Wretchard.com

What better way to demonstrate virtue than by intimidating the unworthy.

Parler CEO John Matze and family go into hiding after death threats

The CEO of Parler, the conservative social media app, and his family have gone into hiding because of death threats and harassment, according to a new court filing. The documents, obtained by Fox N…

Parler, which is a favorite of Trump supporters, was booted off Apple and Google’s platforms after the Capitol riots and Amazon took it off its cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services.

In response, Parler filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Amazon countersued, saying Parler’s suit had no valid legal basis and claiming Amazon employees had been threatened and harassed, Fox News reported.

Following last year’s efforts to ban Trump Administration officials from speaking on campus, Harvard University students are now circulating a petition that calls for revoking degrees from Trump supporters and aides who attended the elite Ivy League institution

The much more accurate term is “to unperson“, to create:

an individual who usually for political or ideological reasons is removed completely from recognition or consideration

What “cancel” does is unperson people. This is the opposite of an invented person or deep fake, an event or individual created entirely for the narrative. One of Winston Smith’s jobs in Orwell’s 1984 was to invent people.

“Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready-made as it were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. . . . It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence.”

Who’s to say Ogilvy never existed? Or that so and so had such and such a law degree? If you follow the news closely you will notice how it continuously manufactures and deletes people and events from the spotlight. In the end it’s all the same to the Narrators. As Winston Smith noted:

“Within twenty years at most, he reflected, the huge and simple question ‘Was life better before the Revolution than it is now?’ would have ceased once and for all to be answerable.”

There are two forbidden questions in public discourse today.

1. The integrity of the 2020 elections;
2. The origin of the Covid virus.

John Hinderaker writes: “Democrats are making extraordinary efforts to suppress all discussion of whether Joe Biden actually won the 2020 presidential election. In fact, they go even farther: they want to suppress all discussion of the extent to which voter fraud occurred.”

Touching on the origins of the coronavirus is even more highly charged. A US State Department document put it this way:

For more than a year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin, choosing instead to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation. Nearly two million people have died. Their families deserve to know the truth. Only through transparency can we learn what caused this pandemic and how to prevent the next one.

The U.S. government does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus—known as SARS-CoV-2—was transmitted initially to humans. We have not determined whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The virus could have emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals, spreading in a pattern consistent with a natural epidemic. Alternatively, a laboratory accident could resemble a natural outbreak if the initial exposure included only a few individuals and was compounded by asymptomatic infection. Scientists in China have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure.

In a sense the stability of the status quo depends on these two questions not being answered. That is not because the truth is known to a certitude but precisely because it is not.

Books:  Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost by Michael Walsh “A philosophical and spiritual defense of the premodern world, of the tragic view, of physical courage, and of masculinity and self-sacrifice in an age when those ancient virtues are too often caricatured and dismissed.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy — Andy Ngo’s book on the “Idea” that burned cities and perhaps much else.

Reality usually is. But in an ideological world where the good side and the bad must clearly distinguishable and never stray from their categories nobody is interested in the truth. “Journalism” becomes impractical; only polemic is possible. You’re stuck with the narrative you start.

Who Is John Sullivan, Who Was the Woman With Him and Their Appearance on CNN After the Capitol

New video…

This is true of everything. Maybe even lockdown advocates knew this but could not break ranks. Ignorance is an undefined quantity when loyalty is paramount.

We live in a world of the permanent narrative. Once you embark on a storyline — about the elections, the Capitol, the pandemic — you’re locked in.

COVID lockdowns have no clear benefit vs other voluntary measures, international study shows

The peer reviewed study, which was conducted by a group of Stanford researchers and published in the Wiley Online Library on January 5, analyzed coronavirus case growth in 10 countries in early 2020.

Millions are switching to encryption because secrecy, whatever its faults is the only way you can hear yourself think.

Millions Flock to Telegram and Signal as Fears Grow Over Big Tech

The encrypted messaging services have become the world’s hottest apps over the last week, driven by growing anxiety over the power of the biggest tech companies and privacy concerns.

He Created the Web. Now He’s Out to Remake the Digital World.

Tim Berners-Lee wants to put people in control of their personal data. He has technology and a start-up pursuing that goal. Can he succeed?

I’ve often predicted that the complexity crisis would bring forth a componentized world to replace the open borders model. Maybe it’s happening.

Google blocks Australian news as part of ‘experiment’

Users this month complained they were no longer able to see articles from national news websites including Daily Mail Australia in the search engine’s results.

• Google has admitted to hiding news stories from the top of its internet searches
• Readers of leading Australian outlets report no longer seeing latest top stories
• Search giant said it changed its algorithm as part of a ‘short-term experiment’
• Move criticised as show of power as Google fights plans to make it pay for news
• Expert said Google was trying to show outlets need them more than vice versa

Google says it has completed $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit amid antitrust concerns

Google has completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, a deal that could help the internet company grow even stronger.

