Monday, December 5, 2022

"SPECIAL DOSSIER: The Democrats’ Coup Against the First Amendment" collated and edited by Patrice Greanville and Robert Heilbrun

 

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SPECIAL DOSSIER: The Democrats’ Coup Against the First Amendment

Massive media complicity made it possible, but now things are beginning to unravel. Both wings of the ruling class seek a solution to the "overproduction crisis' which, by definition, is incurable.

December 4, 2022 31 minutes read
Note: It's ironic that Fox News (despite its many despicable programs) still has some corners (i.e., Tucker Carlson, etc.) where the truth can be heard, whereas the supposedly more "respectable" media, overwhelmingly liberal, have deserted the public en masse. Carlson, of course, like the rest of the hosts on Fox News, not to mention the rest of the mainstream media, often presents a deeply flawed picture of reality. Fox—mirroring Republican biases—is for example a "China-hating" network, while the so-called "liberal media" remain obsessively Russophobic. In this brawl, however, the liberal media are firmly covering up and propping up the censorship-friendly "WOKE imperialist" model of fascistoid corporatism in which the Democrats are heavily invested, leaving only Fox and its allies to offer a platform to those voices who oppose such a development. In sum, we are not endorsing Fox, nor the rightwing way of seeing reality, but in the current situation, it is a damn sight better and momentarily more honest than the War-addicted corporatist liberal "center".


1. First things first, The Taibbi thread: THE TWITTER FILES
A typical comment on this thread:


2.REMEMBER THE PRE-HISTORY OF THE CURRENT SCANDAL
It pays to refresh your mind on the "pre-history" of the current scandal, the role of the political class and media in the Russiagate hoax, which not only polluted the waters with Russia, making the Ukraine war inevitable, but has pushed the world to the brink of a completely unjustified nuclear clash. The report below was filed late in 2021. Readers may recall that the expensive and exhaustive Mueller investigation on Trump's alleged collusion with Moscow to influence the 2016 election (released in March 2019), and, in general, Russian meddling in US elections, was a "nothingburger", pretty much a fabrication pushed by the Democrats with the complicity of the MSM and the national security fraternity, especially the CIA and the FBI. The Big Lie of Russian "meddling" in our non-existent democracy is still floated with impunity on many platforms, its countless repetition having acquired, as intended, the veneer of self-evident truth. Unindicted felons like the entire DNC's leadershio, including the notorious Neocon Russophobe Adam Schiff, continue their malign work completely undisturbed.


 3. MANAGING THE MESS: SEEKING QUALIFIED HELP
Elon Musk hands over the radioactive "Twitter Files" to Matt Taibbi. This move is sagacious and prudent, considering that Musk is no match for the vile deviousness of the Establishment (i.e., the currently more powerful wing of the ruling class, to which Biden and the Democrats belong).


Matt Taibbi, tapped to share Elon Musk's 'Twitter Files' on Hunter Biden story, agreed to 'certain conditions'

Elon Musk outsourced the disseminating of Twitter documents to the prominent Substack journalist

Matt Taibbi, the Substack journalist who disseminated the so-called "Twitter Files" that shed light on the tech giant's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, told his readers he had to agree to "certain conditions" to receive the major scoop from Elon Musk.

In a note to "TK" readers published ahead of his viral Twitter thread, Taibbi wrote: "Very shortly, I’m going to begin posting a long thread of information on Twitter, at my account, @mtaibbi. This material is likely to get a lot of attention. I will absolutely understand if subscribers are angry that it is not appearing here on Substack first. I’d be angry, too."

"The last 96 hours have been among the most chaotic of my life… There’s a long story I hope to be able to tell soon, but can’t, not quite yet anyway," Taibbi wrote. "What I can say is that in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions."

He continued: "Those of you who’ve been here for years know how seriously I take my obligation to this site’s subscribers. On this one occasion, I’m going to have to simply ask you to trust me. As it happens, there may be a few more big surprises coming, and those will be here on Substack. And there will be room here to discuss this, too, in time."

