The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Monday revealed yet another facet of the Biden Administration’s sprawling censorship system that targeted dissenting books. It appears that, as with social media companies, it succeeded in getting the company not to promote disfavored books.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan revealed on X that the White House was directly involved in the censorship campaign. That includes a 2021 email from one Biden official asking to discuss “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?”
Amazon in turn appears to ask only how high the Biden White House wants it to jump on censorship: “[i]s the [Biden] Admin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?”
After the meeting, Amazon confirmed in an email that it was actively doing what the government demanded in suppressing sales by not promoting disfavored books: “As a reminder, we did enable Do Not Promote for anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective on 3/9, and will review additional handling options for these books with you.”
This effort notably parallels demands from Democratic leaders who have called for enlightened algorithms to frame what citizens access on the internet. In 2021, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) objected that people were not listening to the informed views of herself and leading experts. Instead, they were reading views of skeptics by searching Amazon and finding books by “prominent spreaders of misinformation.”
Warren blamed Amazon for failing to limit searches or choices: “This pattern and practice of misbehavior suggests that Amazon is either unwilling or unable to modify its business practices to prevent the spread of falsehoods or the sale of inappropriate products.” In her letter, Warren gave the company 14 days to change its algorithms to throttle and obstruct efforts to read opposing views.
It is important to keep in mind that these efforts at censorship targeted scientists who have been vindicated in many of their objections to policies and claims of the government. For example, a new scientific review by 12 researchers from leading universities found little support for the claims that masks reduced Covid exposures.
The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) initially rejected the use of a mask mandate. However, the issue became a political weapon as politicians and the press claimed that questioning masks was anti-science and even unhinged. In April 2020, the CDC reversed its position and called for the masking of the entire population, including children as young as 2 years old. The mask mandate and other pandemic measures like the closing of schools are now cited as fueling emotional and developmental problems in children.
The closing of schools and businesses was also challenged by some critics as unnecessary. Many of those critics were also censored. It now appears that they may have been right. Many countries did not close schools and did not experience increases in Covid. However, we are now facing alarming drops in testing scores and alarming rises in medical illness among the young.
Masks became a major social and political dividing line in politics and the media. Maskless people were chased from stores and denounced in Congress. Then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a Senate hearing that “face masks are the most important powerful health tool we have.”
The head of the World Health Organization even supported censorship to combat what he called an “infodemic.”
A lawsuit opposing these efforts was filed by Missouri and Louisiana and joined by leading experts, including Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya (Stanford University) and Martin Kulldorff (Harvard University). Yet, universities joined social media companies and politicians in targeting dissenters and silencing opposing voices.
Bhattacharya previously objected to the suspension of Dr. Clare Craig after she raised concerns about Pfizer trial documents. Those doctors were the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a more focused Covid response that targeted the most vulnerable population rather than widespread lockdowns and mandates. Many are now questioning the efficacy and cost of the massive lockdown as well as the real value of masks or the rejection of natural immunities as an alternative to vaccination. Yet, these experts and others were attacked for such views just a year ago. Some found themselves censored on social media for challenging claims of Dr. Fauci and others.
The media has quietly acknowledged the science questioning mask efficacy and school closures without addressing its own role in attacking those who raised these objections. Even raising the lab theory on the origin of Covid 19 (a theory now treated as plausible) was denounced as a conspiracy theory. The science and health reporter for the New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli, even denounced the theory as “racist.”
Again, the objection to the censorship system is not that all of these views are correct, but that the public was being actively hampered in reading or hearing opposing views.
The new emails also show direct federal efforts supporting censorship. I testified at the first hearing by the special committee investigating the censorship system. I warned that there was ample evidence of a system based on “censorship by surrogate” where government agencies used academic and media allies to silence those with opposing views.
Despite the determined opposition by Democratic members and the Biden Administration, the investigation has revealed a wide array of grants to academic and third party organizations to create blacklists or to pressure advertisers to withdraw support for conservative sites. The subjects for censorship ranged from election fraud to social justice to climate change.
Now we can add private demands to target dissenting books to suppress sales. It is far more appealing to certain sensibilities than banning publications or removing copies. After all, why burn books if you can bury them?
GIVE UKRAINE BACK THEIR NUKES. WE PROMISED TO PROTECT THEM.
WE PROMISED THE AMERICAN INDIANS WED PROTECT THEM.
WHY ARE YEMEN PEOPLES HUNGARY? WHY?
WHY DIDNT THE FREE WORLD STOP THEIR ARMAMENT?
The reference to Fox News is probably unhelpful, but something much better grounded is the Center for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford and their Cochrane studies/reports. Masks are generally ineffective.
About a year into the panic (February 2021) I wrote a review for an online site that looked at the mechanics of mask filtration, observational evidence from the first year of the pandemic, what randomized clinical trials existed (there were surprisingly few), and evidence gathered from studies of other respiratory diseases and concluded that the effect of masking was immeasurably small in any but the tightest controlled settings. The online site was so terrified of my efforts that they changed the title of the essay and buried it in such a way that news aggregators and bots couldn’t find it.
So much for science. The reaction to COVID-19 was just about the same as the first known epidemic in 430B.C.
Actually, the reaction to Covid was essentially one of mass hysteria akin to the Salem witch trials. Heavy-handed political judicial response was similar too.