Google and big tech are demonstrating their power. From now on when they give a press conference their spoken statements should have full reverb like edicts from Olympus.

Won’t stop government from creating AI because:

• Politicians will be certain they can pay HAL off.
• Politicians will fund the construction of an AI agent to control AI.
• Artificial idiocy always beats artificial intelligence.

Calculations Show It’ll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI

The idea of artificial intelligence overthrowing humankind has been talked about for many decades, and scientists have just delivered their verdict on whether we’d be able to control a high-level computer super-intelligence. The answer? Almost defini

Part of the team’s reasoning comes from the halting problem put forward by Alan Turing in 1936. The problem centres on knowing whether or not a computer program will reach a conclusion and answer (so it halts), or simply loop forever trying to find one.

Facebook robots shut down after they talk to each other in language only they understand

‘you i i i everything else’

Books:  Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost by Michael Walsh “A philosophical and spiritual defense of the premodern world, of the tragic view, of physical courage, and of masculinity and self-sacrifice in an age when those ancient virtues are too often caricatured and dismissed.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy — Andy Ngo’s book on the “Idea” that burned cities and perhaps much else.

Facial recognition can track one face from a billion yet databases can’t identify the Covid deaths in NY nursing homes. The press can investigate a high school yearbook photo from the ’80s but WHO can’t investigate the origins of the virus in China.

Our magic world leans to one side. Tech doesn’t track what it’s not allowed to. The means exist. It’s the permission that’s missing. In our facial recognition world, like voting, it’s not the faces that count but who does the recognizing.

Cuomo still refuses to disclose total number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths: watchdog

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is again refusing to release the total number of nursing home residents who’ve died from the coronavirus for at least another two months — until…

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is again refusing to release the total number of nursing home residents who’ve died from the coronavirus for at least another two months — until March 22 at the earliest, a watchdog group charged.

In a letter to the Empire Center for Public Policy on Wednesday, the state Health Department claimed that it needs another nine weeks and five days to comply with the legal request for a full accounting of nursing home deaths “because the records potentially responsive to your request are currently being reviewed for applicable exemptions, legal privileges and responsiveness.”

The Empire Center submitted its FOIL request on Aug. 3 seeking the total number of COVID-19 nursing home fatalities — those who died in nursing homes and those who were ill and died after being transported to hospitals.

Books:  Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost by Michael Walsh “A philosophical and spiritual defense of the premodern world, of the tragic view, of physical courage, and of masculinity and self-sacrifice in an age when those ancient virtues are too often caricatured and dismissed.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy — Andy Ngo’s book on the “Idea” that burned cities and perhaps much else.

They expect to stay for a month but will start work immediately during their two-week quarantine, according to the WHO.

WHO team arrives in Wuhan to investigate the origins of COVID-19 / Twitter

China has a lot riding on the long-awaited WHO probe — but so does Australia

The diplomatic defensiveness and tight control of research so far in China doesn’t bode well for hopes of a fully transparent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, writes Bill Birtles.

WHO investigators have arrived in China for a COVID-19 origin probe. But they’re already downplaying expectations …

They will head straight to hotel quarantine for two weeks.

During that time, they’ll be continuing their work, holding more of the video calls with Chinese counterparts that they’ve already been doing from abroad.

The team then has roughly two weeks in Wuhan to visit hospitals, labs, wet markets and other relevant places before the trip is expected to wrap up ahead of Chinese New Year.

Two Members of W.H.O. Team on Trail of Virus Are Denied Entry to China

Beijing has repeatedly impeded the global inquiry into the emergence of the coronavirus. Two scientists on the team remained in Singapore after testing positive for antibodies.

The limits on WHO make “not proven” almost foregone.

“We have over three billion photos that we indexed from the public internet, like Google for faces,” Hoan Ton-That, CEO of facial recognition start-up Clearview AI told Spectrum.

Every move you make, every pic you take I’ll be watching you. Oh can’t you see you belong to me.

You do it to yourself.

What is the face recognition setting on Facebook and how does it work? | Facebook Help Center

The face recognition setting is a part of your settings on Facebook.

The technology to police the world, down to the smallest village in Africa, is being invented in China and America. What the soundtrack of our lives? “Eye in the Sky” or “Eye of the Tiger”? Or is it …

Impossible? Stalin did it. How he did it is why history matters. Stalinism was a rigorous attempt to implement Marxism. It wasn’t the Revolution Betrayed but the Revolution implemented with unshakeable will.

The social engineering impulse makes it possible to exercise limitless, self-righteous power.