Taibbi did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. 

ELON MUSK REVEALS WHAT LED TO TWITTER SUPPRESSING HUNTER BIDEN STORY IN 2020

Matt Taibbi penned a scathing Substack post headlined, "The Russiagate Whitewash Era Begins," which declares the liberal media knew exactly what they were doing by pushing the now-discredited Steele dossier.


The Russiagate Whitewash Era Begins

After the WMD mess, Judith Miller got the blame, while a long list of just-as-guilty media villains failed upward. Now, a nervous press is looking for Russiagate's fall guys

 

“There is an old saying in journalism: You’re only as good as your sources,” wrote Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, in a piece about the indictment of “Steele Dossier” source Igor DanchenkoThe latter is being set up to take the rap as the dirty Russian rat who hoodwinked poor civic-minded Christopher Steele, the FBI, and the entire American press corps into propping up the biggest hoax since the WMD affair.

After America invaded Iraq and failed to turn up weapons of mass destruction, the press went into CYA mode. Pundits who’d panted for war now cooked up a new narrative, that the WMD “mistake” had been caused by a combination of faulty intelligence, over-confident officials in the George W. Bush White House, and one New York Times writer named Judith Miller. Everyone else who so forcefully screwed the pooch on that story, from New Yorker editor David Remnick to New York columnist Jonathan Chait to current Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, emerged either unscathed, or draped in awards and promoted.

Now, the Russiagate tale many of those same people hyped is falling apart, and the industry is again building battlements to protect careers from a cascade of humiliating revelations. This time, a combination of Danchenko, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith, and perhaps a few organizations like McClatchy will be tossed out of the lifeboat. If you’re ever tempted to think there’s honor among thieves, check out this recent flurry of Russiagate finger-pointing.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE REST IS BEHIND A PAYWALL, VISIT AT YOUR DISCRETION.



After a lengthy delay following his big announcement, Elon Musk revealed he had outsourced his findings to Taibbi about what was behind Twitter's decision to censor the New York Post's bombshell reporting about Hunter Biden's laptop in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Twitter alleged the Post's story had violated its "hacked material" policy.

CBS VERIFIES HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, BECOMING LATEST NEWS OUTLET TO PIVOT AFTER DISMISSING SCANDAL IN 2020

Taibbi tweeted "there’s no evidence — that I've seen" that the federal government had a role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, but that "the decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role."

"'They just freelanced it,' is how one former employee characterized the decision. ‘Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it,’" Taibbi wrote. 

Vijaya Gadde, the former Chief Legal Officer at Twitter, had a "key role" in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, according to findings shared by Elon Musk. (REUTERS/ Mike Blake)

Taibbi then shared a screenshot of an exchange purportedly between Gadde, Twitter's former Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth and former Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy, who wrote, "I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe… "

"… can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?" Twitter's former Vice President of Global Communications Brandon Borrman similarly asked at the time, according to a separate screenshot shared by Taibbi. 

FROM 'SMEAR CAMPAIGN' TO 'RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION,' LIBERAL MEDIA TEAMED UP TO DISMISS HUNTER BIDEN STORY

Twitter's former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker replied, "I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked," Taibbi's screenshot showed.

He added: "… it's reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted."

Taibbi teased: "There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more."

Elon Musk has wasted little time making his mark on Twitter since he took over last month. (Getty Images)

Musk had been vocal about being transparent regarding Twitter's past and present actions it takes when it comes to curating content on the platform, including censored content.

Twitter famously blocked its users from sharing the New York Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop in tweets and in direct messages. 

At the time, Twitter Safety alleged the articles were in violation of its "hacked materials policy." Twitter's then-CEO Jack Dorsey admitted his company's actions were a mistake. 

Many critics believe the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal by Big Tech and the media at large was enough to sway the election in favor of his father. 

