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Throughout the Covid era, those expressing views at odds with the dominant narrative were often subjected to unprecedented levels of censorship and psychological manipulation.
Seeking Truth in a World of Propaganda. Links do not necessarily indicate agreement with stories or perspectives.
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.” - Plato
Friday, November 18, 2022
Elon Musk Pledges To “Deboost” Tweets Deemed Hateful Or Negative, Has Yet To Reinstate Trump
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Last Updated on November 18, 2022
Twitter CEO Elon Musk pledged the social media platform will “deboost” or seemingly shadowban any “negative/hate tweets.”
Additionally, Musk announced the Twitter accounts of Conservative influencer Jordan Peterson and The Babylon Bee, a right-wing media outlet, have been restored.
“Trump decision has not yet been made,” Musk noted, refusing to allow the 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump back on Twitter.
Musk’s admission of shadowbanning and censoring of tweets infuriated social media users.
“What constitutes hate? If I say “men aren’t women” would that get deboosted and demonetized? What if I used slurs in the context of a story in the public interest? Will we have transparency on deboosting?” @NuanceBro, a political commentator questioned.
Justin Amash, a former Michigan congressman, suggested Musk may not be a true advocate for free speech and the First Amendment.
RELATED: Elon Musk Grovels to the ADL, Will Enforce Their Censorship Agenda at Twitter
“It’s your company, so you’re free to enact any policy you like. But free speech includes speech that challenges and sometimes offends others. That’s how people grow. Making “negative” tweets harder to find hurts this process, and there’s no way this policy can be applied evenly,” Amash posted.
One Twitter user equated Twitter to a “partisan echo chamber” for not reinstating Trump, citing qualities the 45th president possesses.
“1. Trump was president of the United States.
2. He’s the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
3. He has never, to my knowledge, been convicted of any crime.
4. I don’t see how you can credibly call Twitter anything but a partisan echo chamber if you fail to reinstate him.”
1. Trump was president of the United States.
2. He's the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
3. He has never, to my knowledge, been convicted of any crime.
4. I don't see how you can credibly call Twitter anything but a partisan echo chamber if you fail to reinstate him.
— Lifelong Liminalist (@DriskillDanny) November 18, 2022
Allie Beth Stuckey, a rightwing influencer, questioned how Musk’s policy on deboosting tweets differs from previous policy.
“Ok how is this any different than the previous policy? People’s tweets suppressed because a biased rando at twitter thinks a tweet is mean or mad?” Stuckey commented.
National File previously reported on Musk’s intentions to continue Twitter’s censorship:
Elon Musk has announced that he’s groveling to the far-left ADL after they publicly warned him of the “dire consequences” he’d be faced with if he opened Twitter up to free speech and the free exchange of ideas.
Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced that he will continue enforcing Twitter’s censorship policies surrounding “hate” and “election integrity” at the behest of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), NAACP, and even the Bush family’s political machine.
“Talked to civil society leaders,” like Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, and Derrick Johnson, the CEO of the NAACP, Musk explained in a tweet.
“Twitter will continue to combat hate & harasssment & enforce its election integrity policies,” Musk announced, flipping the script on what millions of Twitter users believed was a free speech takeover of the Big Tech platform.
READ MORE: Elon Musk Grovels to the ADL, Will Enforce Their Censorship Agenda at Twitter
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.
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BREAKING: Dozens of Documents Linked to Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Associates will be Unsealed After Judge Rules Public Interest Trumps Privacy
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Dozens of documents connected to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be released to the general public following a judge’s ruling on Friday that the public interest overrides the right to privacy, Daily Mail reported.
This morning Judge Loretta Preska (in the civil suit of Giufre v. Maxwell) ordered the unsealing of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. Judge Preska is a senior judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
This latest ruling came in response to efforts by eight (8) “John/Jane Doe” third parties who petitioned the Court, demanding that scores of records be sealed and kept from the public to preserve the “Does'” reputations.
Judge Preska ruled that the documents pertaining to eight people could be released, despite objections from the “Does,” one of which was apparently unmasked in the hearing as Tom Pritzker, billionaire executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels. Lawyers for Pritzker had argued that unsealing the records would “wrongfully affect (his) privacy and reputation.”
