There was a time when the disclosure of a back channel for politically motivated censorship would have generated widespread acclaim and called for awards. This is not that time. Just ask Matt Taibbi.
No one is suggesting that the New York Post should receive a Pulitzer Prize for its long fight to prove the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop. Despite an alliance of most of the media and political establishment arrayed against it, the New York Post fought censorship and unrelenting attacks to bring this massive influence peddling operation to light. (Of course, the New York Times and Washington Post can keep Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on debunked Russian collusion claims created and pushed by the Clinton campaign).
In the case of journalist Matt Taibbi, his analysis of thousands of documents has met with the standard scorched earth campaign from liberal reporters and pundits.
As discussed in today’s Hill column, the document dump confirmed what had long been suspected: Biden and Democratic party officials succeeded in getting Twitter to block the New York Post story and suspend those who even tried to retweet or link to the story before the election.
I will not repeat the content of those emails on how Twitter “handled” demands from the Biden campaign and the DNC for censorship. Musk gave the material to Taibbi to synthesize the voluminous record. That is when the familiar media flash mob formed.
NBC Reporter Ben Collins attacked Taibbi on Twitter and said “Imagine throwing it all away to do PR work for the richest person in the world. Humiliating s***.”
New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali also attacked Taibbi:
“Matt Taibbi…what sad, disgraceful downfall. I swear, kids, he did good work back in the day. Should be a cautionary tale for everyone. Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth. Well, he’ll eat well for the rest of his life I guess. But is it worth it?”
So Taibbi’s reported downfall as a writer is due to his role in disclosing a massive censorship system operated at the direction or behest of one political party and one political family. He is “disgraceful” because he is suggesting that the media and social media companies should not have censored a story on a multimillion dollar influence peddling scheme run by the Biden family.
Taibbi is not alone in such disgrace, according to Ali. He has also attacked former New York Times writer Bari Weiss, including for her statement that she was tired of the pandemic as being somehow racist. (“It reflects America’s cruelty, right?…we have also had cruelty, White supremacy, misogyny. America says go ahead and die, but just don’t die on my lawn.”)
Of course, Ali may be right on what it takes today to be accepted as a journalist. Taibbi is now persona non grata as opposed to Ali, who is routinely invited to write for publications like the New York Times and the Daily Beast despite a litany of controversies.
In one column, Ali suggested white Republican voters would prefer to burn down their own homes then rent to a minority member and compared them to the Al Qaeda terrorists on Flight 93 . He then wrote off most of them as “lost. It’s going to be a long, ugly, violent death rattle of a death cult.”
In today’s world, the New York Times bans Sen. Tom Cotton for his view on the use of the military to quell violent protests, but publishes Ali who told people not to “waste your time reaching out to Trump voters as I did.”
“Reaching out” apparently means calling them virulent racists storming an airplane cockpit. That is the model of real journalism and commentary, not some journalist detailing a politically driven censorship system on social media.
Most critics like MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan attacked Musk or Taibbi while omitting any discussion of the details in these documents. Hasan simply declared that the full transparency ordered by Musk is just one of those “nakedly and cynically right-wing narratives . . . But sure, the laptop! The laptop! The laptop!”
There is a simple reason for this evasion and enmity. The media is too invested in the suppression of this story to now acknowledge that this was a scandal involving both massive influence peddling and massive censorship to cover it up.
I previously wrote a column on the one year anniversary of the Hunter Biden laptop story that marveled at the success of the Biden family in making the scandal vanish before the 2020 election. It was analogized to Houdini making his 10,000-pound elephant Jennie disappear in his act. The Biden trick, however, occurred live before an audience of millions.
The key to the trick was involving the media in the original illusion. Both Twitter and these reporters became invested in the trick. It is like calling audience members to the stage to assist in the performance. Reporters have to insist that there was nothing to see or they have to admit to being part of the original deception. The Bidens were able to make this elephant of a scandal disappear because Twitter and the media wanted it to disappear.
Musk has now pulled away the cover and revealed the elephant. Rather than acknowledge the beast, the media is turning on those who made it visible. The Bidens forced many liberal reporters and pundits to excuse the raw corruption of influence peddling. They are now getting the same figures to dismiss censorship. The alternative is simply too bear, let alone explain. After all, if it is still on the stage, it was there all along . . . and that can only be a “nakedly and cynically right-wing narrative.”
“In the case of journalist Matt Taibbi, his analysis of thousands of documents has met with the standard scorched earth campaign from liberal reporters and pundits.”
********************************
Sounds like Taibbi is not only circling the target but diving bombing right for its heart. Rip it out, Matt — if you can find it.
There is an inherent dilemma with the thinking of Journalistic-Nihilist like Ben Collins, Wajahat Ali, and Mehdi Hasan.
When they reach the end of their lifetime of chaotic assassinations of Fellow and Public figures, They find themselves alone.
The soul survivor of a cold lifeless world.
Hallelujah! for Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, they chose Life, to face it and grow with it. As it seeks to establish roots in the Truth. A path which is the anti-thesis of politically motivated yellow journalism. A journalism of TRUE GRIT.
