In January 2021, after the lil bird kicked off Donald Trump, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said he would investigate Twitter’s “content moderation” (aka censorship) policies.
Twitter didn’t like this idea. So it went running to its home courts in California to try to get them to quash Paxton’s investigation before his office had tried to enforce a single subpoena.
Because First Amendment, which Twitter appeared to think protects it from any and all legal and governmental scrutiny.
Things have not gone as planned for the lil bird.
On Wednesday, following some back-and-forth, three 9th Circuit judges blew Twitter out of the water. They found that Twitter’s effort to block the investigation was not “ripe,” because Texas hadn’t actually gone to court to enforce its requests.
By itself, that portion of the ruling was more procedural than substantive. But the judges didn’t stop there.
They destroyed Twitter’s claim that the First Amendment prevents any scrutiny of whether the company is being honest with the public - and its users - about the way it reviews and censors content:
Even if content moderation is protected speech, making misrepresentations about content moderation policies is not. See Va. State Bd. Of Pharmacy v. Va. Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 US 748, 772 (1976) (misleading commercial speech is not protected).
Even worse for the little bird, the judges specifically rejected Twitter’s claim that its own statements that it is committed to free speech are nonsense which no one should take seriously (yes, Twitter actually made this argument).
Twitter argues that OAG’s investigation is illegitimate because matters of “editorial judgment” can never be investigated. In doing so, it analogizes its statements about content moderation (that it moderates content without considering viewpoint) to the slogans like “all the news that’s fit to print” and “fair and balanced.” Twitter and amici also rely on cases highlighting the dangers in “government editorial oversight.” See Miami Herald Publ’g Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241, 258 (1974); Bullfrog Films, Inc. v. Wick, 847 F.2d 502, 510 (9th Cir. 1988).
We reject these arguments. First, Bullfrog Films and Miami Herald addressed government regulations or statutes which themselves required balance. 847 F.2d at 505 (federal regulations); 418 U.S. at 244 (state statute). Here, by contrast, Twitter has made statements about balance, and so the danger from Bullfrog Films and Miami Herald is absent. Twitter’s statements can be investigated as misleading just like the statements of any other business.
Second, Twitter’s analogy to “all the news that’s fit to print” is a puffery argument, the essence of which is that no one would understand its statements about content moderation to be literally true. We disagree. No one believes that the New York Times literally prints “all the news that’s fit to print,” but a reasonable person could think that Twitter’s statements about content moderation were true.
Fundamentally, Twitter's problem is that it lures users with the promise of being a "free speech" platform. But the reality is that it's a curated, left-wing opinion platform. Those are two very different things. Hopefully Berenson's suit makes this obvious to all and sundry.
Social control has been effectively exercised and developed LONG before twitter and co. came around. This is just the latest rendering of the same concepts. It is not going to go away. History has demonstrated that with clarity. If anything, it may be locked in beyond recovery now. Check out the beginnings of all this on YouTube. A BBC series called "Century of the Self". Four programs that map out how this has progressed since the early 1900's. A guy named Ed Bernays kicked it all off. The socials have just perfected it to a scary level as illustrated in the more recent "The Social Dilemma" (Netflix). My view is the game is over already. It has been over for some time now. This is all so entrenched now that they are not really even afraid to show it, so many of us have begun to understand just how deep the threat is now that it is too late.
Wait til people find out that the vax pass is just a pathway to getting what you say on social media connected to your bank account. Getting kicked off Twitter is one thing, getting frozen out of the monetary system quite another. They really do want the power to do that. To all who say, "But they wouldn't do that!" they just did - in Canada.
You give up too easily. The social networks are able to get away with their nonsense because of Section 230 protection. Remove that and then these companies will be reduced to veritable ash by defamation lawsuits. We just need to elect politicians who have the will and the persistence to keep going. Now I do realize that last part is easier said than done, but as public sentiment shifts (and there are more and more people waking up to the fact that these social nets need to be reined in) so will the attitudes of the politicians who are beholden to their electorate.
If I believed that the politicians were truly beholden to their constituents, I might agree with you. I don't believe that is the case for some time now. They are beholden to their party and to their megadonors. I also think that there is little actual difference between the two parties (the UniParty). They are moving forward with an agenda that does not involve what I may be concerned about in the least. The censorship is just one more recent and glaring issue with the socials. Legions of young people are controlled by social media without even realizing it and most of them have no earthly clue what Section 230 protection is, let alone feeling any inclination to rein anyone in. Hundreds of millions have forfeit their privacy and deferred all control to the socials... willingly.
There is scientific research to back up what you say. The study looked at thousands of pieces of legislation, who supported or opposed, and the outcome. They found that the oligarchs and megadonors got what they wanted nearly 100% of the time, and if the people wanted something the oligarchs didn't, the people nearly always lost. The study covered a long enough period so that any differences between party-in-control were evened out - UniParty, indeed.
I think the biggest lesson to learn from Amish is not to trust in govt and be as least dependent on govt as possible.
Their salvation doctrine tends to be mix of believing and works. I hope they are saved becuz Bible teaches that salvation is 100% about believing and is a free gift and God can't be a liar and take it away.
I grew up in Amish country. Good people but there's no Shangri la on earth.
As much as I agree, I also have to oppose this idea.
For better or worse (probably worse in the whole) society - whether our mega cities or our smaller towns, has become more complicated, probably just due to the number of people, activities; and traditional forms of news and info dissemination is disappearing (our local newspaper, is but a leftist shell of its former self). Fewer people attend Church/synagogue/temple than anytime before so their means of staying in touch have to change (mind you, I’d prefer they stick to the thried and true - we still have empty seats on Sunday mornings, tho 2nd service I hear is kind’a full.
Anyway, my point being, that the social apps/sites are now a part of our culture and probably will remain so; what needs to change is their involvement in content moderation - for better or worse, people have the right to chose with whom they associate, what news/info is important to them, and it is not up to a 3rd party to decide the elements of those two. Likewise, the algorithms used to fill news feeds need to/must be content neutral other than the algorithms the user him/her-self puts in place. If you only want NYT, WaPo, or other leftist sources that’s up to you, likewise if all I want is the latest and greatest from WWE & Shooter’s Digest, that’s my choice.
But, if fauxbook and/or tweetie want my eyeballs, then they had better not get between me and what I want to see. But, because they do, my eyeballs don’t see fauxbook and tweetie.
Every person and business in America can be sued, with very few exceptions. The ones that come immediately to mind are vaccine manufacturers and internet platforms.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act created a carve-out for internet platforms in 1996 to promote the growth of the internet. They have grown beyond what anyone could have imagined, and are now the richest, most powerful companies in history.
Why, since they're so rich, do they STILL need special protections from being sued?
I used to be a free-marketer, just like you. I now realize how naive I was. It's not just "Don't like Twitter, then start your own company." These big tech companies have what are essentially monopolies. And they collude to keep new entrants out. The case of Parler was typical. They were prevented by Amazon web services from renting server space, and effectively blocked from growing their business. To start a competitor to Twitter, you have to do it without banks, and software developers, and any other business that is beholden to Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Apple...
Just try living you life for a day without crossing paths with one of those behemoths.
They should be subject to being sued, like everybody else.
They can afford any and all lawsuits. They would welcome the elimination of Section 230, because it would make competition very difficult. They need to be broken up. Give upstarts several years of Sec.230 protection. The main thing to correct their power, designate them as a platform, with zero editorial rights, period. Just like the telephone company can't interrupt your conversation and tell you, you can't say "that"! Only allow pseudonyms to be used on private paid special interest sites, like this one!
I agree with you up until your last sentence. Protecting anonymity is crucial to fostering open dialog. I know of many people who would like to be more outspoken online using their given name, but they are keenly aware of the fact that we live in a day and age where radical leftists will work tirelessly (seeing as how so many of them are unemployed losers with far too much free time on their hands) to have someone fired for merely espousing unpopular (in lefty circles) opinions. Do I need to point out the irony that you yourself are posting here under a pseudonym? So you should get to enjoy anonymity to speak your mind freely online, but the rest of us be damned?
I agree with you. I have struggled with that part, the irony! So, I guess the only solution is the anti-trust route. Our government allowed these bullies to become giants by eating up the competition. One business plan in Silicone Valley....not far from my abode...is to develop a unique idea and start-up, with the goal being to have the Big Guys buy them out. There are many, many greedy folks who are semi-rich now, having followed that strategy.
What's sad, if they had actually been able to compete who knows where we would be in the refinement of technology!
Take the word ‘Social’ in all the Social Engineers’ platforms, lexicology, politics and media and replace it with the word ‘Slave’ to truly understand the media’s message and ultimate goal.
"You will own nothing and you will like it." - Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum. You're absolutely right, Wally. That is indeed what they are going for. To reduce the masses to slaves. Why do you think Facebook is pushing their "meta" virtual reality platform so strongly? They see it as a perfect way to placate the masses while keeping us blind to what's truly happening around us. If they have their way none of us will enjoy property rights, yet the owners and largest shareholders will not only own tangible things like real estate... they'll own it ALL. The way the tech oligarchs see it is that this is their world: they're just allowing us to live in it.
These "people" need to be taken down before they grow anymore powerful than they already are. They are a clear and present danger to humanity as a whole. We need to start demanding that our elected leaders rein these authoritarian megalomaniacs in while there might still be a chance. A good start will be removing Section 230 protection for the mega socials and their subsidiaries. Section 230 should only apply to new and/or small companies, not behemoths like FB and "the little bird."
If good ol’ fashioned newspapers (who aren’t full of propaganda and tell the truth) existed, we definitely wouldn’t need social media. I agree social media is toxic…as are a good majority of people using those platforms. But we still benefit from being able to share information on a grander scale than word of mouth.
And if my Aunt had a pecker she'd be my Uncle. Look, I miss the days when the local paper was a big deal too, but reminiscing on good times of the past is not productive. Technology is here to stay regardless of how you or I feel about it. While we can't put the proverbial toothpaste back into the tube, what we CAN do is demand that our elected leaders and representatives enact legislation to rein in the nearly limitless power that evil "men" like Zuckerberg wield. This "man" almost singlehandedly changed the outcome of a presidential election with his "zuck bucks" and his massive soapbox. FB, Twitter, Google, all are here to stay, but that doesn't mean that their power should remain unchecked. We can and absolutely should put meaningful limits on what they can and cannot do. If we don't do it soon I fear it will be too late. Some would say it already is too late, but I prefer to live in a world where hope still exists, and to continue to try to rally others to the cause. It should start with reforming Section 230, but it can't end there.
They are not apt to go away, but they ought to be strictly scrutinized by the government of we the people instead of being permitted scot-free, to run amok all over our free speech rights despite being the largest public forums for political speech ever devised by mankind.
