MEDIA Comments turned off

‘Behemoths who control’: Barr says Trump executive order on social media companies will go further if necessary by Mica Soellner

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/behemoths-who-control-barr-says-trump-executive-order-on-social-media-companies-will-go-further-if-necessary

Attorney General William Barr praised President Trump for his executive order that could allow federal regulators to take punitive action against social media giants for the way they regulate online content.

Trump’s order rolls back the long-standing legal protection known as Section 230, which spares tech companies from being held liable for the content they allow online and how they decide to monitor it.

Barr said the protection, which was adopted about 25 years ago, has been stretched beyond its original intention of not holding tech companies accountable for the content created by third-party users.

“It’s been completely stretched to allow what have become really behemoths who control a lot of the flow of information in our society to engage in censorship of that information and to act as editors and publishers of the material,” Barr said.

“So when they put on their own content, like fact-check content onto other people’s content and when curate their collection, they start censoring particular content, including in many cases the direction of … governments like communist China, they become publishers. They shouldn’t be entitled to the same kind of shield that was set up earlier,” he continued.

The order comes days after Twitter put a fact-check alert on one of Trump’s tweets, linking mail-in voting to increased voter fraud.

Twitter has taken steps to combat misinformation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic to avoid what it deems potentially dangerous medical hoaxes or advice from spreading throughout the public.

Trump has aggressively pushed back on the action, accusing the company of political bias.

Barr said Trump’s order is a strong step in addressing the problem of increased oversight of tech companies on its users and allow Section 230 to return to its original intent.

“They are using that market power with particular viewpoints,” Barr said. “That is wrong. It has to be addressed, not only to this executive order, but I think litigation going forward.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

South Korea is the pivot in the Huawei wars Restrictions on semiconductor sales to Chinese companies are ‘unacceptable’ to Seoul: David Goldman

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://asiatimes.com/2020/05/south-korea-is-the-pivot-in-the-huawei-wars/

South Korea has told Washington that restrictions on semiconductor sales to Huawei and other Chinese companies are “unacceptable,” according to industry sources. Seoul is trying to mediate between Beijing and Washington following the US Commerce Department’s May 18 announcement that sales of computer chips to companies on its “entity list” will require a license if they are produced with US technology, even if they are produced overseas by foreign companies.

After the US temporarily banned exports of high-end smartphone chips to China’s ZTE Corp in Aprl 2018, Huawei began a crash program to design its own chips. The Commerce Department’s new rules are designed to close what it calls a loophole in US export restrictions, the fabrication of Chinese-designed chips in Taiwan.

The extraterritorial assertion of control over third-party sales of products made with US equipment is unprecedented, and has no basis in international law, South Korea has remonstrated with Washington. China bought almost twice as much from South Korea during the last 12 months as the United States. Sixty percent of all Asian trade stays within Asia, due to tight integration of industrial supply chains. The Korea Times in a May 27 editorial denounced “Washington’s egocentric actions and Beijing bashing,” warning that “a  new Cold War and a trade war will deal a severe blow to Korea.”

President Trump bet the farm on the Huawei chip ban, I argued in a May 22 analysis. The US present has a monopoly on some key chip-making technology, in part because the R&D cost of challenging US companies is huge compared to the size of the equipment market. If the US uses its advantage to suppress technology elsewhere, China and other countries will put the resources required into breaking the US monopoly. China may not be able to buy chips made with US companies, but Chinese companies can hire anyone they want, and Chinese electrical engineers are conducting most of the research in the field. The US may extract short-term advantages, but at the cost of losing one of its last remaining advantages in high tech.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Norway health chief: lockdown was not needed to tame COVID A country should only enforce this draconian measure if it is sure that the academic foundation for lockdown was sound Fraser Nelson

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://spectator.us/norway-health-chief-lockdown-tame-covid/

Norway is assembling a picture of what happened before lockdown and its latest discovery is pretty significant. It is using observed data — hospital figures, infection numbers and so on — to construct a picture of what was happening in March. At the time, no one really knew. It was feared that virus was rampant with each person infecting two or three others — and only lockdown could get this exponential growth rate (the so-called R number) down to a safe level of 1. This was the hypothesis advanced in various graphs by Imperial College London for Britain, Norway and several European countries.

But the Norwegian public health authority has published a report with a striking conclusion: the virus was never spreading as fast as had been feared and was already on the way out when lockdown was ordered. ‘It looks as if the effective reproduction rate had already dropped to around 1.1 when the most comprehensive measures were implemented on March 12, and that there would not be much to push it down below 1… We have seen in retrospect that the infection was on its way down.’ Here’s the graph, with the R-number on the right-hand scale:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The FISA Bill Flops The surveillance court dilutes political accountability. Better to abolish it.

