USA 2020 Elections: Thread

[Karl]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 6:25 PM grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recording this censorship event here, illustrating need for development
> and adoption of more distributed uncensorable platforms,
> so that people can freely think, speak, consider, subscribe,
> denounce, support, debate, leak, publish, etc... for themselves.
>

Hey I was distracted by being silly.

You propose projects a lot.  I am really passionate about distributed
uncensorable platforms, I'm aware of some needing dev work, and interested
in making new ones.  Do you have any interest in dev work?


>
>
>
> https://www.zerohedge.com/political/smoking-gun-emails-show-hunter-biden-introduced-vp-dad-burisma-executive
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20201014221628/https://www.zerohedge.com/political/smoking-gun-emails-show-hunter-biden-introduced-vp-dad-burisma-executive
>
> "
> Ted Cruz Accuses Twitter Of Meddling In 2020 Election By Censoring
> Hunter Biden Exposé
> Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
> by Tyler Durden
> Wed, 10/14/2020 - 16:57
>
> Update (1645ET): As the uproar over Twitter & Facebook's efforts to
> suppress Wednesday's New York Post exposè intensifies, Twitter has
> (begrudgingly, we imagine) made mention of the scandal in its trending
> topics.
>
> Ironically, Streisand Effect is trending nationally - that's a subtle
> reference to the principle of how trying to suppress information often
> accidentally causes it to spread.
>
> Several slots below that is #HunterBiden.
>
> Quietly backtracking suggests Twitter is beginning to regret its
> decision to censor the story.
>
> Meanwhile, as the mainstream media desperately tries to change the
> subject...
>
>     Billboard outside Des Moines airport where Trump holds Iowa rally
> tonight. pic.twitter.com/XHix45wzlw
>     — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 14, 2020
>
> ...Ted Cruz, coming in hot off his performance during the ACB hearings
> this week, tweeted a copy of a letter he recently sent to the CEO of
> Twitter, Jack Dorsey,
>
>     Facebook official spox (who describes himself as an alum of the
> DCCC & former Dem Sen. Barbara Boxer) explains Facebook’s active
> censorship of @nypost story alleging corruption by Biden.
>
>     Who could doubt their impartiality? https://t.co/GITjkeEJP4
>     — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 14, 2020
>
>     My letter to @jack regarding @Twitter’s censorship of the @nypost.
> pic.twitter.com/o3Ebkbqait
>     — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 14, 2020
>
> As Cruz argues in the letter, like myriad other newspaper reports
> published during the Trump era (too many to even begin to name here),
> the NYPost story was based on "leaked email correspondence". He adds
> that the decision to suppress the story was "hypocritical", given the
> company has allowed plenty of other less definitively sourced
> reporting to spread unchecked.
>
>     Twitter well-knows its incredible ability to influence public
> dialogue by promoting some stories while suppressing others, and it
> has plainly decided that the American people should not be seeing or
> discussing this particular story, which could significantly influence
> voters' views of candidate Biden.
>
> Cruz concluded that "this can only be seen as an obvious and
> transparent attempt by Twitter to influence the upcoming Presidential
> election," and demanded that the social media company turn over
> important details to the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
>
> The most important of the four question (the first three mostly cover
> the whos, wheres, whens, and hows) is the last one, which asks Twitter
> to cite a "neutral principle" which would explain why the reporting on
> the Steele dossier was allowed to go unquestioned, but this story,
> reported in the country's 4th-highest circulation newspaper, must be
> censored because it's "dangerous".
>
> Eric Weinstein seized the opportunity to make a great point.
>
>     I am deliberately posing here with actual “potentially harmful”
> objects found in my home. I still have minor in the house.
>
>     Please @jack, let me know if I‘m violating Twitter’s Terms of
> Service as understood by your trusted Partners.
>
>     I am so disappointed in you. This is *wrong*.
> pic.twitter.com/jqIXQtuNvC
>     — Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) October 14, 2020
>
> An editor at the Post accused Twitter of waging a "digital civil war"
> against conservatives, citing this as the latest evidence.