4. Musk's rationale

Elon Musk reveals what led to Twitter suppressing Hunter Biden story in 2020

Musk released the revelations about Hunter Biden's laptop on Twitter through Substack journalist Matt Taibbi

Twitter owner Elon Musk released bombshell revelations about what led the tech giant to suppress the Hunter Biden story in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election. 

After a lengthy delay, Musk outsourced his findings to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi, who published a lengthy thread about what had transpired behind the scenes at Twitter. 

"Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly," Taibbi wrote. "By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: 'Handled.'"

Taibbi shared a screenshot of that October 2020 exchange featuring links to tweets Biden's team allegedly wanted taken down. Many of them were to tweets featuring pornographic images of Hunter Biden found in his laptop, according to Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Andrew Kerr. 

CBS VERIFIES HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, BECOMING LATEST NEWS OUTLET TO PIVOT AFTER DISMISSING SCANDAL IN 2020

"Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However…  This system wasn't balanced," Taibbi wrote. "It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right."

"The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives," the journalist teased. 

FROM 'SMEAR CAMPAIGN' TO 'RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION,' LIBERAL MEDIA TEAMED UP TO DISMISS HUNTER BIDEN STORY

He then quickly pivoted to the "Twitter Files" regarding the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story

Taibbi tweeted "there’s no evidence - that I've seen" that the federal government had a role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story but that "the decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role."

"'They just freelanced it,' is how one former employee characterized the decision. ‘Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it,’" Taibbi wrote. 

Taibbi then shared a screenshot of an exchange between Gadde, Twitter's former Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth and Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy, who wrote "I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe."

JAKE TAPPER DECLARES HUNTER BIDEN CLAIMS ‘TOO DISGUSTING' TO REPEAT ON CNN: ‘THE RIGHTWING IS GOING CRAZY’

"Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?" Twitter's former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman similarly asked at the time, according to a separate screenshot shared by Taibbi. 

Twitter's former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker replied, "I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked" but added "it's reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted.




Taibbi then revealed that Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna reached out to Gadde about the "backlash re speech," noting that Khanna "was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern."

Gadde responded to the California lawmaker by "diving into the weeds" of Twitter's policy, but Khanna warned Gadde "this seems [to be] a violation of the 1st Amendment principles." "I say this as a total Biden partisan and convinced that he didn't do anything wrong. But the story now has become more about censorship than relatively innocuous emails and it's becoming a bigger deal than it would have been," Khanna wrote. 

Taibbi's viral thread shed light on a report Twitter received from the research firm NetChoice "within a day" that allegedly polled at least "12 members of Congress- 9 Rs and 3 Democrats" about the backlash the tech giant was receiving on Capitol Hill at the time. NetChoice warned Twitter of a "blood bath" awaiting them in D.C. and that one figure from Capitol Hill compared its actions to "tech’s Access Hollywood moment."


Communications among Democratic lawmakers, based on NetChoice's report to Twitter allegedly seen by Taibbi, expressed that social media needed more moderation, saying "the First Amendment isn't absolute."

CNN BOSS, POLITICAL DIRECTOR SPIKED HUNTER BIDEN CONTROVERSY, AUDIOTAPES REVEAL: ‘WE’RE NOT GOING WITH' STORY

Taibbi stressed how seemingly unaware Dorsey was about various actions Twitter took that were decided without his knowledge, pointing to an email he sent to Gadde of an article Taibbi himself penned being critical of Twitter's actions.

"There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions, for accounts across the political spectrum," Taibbi tweeted.


Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, was apparently unaware of the policy actions his company was taking to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, according to Elon Musk's findings shared by journalist Matt Taibbi. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images). Nerdish tycoons really do not understand politics or are simply bored by it, preferring to entrust their class interests to the "national security apparatus", the disinformation machine, professional politicians and think-tankers.


Regarding the so-called "hack materials" policy Twitter kept citing at the time, Taibbi cited "several sources" who say that policy normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a 'whirlwind' 24-hour, company-wide mess."

