Society's ChildS


Robot

Caught red-handed: Facebook and Twitter delete pro-western bot networks - study


RT
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 03:47 UTC
facebook phone app
© AP / Jenny Kane
Data provided by the social media giants showed a web of linked accounts pushing pro-US and anti-Russia narratives.

Twitter and Facebook have deleted a network of suspicious accounts said to be involved in "covert influence operations" online, including efforts to promote "pro-Western" sentiment and demonize US adversaries, according to company data analyzed by researchers at Stanford University.

Partnering with social media analytics firm Graphika, the Stanford Internet Observatory issued a report on Wednesday outlining the alleged influence ops, citing datasets provided by both Twitter and Meta, Facebook's parent company.

Comment: Everyone knows that Western powers are manipulating social media, but it's nice to see them caught for it. This will likely get much press in the West, however. Keep in mind that a bunch of memes and videos tied originating in Russia (maybe) was enough to be deemed "interference" in the 2020 election. But it's OK when we do it.

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Bullseye

Justice Centre brings legal challenge against ArriveCAN and quarantine measures


JCCF
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 07:36 UTC
arrivecan
The Justice Centre filed a lawsuit today in the Federal Court of Canada, on behalf of 11 Canadians either fined for not using the ArriveCAN and/or ordered to quarantine for 14 days after returning home from abroad. The Applicants involved in this legal challenge have received fines of up to $8,500 each and been forced to disclose private medical information via ArriveCAN. The legal challenge seeks to strike down the mandatory use of ArriveCAN and declare unconstitutional the 14-day quarantine requirements for Canadians who refuse to use ArriveCAN when returning home.

ArriveCan was initially implemented in April 2020 to force Canadian citizens returning home to submit quarantine plans due to Covid. It was mandated for air travellers November 21, 2020. In February 2021, the federal government mandated ArriveCan for all land travellers, while the US-Canada land crossing was still closed. After the Covid vaccine rollouts, travellers were required to upload their vaccination certificates onto the ArriveCAN app.

Mr. Matthew Leccese, one of the applicants, went to the United States for 25 minutes to pick up some parts for his vehicle. Upon his return, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) demanded that he submit his vaccination certificate via ArriveCAN. Mr. Leccese refused because he had privacy concerns with ArriveCAN, but offered to present his vaccination certificate. CBSA refused to accept his paper certificate and issued him a ticket for $7,210 for not using ArriveCAN.

Comment: See also:

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People

Journalists who challenge NATO narratives are now 'information terrorists'

Vanessa Beeley
beeley.substack.com
Tue, 23 Aug 2022 06:27 UTC
Nazis on Google Plus
Nazis congregate on Google Plus 2019.
A US state department sponsored round table on 'countering disinformation' was recently held at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.
"Information terrorists should know that they will have to answer to the law as war criminals" Andrii Shapovalov
According to the press release - "NGOs, mass media and international experts" took part in the round table discussions. Delegates discussed 'disinformation methods' used in Ukraine and abroad. On the agenda was legal and state prevention of 'fakes and disinformation in the context of cyber security'.

Andrii Shapovalov, head of the Ukrainian Centre for Combatting Disinformation emphasized that those who 'deliberately spread disinformation are information terrorists'. Shapovalov recommended changes to the legislation to crack down on these terrorists - reminiscent of the pre-WW2 Nazi Germany suppression of media and information channels. Shapovalov determined that 'information terrorists should know that they will have to answer to the law as war criminals'.
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MIB

Intelligence operative confirms British gov't is targeting The Grayzone

Kit Klarenberg
The Grayzone
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 06:06 UTC
british government grayzone 1
A public call to ban The Grayzone by a UK Foreign Office veteran and psy-ops specialist confirms the malign intentions of British intelligence.

The Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) convened this August by the Estonian Foreign Ministry featured as its centerpiece an English-language panel on "how to deal with misinformation...in the interests of curbing its propagation."

During the discussion, a British state operative named Ross Burley descended into a rant about The Grayzone, demanding it be banned from YouTube on the baseless grounds that it is a "Russian propaganda outfit."

