You've probably heard of the high-flying Big Tech FAANG stocks, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Among the five of them, their market cap reached $6 trillion last year, which is more than the GDP of all but a small handful of entire countries. Moreover, their net worth is larger than the entire annual output of India, with more than 1 billion people.
These companies got so big and profitable so fast that politicians on the left, right, and center started accusing them of monopolistic behavior. "Break them up!" shouted Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. Some Republicans, such as Josh Hawley, endorsed the same strategy.
But has anyone noticed what has happened to the stock values of these once-invincible powerhouses?
Netflix's stock has gotten crushed of late. Just flattened.
Its share price collapsed by 35% in one day. This was one of the most significant single-day sell-offs in the history of stocks. For now, the rout doesn't seem to be waning. Over the past year, Netflix's market cap has tumbled from $650 billion to close to $200 billion.
Sorry if you own this stock. And most pension funds do own Netflix as part of their portfolios, so it wasn't just millionaires who got hurt.
The Netflix brass blames its demise of late on "fierce competition" for subscribers.
Meanwhile, Facebook has suffered even more considerable losses that exceed one-half a trillion dollars. That's not supposed to happen to monopolies that crush the competition. Instead, the hunters have become the hunted. Facebook is confronting serious competition from other social media platforms such as LinkedIn and China's TikTok, which are elbowing out Facebook's dominance.
What are we to make of all this jostling to be king of the mountain in the digital domain?
I carry no water for Big Tech, and I'm as frustrated with the free speech infringements against conservatives as anyone. But cries of "monopoly" are so early 20th century. Just as no one worries about Standard Oil, Microsoft, or General Motors taking over their industries, we see the same cutthroat survival tactics in the hyper-competitive tech sector. This kind of competition is great news for the consumer. It lowers prices and makes a mockery of the "monopoly" rants.
Companies such as Google better look over their shoulders. If you slip up, the marauders are coming to steal away your market share. Sometimes, the raiders aren't even American companies. Globalization and free trade have dramatically lowered the prices of nearly all digital products.
That is as it should be in a free-market capitalist world. One day, you are on top of the world and seemingly in an impenetrable fortress, and the next, you lose half your market cap. We don't need trust-buster regulators in Washington, like the leftist Lina Khan of the Federal Trade Commission, policing our businesses. The market is doing that just fine, thank you.
America has gained tech dominance over our rivals, especially China, Japan, and Europe, because we have allowed the digital economy to remain mostly tax- and regulation-free. It's the Wild West in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, which created the trillions in wealth in the first place. The high-tech industry has added value and wealth at a blistering pace, and how sad is it that when our American ingenuity and inventiveness succeed, the trust-busters want to tear it down? Then, when these tech giants start to surrender their competitive advantage, the fool politicians want to give them billions of dollars of corporate welfare handouts from taxpayers.
The late and great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called the process of inventing new products to challenge the extant corporate power structures in business "creative destruction." The Netflix and Facebook sell-off is a jolting reminder that the market is a better way than government to keep companies honest and on top of their game. It also keeps prices low.
Please listen to me. Trump, take Piers to AZ and have him see the two boxes of ballets that were 99.9% biden. Let him see the obviously printed ballets.
As reported earlier by Cristina Laila, President Trump sat down for a one-on-one interview with Piers Morgan earlier this week.
The full 75-minute interview will air on April 25th on Piers Uncensored on TalkTv at 8 eastern.
Morgan’s team released a 30 second clip promo on Wednesday. The audio appears to show President Trump walking out of the explosive interview after a back-and-forth with Piers Morgan over the stolen election.
However, later today the Trump Team released the full audio of the event.
Evidently, Morgan’s team deceptively edited the clips together to make it as nasty as possible for Trump—and to drive up the ratings for Morgan’s new show.
Here is the full audio via Breitbart of the final 7 minutes from the interview.
The full audio shows Trump ended the interview discussing his hole in one… NOT the election. It was very cordial.
The earlier video was completely edited.
The two DID NOT discuss the election in the final five minutes of the interview.
Lenny Bruce. Anything for ratings. Glad Trump tried though. Glad Trump knew when to quit arguing. Enough is enough.
President Trump sat down for a one-on-one interview with Piers Morgan.
The full 75-minute interview will air April 25 on Piers Uncensored on TalkTv at 8 eastern.
A 30 second clip released on Wednesday shows Trump walking out of the explosive interview after a back-and-forth with Piers Morgan over the stolen election.
“I think I’m a very honest man — much more honest than you, actually,” Trump said to Piers Morgan.
“Really?” Piers shot back.
“Yeah,” Trump replied.
Trump lashed out at Piers Morgan after the tv host said 2020 “was a free and fair election. You lost.”
“Only a fool would think that,” Trump retorted.
“You think I’m a fool?” Morgan asked.
“I do now, yeah,” Trump said before walking off the set.
