Hunter Biden’s Laptop And Twitter Files. On Censorship And Tribes

Allow me to take a detour by way of the Twitter Files and Hunter Biden in order to provide an example of a few aspects I mentioned in regard to Lefty behaviour, most of them contained in the following paragraph, from my penultimate post:

I see the automatic reactions, the instant grimaces, and the train of thought that's all caboose that missed the station on its way to the all-too-predictable, reality-lacking, partisan-backing conclusions forwarded by tribalists, and I'm deeply discouraged, as the ingredients required to break the two-party curse are clearly missing, indoctrinated out of reality, producing a limited discourse ridiculously boxed-in within anti-other framings that, in "non-Rightists" are imbued with a self-righteousness expressed with thick arrogance while Rightists paint that 'side' as a radical-left-filled Commie zoo, for each is filled with the assurance that they are correct, oblivious of any info that's missing in their assessments, this partially due to the shameful lack of self-awareness displayed, the product of a willful ignorance fortified by a firm belief that the 'other' is devious scum, making it illogical to want to look past the first layer that establishes that reality. That is, unless one is an anti-American terrorist and pedophile, obviously?

Essentially:

• Missing chunks of reality.
• Lack of self-awareness.
• Extremely reductive and divisive.
• Condescending and arrogant attitude that leaves no room for understanding nor the discourse it requires.

I focus on The Majority Report in this one, but the message is intended for all those I qualify as the Caucus-Left. I do hope it's taken as constructive criticism albeit the whole touches on some areas I may be passionate about and, hence, despite how this may shine through at times. Call it tough love? I don't actually believe that any of these Caucus-Leftists are idiots, but they sure are acting in idiotic ways, an aspect that many across the globe have now also taken notice of since Ukraine...

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“What’s more controversial? Taking down links to revenge porn that was stolen from Hunter Biden’s laptop or, um, them saying, unilaterally, we’re going to take down links to our competitor or links that may be critical of us.”

That was a comment made in reference to the Twitter Files by The Majority Report's Emma Vigeland, who, sadly, is the winner of the 2022 DMS&UY "Troubling Tribalist" award. I'd much rather give it to someone on the Right, but, boy, she earned it.

Take Notice Not to Overlook Looking the Other Way

From denial to downplaying to diverting to admitting complete ignorance on the matter, simply mentioning "Hunter" received eye rolls and chortles and was deemed sufficient to apply the rightwing conspiracist label, followed through with some put downs, and to disregard whatever was said.

Perhaps back in October of 2020, in the heat of election lunacy and the contact sport that politics was turning into, sparked by the fear of a Trump serving another term, perhaps then, one's callous attitude toward this topic can be forgiven, but at every turn, from repeating the "fake laptop" and "Russian disinformation campaign" to finding all sorts of ways of deflecting attention once all the outlets who'd denied the existence were reporting on a suddenly very real laptop after the elections, to whitewashing the entire issue and pushing the notion that all there is are dick pics and pervert Republicans who want to shame Biden... whoa! Talk about denial and/or tribalism.

And I don't much care for the way the GOP are gonna go about this, sure to make a farce out of too much of it, but, then again, this can't be worse than the Dems' impeachment attempts, especially the second, or the interminable hearings and calls for hearings because some Republican farted, but one can expect things to be done less tastefully and with garish backdrops and ultra-cliched soundbites, and painful musical scores, too.

But if you want scammers and wasted time, how come the CLs never mention Russiagate? Because the Caucus-Left still silently but firmly believes this to be true. Which is why they can't see the FBI connection in all that's happening, events and decisions revolving around a group of very powerful people, which includes the Clintons. The talk of insider collusion and a need to clean the FBI came about why rather intensily in the last years, and why do you suppose that is? There's a faction that's not doing its job, being loyal to the Biden Bunch neolibs, which includes Obama and Bush Jr., too.

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Although what I describe is attributable to nearly all of the Caucus-Left — TYT also a good example, having adopted an equally maddening take on the subject since the beginning — what takes the cake is Vigeland revisiting the subject in the Dec podcast, "Elon's Twitter Files Fail Somehow Gets WORSE," to then admit that she hadn't a clue what the whole laptop story was about, having done so after fill-in co-host Matt Binder had divulged as much, which Brandon Sutton, also filling in, followed suit, then went on a you know-filled explanation of rightwing behaviour, expounding on why it is that people are obsessed with dick pics... sigh.

I haven't a clue what it's about but I'll tell you what they're about, because that's how ignorant I am of being ignorant, seeing as I swallowed the liberal mainstream media's take on the matter and I've adopted it as absolute truth since it supported my biases and hatred, so thank you for supporting independent media, because the mainstream media is BS.

Essentially, that's the not-so-bright message I got out of that.

Aside: 43 "you knows" in that 19-min video; TMR is among the worst abusers of that seemingly addictive filler, averaging 2.963 "you know" per on-air minute. They tend to be clustered, and if you're me, you'll understand why it gets to be so annoying sometimes that I have to skip to another video. "I... uh, you know, think that, you know, it's going to, you know..." I know what? That you sound incompetent? A producer should catch and rectify such habits; there's absolutely no positive to them.

What Vigeland is referring to in the above quote is the undeniable confirmation of a well-known event, namely, the censoring of that (in)famous New York Post Hunter Biden story that came out of the Twitter files, clearly establishing that the information had been suppressed on Twitter (and Facebook) following a Democratic party request to do so, the info made available revealing that such a mechanism was in place to facilitate censorship requests made from campaign officials on either side of the official divide.

