Press given the green light to disrupt press briefings
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
VIDEO: RAND PAUL WARNS OF CENSORSHIP OF CONSERVATIVES BY BIG TECH
Facebook needs to ‘convince conservatives they’re not the enemy’
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
In an interview with CNN, of all places, Senator Rand Paul warned that there is a concerted effort by big tech, in particular Facebook, to censor conservative viewpoints, and it will lead to their downfall.
“I think if it gets so bad that they don’t allow conservative viewpoints on Facebook, I think you will get to a point where people will leave in droves,” Paul told CNN Thursday.
“So Facebook, if they want to keep making money, are going to have to convince conservatives that they’re not the enemy.” Paul urged.
Paul noted that while it is not in the nature of conservatives to push for regulation of private companies, big tech has justifiably become an exception to that rule.
“It’s a privately owned company,” Paul said, adding “Most times, conservatives, we don’t want to over-regulate private businesses.
“But they do have sort of a monopoly on this sort of social exchange in speech,” he added.
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“[W]hat I’ve been saying for a while is that we need to look at the barriers to entry that government might be creating,” Paul continued.
“Not the government starting other companies but the government getting out … to allow competition with Facebook.” the Senator added.
Paul’s comments come in the wake of revelations that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ordered the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner, to back off of investigating Facebook with regarding to Russian interference in US elections.
A Senate source further commented that Schumer is concerned that Facebook may “bow to pressure from the right wing, who opposed Facebook’s purging of fake accounts and bots.”
Schumer reportedly told Warner that he should cooperate with Facebook rather than scrutinize its activity.
Facebook hired PR firm to label its critics ‘agents of Soros’
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg © Reuters / Leah Millis
In a bid to counteract negative publicity, social media giant Facebook hired a PR agency to discredit critics by claiming that they were agents of liberal billionaire George Soros, a New York Times report has revealed.
Facebook hasn’t been the most popular company as of late. Repeated privacy and data-leaking scandals followed by half-hearted apologies, and an ongoing effort to clamp down on alternative news pages have kept Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this year.
The backlash was visible at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in July, when protesters held up signs depicting Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg as giant octopuses, with their tentacles encircling the globe. Facebook complained to the Anti-Defamation League, who called the posters “a classic anti-Semitic trope.”
Behind the scenes, Facebook prepared to meet the protesters on their level. When combating protest from activist groups like Freedom from Facebook and Color of Change, Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs – a Washington DC PR firm – to smear and discredit its critics, according to a New York Times report published Tuesday.
Definers’ key tactic: identify an enemy.
The agency cast billionaire liberal financier George Soros as the puppet master behind the opposition to Facebook. It circulated a document this summer connecting Soros to the anti-Facebook movement, and pressed journalists to look into financial links between the billionaire and the activist groups.
Daily Caller journalist Joe Gabriel Simonson recalled being contacted by “a PR guy” who kept “bringing up Soros.”Simonson was encouraged for one article to link Soros with Latino protesters complaining about Facebook requiring proof of ID to buy political ads.
“It was odd and we didn’t end up going with that angle,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
As well as pushing the Soros-did-it angle to the press, the Times claims that Definers wrote their own articles bashing rival tech companies, including Google and Apple, and publishing them on NTKNetwork.com, a site designed to look like a news site. Facebook denied ever requesting that Definers write such hit-pieces, and severed its ties with the company late Wednesday night.
Facebook’s labeling of Soros as the boogeyman was not a random decision. The billionaire has been a vocal and public critic of Facebook, which he described, in a speech at the Davos economic forum this January, as a “menace” to society, that has “neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of (its) actions.”
“Their days are numbered,” Soros’ speech concluded.
To that end, Soros has indeed financed some anti-Facebook initiatives. Color of Change director Rashad Robinson told the Guardian that his organization, which has run online campaigns accusing Facebook of racial discrimination, privacy violations, and hate speech infractions, is partly funded by Soros.
Robinson sees Facebook’s targeting of Soros – who is Jewish – as anti-Semitic.
“This narrative has really dangerous anti-Semitic undertones about Jewish people controlling the world,” he told the Guardian. “It’s also deeply anti-black – the idea that our strategies, our ideas, our vision are somehow built off some puppet master… That Facebook would employ a right-wing firm to say that is deeply troubling.”
Soros, an investor who made his fortune shorting the British Pound in 1992, has attracted persistent criticism for funding liberal causes worldwide. Soros’ pro-migration lobbying has seen his Open Society Foundations NGO expelled from his native Hungary. His organization has funded protests against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the US, and President Trump has said that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Soros had been financing Central American migrant caravans surging toward the US border.
Soros’ defenders have repeatedly argued that the depiction of him as a liberal ‘puppet master’ is a thinly-veiled anti-Semitic slur – despite the fact that Soros has also been called an “enemy of Israel” by Israeli Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his work opposing Israel’s mass deportations of African asylum seekers.
