When Barack Obama wasn’t promising to lower ocean levels and heal the planet, he was claiming that he’d be the last president to deal with health care.
”I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” he said.
But as John Merline over at Issues & Insights notes, Obama only managed to make matters worse. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that health care is now the top priority for the public, with 24% saying it should be No. 1 on the priority list, and 42% saying it should be in the top two spots.
That’s up sharply from the public’s view of health care before Obamacare, when in 2006 only 14% ranked it as their top priority. Nine years after Obamacare passed, why do you think that might be?
An ongoing Gallup Poll, meanwhile, finds that people are, overall, less satisfied with their health coverage and the quality of their own health care than they were in 2007.
So muc for Obama’s promises. It means that, by Merline’s estimation, taxpayers and rate payers have coughed up more than $800 billion — so far — only to see health care get worse. File under promises of socialism.
So now it’s been up to Obama’s successor, President Trump, to “take up the cause” and repair the damage Obama did, while Democrats who are not on the impeachment train wreck are stating that health care is their big selling point with voters.
The question is, why does the public continue to trust Democrats on this issue? Merline’s piece is excellent insight about the false promises of Obamacare and the dangers of the Democrats’ new banquet of promises all right. Read the whole thing here.
When Barack Obama wasn’t promising to lower ocean levels and heal the planet, he was claiming that he’d be the last president to deal with health care.
”I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” he said.
But as John Merline over at Issues & Insights notes, Obama only managed to make matters worse. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that health care is now the top priority for the public, with 24% saying it should be No. 1 on the priority list, and 42% saying it should be in the top two spots.
That’s up sharply from the public’s view of health care before Obamacare, when in 2006 only 14% ranked it as their top priority. Nine years after Obamacare passed, why do you think that might be?
An ongoing Gallup Poll, meanwhile, finds that people are, overall, less satisfied with their health coverage and the quality of their own health care than they were in 2007.
So muc for Obama’s promises. It means that, by Merline’s estimation, taxpayers and rate payers have coughed up more than $800 billion — so far — only to see health care get worse. File under promises of socialism.
So now it’s been up to Obama’s successor, President Trump, to “take up the cause” and repair the damage Obama did, while Democrats who are not on the impeachment train wreck are stating that health care is their big selling point with voters.
The question is, why does the public continue to trust Democrats on this issue? Merline’s piece is excellent insight about the false promises of Obamacare and the dangers of the Democrats’ new banquet of promises all right. Read the whole thing here.
How progressive. Via Campus Reform: The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter at Texas State University boasted on Twitter about not having any straight members on its E-Board and Coordinating Committee after calling to “guillotine bourgeoisie traitors.” The YDSA chapter of Texas State University published a “happy pride month” post on its Twitter account […]
On Tuesday, Alabama legislators passed a bill that would punish child sex offenders by requiring them to be chemically castrated before they are released from prison. HB 379 was introduced by GOP Rep. Steve Hurst, who told WIAT-TV:
“If you openly support BDS in Florida, you’re dead, politically.”
That was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s conclusion from the surprisingly large role the issue of the antisemitic “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) campaign against Israel played in his close race against Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum in Floridan’s gubernatorial election last November.
DeSantis edged out the hardcore progressive Democrat by a mere 0.4 percent, or 32,000 votes.
DeSantis made the remark during the course of his official visit to Israel last week. He led a massive trade mission of Florida business leaders, cabinet secretaries, and university presidents on a five-day trip to the Jewish state. During the course of the mission, Florida universities signed collaboration agreements with Israeli universities spanning a vast spectrum of undertakings from water purification to space research.
The mission merged the twin goals of increasing Florida-Israel economic, academic and commercial ties; and fighting anti-Semitism generally, and the BDS campaign against Israel specifically. Its success was a stunning expression of DeSantis’s state government’s friendship with Israel. It also placed the sharp contrast between progressive Democrats — like his opponent, Gillum — and DeSantis in stark relief.
Throughout his three terms in Congress, DeSantis distinguished himself as one of the most active defenders and promoters of the U.S. strategic alliance with the Jewish state. In contrast, in the years preceding Gillum’s general election run for Florida governor, he cultivated and benefitted from close ties with BDS groups.