That it was a bipartisan tool is what was stated by Matt Taibi — the first journalist granted access to (a portion) of the Twitter Files — when he had first "reported" on them, also mentioning at the time that Trump officials had also made requests, however, in an interview with Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro, Taibi later affirmed that he was reporting what he'd been told, and that he'd been unable "to find a single piece of evidence of such a request" in the bans and post removals documented.

Without access to the complete files, having to deal with what one is handed and having a lawyer act as intermediary between the info and the appointed info disseminator, who must do so on Twitter, it's clear that partisan positions on the matter can be raised but that absolutely no clear conclusion can be reached, and, so, what should be of concern to all no matter one's political stance, is governmental control over info.

If the Caucus-Left and Progressive Dems weren't so tribal and determined to take a tunnel-vision outlook and blasé approach to the increasingly pervasive control that's been applied to the information that's allowed, then, perhaps, they'd take a more serious and far less partisan attitude in regard to this, voicing greater concern over matters having taken an increasingly frightening turn since 2016, but only because of the bureaucratic one that gave birth to the Patriot Act, whose reach Obama amplified.

And while the CIA and Pentagon ties with Big Tech deepen and the revolving door allowed many to join key cabinet roles from key Silicon Valley positions and vice versa, the latest omnibus bill increases spending on governmental surveillance and means to control info.

That, in mid September, the NYT and WaPo had reported (links below) on the Pentagon's psyops efforts carried out on social media was just the establishment getting ahead of the story, in my opinion, diffusing the potential impact this story may have had if certain indie outlets had disseminated the info and their version managed to gain traction. This way, 'official versions' from reputable outlets were sure to be the ones that served as reference for a huge chunk of people, these feeding the partisan view on the issue of info control by presenting a seemingly transparent admission that the US government is was running disinformation campaigns, but it's only — I mean: was only — on foreign soil and for good reasons, and only to counter evil forces, like the Russians, who, by the way, are fierce propagandists, being Russian and all, and, while we're on the subject, the Russians blah, blah, in 2016, and blah, blah, blah propaganda... Russian playbook.... blah, blah, blah... Russian propaganda campaign. The world must protect itself. Promoting US foreign policy is good. Russia bad. Putin evil.

• Pentagon Orders Review of Its Overseas Social Media Campaigns | The New York Times
• Pentagon reviews psychological operations amid Facebook, Twitter complaints | The Washington Post

And, given the climate in Iran at the time, what better opportunity could there be to discuss Russia by way of Iran than by covering a Pentagon-disinformation story?

One campaign targeting Iran, however, spread divisive messages about life there. The accounts involved pushed out views that both supported and opposed the Iranian government. That disinformation effort resembled the methods used by Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (NYT)

That type of vague and common effort actually resembles methods documented to have been used by the US, too, and nothing suggests that they've stopped using such techniques, and, given Russia and Iran's relationship versus the US's obsessive circling around Iran, being the vulture that it is, the eye it's always had on Iran clearly no longer satisfied with just ogling if the US is to get its hands on Eurasia, I'm willing to bet that that's actually US efforts.

Indeed, such a topic is, yet again, flipped and turned into an anti-whatever, aimed at any entity or person(s) that's the cause of any friction and pushback against Establishment goals, those targeted turned enemy of the state for they're affecting the plans of someone or some group with the gravitas and the connections, and with the reasons — usually financial — to warrant a coordinated bit of propaganda from two institutions who, despite their names once being synonymous with "honest journalism", have since been swallowed up and transformed into two all-in-one PR, Marketing, and communications departments that specifically cater to the Establishment's desired narrative.

Taking on faith what either of those two articles delivered would leave you convinced that Russia severely altered US elections (fact: they had a truly negligible impact) and they meddle in everyone's elections, creating false news and fake tweets wherever they go in cyberspace, posing a real threat to the Free & Democratic World®; shutting them down yesterday if not today is what's required. And, by the way, the Pentagon had a go at it, but only overseas, and to stop Russians.

What's truly maddening is how the Caucus-Left understands that propaganda and this type of info manipulation is par for the course for the US government and its various three-letter agencies, corporations also playing a heavy hand in this, yet, they only seem to want to address the issue if a Republican is involved in a manner that presents some area that can be amplified and used to make the entire GOP look bad.

Otherwise, it's eye rolls and ridicule based on the lies and the stereotypes they uphold and reinforce, thus, in a self-fulfilled prophecy kind of way, having convinced themselves of the veracity of these through too much of their time being dedicated to seeking out examples of behaviour that fits their wide-scale prejudice and shows the other in a bad light, hence never having to account for their demented hate and the clear bigotry under which they operate.

Remember that October 2020 NPR non-story story? Still?! Yes, again, that bit, as I still can't believe the Caucus-Left's reaction to the media's treatment of the initial story, notwithstanding being able to understand the pre-election mood that motivated such an attitude. However, since then, NPR itself covering the story once Biden was in office, to still treat the entire subject the way the CLs do... tribal brain impairment is the only thing that makes sense to me, because, I'm sorry to say, CLs are incredibly stupid on this subject. Like, really stupid, in my opinion. Wake the hell up! Some things deserve putting one's hate aside, along with the sheer stupidity it generates, and to actually see an issue in a non-partisan manner, addressing these for the broader, shared implications that ought to be of concern to all but the corporate and/or Establishment folks who enforce such measures and apply such control; act as people for a change, not as warring idiots tribalists.

Have I mentioned "brain impairment" as a consequence of tribalism before?  

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Taking just one example: Just take a moment to please recall all those deaths in elderly care homes in New York back in 2020, and how the exact same people stupidly parroting the establishment narrative now, i.e., the Caucus-Left, did so then as well, shitting then on a chunk of the same people they do now.