Journalist Tim Miller called the criticism of Soros “a good sign of the moral rot on the right,” before the New York Times report revealed that Miller had taken a job with Definers to spread the same rot he complained about on Twitter.
In a blog post detailing its relationship with Definers, Facebook said that, while it asked the agency to encourage the press to investigate the link between the anti-Facebook campaign and a “well-known critic of our company,” it did not spread misinformation.
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Double middle finger…to EU? Top Romanian official slams union, makes ‘offensive gestures’ (VIDEO)
Things got obscene at the Romanian parliament as its deputy speaker vowed to resist pressure from the EU and go on with a controversial judiciary reform. The politician reinforced his statement by producing a double middle finger.
The fiery speech from the top official came in response to a damning report from the bloc, which accused the country of backsliding in the fight against corruption. Deputy Speaker Florin Iordache, who also leads the parliamentary commission discussing the judiciary reform, said that the government will carry on with its plans despite the mounting external pressure.
READ MORE: US Coast Guard ‘removed’ after making ‘white power’ hand signal on live TV (VIDEO)
“We’ll go on despite all the opposition from the European Commission,” Iordache told the parliament on Wednesday. “We want to be independent, we want to make the decisions according to our constitution and not because of the pressure coming from other quarters.”
The politician then rushed off the podium while extending the central digits of both of his hands. It remained unclear whether the apparent obscene gesture was addressed to the EU or not.
The opposition lawmakers, however, took offense, since Iordache appeared to be pointing at their direction. The official refused to apologize over the incident, claiming that he merely had a “spasm” following the speech and did not make any obscene gestures, according to lawmaker from the Save Romania Union (USR), Iulian Bulai.
On Tuesday, the European Commission released its annual report on the administration of justice in Romania, voicing concerns that the ongoing judiciary reform might jeopardize “the progress” it has made since joining the bloc. Brussels called upon the country’s government to “suspend immediately” its judiciary reform and criminal code overhaul, appointing an “anti-corruption prosecutor” instead.
“I regret that Romania has not only stalled its reform process, but also reopened and backtracked on issues where progress was made over the past 10 years,” the First Vice-President of the Commission Frans Timmermans told reporters.
The reform, launched by the ruling Social Democrats party and its allies early in 2017, has attracted much scrutiny from the EU, which expressed fears that it might undermine independence of the country’s judiciary system and make it highly politicized. Critics of the reform accuse the government of pushing it through to help politicians accused of corruption and to weaken the country’s judiciary. The controversial reform also sparked mass protests across the country, forcing Iordache, who briefly held the minister of justice post early in 2017, to resign.
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Jobless Somali father-of-nine keeps having kids in Sweden – Now he wants a bigger house
Abdir Isaak acquired a two-room flat in Biskopsgården in Gothenburg seven years ago. Not long after, his entire family moved from Somalia to Sweden.
Now eleven people, of whom nine are children aged 2 to 19 years old, all living in the same flat. Abdir says they are looking for a bigger flat somewhere in Gothenburg, preferably with four or five rooms, but have not found anything yet.
Buying a home is out of question because both he and his wife are unemployed since at least six years back.
The Moderate Party MP Hanif Bali recently commented on the family’s situation on Twitter. He questioned the fact that they despite overcrowding, still chose to have two more children.
“Why have you continued to squeeze out offsprings during these six years, when you are unemployed, lack adequate housing and obvious common sense?”, he wondered.
Bali also noted that after all, the family could afford a bigger flat, at least in the rental market. This thanks to the contributions that such a large family is entitled to – about SEK 40,000 (€4,000) – or SEK 50,000 (€5,000), if they manage to find a larger flat, according to Bali.
In a report by Hem & Hyra, Abdir was asked whether he and his wife were hesitant to have more children. Yes, of course we were. But what happened happened nonetheless, he replied.
Democrats Launch Training Sessions for “1000 Volunteer” Lawyers to Manage Recount and Steal in Florida
By Jim Hoft
Democrats have produced tens of thousands of ballots several days after the election–even worse, Broward County refused to disclose how many ballots they had left to tabulate which allowed them to count however many they needed to bring the Democrats within the margin of a recount.
While Republicans have ‘election day,’ the Democrats enjoy ‘election week’ or ‘election month.’
67 Florida counties have until 3 PM Thursday to finish their recount of the midterm ballots.
Palm Beach County was given extra days to finish their recount.
Criminal investigations were launched against Broward and Palm Beach County election officials following the mysterious 80,000 votes that suddenly appeared two days after election day in Broward County.
Sean Hannity told his audience on Wednesday that he has information that evidence has been turned over to law enforcement on criminal activity in Broward County.
Democrats are organizing an army of lawyers to assist the steal in Florida.
This was a text message sent to The Gateway Pundit on Wednesday.
The source is in Washington DC.
Let’s hope Republicans are as organized.