“Turn the cameras off…very dishonest,” Trump said as he walked away.
As if we needed another reason to loathe Piers Morgan.
A microchip was first implanted into a human back in 1998, but it is only during the past decade that the technology has been available commercially.
And when it comes to implantable payment chips, British-Polish firm, Walletmor, says that last year it became the first company to offer them for sale.
“The implant can be used to pay for a drink on the beach in Rio, a coffee in New York, a haircut in Paris – or at your local grocery store,” says founder and chief executive Wojtek Paprota. “It can be used wherever contactless payments are accepted.”
Walletmor’s chip, which weighs less than a gram and is little bigger than a grain of rice, is comprised of a tiny microchip and an antenna encased in a biopolymer – a naturally sourced material, similar to plastic.
Mr Paprota adds that it is entirely safe, has regulatory approval, works immediately after being implanted, and will stay firmly in place. It also does not require a battery, or other power source. The firm says it has now sold more than 500 of the chips.
X-ray showing Walletmor implant
WATCH:
Microchips are gaining popularity in Sweden and now Swedes are getting Covid vaccine passports implanted in their hands or elsewhere under their skin.
“Get your Covid certificate in a chip in your hand or elsewhere under the skin. It is increasingly popular to insert a chip into the body with different types of information and now you can also insert your Covid certificate in the chip.” – Aftonbladet, Sweden’s daily newspaper reported last year.
Skeptics and critics slammed the scannable Covid vaccine passport as invasive.
However, the developer says too bad, the technology is here and will be used whether we like it or not.
do they matter? kiss their ring? shame them he will
FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, file photo, Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk delivers a speech at the Paris Pantheon Sorbonne University as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Musk, who is the chairman and largest shareholder of Tesla Motors and SolarCity, has proposed to unite the two companies. The overlap created a glaring conflict of interest that's fueling concerns about whether Musk is milking Tesla's higher market value and better brand recognition to bail out SolarCity, a company run by his cousin, Lyndon Rive. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File) (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
Here is who Musk is going up against on Twitter’s board
Elon Musk is taking on Twitter’s board of directors in an effort to wrest control of the company and take it private in a $43 billion purchase. Here are the board members who will help decide Twitter’s fate.
Musk offered to purchase the social media company for $54.20 per share in cash. He transmitted his intentions on Wednesday in a letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of the board, and the news was later revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure. Soon after, reports emerged that the board may resist the buyout, which would likely require approval from its members.
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Bret Taylor
Taylor is the chairman of Twitter but daylights as the co-CEO of Salesforce, a cloud-based software company. Taylor has a long history in social media. The 41-year-old was appointed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to serve as chief technology officer at Facebook, a role he served in from 2009 to 2012. Prior to that, he worked as the CEO of early social media company FriendFeed.
Parag Agrawal
Agrawal, who joined Twitter in 2011, replaced Twitter founder Jack Dorsey as CEO of the company in November of last year. Dorsey had stepped down from the role to focus more of his time serving as chairman and CEO of the digital payment company Block, another one of his companies. Prior to leading Twitter, Agrawal served as the company’s chief technology officer.
Jack Dorsey
While he stepped down from Twitter’s helm just a few months ago, Dorsey has remained on his company’s board. Dorsey co-founded Twitter back in 2006 and helped grow it into the behemoth it is today. Dorsey, who like Musk is a major proponent of bitcoin, is perhaps the closest with Musk of those on the board and has praised Musk’s prolific Twitter use in the past.
Mimi Alemayehou
Alemayehou is the senior vice president for public-private partnership at Mastercard. Prior to joining Mastercard, she was a managing director and board member for investment platform Black Rhino Group, which is a portfolio company of Blackstone. She was also appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the executive vice president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation from 2010 to 2014. While in that role, OPIC’s portfolio grew by more than 24%.
Egon Durban
Durban is the co-CEO of private investment firm Silver Lake, which he joined in 1999 as a founding principal. Durban concurrently serves on the board of directors for several companies and previously held a role as chairman of the operating committee of Skype.
Martha Lane Fox
Lane Fox works as the founder and chairwoman of Lucky Voice Group, a London-based karaoke services company that also owns private karaoke venues around the world. She has held a seat on Twitter’s board since 2016 and has served on various other private company boards.
Omid Kordestani
Kordestani is an Iranian-born businessman who has been a member of Twitter’s board of directors since 2015. He served as the company’s executive chairman from 2015 to 2020. He previously held senior roles at Google and Netscape Communications Corporation.
Fei-Fei Li
Li is the sequoia professor in Stanford University’s computer science department. She also serves as the co-director for Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and previously worked as the director of the university’s AI lab. Li has previously served in roles at Google.
Patrick Pichette
Pichette is a Canadian businessman who serves as a general partner at venture capital firm Inovia Capital. He was previously Google’s chief financial officer from 2008 to 2015.