Absolutely there is! The younger generations will be in shock but many need to learn (or relearn) social etiquette and communication and life beyond the devices and there apps.
As an 'older' millennial (born in 85), I spent the first half of my childhood actually playing outside. Everyone born since the mid 90s has been with computers or cell phones their entire lives. It's no wonder they all believe in 'group think' and 'safe spaces.'
1948, you had 3 channels, no clicker, dad told you what channel to turn the TV to as soon as you were old enough. He decided what you watched, Mom ruled during the day, soap operas. Dark Shadows was my Favorite. Got about an hour of cartoons when she was cooking supper. 1 landline you needed permission to use, 5 min limit. Be home by dark.
Yes ! the program did not start until 6 or so on regular days and on Wednesday the kid's program came on at 2 and stopped around 4, then the Test Pattern came back on with a terrifying buzz sound LOL thanks for reminiscing
We didn't get a B/W TV until I was about 6, we did have the first color set on the block, dad was a Boilermaker in a large steel mill after his tours in the Philippines in WW2 under Gen. MacArthur. 5 major battles, last was The Rock Corregidor.
Propaganda had not been approved to be broadcast and The Fairness Doctrine was still In effect. I remember groaning upon hearing each of these things taking place. We need to return to that place, and quick. The MSM lie with impunity and a portion of our citizenry are too dumb to realize it.
So true. All been dumbed by watching TV and social media. As to personal conversation, no one who has a smartphone seems to be able to talk anymore. And when they do, they cannot stop ! Last week someone came to visit, ate half a box of chocolates and talked for 2 hours non stop. I had a headache when they left and they will not be invited in again!
The good old days. Your family must have been rich to have had a TV in 1948. My family got one in 1950. We weren't rich; my dad worked for Westinghouse and employees got great deals on appliances. Yes, Westinghouse used to be big in consumer appliances. Anyway, our entire neighborhood would visit frequently to watch our tv.
wow you had a lot of TV time. As a child, born 1957, I was allowed to watch children's time on Wednesday afternoon, about 1 1/2 hours, and we watched the news and one program after that, to bed at 9. And when the lamp popped, had to wait till a new one was installed. Yes TV had lamps in the back then LOL
No, our party line required us to pick up the phone and give the operator the number. We got a rotary dial phone when we got a private line and could then direct dial. No more operator assisted calls.
Better off with out it. There is a magic world of music, art and many other rewarding satisfying creative pursuits out there. A happy and adventurous escape. No more shitter, 😱🤬@t face or plip plop etc. 😂👍
Same here. Even when temps were below zero. We would look for big snow drifts and shovel out a cave with our hands and sit inside it to get warm. We would be playing Red Light, Green Light, etc. till midnight. Rode our bikes everywhere because parents worked. Even summer school started being a thing we had to ride our bikes across town. What was a TV? Never inside to watch what little bit did show on the screen. When my best friend's parent put a window air conditioner in their dining room window for the really hot, humid part of summer we would sit there and play Euchre. Loved that game.
I want to tell you a Personal story about my Mum she fills out everything in Penmanship when the people get the forms back they call 📞 My Mum on the Phone 📱 and say to my Mum that they cannot read anything she wrote on the form of Paper work. And all I hear from my Mother is how stupid people are and didn't anyone go to school 🏫
Zaner-Bloser Manuscript and Cursive Courses used to be studied, practiced, and perfected by elementary school teachers in order to instruct the students correctly. Now…???
We had a writing teacher, English teacher, you learned to diagram sentences, I learned to write big enough to fill a page. Tried to explain that to my now 41 yr old cramped writing son, he'd have fewer words to fill the page if he increased the size of his CRAMPED writing. Never learned.
They can no longer write! They don't know what pen and paper are for. We still had to write with pen and ink in school. Only at 12, we were allowed pens with fillings. No ballpoints at all!
I agree completely. As time moves on, more government, more karens, more ridiculous rules, safetyism, etc. The 70's were definitely better than the 80s. The 80's were better than the 90s and so on. But today's generation supremely is pathetic.
Play all day in the woods and then heard mom call from way off, time for supper. No cell phones (I hate the thing) and little rules as to playing. Good old times indeed.
It really depends how you look at it. There are many things that my kids have that are better than the way I had it. There's a lot more to watch on TV, the video games are way better and don't require a trip to an arcade, you can listen to whatever music you want, instantly, for free. Their bicycles, scooters, and skateboards are electric and require no effort. If someone beats them up at school, there's an incident report. If someone calls them a racial epithet at school, there's an incident report and outrage by parents and administrators. Kids today are doted over. Everything is dangerous and kids are coddled and put in seatbelts and helmets to do everything short of jerking off. As bad as it was in the late 70s and 80s (my generation), we had a tremendous amount of unsupervised time without parents. I was a latch-key kid. No one checked my report card. If you got an F in school, that was your fault and the teachers didn't worry about criticism from parents. If you were called the N-word or chink or spic, that was just too bad for you. But it built character and you learned to deal with adversity. My nephew just joined corporate America and the millennials have learned how to weaponize HR for everything that causes them anguish.
Inane comment. Social media is here to stay, for better or worse. Let's focus on trying to reform it rather than sulking and dwelling in the past. Hey hey, ho ho! Section 230's got to go!
It's here to stay but that doesn't mean we have to fund facebook and twitter by giving them our eyeballs. There are alternatives to these places such as Gettr, rumble, and bitchute (among others). You don't have to be censored is the point.
Good news is that today’s teens call FB Grannybook. And they think Instagram is for old people. And Snapchat is boring. But TikTok (with very strong ties to CCP) they like. So we have a way to go ...
Mine have been going on for about five years, ever since we spent two weeks in China on a tour. They only show up on my cellphone, which is an extremely basic flip phone which I never even turned on when we were there. Very mysterious and a little disconcerting.
My 17 yo says her friends think Twitter is a “joke” they would never bother, but my almost 22 yo uses it a lot, but I see signs that she’s disengaging … there may be hope!
exactly what I was thinking. Surprised they still have customers. In fact think about it, they blocked the president of the US. I did not like him, but I thought that was brutal. Bad for him he probably never read the constitution.
I don’t like Trumps personality at all! And don’t want him to run again. BUT what they did was wrong and the fact Democrats supported it tells me all I needed to know about them
Sometimes the guy with a personality you don't like is the best for the job. Biden is a likeable guy. So is Mitt Romney. Keep this in mind. America got rid of mean tweets and traded those tweets for a complete left-wing retard in the Oval Office. Dump the idea that the guy in charge needs to be likeable. Look at the top football coaches. Most of them are real a-holes, but they win games. Right now America is losing.
in the late 70's I was at Rehoboth Beach and met Jill before she married Joe. She is really stupid. She was sunburnt and looked like a little beach skank.
Second thing.
My hubby got some big fat award for saving the government a pile of money, so we were invited to this exclusive dinner of about 50 other award winners, spouses and there were of course plenty of leaching free stuff senators there.
It was very nice, and my hubbs deserved it really. he worked in defense acquisitions.
Anyway, Gropin' Joe was there, the senator. I was at the huge dessert table and he looked scary, big creepy smile.
There’s NOTHING likeable about Biden. Sadly he’s also a failure as a leader due to age-related Dementia. It’s difficult to believe we are allowing him to remain in the position of our Commander-in-Chief during such difficult times
Russia and China have just started. They’re not going to let this current weakness of America go by without taking full advantage
Donald was a shock to our system. He wasn’t a DC politician. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone quite like him. True, Carter was a peanut farmer but we all know how that turned out! The thing about Trump is that he knows business and he likes to win - not just for himself - but for this country and its citizens. I like him warts and all.
Trump is a great American thru and thru. Pizz on all the sophisticated twits who feel he's too course and common. A lot of great Americans have come out of that mold.
I agree. It took a while, but I really did learn to appreciate and respect him when I saw the incredibly long list of things he'd managed to accomplish despite the Great Blue Tsunami of Hate (TM) that came his way 24/7/365 from the moment he won the election. I didn't agree with everything he did, but--99% of it was amazing.
I completely agree with your premise, but not with your first-listed example. A man who plagiarizes, lies, is financially corrupt, stands for nothing at all, and, to top it all off, is a coward is not 'likeable" -- not if that word is to retain any meaning at all.
You basically just described Joseph R. Biden. He plagiarized British politician Neil Kinnock word-for-word in a stump speech during his run for the 1988 presidential election, has left many breadcrumbs of his financial corruption "10% for the big guy," used to be besties with a KKK grand wizard (yet now is on board with wokeism), and got five draft deferments for asthma during Vietnam (despite being a lifeguard and a football player).
He was also a moving force (along with the Pantsuit) in getting mandatory sentencing passed in the mid-'90s. I was appalled by the law, knowing it would put loads of black teens behind bars for a long, long time, with hardened criminal psychopaths, to 'father' them, and teach them their ropes.
Two gens later it shows in the violence on our streets - helluva a job, Joe Joke, Killery et. al. !
I feel very similarly. I disliked his approach but loved what most of his policies did for the country. Although, after a single year of Uncle Joe I’d welcome back all the mean tweets for some common sense policies DeSantis 2024!
Or to put it another way, while Trump's manner can be sometimes a bit abrasive, he honored his campaign promises and made every effort to do what he said he was going to do. He was able to accomplish an incredibly long list despite all the forces arrayed against him, too.
We need to reward the people who follow through in politics; who do what they promise us they will do for us. And we need to disincentivize the other kind of politician: the smooth talking winning personality who has no desire to make any effort to properly represent the will of voters or to do right by our country.
Because good leadership really doesn't grow on trees.
Because...people aren't all like us, and they have different upbringing which instills different social cues than the ones that we're raised with and understand and resonate to.
Because...Trump knows things about how to use social media and other mediums of communication effectively to get his message across in ways that other professional politician Republicans fail miserably at all the time.
Because the professional politician Republican social class has been trained to LIE to us and say what we as voters want to hear and are willing to vote for while GIVING the worst of the Democrats everything they want on a silver platter. And we become part of the problem when we vote for them knowing that they're just going to turn right around and do this.
Because it makes the professional politicians good money to sell us out, so why would they do anything else if we don't provide them with very strong incentives NOT to do that? Voting for Trump and putting him back in office is a way to hold them accountable, as is voting out as many of the RINOs as possible and replacing them with elected officials who've worked in the private business sector and share our dislike of Big Government's corrupt and misbegotten ways.
You don't like Trump's personality? So what? Were you planning on dating him? Having him over for dinner? Going to his house at Christmas? I'm guessing no. PLEASE, people, don't pick politicians based on their "personality"! Pick based on their stated and proven policies, because that is the only thing that should matter.
