Featured Timeline Entries
June 20, 2023 - Actor Jim Caviezel implicates US agencies in child sex trafficking and worse

Actor Jim Caviezel joined Steve Bannon on The War Room on Tuesday evening.

(…) Caviezel worked with several former federal agents and 30 Navy SEALS while filming in Colombia.

During the interview, Jim Caviezel implicated several US agencies in child sex trafficking and worse.

Steve Bannon: Do you believe that that’s part of the senior government apparatus just does not want to touch this? They profit off it. They don’t mind if it happens. I mean, why would DHS when when they’re in charge and like you said, there’s five drug agents to every one human trafficking agent… It’s my opinion I don’t know what Jim’s opinion is, but it’s definitely my opinion that this is something they don’t want to solve…

Jim Caviezel: …You might have 14 people in the room and they all want you, but two have big enough voices where they can shut down those twelve. And so right now, I don’t think it was smart for Bud Light to somebody woke up in the morning and said, “Hey, let’s put this transgender on our beer can.” Okay? And then Target is looking going, “Wow, look at all the billions they’re losing. We got to do this, too.” Obviously, something’s going on, right?… The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. What monastery are they from?…

Let’s go back to Ms. Rodas. She comes out and says, 85,000 children are missing. That’s damn near a Rose Bowl stadium. And I think it’s a lot more than that. After I talked to Tim and many of them, they were saying, Jim, these are small numbers. Okay, fine. But that’s not newsworthy the next day. Like, you don’t want to pick that up? And then I started noticing that’s a tell. But it’s a huge tell. It’s over and over. Every time something trafficking comes out, next day, nothing. Nobody wants to talk about this story. Nothing. But I went through this on The Passion of the Christ. Yes. I was told every day that this…

This is the most important film. This is why movies were supposed to be made. This is why I wanted to become an actor. I wanted to do things to bring the light on evil. And this is a perfect good versus evil film…

But while we were doing this, I had a really great team around me (in Colombia) But all of a sudden, they disappeared. They saved 200 children in the middle of this whole thing,

Steve Bannon: Tim’s team was working the film down there. Those guys go out and they save they saved 200 children while we were down there. This is the power of this movie… Okay, go to angel.com/WarRoom to get your tickets. You got to take your friends on 4 July… Look, you’ve got all these other issues – about harvesting and all this apparatus. You say the alphabet agencies are here are involved somehow. You’re meeting with people. You want hearings, you want investigations, you want whistleblowers, you want everybody to start coming…

Jim Caviezel: I want media to do what Laura Logan’s doing. That woman is a hero. She puts herself right into hell and she goes out and she doesn’t just say, hey, they told you to just read these today…

Steve Bannon: Would you say? Now, if we could organize, get all the media and by the way, Lara Logan is going to be the show later in the week. If we get all these if we… and you would take them down and you would show them…

Jim Caviezel: I would love for them to meet a lot of these agents. And that can be provided for them, but they have to go into hell to see it, and then going into the Dark Web to get…

Steve Bannon: Can we help to arrange that?

Jim Caviezel: I think that would be amazing. I think there’s Jason Jones would be a great guy to go to. And then all the connect oh, that would be awesome.

Jim Caviezel: “All of our children are in trouble, it’s got to stop, we have the power to do it”

(Gateway Pundit, 6/20, 2023) (Archive)

Other Interviews regarding Caviezel’ s movie, “Sound of Freedom”:

Jim Caviezel Goes In Depth On Human Trafficking And New Movie “Sound Of Freedom”

 

Spread Awareness Of Child Trafficking With The Film ‘Sound of Freedom’ At Angel.com/WarRoom

U.S. Is #1 World Consumer Of Child Trafficking While Mexico Is #1 Supplier | Eduardo Breaks Down How U.S.-Mexico Are Hurting Each Other

 

June 21, 2023 - Durham Hearing: Why numerous Russiagate co-conspirators weren't interviewed in his investigation

June 21, 2023 - Durham Hearing: The FBI kept intel on the Clinton plan to 'link Trump with Russia' from agents working the case

June 21, 2023 - Durham Hearing: Hillary Clinton fabricated it; Obama and Biden knew it; The FBI orchestrated it; and the mainstream media sold it

June 21, 2023 - Durham Hearing: Gaetz questions Durham for not going after Andy McCabe; investigating the Mueller team; why they smashed phones; and who honey-potted Papadopoulos

June 22-July 20, 2023: IRS whistleblowers and FBI testimony confirm FBI knew Hunter Biden Laptop was authentic before meeting with Twitter, Facebook

On June 22, 2023, the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government reveals testimony from IRS whistleblowers who confirm the FBI knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was authentic.