>
>     This is a Big Tech information coup. This is digital civil war.
>
>     I, an editor at The New York Post, one of the nation’s largest
> papers by circulation, can’t post one of our own stories that details
> corruption by a major-party presidential candidate, Biden.
> pic.twitter.com/BKNQmAG19H
>     — Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) October 14, 2020
>
> By censoring the NYPost story, Twitter and Facebook have effectively
> allowed what many would have written off as "just another crazy Hunter
> story" to take on a life of its own. Ironically, they've accomplished
> what they were purportedly trying to prevent: they've given the story
> even more oxygen.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1455ET): If you thought Twitter's censorship of the NYPost
> Hunter Biden exposé couldn't get anymore Orwellian, well, you were
> wrong.
>
> As if preventing users from sharing the link wasn't enough, the
> platform has now deleted the NYP's initial tweet.
>
>     Twitter deleted @nypost’s tweet about the Hunter Biden bombshell.
> This is election interference. We’ve entered the age where we have a
> "ministry of truth" run by Democrats and only they decide what’s true.
> They demand that you no longer believe your lying eyes & ears.
>
>     Chilling. pic.twitter.com/rl6oPZMv5V
>     — Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 14, 2020
>
> We imagine it did so after a flood of hysterical leftists smashed that
> "report tweet" button.
>
> Meanwhile, after the Biden campaign neglected to comment on the
> veracity of the emails shared in the NYPost expose, the White House
> pool reporter reported that the Biden campaign had called a "lid" -
> that is, an end to all in-person campaign-related events - before
> 10am, ensuring the former VP wouldn't have any prolonged in person
> contact with reporters on the same day the expose dropped.
>
> As we've explained in the past, a "lid" is essentially permission for
> the doting reporters covering Biden's campaign to head home for the
> day. His campaign's frequent use of the practice has drawn more
> unwanted attention to the cozy relationship between the Biden campaign
> and the Washington Press corp.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1430ET): Twitter is now apparently flagging this morning's NY
> Post report as "unsafe" and refusing to allow its users to share it.
>
>     This is what happens when I try to post our story exposing Biden
> family graft. pic.twitter.com/7pwxUoNgTX
>     — Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) October 14, 2020
>
>     Also pic.twitter.com/hyES7QWwCn
>     — 🍂 joe 🍂 (@BarnasJoe) October 14, 2020
>
> This is an escalation from earlier, when Twitter was merely prompting
> users to reconsider before sharing.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1405ET): While left-wing conspiracy theorists try to denounce
> the emails published by the NYP as fake, the Trump Campaign has just
> pointed out something very interesting in its latest comment on the
> issue.
>
>     🚨📩 INBOX —> @TeamTrump statement on Biden response to NY Post
> Bombshell:
>
>     “The Biden campaign does not dispute the authenticity of the
> emails published by the New York Post, which serves to confirm that
> they are real,” says @TimMurtaugh pic.twitter.com/2UScI1pQ45
>     — Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) October 14, 2020
>
> This medium post purporting to show that the emails were
> "photoshopped" has been making the rounds - unimpeded - on social
> media.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1310ET): In the social media contest to see which platforms
> can successfully suppress Wednesday's NYP Hunter Biden scoop, it looks
> like Twitter has taken the lead. In addition to scrubbing Hunter's
> name from its trending topics, Twitter is hitting users trying to
> retweet the story with one of their "are you sure?" prompts.
>
>     Twitter now too pic.twitter.com/TGTve2mXuC
>     — Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) October 14, 2020
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1255ET): Hours after the Trump Campaign earlier blasted the
> Biden Campaign's "blatant selling of access", team Biden has finally
> responded by asserting that the meeting between VP Biden and a top
> Burisma executive described in one of the leaked emails detailed below
> never took place.
>
> “We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no
> meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,” said
> campaign spokesman Andrew Bates in a statement.