David Rosenblatt
Rosenblatt is the CEO of e-commerce and luxury marketplace 1stDibs, where he has served for more than a decade. The company went public last year in an initial public offering. He worked at Google prior to that and has sat on Twitter’s board since 2010.
Robert Zoellick
Zoellick is the former board chairman for AllianceBernstein Holding, a role in which he served from 2017 to 2019. From 2007 to 2012, he was president of the World Bank Group. Zoellick was the deputy secretary for the Department of State from 2005 until 2006 and served as the 13th U.S. trade representative from 2001 to 2005. He also spent time as George H.W. Bush’s White House deputy chief of staff. Zoellick has been a member of Twitter’s board since 2018.
Musk has apparently begun to push back on reports that the board is not too pleased with his attempt to buy Twitter. On Thursday afternoon, he suggested that shareholders and not the board should have a say in the matter.
“It would be utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote. They own the company, not the board of directors,” Musk tweeted.
The Republican National Committee's decision Thursday to withdraw from its participation in the organization that has long managed presidential debates has Donald Trump's fingerprints all over it.
guess musk purchase would quell the myriad of lawsuits coming against them once trump goes back in??
What great timing!
Elon Musk was scheduled to give a TED talk today, which happens to be the same day Elon announced his intentions of buying far-left social media giant Twitter. The interview turned quickly to Elon’s $43 billion offer to buy Twitter.
Elon Musk described his intentions in purchasing Twitter.
Elon Musk: It’s important for the function of democracy. It’s important for the function of the United States as a free country among many other countries. And to help, actually to help freedom in the world more importantly than the US. And so, I think it’s, the situational risk is decreased if Twitter the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform. And so I do think this is going to be something somewhat painful. I’m not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it. The intent is to retain as many shareholders as is allowed by the law… This is not a way to make money. I think this is, my strong intuitive sense is to have a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important for the future of civilization.
on bing, this is not even a front page story! That's Liberal bias. I will so be on twitter 24/7 if Elon succeeds.
Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk made his best and final offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion or $54.20 a share, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
Elon Musk wants to transform Twitter into a private company as he realizes that “the company will neither thrive nor serve” free speech in its current form.”
Earlier this month, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk purchased a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter.
Musk was designated as one of Twitter’s Board of Directors in a deal that would prohibit him from owning more than 14.9% of the media giant’s common stock, but he declined the offer.
A group of angry Twitter shareholders on Tuesday sued Elon Musk for waiting too long to disclose his 9.2 percent stake in the company.
Now, Elon Musk offered to buy 100% of Twitter, according to his tweet on Thursday.
I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.
Twitter’s market valuation is about $37 billion, and Musk’s offered to buy Twitter at about $43 billion, according to CNBC.
The world’s richest person will offer $54.20 per share in cash, valuing Twitter at about $43 billion. The social media company’s shares rose just 5.3% to $48.27 at the market open in New York as investors began to assess how one of the platform’s most outspoken users will succeed in his takeover attempt.
Musk, 50, announced the potential deal in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, after turning down a potential board seat at the company. The billionaire, who also controls Tesla Inc., first disclosed a stake of about 9% on April 4. Tesla shares fell about 1.8% on the news.
Twitter said that its board would review the proposal and any response would be in the best interests of “all Twitter stockholders.”
The bid is the most high-stakes clash yet between Musk and the social media platform. The executive is one of Twitter’s most-watched firebrands, often tweeting out memes and taunts to @elonmusk’s more than 80 million followers. He has been vociferous about changes he’d like to consider imposing at the social media platform, and the company offered him a seat on the board following the announcement of his $3.35 billion stake.
What do police do when they pull over a car and there is no driver?
This was the question captured in an Instagram video of a San Francisco police officer pulling over a driverless vehicle owned by the ride-hailing service Cruise.
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"Ain't nobody in it!" a voice states while an officer attempts to approach the driverless vehicle in the video.
The driverless vehicle responded better than many human drivers. The vehicle moved away from the police car at first, but it appeared to do so in an attempt not to block a lane.
"Our AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended," Cruise said in a tweet responding to a Saturday clip of the initial exchange. "An officer contacted Cruise personnel, and no citation was issued."
The self-driving car service also noted it actively works with the San Francisco Police Department to handle incidents such as this one, including having a "dedicated phone number."
Cruise is a General Motors-backed driverless car service that provides ride-hailing services in autonomous vehicles throughout the San Francisco area. The company started sending out driverless ride-hailing cars to select users in November 2021 and began offering free rides to the public in February 2022.