“…a chain-link fence to stop mosquitos…”
“The virus that causes COVID-19 is about 0.1 micrometer in diameter. (A micrometer (µm) is one one-thousandth of a millimeter.) The holes in woven cloth are visible to the naked eye and may be five to 200 micrometers in diameter. It is counter-intuitive that cloth can be useful in this setting — it’s been compared to putting up a chain-link fence to stop mosquitoes.”
– TheConversation.com
OT, this seems like a pretty important story: apparently Iran might have a nuke in one week, and six within a month. (Israel cannot afford to sit by and let that happen.)
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-can-build-nuclear-bomb-in-one-week-signaling-extreme-danger-for-western-world-report-says/
Oldman, few are interested in one of the most important stories of the year. Iran is about to get the bomb with Biden’s help. Biden is bombing the wrong targets, and that can lead to WW3 with nuclear exchanges, but what does he care as long as he gets his 10%?
During his administration, Biden consistently demonstrated weakness; Afghanistan is a good example. That weakness prompted Russia to invade Ukraine. Biden chose not to stop the Ukraine war but promoted it to a draw, not a win. American involvement there caused Russia to move closer to China. It also moved closer to Iran because of the needed weaponry. China has been eying Taiwan for almost 26 years, short of 100 years. Why 100 years? Because Mao created the 100-year war so that in the year 2049, they would dominate the globe. We should note how they have expanded their territory in the China Sea, and the sovereignty of Vietnam and Japanese territory is now under question. China is moving to military and political dominance in Asia.
In the meantime, our country, which was supposed to be able to fight at least two major wars and a minor war at the same time, is lacking in every way. Our enemies question our ability to fight one major war. That makes them more eager to push forward until something snaps and, by accident, war breaks out. Will war break out? There is already a war in the Middle East, even though Mr. Biden hasn’t noticed. Iran is treading water while it gains time to produce its nuclear missile system. (The Hamas War might have been more spontaneous and unwanted at that time by Iran; I don’t know.) Things are heating up with Iran’s allies and terrorists expanding their zone of terrorism from Israel to the Red Sea, which involves world shipping and America. The situation is untenable, and if Iran gets a deliverable bomb, world dynamics will change for the worse. Does America become a second-world declining nation or maintain its position? We can see all the military movements combined into one with the flashpoint in the Middle East. China, seeing weakness, and America, caught with its pants down, moves into Taiwan while Russia moves west, potentially with tactical nuclear weapons. Now what? WW3?
Meyer – a pretty good analysis. China definitely wants Taiwan, especially now with its high-quality complex semiconductor manufacturing, and America weakening. As for this:
The Hamas War might have been more spontaneous and unwanted at that time by Iran; I don’t know.
. . . I am skeptical of timing coincidences. I think it’s likely that Iran timed the Hamas massacres for its own purposes. Why? Israel’s military capability, and Israel’s willingness to use it, are Iran’s biggest hurdle to going nuclear. I’m not sure how big of a hurdle that really is, but it seems to me Iran wanted the IDF distracted with defending Israel’s borders. I would note the Saudis and other Sunni Arab states don’t want Iran to go nuclear, so there’s probably lots of behind-the-scenes coordination with Israel right now.
“I think it’s likely that Iran timed the Hamas massacres for its own purposes.”
Oldman, it is too early to tell, but there is evidence that the Hamas attack was premature and that Iran wanted a more coordinated attack on Israel. Hezbollah didn’t wholeheartedly join in. Presently, Iran is trying to get heavy weapons to Hezbollah through Syria, but the depots they created and an airport were destroyed. Hezbollah’s long-range missiles were also destroyed or pushed further from the border.
I think Iran’s nuclear facilities need to be bombed now. That would stop a lot of the terrorism and neutralize Iran. It would demonstrate American strength and show America to have teeth. Because of the Chinese threats, I miss the Bagram Airbase.
I think Iran’s nuclear facilities need to be bombed now.
It’s possible that’s the only way a nuclear Iran can be avoided. But who’s going to do it? I seriously doubt the “Joe Biden” administration will. It will fall to Israel to do so. The world will condemn her publicly while privately breathing a sigh of relief — just like it did in 1981 with Iraq’s nuclear ambitions.
Oldman, there is often discussion whether WW2 could have been avoided. Numerically, Germany was outmatched by the Allies, and based on population and the ability to destroy production facilities, one would rightfully think Germany would lose.
But Germany went to war while the Allies did nothing. A build-up by the Allies would have told Germany there was no chance of their winning, but the opposite occurred.
If war breaks out, Biden will be the cause because of his lackluster policies. Today, despite America’s decline, it is strong in comparison but becoming weaker. Tomorrow, things will be worse.
OldManFromKS,
The Biden admin waited, what? A week before launching attacks against the Houthis? Giving them plenty of time to evacuate.
The Biden admin is the gift of weakness our enemies want and need. They support Biden in 2024. It is in their best interest.
The Abrahms Accords were making progress. Peace through Trade. Iran needed a speed bump to delay anymore alliances
@smeyer
Honestly: I am a great deal more concerned with our dems and the globalists, essentially our modern left, than I could ever be with Russia. What is happening at home eclipses anything else, though I understand what you are saying. Were Russia to decide to carry out what you imagine, we would be so divided we’s just roll over and cease to exist. Let’s address the problems at home first, then maybe we can worry about Russia.
