet there. Its national sport will be what Riverareans call soccer.
— Chicago and the lower peninsula of MI will join Canada or simply be abandoned to random lawless leftists (which is close to happening already)
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*Its army (actually it will be the only of the three that has an army) will take over northeastern Mexico if need be to better protect its southern border.
Biden should go first. Why aren’t we looking into the Biden Cabal?? Same reason the Clinton Cabal got off scot-free.