Fauci Diaries Reveal Fame Focus Amid COVID Deaths

From Newsmax.com (July 26):

Newly released diary entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci suggest that the former White House COVID adviser became increasingly preoccupied with his growing celebrity status even as the coronavirus pandemic claimed tens of thousands of American lives.

The journals, released Sunday by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chronicle Fauci's private thoughts during the early months of the pandemic, when he served as the nation's top infectious disease expert and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

In an April 7, 2020, diary entry, when more than 60,000 Americans were already dead from COVID-19, Fauci wrote, "Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me."

Weeks later, on May 21, Fauci described his "national and international fame" as "explosive and really unimaginable," adding that it was "not hyperbole" to characterize his level of global recognition that way. By then, nearly 98,000 Americans had died from the virus.

The diary also shows Fauci receiving invitations tied to his newfound celebrity. In late June 2020, as daily U.S. COVID-19 cases climbed to a then-record 40,000, he wrote that he had been invited to appear on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Fauci also documented growing tension with President Donald Trump's White House, writing that extensive media coverage was turning him into "a star that outshines" the president.

He recalled Secret Service officers at White House security gates routinely recognizing his vehicle and waving him through without requesting identification.

Despite the attention, Fauci wrote that he had "no desire to conflict with, embarrass or show up the POTUS" and later decided to stop participating in profile interviews.

Paul, a longtime Fauci critic and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released the diary entries days before Fauci is scheduled to testify before the committee under a subpoena issued by the Kentucky Republican.

Paul argues the journals depict a senior public health official overly focused on his public image and media profile during one of the nation's worst public health crises.

"Anthony Fauci will answer to the American people," Paul wrote in a June 28 post on X, accusing federal health officials of prioritizing self-promotion and media narratives during the early months of the pandemic. [source]

"I am science" Fauci sure did love the attention and limelight even more than informing the general public affected by the pandemic. He did not serve America at all.

More info on the "diary:"

• Fauci’s Diary Shows 5 Major Covid Lies He Told The American Public
• Here Are All The Media Hacks Who Got Shoutouts In Fauci’s Diary For Giving Him Tongue Baths
• What Anthony Fauci's Diary Reveals About COVID
• Fauci Solicited Award Noms From NIH-Funded Scientists
• Fauci privately estimated COVID-19 death rate far lower than he gave Congress, diary shows
• Fauci's Diary Was Just Leaked. Here's What It Says. [video]
• THIS Is How RFK Jr. Found Fauci's Diary [video]

EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’

From Free Beacon.com (Nov. 17, 2025):

The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations (OSF), bankrolls a British nonprofit that works to censor conservative news websites and social media companies, including through a plot to "kill" Elon Musk’s X by pressuring advertisers and investors to boycott the company.

OSF gave $250,000 last year to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for "general support," according to the Soros charity’s grant database. The CCDH, under the guise of stopping "the spread of online hate and disinformation," has pressured social media companies’ investors and advertisers to censor supposed "disinformation" or other content it deems to be offensive.

The organization, founded by former Labour Party operative Imran Ahmed in 2018, has also pressured tech companies to pull advertisements from the conservative websites the Federalist and the Daily Wire over allegedly racist content.

The grant, which has not been reported, could resurrect a longstanding battle that Musk has waged with both the CCDH and Soros. Musk has accused Soros of "crimes against humanity" and funding groups involved in violent protests across the country this year. And he has called the CCDH a "criminal organization" and said he was "going after" the group’s donors over its efforts to harm X’s finances.

Last year, the CCDH quietly organized a campaign to "kill Musk’s Twitter" by pressuring advertisers to cut ties with the company, according to memos published by Racket News. The CCDH, which the watchdog group Capital Research Center calls a "UK-based censorship advocacy group," met with 16 congressional offices to discuss Musk’s lawsuit against the organization, and held "policy engagement" meetings with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.). The nonprofit also lobbied American policymakers toward the creation of an "independent digital regulator," according to Racket News.

While the CCDH has criticized most social media companies for failing to curtail extremism, the organization has been particularly hostile toward X since Musk purchased the site, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022. Musk, who pledged to end censorship on the platform after purchasing the site, sued the CCDH in July 2023 over a report from the group that claimed hate speech had spiked on X since Musk’s takeover.

The revelation of the Soros grant helps answer longstanding questions about the CCDH’s funding. In 2023, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) subpoenaed the CCDH for a list of its donors as part of an investigation of the firm’s alleged collusion to censor social media platforms.

The CCDH does not voluntarily disclose its donors. But some organizations have revealed contributions to the nonprofit. The Skoll Fund, the private philanthropy of former eBay president Jeff Skoll, gave $415,000 to the CCDH in 2023, according to tax filings. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a donor-advised fund that manages charitable contributions on behalf of anonymous donors, contributed $403,175 to the CCDH in 2023. The CCDH received $2.1 million in revenue in 2023, the year of its most recent tax filing.

The grant revelation comes as the Trump administration sets its sights on the Soros operation and the CCDH. President Donald Trump called over the summer for Soros and his son Alex, the chairman of OSF, to be investigated for allegedly funding violent riots across the country. The Soroses have denied the allegation. [read more]

The Spooky Dude drama continues...

More Soros stories:

• Soros-Funded PAC Aims to Turn Texas Blue
• Report: Soros Family Pours $103 Million Into Midterms

The Remaking of America

From AM Greatness.com (Aug. 7, 2023):

We are in the midst of one of the most radical revolutions in American history. It is as far-reaching and dangerous as the turbulent years of the 1850s and 1860s or the 1930s. Every aspect of American life and culture is under assault, including the very processes by which we govern ourselves, and the manner in which we live.

The Revolution began under the Obama administration that sought to divide Americans into oppressed and oppressors, and then substitute race for class victimization. It was empowered by the bicoastal wealth accrued from globalization, and honed during the COVID lockdown, quarantine-fed economic downturn, and the George Floyd riots and their aftermath. The Revolution was boosted by fanatic opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump. And the result is an America that is unrecognizable from what it was a mere decade ago.

Here are 10 upheavals that the Left has successfully wrought.

Free expression. In large swatches of American society—particularly the corporation, the media, the government, the public schools, and the university—it is suddenly dangerous to speak freely. At a DEI workshop, politely object that “whiteness” does not account for all the challenges of “marginalized peoples,” and you will become either ostracized, reprimanded, or perhaps fired.

Suggest to a class that man-made climate change and the state remedies for it, are still under debate—and your career and livelihood are endangered. In 2020, state that Covid lockdowns would do more eventual damage than the virus—and your career was through. Express doubt that there are more than two biological sexes, and if an athlete or high school principal you will be shunned or rendered professionally inert.

The government, in league with social media, censors the news. “Liberal” universities often first require McCarthy-era type “diversity” statements for one to be hired. Commissars review syllabi to spot incorrect or improper speech or insufficient DEI zeal.

The Left now seeks to modify the First Amendment, and its empowerment of “hate speech,” defined as most anything impeding the progressive project. The state and the universities properly issue word lists of approved vocabularies.

The old ACLU or Sen. Church Committee would now probably be deemed rightwing. The methodologies of Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover are the preferred models, once they were rebooted to the right cause.

