Feb 14
California leads the U.S. in taxation and regulation.
Although California is the richest state in the union, and has the most vast, comprehensive and expansive social welfare programs, it leads the nation in rates of poverty.
A new poll reveals that 53% of California residents are considering leaving the Golden State because of the high cost of living.
Nearly two-thirds, 62%, of respondents said they believed the best days of California were in the past.
Feb 14
by Roger I. Roots, JD, Ph.D., founder, Lysander Spooner University
Anyone seeking the truth about climate change should learn the art of studying official government charts.
Climate change hysteria is built on a foundation of deceptive graphs and charts–which any savvy observer can easily see are fabricated to achieve a propaganda, rather than an informative, purpose.
The recent (2018) National Climate Assessment, published by numerous U.S. government agencies, contains numerous graphs which are plainly deceptive. All one needs to dismantle them is some knowledge of the data that is MISSING from each graph.
Page 38 of the Assessment contains a dozen charts, and most of them contain deliberate deception.
The legendary data analyst Tony Heller points out that the “U.S. Heatwave” graph (Chart B) begins in 1960. The chart makes it appear that U.S. heatwaves are steadily increasing, and invites the reader to assume the cause is CO2. But if the data from prior decades were included, the chart would show that heatwaves have DECLINED since the 1930s. “The 2018 report released to the public, cherry-picked the only start date in the graph which they could use to create the appearance of a warming trend.”
The same goes with the Report’s ‘F’ chart (Arctic sea ice extent) which STARTS IN 1975–a high point for Arctic ice. If the chart began in any year prior to 1975 it would have shown that Arctic ice levels were LOWER prior to 1975, and that current (2018) ice levels are fairly normal or even more expansive than ice levels of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
The most deceptive chart of all in the government Assessment Report is Chart K–“U.S. Wildfires.” The chart begins around 1980, a relative low point for U.S. wildfires, and makes it appear that wildfires are now (in 2018) at record levels. REALITY IS ALMOST PRECISELY OPPOSITE. Any chart showing U.S. wildfires over the entire past century would have shown that contemporary (2018) wildfire levels are MUCH LOWER than levels in the 1930s and 1940s.
Ask yourself: if government “climate scientists” were doing real, unbiased, dispassionate science would they need to conceal such countervailing data from their readers?
Feb 10
The New York Post has investigated the rise of supposedly impartial “fact-checkers” which major news sources consult.
“Fact-checker” boards, companies or committees are a current fad among mainstream news analysis.
Frequently, mainstream news will subject speeches or addresses by public officials to post-speech ‘fact-checking.’
The New York Post looked at newspapers and TV networks which employed ‘fact-checkers’ to criticize Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union address.
For example, the ‘independent’ ‘fact-checkers’ accused Trump of misleading statements for highlighting poll results but failing to mention negative aspects of the same polls.
When Trump praised the record number of women in Congress, NPR “fact-checked” him by pointing out that the growing number of women in Congress was “almost entirely because of Democrats, not Trump’s party.”
“The state of American fact-checking is dreadfully misleading. There’s no reason for conservatives to give its authors the deference they seek.”
Feb 09
Polar bear populations have grown by thousands since 2000. Arctic ice has expanded for years and is now at its highest level in a decade. And it’s the dead of winter when it is impossible for Arctic ice to melt.
Yet when large numbers of polar bears recently began invading a Russian settlement, breaking into buildings and attacking people, the mainstream media reported that climate change and melting Arctic ice are to blame.
Russia’s Novaya Zemlya islands, home to a few thousand people, have recently seen bears attacking people and entering residential and public buildings.
Even news organizations with enough resources to double-check their facts reported the false claim.
The BBC (chartered by the British government) reported that “Polar bears are affected by climate change and are increasingly forced on to land to look for food.”
Just two months ago the BBC falsely reported that south African penguin populations were declining due to rising seas caused by climate change. The penguins were actually declining due to overfishing. (Seas have risen no more than A FOOT PER CENTURY near the southern tip of Africa).
Feb 09
The Los Angeles Times has a chilling story about the growth of “fake news” laws and prosecutions across Asia.
Thailand, Taiwan, Cambodia, and other southeast-Asian governments are enacting or expanding their laws to crackdown on private news and social media which criticizes governments.
In China and Vietnam, the governments already own or license all media, so control is more direct. “China’s 2017 Provisions for the Administration of Internet News Information Services require that online news providers reprint information from government-approved organizations without changing the content.”
Even in Singapore, where there is a tradition of more freedom, “legislators are considering regulations to strengthen media controls that are already in place. Journalists can now be jailed for libel, threats to national security or “ill will” against religious or racial groups, Reporters Without Borders said.”