James, though you are correct in not obsessing about Russia too much as they are a weak power, I believe you missed my point. The potential for a WW3 exists from a flashpoint in the Middle East. The three nations are becoming more interconnected, and each country has a focus on an area of conflict that, at present, is not realized because of the US. (Russia in Ukraine ..a weak Russia presently being aided by Iran and China; China in Taiwan … an expanding power that is strong and also notes American weakness to manage three battles at the same time; Iran a second-rate military with terrorist outreach all the way to the America’s)
S. Meyer,
I would point out how a rag tag group of insurgents, real ones, beat not only the Russia’s but America as well in Afghanistan.
I was there. I saw how our technological arrogance was our own defeat. And that was well before the hot mess that is the Biden admin came along. That was much, much worse.
No one knows how many of our enemies have passed through our unsecure southern border. Current and former FBI agents have testified this is the kind of thing that keeps them up at night.
Upstate, the Maginot Line proved to be a disaster. Technological arrogance is a new type of Maginot line. Among other things we cannot win sending million dollar missiles against twenty dollar drones.
IMO the best prospect to solve that problem is laser defenses. But that’s just my layman’s opinion, and I’m open to being corrected by someone more knowledgeable.
I am not sure the Maginot line was a disaster in itself. The Germans simply went round it. Fortresses in Belgium slowed the German advance. In part the French relied too much on the existence of the line and too little on the need to fight. Verdun held in the First World War and I think Russia’s defenses now would be nearly impossible for Ukraine to penetrate.
James,
I agree with what you are saying.
The real danger is the degree of weakness the Biden admin has given us not only globally, but domestically.
The weak illegal immigration policies and border, weakened domestic energy production in pursuit of green energy, weak on crime policies, all things that could lead to a socio-economic collapse in a rapid onset that our enemies would love to see. That is why they would support another four years of a weak Biden admin.
It is in their best interest.
S. Meyer,
I would add that in light of the weakness of the Biden admin, the prolonged war in the Ukraine is in the interests of China, Iran and to a degree to Russia. We deplete more and more of our munitions, a recent audit shows we have no accountability of some $1billion dollars worth of arms sent to the Ukraine, and money, recruitment levels will remain low well into this year.
It is in Russia, China, and Iran interest for another four more years of a weak Biden admin.
The Biden admin weakness on the economy, the border, green energy push are all additional gifts to our enemies.
The world is inarguable more dangerous at the moment.
There are many reasons for this.
Some are transitory but also were inevitable.
We are in the midst of massive restructuring and realignment of the global economy.
While these changes are diminishing the US as a global power,
They are also beneficial to the US economically – over the long run.
Diminishing US global power is a major destabalizing factor globally.
The focus of the US us shifting to Asia – and particularly the Pacific rim.
That is inside of our ability to project power, particularly as much of asia is nominally aligned witht he US in containing China.
Not because they love the US, but because China’s dominance is NOT in the rest of asias interests.
China is very dangerous right now – but not for rational reasons.
China attempting to take Taiwan by force would be an incredibly irrational act that would rapidly destroy the chinese economy.
regardless of whether they succeed.
The odds of success are marginal at best.
China’s navy – despite its size is an inconsequential force – with the possible exception fo some of its submarines.
Conversely China’s airforce is massive, more modern and better trained than Russia’s, But it is still substantially inferior to the US.
The odds of a chinese hypersonic missible striking a US carrier are incredibly low. But China has thousands of them.
One lucky shot will ruin the day of a CBG. Though at the same time – the efforts to sink the USS America more than a decade ago demonstrated that even 40 year old US carriers are damn near unsinkable.
It would likely take many hits by hypersonic missles to render a US super carrier ineffective.
The US under Trump and Biden has been re-activating US bases in the pacific – places such as Tinian, subic bay.
Defending Taiwan would have a resemblance to the battle of Britain. So long as China can not establish air superiority over the straights of Taiwan attempts to invade Taiwan will result in massive chinese bloodshed trying to cross.
Nothing like trying to invade Taiwan has EVER been accomplished. The closest thing would be Normanday and D Day.
There are multiple airfields on Taiwan – China must put these out of action, and it must keep them out of action.
Even if china destroyed every airfield and every plane, the airfields can be repaired in about 24hrs and the planes can be resupplied by US and Japanese fields nearby. The big deal is the carriers. They have to protect Taiwan briefly everytime the airfields are cratered.
There are no aircraft that can fly from landbases to Taiwan and fight the chinese and then return to base.
They have to be able to land on Taiwan, even if they do not have to be based there. The carriers provide the time to repair the airfields.
On the flip side the chinese economy would be obliterated in days. China is NOT russia. 1/3 of the entire chinese economy is trade
China has no usuable domestic energy except coal. Everything else comes in from the world and would be stopped instantly.
There would be no jobs, no raw matierials and no one buying chinese goods. And no way to deliver them.
It is remotely possible that China has the wherewithal to attack and caputure Taiwan which is only 60miles away.
There is ZERO possibility that China can protect its own global trade. China’s navy is blue water in name only.
China does not have the capacity to operate outside the south china sea and does not have the capacity to engage
pretty much any other navy in the world. If Chinese ships and aircraft carriers left port they would be on the bottom of the ocean the moment that went beyond the protection of land based aircraft.