The Weaponization of Justice. Administrations and their efforts to stock the justice department with supporters come and go. But in the last decade the Left has viewed the Department of Justice as a political extension of the party—whose unchecked power must properly be directed to hurt enemies and help friends. No wonder Eric Holder described himself as Obama’s “wingman” and became the first Attorney General to be held in contempt for ignoring a congressional subpoena.

Never in U.S. history have the Department of Justice and sympathetic state and local prosecutors indicted a leading opposition candidate and likely nominee of one of the two major parties, and at the beginning of a presidential campaign. Donald Trump is currently charged with nearly 100 felonies by at least two prosecutors. He likely eventually will be hit with more than- 500 indictments, from four prosecutors, every one of the latter with a long record of either leftwing associations or Democratic service.

The mass murderer Charles Manson faced less legal exposure. No one believes Trump would have been indicted on such counts—most of them involving allegations from years past—were he not running for President.

One count that Donald Trump is not charged with is bribery, or taking money while in office, a crime cited as impeachable in the Constitution and germane to the accusations that Joe Biden and his family raked in millions from foreign governments due to the improper use of his prior Vice Presidency. For what reason did Joe Biden lie that he never discussed his son’s business? Why did Hunter complain to his daughter that Joe demanded half of his own grifting income? Why would a Vice President serially call disreputable American grifters and foreign corrupt oligarchs? Can Joe’s lifestyle ever be reconciled with his reported income?

Given such asymmetry in the application of the laws, conservative or even apolitical Americans are apprehensive that any political prominence will draw the attention of government in effort to either indict or bankrupt them with legal expenses.

The last four FBI Directors have either admitted they lied under oath, or preposterously under oath claimed ignorance or amnesia about events directly under their control. Or they simply stonewalled subpoenas and testimonies about alleged FBI crimes.

The former CIA Director admitted to lying twice under oath. The FBI hired social media corporations to suppress election-cycle news deemed unhelpful to the Left. The agency, along with Democratic operatives, helped hatch the election-cycle conspiracy of the 2015-2016 Russian-Collusion hoax, and the 2020 Russian disinformation laptop hoax. The FBI played a central role in many of the 2024 indictments. In other words, the FBI along with the DOJ, has sought to warp three presidential elections in a row.

On the prompt of a Joe Biden campaign official (and now Secretary of State) and a former interim CIA director, 50 former intelligence officials lied to the electorate that an authentic but incriminating Biden computer was a likely Russian plant—a fact known to be lie but not disclosed as such by the FBI. [read more]

This is the blueprint how the Left is radically transforming America. Another great article by VDH.

Media Ignore Delhi’s Coldest May Since 1901

From CO2 Coalition.org (May 15, 2023):

On May 4, India’s capital of New Delhi recorded the third coldest May morning since 1901. At 16 degree Celsius (60 Fahrenheit), the region’s 32 million residents woke up to a relatively cold morning in what is usually the hottest month of the year.

So why is there a record low temperature when the dominant mainstream narrative tells us that climate change has made our environs warmer than before? Is this just an aberration?

While Western media obsessed with the warm weather in Spain, India’s capital recorded a very cold summer morning. In fact, most of the cold-weather records in Delhi have gone unreported in Western media, which are mainly interested in showcasing the city’s extreme summer temperatures.

Neatly concealed from the public’s eye are the record low winter temperatures that Delhi has been witnessing since 2017. In December 2018, Delhi recorded an average minimum temperature of 7°C (44°F), the third lowest in the last 50 years. On December 30, 2019, the maximum temperature settled at 9°C (49°F), making it the coldest December day in 122 years.

As is the case globally, winter cold in Delhi is a bigger killer than summer heat. According to studies, short-term exposure to extreme temperature accounts for 6.5 percent of all deaths in India, with 88 percent of that amount caused by cold weather and only 12 percent by hot weather.

This is an example of media bias towards advancing a narrative of apocalyptic warming when reporting weather events. Also, part of this slanted reporting is the media’s failure to acknowledge the real reason behind the recording of all-time high summer temperatures: the urban heat island (UHI).

Urban Heat Island, Not Climate, Sets Records

During my stint as a climate consultant in New Delhi, I lived close to the Safdarjung temperature-measurement station. As per the Indian Meteorological Department, the highest maximum temperature ever recorded at Safdarjung was 47°C (117°F) on May 29, 1944.

This high temperature recorded nearly 80 years ago for this station has yet to be toppled by the 21^st century warming that supposedly threatens us with doom, and the reason is probably the station’s location.

Unlike the other temperature monitoring stations in Delhi, the Safdarjung station is in a relatively greener section of the city. Thus, it is less susceptible to the Urban Heat Island effect, and, therefore, has not been registering the insanely high temperatures of 49°C (120°F) witnessed in and around Delhi.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of Skymet Weather Services, says, “Safdarjung weather station is located in a fairly green area, as compared to the rest of Delhi, which has a lot of heavily concretized spaces without much green cover. Temperatures in these parts of the city will therefore, understandably, be higher.”

So, the reason thermometers record new all-time highs in Delhi is because of urbanization’s concrete structures and pavements and other landscape changes. Weather officials also note that some of the newer automatic weather instruments used in highly urbanized areas may be prone to error.

“Most observatories in Delhi have automatic systems, which have a scope for error because they use bimetals, which can contract and expand during different weather conditions,” says an official of the India Meteorological Department in the Hindustan Times. He added that abnormal temperature spikes of the error-prone stations should be compared to the readings of older stations like Safdarjung to obtain “a more precise idea of the temperature.”

It takes just a bit of common sense to understand the artificial urban heat island impact on thermometers in cities and airports. However, preconceived notions of catastrophic warming pose serious hurdles to grasping this reality.

Delhi’s case illustrates that warming is not a continuous and unprecedented phenomenon as some claim it to be. Instead, we see at play a chaotic climate system at work with unpredictable weather patterns. Additionally, we must be mindful of the urban heat island impact when reading news bulletins about record-high summer temperatures. [source]

News the climate alarmists ignores too.

A ten-step program can close loopholes in the US legal system

A ten-step program can close loopholes in the US legal system, strengthen enforcement mechanisms, and generate broader momentum for an international war on kleptocracy. While I [the author] offer these steps with the United States in mind, they invoke general principles that all liberal democracies should rally behind.

End anonymous shell companies. Federal law should require the real ownership of all US companies and trusts to be disclosed and listed in a register, which would be accessible at least to law enforcement agencies and ideally to the public (as is done in the United Kingdom). Deception by owners or agents to mask real ownership should meet with serious civil or criminal penalties. Moreover, the United States should encourage other states to adopt similar laws requiring full transparency in business ownership.

End anonymous real estate purchases. Washington should require all real estate purchases in the United States to reveal the true owner behind the purchase. Real estate agents, lawyers, and other professionals and firms involved in these transactions should have to undertake serious due diligence to verify the true identity of the purchaser, with biting penalties for negligence or deliberate noncompliance. And a new law should forbid any US government agency (especially those conducting sensitive work) from leasing office space from unknown owners or from any owner or business linked to an authoritarian or corrupt government.

Modernize and strengthen the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). We should close the loophole that enables many agents for foreign principals to simply register under less onerous reporting requirements as lobbyists. We need an integrated system for reporting all lobbying and public relations advocacy on behalf of foreign interests. This line of work has exploded in recent years, with an estimated one thousand US lobbyists working for foreign principals, but almost no one is ever prosecuted for noncompliance with the law. The US Justice Department has a staff of only eight people working to enforce FARA; the department needs more staff, more investigative powers, and more painful civil or criminal penalties for violations.

