Z-Man laughed about Elon Musk, saying IIRC that he has become rich, in part, by taking advantage of government subsidies of electric vehicles. IIRC you have written that EVs exist in Europe mainly because of subsidies. My view is "from the ground", seeing that Teslas are expensive -- with my moderate income I might be better off buying used cars with relatively simple gas engines, and maintaining them. Off-topic maybe but it's what I think about.
The central issue cannot be removed from this imposition of foreign laws on someone who wouldn’t cooperate with a censorship scheme? The EU asked the wrong guy. Elon spent a fortune to buy Twitter to create a free speech platform. The USA had its own censorship regime in the years prior, with our own government surveillance. You may remember the Twitter Files years. It’s disgusting to know that the DSA is operating in England and the European nations and is especially onerous to the Brits because of the supposed racism charges.
Who needs an appeal? Elon's response: "The EU should be abolished." And 2 days later Trump announces a "strategic pivot" from Europe in favor of the Americas and the Pacific, and that all funding to the EU will be cut off unless Europe stops allowing unlimited migration, cleans up its suicidal Green energy policies, and ends DSA censorship initiatives. The lesson here is don't mess with Elon.
BKA has actually bitterly complained about X giving out far less user data than meta, making it much more difficult to find and punish nasty-thing-sayers *sob, *sob.
He singlehandedly broke the illusion of consensus on social media by buying X. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that was one of the most important events for free speech in the developed world.
Yes, I include that as part of buying X. I don't see any other way those conversations would have come to light to show the censorship-industrial complex in action. Look at how other tech billionaires like Zuckerberg simply went along with it. Musk, for all his faults, absolutely refused to cave and went on the offensive to expose censorship.
Very important. Anyone paying attention could now see the belly of the beast. You cannot unsee the massive restriction of free speech, which was supposedly guaranteed by the US Constitution. Many people need to be fined significantly or thrown in jail. Or both.
Your last two sentences describe the state of the USA across a plethora of important civic issues. The USA's failure is that what is clearly "needed" will never happen, short of a bloody uprising. And if it continues to fail long enough, that is what they will have on their hands.
I'm a firm believer in that. But suppression is alive and well. None of my liberal friends are even aware of the Twitter Files or the revelations therefrom.
I thought it would be the story of the century, but so far the government media has done what it can to suppress it. When I get into a discussion about this the majority of people have never heard of the Censorship Industrial Complex. And even if they have, they believe it's an "alleged" -- not even proven -- right-wing conspiracy theory, or they start talking about First Amendment rights vs. the rights of private corporations. So frustrating.
Same here. And when I bring up USAID as an example of money wasted on outlandish projects, they object that no, it funded worthwhile stuff. After DOGE made the information public, did they spend hours going through the reams of USAID grantees? I did. My friends did not.
Say what you will about Elon Musk, and I do - he reveled in banning people from X when they criticized his hiring of a woman who started censoring people, and they wrote complaints on Musk's page. He then joked about how fun it was to ban them.
Still it is better to have this bastard running X than the ones before him who crippled debate on Twitter. It is a sign of our times that we can only choose between light grey, dark grey or pitch black.
I don't know if you can blame the prior owner. Jack Dorsey and his content watchdogs initially resisted the censorship effort. It was only once the Biden White House started threatening Twitter's counsel/lobbyist in DC with an antitrust lawsuit that he caved. Then I believe that he called Elon precisely because he knew Elon had the money to buy Twitter and the connections and cojones deal with government pressure.
He saved the USA from abyss . Actually, buys Twitter and then letting Matt Tahhibi and Michael Shellenberger have access to all internal emails exposed the Biden ‘s Draconian censorship campaign on Covid .
He may have saved us all from abyss, but he does stuff I don't like, so I will just whine here about such things as my account on X not having been restored on his watch. lol.
You are not the first to say that . I have cognitive dissonance. If he is for free speech what could you and others possibly have said . Wanting free speech is wanting speech you hate .
I don't know what he's for or against. I just know that he did us all a massive service. And, yes, my old account is still locked (last I checked) for telling a highly paid national CNN reporter to learn to code. Remember those crazy days?
Well, given that Biden was non compos mentis, I would like to know exactly which government scumbags were actually behind the censorship done in Biden's name.
Congress over there is quietly trying to usher through an age-verification bill that will in effect work as a digital ID for surveillance and tracking online, of Americans and of what you look at, share and post online.
Couldn't find a legal or tech-channel talking about it, but Kneon of ClownfishTV knows this stuff too and made a clip about yesterday:
Oh yes, they're working toward that. I hope it won't be as easy as they think it might be, but here in our Substack dissent bubble it's hard to say how widespread IRL resistance to it might be.
Now I feel sorry I brought it up - but I'm getting worried that there's a point to all the "Look at Europe!"-stuff going on:
AFP and USA Today both reported today on the plans to demand travellers to the USA giving authorities access to their social media, e-mail adresses and so on. Reaching back five years before entry.
And expanded biometric screening of travellers.
I'd say the odds of this then being extended to US citizens too is 1:1.
