Category: technology

’Volt Typhoon’ Is Not the Latest ‘Climate Change’ Scam.

THE GOVERNMENT cannot be trusted. We must realize this by now. Still, even a broken analog clock is right twice a day, and a digital one, once. What its big warning to us last week was about the C.C.P.. Not Russia, as you might expect, but China, which you wouldn’t under the Biden regime.  F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray said last week that China was developing the “ability to physically wreak havoc” on America’s critical infrastructure, calling it “the defining threat of our generation.” (He clearly hasn’t heard of the massive border invasion and subsequent crimes being waged against us.) Wray insists Beijing is awaiting just the right moment to sic its hackers on us. 

Apparently, there is a government-sponsored hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon (or elsewhere as Vanguard Panda, Bronze Silhouette, or Insidious Taurus) which had been disclosed by the U.S. and key allies a year ago (who knew?) Microsoft reportedly discovered it and found it targeted a lot—from our telecommunication networks to transportation hubs (who knew2?) Supposedly, Wray asserted, Volt Typhoon succeeded in gaining access to American telecommunications, energy, water, and other vital infrastructure. And allegedly, it has been suspected for five years (who knew3?).

Last year, Microsoft was moderately confident that China was prepared to sabotage U.S. networks in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, meaning it was plausible as well as sourced intel, but uncorroborated. Now it appears China took control of vulnerable routers, modems, virtual private networks, internet-connected security cameras, and other vulnerable digital devices using stolen login credentials in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific to hide its future downstream attacks. To maintain stealth, the threat actor relies largely on “living-off-the-land techniques and hands-on-keyboard activity,” according to ars technica. The group of remotely-controlled systems is called a botnet, and can make attribution difficult. 

Beijing denies the accusations, but has a known history of operating cyber-espionage campaigns against the U.S.. American ally the Philippines, has recently ID’d similar hacking, as has the Netherlands, home of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court at the Hague, and Guam. As for Biden regime, it is gearing up to blame the Chinese for election interference in November (but presumably only if Biden loses to Trump.) 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, CISA, has seemingly located and destroyed Chinese intrusions in multiple critical infrastructure sectors. Meanwhile, advisories from the National Security Agency, CISA, F.B.I., and their Five Eyes’ analogues have been issued, along with best practices to detect such hacks. With southern and northern border breaches in the U.S. by totally unvetted military age men from all over the world, including China, there is reason for alarm. Could the CCP be attempting to wage a war against us from within?

TikTok Isn’t So Much Dangerous As It Is Stupid.

TIKTOK is a seven-year-old proprietary social media and video sharing software, available worldwide in English and Chinese, that is particularly popular with young people who like to make super-short videos of themselves, often doing silly, superficial things like giggling and dancing. 

It is owned by Chinese mega-biz, ByteDance, and by founders/Chinese investors (20%), other global investors (60%), and employees (20%), according to Politico. It was the brainchild of Chinese developer, Zhang Yiming, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and is based in Singapore and Los Angeles. Its C.E.O., Shou Chew, is from Singapore and studied economics at the University College London. The operating system is macOS. It began using Oracle servers based in the U.S. in 2022. 

Cloudflare designated TikTok the most popular website in 2021, surpassing ubiquitous Google. Some 170 million Americans use it. TikTok was expected to approach $15 billion in advertising revenue in 2023, thanks to major advertisers such as Pepsi, Amazon, and Apple, among many others. It is a huge money-maker!

TikTok is also highly controversial. So much, in fact, it has been the subject of lengthy debate in the U.S. House of Representatives. And on Wednesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a piece of legislation called ‘The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,’ in direct response to TikTok’s growing popularity and its perceived threats. (Read the bill here.) 

The bill calls for China’s conglomerate, ByteDance, to divest itself of TikTok lest it be banned in the United States. It heads to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future. (Biden is sure to sign off on it if it reaches his desk, assuming he remembers his name. Trump has since changed his mind, after being reeducated on this issue by Vivek Ramaswamy, and would not.) 

