Because of suppression and censorship by the media and social networks, the 2020 presidential election was not free and fair

Posted: March 20, 2022 by John Ruberry in Always look at the bright side of Trump, culture, election 2020, elections, elections, media, News/opinion, politics
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Salem, Wisconsin, October 11, 2020

By John Ruberry

Last week, in the 24th paragraph of a New York Times article about Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s tax problems and his emails, the Old Gray Lady sneaked in this line, “Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Biden in a Delaware repair shop,” the three authors of the story (why does the current media need to utilize multiple writers?) wrote. And they added, “The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.”

Flashback to October 2020. It was “October Surprise Time” again as a presidential election winded down. Yeah, I know what I wrote. With the over-reliance on early voting, drop-off ballot boxes, and ballot harvesting, Election Day is almost an afterthought, we now have Election Season. And the ’20 surprise was a shocker, as the New York Post revealed that it had obtained a copy of the hard drive of a MacBook Pro laptop computer that Hunter dropped off at the aforementioned repair shop and then apparently forgot about it, like an old suit left behind with a dry cleaner.

Besides embarrassing photos, emails discovered on the hard drive by the Post revealed what intelligent people with an open mind long suspected, that Hunter Biden was the head of an influence peddling ring that profited from the political career of his lifetime politician father. Or perhaps Joe Biden, “the Big Guy.” who might have been the recipient of 10 percent of a never-realized financial deal with a Chinese energy firm, was in charge, was the CEO of a Chicago-style political racketeering operation, a bit like this one.

Twitter, Facebook, and the mainstream media–Fox News was a major exception–immediately went on attack mode to block and suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story.

During his radio show on Friday, Dan Bongino said, “Hunter was working in Ukraine, his dad knew about it, his dad was the point man in Ukraine for the Obama administration. The corruption is back-breaking. There is no way Joe Biden would have won the last election if the media didn’t conspire to make that story–the Ukraine-Biden story and the laptop–go away.” He added, “They rigged the election through their censorship of the story.”

“Look at the polling data,” Bongino exclaimed. Let’s do just that. According to a Media Research Center post-election survey, of the voters Biden voters who weren’t aware of the Hunter Biden scandals, 16 percent of them would have changed their vote. Incumbent Donald J. Trump lost by less than one percent in these four battleground states: Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. If those states went to Trump, then he still would be president.

Although he had no experience in the energy industry and he does not speak Ukrainian, Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, while his father was vice president.

Twitter was the worst offender in censoring the laptop story, blocking the posting of reports under the false belief that the laptop revelations were hacked, despite possessing no evidence that those suspicions were true. For nearly two weeks, as Americans daily voted for president, Twitter suspended the New York Post’s popular main Twitter feed.

Facebook, which funds fact-checkers at USA Today, PolitiFact, and LeadStories, suppressed the Hunter laptop story. “While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post,” FB spokesperson Andy Stone Tweeted at the time, “I want [sic] be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook’s third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.” No such fact-checks every were done by FB’s favored fact-checkers.

During the final presidential debate, moderated by NBC’s Kirsten Welker, and also while being interviewed by 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, Trump tried to initiate a discussion about the Hunter Biden laptop. Welker deflected, and Stahl replied to Trump about the scandal, “Can’t be verified.” Well, now it has been, Stahl, by the paper that publishes “all the news that’s fit to print,” the New York Times.

Where is your apology, Lesley?

Government-funded NPR also dismissed the Hunter Biden story. On Twitter in 2020, in response to a question on why NPR hadn’t covered the laptop scandal, NPR’s managing editor Terence Samuels, who apparently is the kind of arrogant SOB that Groucho Marx used to justifiably torment, replied, “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”

In preparation for the writing of this story I endured one hour of CNN’s ludicrously misnamed Reliable Sources, hosted by a circus clown masquerading as a journalist, Brian Stelter. Much of today’s broadcast was dedicated to policing “misinformation” and “disinformation” by Russian media sources as the war in Ukraine continues. But Stelter and his sycophantic guests didn’t utter a peep about the New York Times update on the laptop. “So slowly and surely,” Stelter said at the end of today’s episode, “media criticism can improve media diets.” How ’bout starting with criticizing yourself, Stelter? His latest email newsletter, which I hear is very popular among liberal journalists, omitted mention of the Times’ revision on the Hunter MacBook.