Dozens of documents relating to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be UNSEALED https://t.co/2LY3g8hWUL pic.twitter.com/QN2GKqDr9U
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 18, 2022
Daily Mail reported:
Among those whose names are mentioned in the documents are Emmy Tayler, Ghislaine Maxwell‘s former personal assistant, who was accused of taking part in the sexual abuse of minors.
The Gateway Pundit joined the court hearing earlier this morning.
At the end of July, The Gateway Pundit reported on our legal efforts to unseal the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex clients – the men and women with whom Epstein traded sex with minors for favors or money or both.
TGP Lead Counsel Marc Randazza of the Randazza Legal Group and TGP General Counsel John Burns moved to intervene in the Ghislaine Maxwell case in the Southern District of New York.
However, something truly bizarre and unexpected happened.
An anonymous John Doe – literally styled by his lawyer as “John Doe” – filed an objection to TGP unsealing the sex client list … and the Court SIDED WITH THE JOHN DOE over the interests of the press and public to know what happens in one of the most remarkable court cases in US history.
We now know there are at least sixteen (16) “John / Jane Does.”
Today Judge Loretta Preska announced that the majority of material concerning eight of the “Does” should be unsealed despite objections relating to privacy and reputation.
PLEASE SUPPORT GATEWAY PUNDIT’S APPEAL TO THE SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, ASKING THE COURT TO UNSEAL THE EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST AND RELATED RECORDS!
The post BREAKING: Dozens of Documents Linked to Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Associates will be Unsealed After Judge Rules Public Interest Trumps Privacy appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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Without Easy Money, The Tech Sector Faces Hard Times
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Without Easy Money, The Tech Sector Faces Hard Times
Tyler Durden Fri, 11/18/2022 - 14:45
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Without Easy Money, The Tech Sector Faces Hard Times
Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
The tech sector in the US has benefited from more than a decade of ultra-low interest rates and easy money. But now it looks like the easy-money era may be ending—at least for now—and that means problems for the sector so long wedded to cheap loans.
Just a year ago, the ten-year treasury's yield was 1.4 percent. This month, however, the 10-year's yield is up to over 3.6 percent, and throughout the economy, debtors are finding that debt service isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be. Employers in the tech sector are responding as one might expect. Meta/Facebook has announced 11,000 layoffs. Amazon will soon lay off 10,000 employees. Twitter has laid off at least 3,700 employees. Stripe, Microsoft, and Snap have each laid off about a thousand workers. Salesforce and Zillow have laid off hundreds. Dozens of other firms have slowed or frozen hiring.
Thanks to rising debt costs, employers need to cut costs, but many employers will soon be facing declining revenues as well. Given that a multitude of indicators point toward an approaching recession—the yield curve is now the most inverted it's been since 1982—this is likely just the beginning.
What we're witnessing is the end of the latest tech bubble, and what seemed like rock-solid companies set to expand effortlessly forever will suddenly be characterized more by cost-cutting, falling revenues, and a hard slog in search of more capital.
The end of easy money will also separate the real innovators and entrepreneurs - people who build real value - from the big-talking frauds who only look smart or productive when they can just borrow more cheap money to kick the can of their failing and stagnating ventures down the road.
Unless the central bank and governments intervene to provide bailouts and backstops, the industry will face a much-needed reckoning. This will help clear out more than a decade of malinvestments and bubbles propping up top heavy and inefficient companies that could never survive without the artificially cheap credit provided by asset purchases and ultra-low-interest rate policy at the central bank.
Rising Interest Rates, Falling Valuations
Until very recently, interest rates had been declining for decades in the United States, and that has meant companies, at any given time, have generally been able to bank on cheaper debt not too far down the road. This has increased companies' valuations, and has made it easier for companies to find investors.
Even for companies that never—or almost never—turn a profit, cheap money has meant that the day of reckoning can simply be pushed further into the future. In many cases, we call these zombie companies: they don't have real value, but they can stay "alive" by paying off older, more expensive debt with new cheaper debt.
But, things are very different when easy money starts to get scarce. As Ryan Browne at CNBC recently noted:
Higher rates spell challenges for much of the market, but they represent a notable setback for tech firms that are losing money. Investors value companies based on the present value of future cash flow, and higher rates reduce the amount of that expected cash flow.