Back when it had mattered and public pressure could have had a positive effect, these people preferred automatically dismissing as "an insane, far-Right conspiracy theory" something they could have researched and confirmed, helping to take action rather than turn that into partisan stupidity, allowing hate to lead their thinking, act like condescending, self-righteous shitheads, then, eventually, and only once the mainstream media they claim to be a replacement of confirms it for them do they react, after the fact, once it was too late, LIKE EVERY OTHER FUCKING TIME WITH YOU PEOPLE! 

On this, I'm talking about tribalists, not necessarily CLs.

Yes, it's a subject that profoundly upsets me; the whole news landscape and what it's become and how it's treated given the crucial role information plays... ALL is info mediated through the senses, and shallow, greedy, ignorant shitheads are who we trust to act as an interface between the unmediated world and our awareness of it?

Clearly, our problems, as a species, are far bigger than what conservatives present, and are far bigger because progressives are no better, and their function is centred on "blame", not finding solutions. 

Now, with Ukraine, the whole mainstream, progressive, American Left pretty much established itself as a real joke.  

I keep up with what the Caucus-Left is up to, but they're a secondary if not tertiary source of info as they no longer represent or speak for REAL Leftists and progressives, for they're now coated in a conservative veneer, albeit one that has more to do with one's comfort and security issues than anything espoused by the Republicans and rightwing media, but, then again, an aspect I've continually brought up: their product has morphed into being no more than a mirror of the reactionary right's media approach. The real motivator for that? Money, of course. Just nowhere near as much as those willing to sell their souls, too, and advocate for the Right.

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Have I mentioned "brain impairment" as a consequence of tribalism before? No, I didn't forget that I just asked that; the repetition is for your benefit. Helps with comprehension, for those with a brain impairment. 

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My problem isn't that the liberal mainstream media refused to report on the story at the time; they did, in fact, report on it, but just the story, though, not the laptop, and all was OpEd.

They whitewashed the entire thing and claimed it was "part of a disinformation campaign by Russia" when they weren't calling it a hoax, the whole thing being a smear campaign and distraction manufactured by the depraved rightwingers, bestowing on the rest of the populace the duty to call out the white-supremacist Nazis and to "cancel" their arse should the word "laptop" even leave their lips. Many accuse the CLs of being 'bubble people' for a reason, by the way.

As I believe I've made amply clear at the time, not having experienced the incremental change that normalizes a drastic difference translated into a major and destabilizing shock that had instantly amped up a paranoia and instilled an unsettling sense of dread and anxiety — no liberal media was presenting any news; all was hate-promoting, anti-Trump op-eds calling half the country Nazis and pushing some major lie or other, clearly acting as one in a widely coordinated effort to control an anti-Trump narrative and the impression one was to have of anything Trump had said or done. Perhaps, for that reason alone, I was more sensitive to a difference I would have otherwise participated in whilst knowing that the Dems are bad, but truly worrying and really greedy, absolutely evil people at the helm of the Dems are what I now see, and I can't unsee it.

Other than Fox, ironically, there's not one corporate outlet that behaved professionally on key issues that shed the Dems in a bad light, whilst these outlets' idiocy trickled down to be instantly absorbed by "Leftists" — yes, with a huge emphasis on the quotation marks — who've shown themselves to be increasingly detached from their base.

Biden lied. Repeatedly. About his knowledge, about his dealings, about facts already confirmed to him by the FBI, for there is a signed subpoena that indicates that the FBI had had the laptop for over a year at that point, and Hunter Biden was under investigation for tax fraud. Yet, Biden was clear: it's Russian propaganda and those who repeat it are far-right conspiracists and Putin sympathisers, and the country needs an info tsar to protect us from these creeps, obviously...

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"We're seeing, like, um, it be called "censored by the state," when really what happened was it just wasn't given the full benefit of, like, the algorithmic virality of social media platforms and that's like censorship to them," says TMR's Matt Lech.

Honestly, why should anyone care what these people have to say? We can already deduce their take on, and answer to, anything based on these two criteria: What is the GOP take/answer, and what's beneficial to the Dems.

Take the fucking tribalism out of your head! Who gives a shit what any Republican said when assessing this issue for what it presents? How brainwashed and braindead does one have to be to frame such a topic per what some MAGA people may have said? What the hell kind of lobotomy did you people undergo?

People were demonized and harassed, called liars and grifters and banned and deplatformed, some losing revenue. And this needlessly and deeply intensified the divide. And for dick pics?! Why these "Lefties" aren't comfortable with being called "morons" is beyond me. Goddamn tribalists.

And here's something you may have forgotten: NPR IS PUBLIC RADIO! Do you not get the significance of this simply because "your team" isn't affected or because you've deliberately opted to be as obtuse as possible on certain facets should these link back to politics?

The whole media machine is now an official branch of the government — just not officially so — and the only people not reacting to this in a manner that expresses some degree of genuine concern are those who aren't rightwing or who aren't actual Leftists. The rightwing is continually shut down for its social views, and there's much there that's warranted, but it's also shut down for its attacks on certain aspects of the Dems or their agenda; on the other hand, an aspect that all seem to overlook: the "real" Lefties are probably the ones who get censored and demonitized the most. Anti-capitalist stuff... not so popular with establishment folks.

