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Not a Nothingburger: My Statement to Congress on Censorship.

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Not a Nothingburger: My Statement to Congress on Censorship
The key question in censorship is always the same. Who’s doing it?

For time reasons, I had to cut my actual address a bit short Thursday. This statement, which began with a nod to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, is what was entered into the congressional record:

November 30, 2023

Chairman Jordan, ranking member Plaskett, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Exactly one year ago today I had my first look at the documents that came to be known as the Twitter Files. One of the first things Michael, Bari Weiss and I found was this image, showing that Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya had been placed on a “trends blacklist”:

This was not because he was suspected of terrorism or incitement or of being a Russian spy or a bad citizen in any way. Dr. Bhattacharya’s crime was doing a peer-reviewed study that became the 55th-most read scientific paper of all time, which showed the WHO initially overstated Covid-19 infection fatality rates by a factor of 17. This was legitimate scientific opinion and should have been an important part of the public debate, but Bhattacharya and several of his colleagues instead became some of the most suppressed people in America in 2020 and 2021.

That’s because by then, even true speech that undermined confidence in government policies had begun to be considered a form of disinformation, precisely the situation the First Amendment was designed to avoid.

When Michael and I testified before the good people of this Committee in March we mentioned this classically Orwellian concept of “malinformation” — material that is somehow both true and wrong — as one of many reasons everyone should be concerned about these digital censorship programs.

But there’s a more subtle reason people across the spectrum should care about this issue.

Former Executive Director of the ACLU Ira Glasser once explained to a group of students why he didn’t support hate speech codes on campuses. The problem, he said, was “who gets to decide what’s hateful… who gets to decide what to ban,” because “most of the time, it ain’t you.”

The story that came out in the Twitter Files, and for which more evidence surfaced in both the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit and this Committee’s Facebook Files releases, speaks directly to Glasser’s concerns.

There’s been a dramatic shift in attitudes about speech, and many politicians now clearly believe the bulk of Americans can’t be trusted to digest information. This mindset imagines that if we see one clip from RT we’ll stop being patriots, that once exposed to hate speech we’ll become bigots ourselves, that if we read even one Donald Trump tweet we’ll become insurrectionists.

Having come to this conclusion, the kind of people who do “anti-disinformation” work have taken upon themselves the paternalistic responsibility to sort out for us what is and is not safe. While they see great danger in allowing anyone else to read controversial material, it’s taken for granted that they’ll be immune to the dangers of speech.

This leads to the one inescapable question about new “anti-disinformation” programs that is never discussed, but must be: who does this work? Stanford’s Election Integrity Project helpfully made a graphic showing the “external stakeholders” in their content review operation. It showed four columns: government, civil society, platforms, media:

One group is conspicuously absent from that list: people. Ordinary people! Whether America continues the informal sub rosa censorship system seen in the Twitter Files or formally adopts something like Europe’s draconian new Digital Services Act, it’s already clear who won’t be involved. There’ll be no dockworkers doing content flagging, no poor people from inner city neighborhoods, no single moms pulling multiple waitressing jobs, no immigrant store owners or Uber drivers, etc. These programs will always feature a tiny, rarefied sliver of affluent professional-class America censoring a huge and ever-expanding pool of everyone else.

Take away the high-fallutin’ talk about “countering hate” and “reducing harm” and “anti-disinformation” is just a bluntly elitist gatekeeping exercise. If you prefer to think in progressive terms, it’s class war. The math is simple. If one small demographic over here has broad control over the speech landscape, and a great big one over there does not, it follows that one group will end up with more political power than the other. Which one is the winner? To paraphrase Glasser, it probably ain’t you.

It isn’t just one side or the other that will lose if these programs are allowed to continue. It’s pretty much everyone, which is why these programs must be defunded before it’s too late.

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Who will they come for next? Progressives goal to wipe out diversity and social disagreement.

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Who will they come for next? Progressives goal to wipe out diversity and social disagreement. Have you noticed that those who claim that diversity is their goal want only those who think like they do?

The target since the Obama age was only single white males, then females, and white married couples were added. Children were the last that were added to the list. And maybe they will achieve their goal when they import the new China virus.

Ann Coulter did a take on a famous poem I’m sure you will recognize. Whites are still the main target, but only the beginning.