Feb 08
by Roger Roots
Mainstream journalism is in its death throes. In the information age, consumers just won’t pay for tired news content extolling the virtues of big-government establishment institutions. ‘Mainstream news’ is becoming so marginalized that it isn’t even, well . . . mainstream anymore. It is the voice of a small minority of elitist central planners.
And virtually every adversarial inquiry into the funding behind mainstream (generally meaning government supporting and supported) journalism has found that much mainstream journalism is secretly bought and paid for by government agencies.
As mainstream news institutions are shedding hundreds of jobs, the backlash in news rooms centers around claims that independent media upstarts are “unprofessional,” purveyors of conspiracy theories or even sources of “fake news.”
But now mainstream news’ loudest gatekeeper, who is publishing a book called “Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts,” is identified as a two-bit plagiarist and a downright sloppy reporter.
Jill Abramson attacks and condemns modern alternative news sources as scandalous, simplistic and headline obsessed. She insists on “standards” and laments the job-hunting difficulties of Columbia School of Journalism grads.
But according to Michael Moynihan of Vice, Abramson’s book is little more than a collection of stolen paragraphs, unchecked sources and outright untruths.
“The irony here,” according to Sean Illing of VOX, “is impossible to miss: a book that talks at length about journalistic ethics and praises legacy media titans like the New York Times and the Washington Post while lambasting new media companies like Vice and BuzzFeed for sloppy reporting that is, well, filled with errors and what appears to be very sloppy reporting.”
Feb 06
Over the past two years, major government-supporting media have (simultaneously, it seems) pronounced a need to cleanse their platforms of “fake news.”
This push seems to correspond with Deep State investigations into “Russia collusion,” marginalization of Julian Assange and Wikileaks and a general effort by the establishment to limit public discourse to the confines of “mainstream news.”
Major tech platforms such as Youtube, Google, Twitter and Facebook have culled and censored hundreds of libertarian and right-of-center content sources. Much of this self-censorship seems, on the surface, to be against the self-interests of the platforms themselves. When Youtube banned Alex Jones Infowars programming, it was banning THE MOST VISITED CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE.
Now, Breitbart News is investigating Microsoft’s latest “anti-fake-news” operation (which Microsoft calls “NewsGuard”).
It turns out NewsGuard’s ‘experts’ on identifying ‘fake news’ are all ENTRENCHED DEEP STATE OPERATIVES who have been caught spreading fake news themselves.
NewsGaurd has banned many barely-edgy content sources as purveyors of fake news, including even Drudge Report, Breitbart and the Daily Mail.
Most mainstream outlets, even those with a record of publishing fake news, are rated as reliable sources of information.
According to Bretibart, “NewsGuard has also rated stories which have been proven to be fake news as trustworthy, while rating the fact-checking articles of those news pieces as untrustworthy.”
As reported by Breitbart News’ John Nolte, some fake news stories rated as trustworthy by NewsGuard include, “Rolling Stone’s 2014 hoax about a gang rape at the University of Virginia (UVA),” “BuzzFeed’s debunked lie about President Trump telling his then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress,” “The Washington Post’s debunked hoax about Russia hacking Vermont’s utility grid,” “The lie about first lady Melania Trump being an illegal alien,” and “The lie about Trump changing the name of Black History Month.”
“NewsGuard’s board is packed with neoconservative figures and former U.S. intelligence operatives, most of whom are alumni from the administrations of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.”
One member of NewsGuard’s advisory board, General Michael Hayden, previously worked as a National Security adviser where he argued incessantly for greater government surveillance over the U.S. population.
Feb 05
The London Daily Mail is out with a scandalous report on the children of Venezuela’s socialist “leaders.” See here.
“The rich kids of Venezuela’s socialist elite know nothing of the misery their parents have wreaked on their country.”
“Socialist revolution leader Hugo Chavez’s oldest daughter Maria Gabriela is rumoured to be Venezuela’s richest woman, with a personal fortune of more than 4 billion dollars, hidden in bank accounts Europe.”
While the people of Venezuela dig through garbage cans for food and survival, the children of the country’s socialist leadership are known to blow $45,000 for hotel stays in Paris and Madrid.
Feb 03
Venezuela’s socialist government regulates and licenses all internet providers.
During recent anti-government protests and speeches by President Maduro’s political challenger, the internet went down for most of the country’s subjects.
Feb 02
Just 50 years ago, Venezuela was one of the 6 wealthiest countries on earth. Its people enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America.
Then around 2000, Venezuelans began voting for socialism.
Now millions have fled the socialist hellhole. Hundreds of thousands have died of hunger and disease.
New York Times reports that Venezuelan dictator Maduro is now deploying death squads to crush dissent and eliminate those who attend protests against him.