Under Optimal conditions a Chinese carrier battle group is about 1/4 the operational capactiy of a single US CBG.
A US CBG has double the planes with double the range and double the weapons load. It is probable that the new japanese helicopter carriers converted to F35s could defeat a Chinese CBG. And that is discounting the fact that it takes a century to learn how to fight a navy.
Today only the US, UK and JP have well trained navies that can be expected to perform well in a war.
Chinese land based aircraft would be inferior to US aircraft, but not even close to the degree that the Chinese navy would be.
The Chinese navy would be tasked not only with supporting an invasion, but also protecting Chinese trade globally – which there is zero hope of their doing.
The key problem is that China under Xi has become actually fascist. Trusting that Xi will act rationally is unwise.
“China’s navy – despite its size is an inconsequential force – with the possible exception fo some of its submarines.”
John, I agree with your statement that for China to go to war would be irrational. However, wars aren’t necessarily based on rationality, and like fire, they can be started by an inconsequential action.
China’s navy might be weaker than America’s, but Taiwan is close, and a blockade could occur. Think back to the near WW3 during JFK’s time.
During the time of a blockade, anything happening there or in Ukraine or Iran could trigger war. We are dealing with a statistical game: the more variables, the more likelihood of a mistake and war.
Never underestimate your enemy, and never underestimate stupidity, arrogance, and mistakes.
Turn the Israeli Air Force loose.
Israel may indeed turn its air force loose in the short term, depending on what it knows about Iran getting the bomb — which is an existential threat to Israel.
One of the greatest dangers Republicans, Democrats and Independents all share is a “Covert Shadow Government that operates contrary to the overt laws and overt Constitution”.
Basically a “Thought Police” that investigates and (covertly) punishes perfectly legal First Amendment activity. It’s akin to not knowing the overt speed limit on a highway but then being punished for a law that doesn’t exist.
When governments do this covertly, the citizen can never challenge these illegal practices in a court of law.
That Senator Lie-a-Watha would lecture Amazon about the need for more censorship illustrates just how far the Democrat’s censorship program has gone. She should stick with Pow Wow Chow…….
Has anyone else noted these changes at Amazon: 1) certain books are no longer available, 2) there is now offered a “series” of histories on just about every topic with the same template used for the cover and published by Amazon with bowdlerized versions of history, 3) versions of classic literature are being sold that have “edited” content? It seems very subtle, especially the history series. Also, for the last few weeks when I turn on my kindle to read at night there has been a series of Japanese style anime “fairytales” created specifically with new and “wokish” topics that are being peddled to young children and, presumably, to their wokish parents as “new, fun, fairytales for bedtime”.
@whimsicalmama
Yes. I have also noticed how their site is becoming less and less functional. I suspect that all is not well in Bezos-land, either, it’s just not being broadcast. I suspect the same of Apple, actually. Many of us have known that Google and Microsoft have been a disaster for quite some time. Putting the eggs in the basket of silicon Valley was a *huge* mistake on the part of Obama, with his tech leader breakfasts at the White House, and we are all paying the price. People like Obama are immune.
“It now appears that they may have been right.” Any suggestions on what should happen to those who denied scientists their right to debate other scientists without political interference? “Bygones” isn’t going to cut it.
Not all Democrats. Republicans should remember George W. Bush was the original architect of America’s so-called “Deep State” with the Republicans “Total Information Awareness” – a foreign government concept for government to know everything and control everything.
Bush also created “Free Speech Zones” on taxpayer owned streets, sidewalks and other private property. The goal was to silence legal First Amendment activity – to silence truth on taxpayer owned property.
Bush was also busted for illegal warrantless domestic spying of every Americans (including each of you) phone calls, emails, faxes, internet posts, etc in violation of the 4th Amendment and Bush’s own oath of office.
GWB was the architect…lol. GHWB is whom you are referring, right? The fix was obviously in when he ran against slick willy and the only wrong answer was Perot, who had, in retrospect, the right answers. Did GHWB sell-out to the Chicoms??? slick willy and algore certainly were bought
Bush changed Our Republic in so many bad ways. Expecially the Patriot act
This has been a gradual and escalating process that both democrats and republicans have participated in.
Bush deserves your acrimony, but making him the architect is more credit than he earned.
We now live in Anti-America.
You need to link better references than Fox News articles to support your case. For example, ‘… a new scientific review by 12 researchers from leading universities found little support for the claims that masks reduced Covid exposures’ took me to a Fox News story, not the scientific review. And when I clicked on the relevant link there, it took me to — guess what? — more Fox News stories. Sorry, but Fox News isn’t a prime source.
OK, I’ll agree that was a qpoor reference. How about the Center for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford and their Cochrane studies/reports?
OT: the DCCA has ruled that Trump is not immune, upholding Judge Chutkan’s ruling: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415.1208593677.0.pdf
Good.
Also a tight clock on issuance of the mandate:
“The Clerk is directed to withhold issuance of the mandate through February 12, 2024. If, within that period, Appellant notifies the Clerk in writing that he has filed an application with the Supreme Court for a stay of the mandate pending the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari, the Clerk is directed to withhold issuance of the mandate pending the Supreme Court’s final disposition of the application. The filing of a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc will not result in any withholding of the mandate, although the grant of rehearing or rehearing en banc would result in a recall of the mandate if the mandate has already issued.”
