Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment In their zeal for control over online speech, House Democrats are getting closer and closer to the constitutional line, if they have not already crossed it. Glenn Greenwald

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-escalates-pressure-on-tech

For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms. On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will interrogate Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebooks’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai at a hearing which the Committee announced will focus “on misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms.”

The Committee’s Chair, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and the two Chairs of the Subcommittees holding the hearings, Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), said in a joint statement that the impetus was “falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine” and “debunked claims of election fraud.” They argued that “these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety,” adding: “This hearing will continue the Committee’s work of holding online platforms accountable for the growing rise of misinformation and disinformation.”

House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert control over the content on these online platforms. “Industry self-regulation has failed,” they said, and therefore “we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation.” In other words, they intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content they do and do not allow to be published.

I’ve written and spoken at length over the past several years about the dangers of vesting the power in the state, or in tech monopolies, to determine what is true and false, or what constitutes permissible opinion and what does not. I will not repeat those points here.

Favoring renewable energy over natural gas investment has led to the mess in Texas: Kevin Williamson

https://nypost.com/2021/02/20/texas-reliance-on-renewable-energy-has-led-to-this-winter-mess/

I’m writing from Texas, so I’ll try to finish this column before the electricity goes out. 

As you may have heard, we’ve had an unusually powerful winter storm down here and, in spite of the fact that every third household has a four-wheel-drive super-duty pickup truck, Texas has come to a standstill. When a little bit of ice settled on the freeway, a half a dozen people lost their lives in the ensuing 135-car pileup. 

Meanwhile, after years of mocking Californians for their self-imposed energy troubles, Texans are experiencing rolling blackouts — and a whole lot of blackouts that refuse to roll on but instead sit obstinately in place — because our power grid cannot keep up with the spike in demand. 

As in California, Texas’s energy scarcity is largely artificial: The state produces an extraordinary amount of natural gas, but there has been a woeful underinvestment in infrastructure ranging from pipelines to winterizing equipment at utilities. You may as well not have the fuel at all if you can’t get it to where it’s needed or use it once it’s there.

What Texas has invested in is renewables, especially wind. These have performed especially poorly: The state’s electric-grid regulator reports that though wind and solar still make up a relatively small share of the state’s overall energy mix, they accounted for 40 percent of the capacity shut down by the storm: Out of the 45 gigawatts that went dark, 18 gigawatts were from wind and solar. 

Wind is in many ways a good bet for Texas, especially in the western and northern parts of the state, the Saudi Arabia of gales. The sunny parts of the state also generate a fair bit of solar power, which also is welcome. The problem is that these power sources are unreliable. Solar panels don’t work with a couple of inches of snow on top of them, and an icy storm can cause those massive wind turbines to freeze up and stop working. As of right now, most of those Texas turbines are not functioning power sources — they are modern art. 

31 Days In, Democrats Haven’t Accomplished A Single COVID Promise To The American Worker By Christopher Bedford

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/20/31-days-in-democrats-havent-accomplished-a-single-covid-promise-to-the-american-worker/

The Democratic Party woke up Saturday morning to its 31st day of leading both the executive and legislative branches of government. They had run on “immediate [economic] relief” to Americans put down and out by largely Democratic COVID shutdowns. Relief, you might notice, that hasn’t actually come.

On Jan. 14, less than one week before taking the oath of office, President Joe Biden promised, “We’ll make sure that our emergency small business relief is distributed swiftly and equitably, unlike the first time around. We’re going to focus on small businesses, on Main St. We’ll focus on minority-owned small businesses, women-owned small businesses.”

But so far in the first full month that Sen. Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President Biden have been in control, the only money that has gone toward American relief has been from that money allocated while President Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell still joined Pelosi in power, including $1 trillion that remains unspent.

Instead of their promised relief, over the past month Democrats have tried the former president, re-entered the Paris Climate Accords, locked down the U.S. Capitol, and freed up American tax dollars to go to aborting children abroad.

So what about American business owners, parents, and workers suffering under COVID-19 restrictions? Anything for them? So far nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing. President Joe Biden has mandated masks on busses, for example, and Vice President Kamala Harris has claimed credit for the Trump administration’s vaccine development. Biden has also established a COVID board, created a COVID task force, developed a COVID plan, reviewed COVID, assessed COVID, and held a COVID town hall. Lovely.

“Our rescue plan will provide flexible grants to help those hardest-hit small businesses survive the pandemic,” Biden promised more than five weeks ago. His administration, he said, would “help entrepreneurs of all backgrounds create and maintain jobs, plus provide the essential goods and services communities depend upon.”