Strengthen prohibitions and monitoring of political contributions by foreign actors. Foreign political and campaign contributions are forbidden in the United States (except by permanent residents), but only comprehensively at the federal level, and some foreign contributions could be filtering in through donations made by lobbyists and agents for foreign actors. Foreign contributions to all candidates and political campaigns, at every level of government, should be prohibited in the United States, and all political contributions by foreign agents should be monitored by a well-staffed federal agency. Other democracies around the world should also ban foreign financial contributions to their political parties and campaigns.

Ban former US officials and members of Congress from lobbying for or representing foreign governments. Soon after entering the White House in January 2017, President Trump signed an executive order restricting the future lobbying activities of his political appointees and banning them for life from lobbying for foreign governments or political parties. This lifetime ban should be embedded in law and extended to retired members of Congress as well. And the Justice Department should maintain a list of foreign businesses, foundations, and organizations that, because of links to their authoritarian governments, are also off-limits for representation by former US officials. We may even want to go further: do we really want to allow some future retired American official or member of Congress to work for a company effectively controlled by the Kremlin or the Chinese Communist Party? [read more]

Source: Hoover Digest Summer 2021 No. 3. (2021) “Exposing the Kleptocrats.”  by Larry Diamond.

Good plan but Congress won’t implement it because they benefit from the kleptocracy.

The rest of the steps:

• Modernize the anti-money-laundering system.
• Increase the resources that the United States and other rule-of-law states devote to monitoring, investigating, and prosecuting grand corruption and money laundering.
• Strengthen cooperation among democracies in fighting kleptocracy and ending “golden visas.”
• Raise public awareness about kleptocracy in Russia and other offending states.
• Increase international support for investigative journalism, NGOs, and official institutions working to monitor and control corruption around the world.

Assassination, Normalized: WHCD Gunman Radicalized by Mainstream Dems, Not Left-Wing Streamers

From Free Beacon.com (Apr. 27):

Cole Tomas Allen, the gunman who tried to murder President Donald Trump and other senior officials at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday, is the latest would-be assassin whose radicalization owes less to the juvenile rantings of left-wing influencers than to the everyday rhetoric of mainstream Democrats and media figures.

Many have pointed out that just days before the failed assassination, the New York Times hosted a roundtable discussion in which radical left-wing pundits Hasan Piker and Jia Tolentino endorsed shoplifting and other crimes while expressing sympathy for Luigi Mangione, the gunman accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Piker is a beefcake moron who hates America and routinely justifies Islamic terrorism and other forms of political violence, but he does not appear to have inspired Allen to take a shot at Trump. On April 22, Allen promoted a post on his Bluesky account (@coldforce) criticizing Piker's defense of petty crime. "I've spent a lot of time in countries where graft and grifting are the norm and I assure you it is worth a truly immense cost to prevent that from taking hold in our society," wrote Bluesky user @machete.gay. "You do not want to live in that kind of society." The same user went on to describe Piker as a "fucking idiot."

Allen seems to have agreed with that assessment. On April 11, he promoted a Bluesky post from Sam Deutsch, the Jeopardy! National College Championship champion turned liberal policy wonk, who wrote, "I do not listen to any streamers because streamers are dumb."

A review of Allen's archived posts on Bluesky—his account is currently suspended, for obvious reasons—suggests that the alleged gunman was primarily drawn to mainstream "resistance" figures. Allen's favorite accounts included Democratic activist Will Stancil, Princeton history professor Kevin Kruse, Democratic propagandist Aaron Rupar, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, and Sarah Jeong, the former Times editorial board member who kept her job in 2018 after social media users discovered her racist tweets from years past.

Last week, Allen promoted Bouie's post on Bluesky denouncing Elon Musk as a "vicious white supremacist who thinks poor [A]frican children ought to die, so that the world can be whiter." On the X platform, Allen promoted several posts in 2024 from then-Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler. He would presumably agree with Lincoln Project cofounder Steve Schmidt, who in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt condemned Trump as a "vile and disgusting man."

Allen, who donated to Kamala Harris in 2024, appears to have been particularly outraged about the Trump administration's lack of support for Ukraine and NATO, a popular sentiment among #Resistance Democrats and #NeverTrump former Republicans. He promoted a post criticizing Mehdi Hasan after the former MSNBC anchor attacked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for being insufficiently pro-Iran. Ryan Wesley Routh, the failed gunman who plotted to assassinate Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2024, was also extremely distraught over the Ukrainian conflict and Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Routh's manifesto contained rhetoric that echoed the anti-Trump tirades of Ben Rhodes and other former Democratic officials.

Allen expressed disdain for Israel, obviously—but that hardly makes him a leftist radical. Earlier this month, he promoted a post from Ken White, a.k.a. "Popehat," the prominent attorney and political commentator, denouncing Israel for "bombing the shit out of Lebanese civilians like there are Palestinian toddlers hiding there." White authored a Substack post earlier this year in which he argued there was a "plausible argument that it is morally permissible, and even morally necessary, to use political violence against the Trump Administration and its agents and supporters under the current circumstances in America." He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

In the manifesto he wrote before the attempted shooting, Allen said he was "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes"—language that would not be out of place on CNN or MS NOW, at a "No Kings" protest, or on a mainstream Democrat's social media feed. Hollywood actor and Democratic activist Mark Ruffalo called Trump a "pedophile," a "convicted rapist," and "the worst human being" on the Golden Globes red carpet earlier this year. Jasmine Crockett, the Democratic congresswoman and former candidate for U.S. Senate, said during a November 2025 appearance on CNN that Trump "may be a pedophile." In June 2025, the official Democratic Party X account described Republicans as the "Pedophile Protection Party." Bouie, the Times columnist, has also insinuated that Trump is a pedophile who participated in Jeffrey Epstein's "massive child sex trafficking ring."

Allen was particularly fond of mainstream Democrats and media figures who attacked Trump's mental fitness and called for his expulsion from the White House. Earlier this month, he promoted two Bluesky posts from Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, in which Wyden vowed to prosecute Trump at "Nuremberg 2.0" for "covering up for pedophiles" and called the president a "deranged" war criminal who "must be impeached and removed from office." He promoted Rupar's post attacking Trump as a "demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity."

On April 12, Allen promoted Stancil's post arguing that Trump "absolutely cannot [be] allowed to continue" because he, along with "the entire Republican Party," is "destroying" the country. Replace the word "continue" with "win the election," and you have Democratic Party's closing message from 2024. Trump was repeatedly denounced as a "fascist" who posed an "existential threat" to American democracy. Democrats lost the election, but their voters didn't forget the hysterical warnings. Several months into Trump's second term, Axios reported that Democratic lawmakers were hearing from panicked constituents who insisted that "civility isn't working" and urged them to prepare for "violence … to fight to protect our democracy."

It's not yet known whether Allen was a fan of Jimmy Kimmel, the former comedian turned ABC News late night host. Kimmel, who is also a prolific Democratic fundraiser, was briefly suspended in 2025 for falsely suggesting that Tyler Robinson, the alleged gunman who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was a Trump supporter. Last week, a mere 48 hours before Allen made his mad dash for the Washington Hilton ballroom, Kimmel aired a monologue in which he joked that Melania Trump had a "glow like an expectant widow." [source]

Of course he was. The Dems keep saying President Trump is a Nazi, an existential threat to America's democracy.  It's almost like they want Trump to be assassinated.

