How Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Google silence and crush non-left dissent

Insidious is the word

Monopolies crush free speech. Even if you don’t use Twitter or Facebook, you need to know this. If you disagree with big-government intrusion and rampant corruption, these dirty tricks are working against you, though you may never have sent one tweet or opened a facebook account. They’re stopping the thousands who agree with you from meeting, organising, helping each other, and generally clawing back power from the deep state. We’ve known about Google bias for years, but there are so many other ways to suppress a good idea.

Twitter employee admits they target conservatives, and shadowban them:

Daniel Greenfield:

How do you know you’ve been shadowbanned? You may be tweeting, but you’re no longer being heard. You wonder if maybe people just aren’t interested in what you have to say.

But they might be interested. Twitter just isn’t interested in letting them read your messages.

Shadowbanning is the censorship that social media companies do in the shadows. It’s cowardly and dishonest. And it’s how the big firms get away with covertly censoring conservatives.

“The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they don’t know they’ve been banned, because they keep posting and no one sees their content,” Abhinav Vadrevu, a former Twitter employee, explains in Project Veritas’ undercover investigation of the company.

“They just think that no one is engaging with their content, when in reality, no one is seeing it.”

Twitter employees are so closeted (and selected) they have no idea that real people may even be patriots who talk about guns, flags,  or the cross. Algorithms pick up these words, and “delete accounts that twitter employees think are bots. ” Some Social Justice Warriors (SJW’s) may never have met an outspoken patriot.

Conservatives Are Being Destroyed by Facebook, Twitter and Google Without Even Realizing It,

By John Hawkins:

Today, as you read this, my website Right Wing News is shutting down operations. It has been around since 2001, but became massive a few years ago because of Facebook. …

In July of 2015, in just a week, the Right Wing News Facebook page reached 133 million people. Because conservatives were sharing content they were interested in, little ol’ Right Wing News … was driving the same amount of web traffic as some of the biggest newspapers in America.

Facebook bleeds groups dry slowly:

…what Facebook giveth, Facebook can take away.

…Facebook systematically, methodically reduced the reach of all its pages with each algorithm change. By then, most of us understood where it was going long-term. If Facebook killed every conservative page overnight, there would be a huge outcry. On the other hand, if Facebook slowly strangled us to death, we’d fade away and would people even notice? …

As someone who has been working for a living in this business since 2005, let me drop a little truth bomb on you. We are now in a very oversaturated, corporation-dominated media environment. If you don’t already have a legacy website that captured traffic years ago and held onto it, huge traffic you can bring in from elsewhere, or millions of dollars to spend, your chances of getting a political website off the ground today are infinitesimal. …

Except Facebook has for all intents and purposes announced that it’s killing off pages. So much for having a conservative voice there.

Youtube is demonetizing conservatives and libertarians:

Dennis Prager’s PragerU is suing YouTube for exactly that reason. Just to give you an example of the sort of content YouTube thinks is over-the-line, here are some of the videos it demonetized: Why America Must Lead, The Ten Commandments: Do Not Murder, Why Did America Fight the Korean War, and The World’s Most Persecuted Minority: Christians.

Of course, YouTube would claim that it’s not censoring the videos because it didn’t take them down. However, people are not going to spend large amounts of time and money putting together high-production-value videos if they’re not going to be allowed to make money on those videos because of their political beliefs. …

These giant monopolies are staffed and owned by people who really do despise you:

Many of these companies effectively became monopolies because they worked hard to serve ALL of their users. Now that they completely dominate their spaces in the marketplace, their liberal political views are impacting their services. As Robert Conquest once said, “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing” and that is a much bigger threat than most conservatives realize. …

We’ve already lost the schools, Hollywood and the mainstream media. What happens when you can’t get out conservative opinion via social media because they block, shadow ban and demonetize everyone who gets any traction? What happens if they put rules in place that essentially make expressing conservative opinions something that gets you kicked off their service? You’re pro-gun? Sorry, not allowed. You don’t like gay marriage? Get out of here. Criticizing Black Lives Matter? Out of bounds! We can hope for the best, but that seems like the future we’re headed toward and it’s one that will leave conservatism weaker than ever.

Fight back, spread the word.  First we make sure everyone knows. Then we find alternatives and take back the schools, the movies, and grow the alt-media. Despite all this concerted, organised, dirty-work, Trump still won, over half the population in western nations are skeptical, and the extreme left have parked themselves far out on bizarre, indefensible ideas. Windmills won’t hold back the tide, and almost no one believes they will. The bubble will pop, it’s fragile, which is why the deluded and rent-seeking are working so hard to stop the sensible masses from even talking to each other.

They are ripe for the mocking, and we still have free speech.

h/t David E

Shadowbanned through their own home P.C.,
In ways that the user can’t see,
With communication denied,
To sympathizers worldwide,
On the whim of the Left or Leftie.

–Ruairi

 *  *  *

PS: I’m a slack slack tweeter (four months between messages). I don’t think my tweets are being blocked.  If you “follow me” @JoanneNova, can you check now, and find a way to let me know if you can’t see the tweet today in your account? Thanks.

9.1 out of 10 based on 103 ratings

144 comments to How Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Google silence and crush non-left dissent

  • #
    Spetzer86

    May be time to add a Gab button on the share list?

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    Graeme No.3

    Pointman recommends VIDME or BITCHUTE as alternatives for Youtube, along with alternatives for Wikipedia and Facebook. Don’t know anything about them but if thousands of people suddenly switched those arrogant left wingers would find their revenue hit.

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    • #
      NB

      That is why capitalism is so awful!

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        What happens when you get capitalism ( Insurance ) mixed witht he UN?

        Quite a scheme…..Joj not sure f this has been covered before , but if not worth a separate post?

        http://www.cfact.org/2018/01/16/climate-insurance-as-wealth-transfer-is-the-latest-scam/

        January 16, 2018, by David Wojick, Ph.D., 2 Comments

        “The primary goal of the international climate negotiations is to transfer huge amounts of money from the US and other developed countries to the developing countries. Some of the various schemes for doing this are well established, but a breathtaking new one is emerging — climate insurance.

        The basic idea is very simple, which good scams always are. The Federal Government (in other words, taxpayers) buys climate insurance for specific developing countries. This insurance then pays for damages supposedly due to climate change.

        I am not making this up. In fact this nutty idea was endorsed by the 2015 G7 group of developed country leaders, naturally including then President Obama. They even know roughly how many people will be covered at first, namely 400 million.

        Note too that paying the premiums is not limited to national governments. In the US the States, Counties and Cities could all chip in. So could private firms, organizations and people. The beauty of this scam is that it makes wealth transfer very informal, with everything run through the insurance giants.

        If the annual insurance premiums are, say, $100 per person then that is $40 billion a year, which is serious money. They get the 400 million by covering just the poorest and supposedly most vulnerable countries, but of course that is just the entering wedge. Paying for all of the damage from all of the bad weather in the developing world would be a (literally) staggering sum.

        The scheme is absurd because bad weather is not climate change and the developed countries do not cause it. Driving cars and using electricity does not create droughts and floods around the world, but that is precisely the so-called science behind this mad scheme.”

        More at link above.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          There is another huge insurance Ponzi already in the making.

          A mechanism has been developed for putting a dollar value on supposed carbon reserves. That means a bushfire can now have a dollar value put on all the carbon supposedly lost in a fire.

          In the past where damages were sought, only capital items and standing fodder were counted. Now all carbon content will be counted.

          In the past, this applied especially on public, as we call it “Crown Land”, which generally has little in the way of capital improvements. Crown Land is mostly forested.

          Now all the carbon on the land will be counted, valued by the system already in place. So damage on Crown Land, which was previously just written off, will now have a huge dollar value attributed to it.

          Wherever a fire, even one started by lightning, crosses a boundary, the question will be raised, was negligence involved? Already some landowners have engaged in various carbon sequestration schemes, They will be ever ready to litigate for compensation after a fire if they can possibly lay the same on somebody else So. too, will government agencies.

          Even if the fire started on a remote location, and crossed any number of properties to get to a potential litigant, the question of what effort had been made to prevent the fire spreading may be raised to prove negligence by the adjoining landholder.

          The present business models in use would look to increase insurance to guard against being bankrupted. But I expect that a little calculation would show that the numbers are so big that this will not be feasible. This new mechanism has the capacity to quickly abolish private ownership of land.