As a result,
Venture deal activity has been declining ... Not all companies will make it through the looming economic crisis — some will fail, according to Par-Jorgen Parson, partner at VC firm Northzone. “We will see spectacular failures” of some highly valued unicorn companies in the months ahead, he told CNBC. ...
The years 2020 and 2021 saw eye-watering sums slosh around equities as investors took advantage of ample liquidity in the market. Tech was a key beneficiary thanks to societal shifts brought about by Covid-19, like working from home and increased digital adoption. ... In a time when monetary stimulus is unwinding, those business models have been tested.
Part of the reason investors are now less interested in "unicorns" is that as interest rates rise, investors are less desperate to search out yield even in the most unproven and risky corners of the economy. For example, when government debt and other low-risk investments are paying next-to-zero yields, investors will be much more aggressive about finding riskier investments that pay at least something above zero. That includes high-risk trendy unicorn companies that promise big returns. But, as Treasurys and similar investments begin to promise higher yields—as they are doing now—there's less pressure to dump money in whatever flavor of the month is being put forward as the next big thing for investors. Moreover, in times of easy money, investors have more cash to throw around.
Once the cheap money regime ends, however, newly reticent investors become more interested in actually analyzing the fundamentals of firms seeking investors. That means firms will have to actually show they're efficient and only hiring employees who actually create value.
Easy Money Enables More Waste
For many top-heavy companies, that means layoffs. It's why Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently complained that "realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here." Zuckerberg went on to say he would deliberately be "turning up the heat" for employees in the hopes that the less committed would simply quit. (Meta shares are down more than 50 percent this year, and Meta has lost revenues as Zuckerberg's obsession with the metaverse has not been especially popular with consumers.)
Elon Musk has been in the midst of something similar at Twitter, firing thousands of employees, and demanding that those who remains be prepared to work long hours. While Twitter employees and ex-Twitter employees have been whining continually online about how everything was wonderful at Twitter until Musk showed up, the reality is that Twitter has only ever had two profitable years (2018 and 2019) and is neither efficient nor innovative.
Moreover, it's certainly not difficult to see why Zuckerberg and Musk would want to trim the fat if recent videos about "a day in the life" at Meta and Twitter are true. The two now-notorious videos show young female employees walking around Meta and Twitter offices showcasing how little work they do and how opulent the office perks are. Perks apparently include complementary gourmet food, red wine on tap, and free cappuccinos. Last May, Project Veritas reporters captured a Twitter senior engineer bragging about how little he works:
"[B]asically went to work, like, four hours a week last quarter. And that's just how it works in our company. ... [E]ssentially, like, everyone gets to do whatever they want, no one really cares about, like, [operating expenses]."
The engineer contrasts this approach at Twitter with "capitalists" who "care about numbers or care about how to make the business more efficient."
If true, it's all a perfect illustration of how the age of cheap credit has made it possible for companies to be highly valued even in the midst of senior employees who are essentially dead weight. As debt costs rise, labor costs must fall in many cases. That makes employees who work a few hours a day ripe for trimming.
These companies are probably looking at more hits from the revenue side as well. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery this week warned that the advertising market is worse now than at any time during the pandemic slowdown of 2020.
Yet again, we find that as borrowing costs rise, companies have less money to spend elsewhere. Advertisers have reduced spending, and this has meant hits to the valuation of media companies like Warner Bros. Discovery. This extends to social media companies as well.
Years of Malinvestment
The story of the last decade has in many cases been rising valuations for companies that often lose money, hire employees who barely work, and simply rake in the cash that yield-starved investors throw at them.
In other words, much of the tech sector has all the markings of a classic bubble and the effects of years of malinvestment. The lucky business owners and employees on the receiving end of malinvestment get to live high on the hog of cheap money with rising wages, luxurious offices, and never ending "growth." Workers and owners alike can then pat themselves on the back about how brilliant they all are. But much of it is an illusion and its existence depends largely on many years of central bank interventions designed to force down interest rates, prop up asset prices, and essentially print money to keep liquidity flowing unceasingly to firms via investors. Yet, when price inflation finally forces the central bank to allow interest rates to rise again—as is now happening—the music stops, and it seems all the brilliant geniuses running tech companies weren't quite so efficient, profitable, or clever after all.