More article and videos on the killer:

• Sources Say Suspect's Gunfire Hit Secret Service Agent
• He Tried to Kill the President. I Found His Tweets.
• Judge to Accused Would-Be Trump Assassin: 'I Apologize'
  
• The Most Disturbing Part of the White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting [video]
• It’s CLEAR Why the Third Trump Assassination Attempt Happened [video]

Life on Venus and Why ‘Settled Science’ Is Often Hot Air

From John Stonestreet on Breakpoint.org (Sept. 28, 2020):

Hope for E.T. springs eternal, despite the definitive lack of evidence for his existence. After decades of peering through telescopes, listening with giant radio antennae, and hurling probes to distant worlds, astronomers have yet to find even a hint of life beyond Earth. So, instead of looking for actual evidence of life, some scientists have begun looking for conditions that could theoretically be associated with life. And when they find that, they hold press conferences.

When scientists discovered that liquid water may once have existed on Mars, it was reported with the excitement we’d expect if probes had found Martian guppies. The discovery of a probable ocean under the ice of a Jovian moon is reported as if alien life forms had already been filmed doing backstrokes in there. Just this year, the discovery of an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a distant red dwarf star was reported by most articles as if Kepler-1649c were a perfect potential host for life.

The latest episode of astrobiological hype involves our nearest planetary neighbor. Venus has long been dismissed in the search for extraterrestrial life due to its hellish climate. After all, it’s wrapped in sulfuric acid, with a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead.

Then, just a few weeks ago, an international team of scientists from MIT and Cardiff University published evidence of phosphine gas high in the atmosphere of Venus. On Earth, the only two known sources of phosphine are human industry and microscopic life. So, according to this team, the presence of large quantities of this gas on Venus can only be explained by living things.

The press’s reaction was predictable. Every headline featured the word “life.” Clamor to divert space exploration resources to Venus mounted so quickly that NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine had to issue a statement in which, while praising the insight of these astronomers, he noticeably downplayed Venus, pointing instead to other, more promising missions already on the space agency’s docket and in their budget.

Other critics were more measured: “[T]his can hardly be taken as a biosignature,” one biologist said to the New York Times, “…only for anomalous and unexplained chemistry.” Another professor of planetary sciences who was quoted in the Financial Times sounded even more skeptical: “The scientists can’t think of a way of getting these phosphine levels without it being a byproduct of life,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t another way, and it is a long way from proving that there’s life on Venus.”

So much of the fanfare of stories like this follow a familiar script: scientists rush through the peer-review process and go straight to the press with speculative conclusions. Along the way, “anomalous chemistry” becomes “alien life.” Later, once cooler heads prevail, the same newspapers and websites carrying the fantastical headlines, print a retraction with a less exciting explanation for all that phosphine gas … usually in small print on a back page somewhere.

Of course, proposing and challenging theories is what science is all about. Where science goes wrong is in treating these findings—especially in the early, speculative stages—as if anything is “settled,” much less announcing the speculations as settled conclusion with breathless news reports and demands that NASA rework their budget.

In one of our latest “What Would You Say?” videos, my colleague Brooke McIntire takes on the myth of “settled science.” Proposing and overturning theories is an ongoing part of the process. Even longstanding scientific consensus is vulnerable to new and contrary evidence, and scientists are fallible and biased human beings too. It’s a great video, especially one to share with your kids and grandkids. To watch and share it, just go to whatwouldyousay.org.

None of this means, of course, that life on Venus is impossible. What it does mean is that a pair of papers linking the presence of a particular gas to life doesn’t amount to all the hype it generated. Without more and better evidence, speculation about little E.T.s on Venus is like its sweltering atmosphere … so much hot air. [source]

Science is never settled because unlike God, humans are not omniscience. We are always learning. Seeking the Truth. Always updating our theories with better evidence. Or we should be doing that anyway.

Artemis II Mission Shows There Are No Limits To American Exceptionalism

From The Federalist.com (Apr. 7):

Pushing the boundaries of what was once thought to be impossible is a hallmark of American greatness. And the recent mission to circle the moon is no different.

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission set a record on Monday for traveling further into space than any humans have ever gone before. As part of their “lunar flyby,” the four-person crew (consisting of three Americans and one Canadian) broke Apollo 13’s record by reaching an estimated 252,756 miles from Earth.

While traveling in their Orion capsule, the team viewed previously unseen surfaces of the moon and captured breathtaking images in the process. Amid their discoveries was a noticeably bright crater, which one of the astronauts suggested naming “Carroll” after mission commander Reid Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.

While the mission has certainly boasted its great moments, there was something the astronauts reportedly said before embarking on their journey that puts a perfect bow on the entire thing. As summarized by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the Artemis II crew said that they hope their feat “will be remembered as the moment people started to believe that America can once again do the near-impossible and change the world.”

It’s a simple, yet important point to remember given the constant barrage of negativity Americans hear about their country from its most vocal institutions. From higher education to legacy media and Hollywood, everyday citizens are regularly inundated with anti-American rhetoric about why their nation is evil, stupid, and not that great after all.

Why would you want to try your best and work your hardest in a racist, bigoted, oppressive, hateful country like America? or so the conventional leftist groupthink goes.

The Artemis II mission provides a stark contrast to that backwards thinking. It teaches America’s people that adventure and risks are worth taking, that hard work wins, and that there are no limits to what their country can accomplish.

That’s American exceptionalism at its best.

So, dream big. Reach for what others believe to be impossible. Give 110 percent into what you do. And always remember that it could happen nowhere else except in the United States of America. [source]

USA! USA! USA! 

More articles on the mission:

• 16 inspiring Artemis II photos that’ll make you feel like a tiny Earthling
• Artemis II astronauts reflect on historic flight as they wrap up moon mission
• 9 highlights from Artemis II's epic journey around the moon
• NASA’s Artemis II mission’s return to Earth, hour by hour
• Artemis II's Grand Moon Finale Almost Here With a Pacific Splashdown to Cap NASA's Lunar Comeback
• Artemis II splashes down off the coast of San Diego, finishing historic journey around the moon
• Watch a recovery crew open Integrity’s hatch for Artemis II astronauts
  
• NASA Artemis II Zero Gravity Indicator & Moon Mascot 'Rise' Back Home on Earth
• Artemis, the Greatness of God, and Human Exceptionalism

The Press

Turning again to Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel and their book, The Elements of Journalism, they make the point this way: "A stronger, more unified, and more transparent method of verifying the news would . . . be the single most important step that those who practice journalism could take to address and, if necessary, correct the rising perception that the work of journalists is marred by bias. . . . What would this journalism of objective method—rather than aim—look like? What should citizens expect from the press as a reasonable discipline of reporting?"

Kovach and Rosenstiel provide five "intellectual principles of a science of reporting":

1. Never add anything that was not there.
2. Never deceive the audience.
3. Be as transparent as possible about your methods and motives.
4. Rely on your own original reporting.
5. Exercise humility.

However, it is quite clear that this interpretation of objectivity, while seemingly alluring, has proved impossible for most newsrooms and journalists. The reason is that most partisans are unable or unwilling to put aside their personal ideological and political perspectives or, even worse, they consider them essential to moving and improving society through activism. This is the fundamental nature of the modern media. For the most part, the objectivity of methods has become the partisanship of ideological and political results.