Even actor James Woods was swept up in the Taibbi's Twitter thread, revealing that the Democratic National Committee had requested one of his tweets from October 2020 to be removed. Woods vowed to Fox News' Tucker Carlson that he will sue the DNC for its efforts to silence him. 

Taibbi concluded the thread, calling it a "whirlwind 96 hours for me" but teased that "There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more."

Musk himself teased "Episode 2 of The Twitter Files" will take place on Saturday as well as a "live Q&A."

Elon Musk has wasted little time making his mark on Twitter since he took over last month.

Musk had been vocal about being transparent when it comes to Twitter's past and present actions it takes when it comes to curating content on the platform, including censored content. 

Twitter famously blocked its users from sharing the New York Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop in tweets and in direct messages. 

At the time, Twitter Safety alleged that the articles were in violation of its "hacked materials policy." Twitter's then-CEO Jack Dorsey admitted his companies actions were a mistake. 

Many critics believe the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal by Big Tech and the media at large was enough to sway the election in favor of his father. 

5. The Democrat Mob Mobilises : Musk Starts to Catch the Liberal Backlash


Musk’s revelations on Twitter censoring Hunter Biden laptop story prompt liberal rage: ‘Hack stuff'

Democratic congressman Ted Lieu demanded Musk 'stop posting stupid s***'

Liberal pundits rushed to discredit a bombshell Twitter thread from Elon Musk and Substack journalist Matt Taibbi revealing the internal communications of Twitter employees and U.S. lawmakers surrounding the censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.

The revelations, dubbed the "Twitter Files," were posted on the social media platform Friday night by Taibbi at the behest of Musk, who provided emails and other documents showing the inner workings of how Twitter had engaged in censorship prior to the 2020 presidential elections, including quashing the Post’s story. 

Among the revelations was that Twitter staff had open channels with powerful third parties, including members of both political parties, so that they could flag tweets they deemed problematic and have them "handled." Taibbi asserted that because there were more liberals within Twitter, requests to throttle conservative accounts were fielded more.

CBS VERIFIES HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, BECOMING LATEST NEWS OUTLET TO PIVOT AFTER DISMISSING SCANDAL IN 2020


 


What, me worry?


Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi revealed the "Twitter Files" on Friday, a thread revealing the inner communications of Twitter employees and U.S. lawmakers surrounding the censorship of NY Post's Hunter Biden laptop story. 

Most notably were the documents Taibbi unveiled showing communications among high level Twitter employees who eventually agreed to emergency moderation measures to stop the spread of the Hunter Biden story, even though many of them were worried they had little justification to employ such measures.

One revealing email depicted former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth apparently claiming that though "the facts remain unclear" on whether the New York Post story could be stifled, he encouraged staff to muzzle it in light of the "lessons of 2016."

Though liberals on the platform did their best to downplay the information revealed in the "Files," with several of them resorting to attempts at bullying Taibbi and Musk.

"Pod Save America" podcast co-host and former Obama White House staffer Jon Favreau slammed Musk directly: "Elon is spending the evening trying to embarrass someone who’s struggled with addiction so that he can juice engagement on the platform he bought that’s hemorrhaging money. Great guy."


Liberal pundit Wajahat Ali took shots at Musk’s messenger, accusing him of "selling" his soul to the billionaire. Ali wrote, "Matt Taibbi...what sad, disgraceful downfall. I swear, kids, he did good work back in the day. Should be a cautionary tale for everyone. Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth. Well, he'll eat well for the rest of his life I guess. But is it worth it?"

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan completely sidestepped the content of Taibbi’s revelations, opting for ad hominem attacks. He tweeted, "Imagine volunteering to do online PR work for the world's richest man on a Friday night, in service of nakedly and cynically right-wing narratives, and then pretending you're speaking truth to power."

He added, "Oh, and doing it at the end of the same week that richest man alive unbanned a bunch of neo-Nazis on this website. But sure, the laptop! The laptop! The laptop!"