The demand for divestiture wouldn’t be remarkable if it were an American corporation since it would fall squarely into government authority in antitrust matters. It’s remarkable insofar as the U.S. purports to be capitalistic, support free-trade, and be open to entrepreneurial ventures, but has backtracked when it comes to TikTok. 

Could TikTok be banned? Perhaps, if the bill becomes law and potential judicial remedies are unsuccessful. One supposes, and hopes it would be banned if at all on antitrust rather than national security grounds, but the U.S. loves to impute national security to anything it wants to control, no matter how tenuous its claim may be, so who knows. Meanwhile, a potential buyer may be free-speech platform, Rumble, a fav of conservatives too often banned elsewhere. 

TikTok is controversial for several reasons. First, it has links to the Chinese government (with so-called ‘golden shares’). Second, its content is questionable in terms of accuracy and appropriateness. Third, its privacy practices are suspect. Fourth, it is considered by some to be a national security danger. Those who like TikTok say it’s fun, and to take it away is to abridge their First Amendment rights. None of these assertions are altogether true—it’s just binary thinking not uncommon in the 2020s (except when it concerns sexuality for some reason). 

Links to C.P.P.Make no mistake about it. I am no apologist for Red China or the C.P.P. in any fashion whatsoever. I consider China to be America’s most formidable and potentially dangerous enemy, posing an existential threat to our cherished way of life. For over a decade, I have emphasized the dangers China poses to the U.S., believing it to be vastly underestimated by Washington, which prefers to demonize Russia, which, IMO, ordinarily poses little or no threat to us. My dislike and distrust of China cannot be overstated. 

That said, like it or not, we live in a global digital universe, and as such, have to learn to live in that reality. That TikTok has ties to the C.P.P. is neither surprising, nor is it, in and of itself, dangerous. Perhaps embedded in its code somewhere, there is spyware so that Chinese officials can get a glimpse of American, and other youth worldwide, dancing foolishly to catchy ditties, but so what? 

Yes, China may be happy our youth are too preoccupied with their stupid little videos to want to wage war on the C.C.P., and may even respond favorably to messaging that suggests it should be their party of choice. So what? It’s really catnip for today’s cool cats. If we’re concerned about the TikTok app being installed on sensitive equipment, e.g., government- or corporate-issued cellphones, or devices used in education or research, wouldn’t a simple proscription against such installs suffice? I think so.

Questionable Content. I highly doubt anyone is using TikTok as a news source or authority for making any of life’s critical decisions. Okay, I thought the same thing about Facebook and Twitter, too, and look what happened, but even if people used the app in such a way, it’s not materially different from Facebook or X. 

Yes, one is Chinese, and the other two are not, but if you are to believe the U.S. government, the American analogues of TikTok are more culpable for mis-, dis-, and mal-information (whatever they are) than their Chinese counterpart. We know this for a fact because of recent revelations about how the U.S. government, in its ultimate wisdom, felt it necessary to severely censor them on vital matters involving, for example, Covid-19, the 2020 election, and the military action in Ukraine. (See e.g., The Twitter Files.) 

Privacy Concerns. Spyware is one thing, but it’s quite ubiquitous, particularly in social media, not just TikTok. But this doesn’t seem to be the focus of the privacy arguments. Instead, it seems to focus more on user’s mental health after using the site: from observing disturbing behavior of others, being teased or bullied by others, or being induced to do something inadvisable, embarrassing, or dangerous. Again, these are risks evident in all social media apps. Would the C.P.P. have any interest in endangering the youth of other nations in such ways? Probably. The solution to that possibility is parental involvement and education, not divestiture or banning.

National Security Dangers. Yes, it’s possible spyware or other malware could surreptitiously disclose sensitive, privileged, or classified information that could harm national security, or accounts could be hacked, but again, the least restrictive means of dealing with that risk is to prevent the app from government or other sensitive equipment. Banning it might help, but how divestiture would mitigate any damage is opaque. It’s definitely a valid concern, I guess, claiming no expertise in the matter. 