Because Caucus-Left pundits have largely scoffed at the thought that this was important or would have had an impact, as usual, bias and impressions of the other loom large and set the course, establishing, yet again, that the corruption all complain of has reached this level — the country being handed over to corporations — because of the very cracks created by idiotic tribalists, on both sides, and although they make claims like, "I don't care, if they're guilty, let the law have at them," they simultaneously stupidly do their all to downplay and twist reality and hinder the anger people should feel so it can be properly directed and the corruption laid bare.

Ukraine is the last straw for me. And for many. And the Caucus-Left, who are meant to be the voice of those wanting an end to this, are so beyond fucking clueless on the topic it makes you want to slap them silly, especially when they're shitting on people for taking a bigotry-based superficial view of homosexuality or trans issues while, here they are, with a Russophobia so thick it's oozing out of them and blocking brain functioning, limiting themselves to the most puerile and superficial take of the whole conflict. And what to make of their inability to see what's in play there and the US establishment's imperialist lust — Russia has shown no such global ambitions; you've only gobbled up Western propaganda if you think otherwise, so shut the fuck up, and go do your research!

REIN IN YOUR GODDAMN WAR-OBSESSED GOVERNMENT!

Right now, the Caucus-Left, do know that you're a major part of the problem. You'll continue to be so as long as you remain worthless, easily-manipulated tribalists.

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Conversely, two of the most sensible takes on the matter came out of Left Reckoning's David Griscom — which he hosts with TMR's Matt Lech — and the Convo Couch's Fiorella Isabel, as both made a firm point of stepping out of the tribalism imposed on this issue, seeing value and cause for concern in the information that was released, while also seeing the limitations and strongly urging viewers to keep in mind who Elon Musk is, and to question his agenda, rather than focusing on just the last two and turning this into a partisan issue like far too many are doing.

The great majority of possible situations in the world should not always be treated as a friggin' partisan issue. Give it a rest on occasion and put focus on where it matters, or please make an effort to put on a bit of a show of decency and self-awareness, and stop referring to yourselves as "progressive" and start talking about sports or cooking.

Moving From Out of Touch Toward Irrelevance

The title of a 13-Sep-2022 segment confused me: "CNN's Pivot To News For Never Trump Republicans Is Complete."

I'm aware of CNN's self-determined re-orientation since the change in ownership and management, the news channel unashamedly openly vowing to go where it needs to go ideologically in order to get views, though the new head used more flowery language to say as much, but I don't buy one bit that this is what we're seeing in the CNN interview that TMR comments on; the following is the summary offered on YouTube.

These people really don't get it, do they? They're so wrapped up in tribal idiocy and too swept up in hating the other side.

Sigh.

Nothing released as "...it does not exist."

Double sigh with mumbled swears.

Really? Perhaps joining Matt Walsh in locating womanhood would be more their speed?

The bigotry that's increasingly becoming a defining characteristic of the Caucus-Left, itself the product of an increasingly reductive and reactionary mindset that stems from the insular positioning imposed by their chosen approach within a market that pits these outlets in competition against morally-flexible and moneyed entities, sandwiched against the false-fronted, globally-minded Democrats who still manage to fool just the Caucus-Leftists... their's isn't exactly the best of positions — it's the US; the Left shouldn't expect to be offered such a place within government — but it's also one that's entirely their making, always choosing the course that's to exacerbate this facet.

Very serious and educated, non-conspiracy-theory-prone-and-promoting people are complaining about the worrisome turn that media has taken and the authoritarian tool it's fast becoming, applying increased control over all information, especially all that demands a major adjustment or compromise on the citizens' part, while we've seen situations and cases being spun and exploited, or just plain manufactured, in order to apply even greater control over those areas where certain forms of intrusions haven't yet found approval... for your security and that of the world... for Democracy & Freedom!

That CNN segment is an example of precisely the type of behaviour that's referred to. They honestly think CNN is peddling dick pics and reinforcing the notion that that's all that's on the hard drive to pander to Never-Trump GOPs? How does one even reach that conclusion??? CNN knows damn well that there's more on that hard drive than dick pics (which I discuss below). They've been lying for Biden since the beginning of his campaign, some are just too much of a mindless tribalist to realise it.

That places one a few notches below those journalists, like Matt Taibi, that one criticises, perhaps?

Reminds me of TYT, who were adamant that NATO was just Putin BS repeated by "pro-Putin rightwing losers who, like Tucker Carlson, love macho men," and this, in spite of all the say so of the great majority of the world's experts, intellectuals, and non-Western Bobs and Babs, and a growing portion of Western ones, too, be they military strategists, Black or white, anti-war peaceniks, or all of the above, along with the usual anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, and dissenting voices, as well as the slew of memos and letters and autobiographies, and even a PDL with a DMS&UY, too, all these warning, or assuring, that NATO and Ukraine equals one big and justified red-line no-no which is sure to carry unwanted consequences for the region. Combine that with other important and ideological factors, and, because one had to seek the info rather than have it pounded into one's skull non-stop like what was being done for the deceitful, manipulative, and underhanded version of events in Ukraine that the globalizing-obsessed Western warmongers and neolib austerity pushers wanted us all to buy into, hence, the moronic version that feeds off of years of anti-Russian indoctrination — all of it baseless — is what the Progressives are pushing when doing the opposite could have stopped the war months ago, even prevented it all together... Anyhow, TYT was basing themselves entirely off of a Politico piece, seemingly unaware that Politico is now a de facto propaganda tool for the establishment, when going to the actual source itself would have instantly shown they had been played, and were right in the first place regarding the importance of NATO as a factor to the conflict. 