…….

As recently as February 20, 2019, current Times publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (Ochs's great-great grandson), responding to President Trump referring to the newspaper as "the enemy of the people"-as the president was frustrated with yet another "news" story, this time an "investigative report" filled with allegations and innuendos about him and his administration from anonymous sources-publicly lectured the president and the nation about the importance of a free press. He wrote:

America's founders believed that a free press was essential to democracy because it is the foundation of an informed, engaged citizenry. That conviction, enshrined in the First Amendment, has been embraced by nearly every American president. Thomas Jefferson declared, "The only security of all is in a free press." John F. Kennedy warned about the risks to "free society without a very, very active press." Ronald Reagan said, "There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success."

All these presidents had complaints about their coverage and at times took advantage of the freedom every American has to criticize journalists. But in demonizing the free press as the enemy, simply for performing its role of asking difficult questions and bringing uncomfortable information to light, President Trump is retreating from a distinctly American principle. It's a principle that previous occupants of the Oval Office fiercely defended regardless of their politics, party affiliation, or complaints about how they were covered.

The phrase "enemy of the people" is not just false, it's dangerous. It has an ugly history of being wielded by dictators and tyrants who sought to control public information. And it is particularly reckless coming from someone whose office gives him broad powers to fight or imprison the nation's enemies. As I have repeatedly told President Trump face to face, there are mounting signs that this incendiary rhetoric is encouraging threats and violence against journalists at home and abroad.

Through 33 presidential administrations, across 167 years, The New York Times has worked to serve the public by fulfilling the fundamental role of the free press. To help people, regardless of their backgrounds or politics, understand their country and the world. To report independently, fairly and accurately. To ask hard questions. To pursue the truth wherever it leads. That will not change.

Source: Unfreedom of the Press (2019) by Mark R. Levin.

It’s sad the drive-by-media can’t just report the news instead of spinning a narrative.

Big ideas from Trump's State of the Union speech, from federal 401k payments to Dalilah's law

From Just the News.com (Feb. 24):

After a whirlwind year of action abroad and home, President Donald Trump on Tuesday night used the first State of the Union address of his second administration to propose sweeping new ideas – ranging from trucker safety to an historic change to the energy grid in a signal he has no plans to relent on his agenda in the face of the midterm congressional elections.

Here are some of the big ideas the 47th president put on the table during a joint session of Congress:

A federal matching payment for Americans' 401k retirement accounts

Trump announced he will be creating a new program giving Americans up to $1,000 to match their retirement savings in 401k accounts, promising more details in the near future.

"Your 401ks are way up, yet half of all of working Americans still do not have access to a retirement plan with matching contributions from an employer," Trump declared. "To remedy this gross disparity, I'm announcing that next year my administration will give these often forgotten American workers, great people, the people that built our country, access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker.

"We will match your contribution with up to $1,000 each year, as we ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market."

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A plan to protect electricity rate payers from the costs of Artificial Intelligence grid expansion

Trump announced a “rate-payer protection pledge” being executed with major tech companies requiring them to provide for their own power needs by building their own power plants and grids. It's a major revolution in power policy, allowing private companies to do what major governments have handled for decades.

U.S. electricity rates have soared an average of 6.3% in the past year as the AI revolution rages forward with massive data center construction.

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Delilah's Law: A Major Reform for Commercial Truck Driver Licenses

Trump called on Congress to pass a "Delilah's Law," barring states from issuing commercial driving licenses to illegal immigrants. In announcing the proposed law, he turned to the audience and Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who was severely injured in a car accident caused by an illegal alien driving a semi-truck.

"Many, if not most, illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs," Trump said. "That's why tonight I'm calling on Congress to pass what we will call the Delilah law, barring any state from granting commercial driver's licenses to illegal aliens."

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Tariffs to income tax freedom?

Trump said he will make new legal justifications for his tariffs to preserve them after a recent loss at the Supreme Court and predicted they would one day put the country on a path to reducing federal income taxes.

"I believe the tariffs, paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love," Trump said.

<

A new commander for the war on fraud and a goal for a balanced budget

Trump turned to tech entrepreneur Elon Musk at the beginning of his second term to run the DOGE review to identify waste, fraud and abuse in taxpayer programs. Musk finished his temporary assignment identifying tens of billions of dollars in potential savings before returning to his suite of companies.

On Tuesday night, Trump said the next phase of the “war on fraud” would be led by Vice President JD Vance. He also suggested there were enough savings to be achieved that could put America on a path toward a balanced budget after years of annual budget deficits of $2 trillion or more.

<

Redirecting federal health subsidies from big insurers under Obamacare to American families instead

Trump proposed anew redirecting the billions of dollars in subsidies given to health insurers under Obamacare to individual health savings accounts, allowing people to choose health care services directly.

"I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care, which will be better health care at a much lower cost," Trump said. [source]

A pretty good speech. I don’t think taxpayers should pay for others’ babies though. Private donations (like from the Dell family) are okay. Otherwise, it is just a form of welfare.

Other mentions of the speech:

• Read the complete transcript of Trump’s 2026 State of the Union
• Trump declares 'war on fraud' during State of the Union
• Cheap Gas, Less Crime, Lives Saved, And 4 Other Victories Dems Refused To Cheer At SOTU
• The Right’s Brand Is 'America First.' The Left's Brand Is Getting Mad About That
• Miracle in the Capitol: Trump Compels Dems To Stand During SOTU
• The Silence of the Dems
• 7 Ways Republicans Can Capitalize On SOTU Momentum If They Want A Shot At Midterm Victory
• Trump’s Pro-America Vision Will Only Succeed If He Pushes Republicans To Implement It
• Trump Hails 'Turnaround for the Ages' in SOTU Address
• In SOTU, Trump Slams Court Ruling, Says Tariffs Will Stand
• Trump's speech is longest State of the Union address in recent history
• President Trump Gets the Job Done
• The most INCREDIBLE moment of Trump's 2026 State of the Union [video]

Trade Victory

From Bill O’Reilly.com (Feb. 3):

Big win for the world as the Trump administration solidifies a trade deal with India. That country will stop buying Russian oil, which will hurt Putin, and start purchasing US and Venezuelan oil.

Unless Jeffrey Epstein once bought US oil, chances are you will hear little about the trade victory with India. It’s almost like the Marx Brothers are in charge of the American press these days: “Hello, I must be going.”

The media is locked in on ICE and Epstein in order to continue damaging Trump with the midterm election later this year.

The absolute focus of the vast majority of media reporting is to assure a democratic victory. That’s it.

In a way, it’s kind of shocking, the abdication of any journalistic fairness.

In fact, the horrid cliché comes to mind: it is what it is.

But it shouldn’t be. [source]

Another win!  And if it helps stops the Russia-Ukraine war, even better.

Weimar America

From AM Greatness.com (Dec. 4, 2023):

Something eerie, something creepy, is happening in the world—and now in America as well. The dark mood is brought on by elite universities, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion industry, and massive immigration from illiberal nations and anti-Enlightenment societies.

At Hillcrest High School in Queens, New York, hundreds of students rioted on news that a single teacher in her private social media account had expressed support for Israel. Waving Palestinian flags, and screaming violent threats, the student mob rioted, destroyed school property, sought the teacher out and tried to crash into her classroom—before she was saved from violence by other teachers and an eventual police arrival.