I would differ, to some extent. It's long established that the search and inspection rules for noncitizens (and even citizens) at the border are different from the rules applied internally to citizens. It's a power granted by the constitutional Commerce Clause, bolstered by case law such as (don't laugh) "United States v. 12 200-ft. Reels of Film (1973)."
The greatest threat comes from sneaky "reinterpretations" of this power -- such as the "redefinition" of "border" (under the 1946 Alien Act and the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act) to include a 100-mile swath of land inland from the actual border. This swath "coincidentally" includes two-thirds of the entire US population, reducing their Fourth Amendment rights against search without probable cause. It is why a citizen still has to bow and scrape to an "immigration inspector" at "border" checkpoints in places like Uvalde, Quartzsite, and Sierra Blanca. And you will notice that this has been the case for roughly 80 years already.
Mine too, not suspended, but 'with limited reach'. My crime - telling what happened to Danish traitors -fraternizing with occupying germans (1940-1945) during WW2, in the aftermath of liberation- as an illustration of our PM taking orders from the globalist scum in the EU, WHO, NATO, WEF in defiance of We, The People...
More importantly, you have a right to say what you can prove is true. (Admitting the unacceptable danger in letting the government decide what is or isn't true.)
BINGO - but in my case(as probably for lots other) I did NOT get an explaination - I had to rewind and assume what triggered the outlawing; Gov./X/5 eyes, who knows. But being 'shamed' for my oppinition just confirms the surveillence world I'm living in - and actually gived me a deserving breather away from the grinder...
That is not right . I don’t understand why he does that . What did you say pray tell . For God’s sake when the ACLU stood for something in 1960 ,they defended a Nazi party ‘s right to March in an all Jewish neighborhood. Fortunately after winning,the Nazi’s didn’t do it .
A colleague of mine refers to the Skokie kerfuffle as "ACLU's 'token n*r' case, prosecuted so that ACLUers everywhere can cite it as illustrating how even-handed and centrist they are."
Their 1991 poster (below) makes it quite clear how even handed and centrist the ACLU is -- they think the "Bill of Rights" consists of three copies of the First Amendment, no Second Amendment at all, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth, and then the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth -- oddly, since the "Bill of Rights" is formally recognized by everyone else as the first TEN.
What I found especially interesting was the fact that the actions against me, which culminated in my ban, only started once I topped 1k followers. Before that, no problems at all. But once 1k blue checks were following me, boom, down came the hammer.
And a Russian spy should be able to post . That’s what got me about th3 USA Russia collusion hoax . Th3y thought I was so stupid that I couldn’t read someth8ng and pass judgement on it ‘s validity. I’m glad Hillary lost if for only that reason ….and 100 others
At the danger of commenting while still reading the article, I'm always struck that this item is mentioned third and last: 'a failure to provide researchers with access to public data'. I'm pretty sure that by "researchers" they mean NGOs.
No way would I want to let those nanny-state NGO's have access to my data.
That's exactly what they mean. Hate-speech researchers, foreign election interference researchers, basically the whole brigade of NGO internet hall monitors.
4chan always posts the details when they have found themselves to be the subject of a study. Usually a complete lack of understanding that gets laughed at.
It should be kept in mind that many of these "researchers" are affiliated with the alphabet soup known as "intelligence community" in one way or another; this slime pond is just as slimy in Europe as it is in the U.S.
I think one piece of legislation would go a LONG way to making things better. All it has to do, is state that 50% of a person's (or business's) tax obligation can be set by that person or business (i.e. you can decide where your tax money goes or doesn't go).
Nah. We already do something roughly equivalent in Arizona, and it works great.
A couple can make charitable contributions to several distinct approved classes of public charities, including categories such as public school programs, foster care, military organizations, community resources, and tuition assistance programs (for private schools). With the right mix to each class, a couple can claim a dollar-for-dollar CREDIT (not a deduction) for over $4,000 of state tax due. Most people don't owe nearly that much, so they can allocate their entire tax bill to causes of their choice. Among other grantees, we donate to our local town's senior center, and (to stick it in the eye of the proggies) our high-school's championship high-power rifle team (the last one remaining in the USA, to the best of our knowledge).
I have dreamed about defunding these crap organizations by revoking their preferential tax status. Oh, they can exist, but you won't get a tax deduction for giving them money.
'The term "public data" means data that is generally accessible without restrictions. While some argue that if data is public, access should be unrestricted, the reality in many online platforms is that access is often gated in various ways:
'Data Sensitivity: Even if data is classified as "public," it may still be sensitive. For example, user-generated content or interactions might be anonymized or filtered to protect user privacy, hence complicating access.
'Operational Controls: Platforms maintain some control over how data is retrieved to prevent misuse, such as scraping—automated data collection—thus impacting researchers attempting to perform comprehensive analyses.
'Legal Compliance: Different jurisdictions have varying interpretations of what constitutes public access and protections against data exploitation, leading to inconsistencies in availability across platforms.'