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Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites
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Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites
Tyler Durden Fri, 11/18/2022 - 15:20
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Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites
Authored by Michael Maharrey via SchiffGold.com,
Walmart recently announced better-than-expected third-quarter sales growth. This may seem like great economic news until you realize the reason behind the retailer’s big jump in sales.
As it turns out, wealthier shoppers are flocking to Walmart to make ends meet as rising prices squeeze pocketbooks.
In its earnings report, Walmart said it is making “strong grocery share gains, including from high-income households.”
“Customers who came to us less frequently in the past are now shopping with us more often, including high-income customers,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a Tuesday call with investors and analysts.
Why are more affluent people shopping at Walmart? In a recent podcast, Peter Schiff said it was out of necessity.
It’s because they can’t afford to shop at the more expensive, fancier markets that they used to go to because prices are up so much, in order to put food on their tables, they’re having to trade down and buy cheaper stuff at Walmart.”
Walmart also reported strong growth in its private-brand sales, a sign shoppers are abandoning more expensive name brands and turning to lower-priced generic alternatives.
According to CNN, other discount supermarkets, along with Dollar General, reported gaining new, wealthier customers trying to manage budgets during these inflationary times.
While the CPI came in lower than expected in October, food prices continue to rise. The price of food at home increased by 0.6% month-on-month. Food at restaurants was up 0.9% on the month. Annualized, food prices were up nearly 11% in October.
Pundits and analysts like to look at core inflation, stripping out more volatile food and energy prices to gauge inflation, but consumers don’t have that luxury. They can’t just cut food out of their budgets, and Americans are struggling to cope.
Increased spending on food is forcing consumers to cut in other areas. Walmart’s third-quarter report hints at this. While grocery sales increased in the “mid-teens” last quarter, the company reported “softness in discretionary categories including electronics, home, and apparel.”
Wages are rising, but they aren’t keeping up with prices. On an annual basis, real average hourly earnings decreased by 3.0% from September 2021 to September 2022 (seasonally adjusted). It was the 18th consecutive month of declining real wages on an annual basis.
Tight budgets aren’t just altering shopping behavior. It is also forcing people to dig deeper and deeper into debt. Household debt increased at the fastest pace in 15 years during Q3, as American consumers ran up their Mastercards and Visas month after month. Credit card balances surged by 15% year-on-year in Q3, increasing by $38 billion between July and September. That was the biggest annual increase in credit card debt in more than two decades. Rising credit card debt coupled with increasing mortgage costs pushed overall household debt higher.
Economists and pundits talk about inflation as an academic exercise. They rarely reflect on the fact that rising prices have real impacts on real people. After months of rising prices, even wealthier Americans are feeling the pain. And if you happen to be somebody living on a fixed income or savings, you’re really screwed as inflation is rapidly eating away your purchasing power and your income streams aren’t increasing at all. Inflation always causes the most pain for the poor and elderly.
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Thursday, November 17, 2022
Jim Jordan Says House Republicans Will Expose Biden’s Corrupt DOJ/FBI’s Involvement in Covering Up Hunter Biden’s Laptop From Hell (VIDEO)
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Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Thursday delivered remarks as Republicans announced an investigation into Joe Biden’s international money laundering operation. House Oversight Republicans on Thursday launched an investigation into Joe Biden and the Biden crime family.
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Thursday delivered remarks as Republicans announced an investigation into Joe Biden’s international money laundering operation. House Oversight Republicans on Thursday launched an investigation into Joe Biden and the Biden crime family.