Here’s a flashback for you.

“This is a classic example of the right-wing media machine,” Stelter said about the laptop on October 18, 2020. “Fox and Trump have this in common: They want you to stay mad and stay tuned.”

A former host of CNN’s Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz, on Fox News Sunday this morning declared, “It is an absolute embarrassment that the way that the way media downplayed or ignored or mocked or minimized this story, the New York Times now says [Hunter] is under active federal investigation for possible tax violations or lobbying violations by [him]–and they’re still not covering it.”

After some complaining about those commments from fellow Fox News Sunday panelist Juan Williams, Kurtz shot back, “It was censorship.”

A free and fair election process allows open distribution of information. The mainstream media, Twitter, and Facebook, by suppressing and censoring coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop revelations, prevented a free and fair election.

John Ruberry, just John and not two others, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

DaTechGuy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage postscript

Posted: March 20, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Yesterday I postulated DaTechguy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage which states:

The degree of protection by or attack of the media on any person is governed by the degree of danger and/or usefulness to the Democrat party’s electoral goals said protection or attack represents

And said that the NYT sudden “discovery” that the Hunter Biden Laptop was real meant the following:

But now it’s 2022 and Joe Biden is becoming increasingly a threat to the electoral prospects of the Democrat left. While nobody in his right mind actually believes he is governing this nation the sheer incompetence of those actually doing the job combined with the fiscal and foreign policy on his administration’s watch are at a point where disaster looms for the left if things continue.

So suddenly the Hunter Biden story instead of being a threat is for the left at worst an old story that can’t make things much worse or can be burred in the news of the war..

Of course at best it might be a means of removing the threat that Joe Biden is.

Meanwhile at American Greatness (via Insty) Roger Kimball sees the same thing with a tiny bit more clarity:

 I wrote a column for American Greatness called “The Coming Dethronement of Joe Biden.” In it, I noted that Biden’s appalling performance as president would sooner or later—and probably sooner, given the ostentatious nature of his multifaceted failure—lead to his removal as president. 

I should have added that it wasn’t Biden’s performance per se that would lead to his downfall. The problem, rather, was the way his performance was undermining his—and therefore his minders’ and puppetmasters’—political power.

Remember the last election wasn’t stolen FOR Joe Biden it was stolen for those who feared a 2nd Trump term might drain the swamp that they have happily thrived in and off of for decades. But now the useful idiot is no longer of use and no longer warrants the protection of the left

 I suspect that Joe Biden is being prepped for ejection. Exactly how it will happen I do not yet know. But he is on the threshold, or possibly has even passed the threshold, where he could appear to govern. His minders understand this. They must be the ones to replace him, otherwise they themselves risk being replaced, which would be intolerable.

Kimball also believes that Biden is not the only target here:

Obviously, Kamala will have to be dealt with first, and she will be. Look for some ground softening stories such as the Times just served up about the laptop. They won’t be long in coming. 

Remember all for the deep state, everything for the deep state and the prerogatives and power that comes from it.

The United States of Mid-Life Crisis

Posted: March 19, 2022 by ng36b in Uncomfortable Truths, war
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When my dad retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years of service, I don’t think he knew what to do with himself. He legitimately had a mid-life crisis, flipping back and forth a bit until he settled into a job as a program manager for the government. For him, going from a 20 year career that had everything laid out for him to being his own person was a bit of a jarring change.

The United States is having that same jarring change right now. In the past, the US was the world’s only true superpower, and it sought to insert itself into…well, everything. From running banana republics in Central and South America to putting troops in darn near every country in the Middle East and Africa, the US had decided it would be in all places at all times. This was pretty costly and required a lot of defense spending, but it gave the US the ability to respond to any crisis whatsoever.

It also gave every nation aligned with the US the excuse to not have a military. Countries around the world spent their money on universal health care and various forms of social security. Why not? They didn’t need a big defense budget, because the US covered that. These countries tolerated the US essentially running the financial and technology sectors because it allowed them to get rich with little risk. For a while, this worked well, especially as the Soviet Union fell apart, China continued to kill its own people and terrorism remained a local issue.