          Charges have been laid recently in relation to a serious bushfire last year near Wellington. For those interested in watching this case, looking up “Wuulumin Fire” should find it. It is, so far as I know, the first time such charges have been laid since the mechanism for valuing carbon was put in place.

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    • #
      Ian

      Have you or anyone else here ever wondered why these big global companies are left rather than right leaning?

      10

      • #
        Drapetomania

        Have you or anyone else here ever wondered why these big global companies are left rather than right leaning?

        You mean the large social network companies ?
        Their owners and senior management are from the left.That ethos drips down through all layers.
        And they have this entrenched belief that if you do not think like they do, then you are wrong and immoral and should be shut down.
        They place the perceived values of some of their herd, as higher, than the beliefs of individuals…whom they disagree with.
        Most academics are from the left..
        The rise of social justice warriors and ANTIFA show how far these people will go.
        Their use of Orwellian language and group think is truly scary.
        Watch this interview and see how many times you can count the “journalist” mis-represent/mis-direct/mis-quote etc the conversation.
        And she gets skewered..
        https://youtu.be/aMcjxSThD54

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  • #

    Google is pretty obvious. If I can’t find what I am looking for in the first three pages of results I switch to a different search engine. Works most of the time. Facebook is more devious, posting to my timeline the day or week before where most people will never see it. Usually can get around that by sharing later and perhaps several times.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I use http://www.duckduckgo.com

      Google used to have a slogan “Dont be evil” which quietly disappeared…..

      Hard at times to tell where govt finishes and FB & G start…is there a difference? I dont think so.

      Lets be blunt – FB is a rich Intelligence source, where people openly provide info for free that maps out most people they know and how they interract with them. Its a spooks’ dream. And its provided free via the “well every one else is doing” human “me too / stay with the crowd” weakness….

      I often find the most damaging stuff is sneaky exploits of human frailties.

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      • #
        delory

        I use the brave browser (www.brave.com) with duckduckgo search engine to gain a bit more privacy and reduce the amount of bandwidth chewed up by ads, trackers, etc. After a year of use it has blocked around 33000 ads, 15000 trackers and saved me around 40 minutes of waiting for webpages to load while the aforementioned digital-parasites download themselves…

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  • #
    graphicconception

    The “deep state” in the US is everywhere. Part of the CIA is one of the driving forces. They ran Operation Mockingbird which was a plan to infiltrate the main stream media (MSM) with CIA operatives.

    They were also instrumental in the creation of some Silicon Valley companies. Hands up who thinks Mark Zuckerberg was capable of setting up Facebook, for instance? Facebook, Twitter etc were created to log people’s details, track their whereabouts, note everyone’s contacts and thoughts. They are an intelligence service’s wet dream.

    People who do not go along with the deep state can be coerced by catching them in compromising situations with people of “various” ages. Hugh Heffner may have been a CIA contact who made that possible.

    Hollywood is also infiltrated. Think about it, apart from the politicians, who complains the loudest about Trump? MSM, Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

    Now see how it connects up. Note that many of those people are incredibly rich. Now they claim to be philanthropic by giving away their money. Is that philanthropy or are they just paying their dues to the left who put them there by contributing to their causes?

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    • #
      NB

      In relation to the Zuckerberg, Leader Corporation sued for patent infringements. See story at http://www.leader.com/
      Notably, I found it difficult to find the story again using fairly direct search terms. I ended up using ‘leader corporation facebook patent law’ and following a link to Leader Corp in one of the articles.

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      el gordo

      When thinking of ‘deep state’, Beijing leads the charge.

      ‘Regulators have moved aggressively to curtail what the country’s more than 750 million internet users can or cannot do online. While Beijing has shut out access to Google and Facebook in the past, new restrictions introduced this year have been some of the strictest ever, according to experts.’

      CNBC

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  • #
    tolip

    One could begin to combat this enemy by removing links to them from your homepage.
    Both Facebook and Twitter are advocated here.

    I’m a hypocrite too, I have a gaggle account for my droid mobile.

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    • #
      Originalsteve

      I find it insidious that gaggle needs you to use a phone account to register.
      I just refuse to do it, or you find an anonymous land line somewhere in a building you can use to register….

      40

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Leftism (for use of a better word) firstly spreads throughout society not just from its institutions but from a certain type of persons that somehow are innately attracted to the social and political structures that totalitarian systems offer in way of living with other people.

    Without these hardcore true believers the continuing resurgence of leftism would not be possible just as without apathy in a successful democracy/republic the vigilance of such dangers would not wane.

    30

  • #
    Dave in the States

    This puts Trump’s nixing of Obama’s “Net Neutrality” into perspective and explains why they are crying about it. Net neutrality was anything but about freedom of the internet. It was always about controlling the dissemination of information and enforcing political correctness. As long a free speech remains somewhat intact and competitive alternatives are at least possible then there is hope.

    180

    • #

      Given that Facebook, Twitter, Google etc all advocated for net neutrality, it was a given that it was a bad idea. Sad though that all the IT geeks fell for it, but then the majority are all Left leaning anyway.

      90

      • #
        clivehoskin

        Only”Twits”use twitter.

        90

        • #

          That certainly seems to be the case. I’m not on Facebook either and why any business, conservative site etc would remain after the new policy implemented by Emperor Z is beyond me.

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        • #

          US President Donald Trump knows how to use Twitter.

          Lower profile public figures can get banned more easily without 100 million people kicking up a stink.

          I use Twitter mainly to expose the shallow thinking of the climatariat. Gavin Schmidt and “Eli Rabbet” (Josh Halpern) now avoid my responses to their silly fear-mongering and non-science. If they were ever scientists, then they seem to have abandoned that in favour of grantsmanship; being unable to respond coherently to simple questions. They appear to have the frame of mind that one must only listen to them; not think critically about what they say.

          Peter Gleick often preaches about the perceived morals of those he opposes. Sometimes, I flash a mirror. Or when he says that the Earth is “hotter than average”, one can point out that the average is ice age conditions.

          @DoctorKarl need correcting when he asserts hypotheses and theories to be real; he digs in and counters with “consensus”. I then cite counter-consensus publications that show that it ain’t necessarily so.

          110

      • #
        rapscallion

        This IT Professional didn’t fall for that rubbish, and I’m not left leaning either. Despite huge pressure from fellow professionals I absolutely refuse to have a facebook or twitter account. I only use Google to back up my phone contacts etc. There is plenty of dissenting vids on youtube, See The Iconoclast, Black Pigeon Speaks, Independent Man etc. Also worth doing is reading good blogs – someone mentioned Pointman earlier – yes, he’s very good. Writes well. The good thing is that they usually cross link to other similar minded sites.

        30

        • #

          I didn’t suggest that all IT folk are Leftists, but the majority do seem to dwell there. I also read many and varied sites/forums relating to technology etc and that’s why I’ve formed the opinion that IT folk mostly lean towards the Left.

          10

  • #
    Amr Marzouk

    Hear you loud and clear so far. Insidious.
    Keep up good work.
    Regards,
    Amr

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  • #
    GD

    Jo, the twitter link you posted, apparently six hours ago, hasn’t appeared on my twitter feed. In fact, I have never seen a tweet from you on my twitter feed, despite following you quite a while ago.

    This is your last tweet on your page atm:

    “Giant Monopolies may be secretly censoring you. Please find a way to let me know if you can see this tweet. http://joannenova.com.au/?p=56928 Those who can’t win with free speech, cheat to stop those that can.”

    It’s not on my page.

    I hate Facebook and Twitter but have to check in because potential clients sometimes use those platforms as a contact method rather than email.

    @gigdiary

    160

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Apart from this blog I have no other “social” media presence on the net.

    There is a concern that social media platforms encourage people to live their lives through those outlets only and lose touch with reality.

    If Twitter and Facebook and the like are as distorted as the local government Kiddy Radio I have mentioned a few times then there are problems.

    The announcers on Tripple Jay radio sound like something from 5th form in primary school and deal in the politics of envy laced with a bit of smut to show how cool they are.

    Here in Australia we have the Labor and Liberal parties which correspond to the U.S. Democrats and Republicans.
    Both groups in both countries pay homage to the “problem” of Global Warming and gain position, power and wealth through the use of this non existent bogeyman.