DeSantis made his remark about the negative effect his opponent’s support for Israel’s worst opponents in America had on Gillum’s election prospects during a visit Wednesday to the Etzion Hub in the Gush Etzion industrial park. The Hub is a flexible work office space and a central meeting place for the growing hi-tech, small business and self-employed community of Gush Etzion and Efrat in Judea and Samaria.
During the course of his visit at the Etzion Hub, DeSantis held a roundtable discussion with Israeli officials to discuss the BDS movement and the reasons that Israel is being targeted for discrimination. He also held a joint press conference with Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, responsible for Israel’s efforts to combat the global BDS campaign being waged against it.
DeSantis’s visit to the Etzion Hub marked the first time a Florida state official made an official visit to Judea and Samaria. He was accompanied by his cabinet secretaries and members of his delegation.
DeSantis’s decision to visit Gush Etzion, and hold his anti-BDS roundtable discussion in Judea, was a means to attack the BDS movement at its foundation.
The BDS campaign calls for social ostracism of Israelis and Jewish supporters of Israel outside of Israel. It also calls for the boycott of Israeli businesses and citizens, divestment from Israeli firms, and sanctions against Israel and firms that do business with Israel.
The BDS campaign has various permutations. One of them is a selective boycott of Jews and Jewish commercial enterprises in Judea and Samaria. President Barack Obama supported the BDS campaign in that permutation. For example, during Obama’s visit to Israel in 2013, the White House explicitly excluded Israeli students from Ariel University in Samaria from a speech Obama gave before an audience of Israeli students from all of Israel’s other universities.
In its final weeks in power, the Obama administration refused to veto, and indeed insisted on, the passage of UN Security Council resolution 2334. The radically anti-Israel resolution called for states to discriminate against Jews in Judea and Samaria, calling for “all states…to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”
Beyond its false interpretations of the Fourth Geneva Convention from 1949, there is no legal basis for the resolution to deem Israeli communities and neighborhoods in Judea, Samaria, and united Jerusalem illegal.
Aside from the speciousness of the legal claim, the assertion that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and unified Jerusalem should be targeted from discriminatory treatment is problematic for two reasons. First, it targets Israelis based on the fact of their Jewishness. Palestinians and Arab Israelis who work in Judea and Samaria are not targeted for discriminatory treatment and boycott. Only Jews are.
Second, and perhaps more important, by insisting that there is something inherently criminal about Jewish existence in Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish civilization, the partial BDS campaign legitimizes the Palestinian view that Jews are not a nation and have no right to self-determination.
The PLO itself made this point in its internal guidance to its officials. In 2011, the UK Guardian and Al-Jazeera published what became knowns as “The Palestine Papers.” They included a trove of documents from the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Support Unit (NSU). Among the documents that were published was a November 2007 memo titled, “Strategy and talking points for responding to the pre-condition of recognizing Israel as a ‘Jewish state.’”
Explaining the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel’s demand to recognize that it is the nation state as the Jewish people, the memo asserted, “Recognizing the Jewish state implies recognition of a Jewish people and recognition of its right to self-determination. Those who assert this right also assert that the territory historically associated with this right of self-determination (i.e., the self-determination unit) is all of Historic Palestine. Therefore, recognition of the Jewish people and their right of self-determination may lend credence to the Jewish people’s claim to all of Historic Palestine.”
In other words, once you accept that the Jews are a people, you recognize their homeland is the land of Israel and that their national history unfolded in the land of Israel. That history and sovereignty took place largely in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. So if you admit that the Jews are a people, you necessarily admit that Judea and Samaria, like the rest of the land of Israel, is their native land.
Conversely, by rejecting those rights, and indeed if you criminalize Jews who breathe in and out while in Judea and Samaria and unified Jerusalem, then you effectively criminalize Jews who breathe in and out in Tel Aviv. The two are indivisible. So people who support limited BDS inevitably support the view that Israel as a whole has no right to exist.