Instead, at this week’s CNN town hall Biden told Wisconsin brewer Tim Eichinger, a Democrat who is struggling to keep his employees on and his business afloat, to give White House staff his address so they could mail him that COVID plan — the one he laid out five weeks ago. It’s the same one Democrats have been sitting on for a month while they fight over things like a $15 national minimum wage hike unlikely to pass the Senate and which even the president admits likely isn’t going anywhere.

MORE HEADLINES: FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Joe Biden Calls Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Day Six of Winter Storms https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/19/joe-biden-calls-texas-gov-greg-abbott-on-day-six-of-winter-storms/

Biden Silent Over Big Tech Suspensions Because He ‘Benefits From the Censorship,’ Banned Journalist Says https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-silent-over-big-tech-suspensions-because-he-benefits-from-the-censorship-banned-journalist-says_3703543.html

Facebook Says It Will Fact Check Global Warming ‘Misinformation’ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/02/19/facebook-says-it-will-fact-check-global-warming-misinformation/

At least 2 400 cold temperature records broken or tied in the U.S. from February 12 to 16, 2021 https://watchers.news/2021/02/18/2400-cold-temperature-records-broken-or-tied-us-february-2021/

Cities Slammed by Winter Storms Face New Crisis: No Water https://www.theepochtimes.com/cities-slammed-by-winter-storms-face-new-crisis-no-water_3703422.html

Bill Gates’s Climate Hysteria https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/bill-gatess-climate-hysteria/

Bill Gates Applauds World’s Worst Polluter China for ‘Making Climate a Priority’ https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/02/19/bill-gates-applauds-worlds-worst-polluter-china-for-making-climate-a-priority/

Politico: So, This Andrew Cuomo is Kind of a Toxic Bully, Huh? https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2021/02/19/politico-so-this-andrew-cuomo-is-a-pretty-toxic-character-huh-n2585011?

The Media Went From Hyping Cuomo to Destroying Him Because It Fit the Left’s Agenda https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/02/media-went-hyping-cuomo-destroying-him-because-it-daniel-greenfield/

Media Give Cruz’s Cancun Trip Far Greater Attention Than Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandal https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/02/19/media-gives-cruzs-cancun-trip-far-greater-attention-than-cuomos-nursing-home-scandal-n2584999?

AstraZeneca vaccine faces resistance in Europe after health workers suffer side-effects https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-astrazeneca-idUKKBN2AI237

Report: Ghislaine Maxwell Allegedly Refused to Help Find Bill Clinton Tapes Because It Would Hurt Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Run https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/19/report-ghislaine-maxwell-allegedly-refused-to-help-find-bill-clinton-tapes-because-it-would-hurt-hillary-clintons-2016-run/

Delete Facebook trends as public turn on social media giants who think they are above law https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1399748/facebook-australia-Delete-Facebook-Boycott-Zuckerberg

China plans to rule the world and we are playing straight into their hands – COMMENT https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1346074/china-news-south-china-sea-dispute-xi-jinping-chinese-military-rule-the-world?

As Trump Predicted, Under Biden China Owns the United States https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/trump-predicted-under-biden-china-owns-united-lloyd-billingsley/

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar: Biden Administration Should Support Referral Of Israeli Officials To The ICC; U.S. Should Hold Chinese Government Accountable For Genocide Of Uyghur Muslims https://www.memri.org/tv/american-congresswoman-ilhan-omar-muslims-run-president-israel-officers-referred-icc-welcome-houthi-removal-terrort-list

Rashida Tlaib speaks at Kashmir event featuring jihad supporters https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/rashida-tlaib-speaks-at-kashmir-event-featuring-jihad-supporters?

Amazon’s 103 Hate Items: Serial Killers, Nazi Symbols, and Terrorist Flags https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/techwatch/corinne-weaver/2021/02/16/amazons-103-hate-items-serial-killers-nazi-symbols-and

 

With Libraries like These, Who Needs to Burn Books? By Eileen F. Toplansky

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/02/with_libraries_like_these_who_needs_to_burn_books.html

Why burn books when libraries are doing the censor’s work?  On January 25, 2021, the American Library Association (ALA) Council reviewed the role of libraries in condemning white supremacy and fascism.

Lindsay Cronk, who helped develop a resolution to “condemn white supremacy and fascism as antithetical to library work,” believes this work to be “urgent.”  Cronk bases this assessment on the January 6 attack in D.C.

Just a little more than two weeks ago, a mob, inflamed by misinformation and disinformation in the form of ideological rhetoric and carrying fascist and white supremacist symbols including nazi swastikas and confederate flags, attempted to interrupt and counteract democratic process.  They were emboldened by inaction from American institutions.

Facts be damned as Cronk continues.