    The real issue for the population is that we are being led into a world of orchestrated conflict over non issues while politicians do nothing to create a better world which is sane real and grounded.

    Something needs to change.

    KK

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    • #
      Greg Cavanagh

      Ditto.
      I do use Facebook, but I’m also aware that you can’t delete anything from Facebook, so I only put up trivial stuff for family and friends.

      80

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Hi Greg

        In the comment above I was referring to some of the negatives of Facebook; most things have two sides.

        Living your whole life through Facebook is a negative but I know a few people who are on Facebook and use it to keep in touch with friends and relatives who are distant or overseas.

        They like it and probably see it as the icing on the cake in otherwise full lives.

        The sort of thing that causes me a little apprehension about where society is going was illustrated by an experience I had in Sydney last year. I caught a train across town one morning and was surprised that almost everybody had their heads down looking at a mobile phone. It was something of a shock to see how little interaction there was between people.

        All things in moderation.

        KK

        50

    • #
      el gordo

      Is there a democracy somewhere in the world that actually works?

      Climate change hysteria has united both sides of politics to save the planet, Australian democracy is a figment of our imagination.

      80

  • #
    Andrew

    I am constantly being harassed by Twitter “recommending” I follow the likes of Julia G, Richard D, Bill S and the like along with the Left ridden organisations
    NEVER EVER received one from anyone remotely centre right
    Over that

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      It could be a form of polite “pushiness” ( insert other words here ) to bring you into the fold…keep your friends close, but….

      I also think they use key word search and discussions about certain people and frequencies might trigger such things. I guess also ( suprise!) if the suggestuions become toomuch you will leave twinotter….clever…no?

      50

  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    The three latest Project Veritas videos looking at Twitter are really, really grim. The climate debate is one obvious reason why it seemed inevitable that the powers that be were going to clamp down on the internet somehow – lest the masses have alternate sources of information – so I suppose this is no surprise. But it certainly is “insidious” as well as a very bad sign for the future.

    On the bright side, one issue coming out of the PV Twitter coverage is that most of those ‘interviewed’ were foreign born employees and that has raised the issue of national security and ‘foreign meddling’ which is the kind of thing that can generate a major backlash.

    80

  • #
    Craig

    I don’t have a twitter account, I have a Facebook account which I never used beyond password stage and have started to use Duck Duck. Having said that, I have no doubt my daily habits on the net are tracked and logged and used in someway by somebody.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The British comedian, Tony Hancock, had a radio sketch called the Radio Ham, well before the internet era.

      The classic line from that sketch was, “I have friends, friends, all over the world, all over the world! – none in this country, but all over the world.”

      The medium may change. But the social problems seem to remain the same.

      50

    • #
      AndyG55

      I have a Facebook password too.

      Only use I on sites related to my hobbies.

      Certainly not for being “social”. Yuck ! 😉

      20

  • #
    Curious George

    Nothing new here. Add Wikipedia to the list. William Connolley began editing Wikipedia in 2003 and served as a Wikipedia administrator from 2006 until 2009. He has been cited and quoted in the media regarding these activities, especially with respect to his editing in the area of climate change. Translation: He purged anything that was not in line with an impeding Global Warming catastrophe.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    I do have a faceache account which I use less than your twitter account Jo so have just given the like and follow messages and will see if that gets out .

    50

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    Bodge it an scarpa

    I have been very active on Facebook the past couple of days, due to an increase in posts from Wind and Solar firms spruiking their wares. I do the best I can in refuting the spurious claims of the various alternative energy enthusiasts and the discussions almost always get heated and abusive from both sides of the argument. Yet none of my contributions have been censored and deleted, and I check them regularly when replying to comments addressed to me.
    A bit of reinforcement from some of the good and knowledgable folk here, including you Jo wouldn’t go astray though! Your own FB page is pathetically under maintained.

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    • #
      Ian1946

      If you want a real laugh go to http://www.reneweconomy.com.au and read some of the articles there. Did you now an 8Mw (nameplate) isolated farm is being installed in SA. It is being heralded as a great breakthrough in energy supply.

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      • #
        Ian1946

        Grrrrr auto correct… That should be a solar farm

        50

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        Ve2

        What is a better laugh is them praising the outstanding performance of the new battery. Went to the AEMO website that night and SA was importing 536Mw of the 1640 they were using. 3Mw of which was recharging the battery.

        70

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      el gordo

      ‘Your own FB page is pathetically under maintained.’

      Do you think it needs a crowd funded infusion to upgrade?

      40

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        What it needs in my opinion is for Jo or some volunteer she could authoriser to actually get involved in the various discussions/ debates on FB that are relevant to the subjects discussed on this blog. Aside from myself, I have never seen anyone else reference or recommend Jonova’s Science Blog on Climate Change, Renewable Energy posts and discussions on Facebook. It is virtually unknown among the many thousands of users. Not all FB regulars are dumbed down, disinterested, planet saving, tree hugging numpties. There are quite a few that would benefit from the vast accumulated knowledge on this Blog if they knew of its existence. A layman such as I has very little influence when I suggest to posters that they educate themselves by visiting Jonova’s blog, but if someone were regularly participating in FB discussions under the user name of ‘Jonova’s Science Blog’, maybe many more would sit up and take notice of their contributions, even possibly visit the blog and even become converted to our way of seeing things.

        50

        • #
          el gordo

          Getting the message across has been a problem and there is no simple solution, but I’m convinced the brainwashed will remain oblivious to reality even on that platform.

          No doubt the twittersphere will become a useful tool in educating the masses after the penny drops.

          30

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        Who removed my reply to El Gordo at #15.1.? Talk about censorship !

        20

        • #
          Bodge it an scarpa

          It has now reappeared. What’s going on around here ? One or two of my non controversial posts have disappeared over recent days.

          20

          • #
            el gordo

            There is a robotic claw, do not be offended.

            30

          • #
            el gordo

            Its a minefield for the newcomer, but if you choose your words carefully …..

            The blogosphere offers the best chance of getting through to the MSM, the twittersphere is a green left swamp without intellectual depth.

            30

            • #
              Bodge it an scarpa

              Little point when the MSM ignore or misrepresent what blogs such as these put out on the Blogosphere, El Gordo. Direct engagement with the misinformed on Social Media IMHO would achieve better results.

              30

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Direct engagement with the misinformed on Social Media IMHO would achieve better results.’

                Respectfully disagree, their minds are already made up.

                There is an urgent need to explain to the masses that global cooling has begun, how do you suggest we go about it?

                20

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                Extreme Hiatus

                ‘There is an urgent need to explain to the masses that global cooling has begun, how do you suggest we go about it?”

                I think the only option is to wait for it to be so obvious that it cannot be ignored or explained away by convoluted arguments about heat causing cold. Thankfully Trump provides more time for that to happen and prevented the Paris plan from poisoning the future. Similarly, the Climategate scandal saved us from what they were planning to entrench at Copenhagen.

                I have no doubt that the people at the top of this scheme know this cooling is coming (and don’t actually believe in The Warming themselves). That explains their urgency and panic over Trump. The biggest melting concern for the CAGW Gang is the disappearance of their credibility. Time is on the side of the realists.

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              • #
                el gordo

                ‘I think the only option is to wait for it to be so obvious that it cannot be ignored …..’

                Yeah but surely we can spread the word before it happens and in that way earn a reputation for news before it happens.

                20

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                Extreme Hiatus

                “Yeah but surely we can spread the word before it happens and in that way earn a reputation for news before it happens.”

                Good point. But I think that is actually happening now. All the real scientific research and blogs like this are on record and already have that good reputation among those who have looked into things. Once the cooling becomes evident the other side will inevitably discover all this information too. So I’m thinking it is a case of delayed reputation.

                Based on my experience with CAGW True Believers, it really has become a religion for them and no amount of argument will shake their beliefs… except, eventually, reality. With climate, that will take a while and the CAGW Gang has so much invested in their project that they will keeping spinning things long after reality sets in.

                Do you remember the Black Knight in Monty Python’s ‘In Search of the Holy Grail?’ I think that sums up the CAGW Gang in the future – with a little of the Dead Parrot skit thrown in for good measure.