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Quenelle

Global Tantalus

John Carter
Postcards from Barsoom
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 22:27 UTC
brave new world fantasy
Brave new world
In the future, we will live in a high-tech surveillance state, our every movement, word, and even thought tracked by implanted chips feeding our data into a planetary grid encompassed by swarming multitudes of networked drones, sensors, and satellites from which nothing is invisible. Our cities will be antiseptic multi-ethnic utopias where light monorail systems powered by sunlight speed down gleaming white streets. The inhabitants will be androgynous vegans and insectivores, their psychologies carefully curated by scientifically designed curricula, social credit and cognitive nudge systems, and psychopharmacogenetic therapies all aligning to remove every trace of such antisocial traits as nativism, masculinity, sexual jealousy, or the selfish desire to own things. Agriculture will be a thing of the past, for the soylent, vegetation, and insect protein that sustains the posthumans will be manufactured in agricultural towers that require no soil or rainwater to work. The smiling, teeming hives of the high-density metropoles will contain the entirety of posthumanity, while the remainder of the planet reverts to wilderness. The posthumans have lost even their desire to interact with the physical world, spending their lives immersed in synthetic digital experiences, their enjoyment of which is ensured by direct electrical modulation of their pleasure centres.

This is essentially the vision being promoted by the World Economic Forum and its fellow travellers. Whether it looks like paradise or hell on Earth, the natural and desirable outcome of the evolutionary process or a Great Filter-scale cosmic failure mode, is a matter of perception.

It's also almost irrelevant, because it won't happen.
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Yoda

US governor DeSantis says 'little elf' Fauci should be 'chucked across the Potomac'


New York Post
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 20:56 UTC
desantis florida
© AP / Gaston De CardenasFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters during an event in Hialeah, Florida, August 23, 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described retiring Dr. Anthony Fauci as an "elf" and called for him to be chucked "across the Potomac" River in a stump speech Wednesday afternoon.

Fauci, 81, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the top medical adviser to the last seven presidents, announced Monday that he would retire at the end of the year.

"I'm so sick of seeing him."

During a rally in Orlando earlier today, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying "someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac."

Comment:

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No Entry

Go woke, get the hell out: Texas bans Wall Street giants Blackrock, Credit Suisse and others over energy boycott

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 24 Aug 2022 12:23 UTC
Hegar
© harlingen.comTexas Republican Comptroller Glenn Hegar
BlackRock, BNP Paribas, and Credit Suisse are among the list of firms that Texas has just issued that will now be banned from working with the state due to their hostility to the energy industry.

After almost a year of suspense that cost banks business as Texas municipal-bond issuers avoided firms whose status was unclear amid the probe, Bloomberg reports that Glenn Hegar, the Republican state comptroller, on Wednesday named the firms he will prohibit from entering into most contracts with the state and its local entities after his office found they "boycott" the fossil fuel sector.
Chart
More than 150 firms were sent detailed inquiries, requesting information on whether they were shunning the oil and gas industry in favor of sustainable investing and financing goals.
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Dollars

Student loan relief seen costing billions and favoring top earners

Nancy Cook
Bloomberg
Tue, 23 Aug 2022 09:00 UTC
Debt problem
© Amjali Nair/MSNBC/Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden's student loan debt problem
Forgiving student loan debt will cost between $300 billion and $980 billion over 10 years, according to a new analysis, with the majority of relief going toward borrowers in the top 60% of earners.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimate was released Tuesday ahead of President Joe Biden's long-anticipated decision as soon as this week on whether to forgive some student loan debt. White House officials have been trying to combat critiques that such a move would add to rampant inflation that's become a political liability for Biden and his fellow Democrats.

The Penn Wharton budget group, based out of the University of Pennsylvania and run by a top former Treasury official under Republican President George W. Bush, is influential with key Capitol Hill lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.


The group estimated that between 69% and 73% of any debt forgiven would accrue to households that rank in the top 60% of the US's income distribution.