State governments historically have not played a major role in foreign policy issues. But as the BDS campaign casts a wider net, seeking to intimidate U.S. firms, universities, cultural institutions, and individuals to boycott Israel, preventing extortion of U.S. citizens and entities that conduct normal relations with Israel and Israelis has become a domestic issue. As a result, nearly half of the state governments have passed anti-BDS legislation over the past several years.
Two months before DeSantis entered office, the online holiday rental giant Airbnb announced that it would delist Jewish-owned properties in Judea and Samaria from its website, thus denying Jews the right to use the service to advertise their properties in the areas, just because they are Jews.
Airbnb’s move was precipitated by a massive pressure campaign by anti-Israel, pro-BDS groups spearheaded by Human Rights Watch. Its announcement was heralded as a great victory for BDS groups and seen as a watershed event that would lead to a flood of companies announcing similar discriminatory policies to target Jews in Judea and Samaria.
DeSantis responded swiftly and effectively.
During his visit to Hub Etzion, DeSantis described what happened and its significance for the wider campaign to defeat BDS in America. He also made clear why it was important for him to hold the anti-BDS roundtable in Judea.
“One of the reasons we wanted to come here [to Judea] is because we were fighting this BDS movement [in response to] Airbnb,” he began.
“In the end of last year, [Airbnb] announced that they were going to target Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria for disfavored treatment. That triggered our anti-BDS legislation in Florida so when I became governor [in January], we immediately placed Airbnb on the ‘scrutinized companies list.’ That would have triggered a number of different penalties particularly if Airbnb went public.”
DeSantis continued, “We have a very big pension system. And that would basically have made them persona non grata for us to invest in. So we took action early. We were the first state to do so. Other states started making noises and taking action. So I’m pleased to say that as we’re here today, Airbnb has reversed the policy.
“In Florida we welcome engagement with Israelis of all stripes. We are not going to discriminate against some Israelis or other Israelis and if people discriminate against Israel as a whole or try to find certain segments of Israeli society to discriminate against commercially, we view that as triggering our anti-BDS legislation and we will take action accordingly. So I’m glad that that has been addressed satisfactorily. And I really think that had we not done what we had done, I think that other companies would have followed Airbnb’s lead.”
In greeting DeSantis, Minister Erdan said, “Governor DeSantis has been one of the greatest and most consistent friends of Israel and of the U.S.-Israel alliance. Governor DeSantis promised that under his leadership, Florida would be the most pro-Israel state in America and he has kept his promise. In the name of the government and people of Israel, I want to thank Governor DeSantis for all that he has done.”
DeSantis’s decision to include the trip to Judea in his itinerary demonstrated two key facts.
First, elections matter. While it is true that Gillum tried to distance himself from his ties to BDS groups once they became an election issue, the fact is that he enjoyed long-standing, close ties to these groups. Gallium also harshly criticized President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and Israel’s steps to defend its border with Gaza from penetration by Hamas-organized mobs.
Had Gillum been elected, there is little chance Florida would today be leading the campaign to protect U.S. business, academic and cultural ties with Israel and defeating BDS campaigns to criminalize and discriminate Jews in the U.S. or in any part of Israel.
The second lesson from DeSantis’s visit is that the Palestinians are right about one thing: if Jewish life can be delegitimized in any part of Israel, then it will inevitably be delegitimized in all parts of Israel. You cannot defend Israel’s right to exist in general while claiming Jews are criminals for living or working or building in specific parts of the country.
Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he approved of President Donald Trump’s tactic of levying a 5% tariff on Mexico until there was a noticeable improvement on lowering the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Tillis said if Mexico secured its southern border, 80% of the influx from the southern border would be eliminated. Therefore, he said Trump was right to use every device at his disposal.
“The president is trying to get done in a couple of years what administrations, both Democrat and Republican administrations failed to do over the past couple of decades,” Tillis said. “He’s using a lot of devices that were considered taboo in the past. I’m a free trader, but I do think we have to make it very clear: When you take advantage of our open economy, when you steal our intellectual property, when you don’t cooperate with us on things that are also important — like securing the border — then the president has to have those tools available to come to a good solution for the American people and our trading partners.”