                20

            • #
              Bodge it an scarpa

              El Gordo. In reply to you question at #16.2.2.1 which strangely doesn’t have ‘reply’ beside your name this time.
              From my experience on Facebook arguments, I agree that those who have already made their minds up, can probably never be turned around. But the increasing number of positive comments and ‘Likes’ (similar to green thumbs) that my contributions are receiving are quite encouraging in that I like to think I am making some headway with some of those that have yet to decide on which side of the fence they sit. So IMHO direct engagement in an open to all comers can yield good results.

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              • #
                Bodge it an scarpa

                The bottom sentence should read
                “…..open to all comers ‘forum’…….

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              • #
                el gordo

                Would it be possible to organise a flash mob to jump onto an all comers forum?

                A witty engaging mob using the guerrilla tactics of hit and run.

                10

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        For the second time in half an hour ! Who removed my reply to El Gordo at #15.1.? Talk about censorship !

        20

    • #

      Yes, my twitter and FB account are both pathetically underused. I’m all ears re ideas on both. I go through patches briefly where I bother. I do understand both can be powerful and useful.

      I don’t let my guard down on either though.

      Rather then boycotting FB and Twit I would rather use them to advantage, and spread the word about their behaviour and suggest better alternatives to them at the same time.

      Some of you out there know a lot more about these than I do… please speak up!

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        Extreme Hiatus

        Jo, I know next to nothing about FB or Twitter as have never had an account on either. (You can still read tweets without one.) But a strategy for using them without attracting the attention of the censors is indirectly suggested in Tony’s comment #30. Your already have an uncontroversial blog name so that must help so it would seem that if one used innocuous sounding titles for posts that would also help, and may well even suck in some True Believers who might actually read something inconvenient for a change. The problem with this strategy is that it is not just bots scanning posts but also human snitches looking for anything that might offend them by not agreeing with them.

        In the meantime, on the same tangent, this outrageous news from Chris in comment #23 is, well, outrageous:

        “I tried to log into Jonova.com.au using the hospital WiFi and was promptly told that the site was inappropriate and blocked by the Queensland Government.”

        Can they do that?

        20

        • #
          James Murphy

          Presumably the hospital IT department bought a database of sites (a ‘black-list’), and no one has looked at the hundreds, possibly thousands of sites in detail.

          They could also have decided to implement a blacklist via categories, rather than specific sites, and probably also never really looked at any category in detail. Depending on the scale of the organisation, it is easier to block ‘too many’ sites, and then selectively unblock individual sites where there is a justifiable case for it.

          I would doubt it was a malicious, or intentional block, but would not actually want to put money on it, if push came to shove…

          30

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        Thinking it over, Joe, your actual Facebook page is not that important at this stage. At least not until you get some ‘street cred’ among Facebook users. As suggested above in my posts, I believe you need to get down and dirty and directly engage with Facebook users in the quite regular Renewable Energy and Climate Change related articles that have been popping up lately.
        While we all lap up your articles here, hardly anyone will go to your FB page until you are well known in that community. As I suggested earlier, post as ‘Jonova’s Science Blog’ not just Jonova. This lends some perceived qualification to the comments that you make . If you feel you don’t have time for this then perhaps a volunteer could post on your behalf under the same user name. I don’t have any scientific knowledge outside of what I pickup here, otherwise I’d put my hand up.

        20

      • #
        robert rosicka

        Jo given the Blog then Facebook then twitter and whatever else is out there how much of your life do you want to miss out on but still be able to do what you do ?

        20

  • #

    Here’s an example of how censorship can work while appearing to be tolerance.

    Let’s say you are deeply skeptical of NASA for a lot of reasons. You will easily find hundreds of films on YouTube criticising, ridiculing, debunking and satirising all aspects of NASA. Some of this material is interesting and to the point, much of it is repetition, bloat and rant. But there is plenty of it, and it is a real free-for-all.

    Open and free opinion?

    Wait. There’s a catch. Every one of these channels, and there are hundreds of them, has to be a Flat Earth channel, or at least indicate as much.

    So if you are skeptical of NASA and start checking out its critics on YouTube you will find yourself a follower of Flat Earth. Somewhere you will be registered not as a NASA critic but as a frequent visitor to Flat Earth channels and associated sites.

    Clever.

    150

  • #
    Dr Bob

    Starting a few years ago, I found that I couldn’t access any of the web sites of the Murdoch Press and popular conservative bloggers, yet Fairfax Press sites and leftist bloggers were unaffected. So, I presume I’m a victim of Google leftist censorship. The outcome is that I’m a more determined conservative rationalist than I was before.

    91

  • #
    Simon

    Tweet received.

    20

  • #
    Ruairi

    Shadowbanned through their own home P.C.,
    In ways that the user can’t see,
    With communication denied,
    To sympathizers worldwide,
    On the whim of the Left or Leftie.

    120

  • #
    Another Ian

    More for them to hide

    “Alarmist CO2 Threat Overstated” in The Australian behind the Murdoch wall.

    Might lead to this

    https://climatechangedispatch.com/scientists-are-exaggerating-co2-threat-to-marine-life/

    50

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Of Crudeness and Truth
    Thoughts on President Trump’s latest verbal tempest”

    https://www.city-journal.org/html/crudeness-and-truth-15668.html

    20

  • #
    Chris in Hervey Bay

    OK, I posted this last weekend in the Unthreaded.

    A little thing I found out while I was in a Queensland Government Hospital for a day for some tests. Prince Charles in Brisbane.

    I tried to log into Jonova.com.au using the hospital WiFi and was promptly told that the site was inappropriate and blocked by the Queensland Government.

    I promptly switched off the WiFi on my phone and went to G4 and up came the site.
    They must have something to fear ??

    110

    • #
      Another Ian

      Should have tried Sceptical Science or similar

      30

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Its worth having a VPN for your phone, which is essential IMHO, anyway.

      Public and free wifi in terms of security is a bit like eating food off the floor of a public loo….by choice you wouldnt do it and is very un-sanitary.

      A VPN should get around that, although some free wifi will block VPN TCP ports, probably due to the age of paranoia we live in.

      The other thing to keep in mind is govt wifi is probably heavily sanitized as it probably uses the same hospital data gateway, which will likely have heavy “Acceptable Use” restrictions on it, and likely any right-wing site will be blocked, although I suspect if you tried to get to any left wing site you’d probably be allowed……

      30

      • #
        Kneel

        “A VPN should get around that, although some free wifi will block VPN TCP ports,…”

        If you have a server somewhere, you can run SoftEther VPN server – with this, you can run all the usual suspects for VPN (OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec etc) on the standard ports, but also you can get a VPN running on ICMP or DNS traffic. These are almost never filtered (although a transparent DNS proxy might bite you). Not sure if you can get this for android/iphone tho…

        10

    • #
  • #
    el gordo

    There is a rumour going the rounds that Donald was elected by Bots and the authorities are keen to stamp out the practice.

    ‘Back in 2011, a team from Texas A&M University carried out a cyber sting to trap nonhuman Twitter users that were polluting the Twittersphere with spam. Their approach was to set up “honeypot” accounts which posted nonsensical content that no human user would ever be interested in. Any account that retweeted this content, or friended the owner, must surely be a nonhuman user known as a social bot.’

    MIT Technology Review

    40

  • #
    Senex

    I refuse to subscribe to Arsebook, Twatter or any similar services except for LinkedIn for work-related connections.

    Here is another way that Facebook is used to control dissent. More and more online newspaper websites are switching to Facebook-only comments, which of course means that “inappropriate” comments to newspaper articles will get you shadowbanned or worse.

    30

    • #
      Mark D.

      I wouldn’t be sure LinkedIn is any better.

      If someone could get to the CEO maybe it could be vetted as the honest replacement for all the others.

      We can only hope that something happens that assures us of free speech.

      30

  • #
    Bulldust

    Wow… think I am done at this site. I submitted Jo a several thousand word piece going into depth on these issues months ago.

    Yeah I’m done here.


    Email coming. Please check your email. — Jo

    30

    • #
      Peter C

      Jo might not feel that she needs to publish your mega opus. It is her blog.
      Or she might have taken your message on board and done some more research of her own.

      You could try breaking up your contributions in to smaller pieces and putting them up on the Weekend Unthreaded, one at a time.

      By the way you got 2 GREEN thumbs.