Good question. “a failure to provide researchers with access to public data, allegedly in violation of Article 40(12)” might be slightly ambiguous. Rather than referring to data that is publicly available, perhaps it means data about members of the public that are using the service (IOW “public’s data”)? That was my assumption. They want access to ordinarily hidden data that would allow them to identify us IRL.
"I hope to god the Americans can find a way to punish the European Commission for this fine and the others that are sure to follow."
Me too! In spades! I'm the least tech-able person you will ever encounter anywhere but I love the interwebs; I clearly obviously love social media and I really, really, really believe absolutely in free speech as the most basic foundation of liberty.
I guess we can spell it X-communication now. The tool ruling powers love best.
As a great man once said, "you don't have any cards to play". The EU will fold on this under threat of tariffs on politically sensitive EU products (agricultural mainly).
The specifics aren't as important as the greater tragedy of people from a continent soaked in blood from centuries of people from essentially the same culture killing one another over idiotic theological disputes and who finally made it to the Enlightenment and now determined to trash that exceptional achievement of reason as fast and hard as they can.
Well, I think in the specifics and practically, we must find a way to restore our freedom and restore Western Civilization. Very important. Action. Feeling are fine for a bit. Action.
Yes, it's awful all of us having to think carefully about the meaning of every word in a sentence in a comment on a blog. And me with my tendency to double entendres and puns, God help me.
Anyway--it starts at home. Educating one's children not to put faith in authority figures but to do their own research and most crucial and urgent--to trust their instincts and wake them up if they've been stifled. To take note of their own discomfort when they're told nonsense by anyone. This is at least a generation's work ahead of us.
I don't write girlish enough, apparently. And I must strive to be even ruder than my natural inclinations so enough of the tone makes it through the interwebs.
Possibly. But earlier U.S. threats that they folded to were just about the European economy. They don't care about that, they get big paychecks anyway and they can always tell the voters that the economy is bad because Russia refuses to sell natural gas. (Which I read in a column even this year, long after Nord Stream II was blown up.)
They care above all about silencing people online who reveal the crime and costs caused by mass immigration. They'll take any sanctions, that doesn't matter, as long as they can control online debate.
The USA just released their “ National Security Strategy “ . In it they leave little to the imagination concerning the EU . Basically ,it’s a lost cause and we are abandoning the EU . Good luck with your National Security . We will work with individual countries ( I assume Hungary ) we are to no surprise “ pivoting “ to China . I’m surprised at the foolishness of the EU . I knew in high school who NOT to pick a fight with. Good Luck ,Germany
Yes, but that's just Trump, and the Dems will control Congress soon due to his many failures. After Trump is gone that piece of paper is also gone. It only gives the leftists something that shows Trump is a blowhard again. Trade and cooperation with the EU will go on same as before. Besides the EU isn't the main problem, it's the U.S.
Not so sure . We have little strategic interest in that region . And hate Trump as he did , Biden became tough on China ..well as tough as a cadaver could be .
Well said. I was appalled to read that Substack has bent to this awful rule, but of course they don't have the fortune of Musk. Curious about the story to develop. I am pretty sure Musk won't bend.
oh I did not know about Brazil. He probably has a lot more European subscribers than Brazilians? No, the detail we will never learn. Just like with all the rest of the puppet show, we are ignorant bystanders who have to guess what the story might be!
Failure to provide researchers with access to public data….isn’t it funny? Citizens, voters, taxpayers need to provide a request under FOIA to access data that should be public but X is the guilty one. I hope the US will react as harshly as they can.
What’s interesting about the Trump administration is that (a) it seems to put its money where its mouth is on free speech and (b) it doesn’t seem to care much about “too heavy” when it comes to wielding power in the cause of the classic liberal values that Europe has abandoned.
What is the leverage of the DSA 'enforcers', should Musk choose to ignore their fine, given USG disinclination to take them seriously? Do these bureaucrats just keep adding zeroes to an imaginary future payment that Musk keeps ignoring, forever?
Yes. I'd like to think Trump could call up Belgium and tell someone like Ursula that this is a really bad idea, and then cooler heads would quickly prevail. But I suspect it's not that easy to cut through all the layers of EU stupidity.
The words of the likes of Trump and Vance all the way down the ladder to us rubes along with the attendant shifting of public opinion will suffice, I believe.
I don't fully understand this comment but agree the friction with US tech companies is likely to be positive and will spur development in the EU as they make efforts to comply with their own privacy laws.
The US under Trump will, over the next several years, become a renewed industrial powerhouse in direct competition with communist China. This is already underway and is inevitable. Tesla and other US tech companies are leading in aluminum and sodium battery development that will put a huge dent in China's attempted monopolization for rare earth metals. Also, the US under Trump has been working to source more domestic and other foreign sources that will come online over the next few years.
European countries are going to have to decide... align with communist China or align with the US. If they align with the US, the then US is going to require all countries to adopt US 1st Amendment rights for their people.
The only way things do not progress this way is if idiot voters in the US elect Democrats back to power... because American Democrats are the same animal as the EUtards persecuting citizens for their wrong thoughts and words.
The US has a lot of idiot voters, and they are generally female, so I would give all of this 50/50 odds at this point.