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fisa-bill-flops-11590708290?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Nancy Pelosi is known for her iron political control over the House, but on Wednesday the Speaker suffered a rare defeat as she pulled a FISA reauthorization bill before what would have been a losing vote. This is a victory for security and political accountability, and it’s worth rehearsing how we got here.

The need to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been clear since last year’s damning report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz. In March Attorney General Bill Barr worked out a deal with Democratic and GOP House leaders to renew surveillance authority for the FBI and include measures to prevent a repeat of James Comey’s 2016 interference in a presidential campaign.

These provisions included a requirement that the Attorney General sign off personally on any FBI investigation of a presidential campaign, that the FBI set up an office of compliance, and that any application for a FISA court warrant include evidence or information that might be exculpatory. That bill easily passed the House, 278-136, in March.

Then the mischief began. The Senate added an amendment from Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Pat Leahy (D., Vt.) to require an outside “amicus curiae” to review and perhaps rebut surveillance requests. These amici would have extraordinary access to sensitive information.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How Xi is using fear of COVID to crush Hong Kong’s autonomy The leader believes freedom is another dangerous virus Charles Parton

Posted By on May 29th, 2020

https://spectator.us/xi-using-fear-covid-crush-hong-kong-autonomy/

The Hong Kong government has recently extended its COVID regulations banning gatherings of more than eight people until June 4. How convenient. Last year, according to organizers, 180,000 people gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 1989. In future, being an organizer may well land you in court under a new national security law, which Beijing announced last week at its annual National People’s Congress.

Perhaps we should have expected it. After all, the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s ‘constitution’, lays down that the Hong Kong government should enact such a law, and the big party meeting in October told us that the ‘legal systems and implementation mechanisms for protecting national security’ would be set up. But given the recent protests, now did not seem the time to add fuel to the fire. In 2003, the then chief executive Tung Chee Hwa tried, but backed down in the face of 500,000 protesters. Later he resigned on the grounds of ill health, although he is still curiously vigorous in his support of Beijing’s interests.

The General Secretary in Beijing is not for turning. Xi Jinping is a man who doubles down. The attempt to introduce an extradition law in Hong Kong led to massive protests. Beijing allowed HK Chief Executive Carrie Lam to agree only to withdrawing the extradition bill. It gave instructions that continuing protests were to be met with increasingly fierce police tactics — ruining the excellent relations ‘Asia’s finest’ had hitherto enjoyed with the people.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Wait…That’s How Peter Strzok Signed Off on the FBI’s Counterintelligence Probe into Trump-Russia Collusion Matt Vespa

Posted By on May 28th, 2020

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/05/28/former-fbi-official-the-document-used-to-authorize-trump-campaign-surveillance-is-a-train-wreck-n2569586

With each passing day, we’re learning more about the Obama DOJ’s off the reservation behavior regarding the Trump-Russia fiasco. There was no evidence of collusion, but this circus act, fanned by the anti-Trump liberal media, engulfed the nation for nearly two years. No, it still has a grip on the minds of liberal America. The overreach is well-documented.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to bogus “lying to the FBI” charges over a phone call he had with the Russians, which was routine and not out of the ordinary. There was no reason to investigate Flynn, as the new DOJ motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him showed. The agents who interviewed Flynn also added that they felt he didn’t lie. And yet, that 302 report, which took weeks to file, a departure from department policy, has vanished into the ether. We know that those who weren’t conducting the interview edited and tweaked it, another departure from department policy.

Disgraced ex-FBI Director James Comey wanted Flynn and was going to get him at all costs. Well, Flynn remains in legal purgatory, as the judge in his case, Emmet Sullivan, has not only decided to not drop the case, despite the lack of a case and the resignation of the prosecutor, he’s doubling down. He appointed a retired judge, whose law firm represented the queen of the DOJ resisters, Sally Yates, to fight the DOJ motion and see if perjury charges could be filed against Flynn for his shoddy plea deal. It’s Keystone Cops. Period.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

EDWARD CLINE ON LOCKDOWNS

Posted By on May 28th, 2020

https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/

The dictionary definition of a lockdown  is the confining of prisoners to their cells, as following a riot or other disturbance:

Will Americans return to living normal lives, or take the time to umlearn the Coronavirus imperatives and behave as the State wants them to behave – that is, by being controlled and living by and for the State’s sake and purposes? There is some evidence that they are discarding all the “new normal” rules. Protests have occurred at state capitals, while citizens have assembled in parks and at beaches.. Some judicial findings have declared the lockdowns and “stay at home” orders have  violated  people’s Constitutional rights. It will take some time to unlearn the miasma of behaving as the virus commands people to act. Tp behave according to State imperatives seems to occur automatically when people act without thinking.