First they came for working class whites and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a working class white.

Then they came for white police officers and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a white police officer.

Then they came for white women who call the police, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a white women who calls the police.

Then they came for the white college applicants, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a white college applicant.

Then they came for statues of white male American heroes and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a white male American hero.

Then they came for whites applying for jobs with the S&P 100 and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a white applying for a job with the S&P 100.

And so on.

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Back Door Power Grab Biden Cartel Commentary Economy Links from other news sources. Opinion Politics Uncategorized Work Place

Biden just doesn’t get it. No the gas prices are not down.

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Biden just doesn’t get it. No the gas prices are not down. They’re still over a dollar higher from when President Trump left office.Folks on X (Twitter ) have been pointing out to Joey boy that he has no clue.

And it’s not just gas that skyrocketed. Food, Housing, Clothes, etc. And did Joe forget that he said Putin raised the price of gas and he had no control of it going up or down.

Twitchy.com editor @Politibunny wrote, “You don’t get credit for jacking up prices like crazy and then bringing them down a teensy bit. Not to mention you blamed Putin for the increase and said you had no control over it.”

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Young Voters Flee Biden. Who Turns 81 Today.

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Young Voters Flee Biden. Who Turns 81 Today. Happy Birthday Joe. My question is why they have voted for him in the first place?

The list of bad things that he and his administration have caused is so long. The Border, COVID, Crime increasing, Wars around the world, Weaponization of the courts, etc.

Among young voters (18-34 years old) — just 20% of whom view Biden favorably on Israel’s war on Hamas — Biden (42%) trails Trump (46%) by 4 points, which is outside the poll’s margin of error.

“This could be a massive sea change,” according to NBC News poll analyst Steve Kornacki, who noted Biden was plus-26 points on younger voters in 2020.

NBC News Poll: Biden’s standing hits new low amid Israel-Hamas war

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Biden Cartel Commentary Economy Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Stock Market Comparison Trump Biden.

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Stock Market Comparison Trump Biden. This only takes into how the market did. Nothing else.

How does Trump compare to Biden in the stock market? We share the facts on cumulative and annualized performance between Trump and Biden in the stock market. Cumulatively across the S&P 500, Trump is at 36.64% compared to Biden at 16.02% a difference of 20.62%. On the NASDAQ, Trump is at 52.98% compared to Biden at 4.39%  a difference of 48.59%. Finally, on the DOW Jones, Trump is at 40.28% compared to Biden at 10.62% a difference of 29.66%.

Index
Cumulative Performance
Donald TrumpJoe BidenDifference
NASDAQ52.98%4.39%Trump +48.59%
DOW40.28%10.62%Trump +29.66%
S&P36.64%16.02%Trump +20.62%
Index
Annualized Performance
Donald TrumpJoe BidenDifference
NASDAQ16.38%1.54%Trump +14.84%
DOW12.84%3.66%Trump +9.18%
S&P11.78%5.43%Trump +6.35%

 

https://www.factsarefirst.com/comparison/donald-trump/joe-biden

 

 

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Moody’s cuts U.S. outlook to negative, citing deficits and political polarization.

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Moody’s cuts U.S. outlook to negative, citing deficits and political polarization. We owe this all to Joe.

  • Moody’s Investors Service lowered its ratings outlook on the United States’ government to negative from stable, pointing to rising risks to the nation’s fiscal strength.
  • The ratings agency has affirmed the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings of the U.S. at Aaa.
  • Moody’s move to cut its outlook arrives as Congress faces the looming threat of a government shutdown once more. The government is funded through next Friday.
  • Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson said he plans to release a Republican government funding plan on Saturday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/10/moodys-cuts-usa-outlook-to-negative-citing-higher-interest-rates-and-deficits.html

 

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What Trump or any other Republican should do day one when they are President January 20, 2025.

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What Trump or any other Republican should do day one when they are President January 20, 2025. DE weaponize all departments. 

Former President Trump said he would return the favor to the Biden administration when it comes to weaponizing the Federal Government. First be it Trump or any other Republican, here’s my recommendations.

Fire all the top department heads. They need to go. Fire all the  lawyers in the DOJ.  Set up a commission to look into the  department heads to see if any had committed crimes. If so, bring charges. Not as a group, but individually.