Representatives from the San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
Yesterday, True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips spoke with Charlie Kirk on the Charlie Kirk Show to discuss the upcoming Dinesh D’Souza movie “2000 Mules,” which is based on the incredible work they did to find evidence of massive, widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Gregg Phillips and True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht
100 Percent Fed Up reports – Engelbrecht explained how the dirty voter rolls, the mass-mail-in-voting campaign, and the outside influence of Mark Zuckerberg’s $400 + million that was used to fund the drop boxes used in primarily Democrat stronghold districts in the 2020 election. Phillips, who has been working with Englebrecht for years, told Kirk about how tips they received led them to look deeper into cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Wisconsin, and Arizona. “We started to put together this sort of pattern that each of the challenges that everybody seemed to be most up in arms about had some basic pieces that seemed to be the same,” Phillips said. He explained, “You had ballot collectors, people out knocking on doors to collect ballots. A set of collectors, a collection point or a stash house for all the ballots, the bundling of the ballots and then the casting of those ballots by what we were calling mules in the drop boxes.” Phillips told Kirk, “This is a conspiracy. This is organized crime.”
Engelbrecht and Phillips explained how easy it is for third parties to track individuals by using their unique device ID to track them. “To get your devices’ unique device ID, pretend you’re making a phone call and type in *#06#” Englebrecht explained. Phillips explained that 300,000+ apps and 27,000 apps collect your location based on a signal your cell phone emits. The location data is so accurate that the cell phone user can be found within an 18-inch radius of their phone, including the elevation of the user, “so are we on the first floor? Are we on the second floor? Where are we?’ Phillips asked as an example of how precisely a user can be tracked. “We all give permission to these apps to collect these signals,” Phillips explained. “When you sign into the app, and you say, ‘Yeah, I agree,’ you give those signals to everyone. Data brokers will sell signals for cell phones to individuals or groups who pay them for the data.
Once True the Vote paid a whopping $2 million of privately raised funds for the data, they took it to highly sophisticated data centers across America to discover what happened in the 2020 election. It has taken “12 people, 16 hours a day for 15 months to process the data,” Phillips explained. True the Vote has access to several very high-powered computers. “Most of the work is done in Plano, TX, and the rest is done in the high-performance computing center on the campus of Starkville, Tennessee,” Phillips told Charlie Kirk.
The discussion took a chilling turn when the trio began to discuss January 6th and how the intelligence community used the same geo-fencing technology to find and arrest January 6 protesters inside and outside the Capitol building.
“The January 6th event was on a Tuesday. The next day, they had allegedly already identified some of the people, convened a grand jury, and then issued arrest warrants in a matter of 72 hours,” Phillips said. Engelbrecht interrupted,“It’s not possible.”
“So, did they have the fence of the pings ready to go? Is that what you’re saying?” Kirk asked.
“They had the actual devices ready to go,” Phillips said. “That’s our supposition. There’s no other way to have done it,” Englelbrecht added.
Phillips then dropped a bombshell, “We believe they were tracking people all the way back into the latter part of the election, certainly into November and early December.” Kirk asked, “So, people who would be likely to go to that event? Is that correct?” Phillips responded, “Yes.” Engelbrecht elaborated, “And people meeting that profile. And they [US intelligence] were tuned up and ready.”
But then, probably the night before, they’d be able to say, ‘Hey, 200,000 of our profiles are in town.’ Right? So they’d be like, ‘They’re around. We weren’t wrong.'”
Watch the incredible video here:
The Gateway Pundit and 100 Percent Fed Up will be reporting in more detail on the theft of the 2020 election using mail-in-voting, drop boxes, and other shocking ways in the coming weeks and months.
Here’s the trailer of the movie that will be released in the first week of May:
Early this morning, Dinesh D’Souza clarified that the title of his movie underestimates the number of mules whom they have identified that were part of the crime syndicate…Buckle up America…the road is about to get very bumpy.
The title of my movie understates the case because there are a lot more than 2,000 mules. A lot more! Get ready for premiere week May 2-8. pic.twitter.com/ZODvYBKplD
THEATER SPECIAL EVENTS: On two days, Monday, May 2 and Wednesday, May 4, we are renting 250 theaters around the country which will show the movie at the 7 pm showing. You will be able to purchase tickets for these showings from a link that will be posted on the 2000Mules website. This is a LIMITED theatrical release so there will be certain places that aren’t showing the movie in theaters.
VIRTUAL PREMIERE: On Friday, May 6 we are having a virtual premiere. This is a very exciting way for you to buy tickets and log into a live event out of a studio in Las Vegas. This virtual premiere will include exclusive content with President Trump, the screening of the movie, and a live Q & A with me and leading figures in the movie. Additionally, for a higher price, around 300 VIPs will be able to attend this event in person. (Your weekend in Vegas including the live premiere—it might be time to make some plans!)
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS: On Saturday, May 7 you will be able to stream the film from two platforms, SalemNow.com and Rumble/Locals.
Details for all of this will be on the website 2000Mules.com which launches soon.
We’re very excited about this movie. 2000Mules exposes the widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election, sufficient to change the overall outcome.