Trump. The thing I like about him is that he was not a politician. He did not speak the "lingo" and of course that set the liberals off, making him out to be something like a dope.
One thing I have decided is that I really really hate politicians, and I do not think they are worthy of presidential positions everywhere or anywhere except lower such janitorial positions
Why are the CCP still allowed on, why are the Mullahs still allowed on? Because the technocrats are lying hypocrites. Google helps them with their censorship in China. They are traitors.
Only Trump isn't allowed on social media. Anything banned on social media needs a second look. Anything you see on the mainstream media or social media is all fakery, a show, a diversion, and a narrative spewed by political activism. Even Putin is a diversion away from the inflation, crime, and immigration atrocity that Biden has allowed this country to suffer with.
Mick was in court for a double murder and the judge said, "You are charged with beating your wife to death with a shovel." A voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, "You bastard!"
The judge continued, "You are also charged with beating your daughter to death with a shovel." Again, the voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, "You ducking bastard!!!
The judge stopped, looked at the man in the back of the courtroom, and said, "Paddy, I can understand your anger and frustration at this crime, but I will not have any more of these outbursts
from you or I shall charge you with contempt! Now what is the problem?"
Paddy, at the back of the court stood up and responded, "For fifteen years I lived next door to that bastard and every time I asked to borrow a ducking shovel he said he didn't have one.
Social control has been effectively exercised and developed LONG before twitter and co. came around. This is just the latest rendering of the same concepts. It is not going to go away. History has demonstrated that with clarity. If anything, it may be locked in beyond recovery now. Check out the beginnings of all this on YouTube. A BBC series called "Century of the Self". Four programs that map out how this has progressed since the early 1900's. A guy named Ed Bernays kicked it all off. The socials have just perfected it to a scary level as illustrated in the more recent "The Social Dilemma" (Netflix). My view is the game is over already. It has been over for some time now. This is all so entrenched now that they are not really even afraid to show it, so many of us have begun to understand just how deep the threat is now that it is too late.
If Alex ends up just going right back onto Twitter after all this is over then it will have all been one big joke. Which we know he's going to do. This is all about him being mad they cut into his profits, which I totally get. But then turning around after victory and using their platform again only empowers them and solidifies their monopoly. Do yourself and everyone else a favor Alex and just switch to a competitor's platform. Of course you'll get less traffic, but at least you'll prove you stand for something, even at a cost to you.
He wasn't being paid to post on Twitter. It's his reputation as a journalist. Twitter called him a liar, claimed his information was wrong, regardless that he was citing actual data that had been provided by agencies and authorities. It contradicted whatever the Official US Govt narrative was at the time.
Perhaps this concept is too finely nuanced for you to grasp.
You do not know whether Alex will return to Twitter--perhaps he doesn't know. Maybe by the time this lawsuit gets through the courts there will be another platform.
And I believe he's already proving that he stands for something.
There is an illusion on Twitter that there are two sides in an argument and they are having it on social media. Not really. There is the Twitter approves side and the Twitter disapproves side.
The supposed good guys only seem to mind when people like Trump and Berenson get banned from the platform until the tweets scroll, about a day or two. Then "our side" tries to gather a flock to mass migrate to some other platform.
If would think the NWO is ecstatic that millions of people are content to chat among themselves about the planet and not bothering them.
There is something very cynical from every side going on there.
The hardest working AG in the country! I'm happy to be paying this man's salary! They're also suing the CDC over masks as of a couple weeks ago, thanks to the wonderful state of Texas.
And protecting children from their whack-o parents who think it's OK to mutilate kids who claim to be something called "trans." These kids need mental health care.
What's interesting to me is that now the Federal government including Vivek Murthy, are going to decide what is misinformation. So it's bigger than Twitter. If this power is given to the government then we are screwed. Who do we sue for that?
Sadly nobody I can think of. This is why I fear civil war due to the increased 'state sponsored' truth. To make it worse, the swamp rats and technocrats get promoted so long as they follow orders.
Money. Money. Money. Follow the freakin' money. Despicable RINOs pretending to talk tough about Big Tech, are taking flithy Big Tech money with one hand while crossing their fingers with the other. Seems to me term limits while not a panacea, would certainly help this unfortunate situation. If they're not running again, they don't need money. No? Yes?
Of course they can always take actual bribes, but people go to PRISON for such things. Well not Liberals of course. But everyone else.
That's the problem. So many people enter politics without thinking of where they will look for money. They have no plan on who to turn to, so they end up seeing the big checks from the technocrats and turn to the Dark Side. The RINOs are the worst. Thankfully Trump exposed most of them, while the remaining ones are exposing themselves clamoring for WWIII with Russia.
I'd love to see someone in congress get a major check from the technocrats, then publically use the money to go after them. What will the technocrats do? Complain that their bribe didn't work?
Here is the biggest empirical-historical evidence on term limits so far, which term limits promotors refuse to face:
Californians adopted term limits in 1990, 32 years ago. Anyone in office at the time is long gone. It actually made things far worse, threw the babies out with the bath water, refilled the tub with even more corrupt water, rapidly accelerated the "reconquista" and transformation into Calizuela.
There is no formulaic substitute for voters doing their job.
I have no doubt you're reporting accurately. But honestly, I do not believe the voters are capable of doing the job. So where does that leave us? Perhaps one problem is we're paying these people too much. Then they get in, and there are all the usual temptations to get rich. Here's a novel idea: How about getting rid of lobbyists? Seems to me that would have to be a step in the right direction.
It's the exact opposite. They are paid too little and it makes taking bribes very tempting. People forget that they have to have two houses, one in Washington and Washington is expensive. And that they are hobnobbing with wealthy people and want to belong, so it costs more to "measure up".
It's easy to not have sympathy for that. But I think we have to allow for human weakness and try to make it easier for them not to fall. Considering how much government waste there is, we'd probably save so much as a country by paying enough to attract the best people (think of how much executives get paid) and have them work for US rather than special interests groups and companies who pad their wallets.
If voters can't do their job, nothing can except firepower. The "2A" option is a desperate last resort and probably wouldn't work against the modern "security" state and various standing armies, actual & de facto, which the framers warned against and the people foolishly ignored the warnings.
I don't think artificial entities like corporations should be allowed to lobby. Not even non-profits, many of which, like the B&M Gates Pfoundation, are quite evil and are really for-profits. Only people should be allowed to lobby, on a volunteer basis. But that's a pipe dream.
The delusional mannequin in the white house if he had his way we would like to Russia with only Elite Media from People like David Frum The People in Russia right now don't even know that Putin is invading Ukraine. This is how Uncle Joey wants it here in America.
I highly doubt below average Joe knows what is going on. It's his handlers who are making the calls. Though you are correct, they want to make the US like red China, where everyone has a social credit system to monitor their loyalty.
Edit: Frum et al want to start WWIII to salvage their 'reputation' and their egos. Send them to the front lines in Ukraine with pea shooters and see how long they last.
Yup. Me too. AT&T might have been "split up" but they still exist and, post split-up, they've gone from being an "OK" company to a horrible one in their services.
Way to go Ken Paxton! Sadly, stalking horse spoilers like Gohmert have forced him into a runoff with a member of the corrupt global neo"con" Bush crime family. Please donate to Paxton's campaign. Last thing we need is a viable Bush to resuscitate the franchise. 🤢🤮
Ken Paxton Campaign, P.O. Box 3476 McKinney, Texas 75070; KenPaxton.com
Send checks; don't use WinRed (controlled by Romney) or 4% goes to elect corrupt RINOs & neo'cons' +fee to Woke Visa/MC/etc. 100% of check goes to your candidate. Banks cover online check postage. Put "OwnMoney,Over18,USCitizen,Retired" in memo. <=$70 not singled out for disclosure in TX.
WinRed is useless. Definitely send direct to candidates.
Sad to see Gohmert go there. Bush is a joke for a lawyer, most people would not hire him to represent them in court, let alone the entire state of Texas.
I don't use FaceBook and Twitter. I refuse to do so. These companies are the enemy of the state and they are aligned with the far-left Democrat party. They censor things that make Biden look bad, make Covid look treatable, and make vaccines look bad. They threw Trump off of twitter for what??? For being a conservative. These people in Big Tech, Hollywood, the mainstream media, and academia really have no respect for conservatives and therefore, I will take my business elsewhere. In addition to ridding my life of FB and Twitter, I do not watch mainstream media, I don't watch SNL, late night shows, and most of the trash hollywood puts out. If I were to see a "celebrity" I could care less. I have no respect for these people as I do not approve of their behavior.
The best thing I did in the last two years was permanently delete my FB account. I also had a very inactive Twitter account and permanently deactivated that. Unfortunately before that I found out half my high school class hates me and all conservatives, and how many of my acquaintances were sheep willing to obey and repeat the fascists.
Twitter's recent implementation of the downvote, which likely allows its users to have input into the algorithm that makes a tweet less accessible, may have been done in anticipation of such a ruling. Allows Twitter to strengthen echo chambers while alleviating it of its perceived editorial responsibilities.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼‼️....and, Alex... have you heard about Facebook’s recent mail out to only CERTAIN users, not all? I received an e-mail from FB stating I am REQUIRED to get Facebook Protect (2auth + more) within 15 days or booted off FB. Supposedly under the guise that this step will protect ME from hackers. Not ALL users received this notice. Supposedly FB Protect is for Group ADmins, politicians, etc., But!!! I am just a retired Catholic school teacher - insignificant being! What’s up with this?!? I fear getting the Protect, for perhaps it’s setting up blocking of communication - sharing - by conservative. I am not an activist. However, I DO express (appropriately) my views. Mission creep this thing. I’m waiting for my turn to join Truth Social. If it takes forever, I will wait for TRUTH. I wish you luck vs Twitter birdbrain
I fear it has something to do with the US trucker protests. Sadly, the technocrats and swamp rats in DC don't realize that this is the US, not Canada, and trying to use the same tactics would result in a civil war. That is the last thing anyone needs, yet the urban elite are oblivious to it. To them, we are just 0s and 1s.
I hope you are right about being paranoid. I just don't see things ending well when the thought police are dispatched to the Applications and Rockies to tell people that their social media accounts were used to fund 'extremist' truckers.
Until our government has the balls to breakup the anti-trust leftist coalition of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, they will continue to censor viewpoints they don't like, either overtly or by shadow banning. How many times have they been caught already? How obvious and egregious was the Twitter/Hunter laptop action shutting down the NY Post for two weeks? Are we to believe all these 'mistakes' are always at the expense of conservative speech?