Our Democrats are the same animal as the EUtards persecuting citizens for wrong thoughts and words, indeed. That animal, of course, is the jackass, the very fitting symbol of their party. And it is a jackass, not a donkey or burro, that the symbol represents.
Technically, a jackass is nothing more or less than a male donkey, and burro is just the Spanish word for donkey. Take it from a guy who's kept burros since 2001.
Hah! That was excellent! They truly are just awful, awful people. And their building very much does resemble a parking garage topped with a toilet! How apropos.
One recommendation I’ve heard gaining steam as to consequences would be personal sanctions upon EU Commission members as well as revoking their visas to travel to the US.
That would suit me just fine. I hope they somehow include Macron too, as that little Napoleon deserves a major comeuppance or two.
They all really need to get seriously dope slapped for their authoritarian tactics.
None of this should be surprising, coming as it does from political nobodies who scream "Lèse majesté!!!" when somebody even slightly disagrees with them.
The EU has made their decision. Now lets see them enforce it. I'm actually looking forward to the day when Russia and the US invade Europe from each side in order to rid it of the communists, leftards and Islamists currently squatting there. Shouldn't take long as there isn't a sole in any of the European countries that would go to war for those scumbags.
Say what you like about Elon Musk, his actions have done a lot toward free speech issues.
I'm especially grateful to him for his lack of cooperation with German authorities investigating internet speech crimes.
Z-Man laughed about Elon Musk, saying IIRC that he has become rich, in part, by taking advantage of government subsidies of electric vehicles. IIRC you have written that EVs exist in Europe mainly because of subsidies. My view is "from the ground", seeing that Teslas are expensive -- with my moderate income I might be better off buying used cars with relatively simple gas engines, and maintaining them. Off-topic maybe but it's what I think about.
Combustion engine mechanics are about to be a very popular, well paid job
At least until the turds simply outlaw them.
Never happen. That would start a revolution.
If having your women mass-raped doesn't start a revolution, nothing will.
02-05 Camry, no mics, minimal computer, easy to repair, luxury ride, classic
06 Avalon. Take care of it and it will end up in your estate auction. Any vehicle not connected to the internet is a winner for me.
The central issue cannot be removed from this imposition of foreign laws on someone who wouldn’t cooperate with a censorship scheme? The EU asked the wrong guy. Elon spent a fortune to buy Twitter to create a free speech platform. The USA had its own censorship regime in the years prior, with our own government surveillance. You may remember the Twitter Files years. It’s disgusting to know that the DSA is operating in England and the European nations and is especially onerous to the Brits because of the supposed racism charges.
I hope there is a body of appeal for Musk.
Who needs an appeal? Elon's response: "The EU should be abolished." And 2 days later Trump announces a "strategic pivot" from Europe in favor of the Americas and the Pacific, and that all funding to the EU will be cut off unless Europe stops allowing unlimited migration, cleans up its suicidal Green energy policies, and ends DSA censorship initiatives. The lesson here is don't mess with Elon.
Apparently unlike other such American (and other?) platforms).
BKA has actually bitterly complained about X giving out far less user data than meta, making it much more difficult to find and punish nasty-thing-sayers *sob, *sob.
Of course you have a higher personal stake than most :)
He singlehandedly broke the illusion of consensus on social media by buying X. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that was one of the most important events for free speech in the developed world.
Not just buying Twitter, but turning a handful of journalists loose on the internal communications having to do with censorship.
Yes, I include that as part of buying X. I don't see any other way those conversations would have come to light to show the censorship-industrial complex in action. Look at how other tech billionaires like Zuckerberg simply went along with it. Musk, for all his faults, absolutely refused to cave and went on the offensive to expose censorship.
Then why doesn't he do it already?
How do you know he isn’t?
He’s not likely to announce strategy in advance
He's had the opportunity ever since he bought Twatter. The censorship continues.
Very important. Anyone paying attention could now see the belly of the beast. You cannot unsee the massive restriction of free speech, which was supposedly guaranteed by the US Constitution. Many people need to be fined significantly or thrown in jail. Or both.
Your last two sentences describe the state of the USA across a plethora of important civic issues. The USA's failure is that what is clearly "needed" will never happen, short of a bloody uprising. And if it continues to fail long enough, that is what they will have on their hands.
What is that phrase, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."
I'm a firm believer in that. But suppression is alive and well. None of my liberal friends are even aware of the Twitter Files or the revelations therefrom.
You're right, of course. Sunshine can't reach 6 feet under, where the bodies are buried.
I thought it would be the story of the century, but so far the government media has done what it can to suppress it. When I get into a discussion about this the majority of people have never heard of the Censorship Industrial Complex. And even if they have, they believe it's an "alleged" -- not even proven -- right-wing conspiracy theory, or they start talking about First Amendment rights vs. the rights of private corporations. So frustrating.
Same here. And when I bring up USAID as an example of money wasted on outlandish projects, they object that no, it funded worthwhile stuff. After DOGE made the information public, did they spend hours going through the reams of USAID grantees? I did. My friends did not.
Except, it wasn't.