>
>     New: Biden campaign responds to NY Post story. “The New York Post
> never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this
> story...moreover, we have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from
> the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took
> place.” pic.twitter.com/yB2N5mvsXb
>     — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 14, 2020
>
> The team also claimed that they were never approached by the reporters
> who published the story.
>
> To be sure, just because it wasn't on Biden's "official" schedule,
> doesn't mean it didn't happen.
>
>     The Biden campaign’s response to the NY Post story is that Biden’s
> meeting with the corrupt official of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company
> isn’t on Biden’s official schedule. No one was expecting it to be on
> his official schedule. https://t.co/Pog0xqtsF5
>     — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) October 14, 2020
>
> The Biden camp also claimed the NY Post did nothing to try and
> corroborate the "unverified" emails.
>
> Notably, the NY Post has shared one of the emails in full in a PDF
> document.
>
> 480001185 Email From Vadim Pozharskyi to Devon Archer and Hunter Biden
> by Zerohedge on Scribd
>
> Critics are calling for the Post to release metadata from the emails,
> or some other clue to verify the messages.
>
> Meanwhile, Trump Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh makes a good point.
>
> "The real question is, as of course this has been seized by the FBI
> since then, why has the FBI been sitting on this?" Murtaugh said,
> adding, "I would also further point out that no one seemed to care
> when someone committed an obvious federal crime by leaking the
> president’s tax documents to the New York Times."
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1150ET): More high-profile conservatives have lashed out at
> Facebook for censoring the story about Hunter Biden.
>
>     This is straight-up election interference by @Facebook, being
> announced by their comms person who touts in his bio numerous past
> jobs with Dems. Big Tech is openly trying to rig this election for
> Biden & should be held accountable immediately. @FCC @senjudiciary
> @SenateCommerce https://t.co/NO2eG6D6K0
>     — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 14, 2020
>
>     Holy bleeping bleep. Facebook explicitly admitting it is
> protecting Biden -- and interfering in the presidential election -- by
> censoring media outlets and limiting discussion of today's breaking
> news about Biden's engagement with Burisma. https://t.co/nF07qqyc5J
>     — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 14, 2020
>
>     Facebook is openly admitting its interference in a U.S.
> presidential election by blatantly censoring media outlets that print
> negative facts about their preferred presidential candidate, Joe
> Biden. Terrifying. https://t.co/nF07qqyc5J
>     — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 14, 2020
>
>     The most Pravda-like thing is that the immediate pushback by
> Biden's many allies in Big Media and Big Tech serve as confirmation of
> the story and how damaging it is to the Biden campaign. If it weren't
> true, they'd just say that, rather than censor its distribution.
>     — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 14, 2020
>
> Of course, Facebook isn't alone: Twitter is also keeping the story out
> of its trending topics menu.
>
>     Twitter clearly also part of Big Tech's presidential election
> interference and their censorship of the negative facts surrounding
> Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. https://t.co/2bGKIEv5K5
>     — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 14, 2020
>
> We're also seeing an avalanche of memes.
>
>     I had to... pic.twitter.com/lueR5wIm9X
>     — M3thods (@M2Madness) October 14, 2020
>
> While the hard drive has been turned over to the FBI, the Senate
> Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmed it's
> working with the computer repairman who initially discovered the hard
> drive to "verify" the documents. The repairman initially contacted the
> committee back in September, one day after it released the report on
> conflicts related to Hunter, per the NY Post.
>
> Some other revelations have been publicized from the email cache: In a
> follow-up piece, the NY Post revealed that Blue Star Strategies,
> identified by the NY Post as a "Democratic" PR firm, leaked the
> minutes of an administration conference call to Burisma executive
> Vadym Pozharskyi along with Hunter Biden and his former business
> partner Devon Archer.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1145ET): Rumor has it that one of the lewd videos mentioned
> earlier features Hunter Biden smoking crack and having sexual
> relations with an unidentified woman.
>
>     11. Allegedly, the laptop Hunter "forgot" to pick up also contains
> a 12 minute video of him smoking crack and having sex with an
> unidentified woman.