"This Is Unprecedented": Enron Liquidator Overseeing FTX Bankruptcy Speechless: "I Have Never Seen Anything Like This"
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A few days ago we asked how much longer do we have to wait for the "first-day affidavit" in the FTX bankruptcy, traditionally the most detailed and comprehensive summary of how any given company collapsed into Chapter 11 (and in FTX's case, Chapter 7 soon, as this will soon become a full-blown liqui
A few days ago we asked how much longer do we have to wait for the "first-day affidavit" in the FTX bankruptcy, traditionally the most detailed and comprehensive summary of how any given company collapsed into Chapter 11 (and in FTX's case, Chapter 7 soon, as this will soon become a full-blown liqui
1 in 5 Young Adults Dies From Excessive Alcohol Consumption
Deaths attributed to excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S. are trending upward. Between 2015 and 2019, 1 in 5 deaths (20.3%) in the 20- to 49-year age group was related to excessive alcohol intake. The percentage of men dying from excess alcohol consumption (15%) was higher than that of women (9.4%), but both are on the rise
Common types of alcohol-related deaths include alcohol poisoning, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and alcohol-related liver disease or pancreas failure
Other data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest the rate of deaths directly attributed to alcohol rose by more than 25% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when many were self-isolating and working from home. The trend continued into 2021, by then up 34% from prepandemic levels
Researchers have established a clear link between isolation, loneliness and alcohol abuse and addiction so, clearly, health officials did not have public health in mind when they declared liquor stores to be an “essential business” during the pandemic, while churches, gyms and even parks and beaches were shut down
Two alcoholic drinks per day or less for men and one drink or less for women is considered “moderate” consumption. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion for men, or four or more for women. A “drink” is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor
48,817 DEAD and 5,107,883 Injured Following COVID-19 Vaccines in European Database of Adverse Reactions
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The European (EEA and non-EEA countries) database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, verified by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and they are now reporting 48,817 fatalities, and 5,107,883 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:
The European (EEA and non-EEA countries) database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, verified by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and they are now reporting 48,817 fatalities, and 5,107,883 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:
[Does this mean every grocery store and pharmacy offering the shots can be sued when the truth comes out?] A Doctor Is Facing $500 Billion In Fines For Promoting Vitamin D3 & Zinc During The Scamdemic
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A St. Louis-based chiropractor, Dr. Eric Nepute is facing federal fines of about half a trillion dollars for allegedly profiting from sales of vitamin D3 and zinc supplements during the “pandemic.”
The 27-page complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2021 accused Dr. Nepute of profiting from the sales of supplements during the COVID-19 scamdemic. He sold vitamin D3 and zinc supplements, which have been proven to address COVID-19 infection, under the Wellness Warrior brand.
At the same time supplements are being discouraged, excessive deaths following the mRNA injections are ongoing and those who made said injections will not be held liable for any damages done.
Big Pharma Will Not Be Responsible For COVID-19 Side Effects Caused By Vaccines
“Starting no later than June 2020, [Nepute] began advertising a protocol that customers should follow to protect against, prevent or treat COVID-19. This protocol, which has varied over time, advises consumers to take [daily] substantial quantities of emulsified vitamin D3 and zinc,” the complaint stated. “No published studies prove vitamin D protects against, treats or prevents COVID-19.”
The complaint added that Nepute’s “lack of factual or scientific bases for these claims [are] frequently accompanied by equally unsupported assertions regarding applicable science. In short, (the) defendants are selling their products by disseminating information, exploiting fears [amid] a pandemic and posting a significant risk to public health and safety.”
When has that happened? Oh, we remember:
MSM Is Really Turning Up The Propaganda: Vaccinated Dying From COVID Means Vaccines Work!
“The federal government is suing me for half a trillion dollars … for telling people to take vitamins,” said Nepute, who hosts “Real Talk with Dr. Eric Nepute” on Brighteon.TV. “The only reason they’re coming after me – and they said this – is because I’m the first doctor they went after and they want to set a precedent. They said they wouldn’t stop until they had ‘blood on their sword.’ That’s literally from the FTC’s mouth.’
Lawyers for Nepute have already filed a motion to dismiss the government’s case on summary judgment, including more than 10 million alleged violations of the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act of 2020 and more than 12 million violations of the FTC Act. Each alleged violation carries a maximum civil penalty of $43,792 – which amounts to a total of more than $500 billion. This penalty, according to the chiropractor’s lawyers, exceeds “the gross domestic product of Austria, Nigeria, and all but 25 nations.” -Natural News
Nepute remarked that the FTC is pushing the case “because it’s political.” He added: “I’ve spent $3.5 million defending myself. The only tactic they have is to drag this out, so I can’t afford to take it to trial.”
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