True the Vote discussed previously undisclosed details of its ballot trafficking investigations in five states, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, on the Charlie Kirk show on Thursday in anticipation of the upcoming Dinesh DeSouza documentary movie, “2000 Mules.” The investigation has unearthed from dropbox videos and extensive documentation evidence of RICO operations involving ballots.
Founder Catherine Engelbrecht says she will “pull the cord” and “give it all to the American people” after the release of De Souza’s documentary. She lamented that most Americans are woefully “unaware” that ballot trafficking is illegal. In fact, it is a felony. True the Vote estimates that 7 percent of the votes in the 2020 general election were trafficked.
It’s important to note the video evidence here is official surveillance video from ballot drop boxes. It has never been seen before, and we have a whole lot more of this to show you in the movie. “2000 Mules” is the investigation you’ve been waiting for. https://t.co/2UdiZv6MHR
Engelbrecht and her cohort, Gregg Philipps, told Charlie Kirk that their investigation is just the “very tip of the iceberg” regarding the numbers of trafficked ballots and alleged election crimes committed. Due to exorbitant costs and time constraints, because the process is “tedious,” the team only monitored outdoor drop boxes, not mailboxes and other locations. They announced in the interview that they only recently discovered they have a folder with indoor camera surveillance in their possession. They plan to investigate those next.
Spending over $2 million for the ping data, True the Votes has in its possession “4 million minutes of video” and “more than 2 Petabytes of data”, said Phillips. “This investigation required a team of 12 people, 16 hours a day for 15 months,” Phillips continued. “And it is still going on,” Engelbrecht added.
During the conversation, one interesting observation noted by the pair was that law enforcement and government officials did not investigate or use data to track targeted individuals during the 2020 election, but “they were very eager to do so” on Jan 6. Phillips stated:
“The Jan 6 event was on a Tuesday. The next day they had allegedly already identified some of the people, convened a Grand Jury, and then issued arrest warrants in a matter of 72 hours. They had the actual devices ready to go. We believe they were tracking people all the way back into the latter part of the elections, certainly into November and early December.”
As previously reported, True the Vote used geolocation technology to ping and track individuals through apps on their cellphones. The individuals, or “mules,” followed a pattern of behavior that was relatively consistent regardless of the location. Phillips continued:
“You had ballot collectors. People out knocking on doors, getting ballots. Then you had a collection point or a stash house for all the ballots, the bundling of all those ballots, and then the casting of those ballots by what we were calling mules.”
He explained that, over time, they would “build a pattern of life” with the data to determine where and when individuals would go to deliver the ballots. The team went back years to track baseline data through various apps on the phones, which are all public by consent by the user (marketing data) in the fine print, so they could tell whether the activity was novel during the election.
Important New Tidbits
Pennsylvania—specifically Philadelphia—was the worst state “in every way.” Phillips and Engelbrecht recounted stories of mules coming across “the bridge in New Jersey” to deliver ballots, a RICO crime. 1,155 people met the [baseline]criteria of 10 or more drop boxes and five or more organizations. Philadelphia showed 23 ballots on average per mule.
In Yuma County, AZ, the number was 31 ballots on average per mule.
In some operations, mules were required to photograph the ballots they deposited, presumably to prove the number they delivered. Many mules wore gloves while handling the ballots.
In some cases, mules “went to UPS stores at midnight, going straight from there to the nonprofit organizations” that were participating in the scheme.
There were 501(c)3 foundations funding this activity, a criminal offense.
True the Vote had chain-of-custody documents, so they could tell where spikes in ballot deliveries occurred.
There were off-duty law enforcement officers paid for by the Republican party, hired to monitor the election. They “reported all of this to The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC),” and it was all “covered up.”
It became clear to the True the Vote team that “nobody was ever intended to look at these videos.” In fact, the team had a very difficult time wrestling the footage out of the hands of governmental employees.
Two mules in Arizona made their way to Georgia.
Phillips “personally briefed Kemp’s team,” and the Governor led a fight against him and True the Vote, contrary to public statements the Governor made saying “he would aggressively investigate all allegations of voter fraud, (Kemp) saw felonies on camera. They not only refused but what they did was they sent one of their henchmen, the guy that runs the GBI, down to the FBI office where our data lived, not to see the data but to get into the metadata and figure out who the analysts were. And then burned me in a couple of my analyst[s] by releasing it—Releasing it all to the press as opposed to just thinking through what we have now, they did everything they could to stop us.”
Mules came from all walks of life. Some were from Section 8 housing, and others were from drug-infested areas of town. In another case, “a bartender came in from South Carolina to help out.”
“And then in Arizona,” Engelbrecht said, “The profile looked a little bit different because it’s been happening. It’s been happening in Arizona for an awfully long time, and what we see there are people that really control communities. And you have people that are on top of the pyramid that (sic) are coming in and doing everything from building underprivileged housing to controlling the full vertical of the contractors and the banks and the financing organizations, and all of those people are participating in rounding up ballots.