YOU WILL WIN ALEX! BE sure to have your attorneys ask for Punitive damages as well as anguish/pain/suffering/emotional suffering etc. Your status as the newest multi-millionaire is nearly assured now! Congrats!
It's ridiculous to pretend Fauci and the administration passively watched when Twitter decided to kick Berenson off. Twitter was just following orders.
I haven’t done social media because it is unthinkable to me to have private conversations not only eaves dropped on but supervised under the threat of being cut off from my connections if I don’t indirectly parrot my conversations to the stalker’s approval. How outrageous! At least they are getting done and it’s most overdue.
I hate twitter, Facebook and now Instagram. I cannot stand the pick and choose censorship and banning. I am disgusted by them.
Let me just add, I used to be on instagram, with and only sewing groups, sharing stuff. There was no politics, Some sewists did delve into politics, I did not. I was there for the sewing and enthusiasm.
Well, somehow... I had a facebook account made many years ago that I rarely used. I had some "friends" and my ornery ,nasty, really, brother, so I never went to FB but those two accounts were connected. (??) So, one day last November, I was sent an email that my facebook account had been suspended due to violations I committed. I was never on there, so I could not figure out what that meant. I tried several times to communicate with them, and alas, gave up. Sadly, my instagram account was also deleted. I was crushed for a day or two.
Even a broke clock is right 2x a day…what!?!? the 9th Circus Court actually got something right!!!?!?!!…I read somewhere where they’re turned over by SCOTUS something like 70-80% of the time at one point. Bonus is they get to cite themselves when ruling on Alex B Vs little crap bird. Looks like that RasPUTIN wanna be former CEO bailed in time to go find himself or, better, just get lost, before he becomes victim to his own bird droppings. Got me a bird right here for the little bird, exciting news Alex and for all the 1A fans still left.
Oh my, the lil Bird is exposed here at least in Texas. Very interesting report, thank you Alex and this only a day after I saw my permanent ban at Twatter lifted. A long story but I kept sending appeals pointing out their "apology" for suspending my account never followed with the actual restoration. I remarked about their publishing platform censorship. It hit home with someone there.
They didn't apologize because they aren't sorry. You cannot shame those who have no shame. The only thing they regret is that they were caught and had to un-ban you.
It’s Lent which is a time for self discipline. Whether you are religious or not, give up all social media for the next 6 weeks. You’ll be happier! This does not include Substack. Lol!
Excellent. I'm glad their little stunt backfired. The technocrats not only censor us, but invade our privacy with every online interaction. It's about time they are taken to task. I hope not only the Texas lawsuit but your own succeed as well, and for as much money as possible, as that's the only place the technocrats feel pain--in the pocketbook.
Now if only someone would propose a datamining tax to cripple them...it'd be rich to hear them squawk about being being forced to pay for invading people's privacy.
I don't understand. The tech oligarchs, corps like PayPal and banks are practicing view point discrimination and suppressing free speech, free association. and a number of other constitutionally guaranteed freedoms which none of the woketopians, left wing activists judges or nearly the entire Democrat Party establishment, and the entire illegitimate Biden faux adminstrartion, with the exception of two, Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, seems to care a hoot about. They should be sued and jailed on that basis alone.
Although we don't have truth in advertising any longer, when a company sells in essence a "free speech" product , you think there might be some applicable regulations that it actually delivers free speech.
Kinda like when a presidential candidate runs on a campaign of unity, moderate platform, no vax mandates, you think there might be some requirement for him to (at least) not do the exact opposite. Let's Go Brandon!
I'm a firm believer that the answer to every problem has been covered in an episode of Star Trek.
This problem is covered in the episode entitled I, Mudd. In it Spok utters these immortal words: "Logic is tweeting bird in meadow, Logic is wreath of pretty flowers, which smells bad!"
The reference to twitter and its imminent burial is obvious.
That last statement--"Which is-checks notes-the same circuit..." Yeah. That one made me laugh out loud! You are so delightfully sarcastic, Alex Berenson! Thank you for pushing this issue so hard! You're doing everyone a great service :) My prayers are with you, and a truly hope you and your lawyers DO find out about it ;)
The problem is these social media sites are fulfilling their goals of getting a group together of like unthinking people that they control with the content. The group is more than willing to accept that control, it's more convenient, it's less work. Like the train of thought, where if you "feel" about a subject, that is easier and more comforting than actually spending the energy to investigate the facts. Don't leave the circle/cult that produced the woke idea. Your lack of purity outside the group will be your downfall. They reinforce each other's neurosis, and the spin gets more energy to continue.
There's gonna be quite a few SoyBoys and Purple Hair She/Hims that will be really pissed when you put them out of their misery...not to mention 99% of Hollywood.
I'm not even a high profile person and I deleted my "shitter" account a couple of years ago. I found Telegram to at least a little more user friendly. Good to see that not all of the judiciary is bought off............
Not that this matters but how about we pause for a little minute and read this:
Another of those fake news that turns out to be true:
2012
"The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on the American public, reports Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed."
The amendment — proposed by .. — would effectively nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at influencing U.S. public opinion."
Alex, I remember the harassment you had to endure for posting the truth on Twitter and in your Unreported Truths booklets. It is still painful for me to think about the way that NYC charity treated you after you had donated to them for decades. So I admit I have a big, broad grin when reading this story and thinking about your possible monetary award from your lawsuit. If it goes in your favor, I expect I’ll be walking around smiling for weeks.
The ironic part is that if Twatter was forced either to actually act as a free speech platform or moderate its content in a neutral manner, it would completely collapse any market value for Truth Social and force Trump to decide if he wanted to be President again or take a long shot on cashing in on a technologically inferior alt platform.
Bye bye birdie. The sooner Twitter TitkTok and Facebook go away, the better for humanity.
The sooner all Social Media goes bye bye...the better for humanity....There's a whole world outside of our devices waiting to be re-discovered.
I hate to say it but you’re 100% right
Fundamentally, Twitter's problem is that it lures users with the promise of being a "free speech" platform. But the reality is that it's a curated, left-wing opinion platform. Those are two very different things. Hopefully Berenson's suit makes this obvious to all and sundry.
Social control has been effectively exercised and developed LONG before twitter and co. came around. This is just the latest rendering of the same concepts. It is not going to go away. History has demonstrated that with clarity. If anything, it may be locked in beyond recovery now. Check out the beginnings of all this on YouTube. A BBC series called "Century of the Self". Four programs that map out how this has progressed since the early 1900's. A guy named Ed Bernays kicked it all off. The socials have just perfected it to a scary level as illustrated in the more recent "The Social Dilemma" (Netflix). My view is the game is over already. It has been over for some time now. This is all so entrenched now that they are not really even afraid to show it, so many of us have begun to understand just how deep the threat is now that it is too late.
Wait til people find out that the vax pass is just a pathway to getting what you say on social media connected to your bank account. Getting kicked off Twitter is one thing, getting frozen out of the monetary system quite another. They really do want the power to do that. To all who say, "But they wouldn't do that!" they just did - in Canada.
You give up too easily. The social networks are able to get away with their nonsense because of Section 230 protection. Remove that and then these companies will be reduced to veritable ash by defamation lawsuits. We just need to elect politicians who have the will and the persistence to keep going. Now I do realize that last part is easier said than done, but as public sentiment shifts (and there are more and more people waking up to the fact that these social nets need to be reined in) so will the attitudes of the politicians who are beholden to their electorate.
If I believed that the politicians were truly beholden to their constituents, I might agree with you. I don't believe that is the case for some time now. They are beholden to their party and to their megadonors. I also think that there is little actual difference between the two parties (the UniParty). They are moving forward with an agenda that does not involve what I may be concerned about in the least. The censorship is just one more recent and glaring issue with the socials. Legions of young people are controlled by social media without even realizing it and most of them have no earthly clue what Section 230 protection is, let alone feeling any inclination to rein anyone in. Hundreds of millions have forfeit their privacy and deferred all control to the socials... willingly.
There is scientific research to back up what you say. The study looked at thousands of pieces of legislation, who supported or opposed, and the outcome. They found that the oligarchs and megadonors got what they wanted nearly 100% of the time, and if the people wanted something the oligarchs didn't, the people nearly always lost. The study covered a long enough period so that any differences between party-in-control were evened out - UniParty, indeed.
Yeah, just like...take away vaxx immunity from PHARMA and all of the bullshit ends.
The trouble is, like our feckless politicians, we choose to keep the socials around. We vote with our keyboard.
How about the Amish? They knew it all along, from the Scriptures, no less.
Could you expand on that?
Not to use no stinking technology, and trust in God, what else? Unlike us, the English.
I think the biggest lesson to learn from Amish is not to trust in govt and be as least dependent on govt as possible.
Their salvation doctrine tends to be mix of believing and works. I hope they are saved becuz Bible teaches that salvation is 100% about believing and is a free gift and God can't be a liar and take it away.
I grew up in Amish country. Good people but there's no Shangri la on earth.
These are the battle lines for the hearts and minds of humanity, whether you like it or not.
As much as I agree, I also have to oppose this idea.
For better or worse (probably worse in the whole) society - whether our mega cities or our smaller towns, has become more complicated, probably just due to the number of people, activities; and traditional forms of news and info dissemination is disappearing (our local newspaper, is but a leftist shell of its former self). Fewer people attend Church/synagogue/temple than anytime before so their means of staying in touch have to change (mind you, I’d prefer they stick to the thried and true - we still have empty seats on Sunday mornings, tho 2nd service I hear is kind’a full.
Anyway, my point being, that the social apps/sites are now a part of our culture and probably will remain so; what needs to change is their involvement in content moderation - for better or worse, people have the right to chose with whom they associate, what news/info is important to them, and it is not up to a 3rd party to decide the elements of those two. Likewise, the algorithms used to fill news feeds need to/must be content neutral other than the algorithms the user him/her-self puts in place. If you only want NYT, WaPo, or other leftist sources that’s up to you, likewise if all I want is the latest and greatest from WWE & Shooter’s Digest, that’s my choice.
But, if fauxbook and/or tweetie want my eyeballs, then they had better not get between me and what I want to see. But, because they do, my eyeballs don’t see fauxbook and tweetie.
GodBlessAmerica
Every person and business in America can be sued, with very few exceptions. The ones that come immediately to mind are vaccine manufacturers and internet platforms.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act created a carve-out for internet platforms in 1996 to promote the growth of the internet. They have grown beyond what anyone could have imagined, and are now the richest, most powerful companies in history.
Why, since they're so rich, do they STILL need special protections from being sued?