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      • #
        Bulldust

        I was originally going to post it on unthreaded months ago but Jo wanted to go through it herself. So I held off. I reminded politely a couple times, but nothing. Now we are here. This is how you alienate followers.

        30

        • #
          el gordo

          Its not about you BD, think of the cause and the task before us.

          I would like to read your tome, but prefer an abstract of 60 words.

          41

  • #
    Ve2

    I thought that a monopoly that shadowbans would come under the American anti-trust laws.

    30

  • #

    So much conservative opinion is controlled conservative opinion. It seems to me that the conservative mainstream media is leading us to the exact same spot to which progressive media is leading progressives: endless war, endless debt. Same meal, different sauce. And Green Blob with all servings. I know that Murdoch will give some space to a climate skeptic here and there, even a Turnbull basher, but Murdoch overall has been solidly behind the climatariat and the globalist appointee we have to call our Prime Minister. No need to tell you about the rest of the media.

    I always try to be the most conservative bloke in the room, but in recent years I’ve grown to be distrustful of much conservative media dressed up for my consumption.

    This reached a high point in recent times when it became clear that the Clintons and Bushes were actually long term buddies and that the Bushes were actively favouring the election of the Queen of Chaos. This came on top of deep misgivings about whether we were fighting “fundamentalist” elements around the world when in fact we seemed to be fostering them in order to undermine or outright attack secular regimes which opposed perceived Western interests. (My doubts now go even deeper than that, I’m afraid to say.)

    I’m not shocked by skullduggery or grimy compromise. I can live with a Richelieu or Bismarck. But I can’t live with Alfred E Newmans trying to be Richelieu or Bismarck. And these bunglers and mediocrities have learned that with the media on side it doesn’t matter if they make a mess of everything. The winning is in the reportage, not the result.

    I’m saying it’s time to cut the cord. Whether you are conservative or progressive, right or left, the media are selling war and debt. And Green Blob, of course, because all the seeds of chaos are right there in Green Blob.

    60

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      You’re correct that there appears to be collusion, and the outcomes you described are spot on, and its heartening for others to see the same thing I do, despite the fact it disturbs people. We keep getting “leaders” who were never was elected ( as was Gullard and Turncoats case…).

      The next 10 yeas IMHO will be a case of teaching your now-young kids to not march off to war despite how “glorious” it looks ( becasue they wont come back ). The next war will have weapons of similar impact that will blow your mind, similar to how the atom bomb was as compared to normal guns in WW2.

      I think the ability to deceive people will be a new weapon, way beyond what weve had before. I have spent time reading about psycho-influencing of humanity. Imagine if you could project into everyone’s heads impulses to do things? And if that doesnt work, there is Scalar tech which makes nukes 100% obsolete. There is activities that DARPA has been working on that is pretty out there from what Ive been able to find so far.

      The best option is to teach your kids and grand-kids the pointlessness of war, and how people will be manipulated on both sides ( if you consider history be be mostly directed, not accidental ) by the exact same people.

      Your comment about Bush et all is correct, including publicized links between Bin L and the Bush families well before 2001 events…. figure that out.

      Humanity seem to being coerced toward a truly global conflict ( re: europe and the recent uncontrolled clash of different peoples ) , and it seems to be planned ( directed history ). The chaos is part of what the Elite call a tool entitled “The Hand of Madness”, that is basically doles out urban terror ( like people driving vehicles into crowds & mysterious false missile alerts ) …this seems to be by design, to keep the pot on the boil. I hope Im wrong.

      20

      • #
        R2Dtoo

        Looking down from the Great White North, I felt that keeping Jeb Bush out was just as important as defeating Hilary. The US and Canada don’t need ruling families.

        30

  • #
    Ve2

    Climate Change was always a goer once governments found the could tax it.
    It’s supporters? The Roman Empire worked on the principle “If you buy the top 10% you get the rest for nothing”

    50

  • #

    I have been a contributor at the site I now call ‘home’ since March of 2008. At the start, I sent along my original Posts in my ‘Kyoto Series’ to the site’s owner via email, every second or third day. After a while, he gave me a login, so I could do it all myself, and then I was an ‘Editor’ if you will. It was a learning process, the whole thing.

    The site’s owner told me sometime in 2009 or so that Google was ‘of the left’ (politely put) and because our site is not ‘of the left’, they were ‘sandboxing’ our Posts, in other words, moving them to a page way down the list where they would not be seen so readily. Once I knew what he meant, it became a little more obvious, but it’s not like our site was ever going to ‘rule the World’, so to speak.

    However, one Post in particular always stood out.

    Late in 2008 I wrote a Post just to explain a few things about coal fired power, with relation to the burning of coal. It got some visits early on, and then just settled down to just two or three visits a day. Then, early in 2011, two years after the original Post, I noticed a spike in the daily visits to that Post, well, a spike to around 10 visits a day, so it was always appearing on our Stats page as one of the better visited Posts. A spike can be temporary, but this not only lasted, but it increased.

    I wondered where they were coming from, because nothing much correlated from visits and the sources of those visits, except the ‘Search Engine’ source started to pick up.

    So, I went to google, and because the title of the Post was so specific, it was easy to find. There it was, the first link at the top of Page One. I fooled around with other wording in google, and it also appeared at the top of Page One.

    It was just luck is my guess in that the title was so specific.

    Now, here we are, nine years after that Post, and we regularly get 10 to 15 visits each day for that one Post, which has now had more than 36,000 visits since it was first posted. Now, in the scheme of things, that’s not really a huge number, but for a ‘blog’ site which is only medium sized, it’s big for us.

    It’s still on Page One of most search engines, and for an exercise, just type in the words:

    how much co2 from coal

    For that key word search, it’s still on Page One.

    The full title of the Post is Why Does One Ton Of Coal Make 2.86 Tons Of Carbon Dioxide?

    If any of you do go there and read it, be aware that the data is from 2008.

    So, while we have been ‘sandboxed’ on Most posts at our site, it seems to me that some things of interest will always be of interest, no matter where they come from or who writes them.

    Tony.

    120

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Just tried the Google search Tony and yes your post comes in 7th of 10 first page results, actually quite amazing for these times, well done.

      30

  • #
    Dennis

    There must be a new global cooling underway ….

    GRAHAM LLOYD
    New research casts doubt over alarmist projections of how sensitive Earth’s climate is to rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

    The Australian

    50

  • #
    pat

    folks at Reddit the Donald have long noticed how the same anti-Trump posters show up as the first replies every time Trump tweets. here is an example from February 2017 (warning: bad language):

    Feb 2017: Reddit the Donald: Twitter is 100% confirmed shadowbanning Trump supporters replying to Trump tweets
    submitted 11 months ago by SlothB77
    This is an archived post. 512 comments.

    Danishelite: Everytime Trump tweets the same 10 cucks are listed as responding to his Tweet. Twitter is playing with fire. Something has to be done about this nazi censorship by Jack Dorsey
    2 replies to above:
    SlothB77: yep. his tweets get 50,000+ replies and the same ten accounts are always the top replies.
    Sounds totes legit
    Kanadabalsam: Exactly, it’s around 10 cucks with verified accounts who appear as top results. We need to make this big.

    bryaq: Funny….ive noticed one chick from the Kimmel show is almost always the “first” response.

    SlothB77: his latest tweet:
    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/828939235499638784
    the first 7 replies that appear for me are from Jordan Uhl or Mike P Williams, two random Trump stalkers that always are in the top replies…

    ryry117: They’ve switched it up recently with anti-trumpers of similar names posting the same trash on every Tweet, but awhile ago it was the socialist party(or something close to that)’s official twitter account at the top of every Trump tweet…ETC
    https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5slam3/twitter_is_100_confirmed_shadowbanning_trump/

    earlier:

    24 April 2016: Breitbart: Twitter Shadowbans Donald Trump Tweet
    by Jack Hadfield
    (Jack Hadfield is a student at Warwick Univeristy and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech)
    Since the implementation of Twitter’s new algorithmic timeline back in February of this year, conservatives, libertarians and anti-establishment dissidents alike have been waiting for the social media platform to interfere in the current U.S. election cycle. Now it seems that there is clear evidence of Twitter censoring the current Republican front-runner, Donald Trump…ETC

    Breitbart Tech has reached out to Twitter for comment, but there has been no response so far.
    http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/04/24/twitter-shadowbans-donald-trump-tweet/

    40

  • #
    pat

    comment in moderation re shadowbanning of Trump’s Twitter feed.