Say what you will about Elon Musk, and I do - he reveled in banning people from X when they criticized his hiring of a woman who started censoring people, and they wrote complaints on Musk's page. He then joked about how fun it was to ban them.
Still it is better to have this bastard running X than the ones before him who crippled debate on Twitter. It is a sign of our times that we can only choose between light grey, dark grey or pitch black.
Yes, he's been better than most of the other bastards.
The site is better. The bots are gone.
Still there; at least not negated.
'Still it is better to have this bastard running X than the ones before him who crippled debate on Twitter.'
Pretty much how I feel. Also, it's far and away better than Facebook.
Well, just imagine if he had never come along.
I don't know if you can blame the prior owner. Jack Dorsey and his content watchdogs initially resisted the censorship effort. It was only once the Biden White House started threatening Twitter's counsel/lobbyist in DC with an antitrust lawsuit that he caved. Then I believe that he called Elon precisely because he knew Elon had the money to buy Twitter and the connections and cojones deal with government pressure.
He saved the USA from abyss . Actually, buys Twitter and then letting Matt Tahhibi and Michael Shellenberger have access to all internal emails exposed the Biden ‘s Draconian censorship campaign on Covid .
He may have saved us all from abyss, but he does stuff I don't like, so I will just whine here about such things as my account on X not having been restored on his watch. lol.
You are not the first to say that . I have cognitive dissonance. If he is for free speech what could you and others possibly have said . Wanting free speech is wanting speech you hate .
I don't know what he's for or against. I just know that he did us all a massive service. And, yes, my old account is still locked (last I checked) for telling a highly paid national CNN reporter to learn to code. Remember those crazy days?
How about, "Ivermectin has legitimate human uses. Its discoverers even got a Nobel Prize for it "?
I like some stuff Elon does, and I don't like some other stuff Elon does.
Everything doesn't have to be black and white. Yet that's where our culture is today.
Well, given that Biden was non compos mentis, I would like to know exactly which government scumbags were actually behind the censorship done in Biden's name.
It was for one the Twitter attorney, just moved from the position of FBI atty (as I recall).
Bari Weiss, too.
Tardigrade, you're in the USA right?
Congress over there is quietly trying to usher through an age-verification bill that will in effect work as a digital ID for surveillance and tracking online, of Americans and of what you look at, share and post online.
Couldn't find a legal or tech-channel talking about it, but Kneon of ClownfishTV knows this stuff too and made a clip about yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYRcZ0uvv4
It's being pushed by the "think of children"-rant as per usual.
Oh yes, they're working toward that. I hope it won't be as easy as they think it might be, but here in our Substack dissent bubble it's hard to say how widespread IRL resistance to it might be.
Sometimes I'm glad I'm old as dirt.
Now I feel sorry I brought it up - but I'm getting worried that there's a point to all the "Look at Europe!"-stuff going on:
AFP and USA Today both reported today on the plans to demand travellers to the USA giving authorities access to their social media, e-mail adresses and so on. Reaching back five years before entry.
And expanded biometric screening of travellers.
I'd say the odds of this then being extended to US citizens too is 1:1.
I would differ, to some extent. It's long established that the search and inspection rules for noncitizens (and even citizens) at the border are different from the rules applied internally to citizens. It's a power granted by the constitutional Commerce Clause, bolstered by case law such as (don't laugh) "United States v. 12 200-ft. Reels of Film (1973)."
The greatest threat comes from sneaky "reinterpretations" of this power -- such as the "redefinition" of "border" (under the 1946 Alien Act and the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act) to include a 100-mile swath of land inland from the actual border. This swath "coincidentally" includes two-thirds of the entire US population, reducing their Fourth Amendment rights against search without probable cause. It is why a citizen still has to bow and scrape to an "immigration inspector" at "border" checkpoints in places like Uvalde, Quartzsite, and Sierra Blanca. And you will notice that this has been the case for roughly 80 years already.
Not at all. My account remains suspended.
I know, it's not perfect. Still it's better than it was. Sorry about your account.
Me too . Why would he do that ?
Mine too, not suspended, but 'with limited reach'. My crime - telling what happened to Danish traitors -fraternizing with occupying germans (1940-1945) during WW2, in the aftermath of liberation- as an illustration of our PM taking orders from the globalist scum in the EU, WHO, NATO, WEF in defiance of We, The People...
You have a right to say what you believe .
Not everywhere, which is the point.
More importantly, you have a right to say what you can prove is true. (Admitting the unacceptable danger in letting the government decide what is or isn't true.)
BINGO - but in my case(as probably for lots other) I did NOT get an explaination - I had to rewind and assume what triggered the outlawing; Gov./X/5 eyes, who knows. But being 'shamed' for my oppinition just confirms the surveillence world I'm living in - and actually gived me a deserving breather away from the grinder...
Well, I'm sayin' you have a right... I'm not saying nobody's gonna step all over it.
I wouldn't say that, I know better. I own guns.
That is not right . I don’t understand why he does that . What did you say pray tell . For God’s sake when the ACLU stood for something in 1960 ,they defended a Nazi party ‘s right to March in an all Jewish neighborhood. Fortunately after winning,the Nazi’s didn’t do it .