Finally remove all the Executive orders and remove the EPA’S ( and any other department ) power to make laws.

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Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs.

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Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs.

Story by James Gilboy 11/02/2023

The Case for Hybrids Over EVs

To illustrate, we’re going to compare the on-road carbon emissions of a few models that are available with internal combustion, hybrid/PHEV, and electric powertrains: the Ford F-150, the 2022 Hyundai Kona and Kia Niro (which use the same chassis) and the BMW 3 Series and i4 (which also share their bones). Again, this is the question we want to answer: What’s the best use of a limited battery supply? Do we spread those materials across a bunch of hybrids, or cram them into a few EVs and leave the remainder with straight gas or diesel engines?

We can answer this by dividing how much each vehicle reduces CO2 emissions over its ICE counterpart by its battery capacity in kilowatt-hours. That’s tricky to imagine, so don’t bother: just look at this equation instead.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Provided by The Drive

Calculating battery use efficiency in electrified vehicles. The Drive

We need more data to fill that out, of course, and obtaining it is simple: The EPA’s FuelEconomy.gov publishes per-mile CO2 estimates, which also estimate the upstream emissions that come from gasoline production.

Things aren’t as straightforward for EVs, though, which the EPA lists as emitting no CO2. While true from an exhaust standpoint, making the electricity needed to charge them does generate CO2: an average of 386 grams of it per kWh in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. We can then estimate their hidden CO2 emissions with the equation illustrated below. (It’s the same formula we used to calculate the break-even point for EVs when it comes to charging and production emissions vs their on-road savings last year.)

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Provided by The Drive

Calculating the hidden emissions of EVs. The Drive

Armed with this data, we can then calculate how efficiently each electrified vehicle uses its battery. The equation we’ll use for that is shown above—remember, the goal is to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible with a limited supply of batteries. And when you do the math, it’s pretty clear what the best option is.

Made with LiveGap Charts

Consider just how much battery your typical mass-market EV uses. Operating an F-150 Lightning may generate less than a third of the CO2 emissions of a gas F-150, but each one hoards 98 kWh of battery, most of which will be used only on the rare prolonged drive. Meanwhile, an F-150 Powerboost hybrid battery is just 1.5 kWh. It doesn’t achieve nearly the emissions reduction the Lightning does, but Ford could make 65 of them with the batteries that go into a single Lightning.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Provided by The Drive

That adds up, because if Ford sells one Lightning and 64 ICE F-150s, it’s cutting the on-road CO2 emissions of those trucks as a group by 370 g/mi. If it sold 65 hybrids—spreading the one Lightning’s battery supply across them all—it’d reduce aggregate emissions by 4,550 g/mi. Remember, this is using the exact same amount of batteries; the distribution is just different.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Provided by The Drive

The pattern holds true for the Hyundai/Kia combo and the BMWs, too—going full hybrid lowers emissions far more than building a handful of EV and a ton of gas cars. Split up an i4’s battery, and you can make seven 330e PHEVs, cutting 560 g/mi to one i4’s 266. Divvy up a Kona EV’s, and you can make seven Niro PHEVs worth 1,085 g/mi in reductions (one EV’s worth 239), or 41 regular Niro hybrids, for 4,797 g/mi eliminated.  Like the Ford, they make better use of a fixed battery supply by spreading it across a large number of hybrids, rather than concentrating them all in a single EV.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Provided by The Drive

Of course, EVs’ cases improve when they’re run exclusively on renewable energy. We can zero their per-mile CO2 emissions to simulate that, and it helps them out—but it doesn’t change the fact that their battery use is still inefficient. Powering a handful of EVs with renewables still just doesn’t have the immediate effect that a broader hybridization of new cars would.

It comes down to this: By using its limited battery supply on a small number of (expensive) EVs, the auto industry gets plaudits from investors and the public despite implementing an inefficient decarbonization scheme. It gets to greenwash itself with a handful of flashy products, while in fact not cutting CO2 emissions nearly as much as it could. The numbers strongly suggest that hybridizing as many new cars as possible is more effective, and to increasing degrees as battery technology evolves and supplies hopefully go up. That would allow hybrids to graduate to PHEVs, before being superseded by full EVs where appropriate.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here's Why

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why© Toyota

Most of the benefits of a full EV transition, however, would present themselves with widespread PHEV adoption. They offer enough range to make short trips on electric power alone, often at comparable up-front cost to an EV, but also the flexibility and efficiency of a hybrid powertrain for longer journeys. This lets them sidestep most of the obstacles to EV adoption, namely battery supply and poor charging infrastructure.