HEY, NITWITS! There's a goddamn fucking war right where too many events and people with ties to said fucking war just so happened to converge, and while, just off the top of my head, I can think of 20 way, way worse things having been done by other US Presidents when compared to the overblown, wholly exaggerated reaction to that phone call Trump made to Kyiv — Biden having actually overtly made the exact same threat to Kyiv while VP — it never crossed your goddamn mind that all of it is related and the Dems reaction, no matter how much you hate Trump — it's not about your fucking feelings and your bigoted opinions, by the way — had far more to do with Trump jeopardizing what's turning out to be a huge money laundering operation and a future-determining proxy-war-to-be than anything real criminal done by Trump (Biden having actually overtly made the exact same threat to Kyiv while VP, by the way; gotta repeat for the mentally impaired)?  

Because you're too stupid or brainwashed or too filled with anti-right hate — or whatever the reason — to bother with details and understand that it's not a war that Putin wanted, and it's one he did everything to avoid, and because you fail to realize the imperialist bent behind it all — by the West — you're proving yourselves to be useless to a progressive way forward, and your failure to seize any of that and take advantage of the opportunity that the times had presented, that is why I rage. Hearing Putin having his hand forced being interpreted as Russian imperialism from anyone living inside the biggest, meanest imperialist machine in history and too brainwashed to realise it... [insert major swears]

With the following, Vigeland lost all my respect: 

“There have been leaks and leaks and all it does is implicate Joe Biden as a supportive and warm father to his son, who goes through trouble, who's… who appears to be a bit of an effort…”

“Frankly, I understand he's a public figure, but I don't know why, I have sympathy for him, I guess I just do, like, his personal laptop is just being drip, drip, dripped of naked photos of him, and photos of him doing drugs or having sex. It's really, like, unconscionable and gross, and this guy's just trafficking in it even though this is page six daily mail garbage but he's the contributing editor for New York Magazine, so it's, like, presented in a more highfalutin way but, no, it's just it's garbage it's nonsense.”  CNN's Pivot To News For Never Trump Republicans Is Complete | YouTube

Wow, right? That's as brainless a tribalist as one can get? The pictures were dumped over two years ago. No drip, drip, you drip; one big dump. I even joke about one video and reference the crack in one of my first posts since reviving DMS&UY, which I'd posted on 5-Nov-2020. I didn't look at all of the pics, having gotten a good sense of what they were all about after the 30-ish pic of Hunter Biden, all of them leading me to wonder what type of oddball narcissism he suffered from while simultaneously wondering if someone had roofied him — on top of all else he'd ingested — and were setting him up; taking those types of pictures of oneself, and leaving them on one's computer... very odd. This aspect is worth consideration.

I don't have set expectations regarding the laptop, but, yeah, I think Biden is amoral scum, ditto Obama, and the whole Bunch that both men shared and who are now either in cabinet positions, acting as high-ranking managers in Big Tech, or appointed to Ukraine-related positions before 24-Feb-2022. There are events playing out that are far more important than whatever imbecility Steven Crowder may have done, and it's anyone's prerogative to not care about them, but don't hinder those who do, and who care about the truth of the matter. There's far more info on that laptop than dick pics, and you're the one embarrassing yourself if that's all you think

At the risk of repeating myself hoping it'll finally sink in: You're constantly missing half of reality! You've created your bubble and it's turning you into Dem-tools and idiots. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. Whatever release I may find in calling some "idiots", in this case, there's no joy in my doing so. This time. Saddest part, though, is hearing the CLs repeating the demonstrably-wrong pro-imperialist Establishment narrative, and attacking those who don't.  

Unlike the Caucus-Left or rightwing media — who only focus on surface-level aspects that can be presented as negatives concerning the other — I care about the raw info that's available no matter the source, just keep in mind that, for any single story, what's of value differs across all outlets, and the value of a story to an outlet's politics is equally important, this aspect communicated even when an outlet has made no mention of a story.

All I've seen of Caucus-Leftists are all sorts of illogical filters they impose on themselves, limiting their info sources in damaging ways, and expecting others to adhere to the same exclusionary rules, as what one reads or whom one spoke to is deemed far more important than what one has to say, which won't be listened to, period, if any aspect isn't on the 'approved' list. Other viewpoints provide clips to shit on people, that is all.  

A good example is former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who provides invaluable commentary on the situation in Ukraine, and on military matters in general. To the Caucus-Left, he's taboo; not one of them will mention Ritter and probably none of them have listened to him, or, they don't dare mention him to avoid the auto judgment and condemnation that the 'Left' excels in delivering.

I initially thought it was because he's rightwing, even if not visibly so, his rhetoric almost never couched in partisan politics albeit his mention of government. That in itself is refreshing. However, in a Vanguard episode, journalist Aaron Maté, Zac and Gavin's guest, had mentioned Ritter, to which the pair grimaced and said they didn't care to listen to anything Ritter had to say, for he's a convicted pedophile, and they just don't want to associate with such people in any way.

I wasn't aware. So I looked into it.

Zac and Gavin are young, so I doubt they recall or paid much attention then, but nor does it seem as if they've attributed much thought to the matter, acting in a very typically judgmental and exclusionary Lefty way. Essentially, Ritter stood up to the US government, especially a condescending Biden, and called them liars, being a primary weapons inspector in Iraq and not having found a single evidence of WMDs. He's a brave man with integrity.

Those two charges for telephone dirty talk alleged to be with minors that Ritter pleaded guilty to, I haven't looked further and I could be wrong, but knowing what I know and what I've seen, I'm more than willing to see that has entrapment to shut his trap and instantly discredit him in the eyes of many, and if he pleaded guilty, that's because you've got no other real choice when the full weight of the establishment decides to make a lesson out of you should you persist and not comply. Without anything else to offer, I couldn't care less about that versus the info Ritter provides.