That’s all changing. The US has embraced a multi-polar world with China as a major player and Russia, the EU, UK, Japan and India as minor players. I say embraced because if the US truly wanted to be a superpower, we’d have built a hypersonic nuclear missile base on the moon and threatened to wipe China off the map if they step too far. Seriously. You can’t tell me that we watched China research weaponry for years that would defeat our defense system and were surprised when it worked? We had to know, and multiple people at high levels of government simply shrugged and said “oh well.”

This multi-polar world runs on different rules though. One rule is that superpowers get a sphere of influence and other superpowers have to stay out of it. China and Russia both consider themselves superpowers, so they take authoritarian actions in what they consider their sphere of influence. They will tolerate some minor transgressions (like US Navy Freedom of Navigation patrols), but ultimately they will do what they want without regard for anyone else.

Why is Putin willing to invade Ukraine and shell cities with no regards for civilian casualties? Because he’s a superpower and he gets to make the rules in his sphere. If you don’t like it, well, too bad.

Most Americans, including most liberals, are operating on rules fit for one superpower. In the past, if we, the US, told two nations to knock it off, they would. With one superpower, you can basically stare down an opponent and make them stop with limited military action. Think Korea and Vietnam, where we stopped Communist governments from expanding without declaring war or using nuclear weapons.

But using this set of rules on Ukraine doesn’t work. We can literally cut Russia off from everything and they will continue to do what they want, because we’re treating them as equals.

This isn’t to say we should send troops to Ukraine. There are good reasons to stay out. I was strongly supportive of President Trump’s decision to stay out of Syria, since we had no real interests there, and far better to let the Russians get bogged down then us. Ukraine might be different, and maybe we have good reasons to go there. If so, we need to be very open about them and understand it will put us in direct conflict with a nation that has nuclear weapons. That’s OK, by the way, if we’re open and honest about it and understand the potential consequences.

We can’t play by unilateral rules in a multilateral world, and we’re suffering consequences for it. Everyone applauded the crippling sanctions, but already nations are finding alternatives to the US Dollar and the SWIFT system of banking. They see whats happening to Russia and they know it could happen to them. Watch how more countries, including non-authoritarian countries, discover how to build their own industries, financial institutions and economies in order to beat future sanctions.

The US forgot that it grew up into a superpower, and now its having a mid-life identity crisis.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you enjoyed this article, please support the author by purchasing one of his books for you or a friend.

The NYT Hunter Biden and DaTechGuy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage

Posted: March 19, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

One of the nice things about DaTechGuy’s Laws of Media Outrage is that using them you can predict how the Media will react in almost any situation.

There are currently Five such laws which as as follows:

DaTechGuy’s 1st law of media outrage:

The level of Outrage or interest of the media and their allies on the left concerning any insult or prevarication concerning a person or thing will routinely be equal to the inverse of the degree of the political distance between said media / leftists and the target of said insult or prevarication at the time it is made

A great example of is are the lies routinely told about Gov Ron DeSantis in Florida. Because he is the polar opposite of the left no amount of dishonesty on the part of his critics are worthy of any exposure

DaTechGuy’s 2nd Law of Media Outrage:

The level of acceptance of the positions and/or actions of any group or organization by the left and media is directly proportional to their current or potential value in electing liberal Democrats.

Right now big tech is on a roll when it comes to censorship and the repression of thought which would once earn denunciation, but as long as the left sees it as vital to keep democrats in office these actions are not only accepted, but celebrated.

DaTechGuy’s 3rd Law of media outrage:

The MSM’s elevation and continued classification of any story as Nationally Newsworthy rather than only of local interest is in direct correlation to said story’s current ability to affirm any current Democrat/Liberal/Media meme/talking point, particularly on the subject of race or sexuality.

You might recall during the Kavanaugh hearings any wiff of a word by any woman anywhere concerning Judge Kavanaugh became national news that was to be rushed to the headlines and endlessly treated as the biggest story of the year. However once Tara Reade was accusing Joe Biden of assault well it’s just some story on a blog. No substance, nothing to see here it was a story that could die away

DaTechGuy’s 4th Law of Media Outrage:

The degree of media exposure of the corruption or illegality committed by any individual or organization under investigation is directly proportional to its distance from the media’s ideology.