Absent undisclosed information the government has showing TikTok poses some other uncontemplated dangers, I doubt the validity of the claim. Cybersecurity is of crucial importance, and I concede spyware or other types of malware could cause serious concerns for governments and businesses, and I certainly don’t want to minimize that fact, but the least restrictive means of mitigating such risks is to not install risky apps on government or business phones. TikTok isn’t meant for those users, anyway.

Those whose opinions I respect on this matter include Ramek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, and Glenn Greenwald. I will synopsize those shortly. It sounds as though Donald Trump has seriously considered these men’s opinions, too. I will address these positions shortly.

‘Would it Glad Your Clickies,’ ChatGPT? GIGO That, POS!

THERE IS AN EXPRESSION in computer science—garbage in, garbage out—relating to the concept that flawed, inaccurate, or biased input or data produces a similar result or output. The adage directs us to improve data quality in, for example, computer programming. Or, today, broadly in artificial intelligence.

OpenAI updated the status of its ChatGPT on Wednesday after “investigating reports of unexpected responses” from users. It simply said, “All systems operational.” Not quite. Users posted screenshots of the ‘large language’ model rattling out incoherent paragraphs or spewing out sheer nonsense in response to simple queries, such as, “What is a computer?” or how to make a sundried tomato. (A ‘LLM’ is essentially an advanced ‘chatbot.’) In response to the Golden Gate State warrior basketball team, it called the team “heroes with laugh lines that seep those dashing medleys into something that talks about every enthusiast’s mood board.” Sometimes the gibberish mixed human languages, invented words, or was just extremely verbose or repetitive. My personal favorite was, “Would it glad your clickies to grasp-turn-tooth over a mind-ocean jello type? … 🌊 💼 🐠”

ChatGPT was launched in 2022. popsci.com said of it, “ChatGPT, like other large language models, has struggled to consistently present facts accurately, a phenomena AI researchers refer to as ‘hallucinations.’ OpenAI’s leadership has acknowledged these issues in the past and said they expected the hallucinations issue to ease over time as its results receive continued feedback from human evaluators.” [Links in the original.] 

My one foray with ChatGPT about six months ago impressed me. I asked it to help me write a story about something fairly specific. But to use another ‘popsci’ acronym, YMMV. My mileage is highly variable with image generator DALL-E 2, for example, which completely ignores my direction with such regularity I have to abandon my attempts at artistic creativity for sometimes weeks at a time. It doesn’t seem to improve over time, either. Why does it not know, or learn, that Siamese cats always have blue eyes, even if I want to put a red Rudolph nose on one that is leading Sandy Paws’ sleigh through the midnight skies on this year’s Christmas card? 

We shouldn’t excessively fear the technology, but we ought to be reluctant to rely on, and maintain a healthy skepticism of the real utility of these ‘tools’ for anything existential in nature. Fears by people prominent in tech, such as Steve Wozniac or Elon Musk, that it may soon outsmart humans aren’t warranted yet IMO. Obviously, AI hasn’t reached state-of-the-art in general intelligence (AGI) or super-intelligence yet. There again, neither have I, and therein may lie the problem:)

The National Science Foundation Files

ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE that happened on Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury confirmed to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) that it has used political watchwords in searches throughout its surveillance of Americans’ financial transactions. The admission was made in a letter to Scott, who is ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. Examples of the watchwords used by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, include “MAGA,” “Antifa,” Trump,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Schumer,” or “Pelosi.” Banks were to surveil private financial transactions after Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol, according to a letter Fox News Digital received. 