That said, there are reasons why PHEVs haven’t taken off. They’re less efficient and more complicated to produce and service than EVs or regular hybrids, not to mention heavier and more expensive than regular hybrids. They’re also not helped by their confusing names, never mind the PHEV acronym.

2023 Toyota Prius. Peter Nelson

Hybrids as a whole have taken a long time to capture market share, accounting for just 5.5 percent of the light vehicle market in 2021, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That’s over a period of 24 years since the pioneering Toyota Prius entered production. EVs meanwhile achieved a similar market share in less than half that time, attaining 5.8 percent of the U.S. market in 2022 according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s only a decade since the paradigm-shifting Tesla Model S entered production.

But EV buyers benefited from more generous tax incentives than hybrid customers ever did, with the previous federal EV tax credit effectively conjuring the market out of thin air. Like it dictates the sizes and kinds of cars we buy, both directly via the Chicken Tax and indirectly a la CAFE regulations, government policy strongly influences which powertrains we choose.

So far, the government has favored the shiny, hype-driven solution of fast-tracking EV adoption, when the math suggests that’s suboptimal—at least for the short and medium term. If anything, it’s probably fair to say the over-emphasis on EVs is slowing the decarbonization of the auto industry for the time being. We can’t afford to overlook the role hybrids have to play here and now in favor of a far-flung future where every car on the road is pure electric.

Besides, when the 2023 Toyota Prius is one of the best-looking cars on sale today, it makes the pragmatic solution that much easier to choose.

Toyota Is Right: We Need More Hybrid Cars and Fewer EVs. Here’s Why (msn.com)

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Bad vibes are rippling through the electric car market.

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Bad vibes are rippling through the electric car market. Short term some states have seen growth in Electric cars. California uses a phony number because they include hybrids and hydrogen cars. We are seeing warnings from Ford, GM,  Mercedes-Benz , and even Tesla.

What will the recent new UAW contracts do sale and pricing? Ford has announced that they’re holding back on 12 billion in new investments. GM is delaying the addition of three new brands and Honda cancelled it’s joint venture with GM.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ford-gm-mercedes-come-clean-on-ev-demand-weakness

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-gm-and-even-tesla-are-warning-about-the-ev-market-194905657.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAET975ijSrjkB2Dy_NsmTtZmv8PndFfRrv1sDGd5qjoQKPWQbQz6S-UrfYQJ54MknmTDIfKIbRQxWtl3pspxh_26gcRPR9nvEvGBI-QxZwFYwvrzbRtVGSUS2XC5qm0uIgpKVrJkLbNs-E2yYr3MDVGj-9-tZKHB9KhrXzxbb3sX

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/27/electric-vehicle-bad-vibes

 

 

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Democrat Rep. Phillips: I Voted for Biden’s Policies, But We Have Inflation and Border Crises, and ‘Crime in Cities and Chaos’.

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Democrat Rep. Phillips: I Voted for Biden’s Policies, But We Have Inflation and Border Crises, and ‘Crime in Cities and Chaos’. Let’s face it, he’s going nowhere, but he is being truthful.

During an interview with NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas aired on Friday’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” 2024 presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) stated that while he voted for President Joe Biden’s policies, we do have “a massive” affordability crisis, and “We have a border crisis. We have crime in cities and chaos.”

 “Let me start with affordability, it is a massive crisis in America right now, the cost of living. People’s mortgages are skyrocketing, fuel is too expensive, food is too expensive, health care — if it’s even obtainable — is double the price of anywhere in the world, medicine, three times more than anywhere else in the world.

We are falling behind. American middle-class, hard-working people are not being heard. They are angry, they’re frustrated. And that is job one.

We have a border crisis. We have crime in cities and chaos. We have a federal government that is run so ineffectively and so inefficiently, does not focus on customer service, doesn’t use zero-based budgeting, we don’t have term limits. So, therefore, we have the same people making the same decisions, and often the same mistakes time and time again. I’m making a proposition for change.”

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