>     — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 14, 2020
>
> Truly legendary.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1115ET): In a surprising move to censor a mainstream media
> outlet known for leaning conservative, Facebook's platform managers
> have decided to actively suppress distribution of the latest Hunter
> Biden expose.
>
>     While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want
> be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's
> third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing
> its distribution on our platform.
>     — Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 14, 2020
>
> The Trump Campaign accused Stone and the company of actively
> interfering in the election.
>
>     This is a Facebook employee.
>
>     Facebook is actively interfering in the election.
>
>     Facebook is rigging the election for Joe Biden.
> https://t.co/mXGi2ay8J7 pic.twitter.com/PjtZaVPQ16
>     — Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) October 14, 2020
>
> Republicans and conservatives across Twitter and elsewhere also
> expressed their dismay at the decision.
>
> While CEO Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook has some
> obligation to censor or root out "misinformation", this story isn't
> what that is. Keep in mind, Facebook censored ZERO stories about the
> Russia investigation and its origins, even as some key elements of the
> NYT's early reporting were found to be false.
>
>     Facebook, as a matter of policy, is now censoring stories
> detailing documented corruption by Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.
>
>     At no point did Facebook ever seek to throttle the reach of any
> Russian-disinformation-fueled stories falsely alleging collusion.
> https://t.co/N8ktaqCn2J
>     — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 14, 2020
>
>     Twitter is censoring the president and shadow-banning
> conservatives, Facebook is blocking negative stories about Joe Biden
> and his crackhead son, and Google is kow-towing to communist China, in
> case you were wondering whether Big Tech is conspiring to steal the
> 2020 election.
>     — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 14, 2020
>
> To be sure, mainstream media are abiding with a near-blackout, just as
> we had anticipated.
>
>     Any time legacy media drops a supposed "bombshell" on Trump, it
> immediately hits the front pages.
>
>     Still waiting on NYT, WaPo, and CNN however to write anything on
> the @nypost's actual bombshell on Joe Biden lying about what he knew
> of his son's overseas business interests. pic.twitter.com/amcilH0cv0
>     — Tristan Justice (@JusticeTristan) October 14, 2020
>
> It's like veteran political journalist Matt Taibbi (hardly a
> conservative) has argued: best-case, enforcing "misinformation" is a
> laborious game of whack-a-mole. But right now, it's just simply
> opening the companies to accusations of bias because that's what they
> are showing.
>
> * * *
>
> Update (1006ET): Due to the gravity of its claims, the NY Post's
> Hunter Biden scoop has overshadowed the third day of ACB's
> confirmation hearings to become the major political story of the day.
>
> So far, the MSM's most cogent objection is: 'if all of this is real,
> then why wasn't it in the Senate report? And how long has Giuliani had
> a copy of the hard drive?'
>
>     Things that are sketchy in NYP story on Hunter Biden - why wasn’t
> this in Ron Johnson report if it’s been in possession for awhile? When
> did Giuliani acquire it? Giuliani has been everywhere on the but this
> has been kicking around since late last year and unreleased till now?
>     — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 14, 2020
>
> One respondent joked.
>
> And while the NY Post published numerous photos from the hard-drive
> ranging from the banal to the bizarre, photos of Hunter Biden with a
> crack/meth pipe in his mouth have gone viral on social media.
>
>     What a legend pic.twitter.com/rlZcb2qZiz
>     — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 14, 2020
>
> * * *
>
> Update (0900ET): The White House is celebrating the Wednesday morning
> NY Post bombshell...
>
>     🚨🚨 BOMBSHELL 🚨 🚨
>
>     Hunter introduced Joe Biden to a top executive at the Ukrainian
> energy firm he received $50K/month from!
>
>     BIDEN: “I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone
> else anything having to do with their businesses. Period.”@JoeBiden
> LIED. PERIOD‼️ pic.twitter.com/zDy75fxauq
>     — Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) October 14, 2020
>
> ...while the MSM is trying to make it all go away.