Biden allies and debt-relief advocates expect the administration to extend its current pause on student loan repayment through the end of the year, while also announcing plans to forgive as much as $10,000 in student debt for borrowers whose income falls below $125,000 a year.

Inside the administration, there has been discussion in recent weeks on forgiving a higher amount of debt for low-income borrowers who have received Pell grants, according to people familiar with the discussions.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden urged Congress to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt, while progressive lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, and civil rights groups such as the NAACP are pressing him to forgive at least $50,000.

Comment: Whose pocket will loan forgiveness impact? The taxpayer.

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Shoe

Another athlete drops dead: Cyclist Rab Wardell dies two days after winning Scottish title


BBC
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 09:43 UTC
rab wardell
© Ben FitzhughRab Wardell turned professional earlier this year at the age of 37.
Mountain biker Rab Wardell has died in his sleep aged 37 - just two days after winning the Scottish championship.

Wardell won the elite men's title at the Scottish MTB XC Championships in Dumfries and Galloway at the weekend.

The rider appeared on BBC Scotland's The Nine programme on Monday evening, describing how he had overcome three punctures to win the race.

Comment: Apparently his partner, Olympian Katie Archibald, tried to save him. From the BBC:
She tweeted: "I think you've heard that Rab died yesterday morning.

"I still don't understand what's happened; if this is real; why he'd be taken now - so healthy and happy.

"He went into cardiac arrest while we were lying in bed. I tried and tried, and the paramedics arrived within minutes, but his heart stopped and they couldn't bring him back."

Archibald, who won track cycling gold medals at Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016, added: "Mine stopped with it. I love him so much and need him here with me. I need him here so badly, but he's gone. I can't describe this pain."
Why would a champion athlete go into cardiac arrest two days after a championship race? The elephant in the room won't be mentioned in the media, but everyone who hears about this is wondering about his vaccination status.

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Dollars

59% of Americans worry student loan forgiveness will make inflation worse, CNBC survey finds

Sharon Epperson and Stephanie Dhue
CNBC
Mon, 22 Aug 2022 13:48 UTC
student loan debt protest
Some experts believe the Biden administration could announce a decision on whether to extend a more than two-year-long pause on federal student loan debt this week, ahead of the current Aug. 31 deadline. Many borrowers are hoping the Education Department will extend that break and announce up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness.

Currently, about 44 million borrowers owe a collective $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt.

Yet, a new poll finds Americans worry that debt forgiveness could have unintended consequences.

Comment: More from CNBC:
Some policy experts were quick to sound an alarm after President Joe Biden announced a sweeping new plan Wednesday to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loans for borrowers with incomes under $125,000.

Biden will cancel up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants.

The plan, these experts say, will cost taxpayers and does nothing to solve the tough unaffordability issues that plague higher education in the U.S.

"There's a transfer of wealth from the society at large to people who borrowed to go to college right now," said Andrew Lautz, director of federal policy at the National Taxpayers Union.

"That has consequences for consumers," Lautz said. "It has consequences for taxpayers."

Lautz published an estimate on Tuesday that found Biden's plan could cost the average taxpayer more than $2,000, based on the $10,000 forgiveness per student loan borrower that had been touted.

That is based on the assumption that policymakers would need to make up for the total cost of the forgiveness through tax increases, spending cuts, borrowing or a combination of those strategies.

However, the plan released by Biden on Wednesday could be even more costly to taxpayers, Lautz said.

That is due to the inclusion of up to $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grant borrowers and a 5% cap on repayment of undergraduate loans in relation to monthly incomes.

"It will raise the costs or budget impact of the policy overall," Lautz said.

The National Taxpayers Union's estimate of costs per taxpayer is based on data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which found the total cost of proposal could be $329.1 billion over 10 years, based on $10,000 in forgiveness for borrowers with less than $125,000 in income.

Based on a total of under 158 million taxpayers in 2019, that works out to $2,085.59 per taxpayer, the National Taxpayers Union found.

The Penn Wharton estimate is "definitely going to increase" based on the Pell Grant and income-based repayment features announced by Biden on Wednesday, Wharton professor Kent Smetters said.
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