Donald Trump may be the most hated president in Hollywood since…well…ever. In the last month celebrities from Bill Maher to Cher have wished the worst, most vile things on the current president. The following is just a sampling of the worst outbursts (this past month) from Hollywood:
A Catholic bishop has ignited a controversy by reiterating traditional Catholic doctrine. He claims that homosexuality is harmful for children. Children appear to be the main target of the homosexual community.
Bishop Thomas Tobin, in Rhode Island, recently tweeted, “A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.” This is Catholic doctrine and common sense.
For this, Tobin was severely attacked. Martina Navratilova claimed, “Catholic clergy has been a lot more dangerous to kids than LGBT.” Tobin has been described as a “hate-filled hypocrite” spreading “poisonous thinking.” Mia Farrow tweeted, “This is pure ignorance & bigotry.” British comic Julian Clary said, “May God strike you down Bishop, at His earliest convenience.” The Boston Globe proclaimed in a headline that Tobin is guilty of sending out a “homophobic tweet.” Joe Lazzerini, the president of Rhode Island Pride, said, “He is like the Donald Trump of the Catholic Church, he goes on Twitter and spews out hate.” Lazzerini further said he ”calls on Bishop Tobin to do some self-reflection as the majority of Catholic Rhode Islanders in this state reject the idea that to be Catholic is to be complicit to intolerance, bigotry and fear.”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was asked if it would make a statement of support for Bishop Tobin, but it chose not to comment. The U.S. bishops’ silence in effect supports Tobin’s critics. The Church has been silent on this issue with the exception of Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. Strickland tweeted, “Please stop labeling bishops who speak the truth of the Gospel as homophobic. Stating this truth is not homophobia, it is simply reality.”
The homosexual mafia knows that a massive reaction to any criticism will result in its critics backing down. In all, the bishop’s tweet has so far received more than 65,000 responses. This induced Bishop Tobin to offer something of an apology. He wrote, “I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community. That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense. The Catholic Church has respect and love for members of the gay community, as do I. Individuals with same-sex attraction are beloved children of God and our brothers and sisters.”
Critics of Bishop Tobin have commented on the extensive abuse of children by clergy in the Catholic Church as if he were responsible for this. Tobin obviously opposes this behavior. The Church has been infiltrated by homosexuals. Any organization that has access to young children is attractive to these individuals. The Boy Scouts and the Big Brother organization have been compelled by the courts to accept homosexual leaders. Abusers of children are not Catholics or Christian. They are more likely Satanists.
In many circles, the three sentences of Bishop Tobin’s original tweet are considered “hate speech,” “poisonous thinking,” ”ignorant and bigoted,” and “homophobic.” These formerly unremarkable sentences are grounds for being ostracized, fired from your job, and even sentenced to prison in some locations.
Children are the primary target of the homosexual movement. One of their tactics is named some variation of Drag Queen Story Time. This is an international program where libraries and bookstores have men in drag read stories to children. The stated purpose of this program is to “instill a sense of love and acceptance in our children while encouraging them to be true to themselves.” Drag Queen Story Time organizer Matthew Humphrey has said previously that the event aims to let children know that it’s OK to be different and it’s OK for other kids to be different. However, drag queen Dylan Pontiff admitted that drag queens at these story hours “are trying to groom the next generation.”
Drag Queen Story Time has had a problem with a number of drag queens convicted of sexually assaulting children. Two drag queens from Houston represent only those known to have been convicted. ”William Travis Dees was convicted in 2004 of sex crimes against four young children (ages 4, 5, 6, and 8), was jailed, and is listed as a ‘high risk sex offender.'” Alberto Garza was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy in 2008. Protecting children from such people is not hateful.
John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing). He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary’s University. He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
A Catholic bishop has ignited a controversy by reiterating traditional Catholic doctrine. He claims that homosexuality is harmful for children. Children appear to be the main target of the homosexual community.
Bishop Thomas Tobin, in Rhode Island, recently tweeted, “A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.” This is Catholic doctrine and common sense.