Caucus-Leftists want us to believe that this type of thing occurs continually to all sorts of leftwing figures and minorities, especially Blacks — which I do believe is true — yet all of them don't think it happens to white dudes who are being a huge nuisance to the establishment? Biases bigger than brains?

The CLs are far too quick to filter out any voice, and appear to be clueless about the tons of valid info that can still be extracted from even the most trashy of partisan outlets.  

At that point, these two, Gavin and Zac, initially held the asinine "Imperialist Putin, Tsar wannabe" narrative that the Caucus-Left still stupidly clings to, like Mike Figueredo, who had Putin on his list of contenders for his 2022 Top POS award. If you don't have Zelenskyy and Biden on there as well, then, as Mike likes to say: Shut the fuck up! You're completely clueless.

Nonetheless, listening to their New Year's review, I was surprised to see that Zac & Gavin had done a near 360 on the matter, seeing the West's clear culpability and its refusal to adopt a very-easily-taken and accessible peaceful path. Good for them!

•     •     •

Back in the spring of 2022, The Majority Report had the following segment, "Dumdum Claims Democracy Now! is Pro-Imperialist", which was just a reason to not say anything worthwhile but to take a few minutes just to dump on Aaron Maté, with the Grayzone, an outlet that's appreciated by many unless one has any ties to the US and UK establishments. Which means that the Caucus-Left, always eager to gobble up the establishment lies being pumped through the mainstream media they tell you aren't trustworthy, hence why you should listen to them — figure that one out — do not like the Grayzone one bit. Without hounding them, they will attack Max Blumenthal, the founder, and Maté whenever given the chance.

And, so, Maté claiming somewhere that Democracy Now! had turned pro-imperialist... I mean, someone just had to point out what a dum dum being he is, and why the segment he's a part of is bad, which is, according to me, the other half of the progressives I don't refer to as the Caucus-Left though the Caucus-Left brand Maté as a confused rightwinger or some such thing. Before Grayzone, Maté  was with Democracy Now!

That segment had really peeved me, highlighting the empty arrogance that's increasingly becoming a dominant trait of the CLs. If you go on the Democracy Now! channel and scan the comments to videos uploaded about 1.5 months prior to that TMR segment, you'll find a comment I made asking the Democracy Now! folks that very question: What the hell happened to you, you've gone full imperialist?

Just last week, Vijay Prashad and Katie Halper pointed it out. One of them mentioned Democracy Now!, adding a caveat like "despite what it's become" and the other added "Yeah, what's going on with Democracy Now! Blah, blah, imperialist, blah, blah..."

Others have mentioned it, too. All left-leaning to hard-left people I consider solid independent voices. 

Clearly, TMR didn't look into it — they just wanted an excuse to shit on Maté — and, clearly, they don't watch Democracy Now! with any regularity whatsoever. 

But they still pass judgment, becoming all biases and bigotry, like the rightwing media, but a mirror image of it that reflects the interlocking half of the values each half contain.

The Caucus-Left has created an info bubble from which they're reinforcing their own stereotypical views of others, turning themselves all the more idiotic over time.

Why?

What's Not Controversial: Idiocy 

So, again, back to that Vigeland comment I'd opened up with:

“What’s more controversial? Taking down links to revenge porn that was stolen fron Hunter Biden’s laptop or, um, them saying, unilaterally, we’re going to take down links to our competitor or links that may be critical of us.”

The initial story had nothing to do with your beloved dick pics, Emma, so what's your fucking point? No one was aware of dick pics at that point; they came in the days that followed, and I don't think anyone contests those removals. People were suspended for just mentioning the laptop without dick pics being anywhere in sight. Go buy a Playgirl magazine or surf the Internet with Safe Search set to "off" if you wanna see dick pics. Way better resolution, too.

I can understand how one would formulate such a shallow and grossly uninformed view of the whole laptop story if one were to base themselves on the Wikipedia entry, but you'd have to be a real shitty media person to limit one's take to the clearly manipulated and gravely lacking description one finds there. What to make of the fact that Vigeland hasn't even bothered with that. Repeating dick pics is all she seems to be able to do. I call that being a fucking braindead tribalist.

Below is a copy of that email mentioned above. It's been verified. "The laptop contained an email..." LOL! It contained nearly 129,000 of them. With plenty there to warrant a full investigation into the Biden family. 

But obsess over dick pics and the Trump clan, let your petty emotions control your brain as you raise your nose and look down at people, passing insipid jugment when all you're proving is how much of a mindless tribalist you are!

Goddamn tribalists. 

And please explain these dick pics:

Documents on the laptop show Hunter Biden also invited to that dinner a trio of Kazakhstani businessmen and Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, ex-Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.

Baturina allegedly paid $3.5 million in 2014 to a firm associated with Hunter Biden and remains one of just a handful of Russian billionaires not to face US sanctions in response to this year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[...]

While many aspects of Hunter Biden’s financial arrangement with CEFC China Energy have been previously reported and were included in a Republican-led Senate report from 2020, a Washington Post review confirmed many of the key details and found additional documents showing Biden family interactions with Chinese executives.

And why was the old adminstration spending so much time with the new VP, so he "wouldn't get things wrong"?

And so, when we left, the first thing I spent a lot of time—as did Mike because this was his territory as well, and people like Charlie Kupchan and Victoria, and anyway there were a lot of good people we had working on this—we spent a lot of time with Vice President Pence because I was worried that they would make a mistake as a—it would be a sin of omission rather than commission, failing to do certain things or say certain things. (Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden | Council on Foreign Relations)

Only ardent tribalists can be as passionate about 6-Jan as what I've seen while simultaneously being so incredibly stupid and clueless in their handling of all that the laptop story represents and the various forms of censorship and control that were applied, not to mention the blatant lies told by Joe Biden.