A great example of are the stories out of Virginia and the school boards which did all they could to cover up crimes and prevent parents from finding out about them. Because these school boards were water carriers for the media’s ideology these corrupt actions we’re given little or no media exposure

DaTechGuy’s 5th Law of Media Outrage:

Any positive actions, even one that supposedly advances a goal or, or done by a group allied or identified with the radical left, will not be considered newsworthy nationally, if said action has the potential to highlight a failure and/or inaction by a Democrat administration that is in power at the time of said positive action

The poster child for this law was the move by radical feminists to evacuate girls from Afghanistan who were in danger from the Taliban. I wrote about this at the time and commended their action to save the lives of women who were the potential victims of actual repression and murder, however the media did not find the story particularly newsworthy as you could not celebrate these actions without highlighting the Biden Administrations Afghan debacle

But now we find a new situation that has come up this weekend that none of these laws apply to, namely the sudden acknowledgement by the New York Times that the Hunter Biden Laptop story, the story that caused the New York Post to be kicked off twitter, the story that the mainstream media from CNN to Sixty minutes decried as Russian Propaganda is genuine.

This is a situation not covered by any of the laws but in one sense completely predictable in hindsight as Joe Biden continues to crater what little genuine support he actual had and is bringing down democrats with it. The most significant commentary on this story comes from Michael Walsh who said:

“It’s important for you civilians to know how to read the secret messages encoded in Pravda’s ‘news’ stories. Its admission that — surprise!! — the Hunter Biden laptop stories were all, of course, true is a signal to Dems that the Big Guy is now expendable.”

Or to put it another way a useful idiot is no longer useful. This is a concept that is not addressed in DaTechGuy’s first five laws of media outrage but it is truism of Marxists and Marxism that useful idiots are only tolerated while useful so to cover this situation we need a new Sixth Law of media outrate so for thie first time anywhere I present:

DaTechGuy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage:

The degree of protection by or attack of the media on any person is governed by the degree of danger and/or usefulness to the Democrat party’s electoral goals said protection or attack represents

There are many applications of this law that come to mine.

  • Republicans who are long dead (ie: Reagan) is no longer attacked or occasionally praised when they are no longer a threat.
  • Liz Cheney who along with her father were once regularly attacked by media but because they are now considered useful to the left electoral efforts are no longer subject to such attack.
  • The Cuomo Brothers were once mightily protected by media but once their usefulness to the electoral goal was over so was their protection.
  • Code pink. As long as the left needed them they were granted absolute moral authority, once their actions threatened the Obama administration they became invisible.

And now we come to the New York Times and Hunter Biden.

During election 2020 the Hunter Biden story was dynamite, it had the potential to be so damaging that it could move the potential re-election of Donald Trump beyond the margin of fraud (even beyond the fraud that was employed in the end) so every media outlet and every tech outlet went full bore in pretending this story was false to a degree almost unprecedented in history.

But now it’s 2022 and Joe Biden is becoming increasingly a threat to the electoral prospects of the Democrat left. While nobody in his right mind actually believes he is governing this nation the sheer incompetence of those actually doing the job combined with the fiscal and foreign policy on his administration’s watch are at a point where disaster looms for the left if things continue.

So suddenly the Hunter Biden story instead of being a threat is for the left at worst an old story that can’t make things much worse or can be burred in the news of the war..

Of course at best it might be a means of removing the threat that Joe Biden is.

For all his decline the one thing that Biden can still do is when threatened fight like a cornered rat and it is unlikely that he (or Jill) will accept being eased out of the White House (if they wanted to risk Kamala after Jan 20th which due to her idiocy and incompetency which can’t be explained away by age and senility) or eased off the ticket in 2024 so he will have to be nudged out, or to put it another way. The Useful Idiot is no longer useful and the Hunter Biden story might be a means to that end.

So while time will tell whether it’s about a story no longer being a threat, or an idiot put to a different use, DatechGuy’s 6th law of media outrage definitely applies.

there are quite a few uninformed voters (those who

We are now less that 10 months away from the point where the left

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