NBC News reporter Ben Collins blasted the thread, saying that Twitter’s employees were just doing "regular" work involving the laptop story. He tweeted, "These are regular people and private citizens doing regular comms work and asking good questions. Unbelievable hack stuff here."

Fellow NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny slammed one of the thread’s main arguments, tweeting, "To leap to political contributions as the reason the right was more often reported for rule breaking is just bad reasoning and really bad reporting. Good thing this guy doesn't have an editor."

JAKE TAPPER DECLARES HUNTER BIDEN CLAIMS ‘TOO DISGUSTING' TO REPEAT ON CNN: ‘THE RIGHTWING IS GOING CRAZY’

Liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast attempted to attack some of the revelations, specifically Musk’s claim that Twitter censored Hunter Biden’s laptop and prominent conservative accounts "under orders from the government."  Jong-Fast replied, "You know trump was president in 2020 so how is candidate biden the government?"

She also wrote, "2020 ‘government’ was president trump."

Atlantic writer Tom Nichols claimed to find the same weak point that Jong-Fast did, tweeting, "Hi. As a certified political scientist (sic), I can assure you that Joe Biden was not in charge of the US government in 2020. That was actually Donald Trump. Let me know if I can help with any questions."

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson produced a flippant response, tweeting, "Well, back to putting lights on Christmas trees and drinking champagne. Enjoy discussing Hunter's d*** pics."

Wilson also attacked Musk’s claims that if Twitter censored tweets at the Democratic Party’s request that’s a violation of the "First Amendment." He wrote, "God, you're embarrassing yourself on this one at scale."

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., went after that same point, tweeting, "Dear @elonmusk: I’m in the government and I order you to stop posting stupid shit. See why your post is wrong? Twitter can do whatever it wants as a private sector company when it comes to speech. And the Biden campaign team wasn’t the government. Trump was President in 2020.

Crooked Media editor-in-chief Brian Beutler accused Musk’s revelations of being a stunt done to "settle a political score." He tweeted, "Also: Musk has now seemingly leaked private third-party communications he inherited when he took control of Twitter, in order to settle a political score. I believe it’s the first instance of him doing the nightmare-scenario thing his critics warned he might."

Liberal commentator Brian Tyler Cohen attempted to dismantle the thread’s entire argument, tweeting, "So Twitter was acting under orders of the government except Biden wasn't POTUS in 2020. And it's a First Amendment violation except Twitter can't violate 1A as a private biz. And the takedown requests from team Biden were nudes against Twitter's TOS. But going great otherwise!"


Hunter Biden: A clumsy, errant son, or merely chip off the old block?


Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton joined 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss Elon Musk revealing key information on the platform's history of censorship. #FoxNews


6. THE CAREERIST PROSTITUTED MEDIA REFUSES TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION
On this critical issue, Tucker Carlson provides a desperately needed platform


Tucker Carlson Tonight

December 02, 2022
07:46
CLIP

Tucker Carlson: Twitter documents show 'systemic violation of the First Amendment'

Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacts to the bombshell report Elon Musk released about Twitter's censorship of the Hunter Biden story on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'


Glenn Greenwald: The National Security State is in bed with Big Tech

December 2, 2022

Journalist Glenn Greenwald says the tentacles of the U.S. Security State are in almost every single institution of authority in power on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'


7. WHY ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING


The origin of the crisis is deep in the DNA of capitalism, the very oxygen of the Western ruling elites, therefore non-negotiable and incurable.

If the public fails to understandCaleb Maupin digs up the actual causes of the global capitalist crisis, and why the US ruling class is in the midst of a big Bonapartist kerfuffle, with its two main wings pitted against each other, while the whole system (still controlled by Big Capital) is also seeking a war across the globe to suppress emerging international rivals. Regardless of the outcome, this does not bode well for most living things on this planet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE
This dossier was collated and edited by Patrice Greanville and Robert Heilbrun.


Sourc: The Greanville Post






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