Category: US Politics

Liberal activist organizations seem to have plenty of leverage with social media and tech companies these days.

According to a letter sent from Breitbart’s attorney to lefty group Sleeping Giants, Google must have taken the liberal activist group’s complaints about Breitbart pretty seriously. Sleeping Giants, headed by Matt Rivitz, labelled Breitbart as an “anti-Semitic site” and pushed advertisers, networks, and Google to remove ads. In the letter, Breitbart threatened “potential legal action” and accused Sleeping Giants of “deceiving the public, and in particular, purchasers of online advertising.”

Over a two month span in 2017, Breitbart lost 90% of its advertisers, who were being placed on the website by Google Ads. By pushing the concept that Breitbart was an “anti-Semitic site” that promotes “Neo-Nazism,” Sleeping Giants was successful in making most companies feel uncomfortable and lobby for the removal of their ads from the site. The letter points out that the accusation made by Sleeping Giants is ridiculous, since the site is “staunchly pro-Israel” and was “founded by two Jewish men.” Breitbart also argued that its site promoted “women and minorities.”

According to the Daily Beast, “hundreds of companies ended up “blacklisting” Breitbart from running their ads.” Breitbart fired back that the accusations from Sleeping Giants were not based in reality. Instead, the letter said, “As you well know, Breitbart News is none of those things. It is the 48th most trafficked website in the United States (according to Amazon-owned Alexa), the 3rd most trafficked news site,and the 15 highest engagement Facebook publisher in the World (according to NewsWhip). According to NPR, it is read every morning by the White house Chief of Staff.”

Google Ads must have worked with these companies as well as Sleeping Giants in some way, since the algorithm was putting the ads on Breitbart pages at random. Breitbart asked Sleeping Giants to preserve all its emails exchanged with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon for a potential lawsuit.

In early 2017, Sleeping Giants made a complaint against Amazon, saying that the site was not taking down its ads from Breitbart. Amazon apparently was one of the few companies that kept ads on Breitbart’s site.

 

BY: Alex Griswold Follow
@HashtagGriswold

October 25, 2018 4:23 pm

A New York Times columnist went after President Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing him of making a false statement that he didn’t actually make.

In her Wednesday column “Trump Gets Terrible,” Gail Collins voiced her hope that Trump would avoid violent or divisive rhetoric when he spoke at rallies ahead of the 2020 election. Instead, she wrote, “All we can do is hope he sticks to his less dangerous form of awfulness.”

“We want the Donald Trump who yowls about wildly overestimated crowd sizes and nonexistent achievements. For instance, on Monday in Houston he bragged about Brett Kavanaugh and gave the audience a primer on Supreme Court appointments…” she wrote.

Here’s how Collins summarized Trump’s remarks:

Who — who appointed the highest percentage of judges? No, no, no, it wasn’t Hillary Clinton. No, she didn’t make it, remember? She didn’t make it. No, you know who it is? You’ll never guess. It’s called George Washington. And we’re after George Washington. So, a very big thing, no, George Washington, why? Because he just started. He did 100 percent. Nobody’s ever going to break that record. Nobody’s ever going to break the record of George Washington.

Collins correctly pointed out that Trump is nowhere near the highest percentage of Supreme Court nominations. “In actual reality, Trump is not after George Washington. Franklin Delano Roosevelt placed eight justices on the Supreme Court and Ronald Reagan got four. Trump has gotten two, the same number as George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.”

But Collins left off part of Trump’s remarks that make it clear he wasn’t talking only about “Supreme Court appointments,” like she claimed. Trump prefaced his remarks with the following [emphasis added]:

I’ve been there less than two years and I already have two of them cause we also have a fantastic new justice in Neil Gorsuch. We had him just approved, he was just confirmed and we have a record number of circuit court judges for the time that we’ve been in office. And that we fully expect to go to the all-time record. Percentage-wise it’s right up there and we’ve only been here a short — okay ready, here’s a question: Percentage-wise, who has more justices, federal judges appointed percentage-wise than any other president? Who is it?