Outside my residence I see groups of ten or so people not wearing masks[passing by bu as a herd at a “safe”  six feet distance from each other, for no particular reason other than to conform to the “new norm,” lest they are berated by a passerby going in the opposite ditection. These are not people who will question anything. The “new norm” being compliant and obedient, not standing out with an independent minds. Many states in the U.S. have issued decrees  which too many people are willing to obey lest they are harassed by the new  tyrants. And many countries, as well. Particularly Britain, Germany, France, and Spain, and Australia.   One country exemplifies how it can descend into lockdown tyranny in the blink of an eye, New Zealand. A contact sent  me the discouraging news of how its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern,   took the defining step of enforcing a mandatory lockdown of the whole country, oblivious to the rights and freedoms New Zealanders enjoyed before.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Dozens Of Universities Face Lawsuits For Failing To Provide On Campus Learning May 28, 2020 By Paulina Enck

Posted By on May 28th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/28/dozens-of-universities-face-lawsuits-for-failing-to-provide-on-campus-learning/

College is absurdly expensive. While some of the mark up comes from the schools’ reputations, much of the price tag is in exchange for the experience. Access to professors, relationships with classmates, and academic, athletic, artistic, religious, and social activities and groups are all a major part of both the “college experience” and the education itself. These aspects, and their associated benefits, are lost when classes are moved to Zoom, or worse, prerecorded lectures. Further, college campuses provide resources for students which are lacking at home, including quiet study locations and access to comprehensive libraries.

While many schools acknowledged the need to refund students for the portion of their on-campus dorms and meal plans unused, many believe that tuition should be likewise discounted, for the commensurate drop in quality and failure to deliver the promised experience.

And since schools themselves aren’t offering the financial credit, students at various universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Drexel, Georgetown, Liberty, UC Berkeley, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, and others, are banding together in class action lawsuits. The students are suing on three counts: breach of contract, conversion, and unjust enrichment.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Another 2.1 million file jobless claims, but total unemployed shrinks Jeff Cox

Posted By on May 28th, 2020

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/28/weekly-jobless-claims.html

First-time jobless claims totaled 2.1 million last week, slightly ahead of the 2.05 million Wall Street estimate.
Continuing claims plunged by nearly 4 million to just over 21 million, probably a clearer representation of the jobless level.
The high jobless numbers persist even as all states have reopened their economies to various extents.
Nearly 41 million jobless claims have now been filed since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

First-time claims for unemployment benefits totaled 2.1 million last week, the lowest total since the coronavirus crisis began though indicative that a historically high number of Americans remain separated from their jobs.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 2.05 million. The total represented a decrease of 323,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised 2.438 million.That decline in continuing claims “suggests that the reopening of states is pushing businesses to rehire some of the people let go when the virus hit,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. However, Shepherdson noted that some of the data, particularly from California, remains noisy and may not be an accurate representation of some states’ situations.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

De Blasio: NYC to begin ‘Phase 1’ of coronavirus reopening in ‘the first or second week of June’ Brooke Singman

Posted By on May 28th, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nyc-to-begin-phase-1-of-reopening-in-the-first-or-second-week-of-june-amid-coronavirus

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that the city will begin “Phase 1” of its reopening in early to mid-June, making it the last part of the state to reopen after the coronavirus lockdowns.

De Blasio, during his daily press conference Thursday, said that New York City is “now in a position to start opening things up phase by phase.”

“I’ve been cautious,” de Blasio said Thursday, noting he’s been focused on “health and safety, and how and when to take steps to start” reopening.”

De Blasio, though, warned that when he says “restart,” he does not mean ”rushing back to something normal.”

“It’s not just flicking a switch,” de Blasio said, noting that he is working to “make sure” that the city can “avoid a resurgence.”

De Blasio did not offer a specific date for the reopening of New York City, but said that “based on what we know today,” the reopening will begin “in the first or second week of June.”

De Blasio did say, however, that the city is launching an initiative next week for companies that are considered “Phase 1 companies” to help them navigate the reopening for their specific industries. The mayor added that if the city gets the first phase “correct,” it “will be that much nearer to Phase 2 and other phases.”

De Blasio estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 employees will return to work during “Phase 1,” and said he is working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to work out how mass transit will operate. De Blasio noted that as more staff return to work, MTA subway services “can increase.”