•     •     •

Mentioning the tension that's established itself between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, it having to do with Kevin McCarthy's leadership and Trump loyalty, am Seder said, "It's about who's gonna get the most batcrap crazy commitee to investigatre the most useless and, sorta fever-swampy topic."

"Like Hunter Biden nudes," immediately adds Emma Vigeland with an air of snootiness.

Is she trying to prove that the "dumb blonde" stereotype is 100% accurate? You may find yourself asking that, and can't be blamed for doing so. I didn't select her for the "Troubling Tribalist" prize for no reason, just so you know.

Since then. Seder calls it the "Dick Pic Committee." What to make of that?

Not a Scoop, and the Wrong Scope

What does it say about The Majority Report that, in the 13-Sep-2022 and 23-Dec-2022 (why is Vigeland tagged on the latter one?) segments, along with a few other mentions in between, their conclusion, and what they relay to their audience, is:

Obviously, there's nothing on there except dick pics, which despicable, porn-obsessed and depraved GOPs want to take advantage of, harming poor Hunter and good father Joe in the process, just for political gains... "it's disgusting."

The first segment that TMR did on the info that had been released from the Twitter Files, on 6-Dec-2022, was titled, "Matt Taibi's Embarrassing Elon Musk Collaboration Was a Huge Fail."

The title and their focus says more about TMR than it does about anything related to the story, and one has to wonder just how much petty jealousy is what's behind their attitude, as there's ill-will in anyone who would qualify any of that as "embarrassing" and a "fail" to attack the messenger, making their opinion of him the central part of all there is to say — "his brain is broken," claims Seder, referencing a slice of Taibi's past and the 'trauma' he assumes Taibi must suffer from — as they conclude that the real problem is that Musk is giving the info to "opinion journalists." Closing off, Seder references Taibi's involvement and reporting on the files with "this is an embarrassement," to which Vigeland adds a vapid "Oh, totally." 

In that segment Sam Seder actually regurgitates the spin regarding social media rules stating that platforms will not publish "stolen/hacked material", a claim that had been almost instantly proven to be false, its application being an abusive overreach. This aspect has long been clearly established, an internal moderator having confirmed as much early in 2021. Nonetheless, two years later, Washington Post and NYT still push this falsety, knowing that tribalism leads to idiocy and the collective memory is short.

And their lies is what Seder pushes as if it were the no-brainer answer that irrational rightwingers refused to see if not too rightwinging to overlook the obvious. Sigh.

Unfortunately, if you've done the work, you'll automatically see the manipulative manner by which this is handled, likewise regarding the pettiness that seems to have motivated that very TMR segment. Here's why:

They placed a fair bit of attention on a post made by Matt Taibi two years prior that chastised those approaching the Hunter Biden story as a purely partisan ploy, as people should be concerned about the FBI's involvement in the matter.

Someone had posted a Tweet that laid that previous posting next to one that appeared in Taibi's 2-Dec-2022 Twitter Files thread, which was the #22 entry below. 

"#22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a “general” warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem..."

There's ambiguity in that statement; "government involvement" easily interpreted as relating to the "foreign" that preceded it, the mention of "hacking" also sending readers in that direction from the start. The following entries suggest that Taibi is pointing to governmental involvement with Twitter in getting the laptop story banned; the only way to get a clear sense of that is by reading the following entries.

First, before making my point, I'll point out that the "no governmental involvement" is very arguable, which Seder et al. should be aware of, seeing the definitive conclusion they've reached on the matter, no? At this point, the FBI have had the laptop in their possession for over a year, and it's been established that the Biden administration had contacted Facebook directly and, preemptively, before the NYPost had even published its story, had asked to stiffle it.

However, banning the story seems to have generated much internal confusion and debates at Twitter, but, here, too, which Seder keeps reminding people yet forgets about himself: the info is curated, and what we know is what we've been willingly limited to. There's much to suggest direct governmental involvement in the matter, but nothing in what was handed out in the Twitter Files substantiate the suspicion of governmental involvement with Twitter, or outside of that, beyond any doubt.

Friggin' tribalists and their hypocrisy...

Which brings me to entry #24:

"#24. They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”

The hacking justification was BS. Repeating it now to justify and whitewash the whole thing... Yes, do criticise other journalists for not being journalisty to your liking, why don't you. 

Seder also calls the laptop "stolen" then affirms that, as far the information goes, "he certainly wasn't allowed to have acces to it." And he does this while criticising Matt Taibi, pointing out that, as a veteran investigative reporter he should have known better regarding his own insertion into the process that's controlled by Musk, who imposed restrictions on the dissemination of the info released to Taibi.

And Seder should do ANY investigating, period, before commenting on certain stories, methinks. WaPo reiterated an 'official' version for Democrat lovers, which details precisely what other outlets deemed to be below Leftists standards had detailed. Per the invoice, signed by Hunter Biden, his signature having been verified, the computer and content belongs to the shop owner if not picked up after six months.

As was reported back in mid-July, 2021, "The 2019 computer repair invoice apparently signed by Hunter Biden is not a forgery," a retired FBI agent concluded. 

However, copies of the hard drive were made and given to outlets and there are discrepancies beween units suggesting that those copies not coming from the shop owner were tempered with. In my opinion, the Bannon people involved propably tried to add a few incriminating bits of evidence on there. They may have done more harm to any case. 