I learned something today. I had always understood that they did march, but nobody came to watch.
Ivermectin counters river blindness in HUMANS. These shits consider that "advocating suicide".
I didn’t know they never marched. Skokie, Ill.
Nonetheless, the ACLU is miles away from the mission it had in the 60’s and 70’s. Disappointing.
A colleague of mine refers to the Skokie kerfuffle as "ACLU's 'token n*r' case, prosecuted so that ACLUers everywhere can cite it as illustrating how even-handed and centrist they are."
Their 1991 poster (below) makes it quite clear how even handed and centrist the ACLU is -- they think the "Bill of Rights" consists of three copies of the First Amendment, no Second Amendment at all, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth, and then the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth -- oddly, since the "Bill of Rights" is formally recognized by everyone else as the first TEN.
(https://www.loc.gov/item/2016649359/)
I regularly get "checking you are a human" pages come up after I post the wrong words, "trannies" being one of the words.
Yeah my original one with hundreds of followers was "lost". I started a new one though.
What AMD advises.
That's terrible!!! We need someone better to come along, buy X, and restore your account immediately!!
No one and nothing is perfect.
Maybe you are an actual russian spy?
:-)
He (well "X") said they're reviewing my appeal. (5 years, now?) Must be waiting for the sun to burn out!
I could only wish I were a Russian spy.
Same here. I got banned early in the COVID days for calling out the BS. It's never been unbanned.
Have you appealed?
What I found especially interesting was the fact that the actions against me, which culminated in my ban, only started once I topped 1k followers. Before that, no problems at all. But once 1k blue checks were following me, boom, down came the hammer.
More than once. Denied, every time, clearly by an algorithm.
And a Russian spy should be able to post . That’s what got me about th3 USA Russia collusion hoax . Th3y thought I was so stupid that I couldn’t read someth8ng and pass judgement on it ‘s validity. I’m glad Hillary lost if for only that reason ….and 100 others
Evil fraternal twin, you mean. Hillary died on 11 September 2020.
Yes, he made “Twitter” free.
At least, more free than it was.
At the danger of commenting while still reading the article, I'm always struck that this item is mentioned third and last: 'a failure to provide researchers with access to public data'. I'm pretty sure that by "researchers" they mean NGOs.
No way would I want to let those nanny-state NGO's have access to my data.
That's exactly what they mean. Hate-speech researchers, foreign election interference researchers, basically the whole brigade of NGO internet hall monitors.
All the people reporting on hall monitors are themselves hall monitors, of course.
"We have looked into the allegations of misbehavior on our part and have found no evidence of same."
"Independent researchers" who must be granted access under threat of EU reprisal, the very definition of "independent".
4chan always posts the details when they have found themselves to be the subject of a study. Usually a complete lack of understanding that gets laughed at.
It should be kept in mind that many of these "researchers" are affiliated with the alphabet soup known as "intelligence community" in one way or another; this slime pond is just as slimy in Europe as it is in the U.S.
Exactly. It's more or less a global network.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly‼️‼️
I think one piece of legislation would go a LONG way to making things better. All it has to do, is state that 50% of a person's (or business's) tax obligation can be set by that person or business (i.e. you can decide where your tax money goes or doesn't go).
Tempting, but I shudder at the logistics required.
Nah. We already do something roughly equivalent in Arizona, and it works great.
A couple can make charitable contributions to several distinct approved classes of public charities, including categories such as public school programs, foster care, military organizations, community resources, and tuition assistance programs (for private schools). With the right mix to each class, a couple can claim a dollar-for-dollar CREDIT (not a deduction) for over $4,000 of state tax due. Most people don't owe nearly that much, so they can allocate their entire tax bill to causes of their choice. Among other grantees, we donate to our local town's senior center, and (to stick it in the eye of the proggies) our high-school's championship high-power rifle team (the last one remaining in the USA, to the best of our knowledge).
https://www.aztaxcreditlist.com/AZTaxCreditsInfo/
I have dreamed about defunding these crap organizations by revoking their preferential tax status. Oh, they can exist, but you won't get a tax deduction for giving them money.
Also important is just plain not giving them any government (taxpayer) money.
Exactly right! Not one stinking penny.
The EU can't afford the NGOs.
Nobody can afford to fund their own fifth columns.
But if it's public data, how are they being denied access?
They want access to the non-public data. So they can censor harder.
But the complaint says “public data”. Thus my confusion.
Here's an AI answer:
'The term "public data" means data that is generally accessible without restrictions. While some argue that if data is public, access should be unrestricted, the reality in many online platforms is that access is often gated in various ways:
'Data Sensitivity: Even if data is classified as "public," it may still be sensitive. For example, user-generated content or interactions might be anonymized or filtered to protect user privacy, hence complicating access.
'Operational Controls: Platforms maintain some control over how data is retrieved to prevent misuse, such as scraping—automated data collection—thus impacting researchers attempting to perform comprehensive analyses.
'Legal Compliance: Different jurisdictions have varying interpretations of what constitutes public access and protections against data exploitation, leading to inconsistencies in availability across platforms.'