“At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”
“Former President Trump lacked any lawful discretionary authority to defy federal criminal law and he is answerable in court for his conduct.”
“Former President Trump moved to dismiss the Indictment and the district court denied his motion. Today, we affirm the denial. For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
There is a higher authority.
Yes, but will they grant cert? No way to know.
And based on his desire to slow everything down as much as possible, he may start by petitioning for a rehearing en banc.
>”Good”
” For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.” ~ DCCA
After dismissing Double Jeopardy concerns out-of-hand re Impeachment process, the DCCA has narrowed it down to “any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
Left untested, of course, is any executive immunity that ‘may’ protect a sitting President in other matters of far greater importance. Such as wars, and rumors of wars.
*goody gum drops
Which precident or other case law did the Court rely on to determine this opinion, today? Considering this Circuit is overturned as nearly often as every other Appellet Court, it sure looks like the lower courts are wrong on “the law” more than 50% of the time their cases move to SCOTUS (save for one, 1st Circuit.)
https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/empirical-scotus-the-singular-relationship-between-the-d-c-circuit-and-the-supreme-court/#
You know, I linked to the ruling. So instead of asking me to do your scutwork for you, if you want to know what case law was cited, read the ruling for yourself.
Linking is your way of telling everyone you don’t know what you are talking about.
But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
So there is executive immunity. Why does that not attach to actions while in office. Thats the purpose for the immunity.
Executive immunity attaches to the office of the presidency. Trump is no longer President, so whatever immunity may protect the a sitting President — by virtue of that sitting President holding the office — it doesn’t protect a former President.
Why is the President given executive immunity? Because the nation decided to provide a way for him to make a decision that might later be found illegal, even though it was necessary for the lives of American citizens and the nation.
What is being said is that such necessary decisions should never be made. That is foolhardy, something characteristic of anonymous persons and some that go by an alias.
Didn’t Obama order the killing of an American citizen while in office? Should he be tried for murder and jailed?
Another Cowardly Anonymous Soviet Democrat police state fascist chortled in glee: OT: the DCCA has ruled that Trump is not immune, upholding Judge Chutkan’s ruling
Imagine the lack of shock among normal Americans that the Soviet Democrat police state fascists the Bolshevik Barack stacked the DCCA with as new judges supported their fellow Soviet Democrat police state fascist, Judge Chutkan.
Well, I suppose that means that if Trump’s decisions and deliberations with staff while president aren’t immune from designated political headhunters like Jack Smith being brought back to again take out opponents of the Soviet Democrats… that means that Bribery Biden AND Bolshevik Barack ALSO aren’t immune from being indicted for what they did in office.
Like counseling Attorney General Eric Holder to ignore a subpoena, for example. For being a party to Killary Clinton violating the espionage act repeatedly during the four years she was SecState. Bribery Biden, The Big Guy?
Prosecutors in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, etc could have a field day with the decision of these DCCA police state fascists. Charges don’t have to be brought in their little playground when the effect of the crime is in another state. But, that would probably go to SCOTUS, just as this inevitably will
Second and third order consequences. To quote Another Cowardly Anonymous Soviet Democrat police state fascist: Good.
What biden political hacks decided what Americans should know? Probably a bunch of polisci/JD (no offense to professor Turley) types that know politics and “science”. No doubt, they have not taken a science class since high school.
Progressives unquestioningly follow evidence free assertions by authority figures and remain willfully ignorant.
Progressive stupidity knows no bounds
But a book on becoming a tranny or how to mutilate children, I’m sure was welcomed with open arms. We are doomed.
Jonathan: So we’re back to book banning? You have joined the parade in the right-wing media claiming the Biden administration is forcing Amazon not to promote certain books. The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdock where you publish columns, and the right-wing Washington Times, founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myong Moon, all have articles echoing your views. What is this about?
For 2 years Amazon will not sell books that portray LGBTQ+ transgender and other gender identity as “mental illnesses”. One book in particular by conservative author Ryan T. Anderson titled “When Harry Became Sally” has been delisted by Amazon. Why? Because Anderson promotes the spurious unscientific theory that gender cannot be changed through drugs and “transitioning” by teenagers is morally wrong. This is contrary to the science because gender identity is not a “mental illness”. Amazon explained its decision to delist Anderson’s book in a letter to three conservative Senators in 2021. What is lost in this discussion is that Amazon is a private company. The Biden administration can’t force Amazon to delist any book.
The Biden administration has pushed back on attempts by conservatives to promote anti-scientific theories about COVID-19 and gender identity. That is its prerogative to try to protect public health. Biden has urged Congress to pass legislation to protect LGBTQ+ rights but MAGA conservatives are opposed. Why? Because they also seem to think gender identity is a “mental illness”. But you think that unscientific conservative theories should be given equal space in the public forum. DJT promoted all sorts of unscientific quack remedies for COVID-19 that resulted in unnecessary deaths and he hindered the fight against the virus by attacking Dr. Fauci and the CDC. Protecting public health was not a priority for DJT.
What is remarkable is that actual book banning is all the rage in GOP controlled states–like FL under Gov. DeSantis. Hundreds of books dealing with race and LGBTQ+ issues have been banned in public schools under orders from DeSantis. This is actual “censorship” which apparently doesn’t concern you. You rather complain about Amazon. Why the duplicity?