‘Unconstitutional’: Neutral Austria wants no part of European army proposed by Macron, Merkel
An Austrian army soldier poses with a Steyr AUG A2 Commando assault rifle. © Reuters / Heinz-Peter Bader
If Germany and France get their wish of developing a European army, Austria wants no part of it. The defense minister’s office said it would opt out, as it would conflict with Vienna’s constitution and neutrality.
Defense Minister Mario Kunasek’s office told Kurier newspaper that while Austria has no details on the army proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it would still walk away from it because it is “contrary to the Austrian constitutional position” since Austria is neutral.
The idea of a unified European army was proposed by Macron earlier this month, with the French president insisting it is necessary in order to protect the continent from the likes of China, Russia, and “even the United States of America.”
Merkel was quick to put her support behind the proposal, saying that such an army would show the world that “there will never again be war between European nations.”
But US President Donald Trump isn’t so sure about that. He lashed out at the notion after Macron first mentioned it, reminding him that France’s enemy in both World Wars wasn’t the US, China, or Russia – it was Germany.
“They were starting to learn German in Paris before the US came along,” Trump tweeted.
Despite the feelings of France, Germany, Austria, or any other EU member states, a European army won’t actually happen, international affairs specialist John Laughland told RT earlier this week.
“The idea of the European army is a complete fiction; there’s never been a European army and there cannot be a European army,” he said, noting that the EU cannot be legally independent from NATO unless it changes its treaties.
READ MORE: Merkel joins Macron in call for ‘real, true’ European army after Trump slams idea
However, the European Commission seems to think it’s perfectly possible. A spokesman said the Commission is “delighted” by Macron and Merkel’s backing of the idea. That should perhaps come as no surprise, as Juncker himself put his support behind a European army four years ago.
“We have many times explained how we see these things. This is the Commission that wants Europe to have a meaningful defense identity,” the spokesperson said.
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MICHAEL AVENATTI ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED WIFE BEATING; WILL CNN & MSNBC DISAVOW?
“Creepy porn lawyer” has appeared on both networks combined over a hundred times
NOVEMBER 14, 2018
So-called “creepy porn lawyer” Michael Avenatti has been arrested after allegedly beating his wife, leading to questions as to whether or not CNN & MSNBC will disavow the ardent Trump critic with Avenatti having appeared on both networks over a hundred times combined.
“Law enforcement sources say Avenatti was arrested Wednesday after his estranged wife filed a felony DV report. We’re told her face was “swollen and bruised,” reports TMZ.
The woman ran out of an apartment building screaming, “I can’t believe you did this to me,” according to eyewitnesses.
Avenatti showed up 5 minutes later saying, “She hit me first….this is bullshit, this is fucking bullshit,” according to the report.
According to law enforcement sources, Avenatti “kicked her out of the apartment” and that’s when the alleged domestic violence occurred.
Avenatti was subsequently arrested and is currently in custody.
As soon as the news broke, questions began to be asked as to whether CNN and MSNBC would disavow Avenatti given that both networks have served as de facto mouthpieces for his crusade against President Trump throughout the year.
A study by the Washington Free Beacon found that Avenatti had appeared on CNN and MSNBC a combined total of 108 times since March. He has also been given a platform by NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” and “Today,” ABC’s “The View” and “Good Morning America,” HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” and CBS’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “60 Minutes.”
The combined value of all Avenatti’s “earned media” amounts to $174,631,598.07 according to the study.
The lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Brett Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick was also pictured partying with CNN employees earlier this year.
(THIS IS WHY THEY WANT OUR GUNS AMERICA!) SHOCK VIDEO: UNHINGED PROTESTERS TRY TO SHUT DOWN BEN SHAPIRO AT OHIO STATE
Antifa labels Jewish conservative a Nazi fascist
NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Austin Fletcher, creator of “Fleccas Talks,” went to Ohio State University on Tuesday to cover the far-left and Antifa protesting Jewish conservative figure Ben Shapiro.
PAYPAL BANS YOUTUBE COMPETITOR BITCHUTE WITHOUT EXPLANATION
Purging users from YouTube doesn’t go far enough for leftists
NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Payment processor PayPal has permanently banned video platform BitChute from using its services.
BitChute, a competitor of Google’s video giant YouTube, released a statement addressing PayPal’s decision to sever ties with the company on Wednesday.
“A few hours ago BitChute received a notice that our PayPal account has been permanently limited, with immediate effect, and that we will no longer be able to accept or send payments,” the statement reads.
“BitChute is pro-free expression which is a universal human right. Furthermore, censorship and deplatforming are poor ways to tackle societal problems as they merely create echo chambers that can lead to bigger problems in the long run.”
“It’s important to platform all ideas, as this exposes them to immediate opposition and allows for a public deconstruction of any flaws they may contain. If you are against bigotry or racism or hateful ideologies, you should be pro-free expression,” the statement concluded.
PayPal has purged several individuals and companies recently, including Infowars, social media website GAB.com, UK activist Tommy Robinson, and others in a campaign to eliminate voices which challenge leftist dogma.
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