-30-
✯ Much appreciated Jonathan ✯
“…TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY,…”
So you don’t know you’re at war for the body, the soul and the very existence of your nation?
Seriously, you thought you could give the “great unwashed hyphenates” an inch of fellowship and compassion and they wouldn’t take a mile, nay, the whole blanking thing?
Geez, are you stupid, right?
______________________
“BOY AND THE RATTLESNAKE STORY”
A little boy was walking down a path and he came across a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was getting old. He asked, “Please little boy, can you take me to the top of the mountain? I hope to see the sunset one last time before I die.” The little boy answered “No Mr. Rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you’ll bite me, and I’ll die.” The rattlesnake said, “No, I promise. I won’t bite you. Just please take me up to the mountain.” The little boy thought about it and finally picked up that rattlesnake and took it close to his chest and carried it up to the top of the mountain.
They sat there and watched the sunset together. It was so beautiful. Then after sunset the rattlesnake turned to the little boy and asked, “Can I go home now? I am tired, and I am old.” The little boy picked up the rattlesnake and again took it to his chest and held it tightly and safely. He came all the way down the mountain holding the snake carefully and took it to his home to give him some food and a place to sleep. The next day the rattlesnake turned to the boy and asked, “Please little boy, will you take me back to my home now? It is time for me to leave this world, and I would like to be at my home now.” The little boy felt he had been safe all this time and the snake had kept his word, so he would take it home as asked.
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
– Indian Legend, Northern Cherokee Legend, First People Legend
_____________________________________________________
MHDAPGA
Make Hyphenates Dependents And Parasites Great Again
I wonder what the Twitter files will reveal about Messers Ali and Collins. Sounds like they’re concerned about something.
I disagree with Prof. Turley’s use of the phrase “liberal reporters and pundits” to refer to Taibbi’s critics. The word “liberal” is rooted in the Latin word “liber” which means free. Nothing about these people suggests a belief in any kind of freedom. They are egregious bullies, thugs, fanatics and bigots. It will be a mystery for years to come how this class of people suddenly came into our presence.
Trigger much snowflake? Smh
Anonymous, it would be better to comment with nothing than what you said in reply.
The mob is fickle my friend.
“Most critics like MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan attacked Musk or Taibbi while omitting any discussion of the details in these documents.” That’s what gets me more than anything else in the whole sordid saga. If you’re going to criticize one, or both, of these individuals, tell us why they’re wrong for doing what they did. Also, quit telling us that this story is “so old now”. It’s never been adjudicated in the court of popular opinion. That tactic died with the Clintosaurs. The “reporters” reveal their partisanship by lifting their tight, Donkey sweaters and showing us their pom poms.
Dear Prof Turley,
Matt Taibbi didn’t pull this elephant out of a hat.
“We didn’t know what to believe, we didn’t know what was true, there was smoke,” Roth told Kara Swisher, a tech journalist, this month after leaving the company. “Everything about it looked like a hack and leak,”
Yoal Roth and the ‘Comm’ big wigs @ Twitter must have been smoking some powerful stuff. It’s one thing for ‘team Biden’ to say the Laptop is Russian disinformation, it’s another thing entirely for over 50 top national security officials to say it’s Russian disinformation.
That would mean Hunter Biden’s Laptop is really Vlad Putin’s Laptop. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. The national security implications are off the charts.
And, btw, if the FBI confiscated The Laptop in Oct. 2019, wouldn’t they have known who The Laptop really belongs to?
*do you know where The Laptop is, or not?
Then there are those who cannot admit the truth when it beats them over their heads. Oh, that’s right their heads are in the sand or worse.
The elephant was just a metaphor.
“50 top national security officials” — you forgot to add: establishment globalist communist anti-American security officials…
I’m a big globalist. .. I’d like to buy the world a coke.
These people – including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan. Other signers included former Director of National Intelligence Michael Hayden and former CIA director Leon Panetta – are *not* ‘globalists’.
They want to rule the world. .. with an iron fist.
This is another area of left wing nut word mangling.
All uses of the world “globalist” prior to about 2010 mean – a supporter of global free markets that will inherently disempower governments.
Trump is a globalist in that use.
Today globalist universally means the one world government crowd. While they do not litterally want to rule the world via one world govenrment.
They do so through treaties that protect government from competition and essentially made governance unifrom accross the world.
So globalist today means the opposite of what it actually means.
And Trump who is an actual globalists rants and raves – correctly about the evil globalists trying to take over the world.
We have the same with liberal – I do not call the modern left liberal, but many still do. Liberal in use today is the opposite of actual liberalism.
This is all straight out of 1984 and it is deliberate.
The idea is to actually make it impossible to communicate specific ideas that the left does not like.
You used to be able to say “I am a globalist”, now to be correctly understood you have to say “I am for unrestrained global free markets unimpeded by government. ”
You used to be able to say “I am a liberal”, now you must say “I believe in the maximum amount of individual liberty consistent with order”
No racist means judging people by character not color, and anti-racist means racial supremecist.