I used to be a free-marketer, just like you. I now realize how naive I was. It's not just "Don't like Twitter, then start your own company." These big tech companies have what are essentially monopolies. And they collude to keep new entrants out. The case of Parler was typical. They were prevented by Amazon web services from renting server space, and effectively blocked from growing their business. To start a competitor to Twitter, you have to do it without banks, and software developers, and any other business that is beholden to Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Apple...
Just try living you life for a day without crossing paths with one of those behemoths.
They should be subject to being sued, like everybody else.
Like all the rest of us.
They can afford any and all lawsuits. They would welcome the elimination of Section 230, because it would make competition very difficult. They need to be broken up. Give upstarts several years of Sec.230 protection. The main thing to correct their power, designate them as a platform, with zero editorial rights, period. Just like the telephone company can't interrupt your conversation and tell you, you can't say "that"! Only allow pseudonyms to be used on private paid special interest sites, like this one!
I agree with you up until your last sentence. Protecting anonymity is crucial to fostering open dialog. I know of many people who would like to be more outspoken online using their given name, but they are keenly aware of the fact that we live in a day and age where radical leftists will work tirelessly (seeing as how so many of them are unemployed losers with far too much free time on their hands) to have someone fired for merely espousing unpopular (in lefty circles) opinions. Do I need to point out the irony that you yourself are posting here under a pseudonym? So you should get to enjoy anonymity to speak your mind freely online, but the rest of us be damned?
I agree with you. I have struggled with that part, the irony! So, I guess the only solution is the anti-trust route. Our government allowed these bullies to become giants by eating up the competition. One business plan in Silicone Valley....not far from my abode...is to develop a unique idea and start-up, with the goal being to have the Big Guys buy them out. There are many, many greedy folks who are semi-rich now, having followed that strategy.
What's sad, if they had actually been able to compete who knows where we would be in the refinement of technology!
Free Speech is the Foundation of Democracy. The Magna Carter,
Ten Commandments etc and the Constitution. Sovereign Rights.
Take the word ‘Social’ in all the Social Engineers’ platforms, lexicology, politics and media and replace it with the word ‘Slave’ to truly understand the media’s message and ultimate goal.
"You will own nothing and you will like it." - Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum. You're absolutely right, Wally. That is indeed what they are going for. To reduce the masses to slaves. Why do you think Facebook is pushing their "meta" virtual reality platform so strongly? They see it as a perfect way to placate the masses while keeping us blind to what's truly happening around us. If they have their way none of us will enjoy property rights, yet the owners and largest shareholders will not only own tangible things like real estate... they'll own it ALL. The way the tech oligarchs see it is that this is their world: they're just allowing us to live in it.
These "people" need to be taken down before they grow anymore powerful than they already are. They are a clear and present danger to humanity as a whole. We need to start demanding that our elected leaders rein these authoritarian megalomaniacs in while there might still be a chance. A good start will be removing Section 230 protection for the mega socials and their subsidiaries. Section 230 should only apply to new and/or small companies, not behemoths like FB and "the little bird."
If good ol’ fashioned newspapers (who aren’t full of propaganda and tell the truth) existed, we definitely wouldn’t need social media. I agree social media is toxic…as are a good majority of people using those platforms. But we still benefit from being able to share information on a grander scale than word of mouth.
And if my Aunt had a pecker she'd be my Uncle. Look, I miss the days when the local paper was a big deal too, but reminiscing on good times of the past is not productive. Technology is here to stay regardless of how you or I feel about it. While we can't put the proverbial toothpaste back into the tube, what we CAN do is demand that our elected leaders and representatives enact legislation to rein in the nearly limitless power that evil "men" like Zuckerberg wield. This "man" almost singlehandedly changed the outcome of a presidential election with his "zuck bucks" and his massive soapbox. FB, Twitter, Google, all are here to stay, but that doesn't mean that their power should remain unchecked. We can and absolutely should put meaningful limits on what they can and cannot do. If we don't do it soon I fear it will be too late. Some would say it already is too late, but I prefer to live in a world where hope still exists, and to continue to try to rally others to the cause. It should start with reforming Section 230, but it can't end there.
They are not apt to go away, but they ought to be strictly scrutinized by the government of we the people instead of being permitted scot-free, to run amok all over our free speech rights despite being the largest public forums for political speech ever devised by mankind.
Ironic, considering yours is one of the first comments....on this social media platform.
😆 (I couldn’t tap the ❤️…seems to be a weird glitch with lower down threads)
Absolutely there is! The younger generations will be in shock but many need to learn (or relearn) social etiquette and communication and life beyond the devices and there apps.
We were all so much better off before social media. Especially teenagers.
For one thing, we had to TALK to each other.
Whatta concept!
As an 'older' millennial (born in 85), I spent the first half of my childhood actually playing outside. Everyone born since the mid 90s has been with computers or cell phones their entire lives. It's no wonder they all believe in 'group think' and 'safe spaces.'
1948, you had 3 channels, no clicker, dad told you what channel to turn the TV to as soon as you were old enough. He decided what you watched, Mom ruled during the day, soap operas. Dark Shadows was my Favorite. Got about an hour of cartoons when she was cooking supper. 1 landline you needed permission to use, 5 min limit. Be home by dark.
I can even remember looking at the “Test Pattern “ until the show started.
Yes ! the program did not start until 6 or so on regular days and on Wednesday the kid's program came on at 2 and stopped around 4, then the Test Pattern came back on with a terrifying buzz sound LOL thanks for reminiscing
Like
We didn't get a B/W TV until I was about 6, we did have the first color set on the block, dad was a Boilermaker in a large steel mill after his tours in the Philippines in WW2 under Gen. MacArthur. 5 major battles, last was The Rock Corregidor.
Like. Substack at it again.
Propaganda had not been approved to be broadcast and The Fairness Doctrine was still In effect. I remember groaning upon hearing each of these things taking place. We need to return to that place, and quick. The MSM lie with impunity and a portion of our citizenry are too dumb to realize it.
So true. All been dumbed by watching TV and social media. As to personal conversation, no one who has a smartphone seems to be able to talk anymore. And when they do, they cannot stop ! Last week someone came to visit, ate half a box of chocolates and talked for 2 hours non stop. I had a headache when they left and they will not be invited in again!
The truly scary part of that truth? The people who believe it are not all dumb.
Other than the Flintstones or the Jetsons, cartoon watching was confined to Saturday mornings.
The good old days. Your family must have been rich to have had a TV in 1948. My family got one in 1950. We weren't rich; my dad worked for Westinghouse and employees got great deals on appliances. Yes, Westinghouse used to be big in consumer appliances. Anyway, our entire neighborhood would visit frequently to watch our tv.
Boy, does THAT sound familiar! My dad also worked for Westinghouse, and pretty much every appliance in our house was from "dad's company".
My parents refrigerator lasted 35+ years til the mid 1980s.
Born in 1955, and we always had a TV. The big deal was when we got the dishwasher in 1967.
Be home by the time the street lights turned on.
Stephen, Gail, Paula, Bill, Quarantina, Susan, Renee, Ingrid, Rio, Evelyn--Thanks for the memories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKgUq5dziEk
Read this whole thread...it's hilarious! We sound like such a bunch of old farts.
LOVE IT!
Thank you for this link, such a wonderful experience.
Lived in the suburbs, no streetlights. Be home by dusk. This is fun!
Your family sounds a lot like mine. I still asked permission to turn the TV on during visits home after I was married. Yep, dad was the "decider"!
Which news report? Walter Cronkite or Huntley & Brinkley?
Cronkite. His distinctive voice was background to my childhood.
YUP!! A real tough life. (I'm 82).
wow you had a lot of TV time. As a child, born 1957, I was allowed to watch children's time on Wednesday afternoon, about 1 1/2 hours, and we watched the news and one program after that, to bed at 9. And when the lamp popped, had to wait till a new one was installed. Yes TV had lamps in the back then LOL
And when we were on that one landline, EVERYONE heard our conversations! :)
I even remember our phone number for that party line.
And the telephone exchanges (the first three numbers) were words + a number, then the four-digit phone number.
In Boston there were CApital, COpley, ANdrew.
The next town was JUstice.
My grandmother had a rotary-dial phone until 1987. My daughter was 5 years old and was MYSTIFIED by how it worked.
Me too! And every party line seemed to have one person who loved listening to everyone else's conversations.
We had a party line well into the 1980s.
No, our party line required us to pick up the phone and give the operator the number. We got a rotary dial phone when we got a private line and could then direct dial. No more operator assisted calls.
🎶 those were the days 🎶
Loved Dark Shadows!
One of my all time favorites. Showing my age, we had watch parties in our suite at college.
You always knew where your friends were because all of their bikes were parked outside someone’s house! Lol
YES!
Summer vacation: walk to the public library to borrow books on the school Summer Reading List. Then, book reports due on the first day of school.
Our county library Bookmobile visited the local shopping are every Wednesday. It was the highlight of the week!
Better off with out it. There is a magic world of music, art and many other rewarding satisfying creative pursuits out there. A happy and adventurous escape. No more shitter, 😱🤬@t face or plip plop etc. 😂👍
!!!
Same here. Even when temps were below zero. We would look for big snow drifts and shovel out a cave with our hands and sit inside it to get warm. We would be playing Red Light, Green Light, etc. till midnight. Rode our bikes everywhere because parents worked. Even summer school started being a thing we had to ride our bikes across town. What was a TV? Never inside to watch what little bit did show on the screen. When my best friend's parent put a window air conditioner in their dining room window for the really hot, humid part of summer we would sit there and play Euchre. Loved that game.
Ditto. Such great memories.
Kids today don't know what a Binder and a Pencil is or Penmanship either.
They also think "spell check" is infallible.
Don't get me started.
Wait. I shouldn't have written that. Spelling--like math--is systemic racism, and causes climate change.
You forgot to add islamophobia and transphobia. Spelling, math, actual history all cause the oppression olympics.
writing in cursive is a satanic rite, even if you're wearing a mask
HOw do they keep a dairy nowadays?
Rosie you crack me up!
Good God Girdie…..you’re on a roll today. WE ARE AMUSED!
I'm doing this so I can put off washing the kitchen floor.
OMG, YOU’re FUNNY with great wit.
LOL,LOL,LOL
Please get started and don't stop. And when your finished we'll have lunch.
OK--that's funny!
Seriously though: I'm so TIRED of hearing about "systemic racism" and "climate change" that I ridicule them whenever possible.
And the vice president makes three.
We need the humor when so much that we hold dear is in awful peril.
Haha 😂
Penmanship ship was removed because it helped the brain, synapses, intelligence.
I want to tell you a Personal story about my Mum she fills out everything in Penmanship when the people get the forms back they call 📞 My Mum on the Phone 📱 and say to my Mum that they cannot read anything she wrote on the form of Paper work. And all I hear from my Mother is how stupid people are and didn't anyone go to school 🏫
I better her penmanship is brilliant.