    30

  • #
    MudCrab

    I still lurk on Tim Blair’s blog but no long post out of spite towards their current policy forcing you to create an account.

    I also have IE as the default browser for my Day Job which for some reason seems completely unwilling to accept that Tim’s blog was part of my recent internet traffic and seems to go as far as to not even list it in my browsing history.

    Bolt is not ‘blocked’, neither is here, but I am not even game to see what it thinks of XYZ.

    20

  • #
    pat

    17 Jan: GOP Blog: The Highly-Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards
    2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news. Studies have shown that over 90% of the media’s coverage of President Trump is negative.
    Below are the winners of the 2017 Fake News Awards.

    1. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover…READ ON
    http://archive.is/b9hGt

    30

  • #
    pat

    comment in moderation re: 17 Jan: GOP Blog: The Highly-Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards

    20

  • #
    pat

    17 Jan: Entertainment Weekly: Trump reveals Fake News Awards winners, website promptly crashes
    by James Hibberd
    Donald Trump has revealed his frequently touted Fake News Awards winners on Wednesday night — and the GOP’s website with the list promptly crashed…
    TWEET: GOP: Tonight, http://gop.com saw more traffic than ever before. Even though the servers were scaled up, the interest was even greater than anticipated. Traffic is off the charts. Come back soon.
    http://ew.com/awards/2018/01/17/trump-fake-news-awards-winners/

    Dow spikes 322 points, closes above 26000 for the first time
    CNBC-5 hours ago

    Red-hot Dow closes above 26000 for the first time
    CNNMoney · 5 hours ago

    Dow tops 26,000 milestone for first time as stock rally gains fresh steam on Wall Street
    USA TODAY · 5 hours ago

    funny the FakeNewsMSM is carrying the above story today, because until now, they’ve been too busy with trivia to notice the rally:

    Varney on Dow Hitting 26000: ‘Inexplicable’ That Mainstream Media Ignores Rally
    International-Fox News Insider-16 Jan. 2018

    20

    • #
      pat

      Apple pledges to spend $350 billion and bring 20000 jobs to the US within next five years
      Washington Post· 7h ago

      Apple, Capitalizing on New Tax Law, Plans to Bring Billions in Cash Back to US
      New York Times· 59m ago

      Apple to hire 20000, open new campus and pay $38 billion tax bill on overseas profits
      USA TODAY· 3h ago

      10

  • #
    pat

    the other lunacy:

    18 Jan: Daily Mail: Facebook expands its investigation into whether Russian agents tried to influence Brexit vote
    Previous probe found Russia-linked agency posted just three ads in EU campaign
    But Culture committee chair said the internet giant had failed to look properly
    Facebook have today said they will expand their investigation into any meddling
    By Richard Spillett
    Facebook has told the Government’s fake news inquiry it will expand its investigation into whether Russian agents attempted to influence the Brexit vote…

    But MP Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, responded by accusing Facebook of not properly investigating alleged Russian meddling.
    Today, he revealed the company is now expanding its probe to look for other ‘coordinated activity around the Brexit referendum’…

    Simon Milner, Facebook’s UK policy director, wrote to the committee…
    ‘We are committed to making all reasonable efforts to establish whether or not there was co-ordinated activity similar to that which was found in the US and will report back to you as soon as the work has been completed.’…
    It follows an investigation in the US earlier this year which ruled hundreds of Russia-linked Facebook accounts had attempted to influence the US presidential election.

    Investigating that issue, Facebook found approximately 470 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency agency had spent around 100,000 dollars (£75,000) on more than 3,000 adverts.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5280297/Facebook-expand-probe-Russias-influence-Brexit.html

    the MP Damian Collins?

    Wikipedia: (Conservative MP Damian) Collins was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.

    1 March 2017: UK Independent: Donald Trump’s crusade against fake news ‘dangerous’, warns MP
    Chairman of Culture, Media and Sport Committee Damian Collins attacks US President for use of inflammatory term to deride ‘anything he doesn’t agree with’
    This comes after the committee launched an inquiry into fake news last month. He also warned of the dangers of putting “real” fake news and reputable news organisations in the same box…

    “So to use this term generally to say ‘the New York Times is running a story I don’t like, therefore the New York Times is fake news’, that is a very dangerous thing to do…
    “If we end up in a position like that, we end up in a position where the real perpetrators of fake news can continue spreading lies, unchallenged.”
    The US President has previously labelled CNN and the New York Times as “fake news media” on Twitter.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-fake-news-dangerous-tory-mp-damian-collins-criticism-a7605736.html

    lol.

    20

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  • #
    pat

    17 Jan: The Hill: Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ lead with CNN, ABC’s Ross, NY Times’ Krugman
    By Joe Concha
    A string of media mistakes at the end of the year provided more fodder for Trump’s criticism, as did a recent Pew Research year-end analysis of media coverage that showed the president received just five percent positive coverage in 2017…

    In contrast, President Obama’s coverage in his first year was 20 percent negative. Overall, Trump received more than three times more negative coverage than his predecessor, according to Pew.

    A Harvard study found that CNN’s and NBC’s coverage of Trump was negative 93 percent of the time over the course of his first 100 days in office. The New York Times coverage in the same study was 87 percent negative, while the Washington Post’s was 82 percent in that direction…
    http://thehill.com/homenews/media/369476-trumps-fake-news-awards-lead-with-cnn-abcs-ross-ny-times-krugman

    pre the announcement of the Awards:

    16 Jan: ABC America: NYT exec speaks out: ‘We are not the opposition to the current administration’
    By ANIEZE OSAKWE and Taylor Dunn
    Kopit Levien was named COO of The New York Times in June 2017 and is the first person to hold that role in the company in over a decade…
    Kopit Levien said The Times understands that “news is a relationship business,” adding, “We have to treat everybody fairly and you know, fairness means people can speak their minds.”
    She went on, “The New York Times believes that journalism should provide a place for intelligent thoughtful dialogue from all perspectives. We are not the opposition to the current administration. We are not an advocacy organization. We are a place for intelligent ideas and debate of all kinds and you’re going to see us continue to push it that way.”

    The self-described “lifelong lover of journalism” has always wanted society “to have a shared fact base.”…
    http://abcnews.go.com/Business/nyt-exec-trump-opposition-current-administration/story?id=52371988

    17 Jan: The Hill: NYT to run letters from Trump supporters in place of op-eds Thursday
    By John Bowden
    The New York Times announced it will replace its usual editorial page Thursday with letters from voters who supported President Trump in the 2016 election, including some who say they are now disillusioned with the Trump presidency.

    “The Times editorial board has been sharply critical of the Trump presidency, on grounds of policy and personal conduct. Not all readers have been persuaded,” the note reads.

    “In the spirit of open debate, and in hopes of helping readers who agree with us better understand the views of those who don’t, we wanted to let Mr. Trump’s supporters make their best case for him as the first year of his presidency approaches its close.”

    “Tomorrow we’ll present some letters from readers who voted for Mr. Trump but are now disillusioned, and from those reacting to today’s letters and our decision to provide Trump voters this platform.”…

    10

    • #
      R2Dtoo

      Ridiculous- the NYTs still has control over which letters get published. They also have no way to verify if the folks really voted for Trump. They would do better to hire a few established non-progressives as columnists/editors.

      10

  • #
    pat

    yesterday the FakeNewsMSM rushed to get out a story claiming, because White House Press Sec didn’t confirm the Fake News Awards for today our time, it wasn’t going to happen.

    BBC World Service radio has ignored all the good news from Trump’s medical and continued on with Bannon/Flake/Mueller/collusion with Russia etc (listen from 4mins in to 10mins-plus for all the fake news).

    or listen at 8mins49secs for:
    BBC’s Nuala McGovern: um, and, I suppose is this related or not?. I was just taking a looking at the Washington Post who, an hour ago, said Trump’s Fake News Awards are shaping up to be a total flop blah blah. have you heard anything about this?

    BBC’s American correspondent, Anthony Zurcher: originally, it was supposed to be last Monday, then it was pushed back to Wed 17 Jan. but yesterday, when White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was asked about it, she said it was a “potential event”, & would not confirm it, so it looks like it might not even happen. (sarc) I’m very disappointed … I was really looking forward to it … and it now looks like our Fake News Awards aren’t going to happen.