Except those 50 (mostly FORMER) “national security officials” did not say that – they said it had the EARMARKS of Russian disinformation, but that there was no evidence to suggest it was.
Why are leftists so challenged when it comes to reading comprehension?
As for the FBI, they were protecting the Deep Stater Biden.
The laptop is Hunter Biden’s, some of the most incriminating emails have been verified by their recipients, and it is a real story.
So is Matt Taibbi a real journalist – of which there are scandalously few remaining. He’s way to the left of me politically, but he’s interested in verifiable facts, not in furthering the narrative.
Nah. Musk has an agenda. He is releasing only requests for deleting tweets from the Biden campaign. Nothing about the requests that came from the Trump campaign to censor and were acted on too. Really, Trump had a whole operation with the National Enquirer to buy and kill embarrassing stories about Trump.
Also, Tiabbi and Kisk conveniently leave out that the laptop pictures and stories included dicpics of Hunter; which eventually were shown on Hannity’s show. That stuff really does not belong on Twitter.
If you have 100000 accounts blocked for a partisan reason, and then you have 2 accounts blocked for a partisan reason you think it is smart and newsworthy to look at those 2 and forget those 100000?
Or would you wonder why the main stream media would not – under any circumstance – look at why those 100000 accounts were blocked?
OT
“Elon Musk says Twitter ‘has interfered in elections’”
3 days ago — Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday promised that “Twitter 2.0” would be more “effective” and “transparent” under his leadership.
“The obvious reality [is that] Twitter has interfered in elections,” said Musk.
– Chris Pandolfo
_____________
12% of the population is featured in 100% of the scenes on TV and in movies.
The communist (liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO, AINO) teachers/professors unions have brainwashed American students with lifelong propaganda and indoctrination.
The mainstream media have brainwashed Americans with constant propaganda and indoctrination beginning with the removal of Caucasians from all programming and the “replacement” of Americans with hyphenates and illegal aliens.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) have stolen the minds and the elections of Americans.
The “obvious reality” is invasion, “fundamental transformation” and the total conquest of America.
What the —- are Americans doing?
The communist (liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO, AINO) slogan:
MFGA
Make Foreigners Great Again!
The Democrats will literally do anything to destroy anyone in their path who does not agree. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9RsedoC_PN4
I do like that Houdini comparison because yes, we did all know the Hunter Biden laptop was out there. Obviously not maybe all. I just wonder how the laptop showed up where it did. Did Hunter really drop it off for repairs? or did someone else, who knew what was on it? Kind of like the diary that was left behind? People are still trying to shove the laptop under the rug but pretend the tale on the FISA report is real.
How many reminders do we need that we are dealing with shameless Stalinists?
Do we still believe they wouldn’t lie, slander, prosecute, frame, and cheat at elections?
When they say “By any means necessary” believe them.
And murder, mayhem, arson, property destruction, destroying businesses and livelihoods.
Murder Once the gate is opened, anything is possible – anything. See history.
Not to worry! The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) just love you!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Romanov family executed, ending a 300-year imperial dynasty
In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.
Crowned in 1896, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve among a people desperate for change. The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, which ended only after Nicholas approved a representative assembly–the Duma–and promised constitutional reforms. The czar soon retracted these concessions and repeatedly dissolved the Duma when it opposed him, contributing to the growing public support for the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups. In 1914, Nicholas led his country into another costly war—World War I—that Russia was ill-prepared to win. Discontent grew as food became scarce, soldiers became war weary and devastating defeats at the hands of Germany demonstrated the ineffectiveness of Russia under Nicholas.
In March 1917, revolution broke out on the streets of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne later that month. That November, the radical socialist Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in Russia from the provisional government, sued for peace with the Central Powers and set about establishing the world’s first communist state. Civil war broke out in Russia in June 1918, and in July the anti-Bolshevik “White” Russian forces advanced on Yekaterinburg, where Nicholas and his family were located, during a campaign against the Bolshevik forces. Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovs, and after a secret meeting of the Yekaterinburg Soviet, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family.
Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children and four servants were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.
– History.com
Women and children – little girls, for crying out loud!
Communists are anti-human barbarians who totally hate human freedom.
All regime change is financed and ordered by the international banking elites. In the case of Russia they replaced a hostile dynastic bloodline with a handpicked group of jewish followers of Karl Marx, himself a project that of the previous generation of international banking elites. Their playbook is simple, they use the hegelian dialect approach. In this case they amplified all the economic and governance problems of the Russian aristocracy and replaced it with a system they had baked earlier, a workers revolution that despised the entire dynastic model.
And the consequence of these actions by the Democrats? A lot of back-slapping from each other. Remember when queried about his untrue hysterics about Romney not paying his taxes in the 2012 campaign, Harry Reid simply said, “Well, he didn’t win did he?” The ends justify the means.