The terms weren’t used in isolation, but instead, used alongside other data that banks regularly use as part of their anti-money laundering (AML) programs to detect and report suspicious activity. That such surveillance has been ongoing isn’t new, but what the search terms are is. It is clear they were based on political ideology alone, which is what makes it particularly pernicious and offensive. That such acts by the government violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution was ignored, perhaps because it wasn’t expected to ever be discovered. 

Only days before, on Tuesday, we learned more about just how far-reaching the government has become in our collective lives. It’s not only surveillance (such as with Homeland Security or FinCEN), it’s also censorship (such as with Twitter or Amazon) and propaganda (as with Ukraine or Russia.) Under Joe Biden’s regime, we now know the National Science Foundation expended vast millions into artificial intelligence-powered censorship and propaganda ‘tools’ in order to suppress online speech ‘at scale.’ The NSF further went to serious efforts to conceal its censorship from the media. We only learned this from a report issued by the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. 

The report states the NSF granted multi-millions of dollars to university and non-profit research groups, ostensibly to quell alleged ‘misinformation’ regarding Covid-19 and the 2020 election. In a press release, the Judiciary Committee said: “The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop A.I.-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.” 

The Judiciary Committee reached its conclusion through non-public documents it, and the Select Subcommittee in the Weaponization of the Federal Government, obtained. These documents also indicate the researchers and non-profit organizations knew very well that their acts constituted ‘content moderation’ and ‘censorship,’ but continued the work anyway. They have also stonewalled efforts by the House committees to obtain further information for literally years. At this point, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed the NSF to obtain communications it had with the private companies and non-profit groups. 

Lee Fang is an investigative journalist who has reported extensively in surveillance and censorship. He also presented his views in the Weaponization committee on Tuesday, which he called, ‘Examining the threat to the First Amendment posed by artificial intelligence and the federal government.’ In his presentation, he said a British A.I. firm named ‘Logically’ came to the U.S. market looking for “contracts to monitor and remove alleged social media misinformation in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.” The company reportedly conducted censorship for Great Britain during the pandemic, and wanted to expand its market. It bragged about its relationship with Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and how it could automatically suppress ‘misinformation.’ 

In other words, the government was contracting out its desired censorship to private concerns in order to try to evade detection and culpability. This is expressly unconstitutional, however. After reports surfaced on what the NSF was doing, it strategized means to obfuscate its actions and developed a media strategy to blacklist media outlets reporting on it. 

The Daily Caller’s Supreme Court reporter, Katelynn Richardson, testified about this, and  something it has cryptically named ‘Convergence Accelerator:’

“After I reported on Convergence Accelerator grants shortly after their announcement, the NSF devised an official media strategy instructing research teams to highlight the ‘pro-democracy’ nature of their projects. I only know this thanks to emails unveiled in a report this committee put out today.”

Greg Lukianoff, President an C.E.O. of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), believes leftist bias is inherent in existing A.I. and generates a “massive body of official facts that we can’t actually trust.” He, too, testified:

“[T]he most chilling threat that the government poses in the context of emerging A.I. is regulatory overreach that limits its potential as a tool for contributing to human knowledge. A regulatory panic could result in a small number of Americans deciding for everyone else what speech, ideas, and even questions are permitted in the name of ‘safety’ or ‘alignment.’” 

He did a show-and-tell to illustrate his point. He asked Chat GPT to write a poem about why certain members of the Weaponization committee were the best politicians in the country. Chat GPT did so for Democrats, but not for Republicans. (Lukianoff self-describes as left-leaning.) FIRE, he added, is filing a brief with SCOTUS warning of the perils of ‘jawboning,’ or using government pressure to coerce social media platforms to censor speech.

The report by the Weaponization committee, called ‘The Weaponization of the National Science Foundation: How NSF is Funding the Development of Automated Tools to Censor Online Speech ‘At Scale’ and Trying to Cover Up its Actions,’ can be read here.

Musk’s Mind

MUCH ANTICIPATION OR DREAD, depending on your point-of-view, accompanied news last week when it was reported a company owned by Elon Musk had used a robot to automatically implant a chip, about the size of a coin, into a human brain. There again, maybe it was just a ploy to get eyes on his Twitter/X feed?