Good question. “a failure to provide researchers with access to public data, allegedly in violation of Article 40(12)” might be slightly ambiguous. Rather than referring to data that is publicly available, perhaps it means data about members of the public that are using the service (IOW “public’s data”)? That was my assumption. They want access to ordinarily hidden data that would allow them to identify us IRL.
Turns out my assumption was wrong, mostly. See my other answer after asking AI what exactly "public data" means and how it's being restricted.
"Public data" is whatever we say it is, pal. Don't like it? Perhaps you need to provide some of your own public data. Get the picture, bub??
I hadn't thought about mass access vs little dibs and dabs. Thanks.
"I hope to god the Americans can find a way to punish the European Commission for this fine and the others that are sure to follow."
Me too! In spades! I'm the least tech-able person you will ever encounter anywhere but I love the interwebs; I clearly obviously love social media and I really, really, really believe absolutely in free speech as the most basic foundation of liberty.
I guess we can spell it X-communication now. The tool ruling powers love best.
As a great man once said, "you don't have any cards to play". The EU will fold on this under threat of tariffs on politically sensitive EU products (agricultural mainly).
The specifics aren't as important as the greater tragedy of people from a continent soaked in blood from centuries of people from essentially the same culture killing one another over idiotic theological disputes and who finally made it to the Enlightenment and now determined to trash that exceptional achievement of reason as fast and hard as they can.
Well, I think in the specifics and practically, we must find a way to restore our freedom and restore Western Civilization. Very important. Action. Feeling are fine for a bit. Action.
Geez. By action now, I mean words. Of explanation of the situation. To convince voters and leaders. In contempt of the retards in government.
Yes, it's awful all of us having to think carefully about the meaning of every word in a sentence in a comment on a blog. And me with my tendency to double entendres and puns, God help me.
Anyway--it starts at home. Educating one's children not to put faith in authority figures but to do their own research and most crucial and urgent--to trust their instincts and wake them up if they've been stifled. To take note of their own discomfort when they're told nonsense by anyone. This is at least a generation's work ahead of us.
A complicated sentence, but still true ;)
I can't cure myself of this lifelong rebellion against my HS English teacher.
🤣🤣🤣
Don’t lose hope brotha. Enough of you still care about your heritage.
Sister! And I'm an American!
Well, I was about 100% wrong then.
I don't write girlish enough, apparently. And I must strive to be even ruder than my natural inclinations so enough of the tone makes it through the interwebs.
Possibly. But earlier U.S. threats that they folded to were just about the European economy. They don't care about that, they get big paychecks anyway and they can always tell the voters that the economy is bad because Russia refuses to sell natural gas. (Which I read in a column even this year, long after Nord Stream II was blown up.)
They care above all about silencing people online who reveal the crime and costs caused by mass immigration. They'll take any sanctions, that doesn't matter, as long as they can control online debate.
"I clearly obviously love social media and I really, really, really believe absolutely in free speech as the most basic foundation of liberty."
You must be wrong: Hillary Clinton said years ago that Americans' "most precious right is the right to vote."
By that, she meant the right to vote for Democrats.
https://tinyurl.com/mpctsywf
Gosh, that woman is just a hideous windbag.
Truly I live to be schooled by Hillary Clinton. Even tangentially.
I am not generally an optimist but I would be surprised if Trump fails to punish the EU for this.
The USA just released their “ National Security Strategy “ . In it they leave little to the imagination concerning the EU . Basically ,it’s a lost cause and we are abandoning the EU . Good luck with your National Security . We will work with individual countries ( I assume Hungary ) we are to no surprise “ pivoting “ to China . I’m surprised at the foolishness of the EU . I knew in high school who NOT to pick a fight with. Good Luck ,Germany
I'm working on a long piece on the NSS for tomorrow.
Thank you for all you do . During Covid ,Alex Berenson mentioned you and I have been rewarded many times over . Thank you again
Ooo! Exciting!
Excellent.
I really, really like the new NSS and it will be great to hear your view of it.
Yes, but that's just Trump, and the Dems will control Congress soon due to his many failures. After Trump is gone that piece of paper is also gone. It only gives the leftists something that shows Trump is a blowhard again. Trade and cooperation with the EU will go on same as before. Besides the EU isn't the main problem, it's the U.S.
Not so sure . We have little strategic interest in that region . And hate Trump as he did , Biden became tough on China ..well as tough as a cadaver could be .
Hungary, Poland, Russia. What great bunch. The rest are too muzzie piggish now, unless they decided to genocide.
More nonsense from a bunch of ivory tower useless bureaucrats. European countries are being destroyed yet they choose to pick these battles.
The dismantling of the EU is coming.
"...they are a lot of bumbling incompetents who turn everything they touch to shit."
As the noted political scientist Richard Starkey* said long ago, "everything the government touches turns to crap."
(*) Ringo Starr 😁
Yes. As a drummer, he learned to see the world as a drummer sees a drumkit, knowing when and where to strike, and how hard.
