To all the ladies and mothers out there, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Without you, we literally wouldn’t be here!
The latest National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin is something else…
The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors. These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.
<snip>
And these are snippets of a couple of the ‘key factors’ contributing…
The proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions:
- For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021.
- As COVID-19 restrictions continue to decrease nationwide, increased access to commercial and government facilities and the rising number of mass gatherings could provide increased opportunities for individuals looking to commit acts of violence to do so, often with little or no warning.
- Some domestic violent extremists have continued to advocate for violence in response to false or misleading narratives about unsubstantiated election fraud. The months preceding the upcoming 2022 midterm elections could provide additional opportunities for these extremists and other individuals to call for violence directed at democratic institutions, political candidates, party offices, election events, and election workers.
Full bulletin HERE from DHS.
Now my question is, is this really an attack on free speech? I’m not sure, but it sure as hell looks like it to me. Especially with the multiple uses of the terms false or misleading… To WHOM?
And WHO is actually putting out the MDM? CDC, the administration, Fauci, ???
Go read the folks on the sidebar, they’re better writers than I am…
I’ll leave this here for discussion!
Anybody that thinks SpaceX isn’t making a difference is not tracking the actual cost/kg… Just sayin…
Military forms of address…
Granted I’m older than I lot of the kids, but back in the day the reply all and PSA were ‘slightly’ different…
And this was the comparison made back in the day off Lebanon… They were using Volkswagons as car bombs, and so was the USS New Jersey!
Sadly, the battleships are gone, due to costs issues with maintaining them, a set of dinosaurs that stretched back into history…
Behind the curtain of fact checking…
And the methods used to ‘fact check’ things, by Matt Taibbi.
The British Medical Journal Story That Exposed Politicized “Fact-Checking”
After going through both legal and peer review, but without contacting Ventavia — apparently, they feared an injunction — the BMJ published Thacker’s piece on November 2nd, 2021. The money passage read:
A regional director who was employed at the research organization Ventavia Research Group has told The BMJ that the company falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer’s pivotal phase III trial.
Beginning on November 10th, 2021, the editors began receiving complaints from readers, who said they were having difficulty sharing it. As editors Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbassi later wrote in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
Full article, HERE.
And here is the full text of the letter from the BMJ editors to Zuckie…
Dear Mark Zuckerberg,
We are Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi, editors of The BMJ, one of the world’s oldest and most influential general medical journals. We are writing to raise serious concerns about the “fact checking” being undertaken by third party providers on behalf of Facebook/Meta.
Full letter, HERE at BMJ.
Apparently Zuckie nor his company has bothered to answer the mail… What a surprise!
This is a good look at exactly how fact checkers work, obfuscation, misdirection, etc. even when the story IS true. And the famous ‘missing context’ statements… I’ve seen that on mine before. Missing context my ass!!!
Also, this is how you get ‘this’ response…
LOL, Cedar and Ian have another ‘coloring book’ out- The Ratel Saga
Right now, it’s only on Kindle due to ‘issues’ with Amazon (gee, what a surprise), but the print version is coming soon! And it’s got a #1 new release tag too!!! Yay!
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link.
The blurb-
All they wanted was to dig a pit trap and get a pet. The local African wildlife didn’t agree to either part of this plan…
A riotously funny activity book, field guide to (some)African fauna, and a story of growing up.
We strongly recommend that you do NOT try any of these things at home. However, you should definitely read where you can laugh out loud, as you should color outside the lines.
From the team that brought you Taskforce Chiweenie: The Poultry Liberation Front, The Ratel Saga is a (mostly) true story illustrated by a certified natural history illustrator who wants you to know this is moderately child friendly, even if the events depicted were a little hard on the adults involved .
Parental Supervision Advised
Now for something a little different…
Upstream Reviews has a rather interesting post on the trials and tribulations of SFWA…
As the creep of leftist identity politics has spread throughout the organization, a startling erosion of quality came with it. This is perhaps most objectively apparent in their membership qualifications, which were changed in May of 2014. Until then, to be considered for “Active membership”, an applicant had to have sold three pieces of short fiction at a 8c per word or one book for $2,000 or more in a Qualifying Professional Market (in other words, a top-tier publisher like Tor or Del Ray).