My parents have beautiful script.
Yep. Punctuation is a suggestion.
Love your Mum !!!
And cannot make change in their heads.
cursive is not taught in a lot of schools anymore, like civics
Sum Maybe More under say 35 Years of age don't know it or how to read it and this to me is sad and these People are disconnected.
Zaner-Bloser Manuscript and Cursive Courses used to be studied, practiced, and perfected by elementary school teachers in order to instruct the students correctly. Now…???
Gov Brownstain in Oregon says it’s racist, to learn anything.
Or to give grades.
We had a writing teacher, English teacher, you learned to diagram sentences, I learned to write big enough to fill a page. Tried to explain that to my now 41 yr old cramped writing son, he'd have fewer words to fill the page if he increased the size of his CRAMPED writing. Never learned.
I was an English major in college. Grammar was a required course. Oh, the joy of diagramming!!
CRT for all!!
they use a new version of the palm-er method
Cursive will soon be considered encryption just like a manual shift vehicle is a millennial anti-theft device.
That’s funny
They can no longer write! They don't know what pen and paper are for. We still had to write with pen and ink in school. Only at 12, we were allowed pens with fillings. No ballpoints at all!
Yes, ballpoints killed writing.
Or the difference between 'then' and 'than'
Or the proper use of I vs. ME.
When in doubt, I have to sound it out to make sure I've got it right.
Nothing wrong with that!
"Better to be p*ssed off then p*ssed on" was always my favorite example ;) "So you prefer to be angry prior to being urinated upon?" 😁🤣😂
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I grew up in the 80s. My childhood and teen years was WAY, WAY better than my kids childhood today.
I grew up in the seventies and mine was even better. Long term dumbing down plan; the results are what we're now living in.
I agree completely. As time moves on, more government, more karens, more ridiculous rules, safetyism, etc. The 70's were definitely better than the 80s. The 80's were better than the 90s and so on. But today's generation supremely is pathetic.
Play all day in the woods and then heard mom call from way off, time for supper. No cell phones (I hate the thing) and little rules as to playing. Good old times indeed.
We all sound like our parents, no matter the decade of our childhood.
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It really depends how you look at it. There are many things that my kids have that are better than the way I had it. There's a lot more to watch on TV, the video games are way better and don't require a trip to an arcade, you can listen to whatever music you want, instantly, for free. Their bicycles, scooters, and skateboards are electric and require no effort. If someone beats them up at school, there's an incident report. If someone calls them a racial epithet at school, there's an incident report and outrage by parents and administrators. Kids today are doted over. Everything is dangerous and kids are coddled and put in seatbelts and helmets to do everything short of jerking off. As bad as it was in the late 70s and 80s (my generation), we had a tremendous amount of unsupervised time without parents. I was a latch-key kid. No one checked my report card. If you got an F in school, that was your fault and the teachers didn't worry about criticism from parents. If you were called the N-word or chink or spic, that was just too bad for you. But it built character and you learned to deal with adversity. My nephew just joined corporate America and the millennials have learned how to weaponize HR for everything that causes them anguish.
Inane comment. Social media is here to stay, for better or worse. Let's focus on trying to reform it rather than sulking and dwelling in the past. Hey hey, ho ho! Section 230's got to go!
It's here to stay but that doesn't mean we have to fund facebook and twitter by giving them our eyeballs. There are alternatives to these places such as Gettr, rumble, and bitchute (among others). You don't have to be censored is the point.
Good news is that today’s teens call FB Grannybook. And they think Instagram is for old people. And Snapchat is boring. But TikTok (with very strong ties to CCP) they like. So we have a way to go ...
Just got a call from the Chinese embassy after writing this. LOL
Did you ask about the source of the wu-flu? Or bats?
Can't speak or understand Chinese!
Sure you can: Lo mein.
Whoopsie...
I get daily calls from someone speaking Chinese, which I don't. Have laughed at it, but now I'm beginning to wonder ...
I get robot calls in Spanish about once a week. Live in W. Pennsylvania. Started in January?
Mine have been going on for about five years, ever since we spent two weeks in China on a tour. They only show up on my cellphone, which is an extremely basic flip phone which I never even turned on when we were there. Very mysterious and a little disconcerting.
My 17 yo says her friends think Twitter is a “joke” they would never bother, but my almost 22 yo uses it a lot, but I see signs that she’s disengaging … there may be hope!
Imagine the compromising material the CCP will have on the future generation of politicians.
Just imagine what they've got on Sippy Cup Joe! Something tells me his eccentricities go beyond merely sniffing the hair of hapless youngsters. 🤬
exactly what I was thinking. Surprised they still have customers. In fact think about it, they blocked the president of the US. I did not like him, but I thought that was brutal. Bad for him he probably never read the constitution.
I don’t like Trumps personality at all! And don’t want him to run again. BUT what they did was wrong and the fact Democrats supported it tells me all I needed to know about them
Sometimes the guy with a personality you don't like is the best for the job. Biden is a likeable guy. So is Mitt Romney. Keep this in mind. America got rid of mean tweets and traded those tweets for a complete left-wing retard in the Oval Office. Dump the idea that the guy in charge needs to be likeable. Look at the top football coaches. Most of them are real a-holes, but they win games. Right now America is losing.
Joe Biden is not a likable guy.
I think he's a mean SOB. Notice his behavior when angered.
Mean as a snake... 🐍
Two things.
in the late 70's I was at Rehoboth Beach and met Jill before she married Joe. She is really stupid. She was sunburnt and looked like a little beach skank.
Second thing.
My hubby got some big fat award for saving the government a pile of money, so we were invited to this exclusive dinner of about 50 other award winners, spouses and there were of course plenty of leaching free stuff senators there.
It was very nice, and my hubbs deserved it really. he worked in defense acquisitions.
Anyway, Gropin' Joe was there, the senator. I was at the huge dessert table and he looked scary, big creepy smile.
His default setting.
There’s NOTHING likeable about Biden. Sadly he’s also a failure as a leader due to age-related Dementia. It’s difficult to believe we are allowing him to remain in the position of our Commander-in-Chief during such difficult times
Russia and China have just started. They’re not going to let this current weakness of America go by without taking full advantage
I don't like people who eat ice cream in front of me, and don't offer me any - especially the ones who sniff my hair without my permission
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Just ask Tara Reed.
Donald was a shock to our system. He wasn’t a DC politician. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone quite like him. True, Carter was a peanut farmer but we all know how that turned out! The thing about Trump is that he knows business and he likes to win - not just for himself - but for this country and its citizens. I like him warts and all.
Trump is a great American thru and thru. Pizz on all the sophisticated twits who feel he's too course and common. A lot of great Americans have come out of that mold.
I agree. It took a while, but I really did learn to appreciate and respect him when I saw the incredibly long list of things he'd managed to accomplish despite the Great Blue Tsunami of Hate (TM) that came his way 24/7/365 from the moment he won the election. I didn't agree with everything he did, but--99% of it was amazing.
I completely agree with your premise, but not with your first-listed example. A man who plagiarizes, lies, is financially corrupt, stands for nothing at all, and, to top it all off, is a coward is not 'likeable" -- not if that word is to retain any meaning at all.
You basically just described Joseph R. Biden. He plagiarized British politician Neil Kinnock word-for-word in a stump speech during his run for the 1988 presidential election, has left many breadcrumbs of his financial corruption "10% for the big guy," used to be besties with a KKK grand wizard (yet now is on board with wokeism), and got five draft deferments for asthma during Vietnam (despite being a lifeguard and a football player).
He was also a moving force (along with the Pantsuit) in getting mandatory sentencing passed in the mid-'90s. I was appalled by the law, knowing it would put loads of black teens behind bars for a long, long time, with hardened criminal psychopaths, to 'father' them, and teach them their ropes.
Two gens later it shows in the violence on our streets - helluva a job, Joe Joke, Killery et. al. !
I bet you like popcorn
I would vote for Donald Trump over and over if it meant we’d get rid of Joe Biden who I consider a DANGER to AMERICA
Trump is superior when it comes to being an effective leader. But I will probably never like his personality.
Amen !
Anyone in Michigan that knew of Mitch Romney as a kid and young man knew he was not likable, spoiled brat, and Anne's father was a real piece of work.
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Good points, begrudgingly noted.
I feel very similarly. I disliked his approach but loved what most of his policies did for the country. Although, after a single year of Uncle Joe I’d welcome back all the mean tweets for some common sense policies DeSantis 2024!
DeSantis has said outright that he isn't running. It's Trump or another term of the world's most demented leader.
I had not heard that. We had similar choices in 16 and 20. Why can't the R's nominate someone I can wholeheartedly support?
Or to put it another way, while Trump's manner can be sometimes a bit abrasive, he honored his campaign promises and made every effort to do what he said he was going to do. He was able to accomplish an incredibly long list despite all the forces arrayed against him, too.
We need to reward the people who follow through in politics; who do what they promise us they will do for us. And we need to disincentivize the other kind of politician: the smooth talking winning personality who has no desire to make any effort to properly represent the will of voters or to do right by our country.
Because good leadership really doesn't grow on trees.
Because...people aren't all like us, and they have different upbringing which instills different social cues than the ones that we're raised with and understand and resonate to.
Because...Trump knows things about how to use social media and other mediums of communication effectively to get his message across in ways that other professional politician Republicans fail miserably at all the time.
Because the professional politician Republican social class has been trained to LIE to us and say what we as voters want to hear and are willing to vote for while GIVING the worst of the Democrats everything they want on a silver platter. And we become part of the problem when we vote for them knowing that they're just going to turn right around and do this.
Because it makes the professional politicians good money to sell us out, so why would they do anything else if we don't provide them with very strong incentives NOT to do that? Voting for Trump and putting him back in office is a way to hold them accountable, as is voting out as many of the RINOs as possible and replacing them with elected officials who've worked in the private business sector and share our dislike of Big Government's corrupt and misbegotten ways.
Not if CPAC has its way.
Agree. You said it much better than I did ;-)
You don't like Trump's personality? So what? Were you planning on dating him? Having him over for dinner? Going to his house at Christmas? I'm guessing no. PLEASE, people, don't pick politicians based on their "personality"! Pick based on their stated and proven policies, because that is the only thing that should matter.
Right on Sister! ☮️💜☮️
Trump. The thing I like about him is that he was not a politician. He did not speak the "lingo" and of course that set the liberals off, making him out to be something like a dope.