The FBI confirmed the authenticity in 2019.

On July 17, 2023, the House Judiciary Committee conducted an interview with Laura Dehmlow, the section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF).

Dehmlow confirmed the FBI knew the Biden laptop was real on October 14, 2020, the same day the New York Post broke the laptop story, and the same day the FBI was meeting with social media platforms to censor American citizens who were sharing the laptop story.

The committee followed up with a letter to FBI Director, Christopher Wray on July 20, 2023, asking why the FBI failed to alert the social media platforms that the laptop was real.

June 22, 2023 - IRS whistleblower says search warrants, charges for Hunter Biden blocked, Joe met Chinese client

Hunter Biden (l) and supervisory IRS agent Gary Shapley (r) (Credit: The New York Post)

A supervisory IRS agent divulged to Congress widespread interference in the probe of Hunter Biden, including the blockage of two search warrants and more extensive criminal charges, while also confirming the government had evidence that Joe Biden met with his son’s Chinese business partners, according to testimony released Thursday,

Just the News obtained the testimony of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley shortly after the House Ways and Means Committee voted to pierce Hunter Biden’s tax privacy and make the agent’s allegations of preferential treatment and political interference public.

He confirmed career prosecutors originally intended to charge Hunter Biden with numerous tax violations dating to 2014, but in the end appointees of Joe Biden nixed the plan for a more sweeping indictment. In the end, the charges were narrowed to two counts in 2017 and 2018 that most likely spared the presidential son prison time.

“I am blowing the whistle because the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice provided preferential treatment and unchecked conflicts of interest in an important and high-profile investigation of the President’s son, Hunter Biden,” he told lawmakers.

You can read the full testimony here.

 Whistleblower 1 Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Shapley divulged in his testimony that federal prosecutors twice blocked search warrants seeking evidence from Hunter Biden, including one for a storage locker with corporate documents and another for Joe Biden’s Delaware residence where Hunter Biden was living, even though agents had met the standards for probable cause. (Read more: JustTheNews, 6/22/2023)  (Archive)

June 22, 2023 - Transcript of IRS whistleblower interview reveals texts of Hunter Biden shaking down Chinese benefactor with threats like "you will regret not following my direction"

Photos Place Hunter Biden At Father’s House The Day He Invoked Dad’s Name to Threaten Chinese Business Partner

June 23, 2023 - After AG Garland denies main justice interference, IRS whistleblower reveals names of witnesses to show Garland lying

Things are getting spicy in/around Main Justice in DC.  On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy AG Lisa Monaco denied any involvement interfering with the decisions made by USAO David Weiss regarding the investigation of the Hunter and ¹Joe Biden bribery and tax fraud scheme. However, in response, the IRS whistleblower is now naming additional witnesses to Weiss’s statements.

Through his attorneys, whistleblower Gary Shapley is now naming additional witnesses to the statements of USAO Weiss:

“In an October 7, 2022, meeting at the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Attorney David Weiss told six witnesses he did not have authority to charge in other districts and had thus requested special counsel status. Those six witnesses include Baltimore FBI Special Agent in Charge Tom Sobocinski and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ryeshia Holley, IRS Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gary Shapley and Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon, who also independently and contemporaneously corroborated Mr. Shapley’s account in an email, now public as Exhibit 10, following p. 148 of his testimony transcript.

Mr. Shapley would have no insight into why Mr. Weiss would make these statements at the October 7, 2022 meeting if they were false.  That Mr. Weiss made these statements is easily corroborated, and it is up to him and the Justice Department to reconcile the evidence of his October 7, 2022 statements with contrary statements by Mr. Weiss and the Attorney General to Congress.”  (source)

Someone is lying, and the whistleblower appears to have all his information well documented and cited.  Mr. Weiss, Mr. Garland and Mrs. Monaco have some explaining to do.