For this, Tobin was severely attacked. Martina Navratilova claimed, “Catholic clergy has been a lot more dangerous to kids than LGBT.” Tobin has been described as a “hate-filled hypocrite” spreading “poisonous thinking.” Mia Farrow tweeted, “This is pure ignorance & bigotry.” British comic Julian Clary said, “May God strike you down Bishop, at His earliest convenience.” The Boston Globe proclaimed in a headline that Tobin is guilty of sending out a “homophobic tweet.” Joe Lazzerini, the president of Rhode Island Pride, said, “He is like the Donald Trump of the Catholic Church, he goes on Twitter and spews out hate.” Lazzerini further said he ”calls on Bishop Tobin to do some self-reflection as the majority of Catholic Rhode Islanders in this state reject the idea that to be Catholic is to be complicit to intolerance, bigotry and fear.”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was asked if it would make a statement of support for Bishop Tobin, but it chose not to comment. The U.S. bishops’ silence in effect supports Tobin’s critics. The Church has been silent on this issue with the exception of Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. Strickland tweeted, “Please stop labeling bishops who speak the truth of the Gospel as homophobic. Stating this truth is not homophobia, it is simply reality.”
The homosexual mafia knows that a massive reaction to any criticism will result in its critics backing down. In all, the bishop’s tweet has so far received more than 65,000 responses. This induced Bishop Tobin to offer something of an apology. He wrote, “I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community. That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense. The Catholic Church has respect and love for members of the gay community, as do I. Individuals with same-sex attraction are beloved children of God and our brothers and sisters.”
Critics of Bishop Tobin have commented on the extensive abuse of children by clergy in the Catholic Church as if he were responsible for this. Tobin obviously opposes this behavior. The Church has been infiltrated by homosexuals. Any organization that has access to young children is attractive to these individuals. The Boy Scouts and the Big Brother organization have been compelled by the courts to accept homosexual leaders. Abusers of children are not Catholics or Christian. They are more likely Satanists.
In many circles, the three sentences of Bishop Tobin’s original tweet are considered “hate speech,” “poisonous thinking,” ”ignorant and bigoted,” and “homophobic.” These formerly unremarkable sentences are grounds for being ostracized, fired from your job, and even sentenced to prison in some locations.
Children are the primary target of the homosexual movement. One of their tactics is named some variation of Drag Queen Story Time. This is an international program where libraries and bookstores have men in drag read stories to children. The stated purpose of this program is to “instill a sense of love and acceptance in our children while encouraging them to be true to themselves.” Drag Queen Story Time organizer Matthew Humphrey has said previously that the event aims to let children know that it’s OK to be different and it’s OK for other kids to be different. However, drag queen Dylan Pontiff admitted that drag queens at these story hours “are trying to groom the next generation.”
Drag Queen Story Time has had a problem with a number of drag queens convicted of sexually assaulting children. Two drag queens from Houston represent only those known to have been convicted. ”William Travis Dees was convicted in 2004 of sex crimes against four young children (ages 4, 5, 6, and 8), was jailed, and is listed as a ‘high risk sex offender.'” Alberto Garza was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy in 2008. Protecting children from such people is not hateful.
John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing). He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary’s University. He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
The father of an 11-year-old autistic boy was shocked at a luncheon honoring his son’s fifth grade class when his son was given an award dubbing him the “most annoying male."
The Fort Worth ISD school board voted unanimously on Tuesday to fire a teacher for her tweets to President Trump and warnings about drugs on the school campus.
The school board fired her for her offensive tweets about immigration.
Teacher Georgia Clark was upset about the huge number of illegals in the school and the drugs on campus.
It was a unanimous vote.
Ms. Clark should have known better to complain about illegals in the school.
BREAKING: FWISD Board votes unanimously to terminate the contract of teacher Georgia Clark following tweets about immigration. @fox4pic.twitter.com/wzXBjeSeGn
The Fort Worth ISD school board voted to fire a teacher accused of posting a controversial tweet about illegal immigration.
In a Tuesday afternoon hearing, the school board heard from parents asking the district to fire Carter-Riverside High School English teacher Georgia Clark.
The district began investigating Clark after she apparently sent a tweet under a clandestine Twitter handle to President Donald Trump asking if anything could be done to “remove illegals from Fort Worth.”