In context, Trump was clearly speaking about all federal judges, not just his two Supreme Court nominations. The Republican president has had a higher-than-average 84 judges confirmed 21 months into his presidency.

Collins would have been on solid ground if she followed in the steps of an Associated Press fact-check that ruled Trump “over-reached” in his remarks. While “we’re after George Washington” implies his administration had the second-highest percentage of judges confirmed, Trump also trails the percentages of Democrats John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton at this point in their presidencies.

Even Collins’ fact-check of the claim Trump didn’t make was initially incorrect. “A previous version of this article misstated the number of justices placed on the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” reads a Thursday correction. “He appointed eight justices, not nine.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders knows how to fight back.

In the aftermath of this week’s spate of suspicious packages that targeted top Democrats in multiple locations, as well as CNN’s New York City headquarters, the media outlet issued a statement attacking President Donald Trump and Sanders, essentially blaming the incidents on the Trump administration.

A statement from CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, was released to the public on Twitter.

Issued through CNN’s PR department, it criticized a “total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media.”

Statement from CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker: pic.twitter.com/OXyIT6oSLT

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) October 24, 2018

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But Sanders is not easily intimidated. She took Zucker to task, pointing out that in the aftermath of the devices being discovered, Trump had addressed the matter of everyone, including CNN, being targeted, and Sanders had, as well.

In a Twitter post directed to CNN, she made no bones about who “chose to attack and divide” Americans — and it was CNN, not the Trump White House.

.@realDonaldTrump asked Americans “to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA” Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence. https://t.co/Dlo3xwHyKi

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 25, 2018

Trump, she wrote, “asked Americans ‘to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA’ Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence.”

This is evidenced by timestamps on tweets sent out by Sanders the day before. The news about a suspicious package being delivered to CNN’s office in New York broke about 10 a.m. EDT. Sanders was issuing a response a little more than an hour later:

Statement on suspicious packages: pic.twitter.com/pYSbDvCvuk

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 24, 2018

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This is an ongoing situation that President Trump and his admin are monitoring closely. Our condemnation of these dispicable acts certainly includes threats made to CNN as well as current or former public servants. These cowardly acts are unacceptable and wont be tolerated. https://t.co/YbMbCUWMPC

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 24, 2018

In his one of his own tweets Thursday morning, Trump made a point of stressing the role media outlets have played in fostering the country’s current political atmosphere.

A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018

The devices, reported to have been sent to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State HIllary Clinton, billionaire George Soros, CNN, actor Robert De Niro and former Vice President Joe Biden, were undeniably an unacceptable act done by someone for reasons that are irrelevant. It is never OK to threaten, terrorize or harm others.

Such behavior has been seen one-thousand fold not only acted out by the left, but actually even called for and encouraged by the left. Things such as comedian Kathy Griffin’s decapitated Trump head photo shoot have been applauded rather than decried.

Continually, leftists call those on the right names such as “racist,” “fascist,” “white supremacist,” “Nazi,” “deranged,” “deplorables,” and the “dregs of society.” Americans on the right are continually vilified by media and leftists, whether in government, Hollywood, or some other realm of power and influence.

The tracked count of documented attacks of harassment and violence against people on the right by people on the left has reached over 600, according to Breitbart News.

When conservatives did not like election results of 2008, they organized in 2009 and went to the ballot box in 2010 to resolve it. The left, by contrast, has been throwing what amounts to a two-year-long temper tantrum that has escalated over time.

And why has it escalated rather than die down as would normally happen in American political life? Some point to Democratic leadership and the establishment media for keeping political turmoil fueled with lies, misleading information and flat-out calls to be hateful toward those with whom leftists disagree.

And that appears to be the point Sanders, Trump and others are making. While some on the left cry for “unity” and “civility” they do nothing to condemn the violence and harassment from their own side, blaming Trump and others for the actions their side takes.

In the case of the devices that turned up this week, whoever sent them is responsible. Period.