One thing I have decided is that I really really hate politicians, and I do not think they are worthy of presidential positions everywhere or anywhere except lower such janitorial positions
That set liberals off…
And that set rinos off…
And that set establishment republicans off…
Yep - how do you know when a politician is lying? Every time he opens his mouth!
You vote based on personality? How old are you?
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Putin shut down Facebook in Russia and Why is Vladmir Putin's government still allowed on social media?
Why are the CCP still allowed on, why are the Mullahs still allowed on? Because the technocrats are lying hypocrites. Google helps them with their censorship in China. They are traitors.
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Only Trump isn't allowed on social media. Anything banned on social media needs a second look. Anything you see on the mainstream media or social media is all fakery, a show, a diversion, and a narrative spewed by political activism. Even Putin is a diversion away from the inflation, crime, and immigration atrocity that Biden has allowed this country to suffer with.
Biden and Putin are probably In this together.
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Because, as Trump righly pointed out..he is a smart man.
I agree on humanity, and hate social media, but my real concern is the 9th circuit? I feel like we are about to get played but I’m not sure how……….
Mick was in court for a double murder and the judge said, "You are charged with beating your wife to death with a shovel." A voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, "You bastard!"
The judge continued, "You are also charged with beating your daughter to death with a shovel." Again, the voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, "You ducking bastard!!!
The judge stopped, looked at the man in the back of the courtroom, and said, "Paddy, I can understand your anger and frustration at this crime, but I will not have any more of these outbursts
from you or I shall charge you with contempt! Now what is the problem?"
Paddy, at the back of the court stood up and responded, "For fifteen years I lived next door to that bastard and every time I asked to borrow a ducking shovel he said he didn't have one.
NCMom, you seem to have trust issues. I like that about you.
(I know! It doesn't pass the smell test.)
Agreed!
Twitter flew over the c00 c00's c00p and finally got a taste of it's own c00 c00 p00p.
Social control has been effectively exercised and developed LONG before twitter and co. came around. This is just the latest rendering of the same concepts. It is not going to go away. History has demonstrated that with clarity. If anything, it may be locked in beyond recovery now. Check out the beginnings of all this on YouTube. A BBC series called "Century of the Self". Four programs that map out how this has progressed since the early 1900's. A guy named Ed Bernays kicked it all off. The socials have just perfected it to a scary level as illustrated in the more recent "The Social Dilemma" (Netflix). My view is the game is over already. It has been over for some time now. This is all so entrenched now that they are not really even afraid to show it, so many of us have begun to understand just how deep the threat is now that it is too late.
If Alex ends up just going right back onto Twitter after all this is over then it will have all been one big joke. Which we know he's going to do. This is all about him being mad they cut into his profits, which I totally get. But then turning around after victory and using their platform again only empowers them and solidifies their monopoly. Do yourself and everyone else a favor Alex and just switch to a competitor's platform. Of course you'll get less traffic, but at least you'll prove you stand for something, even at a cost to you.
You just don't get it.
He wasn't being paid to post on Twitter. It's his reputation as a journalist. Twitter called him a liar, claimed his information was wrong, regardless that he was citing actual data that had been provided by agencies and authorities. It contradicted whatever the Official US Govt narrative was at the time.
Perhaps this concept is too finely nuanced for you to grasp.
You do not know whether Alex will return to Twitter--perhaps he doesn't know. Maybe by the time this lawsuit gets through the courts there will be another platform.
And I believe he's already proving that he stands for something.
There is an illusion on Twitter that there are two sides in an argument and they are having it on social media. Not really. There is the Twitter approves side and the Twitter disapproves side.
The supposed good guys only seem to mind when people like Trump and Berenson get banned from the platform until the tweets scroll, about a day or two. Then "our side" tries to gather a flock to mass migrate to some other platform.
If would think the NWO is ecstatic that millions of people are content to chat among themselves about the planet and not bothering them.
There is something very cynical from every side going on there.
Twitter and the Elite media try to control the Narrative like Putin does in Russia. We live in America not China Russia North Korea or Iran
I have been booted 4x. I'm done.
NEVER happen
Would someone please tell me who these entities are...never heard of them? Have zero relevance in reality in my world
The hardest working AG in the country! I'm happy to be paying this man's salary! They're also suing the CDC over masks as of a couple weeks ago, thanks to the wonderful state of Texas.
And protecting children from their whack-o parents who think it's OK to mutilate kids who claim to be something called "trans." These kids need mental health care.
OMG! Yes!
As do the parents. Probably more so.
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100%
Paxton has been awesome with at least 9 lawsuits against Biden so far.
Supremes should have taken up the Texas vs Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin complaint. No standing though which made zero sense.
I couldn't figure that out either. The best I could guess is that SCOTUS was nervous about the "court packing" threat.
Will he survive the run-off.
I think so.
Me too.
Couldn’t happen to finer folks.
Congratulations, Alex
Congratulations, humanity
What's interesting to me is that now the Federal government including Vivek Murthy, are going to decide what is misinformation. So it's bigger than Twitter. If this power is given to the government then we are screwed. Who do we sue for that?
Sadly nobody I can think of. This is why I fear civil war due to the increased 'state sponsored' truth. To make it worse, the swamp rats and technocrats get promoted so long as they follow orders.
I believe that is regulating speech. We sue the Surgeon General.
Let's do it!
“ And it’s in the Ninth Circuit.” A Portland a Oregon radio announcer always calls them the ninth Circus
The most liberal, wacky circuit there is and even they couldn't find a way to rescue tweetie bird.
Not as much as it used to be. IIRC, by 2019 or thereabouts, Trump appointed 7 new judges to the 9th….
It may still be Left-leaning (I’d have to look it up) but not like it used to be.
Thank goodness.
But, let’s talk about that DC Circuit
A bunch of hateful, sadistic traitors, all of whom must have no 7dea what the U.S. Constitution stands for.
When the left looses the 9th circuit, they've lost everything.
I hope they break the bird's neck.
Twitter has zero right picking winners and losers this is why we American citizens have a constitution here in America.
Sadly, nobody in Congress has the spine to tell them that.
Money. Money. Money. Follow the freakin' money. Despicable RINOs pretending to talk tough about Big Tech, are taking flithy Big Tech money with one hand while crossing their fingers with the other. Seems to me term limits while not a panacea, would certainly help this unfortunate situation. If they're not running again, they don't need money. No? Yes?
Of course they can always take actual bribes, but people go to PRISON for such things. Well not Liberals of course. But everyone else.
That's the problem. So many people enter politics without thinking of where they will look for money. They have no plan on who to turn to, so they end up seeing the big checks from the technocrats and turn to the Dark Side. The RINOs are the worst. Thankfully Trump exposed most of them, while the remaining ones are exposing themselves clamoring for WWIII with Russia.
I'd love to see someone in congress get a major check from the technocrats, then publically use the money to go after them. What will the technocrats do? Complain that their bribe didn't work?
Here is the biggest empirical-historical evidence on term limits so far, which term limits promotors refuse to face:
Californians adopted term limits in 1990, 32 years ago. Anyone in office at the time is long gone. It actually made things far worse, threw the babies out with the bath water, refilled the tub with even more corrupt water, rapidly accelerated the "reconquista" and transformation into Calizuela.
There is no formulaic substitute for voters doing their job.
I have no doubt you're reporting accurately. But honestly, I do not believe the voters are capable of doing the job. So where does that leave us? Perhaps one problem is we're paying these people too much. Then they get in, and there are all the usual temptations to get rich. Here's a novel idea: How about getting rid of lobbyists? Seems to me that would have to be a step in the right direction.
It's the exact opposite. They are paid too little and it makes taking bribes very tempting. People forget that they have to have two houses, one in Washington and Washington is expensive. And that they are hobnobbing with wealthy people and want to belong, so it costs more to "measure up".
It's easy to not have sympathy for that. But I think we have to allow for human weakness and try to make it easier for them not to fall. Considering how much government waste there is, we'd probably save so much as a country by paying enough to attract the best people (think of how much executives get paid) and have them work for US rather than special interests groups and companies who pad their wallets.
If voters can't do their job, nothing can except firepower. The "2A" option is a desperate last resort and probably wouldn't work against the modern "security" state and various standing armies, actual & de facto, which the framers warned against and the people foolishly ignored the warnings.
I don't think artificial entities like corporations should be allowed to lobby. Not even non-profits, many of which, like the B&M Gates Pfoundation, are quite evil and are really for-profits. Only people should be allowed to lobby, on a volunteer basis. But that's a pipe dream.
The delusional mannequin in the white house if he had his way we would like to Russia with only Elite Media from People like David Frum The People in Russia right now don't even know that Putin is invading Ukraine. This is how Uncle Joey wants it here in America.
I highly doubt below average Joe knows what is going on. It's his handlers who are making the calls. Though you are correct, they want to make the US like red China, where everyone has a social credit system to monitor their loyalty.
Edit: Frum et al want to start WWIII to salvage their 'reputation' and their egos. Send them to the front lines in Ukraine with pea shooters and see how long they last.
I dare say he mostly has just that.
I'm old enough to remember when the only telephone company was AT&T. Just sayin'.
...and a postage stamp cost 3 cents. ;->
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Yup. Me too. AT&T might have been "split up" but they still exist and, post split-up, they've gone from being an "OK" company to a horrible one in their services.
Woke af, too.
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Yup. Bell Telephone. Before AT&T.
Way to go Ken Paxton! Sadly, stalking horse spoilers like Gohmert have forced him into a runoff with a member of the corrupt global neo"con" Bush crime family. Please donate to Paxton's campaign. Last thing we need is a viable Bush to resuscitate the franchise. 🤢🤮
Ken Paxton Campaign, P.O. Box 3476 McKinney, Texas 75070; KenPaxton.com
Send checks; don't use WinRed (controlled by Romney) or 4% goes to elect corrupt RINOs & neo'cons' +fee to Woke Visa/MC/etc. 100% of check goes to your candidate. Banks cover online check postage. Put "OwnMoney,Over18,USCitizen,Retired" in memo. <=$70 not singled out for disclosure in TX.
Paxton is the only worthwhile lawyer in this whole country. When DeSantis is president, I certainly hope he elevates Ken to USAG.
I would add Aaron Siri, Robert Barnes, and Jeff Childers.
Thomas Renz?
That will be right after Trump's second term.
WinRed is useless. Definitely send direct to candidates.
Sad to see Gohmert go there. Bush is a joke for a lawyer, most people would not hire him to represent them in court, let alone the entire state of Texas.
