Dr. Robert Epstein’s testimony re Google

Earlier this month this blog reported on Dr. Robert Epstein's testimony concerning Google's invisible influence on election results.  Ned Ryun at American Greatness has an update:

Google’s Algorithms Threaten Free and Fair Elections

. . . the power of the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) generated by Google’s search algorithm likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Epstein explained:

SEME is one of the most powerful forms of influence ever discovered in the behavioral sciences, and it is especially dangerous because it is invisible to people—“subliminal,” in effect. It leaves people thinking they have made up their own minds, which is very much an illusion. It also leaves no paper trail for authorities to trace. 

. . .

Epstein discussed the potential impact that Google, combined with Facebook and Twitter, could have on the election outcomes in 2020. “Big Tech in 2020, because if these companies all support the same candidate—and that’s likely, needless to say—they will be able to shift upwards of 15 million votes to that candidate with no one knowing and without leaving a paper trail,” Epstein said.

After six years of studying Google, Epstein’s solution for breaking up Google’s SEME is to make its index public, to make it into a sort of public commons to engender greater competition. I have argued that these tech companies must have their Section 230 exemptions removed and be redefined as publishers and telecommunications companies. And we have antitrust laws for a reason. The federal government has a role in breaking up what are, in fact, monopolies.

Whatever the solution may be—and I suspect it is a combination of all of the above—it’s time to get aggressive. . . .

Read the rest of Mr. Ryun’s report here.

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Today’s fun photo

Runner participating in the Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Run 

in northeast Ohio today (via pat dooley photography)

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More censorship: this time it’s Amazon

Image credit: americanfreepress.net

Matt Margolis wrote a book about the Obama presidency. He now reports at PJ Media:

Reports of Amazon purging reviews from conservatives books on their site have been made for some time now. PJ Media’s Megan Fox reported in March 2018 that many conservative authors noticed a mass deletion of reviews. Well, another purge has taken place. This one targeted my book, The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. This book was approaching 1,000 reviews until Amazon decided to clean house. On Tuesday, the book had 945 reviews. On Wednesday, the book had only 693 reviews. A whopping 252 reviews (approximately 27 percent) simply vanished. Worse yet, most of the purged reviews appear to have been positive ones, as the average rating went down from roughly 4.5+ to 4.2 stars.

I can prove this because I have screenshots . . .

The rest is here. Another example of how we are losing our right to free speech.

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D-Day in Conneaut: Aug. 15 - 17

Photo credit: Pittsburgh Gazette

Bob Batz at the Pittsburgh Gazette has the announcement:

The Allies once again will storm the beaches at Normandy,
but on Lake Erie, at D-Day Conneaut

This year is not only the 75th anniversary of D-Day but also the 20th anniversary of its biggest re-enactment, happening just over the Ohio border. A lot of Pittsburghers and Western Pennsylvanians will be part of it. 

In 1999, a small group of history buffs re-created a bit of the epic World War II battle at Conneaut Township Park in this community — on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Erie, Pa. — because the bluffs-backed beach was reminiscent of Omaha Beach at Normandy, France, that the Allies assaulted in 1944. 

The first re-enactment wasn’t meant for the public, but some park visitors witnessed it and were enthralled. So the re-enactors kept at it each summer and wound up incorporating in 2007, and proceeded to make nonprofit D-Day Conneaut not only public but also the country’s largest and most historically accurate WWII living history event.

It drew 45,000 spectators over two days last year, and this year’s  — Aug. 15 to 17 — looks to be only bigger, in that they’re starting on Thursday and growing the re-enactors to about 1,700 for this double anniversary.

Details and map are here.

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Big Tech censorship and bias: Update

I’m posting regularly on Big Tech and censorship, antitrust probes, and related news, as the next election cycle will be influenced by Big Tech and its biases. If we get to a recommended Action Alert, Cleveland Tea Party readers will have more background. Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reports:

Google Engineer: Google News Search Results Are Intentionally Biased Against Trump

In an explosive video released by Project Veritas Wednesday morning, Google software engineer Greg Coppola blew the whistle on Google News, explaining how it is biased against President Donald Trump. This confirms the results of an unscientific test on Google News bias run by PJ Media editor Paula Bolyard last year (tweeted out by Trump himself), and a more scientific study also suggesting bias. The Google News slant is not a conspiracy theory, though Google of course denies manipulating results. After all, Google employees heavily favor Democrats in their political donations.

"Google News is really an aggregator of just a handful of sites and all of those sites really are vitriolically against President Trump, which I would really consider to be interference in the American election," Coppola tells Project Veritas's James O'Keefe in the video. "Like for example, CNN is the most commonly used source in Google News: 20 percent of all results for Donald Trump are from CNN, when that’s the entire internet of millions of sites."

"CNN is something that Donald Trump and his supporters would call 'really fake news,'" the software engineer rightly noted. He was not necessarily endorsing the accusation, and even Trump supporters who rightly attack CNN for its bias should acknowledge that its news is often based in fact, but embellished or twisted.

"I think it’s ridiculous to say that there’s no bias. . . .

The full report is here.

RELATED from Joseph Vazquez at Newsbusters:

Facebook and Amazon set new records for lobbying spending in early 2019, according to recent disclosures.

Bloomberg reported July 23, that Facebook Inc. spent more than $4.1 million lobbying, and Amazon Inc. spent more than $4 million in the second quarter. It further reported that Facebook's lobbying efforts in particular were the highest “among big internet platforms, an increase from its previous high in the same period a year earlier.” It found Google’s lobbying spending “dipped” to $3.1 million in the second quarter.

As The Hill reported July 23, “The surge in spending comes as Congress and regulators are scrutinizing tech giants’ market power and handling of user data.” The federal government has Facebook and Amazon under major scrutiny for potential antitrust violations as well as political bias and censorship of conservatives.

A lot of unholy alliances.

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Mueller's "circus of embarrassments"

By now, everyone has seen the headlines or watched the anchors reporting on Robert Mueller's hearing before Congress. So just in case you've been busy at work or otherwise occupied, here is the link to Vodkapundit's (Stephen Green) Drunkblogging on the main event. Click here. 

Mr. Green leads off:

If former special counsel Robert Mueller trying to avoid saying much of anything while being questioned by some of the most duplicitous people in the world is your idea of Must-See TV, then you're probably already tuned into MSNBC. And may the Lord have mercy on your brain.

On the other hand, if you'd rather just follow along online with a coffee or (better yet) a Bloody Mary, then you've come to the right place.

House antics to follow shortly. Bloody Mary recipe to follow almost immediately.

Welcome to a very special midweek early morning drunkblog.*

*Open bar, professional drinker. Try this at home.

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DOJ and Big Tech: antitrust probe

Nate Madden on The Hill has the story: 

DOJ announces antitrust probe into social media companies: “Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands." (Click to embiggen, or go to the link here).