One of the most chilling things I think in this entire journey for me has been when we interviewed two people who were very familiar with the grift here in Arizona. One of them, just from observation. And she, at one point, just sat back in her chair and just put her finger up. She said, ’round and round it goes. Nobody ever listens. Nothing ever changes.'”
New Details on Georgia
Number one, in Georgia, “ineligible voter records contribute to 75,000 of the votes in the General Election and 45,000 of the votes in the January runoff.” Had the voter rolls been clean, both elections would have gone to Trump. In the Warner/Loeffler election, for example, there was only “a three or four thousand vote differential.”
The pair also went into greater detail on how officials in the state allegedly obstructed their investigation at every turn, either by withholding procedural information or just out and out lack of cooperation. True the Vote spun its wheels for months because they had been told they should go to the Governor. In fact, there was a process they were supposed to follow. Ultimately, said Engelbrecht, Raffensberger’s office came through for them:
“All of the politicians, all the media, everyone was saying you have to go to the Governor’s office, you have to go to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. We had our own dust-up with them, which is a whole other topic. Raffensberger’s team helped us figure out the processes. [First] you have to make a complaint to the Secretary of State. Secretary of State investigates. That takes it to the State Board of Elections. They take it to the attorney general and then back again. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. But no one told us that. So for 11 months, we labored under this illusion that everybody was saying you gotta go to the governor and that arm (the Governor’s office) allowed that time to run out.”
Solutions
Engelbrecht emphasized the importance of engaged Americans with regard to the process. In many cases, mules were dropping off multiple ballots with people in line behind them who witnessed the behavior and said nothing.
“Wake up Americans! It’s happening and if we don’t stop it as Americans, if we don’t demand clean voter rolls and demand accountability around the process, then this slide will continue. But if we stand up and get engaged, most Americans want to do the right thing. Our process has just been allowed to erode to a place where the inconsistencies and the insecurities and the inaccuracies—they function as a feature, not a bug. It’s intended to keep it this way. We’re the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have a standard form of photo voter identification.”
Engelbrecht went on to say that other countries now do retinal scans.
Republicans are afraid to take this on because “it’s such a daunting task. It’s just easier to kick the can down the road particularly, you know, when you’re talking to someone who’s elected, we process work for them, right. So why should they worry about what happens downstream?”
We must “demand clean voter rolls.” Voters need to challenge their county records. True the Vote has developed an app called IV3, whereby voters can help clean up voter rolls “from their kitchen table.” It is a process to get people removed from voter rolls. “Lawsuits are not going to get it done. The left is game for that. That is lawfare,” contInued Engelbrecht.
Drop boxes and private funding of elections “must stop,” said Engelbrecht. Phillips added,
“In Jackson, Mississippi right now, there’s a state auditor named Shad White, and he went out and audited some of these officials who were doling out this Zuckerberg money and there have been four arrests in Jackson already, for them stealing the money. And I think you’re gonna see state auditors and others all over the country now start to say well, wait a minute. Where’d all this money go?”
Funding elections with private money in Mississippi is now against the law following the multiple arrests made by State Auditor Shad White since the 2020 local elections.https://t.co/vX59uHrQqP
“If you don’t have some sort of a punishment for this stuff and follow-through that fits the crime?” Phillips continued, “Put some people in jail, put somebody in jail for 10 years for this.” Engelbrecht added:
“People will wake up. We’ve taken voting for granted. We’ve taken the process for granted and that has to come to an end because we’re being left in the dust by countries around the world. Now is the time to wake up and demand standards locally and then it’ll roll-up.”
The world’s wealthiest man is now Twitter’s largest shareholder and newest board member.
According to SEC filings, Elon Musk acquired 9.2% of Twitter’s common stock and will serve on the social media company's board until his term expires in 2024. His appointment means he can’t own more than 14.9% of the stock during his tenure and for the ensuing 90 days.
Twitter shares gained 27% last Monday after regulatory findings revealed Musk’s purchase, worth roughly $2.89 billion, based on Friday’s market value. The stock surge, which earned Musk himself $1.1 billion on his new holding, was Twitter’s most significant in a single day since its initial public offering in 2013.
The social media company’s user base has grown steadily for years, but its stock gains have lagged behind its competitors. With a new CEO installed last November, the company set bold goals of $7.5 billion in annual revenue and 315 million daily users by 2024.
But what Musk’s stake in the company and position on the board means for Twitter’s longer-term revenue, user growth, and stock price remains unclear, even if some investors are bullish.
Daniel Ives, an analyst for investment firm Wedbush, told clients in a note, “We believe Musk joining Twitter will lead to a host of strategic initiatives which could include a range of near-term and long-term possibilities out of the gates for the company still struggling in a social media arms race.”
Musk is both a famous user and an infamous critic of the platform. He tweets frequently and boasts 80 million followers on Twitter but has also taken the service to task for “failing to adhere to free speech principles” and charging that it “fundamentally undermines democracy.”