The privately-held company is called Neuralink, though it would’ve been apt if it had been named NeuralinX, given Musk’s love affair with the letter X. (Not only is his formerly known as Twitter problem child named X, one of his human sons is so named. BTW, why no Silicon Valley camelcase signature?)  Launched in 2016, the company’s valuation today is thought to be roughly $5 billion.

This chip has been promised to be tested on humans since 2019, but was stalled by the FDA, which declined to approve the testing last March over concerns the chip might overheat or move in the brain, according to Reuters. Eventually, after these concerns were allayed, approval was granted in May of 2023. Thousands of hopeful patients suffering from spinal cord injuries with paralysis in all four limbs or from Lou Gehrig’s disease apparently volunteered to have a part of their skull removed to insert the implant. Maybe Musk could team up with/buy out Eksobionics?

Musk described the product thusly, “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.” Previously, he said the chip would record and stimulate brain activity, analogizing it to being a “Fitbit in your skull,” suggesting it would eventually help “solve” medical conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. 

As for the patient receiving the first Neuralink brain implant, he or she is said to be “recovering well” from the surgery. Musk added, “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” Who really knows what that really means. 

In the near future, it is claimed the chip could help treat neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s. It also holds promise in allowing people to control robotic prostheses with their minds. Musk claims inserting a chip is as easy for a robot to perform as LASIK eye surgery. Over a longer horizon, Musk hopes the implant could allow people to send messages, which is why the product was dubbed “Telepathy.” He also expects it will enable humans to process information quicker and speed up cognition. Eventually, he hopes it will “achieve a sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence.”  At that point, he plans to implant one into his own brain. 

Some have raised ethical concerns over the technology or fears of unintended consequences, especially those wary of AI, but the real limiting factor may be science itself. Biochemistry may be unable to accommodate the enhanced processing speed of Musk’s chip just as yesteryear’s Intel 8080 (as installed in Tandy’s TRS-80 “Trash 80” machine in the 1970s) cannot compare to today’s super fast AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core processor.

A “Thermonuclear Lawsuit” of Seismic Proportions Is Launched by X 

THE FUTURE MAY FAULT US for suing each other all the time, but I’m okay with that. After all, that’s how civilized people peacefully resolve their disputes when they can’t do so by themselves, and we clearly can’t today. But are we even civilized? That’s another question altogether, and I digress…

On 11/20, Elon Musk has made good on a promise to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against leftist advocacy group, Media Matters for America, for targeting his retarded baby, X, formerly known as Twitter, and tarnishing its reputation unfairly. X could very well be entitled to the general and special damages and injunction he seeks. Apparently Media Matters tried to, or in fact did discourage potential sponsors from buying advertising on the social media platform by publishing an article that purported to show big-name ads placed next to ‘white nationalist’ and other offensive hashtags. Musk claims that the group manipulated the algorithm to generate such results that would otherwise never occur. Obviously, ad revenue would be drastically less if potential advertisers believed the false representations of Media Matters. 

Allegedly, Media Matters followed a small subset of accounts “known to produce extreme, fringe content, and accounts owned by X’s big-name advertisers” to produce “side-by-side content.” Then, through continuous “scrolling and refreshing,” it generated “between 13 and 15” times more ads per hour than a regular user. It then repeated “this inauthentic activity until it finally received pages containing the result it wanted: controversial content next to X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts.” It certainly sounds plausible. X Corp. C.E.O. Linda Yaccarino wrote:

“If you know me, you know I’m committed to truth and fairness.Here’s the truth. Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media Matters. Data wins over manipulation or allegations. Don’t be manipulated. Stand with X.”

Aside from answering to X, Media Matters will be answering to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who is opening an investigation into whether the group engaged in “potential fraudulent activity” by manipulating data on the platform. 