(Read more: Conservative Treehouse, 6/25/2023)  (Archive)

June 23, 2023 - John Kirby walks out of press briefing after question about Hunter Biden message to China that undermines all prior White House denials

White House Coordinator for National Security Council Strategic Communications, John Kirby, walks out of the press briefing room after being asked about Hunter Biden’s WhatsApp messages with China implicating President Biden

THE MESSAGE: “I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made was not fulfilled. Tell the director I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And Zhi, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows, and my ability to forever hold a grudge, that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

John Kirby uncomfortably said he would not comment on the text message and refused to answer any questions. WATCH: (Conservative Treehouse, 6/24/2023)  (Archive)

June 23, 2023 - Joe Biden: "…and I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things we shared”

June 25, 2023 - Peter Schweizer reports Joe Biden was using a secret cell phone while VP

Peter Schweizer, head of the “Government Accountability Institute,” told Maria Bartiromo on FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he tipped off the House Oversight Committee to look into records for a private global cell phone he alleges Hunter Biden’s business gave to Joe Biden during his time as vice president:

PETER SCHWEIZER: It’s interesting, what is the line of communications between Hunter Biden and his business partners and Joe Biden when he’s vice president of the United States? It’s not the government phone, it’s not Joe Biden’s personal phone. We know from the laptop that Hunter Biden’s business paid for a private phone line that Joe Biden used while he was vice president. It was from AT&T, it was $300 a month, it was a global phone where you could access somebody anywhere around the world.

We shared that phone number and that account information with people in the House Oversight Committee. My hope is that they if they haven’t already, they will subpoena those records because I think it will give an indication on how tight the communication was.

And that may be the phone, for example, that the Ukrainian, the Burisma executive might have used in this allegation that the he talked to Joe Biden in recorded conversations.

I would just say one other thing, Maria, as it relates to that sort of shakedown phone call with Henry Zhao that we alluded to, Henry Zhao in 2015 had already sent $5 million to the Bidens. He was the head of a Harvest Investment firm. And what’s interesting is in the correspondence there, Hunter Biden again talks to Zhao in the context of “this is a deal that’s important to my family” involving his father.

Let’s also keep in mind, we fixate on the criminal element of this, we also have to focus on the espionage element of this. Henry Zhao paid $5 million to Hunter Biden from an account that was part of a company that he co-owned with the family of the Minister of State Security of China, who’s in charge of the entire spy apparatus. And you see that in every deal that Hunter Biden did in China. These individuals that are sending him money have ties to Chinese intelligence. (Read more: RealClearPolitics, 6/25/2023)  (Archive)

Update: Ring, ring! You’ll never guess who picked up when @jsolomonreports called Hunter Biden’s secret cell phone.

June 25, 2023 - 'We face a new Marxism' - Senator Hawley calls out the 'Religion of Woke'

June 26, 2023 -O'Keefe Media Group files lawsuit alleging Chinese ties to ActBlue scheme

June 25, 2023 - Adam Kinzinger refers to 'Patriot Front' group as 'federal officers'

I reported earlier on the viral video of the Patriot Front-like characters getting unmasked in Portland, Oregon, after they showed up and tried to crash a political rally. Rallygoers, including members of the Proud Boys, weren’t having it. They didn’t want to get smeared with whatever the Patriot Front-like characters might say or do. The rallygoers called the group “racists,” told them to get the heck out (in more colorful language), and then proceeded to de-mask a few of them. That caused the Patriot Front-like guys who were exposed to panic and cover their faces. The video now has almost 15 million views.

There was a lot of speculation that the Patriot Front group and others like it are astroturfed: either made up of “feds” or of leftists trying to make people on the right look bad. But either way, whether they are astroturfed or real white nationalists, they have nothing in common with conservatives, and conservatives completely reject them and mock them at every opportunity. I also noted reasons why the folks in these videos might not have been “real” Patriot Front guys—the outfits are different, for instance—and one of the local people claimed it was an area Rose City group.

But one of the funniest reactions to the video came from Adam Kinzinger, the former Illinois representative who now is a “senior political commentator” for CNN.

Does Kinzinger know what he just said? He just called these guys federal officers. Does Adam know something the rest of us don’t? Did he just say something he shouldn’t have said? Is the former Jan. 6 Committee member saying federal officers embed themselves in groups? Can we say “whoopsies” in a big way? (Read more: Red State, 5/25/2023) (Archive)

June 26, 2023 - House Weaponization Committee: Biden admin 'colluded' with Big Tech, 'facilitated the censorship of Americans'

The House Weaponization Subcommittee says the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has “facilitated the censorship of Americans directly” and through third-party intermediaries during the Biden administration.

Fox News Digital first obtained a new committee report [Part 3] Monday, stemming from the panel’s ongoing investigation into government-induced censorship on social media. The report focuses on CISA’s alleged work ahead of the 2020 election and the 2022 midterm elections.

The committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, obtained non-public documents that lawmakers say reveals CISA “expanded its mission to surveil Americans’s speech on social media, colluded with Big Tech and government-funded third parties to censor by proxy, and tried to hide its plainly unconstitutional activities from the public.”

The report states that CISA engaged in “surveillance,” by expanding its mission from cybersecurity to monitor foreign “disinformation” to eventually monitor “all ‘disinformation,’ including Americans’ speech.”

It also says CISA “exploited its connections with Big Tech and government-funded non-profits to censor, by proxy, in order to circumvent the First Amendment’s prohibition against government-induced censorship.” Specifically—the report says CISA-funded entities created reporting portals which “funneled ‘misinformation’ reports from the government directly to social media platforms.”

The report also alleges CISA engaged in “cover-ups” by trying to “cover their tracks ad cover up CISA’s censorship of domestic speech and surveillance of American citizens’ social media activity.

“This included scrubbing CISA’s website of references to domestic ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation,’” the report states.

CISA, which was founded in 2018, was intended to be an agency focused on protecting critical infrastructure and guarding against cybersecurity threats.

“In the years since its creation, however, CISA metastasized into the nerve center of the federal government’s domestic surveillance and censorship operations on social media,” the report states.

The subcommittee found that by 2020, CISA “routinely reported social media posts that allegedly spread ‘disinformation’ to social media platforms.”

By 2021, CISA had a formal “mis, dis, and malformation” (MDM) team. And by 2022 and 2023, the subcommittee alleged that CISA “attempted to camouflage its activities, duplicitously claiming it serves a purely ‘informational’ role.”

“Although CISA’s efforts to police speech are highly troubling overall, one particularly problematic aspect is CISA’s focus on ‘malformation,’” the report states. “According to CISA’s own definition, ‘malformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm or manipulate.”

The report points out that malformation is “factual information that is objectionable not because it is false or untruthful, but because it is provided without adequate ‘context’—context as determined by the government.”

Vijaya Gadde (Credit: Wikipedia)

CISA’s adivsory MDM Subcommittee has since disbanded, according to the report, but “brought together government, Big Tech, and academic misinformation ‘experts.’” Those experts included a former chief legal officer of Twitter—Vijaya Gadde; a former assistant general counsel and legal advisor for the CIA; and a professor for the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.

The report states that in January 2021, after President Biden took office, CISA “transitioned” to “promote more flexibility to focus on general MDM.”

“In doing so, CISA admitted that its focus was no longer exclusively on ‘countering foreign influence,’ but was also targeting MDM originating from domestic sources,” the report states.

According to the report, individuals on the MDM advisory team sought to “disguise the true nature” of its work.

One email obtained by the committee, written by a member of the MDM advisory team in May 2022, stated: “It’s only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist and starts asking about our work.”

That individual suggested finding time to speak with CISA communications and legislative officials to discuss “how we socialize what we’re doing.”

“It would be good to be proactive in telling our story rather than reacting to how someone else decides to portray it, right?” The email states. “I know neither of us has time for this, but I am telling myself that it might save us time in the long run!”

Days later, the MDM advisory team discussed its “commitment to transparency but expressed concern” for its efforts and “cautioned the group on how to communicate their ongoing work.”

Meanwhile, the report states that after the committee began issuing subpoenas to Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta in February 2023, CISA “scrubbed its website of references to domestic MDM.” The website had previously described the threats posed by both foreign and domestic MDM.

Now, it only references “Foreign Influence Operations and Disinformation.”

The report goes on to state that CISA was working with federal partners to “mature” a whole-of-government approach to curbing alleged misinformation and disinformation. The report also states CISA considered creating an anti-misinformation “rapid response team” capable of physically deploying across the U.S.

The subcommittee also found that CISA moved its “censorship operation” to a CISA-funded non-profit, after the agency and the Biden administration were sued in federal court.

The report also states CISA wanted to use that CISA-funded nonprofit— The Center for Internet Security (CIS)—as a “mouthpiece” to “avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”

The report states that CISA funds CIS—including spending $27 million in FY 2024 for CIS’ Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center.

“CISA still has not adequately complied with a subpoena for relevant documents, and much more factfinding is necessary,” the report states. “In order to better inform the Committee’s legislative efforts, the Committee and Select Subcommittee will continue to investigate CISA’s and other Executive Branch agencies’ entanglement with social media platforms.”