Matt’s a great reporter and writer (and you do nothing to point out that he is by his own admission a screaming meemie lefty). But so far (mid afternoon Saturday) The Twitter File is nothing we did not already know.
— The company was/is predominantly leftist.
— Dorsey seemed to be out of the picture.
— The company legitimately asked if the NY Post story was accurate (given the more than odd way it came to light)
— It took too long to answer that question and end the bans (for a week maybe? I dunno cuz I was not a Twitter user but I certainly heard all about the Post story so Twitter suppressing it did not suppress the news)
Besides the few nutty far lefty outliers mentioned in this post who would attack Bernie Sanders if he wrote this, most criticism I’ve seen is legit: “What is the actual story that was covered up?” Twitter will not know the answer to that
Sorry Dennis Byron but the laptop came with pictures of Hunter Biden in glorious color. You and I know that these pictures were not staged. There is no excuse for keeping the content of the laptop from the American people. The story was not only quashed by Twitter but by the major news networks. The “but we didn’t know” excuse doesn’t stand up when you look at the pictures from the laptop. They absolutely knew and they did their best to cover it up. Who else besides Guliani would you have chosen to bring the laptops existing to the publics attention? You just bought the bad source propaganda of the left. Did you really believe that it was just Russian disinformation? Maybe you should have considered the reputation of the sources who were feeding you the real disinformation. There are still those who believe the laptop is Russian disinformation. Are you one of them. You should be outraged that the sucked you into their subterfuge. If you haven’t been outraged the time has arrived for you to become angry.
Strawman comment. Who said anything about pix being staged. And the oddity was not Guliani… it was the whole thing about a guy in his garage in Maryland finding it. I have no problem with the old Twitter spending 2-3 days verifying the accuracy of that provenance (and however many days it was, it didn’t suppress the story… I did not follow Twitter and knew all about it)
But that was not what my comment said anyways. Everything in yesterday long tweet by Matt was old news. The real question is what about the substance of the emails on the laptop. This is not something that Twitter knows
Dennis, you’re being intentional abtuse, or, wholly uninformed on agreed on facts.
The computer was abandoned at a computer repair shop. The owner did contact the FBI, they ignored him. Eventually he found a way to contact gulliana. The rest is history. The highpoints. The emails were corroborated by Hunters Partner. The fbi had the laptop for a year and never found anything that was fake, planted, or otherwise, not true.
Nobody gets to claim they only published vetted materail when 99% of smears delivered against conservatives start with “unamed sources close to the story…”
Stick to looking backwards and get ready to clap for Speaker Hakim in two years.
My point is “no one cares” where it was found or Tony Bulboni or Guilianni or any of your totally irrelevant other statements. Give us the bankbook numbers and the amounts Joe took in bribes with receipts. Release it on the new Twitter; all the rest of your blah blah blah is meaningless.
It’s as if people went on for three years after August 1973 about Alexander Butterfield; if that’s all you got, you got nothing. If you don’t understand why, you got less than nothing.
Looks like James Wood plans an attack calling out the DNC, I wonder how many others will follow suit?
On top of that: the “but we didn’t know” excuse only seems to work one way, doesn’t it?
I mean, it did not stop the msm on made up stories regarding the Trump family.
If no one else is, then I am “suggesting that the New York Post should receive a Pulitzer Prize for its long fight to prove the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop.” The thorough, complete, validated, and detailed investigative reporting NY Post did is so superior to the shoddy and misinformation-filled reporting by NYT, AP, WaPo, and so many others for the last two years on myriads of lies … Trump collusion, Gen FLynn, the Biden border crisis, the Trump economy and energy independence, the hypocrisy of Dem governors during C19, C19 origin, efficacy vs risks of C19 vax, BLM riots, the embarrassment of Afghanistan. NY POST DESERVES A PULITZER and NYT should be required to return theirs.
Suburban woman, I love your comment!
The Pulitzer is worthless garbage.
Like the Nobel Peace Prize and so many other once-useful awards that have been corrupted and forever soiled by “progressives.”
DEMO0CRATS ARE CRIMINALS
The MSM have been bought off, bribed to lie, push a narrative regardless of the truth, and we can see the origins in our legal system so the whole government is screwed. We lost the Republic when they murdered John Kennedy. We lost our moral compass in Vietnam, and compounded with a war on drugs and incarcerating people for possessing and using cannabis. We defaulted on the gold standard because we didn’t want to pay for any of it, and bought time by cutting a deal with the Saudis.
We need a hard crash. The federal government is bankrupt and corrupt. Time to stop feeding the breast.
LBJ’s coverup also.
The current moment is radically different from the past.
The closest that we have to this is FDR in the 30’s and even that is a poor fit.
Outside the US the best fit to what is going on right now in the US is the cultural revolution in China.
And no one sane wants to repeat that.
You list a bunch of past US problems as real as they are they are mostly NOT predecessors to what is happening now.