The subtext was that the overwhelmingly minority students (whose school is ranked academically near the bottom among New York City schools) were acculturated to the racist reality that as the “oppressed” they were exempt from any punishment for hunting down their own teacher. As a Jewish (and thus white) “oppressive” supporter of Israel, she was reduced to, in the words an enthusiastic commenter on a Tik Tok video of the riot, a “cracker ass bitch.” And so the student pack tracked her down as if they were hunting an animal. The old Nazi youth gangs tried to kill Jews because they were not considered “white;” our new Nazis hunt them down because they allege that they are. The common denominator between the 1930s and 2023 is an unhinged hatred of Jews.

Hundreds of such incidents are now occurring on a daily basis—as the country is leaving its Weimar phase and heading at warp speed into normalizing Jew-hatred and worse. Instructors singled out Jewish students in classes at UC Davis and Stanford. Pro-Hamas students ripped down posters, swarmed public buildings, and disrupted traffic.

A pro-Israeli demonstrator in Los Angeles was hit on the head and killed by a pro-Palestinian university professor.

Jewish students were trapped in a Cooper Union university library surrounded by pro-Hamas demonstrators. At MIT, Jewish students were warned to keep away from particular areas of the campus deemed dangerous for them.

What would happen to a university president who warned black or Latino students to keep clear of areas where she could not guarantee their safety from other students?

A bankrupt media deserves much of the blame. They daily broadcast Hamas’s suspect casualty figures, as if that terrorist organization has ever been capable of speaking the truth.

The Western news regurgitated “500 dead at a Gaza hospital,” due to a supposedly deliberate Israel bombing. In fact, the hospital parking lot was hit by an errant Islamic Jihad missile intended to kill civilians in Israel.

No matter—few reporters apologized for spreading Hamas-fed misinformation, despite the previous Hamas lies that they never harmed civilians, that tunnels were not beneath hospital grounds, that they did not murder 1,200 Israelis; or their lies that Hamas gunmen do not rape, when they engaged in mass rape on October 7.

The media normalizes Hamas’s atrocities by treating it as if it were an ordinary government, not a murderous terrorist clique that decapitates civilians, takes children as hostages, and mutilates those it slaughters. That the terrorist organization has kidnapped at least ten American citizens and killed perhaps another 31 is lost on the “journalists,” many of them Americans who could care less about the fate of their fellow citizens.

The media fixates on the Israeli response to mass murder, but rarely the mass murder of 1,200 Israeli civilians that prompted the current war. During ceasefires do Israeli terrorists drive into Gaza cities, and shoot and kill innocent civilians—and then brag, as did Hamas recently, that such murdering will only increase? [read more]

Another interesting (and possibly unnerving) essay by VDH.

Parents or the State: What Kuyper Can Teach Us About Managing Social Media

From Breakpoint.org (Sept. 7, 2022):

The Institute for Family Studies has published a list of legal and policy recommendations to protect teens from the dangers of social media. Among the recommendations are age-verification laws, parental consent requirements, and shutting down social media platforms at night for teens. Other nations have already attempted to restrict young people’s access to technology. For example, a couple of years ago, France banned cell phone use in schools up to age 15.

Monitoring teens’ engagement with social media should be a no-brainer. Anyone still not convinced that something needs to be done need only consider the teens on TikTok exhibiting Tourette-like tics, not to mention the rapid onset gender dysphoria crisis initiated within social media communities.

However, the fact that government may now be the last line of defense in providing some boundaries for social media means that the other lines have failed. Most notably, families have failed to protect children from that which threatens them the most.

This is a modern-day application of one of the most helpful ideas of Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper, who lived at the turn of the 20th century. Kuyper has jokingly been called the Colson Center’s “patron saint.” Near the end of his life, Chuck Colson described how influential Kuyper’s thought was to his own, specifically in understanding how Christians were called to interact with and influence the culture around them.

Christians could best influence society, according to Kuyper, through the sphere of our family, the basic building block of society. During his lifetime, Kuyper worked across various spheres of culture, not only writing as a theologian but founding a university, leading a newspaper, and eventually becoming prime minister. Throughout his various careers, Kuyper proposed and championed a concept called “sphere sovereignty.”

“Spheres,” as Kuyper understood them, are the social groupings, or domains, that keep society running. He saw them as interlocking “cogs” that work together. In his message at the inauguration of the Free University in the Netherlands, he explained that each sphere—such as science, art, business, government, and family—has “its own law of life” and “its own head” or leadership. Ultimately, Christ is sovereign over all of life. His most famous quote is, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human life of which Christ, Who is Sovereign of all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”  It is Christ who moves “the wheels to turn as they are destined to turn. Not to oppress life nor to bind freedom, but to make possible a free exercise of life for and in each of these spheres, is not this a beckoning ideal for every noble State Sovereign? [or leader].”

His idea, that the duty of the head of a state is to facilitate “free exercise of life,” reveals that, in many ways, Kuyper lived in a time period similar to ours—a time when people were calling for revolution. Kuyper was so uncomfortable with this lawless approach that he called his political party the “Anti-Revolutionary Party.” According to the author Michael Wagenman, Kuyper believed, “Human beings are called to responsible human agency in which ‘the course of our historic development may be altered only through gradual change in a lawful way.’ But this is accomplished through responsible reforms rather than outright revolution that seeks to usher in a manufactured utopia.”

If the language of ushering in a “manufactured utopia” doesn’t sound familiar, just search for “antiracist” and “revolution” on Twitter. The crisis in the state, Kuyper believed, revealed a crisis of family.

Kuyper saw family leadership as “responsible for the good order in the family,” rather than the “head of the state.” Government should only step in if parents did not do their job. He insisted that “the central government may only take on and carry out what is not (and for so long as it is not) properly taken care of in the smaller spheres of life.”

If government control of the good order of the family has to occur, it should be only temporary. Thus, the government can incentivize good family order, such as tax deductions for college saving plans, but a secular government controlling family life can get weird fast, such as removing a child seeking a transgender identity from a Christian family’s home. It’s one of the reasons Christians should recognize and champion parental rights.

Coming back to the topic of teens and social media, we can say that restricting their access to social media is a good idea. But this is the job of the family, not the government. When families fare well, society fares well. That’s those cogs of spheres working together well. A society is only as virtuous as its families. [source]

The family is a fundamental building block of society. Sociologists know this. Probably anthropologists understand this too. Socialists and communists perceive the family as a threat though—because they want to be your only family.

FBI Makes Arrest in J6 Eve Pipe Bomb Case: Source

From Newsmax.com (Dec. 4):

The FBI has arrested a Virginia man in its nearly 5-year-old investigation into who placed pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol, sources said Thursday.

The arrest marks the first time investigators have settled on a suspect in an act that had long vexed law enforcement, spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories, and remained an enduring mystery.

The arrest took place Thursday morning.

The suspect in custody has been identified as Brian Cole, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Two sources said he lived in Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C..

No other details were immediately available, including the charges Cole might face.

The people who described the arrest weren't authorized to publicly discuss a case that hasn't yet been made public and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

NBC News reported that the suspect’s step-grandfather, Earl Donnette, confirmed in a brief phone call that he spoke with the FBI about his step-grandson, but declined to comment further.

Cole’s father, Brian Cole Sr., declined to comment to NBC.