>
>     The 'smoking gun' email in the NY Post story — even if it is
> authentic, given the massive red flags — doesn't actually say what the
> story says it does.
>
>     Also, recall: https://t.co/qPVwoX4g1f
>     — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 14, 2020
>
> That's hardly a surprise.
>
> * * *
>
> MSM organizations may have largely ignored findings from a Senate
> Intel Committee report, released last month, which claimed that some
> of Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine raised "counterintelligence
> and extortion" concerns. On the day that report dropped, Rep Adam
> Schiff brushed it aside, accusing his GOP colleagues in the Senate of
> "promoting the same Russian disinformation", per the New York Post.
>
> Well, we'd be interested to hear what Schiff & Company have to say about
> this.
>
> In a shocking report based on documents collected by the FBI - but
> which haven't been previously disclosed in the press - the New York
> Post reveals that Hunter Biden introduced his father - then the Vice
> President of the United States - to a top executive at Burisma, the
> shady Ukrainian energy firm where Biden once served as a board member.
>
> Emails contained in the report shed new light on Biden's claims that
> he successfully forced former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to
> fire a public prosecutor named Viktor Shokin. Biden bragged about
> leveraging $1 billion in US aid to force Poroshenko to fire Shokin,
> who was opposed by both the US and the EU. However, Shokin was
> reportedly working on an investigation into the management and
> executive board of Burisma, a group that included Hunter Biden, and
> his former business partner Devon Archer, whose conviction on
> securities fraud charges in the US was recently reinstated.
>
> The emails offer evidence that Hunter Biden did in fact introduce his
> father to a top executive at Burisma less than a year before the vice
> president moved to oust Shokin, thereby quashing an investigation into
> the firm. The meeting is referenced in emails between Vadym
> Pozharskyi, an advisor to the board of Burisma, who sent Biden an
> email on April 17, 2015 thanking him for the introduction.
>
> Another email also shows Pozharskyi, believed to be the No. 3 exec at
> Burisma, asking Biden about how the political scion could "use your
> influence" to help Burisma.
>
> All of this would seem to undermine Biden's claim that he has "never
> spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings", which also
> included extensive dealings in China.
>
> Another email dated on May 12, 2014, shortly after Hunter joined the
> board, shows Pozharskyi attempting to pressure Biden to use his
> "political leverage" to help the company. The message included the
> subject line "urgent issue" and also references an attempted
> "shakedown" by Ukrainian prosecutors under Poroshenko. According to
> Pozharskyi, prosecutors in the country had approached a man referred
> to as "NZ", who was identified by the Post as Burisma founder Mykola
> Zlochevsky, who went by the Americanized name "Nicholas".
>
> When "NZ" rebuffed their threats, they proceeded with "concrete
> actions" including "one or more pretrial proceedings," Pozharskyi
> wrote.
>
> “We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to
> convey a message / signal, etc .to stop what we consider to be
> politically motivated actions,” he added.
>
> The timing of the email is also notable: It was sent just as Burisma
> was announcing Biden's decision to join the executive board.
>
> It's merely the latest piece of evidence suggesting that the company
> brought Biden on to manage its "legal affairs" because it likely
> believed his pull with the US would protect Burisma from these types
> of prosecutorial "shakedowns".
>
> In addition to the emails, the drive contained photos, some of which
> were shared with the Post. They spanned from family snaps of Hunter
> with his father and his kids, to selfies of Biden smoking cigarettes
> in a variety of unusual poses.
>
> According to the Post, the images and correspondence were taken from
> the hard drive of a laptop that was dropped off at a repair shop in
> Delaware, and never retrieved. After seeing what was on the hard
> drive, the owner of the shop copied it, and turned it over to a lawyer
> connected with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani reportedly
> turned it over to the NY Post over the weekend.
>
> We imagine the MSM will cover up this report, as is standard practice
> for any concerning information involving Hunter Biden's foreign
> business dealings.
> "
>
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