The provenance of this does go back to the 60’s – when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposed the vile nature of Russian communism in a way that intellectuals in the academy could not ignore. But instead of learning that socialism is vile and bloody, they went for a redecoration. They shifted from a “class struggle” – to incorporate any other form of oppression they could think of. The PC, Woke, Intersectionalist, CRT permutation of marxism is what we have as a result. They spend decades building and refining this Marxism 2.0, They spent decades slowly taking over academia. When I was in college – nearly everyone was on the “left”, then – but the marxists were nutty fringe bearded idiots off in the corner by themselves. The left at that time was fighting FOR free speech on campus. It was fighting FOR judging people by their character – not the intersectional checkboxes they tick off. So Marxism 2.0 VERY SLOWLY took over academia. The next major thing that happened was social media. While in the long runs I think Social media like many other revolutionary changes will be hugely net positive. Very quickly – especially with teens and particularly women it became incredibly destructive. Men culturally for 100K+ years stand toe to toe, and confront each other phsyically. Women engage in emotional and reputational destruction – and social media amplifies that a million times.
There was an abrupt transition in the country in about 2013 as the first significant cohort of kids who grew up on social media hit academia.
While I noted the takeover of academia by marxism 2.0, even the left wing nut academia was blindsided by this. The first social media generation took over campuses in an incredibly destructive way quite rapidly. They surprised and dominated even left wing nut professors and adminstrators. But the preseeded marxist 2.0 academia was best situated to coopt them and to direct their rage.
There was an expectation that these students would be “fixed” when they ran smak into reality as they graduated.
Instead they took over the institutions that hired them, especially the MSM.
Again this most strongly mirrors the cultural revolution in China. There are differences – the Cultural revolution could not have happened without Mao as the strong leader, and the cultural revolution empowered Mao and he killed it when it no longer served his purposes.
But what we have is a more bottom up cultural revolution. And that means no powerful leader is going to crush it as it inevitably goes to far.
The next closest parallel is not in history, but literature – 1984 or Amimal farm, or Brave new world. or ayn rand’s anthem – dystopias that are proving remarkably prescient.
John B. Say, your paranoia is showing. You read way too much into everything
I find it odd that you even dare crawl out from under a rock at another of the many moments in which the perfidy amd calumany of the left are once again exposed to the light.
There is very little that I find new about musk’s revaluations regarding Twitter and the HB laptop.
So mostly they are a yawn for me.
But they do accomplish one thing.
They confirm that another “right win conspiracy theory” is in fact a FACT.
Sorry, they accomplish another. They establish that few one the left have any integrity.
And those that do are destroyed by the left.
There are many many facets to what Musk has documented – I do not say exposed – because most of us have known this for years.
The supression of the laptop was an actual conspiracy – very near a formal conspiracy.
The initial impetus came from the Biden campaign which through secret back channels asked twitter as well as other social media and the MSM to not just memory hole the story but to actively supress it.
But worse – the FBI was involved. So we have some in our government telling the media to suppress the truth in order to remove the current president from power. You keep talking about “insurrection” – this is an actual insurrection. Not only is it a violation fo the first amendment but the only thing separating the FBI’s action from treason is that treason requires malfeasance at a time of war.
We learned that those in the left making the decision to supress the laptop story KNEW that it was not disinformation, KNEW that it was not hacked material, and that they figured this all out within a few hours of the NY Post first releasing the story.
And they supressed it anyway.
Musk is documenting what occured at twitter – but even that documentation connects back to other social media and media outlets.
They all had the same information from the same sources at the same time making the same claims that they all knew quickly were false.
And when Twitter blocked the story – they all followed Twitters lead.
This is many many immoral and very bad things,. but it is obviously LYING.
And it is LYING on a gargantuan scale in order to win an election.
It is lying by Biden – who not only acted to crush the story, but they went on TV in the debates and LIED to the american public about it, using the suppression of the story by the media to support his lies.
But it is not only about “the big lie” – it is about actively silencing others – silencing the Truth.
Lying is one thing – but preventing those telling the truth from speaking is another.
We learned that Twitter was 50:50 split on killing the story – but they did anyway.
We learned that they actively kept Jack Dorsey the founder, largest shareholder, and CEO out of the loop because they feared he would stop the suppression.
We learned that not only did they kill and block the story – but they completely silenced thousands of prominent republican voices at a critical point in a campaign – at twitter and accross social media not only was the story blocked but the accounts of republicans were mass suspended to thwart spreading the story – preventing them not just from spreading this story but from saying anything.
Basically Twitter and SM gagged much of the political right in the country.
We learned that Tiwitter used tools it had never used for anything except blocking child porn to completely eradicate the hunter biden laptop story.
Why should those involved be trusted about anything ever again ?
Why should YOU be trusted ever again ?
And lets not forget Biden was involved, his campaign was involved. People who are now part of government were involved.
To win an election they ACTIVELY LIED and ACTIVELY SILENCED people who were telling the truth.
You have ranted repeatedly about democracy.
Yet this is not democracy – this is anti-democracy.
This is not trusting the people with the Truth.
In what world can someone like you claim that the people ought to be able to decide.
That they can use force against their neghbor based on the will of the majority.