Brandon Wales (Credit: public domain)

But CISA Executive Director Brandon Wales, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said the agency “does not and has never censored speech or facilitated censorship; any such claims are patently false.”

“Every day, the men and women of CISA execute the agency’s mission of reducing risk to U.S. critical infrastructure in a way that protects Americans’ freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy,” Wales said. “In response to concerns from election officials of all parties regarding foreign influence operations and disinformation that may impact the security of election infrastructure, CISA mitigates the risk of disinformation by sharing information on election literacy and election security with the public and by amplifying the trusted voices of election officials across the nation.”

CISA also said that CIS “never funded CIS to perform any disinformation-related work,” and instead, said EI-ISAC “reported potential disinformation to social media platforms in relation to the 2022 election cycle,” but stressed that CISA was “not involved.”

Jordan and Republicans’ investigation comes after Republicans have sounded the alarm for years on Big Tech censorship and bias against conservatives.

Jordan’s committee has vowed to continue investigating the matter. (Fox News, 8/26/2023)  (Archive)

June 27, 2023 - Prosecutor who signs Hunter Biden plea deal worked for Hunter Biden business partner, Louis Freeh

By now everyone is aware how the corruption in Washington DC is fraught with internecine relationships; however, this one takes the proverbial cake.  The prosecutor who organized and signed the plea deal for Hunter Biden worked for Hunter Biden’s business partner.

Senator Ron Johnson is calling attention to Title 28, Section 45.2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which says: ‘no employee shall participate in a criminal investigation if he has a personal or political relationship with […] any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.’

As if this entire episode wasn’t sketchy enough, Assistant United States Attorney Derek Hines (top left) was one of the prosecutors to sign off on Hunter Biden’s charges and plea deal. Hines previously worked under ex-FBI director Louis Freeh (bottom left), who was a business partner of Hunter Biden.  Hines worked for Freeh Group International Solutions which was specifically involved in the foreign company influence issue at the heart of the Hunter Biden case, and Freeh is a close friend of the entire Biden family.

This is nuts.

(Via Daily Mail) – A prosecutor who signed off on the documents charging Hunter Biden with tax and gun crimes previously worked with one of the First Son’s business partners, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Delaware US Attorney David Weiss officially filed charges against the president’s son last Tuesday after a near five-year probe into his alleged tax crimes and foreign financial dealings.

Weiss’s deputy, Assistant United States Attorney Derek Hines, signed off on the charging documents alongside his boss and two other assistant US attorneys – indicating he has a central role in Hunter’s criminal prosecution.

Freeh worked with Hunter on a $3million job consulting for a Romanian criminal, a deal that is allegedly now part of his federal criminal investigation and is being investigated by Congress.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson told DailyMail.com the link between the prosecutor and Hunter’s business associate ‘calls into question the integrity of their entire investigation’ – after GOP lawmakers slammed the relatively minor charges filed by the Delaware prosecutor this week as a mere ‘slap on the wrist’.

DailyMail.com has previously revealed that Freeh and his firm worked closely with Hunter Biden trying to get the US State Department to help limit the prosecution of Romanian real estate tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu, who was on the brink of a bribery conviction in 2015. (read more)

The same DOJ who cut this Hunter Biden deal, are going after Donald Trump in part simply because of letters exchanged with Kim Jong-Un.

This entire corrupt DC system is beyond repair. (Conservative Treehouse, 7/03/2023)  (Archive)

June 29, 2023 - Tony Bobulinsk was open to testifying to Delaware grand jury; Delaware U.S. Atty David Weiss never asked for his testimony

David Weiss (l) and Tony Bobulinski (Credit: public domain)

A former business partner of Hunter and James Biden, who worked directly with them on a 2017 China energy deal, was never asked to testify to a Delaware grand jury investigating Hunter Biden, two sources familiar with the discussions tell CBS News.

Tony Bobulinski, the former business partner, was open to testifying, and his attorney reached out to the office of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss. Weiss did not return their calls, the sources said. Weiss’ decision not to bring Bobulinski is the latest indication that prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden may have avoided investigating allegations about his father, President Joe Biden.

In October 2020, Bobulinski was invited by the Trump campaign to attend a presidential debate after he released business records about his dealings with Hunter and James Biden. At a press conference before the debate, he claimed to have met with Joe Biden in May 2017, as part of discussions over a potential business deal with a Chinese energy firm, CEFC.