Right now, who did it, why it was done, etc. are still unknown. But that has not stopped the political blame-game from being pushed, full-force, further fueling a hate-filled political climate.

And like Trump, while there is pressure for the right to be timid and roll over to the left’s hypocritical calls for “civility, Sanders has not backed down or played timid.

She has called out the baloney and held to account those who are fueling the incivility overtaking America.

And she has the guts to fight back.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

As soon as the tears began drying on the floor of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City in 2016 — the place where Hillary Clinton’s bacchanalian victory party on election night was to take place — the lachrymose and angry started to come up with who had stolen this election.

Because indeed it had been stolen — there was no doubt about that among the Hillaristas and the rest of the assorted left. The only question among the left was what malefactor took the electoral victory that was so rightly theirs and gave it to … you know, that thing. Supposed ballot irregularities were the first culprit, but several recounts did nothing to change the results. Then came “fake news,” but reporting seemed to confirm it would be of limited impact.

Then came foreign interference — most notably from the direction of the Kremlin — and it all fit together.

Since the perfidious Russians and their satellites became the focus of all efforts to delegitimize the Trump administration, anything conservative with foreign ties has come under intense scrutiny, particularly when it comes to social media.

That even includes us. The Western Journal has been asked by both Facebook and BuzzFeed why one of the administrators of our Facebook page is from overseas. (That administrator, incidentally, is myself; I’ve lived in America for most of my life but reside abroad at present for reasons too lengthy to discuss here.) I’m sure other conservative websites have received similar treatment.

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This is all, apparently, in the name of ferreting out foreign interference in journalism. A noble cause, to be sure — unless, of course, the same questions can be asked of you.

Take ThinkProgress. Please. </henny_youngman> The left-leaning website seems to have a minor obsession with Russian collusion, although any sort of foreign interference seems to suit its fancy.

Some sample headlines: “Former FBI agent details how Trump and Russia team up to weaponize fake news,” “Meet the newest country behind fake Facebook accounts: America” and “Why do all these Daily Caller reporters keep appearing on Russian propaganda channels?“

So, given that ThinkProgress is an American politics website, all of its social media administrators are in America — right?

Yes, one of its administrators is from the United Arab Emirates. What does this mean in practical terms? Probably zilch. Could be an expat, could be a contractor — there are a panoply of possible reasons for it.

However, were I a headline writer for ThinkProgress, I could probably get away with: “Is a top liberal website spreading fake news from a repressive Middle Eastern regime?”

Sure, I’d have to say the answer to that question would probably be no, but who cares?

Or let’s take Wonkette, that wonderfully potty-mouthed left-wing commentary website last culturally relevant when you could post links to the commentary from its writers on your MySpace wall. It still has a following, I guess, but it also has some <cue spooky music> strange foreign ties.

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Argentina? Serbia?* Is there a shadowy cabal of Eastern European/South American ultranationalists pumping vulgarity into our national polity? Almost certainly not! But that’s the thing about these stories — once you get going you only need to connect an entity with a country and you’re off to the races.

Or take a look at the Democratic Socialists of America webpage — or should I say the Democratic Socialists of Canada and the Ukraine?!

This one is a bit more suspect than the rest, considering that they’re an American political party and everything.

Still, given the fact that Americans can live abroad in this day and age, it might be nothing. However, the party’s Facebook page notes that they do “run ads related to politics or issues of national importance.”

Are those ads coming from the Ukraine? Could they be from … Russian-aligned rebels?! Of course not, but this claim is as evidence-free as the whole bag of Russian collusion stories and/or the DSA’s platform.

Now, does all this mean anything? As I said, probably not — but that still hasn’t stopped Facebook or BuzzFeed from questioning us about it. It’s a minor thing, granted, but given that some or most of these entities have complained about foreign meddling in the 2016 election and the role Facebook may have played, they don’t seem particularly circumspect about it themselves.

