WOW! Lot’s to cover in this review. Riots, Big-Tech, and Clinton-speak!
Riots
Riots continued in multiple locations this week. What? You only heard about one riot? Now, why do you think that is? I bet you heard that the Riot that followed a peaceful protest march was racist as well due to the mild police response! First, there were nightly riots in Portland and the surrounding area that began January 1st (https://nypost.com/2021/01/01/portland-kicks-off-2021-with-another-riot-for-the-new-year/) and continued in through January 7th (https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/01/portland-protest-declared-unlawful-wednesday-night-after-mob-storms-us-capitol.html). This is the same area that had 90 straight nights of rioting that began in May 2020. Let us also remember the CHOP that was set up in Seattle on June 8, 2020 and was not “cleared” until July 8, 2020. So, we have seen a lot of rioting over the last year and one thing is true about all of it and that is that it is illegal. Over the summer we saw the police stand back and let looting, arson and worse continue with no attempt to put an end to it. Hell, they abandoned their own vehicles and police station buildings and let them burn; CHOP was allowed to stand for a month. Contrasted with the riot in Washington, DC on January 6th, which involved fewer participants and was put down with a show of force in less than 3 hours. One unarmed protestor was shot dead at point blank range; over 60 people were arrested and NOT immediately released on their own recognizance (ROR) as took place in Portland; FBI is actively pursuing anyone identifiable in photos. I do not see any preferential treatment to those in DC, in fact, what seems extremely clear is that a serious effort was made to stop the riot that included the use of lethal force. The other big difference between the DC and summertime riots? Leaders on both sides of the aisle condemned the action. Even POTUS did less than 24 hours after it happened. When did any of the liberal/progressive democrats condemn the summertime riots? Some still have not. Yet Joe Biden and Kamala Harris put forth a false narrative that these rioters were treated better than those from the summer, which is an objective lie. Claims that there was no tear gas used, really? Real bullets were used instead; lawbreakers were arrested and no private property damaged. At least these rioters targeted the cause of their issue, not the Nike store or neighborhood gas station.
That, my friends, is why I think the politicians are so vocal and trying to really bury the overall cause of the DC riot. Unlike the summertime riots where the goal seemed to be to loot, pillage, and burn down their own neighborhoods, Wednesday’s rioters targeted the politicians who are 100% responsible for where we are as a country. For once, the conservative side is not just copying the liberal/progressives; they brought the riot to the ones’ responsible. This fact will never be mentioned in the media.
Big-Tech
The term “Big-Tech” has been bandied around like it includes a whole giant class of providers. This is a lie. Big-Tech, as referenced in media stories, is made up of FOUR companies, Apple, Alphabet/Google, Facebook, and Twitter, all of which are unified in their support for the liberal/progressive agenda. These four publicly held corporations control 95+% of systems of engagement available to the citizens of the USA. Your mobile phone that you use to communicate with others and access social media is most likely manufactured by Apple and utilizing Apple’s iOS software or manufactured by a company other than Apple and utilizes Google’s Android software. Your social media platforms of choice are most likely Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram and their proclivity for the liberal/progressive agenda and the censorship of all other views is well documented. Your ability to access these services, and ANY other social media platform is subject to them being allowed to be loaded on your phone. This privilege is controlled by Apple (via their App Store) and Google (via Google Play). If either of these corporations determine that any social media platform does not meet their terms of service, they can ban it from their store and therefore make it unavailable on your mobile device. That means Apple and Google can censor entire platforms that do not adhere to their corporate views. This is not good for the 1st Amendment and the free exchange of ideas and information.
The suppression of conservative views and information has been developing over the last 5 years. It began early in 2016, when Facebook and Twitter saw that Donald Trump had a real chance of winning the Republican nomination and was using their platforms to accomplish that goal. This was not anything they openly admitted, but that is when Facebook and Twitter suddenly got concerned about conservative content and their platforms being used by conservatives in the EXACT same ways they were being used to support the liberal/progressive agenda. Conservative information was being sent directly to supporters, bypassing any mainstream media spin or suppression and this was extremely successful in communicating events and positions to the grass-roots supporters. This was done by Barak Obama’s campaign very successfully in 2008 and 2012, but only became a problem when it was used by candidates with conservative views. Algorithms were developed that promoted posts based on the liberal/progressive agenda, and demoted posts based on the conservative agenda. This was justified by claims that promoting religious views were LGBTQ hate-speech. This becomes a common thread, that if something is not actively embraced, promoted, and supported, it is hate-speech against that topic/issue. This presumption is, of course, absolutely ridiculous, and void of fact and Facebook and Twitter knew that at the time, yet they continue to do that to this day. This fact alone is enough to justify that they be regulated in the same way ABC, NBC, CBS, and other “broadcasters” of controlled content are. If Facebook and Twitter are going to actively and non-uniformly regulate content (hate-speech from Iran and Louis Farrakhan are fine), there is no case of any type of protection from responsibility for everything published on their platforms.
The real danger is that recent statements against competing uncensored social media platforms such as Parler and MeWe, by Apple and Google threaten to remove these platforms from their respective application stores essentially making them unavailable to mobile users.
Clinton-speak
This refers to something Bill Clinton perfected during his two-terms as POTUS. It is simply repeating a substantial lie so often that the masses come to believe it as fact. How can that happen, you ask? Watch any of the statements by democrats after the DC riot last Wednesday. They will read a prepared statement that builds off statements that are not true and then present a conclusion based on those lies. They will never be questioned on it, and in the unlikely case they are, they will just repeat the lies as if they are fact. Not much to it, just be aware that it will be used to censor and silence all opposition early in this administration.