I don't use FaceBook and Twitter. I refuse to do so. These companies are the enemy of the state and they are aligned with the far-left Democrat party. They censor things that make Biden look bad, make Covid look treatable, and make vaccines look bad. They threw Trump off of twitter for what??? For being a conservative. These people in Big Tech, Hollywood, the mainstream media, and academia really have no respect for conservatives and therefore, I will take my business elsewhere. In addition to ridding my life of FB and Twitter, I do not watch mainstream media, I don't watch SNL, late night shows, and most of the trash hollywood puts out. If I were to see a "celebrity" I could care less. I have no respect for these people as I do not approve of their behavior.
The best thing I did in the last two years was permanently delete my FB account. I also had a very inactive Twitter account and permanently deactivated that. Unfortunately before that I found out half my high school class hates me and all conservatives, and how many of my acquaintances were sheep willing to obey and repeat the fascists.
Me too with F/B. Got kicked off Twitter - don’t care - it’s the nastiest place on the Internet!
With friends like those, who needs enemies? Good riddance to them!
Same here. I have never used social media and am proud of it.
Twitter's recent implementation of the downvote, which likely allows its users to have input into the algorithm that makes a tweet less accessible, may have been done in anticipation of such a ruling. Allows Twitter to strengthen echo chambers while alleviating it of its perceived editorial responsibilities.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼‼️....and, Alex... have you heard about Facebook’s recent mail out to only CERTAIN users, not all? I received an e-mail from FB stating I am REQUIRED to get Facebook Protect (2auth + more) within 15 days or booted off FB. Supposedly under the guise that this step will protect ME from hackers. Not ALL users received this notice. Supposedly FB Protect is for Group ADmins, politicians, etc., But!!! I am just a retired Catholic school teacher - insignificant being! What’s up with this?!? I fear getting the Protect, for perhaps it’s setting up blocking of communication - sharing - by conservative. I am not an activist. However, I DO express (appropriately) my views. Mission creep this thing. I’m waiting for my turn to join Truth Social. If it takes forever, I will wait for TRUTH. I wish you luck vs Twitter birdbrain
I fear it has something to do with the US trucker protests. Sadly, the technocrats and swamp rats in DC don't realize that this is the US, not Canada, and trying to use the same tactics would result in a civil war. That is the last thing anyone needs, yet the urban elite are oblivious to it. To them, we are just 0s and 1s.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't me they aren't out to get you.
I hope you are right about being paranoid. I just don't see things ending well when the thought police are dispatched to the Applications and Rockies to tell people that their social media accounts were used to fund 'extremist' truckers.
You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you; and it's not a conspiracy theory if its obvious yo a casual observer.
Wow...that is indeed frightening.
Until our government has the balls to breakup the anti-trust leftist coalition of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, they will continue to censor viewpoints they don't like, either overtly or by shadow banning. How many times have they been caught already? How obvious and egregious was the Twitter/Hunter laptop action shutting down the NY Post for two weeks? Are we to believe all these 'mistakes' are always at the expense of conservative speech?
YOU WILL WIN ALEX! BE sure to have your attorneys ask for Punitive damages as well as anguish/pain/suffering/emotional suffering etc. Your status as the newest multi-millionaire is nearly assured now! Congrats!
I love reading & watching all the media coverage of these lawsuits…
Oh wait….nevermind.
😂
Be sure to thank Donald Trump for the conservative shift of the 9th circuit court.
It's ridiculous to pretend Fauci and the administration passively watched when Twitter decided to kick Berenson off. Twitter was just following orders.
Brandon and team definitely were not passively watching; they openly encouraged banning "misinformation".
sheesh, am I the only one who reads here who doesn't give a shit about Bitter?!
If that media site died tomorrow, I wouldn't even take a shit in its honor...
🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦 <5 bird rating> from the 9th circuit😵😵😲
Twitter is worse than worthless, and Facebook does more harm than good. Some other platforms, like TokTok, are probably even worse for society.
I haven’t done social media because it is unthinkable to me to have private conversations not only eaves dropped on but supervised under the threat of being cut off from my connections if I don’t indirectly parrot my conversations to the stalker’s approval. How outrageous! At least they are getting done and it’s most overdue.
I hate twitter, Facebook and now Instagram. I cannot stand the pick and choose censorship and banning. I am disgusted by them.
Let me just add, I used to be on instagram, with and only sewing groups, sharing stuff. There was no politics, Some sewists did delve into politics, I did not. I was there for the sewing and enthusiasm.
Well, somehow... I had a facebook account made many years ago that I rarely used. I had some "friends" and my ornery ,nasty, really, brother, so I never went to FB but those two accounts were connected. (??) So, one day last November, I was sent an email that my facebook account had been suspended due to violations I committed. I was never on there, so I could not figure out what that meant. I tried several times to communicate with them, and alas, gave up. Sadly, my instagram account was also deleted. I was crushed for a day or two.
I hate them.
Twitter just took down my almost 15 year account, @janamurray. Very glad to see them go into the bin of technocratic tyranny. We all need reparations!
Even a broke clock is right 2x a day…what!?!? the 9th Circus Court actually got something right!!!?!?!!…I read somewhere where they’re turned over by SCOTUS something like 70-80% of the time at one point. Bonus is they get to cite themselves when ruling on Alex B Vs little crap bird. Looks like that RasPUTIN wanna be former CEO bailed in time to go find himself or, better, just get lost, before he becomes victim to his own bird droppings. Got me a bird right here for the little bird, exciting news Alex and for all the 1A fans still left.
Oh my, the lil Bird is exposed here at least in Texas. Very interesting report, thank you Alex and this only a day after I saw my permanent ban at Twatter lifted. A long story but I kept sending appeals pointing out their "apology" for suspending my account never followed with the actual restoration. I remarked about their publishing platform censorship. It hit home with someone there.
Wear it as a badge of honor.
It was that last addition about "publishing platform censorship" I think that got their attention. That's dem dare legal words as they say in the biz.
They didn't apologize because they aren't sorry. You cannot shame those who have no shame. The only thing they regret is that they were caught and had to un-ban you.
It’s Lent which is a time for self discipline. Whether you are religious or not, give up all social media for the next 6 weeks. You’ll be happier! This does not include Substack. Lol!
I am proud to say I have never had a Facebook, twitter or Instagram account.
Excellent suggestion.
FJB & Fauci & Trudeau & Macron &
twitter.🤘🔥🤘🚂🇺🇸
You forgot the EU.
Excellent. I'm glad their little stunt backfired. The technocrats not only censor us, but invade our privacy with every online interaction. It's about time they are taken to task. I hope not only the Texas lawsuit but your own succeed as well, and for as much money as possible, as that's the only place the technocrats feel pain--in the pocketbook.
Now if only someone would propose a datamining tax to cripple them...it'd be rich to hear them squawk about being being forced to pay for invading people's privacy.
Why when it comes to Russia do you believe MSM..
Have you not seen the trend? If it gets blocked as misinformation..it's probably true and against the narrative.
You lose all credibility when you use the same sources you spent the last 2 years railing against.
Blocking western media and criminalizing disinformation..is the same thing the west did.
Why can't Russia do it. The west blocked doctors and politicians and the ex president 2 days after he was no longer president.
Because they didn't like what he was saying.
I don't understand. The tech oligarchs, corps like PayPal and banks are practicing view point discrimination and suppressing free speech, free association. and a number of other constitutionally guaranteed freedoms which none of the woketopians, left wing activists judges or nearly the entire Democrat Party establishment, and the entire illegitimate Biden faux adminstrartion, with the exception of two, Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, seems to care a hoot about. They should be sued and jailed on that basis alone.
Alex, you're lucky Trump fixed what was the "Ninth Circus." You owe him a fruit basket.
Although we don't have truth in advertising any longer, when a company sells in essence a "free speech" product , you think there might be some applicable regulations that it actually delivers free speech.
Kinda like when a presidential candidate runs on a campaign of unity, moderate platform, no vax mandates, you think there might be some requirement for him to (at least) not do the exact opposite. Let's Go Brandon!
Shoot Alex, you are talking more and more like a Republican....
Please please please analyze the just released Pfizer data. Your silence on it is super weird. Mortality rate 3 percent. 1250 dead out of 42,500
I'm a firm believer that the answer to every problem has been covered in an episode of Star Trek.
This problem is covered in the episode entitled I, Mudd. In it Spok utters these immortal words: "Logic is tweeting bird in meadow, Logic is wreath of pretty flowers, which smells bad!"
The reference to twitter and its imminent burial is obvious.
Cannot wait to see Goliath with a rock between its eyes !
Alex kick their ass please.
That last statement--"Which is-checks notes-the same circuit..." Yeah. That one made me laugh out loud! You are so delightfully sarcastic, Alex Berenson! Thank you for pushing this issue so hard! You're doing everyone a great service :) My prayers are with you, and a truly hope you and your lawyers DO find out about it ;)
The problem is these social media sites are fulfilling their goals of getting a group together of like unthinking people that they control with the content. The group is more than willing to accept that control, it's more convenient, it's less work. Like the train of thought, where if you "feel" about a subject, that is easier and more comforting than actually spending the energy to investigate the facts. Don't leave the circle/cult that produced the woke idea. Your lack of purity outside the group will be your downfall. They reinforce each other's neurosis, and the spin gets more energy to continue.
There's gonna be quite a few SoyBoys and Purple Hair She/Hims that will be really pissed when you put them out of their misery...not to mention 99% of Hollywood.
I'm not even a high profile person and I deleted my "shitter" account a couple of years ago. I found Telegram to at least a little more user friendly. Good to see that not all of the judiciary is bought off............
Truth Social can pick them up and on the back side and trash them!
Looking forward to Alex with egg on his face regarding Ivermectin. And all the monies his types got for avoiding it.
Not that this matters but how about we pause for a little minute and read this:
Another of those fake news that turns out to be true:
2012
"The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on the American public, reports Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed."
The amendment — proposed by .. — would effectively nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at influencing U.S. public opinion."
https://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5?op=1
God I love love you Alex Berenson!
Just take away their 230 protections and let us sue them into poverty.
Fuck the jews who run Twitter!
Fuck the antiSemites who run the Democrat party!!!…
Prediction: Alex's Twitter is restored within the next ten days.
Alex, I remember the harassment you had to endure for posting the truth on Twitter and in your Unreported Truths booklets. It is still painful for me to think about the way that NYC charity treated you after you had donated to them for decades. So I admit I have a big, broad grin when reading this story and thinking about your possible monetary award from your lawsuit. If it goes in your favor, I expect I’ll be walking around smiling for weeks.
Go Alex - knock the stuffing out of that bird!
The ironic part is that if Twatter was forced either to actually act as a free speech platform or moderate its content in a neutral manner, it would completely collapse any market value for Truth Social and force Trump to decide if he wanted to be President again or take a long shot on cashing in on a technologically inferior alt platform.