Nor should they be. There are plenty of good American workers who live abroad (I’m probably talking myself up a bit here) who can contribute to any organization remotely. However, that doesn’t have quite the tocsin of danger that foreign agents trying to inject propaganda into American discourse has.

* As of publication on Thursday, Wonkette no longer lists a manager in Serbia but has added one in Greece.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

The anti-conservative hate group, Southern Poverty Law Center, wants to censor people it disagrees with and it’s asking the top social media companies to help.

On Thursday, October 25, the liberal organization announced that it had formed a coalition with five other groups to encourage the prohibition of so-called “hate speech” online. SPLC partnered with four George Soros funded organizations: the Center for American Progress, Color of Change, Free Press and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as well as the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

The groups called for restricting a wide range of content, video, advertising, fundraising and domain/website services. The restrictions even cover “targeting an individual or group based on their actual or perceived race.” Those activities even limit actions users may take “whether online or offline.”

The SPLC has marked conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council, ACT for America, American Family Association, and Alliance Defending Freedom as hate groups. The group has also targeted conservative and classical liberal individuals for hate speech, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Christina Hoff Sommers. Conservative groups are usually filed under “anti-LGBTQ hate speech” or “anti-Islam hate speech.”

In addition, the SPLC created a “hate map,” updated to show the locations of 917 groups and organizations it deemed “hateful.” This map was used by shooter Floyd Lee Corkin forming a plan s to attack the Family Research Council in 2012, injuring one.

These standards should now apply to online media, writes the SPLC. It stated, “Online tools have been used to coordinate attacks, including violence against people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQIA people, women and people with disabilities.” Sounds simple, but when a person argues that they support traditional marriage between a man and a woman, the SPLC determines that to be hate speech.

In the 11-page report, the SPLC and its partners wrote several recommendations for corporate companies in social media. The report stated, “Using the service to engage in hateful activities on the service or to facilitate hateful activities off the service shall be grounds for terminating the service for a user.” The SPLC warns that government actors should not be allowed to flag content on social media, since apparently that falls under free speech limitations.

Center for American Progress, Color of Change, and Free Press are all given major donations from liberal billionaire George Soros on a regular basis. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is part of the non-profit Alliance for Justice, which is a coalition of 100 organizations. This coalition is also funded by Soros.

Putting an end to legislating from the bench.

(Reuters) – A Republican-led U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday held the second of two unusual hearings during a congressional recess in an aggressive push to confirm President Donald Trump’s conservative judicial nominees including to a liberal-leaning California-based court he often criticizes.

Democrats, who mounted an unsuccessful effort to block Senate confirmation this month of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, have slammed the president’s fellow Republicans for holding the hearings. Only two senators on the 21-member Judiciary Committee, both Republicans, showed up for the hearing in Washington on Wednesday in which four judicial nominees were considered.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray, who had asked Republicans to postpone the hearing while the Senate is in recess ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections, criticized “the shameful partisan path they have taken on what has always been a bipartisan process.” She accused the Republicans of a “mad dash” to secure confirmation.

Two of the nominees considered on Wednesday – Bridget Bade and Eric Miller – were picked by Trump to serve on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles cases arising from several western states including California. […}

The part of the hearing focusing on Bade, a magistrate judge from Arizona, and Eric Miller, an attorney in Seattle, lasted only 20 minutes. The two senators present were Orrin Hatch and Mike Crapo, who presided over the hearing and quizzed Bade about the proper role of judges and asked Miller about Native American tribal sovereignty.

The hearing advanced Trump’s goal of quickly filling judicial vacancies. Trump already has appointed 29 judges to federal appeals courts, an unusually quick pace, and has moved some regional appeals courts closer to conservative control in an ideological shift that could benefit his administration.

The other nominees considered on Wednesday were Karin Immergut as a federal district judge in Oregon and Richard Hertling for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which handles legal claims seeking monetary judgments against the U.S. government.

After facing a later vote in the committee, the nominees must be confirmed by the full Senate, controlled 51-49 by the Republicans.

Keep reading…