Dennis waits all the way to the second sentence before he lies.
claiming the Biden administration is forcing Amazon not to promote certain books.
Which is it Dennis. Retard level intelligence? Or just lying? Third option, you believe what your handlers tell you?
My bet is retard. sentient people don’t continue being the fool when repeatedly called out.
So you’re not sentient?
Iowan, Dennis is intellectually challenged. He doesn’t understand the difference between delisting and school choice. His deficit is so bad that he barely understands the meaning of banning.
The book in question could not be bought from Amazon
The books not chosen for limited school libraries could be purchased anywhere.
Yes, Amazon is a private company and can do as it wishes, but the federal government is not supposed to play a part in a private company’s choice of books.
Gender confusion is indeed a mental illness. I may sincerely believe that I am the King of Norway and demand that you call me “the King.” You would look at the objective evidence and would find that I have no Norwegian blood, am not in the line of succession, etc. Thus, you would conclude that I am wrong about my claim. The same is true for gender confusion The objective facts do not support their subjective claims.
Dennis McIntyre, Bribery Biden’s Designated Soviet Democrat Liar assigned here to attack Turley and hide the malfeasance of his police state fascist paymasters whined:
Jonathan: So we’re back to book banning? You have joined the parade in the right-wing media… This is actual “censorship” which apparently doesn’t concern you. You rather complain about Amazon. Why the duplicity?
Dennis McIntyre/Baghdad Bob was here gloating when the Soviet Democrats and their minions were censoring news stories about the laptop belonging to The Bagman Formerly Known As The Crackhead Kid. Dennis/Baghdad Bob is outraged that STATES – not the Soviet Democrat federal government – have passed laws that say that if parents want to buy books to sexualize their children with at home, they can do that. But the public schools won’t be teaching little boys that they can get pregnant.
Dennis/Baghdad Bob claims that his Soviet Democrat sex fiends are protecting public health by encouraging little boys to be castrated and little girls to have their breasts chopped off (while they still believe in Santa Clause).
Dennis McIntyre, Bribery Biden’s Designated Soviet Democrat liar is one evil, sick piece of work. Just as evil and as sick as his paymaster, Bribery Biden, who had those ‘inappropriate showers’ with his daughter. After he raped his intern, Tara Reade…
So you claim the right is unified in making false claims of censorship – and then go prove they are not false.
You say that drugs etc can be used to change gender, and that claims to the contrary are debunked.
Yet, I am told over and over again that even though there is no objective test for homosexuality, that homosexuality is immutable.
So which is it can you alter your sexuality or not ? Make up your mind.
Separately it is unbeleivable rare and generally limited to very simple processes for science to be able to make ANY claim absolutely.
Florida – like every single school EVERYWHERE is deciding what books are appropriate for children.
K-12 libraries do not carry hustler. I think there are few people who object to that.
Amazon is not government, but it distributes millions of books to adults throughout the world.
I expect that Amazon will offer and promote material based on the interest of the public in purchasing that material – Not some woke agenda.
I expect that people who wish to buy woke nonsense will be able to do so on amazon, and that those who wish to buy real literature, real economics, real science will be able to do so unhindered by woke censorship, editing or promotion.
As to your idiotic claims regardin the “science”, We do not know what – if anything causes homosexuality.
We do not know what if anything causes gender dysphoria. We do not actually know whether sexual orientation is immutable or alterable.
We have some clues regarding some of this. But we are far from certainty.
We do however know that before the recent explosion in trans identification, that 90% of teens experiencing gender dysphoria resolved to be homosexual within a few years with no intervention.
We also know that the recent explosion in gender dysphoria – which has primarily been in XX women has corresponded directly to an explosion in anxiety and depression in the same groups.
We also KNOW that your claims that medical interventions work have actuallyu been thoroughly debunked.
The studies are bad, they were conducted by phsyicians profiting from interventions, and they had little or no followup.
I know this is hard for you left wing nuts – but Real science is HARD. It is always easier to disprove claims than to prove them.
That should not be difficult to understand as if anyone make 10 random claims , the odds of even one actually being true are small.
Finding things that are false is trivial.
Finding things that might be true is difficult.
Finding things that actually are true is incredibly hard.
And the truth does not give a schiff about our feelings or ideology.
Real Science is a process.
50% of what experts beleive to be true today will be proven false in the next 15 years.
That is not a flaw, that is how science actually works.
The modern flaws we have in science are the political and procedural drivers that preclude rejecting false claims and in fact bolster them
That “experts” were so wrong about COVID is not the least uprising.
The problems with our handling of covid were not the errors we made – but silencing those who disented or proposed different ideas and solutions, and the dogmatic klinging to false claims long after it was clear they were wrong, censorship of dissent, and finally that many of those who we imbued with authority were not merely wrong, they were actually lying – they KNEW what they were saying was false.
That is unfortunately the state of science today – forward progress in science has always been made dificult by dogman, ideology and politics – but it is incredibly bad today. Possibly as bad is in Galleleo’s time.
And this is obvious from your comment – you assert as known truths claims that with certainty are partly or wholely false and that are tainted by ideology and politics.
The Covid-19 epidemic was a test of Americans’ ability to navigate a complex, enigmatic threat equipped with an “anyone can publish” multimedia infospace. How did we do?