An "anything goes" approach to content moderation may or may not prove beneficial for Twitter’s bottom line. Other social media platforms that have taken a more hands-off approach to content moderation, such as Parler and Truth Social, have struggled to gain users and be profitable.
Musk tweeted about looking forward to making “significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months!” But he stopped short of revealing what those changes would be.
Within the last six months, he’s tweeted that the “Twitter algorithm should be open source,” criticized Twitter for introducing nonfungible token profile pictures with engineering resources that he said would have been better spent preventing “crypto scammers” on the platform, and posted a meme with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and his predecessor Jack Dorsey pasted into a famously doctored photo of USSR dictator Joseph Stalin and secret police official Nikolai Yezhov, presumably as a commentary on the site’s censorship and content moderation policies.
Late last month, Musk polled his followers about Twitter’s adherence to the principle of free speech and hinted about starting a new social media service. Those tweets came after Musk’s Twitter stock buy but before the purchase had been made public.
Shortly after news of the stock acquisition was revealed, Musk polled his followers about creating an editing function for tweets. Agrawal retweeted with the message, “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
Free speech and related content moderation questions became heated political topics when former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter over the violent events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Meta has faced a similar mix of praise and criticism for its suspension of Trump from its Facebook and Instagram platforms. But Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine reignited debates about the role of social media in spreading misinformation and propaganda versus its value in aiding vulnerable populations and providing first-hand accounts of events.
All of this takes place against the backdrop of various congressional proposals to change the laws governing how platforms moderate content. Those changes are increasingly likely if Republicans regain control of the House and Senate this fall, as they are widely expected to do. For example, Democratic-supported measures currently introduced would result in more content that’s deemed “dangerous misinformation” being removed. Conversely, Republican proposals aim to curb the platform’s legal protections when removing content they do not wish to host.
That same partisan split is seen in the legacy media coverage of Musk’s new role. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board described Musk’s new position at Twitter as “a hopeful moment for political speech and debate at America’s increasingly censorious tech giants.” On the other hand, Molly Roberts, a Washington Post editorial writer, in a column, cautioned against Musk’s inclination to give users more control of the content they see on Twitter, instead of removing questionable content, by warning that “people don’t always pick what’s best for them.” She advised against “inviting individuals to separate themselves further into political silos, or to hurl themselves down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.”
“It's impossible to know at this early stage how much and what influence Elon Musk will have on Twitter's content policies and practices,” Tech Freedom’s free speech counsel, Ari Cohn, told the Washington Examiner. He continued, “But this is the way it is supposed to work, rather than the government stepping in to unconstitutionally dictate whether and how a platform must moderate content.”
Patrick Hedger, executive director of Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told the Washington Examiner, “Just as many folks are bound to be upset by the changes Musk forces at Twitter as there are folks unhappy with the status quo.” He added, “What is and is not acceptable speech is largely in the eyes of the beholder, which is why such issues are relegated to boardrooms, not legislatures.”
Cohn reassured, “Private pressure to change content policies is part of the marketplace at work, and it's not limited to ownership. It can be exercised by users, too.”
Just a day or two after I threw in the towel on Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, he surprises me. General Brnovich has issued to Senate President Karen a 6 month “interim report” on his investigations Fann is the woman who had the fortitude to stand up and drive the Maricopa Audi to completion. Six months after she turned her investigation over to the Attorney General, he has now confirmed in an official letter that the Maricopa Audit led him to investigate and catalogue in his letter a shocking amount and kind of systemic vulnerabilities (precisely as CyberNinjas reported), punctuated by the news of criminal fraud for which he has been and is prosecuting people.
Attorney General Brnovich put his money shot in the opening:
She was followed home by two Russian soldiers who held her down with a gun; her experience is similar to those of other victims documented by human rights organisations which say rape is being used as a ‘weapon of war’ in Ukraine.
Twitter employees planning to quit their jobs over Elon Musk's purchase of the largest share in the company need not apply to Substack.
Substack, an online publishing platform for writers, announced Tuesday it is seeking to hire a data analyst and several product managers and systems engineers, among other positions. But Twitter employees thinking about quitting their jobs "because [they're] worried about Elon Musk pushing for less regulated speech" were told "do not come work here" by Vice President of Communications Lulu Cheng Meservey.
Video Embed https://twitter.com/lulumeservey/status/1511381312661245954?s=20&t=oed3TenQeP4ikmdgvbWnHg
Meservey told the Washington Examiner her statement was meant to be "a lighthearted poke at Twitter" and that Substack welcomes applicants from all backgrounds "because diversity is strength."
"But working at Substack only makes sense if you support the ideas relating to our core mission, including that what you read matters, that writers do important work and deserve to be paid well for it, and that healthy discourse needs to allow for respectful disagreement," Meservey said.