You can go read the full article, HERE on the blog. It’s well worth your time if you’ve wondered how well some of those ‘big name’ science fiction authors are doing.
Larry Correia has a nice description (no actual numbers), of how royalties work for him. And it is a great discussion of the power of the backlist, HERE, from his Monster Hunter Nation blog.
And trying to stay out of trouble…
And I’ma leave this here and run away…
It appears that GoFundMe has ‘determined’ that the nearly $10M dollars donated don’t meet their ‘TOS’…
Funny how they were fine with BLM donations, but now, not so much to a legitimate protest that hasn’t killed a single person or burnt a single building…
Conservatives have reacted with fury after GoFundMe canceled a fundraiser for Canadian truckers protesting against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and said it would refund all contributions.
The fundraising effort had raised C$10 million—around $7.9 million—and C$1 million had already been distributed to the organizers of the so-called Freedom Convoy before GoFundMe took the decision to stop the fundraiser.
Full article, HERE on Newsweek.
And another take-
Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused GoFundMe of hypocrisy after the company canceled the Freedom Convoy fundraiser on Friday after it actively supported a campaign for the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle.
The crowdfunding platform claimed the convoy fundraiser – which raised $10million Canadian dollars ($8 million USD) in support of truckers protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates – violated its terms of service ‘which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment.’
GoFundMe plans to distribute the remaining $9million of donated funds to ‘credible and established charities’ that were reportedly chosen by the convoy organizers and have been verified by the platform.
Full article, HERE from the Daily Mail. Interesting that the Brit media seems to have better coverage than the US media… Of note- GoFundMe will ‘determine’ what is an acceptable charity! One wonders if BLM is still on their approved list…
And yet another look from the Brits- This time the Globe and Mail (bold/italic mine)
The company said in the statement that it made its decision after hearing arguments this week from protest organizers and local police.
“Following a review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials, this fundraiser is now in violation of our terms of service,” GoFundMe’s statement said. It added that the protesters violated its clauses prohibiting “the promotion of violence and harassment.”
Full article, HERE.
Really makes me wonder if I want to donate to anything put up on GoFundMe, especially with them pushing for a ‘15% tip’ on the donation to them for ‘handling’ fees.
First Slo Joe decides he’s cut cancer deaths by half! Yep… Really!!!
President Biden announced the relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot program, which was started under the Obama administration and aims to reduce the death rate from cancer by 50 percent over the next 25 years. The president announced that he would form a “cancer cabinet” that would include representatives from across the government to coordinate research and funding for cancer treatments and therapies.
Full article, HERE from CSPAN. Note- NOTHING got done the last time they did this…
Then Butti…whatever decides the administration is going to stop traffic deaths!!!
“The big first here is committing the department to the idea that only zero roadway deaths are acceptable, and then aligning all of our resources around that,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
The report is broken down into five objectives: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and post-crash care. It calls on states and local governments to support research and develop technology to detect and prevent alcohol- and drug-impaired driving. It also directs the Federal Highway Administration to revise guidance to encourage safer speeds and the use of speed cameras.
Note- Speed cameras are outlawed in Texas… Full article, HERE.
And last but certainly not least, gun control is back! When in doubt, that’s ALWAYS the left’s go to…
President Joe Biden launched a new campaign Thursday to fight gun crime, step up investigative work against violent lawbreakers, and launch new efforts against trafficking and illegal arms purchases.
President Biden visited New York City where he exchanged views with new Mayor Eric Adams, who had previously served as police captain and had to deal with the killing of two employees in his first month in office. police and armed assault on a third party.
Full article, HERE.
Of course there are a ‘few’ things that they are ignoring… The incompetence of the administration, defund the police/nationwide crime and murder rates, Russia/Ukraine, the truckers protests, the Genocide Olympics, and the JHU report of the failure of lockdowns, among other things…
This report is going to set the cat among the canaries…
Abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-place-order (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. SIPOs were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.
While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.
At 61 pages including appendices and references, it’s dense, to put it mildly. But it is also extremely telling from the lack of effect and the economic damage done world-wide.
When you add this to the latest information coming out about the real beginnings of Covid, and the major players (including Fauci’s) backchannel emails and conversations, it is, IMHO, a pretty damning pattern of behavior by a LOT of people in power…
You can download a copy from the page, HERE.