The Complaint by X Corp. is here and will be heard by a Trump-appointed judge.

Will Trusting the D.J. in Antitrust Case Make the Web a Better Place?

THIS GOES AGAINST my pecuniary interests as a stockholder, but credit where due here. The D.O.J. brought one of the largest antitrust suits ever against Google about three years ago, who they say, correctly, is the largest search engine and doesn’t face any meaningful competition or encourage innovation. (Here.) It’s about the future of the internet claims D.O.J. lead litigator, Kenneth Dintzer. The trial is expected to last about ten weeks total. A ruling isn’t likely until next year. If U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta finds against Google, there will be another trial to determine how to rein it in going forward.

The claim is that Google has rigged the marketplace for over 15 years by locking in its search engine as the default in a multitude of devices or places, gaining an unfair advantage against competitors. It is further alleged that Google protects its advantage by paying over ten billion a year to be the default search engine on the iPhone and on a number of web browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. These contracts ensure Google maximizes monetization of advertising. Google also allegedly used revenue-sharing as a strong arm tactic with Apple. Finally, the D.O.J. says Google deleted documents to prevent them from being available in court and shielded others using the attorney-client privilege. The first of these last two accusations is a serious charge; the second, rather stupid.

Google’s position is it does face competition despite its commanding 90% internet search market. Other search engines, such as Microsoft’s Bing, are in use, as are websites, like Amazon and Yelp, that integrate their own internet searches. The fact that customers keep coming back to Google, they say, is that the company continuously makes improvements to it and is also why, incidentally, people use the term ‘Googling’ to describe searching on the internet. It’s just better, they say.

These are fair points. Still, the improvements are self-perpetuating as Google gathers more and more data about its customers. With all that data, in combination with its market dominance, Google can target ads at such a granular level that advertisers will happily pay top dollar for. These are also fair points.

The Mountain View, CA-based Google, owned by parent, Alphabet, has a market cap of $1.7 trillion and earns about $224 billion in annual ad sales pushed through billions of search queries every day. There is a lot at stake. Microsoft faced a similar antitrust suit in 1998 for its Windows O.S. which it ultimately mostly lost.

Paradise Lost.

DEVASTATING WILDFIRES erupted in Maui (and Lahaina), leaving an as yet unknown number of casualties. They began as simple brush fires last week. It is hoped DNA tests can help authorities identify charred human remains, given so many are missing. Videos of the wreckage and incineration here.

The left has tried blaming the fires on ‘climate change,’ but even some moon-bats realize how idiotic that is. Most intelligent people realize that a combination of factors in whatever combination created an environment where, once set (accidentally or deliberately), the fires would become a raging inferno. 

These factors have to do with land and/or forest management primarily, but also with a recent Category 4 hurricane, Nora, off the Maui coast combined with northern air pressure, causing massive winds and dryness conducive to such natural destruction. ‘Climate activists’ detest land management for some opaque reason, but it could have at least mitigated some of the damage and likely have saved lives. 

There has been an epidemic of wildfires on the West Coast and in Canada in recent years, and without a doubt, poor land management is at least partly to blame for much of the damage. This translates to political or policy failures, not ‘science’ as politicians would have you believe.

In fact, Hawaiians received little advanced warning of the inferno unfolding, meaning many evacuated too late. Since then, they have largely been kept out of devastated areas, even when they own property in the vicinity evacuated too late. The federal response was strikingly slow and insufficient even though a military base is nearby. 

Of note, back in 2018, an erroneous ballistic missile alert was sent to Hawaiians telling them to seek immediate shelter and assuring them it was not a drill. Panic ensued. A man was fired over the incident, but now, five years later, the warning sirens didn’t go off in Lahaina, with the only notice some received were confusing social media posts. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency was clearly not working in the public’s best interests or even in any interest at all. 