But some small group is allowed to decide what the majority are told.
Some small group is allowed to deny the majority the truth.
That is not democracy, that is not ANY form of representative government.
That is dictatorship with the pretense of democracy.
And this story is just the tip of the iceberg.
We know from other lawsuits that SM and possibly the media have secret back channels with government and democrats.
Where government and democrats direct the media and SM to supress the speech of others or even to suspend or cancel their accounts.
And we know that the media and SM practically joyously do as they are directed.
We already have specific examples of the Biden Whitehouse demanding that Social Media ban, suppress, thwart specific tweets and specific accounts.
But the story was not killed. It did manage to get out – but only on conservative sites – where the media could again LIE and tell much of the country it was a right wing conspiracy theory.
So the truth was out there – but ONLY the people YOU slandered as LIARS were speaking the truth.
This ultimately goes beyond why should we trust the media, democrats, the left, you.
We have an election that was won by lies, deception and WORSE silencing those speaking the truth.
That is Election Fraud.
Further that is direct evidence of a willingness to act massively immorally to win an election.
Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsus_in_uno,_falsus_in_omnibus
At common law, it is the legal principle that a witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter
Biden, the media, social media, the left, Democrats, YOU,
Are not credible about anything.
You are not credible about election fraud.
You are not credible about January 6th.
You are not credible about the collusion delusion.
You are not credible about Judge Cannon.
You are not credible about MAL.
I would further note that all the “Experts” that you constantly rely on – the legal scholars etc.
These are the same people who told us this did not happen.
They are often the same people who told us that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
They are not credible EITHER.
And this story is just the first of MANY examples of left wing nuts like you supressing the truth.
FALSUS IN OMNIBUS, FALSUS IN OMNIBUS
I can not compel people to see the FACT that the left LIES about EVERYTHING.
That does not change the FACT that it is TRUE.
Svelaz – why should you be beleived ever about anything ?
Please, were you right ? Were you truthful ?
About the collusion Delusion ?
About Hillaries Election Hoax’s ?
About Spying on Trump ?
About the Hunter Biden Laptop ?
About Covid ?
About anything ?
If you are OBVIOUSLY a LIAR on so many many many different topics.
Why should you ever be trusted on anything ?
You say I am paranoid ?
About what ?
That the LEFT is lying through their teeth about so many different things that they can not be trusted on anything ?
That the left, the media, big tech, social media, democrats, the FBI actually conspire together to supress the truth and the voices of those on the right speaking the truth ?
What part of that is not proven ?
John B. Say, It’s pretty clear you are definitely being paranoid AND delusional.
The long winding rants and conspiratorial claptrap that you have been consumed with has distorted your ability to recognize reality. Even all those folks who have been claiming the Hunter Biden “scandal” are being left with a hollow sort of victory with this release of “evidence” that twitter censored the story because they wanted to affect the outcome of the election in 2020. All of this is nothing more than a whole lot of people buying into their own web of conspiracy theories and political intrigue.
When presented with facts and evidence the response is always denial or another conspiracy borne out of ignorance.
You are wrong about a LOT of things. You never back up your claims with evidence or documentation. All of your claims are based on your “word” as if that is credible enough when it’s not. It’s easy to make claims without backing them up. That’s how runaway conspiracy theories and political innuendo create their own bubbles of reality.
Too many people are not astute enough or knowledgable enough to understand what their are reading. Complex issues and nuances are lost in that fog of ignorance. It’s beyond a lot of people who are more susceptible to being manipulated and they are being manipulated by those who stand to gain politically. That’s why Fox News and right wing media relies on those kinds of people. The gullible and the ignorant.
You say what is happening int the US is close to how Mao did in China. Ironically it’s exactly what republicans have been doing. The cultural revolution was bout purging intellectuals and the “elite”. Republicans are always critical of the elite and the trump supporters are always critical of intellectuals. They rail against professors and “experts” because they claim to be “superior”. Sounds more like YOU are part of the cultural revolution you are comparing the lefl with.
This rot is not worth rebutting.
Svelaz – You are a delusional LIAR.
Your only standards are double standards.
You are only able to see good conduct in those you favor and misconduct in those you do not.
In Svelaz world good is bad when done by those with the wrong beliefs, and bad is good when done by those who share your beliefs.
We have listened to YEARS of your garbage trying to manufacture corruption from ordinary conduct, yet when slapped in the face with actual corruption or misconduct – you pretend it is not there.
The FACT is that you STOLE THE 2020 Election. You lied and cheated large scale to win.
You acted about as anti-democratically as is possible – unwilling to trust voters with the truth.
Please do not EVER use the word democracy again – you betrayed what you claim to be your own principles.
Nor is that the only “Big Lie” you have told.
Why should anyone believe anything you say ?
“Svelaz – You are a delusional LIAR. Your only standards are double standards….Nor is that the only “Big Lie” you have told. Why should anyone believe anything you say ?”
John, this is why people refer to Svelaz as Stupid. These Stupidity games he plays are no different than insults.