Furthermore, “Over the course of consecutive ALA conferences, white allies have interrogated our fragility, and we’ve had experts provide a vision of how we can become an antiracist profession. We’ve  listened to and amplified the voices of our colleagues of color enough to acknowledge that diversity is not the solution to racism or fascism.”

Finally, in impeccable radical leftist language, the ALA wants to explore “how we can do intellectual freedom and social justice work together.”

In order to “disrupt whiteness in libraries and librarianship,” the following titles are recommended.

Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press.
Crenshaw, K., N. Gotanda, and K. Thomas. (1996). Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. The New Press.
Zuberi, T. and E. Bonilla-Silva. (2008). White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology. Rowman & Littlefield.

Signs that Iran Might Be Continuing Its Nuclear Weapons Program By Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Raphael Ofek

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/iran-nuclear-weapons-program/

 Samples recently collected by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors at two Iranian sites showed traces of radioactivity. Tehran had not reported any nuclear activity at these sites and denied IAEA inspectors access to them until just a few months ago. The findings suggest that Iran, in violation of the JCPOA nuclear agreement it signed in July 2015, has continued to conduct activities related to nuclear military development.

Samples collected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed traces of radioactivity at two Iranian sites where Tehran has not reported any nuclear activity. Although the IAEA refrained from naming the sites in its quarterly report of June 5, 2020, they were identified last year by the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. The identification of the sites was based on information extracted from the Iranian nuclear archive smuggled out of Tehran and into Israel in January 2018.

The first site visited by IAEA inspectors in August 2020 was a pilot plant for uranium conversion with an emphasis on the production of UF6 (uranium hexafluoride, a uranium compound which, in its gas phase, enables the enrichment of uranium by centrifuges). This site, located about 75 km southeast of Tehran, operated under the aegis of the Amad military nuclear program. In documents from the Iranian nuclear archive, this location is referred to as the “Tehran Site.” The facility was dismantled in 2004.

The other site was Marivan, located near the town of Abadeh in central Iran. This facility, also part of the Amad program, was designed to conduct “cold tests” of nuclear weapons (that is, to simulate activation of a nuclear explosive device using natural uranium rather than nuclear weapons grade uranium). This included operating a multipoint explosive system for the activation of a nuclear weapon as well as the development of its neutron initiator.

According to satellite imagery published by the Institute for Science and International Security, the Iranian authorities razed part of the Marivan facility in July 2019, more than a year before they allowed IAEA inspectors access to the facility. It is likely that this was done to prevent exposure of nuclear activities that had taken place there in the past. (This was not the first time the Islamic regime had razed nuclear sites: it did so at the Lavizan-Shian facility in Tehran in 2004 and the Parchin facility in 2012.) It is possible that the traces of radioactive materials found in samples taken by IAEA inspectors in August 2020 indicate renewed efforts to develop a neutron initiator for nuclear weapons previously conducted at the Marivan site.

Israel Policy in the Biden Administration by Peter Schweizer

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16988/israel-policy-biden-administration

The Obama administration negotiated a nuclear deal (JCPOA) with the Iranian mullahs that was bad for the U.S. (which found it had only legitimized the regime that the U.S. Department of State called the “world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”) and bad for Israel (the deal would allow Iran, after a few years, to become a full-blown nuclear power).

The Biden administration has already promised to return the U.S. to the JCPOA, provided that Iran will once again agree to honor its terms. The Iranians, based on a well-established track record, most likely will not honor those terms. That will certainly create friction not only with Israel… but also with many of Iran’s Sunni neighbors, who are also alarmed by the prospect of a nuclear-armed, Shi’ite, aspiring hegemon in the region.

The last few years… have shown that Arab counties seem tired of a Palestinian intransigence that has only held everyone back.

Even if one dislikes Trump, the recent advances in a warm peace brought by the Abraham Accords represent a truly new hope for the region and, significantly, a new willingness by Arab nations finally to leave behind an ancient and outdated hostility. Will the Biden administration be so short-sighted as to drop the ball on this initiative simply because it is associated with an earlier administration that now happens to be disliked? Or will it instead bid for a legacy based on even more successes — and perhaps even a Nobel Peace Prize — by fostering even greater interdependence among regional neighbors in the Middle East?

U.S. policy towards Israel stays fairly consistent despite changing administrations. Even after President Barack Obama’s “apology tour” to the Arab world early in the first term of his presidency — and his last-minute attempt to carve out a de facto Palestinian state through UN Security Council Res. 2334 — official U.S. policy towards Israel did not significantly change. That held true despite Obama’s efforts and the palpable personal dislike between himself and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. policy towards Israel’s neighbors is what has defined the character of each administration’s relationship with the Jewish State. The Obama administration was keen to improve America’s standing among the Muslim nations of the Middle East. His administration negotiated a nuclear deal (JCPOA) with the Iranian mullahs that was bad for the U.S. (which found it had only legitimized the regime that the U.S. Department of State called the “world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”), and bad for Israel (the deal would allow Iran, after a few years, to become a full-blown nuclear power). That deal was one of many reasons for the success of President Donald J. Trump’s campaign in 2016.