Facebook has become so big that even one of its initial founders says it’s time for government to break it up. But what if the market solved the problem — and offered users better free speech protection? Enter AllSocial — a new social media platform designed for everyone, with minimal censorship. Read the interview, posted below, or listen to the interview with Rolfe Carawan, who runs business development for AllSocial, on the podcast:
We also cover these stories:
President Donald Trump talks about Brexit’s future.
The Trump administration announces major new restrictions on travel to Cuba.
Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam is calling a special session of the state legislature to consider a package of gun control bills.
Daniel Davis: I’m joined now by Rolfe Carawan. He runs business development for AllSocial, which is the newest social media company in America, launched in April of this year. Rolfe, thanks for joining me on the podcast.
Rolfe Carawan: Ah, thrilled to be here Daniel. Thank you for having me.
Davis: So, AllSocial, this is a new social
media platform-
Carawan: Exactly.
Davis: [AllSocial]
has some similarities to Facebook and Twitter, but some key differences. Before
we get into those, tell me what was the main motivation for starting this new
social media platform.
Carawan: Well, thank you for asking. You know,
back after President Obama was so successful at using social media to engage
the public, the owners of our company saw how this could really engage the
country in a conversation, and we wanted to build our own platform, and build
our own business to reach them. And so, we’ve got two parts of our business.
We have Allelu, which is the nonprofit part, and then we have Strategic Media 21, which is a for profit. Building large communities, between those two, we’ve got 30 million people worldwide.
We’ve got some publications that have been very successful, that we’ve been really happy about, and we do a lot of marketing for individuals, groups–either promotion or lead-generation, or things like that–that we’ve done through social media.
And so the
whole antecedent and the vision was to create a social media company that would
really be able to reach all of America and to be able to have a conversation
with America so that our views and our ideas and our beliefs could be in the
social media realm.
Davis: Yeah, and of course a lot of folks, a lot of conservatives have had their content taken down. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen the screenshot somebody posts [of the]”Community Standards Violation” at Facebook, and then once they go public about it, they get a little email that says, “Oops, that was an accident, sorry, you’re back on.”
So, none of that with AllSocial. Do you
have any standards that censor anything beyond obviously inappropriate material?
Carawan: Absolutely. What we’re doing is
basically trying to create a platform that would be between PG-13 and little
PG-13+, if some people have salty language. We don’t want to be the speech
police, if you will. We don’t want to have to sit there and nickel and dime it
and everything.
But here’s the
thing, there will absolutely no pornography, no incitement of violence, or
direct threat to somebody. And any kind of thing that you would see that was
recruiting people for, say, jihad and maybe showing some of the graphic videos
and things along those lines.
Basically, the company that has done Disney’s filtering is the company that we’ve hired, plus we have a back-up company that has about, at any given time, about 20,000 eyes to see the content and to flag.
And then the best protection we have is our audience themselves and our members themselves. The AllSocial people who have created and see it and then they can report it and block it immediately. So…
Davis: Right.
Carawan: Nothing’s going to be perfect.
Davis: Sure.
Carawan: And you’re not going to satisfy
everyone, but we really are trying to make this a winsome place where people
can share their thoughts and their ideas and really express their conscience
without fear of being banned.
Davis: Yes.
Well, one of the things that Facebook is taking so much flack for is selling
people’s data. That really is built into their revenue model. They make money
from that. How is AllSocial different? What is its revenue model?
Carawan: Well, thank you for asking. First of
all, we want to protect people’s privacy, so there will be no selling of
anyone’s data. And so we’re going to do everything we can to protect that.
And the
revenue model that we’re coming up with is very simple. It’s about every sixth
or seventh post in someone’s stream would be an advertisement. They can just
pass on by or maybe take a look at it and so, God-willing, we will be funding
this thing through advertisements that will generate enough revenue to keep us
going and growing.
Davis: And
I also understand that folks won’t have to boost their content.
Carawan: Exactly. See, we feel like that
AllSocial is close to the way that social media should be and should have been.
With some other social media platforms right now, we saw them becoming
increasingly hostile to people’s messages, which you have mentioned.