To the greatest extent that I possibly can I prefer to insult those on the left with Facts, rather than pure ad hominem.
There are a significant number of posters here whose IQ’s are not likely much above room temperature.
But what matters is the validity of their remarks.
Further stupid and immoral are NOT the same.
The distribution of intelligence is relatively fixed and does not particularly favor one ideology over another.
Morality is a choice, intelligence is not.
Nor is there any correlation between intelligence and morality.
Svelaz has chosen to particpate and continue to participate in moral failure.
“To the greatest extent that I possibly can I prefer to insult those on the left with Facts, rather than pure ad hominem.”
You are absolutely correct, but it takes time to do that. Responding with a true ad hominem is a shortcut for people like me who have seen Svelaz lie, without concern for what was said before by everyone else, including himself.
You are willing to put in the time. You take him point by point, quoting his words. As I said before that is like an instruction manual which reads like an encyclopedia. Anyone reading that can learn so it useful, but Svelaz won’t learn a thing. He is incapable of learning and will remain a dolt no matter what proof is provided.
Svelaz is both immoral and unintelligent. Most know that, but you should keep up the good work to help others realize how dishonest and stupid the left is.
Please learn something about China.
The cultural revolution occurred when Mao allowed “the gang of four” including his last wife to empower teens and young adults to attack, destroy and take over Chinese institutions.
It is very close to what we have had ongoing in this country since 2013.
The destruction of history, the destruction of past culture, the destruction of institutions, sewing chaos and anarchy.
Arbitrarily cancelling and denouncing people who did not kowtow to “the red guard” – politically empowered teens and young adults self appointed to police speech, and thought.
Contra your idiocy the cultural revolution had NOTHING to do with “the elite” – it was entirely about blind conformance to a hacked together idiotic left wing nut nonsense that was not even consistent enough to be an ideology.
KowTow sufficiently and you were safe. Don’t and you were denounced, canceled, re-educated, forced into self criticism and public humiliation.
There are many other books about Chinese history that cover the cultural revolution.
But this is an excellent one.
Please read something before you comment about things you are entirely ignorant of.
https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985
You can find the proof of all the things I post
via google.
In the news,
in the works of nobel prize winning economists.
in the actual historical record.
From a variety of primary source records – the direct writings, records and communications of people at the center of events.
Sufficient evidence of the theft of the 2020 election is established by the documented communications of the biden campaign, the DNC, the FBI, most congressional democrats in seeking the censorship of damning news stories. It is evident in the compliance of social media and the news in suppressing THE TRUTH. It is evident in the subsequent suppression of not merely the truth but of everyone who spoke the truth.
All to win an election.
You are the one who has been selling democracy – that the voters should decide – but you do not trust the voters with the truth.
Whether you like it or not this is damning.
Not merely because you STOLE THE ELECTION – but because it proves that you do not believe anything you say.
You do no want democracy.
You are not fighting disinformation.
Your only interest in “the people” is in manipulating them to gain power.
TRUTH is an impediment to your power.
This exposes that you will do anything for POWER, that democracy has nothing to do with it. That misinformation has nothing to do with it.
That the ends justify the means.
Need I remind you that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden KNEW that the laptop had been left for repairs and never picked up.
They KNEW that the story was TRUE. Yet they lied to suppress the truth about themselves. The leveraged others to lie, they leveraged the democratic party to lie, and they used POWER to not merely suppress the Truth but to suppress those who tried to speak the truth.
The big deal here is not the truth of what is on the Hunter Biden laptop.
The big deal is the bad character, the immoral actions of those who sought to and did suppress it.
There is NEVER a moral justification for using power to supress PEOPLE for telling the Truth.
This goes beyond trying to supress the TRUTH.
It is about revealing who YOU are when YOU use power to crush others for telling the TRUTH.
You made an issue of Koshogi.
MBS had Koshogi murdered to silence him.
Joe Biden used power to silence thousands of people who sought to tell the truth about him.
Svelaz,
I intend to remind you and those like you that you “STOLE THE 2020 ELECTION” at every oportunity.
Not just because that is a fact.
But because it is the truth about you and your character.
This is not just about the laptop, and the 2020 election.
It is about the character of those involved, it is about your character.
Dumb and uninformed as usual. They did kill the elite since Mao’s power came from the interior of the country and they were trying to destroy the country, culture, history and everything else. They were like Antifa, but how would an uneducated guy like you know that?
Absolutely they were similar to Antifa – though on a far larger scale.
No they were not after the elite. China had no elite in the 60’s.
The closest thing China had to an elite was members of the CCP, are even more so those who were on the long march with Mao.
But the “targets” were anyone that anyone else was envious of. Shop keepers, farmers, landlords, teachers – monks who lived in poverty.
Basically anyone that anyone else denounced for having “done them wrong”
It was exactly like the modern left – except on steriods. No one was safe from the Red Guards, there were massacres.
Absolutely the Gang of four with some input from Mao targeted other CCP members that were deemed a potential threat to Mao.