Well said. I was appalled to read that Substack has bent to this awful rule, but of course they don't have the fortune of Musk. Curious about the story to develop. I am pretty sure Musk won't bend.
I think he bent in the case of Brazil. No doubt there are facets to that that ordinary people will never learn.
I just hope he gives the EU really really hard time.
oh I did not know about Brazil. He probably has a lot more European subscribers than Brazilians? No, the detail we will never learn. Just like with all the rest of the puppet show, we are ignorant bystanders who have to guess what the story might be!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Twitter_in_Brazil
oh gosh I remember now! when I saw that judge in his attire I thought no better image of the devil. Man does not have to dress up at all LOL
Failure to provide researchers with access to public data….isn’t it funny? Citizens, voters, taxpayers need to provide a request under FOIA to access data that should be public but X is the guilty one. I hope the US will react as harshly as they can.
The failure to provide researchers with access to public data.
Like Von der Leyen's personally exchanged text messages with the CEO of Pfizer
Which, of course, are not subject to disclosure. No fines here, nothing to see.
I think the fine is a great development.
It should precipitate a fight between the EC and Musk/US, which should ideally center on Europeans being absolutely bullied with speech restrictions.
I despise Musk, he's 100% Peak J-idiot, to use his own terminology, but we should make use of him and wield his fat ass as a weapon against the EC.
I guess I'm not sure what line of attack the Americans have here. Their leverage (NATO, tariffs) is pretty heavy, almost too heavy for this.
What’s interesting about the Trump administration is that (a) it seems to put its money where its mouth is on free speech and (b) it doesn’t seem to care much about “too heavy” when it comes to wielding power in the cause of the classic liberal values that Europe has abandoned.
What is the leverage of the DSA 'enforcers', should Musk choose to ignore their fine, given USG disinclination to take them seriously? Do these bureaucrats just keep adding zeroes to an imaginary future payment that Musk keeps ignoring, forever?
E.g., https://x.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1998221470020030712
Does X have subsidiaries in the EU, or contracts with ad agencies and the like? Could the EU just confiscate their EU bank accounts?
Brazil either threatened to, or actually arrested local Xwitter representatives.
Brazil also hit (seized or froze assets) a separate, non X, Musk entity in Brazil over this. Totally lawless.
Yes. I'd like to think Trump could call up Belgium and tell someone like Ursula that this is a really bad idea, and then cooler heads would quickly prevail. But I suspect it's not that easy to cut through all the layers of EU stupidity.
It may well be.
However, much of the toolbox remains unopened.
The words of the likes of Trump and Vance all the way down the ladder to us rubes along with the attendant shifting of public opinion will suffice, I believe.
I don't fully understand this comment but agree the friction with US tech companies is likely to be positive and will spur development in the EU as they make efforts to comply with their own privacy laws.
For example: https://www.scaleway.com/en/news/scaleway-launches-its-risc-v-servers-in-the-cloud-a-world-first-and-a-firm-commitment-to-technological-independence/
The US under Trump will, over the next several years, become a renewed industrial powerhouse in direct competition with communist China. This is already underway and is inevitable. Tesla and other US tech companies are leading in aluminum and sodium battery development that will put a huge dent in China's attempted monopolization for rare earth metals. Also, the US under Trump has been working to source more domestic and other foreign sources that will come online over the next few years.
European countries are going to have to decide... align with communist China or align with the US. If they align with the US, the then US is going to require all countries to adopt US 1st Amendment rights for their people.
The only way things do not progress this way is if idiot voters in the US elect Democrats back to power... because American Democrats are the same animal as the EUtards persecuting citizens for their wrong thoughts and words.
The US has a lot of idiot voters, and they are generally female, so I would give all of this 50/50 odds at this point.
Our Democrats are the same animal as the EUtards persecuting citizens for wrong thoughts and words, indeed. That animal, of course, is the jackass, the very fitting symbol of their party. And it is a jackass, not a donkey or burro, that the symbol represents.
Yes, and they are a dangerous jackass.
Technically, a jackass is nothing more or less than a male donkey, and burro is just the Spanish word for donkey. Take it from a guy who's kept burros since 2001.
Hah! That was excellent! They truly are just awful, awful people. And their building very much does resemble a parking garage topped with a toilet! How apropos.
One recommendation I’ve heard gaining steam as to consequences would be personal sanctions upon EU Commission members as well as revoking their visas to travel to the US.
That would suit me just fine. I hope they somehow include Macron too, as that little Napoleon deserves a major comeuppance or two.
They all really need to get seriously dope slapped for their authoritarian tactics.
They repulse me.
None of this should be surprising, coming as it does from political nobodies who scream "Lèse majesté!!!" when somebody even slightly disagrees with them.
I'm with MST. What enforcement do they possess to force payment of a fine levied on another country-man?
If you have anything, bring it to America and we will explain the 2nd amendment.
The EU has made their decision. Now lets see them enforce it. I'm actually looking forward to the day when Russia and the US invade Europe from each side in order to rid it of the communists, leftards and Islamists currently squatting there. Shouldn't take long as there isn't a sole in any of the European countries that would go to war for those scumbags.