Musk asked Twitter users on March 25 if the platform "rigorously adheres" to the principles of free speech. A majority of users said it does not. Upon reviewing the response, Musk said Twitter not adhering to free speech "fundamentally undermines democracy."
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO became the largest shareholder in Twitter on Monday after purchasing $3 billion in stock, giving him a 9.2% ownership stake in the platform. Since the billionaire's purchase, he has asked Twitter users whether they would like to see an edit button added to the platform and has promised to "make significant improvements."
There are no plans to reinstate former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, the company insisted as Tesla CEO Elon Musk earned a seat on the board a day after he became the largest stakeholder.
"Twitter is committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules," the social media giant told the Daily Mailon Tuesday. "Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions."
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Trump was suspended from Twitter, as well as other social media platforms, following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Twitter said the permanent suspension was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.“
"As always our Board plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service. Our day to day operations and decisions are made by Twitter management and employees," Twitter added in its statement to the Daily Mail.
Prominent conservatives, such as firebrand Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, said the first step Musk should take at Twitter is to restore free speech policies to the platform and allow Trump to return from his suspension.
Musk will join Twitter's board of directors, the company announced Tuesday, a day after disclosing that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO took a 9% stake in the social media company.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal welcomed Musk to the board on Tuesday morning, adding that in the "recent weeks" it has become apparent that he "would bring great value to our Board."
"Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!" Musk said on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
Twitter announced Tuesday evening that it is testing an edit feature, something about which Musk polled people on the platform.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Twitter for a statement but did not receive a response back.
The United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced Tuesday they will work together via the recently created security alliance known as AUKUS to develop hypersonic missiles.The move comes amid growing concern by the U.S. and allies about China's growing military...
On October 28, 2021, at around 7:45 PM ET two LCGC cameras captured a person of interest (POI) who was caught on video inserting several ballots into a ballot drop box in Lehigh County Pennsylvania.
The balding man is seen wearing a long sleeve V-neck red shirt, grey jeans, black shoes and a watch on his left wrist. He was carrying several ballots and was filmed stuffing them in the ballot box.
The Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee held a hearing on March 30, 2022, on drop boxes and the alleged ballot trafficking in Lehigh County in the November 2021 election. This video of ballot trafficking was shared as evidence with the committee members.
There were hundreds of instances of similar instances of ballot trafficking that took place at the drop boxes during the 2021 election.
On Monday Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin, a Republican, admitted that there were likely hundreds of instances where people deposited numerous ballots into the ballot drop boxes in the last election.
At least 288 people deposited more than one ballot in the various drop boxes, all of which were under video surveillance.
District Attorney Jim Martin, a Republican, then announced he will not prosecute the suspects “because to prosecute those few whose identity can be proven would be unfair and unjust given the much larger numbers who cannot be identified and who also deposited multiple ballots.”
You can’t identify all of the suspects so he will not file charges against ANY of the suspects.
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said Monday there were likely hundreds of instances where people deposited more than one ballot into drop boxes between Oct. 18 and election day, Nov. 2, 2021.
Joe Vichot, Chairman of the Lehigh County Republican Committee, submitted correspondence on Jan. 20., 2022 to Deputy County Solicitor, Sarah Murray, regarding alleged multiple ballots deposited at drop boxes during the 2021 November election, according to a news release from the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
On Feb. 1, 2022, the Election Board of Lehigh County through Deputy Solicitor Murray referred the matter to the District Attorney for investigation. Martin said he referred the matter to Chief County Detective Michael J. Millan, who assigned County Detectives Richard G. Heffelfinger, Steven C. Furlong and Robert V. Egan to the investigation.
Based upon the investigation, Martin said he found that there were likely hundreds of instances where people deposited more than one ballot into drop boxes established for receipt of ballots between Oct. 18 and election day, Nov. 2, 2021. Over the time that drop boxes were in place 7,196 ballots were deposited and counted.
Based upon the review by the detectives, at least 288 people deposited more than one ballot in the various drop boxes, all of which were under video surveillance, according to the news release from the DA’s office.
This is a violation of the provisions of the Election Code, which require that each voter deposit/deliver only their own ballot.
“Based upon the sampling, it is clear that many more than just those observed deposited more than one ballot,” Martin said.
There was only one instance where it appears that more than two ballots were deposited; in that case, either five or six were deposited, Martin said. That person cannot be identified.
Martin said the vast majority of others captured on video depositing their ballots in drop boxes also cannot be identified. More than 14,800 ballots were delivered through the U.S. mail, and no video exists as to these, the DA’s office said.
There will be no prosecution brought as a result of the investigation “because to prosecute those few whose identity can be proven would be unfair and unjust given the much larger numbers who cannot be identified and who also deposited multiple ballots,” Martin said.
So they have the evidence but they’re not going to prosecute because they haven’t identified all of the suspects? Got that?
If Republicans EVER want to win again they will have to start charging the criminal ballot traffickers.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum could raise millions from the sale of commemorative coins.