The people who described the arrest were not authorized to publicly discuss a case that has not yet been made public and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The pipe bombs were placed on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in the District of Columbia. Nobody was hurt before the bombs were rendered harmless, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal.

In the years since, investigators have sought the public's help in identifying a shadowy subject seen on surveillance footage even as they struggled to determine answers to basic questions, including the person's gender and motive and whether the act had a clear connection to the incident at the Capitol a day later.

Seeking a breakthrough, the FBI last January publicized additional information about the investigation, including an estimate that the suspect was about 5-foot-7, as well as previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs.

The bureau had for years struggled to pinpoint a suspect despite hundreds of tips, a review of tens of thousands of video files, and a significant number of interviews.

Dan Bongino, the current FBI deputy director, floated the possibility last year before being tapped for his job that the act was an "inside job" and involved a "massive cover-up."

But since arriving at the FBI in March, he has sought to deliver action to a restive base on the far right by promising that the pipe bombs investigation would be a top priority and defending the bureau's work.

"We brought in new personnel to take a look at the case, we flew in police officers and detectives working as TFOs (task force officers) to review FBI work, we conducted multiple internal reviews, held countless in person and SVTC meetings with investigative team members, we dramatically increased investigative resources, and we increased the public award for information in the case to utilize crowd-sourcing leads," he wrote in a long post on X last month. [source]

Good. Glad the FBI caught the suspect. Too bad it took a while. Then again that was the Briben's FBI that dropped the ball.

More on the case:

• Kash Patel to Newsmax: FBI Cracked Case With Proof Biden Ignored
• The J6 Pipe Bomber Story Is About to Get Memory-Holed. Here’s Why
• BREAKING: More Info on the J6 Pipe Bomb Suspect
• January 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect Brian Cole is NOT a Trump Supporter – Family Says He is an “Autistic Recluse” Who Lived in a Basement
• Family of Pipe Bomb Suspect Brian Cole Breaks Silence — Issues FIRST Statement After Explosive Arrest
• Mystery deepens as to why it took FBI nearly 5 years to finally bust the suspected J6 pipe bomber

Is AI Just Another Tool, or Something Else?

From Breakpoint.org (Jan. 8, 2024):

It’s not uncommon to hear artificial intelligence described as a new “tool” that extends and expands our technological capabilities. Already there are thousands of ways people are utilizing artificial intelligence. All tools help accomplish a task more easily or efficiently. Some tools, however, have the potential to change the task at a fundamental level. 

This is among the challenges presented by AI. If in the end it is not clear what AI is helping us to achieve more efficiently, this emerging technology will be easily abused. AI’s potential impact on education is a prime example.

Since the days of Socrates, the goal of education was not only for students to gain knowledge but also the wisdom and experience to use that knowledge well. Whether the class texts appeared on scrolls or screens mattered little. Learning remained the goal, regardless of the tools used.

In a recent article at The Hill, English professor Mark Massaro described a “wave” of chatbot cheating now making it nearly impossible to grade assignments or to know whether students even complete them. He has received essays written entirely by AI, complete with fake citations and statistics but meticulously formatted to appear legitimate. In addition to hurting the dishonest students who aren’t learning anything, attempts to flag AI-generated assignments, a process often powered by AI, have the potential to yield false positives that bring honest students under suspicion.

Some professors are attempting to make peace with the technology, encouraging students to use AI-generated “scaffolding” to construct their essays. However, this is kind of like legalizing drugs: There’s little evidence it will cut down on abuse. 

Consider also the recent flood of fake news produced by AI. In an article in The Washington Post, Pranshu Verma reported that “since May, websites hosting AI-created false articles have increased by more than 1,000 percent.” According to one AI researcher, “Some of these sites are generating hundreds if not thousands of articles a day. … This is why we call it the next great misinformation superspreader.”

Sometimes, this faux journalism appears among otherwise legitimate articles. Often, the technology is used by publications to cut corners and feed the content machine. However, it can have sinister consequences.

A recent AI-generated story alleged that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s psychiatrist had committed suicide. The fact that this psychiatrist never existed didn’t stop the story from circulating on TV, news sites, and social media in several languages. When confronted, the owners of the site said they republished a story that was “satire,” but the incident demonstrates that the volume of this kind of fake content would be nearly impossible to police.

Of course, there’s no sense in trying to put the AI genie back in a bottle. For better or worse, the technology is here to stay. We must develop an ability to evaluate its legitimate uses from its illegitimate uses. In other words, we must know what AI is for, before experimenting with what it can do.

That will require first knowing what human beings are for. For example, Genesis is clear (and research confirms) that human beings were made to work. After the fall, toil “by the sweat of your brow” is a part of work. The best human inventions throughout history are the tools that reduce needless toil, blunt the effects of the curse, and restore some dignity to those who work.

We should ask whether a given application of AI helps achieve worthy human goals—for instance, teaching students or accurately reporting news—or if it offers shady shortcuts and clickbait instead. Does it restore dignity to human work, or will it leave us like the squashy passengers of the ship in Pixar’s Wall-E—coddled, fed, entertained, and utterly useless?

Perhaps most importantly, we must govern what AI is doing to our relationships. Already, our most impressive human inventions—such as the printing press, the telephone, and the internet—facilitated more rapid and accurate human communication, but they also left us more isolated and disconnected from those closest to us. Obviously, artificial intelligence carries an even greater capacity to replace human communication and relationships (for example, chatbots and AI girlfriends).

In a sense, the most important questions as we enter the age of AI are not new. We must ask, what are humans for? And, how can we love one another well? These questions won’t easily untangle every ethical dilemma, but they can help distinguish between tools designed to fulfill the creation mandate and technologies designed to rewrite it. [source]

AI should be used a tool. Using it any other way, can lead you into precarious territory. So, be cautious. We are living in interesting times.

Report: Soros Pumps $81M to Censor Election Speech Online

From Newsmax.com (May 15, 2024):

A media group funded by billionaire leftist George Soros is seeking to implement a global plan to pressure Big Tech social media platforms to censor more content before November's presidential election.

The group called Free Press is leading the charge to restrict free speech online, the Media Research Center reported Tuesday. MRC described Free Press — not to be confused with The Free Press media outlet helmed by former New York Times editor Bari Weiss — as an activist organization disguised as a journalism operation that uses its sizable resources to push the federal government and Big Tech to silence conservative speech.

Free Press, which MRC said claimed responsibility for helping to get former President Donald Trump banned from Twitter, bragged in a news release about a letter sent by a coalition of more than 200 "civil-society organizations, researchers, and journalists" to the heads of Big Tech companies such as Google, Instagram, Discord, X, and TikTok. In it, the groups called for the companies to reduce "interventions necessary to keep online platforms" allegedly "safe and healthy" and demanded "swift action" to protect "democracy."

MRC said its research unveiled that Soros packed the coffers of at least 45 of the signatories with $80.7 million combined between 2016 and 2022.

The letter attempted to justify that it was written with reducing "real-world harms" and "the rise of extremism and violent attempts to overthrow democratic governments." But it appears its true design was to pressure Big Tech companies to silence speech the left despises as 60 countries across the globe gear up for elections in 2024, the MRC reported.

"Even more disturbing was the letter's implication that its primary target is interfering in the 2024 U.S. election," the MRC reported. "This development is directly in line with Soros' brand, of which he has dedicated millions of his ungodly fortune to groups looking to interfere in elections by stifling online speech."