Joseph Stalin: Waiting For Hitler (Part 2)

Did you miss part one? Listen to part one of the episode here
https://www.hoover.org/research/why-d… Recorded on January 25, 2018. “If you’re interested in power, [if] you’re interested in how power is accumulated and exercised, and what the consequences are, the subject of Stalin is just unbeli…

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million.

The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. While the price of Bitcoin dropped sharply on Monday, it is still up more than 50 percent from just a month ago, when it passed its previous all-time high of around $20,000.

The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever.

Somehow they always guess the password to deactive the nuclear bomb in the movies. Now if only voting would be so secure. Why not? In principle votes could be anonymously ledgered on a blockchain immutably but the voter could always know how it was recorded — and prove it.

The technology for secure voting exists. The politicians just don’t want it.

Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes

Bitcoin owners are getting rich because the cryptocurrency has soared. But what happens when you can’t tap that wealth because you forgot the password to your digital wallet?

Bari Weiss, formerly of the New York Times, realizes the devil actually exists, and rules a kingdom of lies, which sooner or later becomes a realm on earth. There was nothing so destructive as lying in a good cause.

Miracle, mystery and authority are the three temptations of evil. They can only give you the world. The only way to heaven is the unshakeable faith it has already been given you, if only you choose it. But this is the scary path, as Dostoevsky pointed out; until we are desperate enough to take it.

The Great Unraveling

The old order is dead. What comes next?

Gab is restoring a backup of Trump’s Twitter posts. Yes, but how about you? Is YOUR information backed up: the search history, social media submissions etc mined by big silicon?

Epic! Twitter Competitor Gab Backed Up Trump’s Twitter Account and Recreated It on Their Platform

Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab, a free-speech alternative to Twitter, backed up President Trump’s entire account before it was deleted, and recreated it on Gab….

This vaccine platform, called a mosaic nanoparticle, was developed initially by collaborators at the University of Oxford. The nanoparticle is shaped like a cage made up of 60 identical proteins, each of which has a small protein tag that functions like a piece of Velcro. Cohen and his team took fragments of the spike proteins of different coronaviruses (spike proteins play the biggest role in infection) and engineered each to have a protein tag that would bind to those on the cage—the other half of the piece of Velcro. When these viral pieces were mixed together with the nanoparticle cage structure, each virus tag stuck to a tag on the cage, resulting in a nanoparticle presenting spikes representing different coronavirus strains on its surface.

Vaccine platforms are the holy grail of the CDC who aspire to go from “bug to drug” in 24 hours. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are pioneering examples of these nontraditional approaches many of which are yet to come.

The power of big bio will dwarf big tech.

Nanoparticle immunization technology could protect against many strains of coronaviruses

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that is causing the COVID-19 pandemic is just one of many different viruses in the coronavirus family. Many of these are circulating in populations of animals like bats and have the potential to “jump” into the human population, just as SARS-CoV-2 did. Researchers in the laborat…

They enjoy all of the benefits of being U.S. based companies, but their operations and customers span the world. Many of them have participated in the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council. The compact of that group states, “society is best served by corporations that have aligned their goals to long term goals of society.” It also pledges to use the UN Sustainable Development Goals (previously called Agenda 21) as a roadmap.

If Global Corporations Walk Away from Republicans the GOP Will Have to Listen to New Voters

Yesterday, numerous global corporations announced they will no longer donate to Republican candidates. The GOP needs to appeal to a new set of voters.

CNN says

his channel earned a strike under the platform’s policies, the company said Tuesday evening.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you.

That includes you also.

Roger Simon writes:

Don’t show up!
When I say don’t show up, I mean really don’t show up.
Don’t protest the inauguration in any way, not in Washington, not at your state house, nowhere. Ignore the whole thing.
Don’t even watch the event on television or stream it on any of your devices.

I suspect significantly fewer are going to tune in, if not in America then at least in the rest of the world, not in protest or partisan pique but because the magic’s gone from Washington DC.

An audience that was formerly awed at a distance got close enough to see the caked make-up and the painted props. Olympus has fallen.

It may be all for the best. A free people are ruled by men not gods.

Twitter outraged.

“We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet,” it said in a statement.

At least Weimar had the Great War as an excuse to fall apart. What alibi is there for the current moral collapse?

The best show on television right now features a major city, the capital of an unsteady government, that is gradually being pulled apart by two competing political parties. The center can’t hold; it’s being steadily overwhelmed by a pair of rival Socialist groups who don’t hesitate to take their conflicts into the streets as they sweep away their country’s past and head into a glorious future.

Washington, D.C., in 2021? No, Berlin in the late 1920s.

That’s different! Or it?

SPOKANE, Wash. — A North Idaho internet provider, Your T1 WIFI, confirmed it is blocking Facebook and Twitter from its WIFI service for some customers due to censorship claims.