    Nuala McGovern ends by laughingly saying later in the program they would discuss the “girther” movement that followed the release of Trump’s cognitive test which BBC Trending is following (ha ha).

    AUDIO: BBC OS with Nuala McGovern
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172vrb90j5scz6

    17 Jan: BBC Trending: Trump’s medical sparks online ‘girther’ movement
    By George Pierpoint
    US presidents regularly undergo physical examinations. It is not remarkable. However, the results of Donald Trump’s recent medical check-up have sparked an online conspiracy theory – the girther movement.
    According to the official medical report, released by the White House on 16 January, President Trump stands at 75 inches (6ft 3in; 1.9m) and weighs 239lb (17st 1lb; 108kg).

    But the girther movement, propelled mainly by critics of the president, posits that Mr Trump is shorter and heavier than the report suggests.
    This particular presidential physical has received increased interest after questions were raised over Mr Trump’s mental health and supposed unhealthy diet…

    There have been more than 56,000 tweets about the girther movement since late on 16 January, with one of the first tweets to use the term posted by political commentator Chris Hayes…
    Others online have questioned the independence of the doctor overseeing the medical examination…

    The term girther is an apparent nod to the well-established “birther’ movement”, made up mainly of right-wing activists who opposed President Obama, with Mr Trump as its most public face.
    Birthers questioned the former president’s place of birth and his eligibility to hold high office.
    It has been widely derided as a racist conspiracy.
    The birther theory was pushed hard by Mr Trump, and resulted in Mr Obama releasing his birth certificate to the public in 2011
    http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42716443

    and, if that isn’t enough fake news for you, BBC World Service radio also covered the cognitive test in their “Health Check” program!

    less than 2 minutes, beginning around 8mins 40secs in –
    BBC’s Health Check gives impression cognitive test was a result of questions about his mental stability; Michael Wolff’s book; 27 psychiatrists etc, child-like, slurring, etc etc.
    goes on to suggest he did well, but mean score in Swedish study is 25-27. he got 30. it’s got nothing to do with mental health, IQ. it doesn’t establish the state of your mental health.

    AUDIO: BBC Health Check with Claudia Hammond
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvpy2

    20

    • #
      dadgervais

      O/T (re: “…releasing his birth certificate…”)

      I downloaded said document from the official .gov website on the day it was announced.

      With my 40+ years of computer technology experience, I still can’t figure how/why a paper document typed on a circa 1960 typewriter and later (presumably) microfisched was eventually tranformed into a pdf containing a multi-layer immage.

      10

  • #
    Antoine D'Arche

    reading you 5 x 5 on Twitter Jo 🙂

    30

  • #
    pat

    pre-announcement of Awards:

    Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ Could Inspire Dictators Around Globe
    Newsweek· 14h ago

    McCain denounces president’s attacks on the media before Trump’s ‘fake news awards’
    Politico· 14h ago

    ‘Fake News Awards’ absent from Trump’s White House schedule, dismissed as ‘potential event’
    New York Daily News· 22h ago

    ‘Fake News Awards’ downgraded to ‘potential event’
    Daily Mail Online – 12hrs ago

    Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ were a huge flop
    The Washington Post – 8 hrs ago???

    Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ are shaping up to be a total flop
    Spokesman-Review – 4hrs ago

    Trump’s Phony ‘Fake News’ Claims – FactCheck.org
    FactCheck.org – 2 days ago???

    TODAY:

    Trump reveals highly anticipated ‘Fake News Awards’
    Washington Examiner – 2hrs ago

    get ready for all the “fact-checking” now the Awards have been announced.

    has any FakeNewsMSM ever reported outrage by Trump supporters going viral?

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      Extreme Hiatus

      Pat, thanks for that chronology. Looks like Trump totally played the stupid media, again. He must be having a lot of fun.

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    pat

    did FakeNewsMSM learn anything from this:

    12 Jan: WashingtonFreeBeacon: American Psychiatric Association Tells Shrinks: Stop Analyzing Trump
    ‘Unacceptable and unethical’
    by Elizabeth Harrington
    The American Psychiatric Association is pleading with its members and all psychiatrists to stop analyzing President Donald Trump, saying it is “unacceptable and unethical” to engage in “armchair psychiatry.”

    The APA, which is the largest psychiatric association in the world, released a statement (LINK) this week decrying members of the profession who are violating the “Goldwater Rule”—commenting on a public figure’s mental state from afar.

    “We at the APA call for an end to psychiatrists providing professional opinions in the media about public figures whom they have not examined, whether it be on cable news appearances, books, or in social media,” the organization said. “Armchair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical.”

    The organization said it is impossible to diagnose someone from their tweets, adding that it “undermines the credibility and integrity of the profession.”…

    A shrink at Yale University hawking a book with 26 other psychiatrists who claim Trump’s mental state “presents a clear and present danger to our nation” is leading the movement against Trump. Bandy Lee has been “summoned” by Democratic lawmakers to Capitol Hill for two days of briefings on Trump’s mental health. Lee’s main issue with the president is his tweets.

    “We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress,” Lee said.
    http://freebeacon.com/issues/american-psychiatric-association-tells-shrinks-stop-analyzing-trump/

    following the APA statement, we had this:

    Maybe Trump Is Not Mentally Ill. Maybe He’s Just a Jerk.
    New York Times· Jan 13, 2018

    and now, still pre-Awards:

    17 Jan: MSN: from NYT 6hrs ago: Trump’s Physical Revealed Serious Heart Concerns, Outside Experts Say
    by Michael D Shear
    Cardiologists not associated with the White House said Wednesday that President Trump’s physical exam revealed serious heart concerns, including very high levels of so-called bad cholesterol, which raises the risk that Mr. Trump could suffer a heart attack while in office…

    Asked whether Mr. Trump has heart disease, Mr. Jackson said he did not. “Technically, he has nonclinical coronary atherosclerosis,” Dr. Jackson told reporters.

    ***Outside doctors — who have not directly examined Mr. Trump — questioned that conclusion, saying that the combination of Mr. Trump’s weight and the cardiac test results raised more concerns than Dr. Jackson’s comments would reflect.
    Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent for CNN, repeatedly expressed concern on Wednesday about test results that showed Mr. Trump’s coronary calcium score had increased to 133…

    Several former members of Mr. Obama’s White House staff echoed that praise of Dr. Jackson.
    David Axelrod, who served as one of Mr. Obama’s top advisers in the White House, said on Twitter Tuesday: “I knew Dr. Ronny Jackson in the White House. In my experience, he was very good guy and straight shooter.”
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump’s-physical-revealed-serious-heart-concerns-outside-experts-say/ar-AAuPo0o?ocid=spartanntp

    how sweet, Obama’s people say the Doc is OK.

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      pat

      should have included the following excerpts from the WashingtonFreeBeacon APA story:

      Lee’s book includes essays entitled, “Trump’s Daddy Issues: A Toxic Mix for America”; “Trump Anxiety Disorder”; “Donald J. Trump, Alleged Incapacitated Person: Mental Incapacity, the Electoral College, and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment”; and “Donald Trump Is: (A) Bad, (B) Mad, (C) All of the Above.”

      The media have also joined in, with hours of cable news coverage questioning Trump’s “mental fitness.”

      Trump’s election did have an effect on the mental state of liberals, with a surge of new patients in Washington, D.C., following Hillary Clinton’s loss. Psychotherapists said they saw an unprecedented number of patients expressing “anger, frustration, anxiety, [and] sadness” over Trump’s win.

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    Roy Hogue

    This kind of thing may well be why some Facebook friends never answered my comments, especially questions.

    These Silicone Valley Kings have reigned long enough. How do we dethrone them?

    To think that already years ago I was afraid that Google was getting too powerful and yet I never thought they would become so dishonest as to fail to show me the best hits for my search because someone was willing to pay them to point me to the folks with money instead of the product I wanted, it makes me angry.

    I gave up Facebook last year. And by the way they have no way to delete your account that I could find. Talk about hubris. I think twitter is silly and worthless.

    Bottom line — why should I parade my life in front of the world? Answer: I shouldn’t.