Turkey Ravages Cyprus by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17009/turkey-ravages-cyprus

Six years after Turkey invaded Cyprus, another military coup d’état, in 1980 in Turkey, would destroy whatever crumbs of freedoms remained. According to US secret diplomatic documents, at least 650,000 people were detained. Many were tortured and hundreds died in custody.

“There is a rule in the [Turkish] Special Warfare: To increase the strength of the people, some of their values must be sabotaged as if [the sabotage were conducted] by the enemy. [For example], a mosque can be burned. We burned a mosque in Cyprus.” — Turkish General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, Habertürk, September 23, 2010.

In addition to Greek Cypriots, Armenian, Maronite, and other non-Muslim Cypriots were also forcibly displaced. The result was that Turkey effectively crushed the Christian population.

Today Turkey still calls the atrocities it committed in Cyprus in 1974 “a peace operation.”

The international community may be unaware of it, but Europe includes a ghost town located in the Republic of Cyprus. Since 1974, it has been under Turkish occupation, which has looted and ethnically cleansed its indigenous population.

Designated a military zone by the Turkish army 46 years ago, when Greek Cypriots were forced to flee invading Turkish forces, a part of the Cypriot district of Famagusta has remained deserted.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared in October 2020:

“[T]he two main streets and the coast in the ‘Maraş region’ [Famagusta in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus], which were closed since the 1974 peace operation, have recently been opened to the use of the Cypriot people….. The closed Maraş region belongs to the Turkish Cypriots; it should be known this way…

“I call out to our fellow Turks in northern Cyprus, to my Turkish brothers. This land is yours. You have to lay claim to these lands. You also need to protect the political will that lays claim to these lands. If we can put this out fully, I believe that the future in Cyprus will be very different.”

The Iran Mediation Bazaar by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17088/iran-mediation

First, he must persuade Tehran to treat Iraq as an independent nation-state, not a glacis for the Islamic Republic in its campaign to “export revolution.”

Revival of the 1977 trade accord could help end the current chaos and enable Tehran and Baghdad to secure income from tariffs and taxation. Setting mutually accepted rules on charities could also help both curb money laundering and tax evasion through fake religious charities linked to crime syndicates and security services.

The big enchilada in al-Hakim’s imaginary mediation would be the reopening of Shatt al-Arab, the border waterway closed and clogged during the war. Re-opened, the Shatt could ensure the revival of Basra in Iraq and Khorramshahr in Iran which were the region’s largest ports for centuries. Dredging and remodeling the waterway could cost some $20 billion, worth considering if both sides created a joint navigation management agency.

Ah, we dropped the word “normalization”…. If the Islamic Republic can’t normalize relations even with Iraq, how could it normalize with the American “Great Satan”?

If wise al-Hakim wants to mediate, let him start with his two homelands.

With Donald Trump out of the White House, wannabe do-gooders have thrown their hats, or turbans, into the ring as mediators between Tehran and Washington.

First, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to seize the opportunity of Joe Biden’s victory to build a bridge with Iran. Then it was the turn of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to don the mantle of honest broker. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has also made musings about mediation.

Biden Fires Chicago U.S. Attorney Hot on the Trail of Democratic Corruption By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/20/biden-fires-chicago-u-s-attorney-hot-on-the-trail-of-democratic-corruption-n1427040

You’ve probably never heard of Chicago’s U.S. attorney John Lausch. For the last two years, he has been going after some of the biggest, most powerful Democrats in the state of Illinois.

His office indicted a Chicago alderman who had been serving since 1969. Edward Burke had been in the crosshairs of prosecutors for four decades but it wasn’t until Lausch came into office that he was indicted.

Then there’s the case of the most powerful state politician in the United States, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. His aides and cronies have been indicted for various crimes of influence over the years and Lausch has now set his sights on Madigan himself.

In fact, it’s believed Lausch has targeted some other high-profile Democratic politicians in other investigations. It’s a target-rich environment and Democrats in Illinois have gotten extremely nervous about who Lausch will go after next.

Now it appears, that bringing down corrupt Democratic politicians will be the job of the next U.S. attorney. Along with 56 other U.S. attorneys named by former president Trump, Lausch will lose his job — fired by Joe Biden. “It’s tradition,” said Biden supporters. This is true. But it’s also “tradition” to keep prosecutors in place who were pursuing high-profile cases. Lausch certainly qualified under that criteria.