We also saw
that the organic reach, or the free reach that people were getting by sharing
their material, was decreasing. Four or five years ago, you would have 20 to
25% of what you shared be seen by your people. So if you posted enough, the
majority of people would see it, at least that’s what logic says.
But the algorithms now have been tightened down so much that these social media platforms have become pretty much a pay-to-play system. We decided that’s not right.
What we are going to do is basically, you’ll build your audience and we will share 100% of every post that you put out there, in sequence, and in a timely manner. We’ve had complaints with people before that missed announcements or missed writings because the algorithm kicked it back and it didn’t show up for days, right?
Davis: Right.
Carawan: So you’re going to see a much
different product and a different experience with us than maybe some of these
other programs.
Davis: Well,
you mentioned that you’ve already got 30 million people using the platform, but
you only launched in April. How did you get those people so quickly?
Carawan: Let me be really clear. In our Allelu
and Strategic Media 21, we’ve built communities on these other social media
platforms of 30 million. We don’t have that many right now. But we are growing
exponentially, which is exciting.
The whole idea
is to get the word out to friends and people who are open and who are just
looking for an alternative who would share with their family and friends. Large
organizations that are going on–The Daily Signal is a prime example–to be
able to have a platform to communicate with your fans and with your audience,
and once they are a part of it, they’re going to see what you have and it cost
you nothing.
Daniel: Right.
Carawan: Right. And to be honest with you, because you guys are early adapters and early adopters, we’ve got a revenue share program that we want to use to help you. So as your people join in, it’s a way for them to, in essence, contribute to The Heritage Foundation and The Daily Signal, just by using the platform.
We decided we are going to be the platform that shares and pays our devoted followers, rather than requiring you to pay us.
Daniel: Great, well, tell me a little
bit more about the user experience because I know there’s some similarities to
Facebook and to Twitter, but as you’re on the platform, what’s it like? What
are the key features of it?
Carawan: One of the things we’ve tried to do is make it real simple. And so you go up and you can create your profile and you can also, when you log on, you’ll create areas, just three areas that you may be interested in. And then that will help inform us about what you might want to see or make some suggestions for you.
When you first log on, you just hit the “plus” button and you make a little post. It could be something that you’re reposting from another platform or originating there. The goal is to get HootSuite up, squared away, and locked into it so people can put everything on that and then go out to all of their social media platforms.
Daniel: Oh yes, sync everything.
Carawan: Yes, sync it all up. We’re just going to make it when you see the feed, it’s real clean and it’s real nice, and you just make your comments or your likes.
And when I talked to the engineers, I said, “It’s kind of like Facebook, right?” and they said, “No, it’s more like Twitter in that regard.” And so, it’s friendly to every single one of the current platforms.
You can post to YouTube. Matter of fact, right now, it has to go through some kind of filtration before it can go on our site, and until we get that system setup, we’re requiring that you can post to YouTube, you can come and put on your AllSocial account.
Davis: Well,
if folks are interested in signing up, how would they do that?
Carawan: Very simple. “AllSocial” is one word
and you can go to AllSocial.com if you’re online and sign up. Put in your
username, your password, your email address. They’ll send you an email–let’s
you go ahead and verify that you are a real person and not some robot–and
they’ll send it back to you. Open it up and put in your email address, and
password, and start posting.
The other part
of it is with your phone. Go to your app store, and [type] one word, “AllSocial”–if
you divide [the word] it up you are going see some crazy stuff with all
social–and it will come up to the beautiful icon that has two pillars with
multiple colors on it. It’s very beautiful.
The other part of it is, not only are you just posting like you would and sharing your pictures or your stories or whatever you want to share, inviting your friends is super easy.
If you go into your profile and you hit the little icon that shows your face, it’ll pull down “Go Profile” and “Go Invite Friends,” and you can just go in there and if you give access to your friends, then you just click them off, and you create a little email and hit it and it’ll invite them and say, “Come join me on AllSocial.”
So we’ve tried
to make it easy for everybody to be a part.
Davis: Well,
it’s such an exciting project and [we] look forward to seeing where it goes in
the months ahead. Rolf, really appreciate your time and thanks for sharing
about it.
Carawan: Thank you, Daniel. I really
appreciate it.