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    Mark Allinson

    I have a strict policy never to click any Facebook link, or have anything whatsoever to do with Facebook, and yet every other day I find I have Facebook tracking cookies in my browser, which I dump. I bet you have them on your browsers too – any site you visit that links to Facebook will give you the Facebook cookies. They are watching everyone.

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    Peter C

    This is beautiful.

    Cathy Newman at the BBC has to do a 25 minute interview with Professor Jordan Petersen. He turns every point back on her with polite but ruthless logic.
    Talk about humiliation!
    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/watch-cathy-newmans-catastrophic-interview-with-jordan-peterson/

    I will 2watch the rest of it tonight.

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      GreatAuntJanet

      It is just excellent! Even better, UK’s Channel 4 (their program) put an excerpt up on Facebook – I think they had the intention of trying to make the good Professor look slightly foolish, because he was talking about the similarities between lobsters and humans – but the number of really positive comments was heartening. It seems that people, even on FB, do want to listen to more than soundbites and drivelly management/politic speak.

      And then, Channel 4 put a link in for the whole interview – amazing! It is almost painful to watch the floundering interviewer, but Jordan Peterson is cool, calm and right all the way through it. I wanted to slap young Cathy but he did it for me (non-violently)!

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      Peter C

      Ok,
      I got to the end of the interview at last.

      Jordan Paterson is a true warrior of the right. Great guy. And we need people like him.

      The sad thing is that there are great people in the Climate debate also but they can to longer get a public forum. The BBC, ABC, and other mainstream media just don’t invite them on any more. That is their public policy!

      Now we are confronting exclusion from social media as well. Soon we will be down to illegal underground newsletters.

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    This pattern of creeping censorship has been in place for a number of years.

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/a-message-in-two-parts-part-two/

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/fighting-back-against-the-internet-giants-google/

    Twitter is particularly insidious with it’s shadow banning. My advice Jo is to move over to Gab – I have. It’s uncensored and and you merely link your Gab account to your twitter one, and then anything you tweet on Gab is automatically tweeted on Twitter. An added benefit is you can now see which of your tweets Twitter is binning.

    Pointman

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    This pattern of creeping censorship has been in place for a number of years.

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/a-message-in-two-parts-part-two/

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/fighting-back-against-the-internet-giants-google/

    Twitter is particularly insidious with it’s shadow banning. My advice Jo is to move over to Gab – I have. It’s uncensored and and you merely link your Gab account to your twitter one, and then anything you tweet on Gab is automatically tweeted on Twitter. An added benefit is you can now see which of your tweets Twitter is binning.

    Pointman

    Mod – trash my previous comment, I forgot the trailing “2” Doh!

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    Kinky Keith

    While we are on the topic.

    I wonder how many have signed up to the new social media platform which combines the best of the current ones available.

    It’s called “YouTwitFace” and costs nothing for the first 6 months.

    KK

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    The Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

    My visits here tend to be for enlightenment and maybe some discourse. Perhaps the regulars can enlighten me on this topic.

    I do not now, nor have I ever:

    owned a cell phone;
    sent a text message;
    had a FaceBook account;
    been on Twitter;
    owned any Apple product

    … and as far as I can tell, I think I am up to speed on recent news events, controversies, the latest humor making the rounds (“A three-legged dog walks into the town saloon, and says, “I’m lookin’ fer the man who shot my paw!” “).

    Just recently, I saw an article, wherein the author claimed that the founders of YouTwitFace (h/t/ KK) have admitted that their whole goal was to make their website(s) addicting.

    Not sure why, but that sounds a lot like mind control to me (“Winston! How many fingers am I holding up?”).

    My question is, if these websites and individuals are using the revenue that YOU send them (either directly or vicariously) to undermine the things that JoNovians and WUWT-ians stand for, why are you giving them the rope they will use to hang you with? (h/t, Dr. V. Lenin).

    As long as any of these website/corporations/individuals maintain this stance, I can guarantee they’ll not see one red kopeck of my income.

    Thanks for allowing me to vent,

    The Mostest Deplorable-est Vlad the Impaler-est, a crashing-est bore-est, and an even bigger-est bully-est (according to C.T.)

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      Kinky Keith

      Vlad

      Is YTF real. I thought it was a joke?

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        The Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

        Well, KK, not as far as I know; I picked up the acronym from you (for all practical purposes). I honestly think YTF is a fairly apt description of those who engage in any (or all) of those platforms, allowing an exception for our beautiful and lovely hostess, who has stated above that she only does so on a random basis.

        I actually know people (here in the States), who, if they do NOT have their phone, or are NOT connected via some ‘mobile hot spot’, or have any other issue related to YTF, they show early stage apoplexy until such time as they can get their “fix”. This is perhaps the biggest reason that I’ll never even have a cell, or do any of those other “social” media things.

        This article was just another nail in a very large, and very well nailed shut, coffin.

        Regards to you and yours, KK,

        Vlad

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    This is a really important article
    for a climate skeptic website.

    I retired at a young age (51) in 2004
    and decided to stay off the internet
    most days of the week.

    Today I think even more strongly
    that I made a good decision.

    I’m usually online two days a week —
    three days a week in this miserable cold
    Michigan winter — climate change
    has affected my internet use.

    Of course you can discover all sorts
    of great things online such as
    nude photos of Jo Nova at this website:
    http://www.JoNovaBeNude.com

    BEFORE YOU GO TO THAT WEBSITE,
    please be aware I just made it up,
    didn’t you have better things to do?
    I hope Ms. Nova has a good sense
    of humor, or else you won’t be
    hearing from me here again

    There are better things to do
    when not here at JoNova.com
    and WUWT.com = real life.

    I have never wasted a minute
    with Facebook
    or Twitter
    or even YouTube,
    except to listen to a song
    not in my music collection.

    I do write three blogs online
    and one economics newsletter,
    as a hobby.

    I am shocked by the number
    of people who waste so much time online.

    Read recently that kids
    in the US get a smartphone
    at an average age of ten
    and use it an
    average of 4.5 hours a day,

    When I was 10, all I wanted to do was
    get outside and do something with friends,
    not stare at a screen seven days a week.

    I have a free climate change blog at:

    http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com

    and a free US politics blog at:

    http://www.ElectionCircus.Blogspot.com

    My economics newsletter and blog
    are for subscribers only and I’m
    not taking more subscribers —
    because I plan
    to convert it to a free blog
    when the current subscriptions expire.

    At least here in the US we get free
    entertainment watching Trump
    make the leftist media go berserk
    about every other day.

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    Peter C

    Gentlemen Start your (Diesel Generator) Engines.

    In about half an hours time according to the AEMO dashboard estimates the wholesale price of electricity will skyrocket from $200/MWhr to $10,000/MWhr and then $14,000/MWhr. The high prices are expected to last until about about 6pm with power consumption above 9000MW.
    https://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/National-Electricity-Market-NEM/Data-dashboard

    Cost to Victorians (wholesale) should be about $125,000,000/hour ($600M total).

    Comparative cost in NSW for the same amount of power $1.8M

    Today the front page headline in The Age says Victoria lags amid jobs boom. IS it any wonder?

    h/t to Rick Will and Jo

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    observa

    It seems Spotify are having a bob each way according to The Australian today-

    Swedish music streaming service Spotify says it never removed Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi’s Australian music playlist, despite last night writing to him to say that they had removed his item because it had been reported as including “inappropriate or offensive content”.
    Spotify’s emails to Senator Bernardi followed a backlash from artists including rock legends Jimmy Barnes and Bernard Fanning, who objected to the conservative politician featuring their music in his “Australian Conservatives 100” playlist.
    The playlist was a response to ABC youth station Triple J’s decision to move its annual Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day.
    This afternoon Spotify issued a statement, saying that reports the playlist had been removed were incorrect.
    “The playlist in question has always been available for listening; however, what was in fact removed was the title and/or image for the playlist created by the user,” the statement said.
    “This action was an automated response addressing user complaints about the playlist.”
    Spotify did not indicate whether or not the title and image had been reinstated.
    The company’s apparently automated email to Senator Bernardi last night read:
    “Hi, we’ve received notice that your uploaded content has been reported as including inappropriate or offensive content and violates our Profile and Playlist Image Guidelines.
    “We’ve removed it from Spotify. If you believe you received this notice in error, please respond back to this email with an appeal within five (5) business days and we will look into the case.”
    Senator Bernardi said last night’s email was “extraordinary”.

    10