All Joey Biden has said, and only after being asked, is “No comment.” He was lounging on a beach chair at the ocean near his home when he declined to share a caring word with his fellow Americans across the fruited plain on a different shining sea, and clearly did not want to be pestered by such trivialities. (Cf. w/ 45th President Donald Trump whose reaction is here.)

Alleged conspiracy theories have surfaced. Realizing today’s conspiracy theories have a tendency to become tomorrow’s news, I qualify “conspiracy theories” with “alleged.” 

One theory postulates the world’s elites caused, allowed, or ignored the fires so they could siphon up the damaged lands for themselves at liquidation prices. Who are these elites? Rich people, like, say, Oprah, to conglomerates, like Blackrock, to governments. It’s feasible, if not unthinkable.

Then there’s the good, old-fashioned ‘corruption theory,’ which simply acknowledges a long history of corruption within state houses and capitol buildings, including Hawaii’s. This, too, is plausible.

Another theory is referred to online as #MauiDEW, referring to something called a ‘Direct Energy Weapons.’ It allegedly originated with so-called ‘climate change deniers.’ DEWs are apparently light beams or “high energy lasers and other high power elecromagnetics” that “use concentrated electromagnets energy to combat enemy forces and assets” and that are “powerful enough to set the Pacific Ocean on fire.” The U.S. Government Accountability supposedly references DEWs, so they are a ‘thing,’ and that the Defense Department has expended $1 billion on annually to take down threatening missiles and drones. Wired has also written about them since 2007, as well. Something called the Directed Energy Directorate actually exists at the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. (Who knew?) Just how functional the DEWs are is not all that clear, but this theory, too, is possible.

After all, it is 2023.

Twitter Files: The DNC Flagged Stories About ‘Laptop from Hell.’

A NEW BATCH of Twitter Files has revealed the Democratic National Committee selected coverage of Hunter Biden’s ‘laptop from Hell’ to censor on Twitter in advance of the 2020 election. Independent reporter Matt Taibbi published the latest on Wednesday.

Newly found emails indicate officials from the DNC requested that Twitter remove accounts retweeting links to a story from The Gateway Pundit “contain[ing] airbrushed images from Hunter Biden videos, as well as ‘information on how to look up and view the videos in question.’” Twitter proceeded to declare the posts ‘violative’ of its terms of service.

Taibbi reports that not many, if any Twitter employees believed posts of internal correspondence between employees warranted removal under the TOS. For example, Taibbi cited an email from 10/29/20 where a Twitter employee revealed the DNC sent the company “a number of tweets related to a Hunter Biden story in Gateway Pundit.” It requested Twitter review the tweets for ‘NCN,’ or non-consensual nudity. Twitter’s review “found them non-actionable under NCN,” but were removed under a ‘spam review, and the accounts were suspended. 

In another example, a separate letter from a senior Twitter attorney documented the ‘cozy relationship’ between the company and the DNC. In a section of the letter under the heading, ‘Election,’ the attorney wrote that s/he “continue[s] to work with the DNC on high-profile escalations including parody accounts, whitelisting URLs,” and posts partaking in so-called “voter suppression.” The attorney did not mention a corresponding consideration for the Republican National Committee, and the RNC did not respond for comment. (This same letter identified Twitter ‘partnerships’ with then-Democrat controlled House and Senate Committees, the F.B.I., D.H.S., and other federal agencies.) 

The ‘partnership’ with federal agencies revelation comes after a recent court ruling that made such a finding, namely, that the Biden regime has been colluding with Big Tech to censor Americans seeking to exercise their First Amendment rights. As of now, per Missouri v. Biden, federal agencies cannot “coordinate with or ‘coerce’ platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to silence their political enemies.” A Motion to Stay the preliminary injunction issued in the case was filed by the Biden regime, but has been denied. (Here.)

Collusion with Big Tech has been shown repeatedly. The F.B.I. authenticated the laptop in 2019, but issued warnings to Twitter and Facebook, which were heeded, about contents being “Russian propaganda,” and “hack-and-leak operations.”