The letter made six demands of the Big Tech companies, the first of which called for investment "in greater platform integrity by reinstating election-integrity policies, inclusive of moderating content around the Big Lie," defined by co-signatory Brennan Center for Justice, which has received funding from Soros, as the idea the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

The MRC reported the signatory that received the most Soros funding was Global Witness, which MRC said is on record for pressuring Facebook and TikTok to increase censorship operations before the 2022 midterm elections. Global Witness hauled in $20.3 million from Soros between 2016 and 2022, the MRC said.

Strategic Dialogue, another signatory that received $3.1 million from Soros between 2017 and 2022, was recently exposed by a House Judiciary Committee investigation for co-authoring a "hate groups" blacklist with the Soros-funded Global Disinformation Index targeting "conservative" and faith-based organizations, the MRC said.

"The fact that Free Press is at the tip of this Soros-tied spear should concern every American," the MRC said. "Free Press' obsession with censorship and gaining control of the Internet cannot be overstated.

"This is the same group that boasted how it was 'involved in direct talks that pressured Google and Amazon' to boot the 'dangerous' pro-free speech platform Parler from their platforms because of so-called 'election lies.'"

Newsmax reached out to Free Press for comment. [source]

The Spooky Dude is at it again with his evil ways. The name "Free Press" is a misnomer. Then again, that's the point. Whenever the Left creates an organization, the name of it always confuses and deceives its real purpose.

I’m glad Trump won the election despite Soros's attempt at election interference.

Another Soros article:

Soros' alleged ties to Russiagate exposed in declassified annex of Durham report

American relatives of Oct 7 hostage, murder victims sue Al Jazeera

From The Post Millennium.com (Mar. 3):

American family members of victims of the October 7 massacre have filed a lawsuit against Al Jazeera Media Network along with its US subsidiary, alleging that the news outlet directly supported Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). According to the lawsuit obtained by The Jerusalem Post, the Qatar-based network knowingly aided the terrorist organizations by providing a global platform for propaganda, recruitment, and incitement to violence.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia under the US Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), alleges that Al Jazeera employed Hamas and PIJ terrorists as “journalists,” paid terrorist leaders for interviews, and pushed extremist narratives. According to the complaint, some of the Al Jazeera “journalists” were Hamas and PIJ operatives, some directly involved in the October 7 attack. Under the ATA, US victims of terrorism can seek damages from actors that provide support to terrorist organizations.

The network is also accused of glorifying terrorists, inciting further violence, and financially supporting individuals linked to these groups. Exclusive interviews with Hamas leaders—some of whom orchestrated attacks on Israeli and American civilians—are cited as evidence in the case. According to the plaintiffs, these actions contributed to the planning and execution of the October 7 terrorist attacks, which killed over 1,200 people, resulted in the kidnapping of over 250 and injuring of thousands.

Maurice Shnaider, the uncle of murdered victims Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, is among the plaintiffs. He stated, “The brutal murder of Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel by Gaza terrorists is an unspeakable atrocity that has shattered our family forever. The kidnapping and killing of toddlers is beyond comprehension. While no lawsuit can erase our pain, we are determined to seek justice and hold those responsible accountable.”

Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat Hadin, one of the legal groups assisting with the case, said, “Terrorist organizations require financial support, logistical networks, and media outlets to further their agenda. The evidence shows Al Jazeera has acted as an accomplice to Hamas and PIJ, promoting their ideology and enabling their operations.” [source]

Good. The Al Jazeera network isn't journalists. It's an Islamist propagandist and possible terrorist collaborator.

Another Oct. 7 lawsuit: October 7 Survivors Sue UNRWA for Aiding Terrorists

Nick Vujicic unveils AI-powered solution to spread Gospel globally: 'We can use it for the Kingdom'

From Christian Post.com (July 29, 2023):

ORLANDO — Amid concerns surrounding the emergence of new technology, evangelist Nick Vujicic is making a case that artificial intelligence and digital media can play pivotal roles in spreading the Gospel to diverse audiences worldwide.

In a sit-down interview with The Christian Post, the 40-year-old motivational speaker and bestselling author unveiled his latest initiative, Multitood, which seeks to expand the Kingdom's impact through cutting-edge technology and digital content creation.

"When we have the Great Commission to preach the Gospel to all nations and make disciples, it's more than just translating the Bible in [a variety of] languages. It's also equipping, encouraging and building the churches out there to be the hands and feet with digital content as well that they understand in their own language," he said.

The Life Without Limbs founder revealed that 65% of his 16 million social media followers do not speak English, leading him to develop a custom video translation solution that seamlessly integrates AI technology with human expertise.

Incorporating AI voice dubbing and translation tools, Multitood enables churches and content creators to reach audiences globally without language barriers. The software translates videos into more than 36 languages, adds and edits subtitles and natural-sounding voiceovers and streams them over the internet.

"AI is getting better and better and better. And there are good things and bad things about AI. But we're so thankful we can use it for the Kingdom," he said.

Traditional dubbing can be expensive and time-consuming, with costs ranging upwards of $75 to $100 per minute. However, the evangelist's AI-based solution has revolutionized the process by offering the same quality at a fraction of the cost — $10 per minute per language.

According to Vujicic, the feedback from churches using Multitood has been positive because it provides a cost-effective solution for translating sermons and podcasts into multiple languages, helping to share the message of Christ with diverse communities around the world.

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected through digital platforms, Vujicic believes technology can be a powerful tool to advance the Gospel when harnessed for Kingdom purposes. He highlighted YouTube's move to support multilingual audio files for select channels, signaling a growing opportunity for content creators to reach global audiences with their messages.

"Since 2011, God's given me a vision to really focus in on the first 36 languages that reach 85% of the world. And so what we must understand is, we can use the tools we have for His purposes," he said.

"We have our own video player; JW Player canceled people like Daily Wire and Prager U. We obviously will be a noncancelable, ever-expanding ministry for people."

In addition to his digital endeavors, Vujicic opened up about his passion for documentary filmmaking, aiming to produce six documentaries over the next three years through his production company.

"I felt the Holy Spirit say, 'Make documentaries to wake up and equip and encourage the believers," he said. "And I really believe that the Church needs some encouragement. I don't see much of the Church right now strong enough to endure persecution. I think we've just started to taste in our mouths, what it means to be persecuted, marginalized, canceled or whatever. And I think this is when American churches need to stand up and really be the hands and feet like never before."

The first documentary, "The Cost of Truth," tells the story of Evangelical Pastor Joseph Bondarenko, who was kidnapped by the KGB and told to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ or face torture.

"He survived the torture, and now his mission is to wake up America and help Americans to stand up," Vujicic said.

Other documentaries will feature Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who the evangelist contends advocates for biblical truths in governance, and others who stand for truth in the face of persecution.

Through these projects, Vujicic hopes to wake up and encourage believers, equipping them to stand firm in their faith, especially during times of persecution and societal challenges.

To further amplify his vision, Vujicic is organizing a short film competition through NickV.Productions.com to discover talented individuals in the film industry who can contribute their creative storytelling abilities to inspire a global audience.

"I want to do less travel, more production behind the camera, and I'll be on some of these documentaries as we produce it," the father of four said.

Through the power of media and technology, Vujicic hopes to equip believers with the strength to endure persecution and boldly stand for their faith in Jesus Christ.

"I really believe with media, politics and business, it's Christians being the light in the dark place," he said. [source]

Nice.