Except on a far larger scale this was much like Stalin’s purges. Stalin as en example murdered or sent to the gulags (almost the same thing) a significan portion of the officer corp of the USSR shortly before WWII. He did not target people he KNEW were working against him or even just ambitious, but anyone who might possibly EVER pose a threat. Dead men do not challenge power, and those left living are terrified.
And the more arbitrary and capirous the better – the greater the fear and uncertainty. Both Mao and Stalin wanted ALL underlings to be as insecure as possible, as worried as possible that anything could result in being denounced.
Alos like today’s woke left, the Cultural revolution was about destroying the past.
The vast majority of Chinese history and culture in China was destroyed during the cultural revolution.
The majority of currently existing Chinese history and culture is from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or the West – particularly the US
Were immigrants brought culture and history and later imported culture and history.
This proved a huge problem for the protestors at Tianemen Square – moderates took control of the CCP briefly and tried to negotiate with the protestors, but the protestors had no knowledge of anything outside of communist doctrine. While they knew that is not what they wanted – they were completely ignorant of any other form of government or economy or society or anything.
They built paper mache statues of liberty but they were symbols with little clear meaning.
The term elite is broad. Utilizing it as was done above, I believe, is correct. Mao was from the agrarian community. The purge of ideas, customs, culture, and habits was done by the young and inexperienced, assaulting the older and the more knowledgeable who were in power.
Mao purged a significant number of people who were with him on the long march – these people had the same background as he did.
One of the flaws in this “purging the elite” narrative is that whatever Mao and most of the CCP were 25 years before the cultural revolution,
at the time of the cultural revolution they were ALL the elite – Mao was the elitist of the elite having near godlike status.
The overwhelming majority of the victims of the cultural revolution were the equivalent to what would happen if you allowed Antifa to run amuck and essentially function as police, prosecutor, judge and jury, – and Mao allowed that, the purpose of the cultural revolution was to create fear and anxiety among Mao’s peers that might aspire to challenge him. As I noted Stalin and most other communist leaders have done the same thing though in slightly different form.
“December 6, 2022 at 4:26 PM
Mao purged a significant number of people who were with him on the long march – these people had the same background as he did.
One of the flaws in this “purging the elite” narrative is that whatever Mao and most of the CCP were 25 years before the cultural revolution, “
Yes, Mao purged people close to him and so did Stalin and Hitler. That is typical of leftist leaders. Just because people were being killed all the time doesn’t mean a purge of the elite weren’t killed. The attempt was to disrupt society.
Mao was an elite. As I said the word elite is broad so it can represent a lot of things.
I think the focus should be on “The purge of ideas, customs, culture, and habits was done by the young and inexperienced.” We saw that in some of the eruptions in the middle east recently, in Cambodia years ago and all over the world. A lot of that is run of the mill genocide which has occurred around 90 times since the Holocaust though many were not massive numbers.
Mao was not an elite until he was. Those on the long march with him were not elites until the were.
BTW I highly recomend “wild swans” as a history of the top of the Communist party from before the Long March through the cultural revolution.
It is a true story, and a good book. It is as interesting as fiction with the benefit of being true.
John, we are squabbling over words. The points were made and understandable no matter which version one reads.
Wild Swans sounds like a James Michener type of book. I might take some time to read it, though such a book makes one prone to hernias.
I have watched Michner movies. I have not read his books.
Regardless Wild Swans is both a good story of several generations of a family that starts with their involvement with Mao in the long march, and ends with the last generation coming to the US.
Michener peals the onion. The best example is his book, The Source, which traces a dig and goes back in time. One civilization on top of another. Fascinating.
Lets see, you agree with 90% of what I say repeat it as if it is new, and then accuse me of being uneducated.
I celebrated my 40th birthday in Tianamen Sq in 1998. I have been to china, I have read extensively about china, my daughter was born in China. My family celebrates all major Chinese holidays every year. We have many Chinese families as friends.
I am sure many people know more about China than I do, but still only a small portion of this country.
I would be shocked if you did.
“Lets see, you agree with 90% of what I say repeat it as if it is new, and then accuse me of being uneducated.”
Why would anyone call you uneducated and dumb? I think you were replying to a comment directed to Svelaz, not you. The indentations seem to show that.
I believe you meant “beast”.
David Brock / Act Blue talking points:
It’s Not Real
It’s Russian Disinfo
It’s Real But Doesn’t Matter
It Matters But Not Very Much
This is Old News <– YOU ARE HERE
Shut Up Racist
You forgot to add the old Clinton classic, “that has already been litigated”.
Elon Musk is on mission and is the right man at the right time. As “their” world collapses with the “election interference” being the least of their problems, Elon’s core mission is still misunderstood. The picture of his nightstand that he posted showing diet coke cans, a gun, and Washington crossing the Delaware, among other significant things, explains it all. It’s a premeditated work of art.
I never could understand this freak-out over the Elon/Twitter deal. Now I do. This is funny. Remembering a popular song from my youth: “It’s not really funny what the children say. Skip a rope”