Miserable.
It didn’t help that the first cases struck at the beginning of a Presidential election year. Some Democratic, Trump-hating zealots thought it would be a great campaign tactic to blame the sitting Prez for each and every Covid death, as if Pres. Trump held a magic wand capable of preventing these deaths and refused to wield it!
Disease response (and disease understanding) were politicized for partisan advantage, the height of stupidity that we’ve come to expect from fanatical, 1-dimensional thinkers. Of course, this aggressive infowarfare unleased reflexive fight-back from the President’s supporters. The developing informatics about Covid disease were pushed into subservience to political loyalties, one of the worst environments for tackling complexity.
The toilet paper panic. Remember? At the beginning, nobody knew that much about a viral disease that was killing a few thousands of people in China and northern Italy. Doctors and nurses were dying, which suggested that close contact with the already sick could be fatal. When US health care administrators woke up to the supply-chain nightmare of PPEs — masks, shields, gowns were all supplied from China — Dr. Fauci resolved to head of panic hoarding of scant U.S. inventory by lying to the public about wearing masks “not needed at this point”. He felt he had to see that health-care workers got first dibs on available PPEs, and that’s how he did it. U.S. consumers did start panic-hoarding other items: cleaning wipes and toilet paper.
Conflicting views about the value of mask-wearing began to rage online. It was possible for the curious, open-minded to obtain real information on this question, but you had to dig. One of the best was a video from Japanese researchers showing two persons facing each other 6′ apart, backlit with green laser light and against a black background. When the guy on the left was speaking, you could see the spittle cloud shooting out of his mouth, and wafting outward until a small % of it was being inhaled by the other person. Then, the speaker put on a mask. The impact was dramatic — 80-90% of the outgoing cloud was attenuated. This video taught me some key points:
People conversing in a still, indoor air exchange germs via invisible spittle clouds. A cloth barrier traps 80-90% from passing thru it. Conclusion: Masking is most effective in slowing the spread by the actively-infected wearing one. As far as protecting the uninfected from exposure, the mask only lowers the viral load (number of viral spores) inhaled, and does nothing to protect the eyes.
Here’s where the “dichotomization instinct” got in the way. When humans are fearful, we slip into fast-decision instincts, in this case choosing to believe “masks work” vs. “masks don’t work”. Such simple assertions bury factors that qualify or add nuance, such as one’s perspective. What do you mean by “work”? To the individual who wore a mask in public and came down with Covid in the first 6-months, “masks don’t work” means mask-wearing did not prevent my catching Covid. If you ask, is it possible mask wearing your delayed when you caught Covid?, you might get a “I dunno”, or “I still caught it”.
Now put yourself in the shoes of a public health official who has responsibilities to keep the hospital system from collapsing — from too many sick showing up, and too many health workers out sick, dead, or quitting the job in fear.
If mask wearing can merely slow down transmission, that’s a win. If mask wearing of everyone entering the hospital makes your workforce less scared about coming to work, that’s a win. “Masks work”.
The same (unstated) conflicting perspectives set in regarding the vaccines when they became available a year later.
Vaccination became politicized before good, quantitative info about its effects was available. People good at math understood that the accelerated clinical trials showed effectiveness at preventing serious Covid (requiring hospitalization), but also that you can’t measure rare adverse reactions with only 2000 people in the clinical trial.
Those who took up an anti-vax bias began looking for any means to disparage vaccination — the easiest being to point out vaccinated persons were still getting Covid. That’s called a straw-man argument — the vaccine companies did not claim you would be protected from infection, only your odds of getting sick enough to be hospitalized or die were reduced by around 85-95%. When the hospital wards were teeming with Delta patients winter of 2021-22, and it was reported that among these were 12:1 were unvaccinated, this confirmed that the clinical trial claims of efficacy were very accurate. Yet, polemical infowarfare continued. It became obvious how closed minds defend their favored narratives by ignoring countervaling information, or dismissing it using conspiratorial paranoia.
The anti-vax fervor and infowarfare drove public health officials deeper into their corner. This is how the Great Barrington Declaration suffered politicization, rather than being digested dispassionately. It took a nuanced position and ran smack into dichotomization error. It ran into institutional paranoia and group-think.
We also had trouble with information during the pandemic because we have very few journalists who majored in biology — they wrote about things they didn’t really understand.
Covid could have been a time for learning about biology, and aerosol mechanics — real information that could help individuals fight Covid intelligently. I’m thinking of Edward R. Murrow’s lofty aspirations for TV applied to the www and social media.
It did not work that way. We’re marginally better equipped to handle the next pandemic. One hopes it’s not in a Presidential election year. And you’d hope it waits a decade or two for us to repair our failing education system.
And, our dismal field of journalism.
“The Covid-19 epidemic was a test of Americans’ ability to navigate a complex, enigmatic threat equipped with an “anyone can publish multimedia infospace”…Covid could have been a time for learning about biology, and aerosol mechanics — real information that could help individuals fight Covid intelligently.” Sadly, the political response denied everything we’d learned medically/scientifically about virology, especially aerosolized viruses, for the past 200 years.
JAFO, you are correct; we knew certain things, and even Fauci understood the science. He rid himself of everything learned in the past, becoming politically and financially involved in the Covid threat. It wasn’t disinformation that caused the additional problems we faced. It was censorship that prevented alternative views from being provided, and those alternate views were mostly correct. Had the government stayed away from censorship and so-called disinformation, we would have navigated the Covid fight much better.