There are 128,775 emails allegedly from the Hunter Biden laptop; the emails are dated between 2009 and 2019. So far, these appear to be valid, the orignal drive not tampered with, but under 22,000 of them have been officially confirmed to be authentic. I included a few below just to establish a key relation suggesting far deeper ties.

Seder concludes: "There is no underlying story, or there is one but we haven't seen it. But after five years, with—they definitely have access to all that information—we have not seen it, and the reason we have not seen it, I would suggest to you, is that there is no underlying story... and this is like every other rightwing canard that they have foisted."

No, you have not seen it because you've limited yourself to your bubble and otherwise trust the very outlets that serve the establishment, doing it so in ways that, again, TMR is embarassing itself by demonstrating no awareness of this. 

Does Seder and the rest not realize why people get so deeply enraged with them? As I've previously stated: people aren't fools, they know there's far more going on, and anyone not trapped in tribalist idiocy and not swayed by the conspiracy theories that some groups are pushing find themselves in a news void of sorts, which, in turn, did cause me to find some great indie voices and foreign news services.

 •     •     •

In its 30-Mar-2022 article, in which it confirmed the existense and provenance of the laptop and the authenticity of a portion of the 129,000 emails contained on the drive thanks to cryptographic signatures employed by Big Tech platforms like Google, The Washington Post reports:

The paper said it spent months reviewing the data and making two copies of the hard drive so they could be analyzed by Matt Green, a Johns Hopkins University security researcher, and Jake Williams, a forensics expert and former National Security Agency operative.Both experts concluded that the verified emails carried cryptographic signatures that would be hard to fake, even for the best computer hackers.

[...]

Many Republicans have portrayed this data as offering evidence of misbehavior by Hunter Biden that implicated his father in scandal, while Democrats have dismissed it as probable disinformation, perhaps pushed by Russian operatives acting in a well-documented effort to undermine the elder Biden. Facebook and Twitter in 2020 restricted distribution of stories about the drive’s contents out of concern that the revelations might have resulted from a nefarious hacking campaign intended to upend the election, much as Russian hacks of sensitive Democratic Party emails shaped the trajectory of the 2016 election.

Besides the dick pics, which are what Emma Vigeland seems to obsess over, not bothering to look behind testicles, it seems, and because ignorance has never been a barrier to arrogance, she falsely assumes, as she accuses all rightwingers of being perverts, that anyone interested in that laptop actually gives a shit about any of that. Troubling Tribalist, indeed.

Also: the "well-documented effort" that WaPo links to? It's the report that I included below. The report provides a whole other picture than the impression WaPo aims to deliver.

Trustworthy? Your Needs in Mind? Why on Earth Would You Think So?

Just a few more details to keep in mind. CLs are way behind, so I wouldn't want to overwhelm them, but this barely covers it:

Baturina allegedly paid $3.5 million in 2014 to a firm associated with Hunter Biden and remains one of just a handful of Russian billionaires not to face US sanctions in response to this year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Blue Star Strategies is a think tank and lobbying firm and it's led by two Clinton administration officials, Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, both having sat on the board of the Atlantic Council. Thery lobbied the US government on behalf of Burisma, and didn't bother registering under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

Blue Star ties Rosemont Seneca, which features Hunter Biden as a founder; money ties the US Department of Defense to Kansas-based global infrastructure development company Black & Veatch, which ties directly to Metabiota, and all of this links to the bio-chemical labs found peppered across Ukraine, which, we learned of after the invasion, and thanks to the Russians. And, despite my initial claims, I had also included a warning, stating that, these belonging to the US and seeing the way we're learning of them, after the initial lies... I'm now leaning far more on the side of "shady shit" going on! 

You fake Progressives... Besides the obvious "If GOP = x, we = y" mode you clearly operate under, do you ever apply ANY real logic to any of your political stances? Grounding them in reality instead of in your self-fed, idiotic sphere of hatred and insecurities, I don't know, perhaps, maybe, you may find that beneficial to your purported cause?         

Whatever Trump's motives were, the bumbling way he went about it triggered a fierce reaction that only tribalists would see as normal and worthy of an impeachment given all the other stuff omitted from said impeachment.

•     •     •

On 22-Dec Vigeland attacked CNN following a very basic and all-too-generic rant on the 24-hour news cycle that sees mainstream media living gloriously off of fear and division, said by one Andrew Callaghan to CNN's Don Lemon. 

"This kind of crap is exactly why, their, like, highfalutin opinion of what they do is grating to me."

Well, at least she gets a sense of how her crap can make me feel? Guess which show I almost never watch on Thursdays?

Tribalists annoy me. And because of tribalism, Progressives fail to realize how they're hurting average Americans, or that, given the very real effects of ideology and crowds, they can be just as dangerous and idiotic as the white supremacists they continually point out, in my opinion, albeit in an entirely different way.

NIC Report - Foreign Threats to US Federal Elections

As an FYI, in the hopes of rectifying some of the persistent ignorance that dominates the Dem thinking that's the guiding principle of tribally-minded fake progressives, i.e. the Caucus-Left:

Out of the six countries identified as "potential threats" to the 2020 US elections, five of them worked to undermine Trump, not Biden, per the report, which also states that the Russians didn't run an aggressive anti-Biden campaign in 2020 (all studies establish that the impact was negligible for the 2016 one).

Funny how the mainstream gives a whole other impression, or is that by design?

To the Caucus-Left, you still wondering why many are accusing you of working for a party, not for the people who form your base?

.

Report: National Intelligence Council - Foreign Threats to the 2020 US  Federal Elections