“I’ve heard Joe Biden say that he’s never discussed business with Hunter. That is false. I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden,” Bobulinski said at the press conference. Contacted this week by CBS News, Bobulinski said he stands behind those statements.

Bobulinski’s claims have garnered new interest among GOP congressional investigators after IRS whistleblowers gave closed-door testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee. In those transcripts, released last week, the whistleblower alleges the president’s son received preferential treatment that allegedly stymied federal investigators. The whistleblower, Gary Shapley, testified that investigative leads that might have led to Joe Biden were not pursued in the late summer and fall of 2020. At the time, Donald Trump was president and the attorney general was Bill Barr. (Read more: CBS News, 6/29/2023)  (Archive)

August 3, 2017 - Hunter Biden to CEFC official: "The Biden's are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants from this partnership"

(Credit: House Oversight Committee)

July 3, 2023 - Taibbi, Brand, & Shellenberger expose the censors as malign disinformation superspreaders

“How long can we allow convenience, safety, and security to enable centralized authoritarian systems to shut down communication and free speech?

“What is the nature of this new centralizing authoritarian system?”

“What is the misanthropy that lies at the heart of a discourse that believes our speech needs to be controlled?”

“Where is the moral authority that is entitled to make those decisions on our behalf?”

That is what Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger have been brave enough to dare to ask and even braver, to answer, in the following videos of the pair joining Russell Brand in London for a live discussion of The Censorship-Industrial-Complex (joined by Tim Robbins and Stella Assange).

Shellenberger began by laying out the many governments enacting previously unthinkable laws encroaching on your free speech rights (and more) driven by ‘The Elites’ desire “to censor the authentic voice of the people.”

As he ended his initial thoughts, emotions began to well up as Shellenberger explained:

“The most painful thing – and there’s a lot of painful things that one goes through – is losing almost all of your friends as a consequence of using your speech.”

Something many on the right can empathize with.

But there is hope, as he noted: “The only positive thing to come out of this is to make new friends. It is not the most obvious thing you expect to lose all of your friends in your late 40s, but the ones you keep are so dear.”

Shellenberger turned to his ‘new’ friend Matt Taibbi, they embraced, and the legendary investigative reporter began… by noting that he had written 1000s of words for his opening statement but would instead cherry pick the most notable (since his friend Michael had done such a good job) – you can read Taibbii’s full note here.

Several points stood out from Taibbi’s summary including the day – during their Twitter Files discovery – that:

it became “clear that the idea behind the sweeping system of digital surveillance combined with thousands or even millions of subtle rewards and punishments built into the online experience, is to condition people to censor themselves…

…What Michael and I were looking at was something new, an Internet-age approach to political control that uses brute digital force to alter reality itself.”

In fact, he went on to warn ominously:

“…after enough time online, users will lose both the knowledge and the vocabulary they would need to even have politically dangerous thoughts.

What Michael calls the Censorship-Industrial Complex is really just the institutionalization of orthodoxy, a vast, organized effort to narrow our intellectual horizons.”

Citing a company called Graphika, Taibbi explains the causation:

“This continual process of seeding doubt and uncertainty in authoritative voices leads to a society that finds it too challenging to identify what’s true or false.”

The point he makes is if there is no ‘middle’ – you are either defined as ‘approved’ or ‘unapproved, or as Orwell put it ‘good’ or ‘ungood’ – individuals will naturally self-sort and self-homogenize, “and this is happening all across society.”

What happens to a society that doesn’t square its mental books when it comes to facts, truth, errors, propaganda and so on?

There are only a few options.

Some people will do what some of us in this room have done: grow frustrated and angry, mostly in private.

Others have tried to protest by frantically cataloging the past.

Most however do what’s easiest for mental survival. They learn to forget.

This means living in the present only. Whatever we’re freaking out about today, let’s all do it together. Then when things change tomorrow, let’s not pause to think about the change, let’s just freak out about that new thing. The facts are dead! Long live the new facts!

We’re building a global mass culture that sees everything in black and white, fears difference, and abhors memory.

Sadly, Brand notes that the framing of ‘free speech’ as only being an enabler of hate speech continues to dominate the narratives, and both Shellenberger and Taibbi reflected on the disappointing realization that despite all the ‘truths’ exposed by The Twitter Files, it has done little to shift the mainstream (in fact, it has done the opposite with the MSM directly targeting the reporters, and downplaying/normalizing the censorship (self-defined or imposed) we all live with every day. (Read more: Zero Hedge, 7/07/2023)  (Archive)