Good post; but I have to disagree with the following: That’s called a straw-man argument — the vaccine companies did not claim you would be protected from infection, only your odds of getting sick enough to be hospitalized or die were reduced by around 85-95%.
Sorry, protection was EXACTLY what was promised.
“[V]accine companies did not claim you would be protected from infection . . .”
That is not accurate.
“The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability *to prevent* COVID-19,” Dr. Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer. (emphasis added)
That *to prevent* infection (and transmission) was repeated countless times, by numerous pharma companies, health care “experts,” and medical journals.
It is only *after* cases arose showing both claims to be false, that they changed their description of the vaccines.
I applaud their achievements — as therapeutics. But do not whitewash their initial (false) claims.
Biden recalls his recent meeting with French President François Mitterrand at a G7 meeting in 2021.
One issue, HE DIED IN 1996 pic.twitter.com/ws9NsBXAwB
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 6, 2024
A little noted effect of the COVID lockdowns is the destruction of small, fragile businesses. There have never been many art movie theaters in the Detroit area. Last week, the last privately-owned such theater, The Maple, in Bloomfield Hills, announced that is shutting down, citing the COVID shutdown as the main contributing factor. We now live in a meaner place
Stupid Covid policies took out a lot of restaurants in my little Southern town. Many of them are street front facing in our downtown, and dependent on tourism as well as local trade. Typically, they had no way to set up outside service and many closed; a couple hung on for a year or so, but the margins are just too tight in the restaurant business. Then when people from blue states started converging on us, the rents went up forcing a lot of retailers out. The lockdowns in our state ended pretty quickly, but a local mask ordinance added to the misery. It’s my understanding that our mayor was told by our governor to get rid of the masks, or he would step in…but it took a huge turnout at at city council meeting to get it done.
Amazon isn’t the only online bookseller…
Essentially, it is.
Amazon controls about 70% of the book sales market .. . and ‘nearly 60% of all online sales in the U.S.’.
*that’s probably why Biden officials are so keen on discussing “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?”
Mistressadams,
Thriftbooks.
Wife and I order from there all the time.
The Indispensable Right
Free Speech in an Age of Rage
By Jonathan Turley
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Indispensable-Right/Jonathan-Turley/9781668047040
Amazon Product Rank: (NOTE: Paper Edition available June 18, 2024)
As of February 6th 2024
Product details
ASIN : B0CL5GHDF3
Publisher : Simon & Schuster (June 18, 2024)
Publication date : June 18, 2024
Language : English
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #458,415 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#47 in Censorship (Kindle Store)
#125 in Constitutional Law (Kindle Store)
#527 in General Constitutional Law
Ref:
https://www.amazon.com/Indispensable-Right-Free-Speech-Rage-ebook/dp/B0CL5GHDF3#detailBullets_feature_div
Some politicians in both parties attempt to violate their own Oath of Office – which includes the First Amendment ban on censorship.
Another Anonymous Coward threw this out there: Some politicians in both parties attempt to violate their own Oath of Office – which includes the First Amendment ban on censorship.
Some people are either lax thinkers or political apparatchiks: what, specifically, qualifies as censorship?
When Florida tells public schools they can’t use books that are nothing but porn i.e. ‘Gender Queer’ to sexualize children who still believe in Santa Clause? But if parents choose to sexualize their children with those same books, they are not prevented from buying those books for themselves and doing the sexualizing at home. That’s not censorship; that’s deciding what will and won’t be taught in schools.
After all, they wouldn’t attempt to justify having Hustler magazine in those schools, but somehow or other ‘Gender Queer’ is okay – even though it shows young children giving and getting blowjobs… something Hustler probably never did, knowing they’d end up in jail.
Or is censorship when Soviet Democrat police state fascist federal politicians prevent centuries old news media companies from publishing stories about the laptop belonging to The Bagman Formerly Known As The Crackhead Kid. When stories about Fauci and the CDC are shut down with claims Americans can’t see them because they’re just ‘misinformation’.
I’m certainly interested in hearing the specific details of when the Trump, Bushx2, Reagan, administrations did similar censorship as was done with Wuhan Flu stories questioning CDC/Fauci policies, the Influence Peddling Laptop, etc.
One of the lefts strategies is the logical fallacy of deferring to authority.
The left owns almost all of societies structures. Education, Entertainment, Human Resource dept of Big business. Washingtion DC, administrative branch of govt.
It has its hooks into the officer corps of the military. Obama having gotten rid of any conservative officers, by letting them know they could stick around for another five years, be they were never getting another promotion. So we are stuck with the likes of our current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. A man too stupid to tell anyone he was in the hospital.
That means, no matter what the debate, the left pretends to defer to the experts, But the experts are only experts in ass kissing to gain positions of power. They are not intelligent, nor educated. As we learned from Harvard. Their President too stupid to write her own thesis.
These are the people the left insist we bow down to.
It took the tragedy of Covid to expose the rot at the top of all these organizations.
Great summary of the disastrous governmental response to the plague and their efforts to outsource censorship prohibited by the Constitution. But truth is, when did the current regime ever let the Constitution get in the way of the quest for more power and control over the lives of Americans.